November 7, 2008

Practical test

I arrived early to find the examiner sitting in his car. I walked over to my plane and grabbed my logbook. I then walked over and opened up Jim’s hanger and started setting up for the test. Twenty minutes later Terry joined me and we started our day. The wind was blowing pretty hard; Terry explained that we may do the flying portion on another day if I pass the oral portion. I have flown in harder and landed in greater crosswinds, I was concerned about the wind, but confident I could deal with them just fine.

I really enjoyed the ground part of the test, I have been a teacher for 15 years, and Terry was quite good in how he questioned students.

When it came time to fly there was a problem. If I did not fly accurately I would fail the test regardless of the prevailing weather. I was sure I could. Part of the test is about the pilot’s decision making skills. Will he fly when he shouldn’t? From the examiners point of view I have about 30 hours of flight time. I also have about 60 in my plane that he does not know about. Terry can’t say I can’t fly. Jim adds a 10 Knot wind endorsement into my log effectively grounding me. Jim wants me to pass my 375 dollar test. We all go over to the Wildhorse to eat and see if the wind dies down; it is calm at all reporting weather stations near us.

Upon return I see a guy having trouble with his motor. I go over to his plane and help out and figure out that his plane is running lean. We exchange numbers.

Finally about 2:00PM the wind dies down and the thermals build up. We take off and head toward Wickenburg, the rate of climb is a miserable 200 feet per minute. Once at altitude the thermals toss the airspeed, altitude, and heading with great frequency, all of which I am required to maintain. While the surface winds have calmed it seems the winds aloft have not as I blow by some check points way before anticipated. I just make adjustments. Terry has me do some maneuvers, turns, stalls, slow flight, simulated engine out and all goes well. During the slow flight Terry starts asking me questions while I am fighting the thermals, I tell him he will have to wait a moment. Terry tells me to divert to Buckeye and tell him how long we will be enroute. I know it is south of me at about 180 degrees, with a magnetic variation of 12 degrees I should fly about 168 degrees. I know it is to the west of the White Tanks, but I am not sure which range is the White Tanks. I know I can follow Bell road right into the airport. I know the compass is only accurate if I am straight and level and speed constant. I turn south in between to mountain ranges and wait for the compass to stabilize. I turn my chart over to get a better fix on my destination. White tanks are the farther range to my east, I am on course. I tell Terry the time will not be accurate but I think it will be about 25 minutes to Buckeye, I guess that was close enough. Terry has me return to Turf for some landings, we do short field, soft field, and regular takeoff and landings and a go around. After 1.3 hours of flying we are finally on the ground for good.

The results are: I am more coordinated in steep turns than in shallow turns, I should do more clearing turns before starting maneuvers, and I passed.

I went over to the soaring school and visited with Roy and had some wine with one of the glider guys to celebrate passing the checkride.

November 8, 2008

Pancake breakfast

I have left my plane tied down at Turf and arrive about 7:00AM for a 7:30 departure. Jim shows up at about 7:15 AM with a passenger/ student. We are airborne and headed for Buckeye to get pancakes with the ultralight chapter 55 club. They seem like nice people but don’t really seem to fly much. On the way there I can hear the radio but can’t transmit. I try to get close to Jim’s plane but it is all over the place, up, down, fast, slow, left, right, I can’t safely use hand signals. I decide to just listen and fly to Buckeye.

            I follow Jim into the pattern and the altitude seems all over the place again. Jim announces a party of 2 planes so I plan to follow him to the ground to avoid other traffic. I am above and behind as we turn onto base, while turning Jim’s plane starts to climb and I fly through the prop wash, I am banking right at low speed and low altitude with full left stick, the plane is not changing attitude, this is not comforting. Finally things calm back down and I see the Challenger still climbing while we are on final, I keep coming down and he keeps climbing. I hear Jim say they are high. I slow more knowing I can’t fly as slowly as they can. I watch for awhile as they get higher. There is no way they can make the numbers; it looks like they plan to over fly the airport so I can land. Finally I decide to land, as I make that decision, here comes the Challenger. I have put myself in a great place, low, slow, and behind a slower descending landing airplane. I am going to be it prop wash again. It should be less because of lower power settings but I get the added bonus of the vortices coming of the wings. I get it down and way slow by the time I hit their touchdown point, all is well.

            The Chapter 55 guys seem like a real family type group of people, real nice; I even overheard some proud parents. We all had some breakfast and they had a little meeting. They are looking for a place to fly out of and having some problems. It was nice hearing them talk about things I had never even considered about flying. There was quite a bit said about aircraft taxation. The chapter seems to be stalled about how to get to their goals. I asked Jim if he had been flying the plane or if it had been Bruce. His reply was quite simple, “what do you think?”

            When the meeting was concluded we made plans to fly, Jim has to attend a meeting about a Grumman airplane he is looking at. I asked him about the Kolb owner that has a nearby airfield; Jim decides we have time for another visit.

            Jim finds the strip and lands, I follow. We are greeted by Chuck in short order. Chuck seems to be one of those instantly likeable and helpful kinds of people. We talk about airplanes as we have the same kind of plane. We get a standing invite to land here anytime we want. Chuck and I exchange numbers and shortly after that we are airborne for Turf.

            The ride to Turf was quite bumpy so I climbed up to 5,500 and things smoothed out but progress was slow due to the headwind. After getting back to Turf I refueled and searched unsuccessfully for thermals for about an hour.

November 2, 2008

Giving rides

Nikki has been asking to go flying again and Charlie did not like that Kim went up before she did. Charlie wanted to see the sun set from the airplane so plans were made to fly late in the day. A quick review of the weather showed high temperature of 93, high barometric pressure and winds light and variable. Really could not get calmer weather for a first flight.

I was a bit surprised that Charlie wanted to fly, she always said she would not get in a little plane, and there are few smaller than mine. I often have people ask for rides, I think if she knew how many of them were women, she would have flown sooner.

