Well, I'm Goose, not Maverick, so that actually doesn't allow me to fly anything, in and of itself. It makes me really really really good at everything other than actually flying the airplane--that sounds dumb to a non-aviator, but the stick & rudder is only one piece of what makes a good aviator.

It's nice to have a 500 knot mind in a 100 knot aircraft, and a bunch of experience in all kinds of situations. It's nice to understand the theory behind aerodynamics and aircraft performance in dynamic situations--a lot of private pilots don't really have any exposure to that. My actual stick & rudder skills--the hand/eye/"seat of the pants" coordination, fine-motor skill stuff--are what they are, though...that of a plain old civilian pilot with 55 flight hours, haha. I'll even say that they're at the very top of the heap of civilian pilots with 55 hours (and only about 5 of it in the last 5 years), but that isn't saying much at all.

Something like a Cub presents stick and rudder challenges that a tactical jet just doesn't. It gets bounced around by the wind, it actually needs rudder to turn (to say nothing of taking off and landing), it has left-turning characteristics due to the propeller (you can jam the throttle on and off with a jet, and it has no effect on yaw), and the taildragger thing is a little more challenging and a new skill set. A tactical jet goes where it's pointed and does what it's told as long as you keep some speed on it (old, non-fly-by-wire stuff like an EA-6 will snap out of a turn if you really pull like hell or don't have enough speed--I don't think a Cub would ever do that unless you were severely deficient in your abilities to control it). You can "land" a Prowler at a maximum of 1300 fpm of descent rate, hahahaha (i.e., fly it into the ground at ~150 knots, no flare). In a light civil airplane, we would refer to that as a "crash".

The challenges are just different. The taildragger gear wasn't too tough even on my first flight in it on a calm day. I went out in it again yesterday, though, and bounced way more landings than I stuck due to strong, gusty crosswinds (2 other instructors at the flight school couldn't believe we even went flying; I was actually glad to see marginal conditions, because that's the only way to learn to fly in them). I also have a problem adjusting to the smaller size and lower speed--I tend to flare the landings too early (being used to much bigger 20,000-55,000 lb airplanes, not 1000 lb airplanes), and it's uncomfortable to fly so slow on final (a Sabreliner lands at about 115-125 knots; a Prowler at 134-175...the Cub only goes about 85-90 kts with the throttle wide open, hahaha. Final approach is at about 50, bleeding down to probably 35-40 by touchdown). I'm also used to big, wide open airports with 5-10k' of runway...not little 1000-2000' grass strips with trees all around them.

10/31/2013 11:13:39 AM

http://www.today.com/news/skydivers-planes-collide-mid-air-helmet-cams-capture-fall-8C11531939

Pretty good crash footage, most of the skydivers were wearing helmet cams

11/5/2013 12:05:40 PM

Pretty crazy footage there. I would like to see the whole damn thing without Matt Lauer editing it to hell and blathering all over the audio. Wish this had gotten on Youtube or online in some form before NBC got its "exclusive license" on the video. Ugh.

11/5/2013 1:03:03 PM

Quote :

"Something like a Cub presents stick and rudder challenges that a tactical jet just doesn't. It gets bounced around by the wind, it actually needs rudder to turn (to say nothing of taking off and landing), "

Nothing gives less traction than air.

My dad first had a Cub and so it's what I grew up joyriding and joy-flying in. When I tried to get a license I'm in a 172 with all these things called "instruments" in front of me.

He's since upgraded to Aviat Husky.

[Edited on November 6, 2013 at 2:56 PM. Reason : /]

11/6/2013 2:54:11 PM

i enjoy taildragger's too, grew up with a Luscombe 8

11/6/2013 3:05:00 PM

Never been in a taildragger; grew up in a Beechcraft Bonanza.

11/7/2013 8:21:30 AM

I have a taildragger in the garage.

It doesn't have wings on it.

11/7/2013 9:51:25 AM

What is it?

11/7/2013 10:27:03 AM

PA-12. Needs to be reskinned and an engine overhaul. Pretty major restoration, so she won't fly for years, unless I hit the lotto.

