Cessna 172 Video

In which Glenn takes me in his C172 from Georgetown to Kittie Hill and back. We examine what's left of Georgetown Lake after the long hot summer, and get a bit of rough grass strip practise. It's fun to come in low over the trees; a bit gusty as the wind shifts around them.

Also present was the visiting B-17 'Aluminum Overcast', which makes a few cameo appearances.

Things I learnt in making this video:

• GoPro camera mounts really do stick very well to Cessna wing struts, even at full-on Cessna cruise speeds.
• Colour balancing two different cameras, with two different colour profiles, when one is outside and the other is behind a blue-tinted windshield, is a Bitch. My efforts here are not perfect, but at least it's no longer blue.
• If you're going to put tape around a camera, make sure the end is not facing against the slipstream.
• When the tape comes off, it makes an unholy racket in your audio track. Yes folks, that's why the engine noise fades to music in part of this film...
• Kittie Hill's runway is full of holes; at the time we visited, anyway. I hope for their sake that it has softened up with the recent rain.

Anyway, here you go, enjoy a sunny November day's flying...

Ryan PT-22 Video

Join me in the front seat of the Ryan PT-22 and experience the sights and sounds of open cockpit flying! Put a fan in front of your screen to simulate the wind; the engine sound and wind noise are provided for you :-) I did consider adding music to this video, but in the end I didn't want to drown out the engine, it has a beat all of its own.

Watch out for my awesome low pass down the runway! OK, we were still at 2000ft but it felt like I was doing it for real... my first fly-by... ! (NB: it's at about the 3:30-minute mark, not Steve's one just after takeoff)

Rocket 100 Air Race

Although it's been a few months now since the end of the 2011 Sport Air Racing League season, I have put these videos together from the day.

The final race is always good, since a lot of folks show up for it. Despite the grey and blustery weather conditions, everyone flew well and had a good time.

First up, here's some of the racers explaining why they enjoy participating in SARL:

Here's the race course for the Rocket 100:

For a bit of fun, I put a GoPro camera into AnnElise's Cessna 182, set to take timelapse pictures at 1 second intervals as she went round the racecourse. You see her lining up for takeoff at Taylor, flying around and returning to base, all in a minute and 30 seconds.

Now, we look forward to the 2012 SARL season... If you want to remember the race dates, may I suggest this useful SARL 2012 Calendar for your wall? ;-)

Kingsbury workday and Model T action

Having a free Saturday, I decided to go down to Kingsbury Aerodrome, where they were having a work day. I figured I'd spend the day being involved in the restorations down there, rather than just taking pictures. So off I went.

The first things that greeted me - apart from the other volunteers of course - were this pair of shop cats! They're only about a year old. I'm not even sure they have names, apart from 'Kitty', but they are super cute! Here's the two of them:

This one was later curled up on my lap. She seems to enjoy attention more than the other one, who just likes to be nearby the activity. She has an asymmetric marking on her forehead, unlike the other one (closest in the picture above). I guess that's how you tell them apart. Readers of my other blog will not be surprised to see cats finding their way in here ;-)

So, to work. I elected to help Tom and Steve work on the Thomas-Morse biplanes. We started off on Tommy 1, putting nuts onto all the bolts holding the bottom of the fuselage together. This is a look from the tail towards the nose, but the fuselage is upside-down here.

Next, they had me painting the ends of the turnbuckle assemblies, to be black like the rest of the metalwork. Some were done already but many were still unfinished.

See all the wires inside the fuselage here? The ends of them are where you find the turnbuckles. They tension the wires correctly.

It doesn't sound like a lot of work, but these tasks take time, and soon it was lunchtime. Everyone gathered outside, and this was to be my chariot for lunch - Cameron's Model T Ford!

Here is Kingsbury's Model T truck parked outside Edna's Country Cafe, in Kingsbury town. It is one of those tiny towns that exists mainly due to the railroad, that passes by on the other side of the highway.

After lunch it was back to work - with the wind in our hair from those open top cars - and my next task was to fasten some anti-chafing leather discs in between the bracing wires on Tommy 2. These get secured with a twist of wire.