Charlie, Shantelle, and Nikki, (three generations of the same mitochondrial DNA) got in the truck and headed to Turf. On the way to the airport we passed a truck hauling an airplane, with the two of us going down the freeway towing planes, it must have looked like a convention. Shortly after passing the airplane, my right rear tire came apart, fortunately all it damaged was the fender of my truck, the plane was undamaged. The tire was changed in a mall parking lot and we arrived at the field at 3:30. The plane was assembled and I found something I did not like about the left wing trailing edge mount. I took the mount apart and tightened it up to remove some freeplay. Shortly after 4:15 Nikki and I were airborne. We flew around Lake Pleasant; she complained that her back was sore as we were heading back. She did get to see hot air balloons from above as well as a powered parachute. The landing was made blind, the sun was low and the glare was complete. I knew from the downwind leg that the runway was clear but I could not see the runway. As I got closer I could see 23 left and center and tell that I was not parallel to them. I could see the road that is almost perpendicular to the runways; this gave me a good idea of where I was. As I gave right rudder to parallel the runways I could see, I faintly made out the start of runway 23 right. I gently pulled back on the stick and looked out the sides of the plane to see if I was centered, all looked good. My attention was a little too divided which resulted in a bounce; I kept looking out the sides to stay centered. It was a little sloppy but otherwise uneventful. I decided to avoid the sun in my eyes on the next landing,

 October 30, 2008

Practical prep

October 23, 2008

Copper State Fly in

When I arrived at Turf this morning at 6:45 the wind was too strong to unload my plane. This was odd because the wind was calm at both Deer Valley and at Glendale. Fortunately the wind was blowing right down the runway at what felt like 20 mph, it was likely far less than that. After searching around for a bit a place was found that could block the wind while the plane was set up.

After the plane was assembled I was not sure how I would manage to control it during taxi. Most of the taxi went well but there was a spot where the wind just kind of took over for a bit. I saw Jim take off with Finny and the plane just sort of hung there for a bit before it moved forward. I powered up and rolled forward about 60 feet and was airborne. In short order we were getting bounced around a bit and heading for Buckeye to pick up another plane, weather report for Buckeye was calm wind. While en-route the ground speed was close to 90 with 75 or so air speed. Jim noticed hot air balloons near Glendale and made a remark about them not being scared. That wind might just kill them if they got caught in it, especially during a landing.

Upon arrival at Buckeye the winds were calm. We met up with another plane and pilot and drug some planes out of the hanger. A Quicksilver MX, with no radio, took off before us. Jim was next to leave in his Challenger II with me in my Firestar II and a non radioed Quicksilver MXL II in the prop wash. Jim came over the radio asking where the MX was, the last I saw him was on the crosswind while I was holding for the runway and the MXL was behind me on takeoff. Now I had no idea where either one was. I asked if they knew where they were going, Jim was not sure, he was however sure that the MX could not make Casa Grande without a fuel stop. Jim figured we would be spending the day looking for airplanes. I was flying about 50 and I think Jim was going faster, even though I lost sight of him I had radio contact and an idea where he was. After considerable time Jim spotted Finney in the MX at low altitude headed for the Estrella mountains. We both took turns flying up to and past Finney the turning south but he continued east. Finally I flew past him to the north and cut south across the front of him and he turned right. Finney was flying lower than I like to and holding about 40 MPH airspeed. As we approached Estrella we formed a line, Jim landed, then I, then no Finney.

At this point we have lost 2 aircraft, found one, and lost it again. Jim and I start the planes and go on the search and rescue mission. We make a downwind departure and after clear of the area split up a little to search for the little yellow plane. Almost by accident I spot it off my right wing about ¼ mile from Estrella and radio my discovery to Jim. Finney is on a narrow road among many bushes, I see no damage. It looked like a very tight spot to land in, even tighter when Jim pulled the power back to descend. I am not quite sure how Jim made that little plane fit in there and I watched him do it. I saw no reason for me to risk landing there so I loitered for a spell, largely because Jim’s plane didn’t want to start back up.

Jim and Finney exchanged planes for the trip to Casa Grande and things were going well until Finney called me on the radio, “Dale, I have a problem.”

“The gas tank came loose and I am worried about”, was about all I could get.

“I need you to take a look and make sure nothing is about to go through the prop.” My thought was he should just find a place to land now. I reduced power to descend to his level and have a look, on the left side I saw nothing wrong, as I came behind him I looked at the plane and got on the radio, “The gas can is hanging out the right side and is still there, I suggest you land now and kill the motor before touchdown to avoid anything going through the prop.” Finney seemed to know what was going on and said he was worried about the seat cushion coming loose and going through the prop. He was certain that would end the flight, the damage could be unmanageable. Finney landed, fixed the problem, and got back underway with a quick visit to a farmers field. We caught back up to Jim in the MX and arrived as a group at Casa Grande, the MXL II was already there it was now noon.

The next thing to do was a 1.8 hour round trip flight to Buckeye and back to get Jim’s single place Challenger. This trip also had the potential to be routine but I guess that was not to be. First thing was Jim had to find Finney; next thing was figuring out when sunset was and comparing that to flight time. Time was 3:00 and I thought sunset was 5:30; others seemed to think it was about 6:00. We got airborne about 3:30 with a tailwind going to Buckeye. I figured I needed to start my return flight at 4:30. After adding fuel in Buckeye I started my plane at 4:33. I taxi around Finney to be held by Jim who is waiting for Finney. This is not what I am looking forward to, I have no equipment or experience for night flight, there are no lights on the ultralight runway but the regular runway has Vasi. Jim will need to refuel en-route, he has told us not to wait for or look for him, just get to Casa Grande. As I get airborne I set my cruise speed between 85 and the 90 MPH redline and head to Casa Grande, while en-route the sun falls below the horizon at 5:30, I land about 5:45 at Casa Grande. Finney is about 6 miles back and Jim arrives real close to 6:00.

Friday morning starts with a 7:30 meeting about and 8:00 Am showcase flight. Wow, I get to fly in an air show, or maybe it would be best to call it a parade lap. After landing I spend the rest of the day in forums or looking at airplanes.

