500 Traffic

 

The weekend of the Daytona 500 has come and gone.  Now we are in the midst of wonderful bike week.  When tens of thousands of people who think that riding a Harley is cool arrive in Daytona to clog up our traffic and create the most obnoxious noise pollution.  Can you tell I don't really appreciate them.  To keep my mind off them lets check out some highlights from the 500 weekend traffic.

 A  pretty nice look at a very nice Challenger business jet.  It shares the same fuselage as the CRJ line of aircraft, but has increased range due to its smaller size.  These are truly stand up cabins and seem to be great aircraft.  Bombardier CL-600 Challenger 604.

 This big boy is a Gulfstream G-550.  Massive and expensive business jet that can just about take you to any place you'd want to go in one hop.  Personally I'm a Falcon guy so this didn't interest me that much, but I know quite a few people who have interned at Gulfstream and absolutely love it.

 A regular Citation?  Nope, look a little closer and you'll find some military markings on it making it a Cessna UC-35.  I fiddled with Gimp for a little while trying to make it look cool, this is what I came up with.

 F/A-18B or D model Hornets you say?  Not quite these are from our neighbors from the north.  McDonnell Douglas CF-188 Hornets from way up at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta.  I was happy to see them because of my Canadian heritage and the fact that they are essentially US Navy aircraft.

 The Canadians departing.  One of my friends from school mentioned that there was a TV documentary made about the training of Canadian fighter pilots made for the Canadian Discovery Channel called, "Jetstream".  I haven't been able to find a stream for it yet, but the clips that are on youtube look amazing.

 The other Canadian Hornet departing.  I like the paint because they share it with their other British Commonwealth nation, Australia, who also operate the Hornet, and now the Super Hornet.

 Trying to make an Airbus product look cool.  Here a US Airways A319 is on short final for Runway 25R at KDAB.  This kind of traffic is somewhat unusual for Daytona and is received for times when there is a high volume of traffic, the races, spring break...

 Another cool set.  The first of what I call the real warbirds.  I think the guys that fly the T-34s around should not be considered in the warbird class.  They are simply Bonanzas with a different cockpit and tail.  These North American T-28 Trojans are absolutely awesome.  If I could choose any of the old training type aircraft to own and fly, this would be it for sure. 

 Finally some real Hornets.  They're McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornets from VFA-83 the "Rampagers."  On the aft portion of the fuselage where it might typically say Navy it instead says, "Ram On".  These guys did the loudest takeoff that I have ever had the privilege of witnessing.  They were so loud that you couldn't here yourself shouting over the engine noise. 

 This was a pretty boring shot of the Thunderbirds before I did some heavy editing.  I have probably 3,000 pictures of the Thunderbirds already and they are all very similar so I wanted to try something new.  Lockheed Martin F-16 Falcons.

This a completely unedited shot.  Not one of my best into the sun shots, but I still like it.  I also like the aircraft that is on final!  A Dassault 50 Falcon one of the locals.

I have some more shots from the weekend including some form New Smyrna where we saw some awesome WWII aircraft, but those will have to wait until my next post.

Mental Battle

For the past week I have been having this major draw to be outside and either in the water or mountains.  Unfortunately Florida only has one of these activities and so I have had to pacify myself by running on the beach.  I have been on the quest to buy a sea kayak for the last year or so, and each time they seem to slip out from under me.  I have called/emailed on a half a dozen boats, and each have been sold before I have had a chance to look at them.  I'm going to continue my search, and hopefully within a few weeks I'll find something.

In my search for these activities I have been captivated by sea kayaking videos that I have found on youtube.

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with another post of some of the aircraft we saw this weekend at KDAB.  NASCAR was in town for the Daytona 500 and as a result the NASCAR air force was here too.  Some interesting visitors also made an appearance.  This weekend also saw an open house in New Smyrna where a pair of B-17s and a B-24 were on display, and a very rare aircraft was also spotted.

Massey Ranch Airpark

Well another day of flight team practice.  Although no longer on the team I still enjoy going to practice and helping out.  This weekend marks the 3rd weekend of practice since the team received the brand new Cessna 162 Skycatcher.  What a plane it has been so far.  No complaints from anyone really.  Over the last three weeks I have watched as our pilots have slowly taken to the aircraft and improved their landings.  The first week hardly anyone even landed in the 300 foot box.  Already by week 3 not only were most  in the box, but they were doing so despite very gusty conditions.  Massey has a burble not unlike that which carrier pilots experience from the bridge.  At either end of runway 18-36 there are trees, and the second you pass over those trees on short final all the flight characteristics of your approach change in an instant.

