Tag Archives: learning

Flying again!

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THE WIND MOVED ON this morning, having heard of a seaplane to the east that required harassing, and left Puff and me with a near-calm day.

I thought I needed to learn a little more about how she behaves during an engine failure after takeoff, so we did some pretend-failures over a nearby lake.  The SeaRey can climb at a steep angle, but it doesn’t look that way in the video.  The first reason is that the camera is mounted over the cockpit, the picture doesn’t have quite the view the pilot has, the nose up so high that it blocks the view ahead.

The second reason is that Puff flies with her nose lower in level flight than most airplanes…so when it’s raised for climb it looks like level flight in a conventional lightplane.

When you see her nose just below the horizon in the pictures,  in fact she is climbing like a shot, airspeed around 45 or 50 mph.  To maintain airspeed after a power failure, it’s up to the pilot to push the control stick forward and turn his aircraft into a glider in fairly short order.

This is something that those who don’t yet fly little airplanes sometimes forget…just because the engine stops, it doesn’t mean the airplane quits flying.  What happens is that it glides smoothly down to land…that’s why airplanes without engines are called “gliders.”  On a cold day with no warm air rising, you can tow your glider aloft, but it will be slanting down to the ground as soon as you release the tow-rope.  Gliders are built to take their time coming back to earth, Puff is not.  That’s why we practiced today — when the engine does stop in the future neither of us will be terribly bothered, we’ve been there, done that, and all we need to is a level place to land.

Puff’s rate of descent today was between 700 and 800 feet per minute…from 500 feet we had 50 seconds from the moment the engine quit to touchdown, which is a fairly long time.  I could have extended that a bit by flying more slowly, but Rey pilots would be upset with me if I told you I established a glide speed less than our bulletproof 70 mph.  All it takes is practice, knowing that she _can_ stay in the air a little longer if you’re careful, but we won’t go there today.

I enjoy the quiet with the engine idling (later I’ll do some practice with the propeller stopped), just the hush of the wind as we glide.  Here’s what it looks and sounds like:

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Otra Vez, el Capitan Pollo

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I CANNOT IMAGINE WHAT IT must have been like for Commander Richard Byrd, setting off on his expedition to  the Antarctic in 1926.

How can such a little airplane need so many things to be ready for her long fllight?  Puff has sent me shopping for a grease gun, a Keelguard, five different kinds of tape, velcro, weatherstripping, power supply expander,  corrosion-proofing spray, JB weld, sandpaper, gas cans, bolts, soft fabric, three kinds of rope, anchor and clevis and carabiners, small padlock, bungee cord, safety wire, tiedown stakes, a cockpit cover, an engine cover, light line for the rudder lock, Pledge (you spray it on the windscreen, squash it around with your hands untill it turns to wax and water, rub the wax in, wipe the water off and all the little scratches are gone), tools, batteries, survival foods, bottled water and that’s just to start.

I spent most of the day attaching the Keelguard (lying under the plane, gradually disappearing in the sand), and making little things out of tape and velcro.

But this is a story about Captain Chicken.  Again.

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A Tour for Puff

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DAN NICKENS CALLED at 10:30 this morning, while I was pre-flighting Puff, checking her cables and fastenings, engine and propeller to make sure she was ready to fly.  I had made a camera support out of tape and a stick and was planning a local flight, to get that video.

Plans changed.  ”It’s the airshow or flying, and If you say flying I’m ready to go.” he said.  What a fine invitation, so you know what I replied.

“I’d like to show you the south St. Johns river,” he said.  ”I’m getting fueled, I’ll meet you in the air, an hour from now.”

Like clockwork.  I dropped into formation with him and we headed east, for Puff’s first lesson in river flying, and mine.  Some photos:

I wonder how many hours Dan and his airplane 220WT (Whisky Tango, in pilot talk) have flown, at altitudes less than a hundred feet.  At less than ten feet.  Puff got her first hour down there today.  Some day I’ll tell you about her checkered past, but this is a whole new life for her and her little heart was happy and beating fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is there Such a Thing as Bad News?

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I’VE GOT GOOD NEWS, and I’ve got bad news, and I’ve got good news again, so don’t let the second phrase frighten you the way it did me.  Everything’s OK now, after a day of advanced training with Dan Nickens, me on a near-vertical learning curve.