Saturday we have a showcase flight at about 11:00 AM, after it’s completion I break off and head back to Estrella to visit sailplanes. After checking out the cool toys I get airborne at 1:15 to make a 2:00 PM forum back at Casa Grande. After the forum is over I talk to Jim about going to Francisco Grande for lunch. He tells me he did a touch and go there yesterday. We head off to get dinner and pick up my friend for a ride home from work. Dinner was good but Kim was delayed. Jim was airborne and loitering, finally about 5:45 I took off and redlined it to Casa Grande, I never saw Jim one I got airborne. I landed close to 6:00 and Jim was a bit later in the MX. I thanked him for loitering. Jim replied, “If you were going to do something stupid I wasn’t going to let you out do me.”

Sunday Kim was to have the day off but that didn’t work out. The night before we made plans to fly her to work, Kim arrived at 6:30. We were airborne right about sunrise. She needed to be at work at 7:30 so the flight would be short. We flew of the end of a mesa at 30 feet and went over a strip mine that she enjoyed; I heard wow in the headset a few times and saw her camera going. As we arrived at the golf course I told her, “it is 7:05; do you want to do a lap of the golf course?” We waved at her co workers while circling and landed. I flew back to Casa Grande and got in Jim’s Challenger II. Jim and I taxied out together and I followed his MX with his Challenger II, destination Buckeye. I have not flown this plane in 4 months and am looking forward to comparing it to my plane. I have read many criticisms about the Challenger, after flying it and comparing it to my plane that I heard many praises of, I think I like the Challenger just fine. Both planes are about the same size and have the same motor. The Challenger II is heavier than the Kolb Firestar II. Takeoff roll is no contest, the Kolb kills the Challenger. The Kolb is equipped with an Ivo Prop set to climb at the Rotax 503s power peak of 6,500 RPM. The Challenger has a wood prop that keeps the motor at a lower horsepower RPM. The challenger seems to fly slower and faster than the Kolb. The challenger seems to be more stable and les maneuverable, The Kolb has lighter elevator and heavier ailerons. The Kolb has sloppy ailerons compared to the Challenger. I think the flight controls feel better in the challenger and the plane is roomier, forward visibility is better in the Kolb side visibility is comparable. The Challenger is easier to land and taxi than the Kolb, I can land the Challenger in far less distance. The Kolb uses less fuel and out climbs the Challenger with ease. The Challenger is more relaxing and the Kolb changes direction more readily. I like both planes. Jim lands at Estrella and adds fuel to the MX, he lands at Buckeye with plenty to spare. I fly us home in Jim’s plane.

When we return things are winding down, Jim takes off with Finney and vendors are packing up. I am hungry and have no car, I decide to fly to the golf course and get dinner, how bad is that? My last flight of the weekend is back to Casa Grande, My truck shows up and the plane is loaded. Casa Grande is back looking like a ghost town.

October 19, 2008

Training slightly outshines stupidity, this time

            My training lately has consisted lately of a little less than complete immersion in the subject. I have been flying with an instructor, talking to my uncle who is an airline pilot, and taking AOPA online safety courses. As a child I had my father explaining how airplanes work and my hobby of flying model airplanes.

            Here are a few things that saved my butt. I decided it was important to do real power off drills instead of simulated power off drills.  My uncle suggested I learn them well enough to do a 360 degree turn over the numbers and land on the runway. I crossed the numbers at 1,400 AGL and killed the motor and landed on the numbers without getting to aggressive. Jim told me if my motor quit on takeoff, land straight ahead, don’t even try to make the runway. Can you tell where this is going yet? The AOPA air safety foundation has an online course called stall spin awareness which I have taken. Years of being a mechanic and teacher helped me and put me at risk.

            The plan for today was to do some landing practice and go play with thermals at power settings too low to maintain altitude, the goal was 10,000 feet without cheating. When I arrived 5 or so people were building gliders. While I was changing jets I started a jetting discussion with an aviation aficionado. Once the changes were made a preflight was performed and I taxied out to the short runway. After final checks were made I Announced intentions, powered up and headed skyward. I settled into about 52 MPH which is the best rate of climb speed. Towards the end of the runway I caught a down draft that really slowed my ascent. Seconds later I was back to climbing followed almost instantly by a large reduction in the amount of noise coming from the motor. The next thing I did was radio Turf, “Turf traffic, Ultralight Firestar, I have lost a cylinder and will be making an off field landing.” “Ultralight Firestar, Turf radio, where are you?” was the almost immediate response. “West of airport off runway 23 right.” This is followed by some people discussing my predicament and making plans. I know I am to low to make it back to the runway safely so I scan the ground below me. I did not at that time do the math but the numbers worked out to be on the ground in 60 seconds. While I am turning my speed drops to 45. I have just entered the danger zone for approach stall. I push the nose forward and get back to 50. I have two places to land, one looks pretty good, the other not so great, possible plane damage. The problem with the good one is I have to turn longer or harder and I am already low and slow. If I make the runway without stalling or spinning it should be a non event, if I stall or spin it could be the last event. I line out on a hole in between the 2 shortest cacti my plane may fit through and over. It is not a path, just a lack of big vegetation in a not too crooked arrangement. I line up with the wing tips each aimed close to cactus tops and look ahead for the next obstacle. As I come over the largest two cacti I start a flare and touch down softly at about 45 and into the wind of 5-10. I find myself busy dodging vegetation when I see that I am about to go off into a small trough at about a 30 degree angle, small for a dirt bike or quad, not comfortable for a truck, potentially damaging for a car, and not looking at all friendly for my little plane. As I get to the edge I pull back hoping to float across but the airspeed is gone, the impact is noticeable. Once through the trough I avoid a few smaller plants and come to rest. “Turf, Ultralight Firestar, I am on the ground and safe.”

Turf: “Where are you?”

Dale: “just west of the runways.”

Turf: “I think he is just past the canal on the south side of the road.”

Dale: “North side of the road about 300 feet”

Turf: “do you need assistance?”

Dale: “I have a trailer but could use a ride”

A few moments go by with some radio discussion and arrangements are made to pick me up. I start wondering how I lost a cylinder when I have dual ignitions that fire both cylinders. I figure that rules out ignition. I start the plane and it sounds normal, I shut it down and start the hunt. I pull each throttle cable because it ran like it broke one throttle cable, both were good. I decide to rotate the prop, both cylinders have compression. I pull the rear float bowl, no water in the fuel, main jet tight. I pull the front float bowl, no water in the fuel, loose main jet. New lesson learned, stay focused when working on the plane and double check everything. Within a few moments a car arrives and I am back getting tools in short order.

