Ahhhh, flying is best in the fall of the year

I’m just crazy about leaves changing color, the first crisp temperatures after summer, wood smoke from chimneys (yeah, I know, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens). Pardon me for getting all sappy on you but I love the fall of the year, and especially flying in haze-free skies when you can see clear from here to there.

Fly-ins are fun in the fall. Normally I’m all over them but with my travel schedule this year I had to attend through the eyes of friends. Here, with all his comments and a few notes from me in blue, is my friend, Stan’s, outing to Camden SC and the Vintage Aircraft Association fly-in, held on October 6-9, 2011.

This fly-in was put on by the VAA 3 (Vintage Aircraft Association) in Camden, SC. We had beautiful weather except for some gusty winds out of the east on our return trip home. When we left on Friday, we were in a hurry to get there due to the lack of sunlight left. We took off at 1400 and had until about 1900 before we would turn into a pumpkin. Light Sport rules do not allow us to fly at night, which is what I currently fly under with no medical. So our direct flight route to our first refueling spot (Shelby, NC) took us right over Mt Mitchell, NC which normally I/we avoid due to the dangerous turbulence. On Friday the winds were very calm, we were at 7500' clearing the ridge by 900', so we flew direct to Shelby which took 1.6 hours and 6 gallons of fuel. We refueled quickly, in 20 minutes we were back in the air and flew another 1.6 hours to Camden, SC arriving with an hour to spare and set our campsite up and eat barbecue prior to darkness.

[left to right, above: Fall in the Mountains crossing from TN to NC; Crossing Mount Mitchell, highest point in NC and also highest point east of the Mississippi; The new terminal at Shelby NC]

One side note, I entered the USAF 30 years ago on this day October 7, 1981. So I have completed my 10 years of inactive reserve and no longer can be recalled...at least under the current rules. We'd be in pretty bad shape if the government needed me anyhow.

[Sunset at Woodward Field]

[Pictures above: Sunrise in the campground; Dawn Patrol Fly-by.]

Woodward Field at Camden SC trained a lot of American and British pilots during the years 1941-1944. Bob Morgan, aircraft commander of the Memphis Belle did his primary training here. For more information on the Southern Aviation School, go to: http://www.kershawcountyhistoricalsociety.org/PDFs/WoodwardFieldandtheSAS.pdf

Airplane pictures! Gotta put in some airplane pictures! Run your cursor over the pictures to get a description or click to enlarge:

They were really impressed with how much we packed in the little J3 Cub. We got the Best of Show award for that reason I believe and that we attended the banquet and flew the farthest, another award. Saturday is when all the other airplanes came in for the day. We had 2 Champs, a Taylorcraft, a Citabria, and a Cessna camp out with us the first night.

[Kathy waiting for her date and Stan (also called Griz) in front of the historical society building – the old Kershaw County courthouse - where the VAA banquet was held. They won Best in Show!]

[Packed and ready to go!]

It was cool in the morning and the next night we were the only ones left camping. Did not really realize how cold it was until we left. After starting and taxing to the run-up area I was surprised to see the oil temperature only slightly above 60F, we want it normally above 90F for run up and takeoff. So it must have been cold, but we didn't notice it as we slept warm. It really doesn't get my attention until I see frost or ice.

The flight back we were rewarded with a tailwind component seeing 80 knots avg. on the ground-speed. When I turned to divert over Gaffney, SC to show Kathy the Peach Water Tower off of I-85 we saw over 93 knots on the ground-speed. We then landed in some gusty winds at our friends airport (29NC) for lunch. After recovering from a really bad headache we took off downhill with a tailwind (yuck) and flew over to Shelby for fuel for the last time.

[Horse track just north of Woodward Field – there are a lot of horsey things at Camden; The Peach at Gaffney SC – a landmark on I-85; an old railroad bridge in SC. This is what Cubs are best at: Sightseeing. Jerry’s home strip at 29N; Cubs waiting for pilots and So Long ‘til next time.]

