Best Pilot Watch for $100

Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:


Every now and then at some of our shows I'd get a chance to sit down
and jaw awhile with the Formula 1 race pilots. Steve Whittman was at
a few of these ("war stories" gab sessions) Steve had some amazing
stuff from the "old days", and would have us all laughing like
idiots telling us about flying some of the old planes.
I actually got a taste of what he was talking about when I flew a
Cassutt race plane one afternoon. Actually, you don't really FLY a
Cassutt, you WEAR a Cassutt :-) Even the Pitts wasn't as sensitive
on the controls as that beast. But it was great fun and I caught on
quickly after it scared the s**t out of me on take off. I rotated
and went to 100 feet before I could ease off the tiny bit of back
pressure I had used to do that :-))
In my opinion, the guys who flew those early planes were REAL
pilots!!
:-))

You were lucky to have met him. I'd seen him at Oshkosh and sun n fun
a few times, but wasn't part ofthe elite that got to meet him.

Elite? Not THIS bunch!! More like us being us covered from head to
foot with engine oil and hydraulic fluid and all of dying for a cold
coke with Whittman the only guy there with enough loose change for the
battered old coke machine in the back of the hangar:-))


You know what i mean...


Any of those things had to be a handful. the fuselage area, even on
the inline engined ones, was vast ahead of the CG and the tail
surfaces tiny. Add that to some fairly sensitive wings and pilots
with fairly limited experience in low performance airplanes and it's
a wonder that any of them survived! Lots didn't, of course.


Bertie

Yeah, true enough. Even Whittman came to a tragic end after all he had
accomplished and done. I seem to recall hearing both he and his wife
died when the fabric failed on their Tailwind some years back.



Yes, hard to believe that such an experienced builder could make such an
elementery mistake. He was using some sort of tight weave nylon
covering, and , as you did with cotton in the past, just doped it onto
the wood sheeted wing of his tailwind. It bubbled up in flight, not
having properly adhered to the surface.
this happened to a friend of my father's in a Cessna Bobcat many years
ago. His son and he made a repair and then went flying as soon as the
dope dried. They were alarmed to see a large bubble forming in the upper
surface of the wing as they motored along.
They got away with it though..


Bertie

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:


Every now and then at some of our shows I'd get a chance to sit down
and jaw awhile with the Formula 1 race pilots. Steve Whittman was at
a few of these ("war stories" gab sessions) Steve had some amazing
stuff from the "old days", and would have us all laughing like
idiots telling us about flying some of the old planes.
I actually got a taste of what he was talking about when I flew a
Cassutt race plane one afternoon. Actually, you don't really FLY a
Cassutt, you WEAR a Cassutt :-) Even the Pitts wasn't as sensitive
on the controls as that beast. But it was great fun and I caught on
quickly after it scared the s**t out of me on take off. I rotated
and went to 100 feet before I could ease off the tiny bit of back
pressure I had used to do that :-))
In my opinion, the guys who flew those early planes were REAL
pilots!!
:-))
You were lucky to have met him. I'd seen him at Oshkosh and sun n fun
a few times, but wasn't part ofthe elite that got to meet him.
Elite? Not THIS bunch!! More like us being us covered from head to
foot with engine oil and hydraulic fluid and all of dying for a cold
coke with Whittman the only guy there with enough loose change for the
battered old coke machine in the back of the hangar:-))


You know what i mean...


Any of those things had to be a handful. the fuselage area, even on
the inline engined ones, was vast ahead of the CG and the tail
surfaces tiny. Add that to some fairly sensitive wings and pilots
with fairly limited experience in low performance airplanes and it's
a wonder that any of them survived! Lots didn't, of course.


Bertie
Yeah, true enough. Even Whittman came to a tragic end after all he had
accomplished and done. I seem to recall hearing both he and his wife
died when the fabric failed on their Tailwind some years back.





Yes, hard to believe that such an experienced builder could make such an
elementery mistake. He was using some sort of tight weave nylon
covering, and , as you did with cotton in the past, just doped it onto
the wood sheeted wing of his tailwind. It bubbled up in flight, not
having properly adhered to the surface.

A real shame. Such a sad end for such a talented guy. If anything, what
happened should serve as a constant reminder of the inherent dangers
involved in aviation and that no matter how long we've been in it, and
no matter how much we know and have experienced, it can rise up and bite
us in the ass at the exact instant we let our duard down and become
complacent.
I know it was that way for me anyway. I never once lost that slight
"edge" of awareness that danger was there with me wherever I went.
This "feeling" actually got stronger as the years went by.
I've always felt that this single thing is what managed to get me here,
sitting in the den retired with it all behind me, but SAFELY behind me
:-))
this happened to a friend of my father's in a Cessna Bobcat many years
ago. His son and he made a repair and then went flying as soon as the
dope dried. They were alarmed to see a large bubble forming in the upper
surface of the wing as they motored along.
They got away with it though..


