How I learned To Fly and Something I Learned From Flying

 My introduction to Ann Pellegreno was in the 1980s. I found a copy of her first book, World Flight, which detailed her reenactment of the ill-fated Amelia Earhart attempt to fly a Lockheed Electra around the world in 1937. Ann flew her flight in 1967, 30 years later in an Electra, and threw a garland of flowers over Howland Island where Earhart was supposed to stop for refueling. The ceremony was conducted on the date and hour of Earhart's ETA at Howland.

Ann's story has been written up many times over the succeeding years. My most recent encounter prior to buying her latest book was through an article last June (2022) by Paul Berge:

https://www.avweb.com/insider/in-the-presence-of-greatness-with-no-presence-of-mind/

Naturally, once smitten, I had to have that book and am about halfway through at this writing. 

I wanted the book to give to a young woman who is just beginning her journey into aviation. She is a former Young Eagle who took the burning coal to heart and is now old enough to get started. She has excelled in high school and has taken entry level college courses, ironically graduating from her college courses a week before she will graduate from high school! There are the usual stumbling blocks: Money, available instructors and airplanes, but she'll make it through. Sporty's Pilot Shop, through its connection with EAA and the Young Eagle program, will provide free ground school material for her. What a great candidate and a great path to aviation, no matter how she may choose to pursue it.

Here's where it gets sticky.

The book describes in detail Ann's experience with her first instructor and it's not a pretty picture. I had hoped the account would be more positive; instead, what I read was a description of a Flight Instructor who should not have been a Flight Instructor. Indeed, he should have not been flying at all. The attitude was pure macho hero. Demonstrations of "we shouldn't be doing this, but..." abounded in the initial chapters. Ann only soloed when her first instructor was unavailable for some time and another instructor evaluated her performance.

I could relate. I recall flying with a young woman over 40 years ago who had been strung out by her first instructor. In two lessons she soloed confidently, not because I was such a great teacher but because she needed someone who could communicate with her more effectively (and, perhaps, a more confident instructor). She could fly the airplane, she just didn't have the assurance to do so. I wonder sometimes what she may have done later.

SO I'm on the fence about giving this book to my Young Eagle friend. Perhaps not at the very beginning ... maybe after she is further along in her training. The more I think about it, that may be the time.

If you're interested in the Ann Pellegreno story, do an internet search and try her books. The Sky and I is available from:

www.specialbooks.com

Now we get to "Something I learned from flying":

Dave Nielsen lived down the mountain in a holler near a cave that is famous among some as a haven for bats. Naturally, we called him Bat Cave Dave.

Dave didn't have a lot of money, he wasn't famous, but he had a big, big heart. He built and flew a Kitfox and when he showed up at the north end of Johnson Field in Hendersonville NC with a loaf of bread and a pack of bologna, he started a weekly gathering that has endured to this day. The North End Gang sort of melded into the Fair Weather Flyers and we meet every Wednesday at the airport when it's warm and at other local, indoor spots when it's cold. Dave flew west in January 2016, not long after I moved back home to the mountains, so I hardly knew him but I think of him often. It occurs to me that Dave's spirit runs through all of us who love flying and love to gather with fellow flyers. Some of us came along earlier than others, but the essential thrill of personal accomplishment is still there and needs to be recognized. 

I didn't renew my Flight Instructor certificate when it came due. There is still a part of me that would like to experience the very real pleasure of watching the lights come on inside a student's head when a rectangular pattern is flown to perfection or a sight picture over the nose leads to a perfect landing. In the eyes of the FAA I'm afraid I'm a dinosaur. They're more interested in an institutional approach to flight instruction with its impossible acronyms and adherence to boxes needing to be checked off .. in order, thank you. Rather than being adjudged a loose cannon, I quit. But I won't quit.

Student pilots (we're forever learning) and experienced pilots alike can use a nudge occasionally. I prefer the less formal dialogue now that I'm getting the hang of being out of the "profession". There's absolutely nothing wrong with a qualified pilot passing along some helpful knowledge and I'll do that. I just won't be able to sign anyone off as a Flight Instructor.

And so we get to the most valuable lesson I've learned: never stop learning. That includes learning flying, learning your airplane and learning how to communicate with other people. It may be a rather narrow field of interest to some, but it's not; it's just a tight squeeze into a vast world of opportunity. As an internet friend opines: 

"A mile of road will take you a mile.

A mile of runway can take you anywhere."

OK, November and I'm Just About Caught Up

 

Well, let's see. 

