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 The adventure continues!
No flying on December 21 because wind was at 6 kts or more all day. I was concerned that I hadn’t flown in two weeks and Terry Brandt was coming to Santa Maria to fly with me in the Predator at 8:00 am on December 22.
After I got her airworthy on December 20 I started on a cross country flight plan. Santa Maria to Lompoc, Lompoc to Oceano, Oceano to San Louis Obispo, San Louis Obispo to Paso Robles and then back to Santa Maria.
I had pictures of each of the airports, their radio frequencies, and true headings with isogonic and compass corrections, without wind correction, plotted to each airport. I did my fuel consumption calculations and eta to check point and destination calculations. I was ready to add my winds aloft calculations on the morning of the trip. I had all the VOR information and found out how to get my hand held radio to do VOR. I had landmarks every five miles. I even had pictures of road maps attached to the flight plans. I was careful to plot around Vandenberg’s airspace. Then I called Terry on Friday morning, the twenty first and he told me to just do two airports and we were hoping for some wind.
I installed an egg timer for fuel calculations and wore another on my right wrist for eta checks at my land marks.
At 7:30 I got a call from Terry asking where I was because he was at the airport and I wasn’t there. They have different time in Buckeye and he had forgotten. Fortunately I was at the airport early to call for the winds aloft and we made connections. It was 37 degrees with winds at 300 and 3kts. It didn’t take long to make the wind corrections to the two airports. I decided to make a touch and go so I could land somewhere familiar with the now unfamiliar weight in the back seat. It was a little long, but it went well enough.
With the intercom on and the rotor turning I can barely hear the radio and there is feed back when I talk so my radio communications suffered. It felt good to ask for a strait out departure to Oceano. I wasn’t climbing well and determined it was because I hadn’t turned off the carb heat. I began climbing at 500 feet per minute as soon as I turned it off. It was now 38 degrees and 88% relative humidity.
I found that with all the corrections, my compass worked well.
At 5 minutes and 30 seconds I couldn’t find my first check point, the Guadalupe VOR. I circled around and found that I had flown over it at exactly on time, I had somehow missed it. Now I had to move everything back 30 seconds.
The next check point would have been hard to miss, a refinery with smoke stacks smoking. I hit it exactly on time. I made my first radio call on the Oceano frequency.
The ocean was a deep rich blue and the white sands of the Oceano dunes were stunning as we turned for the forty five degree entrance to the left down wind. The winds appeared calm. This is a relatively small airport and I used up almost half of the runway landing so we went back to the beginning. It was not one of my more elegant landings. There is a sign there that prohibits touch and goes. I had forgotten about that so once again I lucked out. The obstructions at the end of the runway seemed a little close, but we cleared them by 150 feet.
As we turned back toward Santa Maria the sun was directly in my eyes and I couldn’t read the radio to turn it back to the ATIS for SMX. As we turned back away from the sun so I could see I felt the freedom of flight on a higher level. I made my call to the tower with information quebec. We were cleared for a right down wind and I was to report mid field. The intercom was interfering with the radio and I couldn’t hear the tower instructions well enough to repeat them back so Terry made some of the calls. The tower told everyone individually to watch out for the gyroplane even though they were nowhere near us. They did not, however, tell us about the crop dusting helicopter that was 300 feet below us directly on our path. It is easy to lose a rotorcraft in the ground clutter. We saw him because the sun was flashing off his blades. Our landing was uneventful and off we went to get gas.
I will write about the second leg and my new limits when the flying conditions are less perfect.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
It is 1:00 pm and winds 020 at 16 knots gusting to 22 knots. This is over my new limit of 12 knots with a 5 knot direct cross. That is straight down our runway 20. I look forward to higher limits, but that kind of wind usually means that a storm is coming. I am not looking forward to being up in a storm.
As I read what I have written about my flight to Oceano, I realized that I really didn’t properly represent the range of emotions I experienced. I will try to do better with the trip to Lompoc.
Terry and I both performed a preflight on the Predator and there didn’t seem to be any new parts missing or new damage. As soon as Terry got the feeling back in his toess we were off.
We decided to just turn off the intercom so I could do better with my radio communications. Terry would tap me on the back if he wanted to me to turn it on.
We were granted permission to depart to the south at 1,000 feet. A few minutes into the flight they asked me if I was headed to Lompoc I answered yes and the change was approved. Terry taped me on the shoulder and after I turned on the intercom he explained about landing up hill in the rolling hills below. The grazing cattle let us know which way the wind blew. He then pointed out some fields that we could land on but they were wine fields or what we call stick farms. They have angled stakes and cables to hold up the grapes. There were a lot of power lines and we worked at identifying them.
The compass heading changed three times because we had to go around Vandenberg’s airspace. We hit my land marks right on time.
As I looked at Harris grade ahead, there were not a lot of good places to land so I climbed around 700 feet higher than my flight plan. I found the looming grade intimidating so I picked up the rpm. As we rose above the challenge and slid down the other side I felt a new sense of power and control over my new world and humbled at the same time by the size and scope of this spectacular dimension. This feeling grew as we gained altitude until it was all I could do to pay attention to flying to Lompoc.
I found the airport as soon as we crested the hill. I was looking for places to land as we descended into Lompoc valley. I lost the airport so I climbed a little and found it exactly where it should have been. I felt a rush of freedom as I explored my new capability for problem solving with altitude. I had attended their annual Cub fly in and they had always landed on 25 so that is what I was prepared to do. Pattern altitude is 901 feet and I was a little high. A slick fixed wing called for a landing on 7 so I called a left pattern for 7. I thought I had lost him, but he was so fast he was already on the ground. I was not able to tell which way the wind was blowing from the wind sock so Terry taped me on the shoulder and said to look at the flags on the cranes. I couldn’t find the cranes either. We went for 7 and I greased the landing, still a little long, but very smooth.
Off we went back toward Santa Maria with the multiple compass headings. I hit the marks on time and called in ten miles to the south. I was told to call in at the Orcutt Y three miles south of the field. When I did we were approved for 30 for the option. It takes a long time to fly straight in from 3 miles at 50 miles per hour and I found it uncomfortable tying up a busy airport for 5 minutes, but I followed their instructions.
As we were headed back to the T hangers I waved at a fellow who had just finished his hover sign off in Arizona and was about to hover in the extremely beautiful Rotorway 162 that he had been building for the last four and a half years.
We had not had more than three knots of wind to test my wind skills. I had consistently landed long and had trouble with the radio communications. I knew all the things I had done badly and I fully expected Terry to not raise my wind limits. I took Terry to lunch at the airport and sat him in the sun. He was sitting a little sideways to try to get his feet in the sun. His shivering gradually subsided.
I was having a little trouble with remembering the runway numbers and he explained to me about reciprocals. I found this helpful.
Back to the hanger for a debriefing and the winds began to come up. I offered to fly some more to demonstrate my wind skills, but Terry was only just warming up. He raised my limits to 12 kts with 5 kts direct cross. He took considerable time explaining what this meant when winds were at an angle to the runway and how to use the wiz wheel to calculate cross winds from wind angles.
When he left I started to get ready to fly and winds were at six. I had to close the door on my hangar to let the fellow next door get his aircraft out. I started cleaning up and found that I was going in circles. I was so excited that I didn’t realize how tired I was. When the new ADIS came out it was winds at 300 and 10 KTS. I decided to wait until I was more rested and functional.
As I was leaving I heard that the lovely Rotorway lay in pieces, his day had not been as successful as mine. The pilot was not hurt on the outside and projected an image of being undaunted. Having stood in his shoes, I wonder how he would feel tomorrow when he began to quantify the set back. Another reminder of how unforgiving aviation is of even small mistakes.
Well, I just read this and again I was not able to convey bredth or depth of my feelings.
