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Airspeed Alfresco – Gotta Write!

October 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.

Writing a lot today. Set up on the patio for now and will likely head for the office this afternoon late to get a bunch of work done. Mostly the Thunderbirds summary episode, tentatively titled “Sometimes Alternates Fly.”


I also need to edit down and post the episode I recorded with Will and Rico of Wilco Films about A Pilot’s Story. Good episode, I think. And Airspeed’s first outright request for funding – For the film. A worthy project that deserves to get made.


Then it’s recording the intro and outro for the David Kneupper interview and grabbing a couple of snippets of the Apollo/Saturn V Center and Star of Destiny music to load in at the right moments.

Got a lot to get over the tipping point this weekend. I was at Starbucks this morning shortly after it opened, cranking away and got most of the way through the cockpit audio itself. I was just writing the part about the nine-gee pull when I had to pack up to take the kids to Panera for breakfast and then to Lowes for a Guild and Grow project. Not I’m back at it. Would really love to record the narration this weekend! It’s possible! Got to knuckle down and get it out!

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My Favorite Portrait

October 6, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Got the above portrait of myself from Cole the other day. Too cool!

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Kids and the Sciences – Sometimes You Take Them to the Zoo

October 5, 2008 by Leave a Comment


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

Took the kids to the zoo today. Before you cock your head and say “hey, what does this have to do with aviation,” understand that it’s all about getting the kids fired up about science. Any kind of science. Hey, I prefer aerodynamics, but it remains that the scientific method and process applies universally. You need to expose the kids to as many different manifestations of it as you can.

So we headed to the Detroit Zoo. Cole and Ella, of course. And my sister and Scott and their son, Alex (born a year to the day after Cole).

The Detroit Zoo is a wonder. Maybe it was just the weather (60s and sunny), but the whole place seemed cool and clean and really fun to be around. I wish they had WiFi there. I could really see taking the laptop and a couple of cigars and finding a big 1930s-style stone park bench and camping out there all afternoon.

By far the coolest was the polar bear exhibit in the Arctic Circle of Life installation. I really love the underwater tunnel. Where else can you see polar bears suspended in the water directly above you?


Or let the kids seals and other fauna up close and personal?

It’s a really cool experience. Yeah, we’re going back to the airport soon enough. And to the Detroit Science Center and the Cranbrook Institute of Science. Get the kids out to meet the natural world! It’ll fire their imaginations and help to immunize them from a lot of the crap pseudo-science and outright lies to which the average American is so susceptible. Accept no substitute for up-close and personal experiences folks!

And besides. They have to fly to a lot of the places where these critters live, right?

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CAPFLIGHT 2028 – The Big Currency Circle

October 4, 2008 by Leave a Comment


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

Got up for 2.9 hours of flying with Capt Norm Malek, the operations officer of the Oakland Composite Squadron of the US Civil Air Patrol (GLR-MI-238 – my home squadron). Norm got his instrument rating a little more than six months ago and had fallen out of currency. So he needed six approaches, interception and tracking, and a hold. And a safety pilot in the right seat.

Hey! I know a good safety pilot! And he’s got a new zoom bag that he needs to break in!


So Norm and I saddled up on Friday to go build some cross-country time. I handled the right-seat duties and Norm shot the approaches. Turned out that I was reasonably useful. I like to print off the approach plates from the FAA’s website and staple them together by airport, then by runway, then by precision. It makes for a clean cockpit.

And I’m pretty good about setting up efficient sequences of approaches. Like shooting the ILS 27 at KFNT and following it with the VOR 18 at KFNT. You don’t have to fly all the way back outbound to get to the start of the approach and it gets you a different approach to a different runway while shooting you out to the south to set you up for a right turn to KLAN.

We did KYIP KFNT KLAN KJXN KYIP with two approaches at each of the first two (including the published miss and hold for the VOR 24 at KLAN) and one each at the other airports. We stopped at Jackson to refuel and to both give to, and receive from, the local water table.

I really enjoyed this flight. First, Norm’s a good friend and it was great to get some time aloft with him. Second, I’ve never been safety pilot for anyone and it was cool to have the experience of just looking around and scanning for traffic without having to think a lot about navigation and other stuff.

