ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

Sat morning came and I was up early to fly to the Augusta airport for the Central States Shrine Assoc Flying Fezz's competition and after giving it a lot of thought decided the best thing to do was let airbike ace leave about and hour or so ahead of me.  My thoughts were, and they turned out correct to let him chase out the huns and then when they thought it was safe come in behind him and do my damage.  All went as planned and both Ace and I arrived with kills on our trip. Coming in from the south I called in on my radio that I was coming in and then worried that I might not be broadcasting so asked for a radio check and getting nothing back figured my radio was out.  I fell into pattern behind another plane hoping I wasn't in the way and as it turned out I got down fine.  Once on the ground I found Paul Diddy who had a handheld radio with him and check my radio... it was fine.  About an hour later someone told me that they had heard me on the radio but figured someone else would tell me that I was fine.  Lesson to self just because someone doesn't answer you back doesn't mean your radio is dead.  I bounced a bit on landing and a touch of the wind got under my left wing causing me to land on one wheel and roll for about 100 feet or so.  Most of you know it always feels worse in the plane then it looks on the ground and nothing is worse then a bad landing in front of friends so I was hanging my head as I walked in to the Pilots area only to be told that in this wind they thought I had done an outstanding job of getting a taildragger down in a crosswind.  I guess what they don't know won't hurt them.  As I  walked up the the hangars where there were lots of plane in attendance for the also going on Young Eagles flights.  There sat Paul showing people how planes fly, A job he takes great pride in and is a great jesture to give his time to the kids. I did notice a new bullet hole in his tail, he might be getting a bit old to hunt huns but one never knows. CSSA competition includes flour drop, spot landing and cross country.  Flour drop was fun because by the time they got it going we had about a 20 mph wind out of the northwest so you had to figure windage as well as angle of attack... and as usuall someone sort of lucked into getting it right and the winning distance was about 50 ft.  Spot landing was won by 5 ft... and cross country was won by 4 minutes.  Paul fired up his airbike and went to the far end of the runway, getting into the air he left a smoke trail behind him as he left.  After thinking about my poor landing and the winds I decided to tie my plane down for the night in Augusta and go get it the next day. Then it was off to the Kansas Air museum to see how the hun fighters did it in yester year.  Most of the damage from the tornado and the high winds has been repaired so is a great place to visit. They are working on a Texaco biplane there that was recovered from a salvage yard and it looks great.  The wheel pants on this plane are big enough to use as boats.  Getting to Augusta early Sunday morning to get my plane and fly out was a wise idea, flying over Lawrence Alley field then down to Udall, across to the new Casino and then coming back to our home port at Selby.  Came in from the south again and this time painted the plane onto the field thinking darn bad landing in front of friends great landing alone.... until Don, a hangar mate of ours came out of the hangar and said, man you haven't lost your touch over the winter which made me feel great.   Only one guy mentioned moving the hangars when he found out I was coming so all in all a great flying weekend.  The T-craft is safe in the hangar again.

I looked over your T-Craft prior to my departure Avenger and noticed that your machine gun belts were nearly empty.  After a few firing bursts at the Huns, I knew you would be in trouble.  Hence my earlier departure and effort to clear out most of the enemy.  Thanks for noticing that effort.

Your landing at Augusta looked like you had been receiving instruction from Bob Hoover.  One wheel for about 100+ feet with one wingtip just inches from the runway.  It appeared to be a pretty neat trick, Bob would have been proud of you. Just for insurance, you might want to install skid plates on the wingtips like Kyle Franklin has on his show plane.

Letting Young Eagles (and their parents) sit in my AirBike to manipulate the controls is always a revelation to them of cause and effect.  I tell them the plane "swims" through the air just as a fish does in water.  And while I am at it, I tell them that some fish fly in the air as well as swim in the water. This activity is fun for them, provides a Kodak moment for their parents and gives me something to do besides drink coffee and increase my ballast.

So how was your performance in the three contests?  Did you bring home any prize money/trophies?

Good decision to leave your plane tied down at the airport and retrieve it the following morning when the winds were lower.  That way you will know you will get to fly your plane again, if you run the risk you may not fly it again. However, I did notice that you wasted no time finding that French Bistro where all the red-headed nurses were hanging out.  Could that have influenced your decision to "lay around for awhile?"

In 15 years of flying my AirBike, I have had to leave it overnight once, twice delay a departure on a multi-leg trip and twice return later the same day to retrieve my plane.

For not having flown your T-Craft for several months, you did a fine job and exercised good judgement.  You also knocked off a few Huns.  We have to keep their numbers down, they seem to multiply like rabbits.

Glad you made the trip to the Kansas Aviation Museum, it has improved significantly during the past 20 years I have been volunteering there.  That Stearman 4D is a huge biplane.  There are many things to see and learn about in the museum, we are still one of the great secrets of Wichita, KS.

Paul Fiebich

[quote=23]I looked over your T-Craft prior to my departure Avenger and noticed that your machine gun belts were nearly empty.  After a few firing bursts at the Huns, I knew you would be in trouble.  Hence my earlier departure and effort to clear out most of the enemy.  Thanks for noticing that effort.

I was a touch low on bullets, the time I have spent out of town and not flying has taken a toll on my abilities to hit targets which later proved to be the case with the flour drop and spot landing.  The redheaded nurse introduced me to a nice blonde which had to check me over for wounds and finding none decided she could use me for other things.  I now see no reason why I shouldn't be flying on a more regular basis now that things have slowed down a bit.

I really liked the swallow at the air museum as well, it is amazing how many planes were designed and built here in Wichita.  The landing at Selby was a good as the one at Augusta was bad so it is just a matter of practice to get it down on the average agian and the thought of skid plates is a good one now if I could only plate the entire plane for its and my safety.  I do miss flying a max but on the other hand I like 100 mph and taking the blonde nurse for a ride.  Thanks for taking out the huns on the way back ahead of me.

When I was deciding whether or not to fly back that afternoon I took wind speed... gusts to 35.. and direction into acount at the time I made the decision it was coming out of the WNW and I wasn't looking forward to the wind being channeled between our hangars, the crosswind I had already messed with and got lucky enough to win.  As I get older I have learned to pick my battles better and saw no reason to tempt faith when I knew it would be better in the morning.  I figure it is better to have your friends laugh at you a bit at the bar then to cry over your coffin.  We have lost to many fliers here of late.