Yesterday I found out they were having a fly-in event at the Provo Airport. So today I decided I'd go and indulge my other dirty habit: wishing I could afford to learn to fly.
Since my Grandpa is an aviation aficionado and former private pilot, I invited him to meet me at the airfield to walk around and see the airplanes. There wasn't much of a showing, but it was still fun. They had an old mililtary trainer - a T6. They had a biplane. Later in the morning, a life-flight helicopter landed, and we were able to go and see that.
SR-71
For part of it, we went into one of the big hangars where they had a retired air force pilot talking about his exploits in the SR-71 spy plane. It was neat to hear him talk about developing a fuel that doesn't ignite at the high body temperatures, and how they use chemical pellets to ignite it. He talked about piggy-backing drones on top of the plane and using them to do photo surveillance over enemy territory where they were forbidden to fly the SR-71.
Boys and Their Toys
Grandpa and I both got a kick out of poking around in the engine nacelles of the DA-42 - a relatively modern, composite body twin-engine airplane. We were surprised to learn that had diesel engines. I'd read about aviation diesel engines that run on jet fuel, but never seen one up close. We figured out where the exhaust connects to the turbocharger and how it blows air into the engine for extra power.
We stopped by the lunch line to see what they were serving. Got a tortilla thing with guacamole and some cilantro - good stuff - especially since it was free!
Flying the Simulator
My favorite part of the morning was the flight simulator.
They came and escorted a group of us into the simulator building. Down a hall, and to the right, they led me into the DA-42 simulator. I'd be flying the twin engine plane we'd seen out on the flight line. I sat down, and before I knew it, the flight instructor was telling me to just push the throttle levers forward and pull back gently. The airplane lifted off the ground and settled into a rapid climb. It was so dark in the cockpit that I couldn't see the gauges, so I had only the unfamiliar glass cockpit instrumentation to fly by. I was able to find my airspeed indicator, but I couldn't tell whether it was indicated or true airspeed. I wasn't able to find my altitude or rate-of-climb indicator.
Somebody made a smart-aleck comment about what the simulator might do if I crashed and burned. The instructor told us we'd only see a red screen - rather anti-climactic.
So there I was, gaining altitude like crazy, unsure of what I was doing. Still, it was an absolute blast to apply some gentle right pressure to the control stick and lean the aircraft into a slow turn. The airplane seemed to float in gentle currents, the engine nacelles flowing gently up and down as we turned off of our departure track down the runway, and out over Utah lake. I made sure to keep an idea in my head of where the airstrip was - it became clear that I would be expected to land on it in short order. We continued to circle out over the lake. I kept moving us further out over the water, thinking we were descending, and trying to give myself enough room to turn and line up with the runway. We were still gaining altitude though, and when I made another right turn, we were still way too high to try for a landing.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I heard Grandpa egging the instructor on: throw him an engine failure; see how he does! Grandpa thinks he's funny.
The instructor had me make a full 360-degree turn with flaps and gear down, trying to bleed off some altitude. It wasn't enough. Just for fun, I made a full 360-degree turn to the left, which helped considerably. Then it was time to come back around to the right and try to line up with the runway. They had to remind me to power back to point the nose of the aircraft down, toward the near end of the runway. I let the nose drop and made for the ground. I leaned the plane to the right and gave it some rudder to finishing the bringing us in line for the approach, but I overdid it. On short final, I spent the remainder of the flight fighting to keep the plane flying straight. It seemed like the lower we went, the more sensitive the plane was to my inputs. The more I tried to correct, the more I overdid it. Lean sharp left to scoot us over for a better line-up. Then correct right to straighten out the lean. Then correct left to compensate for my over-correction to the right. I was able to get the oscillations under control in time to make a touchdown that put us across the center-line onto the left edge of the runway, with the stall warning buzzing intermittently - as it should. But I don't doubt that if we'd been in a real plane, both my passengers and I would have lost our lunches before returning to plant our feet firmly once again upon the face of Mother Earth!
As I climbed out of the cockpit and made my way out of the simulator room, Grandpa smiled. "Well you got it down!" he said, referring to the airplane. His cheesy grin betrayed his assessment of what I already knew: my landings need some work! Even though it was just a simulation, it still took a minute for my nerves to calm down. I felt sure that, if I could only get enough practice, I could eventually get my air work down in the simulator and learn to fly it flawlessly. I also felt that, in a real airplane, I'd get better feedback through the flight controls, a better sense of altitude and distance, and I'd be able to do a better job. Grandpa said as much - the simulators were more sensitive than the real thing. It took almost an hour for the perma-grin to dissipate from my face: I had just done what amounted to taking off and landing in an airplane for the first time, and living to tell about it!
After the simulator, we decided to go and raid the lunch line some more. I got a sandwich, and Grandpa grabbed some goodies to take home to Grammy.
Right about then, I had to leave to go meet up with Shelley. I was taking the kids for the rest of the day so she could go have lunch with her Mom and sisters and then go with them to the women's broadcast. After running down to the gas station just outside the airport, I came back with the van and unloaded the kids. We made our way through the terminal and out on to the flight line so the kids could have a look around.
They let us climb up and sit in the cockpit of most of the airplanes.
I got a kick out of seeing the glass cockpits of the newer aircraft,
but admittedly, my favorite one to sit in was the old Cessna 182. It had
the older gauges. It was a lot smaller than the Beechcraft Baron I had
flown in as a young urchin. I could easily see over the instrument
panel, past the nose and out in front of the aircraft. As I loaded Livvy
into the back seat and pulled Owen on to my lap in the pilot's seat, I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to take the family for a flight.