Phil and I were able to arrive early to practice because we drove separately this gave us a chance to take some shots in the early morning light with frost and dew still covering the aircraft.  The Commander above is probably the best shot of the morning.

The big thrill of the day was the first time that any of us have witnessed a jet at Massey Ranch.  A Cessna 500 Citation I departed around 0900.  You can see it being fueled and towed by a Ford diesel.

Next weekend is the Daytona 500 so be on the look out for shots of the Thunderbirds and the NASCAR air force.

Back to the Grind

This week marked the beginning of the end.  The end of my college career that is.  In just 5 short months I will be done with school and on to bigger and better things with the United States Navy, after a short time as an unemployed, bachelor of science in Aerospace Engineering holding, Ensign in the United States Navy waiting to go to flight school.

Until then I will muddle through school preparing for what I hope to be my first ever marathon.

This weekend I was able to attend flight team practice where the team for the first time flew their brand new Cessna 162 Skycatcher.  My first impressions of it are that although it isn't much of a looker it does seem to have good flying qualities.  It is considerably quieter than the Cessna 150s that we usually fly.  Although the Skycatcher was designed some 50 years after the 150 it doesn't seem to have as an advanced a wing from what is visually perceptible.  The 150 has a tapered wing, and the Skycatcher has a hershey bar wing with no taper.  In the coming weeks I hope to see much more of it as our pilots become better and better at flying it, and the team's second Skycatcher arrives in February.

This weekend has also brought renewed interest in photography and filming.  Yesterday the afternoon was spent at Spruce Creek building a gimble for a DIY steadicam.  The work continued today, and it should be operational tomorrow, so look for updates with that.  As we were working on it today we started thinking about camera cranes/booms and tomorrow the plan is to hash out a better idea of how to build one of those as well.  The goal is to have everything operational by next weekend.  Along the way we also ran across DIY plans for a dolly, so that may be included as well.

For my parting words I will share something I have come to realize based on two old phrases:

The first phrase is, "You can achieve anything you put your mind to".  No as a matter of fact you cannot.  It seems to be a motto that American's live by and the rest of the world already knows is not actually true.

The second phrase, "There is no such thing as a stupid/dumb question".  Oh yes there is, and far too often I have heard them.  My favorites are the ones that are asked mere seconds after someone has just finished explaining that very thing.  Why don't people just learn to listen?

And with that it is time to end, thank you, and goodnight.

The Beginning

A New Year and a New Beginning for this blog. I intend to be much more diligent with my posting and a lot more interesting. Many big changes are coming for me in the next year and this will be one of the places that I post these changes.

To start the year off on the right now I ran in a small fun run called the John Dailey Memorial One One Run. I ran it with my cousin Rebekah and her cousins Laura and Emily, their Dad Dan, and Emily's husband David. This was all sort of a last minute deal, I had not even heard about the run until the Thursday before it happened.

The day was a cold one, but with sunshine breaking through from time to time. No snow was on the ground as the rain and warm weather from the previous two days had washed it all away. I found out later that the wind chill was somewhere in the teens. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a shirt, they sold out because of the nearly 800 people that were there.

In the end I think I finished between 15-20th for the people who did the two lap 4.4 mile option. I ran it in 0:32:36.63 which I feel was pretty good given the weather, and how little training I had done. I had only ran 3 times over break.

The goal this year is to run the first ever Kalamazoo Marathon in a time under 3 hours 10 minutes. Ideally I would like to be under 3 hours, but I am going to be realistic for my first marathon.

One thing I observed during the run was how many people have all the gear and look the part of runners, but aren't at all very fast at all. I don't have nearly the proper gear compared to some. I was wearing a pair of soccer sweat pants with a pair of running sweats underneath, a long sleeve shirt, a North Face lightweight pullover, and a pair of Adidas running gloves. Some people were decked out head to toe in purpose made gear and were slow as can be. I just cannot understand the people that dress the part and cannot perform.

Back From a Long Hiatus

I'm finally back from quite a long hiatus, nearly a year. Well these things happen when you transfer schools and begin doing many more things. Anyway enough with the excuses, I have a years worth of aviation news to catch up on.

Once again we are waiting on the 787 to roll out for real this time, the roll out last year on 7-8-07 was a bit lame now that it has been more than a year and it has not taken to the sky. The other problem is the Air Force's new tanker contract, which I personally think may never be resolved, not really. It has taken far too long for the government to come to a decision about this matter. I read a quote six months ago when the initial final decision was made that expressed something to the effect that if the deadline was 25 January, he should have asked to make sure it was 2008, not 2009. The bureaucracy that goes into these types of matters is absolutely ridiculous.