Back at the plane I tighten the main jet and notice bent landing gear. Cactus debris is removed from the right wing tip. The plane is drug from debris and I taxi to a clearing that I would have liked to land on. The plane is taxiing a bit fast and the plane won’t go below 3,000 RPM. I shut it down and work on the cables a bit and get things back to normal. I restart and all seems well with the motor, I radio turf to let them know I am about to take off, I don’t wish to cut off a tow plane. Shortly after I get airborne I realize my second stupid mistake of the day, I failed to do another pre flight. The events that led to this discovery are far more interesting that the discovery was. I am having difficulty getting the plane to roll to the right and the rudder feels really heavy. I find my self flying cross controlled, this is a good way to spin if I slow down, you know, like you do when you want to land. Great! Of field landing followed by a crash, could I get any dumber? I decide that the controls are not locked in position right now; I will move them as little as possible and hope I can hold it close to the runway in the crosswind. I keep the speed low as I did not look at the plane and don’t know what the damage is. I come in and touch down on the good wheel, it sits lower and I have a crosswind. When the right main touches down the plane twitches to the left, things get a little busy but all goes well.

Inspections are done, repairs are made, and I decide to play with thermals. At about 4,000 feet I pull the power back to a setting that should not maintain altitude. For the next 2 hours I am watching sailplanes, listening to them on the radio announce their positions and altitude accomplishments. One glider got to 13,000 feet, another 12,500, I only got to 8,200; it was fun and relaxing. I landed with a lot of glare on the windshield; I basically landed blind and veered to the left again.

The plane was loaded and food was eaten at Wildhorse again.

October 12, 2008

Crosswinds Short field new prop

The temperature at the airfield was 55 Fahrenheit. After calculating the density altitude to be about 2000 feet I decided to increase the main jet from 148 to 155.

 After assembly of the plane and a preflight I started the motor and was pleased at how smooth things were with the new prop. I had conferred with IVO prop before I got the propeller; it had been recommended that I put in 1 counter clockwise turn of pitch. I was expecting the pitch to be a little off, the only question was weather it would over rev or under rev. I had though about tying the plane to the truck and giving the plane full throttle to see where it revved but was not completely comfortable with putting that type of load on the airframe. I decided to just fly it and come back to make adjustments. The wind was blowing from 310 at about 12, this made for an 80 degree crosswind on runway 23 so I opted to use runway 32 for now. The plane climbed at about 6,500 RPM, basically perfect.

I spent the next part of the flight doing touch and goes in the wind, I was working on crosswind landings and trying to land the plane slower. I got the short field OK and the cross wind landings OK, the trouble came when I tried combining the two. I got a little behind the airplane and lost track of speed or decent rate or some other thing I should have been watching. I did figure out some of the things I was doing wrong. After getting beat up a bit by the wind, I slowed to about 50 and flew around the lake. While doing so I set the power so I could stay level at 50 and just putt around the lake. All of the sudden I found my self climbing at 8 or 900 feet per minute. I thought about what my uncle had told me just the other day, I turned left looking for the thermal, if after 360 degrees of turn I had not found the thermal I would initiate a right 360. The VSI held at about 9oo FPM, I banked harder and got a little over 1,200 FPM. After gaining about 1,500 feet and dropping the temp I broke off and continued onward.

October 4, 2008

CG to Turf

The thought of leaving Casa Grande in this crosswind had me thinking about how to taxi a tail dragger in the wind, and the importance of respecting the crosswind in the takeoff to avoid getting rolled during what should normally be a routine task. Jim taxis out ahead of me and I watch him do some mag checks. I am second in line of three aircraft. Jim takes the runway and I pull up to the hold short line. As Jim leaves, I look for traffic and announce intentions. I apply throttle, right rudder, and left aileron to counter the crosswind. As the rudder starts to fly I apply full throttle. I am still holding left aileron in an attempt to avoid getting flipped. The right main leaves the ground first, as it lifts higher I reduce some of my left aileron pressure, the left wheel lifts. I am holding a little over 50 on the climb out when I get shaken and stirred by a thermal over the runway. I think in the future I will sacrifice a little climb rate in these conditions for a little more airspeed and stall avoidance. I am climbing at 20 faster than stall, but I think about the fact that I come in faster during crosswind to counter the wind and avoid stall/ spin, why not on departure?

On the way home I paid close attention to what the air was doing to Jim’s plane. The result was I was able to better maintain my altitude, if Jim lost altitude I added power, if he climbed I reduced power. Along the way we flew over orchards, under clouds and got rained on a little. When we got back near Glendale Jim made radio announcements to get us through their airspace. As we left Glendale airspace I switched to Turf’s frequency. I was on Jim’s six 200 feet higher when he started waging his wing. I figured he was looking for me. I called out on the radio and got no response. After a few wags he started a left turn. I switched to the air to air frequency we had been using and found him. He said that he hadn’t heard from me since Glendale and didn’t see me. I made some kind of jab at him about holding altitude and told him where I had been. As I arrived at Turf I started by overflying the field to get a look at wind direction and speed. The teheydron showed crosswind to all runways but the windsock was calm. Having been flying in gusty winds all day I came in fast. As I got out of the plane the wind was quite calm, I was surprised at how quickly it can change, 10 miles ago it was blowing hard. After Putting the plane on the trailer some time had to be spent watching chubs (chubby sailplanes) fly. The tugs (tow planes) would land, hook up to a chub and take off. There were at least four chubs in the air and two tugs. There was Blue chub, Yellow chub, Crappy chub, and Really crappy chub. Only after having the plane at home was a cracked spinner found by a friend of mine. Removal of the spinner revealed a cracked propeller squash plate and a visibly loose blade. The possible consequences of this failure relatively serious, there wound be a huge vibration as the prop went out of balance as it lost one blade. There is no telling where the blade would go before it started its earthbound journey. There are a few less than comforting options that it has, perhaps it would remove an aileron for me, it could just prune my tail feathers for me, or maybe just go through the tail boom and remove the tail or render the control cables useless. If none of that bad stuff happens the next thing to worry about is what will happen when the motor is ripped from its mounts in flight. I expect I will be nose heavy as my plane is a pusher, but what damage will a flopping motor with one spinning propeller blade due to my plane before it starts its own earthbound journey? It is hard for me to think that I could shut down the motor before it rips from its mount and goes through one of the wings, after that it still has a chance of going through the tail. With all this in mind I decide that a propeller failure is no small deal. I order a complete new and updated propeller.