11/8/2013 9:27:08 AM

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/17/business/dubai-airshow-emirates-airbus-quest/index.html

11/17/2013 5:32:15 PM

Looks like somebody wanted to out fuck up the pilot who put a C-17 down at Knight's Airport in downtown Tampa instead of MacDill:

http://www.kansas.com/2013/11/21/3132439/dreamlifter-lands-at-jabara-airport.html

747 Dreamlifter accidentally lands at GA aiport in Kansas City!

[Edited on November 21, 2013 at 9:38 AM. Reason : ]

11/21/2013 9:37:51 AM

And the tug sent to turn it around broke down on the way:

https://twitter.com/KWCH12NDBrian/status/403432811442364416/photo/1

11/21/2013 9:39:02 AM

Yeah, apparently they didn't have a GPS in that one Seriously.

11/21/2013 9:52:30 AM

Here is the ATC recording as it happened. It doesn't really start up until 17:30, so skip ahead.

http://archive-server.liveatc.net/kiab/KIAB-Twr-Nov-21-2013-0300Z.mp3

11/21/2013 10:04:48 AM

Live feed for the takeoff of the Dreamlifter:

http://www.kwch.com/news/local-news/boeing-dreamlifter-lands-at-jabara/-/21054266/23081256/-/oma90hz/-/index.html

11/21/2013 1:15:45 PM

Lighting the engines up now. Its almost go time!

11/21/2013 2:04:12 PM

these two commentators on the stream are a little too excited

11/21/2013 2:05:58 PM

HE GONE!

[Edited on November 21, 2013 at 2:17 PM. Reason : ]

11/21/2013 2:17:12 PM

Hey, Duke...did you hear about the Marine corp major that recently crashed his personal plane around Camp Lejeune? It's been all over the news around here, and I thought you said you were briefly stationed at Lejeune or Cherry Point. It was a sad story. He was on his way to Detroit to attend a fallen fellow Marines funeral.

11/26/2013 11:25:08 PM

damn, no i didn't hear about that. just googled his name...didn't know him.

11/27/2013 12:25:46 AM

http://www.wendoverairbase.com
Hadn't heard of Wendover before. Sounds like a cool historic site to check out.

12/11/2013 11:10:19 AM

Quote :

"Hey, Duke...did you hear about the Marine corp major that recently crashed his personal plane around Camp Lejeune? It's been all over the news around here, and I thought you said you were briefly stationed at Lejeune or Cherry Point. It was a sad story. He was on his way to Detroit to attend a fallen fellow Marines funeral."

One of my inlaws was friends with Luke. Was pretty sad. Don't know a lot about why it happened. I'm struggling to understand why he was taking off in IMC and did not file an IFR flightplan...

12/11/2013 11:41:24 AM

so like once you understand that the driver is the most dangerous part of the system...

isnt that how Sam Walton's billionare kid anf John F Kennedy devided by zero?

12/11/2013 1:38:46 PM

Well, they say something like 90% of all aircraft accidents are pilot error. I don't find much solace in that statistic, realizing that we are far from perfect and make mistakes every day. I think the saying is supposed to mean 'It was their own stupid fault most of the time,' but that really is just a cop-out. We aren't perfect. We make mistakes no matter how prepared we are. And as pilots, we've likely made a mistake that in the right circumstances would have killed us. One of the reasons I got out of flying. Much less risk tolerant than I used to be. I get a lot more enjoyment out of the boat

12/11/2013 2:00:14 PM

A boat is probably not as expensive either, although it's still like throwing money into the water.

12/11/2013 2:05:47 PM

Its not. It was always funny when someone, prior to buying it, would ask me if I had any idea how expensive it would be to own... I'd say "Less expensive than 1/4 of a 30 year old airplane'

I loved flying, but for me, flying was/is a utility. I would use it to fly to Atlantic City, to go to football games, to go places like the OBX/Martha's Vineyard, but then you'd end up spending more money once you were there. It compounded the expense. With boating, we are normally doing the entertainment at the same time we are burning gas. Much more enjoyable, and I don't need to worry about everyone in the boat getting killed if the engine stops.

In fairness, we do spend more now on the boat when you add in all the gas we blow in the summertime. But the expense 'per hour' of use is a lot lower.

[Edited on December 11, 2013 at 3:25 PM. Reason : .]

