You are here: Home / Archives for Steve Tupper

Frame Grabs from the Cessna Citation Mustang Flight

August 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With:

Remos GX Demo at Oshkosh

August 1, 2009 by 2 Comments


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.

Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With: ,

Podapalooza Goes Off Without a Hitch

August 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment

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!

Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With: ,

AirVenture Oshkosh 2009

August 1, 2009 by Leave a Comment


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

We’re here! A little late for that announcement, but it’s true.

Finally got to run around the show grounds today. White Knight II flew a few passes while we were having lunch and both Cole and I dropped our food and started snapping pictures. The sun is in a pretty good position for photography, even though the cloud cover was a little heavy.


And the A380 flew a demo. Really amazing how slowly it appeared to (and did) fly over the show grounds. Airliners really aren’t my thing, but it’s the most notable aircraft at the show this year and I suppose I feel compelled to post a shot of it. Impressive for what it is. But others will cover it better. And they’re not going to let me fly it anyway.


Here’s a first. The big arch is down this year, so Cole and I did the annual picture at the old brown arch. We had just gone to the Warbird Area and were returning to the campsite to grab the deat for Podapalooza.

More as I’m able to get to the keyboard!

Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With:

Capt Force Logs 1.0 Jet Time in the Cessna Citation Mustang

July 30, 2009 by 2 Comments

I don’t have a picture to put on this blog post. Mainly because I was pretty busy while the pictures were being taken and the video shot.

I was at the controls of the Cessna Citation Mustang, a six-seat VLJ. (Yeah!)
Rod Rakic of www.mytransponder.com has done yeoman’s work in coordinating media flight opportunities for new-media folks like me. I got the call while en route from Detroit, dropped my stuff at Camp Scholler, and then headed for Appleton to fly.
Certainly there will be a longer and more in-depth post when I get more time, but the basic flight profile was departure from Outagamie County Regional Airport (KATW), fly north toward Iron Mountain, Michigan, maneuver on the way back, and then land back at KATW.
Those who know me know that I’m an approx. 270-hour private pilot, ASEL, AMEL, ASES, IA and I have a type rating (SIC) in the DC-3. Lots of different experiences, but not a lot of time. Stick and rudder skills that are competent, but hard-won through labor as opposed to native skill.
I was a little taken aback to learn that I was going to do most of the flying, but, then again, I’d heard a lot about the ease of operation of this aircraft.
The Mustang is outfitted with a full Garmin G1000 implementation with a large MFD in the middle of the panel. Each pilot has hisor her own 10″ PFD in front of him. Having just checked out in the CAP C-182T Nav III, the G1000 was fresh in my mind, even though the implementation was a little different in the Mustang.
We loaded in the flight profile and the idea was to hand-fly the aircraft with reference to the flight director.
I did the takeoff. Full power, keep it in the centerline, and wait for Vr to come up on the airspeed tape. Then a little pull and you’re climbing like a bat out of hell. We went initially to 3,ooo. The flight director told me where to put the nose and the wings and the airplane made it easy to do so. I trimmed frequently and she flew with great stability.
I had the opportunity to, for the first time, set the altimeter to 29.92 upon passing FL180. I turned to the folks in back and uttered a “gentlemen, welcome to the Alpha.”
The aircraft flew beautifully in cruise. I engaged the autopilot and had the chance to look out the window a little and survey the panel. A familiar view up there in airline territory when I looked out the side window, but wholly unfamiliar and giddy to look out the front window at that altitude. From the left seat. (Another “Yeah!”)
Then came the maneuvers. We turned back toward KATW and got a block altitude 14,000 to 16,000. Steep turns left, right, and back left at 45 degrees. I wasn’t used to the control forces, so I got a little high and/or low, but held the bank altitude well.
Then came the stalls. It’s really amazing how similar the stalls are in most respects to a C-182. The first one was at cruise power or thereabouts straight ahead. First the gear horn. Then the stall horn as the AOA-indicator-driven donut marched up the tape. With a chest full of yoke and the stall horn going off, things got mushy, then the buffet, then the stall. Very smooth and very predictable.
The only difference was that then, as a conditioned piston-single driver, I firewalled the throttles, the engines too awhile to spool up and give me the power to which I’m accustomed. But pitch alone really seemed to take care of the stall.
Then a power-off stall in a 20-degree right turn. Same thing. Predictable entry and good recovery, but again with me firewalling the throttles.
We did another one straight ahead with the throttles at idle the entire time, recovering with pitch only. That was graceful and gave a positive recovery experience.
The landing was smooth. I’ve recently had the insecurities about landing that any C-172 driver experiences when he transitions to a C-182 (a little more nose-heavy than you’re used to and with a little more momentum and a little more sink rate than you’re used to). So I had a little trepidation about flying an even larger aircraft – and a jet to boot.
I needn’t have worried. I had it at 110 KIAS on short final like the airspeed tape was painted on. Yeah, I did a good job, but the airplane made it easy. Touchdown was just like a C-172 in terms of sight picture (other than being a little higher in the saddle and things moving a little faster) and I greased it on. Lowered the nose to the pavement and turned off. A really positive experience.
The key story here is that a relatively low-time instrument pilot with some multi time who’s handy with the G1000 can fly this airplane reasonably well the first time out. And, with factory training and the right attitude, could easily operate this airplane on a regular basis.
And the ultimate judge of my performance? My seven-year-old son, Cole, was in the back and gave me the thumbs-up at the end. I presented him with his own logbook and entered the flight. Sure, it won’t count toward a rating, but now he has a tangible reminder of the first time dad flew him.
Thanks to Cessna for a great experience on this flight. Can’t wait to edit the video and audio down and get an episode out!
Filed Under: Stephen Force Tagged With: ,