I poured so much energy into being ready for that day that there was great possibility for disappointment. As each hurdle was cleared and my world stretched the joy I felt could not be quantified. My love of rotary wing aviation and my excitement increased exponentially. These are some of the most precious moments of my life and I am grateful to have friends to share them with that can work around my verbal limitations because they know these dreams and feelings through their own personal experiences. I was not able to imagine the joy I have today and I look forward to many future adventures and the joy they will bring.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
I flew a half hour at KSMX this morning. The winds came up to eleven while I was up and I decided to build up to my wind limits rather than pushing the new limits, so I landed. The winds did not seem like much of a challenge because they were at 320 and the runway is at 30. I have a lot of rudder authority. My four landings were very smooth with zero roll. I was within 15 feet of my touchdown target on every landing. I had a little trouble keeping her in the middle of the runway as the winds would shift around. My radio communication was good but my take offs were a little rough. I flew both a right and left pattern and did an early right cross wind over the tower on their instruction. Toward the end my ground speed was down below forty miles per hour and a strait in approach took a loooongggg time. The winds are down a little now so if I can get my work done I will go flying this afternoon. I love my new limits, YPIEEE!
I found a better way to Oceano on Google earth. I run straight out to Guadalupe and turn right when I get to the Ocean. Landing on the hard beach would seem fairly strait forward, so I feel a lot safer than over the scrub brush and eucalyptus trees along highway 1. There are not many people on that part of the beach and even less on the wet part. They do have vehicle traffic on the hard beach. There is not much to do at the Oceano Airport, but it is a fun flight and the ocean and the dunes are stunning from 700 feet. You are not allowed to do touch and goes and there are a lot of noise procedures. Google earth is a great tool for flight planning. I can see a view that is not all that different from what I see from the air and many of the emergency landing spots are easy to pick out. Unfortunately my air card is not a very fast connection so the pictures are a little slow coming up. I am going to work on a new flight plan to Oceano tonight. I need different check points and I now have two different compass headings so wind correction will take a little longer.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
It is 0 dark hundred and winds are 020 at 16 kts gusting to 24 kts. 48 degrees and clear. Back to bed for me.
I rose early to play with my toys and now I can only dream and remember. As I type this I realize that is more than most of the population ever gets a chance to do. For most the dream of flight as the pilot in command will never be more than a dream.
I will check again when the sun comes up.
It will be good to catch up on my sleep and plot the new coarse to Ocean if the winds are still up when I get up.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
Thank you Stan, I find flying particularly exciting.
I learned something about winds and the adis today. The adis said calm and I rushed down to the airport and got in an hour of flying. It was not calm; winds were later reported 350 at seven kts. This is very near my cross wind limit of 5 kts. I made eight very nice landings with a right pattern, a left pattern and both a short approach and a stabilized approach. I loved hearing what the winds had to say. I was feeling the winds on my landings and I felt I was managing them well until the last one. I had the wind sock abeam of where I was landing and it suddenly went straight out in a left direct cross. I didn’t know what to expect. I was using the rotor to stay as close as I could to the center and the rudder to keep it lined up with the runway. As I got down to about 20 miles per hour I started moving directly sideways almost as fast as I was moving forward. I was about a foot off the runway. I added a little power and put in a lot of right stick and right rudder. I ended up almost across the runway pointed into the wind with zero roll in any direction.
My hanger mate with the Acrosport was to follow me, he asked for a wind check and it was 020 12kts gusting to 18. He made and inelegant landing on 20. He felt if he had a passenger it would have ended their interest in aviation. He saw my landing and he liked it? It is what made him call for the wind check and land on 20 instead of 30.
I loved flying in the wind and I don’t know how close I was to real trouble.
My takeoffs were much nicer today.
I found I needed a little rudder to turn crosswind and some forward pressure on the stick to keep my airspeed at 50 miles per hour.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
The tower had just reported 350 at 7 kts.
It happened in an instant, I was about 12 feet up when I saw the wind sock change and coming down fast, It didn't hit me until I had slowed right down in the flair.
That is what my hanger mate did because he saw my landing.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
I missed my just after sunrise flight opportunity by spending too much time on pre-flight. I found a screw missing and I went over every nut and bolt on her. I did not find anything that was loose or worn. By the time I was finished the winds were 360 at 18 kts. It is 340 at 19 kts now.
If the leaves on the tree outside stop shaking I am on my way.
Otherwise I will be working at learning to use my Garmin GPS and working on my lists so I can get them laminated.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
I just reread my report of yesterday’s last landing and I realized that I left out some of the process.
Terry and I had discussed cross winds and what would happen if they were higher than I could manage. We had tried to imagine at what air speed and wind velocity I would run out of rudder authority. When I saw the wind sock go suddenly straight out in a direct cross I knew I was in trouble. I didn’t know just how it would come.
When I couldn’t arrest my left drift it was a little like when I have been doing 360 degree turns in the wind to create runway spacing, if I don’t use a little rudder I mush around a lot. It didn’t seem like something I should do near the ground, so I added a little power to slow my decent and turned into the wind. I dropped in when I had stopped moving in any direction. I didn’t realize just how far I had turned until I was on the ground. I was near the center line of the runway and pointed into the wind.
We had just installed a yaw string and that helped me understand what was going on in the gusty winds before that last landing. On my cross wind leg it seemed like if I kept her pointed ahead she would move sideways a lot more than if I used a little rudder to help her to turn.
I have not spoken to Terry yet: so please, don’t think that I handled it correctly. I am an inexperienced student pilot trying to learn how to fly without damaging the aircraft.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
It was a red sunrise as I taxied toward alpha. I called ground and I could barely hear them and could not understand them. I had a little challenge with the radio the last time I flew and oddly enough, it got worse. I was getting some kind of noise in sync with the engine. I turned off the alternator with the mystery switch and it did not help. I tried my hand held and it worked fine with the engine running. I removed the radio from its tray, re-installed it and after that it worked great????
Back to Alpha I went, the winds were starting to come and I was afraid it would be like yesterday with too much wind. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I was particularly anxious to fly.
Terry has me beginning my pre-rotation before I pull onto the runway up to about 75 rpm. This makes for a shorter delay on the runway and has not caused any problems so far.
I continue to expand my grasp of the environment. When I cut back to 1,800 rpm abeam the numbers I am at 600 feet agl. I turn at the lights and I am descending at 500 feet per minute from 400 feet above ground level. If I reduce the engine to 1200 rpm I descend at 900 feet per minute. I climb out at 1100 feet per minute. At 2450 rpm I am level at 75 miles per hour.
I feel like I am getting to know her and just starting to caress her.
Today I flew for 2.3 hours and every landing, every take off and every tower communication but the first one was lovely. When I made the first tower call I was still on the ground frequency, ooops!
I had several landings that looked like they weren’t going to work out. They ended up being very smooth. I believe that I am developing a feel for it.
There were a lot of commercial jets today and I was cautioned about wake turbulence. I was careful to land further down the runway than they touched down. I followed a Fed Ex jet that landed late and it felt like stairs as I descended. I don’t know if the is wake turbulence or not. It started getting bumpy about eight feet up. Any opinions?
I now have 31.4 hours in the Predator with 25 hours at Santa Maria. I have 127
landings. I am pleased with my progress.
I had my camera with me but when I took my gloves off to take a picture I nearly dropped the camera because my hands were completely numb. I was not successful. The view at sunrise was stunning with the red clouds, the white sand dunes and the deep blue water.
I have not figured out where it would be safe to climb until she runs out of steam, there is a lot of commercial traffic around here headed for San Louis Obispo and Santa Maria. They are moving faster than I am and even with my strobe lights on the other aircraft are reporting they have trouble finding me even when they are told where I am. I don’t want to get up into their flight path.
A pilot in a Citation said to the tower, "I have the Gyrocopter and he looks like Fred Flintstone." I landed in a most elegant way as he was preparing to take off. I suspect that I was having more fun than he was.
I had so much fun I could hardly get out of her today. I could not feel anything below my knees and I missed the step. It could have been trouble. Can you imagine! “What ever happened to old Vance? Why he landed on his head while he was exiting his aircraft.”
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
It was supposed to rain on Friday so I didn’t hold out much hope for flying. As I drove up to the airport about a half hour before sunrise the sky was turning red. The ADIS said winds variable at four kts. I performed a through pre-flight the night before so I rolled her out, checked the gas and oil, gave a quick look at the controls and the rotor tower integrity and off I went. I made my radio call to ground and it is starting to feel familiar. I made the call to the tower and I was to fly a close left pattern.
Each takeoff and landing felt better than the one before. I am starting to feel what to do instead of thinking about it. I had several landings that seemed to be going badly and I found a way to turn them from bad to good. The tower was realy working with me and it allowed me to be more consistent. I flew for 1.4 hours and made 12 landings.
