Search the Community

Hello Gents, I thought I'd share this with you, a little story from over the weekend. A life changing event! As you know I missed Saturdays flight due to a little volunteering work while EAA's B-17 had a tour stop in Green Bay. Long days (9:30 - 5:00, Fri - Sun) as it was hot out but with a nice breeze. No problem!! I ended up doing ramp safety and security which was cool. (slightly cooler under the wing LOL) On Saturday many of the volunteers bugged out at about 2:00 and we were left with a minimum crew. Sunday's roll call was even less and for a few hours we had a skeleton crew until a few phone calls were made to get 2 more volunteers. It was a good thing they showed up. Sunday we ended up having even more of a crowd than Friday or Saturday. After the tour stop Aluminum Overcast was going back to Oshkosh for some maintenance prior to heading to Madison for a "Bomber Roundup". From there, they depart en mass back to Oshkosh for the big event.. This had been known from information relayed by the pilots and engineers/ground crew. Something secret was a-brewing Saturday evening and was not revealed until Sunday at about 3:30. Al Timmerman, the owner of Jet Air Group FBO & our EAA chapter Vice-President seems had conjured up something with the crew. Maybe a discount of the 850 gallons of 110 that was put in the B-17 on Sunday morning? I don't know.. Anyway at about 3:30 he made the rounds to all the volunteers and asked the following - What are you doing after we close up? ( I was thinking dinner or something ) How would you like to ride the B-17 down to Oshkosh? From there we'll find a way back. I nearly filled my drawers. A gracious "thank you" for the volunteers that worked the whole weekend FOR SURE! We all want to be pilots, if not already, otherwise we wouldn't be here. Well, being an EAA member for over 20 years, going to school for avionics/instruments, a member here since the early days and looking up every time I hear an aircraft one thing has been missing.. I have NEVER been in one! (Airliners do not count ) Been on a couple Bell 47 rides, that doesn't count as an airplane either. I AM STILL GIDDY! MY FIRST AIRPLANE RIDE WAS IN A B-17! Here a some pictures and a video... Saturday - http://s167.photobucket.com/user/spokes2112/library/Aluminum%20Overcast%2019JUL14 Sunday - http://s167.photobucket.com/user/spokes2112/library/Aluminum%20Overcast%2020JUL14 Jeff, there's a special treat for you 2 minutes into the video. Here is a picture of me hard at work. HA! actually on a break, my post was at the aircrafts 10 o'clock position.

Hi Gents, Hope you'all are having an excellent summer / winter - "Highmike" . Well, it comes around about this time of year that worlds busiest airport gets changed from ? to my little neighborhood - Oshkosh (KOSH) & the EAA convention. The past few years our 'ol competitor, FS-MP, has hosted a fly-in using the published VFR procedures to get there. Do you all want to get on MP at one time for one, or more, short VFR flights from ? to EAA? (60- 100 nm --> KOSH) Get together, and, try to get the controllers flustered? Kiddin - the more the merrier! FS-MP is quite a bit different than our race style setup - No TS & No FSHost, it uses the internal FSX MP system, quite well at that. There are quite a bit of some rules, some of which are - - No fast movers. (not sure how that works, military jets?) - Proper frequency tuned in cockpit for comm. - No chat while on freq. -The approaches to KOSH are fixed from FSMP for this event. I hope it is up to the controllers discretion for alternates. ( IE 36R, Warbird Is. 27/36(L/R), Short 27 from FISKE, 18 from the gravel pit, etc.. ) The official NOTAM is here - http://www.airventure.org/flying/2013_notam.pdf And of course, the event site - http://www.fs-mp.com/ I'm thinking ,,,,, A slew of Connies, haven't tested for MP problems, to Warbird Is. (WARBD) for a 36 or 27, then do it again in your own ship. ( Vintage, Homebuilt, Warbird, etc.. ) Discuss. Again I hope you are all having an excellent "yellow flag" :-) Roman P.S. - I just reinstalled Flight Simulator 2002 and it is better than it ever was.

