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Friday, April 24, 2015

799 Fun and Sun



 Mike Lange and I got up at O dark thirty and drove to
Lakeland for the Fun and Sun Aviation Expo.  

Fun and Sun is one of the largest Fly In and Expos in America, second only to the big one at OshKosh.  It fills the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport and hosts a tremendous number of vendors and a huge diversity of aircraft including a fine showing of vintage airframes, including warbirds.  

When it got too hot to wander around the field, Mike and I sought shade at the Aviator booth.  Eric  Fairwell was a great host.  Not only did he provide all the water we could drink, he also hooked us up with passes for the gate.  Eric is the Nirvana dealer and has done a great job promoting the product and the sport.  When my friend Rex Mangurian mentioned that he didn't get a copy of the bible during his training, Eric promptly gave him a copy which Jeff Goin happily autographed.  Great Guys, I wish them the best.



Planet PPG had a booth and Paul was in his element, giving seminars and demo flights.  Paul has recently gained control of the Pine Island Airstrip and has been busy clearing trees and making it into a premier PPG school.  



Rob Catto was there with his excellent PPG simulator, the Virtual Foot Flyer. I was impressed with how real the experience was.  Unlike a video game where the control inputs are buttons and joysticks, the Virtual Foot Flyer has you in a harness, pulling brakes and using weight shift. It allows you to swivel your head and see where you are looking. There is a turbine blowing wind in your face and the sound effect include a sub woofer that feeds vibration thru the harness.  The whole experience was increadably realistic.  When it was over, I exclaimed, "When I'm ninety,  I want one of these things".
  


I also met Nick Reed who is building the V Twin Flyer.  Nick is a past student of Terry Lutke and is building an airframe along the same lines as the Falcon.  He has made a few changes, primarily a large castered nose wheel which I'm sure improves ground handling.  The fit and finish is very good  and his pricing is competitive.  Terry is supplying some key parts of the redrive and in typical Lutke fashion, he has given Nick his blessing.  It's good to see that another builder sees the value of this design.  



A real blast from the past was Randy Schlitter, the president and founder of RANS Aircraft.  Thirty years ago Randy owned a small bike shop in Hays Kansas and I was a manufacturers Rep selling bike parts.  Once a month I would make the trek to Kansas City and along the way I would visit every small town hardware store and try to sell a few bike parts.  I fancied myself as the Campagnolo expert and my sample bag was full of high dollar racing parts.  The reality was....I was lucky to sell a few boxes of Wald bearings and maybe a sissy bar or some inner tubes.

Randy's shop was one of the few real bike shops between Denver and KC.  It was just a small space with limited inventory but Randy was the real deal. He read the trade magazines, followed the trends and dreamed big.   Even then, he was interested in manufacturing.  I proudly carried a RANS belt pack that he developed when he was looking into the bike pannier business.  It was ten cents of quilted fabric with a couple of belt loops sewn on.  I'll never forget the logo. It was done in that weird ballooned font of 1970 computer culture.  Eventually he designed and produced the RANS Recumbent, which was the most affordable recumbent available. Quickly, the RANS Recumbents became a true player in the industry, with significant production and good distribution.  
I remember sitting in his kitchen one morning and asking about the drawings of  aircraft that were laying around.  Some were conventional looking aircraft and some were futuristic lifting bodies similar to the modern stealth fighter.  Randy calmly told me, that someday, he was going to build airplanes.  
NOW.... THIRTY YEARS LATER.... RANS is a leader in light sport Aviation.  

There we were, two old guys, sitting in the shade of his exhibit, chatting about the "good ol" days and all the changes we've seen.  He told me that he had recently sold the recumbent manufacturing business but still kept his hand in as a consultant.  We talked about the Aviation business and how it was starting to come back from the recession.  I was happy to learn that Randy is still sailing, he is looking for a new boat like the Hunter 26.5 I left in Colorado.  We made plans to hook up in Punta Gorda and sail together.

Paul C. Enlisted me to fly a demo tandem with him during the evening flights.  I was pretty nervous,  its been years since my last foot launch and I think the last tandem was with Moe Sheldon at the Salton Sea more than 5 years ago.  I was worried that my knee would fail and I'd end up embarrassing Paul by face planting but we launched and landed without incident.  Thanks Paul.
Here is a video of the launch....








Photo by Eric Fallwell

After dark there was an excellent aerobatic show with lots of LEDs smoke and magnesium flares.  Mike and I hiked back to the car with our heads on a swivel.






798 Shell Creek

Nice calm flight.  After I landed I ran the tank dry doing taxi practice.  I've installed night eye brand cord ratchets on the A assists and it is a real improvement.  Instead of trying to move the tiny cam release on the old ratchet all I have to do is pull the cord and it releases.


Sunday, April 19, 2015

797 back dated from Monument Valley

This is out of sequence but I forgot to record it.
I borrowed a 28 meter Lift from Bob Hanna and took a spin around the park.

796 shell creek

Another picture perfect day and nice low and slow flight.
Getting close to another century flight.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

795 at Shell Creek

No drama.  Flew low and enjoyed the sights. 
1hour 15 minutes
Smooth

Dallin and Russ Bateman


One year several years ago, during The Gathering at Monument Valley, Russ and a very young Dallin spotted a Steer's skull on a tandem flight.  They landed, retrieved the skull and flew back to Gouldings Airstrip.  It was one of those EPIC father and son moments.
Imagine the stories that boy will tell his grandchildren fifty years from now.  Bravo!


Tuesday, April 7, 2015

793 k794

Two quick flights at Shell Creek.  Calm air with light ground fog.  25 mph smooth winds at 700 feet.
No drama.
Spoke with the airstrip manager and got permission for Tom Spears to land and leave his trile at Shell Creek when he comes to visit.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

791 & 792

OTwo flights this week.  The first one was at Placida.  Mike asked me to come out to help a new trike pilot.  I was the first to arrive and went up for a quick flight waiting on the others.  When I saw them arrive and begin to set up I landed and introduced myself.  
We were not able to get him launched before I had to leave for a doctor appointment.  He was a bit timid when it was time to commit and aborted before getting the wing fully loaded.  

The second flight was a little dicey.  Mike and I launched in fairly thick ground fog and once airborn were absolutely unable to see the ground.  We flew east for about 5 miles then Mike decided to go for a new personal altitude record and I played around at 700 feet.  The fog was getting thicker instead of burning off like we thought.  It was still pretty close to the ground .... Probably thinning out at 100 feet.
Mike had no problem and descended to a perfect landing on the first pass.  I on the other hand, circled the field for at least 10 minutes looking for a hole and failing that, looking at the few landmarks that were poking through the fog to be sure I was going to come in on the runway.  Landing was a non event.... I committed and lined up to come in from the North end of the runway.  It was a total white out for a few seconds but quickly I saw the Eastern edge of the runway and set down adjacent to the DC-10 hanger.