We then flew over to Hendersonville, NC and had about an hour to look at their museum there (Very Nice, plan on coming back). Looking at buying a new motorcycle there also, if I get it it will be a radical one, only drawback is I may look big on it. I'm still shrinking with age so maybe I'll grow into it. LOL

[Kathy showing off her new jacket – a VAA door prize – at Hendersonville NC; Inside the WNC Air Museum; and a couple of kids just having fun!]

Here’s a shameless plug for the Museum – Come on in! http://www.wncairmuseum.com

As always we were pushing sunset and had a bouncy takeoff from the grass strip there and gusty winds again which didn't go away until we got to 6500'. We had a little time left so I showed Kathy a landing on the grass field in Chucky, TN before landing back at our home airport. Nothing is easy, even after a long day, another crosswind landing. Kathy thinks all my landings are nice, but she doesn't realize how much I have to work back there to keep it straight and right side up.

Griz & Cubby

Stan titles this one “God’s Artwork” – a fitting end to a wonderful trip.

Thanks, Griz.

Checking Airspeed

There's a great article in the September 2011 issue of Sport Aviation about how to rig up a homemade manometer for checking your airspeed indicator. Since I was a budding scientist (and haunted science fairs and other geeky events) before I became a theatre major , such things interest me and I had to make one of my own for my own amusement as much as anything.

Note the intriguing tangle of tubing, the symphony of scales, all the neat lines and squiggles and numbers. Ah, 'tis a veritable work of art.

Then come the usual caveats. Nothing can be accomplished in the world of science without caveats.

First and foremost, the scientist has to have a point of beginning for the experiment and rules to give him a stable platform on which to build his argument. No experiment can merit serious consideration without these essential ingredients.

Next, a convenient means of measurement must be provided in order for the scientist to gauge the success of his experiment. This is done by reference to numbers placed in very scientific fashion here and there so as to lend credence to the scientist's work. In this case, those numbers refer to air pressures converted to airspeeds and begin to mean something when the scientist adds colored water to the tubing (paying careful attention to the amount) and applies pressure to an open end by carefully blowing into the tubing (p.s. never do this. The proper method of applying pressure is to attach a length of flexible rubber or silicone tubing to the end and roll it up to provide the pressure you need, but I didn't pay attention to this part of the article). When enough pressure is applied, the open end of the tubing is sealed by either crimping the tubing or, more often, by plugging the end with the scientist's tongue. This hurts like blue blazes after awhile and leads to verbal exchanges with the second member of the scientific team that are right comical at times.

Every self-respecting scientist has an alternate means of compiling his data, so in the event a level, stable platform cannot be achieved in the beginning this blue scale shows the total difference between fluid levels in each tube and converts this differential to an airspeed. Since we are dealing with arguably the most commited scientists, to wit: pilots, every opportunity to achieve a result must be explored. Newton, Bernoulli, Boyle ... none of these guys could fly and we still remember their names. Go figure.

All in all, the manometer experiment was a success. My airspeed indicator is fairly accurate and the system leak rate is acceptable. For a much better explanation of how to build and use a simple manometer, you'd be smart to check Sport Aviation for September. Maybe this link will work:

http://www.sportaviationonline.org/sportaviation/201109#pg98

What I missed: The Antique Airplane Club of Greater New York annual Fly-In (2011)

You want to tell God a joke? Make a plan.

I had every intention of flying the Cub north from NC to NY for the Fly-In at Bayport Aerodrome, then life got in the way. Gino called me from the Sheep Shagger Baaa, where the airplane and hangar keys are locked away for the night and merriment abounds. I talked to Bill and Bill and heard many serious discussions of aviation engineering, aerodynamics, and physics in the background, mostly pertaining to the results of bomb drops and spot landings, punctuated by laughter. Oh, how I miss these great people. I missed the Plane Janes, too, but you don’t have to.

