January 28, 2006
The Dancing Tiger
No photos this time, unfortunately.
Today's formation destination was Salinas, where we were booked ofr a tour together with the local EAA chapter to visit Art Teeter's P51 restauraton facility.
Most members of our group come from Palo Alto, so we flew the short hop from San Carlos to Palo Alto, and on arrival we were greeted not only by the tower, but by some other person on the radio calling us the dancing tiger (N626FT).
That same guy must have been present later, since we heard someone calling us a "gaggle of grummans" on departure - even though I thought our rejoin wasn't that bad.
Today I flew #4, and we did a diamond formation for the first time. It's actually quite easy to fly the slot position. Everything is working for you, you look out straight, you see #2 and #3 in your preriphery, and you don't have to worry about power changes due to the "arm" effect on turns.
We did a low pass over runway 13 at Salinas, then returned for the normal overhead break and landing. The tower complimented us for the show, and off we went to look at P51s in various states of assembly.
I got to lead on departure, and we did a short flight to Marina, where fuel was almost a dollar cheaper than in Salinas. This time, our rejoin was not as nice, as it took us almost a whole 360 to get there. My radio work was also less than stellar - speak up, man...
On our flight back to Palo Alto, the amazing radio commentator was still on, berating the tower about misunderstanding somebody's intentions.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 06:17 PM | Comments (6)
January 20, 2006
We made it into AvWeb!
Greg Ketell was the photographer on the entry selected for AvWeb's Photo of the Week contest:
http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/554-full.html
N626FT is the one on the right opposite the photo plane.
We started practicing echelon turns, boy are they hard, especially as #3. The sight picture changes utterly: it looks more line "in trail", with the additional burden that it feels like one is turning into the guy in front.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 08:46 AM | Comments (2)
October 12, 2005
Formation again
Wolfman flight of three, October 8th 2005. Livermore, Auburn (lunch), Rio Vista (fuel), Bay Area. Wolfgang Polak, Dale Dalton and myself.
Lucky shot here -, I believe this is the correct sight picture for proper station keeping - could be a little closer, though.
Two shots of an echelon formation.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 09:46 PM | Comments (2)
August 28, 2005
Another fine day of formation flying
Shelter Cove was to be the site of another Grumman Fly-In, but ended up socked in. Wisely, we decided to meet in Ukiah to then proceed onwards, so we could elegantly change our plans to stay in the sun and practice there.
Four planes participated: Wolfgang Pollak, John Bunker, Colin Aro and myself. Our first session was:
- element take-off,
- element rejoin,
- climb to altitude,
- echelon,
- breaks and rejoins.
We were all somewhat rusty, and the first rejoin was a gaggle. As time progressed, we all found our groove and things started looking good. The best part was the appreciative radio calls from the ground as we did our initial. There may be hope that we may become presentable someday.
Me being the junior member, I was #4 all the way - there are inconveniences and advanatages to that - yes, one has to scramble to keep up, since being on the outside of turns means that the speed changes are considerable, but on the other hand I didn't need to do much thinking or planning. Following orders suited me just fine, had enough to do to keep in position.
After a hearty lunch at the blue bird diner opposite of the terminal building in Ukiah, Colin Aro and John Bunker decided to return to Reno. Wolfgang and I decided to fly back to the South Bay, and I again was wingman, no thinking required.
We tried some echelon turns, and they are bizarre. I'm not sure I like them, they seem unsafe. I'll need to go up with an instructor someday to make sure I know what they are supposed to look like.
The best part of the return flight was our transition through SFO's class B airspace along 101. We had lots of opposite direction traffic, therefore lots of knowledgeable spectators - very motivating to stick to my station like glue. It helps that I know the transition very well, so was able to anticipate all turns.
No photos, sorry. I was happy to be solo, no distraction whatsoever.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
July 07, 2005
Evergreen Museum near Portland
The long weekend of July 4th was spent flying to Portland and visiting a friend of Denny's who owns a vineyard near Newburg.
On the way there, we stopped in McMinnville and visited the Spruce Goose, on display in a museum close to the airport.
Our friends had a truely charming brick house in the middle of their vineyard...
