Some more Oshkosh 2012

Now that the 2012 airshow season is in the past, every now and then I'm going to try to throw in a few more shots I took this year.  Each season I attempt to take a few baby steps in the direction of being remotely capable with a camera.  We have a Nikon D60 with a 70mm to 300mm Sigma lens (very basic model) that is now in need of a thorough cleaning after being put through its paces at countless airshows and a trip halfway around the world to Vietnam.  So, this year's crop of photos required a little more editing to work out a few dust spots.

My goal for the year was to enhance my panning skills; panning is what you do to really capture motion.  As in the examples below, panning is done at a manually set shutter speed that is slower than what you would typically use for normal shots such as a family picture. The effects which you are looking for are the blurred background, a blurred propeller and a nice clear picture of the object in focus (in the center of the frame, of course).  With my skill level, I normally come home from an airshow with several hundred pictures that result in only a small group that I'm really happy with.  Growth is the key, though, right?

The shots below were taken at EAA AirVenture 2012 and are two of my favorite aircraft.  First is the Avenger - a WWII carrier-based torpedo bomber, this is an impressive aircraft in size and noise output as it rumbles down the runway.  Just as impressive is the short distance this beast needs to get into the sky.  Second is a shot of a P-51 Mustang, which is the airplane I would buy if I ever win the lotto.  With its sleek design and Rolls Royce Merlin engine, it just commands respect.

Enjoy!

Every flight is a lesson

Of everything that draws me to flying, there are two key aspects which rank towards the top: the ability to share the experience with others; and the challenges to your brain you encounter in every phase of every flight. 

Since I first got my license, I have always enjoyed taking people up with me.  I can't remember the last time I went up by myself - I view an empty right seat as a wasted opportunity.  Whether it is the excitement when someone sees the approach end of a runway for the first time out the front of an airplane or the questions from a passenger as their curiosity unfolds as the flight progresses, I really value the opportunity to take a non-pilot up (repeat customers are just as fun as first-timers).  What about flying buddies?  Talk about really enhancing the experience; I'll address my opinion of the endless possibilities of flying buddies in a future post.

Having recently been checked out in our flying club's Piper Dakota, I've been eager to take my wife up and show off all of the neat ins and outs of the airplane (and also provide a first-hand advertisement of where a high performance machine can take us).  So, I sort of threw together a rough flight plan to head out to the northwest of KPWK to enjoy the perfect flying conditions and do some aimless flying.  I like doing this when I'm new to an airplane to sort of re-familiarize myself / make sure I know where everything is so that there are no hesitations when I'm in the traffic pattern and other critical phases of flight.

Anyway, after cruising around Chicago's far northwest suburbs / southern Wisconsin, I wanted to pop into Schaumburg Regional Airport (06C) for a quick dinner at Pilot Pete's.  I've never been (which is embarrassing since it is like a ten-minute flight, max, from KPWK) and my recently instituted goal is to fly to a different airport as frequently as possible. As has been my luck recently, the weather for our flight was perfect - no clouds, surface winds of about 10 kts (perfect for some crosswind practice) and unlimited visibility.  We started our takeoff roll at the best time of day to fly, when the sun is nearly down, but there is enough light to still see what you are doing.  Tell me after watching this that you do not agree:

Shortly after the footage ended, we were rocketing to the northwest at about 1,800' MSL when ATC called to let us know that they weren't getting a read from our transponder. Within 30 miles of O'Hare, you are required to have an operative Mode C transponder (this is a device that essentially allows ATC to see your position/altitude on their radar screens) and so I needed to make a decision.  My first instinct was look down at the transponder (in the lower half of the right side of the instrument panel in this particular aircraft) and flip the switch on and off a few times and then cycle the numbers as well to see if anything was stuck.  ATC didn't pick up anything after my initial attempt to resolve. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be FLYING the aircraft.  As I've said before, I think it is easy to get fixated on all of the neat screens / instruments you have in a modern aircraft and forget that the most important information is located outside of the windows.  Thankfully, right about this time, I had a reminder of this lesson as we passed a Cessna 172 (coincidentally, the same 172 I used to fly in my pre-LEFC days) which was doing 360's in the northwest corner of PWK's airspace.  I had to deviate a bit to stay clear and that woke me up to the fact that there are always other aircraft, birds...etc. which you need to see to be able to avoid.

Because of this, I wanted to get out of the area, gain some altitude and take a logical approach to the matter rather than just terminating the flight early - it's hard enough to find time to get out to the airport as often as I would like, and we did not have a problem which would necessitate an immediate landing. So, we took advantage of flying outside of the transponder-required area for a while by cruising over Fox Lake and then up to Lake Geneva, where we traced the entire lake before deciding to return to base.  Once I reconnected with PWK ATC, they kindly let me know that the transponder was still not operational and therefore Pilot Pete's wasn't in the cards for this flight.   