Mid November I stepped down from the Presidency of the local EAA Chapter (1016) and am in the process of handing over everything to the new Head Man In Charge.

Working with the chapter has been a lot of fun even with challenges that come with rebuilding a flagging organization. There are more active building projects than I can remember and signs that members are willing to take on more chapter commitments such as resurrecting the Young Eagles program and funding scholarships on a case by case basis. That's good stuff.

The new instrument package for the Glastar is on the way from Advanced Flight Systems so I'll have something new to work on over the winter. I'm switching from round, analog gauges to a glass cockpit display that will give me more information, more accurately than the 1990 technology that I inherited. Very recent developments in LED lighting tech may be available soon that will allow me to replace the old wingtip and position lights, too, with lighter, brighter ones. This new stuff is simpler and easier to work with as well as being more effective.

Then there's the biplane. For years I've lusted after one open cockpit biplane after another and one in particular that was built by the founder of our EAA Chapter. It's a Marquart Charger and has been stored away for about 5 years, not flying. My friend, Steve, bought the engine for his RV-4 project and I bought the airframe to restore and re-engine. It's in my barn now, waiting for a patient hand to work some magic. I'll keep you posted.

As found in storage and now, during initial inspection 

So the upshot for this month's report is I've been freed up to work on two projects of my own! I hope to have the Glastar back in the air by February or March ... the Charger will take a couple of years. In the meantime, I'm ready to do what I've intended to do for quite awhile and that, in itself, is really satisfying. Fingers crossed.

What happened to September?

 

OK. I'm just lazy. September came in with seasonal changes like fog, rain, etc .. and we didn't do a lot of flying. Then, weather turned fair and warm and we got out more, then we had this hurricane that fizzled out before it got to the mountains. So much for September

The big news was Triple Tree Aerodrome's fall fly-in. Triple Tree is this 7,000' long pool table in the middle (ok, upper middle) of South Carolina where airplane people go to enjoy people just like themselves. It's very popular among pilots who would rather see airplanes than fight through vendor tables full of trinkets, even though some of those trinkets like autopilots, radars, radios of all sorts and purposes and such as that can get pretty pricey.

This was my first time at Triple Tree when the weather was absolutely ideal for a fly-in and the crowd seemed to agree.

I'm close to retirement from the EAA chapter presidency and even closer to receiving components for the upgrade of my instrument panel in the Glastar. The 2000 vintage instruments work perfectly well, I just want to upgrade to a glass display and provide for an eventual easy upgrade to IFR avionics. Plus, having a project over the winter means I'll become even better acquainted with my airplane and I can do it at home in the barn. More on that when it happens . . . 

WHAT HAPPENED TO AUGUST??

 

Peering into the afternoon sun, the PILOT winds his way among the mountain ridges toward a perfect (of course) landing ... as if.

I have no idea what happened to August. It's already September and the big winter project is looming: the Glastar is going to the barn for several months while its instrument panel is upgraded. While it's there, I thought, I might as well replace the on/off fuel valve with a four-position valve (on/L/R/off) which will allow me to manage the gravity feed from my wing tanks. As it is, my tanks don't feed evenly and that makes me nervous. Apparently it's a Glastar thing. Oh, and while I'm there I might as well replace the old Whelen nav/strobe/position lights on the wingtips with new LED lights. That will save me some weight and with Whelens being pricey I might be able to sell my old ones and make that particular upgrade at minimal cost. I dream a lot.

Hmmm .. what's new?

I decided to allow my CFI certificates to lapse at the end of August. I did not renew. This is  the first time in 42 years (if I have that right) I have not been a flight instructor. This came after quite a bit of agonizing over the decision. On the one hand, I earned those certificates (Airplane, single and multi engine, instrument) ... on the other, I haven't really used them in years. In June, I signed off my last student for his instructor certificate and he passed his checkride. Not a bad way to go out. He earned it; I did very little. One last flight review in August and I was done.

Touched base with old friends in the flying community .. that was nice. Some I haven't talked with in years. They ask sometimes if I miss the jets .. no .. I don't, but I do miss the places I went and the people I met. Once in a while - a great while as it turns out - I am on an airport ramp where a turbine engine spools up and I catch a whiff of burned kerosene .. that's when the nostalgia kicks in, but only for a moment.

I'm happy, flying little airplanes and having breakfasts and lunches in the hangar with a good group of people. And the mountains ... don't forget the mountains.

July is for Firsts

When the moment comes, we have to seize the day!

