Working on This and That

I took a break from the hustle and bustle of EAA in order to work on some maintenance tasks. Jim and I changed the oil on Sean's Sky Arrow, and then Sean took Jim for a flight in it. Sean left for the airshow while Jim and I went to Clintonville to work on a couple planes. We installed a new tachometer in my student's Ercoupe to replace the one that broke. Then we spent the rest of the day starting an annual inspection on a Piper J3 Cub. And it was hot out, yuck... there was not enough bottled water in the world. But oh well.

I flew the Ercoupe back to its home at Brennand Airport. It's been stuck at Clintonville since the July 4th weekend when I last flew it. My landing was so soft I literally did not realize I was on the ground until the nosewheel touched. Nice!

AirVenture Wednesday

I woke up almost melting in my tent this morning... not on the AirVenture grounds, but at the house where I stayed for a while last summer during the Able Flight project. Wayne and Kathy are hosting several EAA guests as usual, both in the house and outside on the lawn in tents. Their property is on the southeast corner of the airport and connected to a taxiway. Last night they hosted a party for everyone involved with Able Flight, which was fun. (Lots of good flying stories.) I had been keeping camping supplies in my car just in case I got the urge to camp at Oshkosh, so when this opportunity presented itself, I pitched my tent. After the Able Flight party, I spent the rest of the evening socializing with a bunch of Sonex builders and pilots, including some from Canada.

It was already warm in the tent when the 6:30 a.m. alarm clock (AIRPLANES) sounded and kept me awake. Good thing I had gone to bed early. After breakfast and a shower I was off to an early start to a day at the show. I met up with my friend Kevin and we spent the day wandering around.

We visited the Ercoupe section in the vintage area where I chatted with an owner from California. He showed me his binder full of pictures and told the story of rescuing this heap of a plane and restoring it from the ground up. It was the best-looking Ercoupe I had ever seen. If the judges don't award him something here, something's wrong.

After the Ercoupes, Kevin and I went to look at some Beech 18s that were parked on the flight line. We witnessed a Piper Tri-Pacer doing what looked to be a low-speed pass at first, but then it became obvious that this was no act, and we watched the plane crash right before our eyes. It appeared to get into a power-on stall and it fell from maybe 200 feet onto its belly so hard that dirt seemed to explode from the ground. Later I found out three people onboard were injured but thankfully no one was killed.

We ate expensive cheeseburgers and had the mandatory ice cream cone (mmm!) then watched the afternoon airshow. Somewhat bored about 3/4 of the way through, we headed back to our cars and went to dinner outside the grounds where food prices aren't inflated.

I rounded out the day with a quick solo flight in the Sky Arrow.

Sean and the Sky Arrow Arrive in Oshkosh

A year after becoming a sport pilot, Sean O'Donnell arrived in Oshkosh today to a bit of fanfare in AeroShell Square. For the past week he's been flying his Sky Arrow around the eastern part of the country promoting Able Flight on a "barnstorming tour."

(The picture is from a cell phone... see Sean's pictures at the link further down for much better ones.)

I left my house bright and early in order to get a ride to Oshkosh and meet up with Sean. Since he was ahead of schedule, I missed his arrival by a few minutes but he hadn't gotten out of the plane yet. He and Brad Jones, another Able Flight graduate, talked to several media representatives. I said hello to a few of the Hansens and the director of Able Flight, whom I hadn't seen in about a year.

After the media interviews were over, I experienced the Oshkosh departure procedure from the back seat of the Sky Arrow with Sean. Pretty neat! Sean has the story about it here (plus his arrival story). We flew the Sky Arrow to Brennand Airport where we'll base it until I fly it back to Philadelphia.

Once back near Brennand I flew the Sky Arrow for a while including a couple of landings. Ted, the airport owner, saw us and asked over the radio if we would like to join him for lunch. We gladly obliged since we were hungry, and joined Ted, Dale, and Jim for lunch. When we got back, we went flying again so that I could get more used to the plane.

I drove Sean back to Oshkosh, taking the "secret" back way in to a good drop-off point. On my way out, I happened to catch the Boeing Dreamlifter coming in on final to runway 36.