12/11/2013 3:17:47 PM

Quote :

"Well, they say something like 90% of all aircraft accidents are pilot error. I don't find much solace in that statistic, realizing that we are far from perfect and make mistakes every day. I think the saying is supposed to mean 'It was their own stupid fault most of the time,' but that really is just a cop-out. We aren't perfect. We make mistakes no matter how prepared we are. And as pilots, we've likely made a mistake that in the right circumstances would have killed us."

I would agree that we've probably all made mistakes that could have easily killed us if circumstances were wrong.

That said, out of those great majority of fatal mishaps that were primarily the result of pilot error, I'm pretty sure that the great majority of those errors are of the decision making variety. It's stuff like doing stupid things in pushing the weather...or doing aerobatics way too low or in the wrong airplane or without any idea what you're doing (or a combination of the above)...or fuel starvation because you're a fucking idiot.

If you're not a big risk taker, and are doing A-to-B type flying in an Archer or 172 or something, I think that your odds of getting yourself dead are extraordinarily low.

All of that said, I worry a little for myself...I know myself, and I have a tendency to push limits. Nothing like I was 10 years ago, particularly before becoming a father, but I love to yank airplanes around or cruise around at a couple hundred feet. I've only scared myself (in light civil) a couple of times (once on one of my first solos, fiddling with a GPS I carried for backup nag, and having an slow descent toward water...it wasn't all that close, but uncomfortable enough for me to learn a lesson from it...and another time pushing fuel more than I should have. By burn-rate math as well as preflight planing, I had enough, but damned if the needle wasn't way too close to "E" for my tastes. If I ever buy an airplane, the first thing I will do is tear out the bullshit light-civil fuel gauge, and install accurate quantity and flow rate gauges). The ones in many/most light civil aircraft are borderline worthless.

Both of those were during my first few solo flights, and were probably 7-8 years ago. I've gotten mostly past the invincibility complex I had from my teenage years until about that time. Still, I know me, and I have to actively remind myself: Do. Not. Be. Stupid. In. Airplanes.

If that's not you, and you tend to do vanilla flying in vanilla airplanes, and you're reasonably competent, I don't think you have much to worry about.

[Edited on December 11, 2013 at 10:27 PM. Reason : ]

12/11/2013 10:26:16 PM

Quote :

"install accurate quantity and flow rate gauges). "

I had that on mine. On the engine overhaul, we put in a fuel flow and totalizer. Well worth the money. Was accurate on a long flight within about 1/10 of a gallon.

12/12/2013 9:31:34 AM

Yep. I don't get why any airplane would ever be built without them.

12/12/2013 10:23:48 AM

I'm actually pissed it isn't on our boat. The boat sucks down about as much fuel as the plane, and when cruising, I want to know what is the most efficient setting. The people on the boat forums (mainly idiots) think its ridiculous why I'd want to know that... Yeah, its stupid to know how to optimize your fuel economy on a boat that holds 72 gallons of fuel, of which, on some days, I've came really close to sucking it dry.

12/12/2013 11:37:17 AM

Anyone know Wes Van Dorn, from the H-53 crash a few days ago? He was from Greensboro.

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=78530

[Edited on January 14, 2014 at 10:04 PM. Reason : .]

1/14/2014 10:03:47 PM

Didn't know any of those dudes.


Also, I ALMOST ground-looped a Cub today.

In happy news, my FBO is adding a brand-new Super Decathlon to their rental fleet.

1/14/2014 10:19:16 PM

How easy is it to ground loop a tail dragger?

1/14/2014 11:02:14 PM

Pretty easy.

3/11/2014 9:13:09 PM

Been working in the Boneyard all week at Davis Monthan AFB. Its been great to see all the acres and acres of retired aircraft. Haven't had a chance to see the C-27s that flew straight in from the OEM

3/12/2014 9:03:13 PM

I'm bringing a Sabreliner there in a couple of months.

3/12/2014 9:06:32 PM

^^^^ It's pretty easy. Basically, the CG is behind the landing gear (by necessity; otherwise it would rest on its nose, not its tail), which makes it inherently directionally unstable on the ground. You have to constantly be on the rudder, and generally, when you apply it in one direction, you have to follow it up with an application in the other direction, and so on, to actively dampen out diversions in the yaw axis. Applications of throttle, changes in pitch attitude (i.e., rotation, or the tail settling on landing rollout) all also generate yaw reactions due to gyroscopic effect of the crankshaft/propeller...and heaven help you if you touch down crabbed into the wind or being blown across the runway due to crosswind on landing...it's wing down/top rudder all the way, landing on one wheel, pointed straight down the runway, and with no wind drift side-to-side. You might get away with some on a grass runway, but it will go all over the place if you screw that up on pavement.

