Category Archives: Flying

December 31, 2015 · 19:55

2015 – The Schizophrenic Year

(I had to use “schizophrenic”, I already used the roller coaster analogy.)

For almost all of us, every year has its ups and downs, highs and lows, sorrows and joys. (Insert your own dichotomy pairs here – I’ll wait. Done?) It’s a fine line to a certain extent – no one really wants it to be too frantic or hectic, but no one wants it to be too boring and dull either.

2015 might be the most “dynamic” for me in quite a while. I’m not sure that I’ll miss it.

The bad – well, obviously, my mother’s passing last month. I’m glad that we got to see her in July for her 80th birthday,

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and given her condition and how it had deteriorated after the stroke, it wasn’t a surprise, but there are still some strong emotions involved.

We had to put down our cat in February,

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and our dog a couple of weeks ago.

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The house is an empty place without their demanding and cuddly little presences.

On the good side, obviously, the great job I finally found after a long period of unemployment was the highlight of 2015. So far things are going very well and I’m looking forward to seeing what adventures and challenges the new year brings there. Having a regular pay check again is short on suckage as well.

There were three NASA Socials for me this year, to tour SOFIA in February,

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see the LEAPTech demonstration in May,

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and the fantastic trip to Washington, DC in April for the Hubble Space Telescope 25th anniversary.

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That’s a pretty cool trio of events. I enjoyed myself and geeked out a lot.

In addition to the Washington trip, The Long-Suffering Wife and I had three trips in 2015, to Vermont in July to see my mom,

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to North Carolina in April to see a friend of hers and a friend of mine from high school,

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and to Indiana in September for a niece’s wedding.

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In the air and at the hangar, we had a great airshow at Camarillo in August,

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saw the Blue Angels at Point Mugu in September,

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and had “Fifi” visit us for a week in March.

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Getting the opportunity to fly in “Fifi” from Camarillo to Palm Springs was also one hell of a great treat.

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I got to meet some of my heroes,

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and saw the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum for the first time.

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Most importantly, I, my kids, and The Long-Suffering Wife are all healthy and well. This is particularly important since there was one serious scare in particular in early 2014, but so far things are going very well in that regard.

In summary, there were a handful of really deep lows, but there were an awful lot of highs, many of which were pretty stinking good. 2016’s highs don’t have to be quite as big as 2015’s (although I wouldn’t complain if they are) but I could happily live without the really lousy lows.

Call me selfish.

I hope your 2016 triumphs are as satisfying as mine were in 2015, and your 2016 tragedies are more like inconveniences with attitudes.

Happy New Year. Welcome, 2016!

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Filed under CAF, Cats, Dogs, Flying, Photography, Space, Travel

December 5, 2015 · 21:26

Back At The Hangar – This Place Looks Familiar!

After two years of being out at the CAF hangar in Camarillo (jeez, just hit the “CAF'” category on the right or put the word “hangar” into the search box, prepare to be inundated) pretty much three days a week minimum, occasionally more, occasionally much more, it was odd this week to not be going out there.

Mind you, assuming you’ve been paying attention, this is AN EXTREMELY GOOD THING because it meant I was having a wonderful time (really, I wouldn’t BS you – well, okay, we all know that’s BS too and I would, but in this case I’m not – promise – see, this is me grinning ear to ear in an extremely honest and convincing fashion!) in my first week at my new job. In addition, much of what I do as CAF SoCal Finance Officer can be done by email, phone, at at home, which is in fact what was happening in the evenings.

I know, I’m rambling. Sorry. (See, there was some of that BS I was talking about earlier!)

Rather than my usual five or six hours at the hangar on Saturday, today turned into a nine-hour-plus day. Not surprising, in part because all of my dear friends there wanted to hear all about the new job thing, but also because I had to catch up on a whole week of stuff that I couldn’t do from home.

Have I lost you yet?

Anyway, aside from my issues and work load and narcissistic, self-centered point of view, we had a nice presentation today regarding our Zero fighter . This was timed to coincide (sorta) with Monday’s anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

I was busy during the presentation (see above comments about catching up on a week’s work) but will watch it later since our website and public relations guys were using two of my video cameras to record it. Later in the afternoon though, it was time to fly! After the obligatory little glitches, obviously. For that, I pried myself away from the computer and out onto the ramp.

We launched our Zero and our P-51 Mustang to fly together, since they were the dominant fighters for the Japanese and United States. Despite the fact that it was windy and getting more windy fast (15 knots, gusting to 20 maybe?), and the fact that there were all of a sudden about two dozen planes lined up to take off and a couple dozen more coming in to land, which is a very busy day at Camarillo, we got up, waited for a little bit of the air traffic to abate, and then made four passes with the two planes.