As if this wasn't enough to do in one day, later I had some fun flying with my student Tony in the 172 in the evening. He wanted to work on soft-field takeoffs and landings, so we flew to Iola. Amazingly it seemed like we had the whole sky to ourselves until we heard our friend in his Ercoupe. I asked him how the runway was over at the private airport he flies from, and when he said it's great, I decided Tony and I should fly there! I had never flown in there (Northport) but had looked it over well from the ground once, and gotten permission to visit anytime. We landed on the nice smooth grass runway, took off again, practiced a lot of stalls, and flew back to Brennand.

All in all a fun day.

*Thanks to Dale Uecker for the pictures of Sean & me flying the Sky Arrow! (Added 8/22/08)

Brennand Fly-In & Oshkosh Arrivals

The annual Brennand Airport Old Time Airport Days fly-in attracted a lot of visitors today. Most drove in, but a few pilots did fly in despite the strong crosswind. Eventually it got too windy to keep the Young Eagles rides going in the airplanes, but the helicopters continued giving rides with no trouble. The Theda Star medical helicopter was on display with its crew available to chat. It seems like we did pretty well with food sales, which is a fundraiser for our EAA chapter. There was also a raffle drawing for prizes including the grand prize of a hangar party.

Later in the day I joined a few people to go to the north end of the airport in Oshkosh and watch EAA arrivals. It was actually kind of slow at the time, so not as exciting as I thought it would be. We did get to see the B-17 take off though, which was neat. I also saw what must be one of the first production Cessna SkyCatchers land.

Oshkosh Kickoff

Next week is the annual EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airshow. Already there's been a lot of activity around here. Brennand Airport is going to host some Evektor Sportstars, Lambada motorgliders, and Flight Design CTs during EAA week. We're expecting a few visitors to park their planes here during the show. Tomorrow is our annual Brennand Old Time Airport Days fly-in, which is always the Saturday before EAA.

Tonight we had our annual hangar party as a kickoff to the upcoming busy week. We had a corn roast as usual, and this time we added live music from a band featuring one of our Ultralight Chapter 41 members. There were helicopter and airplane rides and lots of people.

Also in the news, last night I flew with Jerry in the Challenger II again and signed him off for his sport pilot checkride. He passed the checkride this morning. Congratulations to him!

The Ability Barnstorming Tour Takes Off

My former student Sean O'Donnell continues to have one big accomplishment after another. I talked to him yesterday and he told me about flying all the way from New Jersey to Atlanta in one day Saturday in his Sky Arrow 600 Sport. Starting from Atlanta today, he and another Able Flight graduate are flying two Sky Arrows to Oshkosh the rest of this week. The trip is dubbed the Ability Barnstorming Tour and includes several stops to raise awareness of the organization.

Sean is documenting the experiences of this trip on his web site, phillysportpilot.com.

Able Flight Events Etc. at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh:

• The barnstorming tour pilots (Sean & Brad) arrive in AeroShell Square approx. 9 a.m. Monday July 28th if all goes as planned.
• Able Flight forum presented by director Charles Stites, Thursday July 31st at 4:00 p.m. in Pavilion #1
• Hansen Air Group will have the Sky Arrow and the FA04 Peregrine on display in their booth (#225 & 226), right across the street east of exhibit hangar B. Stop in and thank them for their support of Able Flight!

Cloudbusting

Conditions were just right for local IFR practice this afternoon, so I filed a flight plan from Appleton to the Green Bay VOR and back. I try to get each one of my private pilot students up in actual instrument conditions (clouds and/or low visibility) sometime during their training. Private students are required to have at least three hours of instrument training, whether simulated or actual conditions, and I think it is very important for them to experience actual conditions if possible. This gives them two feelings at once: "Wow, this is neat," and "Wow, I would never want to try this myself." Hopefully the latter is the one that sticks.

The idea is to show the dangers of flying into the clouds without an instrument rating. From what I've seen, most students do OK in simulated instrument conditions wearing a "hood" or Foggles but generally lose control within about a minute of entering clouds for real. The changing light and clouds whizzing past give an overwhelming sensation of the plane doing something it's not, and my students are always amazed at how quickly they "lose it" when the conditions are real. I usually have to take over, reset things, and then offer several minutes of guidance before the student is handling the plane correctly -- which, in a real solo situation as a student or private pilot, would be too late.

