17 Dec 03 -- Some Observations

Good morning, all...and some quick observations before I hit the sheets for a
long winter's snooze...having arrived home an hour ago from two weeks of
across-the-country driving:

1. 7000 miles autodriving ain't one TENTH as much fun as flying.

2. 7000 miles autodriving is TEN times as much more reliable as being WHEN and
WHERE you need to be.

3. If you need to be WHEN and WHERE, flying will kill you. I spent hours
driving in nasties and snowstorms that would have brought the Cessna to his
knees.

4. The Brothers Wright spent months waiting for the right conditions. The fact
that the "Wright Flyer" 2003 "flew" for ten feet and two seconds was a minor
miracle:

a. The temperature and humidity were such that the 2003 engine wouldn't
come up to but about 60% of the thrust of the original engine.

b. The density altitude was about 1200' above the conditions in 1903.

c. The wind at the time of launch was ten knots short of optimum.


Be that as it may. Ten thousand of us gathered on a particularly snotty weather
day to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the miracle of flight. That
celebration was not dampened in the least by the rain...the wind...or the cold.

Most of us knew going into the morning lousy weather that the 2003 Flyer wasn't
going to do well. It was a warm/cold morning rain that greeted us, and as we
gathered around the airplane in the "hangar", there was the acceptance that this
wasn't the optimum for the 2003 Flyer.

But:

On the morning of the centennial, on the Wright Memorial Hill...

It was an "Oskhosh East" event; we met several dozen Oshkosh
folks...most of us with our butts in the sand and our "EAA" raincoats in
service.

The still in the air from twenty thousand people for twelve seconds at
10:35 was unreal

Never...before...in our nation's history...has Air Force One dipped it's
wing to an event...with the President on board... (especially with a ceiling of
at BEST 500') at 10:35:12 EST.


I wouldn't have traded the day for a sack of gold...

Jim

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com