October 4, 2008

Turf to CG

This morning Jim and I are headed for Casa Grande, we get airborne under cool skies and a lot of clouds with about 15 knot winds forecast for the flight. We decide to fly close together and he plans on announcing a party of 2 as we go though Glendale’s airspace. As we got past Glendale Jim headed a little east and I stayed west, I guess it is my low time attitude at work, I wanted to be closer to a place to land if the motor quit. Off to are left we could see several airliners in the airspace for Sky Harbor. On the southwest end of the mode C veil I spotted a small Cessna going the opposite direction, he was doing about 110 I guess and I was doing about 70, it made for an impressive rate of closure to me, especially when I did not find him until he was relatively close.

            The ride was a bit bumpy but not too bad except for the one time I was showing airspeed of about 80 and I was pulling negative Gs and felt like I was in a full stall with the right wing dropping faster. I was already going plenty fast so I pulled the power back and nose the plane over a bit, and gave a little right rudder, after a couple of seconds of having my stomach in my chest the plane went back to flying. Jim and I were headed up to the leeward side of a small mountain, Jim has more experience than I and it looked as if he intended to over fly the dirt pile. I did not want to get in over my head so I turned right as Jim was to my left. About the same time Jim turned left, we met up again in the pattern. AWOS reported something on the order of a 40 degree crosswind at 16 knots with gusts to 20. I figured this could be work in my little taildragger. The night before I had been playing with my flight computer and realized why I was having troubles after touching down in a crosswind. As I slow the crosswind component increases, I need to be feeding in more rudder as I slow before the wind plays with me. I need to do a better job of staying ahead of the airplane. Well Jim is landing ahead of me, I already know what I plan to do so I am not sure what good it is to watch him. I plan to keep the nose pointed down the runway, lean into the wind as much as needed, and eventually touch down with increasingly more right rudder. Jim comes over the radio and tells me to keep the left wing down. I think to my self, “Yeah, I know that, I see you doing that, that was my plan.” Then I think, “ he is still in teaching mode and watching out for me.” There was comfort in watching him land his little bird, it was kind of pretty watching him come in banked over and touching down softly. He made a really nice landing. I was in right behind him and the plane touched down on one wheel and rolled like that for a while, A was adding pressure to the right rudder pedal and the other wheel touched down. Jim got a picture of the landing. I was told I did a good job.

            Landing was followed by refueling; Jim fuelled first and went off to the meeting. I refueled and got back into my plane when another pilot said here is you and you buddies receipt. Well being that he was in a Cessna and I was in some ultralight looking thing, I decided to play my version of the race card, “What do you mean my buddy?” He said, ‘The other ultralight.” I said, “Just because I fly an ultralight doesn’t mean we are all the same and are buddies.” Next on the list was tying the plane down and getting to the meeting. Well an older fellow walked up and provided an interesting distraction. He was checking out my little plane but he had his own. I was quite surprised to see a plane smaller than mine. I don’t remember the name of his built from plans airplane but it sounded a little like Hummelbird. We talked for a while about flying taildraggers and the fact that he built a tool to build his own propeller. The good news is he had it done in only 2 months. I really enjoyed talking to this guy about his VW powered airplane that goes about 100 mph.

            I went into the meeting of about 25 people with 3 doing all the talking, I got bored and went to look at airplanes. While out there I watched an Aeronca land, it was not real pretty, as a matter of fact I think Jim and I landed better than several of the heavier planes did, that made me feel good. Walking around looking at airplanes I found several that were just slowly decaying. I felt sorry for the poor little guys. I also came upon a Quicksilver that had wind damage. I ran into the Aeronca guys that I earlier saw land and helped get their plane tied down. We talked about planes and skydiving.

September 28, 2008

Piccacho & Firebird

As I was unloading the plane we were greeted by 3 airport dogs, they sniffed around a bit and left, I guess I smelled like a pilot to the security detail. I noticed several trikes in the area and even an autogyro. They seem to ignore the runway and land into the wind; it looks like it may be hard to fight a crosswind in one of those. The Luscombe was there to be flown again, once again I was getting ready as he departed and he was packing up as I was leaving.

            After takeoff it was immediately convective, I headed toward a strip mine with Rebeka, one of the many trackday people I know.  We circled the mine then headed for the railroad tracks. The wind had the plane crabbing at what looked like a 45 degree angle, as I made a course change to Piccacho, ground speed dropped due to a 20 MPH headwind, I adjusted by increasing the airspeed to 70. I remember seeing a ground speed of only 47. It took a long time to get to Piccacho, once there I circled, pulled the power back and let the tailwind blow me back to Phoenix Regional at a ground speed of about 90 with an airspeed of about 65.

            Upon arrival to Phoenix regional I was faced with 16 knot crosswind at about 30 degrees with gusts to 21. I figured I would have to pay attention. I came in a little hot to combat the crosswind, the thermals were once again happy to see me. I got bounced and blown around on final, as I got close to the runway the thermals took a break. The crosswind did not. I came it at about 60 in a side slip with the right wing down and the power on at about 5,600 rpm. As I got over the asphalt I concentrated on 2 things, keep the plane pointed forward, and keep the plane over the center line. I touched down on the right wheel and got a gentle bounce out of it. I was a little surprised that the left wheel did not touch. I just kept flying the plane figuring it would land OK if I kept flying it. It did, but as I slowed the wind grabbed the vertical stabilizer and pushed it left. I responded with a lot of left rudder and a conversation with my plane as I tried to convince it to do my bidding and turn left. We came into agreement over the matter and we all stayed unscratched and on the runway.

