Puking in a T-6? You need a ride in an Extra 300L.

[Edited on December 22, 2005 at 10:57 AM. Reason : I am jealous though.]

12/22/2005 10:57:21 AM

bump

I'm thinking that I'll either buy something like a Rans S-10 or a Sonerai, or get a quarter share in something like an RV-4, Mustang II, or maybe a Hiperbipe in a couple of years when I settle in one place for a while.

1/2/2006 1:36:20 AM

well, i had my first flight from the backseat of the T-6 (and first night flight in the T-6) the other night with a reservist Navy Commander (former A-6 pilot, did a tour with the British flying the Sea Harrier, and now flies 737s for Delta). he let me do some landings at Pensacola Regional and Navy Pensacola from the backseat.

did a 2.2 hour cross country through Alabama today in a C-172.

the old skool WWII T-6 was giving rides out at my local airport today (seen it out there lots of times, but this was the first time i'd seen it fly). The pilot of that plane also has a Decathlon for teaching taildragger endorsements and aero, so I'm gonna start flying with him some after I get my PPL.

Oh, and he has this hot chick working for him as an assistant who just graduated FSU. I talked with her for a while when he was up with a passenger. I'm gonna put the moves on her, I do believe.

1/7/2006 6:19:13 PM

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photoga...lery/Videos/2006-757_departure.wmv

Sick video of the second best airliner ever built, 757-200

1/11/2006 12:18:26 PM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=378637

Jet missing from the squadron next door to mine...




^won't open for me. URL not found.

[Edited on January 11, 2006 at 12:41 PM. Reason : asdfasd]

[Edited on January 11, 2006 at 12:43 PM. Reason : URL, not file]

1/11/2006 12:40:29 PM

Spellbound Spirit, the hot air balloon I Crew for.

Spellbound Spirit on a dual flight with my friend's instructor, piloting the former Ericsson Phones Balloon

[Edited on January 11, 2006 at 3:02 PM. Reason : ]

1/11/2006 3:01:17 PM

is anyone familiar with the yellow jacket flying club at georgia tech? http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/yjfc/

im wondering if there is anyone here, pilot or not, or would like to start something along the same lines as that. it seems to me that it would be not only be a great opportunity to get some higher ratings at a lower cost, but anyone involved could claim experience running a non-profit.

this is straight from their website:

"The Yellow Jacket Flying Club is actually a Georgia-registered non-profit corporation. We have assets of more than $170,000 and annual receipts in excess of $110,000. Who runs this corporation? The members...that's you! Imagine getting out of school and saying that you have already been the CFO of an aviation corporation for three years...I get to, because I have! Our club is only able to operate because we act as a team, and everyone is expected to carry their load. One reason we are able to fly as cheaply as we do is because we don't pay someone else to do our accounting...we do it. If no one volunteers to wash the planes...they don't get washed."

let me know what you think

1/11/2006 4:47:52 PM

the airport I'm flying out of might be adding an Aeronca Champ to the rental fleet in a couple of months. I hope like hell they do, although part of me would rather have a J-3 Cub around to fly so I could pop the clamshell door open.

1/12/2006 5:29:44 PM

got checked out and signed off for solo XC in a 172 yesterday, b/c i got tired of dealing with aircraft availability when i wanted to fly. now i have 2 birds to pick from.

did a bunch of grass strip TOs and ldgs, too, and some no-flap landings which required forward slips to drop in past a line of trees (unless you flew a perfect approach). also had the instructor pull the power on me on downwind in K82J's 550' pattern...no big deal--fly it in high, then dump all 40 degrees of flaps.

1/16/2006 8:08:47 PM

man, i really want to buy an airplane.