I felt like I was running out of forward stick and I stopped to inspect the rotor controls and filled up with gas. I couldn’t find anything wrong and went out for .75 hours and 6 landings.
The last four landings had a gusting tail wind with the last two being with a straight out wind sock. The extra speed was intimidating and I lost rudder authority as I touched down at around 15 miles per hour ground speed. Adding power just picked up the speed and delayed the problem. I had to use my brakes to steer. I thought that this was good practice, now that I have thought about it I think I should have made a full stop after the first downwind landing. The tower didn’t want to reverse the traffic flow because there was a lot of commercial stuff coming in IFR and they were spaced a little tight.
I realized at four am that I was running out of forward stick because I was more relaxed and I was sitting back instead of hunching forward. It made my arm too short.
Saturday was supposed to be a rainy day also and I had a little work to do so I didn’t get to the airport until 9:00 am. I was flying by 9:30. There was a lot of traffic and I was often number three in the pattern. I was flying a close right pattern, normal pattern is left and many of the larger aircraft land strait in. It was a challenge keeping track of the traffic and the spacing. I think it was good practice for a busy airport. Toward the end of the hour I had the airport pretty much to myself and it allowed more consistency. They changed tower personnel and the new guy would clear me for the option as I was abeam the tower. It made it much easier to be consistent. After an hour of touch and goes I stopped for gas. As I was heading back out I checked the ADIS and wind were variable at 8. Some of the wind socks were strait out and as I turned toward taxiway alpha I felt the wind across my face. I headed back toward the hanger. I turned around once more and the wind was even stronger. I suspect that I looked silly doing 360 degree turns. It seemed like such a waste to not fly.
I had two landings that I felt weren’t going well and I was able to save them with more aggressive stick inputs. It feels as though the Predator is an extension of my body and I think her down.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
It is 6:00 am and fog with visibility of a quarter mile. I am headed down to the airport to wait for the fog to burn off. I hope to focus and make progress on hitting my spot. I feel that as I develop more ways to have elegant landings I should be able to use some of them to put her down where I want.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
Yahoooo!
Big progress today! The fog burned off early and I got to test my 4:00 am epiphany.
I do some of my best thinking when I wake up in the early am. I was replaying some of my saved landings and I realized that I had learned not to be too rough with the stick in a Robinson 22. I had been too gentle with the stick in the Predator. In the helicopter I would rest my arm on my leg so I could control my movements and just apply pressure. In the Predator my arm is free and I use more than pressure to make things happen. The way I learned to turn an untidy landing into an elegant landing was to be more aggressive with the stick. It occurred to me that I could use the same aggressive moves to plant my aircraft where I wanted too.
For my first 9 landings I picked a ten foot set of white stripes as my target and I hit every time. If I was floating too far, I could pull back hard and plant the tail. If I needed more distance I could slow my pull back, bleed off more airspeed and then aggressively cushion the landing at the very last moment. This would not have worked until I managed to be more consistent with my landings so in my opinion, I am building on my experience. I am not able to express what a big deal this was to me. I went out to the Guadalupe Dunes because I now felt confident that I could land successfully if the engine stopped. I am now working hard at not becoming overconfident.
I experienced the pitfall of overconfidence in my second mission. The winds were at ten and straight down the runway, the tower let me know when they increased to twelve at 310. I was landing on 30 so this was right at my limit and I called for a full stop. I wanted to land near the high speed taxiway in front of the tower so I came in a little high. I watched the wind sock go straight out in a direct cross. I was still high enough to go around. Instead I got somewhere around 35 degrees of lean just to stay lined up with the runway. The move was so extreme that the tower asked if that was intentional. I was set to go around and the gust died down and I planted her exactly where I intended to, tail wheel first at zero roll. “I withdraw the question!’” came from the tower. I should have gone around and landed on 20. I feel this was poor aviation decision making based on overconfidence. I spent the next hour watching other aircraft have much bigger problems with less wind. I love gyroplanes.
Thank you Lee, I was so excited today that I got dry mouth. I checked my pulse after my last landing and it was a 74, indicating that I did not have the judgment to be frightened. I am pleased that I can bring that excitment back for you. It is one of the high points of my life.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
Winds are 040 degrees at 11 kts, gusting to 19 kts.
I will try to get some work done on my studies for the knowledge test.
I would like to learn how to work my Garmin. I had it on yesterday and it warned me that I was in controlled airspace and it warned me when I was approaching restricted airspace. I had to press enter to make the message go away. I can see where this has value.
I also lost KSMX in the sun as I was coming back from Guadalupe. I think I may go into work for a faster connection so I can study the Google earth pictures and pick up more landmark references. My version air card makes things happen a little slow.
Thank you all for the encouragement. I feel like I have a whole band of friends sharing the experience. It helps me when I encounter setbacks and increases the joy of my epiphanies.
I find it challenging to go from my demonstrated ability in motorcycles to my student status in aviation. I feel so foolish when I misinterpret some experience or allow some similar unrelated experience to hold me back.
I used to teach road racing, so I am very familiar with the learning process in a risk environment. I often feel like my worst students. Sometimes I just don’t get it and I am not able to put it together. After I come to some understanding I can’t believe that I was so slow to learn. I feel that I know what proficiency looks like and I have a very long way to go. I don’t think that I will run out of excitement any time soon and I will continue to provide comic relief to those who have been there, done that and have the license.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
The first day of the New Year was a great day for flying.
The winds never got over 4 kts.
I flew for 2.5 hours and made 29 very nice landings.
Most of my take offs were good.
Twice a large helicopter passed beneath me and it look like someone had played Frisbee with a very big tarantula. The rotor was so big and turning so slowly you could see the individual blades.
I flew out to the Guadalupe dunes and took some pictures of a very hazy Santa Maria Valley. I will post some of them after Diana shrinks them
I was able to get the ground speed working on my Garmin today and came back from Guadalupe at 92 miles per hour ground speed at 2450 rpm or 75 percent power.
I don’t believe I made any mistakes on the radio.
I used the initial contact from 10 miles out that Jim Mayfield taught me and it worked great.
I had a flat tire as I was landing and I was able to take enough weight off it with full back stick to get to parking so I didn’t close down the airport.
I have the tire fixed now.
All in all a very exciting day with lots of quantifiable progress. I am starting to feel comfortable now and I love every moment of the flight. I am initiating turns in the wind with the rudder and that seems to work well. My heart still pounds but my mouth is less dry. I spend less time thinking about what am I going to do to mitigate this error and more time thinking about what will be the most fun.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
Some of today’s pictures.
Arrive at 0 dark hundred. BMW in the back ground.
Two pictures on the way to Guadalupe.
Some are still two big.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
It is six am and winds are calm. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so I had better get flying today. The sun will come up in about an hour. I hope to do some slow flight at altitude and find where behind the power curve is. I want to do that with plenty of altitude.
I also want to practice go arounds. A friend of mine feels that I am too committed to landing and I should practice aborting a landing so it becomes more of an option. I will talk to the tower before I practice. Jim Jones, the tower manager gave Diana his card and has been particularly helpful. He told her yesterday that I entertain them when things are slow and they are glad to have me. This was just before I landed with a flat front tire.
Sorry, I wasn’t thinking, when I post a bunch of pictures I will post them in flying photos. I know that people with a slow connection want to know where the pictures so they can avoid them. I will try to get Diana to shrink some more today and teach me how to do it.
I am also going to try to reach Terry today so he can tell me what I am doing that I shouldn’t do and what he would like me to practice.
Up, up and away!
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
I opened another door today. I knew it was there but I hadn’t opened it.
I was working very hard at consistency. Straight and level at 700 feet and 2,200 rpm, cut power to 1,800 when I am a beam of my landing spot, began my base to final over the runway end lights at 500 feet and I am over the end of the runway at 300 feet descending at 500 feet per minute. Maintain 50 miles per hour and reduce power, Round out at ten feet above the runway and flair at 5. Today I went in the other direction.
Terry felt that I should have gone around instead of landed when I hit the gust directly across the runway even though I was at two feet above the runway. He felt that when I was two feet off the runway I could have gone around and when I was twenty feet above the runway I defiantly should have gone around. Today’s mission was to practice going around so it is second nature rather than a difficult choice.
