Airplane Photo Series (2)

Scaled down this time. This is a series of electric R/C aircraft images, some taken at the local R/C airfield and the rest at the Zen of Neato's aerodrome (yeah, he is all tough with motorcycles but he's a nerd just like me).

A sunset shot of all our backyard flyers. 3 Tiger Moths in the back, a Bearcat, a Gee Bee, and a P-47 "Jug".

My electric R/C Tiger Moth, painted in the scheme of G-ADNV (the letters were added after this photo was taken)

Showing some damage after exceeding Vne. Different from a real airplane, this was fixed with 5 minute epoxy and was flying within one minute of the epoxy kicking.

These are wonderful toys... rudder, elevator, and throttle with the right Li-Po battery you could stay airborne for 30 minutes. I am sure the tech has improved since the time we were dabbling with the hobby (brushless motors, Li-Po batteries and their chargers can drain a wallet right quick).

The serious folks:
Saved my favorite for last. This was the winner.

I have a P-51 park flyer awaiting assembly in the basement, just need some servos and some spare time (a winter project?). G-ADNV is parked on the work bench, with a broken prop.

Airplane Photo Series (1)

I have a habit of taking pictures any time I am around airplanes. I have resolved to start sharing these images on a more consistent basis. I hope you enjoy checking them out!

This first set are the first shots I took with our (then) new digital camera back in July of 2001. I am reading the instruction manual and taking pictures as we wing our way west towards California on the company plane (Fokker 70). That was the first (and last) time we were able to take advantage of this perk of my employment.

I think this is over Illinois.

I think we are west of the "Mighty Miss" in this shot, the regular grid pattern of roads is being interrupted by terrain.


Kinda makes you want to eat popcorn eh?

Is it a surprise that my favorite color is blue?

My wife is very understanding when we fly, I will stare for hours with my face mashed against the window. Why people don't like window seats, I will never understand!

Sharing the love and Rust Inhibitor

Two flights since my last post, the first added two more passengers to my total and the second was an attempt to keep the flying cobwebs away.

A co-worker has a teenage daughter who is interested in flying, so we all met at the airport after work one day and went flying. Went through a very thorough weight and balance, as this was the first time I had anyone sitting in the back seat with full fuel. The numbers worked out ok, my passengers are not as (ahem) big-and-tall as I am. It was a nice dusk flight and we did 3 circuits around the pattern, then asked Willow Run Tower if we could head south over Belleville Lake. We got approved, and were told to remain clear of Detroit's Class B airspace (which I avoided in conservative fashion). Back into the pattern, and two more trips around as the sun began to make spectacular colors in the western sky and we made it a full stop. She seemed interested enough, and was only intimidated by the "memorizing alot of information" aspect of aviation. When asked, she said she would like to go flying again, which is a ringing endorsement in my book!

My latest flight was this past Saturday with my wife. The initial plan was to head over to Ann Arbor for pattern work. We headed northwest out of Willow Run and kept it much more simple, just enjoying the sights. Turning back inbound towards Ann Arbor, we heard tower say "TFR becomes active in 3 minutes" and I remember that the Wolverines are playing football at the Big House. We turned direct to Mettetal instead and avoided that particular situation altogether. We joined a relatively busy pattern at Mettetal, which is made even more hectic with poor radios, poor radio etiquette, and the fact that we can hear radio calls from Defiance, Ohio some 75 miles away! We made a non-standard straight out departure from 1D2, and were given a straight in for 23L at YIP.

Coming soon... A review of ForeFlight's new iPod application "Checklist". I've already customized the checklist from the default Archer template to better match up with N33149's procedures and numbers.

Time these flights: 1.8
Total Time: 125.6
Landings: 375