1/22/2006 11:22:32 PM

got out of work early yesterday, went to go finally fly my solo XC. unfortunately, the weather deteriorated...then it lifted, but I didn't have enough daylight left to make the XC, so I figured I'd fly from Pensacola to Destin, FL just for fun to go see my old instructor...but then the weather shit the bed again. I took off and flew out over Perdido Bay at about 700-1000' to somewhere near Orange Beach, AL, then turned around and flew back...logged 0.7 with 2 TOs and 2 ldgs.

lucked out and got out of work early again today, though! skies were clear and a million throughout the entire area, so I finally got my solo XC in...took off from Ferguson Airport in Pensacola (K82J), overflew Saufley Field (KNUN, Navy outlying field), went to Monroeville, AL (KMVC), then down to Mobile Regional (KMOB), overflew Mobile downtown (KBFM), Mobile Bay, Summerville (Navy outlying field), and then back to Ferguson (82J). total time: 2.5 on the Hobbs...something a little less than that in the air.

now I have to find time and good weather for my long solo XC...

1/31/2006 7:43:37 PM

done with my solo XCs, just have to get ready for the FAA checkride now. have about 45 hours civilian, with maybe 10 solo. Prob have about 30 hours in the T-6, with maybe a dozen of those hours with me on the controls.

flew out to Hattiesburg, Mississippi tonight in the T-6 (navigating), then took the controls and flew a GPS approach back into NAS Pensacola...2000 feet and 250 kts over the water at night...kinda cool looking.

flew with an F-18 pilot the other day in the T-6...we finished our route, shot a couple of practice instrument approaches (he let me fly a PAR), then cancelled IFR and came in for the break at 290 kts and 4.5 g's.

Flying to Gulfport/Biloxi tomorrow, then Athens and Savannah, GA on Thursday...staying in Savannah for St Pat's until Sunday morning, then flying back to Pensacola, probably by way of either Montgomery or Tallahassee. Should be my first real-world experience up in the high-altitude structure (prob go up there at FL 250 and 270 KTAS or so). Hopefully I'll get get to fly one of the legs, maybe on the way home on Sunday.

3/15/2006 1:12:23 AM

Harriers are totally sweet.

http://media.putfile.com/low-one

4/9/2006 1:47:35 PM

duke, you have seen the vids at http://www.flightlevel350.com, right?

4/9/2006 10:46:25 PM

typhoon almost crash
http://www.flightlevel350.com/video_streaming.php?id=5332

insane crosswind
http://www.flightlevel350.com/video_streaming.php?id=4418
http://www.flightlevel350.com/video_streaming.php?id=4416

nice save
http://www.flightlevel350.com/video_streaming.php?id=2253


[Edited on April 9, 2006 at 11:18 PM. Reason : good site]

4/9/2006 11:09:15 PM

aint nothing like a 747 landing at princess juliana/st. maarten.

http://www.flightlevel350.com/video_streaming.php?id=3929

http://www.flightlevel350.com/video_streaming.php?id=4566

4/10/2006 8:40:08 PM

first trip into the high altitude structure today...went to FL200, cruising at just under .5 Mach.

5/3/2006 7:03:02 PM

1st flight in the T-1 tomorrow (military version of the Beechjet 400T)

8 flights in that sucker (4 cruising around in the flight levels, 4 VR-route low levels at 500'), then I'm going onto the T-39 (military version of the old Sabreliner. some of them have a radar in the nose)...I heard from a guy who's flying in them right now that they'll be on 500' low levels at 300-350 kts, and they'll roll inverted over the tops of ridges and stuff (still at 500'). hopefully that's true.

6/13/2006 6:07:48 PM

I used to fly quite a bit when I was in HS. I have about 65 hours logged, but never made it past my student licence, mainly because the summer I was going to hit the books for my written exam, I got in my accident. I haven't gotten back into it since, and don't really know what sort of restrictions I would have due to both physical and visual disabilities (100% blind in my left eye).

My first lesson was in a Cessna 152, but we immediately upgraded to a 172 just becuase it was a little bit bigger and more powerful. It was one hell of a rush talking to the RDU tower, flying and taxi-ing around all these giant jets. I would frequently fly solo to Sanford and back

6/13/2006 6:19:25 PM

you'd be fine, physically. i don't know about visually.

6/13/2006 6:22:36 PM

I truly wish I could afford to start my pilot training right now. One of these days I will...but it's gonna be a while. I'm working on trying to get debts paid off (The IRS proved to be a backbreaker this year), and it ain't going very well.

Especially after flying to New Orleans this weekend...granted, we were on Embraer 140s for the trip down and a Canadair and a 737 on the way back, and they aren't really small...

