Stick time, foliage, and a little formation with the Stearman

Plane: Cub, 85 hp 
Route: 40I, Local 
Weather: Broken clouds, 46 degrees, wind 040 degrees at 5 knots

It's been a busy fall. Somehow, in between yardwork, regular work, school work, and other flights I hadn't flown the Cub in nearly two months! Gina was working at Stewart this morning and emailed to say a hole in the schedule opened up. It worked out perfectly - I was able to make some laps around the pattern (passengers love circling the airport) while she finished up work, then she hopped into the front seat for our first flight together since August.

Oh, and I flew a little formation with the Stearman in between. Read on, friends.

Yellow Cub. Green grass. Blue sky. What pilot needs anything more?

Takeoff and landing practice was the first order of business. I ended up making four laps - three for landings. The first landing was great, then I lined up for a short field takeoff and was quickly in the air in between the 200-foot span of a set of cones. Not sure what happened with the second landing but I flared a tad too soon, bounced, didn't like how it was feeling, and poured on the throttle. Go arounds are (generally) always an option!

After two more successful laps around, I pulled off and saw Dave standing next to the runway. He's a coworker, pilot, and owns a nice little Porterfield. We ran into each other in the office before I went out to do my preflight and he told me a friend (Verlin, another coworker, it turns out) was there for a Stearman ride. We made plans with Joe to try and fly up alongside them later if we had time. So, to cut to the chase, Dave climbed into the front seat and we were soon on an aerial hunt for a blue and yellow PT-17.

Approaching the Stearman from the right

Opposite view at about the same moment looking at us in the Cub

As you can see, we were quite successful! Dave spotted the Stearman shortly after takeoff and I slowly brought us into position over the Little Miami River. I waved my wings at Joe, he rocked the Stearman's back, and I pulled in off his right wing.

Sliding into the lead...

Looking back at us again

After a minute or so, I slid into the lead. Then I waved my wings again to signal I was going to break off and I turned east. We followed the Stearman back to Stewart, entering a left downwind for Runway 26 and touching down quite softly on the grass. Thanks to Dave and Verlin for the photos - or, more accurately, the videos they were each recording; I took screen captures and those are what you see here.

Breaking off to the east

Dave wiggled his way out and Gina climbed in. We spent about five seconds deciding we'd just fly around and enjoy the view. I handed her my phone so she could take photos of the colorful foliage. All the photos in the remainder of the post are her handiwork!

Trees changing near the intersection of OH-73 and OH-48

A particularly colorful neighborhood

The trees lining this driveway stood out from miles away

A wider angle of the aforementioned colorful neighborhood

More fall colors along OH-73 near Waynesville

It's been an interesting fall color-wise. Compared to last year, everything seems more muted. There hasn't been a particularly clear-cut change, either. All the trees have been gradually morphing from green to orange to brown on their own accord.

That's not to say there aren't pretty pockets here and there. We enjoyed the views and spotted some very colorful groupings. I'm really glad we squeezed in our annual color flight before it was too late.

Trees on the eastern shoreline of Caesar Creek Lake

Another colorful patch in Caesar Creek State Park

I meandered back towards Stewart and again entered the pattern from the south. We spotted a Pawnee towing a glider, climbing out of the gliderport as we flew past; I waved our wings to say hello. Touching down on the soft grass, I felt completely back at home in the Cub's back seat. Nothing like a little practice, some formation, and good views from the low and slow perch to fill one's aviation bucket for the day!

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.2 hours
Total Time: 295.2 hours

Cub (on Rob's way) to Oshkosh!

Plane: Cub, 65 hp 
Route: 40I, Local 
Weather: Clear, 84 degrees, wind 120 degrees at 3 knots

Pilot friend Rob (who used to blog about his aerial exploits) emailed me months ago asking if he could stay with us tonight. You see, he's in the midst of a crazy adventure to Oshkosh - riding all 2,015 miles from Philadelphia to Wisconsin and back on his motorcycle! The last time we said hello was when he and Gary flew out to visit nearly two years ago. We said yes to the visit, of course, and have been looking forward to seeing him.

Now if you know anything about me, you know I don't just pass up an opportunity to take a friend up in a J-3. Especially when they're a pilot! So that was the plan for tonight - a little slice of vintage flying in a Cub.

The best part of tonight's flight - getting up close with the Stearman!

The airport was especially active tonight - just the perfect example of grassroots aviation. Lots of taildraggers, a couple pilots camping there overnight in their Aeroncas, and some hot air balloons. We took to the air and Emerson pulled up on our wing shortly after takeoff as we headed east towards the lake. As you can see in the video above, the view was spectacular.