As I arrived at the airport I got a call from Jim Mayfield about something he was working on. I imposed on his good nature and asked him about slow flight and arresting my decent. We came up with what I felt was a workable plan. He felt that the best way to explore slow flight was to do it long enough to achieve stability.
I began by running a little more throttle and a little less speed, 45 instead of 50 to maintain my pattern altitude of 700 feet on my downwind of about a mile. I kept cutting back the power and she kept climbing so I reduced speed to 40 miles per hour. 2250 was straight and level.
After my next go around I set the engine at 75% power and continued to reduce my speed. I got to 25 miles per hour and I was still climbing a little. It felt like I was crawling around the pattern. I was a little worried about what a gust of wind would do and I called Jim back when I stopped for gas. He said that if I just relax back pressure it will take care of itself. I got down to 20 miles per hour and chickened out. It just doesn’t seem possible.
Then I tried adding speed and at 2,550 rpm I was a little over 90 miles per hour straight and level. 20 Miles per hour to over ninety seemed to me like a very broad flight envelope.
Each time I came around I would practice either landing from this new strange speed, altitude and rate of decent or practice going around. It seemed that as soon as I would add power it would arrest my decent. I still have not explored this fully as I was too excited about my range of speed. I did not find a way to land badly.
I had a new way to level out, just slow down or speed up with the cyclic instead of pulling the power back to 2,200 rpm. This was very cool. I understood the concept; I just hadn’t explored the execution.
I was again fighting over confidence. I was having so much fun and laughing so hard I could barely see where I was going. Fortunately this time I remembered to keep my thumb off the push to talk button when I was squealing with excitement.
I decided to head out toward the ocean again and I was exploring different speeds and power settings. At around 1,000 feet over Point Sal Dunes I felt what I thought was a different shake in the stick. It sort of clicked instead of bonged. I headed back toward the airport and made my initial contact. I easily found the airport and entered the left downwind pattern at a 45 degree angle and announced my location. “Clear to land on 30, number two following the Citation.”
Upon inspection I found the rod end on the right control rod had more play in it than I had felt before. I spent the rest of the afternoon having people explain to me that with spherical rod ends if the hole in the ball is ¼ inch than the thread is ¼ 28, if the hole is 5/16 the thread is 5/16 24. I have a quarter inch hole in the ball and 5/16 threads. “Damn, I have never seen one like that and we service all the major brands of tractors.”
I will find one tomorrow.
I came home to find that my plumbing, which is in the ceiling is leaking and the ceiling is about to collapse. I guess into each life a little ceiling must fall.
I have posted a couple of pictures from yesterday in the flying photos section.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
I received my spherical rod ends today and I replaced two of them without dropping any of the washers down the rotor tower. It makes the control stick noticeably tighter. The one had a lot of play, the second was just a little loose. I would like to get the heavy duty Teflon coated ones without the grease fittings because they are noticeably tighter and stronger. I have ten rod ends in my control system and I feel that this would be good. Aurora is difficult to order from and a little shaky on their delivery date. I would like to do a control system with fewer rod ends so I think I will wait on replacing all the rod ends.
I now have 26 hours of flight time at KSMX and I want to keep up with my maintenance.
Winds are 190 degrees at 18 kts gusting to 27 kts so no flying today. The temperature is down to 59 degrees.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
It was 48 degrees and wet when I arrived at the airport. The winds were coming up and I could see the rain heading my way. I didn’t want to miss my window of opportunity so I felt a lot of pressure to rush my preflight inspection. I thought about it and slowed down.
We knew it was coming, I plopped her down a little hard today on my first landing. It was still a lot better than some of my early landings. I caught a gust of wind straight down the runway and my airspeed jumped up and I gained altitude. I should have gone around. Instead even though my ground speed remained constant I watched my airspeed decay and my flair didn’t have the authority to cushion the landing as much as I would have liked.
Two landings later I thought I felt a flat tire and taxied to parking to inspect the landing gear and the tires. The tire pressures were as set and my nose gear appeared undamaged, I was just oversensitive from my flat previous flat tire experience.
I could feel the difference the new rod ends made. There was less stick shake and when I applied pressure it had a smoother feel.
5 landings later I had the cross wind gust experience and I used my practice to go around. I let off on the rudder and flew down the runway at about a 40 degree angle. The go around was a good decision.
I changed from 30 to 20 as the winds moved around. They got a little gusty and I called for a full stop. I touched my left wheel first and had a lot of left stick. It was very smooth and I was full of myself as I was cleared to taxi to the t hangers. When I came to the hold short line for 12 there was an Aeronca in the pattern that I had not heard on the radio so I asked the tower if it was ok to cross the runway. He explained to me that if he clears me to the t hangers I can cross all runways. He sounded annoyed. The landing was a great way to end the flight, the radio mistake was not.
I had done a 360 for spacing for a Robinson 22 and I had trouble finding him. I finally found him he was about 20 feet over the hangers at about 50 miles per hour. I would not have been able to do an auto at that speed and altitude in a 22. It is no wonder that helicopters have such a poor safety record.
I spoke to one of my detractors here at KSMX and he confirmed Jeff’s hypothesis. He told me of his early flying experience and he made it sound like he was lucky to survive. He said once you learn to take off and land without stalling it is time to leave the airport behind and practice stalls, flat spins and maybe barrel rolls. I shared with him that Autogiros are not well suited to these things. As he was scoffing, one of his heroes, a Reno air racer, came by and said he was watching me and that I was flying very well. My detractor repeated his advice and was corrected by his hero who said “it is about time someone spent the time to learn the basics well.” This aviation culture has a very clearly defined hierarchy and it appears I am no longer on the bottom. My detractor brought up the radio confusion and the hero said that runway incursions were a very real and current problem and it was good I asked.
I am again fighting over confidence and a big head.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
As I arrived at the airport the fog appeared white and was caressing the hills in a most sensuous way. Unfortunately it burned off before I could get into the air and take a picture.
I finished my preflight in a half hour and winds were at 350 at 11kts. This is right at my limit for cross winds.
Off I went and it was pretty windy, especially between the hangers. I nearly returned to the hanger. As I warmed up the oil I was directly across from a wind sock and the wind looked to be straight down 30. I called for a wind check and it was 300 at 11.
The air had that clean feel that happens after a rain. The parched hills took on a green mantel from two days of rain after a long dry spell.
I waited until I was out on the runway before I started my pre-rotation. My blades were moving around more than I am used to and there is a bump in the runway that I feared would start some unpleasantness if I was starting them spinning. They spun up nicely from the head wind and I was off in about 75 feet. It felt like an elevator as I rose above the tower before I arrived at the tower. I was at 500 feet above ground in less than half the runway. Twice the tower asked me to make my cross wind turn early for spacing.
I was leading with my rudder and making more elegant turns because of it. The helicopters were very busy today so they switched me to a left close pattern a couple of times to keep me away from them.
I made a touch and go and I thought I had over shot my spot. It felt like I went backward to hit it dead on. I suspect that this was an illusion. I departed straight out.
It looked clear, but the pictures look just as overcast as the last ones. There was a real bite in the air so I tried operating the camera with my gloves on. The wrist strap kept me from losing the camera.
I called from ten miles out and was told to enter a right downwind and report mid field. I repeated it and off I went, this meant that I was crossing the end of the runway 30. As I got near the flight corridor the tower warned me that I was too close. I reminded him that I was to enter a right base and he said “EXPERMENTAL 2 MIKE GOLF ENTER A LEFT DOWN WIND AND REPORT ABEAM THE TOWER”. I don’t feel that this was my error. I was cleared for the option on 30.
The strong head wind made for my best landings yet. I was not able to make a bad landing and most were really elegant. After a few touch and goes I stopped for gas and a personal preflight.
I was having so much fun working on my descending turns that I didn’t want to stop for lunch. I flew for an hour with 12 touch and goes. I practiced some go-arounds and I felt like I had total control of the aircraft. If a gust would move me I would just move back with power, rudder or stick. It was mostly a combination of all three. I find myself anticipating events and intuitively knowing what to do. I feel the event and just react to it. I am not spending a lot of time wondering what might put me back where I want to be.
I finally stopped for lunch at 1:00 and when I was finished winds were 300 degrees at 14 kts so I spent some time on maintenance and went to work. My desk is in chaos and my flying has defiantly exacerbated my poor work ethic. The people that work with me are being real nice about it, so far.