I think one could walk away from our experience with one of two perspectives.  On one hand, you could say that we did not meet the objectives we set for the evening and had to terminate the flight early, thereby deeming the flight a failure.  I prefer the alternative in that we got to go flying and made the most of the opportunity that presented itself.  We certainly got to enjoy the great weather conditions from the air, log some time and learned a few things while doing so.  Success?  Absolutely.  A year or two ago, I likely would have made the decision to abort the flight shortly after getting the initial notification about our issue from ATC.  Back in the day, my first instinct at the hint of any abnormality was to terminate the flight and call the aircraft owner or my CFI to initiate resolution.  An example of this is when, shortly after I got my license, I returned to our parking spot and called my CFI when the magnetos were fouled in run-up.  A quick and simple problem-solving technique (which I should have thought of myself) applied by my CFI and we were on our way again shortly thereafter.  As my experience has increased, I've added the essential element of the decision-making process of assessing whether I can try to resolve the situation myself. 

Besides being representative of increased awareness and skill as a pilot, I think this element of decision-making is essential to maximizing the experience for non-pilot passengers.  If you have a big RPM drop in the run-up before takeoff, you don't need to just taxi back to the hangar and declare a maintenance issue.  Likewise, when faced with an inoperative transponder, we didn't need to land right away, nor did I need to address the situation immediately.  My opinion on dealing with things that happen in flight (or when you are about to go flying) is to first determine whether it is an emergency; second, continue to ACTIVELY fly the airplane (appropriate use of the autopilot meets this standard); and then take the best course of action.  In our case, both my passenger and I enjoyed our flight with only minimal interruption.

We pilots need to do all that we can to dispel common misconceptions held by the non-pilot community that flying is incredibly dangerous.  Being in control of the situation in the cockpit and making rational decisions when unplanned situations arise is one step in that direction.

Champaign Cross Country

Recently, a member of my flying club (Leading Edge Flying Club - at KPWK) acquired a newly refurbished Piper Dakota (PA28-236 for you Piper junkies out there) and leased it to the club for member use.  It's been in the organization since mid summer, but I did not dive in due to my foray into aerobatic / tailwheel flying.  After watching this video that Al Waterloo of SimpleFlight.net posted to SparkReel, I knew it was Dakota time for me:

I talked to Al, who boasts a CFI rating as one of his many credentials, about the process for getting checked out and being a huge advocate of making every flying experience awesome, he laid out a great syllabus.  Here's how it all played out...

We met one night out at PWK and with the intention to climb around the aircraft to really get a good feel for all of the systems and how they interact to get you where you want to go.  After a little familiarization with the cockpit layout (steam gauges combined with some of Garmin's most recent innovations - touchscreen, baby!), we popped the cowling off to expose the engine and everything else forward of the firewall.  If I remember correctly, this was the first time I had ever done that with an aircraft.  I feel like it was such an effective teaching method as we walked through every aspect of the engine's operation and seeing while discussing the different components really helped me visualize the process so much better.  I'll write a separate piece at some point to differentiate the technical aspects of the the Dakota from previous aircraft I've flown, but to sum it up, it is a bit more complex and has a hell of a lot more power!!!

After spending a few hours learning the nuts and bolts, I was ready to take to the air.  For the flying portion of the training, Al suggested a long cross country flight (beyond the standard PWK-JVL-PWK or PWK-RFD-PWK routing I've enjoyed so many times).  As we are both University of Illinois alums, I thought that a trip down to Champaign's Willard Airport (KCMI) was a no-brainer.  We picked a day and planned on meeting at the airport around noon to wrap up some ground school, plan the flight and leave enough time to fly down, tour the campus, get some dinner and make it back before too late.  Sounds pretty sweet, right?  A pilot's license can really open up so many experiences you wouldn't otherwise consider.

I checked the weather religiously for many days in advance of our planned excursion and got increasingly excited as we were gifted with some severe clear sky conditions!  At PWK, Al and I walked through a quick overview of what we wanted to accomplish and then got down to the details.  About three years ago, the 'details' would have involved laying out a bunch of maps across the table while straining our eyes to ensure we get ourselves sufficiently prepared to execute the mission.  A shout out to the engineers at Apple and ForeFlight is well deserved at this point, as Al and I fired up our iPads loaded with the most recent version of ForeFlight and were able to map out our exact route while pulling the most current weather and airport information available.  ForeFlight is a game-changer, in my opinion.  Combining the highly interactive features of the iPad with all of the information a pilot needs (maps, weather, runway information [NOTAM's for you pilots]...etc.), ForeFlight offers pilots an opportunity to step into the cockpit so much more aware of what they will face during a flight than ever before.  With 3G/4G service or an aftermarket GPS, all of that information I just alluded to coupled with a zoomable moving map display opens up a limitless world of knowledge (which further enhances safety). 