Enough about that. The last year has seen me transfer from Western Michigan University to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. I'm still pursuing the same degree, with a slightly different title, Aerospace Engineering with a focus in Aeronautics. The move was a good one for me although I have really missed all my flight team buddies from WMU. The move was prompted after finally getting my chance at the military career I've wanted for as long as I can remember. I was able to pick up a full ride Navy ROTC scholarship which has been absolutely great. The NROTC at Embry-Riddle is one of the largest in the country despite it being just 5 years old and it is already producing the largest number of pilots for the Navy second only to the Naval Academy.

A little bit on the flight team business. I started on the flight team at WMU, the Sky Broncos, we took first place in our region, region III, and fourth in the nation. My event is aircraft recognition, you are given normally 60 slides in of aircraft and have to identify the manufacturer, model number, and common name associated with the aircraft. The catch is that you are only given three seconds to view each slide, which makes things a bit more difficult, when you are experience like most of the top reccers, as they are called, this is more than enough time. The first 50 slides are multiple choice and you are given 15 seconds after each slide to make a decision about the aircraft that was seen, the last ten are fill in the blank and you are given 30 seconds to come to your decision about the aircraft. In the regional back in 2006 I took first place followed by three of my teammates, then in the national I took 6 place. This year I only participated in the national competition with my new team at ERAU, the Eagles, I was able to take second, missing first by only one point. If you'd like to view more on this visit www.nifa.us for more information.

Partially as a result of this I have had little to no time to do leisure flying on my own, so I have had very little flight time in the last year, I'm hoping to remedy that over the next month in preparation for the Eagles Flight Team back in Daytona in the fall. This year I flew for the first time a G1000 equipped Cessna 172, very nice, but I miss the round dials. I have only two gripes with the system, I'm to tall and the extended dash makes it impossible for me to see the comm frequencies on the pilots side display, and the fuel gauges are horizontal. To me the fuel gauges should be vertical since the fuel doesn't drain out of them in a horizontal manner, I'm sure it was a space saving design on the screen, but it just doesn't register with my brain.

This summer I was on active duty for a brief stint enjoying all of what the Navy has to offer in a program called Career Orientation Training for Midshipman or CORTRAMID. It was extremely fun seeing everything the Navy does on a regular day to day basis, as well as getting to meet Midshipman from all around the country that I'll soon be serving alongside. Of course for me the best parts were the flying that we were able to do. Every Midshipman that physically qualified had the chance to fly the T-34C Turbo Mentor. Let me tell you it was a blast! You felt cool from the instant you were geared up and walking out to the aircraft, kitted out in flight suit, harness, gloves, and flight helmet, you felt like you were really a Naval Aviator. Each of us got a 20 to 30 minute flight in the Mentor. My pilot was a Marine Corps C-130 pilot by trade who was doing a tour as a primary flight instructor. We took off from NAS Oceana taxiing out through rows and rows of F/A-18 C-Fs watching them takeoff and land through the expansive greenhouse canopy was amazing. Once we got airborne he held it in ground effect until the end then pitched up 60 degrees in a climbing left turn until we had reached 500 feet and our on course heading. We flew out until we were in Northern North Carolina over the Blackwater compound that is there then climbed to 6,500 ft and did a wide clearing turn. Then he executed an Immelman after which we ended up at about 8,000 ft and 90 knots of airspeed. The stick shaker was going off as we rolled level indicating we were close to stall speed. We then dove for a little airspeed executed a loop followed immediately by a barrel roll, then an aileron roll, and finally a split S. After the split S we made a turn and were now down around 4,500 feet, then he gave me control and we did an aileron roll, that was cool! I then had control from there until 5 miles out from Oceana. Most of the way we were doing 200 knots at only 500 feet. We had to stay below the pattern altitude of the F/A-18s, that is the reason we were so low.

Throughout the rest of CORTRAMID we toured squadrons and flew simulators as well as received two more rides, this time in helicopters. We flew the MH-60S all around the greater Norfolk area with the doors open for about an hour, that was pretty neat! We also flew the CH-53E during Marine week on a short ride, not as interesting as the 60 but still fun for me at least, it seemed to put others to sleep though. It is nicknamed the $h!tter because all sorts of fluids are leaking on to you , in the picture below you can see some of those fluids on one of the guys helmet. They told us there was nothing to worry about, but that if we noticed it stop leaking we should tell them!

Here is a link to a youtube video I created highlighting some of what went on, a lot is missing since we weren't allowed to have cameras at many sights for national security purposes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDzVLHKXh0I

Plane&Pilot

I have a bit of a bone to pick with Plane&Pilot magazine today because of this months issue, September 2007. They did an article about the 10 sexiest airplanes and I am really not pleased by it.

