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Red Bull air Races in Detroit – Saturday – Part 1

May 31, 2008 by Leave a Comment

This is a regular blog post. If you’re looking for show notes or audio, please check out the other posts.

We’re at the Red Bull Air Races on the Detroit River! Windy as hell with a constant breeze of about 25 knots coming more or less directly out of the south. I understand that this is pretty much directly opposite where they were for the practice runs yesterday, so all of the racers are paying a lot of attention to how that’s going to change matters.

We have a lot of riverfront upon which to do this, so this is the longest course (3.8 miles from end to end) in the four years of the Red Bull series. And the wind today is just about directly aligned with the long axis of the course, so that’ll have a big effect, depending on the relevant maneuvers.

Rod Rakic is here for the weekend and is helping out with coverage. Rod grew up in the Detroit area and did his primary pilot training at Detroit City (Coleman A. Young) Airport (KDET). He also spent a summer as an office manager at a flight school there. He’s visiting from Chicago and is going to be a key part of the Airspeed team for this event. We’re going to try to hangar-fly a little tomorrow and get an episode up from the media center on site.

The setup on the race course is pretty cool. Red Bull has brought along two of its own control towers (yeah, they brought their own control towers!). Here’s the one that’s down on the waterfront with the landmark Renaissance Center.

The High Flyers’ Club is just on the other side of the tower. As with any event like this, I like to go around seeing where my media pass will get me in. I can say with some certainty that, although it has gotten me many places, it has not gotten me into (or even near) the High Flyers’ Club. But I can hardly whine. Red Bull has provided free valet parking, lots of other access, a spectacular media center on the waterfront (and another really nice one at the airport) and, naturally, all the Red Bull I can drink. I am so wired right now I can barely stand it. And I’ve only just begun.

The sound system on the waterfront is pretty good, too. Check out this unnamed media member who was overpowered by a little James Brown during the Canadian Harvards performance prior to the racing.

A couple of cans of Red Bull with the other cylindrical icons of the event in the background. A first class event in all respects so far. More posts soon!

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DC-3 Type Rating Complete – The Audio Episode

May 30, 2008 by Leave a Comment

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Hey, I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to get back with you guys. I think I left you hanging after Day 1 of training.

It turns out that flying all day, having dinner with your instructor and classmates, whipping out the mandolin and sitting in with the ad hoc DC-3 band until the bar closes doesn’t leave you with enough energy to record a decent podcast episode.

I posted a couple of items on the website at www.airspeedonline.com to keep folks updated, but not everyone goes to the website. So I thought I’d record a quick update to let you know how it went.

After 2.8 hours in the left seat over four flights, 14 takeoffs, 13 landings, two full startups and taxis, and one full-stop landing and taxi in this massive, taildragging icon, I can proudly say that I hold a second-in-command type rating in the Douglas DC-3.

It’s a gorgeous airplane and I still fly her in my sleep. I’ll get into this a little later in what I hope will be a cogent and mildly inspiring full-summary episode in a couple of weeks, but imagine a magical three-day period. You meet three other classmates and find that, as you expected, they’re pilots through-and-through and “get it” on every level. Add Dan Gryder, an instructor who’s an airline pilot probably on his way to or from Dubai as I record this, but whose clear passion is the DC-3 and – more importantly – sharing that passion with others. For fun, have author, pilot, and sometime Uncontrolled Airspace hangar denizen James Wynbrandt show up and cover the class and even get a couple of trips around the patch at the controls. And have Julie Boatman, formerly of AOPA and now of Cessna, show up. Fly a 1938 DC-3 around the countryside and notice that cars are pulling off the road at the approach end of the runway to watch you land. Finish the day at the bar where Dan, James, Julie and I walk in with assorted musical instruments and other implements of destruction and play whatever comes to mind until our fingers are sore.

I spent last weekend in a pilot’s dream. If there’s a more perfect set of friends, circumstances, and aircraft, I have yet to think of it, much less experience it.

So I’ll leave you with this, my last landing in the DC-3. And the obligatory V1 cut on takeoff.

Thanks to Dan, Tom, Roland, Gerrit, James, and Julie for being part of such a great three days. You can see more commentary and pictures at the website at www.airspeedonline.com. I’m heading for the Red Bull Air Races tomorrow in Detroit with Rod Rakic and we’ll probably be posting some content fairly soon, so, if you go to the website, make sure that you scroll down so you can see the DC-3 features. I’ll also make a summary blog entry with links to all of the DC-3 show audio so that you’ll have one-stop shopping for all of the DC-3 material.

And, if you have other questions, you can reach me at steve@airspeedonline.com.

We’ll go out on my last landing and takeoff in the ‘three and look for the summary episode in a few weeks right here on Airspeed!

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New Temporary Airman Certificate

May 27, 2008 by 1 Comment

Yeah, baby!

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DC-3 Type Rating – Type Rating Complete!

May 26, 2008 by Leave a Comment


This is a regular blog post. For audio and show notes, please check out the other entries.

Sorry to leave you hanging on the podcast feed. For reasons explained below, I was just too tired to do a competent post and I needed to get some rest in order to complete the training on Sunday.

In any case, I finished the training and I’m type-rated (second in command) in the Douglas DC-3. Roland and Gerrit also completed their ratings and Tom was on track for his recurrent checkride for Tuesday.

And James got a low pass and a landing in the aircraft, so I’m sure that he’s going to have great material for his story.

(Pictured above: Dan, me, Tom, Gerrit, Ronald, and James.)

I’ll try to put out another episode covering the third day of training here soon and then another, more complete episode covering all of the training from beginning to end.

 

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DC-3 Type Rating – Day 2

May 25, 2008 by 1 Comment

This is a regular blog post. Please check out the other posts for show notes or links to audio.

Still in Griffin training on the Herpa DC-3. I initially set out to post a new episode daily, but discretion is the better part of valor in this case.

We closed the restaurant around midnight after having a few steaks and taking over the side room, where Dan, Julie Boatman Filucci, and James Wyndbrandt played guitar and banjo for the assembled group. I sat in on mandolin on a few tunes and took over on guitar for a few tunes. And sang. (Hope they let me back in the airplane!)

I don’t think I have it in my to go another day at full throttle for training if I don’t hit the sack now, so I’m just going to do a blog post and call it a night.

I was first in the left seat this morning. Got a normal touch and go, two high-speed passes, and two V1 cuts. Completely blew the V1 cuts and need to go over those tomorrow morning in order to improve. I think I’m in for one more stint at the controls, so I need to make it good.

Roland followed me in the left seat and I ran around the back of the aircraft shooting pictures and enjoying myself. There are only three headset jacks in back and they were all taken, so I just decided to have some fun before rotating back into the queue.

A few landings later, Tom (standing in the back of the aisle) got my attention and said that we had some hydraulic issues and that we were returning to Griffin. We had gone over the hydraulic systems in depth in the morning in ground training, so I wasn’t at all worried. The gear was down and our only worry was apparently brakes. But we belted in anyway for the landing.

Dan pumped up the system on final and we landed her at Griffin to check out the hydraulics. That took a couple of hours and a visit from the A&P, but we got the aircraft squared aware by dusk and Roland and Dan took her up to test fly it.

Dan had said that Plane and Pilot was going to be covering the training, but it turns out that the person doing the story is none other than James Wynbrant, a sometime denizen of the Uncontrolled Airspace podcast. Just after we shut down the aircraft and set about working on the hydraulics, I got James to head up to the cockpit for a picture of him in the left seat.


Here’s a shot of Roland in the right seat taxiing in after the test flight.

More in a couple of days, folks!

 

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