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Dave Allen Visits, Approaches, and I’m Good to Go at Flight 101

September 11, 2008 by Leave a Comment


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

David Allen from The Pilot’s Flight Podlog was in town on business on Tuesday, so we got together at Panera Bread for dinner and to shoot the bull. Ella joined us. Good time!


I flew with Andy Mawdsley of Flight 101 at KPTK to get checked out to fly the Cessnas there. Something line 2.2 in N9926Q hours getting familiar with the aircraft and the avionics. Most or all of the Flight 101 C-172s are equipped with Garmin 430s and the panels are a little different from what I’ve flown in the past, so I wanted to get familiar with the aircraft in addition to getting checked out to rent Flight 101’s aircraft. I had not flown an instrument approach in a C-172 since February 20 and had not flown any instrument approach at all since the multi rating on April 20 or so. I was really pleased that I ended up really flying them well. For the most part, needle departures of 1/2 deflection or less with most of the time being within two dots.

VOR-A Lapeer (D95) with the published miss and hold at MIXER, RNAV 18 KFNT, 2 x ILS 9 KFNT, VOR 9R KPTK, and ILS 9R KPTK. And that’s my six instrument approaches, intercepting and tracking courses, and holding, so I’m instrument current for the next six months!


Andy in the cockpit while being vectored outbound before the ILS 9R at KPTK. It was pretty dark and I didn’t use flash, so it’s a little blurry, but what the heck. Andy (Dr. Mawdsley!) is a pleasant guy with whom to fly. Rode me appropriately for the more prominent altitude or directional deviations and was really helpful in explaining the Garmin.

We had intermittent radio problems at KFNT and ended up switching to COM 2 after COM 1 failed during the final phases of the second the ILR 9. No biggie.


A shot of the sunset while being vectored outbound for the ILS 9R at KPTK. Not a bad shot for a guy under the hood and just holding the camera above the dash.


A shot of the flight line bracing the camera on the fence. Airports are so pretty at night! The parking lot light gives you just enough light to be able to see the aircraft and the lights from the other side of the airport are gorgeous. Nothing else looks like an airport at night.

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1.4 Aerobatics and Tailwheel and Taxiing the Kids

September 7, 2008 by 2 Comments


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These are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen online right here by clicking: http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedCitabria1.mp3.

(Lead photo by Nicholas (“Cole”) Tupper.)

Got up in the Citabria yesterday for a training flight. 1.4 hours of mostly aerobatics and landings. The plan was to go out, review the maneuvers that I’ve been working on up until now, and then do some spins, sort of as a killproofing exercise.

The aerobatics worked out well. Wingovers, loops, rolls, and hammerheads. Last time, I was at the point where the loop was mine. I flew them more or less without coaching (at least after a little review and coaching on the first one or two). This time, I added the hammerhead to that category. I’m getting good vertical uplines and downlines and handling them with good energy management (e.g. I get a good amount of time in some of the more dramatic accelerative phases while still recovering in plenty of time to keep the airspeed well within the design tolerances of the aircraft). I’m really pretty proud of that.

Same with the rolls. A roll in the Citabria involves picking up energy with a dive to about 120 MPH IAS, leveling out briefly, and then burying the ailerons left. You roll 360 degrees, pulling power smoothly throughout, and then you end up wings-level on a 45-degree downline (which you maintain for awhile), and then you recover. You lose a lot of altitude (500 feet or so) pretty quickly, which was news to me when we started, but it’s actually a very elegant move. You get and then give energy in an elegant, disciplined, precise, and measured way.

Inversion tends to bother me, even when I’m on the controls, and, by the time we got to the spin part, I was pretty green.

Barry gave me a pretty good lecture and demonstration of what secondary stalls can look like in likely scenarios. Still technically under control, but oscillating toward departure from controlled flight. We did one sustained falling-leaf stall, broke it, and pulled way-nose-high into a secondary stall, which, in turn, broke more savagely and dropped a wing hard. I’m sure that the third iteration would have been even more violent and that was the point of the exercise.

Barry’s teaching is really well-structured in that he always starts out with the reason that he’s teaching what he’s teaching and, if possible, a demonstration of how the maneuver applies in actual situations.

Just when we were ready in the training sequence for the actual spins, my tummy informed me that it had had enough. Discretion is the better part of valor, even though I had a Sic-Sack in my pocket and ready to go. I’ll get the spins in later this fall.