Bertie

Ah yes, the old UC78 Bamboo Bomber??? I still remember Sky King from
when I was a bit "younger". Never got to fly one, but heard it was a
fine old airplane indeed.


--
Dudley Henriques

Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in
:


Every now and then at some of our shows I'd get a chance to sit
down and jaw awhile with the Formula 1 race pilots. Steve Whittman
was at a few of these ("war stories" gab sessions) Steve had some
amazing stuff from the "old days", and would have us all laughing
like idiots telling us about flying some of the old planes.
I actually got a taste of what he was talking about when I flew a
Cassutt race plane one afternoon. Actually, you don't really FLY a
Cassutt, you WEAR a Cassutt :-) Even the Pitts wasn't as sensitive
on the controls as that beast. But it was great fun and I caught
on quickly after it scared the s**t out of me on take off. I
rotated and went to 100 feet before I could ease off the tiny bit
of back pressure I had used to do that :-))
In my opinion, the guys who flew those early planes were REAL
pilots!!
:-))
You were lucky to have met him. I'd seen him at Oshkosh and sun n
fun a few times, but wasn't part ofthe elite that got to meet him.
Elite? Not THIS bunch!! More like us being us covered from head to
foot with engine oil and hydraulic fluid and all of dying for a cold
coke with Whittman the only guy there with enough loose change for
the battered old coke machine in the back of the hangar:-))


You know what i mean...


Any of those things had to be a handful. the fuselage area, even on
the inline engined ones, was vast ahead of the CG and the tail
surfaces tiny. Add that to some fairly sensitive wings and pilots
with fairly limited experience in low performance airplanes and
it's a wonder that any of them survived! Lots didn't, of course.


Bertie
Yeah, true enough. Even Whittman came to a tragic end after all he
had accomplished and done. I seem to recall hearing both he and his
wife died when the fabric failed on their Tailwind some years back.





Yes, hard to believe that such an experienced builder could make such
an elementery mistake. He was using some sort of tight weave nylon
covering, and , as you did with cotton in the past, just doped it
onto the wood sheeted wing of his tailwind. It bubbled up in flight,
not having properly adhered to the surface.

A real shame. Such a sad end for such a talented guy. If anything,
what happened should serve as a constant reminder of the inherent
dangers involved in aviation and that no matter how long we've been in
it, and no matter how much we know and have experienced, it can rise
up and bite us in the ass at the exact instant we let our duard down
and become complacent.
I know it was that way for me anyway. I never once lost that slight
"edge" of awareness that danger was there with me wherever I went.
This "feeling" actually got stronger as the years went by.
I've always felt that this single thing is what managed to get me
here, sitting in the den retired with it all behind me, but SAFELY
behind me
:-))

Yeah,every once in a while I learn something that is so big and so
fundamental that it frightens me that I'd been flying around in
ignorance of it for so long and worse, makes me wonder what else I might
be flying around not knowing..

this happened to a friend of my father's in a Cessna Bobcat many
years ago. His son and he made a repair and then went flying as soon
as the dope dried. They were alarmed to see a large bubble forming in
the upper surface of the wing as they motored along.
They got away with it though..


Bertie

Ah yes, the old UC78 Bamboo Bomber??? I still remember Sky King from
when I was a bit "younger". Never got to fly one, but heard it was a
fine old airplane indeed.


Yeah, not many left now. A buddy of mine nearly bought one with his
brother when they were both fairly young, but they walked away from it
because of the daunting task of rebuidling the wing. The friend of my
dad's from the story had sold his by the time I'd gotten into his
neighbothood, but I did get a ride in his Apache. My first in a light
twin.

Bertie

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

Yeah,every once in a while I learn something that is so big and so
fundamental that it frightens me that I'd been flying around in
ignorance of it for so long and worse, makes me wonder what else I might
be flying around not knowing..

It's amazing the crap we all pull off while flying without killing
ourselves. I should have been dead years ago with some of the boners
I've pulled off in my life :-))



Yeah, not many left now. A buddy of mine nearly bought one with his
brother when they were both fairly young, but they walked away from it
because of the daunting task of rebuidling the wing. The friend of my
dad's from the story had sold his by the time I'd gotten into his
neighbothood, but I did get a ride in his Apache. My first in a light
twin.

Bertie

Had a buddy once who bought a 150 Apache. He had trouble fining an FAA
type to go flying with him. They liked it with both fans running, but
giving a flight test in it was another matter :-))


--
Dudley Henriques

Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

Yeah,every once in a while I learn something that is so big and so
fundamental that it frightens me that I'd been flying around in
ignorance of it for so long and worse, makes me wonder what else I
might be flying around not knowing..