Al asked me what route I wanted to take to get down to KCMI; I thought I would impress him with a pre-loaded route that would take us southwest to Dekalb (to stay clear of the O'Hare Class B airspace, of course) and direct to Champaign from there.  Yeah, I'm pretty conservative when it comes to flying and my first instinct is always to pick a route that offers about a 0% chance that I bust Class B airspace.  Al, as part of his constant quest to dispel aviation myths, asked me if I would rather 'hug the Bravo curtain' and fly over the top of Midway (KMDW).  Over the top of Midway?  That can't be permitted for VFR pilots, right?!  WRONG!!!  With our iPads / ForeFlight, Al and I virtually flew our intended route (which was substantially cooler and shorter than my suggestion), agreed that it was going to be awesome and went out to the airplane to kick some butt in the sky.

Taking off on PWK's rwy 16 in front of LEFC sister aircraft (Archer 3096B), we climbed to 1,600' MSL and made our way to our first waypoint, Arlington Park.  Class B airspace at that point starts at 1,900' MSL, so it is critical to keep an eye on your altimeter!  We followed Meacham Rd just to the west of Woodfield Mall, called Schaumburg Airport to announce our intentions to pass north-to-south to the west of the field and really just enjoyed the views that you cannot get except in a general aviation aircraft.  A few minutes later, my office in Oak Brook, IL came into view and I gave a little wave to all of my co-workers plodding away at their keyboards/monitors while we passed overhead to pick up I-88 / I-290 eastbound towards the city.  We dialed up Midway ATIS (repeating recording of current conditions at the airport for all of you non-pilots / aspiring pilots) and gave the tower a call to let them know we were about 10 miles to the northwest following I-290 eastbound.  After ATC verified they had radar contact, Al promped me to ask for clearance to pass overhead north-to-south.  I waited nervously after asking, sort of expecting a chorus of laughter over the frequency.  That did not happen, rather, ATC gave us clearance and told us to pass directly overhead at or above 1,200' MSL.

After banking to the south from I-290, Al patiently helped me pick a point to cross over as well as a few landmarks on the ground to follow to ensure we did not stray off course,.  My arms were tired by the time we crossed the southern boundary of the airfield as I was so intent on holding my altitude, I think I squeezed the yoke with all of my strength.  I certainly did not want to embarrass myself by having the tower call me to tell me I couldn't hold an altitude.  Well, I think the result of all of this was amazing; check out this short clip of the experience...

I would say that we have successfully dispelled the aviation myth that you must fly all of the way out to DeKalb to fly anywhere south of Chicago (and had a great time doing so)!  Seriously, it was that easy.  The rest of our trip down was just as fun, we popped up to 3,500' once clear of MDW's Class C airspace and spent some good time getting used to the Garmin GTN650 / Garmin 560 touchscreen GPS' as well as the Dakota's autopilot.  During this experience, we flew through some light chop, which I found to be very helpful in developing techniques to fly the aircraft and add inputs to the Garmin devices while bouncing around a bit.

First ground stop was Rantoul (KTIP), a former USAF base that is used sparingly at best as a non-towered GA airport.  It's amazing how much older the airport looks as compared to the last time I passed through, which was about seven years ago. I found the Dakota to fly very similarly to the Archer in the pattern - extremely stable in the traffic pattern.  Al briefed me prior to our flight and once again as we entered the pattern that I would need more back pressure on the yoke / elevator trim than I was used to in the Archer to land smoothly. Al - correct.  After a few circuits in the pattern, and a few bounces on landing, we hopped over to KCMI - the winds and our position offered us the perfect opportunity to shoot our approach right over the top of campus.  I stole a few glances from my focus on the runway to take advantage of the view I had for so long been curious about while I was a student.

As VIP's, or rather, pilots who purchased fuel for our airplane, Flightstar, the on-field FBO, gave us the keys to a very nice Mazda 6 with no deadline to return.  Awesome?  You know it!  We cruised around the campus, exchanging a number of 'back in the day when I was here...' stories and determined that we would be remiss by not doing a little tour of the Quad on foot and grabbing dinner at a local establishment.  We both agreed numerous times that we missed the good ole' days of campus life.

Back at the airport after the sun went down, we got Dakota 55T ready to roll and made our way out to the active runway.  On climb out, the campus completely stood out among the pitch black cornfields that surround the Champaign/Urbana area for miles.  It was neat seeing everything once again from the air.   We did some stalls (my first time at night) on our way back north - the Dakota handles these with grace and the stall break (nose drop) is barely noticeable.  Stalls used to be a maneuver that I always dreaded practicing, and for no real good reason that I can point to.  However, after my experiences in aerobatic flying, everything seemed so much slower and controlled during the entire process.  Cheers to Piper for designing such great airplanes.

Landings in the Dakota finally clicked with me after some circuits in the pattern at KIKK (look it up if you are curious - you Illinois alunms will have driven by it countless times as it sits just to the east of I-57) and we made our way back home.  I don't recall the last time I've done pattern work at night at an airport in such a rural area and there were a few moments when my brain told me "dude, it is really freakin' dark out here!"  It is most critical to pay attention to your instruments in this type of situation as your eyes/brain have a more difficult time perceiving depth when there are fewer reference points.  You can find numerous stories about pilots touching down short of the runway at night at an airport surrounded by a dark landscape.