We headed back to the airport and got in four or five three-point landings. I was really pleased with the landings this time. I think I’m finally getting over one of the bad habits that plagues tricycle-gear pilots transitioning to tailwheel. I’ve been relaxing the back pressure on the stick after touchdown in much the way a tricycle-gear pilot would do to lower the nosewheel. In a tailwheel, you want to get the tailwheel down and keep it down. It both keeps the tail from oscillating and gets the steerable tailwheel down on the ground where it’s effective. Although I ballooned the last flare pretty badly, the landing worked out well and all of the landings had much more of a feel of positive control than I had experienced before. Very nice! I think I’m getting it. I realize that wheel landings will be another matter entirely, but I’ll revel in such success as I’ve had so far.


I took Cole and Ella out to see the Citabria earlier in the day. I don’t think I’ve ever had then in a taildragger before and they really seemed to like the tandem seating. Cole is really beginning to understand how the flight controls work. I can tell because, when he moves the controls, he looks right at the relevant control surface without casting about. You can see in this picture that he’s pulling and looking back at the elevator.


Ella, starting out in the back seat, expressed a little consternation about the stick moving around, apparently unbidden, as Cole worked the controls in front. She happily rotated up front and really seemed to enjoy seeing the different cockpit configuration.


And here’s the coolest part of the day. The Citabria is owned by one of the instructors at Sutton Aviation and he leases it back to the school. He happened to be walking out on the ramp with a student and noticed me taking pictures of the kids in the Citabria. He knows that I’ve been training with Barry and I had ducked in when I arrived to make sure that it was okay to show the kids the aircraft. He also knows that I have a tailwheel endorsement from the DC-3 training, but that I’m conservative enough to come back for more training from Barry in the Citabria in order to really learn the ins and outs of conventional-gear aircraft.

“Hey, why don’t you start it up and taxi the kids around the ramp a bit? I’ll bet they’d love that.” They’d love that? I’d love that!

My wife is wonderful and has been very tolerant of my flight training. Especially considering at least one event involving an instructor during my primary training. Even when I started taking aerobatic training, she didn’t object and she listened objectively when I explained the additional margin of safety that upset recovery and related training adds to regular GA flying. Heck, I had had thought long and hard myself about it before talking about it with her.

She’s not nuts about the idea of me flying the kids just yet. She approved getting up for a helicopter flight at Oshkosh and also said that it’d be okay to take Cole along if a spot had opened up in the back of the Herpa DC-3 (although she asked a lot of questions about Dan Gryder, all of which were easy to answer). But she’s still getting comfortable with the idea of me flying Cole or Ella.

In the meantime, I honor her feelings. I take the kids to the airport regularly and we ramp-fly whatever’s on the line, but they’ve never been in a GA aircraft with the prop turning.

That’s why this was such a cool opportunity. You normally wouldn’t go through the trouble of starting up an airplane and taxiing it around if you weren’t going to fly it. It had not even occurred to me to do it. But now we had a quiet ramp in a sleepy little corner of the airport. Plenty of room to taxi around and a gorgeous little taildragger in which to do it.

He didn’t have to offer twice. “Okay, guys, get in here and let’s taxi the airplane around a little.”

Cole started jumping up and down, saying “this is so cool!”

I got them in the back seat, buckled everybody in, ran through the startup checklist, and hit the starter button. The prop turned through about 20 blades and then the engine fired to life.

I looked over my shoulder and they were both smiling from ear to ear. Any worry that either of them would be scared by the noise or uncomfortable in the airplane melted away. All of that time pressed up against the fence in the front row at airshows over the last three or four years had paid off.

I ran all of the pre-taxi checks and then eased the throttle forward. Inertia gave way and we taxied happily around the ramp. I took it slow, but delighted both them and me by adding a little throttle and inside brake to swing the tailwheel around at each turn. Then we taxied back to the starting point and whirled the tail around in a tight 180 before shutting down.

“That was the coolest two minutes of my life!” shouted Cole. And it was a pretty cool two minutes of mine, too.


I’ll get the kids up sometime. There’s no hurry, really. It’ll happen when it happens. And it’ll happen after continued demonstration of my competence, skill, and judgment as a pilot when Mary’s comfortable with the idea. But, in the meantime, it’s a really good feeling to know that the kids are excited about it and it’ll be a big thing for them when it happens.

This is how it happens, folks. This is the magic of general aviation. The smell of 100LL, the sound of an engine, and the spark of imaginations on fire. Take your kids to the airport! I’ll see you there.

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Thunderbird Groove Progresses

September 4, 2008 by Leave a Comment


This is a regular blog post. Please check out the other entries if you’re looking for show notes or show audio.

Scott Cannizzaro tweeted a little while ago to show me how the mixing session for Thunderbird Groove is going. I am so jealous of his setup (not to mention his mad skills)! Somehow, my Audacity sessions just don’t look as cool after seeing this.

