Frame Grabs from the Remos GX Demo


This is a regular blog post. Show notes and links to show audio appear in the other entries.

I’m still unpacking and sorting the audio and video that I captures at AirVenture Oshkosh last week. An amazing amount of content in a week!

In addition to the Cessna Citation Mustang flight, I got my first flight in a light sport aircraft (“LSA”), namely the Remos GX. As with other experiences at Oshkosh, I’m going to be awhile in putting together the episodes so that I can devote reasonable attention to them. But I wanted to get some frame grabs up to when your appetite.


Here’s the departure from KOSH. Here’s the one drawback to using the 0.3 semi-fisheye lens. You can’t really pick out the six or so other aircraft visible through the windshield. We took off in the hairball that is the usual departure scheme for KOSH during AirVenture. It should be more obvious in the video episode, where movement will show you the other aircraft.


Steep turns over some farmland about eight miles north of KOSH.


The approach back in to KOSH. Eyeballs outside and bracketing airspeed aggressively.


Just prior to touchdown. We asked for the orange dot and got it. Then left a little tire rubber right on top of it. Great control on the landing.

More to come on this one. My particular demo pilot didn’t seem too interested in letting me fly the aircraft. I flew a little enroute and then did some steep turns. After that, I said, “okay, let’s slow her up.”

At which point the demo pilot said “my airplane” and proceeded to deftly demonstrate slow flight and a gorgeous stall all the way into a falling leaf. Being that the demo pilot’s briefing stated that the flight controls his with no quibbling whenever he asked for them or took them, I took it to mean that demo riders wouldn’t be allowed to stall the airplane. A little disappointing, so I told him that I was done and that we could head back.

After talking to some of the other demo riders, I found out that others got to fly the stalls and other maneuvers, so it apparently wasn’t policy. And it could simply have been a miscommunication with the demo pilot. In any case, I’m going to invite a couple of the other demo riders onto the audio episode so that you guys get a full first-hand account of what it’s like to fly the aircraft through a little more of the envelope than I did.

Stay subscribed! Cool stuff coming!

Meet FOD


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

So Cole Force got himself a callsign this week at Oshkosh. It’s “FOD.” The acronym for foreign object debris or foreign object damage. The kind of small stuff that you don’t want to get sucked into your turbofan. Cole is the smallest of the aviation new media crew. And he tends to create a fair amount of FOD, whether in the form of gum wrappers, bits of balsa wood, etc.

Anyway, congratulations, FOD, on your new callsign!

Frame Grabs from the Cessna Citation Mustang Flight

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

Still out in the campground at Oshkosh, but wanted to get a post up with some frame grabs from the Cessna Citation mustang flight. Certainly more to some on this, but I couldn’t help but post a few of the more interesting frame grabs.

This one is on takeoff just after rotation. Geat coming up and climbing out.

Hand-flying the aircraft to altitude.


In one of the steep turns. David Allen kept the camera level using the horizon and/or the PFD to give a sense of the bank angle.

About to land. 110 KIAS and the airspeed tape is just stinking frozen. Painted on!

Cole in the back seat upon hearing the gear horn for the first time.

More to come! This was a spectacular ride and the audio, video, and notes are tucked away and ready for editing.

Remos GX Demo at Oshkosh


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

I went up for a demo flight in the Remos GX, a light sport aircraft (“LSA”) from Remos Aircraft. We launched from KOSH during a VFR arrival and departure window so, in addition to it being my first LSA flight, it was during a really busy time in the busiest airspace in the world.

Got to fly some of the en route and some steep turns. It was very responsive and climbed well (better than the 172s in the parallel runway and we launched past them handily).

I should have some better-developed thoughts about the flight soon. I’d like to get over to Hillsdale and fly a Flight Design aircraft before putting out the full episode because I need some perspective in the LSA category. And it’s been a week of extremes with the Cessna Citation Mustang at one end and the Remos GX on the other end.


Cole waited patiently during the ride and I put him in the aircraft afterward for a picture or two. It’d be cool to take him up in one of these. Bet we’d have no problem with climb rate with only 260 pounds of Forces in the aircraft!

Got to get the boy to bed. Seaplane base tomorrow if I can get up early enough.

Podapalooza Goes Off Without a Hitch

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

Podapalooza 2009! It went over well and everyone had a pretty good time. It’s getting big in terms of the number of podcasters and shows represented, but it’s not unwieldy yet.

Here, Bill Williams, Kent Shook, and Rob Mark set mic levels and prep for the show. I took along my usual assemblage of cables and adapters and we patched together a good sound rig in something line 30 minutes. David Allen, who’s volunteering with EAA Radio this week, coordinated the broadcast with the studio and it sounds like it went off seamlessly.

A view of the stage and the gathering crowd as we set up.


Here’s the audience on the right-hand side just before we went live. A good gathering. Everyone there listens to at least two or three of the shows, which makes for a dedicated and attendant crowd. It’s odd how many times someone walks right past you until he or she hears your voice. At which point he or she whips around and introduces him- or herself as a listener. We truly are the voices in peoples’ heads, I guess.

Keep an eye on the Airspeed feed. Each show will release its version of the show at or after a specified time. I run the entire thing on the Airspeed feed, so be sure to tune in to hear the entire program.

We chowed down at Mario’s afterward and returned to the campground to crash. Seaplane base tomorrow if the weather’s decent!