Heading back to PWK, we elected to reverse our course flown earlier in the day - over the top of KMDW, up to Oak Brook along I-290 / I-88 and north to Arlington Park to get one more experience under my belt of this incredible route.  A Southwest 737 passed directly above us on initial approach to KMDW and then directly underneath after landing - super awesome!

All in all, the day's events were a phenomenal set of experiences, hopefully to be repeated at numerous other destinations!

Chicago Air & Water Show

And so the 2012 air show season is in the books...  I think I did pretty well this year, Rockford, Oshkosh and the Chicago Air & Water Show.  Initially I planned for about five or six shows, but a few other distractions popped up and these were my 'must-go's'.  Rockford is always a fun time because they really put on a great show there and I generally get to fly there!  That's really the way to do an air show right, show up in an airplane, you get some VIP access before and after the show and then avoid all of the traffic as you rocket out above it all.  Oshkosh, no comment necessary.  As to the Chicago Air & Water Show, my thoughts...

This used to be a no doubt incredible show.  Obviously headlined by the Blue Angles or Thunderbirds, the show would get a ton of military support from the standard tactical demonstrations to flyby's from many different varieties of military aircraft that you couldn't see elsewhere.  Think S-3 Viking rare... I remember in the mid-2000's seeing a two-ship do a series of flyby's.  I only wish I had my current camera to capture that.  Anyway, back to the point I was trying to make; the hard economic times that Chicago and the greater economy have faced over the last several years have stripped away much of that stellar performer list.  Couple the notoriously low communication from the organizers in advance as to the list of participating aircraft with my knowledge of economic conditions and I really had no idea what would be here save for the Blue Angels and the F-4 Phantom West (for the Heritage Flight) - which in truth was enough to draw me in.

Seizing the opportunity presented by perfect weather, a couple of us rolled down to Gary (KGYY) for the Friday practice show to get a glimpse of what the weekend would offer.  I think KGYY is a perfect vantage point - we sat just to the east of the main terminal building, which was about 20 yards away from where the F/A-18F Super Hornet demo team parked one of their jets. Enough said! That jet flew twice while we were there and in both cases, the pilot/EWO took a bunch of time after their displays to talk with the numerous kids lined up for all of the action.  Note, said flying badasses carefully avoided the area we (two dudes in the 30-33 age range) were sitting in - I can't blame them!!!  That we got to see the Super Hornet fire up, take off, land and shut down twice was great.  The real highlights, though, were the F-4 Phantom II departure/arrival, the four-ship of A-10's departure/arrival, and the Blues of course.  There was plenty of other activity (we arrived just as the Air Force T-38's / T-6 Texan II's were finishing a series of low approaches), but those were the best.  The Phantom (how many more opportunities will we have to see one of these historic aircraft fly???) phlew with Vlado Lenoch in his Mustang and they took advantage of a little extra gas after their practice routine to do a series of low approaches (Vlado requested right traffic so that they could pull right over the top of the crowd on crosswind - that is an example of a pilot getting it).  The A-10's did a lot of the same and would have offered more but they flew a training mission after their time in the aerobatic box and did not get back until a few minutes prior to the Blues getting back (you know who gets the nod in that situation).  Creative way by them to get some good PR time at an airshow while putting training dollars to work.  No pictures, but I did take a few videos uploaded to (@SparkReel) - here's one:

Hopefully I inferred above that going down to KGYY is a really great experience of getting right up to the action and hearing a lot of noise.  For a different KGYY experience that I can only marvel at in jealousy, check out my fellow LEFC club member / flying comrade's experience at MyFlightBlog - Todd just happens to have the official blog for the Chicago Air & Water Show and so if you navigate through you are likely to find some incredible entries - here's one shared on (@SparkReel):

For the Saturday show, I finally got to do something that I have been nearly dying to do since we moved to our place (approximately 1 mile from the shoreline).  That's right, Christina and I climbed up on our roof for the Blue Angels' show.  I knew it would be sweet, but we were really blown away with the proximity to the jets our vantage point offered.  I tried getting some good shots with the camera, but only ended up with one I felt good enough about to post (Fat Albert in a holding pattern just to the west of the box)...

Next year, the goal for the roof experience is better pictures - there are just so many opportunities with the skyline and lake in the background.  Overall, though, except for the fact that we had to sit directly on the roof (rendering a full day up there impossible), it was really fun to take advantage of our location and get a unique take of all of the action.

For Sunday (that's right, I made a full weekend out of it), we got up early and drove down with all of the chairs to a side street just off of Fullerton east of Clark (great spot) and strolled directly east until we hit water.  I wanted to try something a bit different - we've sat at North Avenue Beach for many, many years now and I was inspired to sit north of show center by a video posted by @ahirsen:

- awesome for many reasons.  It seemed from his spot, the aircraft were going right over their heads and promised for lots of noise (and maybe a good photo op or two)!