I will try to learn to shrink the pictures myself. They are really very similar to the other days.
I have to write up something about gyroplanes for the Santa Maria Times and that must take priority. I have a reporter coming out Thursday or Friday and I want her to be educated when she arrives. She promised me that she would read it. She covers the “airport beat” and saw the Predator landing and thought it was interesting. The airport manager has suggested that he might be nicer to me if I do a good job on this.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
The sunrise was spectacular this morning, bright red and very complex. The airport was almost deserted as I rolled the Predator out of her home. I loved shattering the silence as her engine caught and came to life. The noise of the prop echoes off the metal hangars. The preparation to taxi is becoming almost routine. My heart stills pounds with anticipation and my mouth is dry when I call ground. My spirit soars each time I hear “Experimental gyroplane November 142 Mike Golf taxi to 30.”
Lately I have been flying in winds around my limit of 12 kts. Today was calm. Each landing, more than 20, was very similar and they were all good. I loved the consistency that the calm conditions gave. They had a lot of traffic and they had me land on Taxiway Alpha. It looked very narrow from 500 feet up. It seemed to grow as I descended. I loved landing on Alpha. I look forward to more practice on Alpha.
I went to my acquired brain injury group today and talked about the challenge I have with long read backs. They suggested that I let the tower know of my challenge with unrelated short term memory. I met with two of the controllers and it went very well. I feel that they may have told me they made a mistake sending me on a right downwind when I was coming from the North West. I love all the support and help I get from people. They told me they feel it is their roll to be a little surely when something doesn’t’ go well.
Here is a picture from yesterday. You can see it is still overcast. It has a little better view of the coast, the dunes and the surf. It is a lot better in person. I flew low over the waves but was too excited and cold to take a picture.
I have been flying at 1,000 feet above ground level so that I have more options to land. I want to fly lower. Because of my overconfidence I have resisted the temptation. I took one picture that showed the GPS at 35 miles per hour. I love slow flight!
I aborted a landing at what I thought was well past the point of no return. I might have even touched my wheels. She just leaped back into the air. I thought that the rotor had to speed up to arrest my decent? It seems to respond instantly as soon as the engine stops sputtering from the carb heat.
I flew in the rain this evening, just a drizzle that came up while I was up. I tried to race it back to the airport but it was coming across my flight path and I was not successful. It was cold and wet. I loved it.
I learn so much each time I fly. I have flown over 30 hours from KSMX and done over 100 landings. Each one is a new challenge, each turn can be a little better. Each power change can be a little smoother and more precise. Each takeoff a little smoother. Each turn a little more elegant. Each pattern a little straighter, I tend to get a little closer at the landing end. I love to cut the power and feel confident in my rate of decent and my ability to make the end of the runway and hit my spot. I love progress!
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
Thank you Doug, aplomb is not a word I would to describe my interactions with the control tower.
Thank you Jeff, I use the FAR/AIM to exacerbate my bewilderment and as a sleep aid.
The sunrise was a stunning red and the warmth of the sun cut through the chill of the morning.
When I left the house this morning winds were at 340 degrees at 3 kts. It took me 25 minuets to get to the airport because I stopped and purchased some goat skin gloves at ACE hardware so I could take pictures with my gloves on. I took a half hour for a preflight. Add another ten minuets to go through my sit down and start up procedure and the new adis Uniform had come out. Winds at 300 degrees and 13 kts. Back to the hanger for me.
Or annual hangar inspection is tomorrow so I spent some time looking for gas cans and paint supplies that are prohibited in our lease. I checked the adis, it comes out around 53 minuets after the hour and Victor was Winds at 310 degrees and 11 kts. Less than 10 minuets later I was calling ground.
I asked the tower for a strait out departure. I felt that I had landed enough in windy conditions for the time being, so it was off to the ocean.
I worked at maintaining altitude, heading and airspeed.
The usually dry river bed of the Santa Maria River was flowing down to the sea.
On the way back I saw over 100 miles per hour ground speed on my gps. My airspeed was 75 miles per hour. There was only a five mile per hour difference on the way out. I was told to enter a left down wind and report abeam the tower. I read it back properly. I suspected that the wind had increased in my short absence. I called for a wind check and it came back 300 degrees at 15 kts. I was bobbing around more than I like so I did a go around. It was worse the second time and again I did a go around. The tower asked if I wanted to change runways. The prevailing wind was right down the runway so I took a deep breath and put her down just where I was aiming. The landing felt challenging and I worked hard at controlling my rotor. It all went well so I feel I may be overestimating the challenge. This is my first flight with only one landing.
I went to work at the software company, checking the adis each hour and at 2:55 it was 300 degrees and 6 kts. I abandoned my coworkers and had her ready to go in about 35 minuets. As I taxed toward 30 the windsocks were picking up and I figured I shouldn’t press my luck.
I don’t learn as much just flying along but I love the unstructured freedom. The rotor makes a slow swishing sound that I find especially alluring. I am starting to feel more comfortable and now that I have landed on the taxiway and had it grow I feel that I will have the same experience if I have a real engine out landing. My flying at 1000 feet probably intensifies my insecurity because it makes the landing spots appear smaller and I might feel more comfortable flying lower.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
The sun was already up as I headed for the airport. I love to drive with the top down and feel the way my car handles and accelerates. The hills around here are turning green from the rain and this is my favorite time of year. I had the amazing experience of wishing I was already flying instead of enjoying the drive. I intend to work on this. I think that gratitude for all the nice things in life is important. Thinking of Doug in the snow did pick up the mood a little. It does show me how much I love flying the Predator.
Today was my best day of flying yet. I started in calm conditions and the wind gradually picked up until it was over my limit. I flew for a little over 2 hours and made over 30 landings. Every landing was very smooth and within 5 feet of my target. My take offs are improving as I work at being smoother on the throttle.
I have so many more tools to adjust for conditions that, at least for today, I made no desperate moves. I could not have imagined the progress I have made.
Today I was working at being right on with my altitudes and airspeeds. I was making quicker 90 degree turns over the same place each time. I was working at making base the same distant as cross wind.
As the winds picked up this consistency paid off and I could recognize divergence from the plan a lot sooner.
I found I could keep track of the winds by watching the difference between my airspeed and my ground speed. I watched all of the wind socks on each pattern.
I found myself wanting to show off for the people holding short. I recognize this as a way to make a mistake so I consciously resisted the temptation.
I made some go-arounds that amazed me. I can see that it is a good thing to practice so I don’t hesitate when it is the right choice. They are possible much later than I imagined.
I improved my radio calls and my read backs by being more careful to read one line at a time. It slows me down a little. I am, after all, trying to communicate. I need to let go of wanting to sound like a pilot and focus on saying what I mean and being understood.
I am not sure how it can get any better than this. My situational awareness is constantly improving. I am able to find aircraft much sooner in the pattern and often recognize what they are. Complex read backs are starting to feel effortless.
I know that progress doesn’t come in a straight line so I am ready for some reversals. For now I am pleased with my expanded capabilities.
I am meeting with the reporter tomorrow.
The hangar inspection has been moved to Tuesday afternoon.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
Thank you Stan, knowning you makes me smile.
Thank you Scott, I could not have imagined the progress.
Hello Mark, There are pictures of the Preditor in a thread entitled Progress.
I went to a safety meeting at the Cessna pilots association put on by the Van Nuys fsdo. They asked everyone what they flew. I was the only autogiro. The faa person had noticed me flying and was very complimentary. The meeting and the pilots helped me appreciate the CFIs that I have dealt with. There was a discussion about fuel exhaustion. One fellow had crashed because he didn’t know that they sold fuel by the liter in Canada. I was taught to dip my fuel tanks and never to trust the fuel truck. The question was asked has anyone checked their actual consumption. Most relied on the Pilots operating handbook. I was taught that part of a flight plan was estimated consumption and actual consumption. Thank you Terry and Sergio.
Winds were North West at 11 kts when I arrived at the airport. I decided to head out to the coast. My compass is not working well. They asked me for my heading and I made it up. I took off from 30 and turned left about 10 degrees, the isogonic lines say -14 degrees. That sounded like 276 degrees to me. I found the compass on my GPS but I don’t know if it is magnetic or true heading. I have misplaced the manual.