During our flight today, we were solid IMC in cumulus clouds for most of an hour at 3,000 to 4,000 feet, and then while heading back toward Appleton the clouds broke up a bit, which is when I shot these pictures.

Low and Slow in a Challenger II

Bright and early this morning I flew a Challenger II ultralight trainer and hung out with pilot friends at our monthly EAA Ultralight Chapter 41 Donut Day.

The instructor who owns the Challenger has been training a student toward a sport pilot certificate in it. Since the instructor also happens to be the FAA-designated examiner, he can't endorse his own student to take the checkride. (Same situation I had with my multiengine training.) That's where I come in. He asked me if I'd fly with this student to provide the endorsement, and today we got started on that task.

 

About 7:30 a.m. this misty morning I got about half an hour of instruction in the plane. The only plane I'd ever flown remotely similar to this is the Flightstar IISL and that feels like millions of years ago. The Challenger II is a tandem-seat pusher configuration that I later found out weighs around 300 pounds empty and has only 50 HP. Compare that to the 150-HP Cessna 172 I fly, which is 1,387 pounds empty. The plane doesn't even sit with its nose down until someone gets into the front seat.

Up in the air, Jim the instructor had me practice some turns and fly the plane around a bit from the back seat. He demonstrated a power-off stall and a power-on stall, which were both unbelievably docile. The good handling characteristics gave me more confidence in this bare-bones flying machine. This experience was quite different from the type of flying I'm used to.

After the checkout I worked with the student for a little over half an hour before coming in for a break. Then we tried to go back up for more landings, but on the first trip around the airport, we started getting rained on pretty hard and had to stop flying. We'll get together soon to finish the checkride prep.

(Bottom photo, left to right: Jim the instructor, me, and private pilot Rich who was in my ground school and has flown with me. Jerry the sport pilot student is not pictured. Also what is hiding in the picture is the very small tailwheel on the Challenger that keeps the tail from scraping the ground when the plane is sitting in this attitude. As you can tell, you can't solo from the back seat! The canister on top of the plane holds an emergency parachute.)

Flying a Lightning

I flew a Lightning tonight with an instructor after our EAA Ultralight Chapter 41 meeting. The Lightning is a composite two-seat kitplane. This one was finished last summer and is based at Brennand Airport.

It is a pretty slick airplane -- we were easily doing 125 knots throttled back. (It'll go faster.) This makes it faster than the Cessna 172 and on less fuel, too. When we turned east with a tailwind we hit 156 knots groundspeed.

The airplane is wide and roomy with seats that have you leaning back a bit. The rudder pedals are adjustable. It has dual controls (center sticks). Buttons on the sticks control the electric flaps and pitch trim. The clamshell canopy offers a great view except I am too short to see where I'm going on the ground, so I would need a cushion in order to properly fly this thing.

In flight I found the controls very responsive and light. Trimmed out, the plane would fly hands-off in the smooth air tonight. It has a quick roll rate and I didn't find any of the controls oversensitive. I didn't do the takeoff or landing, but I was told that final approach speed is about 70 mph which is not bad at all. The flaps span just about the entire wing it seems!

The instructor and I experimented with some stability demos. I found out that this plane has neutral dynamic stability in pitch, and negative static stability in roll past about 20 degrees of bank. Eek! "What's this?" you ask? Long story short: this plane does not have such strong "self-leveling" tendencies as something like a Cessna 172 and needs more attention. This can be good or bad depending on the qualities you want in a plane. I don't know if it was just this one, or if all Lightnings are like this.

It seems to be a good design for someone who wants to go somewhere in a hurry with an economical fuel burn, plus enjoy a high degree of maneuverability. This one was not a light-sport aircraft, for sure, although the company is now offering a light-sport version.

Fun stuff. Click for another picture of N155AL from the web.

Running Around

I still had my logistic problem today: my car was in Neenah, the 172 in Shawano, and the Ercoupe with its broken tachometer in Clintonville. Both planes were tied down but neither was in a hangar, and there was a chance of high winds and heavy rain.