I need to get a Mac or something similar onto which I can hang more audio and video editing functionality. And really play with the stuff to figure out what else I can do. This just looks so fun. Will I ever have the kind oar that Scott has? I doubt it. And that’s probably 80% of what goes into coming up with a really great mix.

I FedExed the remaining tracks to Scott for arrival today (the studio at which I did the principal recording mixed the electric guitar and bass in the same .wav file, making it less than useful for mixing). Not sure that they’ll actually be necessary because the mix that Scott sent over the weekend is pretty cool. Although I might be saying that because I’ve been listening to little else since then.

Having the music available has really gotten the juices flowing on the writing end. I’m busy as hell at work and home and it’s really hard to stay focused when I have nearly all of the makings of the best Airspeed episode ever just sitting there ready to be sewn together.

Thanks again to Scott!

Stay tuned! I’ll probably release the first video episode f the podcast shortly. It’ll be the in-cockpit video from the Thunderbirds ride along with music and footage end editing stylings of Will Hawkins of Wilco Films.

Contact info for Scott:

Scott Cannizzaro
c/o Soundtrack
936 Broadway
New York, NY 10010
212 420 6010
www.nycmixer.com

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Capt Force Passes CAP Form 5 Ride and Thunderbird Groove Takes Shape!

August 31, 2008 by 1 Comment


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

I took and passed the checkride to fly Civil Air Patrol aircraft yesterday. 1.4 hours in a C-172P with Michigan Wing check pilot Tim Kramer.


There’s a lot of prep that goes into this ride. It requires familiarity with CAPR 60-1, which is the CAP bible of flight operations. You have to take and pass an online exam on 60-1 and also prepare an aircraft questionnaire for the aircraft to be flown, in addition to all of the usual stuff that you might expect to have to pass for an FAA checkride. Here’s my flight bag on the way to Willow Run Airport (KYIP). Stuffed to overflowing with the paperwork, a POH for the aircraft, a FAR/AIM, my kneeboard, my headset, and, of course, the MP# recorder. I captured audio of the whole thing for use on a future episode.

I really enjoyed heading back to Willow Run. I trained a lot there, including launching my first solo from Runway 5L. It’s nice to be familiar with a place when you’re flying to standards and don’t otherwise know what to expect.

We launched northbound to stay away from the TFR for the University of Michigan game. Once at 5,5000 and in cruise configuration, Tim had me lower the hood and fly attitude at 55 KIAS while maintaining altitude and making turns to headings. A little difficulty with altitude and airspeed coordination, but I had never flown that aircraft before and I’m not sure that I’ve ever flown a 172P before (most of my 172 time is in 172Rs).

The unusual attitudes. Nailed the nose-high. Not so much the nose-low. I have a bad habit of looking at the attitude indicator instead of the airspeed indicator first. When I looked up the second time, the attitude indicator was covered and the airspeed indicator was well into the yellow. I made the mistake of pulling first instead of immediately reducing power. Teachable moment.

Some more maneuvering and then Tim failed my engine. I ran the memory items and started heading for a field. I had discussed my unfamiliarity with the Apollo GX55 GPS (I’m most familiar with the Bendix/King KLN94 and learning the Garmin 430) in the aircraft and had decided to fly the procedures as though I had no GPS. Tim gave me a quick lesson on how to work the NRST function and we glided over to Oakland Southwest (New Hudson) (Y47). Still plenty of altitude and I picked up a pretty worthwhile technique from Tim on setting up for a deadstick landing. Tim likes to fly a figure eight perpendicular to the runway with the center of the figure-eight just short of the numbers. That way, you’re never that far from the runway itself and you simply make the decision about whether to land as you come around each time. Some hard slipping, and we put her down on Runway 25.

A short field takeoff from New Hudson and then the usual battery of landings back at Willow Run. 1.4 hours and four takeoffs and landings.


The logbook page continues to grow. I’m happy about this entry because it gets a C-172 on the page (without which the page wouldn’t have any element of what I usually fly) and because it’s another demonstration of competence, particularly competence as measured by the standards of CAP, for which I have great respect. I get a certain respect at squadron meetings for being the asst. wing legal officer and for having flown the DC-3 and gotten the Thunderbirds ride, but it was very nice to have this opportunity to demonstrate that I’m more than just a stuffed shirt and can fly to standards.