            The plan was to refuel and fly to Firebird, I was not sure how much Rebeka enjoyed the flight. I asked her if she still wanted to fly over Firebird, the response was YEAAAH!!! The airplane was refueled and after takeoff it was pointed north. We did several laps of Firebird and Rebeka took lots of pictures, we could see the bottom of the lake and the wind was making cool patterns on the water. After several circles I dropped down to land at the casino but after I noticed the golfers I climbed back up and headed south to the airport.

            As we got back to the airport the wind was a little less at a bigger angle, no surprise here as I had been checking the weather regularly before the flight. The weather report is actually from about 5 miles away at Casa Grande. As I was flying near the proving grounds I spotted a tractor kicking up a lot of dust. I was getting an idea of wind intensity and direction before landing. Good thing I guess as I could not see the wind sock. The landing was similar to the last one without the temporary runway course change. While stowing the plane we watched a Cirrus play in the crosswind.

September 23, 2008

Mom goes for a ride

September 21, 2008

Sedona to Turf

September 20, 2008

Dead stick

I arrived at Turf at about 6:00 AM hoping for a 6:30 departure for Sedona. It took a little longer than expected to get the plane ready for flight. When I finally got the motor lit of it sounded cold and lean, it was a bit off at idle but ok with some throttle. I decided to do a touch and go before heading off to Sedona. All seemed good during climb out and in the pattern. Knowing the problem had been at idle, I did not reduce power until I knew I could make the runway. On final I reduced power and the motor stumbled, I fed in a little power and things got nice and quiet, they do that when the propeller stops spinning. I pointed the nose down, picked up about 5 MPH and landed very smoothly ay the same speed I normally do. After coasting of the runway, I adjusted and tested the carb settings and headed for Sedona. The departure time was about 1 hour late but a strong tailwind made up some of the time. The flight was smooth cool and quite pleasant, airspeed of around 70 ground speed close to 85, temp in the 60s at about 7,500 feet. I was navigating by dead rekoning, visually with the ground, and by GPS. As I made my final course change I started looking for an airport I have never seen. As I looked out over the valley, I did not know where the airport was, but I though I found what looked like a cool place to put one. There was this mesa in the middle of the valley of Sedona, it seemed like the perfect spot. I thought about how many time I have driven to Sedona and never noticed it to be a valley. As I follow my heading and the GPS for a bit I am pleased to find that the airport is on top of the mesa above Sedona, I figure this is likely to be as close as I will get to landing on an aircraft carrier.

            After I touch down a voice come on the radio talking to me, I was a little surprised. I was asked if I was a display aircraft.

I replied, “No.”

Next I hear, “Are you joining us?”

I reply, “Yes.”

“When are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“We are going to park you in the display area, if that is ok.”

“That’s fine.”

“Take exit six and we will park you”

As I take the exit I see the man on the other end of the radio, he and a friend work together to find a place to park me.

The place is buzzing with activity, several planes, a car show, live music, lots of food, great view, and a fair is all happening.

            Lots of people stop by to see the plane, the old folks love it, most my age are afraid of it.

            Many people are more physical with it than I like. I am not comfortable if I can’t see my plane.

            The place is busy, planes keep coming and going, I have the slowest smallest plane, and on the other end are some L 39 Albatross jets. Most planes are single engine and there are many tail draggers, I really like the biplanes, especially the Christian Eagle.

            I was given coupons for breakfast so I head of to the restaurant. From my seat I can watch my plane.

August 23, 2008

Little Passenger

Today was like any other day of realizing dreams. I was about four when my father introduced me to flight. In the beginning we flew in rented aircraft, mostly Cessna 150, and 172. Later on we flew in his Piper Arrow. It was not until I started trying to fly on my own that I began to understand how much he taught me about flying. Jim says I am the best student he has had, at first I was a little skeptical, I thought he was just trying to build the confidence of one of his students. The day he said it in front of Will made me think he may be completely serious. I choose to think the reason for my success lies mostly with the time my father spent teaching me about aviation. When I fly and things go wrong, it is my fathers voice I hear guiding me though the dangers. I think most people hear their instructor, perhaps my father really was my instructor. Perhaps I just had 2 instructors thirty years apart. I was reflecting on what my father meant to me and what he did for me. I wanted to be that person for my granddaughter Nikki.

Today she flew with her “Grampa” in his plane.

            Gramma, Grampa, and Nikki Left the house about 6:00 AM in search of breakfast. It is not unlike the kind of breakfast that fueled me though 23 years of motorcycle racing. I had a sausage Mc Muffin, every body else had pancakes. As we neared Turf I told Charlie and Nikki that sometimes I see other things flying on the way to the airport. I told them they were big, carried people and were quiet, and that they flew real early in the morning and would probably be landing before we took off. Shortly after turning west on carefree highway I spotted a hot air balloon. Only then did they know what I was talking about. As we got closer we found a parasail, and a trike flying as well. Every newly discovered flying machine was acknowledged with, “COOL” from the back seat of the truck. We arrived at Turf at about 6:45AM.

I set about getting the plane ready for flight, Nikki helped and Charlie caught the moments with the camera. Here we are putting one of the wings up.

The next event involves finding a potty. After all is assembled I start doing a preflight with Nikki, she seems to take it pretty seriously and make it a little over half way before her little six year old brain is distracted. She come back soon after and kicks the right tire and looks at a few more things. I never told her to kick a tire, I said we need to make sure the tires have air; it was cute watching her walk up and kick a tire.