Hello everyone, Brace yourself, and please do grab a cup of coffee as this will be very long post. I just hope that my writing doesn't make you lose interest in this real, unique story/life changing event. And, yes, this event does incorporate FSX/P3D, Avsim Forums, Real Flight, Trading (stock markets), and Love of the Skies - (I bet you are already thinking what the $%@! is this guy talking about?) My true goal is make you the reader - experience this amazing day from the perspectives of being in my shoes. Reader beware - I just had few cups of coffee Before I go further - I will give a very brief info about me as it is actually crucial to the event. I am a portfolio manager/trader, an author of a book, and huge dreamer of having few personal airplanes one day. I always wanted to fly, but like the majority of people I ended up putting it in the back burner and started to focus on life's other things. I have been on and off flight siming since childhood. Yes, I remember Microsoft 1st flight sim release, it was cool - but I loved Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer - This was the simulator for me - I could do 3D outside view etc. All I had was a lowly CGA IBM XT with 32MB HDD and I played hours and hours. But then came high school, parties, girls, college, girls, work and more partying (I studied too - that came first, or my parents would have kicked my butt). Let’s just fast forward to the past few months - I use triple screen monitor for trading/studying/research - and I said, I have some time why not try Flight Simming again - hence FSX/P3D and it took me beyond all the flight sims I have played when I was a kid. The technology is amazing (except for outdated FSX code), so much evolution has happened in flight sim world (FS2004 was cool) over the years. What can I say about flight sim tools/addons? - Wow!!! for realism and training (heck, the educational component saved my life...that part is coming....) Part 1 - AVSIM Community Even though my profile on here shows that I joined in Dec 2012, but in reality I have been using this site for a few months, just never posted anything - so I just browsed and found answers. During the searching phase, I ended up learning about ORBX's PNW, Carenado Planes, FSDT Airports etc. and tons of tweaks to optimize FSX like good ole Buffer Pools, LOD size, TBM, etc. - yes, one should write a book and publish it on O'Reilly called "Art of FSX Configuration". If this isn't art then I don’t know what is. Everyone's FSX.cfg is different. I have to personally thank the AVSIM for teaching me about ILS, and lot of the posts in the AVSIM Flight School - this is where I learned about free Angle of Attack Aviator 90 videos (Thank You Chris Palmer for Episode 11). The video about landing pattern is most critical for me at this moment (I will explain in a bit why it is....please bear with me). Part 2 - Hangar I have always wanted to meet people who have airplanes, but I knew no one till last week in my circles. None of my friends have ever been on a general aviation aircraft or business jets. All I knew was YouTube videos, discovery channel, and big passenger aircraft. I have always had a dream about flying, but never thought of it. And then everything changed last week - I met a retired Navy Captain (name will stay anonymous as he is quite a celebrity in EAA world etc. - I will call him Captain Awesome for this post). I just emailed him about to meet for coffee and discuss aviation. He responded back and says skip the coffee - and "let’s fly for lunch". Here, I was just floored - I have never flown just for lunch. I honestly did not know how to react. It is one thing to have Bill Gates mention my book "A Rogue's Guide to Acquisition: Principles from the Final Frontier" on his personal blog, but flying for lunch!!!! This was in league of its own. Granted both the events are special, but this is my first $100 burger....and now I will have to print and frame that email. It may seem trivial for lot of your aviators on here, but for a person who only dreamed about it - this is just mind blowing. I am still speechless about this offer. So last Sunday, I happily (still nervous inside) drove to Captain Awesome's home - and he says you ready for lunch? I am like "looking forward to it". And off we drive to this small regional airport to his hangar. While on our drive to Captain Awesome's hangar, he was filling me in details of some of his amazing adventures in the Navy. I will tell you this - to me his adventures are definitely legendary. I am so proud of the amazing men and women who serve our country (God Bless). His life story needs to be made into a movie (though ironically one Hollywood movie already has some of his adventures in it). He is very committed to Aviation - even after his retirement from the Navy, he actively