I borrowed my mom's car to go to the airport in Clintonville, where my pilot friend Frank had an empty hangar I could use. It rained a bit as I taxied over, and a storm passed just to the south.

Later there was a break between two rounds of rain in which I could fly. My parents took me to Shawano to get the 172. The airport would close in a few hours for the city's fireworks display. There were already a few people there helping out. An 11-year-old girl showed a lot of interest in my plane while I was preflighting, so I made her day by taking her up for a quick flight. Then I took off and flew the quick hop to Clintonville to stock up on cheap fuel. It was warm, sunny, hazy, and turbulent.

As I finished fueling, a dark shelf of clouds rolled in very eerily. I thought this would spell the end of my flying today, frustrating me yet again. But thankfully it was just a change in the air mass, not an approaching thunderstorm or area of rain. It instantly became more humid.

I took off and flew into the strong headwind back to Brennand, where the wind was recently gusting up to 20 knots but calmed down in time for my landing. Visibility along the way was low, anything from 5-9 miles.

I felt very relieved to have the 172 back where it belonged. Its leading edges were covered with all those northern bugs. I washed it before putting it away. It did rain later, but I knew I could finally rest easy knowing each plane had a roof over it.

Fresh Air

I awoke around 6 a.m. to the bright sunshine and the sound of dew dripping onto my tent from the 172's wing above. It had been pretty cold in my tent all night but now the sun was already heating it up like a greenhouse. I unzipped the windows and went back to sleep for a while. I got up again around 8:00 and packed up my tent.

I was off the ground in Crandon (Y55) at about 8:30 for about a 35-minute flight to Prickett-Grooms airport in Sidnaw, MI (6Y9). It was a beautiful morning with just a slight breeze, good visibility, and only a few clouds in the sky. The plane flew completely hands-off in the smooth air.

There were trees, trees everywhere... trees all around... the green carpet that I remembered from last year's flight. Beautiful and creepy at the same time. I made an effort to pay attention to my map and not rely solely on the GPS, because if that thing would have died, I might not otherwise have a clue where I was. In fact, it was pretty much impossible to tell north from south except for guessing by the position of the sun. I also stayed constantly aware of the few little fields that were cleared out here and there in case of an emergency.

I listened to music on my iPod which was connected to my headset. I had an in-flight meal of banana nut muffins. I had sent a text message to Ed in Sidnaw and knew he'd be there to pick me up, and I guessed there might be more food involved.

Descending below about 3,000 feet, my smooth air was only a memory as I got jostled around in constant turbulence. The ground was starting to heat up and the morning's thermals gave me a run for my money in trying to control the plane. I spotted the tiny town of Sidnaw and its half-hidden grass runway, set up for approach, and landed on the grass a little after 9:00. Ed was waiting for me and took me to the cabin to join the rest of the group for breakfast.

The airport has a story of its own, with info available on a web site. In a time when so many airports are closing, this out-of-the-way field was rescued from closure by the people I was there to visit.

I had some eggs and sausage that were cooked over a campfire in cast-iron cookware. Dessert was freshly cooked trout that also came from the fire. I met the other people in the small group and we all discussed options for what to do for the day. Originally I thought I wanted to go four-wheeling like I did last year, but I felt in the mood for something more relaxing. Our group split up and I went fishing with Brad and Tom for several hours. They caught several too-small pike and bass, and I caught a pike and a half -- one totally unseen before it got away, and the other that bit my lure off before we could lift him into the boat. That's OK, it was entertaining enough to hear the guys kid each other about catching "foul-hooked fry" and "fish that don't count."

When we finally wandered back to the cabin in the early evening, everyone was getting ready to go to dinner. I really wanted to join them but wasn't sure about the weather.

"Do you have internet?" I asked.

"No."

"Land-line phone?"

"No."

Turns out the only way to contact civilization in this town of almost no cellular reception is to go to the pay phone near the airport. I called Flight Service and got a full weather briefing from a human being, which I almost never do because I mostly use the computer.

I asked for an outlook briefing for tomorrow morning from Sidnaw to Brennand.

"Oh, you're up there in God's country!" the briefer said, and I told him how I was standing in a phone booth in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, and that noise he was hearing was the train.