Like this:

You can hear the wind gusting about, but better yet, you can hear the roar of those big engines!

 

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November 9, 2015 · 13:58

Point Mugu Airshow – Part 7 – Even More Blue Angels

All good things must end, and so it is with an airshow. It was a long day, an extremely good and fun day, and I’ve shared pictures of  flying CAF SoCal aircraft, static CAF aircraft, static civilian aircraft, two batches of static military aircraft, and a first batch of Blue Angels pictures. Oh, and there were also pictures of some of the feathered flyers at Point Mugu that day. With today’s pictures, I’ll wrap up coverage of this air show, but don’t worry. You can bet that there will be more air shows to follow.

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November 7, 2015 · 20:50

Point Mugu Airshow – Part 6 – The Blue Angels

Dessert gets served last in order to heighten the anticipation. Ditto for airshows.

Following pictures of  flying CAF SoCal aircraft, static CAF aircraft, and static civilian aircraft, plus two batches of static military aircraft, it’s time for dessert.

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Aircraft #1 through #6 normally perform the Blue Angels’ show. Aircraft #7 is ready to go as a spare if there’s a mechanical problem. I’ve seen a show where someone landed, got into #7, took off, and the show resumed in maybe five minutes. You think NASCAR can do a bitchin’ pit stop?

Aircraft #7 is also a two-seater, so when you see one of those excellent videos of some celebrity or newscaster blacking out in a 9G turn on a PR flight, this is where they’re sitting.

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“Fat Albert” is the C-130 support aircraft that hauls around parts, team members, luggage, and so on. Remember, these women and men are on the road about 2/3 of every year bringing these shows to you. And Fat Albert does get to its part of the show as well.

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The precision flying on display is almost beyond belief.

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These pilots truly are the best of the best.

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If you are bothered by loud noises, bring ear plugs or a set of foam ear muffs.

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If you absolutely LOVE the loud noises these jets bring and the feeling of a wall of sound beating against you as sixteen tons of machine turn Jet A into megadecibels as it does a 200 knot, 9G, minimum radius turn in front of you, just wallow in it. (Two guesses which camp I’m in…)

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The mountain to the east of Point Mugu is covered with radar and equipment that tracks ballistic launches out of Vandenberg AFB as well as the weapons test that Point Mugu has done for decades. I realized at one point that the whole team had joined up and would be flying right over it behind us.

For whatever reason, this is one of my favorite pictures from this airshow.

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After landing, the team taxis back…

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…to be met by a fleet of tankers full of the aforementioned Jet A.

 

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October 28, 2015 · 22:12

Point Mugu Airshow – Part 1 – CAF Aircraft

Last month we had the Point Mugu Airshow which I commented on briefly and promised more later. It’s “later.”

First, let’s look at our CAF aircraft that were flying.

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F8F Bearcat

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F6F Hellcat

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P-51 Mustang

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A6M3 Zero

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Spitfire

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Bearcat and Mustang

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Spitfire and Mustang

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Mustang and Bearcat

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Mustang, Spitfire, and Hellcat in formation with the Bearcat pulling up and out in the “missing man” formation

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October 24, 2015 · 22:44

PT-19 Flying

In military aviation terms, a “PT” is a “Primary Trainer.” These are the planes in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s that kids would learn to fly in. Open cockpit, about 200 horsepower, fixed landing gear, nothing too fancy. After they mastered the PT they would move up to an SNJ or Texan or Harvard, depending on the branch of service. (They’re pretty much all the same plane.) If you didn’t wash out there, you got to go fly fighters.

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Today we had three paid rides scheduled for our PT-19, but only two of the riders showed up. The plane and pilot were ready to go, with no one to sit in the back seat as a passenger. It was determined that I wasn’t having enough fun and I was “ordered” to get in and go flying.

Who am I to disobey an order?

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Out on the right, looking east, Thousand Oaks and the Canejo Valley.

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Out on the left, looking south, the top of the Canejo Grade (a steep, four mile section of the 101 Freeway connecting the Camarillo coastal plain with the Canejo Valley.

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The hills between Camarillo and Thousand Oaks.

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Camarillo, on about three-mile final.

Note that it might look like the sky is showing reflections off of a window – no window, it’s an open cockpit plane. Make sure you don’t drop your phone!!

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October 9, 2015 · 23:32

Where Did The Day Go?

I hate the feeling at 23:18 at night when you know that you were busy all day, and you can remember doing that, that, and that, and going there, and taking care of that errand, and picking up those, and spending hours and hours working on this ’cause you promised it for tomorrow — but you feel like, “Did I get anything done today?!”

When in doubt, take a few minutes to flip through some pictures and find one to share. Like this one.