First of all it should have been the 10 sexiest airplanes plus 2 and then 15 more. Lets be definitive here folks its honestly not that hard. My first bone to pick is with their choice of the Avro B.1 Vulcan. The thing is absolutely hideous with its stingray shaped wing that looks so under designed. I won't even give it the gratification of more of an explaination, I think what happened in the James Bond movie Thunderball is enough, and thats when they were new. I can't stand any of the V bombers and I was very surprised seeing the Vulcan on the list.

My next is with the indecisiveness they had to put two aircraft for 7th place the Cirrus and Columbia, and they didn't specify which models for either. I think as I have said in a previous blog that the Cirrus SR-2o/SR-22 are better looking, with my decisiveness being placed specifically on the SR-22 because of its exhaust stacks. Besides they already put a better looking Lancair/Columbia earlier on the Lancair 320.

They did the same thing with the 4th place aircraft picking two once again the Lear 24D, which is really a Gates Learjet 24D Learjet a successor to the original, and the Dassault 10 Falcon. I do think a Learjet should have made the list, but I think it should have been the 31 the most capable of the Learjets with body strakes, and winglets. I couldn't disagree more with the choice to put the Falcon 10 on, for me it is the ugliest and least sexy of all the Falcons and the one that doesn't fit in with the rest of the line. I think that the Falcon 20 is the aircraft that represents the quintessential Falcon design, you can see it in all the other Falcons. They then go on to say that the 10 and 20 are still aircraft to swear by for corporate flight departments, the 10 no, the 20 and 200 yest definitely, I see them all the time. The only time I see Falcon 10s are when NASCAR goes anywhere.

That's the end of my rant for now.

The Space Shuttle Endeavor blasted off just minutes ago and is probably just now reaching space as I write this. I'll hopefully get to see it landed in two weeks time when I'm down in Florida to start school.

The 787 and Spirit/Opportunity

Boeing one week ago rolled out their newest aircraft the 787 Dreamliner. Basically it looks a lot like a 757 with a smaller tail, different unconventional cockpit windows, and the advanced raked winglets. Overall it is a pretty good looking aircraft and looks to be extremely powerful. If you were following this at all you might have seen some photos Boeing wasn't to happy about. An Airliners.net photographer had parked himself on the highway that passes by the Boeing final assembly facility in Everett, Washington and was able to snag some shots even before it was painted. After it passed out of the assembly building and was being towed to the paint building is when he was able to get the pictures. I'm really looking forward to seeing it fly in about a month.

The big news with NASA is that they may finally lose one of the Mars rovers. They plan on sending it into a valley that it may not be able to get out of because of the lack of sunlight. Spirit and Opportunity have now been on Mars for more than 3.5 years. That is an incredible feat since they were only meant to last just 3 months, they have now passed 13 times their life expectancy. Hopefully they'll be able to gain a significant amount of information for future missions to Mars.

Another update I forgot about until I was writing this. Cirrus has released a full scale mock up of their entry into the VLJ market. To me it looks like Cirrus has lost touch with their other aircraft. Their VLJ looks like a hydro jet boat nearly exactly, they just removed the forward section and added wings. The interior looks nothing like an aircraft at all. There are no backup steam gauges just a straight panel with absolutely nothing their. I'm sure it will be different when they actually start building a real one, but for now it just does not look very good.

Stupid Aircraft

I was watching ABC news tonight and a story came on regarding an aircraft that has been under development for 21 years. As my previous posts have been regarding the beauty of aircraft this post is in regards to how ugly this aircraft is, just look at the thing. If you read Popular Science Magazine you will have seen an article regarding a hypersonic aircraft for the Marines several months ago. The following month the letters to the editor regarding this issue pretty much destroyed the possibility of this aircraft ever making off the proposal sheet because there is no need for it. The same is true for this aircraft that $63 million have been poured into, its just not needed. I think the news was trying to show what a waste of money it was, but in the governments eyes this $63 million is nothing. Anyway there is really no need for an aircraft that can take of vertically fly at 700mph anywhere in the world and drop off 50 combat troops. We can pretty much do that already with more troops, almost 6 times as many troops in a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, granted the troops will get dirty from parachuting in, but whats a little dirt. Anyway this aircraft will probably never progress beyond its hovering several feet off the ground tethered to a flat bed. As much as I support aviation when you build something this ugly it is no wonder it never makes it past the prototype stage, ie Boeing X-32, don't even get me started.

The Best Looking Fighters

This is a good sign that I keep coming back. As promised I'm going to continue my best looking aircraft trend today with the fighter aircraft, some production and at least one that never made it that far. I'm going to skip WWI because I'm not a big fan of that era and go straight to WWII.