I stayed at 1000 feet until I was out of KSMX airspace, then I slowed and let her climb without changing the power setting. I was at 2000 feet pretty quickly. I flew up the coast for a while and monitored the Oceano frequency. No one was talking.
When I arrived at the coast it was put on the new gloves weather, I didn’t and when I climbed to 2000 feet it was warmer?????
When I arrived back at KSMX I was just entering the pattern when the ATC told someone to watch out for me. He had a heavy German accent and he couldn’t find me. The control tower said the autogiro is very low and very slow. At least he didn’t call it a gyrocopter.
I filled up with fuel and went back up. There were four aircraft working the pattern and several transients. I requested closed traffic and he gave me right closed traffic approved. I came around the first time and he offered me taxi way Alpha. Everyone else was lining up four and five deep. The dark side of me enjoyed the special privilege. I suspect that it was not good public relations. I landed behind a Citation four times before he was cleared for 30. On my fifth circuit I was cleared for a touch and go on 30, the Citation was still holding short. My GPS was reading 70 miles per hour when I was showing 50 miles per hour airspeed. I felt this was over my wind limit of 12 kts and requested a full stop. I was cleared for the option on taxiway Alpha. A Cessna was blown a little close for me and I probably banked a little harder than I should have. I came in a little high and did a simulated engine out. It was perfect and it turned out that several people were watching the goings on. I heard later that the people watching thought it was good flying. I continue to fight arrogance and a desire to show off.
I met with the reporter and her photographer at 2:00. I have no idea how it will turn out. It is supposed to come out Saturday, January 19. He wants to take pictures of the Predator flying tomorrow morning.
I was finished with the reporter at 4:00 and winds were at 9 kts so I went up and was going to fly to the coast. My mouth was dry and my heart pounded as I lifted off. There was a huge fog bank oozing over the hills and I decided to stay close. Five more perfect landings and take offs. I love this stuff. I landed as the fog was covering the west side of the airspace and filled up 100 ll for tomorrow.
I did a 45 minuet preflight and found the screw that holds the spinner had come loose. This could have been ugly. I am ready to fly tomorrow morning as soon as I get done with my contractor who is fixing my ceiling.
We rearranged the hanger so that the Cessna 152 that was trapped behind my aircraft can get out now. I am on the opposite side of the hanger from the refrigerator and I like this better. There seem to be some strange experiments with unusual life forms going on in that refrigerator. I am also less able to hear the siren song of the strawberry cheese cake.
I am going to work on my check lists and emergency procedures tonight. I feel that I need a run up and shut down procedure and an engine out emergency procedure. I think that the process will be useful. I want to laminate them along with my preflight check list.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
Thank you Brandon, you helped me to remember to stay inside my wind limit.
As I considered not coming down as the tower reported winds at 330 degrees at 13 kts, I remembered what you said about my diligence and I called for a full stop. As I ate lunch looking out at runway 30 there were gusts to 29 kts. I watched a Brasilia get up on one wheel. Thank you.
Thank you Jeff, It is a Garmin III. The manual is just the last place I will look for it. It is not very lost. I have been working so hard at getting in every minute of flying I have gotten a little sloppy. If you can find something that would be great, having it on the computer will allow me to look like I am working at work. Today I figured out how to do “go to” and I set the clock and reset the trip. I feel like I am over the hump now.
The photographer from the newspaper didn’t show today and I played with my Garmin while I waited for him.
My expanded lists were helpful today, but not in the way I expected. As I roll out for takeoff I am always wondering if I released the rotor brake or if I turned on the fuel pump, if I am full rich, or if I have changed to the tower frequency, ect ect. With the list, before I call the tower and tell them I am ready for takeoff, I can run down the list very quickly. When I am taking off I can focus on rotor management and takeoff stuff. I had not realized how much of my focus I would lose to my mental check lists. I don’t believe I would want to work without them. I lost one of them over the strawberry fields today.
It was a little gusty and winds were 300 degrees and 10 kts. Every landing was lovely. I still tense up a little but I have come to expect elegant landings. I am no less grateful for good landings; I have just come to expect them.
I flew for 1.6 hours of touch and goes and simulated engine outs. 18 in all. I am focusing on my ground reference maneuvers and consistency. During takeoff and climb out, my ground speed was 9 miles per hour slower than my airspeed. When I would level out at 700 feet my ground speed was 15 miles per hour slower than my airspeed. Sometimes on downwind my ground speed was 20 miles per hour faster than my airspeed. I found this confusing.
I learned a little bit about radio calls today. I found that I was trying to rush through the whole thing. Today I focused on reading one line at a time and I was a little slower, but I stumbled over the words less.
Santa Maria tower
Experimental Gyroplane
November 142 Mike Golf
With information whisky
Ready for take off
Request left closed traffic.
I am slower and more deliberate.
These details are what allow me to continue to grow.
I am working on a flight plan to Oceano tomorrow.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
It was a perfect day for flying. It was 70 degrees and variable winds at 3 kts.
I did not fly well today. I was not happy with two of my 18 landings. Somehow I have forgotten what the picture looks like when I am just off the runway. I flared about a foot too high both times and as I bled off speed, I kept expecting to touch down. I was able to make it smooth, but it was inelegant and I felt behind in my skills.
After my morning flight I went to a funeral at the airport for Dr. Henry A. Rowe, 1918 to 2007. It was an aviation funeral complete with a scattering of his ashes from the air. It was kind of nice to see him leave for a final flight. Many people spoke of his work to get them a medical. One was a double amputee that does aerobatic flight. I found it inspiring.
I was not much better in the afternoon. I am trying to land to a higher standard and I fell short.
I noticed a 35 foot sink at my normal power setting from one end of my down wind to the other. My next pattern I added another ten rpm and she still sank 25 feet. I decided to land to see if something was wrong. My last landing was elegant.
I am gassed up and ready to go tomorrow. I love to start out in calm air and have the winds pick up. I learn so much. If it is windy I will take another flight to Oceano.
I need to work on my compass. It is only half full of fluid and it often does not read correctly. I hope to address this tomorrow when the winds come up. I will fill it and than take the Predator out to the compass rose with a friend or two and adjust until it works well.
I had a Cessna linger on the runway and I flew my final at 25 miles per hour to give him spacing. It turns that many of the people at the funeral were watching and thought it was cool.
There is a pool at the airport for how many hours it will take for me to crash. There are more people that think it is cool than are participating in the pool. I tried to place a bet, but they said that I could control the event, so I wasn’t allowed to participate.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
Hello Mike,
I expect to be at Bensen Days. The only way I will bring the Predator is to fly her and that is looking a little unlikely at this moment. I am going to lose the entire month of February to travel for work so that doesn’t leave much time for learning how to fly. It would be a wonderful adventure, maybe next year.
Thank you Jeff,
I off to a meeting now, I will learn more tomorrow night.
I flew for four and a half hours today.
The answer to Jim Mayfield’s question is around 50 feet is lost accelerating from 25 miles per hour to 50 miles per hour with the engine at idle. I say about because it is very hard to watch the altimeter and the airspeed at the same time. I did it several times and came up with answers from 35 to 80 feet. I realize that if you were only 35 feet above the ground this level of accuracy would not be good enough.
I found out what I was doing wrong that cause my landings to suffer. After the first inelegant landing I began to look at the ground instead at the end of the runway. I know better than this because in a slow race on a motorcycle you never look at the ground because of target fixation. You go where you look. I will try not to make this mistake again. I made more than forty elegant landings today.
I flew to Oceano and filed up. This is really my first solo cross country. I thought it didn’t count because it is only 17 miles and it doesn’t count for my requirements. Terry explained that takeoff from one airport and landing at another is a cross country. I have to admit that it felt good. There were two fellows there watching the grass grow and they both felt that I made an elegant entrance and that it was a nice machine. I found a very nice way to get there with four heading changes. All my radio calls went very well. I hit four landmarks on time and used less fuel than I had calculated. I was a minuet early on my estimated time of arrival and a minuet late upon my return to KSMX.
I went up again after lunch and worked on my landings. I wanted to make sure I had found the cause. It seemed to simple and silly to be the cause of yesterday’s challenges. I was trapped by my trepidation.