We got in and tried the cheap little temporary intercom I had devised, it worked OK until the motor was started. I asked Nikki if she still wanted to fly, her answer provided no hesitation. We taxied to 23R and flew the pattern; I did a low level pass over the runway so Charlie and Nikki could see each other. I then climbed out and turned north toward Lake Pleasant. Being that Lake pleasant is a wildlife area, it is considered good form to stay 2,000 feet above the ground. I told her it was colder as you go up; we climb to 6,000 so she can get the view in air-conditioned comfort. As I fly with her, I can’t get over how differently I fly and think with her in the plane. I am much more careful and precise with her. I do no steep turns, no stalls and am thinking about emergencies more than normal. I spot a few airplanes and point them out to Nikki. As we fly back over the field I pull the power out to descend and hope the change does not scare Nikki. With the power reduced I try Yelling to Nikki and point out Gramma at the airport. Nikki can only hear part of what I say but figures out where the runways are and I think she has a good idea where Gramma is. We both stick our hands outside the plane and wave to Gramma. The next thing to show her is the uphill strip I landed on the other day. I don’t want to land there with her in the plane yet, I don’t want to scare or hurt her. As we get closer I point and yell, “Do you want to go down there?” I hear her little voice scream, “Yes.” I pull the power and descend below the mountain peaks giving them a wide berth. As I get lower I add power to deal with the rising terrain, I am quite a bit ahead of the airplane, as I should be. We are low enough to recognize Saguaro cactus. I turn and buzz the dirt path at low speed, as I get to the point where I won’t be able to land on the path I power up and climb out, I think this makes Nikki nervous, just a feeling, I pat her lag hoping she knows I am telling her it is OK. I head back for Turf and we land and taxi back to Gramma who has the camera pointed our direction. The flight was longer than Nikki wanted, she showed little emotion, and perhaps because she has already been up in a 172 with me, I am not sure. I ask if she wants to go up again. So off we go for another trip around the pattern, I thumped this landing a little. After we return to Gramma I ask if she got scared. She said, “Only when we bumped into the ground.” As I loaded the plane a pilot showed up towing a trailer with a glider in it. Nikki was off to make friends. I asked Charlie, “how long before she talks people into giving her rides in something else?” Charlie’s mother bear type response was, “Not gonna happen.” While she was over there we pointed out a glider being towed, once again we heard, “COOL!”

After all was stowed we wanted drinks. I called on the radio and crossed the runways in the truck. Nikki found a bathroom; I headed for the soda machine and was greeted by a talking bird. I bought a Coke and headed back. I spotted Nikki and asked if she wanted to see a talking Bird that doesn’t like girls. Her little feet sped up and came my direction. Nikki bought a Dr Pepper and checked out the talking bird. The bird says, “Hello” Nikki asks if it says anything else. I send her to see Roy. Nikki asks, “does your bird say anything else, like bye bye?” Roy says, “If you can teach it to say bye, I will give you a glider ride.” I tell Nikki that the gliders can do something she wants to do. She looks at me and says, “Upside down?” So now she has to teach a bird with a one word vocabulary that doesn’t like girls how to say bye.

Nikki now has some stories that I am sure some of her classmates will dispute. I am sure there will be more.

May 27, 2008

I have for a long time wanted to go across country, buy an Ultralight aircraft, and fly it home.

I have made a childish, irresponsible and perhaps crazy decision. I placed a bid on a Kolb Firestar II on Ebay. I now have to pay for the aircraft, learn to fly it, learn about airspace, Learn about weather, learn about cross country flying, get an aviation hand held radio and an aviation GPS and come up with a flight plan for my return. Then I guess I will have to fly to St Louis and get in this little thing and head for Arizona. I will be flying through tornado alley during tornado season. Thunderstorm will treat this little plane like a child’s kite.

Now is a really good time for me to do this, I have the time and the money. That may not be the case at a later date.

I am already hearing why I shouldn’t do it, if it makes you feel better, go ahead and tell me why I shouldn’t do it, be advised, I don’t really care why I shouldn’t do it. All I care about is what obstacles I need to overcome to do it. This looks to be the biggest adventure I have ever embarked on. Before I won the bid, I was just excited. Now that my dream is staring me back in my face, it feels a bit scary.

I am starting to contact all the pilots I know to find out what I need to solve and how to solve the problems. I talked with my uncle, who is an airline pilot, for about an hour. Next I have a long time friend and aircraft owner / flight instructor that I plan to sit down with. I am getting good advice so far, they all start with you shouldn’t do it, and then we get to solving the problem.

I am looking to find aviators to help guide me though the path I have chosen.

The aircraft has minimal instrumentation, Altimeter and airspeed and 3 engine monitors, EGT, (exhaust gas temperature) CHT, (cylinder head temperature) and RPM.

There is not even a compass for navigation. The plan is to get a Garmin aviation GPS. Some of the Garmin GPSs have features like log book, obstacle avoidance, re routing and aircraft instrument displays including the ability to navigate using VORs. I wound like to have a VSI (vertical speed indicator) and an artificial horizon for crossing the Rockies.

Getting weather information is a real concern, a solution is to get a PDA and utilize the DUAT website for real time weather.

It has been suggested I get a hand held aviation radio; this may have some navigation features. It has also been suggested I utilize a flight following service. Some other suggestions are an ELT (emergency locating transmitter) so I can be found in the event of a way hard landing. I will look into this as well. I don’t plan on getting a BRS (Ballistic recovery system). I would rather fly to the ground than be hanging from a parachute. If I rip the wings of this trying it will be from bad weather, not from aggressive flying. If the wind rips the wings off, a parachute will only reduce it ability to avoid the wind’s will.

May 28, 2008

Today I sent off a check for 6,145 dollars to Missouri to pay for the plane. I also contacted the aircraft manufacturer and discussed aircraft performance parameters as well as requirements for building a trailer to haul the little plane. I have been told twice not to trailer the plane with the tail wheel supporting the aircraft as this will damage the rudder. Instead I am to support the fuselage. We also talked about the fact that even though many people use these aircraft as Ultralights; they are not and can’t be made into one. I said it’s not a part 103 legal aircraft, It has not been registered as a light sport and no longer can be, is my only option to register it as an experimental? I was told that is what most people do. In order to do this you need to be the builder. I asked what documentation is required to be recognized as the builder. “You need to tell the FAA that you are the builder”, was the response. After it is registered as experimental, it will be legal for me to fly when I get a pilot license.

Crossing the Rocky Mountains is an obstacle of considerable concern. The winds aloft are likely to be blowing at me and will slow the airplane down considerably.