To me probably the best looking as well as the best raw performance numbers of WWII came from a single aircraft that never made it to production. The Martin Baker MB.5. It has earned itself the name the British Mustang from its obvious similarities to the North American P-51 Mustang. I think however that it has better lines that the P-51 and it certainly has better performance numbers. I've read that only two of these aircraft were ever built the first having been lost in a crash during the initial testing. The second was destroyed later in the 1960's I believe an a British artillery range. Today there is a group in the Western United States working to build a replica of this aircraft, but it is not an exact replica and is somewhat shorter than the original. It has parts that have been borrowed from several other aircraft including its lookalike the P-51. My goal is to someday have the time and the money to build an exact replica of it, the problem is that I don't believe that there a plans for this aircraft out there, although I have a feeling Martin Baker probably has the somewhere in an archive. If I really have a lot of time I'd like to go to the artillery range that the second was destroyed on and try and see if there is anything left. I think that is a bit ambitious though.

Another aircraft that I have a bit of an affinity towards from the WWII era is the Goodyear F2G sometimes referred to as the Super Corsair. From a basic glance it looks just like a normal Chance Vought F4U Corsair, until you notice the bubble canopy and noticeably longer cowling. There is something about that bubble canopy that makes me like the Super Corsair better than the standard Corsair. It also has under that cowling a considerable increase in power, I believe it is something on the order of nearly 1,000hp but I don't really feel like getting up to get the book I know it's in. Other than the canopy and the cowling it shares the same awesome inverted gull wing as the original Corsair.

Now on to the Korean War Era, from which I think only one aircraft emerges, the North American F-86 Sabre. This plane is always a stunner except when it is a D model and has the radar in the nose which just wrecks the aesthetics of the aircraft. When ever you see a nice one with the polished aluminum, swept wings, bubble canopy, and crucible tail you know you've seen something special. This I would argue is the first REAL jet that the United States produced. Sure there was the P-53, P-80, F-84, etc., but the Sabre was the first that actually looked fast, and it was. I just cannot say enough about how cool it looks when it is in the air, whether it has the speed brakes deployed, gear down, or totally clean, it just looks awesome.

From the Vietnam era came possibly the best looking series of jet aircraft. The Northrop T-38 Talon, F-5E Tiger II, and the F-5 Freedom Fighter. Of these I have a particular interest in the T-38, and the two seat models of the F-5E and F-5. Something about that extra bit of canopy makes them look just a bit better. When it comes down to it there cannot be a simpler aircraft out there. Okay there probably is, but from first glance you can tell it was meant for one thing, going fast! I think the stubby wings that look razor thin, the long pointy nose, and the contours on the engines make this jet look positively brilliant. When they are kept up well and shiny and in the all black schemes of Holloman or Beale Air Force Bases are when I like them the best, but I won't make a fuss over any of the others.

Now we are into the modern stuff and I can get back to possibly my favorite company Dassault. With the next several aircraft I mention I am going to be extremely specific as to the model of the aircraft that I like best, because in most cases it makes a world of difference. The Dassault fighter aircraft that I think has the best lines is the Dassault 2000D Mirage. The D is the two seat model and like with the T-38 something just looks better with that longer canopy. This aircraft again has an extremely pointy nose, intake spikes, a beautiful delta wing, and an F-16 style afterburner ring. If you've seen the videos on Youtube and Google video of these aircraft you know what I'm talking about when I say how impressive they are airborne. I've yet to see one in real life but I'm really looking forward to that day. If you've not checked it out the movie Les Chevaliers du Ciel, Skyfighters in English, is a great movie to see this aircraft in, in a variety of forms. It is a pretty cheesy movie, but it does have some of the best flying scenes I've ever seen.

The next aircraft that is up is the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle. This is the plane that I grew up wanting to fly, although that will never happen since the Air Force does not like nut allergies, but I really don't want to get into that whole story right now, maybe some other time. The Strike Eagle in its dark grey paint scheme just looks better than the normal Eagle. I think it also helps that it is a two seater, again with my liking the longer canopy, I also liked the fact that you worked as a team in this aircraft with your WSO. The other major plus for this aircraft are the conformal fuel tanks that seemed to round out the aircraft and give it a somewhat cleaner look than the normal Eagle. Outside pure aesthetics the another factor that drew me so much to this aircraft was the dual role that it can play. While maintaining the same capability as the typical air to air arena that has the slogan, "Not a pound for air to ground", it can also slug it out in the attack role. The biggest draw though came from what I had read, and later saw what it can do near the ground. With its terrain following radar, FLIR pod and other accessories they fly the Strike Eagle at a hundred feet off the deck in all weather, day or night, that is cool! I heard somewhere that pilots describe that type of flying as being 1/2 second from the ground, WOW!