My friend, Sid, made his first ultralight flight this month .. at 90, he was thrilled. This is the same guy who helped build and then flew a LongEZ across the North Atlantic and back in the late 1980s! That was before we civilians had GPS. After a career flying Cessna 210s, a VariEZ and that LongEZ (among other types), interspersed with his day job as a neurosurgeon, Sid quit California and moved to God's country with his wife, Penny, also a pilot and a "99". Many Happy Landings, Sid!

The EAA chapter meeting had a couple of fellows from the Charlotte FSDO FAA Safety Team present a program on flights into and out of non-tower controlled fields. That was the first time in a long time that we had FAA at a meeting. The last time was an Airworthiness Representative who has since retired and moved to South Carolina. In this summer heat wave, I expect he is wishing he could be here in the mountains. South Carolina and eastern NC can be pretty warm even in a normal summer.

The morning after the meeting I was inspired to fly a Dawn Patrol over the mountains and the views were spectacular .. the early morning fog in some of our valleys was just beginning to lift and the air was clear with broken layers to keep it comfy.

Sid's now former neighbor also move to South Carolina to follow his wife's career as an OB-GYN. They had been all over the world and his flying included membership in military flying clubs in the Tokyo area and in Virginia. They've settled about 40 miles from here in Greenville and Matt completed his flight review this week at Greenville Aviation, so he's on his way again after nearly a year and a half! Of course he sent the picture above to show us how much he enjoys being back in the air.

Progress is being made on a number of airplane projects and I'm putting together plans for a revamp of my instrument panel in the Glastar, hopefully this winter if the supplier can get all their components with the shortages in the supply chains these days.

So July 2022 is almost in the books and August plans are fleshing out. More flying, more friends gathering and sharing their stories. 

Off the airfield, we had to say goodbye to a dear and faithful companion. Josie was a few months shy of her 15th birthday when she just ran out of steam. There is a hole in our hearts, all our hearts - mine, Anina's and her 2 canine pals - as we carry on without her yet keep her spirit alive. If you've been there, you know what I mean.

Josie. 2007-2022

Around the Patch - June 2022

 

We caught a break in June .. some really nice flying weather early in the morning when it was cool .. Winds tended to pick up in the afternoons.

Friend Sid, refugee from California and long time pilot, has been making the transition from regular garden variety airplanes like his VariEZE, Cessna 210 and LongEZ to ultralights. A broken hip put him back a little but he's back in the seat and running taxi tests as I write this at the end of June.

We had a great EAA meeting in June at a private airfield and environmentally friendly preserve owned by a fellow who has built airplanes and races his RV-8 in various venues. It was quite a pleasure to be invited into his private space. To take a look, go to www.eaa1016.org 

The Glastar went in for its annual condition inspection and came through it with no squawks at all. I'm ready to move forward with an update to the instrument panel and am just waiting for Advanced Flight Systems to help me write the specification. Fuel prices have a lot of owners looking for the new avionics to help us fly as economically as possible.

So that's about it .. the Fairweather Flyers and EAA members just keep on keeping on.

April Is Soooo Changeable

 What a difference an hour or two can make when it's April in the mountains of Western North Carolina!

Those are snow clouds a week ago (9th) .. ever since it's been in the 70s during the days and 40s at night ... Lots of rain before, a little since and tomorrow it'll be a deluge. But today .... TODAY.. it was FLYING WEATHER!

Mark and Sid took off from Hendersonville (0A7) in Mark's RV-8 and I launched the Glastar for Rutherford County Airport (KFQD) and a rendezvous at the 57A Café on the field ... Ron is a reformed ultralight flyer who whips up the groceries and it's a popular spot. The picnic tables under roof provide an unobstructed view of the runway and sharing tables is the order of the day. You never know who you might meet there.

We had a few bumps on the way back over the mountains as the breeze from the South picked up, but it was a delightful way to celebrate one of the few really good flying days so far this month.

Earlier in the month, on the first Saturday (2nd), a week before our Dogwood Winter snow day, a gaggle of mountain airplanes descended upon Morristown TN for EAA 1494's monthly breakfast extravaganza ... a very popular event for locals as well as fly-in participants .. 

The Glastar makes the 2.5 hour car trip pretty easy .. and the breakfast is well worth the flight ... where else can you pop up for 37 minutes and spend an hour or so with ~400 of your closest friends, all in good humor and eating a classic Southern breakfast?

We're going to have a lot of good flying days ahead .. y'all come now, y'heah?

False Spring, Winter With a Vengeance, it's March

 Whaddaya expect, the Bahamas?