Not taken today, of course. Today we’re setting high temperature records again all throughout the region and there’s not a cloud in the sky. Except for the occasional “pyrocumulus” clouds rising over the brush fires.

I hate the feeling at 23:31 at night when you’ve at least gotten something to post on the website today, but you’ve still got a dozen things to get off your desk before you can go to bed and you have to get up “early for a Saturday” tomorrow to get out to the hangar with that thing you worked on all day…

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October 8, 2015 · 22:13

Steel Rising (Part Six)

Eight weeks ago we started raising steel for our new hangars at the CAF SoCal location in Camarillo. Six weeks ago the longitudinal beams were up, four weeks ago the roof was on and concrete was ready to pour, three weeks ago the exterior walls were being installed, and two weeks ago interior walls were going up.

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By last Thursday, October 1st,  all of the old ramp asphalt had been ripped up and grading begun for the new asphalt.

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(Click for full-sized image.) Our two existing hangars on the left, 2/3 of the new hangars on the right. (The other third abuts the right-hand, old hangar.)

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By Tuesday, October 6th, the final prep had begun for the area to be re-paved. It was a bit of a pain to have this unpaved for several days – any planes we needed to fly over that period had to be taken out before the asphalt was ripped up and then parked elsewhere on the airport for the duration.

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The last big chunks of the hangar exteriors were going up – the huge, folding doors.

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On Tuesday they only got the top half sections hung.

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Today, the frames for these hangar doors were done and they were working on the third door, which is on the other side off to the left, leading off from the EAA’s portion of the hangar onto the ramp out on the back side of this hangar.

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The first huge swaths of new asphalt were going in, which should allow us to move our planes in and out normally again tomorrow.

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For the record, it was 91°F in Camarillo today, and that asphalt was a lot hotter than that as it was being laid down. You could feel the heat radiating from it twenty feet away. I do not envy this guy that job.

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Here’s a detail of the new folding doors – for scale, look at the two workers inside on the left. We have some big airplanes, we need some big doors on big hangars!

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October 5, 2015 · 22:42

Someone Was Eastbound At 39,000 Feet

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Wasn’t me. But I love the picture. I caught the twilight and the silhouettes just right.

I’m up to my ass in alligators, taking a couple of big leaps that only feel like they’re from 39,000 feet. Upgrading the iCritters from iOS 8.2 to iOS 9.02. Then I’m going to upgrade my two primary desktop systems and laptop to Windows 10. Of course, it’s not that simple since I’m paranoid experienced enough to be making full backups of everything first, and the Win desktop systems all have multiple hard drives with multiple terabytes each, so it’s a slow process.

Thank goodness that 6Tb drives are now down to $199!

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September 28, 2015 · 22:25

Feathered Flyers At Point Mugu

The Point Mugu base (these days formally part of Naval Base Ventura County, which also includes Port Hueneme and San Nicolas Island) is literally right on the ocean, in a stretch of marsh land between the Pacific Coast Highway (US Route One) and the water. Given the sensitive nature of the ecosystem there, they take care to help out the local critters as much as possible. In large part, this means birds.

Unfortunately, birds and airplanes don’t always mix together well. A bird strike between a five-pound seagull and a Cessna 172 at 120 knots is capable of taking out the plane, or at least shattering the windshield and causing serious injuries to the pilot and passengers. (I’ve been there, a flock of them scared the crap out of me during training out of Whiteman.) Given that there are much bigger birds (pelicans can be up to fifteen or twenty pounds) and much faster planes (jet fighters out can be cruising at 400 knots or more, even at low altitudes) it’s not hard to see that this could be a serious problem.

Ask Captain Sullenberger and the passengers of US Airways Flight 1549.

While sitting at the front of the flight line yesterday at Point Mugu, this pair of turkey vultures was circling overhead.

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They’re beautiful birds, huge, with wingspans of better than five feet. They’re a little less beautiful circling five hundred feet up, a hundred yards from a runway where planes are flying by at 450 knots.

During some of the pauses between flight demonstrations the airshow announcers had mentioned the bird issue and had talked about some of the methods used by the base to control them and drive them away. Then mentioned using raptors as a safe, harmless, and ecologically friendly method. (There are a lot of large airports that do this.)

So two or three times later in the day, I saw this guy flying around and was wondering if he might be “on duty,” so to speak.

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Click on one of these pictures, particularly the first one, to see it full sized. See just behind the left wing, those two strings? I’m no expert on falconry, but aren’t those called “jesses” and they’re part of how falcons are trained?

Also a most gorgeous creature (I’m a sucker for raptors) but I’m glad to see that a few laps around the airport kept his large cousins out of the way of my friends and our large, fast, metal birds!

 

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