In that particular case, I was too slow with a rudder correction on landing rollout, and I ended up with full left boot and the airplane still pointing right (and turning further and further to the right). I pulled the stick into my lap to drive the tailwheel down harder and hopefully gain a little more yaw authority Likely the only thing that saved me was the instructor in the back jamming left heel brake (for wheel brake differential braking) to straighten it back out.

It's not that hard, but it takes some practice. I've been flying it once or twice a month for several months now. It took about 50 landings before I started being consistently good at it.

3/13/2014 6:41:20 PM

Hopefully I'll have my tailwheel endorsement in 2-3 more lessons! I think I'm close to them signing me off to solo in the Cub, and they want you to get 80 landings for the endorsement (I think I'm at mid-upper 50s now).


Hey, one thing I learned the other day from someone else's mistake. Stay way the fuck far away from helicopters...especially big ones. That rotor wash is a no-shitter. particularly when they're hovering.

http://fox10tv.com/2014/03/10/fairhope-plane-crash-still-under-investigation-by-faa/

As you can see, there's not much left. It was a C-172, and he apparently got too close to a hovering CH-53 (which is a giant monster of a helo...I've been on one with a couple dozen loaded-down Marines when the help had an engine failure. Nobody in the back even knew until we landed.)

FYI, the pilot lived, albeit with some significant injuries.

3/23/2014 11:30:16 PM

Yeah. We were down there when that happened. He flew right into the rotor wash of one of our shitters.

[Edited on March 24, 2014 at 6:39 AM. Reason : glad he's ok. ]

3/24/2014 6:38:35 AM

I parked a T-34 between two Army H-60s at some field in TX, and two CWOs found me (only navy guy around) to make sure I knew I'd have to move it for them to taxi. They said they'd flip my plane over. I couldn't imagine what a 53 would do (until I saw the video)

3/24/2014 2:16:52 PM

Yeah, I've seen Shitter (CH-53) pilots pull collective to take off right after people ran off the ramp, and blow people down, hahaha.

3/24/2014 6:14:06 PM

That's apparently a trick they play on new guys on Amphibs. They tell you to walk toward the landing Shitter to greet the crew, and everyone else bends down and holds the Pad-eyes.

3/26/2014 6:32:14 PM

Ouch, that would suck to get blown down onto nonskid.

4/11/2014 11:29:36 PM

Lots of cool shots/info here

http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1a/Edwards09/Edwards09.html

4/19/2014 6:17:49 PM

Flew a Cub today in some pretty strong/gusty/turbulent winds...it was sort of a handful, but I'm finally really getting the hang of the taildragger thing where I can consistently control it pretty well even in poor conditions.

Having such light wing loading makes the Cub get tossed around a LOT. You have to keep a good bit of speed (by Cub standards, that is) on it and fly it all the way to the ground for a wheel landing (on the mains).

4/20/2014 2:00:03 AM

Logged a 0.9 in the Cub on Saturday, with 15 landings (!) at two different airports about 10 miles apart, with 3 (or 4?) practice engine-outs (idle to low approach in farm fields or abandoned airfields) during the transits.

5/5/2014 10:28:15 PM

Quote :