Terry reminded that one of the practical test standards is to make a 45 degree bank turn without changing altitude so in the late afternoon I was practicing that in the pattern. I love rolling in and rolling back out.
The sun was setting and the fog was rolling in as I made my final landing. I was pleased to find that the fading light didn’t affect my ability to land. The last one was as good as any of the day. One of the ways I compensate for my monocular vision is with light. The contrast between the light of near objects and far objects allows me some sense of distance.
I am picking up the liquid for my compass at the meeting I am late for so I had better get going. I am going to adjust my compass tomorrow with my new aluminum screw driver and the compass rose that I helped paint.
I was supposed to be there at 7:30 and it 7:41 so like Stan’s speed puzzle, I can’t go fast enough to get there on time.
The flying keeps getting better and I love sharing it with my friends.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
I arrived at KSMX early with the compass fluid in hand. It took quite a while to remove, dissemble, fill the compass and reinstall it. I didn’t get around to adjusting it because I wanted to fly and further explore what I had learned yesterday.
The hanger inspection went well, sort of an exercise in obfuscation.
In my preflight I found that I needed to replace the outer cable on my rotor brake. I purchased at the aviation department of my local bicycle store. It took another hour to get it installed and adjusted properly. I stopped for lunch and when I got back winds were are 320 degrees at 12 kts. This is my wind limit, so armed with my new found overconfidence I went flying.
I tried to find out the answer for Jim and I am just not cut out for that type of flying.
At 25 miles per hour indicated air speed I pulled the engine back to idle, waited until I had 50 miles per hour indicated airspeed and attempted to flair to arrest my decent.
I found that by pulling back hard I could slow the decent fairly rapidly.
I felt that my perception of the instruments was flawed as I felt busy. My vertical speed seemed a little behind and I couldn’t really get my altimeter to stop without running back close to zero air speed. I would then advance the throttle and drop the nose, but the carb heat would make her miss.
I used up about 600 feet several times and I still don’t have the answer.
I seem to lose rudder authority as my airspeed approaches zero and I am coming down faster than I am comfortable with.
I think that these questions are better answered by people with more flying skills than I have.
Perhaps instruments that responded a little faster would help. I would find myself focused on the panel and forget to look outside to see what to do next.
My perception was often at odds with the flight instruments.
I went back to pattern work and I love my more aggressive 90 degree turns.
At first, yesterday I was pushing her around too much, eventually I found the timing to where with constant pressure I would roll to 45 degrees, reverse the pressure and roll out at a lovely right angle without changing altitude or airspeed. She actually felt more stable in the middle of the turn. I had only made left patterns yesterday and today I made both rights and lefts.
I love it when I roll out and I am in the middle of the runway aimed correctly. It is a lovely dance with a music and rhythm I am just beginning to understand. The winds picked up and added additional challenges. I was cleared for taxiway alpha for a touch and go, I asked for a full stop on 30. Once I got my rotor stopped I checked the winds and they were 320 degrees at 10 kts. I asked about gusts and it was gusting to 22 kts. I was glad I had replaced the cable housing.
I hope to get an earlier start tomorrow. I am working on my radio calls and flight plan for Lompoc.
Thank you, Vance
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Vance Breese
Hello Toby,
The motivation to write this is a gift the forum has given to me. I can look back and see my progress.
I feel most fortunate to be able to chase this dream and I am grateful for all the help I receive. I love sharing the adventure. I am glad you enjoy it. I wish that I was able to truly communicate the emotions I experience as I develop the skills to enjoy flight on a higher level.
Today my luck held out on two fronts.
It was Blue skies at KSMX when I rolled up to the hangar. I had my flight plan to Lompoc, KLPC, and my radio calls in hand. I called flight briefing and found that Lompoc was IFR with fog.
I pulled her out and did a brief pre-flight. I had given her a though going over the night before. I was going to do some touch and goes and fly to Lompoc when the fog burned off.
Helmet, seat belt, plug in the head set, knee board, master on, check adis, Romeo was winds 320 at 6. Radio off Mags on, ¾ rich and stoke the throttle twice, CLEAR PROP! She awoke and I was rolling, start timer, alternator on, radio on, transponder stand by, fuel pump on. I called ground control and their response was “experimental November 142 Mike Golf, taxi to 30.”
We were almost to the run-up area when I felt a bump bump from the front. The tire was flat! This is flat number three. I said Santa Maria Ground, Experimental gyroplane November 142 Mike Golf taxi to parking I have a flat front tire. I parked in the transient hotel parking and walked to Space Coast flight center. There, while waiting for the young man who operates the fork lift/flat tire aircraft tow, I met Tommy, A fixed wing CFI, and he agreed to come in early to sign off my solo cross country flight to Santa Ynez, KIZA. He had been watching us fly and he thought it looked like a lot of fun.
When the young man showed up to tow me, he didn’t know how to operate that particular piece of equipment and in exchange for showing him how it worked, he towed me back to the T hangars. We had to cross some restricted ground where the airliners are and ground control was very helpful, allowing us to go out around the tower to get back to the T hangers.
My front tire changing experience paid off and I had the wheel off, apart and had found the problem in less than five minutes. The side wall was abrading the tube, probably from the first flat. I should have replaced the tire.
Aircraft Spruce has one in stock and it should be here tomorrow morning. The tire and two tubes are less than $70.
Once again, no safety problem, no tying up the runway, no tying up the taxiway, no charge for the tow and I have found a CFI that will sign off my cross country.
I am going to several business meetings this afternoon and I will go into the office to try to catch up on work.
Life treats me well!
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
Thank you Jeff and Mike,
My tire came at 11:30 today and I was flying by 1:45.
I filled the new tire with a bicycle pump and checked it at 40 pounds. It seemed to work well. I was concerned it would impact on the ride quality, it did not.
I was going to fly to Lompoc, KLPC, but my flight briefing had the winds at 14 kts so I did pattern work at KSMX for 1.6 hours. I lost my timing for my 90 degree turns and then, like magic, it came back.
ATC was a little truculent. “Experimental November 142 Mike Golf if you won’t use taxiway Alpha you need to go back to parking.” I told him that Taxiway Alpha was fine. Later when a Cobra was taking off and he asked him, “do you have the autogiro” and the Cobra pilot responded “I have the autogiro in sight and I can shoot him down.” The controller responded “The autogiro is a friendly.” I suspect that this is ATC humor.
I found that I could put the Predator exactly where I wanted and land gently each time. I flew left pattern, right pattern, extended down wind, Alpha taxiway, 30, no delay, expedite, watch for wake turbulence and a lot I don’t remember. It was hard to remember the challenges of six weeks ago.
The videographer from the Santa Maria Times wants to shoot video of the Predator flying on Saturday. This will be a true test of my ability to control my overconfidence.
I found that, on my take off roll if I don’t pull my stick full back against the stops that everything shakes less and the takeoff is smoother.
In my post flight inspection I found a place that one of the jam nuts on my control rod spherical rod ends was digging into one of my rockers. I will adjust it before I go up again. It is not a hazard, but it looks untidy.
We are starting an airport association and at 6:00 I was at a dinner with a fellow who had started one at Santa Barbara. We had about 60 people show up for the meeting at 7:00.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
My over confidence caught up with me as I knew it would.
It is dinner time now, I will write about it after dinner in the hopes that someone reading one more time what poor aviation decision making does will work a little harder at making good decisions.
I made three bad choices.
I had one bad result.
It is a long story and if I don’t tell it correctly I won’t learn as much and there is not much chance of someone learning from my pain.
It is 6:46 now I will start writing at 8:00 and post it when I am finished.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
I knew from experience that managing the press is a challenge. This Videographer was very nice and had fairly good situational awareness. His job is to put a face and action onto what the reporter writes. Probably about a minute is the most he has to frame the story. The Santa Maria Times has been doing this on their web page since September of 07.
Things got a little sticky with TSA and the tower. They were expecting him at 9:30 and it was 10:30 before he was ready to video my flying. I left him at the hanger with Diana to drive down to our FBO and meet airport people to escort him out to taxiway Alpha so he could get close to a landing. The airport manager had asked me to cooperate with the Santa Maria Times, so the tower and airport personnel were all trying to help. I believe that they felt that airports were for aircraft and not a press stunt.