For about the hundredth time I’ve heard and now I hear myself saying it, too: one does need specific instruction in the SeaRey to fly it safely and well.  It is not complicated training, but no matter how sweet be the little lady, you just plain need air-time with her to learn habits that will keep you happy in the long run.

Oh dear, where do I start?  This morning.  Got a little plastic bottle of orange juice on the way to the SeaRey factory, was so needful of breakfast that I drank most all of it by the time I got to the cash register.  The cashier said, “That will be $1.59.”  I told her, “But it’s only half full!”  She smiled and accepted my two dollars.

When we pulled the SeaRey out, Dan stepped into the right seat, and in the quiet before engine start, he said, “I want to say something before we fly.”

“Yes, sir.”  I said.

“I want you to understand that I know this is your airplane.  I will not touch the controls unless you specifically ask me to do that.”

Never have I heard this from a flight instructor, and never had I said such a thing when I was instructing.  You want instant indicator of character?  With courtesy like that you know this is going to be a good hour together.

“Why, Dan,” I said, “if I somehow throw us into an outside inverted flat spin, I’d appreciate it if you would take the controls.  Or if I get into any trouble, you say, “I’ve got the airplane,” and fly us out of it.”

He nodded solemnly.  Dan has a wide, subtle sense of humor, but on this subject there was no kidding.  ”I understand I have your permission to do that if it is necessary,” he said.  I wondered what the story might be that made this preflight statement important for him to say, but I didn’t ask.

Engine started and warmed, I taxied down the ramp, slowly, slowly…the SeaRay a dancer easing down a tightrope to her stage.

Dan asked me to do the engine runup on the water.  Unusual, I thought, when we could have done it on the land, yet it was once more thoughtful of others nearby.

“This will be a WATER takeoff,” I said.  ”Left wheel is UP, tailwheel is UP, right wheel is UP, flaps are 20, boost pump’s on, trim is set.  Are you ready for takeoff, Dan?”

“Any time.”

Control stick back, I eased the throttle forward.  The little seaplane charged ahead, and in fifteen seconds we were airborne.  I finished my after-takeoff check.

I know you’re being kind to the engine,” said Dan, “but on the water at those intermediate speeds — did you hear the water going through the propeller?”

I shook my head.  Wasn’t paying attention.  ”You want to keep the spray out of the prop as  much as you can, so if you go ahead and push that throttle right on in, smoothly but faster, that’ll make it easier on the propeller.”

Of course, I thought.  I remember well when I know the reasons for things.

(Here’s Dan)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a few minutes we were over Lake Apopka, a huge round body of water only 12 feet deep.  There were long white wind-streaks on the water, but the waves weren’t high.  My first water landing went well.  ”You don’t need to hold the stick back or forward when you’re coming off the step,” he said.  ”Just let it be where it wants to be, that’ll be fine.”

We floated serene on the water, engine purring softly.  ”This time I’d like to see you give it some quick back-pressure at around fifty miles per hour.  Pop the stick back quickly and hold it.  The airplane will hop up into ground effect, and hang there, and you can  pick up speed in the air.  It gets you off the water a bit faster.”

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Adventure Strikes: from Thought to Appearance

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WHERE OUGHT I keep the journal of this little Adventure, flying the airplane across the country?  Since it may not be of interest to all, being fairly nuts-and-boltsy aviation stuff, I might best post it in the Community section.  For now, though, it’s here.

Being late, Florida time, and another big day flying tomorrow, I’ll just post this account, fairly technical of Day One that I sent to the pilots I’ll be flying with.  Each of them with lots of experience in the SeaRey, they wanted to know how it went, my first day, secretly hoping I haven’t crashed the airplane yet.  I came close to disappointing them, but not quite:

Hi guys,

My time still a bit off kilter after that rugged redeye to MCO, but recovering in FL

First, as you know, Dan, little Papa Echo is a fantastic airplane.

Second, I am just nutty about her.

Third, Don, please leave me to say that I’m just as happy I didn’t waive all instruction, hop into the little thing and go aviatin’ on my own!