The speed is not the issue, the lack of forward progress to the next fuel stop while flying in the mountains is. Further concerns include the need to re-jet the carbs so the motor will make power at high altitude and then re-jetting before I get back to low altitude so I don’t burn the motor up. As I go higher the air gets colder and I increase the possibility of ice, specifically carb ice. Carb ice will put me on the ground. Another concern with mountain flying is what the air currents will do when they blow through the mountains. It has been suggested that I leave a 2000 foot cushion between the plane and the ground.

I talked to a pilot today that flew his experimental aircraft through the Rockies. He said the winds would send him into a 90 degree bank without warning and would blow him off course.

I found a list of Ultralight instructors on the internet; I guess I have some calls to make. I have 5 candidates.

May 29, 2008

I started calling around trying to find a light sport instructor. Found one in Marana who is booked up, he gave me the number of an inspector who got me in touch with another instructor, Jim Blumer has a plane that flies like mine. Jim was in California looking at an airplane and said we could fly Friday morning when he returns. We didn’t really set a time, I went to the airfield and called him, he got back a bit late. We made plans to fly Saturday @ 7:00 AM. I picked up an Airman’s Information Manual.

May 31, 2008

Lesson 1

I arrived at the airfield @ 7:05AM and I told Jim some of my situation, and handed him my log book.  I didn’t go into too much detail; I didn’t want him to think I was totally crazy. I really did not want to pay for a sight seeing ride, I wanted a lesson. Jim demonstrated a preflight inspection and loaded me into his experimental Challenger. I started the motor; Jim made an announcement on the radio and instructed me to taxi to the runway. Jim told me what speed to rotate at  and what speed to climb at I think I rotated a bit late and then climbed at too high a speed while quickly drifting way off the runway center line. Next Jim had me power back, trim the plane for about 70 mph and then told me to hold heading and altitude. I did that well enough to move onto doing some turns. After doing that and maintaining altitude he asked if I wanted to do some touch and goes. We entered the pattern on the down wind and Jim told me to get a little further north. I gently banked the plane and applied opposite rudder and began to slip north. Jim said to give it left rudder, I explained that I was slipping it left. He said,” if that is what you wanted to do, you did it right.” On the approach I was all over the place and only got it over the runway in the last seconds and didn’t have it very straight. When I throttled up I guess the motor torque and perhaps the propeller P factor got me slow, nose high over the weeds on the left side of the runway. I really didn’t want to stall and drive in the weeds, I dropped the nose a little to pick up some air speed and just flew in ground effect for a bit. Climb out was not near the center line. We reviewed the touch and go, and I said the next one would be better. It was. The next one I goofed a bit and told Jim I was going around. Jim took the plane and fixed my mistake. The next one was better still. Next on the list was steeper turns, which I did. Jim asked what I would like to do next, I chose slow flight. Jim threw in some power on and power off stalls. The plane really resists power on stalls, the motor just pushes the nose back down and you start flying before it falls out of the sky. Jim said to get some airspeed than pitch it up quickly. This resulted in a stall; the airplane just ever so gently fell and then was flying again. I thought if my plane flys like this, what a sweet little plane. Next I was asked to do power off stalls. I pulled the power back, pulled the nose up and waited for the nose to drop. I was thinking I would wait till I had some airspeed before adding power so as to avoid torquing the plane around in the air and inducing a spin or something I didn’t want to do. The plane did not shake, the nose just fell. I kept the wings level and it was flying before I got to add power. We went back to touch and goes with slips. I had a problem the first time when the wind from flying sideways tried to blow my hat off. I spent too much attention on my hat and not enough on the landing. On another approach I spent too much time watching the airspeed and not enough on altitude.

We put the airplane away and talked about the flight. Jim said I flew it better that some certified private pilots. I wonder how that could be true. He said he was expecting something like an intro flight but I kept doing everything he asked and he was having trouble keeping up with me, or having a lesson in mind for me. We discussed a cross country trip to Buckeye.

I left the airport and stopped by an old friend’s house. Loraine had lots of questions about my plans and a few about my plane. She had some books for me to use, some of which I already had. We talked about navigation and she pulled out a Garmin 295 GPS and said I could borrow it.

June 1, 2008

Lesson 2

I arrived at the airfield at about 7:05. We talked about weight and balance, and the aircraft performance. Jim had some books specific to sport pilot rating. Jim said he didn’t need to teach me to fly, he was just going to concentrate on getting me ready for the exam. He gave me a checklist and I did a preflight on the plane. Jim made a radio call I taxied out did a 360 then crossed the runway to go get a drink. After I got a drink I took off and did a better job of staying on center. We went out and did some ground reference maneuvers. I made some mistakes at first but improved quickly. Jim has brought to my attention that my turns need to be more coordinated, he has told me how to improve them. We also made turns to new headings; I could hit the heading and maintain altitude. We did some turning stalls; I had some difficulty doing that at first, still not so good at it. We then did some soft field landings, at first I was a little shaky but things improved. When I first talked to Jim, I wasn’t sure how we would get on. I am naturally mellow most of the time. When I am pursuing a goal, I am not mellow, I am focused and driven. Jim Talks slowly. I think his pulse rate might peak at 55. I didn’t think he would want to go at the intensity level I was after. Now I still think Jim is mellow but I see his teaching style. He let’s me do it and tells me what I did wrong. If that doesn’t work he does a demonstration. I may not be qualified to evaluate him as a flight instructor but his teaching method seems to fit well with me.

When we got on the ground and reviewed the flight he said I am not teaching you to fly, you can fly the fucking airplane. I am just going to get you ready for the exam and make you fly a little prettier. Jim said I could solo. He thinks I could get off the ground and return safely without help. I agreed

Next trip will be to a controlled airport, Jim will be teaching me to use the radio, I have no experience here. We will be plotting a flight; I think he is going to show me how to file a flight plan. I will be learning how to use the GPS and navigate by pilotage as well. I expect time will be involved. I plan to show up with a course mapped out and an estimated flight time. I also plan to have the GPS programmed for the flight to and from Glendale. I hope to get weather reports and make adjustments to my estimate and then track my estimate with the GPS.

Some people are saying they want to fly with me. I need to remember to tell all the gals that in the interest of national security I need to frisk them before I can give them a ride. I said this to a friend’s sister and she seemed to like the idea, caught me a little off guard.