"There were a lot of things we couldn't do in an SR-71, but we were the fastest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact. People often asked us if, because of this fact, it was fun to fly the jet. Fun would not be the first word I would use to describe flying this plane. Intense, maybe. Even cerebral. But there was one day in our Sled experience when we would have to say that it was pure fun to be the fastest guys out there, at least for a moment. It occurred when Walt and I were flying our final training sortie. We needed 100 hours in the jet to complete our training and attain Mission Ready status. Somewhere over Colorado we had passed the century mark. We had made the turn in Arizona and the jet was performing flawlessly. My gauges were wired in the front seat and we were starting to feel pretty good about ourselves, not only because we would soon be flying real missions but because we had gained a great deal of confidence in the plane in the past ten months. Ripping across the barren deserts 80,000 feet below us, I could already see the coast of California from the Arizona border. I was, finally, after many humbling months of simulators and study, ahead of the jet. I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat. There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital. It had been difficult, too, for me to relinquish control of the radios, as during my entire flying career I had controlled my own transmissions. But it was part of the division of duties in this plane and I had adjusted to it. I still insisted on talking on the radio while we were on the ground, however. Walt was so good at many things, but he couldn't match my expertise at sounding smooth on the radios, a skill that had been honed sharply with years in fighter squadrons where the slightest radio miscue was grounds for beheading. He understood that and allowed me that luxury. Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him. The predominant radio chatter was from Los Angeles Center, far below us, controlling daily traffic in their sector. While they had us on their scope (albeit briefly), we were in uncontrolled airspace and normally would not talk to them unless we needed to descend into their airspace. We listened as the shaky voice of a lone Cessna pilot asked Center for a readout of his ground speed. Center replied: "November Charlie 175, I'm showing you at ninety knots on the ground." Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep, professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to it as the " Houston Center voice." I have always felt that after years of seeing documentaries on this country's space program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the Houston controllers, that all other controllers since then wanted to sound like that, and that they basically did. And it didn't matter what sector of the country we would be flying in, it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than sound bad on the radios. Just moments after the Cessna's inquiry, a Twin Beech piped up on frequency, in a rather superior tone, asking for his ground speed. "I have you at one hundred and twenty-five knots of ground speed." Boy, I thought, the Beechcraft really must think he is dazzling his Cessna brethren. Then out of the blue, a navy F-18 pilot out of NAS Lemoore came up on frequency. You knew right away it was a Navy jock because he sounded very cool on the radios. "Center, Dusty 52 ground speed check". Before Center could reply, I'm thinking to myself, hey, Dusty 52 has a ground speed indicator in that million-dollar cockpit, so why is he asking Center for a readout? Then I got it, ol' Dusty here is making sure that every bug smasher from Mount Whitney to the Mojave knows what true speed is. He's the fastest dude in the valley today, and he just wants everyone to know how much fun he is having in his new Hornet. And the reply, always with that same, calm, voice, with more distinct alliteration than emotion: "Dusty 52, Center, we have you at 620 on the ground." And I thought to myself, is this a ripe situation, or what? As my hand instinctively reached for the mic button, I had to remind myself that Walt was in control of the radios. Still, I thought, it must be done - in mere seconds we'll be out of the sector and the opportunity will be lost. That Hornet must die, and die now. I thought about all of our Sim training and how important it was that we developed well as a crew and knew that to jump in on the radios now would destroy the integrity of all that we had worked toward becoming. I was torn. Somewhere, 13 miles above Arizona, there was a pilot screaming inside his space helmet. Then, I heard it. The click of the mic button from the back seat. That was the very moment that I knew Walter and I had become a crew. Very professionally, and with no emotion, Walter spoke: "Los Angeles Center, Aspen 20, can you give us a ground speed check?" There was no hesitation, and the replay came as if was an everyday request. "Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground." I think it was the forty-two knots that I liked the best, so accurate and proud was Center to deliver that information without hesitation, and you just knew he was smiling. But the precise point at which I knew that Walt and I were going to be really good friends for a long time was when he keyed the mic once again to say, in his most fighter-pilot-like voice: "Ah, Center, much thanks, we're showing closer to nineteen hundred on the money." For a moment Walter was a god. And we finally heard a little crack in the armor of the Houston Center voice, when L.A.came back with, "Roger that Aspen, Your equipment is probably more accurate than ours. You boys have a good one." It all had lasted for just moments, but in that short, memorable sprint across the southwest, the Navy had been flamed, all mortal airplanes on freq were forced to bow before the King of Speed, and more importantly, Walter and I had crossed the threshold of being a crew. A fine day's work. We never heard another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast. For just one day, it truly was fun being the fastest guys out there."

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/favorite-sr-71-story-1079127041

5/7/2014 4:55:21 PM

I heard a similar story about an SR71 asking for flight level 600, being told that it was theirs if they could climb that high, and responding that they were descending to FL600.

5/7/2014 5:04:25 PM

Yeah I've heard that one before. No idea if it's true, but only 51% of a good flying story need to be true.

5/7/2014 10:36:25 PM

Attended a 1.5 hour presentation by Willy Driscoll today.

5/9/2014 6:32:58 PM