"mission"="justification"




Ya gotta learn that aviation math............

The Super-D is a good performer, capable, demands proper technique, and a "cab" is superior for dual instruction... The rub is, and I don't remember the numbers, but suffice it to say unless the instructor and the student are very subnormal weight, 2 people, 2 parachutes, and any fuel at all exceeds the aerobatic gross weight of the airplane... Yes, I know, people do it everyday.......

Look what taxi up next to me this morning in Norman, Ok.

Nice evening, so a buddy and I flew the Waco over to Granbury, TX for fuel. Then flew the lakes up to Pecan Plantation and back over to Arlington. Beautiful evening for flying and the low sunlight on the fields and towns reminded me why I do this. Here's some pics:

Today was a beautiful day and a friend I and I decided to go fly the Waco. He has always had to sit up front but I'd gotten approval for him to fly the plane and solo it with 5 landings to a full stop. So, that was our mission. He is a very good tail wheel pilot. Here is one of his wheel landings from base to final to full stop.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/cB7xqVFPGug[/youtube]

Tony, you are KILLING me.

Pretty sure a Waco will be in our hangar in a few years - gotta get the girls out of the house and into college first. Already have spouse approval, and I've never even flown one yet. What a classy plane.

Speaking of An-2s, there's a company in Huntsville, AL that has several (or at least they used to). They used them for some kind of research and the planes were/are based at Moontown, a grass strip just east of town.

I don't think of wake turbulence typically being a problem on grass runways but at Moontown's 2004 fly-in I saw a Challenger go into the trees when the pilot came in a bit hot, floated and didn't land on the runway before he got to the point where the An-2 that had landed previously touched down. His Challenger was abruptly turned 90 degrees left and went into the trees about 20 or 30 feet above the ground. Luckily the pilot wasn't hurt beyond a few nicks and scrapes. It's amazing to watch how slowly An-2s can take off and land--you know the high lift devices on the wings are working hard.

Here's a picture of a Cub (painted silver like the ones my grandparents' had) with the An-2 that caused the incident in the background.

I owned a D and gave insturction in it for several years. I also have flown the Great Lakes.
In fact, Joe Woolslayer gave me the first checkout in the Lakes and showed me an
" inside then outside Vertical 8".

My humble opinion, the D is best for initial 10-12 hours of aerobatic instruction.

hmmmmm..... picturing that?......

Maybe we need a stupid airplane tricks thread?

Went flying with my wife on Sunday. She caught the landing on her iPhone...

[youtube]http://youtu.be/ZjW5Mj1BKkU[/youtube]

Been a while since we had some biplane news. Finally got the right combination of time and 'want to' to get the GoPro/Waco act together yesterday. Then underwent the whipping on the early iMovie learning curve. The early shots were taken this summer before I'd completely solved the mounting issues - so the takeoff is a bit shaky. From the climb-out forward was yesterday when a better mounting location seemed to solve for some of the earlier shakes. It was a beautiful day to fly (albeit a bit cold at 5500 MSL where I was doing the fun stuff). Enjoy!

[youtube]http://youtu.be/iVlJ6IW8fWQ[/youtube]

Wow, beautiful plane and a great video. Looks like you got the mount totally figured out, rock solid at the end.

I have a little time in a Bucher but missed out on flying a Waco due to weather issues. Looked spacious compared to the Bucher front cockpit.


-Mark

great video

Does the tailwheel move directionally with the rudder or free ?