The outlook briefing did not sound too good, with a forecast of strong southerly winds (headwind!), haze, and eventual showers and thunderstorms.

"Okay, could you please give me a standard briefing for a departure about an hour from now?" I asked. The weather for this evening sounded much, much better. So although I really wanted to camp out with the group at the cabin, I had to play it safe and leave tonight.

Before I went, Ed's mom couldn't let me go hungry. She made me a hot dog and brought me some noodle salad. Mmm! Better than the Pop Tarts that were in a bag in the plane.

The group went to the airport to watch me take off. When I cleared the trees with a safe margin in my trusty steed the 172, I thought, I'm glad I'm not in the Ercoupe right now. I am still not convinced it would have made it.

The air was quite rough for the first 20 minutes of the flight and I had a little bit of a headwind. It looked drastically different than this morning, with a lot of haze and some mid-altitude clouds. Eventually the turbulence stopped. I got a couple pictures of the place where a tornado tore a 40-mile-long path of destruction last year.

I decided to land at Shawano where I had tied down the Ercoupe instead of going all the way to Brennand. I had flown 1.4 hours. The Ercoupe is more weather-sensitive than the 172, so I hoped to take advantage of tonight's good weather to get it back to its home and into a hangar before tomorrow's storms hit. I tied down the 172 and moved some of my stuff to the Ercoupe with the intent to go back for the 172 as soon as possible.

I took off with the Ercoupe and flew over the Cloverleaf Lakes south of Shawano, where they were going to have fireworks later. I circled the lake once hoping my friends might see my spiffy paint job including the American flag designs on the tail.

And there was that noise again. And the vibration. I could feel it in the instrument panel. Then the tachometer went haywire, indicating anything from something normal, to zero, to 3000 RPM and back. This was an old instrument so this wasn't surprising me. Then it just conked out. Good, I thought, now I can at least make it back to Brennand in peace. Of course not though. It started going nuts again. Arrgh! I diverted to Clintonville, my hometown, and tied the plane down. Now my car was still at Neenah, the 172 was in Shawano, and the Ercoupe was stuck here. Luckily my friends gave me a ride home later.

After this long day I was happy to finally be in my own bed. I really did have a lot of fun flying though. I was already dreaming about my next up-north trip, hopefully next time somewhere in the Ercoupe... once it gets its tachometer fixed.

Lots of Flying on the 4th of July

While the highways were clogged with people heading off to their 4th of July weekend vacations, I was crisscrossing the sky for about six hours today.

I started my Friday morning by taking my student Tony for a ride in the Ercoupe. Then he and I did a 1.4-hour lesson in the 172 doing short- and soft-field takeoffs and landings at New Holstein. It was a nearly calm, sunny day and even though it was turbulent, Tony decided it would be good to fly extra today. So when we got back from the first lesson, we sat down together to plan his first dual cross-country. In the early afternoon we took off for Watertown and flew 1.7 hours round-trip. I took a picture of the windmill farm south of Fond du Lac.

Later in the afternoon I packed the Ercoupe full of baggage: a backpack full of clothes and supplies, a tent, a folding chair, and some food. The owner, my student Todd, was off to Chicago and said I could go ahead and fly the Ercoupe all weekend. I planned to take it to Sidnaw, MI (in the upper peninsula) where some pilot friends were hosting a weekend get-together. I had been there once before: last year on Labor Day weekend when they held a big camp-out, which was an annual event.

Meanwhile my former student Chris called to ask if he could take the 172 to Shawano for dinner with his dad, and I said sure, no problem! After he and his dad took off, I realized the antenna for my GPS was still in that plane. My route would take me past Shawano, so I planned to stop there and fetch it.

About halfway through my half-hour flight the plane started making an odd high-pitched whirring noise that I couldn't pinpoint. At first I thought it might be air hitting something in the baggage compartment, but no, this noise was coming from up front somewhere. It came and went, and there seemed to be an associated vibration. It went away by the time I landed in Shawano.