We couldn't have been happier as evidenced by this low pass from one of the Blue Angel solo pilots, which was about as close to a jet operating at full military power that you can get - I'd estimate 100 feet - max:

We also had a great view for some Super Hornet noise!!!!

From where we sat, the crowd wasn't too bad and logistically we were close to anything you would need at an air show - bathroom / food and exit access to bug out quickly at the conclusion of the show!  See you in the same spot next year!

As far as the show itself, the morning was a bit slow after the Air Force trainer parade (sadly, one pass only) as the aerobatic acts became a bit repetitive.  I respect the heck out of those guys and their amazing piloting skills (Rob Holland - beast, Sean Tucker - beast, Aeroshell - consummate professionals... etc.) as a novice aerobatic pilot myself, but from an entertainment perspective, it felt like the show had a hard time developing any rhythm without all of the noise / metal that people go to witness.  Things picked up quickly, though, after the KC-135 made a series of passes (I don't think they lowered the refueling boom, which was quite surprising given that is pretty much the highlight of the aircraft).

The Phantom and the Super Hornet came in and ripped it up with a ton of ear-bursting afterburner action.  I heard several small children crying loudly after one near-Mach 1 Super Hornet pass - come on parents, what do you expect?!?!  Then the four A-10's discussed above, rolled on scene for a mock close air support mission which was followed by a previously unpublicized appearance by four F-16's from the Iowa Air National Guard that added another burst of burner noise before the Blue Angels took over.  Stellar performance, as expected, by them, and we all left happy.  As you can see, that is quite an afternoon!

I think the key takeaway from it all is that the organizers continue to put on a great show despite a much smaller pool of resources as compared to the good ole' days, but the schedule could have used a scrubbing or two. The airboss and his team do a fantastic job of minimizing the empty space between acts, but getting the Super Hornet or Phantom in earlier in the day would have really injected some well-needed excitement (and increased the appreciation for the difficult maneuvers performed by the acro pilots).  Noticeably absent were bomber appearances...  I know times are tough for the USAF, but I've really gotten used to some heart-pounding flybys from B-1's or an intimidating series of passes by a venerable B-52 or stealthy B-2.  Let's get those guys back next year!

A little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to appear on an online radio show hosted by a couple of fellow pilots, friends, and great ambassadors to aviation - Al Waterloo (@Al_H2Oloo) and Marc Epner (@mepner). A bit of background on how I ended up in Marc's dining room talking into a microphone for a few hours...

Marc is the president of Leading Edge Flying Club, a collection of great people and great aircraft that I joined a few years ago.  Marc is really the driving force behind a lot of the great camaraderie that us members share - monthly breakfasts, flyouts, or just good ole hangar flying. Al is a relatively new member to the club and brings a vast array of aviation experiences coupled with a great passion for flying (check out his website at SimpleFlight.net for further detail and you will quickly understand what I'm talking about).  Both of these guys have recently taken to the airwaves of ethanolive.com from 8pm til 10pm on Sunday nights to talk flying and do what they can to make aviation better.

My journey to the radio show was through my experiences with SparkReel over the last several months.  For those who don't know, SparkReel is the brainchild of Matt Gibbs (my brother-in-law) and Adam Hirsen.  SparkReel is a developing social media forum that enables users to share videos from mobile devices to a targeted group through a very easy-to-use interface.  My use of SparkReel began when I started a group titled "Flying" and began uploading some of my aviation-related experiences.  Adam is a pilot as well and he jumped into the mix with his own great contributions quickly thereafter.

At one of our recent Leading Edge breakfast meetings, I noticed that Al was pretty versed in recording aviation-related experiences on his phone (he filmed and used iMovie to create a cool video from a recent $100 hamburger trip that he showed to the group).  I reached out to him afterwards and he jumped at the opportunity to add his own experiences.  Check out his contributions at www.SparkReel.com/g/flying - incredible.

Over the course of the past few months, Adam, Al and myself have been sharing / commenting on each others' videos and really kickstarting some great aviation dialogue that ultimately led to an appearance on the radio show.

We decided to congregate at the L'Edge - Leading Edge's room on the second floor of Hangar 5 at KPWK.  What a great place to see an aviation community in action; besides us, three other members stopped by (two who weren't even there to fly) and a lot of great flying talk was had by all.  Conversation naturally evolved over time into many of the areas Al and Marc wanted to address during the show, which put to rest any anxiety I had about what I would say.  After continuing our planning at Ram over some quality pilot food, we headed to Marc's house to set up our 'studio' for the big show.

A few technical difficulties prevented us from going live and interacting with listeners, but that was just a blip in an otherwise amazing experience - we recorded the show and it is available on SimpleFlight or as a podcast through iTunes.

