Went Flying Today 2020

Bartman

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My wife was home this morning so I headed out for a quick ride, somehow I always end up at 1N7 (Blairstown, NJ) for coffee!

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aftCG

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Tacoma, WA
I flew yesterday evening also. First flight with my new transponder. Six laps in the pattern. All power off 180s, to a spot landing. My target was to put the left main wheel on a specific corner of a specific stripe on the 500' marks.
I miscalculated a few of them during the approach and needed just a bump of power, but all were within 5-10' of my goal.
 

Bob Turner

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Better than I can do. I am lucky to get within 50 feet. I can do 5 feet power on.
 

Bartman

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I flew yesterday evening also. First flight with my new transponder. Six laps in the pattern. All power off 180s, to a spot landing. My target was to put the left main wheel on a specific corner of a specific stripe on the 500' marks.
I miscalculated a few of them during the approach and needed just a bump of power, but all were within 5-10' of my goal.
Challenge accepted!
 

aftCG

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Tacoma, WA
Didn't take any pictures today, which is unusual especially because it was beautiful out.

Discovered an interesting "feature" of ADS-B, which I've only used for a few hours now.

I departed the class Delta of my home and airport, out over the water then did a complete lazy eight. A real one, not that sissy s*** you fly for commercial maneuvers. I get back to straight and level and then glanced at my iFly (which is showing targets from my transponder).

Got my attention when I saw an alert for an aircraft 0.4 miles at my 1 o'clock, same altitude and I couldn't see it. Then suddenly it was at my 4 o'clock.

Then I was alone. No targets on screen except myself.

There I was thinking I was about to be converted to a fan of ADS-B and ready to sing praises for it. But apparently if you do any significant manuevering you can see yourself, causing it to give me a false alarm. That is, uh, well - just glad we got all this rammed down our throats.

Apparently there's a bit of lag in the system. I looked up my flight on Flightaware (sort of creepy how anyone can see even my dumbest local VFR flight). The ground track on flight aware doesn't even show my 360 steep turns. The altitude profile is also a joke. I made three laps in the pattern when I got back and it looks like I made some very jagged low approaches but didn't get within 800' of the ground. My tires think otherwise.
 

aftCG

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Tacoma, WA
Well don't tell anyone but I did some flying this last week.
I used my Citabria to fly down to the T-6 so I could finish the transponder and Nav/Com install. Then I went though the process of waking the 77 year old lady from her hibernation.

I talked the guy I'm letting fly my Citabria into following me over the mountains so I could deliver the plane for it's (very essential) annual.

I test flew the plane Sunday and flew it home, leaving the Citabria out overnight. Monday morning I met my hangar neighbor and have him a ride in the T-6 to get the Citabria.

Originally I thought a flight of two would be cool (with my own airplane no doubt) but at double the cruise speed I would have to hang some hardware out on the T-6 to stay with the "champ".

We left 20 seconds apart and I got to EPH with plenty of time to shred the pattern, land and clean the plane up before I saw the Citabria on down wind.

I saw 175 knots over the ground going east, which is a pretty healthy tailwind.
So of course the return leg saw more like 75-80 knots. Still very enjoyable and beats the crap out of working.
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Bob Turner

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Ten landings in the J4 today - only one in the pattern. Social Distancing 100% successful.
 

aftCG

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Tacoma, WA
I "fixed" my Hobbs today. Not sure why it took me so long to notice that my clock wasn't working either. Once I realized that I associated the two. Found the ground wire broken off the back of the clock. Traced the wire one way to the Hobbs and the other down into the floor. It occurred to me that it went to the battery.

Found the wire in back and it had a fuse holder with, you guessed it, a blown fuse. Replaced with like kind found on the door pocket and the clock started working.

Flew 1.1 on the Hobbs. Took a trip around some islands at 300' MSL, maintaining 500'+ from any life forms then can back and took five laps of the pattern. 6.24 gallons
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Bob Turner

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rain today. No flight. Sanded the second coat of silver on Cub ailerons, then cleaned the garage. Yuk! The bugs are eating my valuable collection of model train magazines! Anybody know how to kill silverfish bugs?
 

aftCG

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Well, I'm taking the plunge to the experimental side. This Kitfox 5 (with all 7 mods possible) is on the truck in Ohio and headed my way as of a few minutes ago.
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Bob Turner

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Sunny &. 60 degrees. Spray painting ailerons! First coat of white in ten minutes, then over to the airport for a minimum of six landings in something Cub-like.
 

Bartman

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Always wanted to go land at Braden Airpark, N43 near Easton, PA, 1900 ft. Used to be called Easton. Winds right down the runway made for a short roll out, a quick back taxi and was on my way.

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Bartman

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My daughter and I flew to Newark Liberty Int'l and did a low pass down the main runway followed by some IFR coming home. She's got more photos but here is us trying to keep up with traffic!

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Bartman

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finally mustered up the courage to call local acro instructor Jim Mancini for some dual in my 7ECA. He's based at South Jersey Regional Airport (VAY), usually he takes people up in his Super Decathlon but he was nice enough to fly with me in my plane which was a big help. Started today with spins, lasted through about 6 before the gyros between my ears tumbled!

That's Yardley VOR, for some reason I get a kick out of seeing VOR's when I'm out flying
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and that's my girl, we pulled 3 g's today, a personal record! :D:D:D
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Bob Turner

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I feel your pain. I can do about six slow rolls before heading back. No more loops,but I can still do Immelmans.