Next we have an aircraft that I do have the possibility of actually flying in the future the Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet. Let me just get this out there for anyone who actually cares the Navy is considerably more lenient when it comes to your medical and they won't disqualify you for stupid things that don't really affect anything. Back on topic, again the F/A-18F Super Hornet is the two seat model of the Super Hornet and more closely fills the role previously occupied by the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. Again that longer canopy just does it for me. There are a couple of things that I like about the Super Hornet better than the Hornet. The first of these and the most obvious is the change in intakes from the round to the square. I think the square just look a lot better. The next less obvious is the fact that the aircraft in general is cleaner than the original Hornet. If you look at the normal Hornet you'll see that just aft of the cockpit mounted on the leading edge wing root section there is a large metal plate, that looks almost like a strike. It is secured there by only two bolts and is actually there because of the slip stream that the Hornet was producing was putting to much stress on the vertical stabilizers. These are noticeably absent on the Super Hornet as well as the the fact that the leading edge wing roots are much larger and on the Hornet. In general the Super Hornet is a much larger aircraft, nearly three feet longer than its predecessor and with more than 100 square feet more wing area that allows the ability to carry two more weapons pylons for a total of 11.

Anyway I have a bit of a bone to pick with some pilots and mechanics, if your going to be a pilot or mechanic you should know exactly what you are talking about when you speak. On both occasions two military guys have come across to me as being somewhat ignorant of their respective branches of the military. The first was an ex A-10 pilot who interviewed me for admission to the Air Force Academy and when he asked what I wanted to fly I told him the F-15E Strike Eagle, he thought it was a pure air to air aircraft and that's the whole reason they put the seat in for the guy to operate the radar. I kind of explained to him how it was a multi role aircraft but I don't think he believed me and I did not really want to push during an interview. First of all Strike is right in its name, second it has earned the nickname Beagle, for Bomb Eagle, and third Mudhen for its low level flying, what would a fighter be doing down low? Anyway the second guy was a young Marine Corps F/A-18 mechanic that I bumped into in a store wearing a WMU flight team shirt and I got talking to for a while. I explained how I had just received an NROTC scholarship and one day might be flying the very aircraft he works on. Then he proceeded to tell me how the Navy and Marines were going to be getting a new aircraft right about the time I graduated from college and would be entering the pipeline. He told me about the wonders of the F-35 Raptor. I just sat there and played dumb like I had no idea what he was talking about and how cool of a new aircraft it would be, all the while thinking to myself how incredibly ignorant this guy was sounding. It was only a couple of weeks earlier that I had been at the United States Air Force Museum and overheard a grandfather telling his grandson about the F-11 Raptor, hmm another aircraft I don't know about apparently. Anyway I hate it when people talk like they know a lot about something, especially aircraft, and then end up coming off like they know nothing at all. I feel sorry for that little boy who now has no idea what the F-22 RAPTOR actually is. By the way if any of you are thinking why didn't he write F/A-22 I'm still ahead of you, because from what I've heard the Air Force is not actually going to use the F-22 for the attack role, which I think is a good idea since they cost so much. I may have to come back and change this bit here in the future as I just read in Air Forces Monthly I believe it was that the first production F/A-22 just rolled of the assembly line. If the Air Force is producing two versions of the Raptor as a pure air to air, and a dual role aircraft this is the first I've heard of it. That's the end of my rant I guess.

Round Two

Well I'm glad I have committed myself somewhat to this, I think it will be fun. Anyway on the topic of space it is good that the shuttle Atlantis safely made it to orbit yesterday, unfortunately I was unable to watch the launch as I was playing in a soccer game. The game was the first I had played in 19 months and it was definitely good to get out there again.

Now I need to get back on topic and describe to you some of the aircraft that I think are aesthetically pleasing. These aircraft will not include some of my favorite aircraft that aren't so pleasing to the eye, namely my favorite aircraft the Dassault F-1 Mirage.

I'm going to do this in order of size most likely so I'll start from the smaller aircraft first and work up to the big ones.

So here it goes the first aircraft being the Cirrus SR-20 and SR-22. I can't say enough about the nice lines that these aircraft have. Everything is swept back and almost elegant in nature and I would only change several things to make them even more pleasing to the eye. On the SR-22 I would change up the wingtip extension that they added, it just does not look good from up close or when you see it in wing shots. The other thing that I would change are the exhaust stacks on the SR-20 they are way to long, I understand that this is for functional purposes, but they just don't look right.