teaches and improves systems. As I said, he is quite a celebrity in EAA circles. The whole time I felt like I am hanging out with an Astronaut. It is surreal experience. Back on Earth - As we reached the regional airport, and I am looking around - my jaw drops - I see Cessna 172s, 182s, Malibu Piper and Mooneys!!! - These are the airplanes I have been flying in FSX/P3D - especially the Carenado Mooney M20J with ORBX VC and Exterior Upgrades. I love the Mooney - the airplane is work of art in FSX. I have never seen these aircrafts up close in real life. We arrive at his hangar; I help Captain Awesome open his hangar doors and my eyes fixate on his amazing Mooney. Damn, that aircraft is a dream. I am again speechless; I can't help myself from being speechless over and over. Since, Captain Awesome is certified by the FAA to inspect/modify/build planes, one can only imagine how well he takes care of his Mooney. Enjoy those Mooney Pics - by the way I have blurred out all the Plane Numbers to respect Captain Awesome's privacy. Part 3 - Flying & Trading I was super nervous to sit in the Mooney, yet at the same time I was super excited to see the cockpit. I love the mixture of Steam Gauges and Glass. Thanks to AVSIM forums & Angle of Attack, I knew what the Basic 6 instruments were and Garmin GNS 530. Captain Awesome starts does his pre-flight checklist before engines are on. I can't recall how many checklists he did, but it is so cool watching them in action. He is by the book - zero exceptions (even with over 25 years of flying, safety is paramount). As Captain Awesome is starting his engines, I say this inside my head "Ctrl+E...for engines, and laughed, as there is no such thing in real flight", and I believe there is a YouTube cartoon video about this same topic. Before we line up to the runway, I see him perform a pre- pre-take off checklist (I may be off in terminology here) and then it hits me like a ton of bricks. This is exactly like buying stocks - any hedge fund/portfolio guys/gals in here - please contact me!!!! Before I make a trade - I too have a checklist of criteria which has to be satisfied before buying. Once a position is bought - there is a checklist for that, and selling has its own checklist (regardless of loss or profit). Ego kills the trade, and I can tell that over-confidence in trading and flying with ego can be super dangerous. Unbelievable parallel relationship!!!!!!! Now comes the Runway, he is performing a checklist, and then I hear the throttles kick in, and few seconds later I hear Rotate!!! And the plane is airborne. I am feeling like a freaking Astronaut, I have never experienced flight from front of a cockpit, and this a General Aviation Aircraft - All I can see OMG, $%$^^$^!#@$ amazing in my head, and the view is so damn beautiful....The sky is blue with few fluffly clouds, below I see beautiful farms, and little away in the horizon I see the Potomac river - just picture perfect. For a brief moment, I just realized time stood still and this amazing moment is imprinted in my heart, mind and my soul. I will never be able to forget it. Humor never leaves me - it comes happily and I say "I think I am inside Flight sim world, this reminds me of Orbx's PNW scenery, how amazing". Yes, real life has no substitute, but you have to give credit to Orbx team for giving us amazing quality scenery for flight simming. With my jaw down the entire way, we are cruising at 2500 feet!!! And I am absorbing every inch of detail that my brain can process. I do have few small videos. I felt holding the camera was taking me away from the moment. I am nervous, happy, excited, and top of the world!!! Our destination is 45 min away at a small un-towered airport.... Part 4 - $100 Burger & AVSIM / Angle of Attack /Flight Sim Training potentially saves my Life!!!!!!!!!! Destination is getting close, I hear Captain Awesome doing his pre-landing checklist (I don't know the exact name for it yet), and he is stating his position on radio so that other airplanes can hear him. I hear other airplanes too - few ahead of us and few behind. There were total of 3 other airplanes besides us in the sky approaching this airport I knew I had to be quiet at this time, and pay attention - I can hear all the pilots in the area stating their standard traffic pattern location - Crosswind, Downwind, Base and Final. When we were are in downwind position, we also heard third Pilot landing ahead of us, who stated their location as they were approaching the airport but forgot to say in which pattern they were!!!!!! - This WAS the Mistake. Captain Awesome picked it up immediately (Thank God) - he kinda said they didn't state their position. My head is screaming oh F$%$, oh S#%#... but somehow flying circuit pattern that I have read on the forums and in Angle of Attack's Amazing Video