Marc and Al come from different professional backgrounds and have built their flying experiences through different avenues, but I think this makes the quality of their product that much greater. United by a common passion for aviation, they both know what is going on in flying today and recognize a need to change it, to better it and to get more people involved.

I was a bit nervous when it finally came time to talking and had to be told a few times to hold the mic closer to my mouth (I was actively trying to avoid deafening any listeners), but felt like I really settled in over the course of the recording and that we all really engaged in a great dialogue. Adam did a fantastic job clearly spelling out the mission of SparkReel and then bridging the gap to its potential to aviation.  These SparkReel guys know what they want for their project and know how to communicate it.  I'm sold.

Overall, we touched on many possibilities for the Flying group at SparkReel; the ability to unite like-minded pilots in a community (see above for how it has brought Adam, Al and myself together); providing a means for non-pilots to get a glimpse of the world we pilots are lucky enough to see out the front of an aircraft; and opening doors to new forms of aviation instruction (including dispelling some of the many flying myths pilots carry around - see Marc's video of flying an SR-22 into KORD) and inspiration.

I came away from the whole experience feeling very excited about the future.  Marc and Al seem to really be connecting and actively thinking of ways to better aviation.  With their backgrounds and commitment, I'm confident that they will be able to put those ideas to action.

SparkReel has been my doorway to social media and I have very high expectations for the future given all that Matt and Adam have done to bring it to where it is now.  So, to link all of this together, here's to hoping the Flying group can really grow and become something where all types of pilots are motivated to share their experiences.

Debrief: Oshkosh - 2012

Well, another Oshkosh is in the books.  This year, my dad and I made the trek up on Friday, July 27th, and the experience was nothing shy of incredible.  Since it was just the two of us and he is usually up for anything, I set our departure time aggressively at around 5:15 AM.  After an essential stop at Starbucks, we jumped on I-294 North at around 5:40 (so yeah, we were running a bit behind, but I normally account for this when setting aggressive departure times) with nothing but blue skies to our north. 

We've been going to Oshkosh for many, many years now and like all good traditions, we've groomed a number of specific habits like our standard pre-airshow stopover at the Lomira, WI McDonalds.  It's a great place to get in one last pitstop and grab a healthy (cough, cough) bite to eat to load up on the essential nutrients only a McD's breakfast can offer.  As you proceed north from Lomira, you pass through Fond Du Lac, which serves as a reliever airport for Oshkosh during the week of AirVenture and in good years is packed with aircraft / tents - a great primer for the excitement to come. We use it as a barometer for how crowded (and great, of course) Oshkosh will be.  At this point in the trip, we normally start looking to the skies for aircraft departing from OSH (normally at least a steady stream).  However, the ceiling dropped quite a bit - I would estimate to the 800 - 1000 feet AGL range.  Not to worry, about 5 miles out of OSH, we emerged on the other end of the cloud cover and ceilings were instantly up to the VFR levels we sought.

We pulled into the lot about 8:45 - our earliest arrival to date - and were rewarded with a great parking spot. I have to commend the people behind the scenes at Oshkosh for continually upgrading and improving the entry procedures - we were inside the gates about five minutes after leaving the car!

My dad has his own little tradition of going directly to the Ford tent and picking up whatever free swag is available. This year, to his dismay it was a straw hat (in comparison to the P-51-inspired hat last year, I believe) - I don't think he was too bummed, though, as he rocked his new hat all day.  While he was passing through the different Ford stations, I noticed the open canopy of an F-4 Phantom out at the end of Phillips 66 Square (the main display area) and it suddenly dawned on me that we might have the opportunity of seeing startup and departure! Such a rare opportunity as the lives of these beasts as drones for the USAF are in the final chapter.

Well, I couldn't see my dad anywhere and all I could think of was missing one of the highlights of the day because of that free hat!  All ended well as I located him and double-timed it over to grab a front row seat to the preflight, startup, and taxi of the Phabulous Phantom!

After watching the F-4 light the burners and disappear into the clouds, we made our way down to the warbirds area to walk amongst the countless legendary aircraft (we've really developed a standard pattern to our tour of the grounds).  Before getting to the meat of the display, I noticed a tent with the Gauntlet Warbirds emblem (my tailwheel / acro flight school) and saw my instructor, Vess, inside.  We talked airplanes and Oshkosh with Vess for a while and then made our way down to the P-51 world.  It was great to finally run into someone I know at Oshkosh - I think that was a first in our 20 years going here!

Amongst so many others, there were tons of Mustangs on the grounds this year, as well as three P-40's and a Wildcat!   The jet representation was incredible as well, two A-4 Skyhawks!  After walking the warbird grounds, we took our standard break out by Rwy 9/27 to watch some departures.  It was actually pretty quiet - probably due to the low ceilings and the showers popping up around the local area (normally our 9/27 viewing gives an perspective on OSH ops like no other).

