Latest Work Completed Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
more Hangar Flying
Back in the saddle (continued)
As we continue our climb we're being buffeted by the winds. Mike tells me to hold 60 and to keep the ball centered. I look forward to see what he's talking about, only to be confronted with the back of the guy sitting up front. I lean to the side to see where the airspeed dial is sitting and
Mike happens to lean in the same direction. Lean to the other side... same thing. Looked like we're doing a line dance up here, or something.
Unfamilar with the J3 and I'm not sure what the feel of the airplane is telling me. Am I slow, fast, sideways, upside-down, what ? This line of sight, or line of no sight, is a source of fustration that I fight with the entire time I'm flying today. This combinded with the passenger shoulder harness attempting to rip
my headset off each time I turn my head to see what the airspeed is reading. (note: the passenger shoulder harness is attached above and behind the pilot's seat. Mike wasn't wearing it so it was tucked into the baggage area, which is behind the pilot's seat. Not too good of an area to be since each time I turned my head I got the resultant
tugging at the headset which anoid me each time I leaned to the side for a look see. - sorry for the long-winded explanation)
We climbed to 2400 feet to do some power-on and power-off stalls. No real stall at all. Power-on the nose was above the horizon quite a bit, but just wanted to hang there. Power-off, I brought the nose up a bit and reduced power as I brought it above the horizon. The Cub didn't want to stall and just kind of slowly sank. Ease up on the stick, add the power and we're out of it. No problem.
Mike asked me to do a turn to the left, a turn to the right. Steep turn to the left, step turn to the right. As we head back to the airport Mike says to set the rpm at 2200 rpm. We're headed back to do a few landings. Forty-five to a down-wind, pull the carb heat at mid-field (by the way, the carb-heat is up next to the passenger's right thigh, you can't have your shoulder harness very tight on the right side or you won't be able to reach it) Even with the end of the runway and I bring the power back to 1500 rpms and the nose drops a pretty good distance to keep the speed up to 60 mph. She's falling out of the sky a bit faster than my T-craft use to and I always pulled back the power to 1100 on her. Just one of the nuiances of a J3, that's all.
Base-to-final we're coming in a little lower than Mike liked, power up a little and we cross the threshold of runway 05. Pretty good considering I haven't flown a J3 before. We're coming in nicely and I'm flairing out for the touch down, but it doesn't seem to want to land with the slope of the runway lowering as we decend. The J3 finally makes contact and we bounce, I feel her out and the J3 bonces again, finally, on the third take-off and landing (only one circut though) and we're down for good.
We turn around, carb heat in, do the dance of the taildragger to the end of the runway, line up with the center line, aileron into the wind, throttle forward, ease up on the stick and were moving down the runway again. Not enough aileron into the wind and we start to drift, a little more aileron, a touch of rudder and we're back on line.
We gently rise into the clear blue skies and we're on the down wind leg in no time (yeah right.) Pull carb heat at mid-field, throttle back all the way at the end of the runway and we're coming in practicing a "dead stick" landing. The Cub wants to come down like it misses Momma Bear. I need to turn base almost as soon as we take the power all the way out, cut the corner of final off a little and still needed to add a touch of power to make the second set of tires (the tires marking the side of the runway.) Made three more takeoffs and landing before the end of the runway and then turned around to make a try at it again.
As we head toward the end of the runway, for another take-off, Mike mentions that I'll have plenty of pictures of today's checkout. While I was concentrating on the task at hand, he had noticed that Denise had been snapping away with the camera.
I made four circuts that day. Each time I fought with trying to see the airspeed and slip-skid ball, and that damn seat harness trying to rip the headset off of my head.
After touching down for the final landing we head back to the line of biplanes parked next to the office. I ask Mike to take it in since he knows where he wants to put it. We climb out and Mike tells me another three or four landings and I'll be ready to go. He said I did a great job having not flown a taildragger in a while and having never flown a J3 before. Made me feel a lot better after all those bonces I had going on out there. (Those bounces couldn't have been from the slope on the runway, could they ?)
Back at the office Mike filled in my log book with .9 hrs and we talked a bit about flying in general. I signed up for another go at it in two weeks, only this time I'll bring my pilot's cert and proof of citizenship.
Denise and I stayed for another hour. We ate the great lunch that she had packed and watched the biplanes and sailplanes take-off and land. As we were leaving Mike was taking someone up in the Super Decathalon for a sight-seeing flight.
As we started our drive back home, through the small winding road out to the main road, I kept my eye out for a house that was for sale. One of these days...
February 7, 2009 Preception...
is reality.
This post has nothing to do with flying other than it relates to a statement I made yesterday in one of my posts on the biplaneforum. I saw no need to try and convince anyone of what I was trying to get across.
The thread, was a good thread. It helped air out some conceptions/misconceptions of the Model-12. Started it off with a new member introducing himself and wanting to know the difference between the Skybolt and the Firebolt. He mentions the Model-12 in passing... Without pointing fingers at anyone, that's not my intention, the conversation ends up discussing why pilots/builders feel that the Model-12 is a "Monster 12" as I put it. I attempted to throw up ideas of why others, not myself, but others may feel that it's a Monster. I went on to say that Perception is Reality. Think about that statement.
My perception of the way I see the world is my reality.
The Model-12 may be a Big Cuddly Bear with the potential to be a Monster... with no vices. But if everything that an individual sees, hears and reads... is how expensive it is or how "hot" it is... it's theirperception of the Model-12, thus, and here's the kicker, it's theirreality.
Acutally, nothing against the Model-12, it's a beautiful biplane. But, if I had that kind of money for a biplane I'd plunk my money down on a basket case Travelair 4000D and restore it to better than new condition. And... I just may do that after building this gorilla.