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February 19, 2005
More Formation Flying
On February 5, there was a Grumman Flying in Santa Maria. We used the occasion to practice more formation flying. Wolfgang flew his own plane, and Colin Aro flew right seat in Joel Williams's plane in order to take pictures of it.
I got to be lead most of the time, and boy was that hard. Of course, I lost one wingman on the radios immediatly, found him later on the #4 frequency while I thought I signaled for #3, all the while looking for traffic and navigating the formation out of Santa Maria's Class D.
I then maneuvered the formation out over the coast, turned NW bound and switched them to a right echelon while following the slow left arc of the beach. I did several passes like that and finally switched the lead over to Colin.
We did some more passes along the beach, and I got the lead passed back to me. We then proceeded inland and tried to set up some shots with the green mountains in the background.
Finally, I had to set us up for the return to the field. We got right pattern for a left break, which of course got me utterly confused, since I started by setting up a left echelon, which would never work for the left break. Unfortunately, I also had started on the base turn, so all I could do was go back to fingertip and wait. When I was almost rolled out on initial with only one mile to go, I set up the proper right echelon, and we barely were in position for the break.
Next time: right is where the thumb is left.
I am grateful for having such patient and accomodating wingmen.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 09:22 PM | Comments (774)
February 10, 2005
Stereoscopic Images of the Golden Gate Bridge
Saturday last week, I picked up a good friend of mine, Gal Bar or from Sacramento Executive, where his plane is undergoing major brain surgery: new autopilot, total rewiring of the panel. Also on board was a coworker of mine, Melinda Green. One of her specialities is creating stereoscopic images, and since the weather was absolutely gorgious and clear, she got some very nice shots of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 10:40 AM | Comments (2155)
February 04, 2005
The Fun Part
While I was learning to become a flight instructor, we wondered about the best ways to teach multi-tasking and division of attention, and how to manufacture scenarios for demonstration. I needn't have bothered. K. has a knack for creating interesting situations, and getting himself into a real jam. All I need to do is to sit back and enjoy the show.
I guess I must be evil.
One thing it does demonstrate is how much aggravation we are willing to put up with just to go flying. Anyone in the software business is appalled at the lack of obvious optimizations in the system. The idea that aviation is the only place left where morse code is still being used.... At least NDBs provide musical entertainment.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 09:00 PM | Comments (191)