Our airplane of choice, shortly before we climbed in and took off

Has a PT-17 ever not looked stately in the sky? I say no.

After the Stearman broke off, we flew over the lake and then down the valley towards King's Island. Rob was enjoying the view out the open door and took some great photos. Nearly all the photos and video in this post are his handiwork - thanks for capturing the flight so well, Rob!

The lake was rather active tonight - lots of boats down there

We had a great view of King's Island

Turning back towards the airport, we saw that the hot air balloons had launched. I climbed up to about 3,000 feet to get level with them and we passed by at a distance, waving the wings as the folks in the basket waved back. Then I handed Rob the stick and he enjoyed having the controls for a little while.

You fly a Cub for the pure and vintage experience, not necessarily to go somewhere!

Passing by a balloon - there were quite a few out flying tonight

Shortly thereafter I re-entered the pattern and touched down softly on the grass. We parked the venerable J-3 in front of its hangar and hopped out, both having enjoyed a perfect summer evening flight. Good times, for sure.

A rare, front-seat view of the takeoff and landing

In case you're wondering about the title of the post, I'm playing off the name of the mass fly-in of Cubs scheduled to arrive at Oshkosh on Sunday morning. A group of over 100 J-3s are arriving together to celebrate the 75th anniversary of iconic yellow plane. Head on over to Cubs 2 Oshkosh for more info!

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.0 hours
Total Time: 222.8 hours

Hood work, yadda, yadda, yadda... Stearman!!!

Plane: Cessna 150 / Stearman / Cub, 85 hp
Instructor: Dave
Route: 40I, Local
Weather: Clear, 76 degrees, wind 110 degrees at 3 knots

Today was all sorts of fun - but we'll get to that. When we were at the airport last Saturday I booked time with Dave for this evening. I last completed a phase of WINGS in September 2009, so I either had to complete another or complete a full-on BFR by the end of next month. Since I already completed two out of of three of my required flight activities back in March, it made the most sense to go up with him and finish off this phase to extend my BFR currency by two more years.

Flight Tracks - Cessna 150 (red) / Stearman (green) / Cub (blue)

I had reserved the Cub but realized this afternoon that part of what I needed to do included hood work. Luckily the 150 was open, so I swapped rides and we hopped into the tiny Cessna. Hard to believe, but I haven't flown a 150 in nearly a year - that's what I used to always fly, nearly half my hours (98+) are in 150s! Anyway, after reacquainting myself with that tiny cockpit we took off and flew up to 2,500 feet over the lake.

Dave had me put the airplane into slow flight with 30 degrees of flaps, level at about 2,700 feet and hanging on the prop at 35 to 40 knots. I held the ailerons level and used the rudder pedals to turn us in a few circles. Then I pushed in the power and raised the nose until we had a nice break into a power-on stall. That went pretty well, so power to idle and two power-off stalls followed. The last one was one of the best I've ever done - a couple taps of the rudder and the nose dropped and the remained wings perfectly level at the break.

After all that, it was time to strap on the hood and do a little instrument work. The last time I went under my hood was my checkride in 2008, so needless to say I was overdue for some practice whether or not it was part of my WINGS activity. I won't say I did great, considering the lack of training and practice, but I did manage some decent turns and climbs. Obviously I've got a loooong way to go towards my IR. Dave then had me lower my head, tossed the airplane around, then had me recover for unusual attitude practice - always fun. I think he had me in a nose-low attitude once and an extremely nose-high attitude twice.

He asked for a landing just past a specific point on the runway, so I set up for a short field approach. Extended downwind, then all 40 degrees of flaps and 50 knots on final. Manage airspeed with pitch and descent with throttle. I was hanging on the prop as we crossed over the edge of the runway but we hit a tiny bit of lift and I touched probably 50-100 feet past my intended point. Still good, but I enjoy the challenge of a spot landing and would've liked to really nail that one!

Stearman + Grass = Perfection

Back in the office, Dave said he had to put the Stearman away. For those not familiar with the fine folks at Red Stewart Airfield, putting the Stearman away equates to a trip around the pattern and a free ride if you happen to be there at the right time. After over three years flying there, I was finally at the airport at the right time!

He explained how to climb in and I have to say it was easier than I expected - the cockpit was more spacious than you might think, too. The radial engine coughed to life and the smell was oh-so-vintage-airplane-good. Dave handed me the controls and had me taxi down to the other end of the runway. Needless to say, compared to a Cub, you really need to do S-Turns to see out of this thing on the ground!

I think I looked the part...