With the low frequency of traffic on 9/27, we decided to stake out a good spot along 18/36 for the afternoon show and evening departures.  Every year we've gone, we've chosen a spot near the north end of 18/36 in between the homebuilts and warbirds.  This year, I wanted to mix it up and we hiked all of the way past Phillips 66 square to the vintage aircraft area.  What a great idea!  It was much less crowded, we were seated among the throngs of legendary Piper Cubs, Staggerwings and other classics and there were still plenty of food options.    Based upon the quality of the experience for the rest of the day, I think we found a new permanent viewing spot (especially since 36 was the traffic flow with winds out of the north) and look forward to sharing the spot with all of you next year!

Normally the afternoon flying activities commence with a showcase of sorts (a new type of plane, a specific genre such as seaplanes...etc.) which is followed by a good amount of acro, concluded with the warbirds spectacular.  I would say that this year, we sort of lucked out.  We had four Navy (P-3C, E/A-18G, T-39 [pictured below], and E-2C) and two USAF (T-38's) aircraft drop in after a departure of a B-25 and B-29.  With the B-25 and B-29 orbiting the field at about 2,500 ft, things got a bit interesting.

The P-3C was cleared to land on 36 and was on short final when an RV-8 was cleared to depart.

My personal opinion was that the RV should have been held short of the runway as there just wasn't enough time to get rolling.  The Orion crew realized this and smartly pulled up for a go-around.  About 20 seconds later, the RV was in the air, with the P-3C over the RV, and the B-25 / B-29 formation on top.  Not much room since all entities needed to break to the east to avoid the 9/27 traffic (if only I had a lens .  Being in the middle of this aircraft sandwich, I thought the P-3 crew did a great job of keeping away from everyone (especially as the RV was seemingly unaware and did a normal climb out and turn almost inside of the Orion).  All was good and everyone got down safely.

That bit of action was followed by not one, but two F/A-18C Tac demo's.  Seriously, the first Hornet launched and did his demo, and the second launched promptly thereafter to repeat the same maneuvers.  For an avid enthusiast like myself, that was totally awesome!

We breezed through the acro displays - all of which I have a much higher appreciation for after my own foray into acro flying.  Hats off to John Mohr with his Stearman display - wow, he was good - highlights being the low-level spin recovery and square loop.

Team Aeroshell in their T-6 Texans also put on a really good display...

The warbird spectacular was just as advertised. Tora, Tora, Tora kicked it off with a very organized display, followed by the trainer fly-overs and B-25 strafing runs.  After that, the B-25's set up for an orbit to the south while we were treated with some great navy fighter and P-51 action.  Great to see so many aircraft kept in amazing shape. Our only complaint (and not much of one) was our seating position with respect to the location of the pyro and the winds.  While visually appealing, we were downwind of all of the smoke and missed out on a few of the viewing opportunities - not much, though.

The airboss did a great job of managing all of the different things going on at once, while keeping the crowd engaged with constant action - bring a scanner when you go to Oshkosh, by the way, and you will be treated to ATC artwork in progress.  After the fighters, the B-25 bombers were brought back in, accompanied by two C-47's and the B-29.

Surprisingly, no B-17 action (in past years, we've seen up to three airborne at once), but there was still plenty of other action of course.  A few quick runs accompanied by pyro (including the wall-of-fire for the B-29) and the bombers and cargo aircraft were recovered to 36 and 9/27.  At this point, the A-10 was brought in for three quick fly-bys - all of which were awesome - before joining up with Steve Hinton (legendary warbird pilot) for the Heritage Flight with the P-38 (Glacier Girl).

They did a fantastic job, but were pulled from the airspace before the standard Heritage Flight solo passes were completed.  No worries, as a really tight missing man formation of T-28's was brought in right thereafter to close out the show.

My dad and I stayed for about an hour and a half after close of the show watching some of the evening activity on Rwy 36.  There seemed to be a pent up demand to leave the airport following the weather from the morning, which was a great treat to us.  In a testament to the environment at Oshkosh, I was on my way back from the facilities when I spotted someone who had sat down right next to my dad (note that there was about 40 yards between us and the nearest people on both sides).  At any other place, this would be pretty awkward, but this guy was awesome.  He was in the process of building his own RV-10, an avid pilot, and had been at the airshow for a full week up to that point.  Awesome, awesome and awesome.  We watched planes for a bit and then he had to leave - because his buddy just landed in his RV-7 to pick him up to fly him back to Burlington, WI - for a flight the next day back home to Colorado from Milwaukee.  A few of the aircraft we saw...

Once he left, we packed it in as well and started the trek home - with a quick stop for dinner - where else then at the Lomira McD's!  Oshkosh, we will see you next year!

Landings, Rolls and Spins

For lesson #3, I was ready to get back in the air and conquer spins, but the low ceiling wasn't going to have it. Therefore, it was an easy audible for Vess and I to keep it local and just beat the pattern up for an hour or so.  This was certainly something I didn't complain about as it gave me an opportunity to start building some good technique / habits in tailwheel operations.

