Airventure 2009
As part of my transition to the Avidyne R9 avionics, which was just installed, my friend, Bill McNabb, and I made a quick trip to Oshkosh. We went up Tuesday and back Wednesday. We met my brother, Mike, who flew in from Oregon for the week. We arrived about noon on Tuesday. I wanted to see the new Avidyne DF 100 autopilot and got a demo. We visited the Cirrus exhibit which was very active. We then skimmed the rest of the show visiting most of the main suppliers. How about a new WACO bi-plane, very pretty. We then took in the airshow with the Virgin Galactica mother ship and Airbus 380 doing slow flight. Both landed one hard one soft. The usual aerobatics contributed to making it a very good air show. We then attended the Avidyne cook out and saw lots of our COPA friends and industry people. The next day we took in more exhibits and were particularly impressed with the Lancair Evolution (both turbo prop and piston). We also were pleased to see the P-51C restored as part of the “Red Tail Project”, which made its maiden flight to Oshkosh. We left Oshkosh for the airport around 1:00 and were back in Dayton by 5:30 after dodging a thundersorm on the way in. The show was very well attended and we accomplished all our goals in two days.
Airventure 2009
Flying the P-51 Mustang
For Christmas, Joyce gave me a ride in a P-51 Mustang which is one of my favorite airplanes. On January 14th, 2009 my son-in-law, Mike Montgomery, and I flew to Kissimmee (KISM) in Orlando, FL to meet Eric Huppert my instructor at Stallion 51. Eric briefed me on the TF-51 (the dual seat version of the P-51D) and our flight plan. I was strapped in, not as spacious as my Cirrus, more like strapping on the airplane. To taxi you zig zag to see past the 1500 horse power 12 cylinder Merlin engine. After the run up off we went, no lack of power here, VSI pegs at 6000 feet per minute. After getting a feel for the controls and getting the airplane trimmed up, it was time for some gentle maneuvers, then some slow flight and stalls at 80 knots. We do some steep turns which are 90 degrees in the P-51. Now its time for the real fun, aerobatics. We start with a aileron roll and that was so much fun we do it again in the other direction. What follows is wing overs, loops, barrel rolls , Immelmans and a split-s. The airplane seems to be ideling through the maneuvers although we do go to 55 inches of manifold pressure durning the verticle climb and hit 320 knots coming out of the loop pulling a max of 3.5 g’s. All too soon its time to go back. We fly down the runway, break right pulling enough g’s to slow down to 125 knots and set Crazy Horse down. What a great ride in a great airplane. Eric then debriefs me and signs my report card. Flying back in N426GW did seem sort of slow, but it gave me time to get the pulse rate back to normal for the end of a great day.
Eric briefs me before the flight
Form fitting cockpit
Taxing Crazy Horse
Low pass into the break
Video Clip
Certificate of survival
Trip West
On Thursday August 21 we flew to Mason City Iowa, about 3.5 hour flight, had lunch, refueled and took off for Rapid City South Dakota. After another 3.5 hours we landed with the intention of doing some sight seeing then attending the Mike Busch Savvy Aviator Seminar. Friday was spent touring a game park with plenty of the local animals to see, then Mount Rushmore and some of the Bad Lands in the Custer state park. Saturday and Sunday were full days in the seminar. We covered a lot of ground regarding modern maintenance practices for general aviation aircraft. I learned plenty but was ready for some R&R. We enjoyed Rapid City and the small sample of the Black Hills. A good nights sleep Sunday was in order to get ready for the early morning departure.