The next aircraft up in class that I think has good lines is the Beechcraft 60 Duke. Everything about this aircraft has been swept back and looks like it was built solely for speed. There really isn't anything about this aircraft that I would want to change. Although the modernized versions with winglets I don't think look as good as those with clean wings. Some of the modernized variants have picked up aft body strakes which I think are a real plus aesthetically. The only thing I would really like to change about the duke is its reputation. It seems that they are maintenance hogs and so have gained the reputation as hangar queens, although to date I have seen several flying so I don't know if this is actually the case. AT least one has been granted the privilege of wearing Pratt & Whitney PT-6s and I think it looks fantastic.

Stepping up once again we move to the Dornier Do-328. This regional turboprop airliner is definitely the best looking regional airliner out there. With speeds nearing that of jets, clean lines, a high performance wing, and an awesome flight deck its no wonder I don't hear anything bad about this aircraft. I must advise you that it does have an extremely ugly sibling, the Do-328JET model which has the six bladed turboprops replaced by turbofans. This aircraft sounds as good as it looks, ten years ago I had the privilege of flying in one and it was one of the quietest aircraft I have ever been on, and I was in a wing seat very near those monstrous Pratt & Whitney PW119 engines.

The next aircraft on this list is the Dassault 900 Falcon. For me nearly all the Dassault aircraft should been on this best looking list with the exception of only a few. Marcel Dassault formerly Bloch must have really been inspired when he began creating his aircraft because they all look superb. For me the 900 exemplifies this beauty it has flowing lines, a nice wide fuselage, the ducted third engine, and the typical Dassault business jet tail. It seems everything on this aircraft is faired in and just perfect. My uncle had the privilege of flying this aircraft and he said he absolutely loved it.

In the next class up lies the Boeing 757. To some this aircraft is some what unattractive because its fuselage is so slender and long, and its engines are so big and powerful, but to me these are the things that make it such a good looking aircraft. Pilots consider this aircraft to be the sports car of the airliners because of how overpowered it is. I have heard a story through one of my friends about some pilot he had talked about how one day with no passengers on board and a light fuel load they did a performance takeoff in the aircraft and pitched the nose back to other worldly attitude. If you have not yet seen it I suggest searching the New Zealand Air Force 757 flyby on Youtube, that's what I'm talking about. As with the Dornier Do-328 the 757 has an ugly sibling known as the 757-300 which has been stretched to a length that just looks unsafe. The 757 features aft leaning twin bogey landing gear that look like claws off a falcon when in their down and locked position and this further adds to its aura as a bird of prey.

Finally there is the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar. This is the best looking of all the three holers, although I am somewhat partial to the MD-11 as well. This aircraft like many of the others on this list has everything tucked away and faired in. Something about the sheer size of this aircraft makes it impressive. Although this aircraft did not sell very well in comparison to its opponents the DC-10 and 747 it was probably the best of these aircraft. Lockheed spent a year extra working everything out on this aircraft so that it was absolutely a dream to fly. I've heard stories about pilots of this aircraft waking up in the middle of the night and going to sit with this aircraft it meant so much to them.

Those are my favorites for the civilian side of things, I'll be back at some point to give my military aircraft, and I may even give my helicopter favorites, if I'm in a good mood.

The Beginning

Okay I'm pretty new to this whole blogging thing both as a reader and as a writer but here it goes anyway. For the most part my blogs will be in regards to something aviation or space related.

To start things off I've had the privilege of being at the controls of four different types of aircraft, two of which are reflected in my log book. The others I was flying from the right seat and thus could not actually log.

The first of these aircraft being the Cessna 172 Skyhawk. The first time I flew a Skyhawk was when I was 16 at a summer camp at Western Michigan University. The actually aircraft's tail number was N993WW which is now owned by the International Airline Training Academy in Tuscon, Arizona. The first Skyhawk I ever soloed had the tail number N981BT and this is the aircraft the majority of my logbook times is reflected in. I've also flown N721AA and N996WW. To me the Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a perfect Private Pilot training aircraft. With relatively moderate performance, good visibility, and ease to fly it has been a pure joy to do my training in. It does however have a number of draw backs, mainly being its lack of power, and inability to carry any sort of useful load with the fuel to actual make a long cross country. Cessna has remedied this somewhat with the newer models giving them an extra 20 HP so that they now have 180 horses. When I have flown four people in the Skyhawk I've had to carry roughly half tanks, although the performance does not really seem to be affected to much, in cruise it will still do 110 knots.