But it's still got me jonesin'...

6/13/2006 7:28:58 PM

my additions

6/13/2006 8:13:23 PM

some pics I took at EBACE of our Gulfstream.

6/13/2006 10:26:24 PM

here's a T-39.

man i hope it's true that we go inverted at 500' agl in that beast. that blows my mind.

[Edited on June 13, 2006 at 10:31 PM. Reason : asdfasdf]

6/13/2006 10:31:12 PM

man those old sabers are great. The strait jet engines strong as hell and will throw you in the back of your seat like the old lear 24/25's I used to fly in. How was the Beechjet?

6/13/2006 11:08:04 PM

it's smooth. pretty gucci compared to the T-6 (which is itself, in my opinion, pretty well equipped for what it is), although I'm sure nothing like your G5.


(T-6 is a militarized Pilatus PC-9...has glass panel, 1100 hp turboprop, and Martin-Baker seats)

T-1 is pretty much a Beechjet with a radalt, bargain basement cabin, and some of the luggage space axed in favor of single-point refueling.

[Edited on June 14, 2006 at 12:11 AM. Reason : asdf]

6/14/2006 12:08:09 AM

an old favorite of mine, the Saab Draken

6/14/2006 12:54:16 AM

Done with the T-1. last flight was instrument navigation out to an island on the other side of Mobile Bay, then dropping down to run the VR-1023 at 500' agl/240 ktas. Hit the target exactly on course and 4 seconds early (and that's with no GPS or other gadgetry...just mental math and clock-->chart-->ground scan) turnpoints were the tip of a peninsula, an abandoned sawmill, an earthen dam, a RR bridge over a creek, a lookout tower in the woods, the center of the town of Osyka, and another lookout tower in the woods between New Orleans and Baton Rouge...

climbed off the route, picked up an IFR clearance, headed up to FL270 to Jackson, MS. shot a fix-to-fix off of the Meridian VORTAC from there, then ran into some thunderstorms and had to turn around. amended the flight plan and hit a couple of direct to station turnpoints back to Mobile, then descended, cancelled IFR and dodged thunderstorms while following the coastline back into Pensacola (since I did well on the flight, the instructor gave me the choice of the shooting the Hi-TACAN back home or just going VFR and coming in for the break. I chose the latter).



Start T-39 ground school next week. I think the first thing we do is RADAR navigation.

6/30/2006 1:20:24 AM

I put about 6 hours on this beast in the past 2 weeks (Seriously).


http://www.nbc17.com/news/9505121/detail.html

7/12/2006 3:01:26 PM

checked my military logbook today

~62 hours in the T-6
~18 hours in the T-1 (Beech 400)

also have about 45 hours or so of civilian time, of which 11 hours are PIC.

7/13/2006 4:14:26 PM

You seem to be racking up a good bit of time down there. That's awesome.


Haha, did nobody notice I was flying an aircraft on the verge of failure? It kind of bothers me that I might have been doing a my solo cross country in that shit next week.

[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 12:33 AM. Reason : ]

7/14/2006 12:30:12 AM

well, all of the military time is "special crew time", which is worth approximately the same as the paper it's written on.

but it's still great aviation training...far, far more advanced that what i could do in the civilian world. i just don't get much in the way of stick & rudder training.

7/16/2006 2:30:23 PM

i was on the way out to my car (through the hanger my squadron shares with the Blue Angels) to come home from work today, and I noticed a C-47 (DC-3) in the pattern. he must've done at least a half dozen touch & goes.

then one of the Blue Angels' Hornets took off as I was leaving.



the old Gooney Bird was painted white, though. didn't see any military markings. Have no idea what it was doing at NAS Pensacola...if it'd come in on a truck in pieces, I would've assumed that it was heading for the museum, but I can't imagine that a flying example would be put on static display.

with that in mind, i don't know what it was doing here...we don't get run-of-the-mill civilian traffic flying into our field.

[Edited on July 24, 2006 at 5:16 PM. Reason : asdfasdf]

7/24/2006 5:13:37 PM

Quote :

"an old favorite of mine, the Saab Draken "

So even their planes look awkward?