... conveniently located close to Chehalem airpark:
Posted by Christian Goetze at 02:07 PM | Comments (216)
May 31, 2005
Paso Robles Grumman Fly-In
On the Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend, a bunch of us flew to Paso Robles for lunch and a visit at the Estrella Warbirds Museum.
Here we are, all ligned up.
The museum seems to have a dedicated staff of volunteers, who managed to grapple together an interesting collection of - hmmm - items. I won't list them here, out of fear of getting the designations wrong - next time, take notes!
On the way back, we stopped at Gustine airport in the central valley, saving almost 50 cents a gallon on fuel.
Standing on the wing is my passenger for the day, Melinda Green. She was responsible for taking those wonderful pictures a couple of months ago.
A nice day to go flying...
... comes to an end.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 02:55 PM | Comments (1267)
April 16, 2005
Passed!
My first flight student just passed his checkride. The ride itself was apparently anti-climactic, but there were airplane problems. In fact, the airplane used for the checkride ended up grounded, and a different rental had to be found. Poor guy, he called me twice... also, I didn't realize that the log book entries of the flights required by FAR 61.109 were not sufficent and that an endorsement mentioning 61.109 had to be made.
Anyway, congratulations!
In spite of everything I may have written about K here, I must have been extremely lucky to have had such a diligent student. The examiner complimented me on the preparation, and I had to say "what preparation?". He was diligent in the homework and always showed up well prepared for flight. Other CFIs tell me this is not normal - well, I guess I'll find out when I meet my next student, hopefully soon - it was a lot of fun.
Good luck K, and remember: License to learn!
Posted by Christian Goetze at 07:18 PM | Comments (1197)
March 28, 2005
Getting Ready for the Checkride
K has just finished his solo crosscountries, and it is time to think checkride. April 15th is the date, favorite airplane is reserved, examiner scheduled. Unfortunately, there is still a lot to do.
I am not convinced that the standard stall demonstrations are really such useful exercises - well, actually, they are, but not for the officially intended purpose, which is to prepare the pilot to deal with stalls on approach or on takeoff.
Stalls on approach sneak up on you. The best way to demonstrate that is to cut the engine on a crosscountry, near some airport, and let the student attempt to glide it in. He's likely to misjudge it and end up short, in which case the natural impulse is to pull back on the stick, and lo and behold, they will even ignore the stall warning and continue to pull back! At this time, of course, you will add back the power and save us from a fiery end.
Another place where stalls occur all too frequently is when operating around high altitude airports. Pilots are so used to the apparent speed at which the landscape usually sweeps by that they completely forget to look at the speed indicator, and do not realize that at high density altitude, the true airspeed will be significantly higher than normal. Just last year at Burning Man, a highly experienced pilot crashed due to this exact effect.
I believe the real purpose of the stall exercises, especially the power-on stalls, is to get the student to at least approach something closer to the edge of the usual flight envelope. It is quite amazing how much you need to pull up that nose to get a stall break with full power. The trick is to very deliberatly and curtly pull back on the yoke - all - the - way. It takes a little bit of guts to do that, especially if you're already apprehensive.
In other words, a well executed power on stall will demonstrate confidence that the pilot will remain in control, even in an upset.
This is, I believe, K's only big weak point. I'll know more next weekend, when he'll be going up for a mock checkride with another instructor.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 10:19 PM | Comments (634)
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)
January 23, 2005
First Solo
Today was the big day. K made his first solo. It was quite a trip to get there, but he did it.
Photos are a testament at my ineptitude at handling complicated electronic devices....
Posted by Christian Goetze at 05:56 PM | Comments (1)
December 25, 2004
Christmas flying
So I was at the airport, washing my airplane, when someone came from the parking lot asking whether the FBO was open. He was looking to rent an airplane to take up his relatives for a little tour. I said I didn't know, and even if they were, I doubt there would be any flight instructors around.
I offered to fly them, and we had a fun two flights with his three kids, the mom, and the grandpa, who happened to be the CEO of a toy company. Lots of pictures were taken, some of which I hope to post here...