Finally, we installed the flight control stick and rudder pedals. You should be able to make out the black stick angled slightly back, and the loops to put your feet into, here. We tried to install the horizontal black engine mount bracket towards the front here, but a lack of thin enough washers made that a task for next time.

However, my day was not yet done - I wandered outside and got into conversation with several folks, and when it transpired that I did not know how to drive a Model T, gasps of astonishment were uttered and they soon fixed that! Cameron set about giving me a driving lesson in the Model T Truck :-)

Here is the truck, seen at the last Air Fair:

So, here is how you drive one. It does not have a layout like a modern car. It has a wheel, under which are two levers. These are your spark retarder (I left this alone) on your left, and the throttle on your right. You have three pedals; left = first gear/drive, middle=reverse and right=brake. If you want to use reverse, you'd better have small feet, since the pedals are really close together. There are two levers rising up from the floor, one on each side of you. The left one is for both handbrake and gearing. The right one is also for gearing.

Model Ts have two speeds at any one time, but the right lever can choose whether to use low speed or high speed gearing. There are also controls for mixture and choke but we won't worry about those here.

To make it go, you put the ignition switch on, press the starter button on the floor with your heel (in this one; others have a hand crank start). The leftmost floor lever should be in the middle position which is neutral. Press the left pedal - and keep it held down - and that's you in first gear, and moving. If you now push the left lever forward, it adds the opportunity of second gear. But to engage it, you lift your foot off the pedal and it will then go into second.

The ride is pretty smooth - suprisingly. I expected to be bouncing around all over the place in an old car like this but it's not like that at all. It actually feels like you have big balloon tyres, except you don't, they're quite thin and hard. We ran around the airfield for a bit, the first lap in the low gearing and then into the faster speeds for the second go round. Although the controls sound complicated, they're really not that hard to get your head around, it's easy enough. You do have to make sure you're prepared for a wide turning circle and the heavy steering. But as Cameron pointed out to me, these cars were built to run on unprepared roads, wagon tracks and fields, so they do handle it pretty well.

To stop the car, you have to press the left pedal half way until it goes into its own neutral, between first and second, then press the brake. And pray that you have done this early enough to not hit obstacles ahead of you, since it takes a little time to come to a halt.

Finally, here is a short video of the Model Ts on the road - real roads, with modern vehicles around! And some gratuitous train action, which happened to come along at the perfect time :-)

Hot Rod Revolution

Alan and I attended the Hot Rod Revolution show at Camp Mabry last Saturday. I like hot rods, they look like a lot of fun, and they have wonderful shapes, colors and textures.

Here's a taster - come and check out the photo gallery.

Redbird Skyport

Friend Doug and I paid a visit to the new Redbird Skyport facility in San Marcos airfield. It opened just the other day, so I wanted to go and see what it was all about. The Skyport is both an FBO and a new pilot training centre, housed in a fabulous new building next to the new control tower.

Redbird is a local company that makes flight simulator machines. They make both desktop and full motion simulators, which are configurable to become a wide variety of different aircraft, and at a very afforable price so that more flight schools can get their hands on them. The Skyport's emphasis is on using the simulators for a large part of the flight training syllabus.

Their aim is to get students trained to their Private Pilot Licence within three weeks, and use the simulators for half of their instruction. The other half will be done in one of Redbird's two extra shiny new Cessna 172s, fresh out of the factory. These have full glass cockpits, leather seats and are a million miles away from your average training bird.

While time in an actual aircraft remains greatly important, the simulators offer new capabilities. Students can train in whatever weather is present at the time of their class. It only rains in the sim if you want it to. There's also a 'pause' button, so when the student gets into a sticky situation, the student and instructor can have a discussion about how it came to be, without any other distractions (like having to fly the plane, for example). The instructors can also introduce engine or instrument failures, without the giveaway of the instructor reaching for the mixture knob, so the student has to identify what has gone wrong before she can fix it. Simulators are also a lot cheaper to operate than an aircraft - prices range from $25 to $55 per hour depending on which machine you are using.