7/24/2006 6:00:34 PM

7/24/2006 6:18:42 PM

Quote :

"It kind of bothers me that I might have been doing a my solo cross country in that shit next week."

yeah, that would have sucked. you can't even make a decent decision when it comes to posting on here. i'd hate to see you in a real-life situation.

7/24/2006 10:00:00 PM

gg

7/24/2006 11:09:34 PM

first flight in the T-39 today. rode in the back of an "N" model as an observer.

it has a basic instrument suite and a RADAR scope/controls in the back (although the control authority is set to the front until the RADAR navigation portion of the mission is over...but you can still watch the scope in the back. just have to hope the operator up front sets everything right).

for a business jet hauling a half dozen people around, it's a sporty bird. it rolls FAST (for what it is...probably about as fast as the T-6 did. i bet you could do multiple aileron rolls in it without even trying), and we came back home VFR and flew the break (overhead pattern in civilian terms). prob pulled 3-3.5 Gs.

7/26/2006 5:46:05 PM

I just thought I was cool b/c I got to ride in some planes that weren't commercial airliners, and didn't puke

7/26/2006 11:23:58 PM

i wanna buy a half-share of one of these (RV-4, preferably one with an IFR panel) when i get promoted to Capt and move back to NC or SC in a couple of years:




^haha, that's impressive that you didn't puke. My stomach is...well...not my greatest strength. I'm actually a little worried about it, because I'm trying to get an F-18 slot.

oh, and I'm gonna need you to go ahead and, uhh, take me to those Reno air races next time. If you could do that, that would be greeeeaat.

we'll rent a Cessna and take a quick hop over to Vegas and find a wedding chapel while we're out there.

7/26/2006 11:53:23 PM

No need to rent when you know people who own

7/26/2006 11:57:56 PM

So you're sayin' there's a chance!

7/27/2006 12:05:09 AM

Naval Airstation Ocean in Virginia Beach will be having its annual airshow September 8-10.

Quote :

"http://www.oceanaairshow.com/index.php"

7/27/2006 11:36:41 AM

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/biztech/07/27/little.jets.ap/index.html thought these were cool.

7/27/2006 8:31:55 PM

well, I was supposed to take a T-39 on a XC to Abbottsville, BC (by Vancouver) from Thursday until Monday, but the trip got canned about 12 hours before we were to leave (because some Admiral didn't receive and sign off some form to clear us to go outside CONUS, and then he went on leave).

so, my instructor was like "well, you said something before about wanting to go to L.A. or San Diego...you wanna do that instead?

i said "hell yeah", went home and planned the flight, and headed out to CA the next morning. went to Midland, TX for a fuel stop (can't make it the whole way, because being non-RVSM capable limits us to FL 280, where we are burning too much fuel), then continued to NAS North Island.

came back home today...fuel stop at Midland, then a practice HI-TACAN at NAS New Orleans, then HI-TACAN to full stop back home in Pensacola.

8/13/2006 10:52:06 PM

sitting in an AH-1 Cobra with my friend Dave Sheehan, an NCSU alumnus who's stationed out at Camp Pendleton.

i checked out the Cobras and Hueys in his squadron, and flew the Cobra simulator (actually, he flew for the most part, and I shot stuff up. I flew it some, though.)

8/24/2006 12:02:37 AM

well i mean, you need to practice sitting in the backseat right?

8/24/2006 12:05:41 AM

actually, the Cobra has two pilots (no navigator/WSO). the guy acting as the gunner sits up front, and the guy flying sits in the back. the front seat has controls and instruments, but they aren't nearly as good as the back seat.

8/24/2006 12:07:17 AM

well ya got me there don't you

8/24/2006 12:21:04 AM

hey duke, quick question for ya.
hen doing a flight plan, what determines your cruising altitude? i understand y'all check the wind speed at certain altitudes and shit but why would one plane fly higher than the other if going to the same place? also, what direction of flight determines cruising altitude e.g. FL350 heading east vs. FL340 heading west? kinda like how even-numbered interstates run east-west and odd-numbered interstates run north-south.

8/25/2006 5:57:14 PM