I got the GPS antenna from the other plane and didn't see Chris or his dad anywhere, so I knew they must still be eating. I checked my oil which still measured fine, but just as in the last few flights there seemed to be small oil leaks everywhere inside the cowling. I've heard that Ercoupes with C-85 engines are prone to leak. But how much is normal? Hmm. I figured on making an intermediate stop or two enroute to keep an eye on the situation.

I set up the GPS for Prickett-Grooms Airport in Sidnaw (6Y9) and took off to head further north. During takeoff, only my second solo takeoff in the plane, I paid close attention to how much runway I used. This plus my Brennand Airport takeoff started convincing me I might not be able to make it in and out of the airport in Sidnaw, which is a grass strip with obstacles.

While my mind mulled over alternate plans such as going to a different airport in the U.P., I flew north over the Menominee Indian reservation, which is such a solid mass of trees that you can see it from space. Then that strange noise started again. I was not sure what it was, and everything seemed to be functioning normally. But I wouldn't want to keep putting up with this noise, plus I was thinking about the oil and the possibility of not having the performance to get in and out of Sidnaw. There would be nothing but trees between me and my destination with very few places to put a plane down. Yes, it was time to turn around. False start. I should have taken the 172 in the first place.

I got back to Shawano just in time to move all of my gear into the 172 and catch a ride back to Brennand with Chris and his dad. Rather than waste time trying to figure out what was going on with the Ercoupe, I tied it down and left it there. During my ride back (in the back seat) I looked over my maps and tried to pick out a place where I could camp for the night. I knew I could no longer make it to Sidnaw before dark because I had used up too much time. But I knew I could make it at least most of the way north and still have fun camping somewhere under the wing.

As soon as Chris and his dad hopped out of the plane, I topped it off with fuel and headed out solo. Destination: Crandon, WI (Y55). I had never been there, but it seemed to look like somewhere I could pitch a tent. It took me 1.2 hours to fly there and I landed about 15 minutes past sunset. I knew I was officially "up north" when two eagles flew right over me after I got out of the plane. There were only a few planes tied down outside and not a soul around. Before getting anything out of the plane, I went to check to see if there was a bathroom open on the field somewhere-- if not, I would have taken off and flown to somewhere else, such as Tomahawk, which I hear caters well to camping. Luckily there was a building accessible 24 hours a day. It was still light enough to see while pitching my tent. I could see the town's fireworks from the inside of my tent without being eaten by mosquitos.

The temperature fell to the upper 40s overnight and I kept being awoken by coyotes howling, but other than that, I was enjoying myself. I hadn't seen so many stars in a long time. Unfortunately I missed out on the party in Sidnaw with the fireworks and band, but oh well. I didn't mind the solitude. I can't remember the last time I took a flying trip alone, going wherever I wanted, completely unrelated to work. I need to do this more often. I have forgotten what it means to be a pilot!

Even my tent had somewhat of a history: I bought it in 2002 to camp with another pilot under the wing of a Super Cub. It had finally come full-circle.

Ercoupe Checkout

I re-learned how to fly an Ercoupe tonight after not flying one for two years. I got checked out in my student's Ercoupe 415-C, N87086, at Brennand Airport.

Earlier today while I sent a student up for a solo flight, I took the Ercoupe out of the hangar, started it up, and taxied it around for about 15 minutes to start getting used to it. I went up and down the runway and all over the grass, experimenting with its turn radius and brakes. I wanted to get used to "driving" with the yoke to help prepare for my flight later in the day.

In the evening, Tony Van Kampen flew in with his Ercoupe and rode with me during my first flight in N87086. He gave me some pointers on the preflight, airspeeds, and definitely the landings. There was a slight crosswind tonight and my first landing was a little sloppy. I did better and better with each landing, and my last couple were smooth. When I skimmed along the runway just right, the wheels would just barely graze the surface at first, and the plane would gently settle down with hardly a feeling of hitting the ground. Thanks to the huge amount of travel built into the main landing gear struts, good landings are almost a guarantee in this plane once you figure out the trick.

There was still enough daylight left after my checkout flight to take a couple people up for rides. Number one on my list was Jim, the mechanic restoring our school's Ercoupe. After he and I toodled around a bit, our pilot friend Butch went up with me next.

I regret I did not take any pictures but I will post a good picture of me and the plane here soon.