Order a calendar!

There were great airplanes:

Ace’s N3N is always a big hit. The big Wright engine, the collection of leftover blimp parts…..

 

Bill’s Brunner-Winkle Bird was joined by two others – a rarity in itself, you seldom see three in one place (The pic of the red airplane  is from the Cradle of Aviation web site, but it was there).

And what would a fly-in be without Stearmans?

…Or the iconic Piper Cub?

Feeling their way to the stripe in the spot landing contest …

And always a committee to grade the landings ….

Stu in the Auster and Steve in the Fleet … you don’t see these every day except at Bayport.

Airplanes snugged down for the night …

Thanks (& a tip of the hat) to Annemarie and Stuart for the great pictures.

See you next year!

The Walter Mitty Cub, or Armchair Flying

Oh, how I love an adventure! Last summer I looked at a Piper Cub trip from Washington State to North Carolina and thought it would be the flight of a lifetime (which it would have been) but timing, that fickle quash, overrode my plans. The Bonanza had to go first and on the other end the Cub had to go so it became a race to the sale and the Cub won. Dang it. The Bonanza eventually sold (see February’s post) but it was too late for this participant. I found another Cub near my own backyard but the allure of flying through the high mountains of the west still strikes a chord in me.

Enter the internet and a website for Cub enthusiasts and wishful thinkers at www.j3-cub.com . There is a forum thereon called “Cub Talk”, which is open to general discussion of all things Cub-related and where a younger-than-me United Airlines captain opened up a thread that became one of the longer ones on the site. The “New Boy Buying J3” led not only to his finding a fine airplane but to his embarkation upon a four-day trip from Lincoln NE to Southern California.

 

This doesn’t give all the zigs and zags of his route, but you get the general idea. His destination wasn’t Palm Springs, either, but it’s close. The straight line flight would have been just over 1,000 miles; the route he had to take to wind through the mountains and to stay near highways across the desert ended up nearly 1,400 miles. Lucky guy (obviously the beneficiary of airline luck), he had tailwinds a lot of the way! I never have tailwinds.

With today’s satellite technology and a nifty little hand-held device sending sparks to space and back, we were able to track the progress of the flight all the way from Lincoln to his home field. The gadget sent his position every 10 minutes and with a little interpretation you can tell he stopped for fuel between position 38 and position 44, at Buckeye AZ, just west of Phoenix. To add a little more realism, I pulled up Google Earth and traced the route over satellite pictures of the terrain. I can’t wait to see his pictures.

My wife tells me I’m nuts for watching NASCAR races but I haven’t seen a race yet that has captured my imagination like this flight in a little yellow airplane.

Maybe next year.

The Future

When it’s a beautiful day, there’s just nothing better than an Airplane Ride! Cousin Charlie’s wife, Marian’s, nephew and family spent a few days in North Carolina recently and after all the swimming and freezing in mountain streams, after all the hiking and climbing and doing stuff, there was this Big Secret High Adventure thing left to do … the boys played all their cards to find out what it was, but no telling. By the time they got to the airport and the Secret was out, they were wired … and boy, was it fun!

Daemion (age 12) was first and climbed right in … we spent about 15 minutes in the air, first circling over the airport so we could wave to everybody, then departed the pattern from the crosswind to do a little hands-on flying! He picked it right up.

Charlie and Papa and Ty (age 8) and Lisa were the cheering section …

Then it was Lisa’s turn

…and she learned why the control stick is called a “joy stick” … we had a great ride, just like Daemion’s.

Then it was Ty’s turn …

That open door was a little too open, so we closed it before launch … that was better … a lot more comfortable for a first time Cub flyer … (the door was open again by the time we were taxiing in after our flight).

The only trouble was …. it was over too soon.

What’s so great about today?

And the best of all, a self portrait:

There is nothing, simply nothing, that is half so much worth doing as messing around in a Cub.