Posted by Christian Goetze at 03:39 PM | Comments (4)
December 19, 2004
Landings - Finally
Finally running out of excuses, I started K on traffic patterns and >gulp< landings. Teaching reminds me of how much I take for granted. It is amazing what interesting reponses students come up with. On one approach, we were really not aligned with the runway, and I was waiting for K to fix it with the rudder, when suddenly he did use rudder, just the other one. I couldn't get in fast enough and we left some interesting rubber marks on the runway.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2004
Use the Rudder!
Today was a really hazy day, so we stayed close to the airport and I introduced K to pattern operations. I really need to find a way to get him to use the rudder. He notices that the airplane veers to the left on the takeoff roll, and tries to fix it with the aileron. Then, when he lifts off, the right wing drops. This is actually a common mistake. Watch takeoffs on any small airport and about 90% of the pilots will drop the right wing on liftoff.
K did nicely with the radio ops and the climbing turn and level-off at pattern altitude went well too. Prelanding check needs to be reenforced, and on final approach once again the coordination bug hits, leading to a very rocky approach. We simply need to do more slow flight practice.
Let's hope the visiblity improves tomorrow, so we can actually go someplace.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 04:49 PM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2004
More Ground Reference Maneuvres
Today we had a 172 with two new jugs, so break-in procedures had to be followed: full power as much as possible. The only thing we can practice reasonably well under these conditions are more ground reference maneuvres.
The weather was rather hazy, and we simply took off to fly over the salines in the south bay. Those are nice and square. K did a good job, and I didn't get airsick this time.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2004
First Try at Formation Flights
There is a group of Grumman Tiger pilots which practices formation flight, and they seem to need a 4th, so they asked me. Today I had my first chance to practice, together with a flight instructor and Wolfgang, a member of that group.
I started out as lead on takeoff, and Wolfgang sticking to my left side like a pro. After several frequency changes and some ATC confusion (thank god for hand signals), I passed the lead over to Wolfgang and I tried myself at station keeping. Boy is it hard. Once I got myself somewhat under control, we practiced crossunders and rejoins. These went fairly well. My main problem is simply seeing the changes in time and reacting to them quicker.
Next Saturday, the whole group is planning to get together. Let's see how that goes.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 11:00 PM | Comments (24)
Airsick
Yep. The last time I've become airsick was when I was sitting in the back seat of a Janus glider in the french alps, with the french champion in front optimizing our cross-country trip.
Until today. I really really need to figure out a way to teach coordination, otherwise this is going to be bad. It's the unexpected yaw that gets you.
Otherwise, it was a great day to practice ground reference maneuvres, with a howling wind from the north requiring significant crab angles.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 08:28 PM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2004
Double Session Today
Today, finally mechancal vagueries and the weather failed to conspire against us, and we got to go on our second flight. We concentrated on pitch control, accelerating and deceletating the aircraft while keeping altitude constant, climbing and descending while keeping airspeed constant and some more "dutch" roll exercises.
We took a lunch break in San Carlos, my home airport. I was able to proudly show off N626FT. We then took off on a Bay Meadows departure towards the coast and did some slow flight exercises. We had an interesting event after cleaning up. In spite of carburator heat being on during all of the slow flight phase, after a short moment of full power to regain altitude and accelerate to cruise, we must have gotten some ice, since the throttle wouldn't retard and the engine ran rough for a moment when I pulled carburator heat on again. We decided to return to Oakland at that point.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 04:12 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2004
No Flying this Weekend
It's a wonderful day, so nobody cancelled their slots on the club airplanes, so no flying for K and me today.
N626FT will be ready this coming Tuesday. I can hardly wait.
Posted by Christian Goetze at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2004
Bad Mags
Today was supposed to be K's second lesson. On the run-up we had roughness and a bad mag drop. After multiple attempts at clearing the plugs, it kept going tatata-pum-tatata-pum - sounding like a bad spark blug. So, back to base...
This is the second weekend in a row... perhaps I should call this category "Ground Reports".
Posted by Christian Goetze at 09:40 PM | Comments (7)
November 07, 2004
3 out of 4 C172s down
Boring Sunday, had to cancel flying with my brand new student K today. It would have been K's second flight, but any plane I reserved broke down in that precise instant. Of course, K didn't check his voice mail nor his email and called me asking where I was...
Note to self: brief students to always check their email or voice mail, or better contact me on the evening of every flight...
Posted by Christian Goetze at 03:21 PM | Comments (259)