Aviation BS and Photo Thread

...^^^... Air Force One used to be super low coming into Dobbins AFB and coming over Hwy 41 in Marietta, GA at such low levels that now it has been disallowed.

It almost felt like you could reach up and touch the plane ... and after 911 ... no more approaches like that now.

The highway was higher than the runway and the runway was only about 200 meters off the highway and it made for a super low approach.

 

Brother in law was flight engineer for AF2. SOB can fix anything. Does free work on vintage war birds. Father was Marine B-25 pilot in WW2, then Corsairs in Okinawa, then Sikorsky's in Korea. Funny...brother in law is 58, but has 104 hours in B-25s, 54 in P51's. Hours in most every propped warbird of that era. Almost lost his leg to a close encounter with a P-38 prop. Eventually he will succumb to this accident.

 

Politics aside, seeing this thing come down so close was such an awesome sight. It beamed strength and represents so much more than any one individual. It reminded me of what my grandpa fought for in WW2. And how far we've come since them. And reminded me of the sacrifice a lot of you veterans make every day. Thanks for your service, guys and gals.

 

Preach!

 

Check out these cool graphics I found on Etsy.

 

Disclaimer: I do fly jets, but not AF1. The standard approach angle is 3 degree decent or roughly 300’ AGL for every mile out, so at 2 miles it should be about 600’ on a standard glide path. That’s what approach certification relies on, and also assures obstacle clearance. Jets generally don’t deviate from that profile because of the risks with terafirma or other hard objects.

 

...^^^... Seems logical to me ... I am in on that deal ...

 

Well, that sounds about like what I observed. With that little drop over two miles and from my vantage point, it was pretty neat. Low and slow.

 

Well that plus $753k and you got a deal

 

The wet/cold/ice season has begun.


KSTL

 

We were there on Saturday and talked about how happy we were to get out before that hit. Then I commuted home last night and had to scrape snow off the car...

 

I finally took the plunge. I bought a 1946 Cessna 120 this weekend. It has a 125HP motor in it, along with a few other upgrades. I bought it from an Alaska Airlines pilot who is also an A&P mechanic and CFI. He flew me up to Spokane on a buddy pass, gave me 3 hours of dual and hosted me at his house. I couldn't have asked for a better experience in buying my first airplane. On Sunday I started the trek home to SoCal. I flew from first light to dark when I reached Boulder City, NV. This morning I flew the last two hours into KSNA. It was an awesome adventure. The weather was perfect and it was a great learning experience. 975nm and 11 hours of flying. Here are a few photos.

I hit 100hrs TT on this trip, 38.5 tailwheel and 57 PIC.













Parked at ACI-KSNA until I get a tie down assigned.

 

Pretty nice adventure! And a good looking Bird. Thanks for the pics!

And congrats.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/20/politics/us-air-force-f-35-elephant-walk/index.html

I recommend an elephant walk to anyone who can witness it. I've seen two - one in Korea during a joint exercise when they practice response to "they're going south!!" and the second while deployed to the middle east and 4 4-ship viper missions all left within 20 seconds of each other...on afterburner.

The flag was at full mast both times, IYKWIM.

Sooooo coooool.

 

Visiting the family in Everett for Thanksgiving, and stopped by Paine Field. A lot of (undelivered) grey tails on the ramp...

 

What's the green color on that plane?

 

Hey, that's my building in the last picture... when I'm not stuck out in the field like I currently am.

 

It's a protective coating they put over the clad aluminum on the skin panels during the build process. It gets removed prior to painting. All the planes in the factory look like that prior to paint (except the 787 since it's not aluminum)

 

Thanks. I'm always curious about this sort of thing. Sprayed on, I assume?

 

I believe so, I don't deal with the heavy structures type stuff at all but I'm pretty sure most of those skin panels and the subassemblies come in with it already sprayed on.