More training time

Over the last few weeks, I've done more flying than in a long while. I'm calling it all flight training to keep the wife happy ;-)

A friend and I are working on a new thermal-finding instrument for full-scale applications, so he took me up on a familiarization flight in the North Carolina Soaring Association's Grob Twin-II.

Since I'm pretty sure Brett wanted to see if I got sick, we did a bunch of acro and wore parachutes as a precaution. Conditions were already way over-developed and it was flat out raining on us before the tow. Then Brett's breath was fogging up the canopy (he sat in front). On ground roll and tow, he was wiping the inside while the accumulated drops on the canopy came streaking past like Star Trek. Did I mention the canopy seals aren't great and it was practically raining on us inside too?

Anyway, it was neat being in an airplane in the rain, basically the same sensations and sounds to driving fast in a car through a downpour. We still did three wing-overs, some zero-G pushovers and a very interesting feeling negative G pushover. I got to fly us back to the airport in the rain a bit. It was surprising how sensitive the rudder felt compared to the little Cessna. I need to work on coordination, but the task of keeping the plane in the sky was relatively easy.

Just yesterday, I finally took hang-gliding lessons through Kitty Hawk Kites flying at Jockey's Ridge State Park ... the back-story is that I had a 10-year old "wind check" from trying to do this once before and getting blown out due to high winds. Kitty Hawk Kites honored their well-worn receipt!

Okay, so the Eaglet wing is certainly no high-performer, but my five flights were sufficient to get the feeling of how different (and entertaining!) hang-gliding is. I think the most interesting parallel to Goat flying is the feeling of being out in the open air. No instruments, just the feeling of air on my face and the sounds of the wind in the wings. Five flights of probably 15 seconds is by no means conclusive or constitutes a training regimen. However, I'm happy to personally have the exposure to the origins of the Goat and get the best parallel I can think of to the flying sensations.

Back to the Grob in a month and a half for more flight testing. Maybe I can finish off the tool chest and get back to hobby work for a bit?

How about a hang-gliding video??

Side Project -- continuing to set up the shop

In the do-it-yourself spirit, I have been working to build up my shop capabilities and storage space. The first real project was (is) a shop tool chest to finally combine all my smaller storage into one central location. Or if you're reading between the lines, it was an excuse to try my hand at furniture fabrication ;-)

I have had the tool chest case done for a few weeks and finally today cut out all but one of the drawers. The upper three are installed, the lower two ready for drawer slides, and the sixth is waiting for a measurement of what space is left over before I knock it out on the new (used) table saw. I love the stacked dado set ... I had always watched Norm Abrams on New Yankee Workshop and wanted to try that myself. It takes a bit of time making sure the settings are right, but then it's really easy to knock out a half dozen parts in mere minutes.

Next up is the false fronts that absorb any visual misalignment that the drawers have. That's a project for another weekend I'm afraid.

Another picture of moving Goat

Haven't figured out how to trailer Goat quite yet ... I cheated and used the open structure as fair game for lashing ;-)

Actually doing some work

It may not be a glamerous part, but its a flight piece.

A new home for Goat

Still without internet access, I'm posting via my phone to keep up a monthly post. Goat has moved to a nice large basement area with access to more than one tool at a time. I even bought a whole bunch of nice oak ply sheets to make a sturdy and true table for constructing the wings. There is of course some setup to go still before being back on real Goat construction, but the next project (other than fixing the occasional water heater and lousy hvac system) is the airchair. I have renewed confidence in both the design and my skills after watching the ground loop in last post's video. This just might work :-)

New Goat video online ... and a move

I recently came across a new Bug (son of Goat) video, showing some auto-towing at Soggy Dry Lake: http://www.vimeo.com/21046038. Thanks to the San Bernardino fliers!

In other news, I'm moving over the next couple of weeks to a place with a dedicated hanger (okay, basement and garage) for my Goat project. Expect to see some renewed progress over the summer!

Progress is slow, but coming.

Flight training time

My lovely wife got me a first training lesson at a local flying club. It's quite impressive timing that our day was so calm for having been blowing +20mph for the past two weeks... We stayed at 2500ft and flew locally in the SFZ north of Washington DC. Having flown general aviation so infrequently and only at uncontrolled airports, it was interesting to actually have to file a flight plan. But it wasn't that bad actually.

Once getting to know me a bit, my instructor-for-the-day Oren walked me through the pre-flight checklist and we taxied to the runway. I was interested as I got a good walk-through of the engine run-up, hearing how to use carb heat and what to look for with the instruments. We taxied out and the takeoff was a piece of cake. It's funny how temperatures in the 30's helped the performance. We were at 2500ft in no time. Oren said "alright, plane is yours" and I avoided the rookie mistake of trying to do anything. Heh, new RC pilots have the same tendency of immediately jamming a stick to the side when given the controller for the first time. So I basically let the plane fly itself. It's stable, why do anything?

It has been a while since I flew, but it was easy to pick back up. Oren asked me to do some turns and fly to headings. Not bad. It's a lot to remember, watching airspeed, keeping track of altitude, remembering to glance for my heading... not hard to keep the plane in the air though. That was apparently easy enough, Oren suggested doing some slow flying. He put in some flaps, had me pull the throttle back (whoa cool, I moved the throttle!) and I worked to figure out the new pitch attitude to maintain airspeed. A couple gentle turns got me some feel of the difference of flaps being down. Well, time to pull them back up and go back to the airport. I got to put us in the pattern, but then it was back to the pro for base and final.

Not bad for a random snowy day!

From the perspective of Goat, I have no fears that I can pick up the skills. I'm thinking of doing the same in a glider and making sure to request some good stalls and spin recovery to get familiar with the entries in particular. Welcome back motivation!