At least the VFR standards. It was enough to fly an unfamiliar airplane for the first time and enough to fly a C-172 for the first time since February (not counting the time in the 172RG at Flight 101), so I’m only checked out for VFR. But that qualifies me to fly mission transport, so I’m actually somewhat useful. And I can go get Norm or someone else who’s also Form 5 current and go shoot approaches or fly cross-country for currency in CAP aircraft.

Next up will likely be the mighty G1000 C-182, which I’ll probably do both VFR and IFR. Ultimately, I’d like to be qualified VFR and IFR in both the 172 and 182 as the medium-term goal. Then maybe train for mission pilot.


In other news, I got an e-mail from ace New York City sound guy Scott Cannizzaro with a link to the initial mix of the Thunderbird Groove (the music bed for the Thunderbirds ride summary episode). I seem to remember in the liner notes to John Mayer’s Continuum album that John thanked an engineer, saying something to the effect of “and thanks to Bob, who knows how we really sound.” Scott is very much that guy for me. From a rather skinny basic collection of tracks, he has augmented them beautifully with keyboards, lead guitar, and other very cool stuff. He’s not done yet, but what I’m hearing so far is really great. I’m going to have to work really hard on the script for the episode if it’s going to be worthy of the music.

Working title for the episode: Sometimes Alternates Fly. It’s still gestating, but parts will probably become fixed in a tangible medium before the holiday weekend is out. Really excited about how it’s coming together.

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Flight in the EAA Ford TriMotor – Audio Episode

August 22, 2008 by Leave a Comment


Subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your favorite other podcatcher. It’s all free!

These are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen online right here by clicking: http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedTrimotor.mp3.

I was all excited about Red Bull weekend here in southeast Michigan for a number of reasons, not the least of which was – well – Red Bull. But the EAA’s Ford TriMotor was also going to be at Detroit City Airport (KDET). I asked around and found that the only way to record intercom audio was to be in the right seat. That’s fine with me, because the right seat is only $100, as opposed to the EAA member rate of $40 for a ride in the back.

And being in the right seat might mean an opportunity to touch the controls. And log it!

Then, if what I’ve heard is true, management at Detroit City got completely squirrely and refused to accommodate the TriMotor. I’m by no means wired into the politics of the situation, but everything I’ve heard suggests that there was plenty of ramp area, sufficient facilities for loading and unloading, and everything else, but management flatly refused to accommodate the TriMotor. Who in Detroit refuses to accommodate the iconic Ford TriMotor. Ford! Detroit! Hey, I’ll put a retraction in the blog if it turns out that I’m wrong about the facts, but that qualifies in my book as a disgrace!

Can you tell that I was bummed? Anyway, the EAA refunded my $100 and I didn’t think about if for a few months.

Then I heard on the radio and read on the EAA website that the TriMotor was going to be at Jack Barstow Airport in Midland, about a 90-mile drive from my house. The wheels started turning and I ended up standing on the ramp at Midland with a right-seat ticket in my hand on a gorgeous August afternoon.


The Ford TriMotor (or “Tin Goose” if you like) debuted in 1926 and 199 were produced between then and 1933. It’s a boxy-looking high-wing taildragger that’s about 50 feet long, 77 feet wingtip to wingtip, carries up to eight passengers, weights about 7,800 pounds empty, and has a max gross of around 13,500.

It’ll do 150 mph max, it cruises at about 90 mph, and stalls at about 64 mph.


The EAA’s TriMotor, NC8407, a model 4-AT-E, rolled off the line in 1929 – the 146th TriMotor. It spent its early live in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. It returned to the US in 1949, where it barnstormed for awhile before being converted to service as a crop duster in 1950. It has three Pratt and Whitney engines that replaced the original Wright Cyclones during the refit. It later gave service as a water bomber and smoke jumper in Idaho. After again flying enthusiasts from 1964 to 1973, the aircraft was severely damaged by high winds at the EAA fly-in. The EAA purchased the wreckage and, after a 12-year restoration, returned it to service flying enthusiasts like me on flights much like the one that’s featured in today’s episode.

The EAA volunteers were hot-loading it with passengers when I arrived a couple of flights early. I stood on the ramp and watched the aircraft taxi in and out and take off and land while taking pictures for the blog.

After a briefing about the history of the aircraft in the briefing area, we trooped out the plane. I was first in and immediately headed for the cockpit to hook up the audio recorder.


The pilot is Cody Welch. Cody runs Cody F. Welch & Associates and has spent 37 years providing aircraft sales and acquisition services to the general aviation and corporate owners market in Michigan. He lives at the Linden Price Airport and is co-developing Horizon Lakes Airpark as a live-with-your-airplane community. He’s also founder and president of Wings of Mercy East Michigan. He has lots of time in the TriMotor, as you’ll hear in the cockpit audio.

