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Rides

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 3:20 am
by Slick Goodlin
Last Friday evening: “Hey Slick, come on out to the airport tomorrow. I have a bunch of girls who want to go on their first biplane rides... I’ll pay for gas.”

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So head out to the airport, preflight and tidy the Moth, and a day of ‘meeting interesting new people.’ Lots of hand propping, grass runways, sunshine, formation, lazy eights, hotties, jealous dudes, and selfies. I gotta say:

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The moral of the story is that I apparently need a Waco. Can take two up at once that way...

Re: Rides

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 12:16 pm
by Colonel
Sounds like a perfect aviation day (at least to me). "Twins, Basil!"

I used to spend winters in Key West. This is January:

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I have said it before, and I will say it again: if all you ever do in aviation
is fly a tube & fabric taildragger off grass, you haven't missed much.

Biplane and radial engine is a bonus. Floats is nice, too.

Re: Rides

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 3:23 pm
by Nark
Not a bad way to spend the afternoon:

Re: Rides

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 9:11 pm
by Colonel
I can almost see the bugs on the windscreen, and hear the rumble of the tires after touchdown :^)

Heaven!

Re: Rides

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 9:46 pm
by Nark
That was taken 5 years ago almost to the day.
It’s one of my favorites, because as I was taking the pic, my phone rang. It was the HR lady from the days prior interview offering me a job.
From her offer, I was able to move another rung up the ladder and was able to purchase this:
5DF10832-1011-4FA5-8140-7001D03F7CAD.jpeg
(Doesn’t meet the tube and fabric qualifier, but I’ll live with it none-the-less)

Re: Rides

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 11:44 pm
by Colonel
Hey, if you like to spend your spare time polishing .... :^)

A beauty!

PS. Check the gear boxes: https://pponk.com/landing-gear/

Re: Rides

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 1:28 am
by JW Scud
I did fly a C170 with a P.PONK mod.

Anybody know where the name came from?





The founder of the company has the last name of: KNOPP

Re: Rides

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 1:46 am
by Nark
I like that nic-nac factoids.

I ordered the beef up kit on Thursday, got them Saturday. I’ll have to coordinate a lift, but I’ll have time Wednesday to install it. Should be an easy install.

Re: Rides

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 1:49 pm
by Colonel
Glad to hear that! Not something you want failing.

PS. Take pictures of what you find, when you take it apart. It
can be scary what you discover - corrosion, cracking - when you
peek inside.

This may sound strange, but there are two Cessnas that give me
a hard-on the cat can't scratch:

1) Citation X. They'll go supersonic if you know some tricks. How
cool is that?

2) C185 with turbo-normalizer and glass cockpit and autopilot and
kevlar O2 tank with cannulas and extra fuel. I would file IFR in the
teens for the tailwinds, and I could land it anywhere. I really
like the C185. I made friends with one, decades ago, that I ferried
to the southwest. First flight was IFR out of Brampton, I think. Many
weird skinny little taxiways. Popped up on top of the clouds. Glad
the AI worked. Did a gnarly ILS at Flint, MI in cloud with a howling
crosswind for my first landing in it. That wasn't so bad - taxiing it
was a bit wild. Had a STOL kit which didn't help that much. After
I tied it down on the ramp, it sat there, bouncing in the wind. Wish
I had lift spoilers for the wings, but ... off to the hotel and dinner.
GPH was impressive, the power settings I used, IIRC. Needed bigger
gas tanks. Most aircraft do.

Meta-lesson: Life is more interesting if you say "Yes" - and survive.
Someone says, "Hey, you want to ferry a 185 to Colorado? First flight
is in cloud with lots of wind and turbulence and no auto-pilot".

I took it to just south of Leadville. Crazy altitudes. I never knew
they put airports up that high in the sky.

Found it:

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That's Salida, CO. Elevation 7,000. Ridiculous place to put an airport,
I had the mixture leaned to almost ICO. Rockies in the background are
maybe 12,000?

I don't know shit about flying little airplanes in the hills. Still don't. So,
I found a river that took me into the valley that ran north/south where
Salida was. I figure water finds the low country. But off to my right was
this big, scary, ugly looking hill. I'm looking a looong way up at it, and I'm
at 8,000 feet. So I climb to 10,000 feet. Still looking miles up. I climb to
12,000 feet. Still looking up. Fuck it, this is ridiculous. I'm a flat-lander
pilot. All I know about hills is, don't go there when there are clouds or wind,
and the "experts" that do, in little airplanes, all end up dead.

It was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikes_Peak which is over 14,000 feet.
The summit of Pikes Peak has a polar climate due to its elevation.
Snow is a possibility any time year-round, and thunderstorms with high winds
gusting up to 100 miles per hour or more are common in the afternoons
Yeah, let me know how that works out for you in a little airplane.
an accident in Winston, Montana, on June 3, 2007 ...
a pilot crashing with an instructor on board due to a down-draft ...
instructor was none other than Sparky Imeson and the accident occurred during a mountain flying safety seminar.
Note the staples in the photo above - it was in one of my logbooks. I remember
showing up at the TC district office with my latest logbook - I think it was for a
type rating or something. I smiled at the TC Inspector and asked, "So, what have
I been up to, lately?" Inspector looked at my logbook and said, "OOooo, I'd like
to get my hands on that!" I laughed. They were only seeing the entries for the
rating, sorry.

Re: Rides

Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:42 pm
by Nark
I routinely fly above 10,000 just to piss off ORD, because I’m above their class B. Can’t tell me no, if I’m not in their airspace!
If I can get a good push, I’ve been up to the 12’s.
The 180, and what I’ve done to it is just about perfect for me. A good day tripper, I can land anywhere, and I can mess with the IFR Bubba’s in the low teens.

Pulled the inspection panel to right up the cargo tie down. Found this little guy... a 44 mag from her days in Alaska
F154ED33-1AC6-475F-82BD-07ECC5590CF5.jpeg