Third, and most surprising, it was really cool to watch six instrument approaches on a VFR day. I don’t think I shot any approaches without the hood during my instrument training, which turned out to be a lot like doing one’s rating in Plato’s cave. You rely on the shadows of the gauges for directional information and get to look up briefly at the end, but that’s about it. You really need to shoot a couple of approaches early in your instrument training where you can see what it looks like out the window. How can one really expect to have any situational awareness if one has never actually seen what the approach looks like out the window?

I’m looking forward to getting out and getting a few approaches in before the snow falls. I’m current as of September 10, so I have plenty of time, but it’d be cool to get out and just go shoot a few for the heck of it. And to do so in a cherry, well-maintained CAP C-172R.

Also, I broke in the new zoom bag! I just became flight-qualified for CAP by taking the Form 5 ride in August. And, thereby, received the privilege of wearing the flight suit. Is it wrong for a male human to love a garment this much? It fits nicely. It’s sage green. It has a leather name patch with wings on it. Nice shiny captain’s bars on the shoulders. Command patch, wing patch, and US flag patch. And a morale patch. I think I’ll cut off the pocket flap now, being that I’ve worn it aloft.

Got to love the Civil Air Patrol! Flight suits, wonderful aircraft, and solid colleagues. If you’re not in CAP, you’re missing out!

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The Airspeed Virtual Airshow

September 23, 2008 by 1 Comment

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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/AirspeedVirtualAirshow.mp3.

It’s time for Airspeed. I’m Stephen Force and I’ll be your announcer and air boss for this, the first Airspeed Virtual Airshow.

This is an airshow of the mind. Please fully engage your senses and align them with the auditory content of this broadcast for best results. Please avoid operating motor vehicles or other heavy equipment during the show unless you are certain that no sneak passes will surprise or distract you and you are sure that you are able to resist the temptation to drive at excessive speeds while listening. This means you, Ron.

The temperature is about 72 degrees Farenheit with just enough humidity to permit dramatic condensation clouds around the wing areas of the fighter jets at high angles of attack. We have sunny skies over the field with just a few white puffy cumulous clouds to allow for dramatic photographs. We have arranged for the sun to hold its position behind you and at about 30 degrees above the horizon for the duration of the show to provide for the best possible photographic opportunities during the dedication passes.

Please observe the fact that there are no snow fences between you and the runway. Please feel free to set up you chair anywhere between the parking lot and the runway, but avoid the runway itself unless you really want to get that close-up of the approaching aircraft. No security personnel are on duty today because the show is restricted to dedicated aviation nuts and we know we can count on you to police yourselves. By the way, everyone gets an orange tee shirt with “Security” stenciled on the back. Make sure that you pick up yours at the gate.

Hot dogs are just a buck at every booth and soft drinks are a buck as well with free refills all day long. Tee shirts are just five bucks at every vendor tent.

All of the show aircraft will be on the ramp behind you and available for your up-close inspection. All of the demo teams have agreed to let you into the cockpits of the respective aircraft, provided only that you make airplane noises when you’re in there.

Please keep your cameras and attention near show center at all times. Because this is an airshow of the mind, we’ve eliminated all of that waiting while the aircraft circle around for another pass. This show is all noisy passes for the entire length of the show.

Featured today are the F-16 from the Viper East Demo Team from Thunder Over Michigan at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the F-16s of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds, the F-15 Eagle of the F-15 West Demo Team from the Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival in Battle Creek, Michigan, the F-22 Raptor from the F-22 Raptor Demo Team from EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and others.

At the conclusion of the show, you can amble to your car any time and we’ve arranged for easy exit from the grounds by means of any exit you like and all freeway on-ramps are open and flowing at posted speed limits.

Or stay around for the acoustic jam session at Firebase Airspeed just a few hundred yards away in the campground. Plenty of Leinie’s and other beverages in the big blue cooler near the tent.

And, best of all, you don’t have to leave at all! Just hit the “back” button on your player at any time to start the whole thing over. It’s that easy!

Other aviation media spend a lot of paper or electrons talking about aviation and we here at Airspeed love them for it. But c’mon. When’s the last time one of them put on an airshow just for you? Point made?

Enjoy this Airspeed Virtual Airshow. Brought to you by 100LL, JP-8, Jet-A, soda pop, beer, hot dogs, and frozen deserts sold from pushcarts on taxiways everywhere.

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