Scudrunners

I saw this posted elsewhere and didn't want to hijack the thread so here it is in a thread of its own.


[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=6303.msg16709#msg16709 date=1495380748][font=Verdana]One of my greatest pleasures in life, is to be in a verticaldownline at 500 feet at wide open throttle and lots of speed,pointed at the runway numbers.  Visuals are wonderful.  Likelooking at the face of God.[b]Pull Clmax at max structural G, exit level at the surface[/b] witha ton of speed, lots of energy for the next vertical maneuver.[/font][/quote][font=Verdana]

The bold is what stood out to me.  I'm not calling you out on your flying Colonel, clearly what you're doing has worked so far, but surely you have a little margin from at least one of those limits, right?  You seem too smart to be truly walking on the edge like that.

Educate me, how are you really ensuring that you don't become a red and white smear on the runway?[/font]

40+ years of practice?

It's a good question.  You start with a margin
of entry altitude and you practice practice
practice with the goal of inhuman consistency. 

Over time you slowly decrease the margin of
entry altitude, keeping in mind the effects of
density altitude (hello, Marcus Paine) and
turbulence (Fast Eddie).

[youtube][/youtube]

It's not something you can learn in one year.

Inside pulls downward to the surface are fun
and relatively easy.

Outside pushes downward build character,
blow blood vessels and give you headaches
and the wobblies when you tear up your
inner ear.

At 1000 AGL and 120 mph, push the stick
forward and -5G to inverted over the runway
at 220 mph.  What a rush!

After you master inside and outside solo,
then you learn to do them as wing.  10
years of hard work gets you through the
door into the same room as the greats.

Probably the most challenging thing I've
ever done in aviation was downward pushes
on wing to the surface.  Physiologically
and visually, it's just wild.  I've gone
over 400 knots in the jet at the surface
and it was boring boring boring compared
to that.

I want to go 800 knots at the surface, and
see if it's any more interesting.

Since I was supposed to try it, presumably dual on my next renter's check. How high can I be off the ground as I zip along the runway for it to count as surface?

I presume you are not touching what I call the surface inverted.


Plus as a known chicken I'm probably not going to be close enough to call it surface for quite some time.

What's great fun is to land after you
enter and exit a vanilla inside loop at
the surface.  Neat to watch.

The trick is that you're going like the
clappers of Christ, and will need a bit
of runway.

Probably more than Rookie would like.

I was fond of doing it at the airshows
in Honduras.  Nice long runway.  Freddie
and I would do head-on takeoffs and
landings on it.  I would get stuck with
the onshore tailwind for some reason.

Even with the 4000 feet at my old airport
that Rookie hates so much, Eric and I
could do head-on takeoffs and pull
vertical at the opposite ends of the
runway.

[img width=500 height=334][/img]

I'm not much of a pilot compared to the
PPL's from Toronto - Rookie, Porkchops -
but I have fun.

The best part of that post is, it's probably the picture the morons that took your phone were looking for.

Got an email from Enforcement recently.  Wanted
my phone number.

I replied that they were very witty - if they called
my number, they could hear it ring in their evidence
room.  Alas, batteries don't last 1.5 years.  I don't
think.  Do they?  Naw.

Send them another e-mail offering the charger for $75.

Funny note:  they two most dangerous things I have
ever done in airplanes, were both done at the insistence
of two different TC Inspectors.

As I have aged, I have grown less tolerant, and would
tell them to take a hike if they pulled that shit on me
today.

But you must wonder.  The TC Inspectors weren't stupid.
I don't think.  One wonders why they were trying to get
me to assume enormous risk.  Perhaps they were trying
to engineer something to justify their silliness after all
these years?

Keep in mind the words of Andy Grove.