I did all the preflight checks and run-up, then taxied onto the runway. Dave was also on the controls but I managed to get us off the ground and climbed slowly at about 85 mph as we made our way around the pattern. Abeam the numbers, throttle back to about 1500 RPM and a descent at around 85 mph again. Dave said to give her a little forward slip on short final to really see where we're going, so left stick and right rudder and we lost some altitude and airspeed and I could see the grass strip out in front. With some more help on the controls, I brought the stick back all the way and we touched down somewhat softly. They really don't lie when they say it flies just like a big Cub.

So yeah, that was fun and awesome. The view was incredible - nothing like the air whipping past the wires and being able to see in every direction. No way I could come close to flying it without a CFI onboard anytime soon, but I did get to fly a Stearman this evening. 'Nuff said.

Gotta love the view from downwind - the runway's under the bottom wing

After all that fun, I still had the J-3 booked because that's what I originally was going to fly in with Dave. It really was too beautiful an evening not to fly some more. I figured I might as well take it around the patch three times for currency purposes.

A hot air balloon was launching on the field right when I took off, so I immediately side-stepped to the right of the runway to give them some room. If you watch the video below, you'll see me wave the wings to say hello a few different times as I fly past the balloon. Every landing was a monster slip power-off approach, partially because I thought they'd look cool with the fisheye lens and partially because they're just so much fun. The final landing was intentionally long to save some taxi time.

A little video fun - only at Stewart can you fit in 3 takeoffs and landings in 0.3 hours!

Between the finally-nice, fall-like flying weather and getting to fly three different airplanes there's not much else I need to say about today. Just one of those glad-to-be-a-pilot evenings. And, to be a little more specific, glad-to-be-a-taildragger-pilot. Sorry, but you'll never convince me you can have fun any cheaper or better than a Cub with the door open. Well, maybe in a Stearman - but then I'm not so sure that cheaper part applies.

Flight Tracks: Google Earth KMZ File
Today's Flight: 0.7 hours / (not logged) / 0.3 hours
Total Time: 205.1 hours

Gary and Rob flew out to visit!

It took three tries (thanks to less-than-cooperative summer weather) but I finally met fellow bloggers Gary and Rob this afternoon! We tried to schedule a visit in May and were rained out; we then had the same problem in June. The stars finally aligned and they flew out together from Wilmington, DE (ILG) early this morning in Gary's Sundowner and landed at Wright Brothers around noon.

Landing on Runway 20 at Dayton Wright Brothers Airport

I had booked them some time at Stewart so they got their gear out of the plane and then immediately hopped in my car and drove to Waynesville. The 85 hp Cub and the Stearman were each reserved with an instructor for 1.5 hours so they could both get in some fun flying. Gary hopped in the Stearman first with CFI Joe and Rob went up in the Cub with CFI Dave. You may recall that Dave was my primary instructor and I have flown with Joe quite a bit as well. They're both awesome pilots and I knew Gary and Rob would have a good time with them.

Gary and Joe taking off in the Stearman - note the big grin on Gary's face!

Dave must have been explaining something to Rob as they taxied to the runway

I don't think the grin left his face the entire time he was in that seat!

Joe brought the Stearman right down the runway for a low pass - I was recording it on video using Rob's camera so I didn't snap any photos. You'll just have to take my word that it looked like it was way too much fun. Gary was still grinning after the ride ended and said he had an absolute blast. After everyone was back on the ground, Dave and Rob switched airplanes and took the Stearman up for about 20 minutes. Clearly they couldn't let Gary and Joe get away with all the fun, as they also made a sweet low pass - this time I took photos, one of which is below.

Dave and Rob, ready to take the PT-17 flying

Grass strip, vintage biplane, low pass - what more could you want?

We all chatted for a few minutes after the flying had ended. Both of them said they had a great time and I'm happy I was able to introduce them to the world of fun flying at Stewart. I also chatted with Dave briefly as he wants me to go up with him as a safety pilot sometime soon - that should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

Since they had a somewhat tight schedule, we left the airport and I drove them to our house to pick up Gina. All four of us were hungry and we had a nice lunch at Milano's, just down the street from both our house and Wright Brothers. Thanks again for lunch, Gary! We finished up our food and then hopped back in the car for the short drive to the airport.

We said our goodbyes and then Gary and Rob were able to depart from Wright Brothers and avoid the weather. It had started raining just as we left Stewart and the rain continued until shortly before we finished lunch. They launched and headed north to avoid the rain and made it home safely. Their timing was perfect - less than 20 minutes after they took off, it started pouring at our house (we live a mile from Wright Brothers).

I'm really glad we all finally met each other in person. Frequent readers know one of my favorite things about this blog is all the great people it has brought me into contact with. Being able to meet up with fellow pilot bloggers is always a treat and today was no exception. Now I just need to fly east and say hello to Rob and Gary in their neck of the woods!