After a morning talking about the airplane, and watching while Jim finished mounting the heated carb bodies, after getting an hour of cockpit time and more talk with Dan McKenzie, he and I went out to fly.  Neither Dan nor I are the lightest of souls, so our aircrew max weight was probably about topped out. Fortunately PE is empty at 912 lbs, so we were under MGW with fuel.

We flew for maybe 1.3, interesting from engine start (carbs nicely synched and smooth).  Ground handling was fine, though I took it slowly getting used to it. My last tailwheel was the Widgeon, and that’s been a year or so, but it’s like a bicycle, right?

A modest crosswind, perhaps 8 to 10K at 40 deg left.  Dan demoed the takeoff, I was surprised a bit at the flat attitude in climb.  Flaps up, Dan gave me the airplane for climb and some air work.

Lead with rudder is right!  Dutch rolls a bit to get used it, a fairly awkward Lazy 8, some medium-bank turns, attempts at accelerated stalls not too successful I was happy to see.

Slow flight and stalls, such as they were.  Demo of pitch down with power and vice versa, milder than I’m used to in the LA-4.   All giving me a nice feeling about the airplane.

Then glides and some water work in a square little lakelet which I would not have chosen for practice in the Lake.  Wind maybe 10 K-plus, waves maybe 8 inches in the middle to lee.  I’m paranoid about the wheel position, of course.  Wanting to call out my three checks even during the first demo but managed to shut up and be happy with noticing that Dan was serious about it, too.

Flaps 20, etc, ground rush, break and hold, nice touch, it’s lower than the Lake which I expected intellectually but was quite a feeling in person!

Then off again I was looking at some phone lines on t/o knowing it would have been dicey in the Lake.  No problem in the Rey, of course.  I was so pleased she could climb, hot day heavy as she did.

Around the pattern,. my turn.  After chattering away about left main’s up right main’s up, tailwheel’s up in the mirror wheels indicate up flaps 20 and 75-80, I was feeling for it, breaking a little high and settling down for a fairly nice touch and slide for which I was grateful.  A go off the step and nice climb, to several more patterns.

Then a full stop, next Dan demoing a stick-forward beginning to a t/o, his thought to keep the empennage out of the water as much as possible.  An awfully wet forepennage for a result, and of course a quick snatching back of the stick off the hump.  Next time I landed to a full stop, now very much liking the feel of the Rey on the water.

Next a stick-back demo, Much less water on the windscreen, to step demos, Dan of course more aggressive than I would have dared, but good to see she’s happy in what I felt was a pretty tight turn.

Then in that breeze good practice in turning to downwind from displacement which she did not really want to do without a little coaxing, but after a demo I managed to make that happen.  I preferred the stick-back takeoff, ready with back stick over the hump which damped out the porpoise right away.

Getting comfortable in the little lake, I did some step turns, not so aggressive as Dan’s but of course really liking the feel of the airplane on the step.  I was cautious on a turn from downwind to upwind on the step, overcautious probably, and elected to come off the step and displacement-turn for the next t/o.

I was surprised a bit with a nice close-in pattern and little or no power down final into the flare…was expecting something longer, perhaps thinking glassy approach.

On the way home a forced landing demo nicely done to a another lakelet, then into the land pattern, same left crosswind.  Dan demoed, and I sensed this was going to be dicier than on the water.

I proved that my first attempt at a wheel landing, with an excellent touchdown followed by an awful bounce to a go-around.  I had tried to stick the airplane on the touch with stick forward, which really screwed things up.  Did a similar thing second time, not too happy with myself.

I realized that I was wanting to three-point the airplane even though the lesson was wheeling it on. Last landing was fair but I’m unhappy with my performance, still feeling that I’d have been more comfortable with a three-pointer.  Dan cautions that touching down tailwheel first, as I like to do in Cubs and Champs and the Widge, may not be a good idea here as the Rey tailwheel is not the most robust section of the machine.  Yet viscerally I found myself wanting to do that, maybe because I was just so terrible at wheeling it on.

I know i’ll get that down and some day wonder why I ever had trouble with wheels, but right now I’m anxious to go out and practice more.  A lot more.  I’m grateful to little PE for being so forgiving with me, land and water.  I know she was gritting her teeth on those land landings, a surprise to us both as the crosswind approaches and initial touches were reasonably good.  I’m screwing it up by flaring a bit high, I think, then the subsequent touch forces the tail down to a bounce, etc.