A quick background on tailwheel versus tricycle gear operations... When I tell people about tailwheel aircraft, I usually reference World War II airplanes to give a visual picture (think P-51 Mustang on the ground) - I'm not sure if it helps, but I guess at least I know what I'm talking about.  When you taxi, takeoff, or land a Piper Archer (or similar aircraft with tricycle gear), the plane wants to continue in the direction it is traveling - a good thing, right?  Seems obvious, but to expand, when you land an Archer, your feet are pretty active on the rudder pedals all of the way down to the point of touchdown.  Once all three wheels are on the ground, the frequency of rudder inputs vastly decreases.  The difference with tailwheel aircraft is that assertive rudder inputs are necessary essentially until you have the airplane parked to make sure the tail doesn't try to pass you (the dreaded "ground loop").  Both Vess and Ted did a great job of explaining the physics behind this (generally due to the position of the center of mass of the aircraft in relation to the two main wheels) and I was really uncertain as to how this would play out in real-time. 

My takeoffs and landings during the first two flights were in relatively calm conditions and I was almost spoiled with the ease of keeping the aircraft going straight down the runway.  The low ceilings gave us an opportunity to do work on crosswind skills.  I felt that the crosswind takeoffs and landings worked out really well with Vess just having me focus on keeping the nose straight.  Rather than being mechanical about it, my brain followed where my eyes told it to position the airplane and good ole' brain handled all of the rudder and aileron work.  Before this, I've likely gotten the wind speed/direction from the tower, calculated in my head where the winds were coming from, and 'forced' my crosswind corrections.  Just working on keeping the nose straight over the centerline of the runway makes it a much smoother and more reactive process.  Further, it really helps with what is required in a tailwheel airplane as soon as the wheels meet the pavement.  If you are pointed straight, you don't need big steering corrections as the plane is already heading where it should. 

You might be asking "why would anyone want to fly a tailwheel aircraft if you have to do all of that work all of the way to your parking spot?"  There are structural reasons that continue to support tailwheel aircraft production, but I think pilots would all point to the fun/challenge.  Taxiing, taking-off, and landing a tailwheel aircraft is like a constantly evolving puzzle that forces a pilot to think in all three dimensions, and it never gets boring. 


Lesson #4 had me paired up with Ted again and this time the weather allowed us to get up in the air and back to the aerobatic practice area to the SW of Aurora.  The flight plan called for some rolls and spins - in that order.  To master a roll in a Decathlon, the following are the procedures (after clearing the area):

- Pitch down, pull back the throttle to about 2200 RPM's;

- Once the airplane accelerates to 130 MPH, pull back briskly on the stick until the nose is about 30 degrees above the horizon (full throttle as the nose crosses the horizon);

- Once the 30 degrees pitch is set, stick neutral and then full left (provide rudder as necessary to keep the nose straight - adverse yaw is always lurking!); and

- Once the roll is complete, bring the throttle back and apply back pressure on the stick to bring the nose back up to the horizon.

The aspects of rolling in a Decathlon that I most did not anticipate before starting training were the effects of adverse yaw (full-left stick action resulting in the nose dragging a bit to the right) and the magnitude of pitch-up and pitch-down at the beginning and end of the maneuver, respectively.  The adverse yaw is actively managed throughout the roll by thinking of a bulls-eye way off in the distance and using rudder inputs to keep the prop spinner aimed at that bulls-eye.  On the other hand, the pitch-down tendency of the nose is managed at the beginning and end of the maneuver only - setting up with an initial pitch up attitude and pulling back on the stick to pull the nose up at the end.  It is important to keep the pitch-up recovery held off until wings are level at the end of the roll so as to 1) end the roll pointing at that theoretical bulls-eye I just mentioned and 2) avoid unnecessary/unequal "G" loading on the wings. 

Speaking of "G's", performing this maneuver was my first real exposure to adding some "G's" to our flight profile.  It was awesome!  The first time we went through a roll, the "G's" sort of creeped-up unexpectedly.  I was a bit hesitant initially to add the necessary level of back pressure as briskly as I should have to pitch-up because my brain was reacting to the feeling of getting pushed down into my seat for the first time. After that, everything seemed to settle in and become much more natural.  There is nothing like that feeling when you are inverted and looking down at the sky!

Overall, the rolls went really well and after demonstrating proficiency all of the way through a handful of maneuvers, I was ready to shift that confidence back into conquering spins before calling it a day.  Spin recovery #1 had a lot of the same characteristics I mentioned in my previous post (although I was somewhat better).  To help convert my mechanical recovery inputs to fluid inputs, Ted had me recover from a normal power-off stall with a particular focus on using as little stick-forward / stick-back movement as necessary.  It was like something finally clicked at this point and I just settled down. After this, I did a one-turn spin recovery before heading back and 1) it felt slower because I knew what to expect at each point in the rotation and 2) my control inputs were not as jerky and the airplane responded with a smooth exit.   Victory!  Great way to end the day - check in later for loops!