The other type of aircraft that I have in my logbook is the Cessna 150. This is the Skyhawks smaller cousin. It is only a two seat aircraft and is probably about a foot abreast smaller than the Skyhawk. The other major difference is the seating position for the pilot. In the Skyhawk your seating up just over a foot off the floor in the seat with you legs extended down to the pedals. The 150 is another story, you're sitting on the floor kind of paddle boat style with your legs straight out in front of you. My experience with the 150 has lead me to believe that the aircraft has a mind of its own, possibly solely a result of it being so light weight. We pulled the power out and we continued to climb, then we'd put power in to climb and we'd descend it must have just been riding thermals. It is an extremely fun aircraft to fly although even more under powered than the Skyhawk it turns like nothing else out there. It has relatively big control surfaces for how big it is so it rolls into and out of turns very nicely. It also has 40 degrees of flaps which is somewhat uncommon for aircraft this small which means it will fly really slow. With power in and full flaps you can fly it well beyond its published stall speed to less than 10 knots. For this very reason many people have had the privilege of flying backwards in this aircraft with stiff headwinds.

I've also flown right seat in a homebuilt experimental category Vans RV-6A. If you have ever looked at homebuilt aircraft you'll know how successful Vans is with over 5,000 of there aircraft in the air. Before I flew in it I had figured it would be a bit of a step up from what I had previously flown in but I really had no idea. The RV-6A I flew in had a 180HP normally aspirated Lycoming engine driving a fixed pitch prop. I should have knew what I was in for by doing a little math before hand. The aircraft weighs less than 1,500, so about the same as a Cessna 150, and has 80 more HP plus a more streamlined design. When we rotated at takeoff we were doing a 100 knots in the climb and maintaining nearly 2,000 fpm climb rate. In cruise we were at around 180 knots true air speed. The other major difference to this aircraft than the others I had flown was that it had a low wing instead of a high wing. It also had no doors, instead it had a sliding canopy which I thought was neat, until we closed it and I had absolutely no head room. Another cool feature was that it had a fighter pilot like stick instead of a yoke that was pretty neat to turn with. Although I'm supposed to have a second flight with the guy that owns it I've yet to do that, he said I could ring it out a bit and head show me what it could really do. I think he meant rolling it and thinks which I'd love to be along for the ride and do.

Finally the coolest aircraft I've ever flown, the Cirrus SR-20. From first looking at it you can sense how cool it is. It has some of the best lines on any light single engine aircraft out there. For those none aviation enthusiasts I'll compare it to a car, and the only car in its class the Lamborghini. To start the Cirrus has Lamborghini doors so you know it is cool when you can taxi in after a flight with both doors popped open like that. It also features a full glass cockpit, meaning all the typical steam gauges have been replaced by LCD monitors, with the exception of the attitude indicator, airspeed indicator, and altimeter which are all still in place as back ups to their digital counterparts. The Cirrus is easily 30 knots faster than every other aircraft in its class and it will also carry a bit more than the others. Some of the coolest features of the Cirrus are found on the wings. The Cirrus features a dog tooth leading edge, which I'll get into at some point when I talk about modern fighters. It also features stall strips, which on the Cirrus are quite small, but I'm told that on the new Cirrus SR-22 G3 they are significantly larger. The basic principle behind a stall strip is to guarantee that the wing root area stalls before the wing tip, this makes the aircraft safer. This makes an aircraft safer because whenever a wing stalls, if a tip stalls before the other portion of the wing it will drop and you have the potential to enter a spin, which in the Cirrus has no recovery technique but to pull the chute. The biggest advantage to the Cirrus probably is its safety. The aircraft is virtually impossible to get your self into a mess that you can't get yourself out of as long as it had nothing to do with your decision making skills regarding weather, your ability, etc. One of its most known feature is mostly its CAPS (Cirrus Airframe Parachute System) which deploys a large canopy via a solid rocket that will bring the whole aircraft down in one piece. It also has many other safety features but I'm not going to get into them. The only draw backs I see with the Cirrus are that it has somewhat poor visibility outside, which is why I personally feel that it is probably not the right choice for a primary training platform. I do however feel that it is probably one of the best secondary training platforms on the market if not the best, it is a great Instrument aircraft as I had the privilege of experiencing 3 days ago as a back seat passenger. We took off into a cloud deck that was reported to be at 900 feet AGL, but was at more like 400 AGL, climbed through a 3,000 foot cloud deck, flew 100 nautical miles, descended through that same cloud, and made an uneventful precision approach. If you are someone that has $300,000 burning a hole in your pocket this is definitely the right plane for you, I cannot speak more highly of this aircraft.

Anyway I guess that it is a somewhat lengthy first blog, hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with my favorite aircraft.