It will be well just to practice some low approaches, dragging the runway at a one-foot altitude and get that picture in my mind..

Are you familiar with that wheel-landing problem, checking out others in the airplane?  I had thought the water work would be the hard stuff, but it was the opposite.

Open for any and all tips and suggestions!

Thanks for being there,

R

Adventure Strikes

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REMEMBER THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS?

Do you recall Mister Toad, the enthusiastic lord of Toad Hall?  You didn’t find find him eccentric, did you?

Neither did I.

His first sight of a Motor-Car, and his fascination with the machine,  you wouldn’t call that obsession, would you?

Neither would I.

I know if wasn’t in Kenneth Grahame’s original book, but the accounts later, when Toad saw an Aeroplane, for which he dropped the Motor-Car like an old jam-pot, you called that which struck him no more than healthy curiosity about flight, did you not?

That’s what I called it, too.

And so I’ve just bought an airplane.

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My Rorschach World

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SOMETIMES ON A DOG WALK, I wonder what’s happened to my dogs.  We walk in a wilderness place that they know well, so they take off for while and I’m all alone on the path.  When I stand outside myself, or float a few hundred feet in the air, I look down at me and ask, “What’s that guy doing, the only soul in sight?”  And then I smile at the answer, “He’s walking his dogs.”

Yesterday after they abandoned me, I had a chance to notice the last of the snow on the ground, scattered patterns here and there.  This patch looked like a lion, that like a spaceship, that like an angel with three wings.

I laughed when I noticed that I was using the snow for my personal Rorschach test.

Then I wondered; instead of ink-blots or snow-blots, what if I use the world around me for my test?  This stack of massive logs, I saw it first as a barrier, an obstacle, “Don’t Go Here!”  then shifted it to be a ladder, easy to climb for a clearer view of my landscape.

The path itself, does it represent my own path, I wondered, hard going up hillsides sometimes, curving later around peaceful glades?  Why of course it does…that path is my life!  I’d been walking the same physical road for years, unaware that it stands for my destiny, whenever I choose to see it that way.  Rocks, trees, sky, city, cars, people — the physical expressions, they’re pictures of my mental and spiritual surroundings, as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time the pups came dashing back to join me, I saw them as travelers with me along our way, not talking but setting an example: what’s wrong with running your path sometimes instead of walking, what’s wrong with letting the destination take care of itself and simply _being,_ for a while?

Pretend every so-called external thing stands for something internal, and what all of a sudden do we understand about ourselves and about our spiritual choice to visit this planet?

If the pups could talk, I’d ask them.  Yet if they could talk, they’d probably say nothing and let me figure it out for myself.

 

If You Build It, It Will Fly

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YOU CAN HAVE the world’s best toolkit, but when there’s no patience there, you’re probably not going to build anything that makes you much happy.

For this reason, and although I wanted to build an airplane, I knew it wouldn’t happen.  Wouldn’t, that is, until the ultralight flying machines came on the market.

They seemed so simple!  Simple aluminum tubes, simple steel cables, you pop some fabric on the wings, wheels on axles, engine on mount, you’re done!

That’s pretty well the way it worked out.  I don’t remember how many hours it took to assemble my Pterodactyl Ascender, but it didn’t feel like a whole lot.  One day it lay in brown cardboard boxes, long coffins on the garage floor, the next day the boxes were gone and there was a great deal of unrecognizable odd parts on the floor.

Next day it was all still there, me at the kitchen table reading the manual of how it was all supposed to fit together.  Before I knew it, I had finished reading the first chapter of the manual.  The parts were still on the floor.  They stayed there as I began Section Two, “Assembling the Wing.”

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It Isn’t Often,

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THAT WE FIND someone out there who speaks our language perfectly, hums the same spirit, thinks the same thoughts we’d think, if we were them.  Is that truest family, does that make one feel a little less lonely in the world, or what?  Answer — It isn’t what.

Found it at http://dixiedynamitecoaching.com/free-to-a-good-home-dreams/

Asked permission to reprint here.

Got it.

It follows:

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