Shortly after I was situated and they settled in in back, we taxied out and prepared for takeoff. The TriMotor gets the ail off the ground within about 200 feet and it’s airborne in about 500 feet. We have a brief discussion about where he does or doesn’t want my feet, and then we’re on our way. It’s really noisy in the cockpit, so there isn’t a lot of discussion during the actual takeoff.

[TM 01]

I note that the TriMotor has three throttles right next to each other. All of the props are fixed-pitch, so operation is pretty standard. Cody sets the altimeter to zero on the ground and we shoot for a cruise altitude of 1,000 feet above that.

[TM 02]

Now the ride would be cool enough if all I got to do was sit there in the right seat. I had heard that the pilot sometimes gave the right-seater the controls on downwind and I was actually looking for any opportunity to touch the control wheel or otherwise do something loggable. I got my wish and then some at Cody gave me a couple of words of advice and then handed me the controls. How cool is that?

[TM 03]

It was a gorgeous day. Blue skies with just a few scattered clouds well above 10,000 feet. There was a little convection, but not an unmanageable amount.

Cody went around on the first landing that I saw when I arrived at the field. It turns out that I witnessed a fairly rare event.

[TM 05]

We headed north for awhile and then bent back toward the airport. Cody has me set it up for a downwind.

[TM 06]

Cody takes the plane just before we make the downwind turn. I ask if I can make the calls the rest of the way in so I have some audio to use on the show. He seems to get a kick out of it and there’s more conversation on the way in. I’ll just let the rest of the flight audio run for downwind, base, final, and the rollout.

[TM 06]

No go-around this time. We taxi to the gas pumps and Cody goes to fuel the aircraft. I take a few pictures and then head to the car, ready for a series of conference calls on the mobile phone. But an afternoon’s hooky well-executed by any measure.


(Photo courtesy of Roger Halstead – www.rogerhalstead.com. Used with permission.)

I’m very grateful to the EAA, both nationally and Chapter 1093, and to Cody Welch for making the TriMotor available where I could get to it and for making this a really nice flight.

This is a probably the last great quest of this summer. And nearly the end of what has turned out to be a really singular logbook page. As you probably already know, it happened that the four flights in the DC-3 for the type rating made up the first four entries on the page. Then, very unexpectedly, I got the F-16 ride with the Thunderbirds. Finally, I wrap it up with 0.3 hours dual received in the Ford TriMotor. And the rest of the page is sprinkled with Citabria N157AC for additional tailwheel instruction and a lot of aerobatics.

I considered talking about how the page covers a long period of history or covers a really diverse mix of aircraft, but I guess it really comes down to this. The private certificate and the instrument rating have been long-term projects that essentially concentrate on one kind of thing each. And that’s okay. Each require a lot of focus and they’re really worthy in and of themselves.

But this has been the summer of branching out. Of learning some new skills in different kinds of aircraft and under different circumstances. So far in 2008, I’ve had an instrument proficiency check, gotten a multi-engine rating, added complex, high-performance, and tailwheel endorsements, gotten a SIC type rating in a vintage airliner, flown in a fighter jet, and flown my first aerobatics at the controls. If there’s a story in the logbook or otherwise for this summer, it’s branching out and getting idea of the breadth of experience that GA has to offer. And that’s a really cool phase in any pilot’s development.

Plans for the future? Lots more aerobatics in the Citabria. A possible glider episode to be recorded in Ionia. Airplane single-engine sea in a PA-12 up in Traverse City in the spring. Probably recurrent training in Georgia in the Herpa DC-3. And I’ve been invited to attend the C-47 ground school with the Yankee Air Museum in March or April.

Am I going to top the F-16 ride? Probably not. Unless Burt Rutan or Sir Richard Branson call. (Hear me, gentlemen? 248-470-7944!) But there’s more than enough to learn and experience in GA. And I’ll continue doing the best I can to bring it to you.

Stay tuned for the big Thunderbirds summary episode and some of the audio from my aerobatics training. And I’ve been shooting video in the Citabria, so don’t be surprised to see a video episode or two.

I’ve really only scratched the surface, folks. Let’s keep on exploring!

More information about the EAA TriMotor:
http://www.flytheford.com/

More information about Cody Welch:
Cody F. Welch & Associates, Inc.
15057 Lindbergh Ct
Linden, Michigan 48451
Office: 800-982-7207
Mobile: 586-946-5381
codywelch@charter.net
http://www.codywelch.com/

More information about Wings of Mercy East Michigan:
http://www.wingseastmi.org/

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