Our false spring, with temperatures in the 70s and sunshine, was brief ... maybe a week. Now the coffee break is over and we're back on our heads (ask a grey beard to tell you the joke), the last gusts of a winter reluctant to pass are upon us. March is the month that gave the mountaineers of Western North Carolina the Blizzard of '93, vividly remembered by the talking weatherheads on TV who weren't born yet. 

What was covered, on and off, with snow is now underwater thanks to the beavers who dam up the streams that drain our airport, sending our floodwaters via Bat's Fork to Mud Creek, the French Broad River, the Tennessee River, the Mississippi and then, finally to the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans will have to wait for this and while New Orleans waits, so do we.

And while we wait, we build airplanes. Here in Steve's workshop, we learn all about fitting wing ribs to the main spar of a pretty early Van's RV-4 kit. The early kits could be challenging. The components didn't always match up to the drawings and the instructions didn't either. Today's kits are much simplified with CNC dimensioned parts, pre-drilled and matched to fit precisely right. Steve is no novice builder, having built 2 other Van's airplanes, but he confessed he had used up the beer and wine pantry trying to figure out some of the bits and pieces of this RV. Fortunately, the kit had hardly been messed with during the 20-odd years other owners had it, though some of the parts have to be replaced due to corrosion, man or mouse made.

Mouse pee does not agree with aluminum.

All in all, March is a month when we begin to see the first glimmers of spring. We fix and fiddle and tweak in preparation for a season of flying. Then some damn fool starts a war and we have uncertainty and skyrocketing fuel prices and we start to wonder if there's a conspiracy to keep us from what we enjoy doing.

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose ... The more things change, the more they stay the same.

February 2022 - Winter Has Finally Arrived

 Here we are .. January has passed and weather has been remarkably good so far since the first day of winter. Then came February.

On the day I thought - maybe - I'd fly, this was the view:

Of course

That was the first blast and it was a good 'un. 11 inches of snow overnight and into the next day pretty much took care of a week's worth of melting before I might get to the hangar, and that would depend on some sunshine. That was last week.

This week's cold front with accompanying ice, snow and rain was much more civil. The Appalachian Mountains are our friends, sometimes, and split weather coming up from Texas so the bad cold stuff runs northeast up the west side of the range and the warmer, wet stuff runs along the south slopes, generally up I-85. We're at that blue dot, middle right in the screenshot below:

Mother Nature provides us with a snowplow of sorts when conditions are just right. As I write this, it's mid afternoon, the day after this was captured, and we have sunshine forecast for the next 5-6 days. There is hope.

Fly safely . . . .

Happy New Year - 2022!

 

Caught with his pants down, Kermit awaits new sparks

The LASAR ignition system that was originally installed on Kermit's Lycoming O-360 began hiccuping, defaulting from electronic to fixed timing (as it should in failure mode) during my last flight so I made a command decision to sacrifice some of the new instrument panel money for an up-to-date hybrid electronic ignition system. The winning combination is a Kelly impulse magneto on the left side and a SureFly electronic module on the right. That seemed to be the best for me as I don't like to put all my faith in electricity. In the event of a total electrical failure (admittedly a remote chance) I'll still have sparks coming from a technology that's well over 100 years old. What was good for tractors is good for me.

The new system works very well. SureFly mentions in passing that it may seem to skip a bit when doing the magneto/ignition check as part of the pre-takeoff checklist, but I did not find it disconcerting. In fact, when I slowed the test down a little (as they recommended) the skip was hardly noticeable.

The traditional Christmas Day flight was delightful, with calm winds and temperatures in the balmy, unseasonable 70s. New Year's Day was another story. Winds were blustery aloft, leading to moderate turbulence around the valley of the old French Broad (River). It was nice and warm, still in the 60s, but I was glad to get on the ground. All was well until I put Mark's airplane back in the hangar and learned the hard way how a wingtip can grow, putting a dent in the front fender of his Porsche. (Cringe)

Of course, Mark dug into the medicine kit and put a band-aid on it

Even with the gusty winds I did ok on my New Year's Day landing. I need some work on hangar operations, though.

The nice weather didn't last. It's a couple of days later when I'm writing this and a front came through last night that was pretty ferocious. Asheville, just up the road, reported winds in the 30-40kt range with gusts to 51kts, freezing rain, then snow. Temps that started today in the 50s are now, in mid afternoon, in the low 30s and we have snow on the ground, although that's going away with the wind, sun and residual ground temperatures.

I fear winter has arrived. There will be nice days, though, good for flying when we aren't tinkering with this or that. The air will be cold and, as Gordon Baxter once wrote, fat with lift. The Glastar will enjoy it and so will I.