It's amazing the crap we all pull off while flying without killing
ourselves. I should have been dead years ago with some of the boners
I've pulled off in my life :-))



Yeah, not many left now. A buddy of mine nearly bought one with his
brother when they were both fairly young, but they walked away from
it because of the daunting task of rebuidling the wing. The friend of
my dad's from the story had sold his by the time I'd gotten into his
neighbothood, but I did get a ride in his Apache. My first in a light
twin.

Bertie

Had a buddy once who bought a 150 Apache. He had trouble fining an FAA
type to go flying with him. They liked it with both fans running, but
giving a flight test in it was another matter :-))




What? You're kidding? They were the perfect trainer and probably the
safest thing to do flight tests in. It was the only light twin ever
certified for spins (later revoked). The thing about them was that you
had to do everything right or they wouldn't go up, even light, but more
importantly, as a trainerm they were less likely to kill you than any
other light twin if the student got it horribly wrong.
For instance, if you got a failure on the left,( I think, it;s been a
while) during takeoff and you had to go, you had to pump the gear up
manually. If you lost the left whilst going around, you also had to get
the flaps up using the same hand pump. So, the pocedure was to quickly
select the flaps first so they would blow up due to aerodynamic load and
save you the trouble, then start pumping like hell to get the gear up.
You had already caged the engine, of course.
A VMC roll was very progressive, and if you were doing those at altitude
you could let them develop well past the point you could with any other
light twin I know of and even if it rolled over on you it was entirely
recoverable.
During my own MEI checkride the FAA inspector wasn't happy with my VMC
demos. They weren't agressive enough to suit him. We were doing these
relatively low, BTW, due to overcast. He took it form me and suggested
that I had to really show the student what a divergence was all about.
Long story short he got it wrong and we did about 3/4 turn before we
recovered. That wouldn't have been a happy ending in a Twin Commanche.

I remember reading that Cessna's chief test pilot was demonstrating the
T-50 Bobcat to the FAA for certification. He went through all the
manuevers required for the inspector and after the tests were all done,
casually mentioned that he didn't have a multi-engine rating and could
the inspector sign him off fo one. The inspector went nuts, but
eventually decided that the guy hadn't actually violated any rules
technically, and that the three days of flight testing had actually been
a pretty good flight test, so he obliged...

Oh, and Larry, before you start looking to get the guys prosecuted, this
would have been in 1940 or so when the rules were different and they're
both prolly dead anyway..
..



Bertie

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

Bertie
Had a buddy once who bought a 150 Apache. He had trouble fining an FAA
type to go flying with him. They liked it with both fans running, but
giving a flight test in it was another matter :-))




What? You're kidding? They were the perfect trainer and probably the
safest thing to do flight tests in. It was the only light twin ever
certified for spins (later revoked). The thing about them was that you
had to do everything right or they wouldn't go up, even light, but more
importantly, as a trainerm they were less likely to kill you than any
other light twin if the student got it horribly wrong.

I've not time in the 150 myself. It's a fact that the FAA wasn't all
that happy about flying with him in it; a lot of fuss about issues below
VMC un certain conditions. Apparently a couple of the fuzz folks had
problems giving flight tests in it...but you know the FAA :-))


--
Dudley Henriques

Dudley Henriques wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

Bertie
Had a buddy once who bought a 150 Apache. He had trouble fining an
FAA
type to go flying with him. They liked it with both fans running,
but
giving a flight test in it was another matter :-))




What? You're kidding? They were the perfect trainer and probably the
safest thing to do flight tests in. It was the only light twin ever
certified for spins (later revoked). The thing about them was that
you
had to do everything right or they wouldn't go up, even light, but
more
importantly, as a trainerm they were less likely to kill you than any
other light twin if the student got it horribly wrong.

I've not time in the 150 myself. It's a fact that the FAA wasn't all
that happy about flying with him in it; a lot of fuss about issues
below
VMC un certain conditions. Apparently a couple of the fuzz folks had
problems giving flight tests in it...but you know the FAA :-))


Well, the guy I was with seemed to prefer it, but that was a while back,
of course. I don't see the current crop being all that much better,
really, and the apache was so docile.....
Never flew a 235 but that should have been streets better. Flew an Aztec
a few tims, but not enought to get a handle on it. The 310 would have
ahd a much narrower comfort envelope than the apache, for instance, even
though it went up better on one at training weights. Likewise the Baron
and just about anything else I can think of.
I was an observer on a DC-3 training flight where it departed during a
VMC demo. I was standing in between them and hungover as bedamned. Ugh,
getting nauseous just thinking about it.


#Bertie