I taxied the mile to 30 at a fast walk, imagining that they would be impatiently waiting for me. They were not. I doubled the use of my check lists to mitigate the disruption in my timing. I took off and made three nice landings directly in front of him. My take offs weren’t that good. I did one engine out dive for the runway and mostly just flew the aircraft. I was showing off.
I was flying a closed right pattern landing on Alpha and the tower said a lot and I repeated it back as best I could. I thought he told me to make a left closed pattern, so I did. It was not what he wanted although it did not cause any problems, I can understand why it upset him and he was copious in his expression of his displeasure. The videographer was recording the radio conversations.
When all this was finished I just wanted to run away so I asked for a straight out departure to head off for Oceano. The pre-rotator didn’t feel just right and only hit 100 rpm.
Bad aviation decision number one. Taking off with a known fault in the equipment. Santa Maria was the place to fix it, Oceano was not. I was meeting someone for lunch in Oceano so I had the got to get theres.
I landed in Oceano and the weekend hangar rats were out in force. I was trying to fill up and pre flight while answering their many questions. My lunch showed up and I made my escape. A couple of Ercoupes showed up and their owners loved the Predator. More questions and answers. They would stay with several other people to watch my take off.
I made my radio calls, checked my mags, carb heat and turned on all the right stuff. Oddly enough the pre-rotator had not fixed itself and would not get the blades over 80 rpm.
Bad aviation decision number two. Taking off with a known fault in the equipment.
I decided that I had plenty of runway to ease the blades up to speed. After all the runway is 2,325 feet long. In my overconfidence it did not occur to me that I did not know how to do this.
Bad aviation decision number three. Don’t abort a takeoff that is not going well.
I felt, incorrectly, that my blades were not coming up to speed quickly enough so I started to come back with the stick before I reached 100 rpm. The winds were gusting and variable in direction and about that time I hit a bump in the runway and my rotor blade hit the tail. I felt it in my rudder pedal and moved the stick forward. The blade only hit the tail once.
I pulled off in parking to see the damage I had done. I had to explain to the crowd what a foolish mistake I had made before I could asses that damage. The tail was slightly bent. The blades had not hit the ground and did not have a mark on them.
Now I just had to figure out what was wrong with the pre-rotator without tools. As I pondered my foolishness and imagined leaving my aircraft at Oceano over night or rushing back and getting the trailer and loading her up before dark, or trying to get her fixed before the sun went down in two hours without tools, Bob White showed up.
Bob went to Bonneville with our open fuel bike one year and we have been friends for a long time. He had been flying radio controlled airplanes when he had seen the Predator show up and wanted to get a better look at it. He had no idea it was me. He has a hangar at Oceano with tools in it. With the multi-meter I found that power was getting to the starter. With a jumper wire I found that the switch was working and the solenoid wasn’t.
Off to find a 1980 Toyota Corolla 1.8 starter in a town even smaller than Santa Maria.
The Napa store didn’t have one and neither did any of the other Napa stores in the area. He called Kragens and they didn’t have one either. Car Quest had one, yippee! Back to the Oceano airport we went. I had the new starter mounted in a half hour and did a very careful pre-flight inspection. I straightened the rudder out by hand.
I flew back to KSMX with a tail wind and arrived well before sunset.
I was about to shrink the slightly loose rudder fabric when a famous and very old aviator showed up and said, “Just leave it in the sun and it will take care of its self.”
I look forward to flying tomorrow morning with renewed humility.
Life treats me well.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
From Diana:
Vance's Santa Maria Times article and video
Hi All, You can view Vance's Santa Maria Times article and video at http://www.santamariatimes.com/artic...ews/news01.txtThey did a very nice job; the video especially. UPDATE: The paper has moved the article to archives and can be accessed at the above cationed link. The video is at http://videos.santamariatimes.com/p/video?id=1665038 Enjoy, Diana
As I headed toward the airport this morning with the top down, the sky opened up. This put off flying until around 4:00pm.
Winds had been gusting earlier but they had settled down to 270 degrees at 9 kts. I felt that this would give me some good crosswind landing practice. I found that it has become easy to hold her straight in the middle of the runway. I don’t know why I had such a hard time with this before. I did a couple of go arounds where I kept her straight over the center of the runway. I played with how much delay there was with the rudder. I found this exercise instructive.
All my landings worked and my final one was elegant with zero roll and straight down the middle.
I called Terry and he told me to stop going to 45 degrees in the pattern. 30 degrees is enough. He said that I need to practice 45 degree banked turns in the practice area.
One of my nav lights is out and I found out it is a very strange bulb with a flat side.
I am starting to feel natural flying. I love this.
I am hoping to get in at least one cross country before I leave for Indianapolis on Sunday. I will be gone for a month, so no flying.
Thank you all for the kind words,Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
I have not flown since January 21.
No flying today because it is still very stormy.
I watched the waves crashing against the rocks yesterday and found solace in their tenacity.
I spent an hour and a half yesterday with the fixed wing CFI, Tommy, who is going to sign off on my cross country excursions. I found his perspective on what is important on a cross country valuable. He is focused on fuel calculations and pattern entry at the destination airport.
I feel that fuel calculations are really about ground speed. He doesn’t do them at each way point because he feels it takes too much attention away from flying for too long. I found that using tenths of an hour instead of minuets and hours helped speed the process. It doesn’t take much time with the NTSB reports to see that running out of fuel is a real danger. I believe that continued monitoring of ground progress and estimated time of arrival is a good habit to get into.
He knows all of the local airports well and has thought a lot about how to enter the pattern. Because I am flying a rotorcraft it posed some new challenges for his thought process. He wants a drawing of the target airport at the bottom of the flight plan with the pattern entry.
He is also a Google earth enthusiast and we alternated between a flight planning website and Google earth. He used Google earth to find the altitudes through a pass and cross checked it with the flight planning software. I did not come away with the flight planning website and I will share that when I get it. It provided the compass headings and distances and it worked better than a magnifying glass for seeing the charts.
I love this aviation adventure even when I am not flying. I have more than twenty hours in planning a three hour trip from KSMX to KIZA to KPRB. I have flown it in my imagination many times and each time that I add more details it intensifies the anticipation and adds to the delight. I find that thinking in more detail about the entry makes the objective even more alluring.
I also learned that saying that “I do not have the traffic in sight” is not as good as “negative contact”. It is too easy to miss the “do not” and hear “traffic in sight”. Tommy is often flying at the same time as we are and that was his only criticism of my radio communication with ATC.
I am leaving for Cincinnati on Sunday morning and should be gone for close to a month. I will be studying for my knowledge test.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
5:55 am, winds at 150 degrees at 12 kts, whoopee! Gusts to 23 kts, Ugh! 54 degrees F.
I think that I will head down to the airport in the hopes that the winds will die down.
I may have a narrow window to fly on my last day before I leave for a month.
There is always clean up to do at the hanger and maintenance.
If nothing else it is fun to hanger fly with the other frustrated airport rats and we can collaborate on my cross country planning.
The hills are turning a rich green from all the rain and the air has that clean fresh taste. The Santa Maria River is again winding down to the sea. I would like to have that picture in my head as I drive toward minus 7 degrees F in Cincinnati.
I got sidetracked with business for a while and winds are now, 6:55 am, at 120 degrees and 17 kts gusting to 24kts. The temperature has fallen to 53 degrees F. I am going to go fly my hanger and make rotor noises.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
Well that didn’t work out.
11:00 a.m. and winds are at 140 degrees at 26 kts with gusts to 37 kts. It is 63 degrees F.
The wind makes the hanger moan in a mournful way and occasionally bang so loudly that there is no communication possible for hanger flying.
I feel it is time to pack for the trip and pick up the rental car.
There will probably be no flying today.
I tried to share how a broom should be stored with my hanger mates and showed them where the expression comes from.
The valley is beautiful with no dust and the hills are a lush green. There is snow glistening on the top of the more distant hills.
My drive to Cincinnati tomorrow should be an adventure. Pima Air Museum on Monday and then on to Las Cruses and up to Amarillo through some particularly lovely mountains. Oklahoma City to Louisville and then on to Cincinnati. Life treats me well!
I will start a new thread when I get back.
Thank you, Vance
__________________
Vance Breese
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Last modified at 1/31/2008 7:47 PM by GYROWIKI\administrator
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