Category Archives: Flying

January 23, 2016 · 23:08

Many Warbirds On The Ramp Today

T’was a very long day at the hangar, but as with the long days at the new office, a very long day was not necessarily a very bad one, or even a not good one. (A subtle, but important, distinction.)

There were a lot of planes out on the ramp today (click on the picture to blow it up nice and big!):

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From left to right are our green A6M3 “Zero,” a grey T-6 “Texan” that was visiting from the Condor Squadron out of Van Nuys Airport, the blue F6F “Hellcat,” our brown and green camouflage Mk XVI “Spitfire,” our P-51 “Mustang,”, our C-46 “Commando,” the AAF’s C-47 “Skytrain” which is being restored, and at the far right, our SNJ-4.

All of the fighters were out in part because there was a big event being set up in that open hangar on the far right, but also because they flew today in honor of Joe Peppito, a long-time CAF SoCal member who passed away in December.

The C-46 was Joe’s baby. It would be fantastic to see here restored and made airworthy again. Anyone know anyone with about $500,000 or so that they would like to donate to get her flying, perhaps with your name painted on the side? Tax deductible!

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January 8, 2016 · 23:52

LAX Landings – Gallery The First

‘Cause it won’t be the last, by any means.

There’s a tiny little park on Sepulveda which is right under the landing path for planes coming in on Runway 07R. It doesn’t hurt that it’s right next to an In-N-Out. A nice place to park with your camera and a Double Double Animal Style.

These are from April, 2008, so the paint schemes might be a bit different than you would see today.

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January 1, 2016 · 22:51

2016 – Known Knowns

Yesterday I looked back at my highly dynamic, roller coaster, schizophrenic year in 2015. Today, let’s see what’s on the horizon for 2016, at least as well as we can see anything into the future.

The two big events I see are a “milestone” birthday (inevitable) and a change in residence for the first time in over twenty-five years (very high probability). As for the first, if you can’t avoid something like that, you might as well screw around with it and everything associated with it, so stand by. As for the second, with the pets all gone and the kids all grown and moved out, it’s not only unnecessary for The Long-Suffering Wife and me to occupy a five-bedroom home by ourselves, it’s downright silly. And expensive.

Along with that necessary move will be the associated task of sorting through twenty-five-plus years of stuff. I’m sure there will be much grumbling and pissing and moaning and complaining as we have to go through room after room and do the “toss/donate/keep” determination. (FYI, I’ll be the one doing the whining – I like stuff.) But that process actually started earlier in 2015, so now I just need to get it in gear big time.

I expect much of the first part of 2016 to be occupied primarily by me work schedules between my paid, full-time job at Habitat For Humanity and my unpaid, part-time job at CAF Socal. It’s obvious which one has priority, but I’ll be busy with both of them doing taxes, year-end closing, and audits through March and April, as well as simply getting settled into the job at Habitat.

It’s unlikely that we’ll be doing anywhere near as much travelling as I did last year, simply because I won’t have any accrued vacation time until at least the end of the year. We would like to get to New York City in July for our 15th anniversary, or to Kansas City for Worldcon in August, but it might at best be one or the other. Or it might just be three-day weekends where we have holidays. We’ll see.

In addition, my opportunities to go to any NASA Socials will be severely restricted do to employment commitments. As Super Chicken said, “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!”

I would like to start flying again this year. I’ll need to get my medical certification current (not that big of a deal) and I’ll need to get a few hours of lessons under my belt to become comfortable in the cockpit again (it’s been three years), but after that I’ll simply need to start building up some time and getting my flying skills re-honed. Once that happens, there are opportunities at the CAF to start training and qualifying to fly aircraft there, starting with our PT-19 trainer. That will be a big highlight for the 2016.

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but another personal goal this year will be to get back to running. As much as I hate thinking about going out, particularly when it’s cold or wet (or hot or dry), that’s just the “bad brain” talking. I know that I feel better after a run, and I feel better overall about myself and everything else when I’m running regularly. It’s time to start again.

Oh, and if my beloved Chiefs can win the Super Bowl, my beloved Kings can win the Stanley Cup, and my beloved Angels could win the World Series, that would be great as well. Just a suggestion for any of the gods that might be listening who think I’ve been good and need a treat or reward. (What? Oh, yeah. Well… Okay.)

If that sounds a lot less “dynamic” than 2015, bordering on outright boring and dull, well, that will be okay with me. I burned enough adrenaline in 2015, both good and bad. I suspect I’ll be busy as hell all year and stressed with time pressures from a number of sources, but I’m hoping that it’s nothing life and death. Literally.

What does your 2016 look like?

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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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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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