I was lucky enough to be given a chance to try one of the full motion simulators. Here's a picture Doug took of me in it:

Regular readers will know that while I have been pretty lucky in the getting-stick-time department, I have yet to undergo any formal flight training. And when someone lets you fly their plane, it tends to be control of the stick and rudder and maybe the trim. I think I have operated the throttle once (last year sometime) and have yet to use the flaps in anger in a real aircraft. So you'll understand that being suddenly presented with the full kit and caboodle was a bit of an eye opener!

The simulator was set to being a Cessna 172 and we were parked at the hold for runway 13 at San Marcos. Just like it would be if we stepped outside. I pushed in the throttle a little ways; found out I needed a bit more - going too fast! - pull it back. Step on the right rudder to try and turn onto the runway. Nothing happens. Turn the wheel just in case; no, that wasn't going to work - step harder on the rudder - oh, there we go. I lined up in a very wobbly fashion - never taxied an aircraft before! - and pushed the throttle in about 3/4 of the way. The engine spins up, the aircraft leans forward and we're moving. Push it in the rest of the way for takeoff.

Airspeed increased to about 80 knots and I haven't the faintest idea what takeoff speed in a Cessna is meant to be, but it's probably around there somewhere so I pulled back on the stick and up we went. Sure enough, San Marcos airfield is visible below.

Here is where it gets interesting. The sim is certainly very realistic looking straight forward. The panel is laid out before you in the exact configuration you'd see if you went outside and sat in the real Cessna. In the picture below, you can see the instruments, which are drawn on another computer screen. You might be able to see the black knobs next to some of the instruments; these are affixed to a perspex panel that can be removed and changed when another aircraft type is required.

You can really feel the motion in the sim, too. I made a left turn out of the airfield and the control forces were very apparent. The horizon tilts, along with the whole machine, and you really feel like you're turning. Apparently the machine doesn't actually move as much as you think it does but your brain gets fooled into feeling the motion. There's a lot of wriggling and vibration too; not enough to annoy but enough to make you believe you're in a moving aircraft.

However there are also limits. The wraparound screen is great with its 180 degree field of view, but you can't look back over your shoulder, or above or below the screen arc. This makes it hard to gauge where you are in relation to the airfield when you're flying away or parallel to it. I was also tending to massively overcorrect in my control inputs; I'm not sure why that should be, but my left turn went into a bit of a dive before I could wrangle it back into approximately level flight. Then, I wanted to try landing it, but when I turned back around I was way too close to the runway. You can't tell, during a turn, until you're within 30-40 degrees of where you need to be pointing.

I went around again, paying better attention to my turn this time, and attempted to fly further away from the airfield to have a better chance of lining up. I think I rolled out just inside the bare minimum distance at which one might properly attempt a landing... but being concious of using our host's time, I wanted to get this puppy on the ground. So there I am, at a thousand feet with the runway not very far away. I pulled the throttle back to slow down a bit. What's next? Oh yeah; need some flaps.

Here is where I forgot that the flap switch really isn't an 'on-off' device, there are increments in there too. I flicked it all the way down, at 100 knots. I am sure the aviators reading this will be laughing here - can you guess what happens next? Yup, the barn doors hang off the back and I nearly ripped the wings off.... the nose yoinks up (you can feel that one alright), we get floaty and higher and I am internally cursing. Back off the throttle and wrestle the nose down... kind of aiming at the runway now in a dive-bombery sort of way... round it out, flare, plant it a tad too firmly on the tarmac with only minor damage to the undercarriage, honest! Once reminded of the toe brakes, I pulled the throttle all the way out and halted the aircraft.

I have always wanted to know if I'd be able to land a plane if I had to. I guess the answer is 'probably', as long as you don't necessarily expect it to be usable afterwards... but then, this kind of thing is what simulators are for. And they say that any landing you can walk away from is a good one, right?

Thank you to the staff of Redbird Skyport for being so accommodating, enthusiastic and friendly. I hope one day perhaps to return as a student.