and I have practiced proper landing pattern (or whatever I figured out in simulation) - I was able to visualize and I knew that 2 other planes were behind us, and so this third plane had to be somewhere close. Captain Awesome was calm, but super alert - he already had a very good idea on where exactly they were, but one needs confirmation - and we are now few seconds away from approaching left turn to BASE - and I see the airplane coming directly into Base. They never went downwind or called it on the radio - we could have been on intercept vector (I don't know if that is the correct terminology, it is something I picked from sci-fi tv/books) and be in potential collision. All of a sudden, I hear a different voice on the radio which stated that they are on Base - Captain Awesome figured that the original pilot was in training or less experienced than the other pilot (We saw them at lunch) Captain Awesome immediately says on radio we are making swerve (something like that, my eyes were fixated on that aircraft only), and then we get behind them on base and to final and then land. Please see Pic (I am in the Blue Plane) - Now all of this is from my interpretation. Captain Awesome did not really talk about this - he was keeping cool head, and following standard protocol. Once we landed, he did joke and say "Lets Park right next to them". The knowledge that I received on what a standard landing pattern is, and was CRITICAL for me to visualize and be able to look in the right direction to spot the aircraft approaching us. I knew what downwind, base, upwind, and final meant. Pilot errors like these can cause pilots and their passengers to show up on NTSB reports. I do not want to see any one of you in those reports - they are disturbing and depressing. FAA nailed it as they even require pilots to be in sterile cockpit environment during pre-flight, take-off, pre-landing, and landing phases of the flight. It is only during cruise flight where one chat and enjoy a bit (to some degree). Conclusion: Final Thoughts Amazing experience even if it was my first general aviation flight. I cannot wait to go to flight school and hopefully in few years I would save up enough cash to buy an airplane. First thing first, I now have to work harder (and smarter) than before in my trading, educate myself more, and increase sales of my book (and subsequent follow-up books) all to be able to touch the skies again in style. In my wildest imagination, I never thought a simple adventure would turn out to be so powerful. The flight sim community taught me whatever information I could absorb in a short time frame and oddly it just happened to saved my life. I am eternally gratefull to this community for aviators and flight simmers. Appeal for Help for Tony I was waiting to post this amazing adventure event post on Friday 18th and then I read up on huge awesome fundraiser event for Tony hosted by PC Pilot, PMDG, ORBX, Addictive Simulations, Buffalo Virtual Airways, United Virtual, Aerosoft, Just Flight and I realized that this fundraiser takes importance over my story. While I had fun flying in GA aircraft, someone is requesting our help and I knew that I had to help out in whatever way I can. I enjoyed conversing with Froogle and others in the Fundraiser Livestream (the banter between Froogle and Jane was hilarious). I was quite excited to see when the goal of 14K was reached by everyone's contribution. I do not know anyone here on these forums personally (including Tony), but it was an amazing experience to see everyone around the world (including companies) contributing to someone who is requesting help. If you enjoyed my adventure post, I would really appreciate if you all could help Tony reach his goal of 25K. At the moment of writing this post, I to do see that there are over 1000 members logged in, and if everyone of you donate $10 - he will reach his goal as he only has few days left. It would mean the world to me if you would help Tony Here is the link to his request http://www.indiegogo.com/p/119134 You all have an awesome day and Thank You for Reading this massive post Skywolf

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Hi guys, EAA and the Sport Aviation magazine has a nice little article about the tiger kitty in this months issue, publicly available here. I can tell you from this past convention that the sound from the 'cat is so nice! Probably get jeers from this but it sounds much better than the Merlin in the P-51s! It seems to perform better too, climbs like a rocket! When the 51s had to bank out of a climb to keep up airspeed the 'cat just kept going & going & going. (Just like the energizer bunny :lol: ) Below are some pics I took this year, (that turned out) it really is a cool looking plane. Thought I'd share this with you all since we fly this bird in the race.