Here's Owen watching the ailerons go up and down when he moves the control stick.
He was totally enthralled with all the buttons and levers and computer screens!
Captain Livvy clicks the mic and instructs her lone passenger to strap in and prepare for a take-off he'll never forget...
Dang it... where'd I stow my preflight checklist?!
Okay Owen, watch for engine speed to reach twelve percent, then advance the throttle to low idle position... can you hear the turbines spooling up?
(preparing for take-off in the life-flight helicopter)
Master ON - check!
Avionics Master ON - Check!
Oxygen - Check!
Flaps at 20% - Check!
Contact Tower one-two-one point niner-five...
(checking out the Australian-manufactured ten-seater owned and operated by the Civil Air Patrol)
Left Mag Check - Good!
Right Mag Check - Good!
Switch to Both
Alternator Check: Landing lights on, slight dip in RPM
Hey Dad, where's the start button on this thing?
Provo Tower, Cessna one-seven-three-three-sierra-tango at transient for southern departure with information x-ray...
...Cessna one-seven-three-three-sierra-tango clear to taxi runway one-eight via bravo, hold short...
(Me and my co-pilot in the Cessna 182... what I wouldn't give to be able to take the Fam to Disneyland in one of these babies!)
Captain Livvy and co-pilot Owen doing the preflight oil level check on the right engine of the DA-42. Jet-powered diesel engine... who'd-a-thunk?
They had an old T-6 military trainer from World War II there, giving rides. I got this because I was hoping to shoot a take-off. Instead, they taxied in and stopped to swap passengers. Still, it was pretty cool to hear that big, throaty radial engine lumbering along, lazily swatting the air with it's big propeller...
We saw a big biplane take off and then bank sharply over the runway, fighter-style, just a few hundred feet off the ground. You had to be there to hear the awesome sound of the propeller shredding the air as the engine worked hard, pulling the airplane through its hard bank and higher into the sky above us.
After that, Owen started complaining that he was ready to go home. For now, the fun was over, but I promised myself I'd be back here again soon. After all, I have an intro flight scheduled for later this week!
Since my Grandpa is an aviation aficionado and former private pilot, I invited him to meet me at the airfield to walk around and see the airplanes. There wasn't much of a showing, but it was still fun. They had an old mililtary trainer - a T6. They had a biplane. Later in the morning, a life-flight helicopter landed, and we were able to go and see that.
SR-71
For part of it, we went into one of the big hangars where they had a retired air force pilot talking about his exploits in the SR-71 spy plane. It was neat to hear him talk about developing a fuel that doesn't ignite at the high body temperatures, and how they use chemical pellets to ignite it. He talked about piggy-backing drones on top of the plane and using them to do photo surveillance over enemy territory where they were forbidden to fly the SR-71.
Boys and Their Toys
Grandpa and I both got a kick out of poking around in the engine nacelles of the DA-42 - a relatively modern, composite body twin-engine airplane. We were surprised to learn that had diesel engines. I'd read about aviation diesel engines that run on jet fuel, but never seen one up close. We figured out where the exhaust connects to the turbocharger and how it blows air into the engine for extra power.
We stopped by the lunch line to see what they were serving. Got a tortilla thing with guacamole and some cilantro - good stuff - especially since it was free!
Flying the Simulator
My favorite part of the morning was the flight simulator.
They came and escorted a group of us into the simulator building. Down a hall, and to the right, they led me into the DA-42 simulator. I'd be flying the twin engine plane we'd seen out on the flight line. I sat down, and before I knew it, the flight instructor was telling me to just push the throttle levers forward and pull back gently. The airplane lifted off the ground and settled into a rapid climb. It was so dark in the cockpit that I couldn't see the gauges, so I had only the unfamiliar glass cockpit instrumentation to fly by. I was able to find my airspeed indicator, but I couldn't tell whether it was indicated or true airspeed. I wasn't able to find my altitude or rate-of-climb indicator.
Somebody made a smart-aleck comment about what the simulator might do if I crashed and burned. The instructor told us we'd only see a red screen - rather anti-climactic.
So there I was, gaining altitude like crazy, unsure of what I was doing. Still, it was an absolute blast to apply some gentle right pressure to the control stick and lean the aircraft into a slow turn. The airplane seemed to float in gentle currents, the engine nacelles flowing gently up and down as we turned off of our departure track down the runway, and out over Utah lake. I made sure to keep an idea in my head of where the airstrip was - it became clear that I would be expected to land on it in short order. We continued to circle out over the lake. I kept moving us further out over the water, thinking we were descending, and trying to give myself enough room to turn and line up with the runway. We were still gaining altitude though, and when I made another right turn, we were still way too high to try for a landing.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I heard Grandpa egging the instructor on: throw him an engine failure; see how he does! Grandpa thinks he's funny.
The instructor had me make a full 360-degree turn with flaps and gear down, trying to bleed off some altitude. It wasn't enough. Just for fun, I made a full 360-degree turn to the left, which helped considerably. Then it was time to come back around to the right and try to line up with the runway. They had to remind me to power back to point the nose of the aircraft down, toward the near end of the runway. I let the nose drop and made for the ground. I leaned the plane to the right and gave it some rudder to finishing the bringing us in line for the approach, but I overdid it. On short final, I spent the remainder of the flight fighting to keep the plane flying straight. It seemed like the lower we went, the more sensitive the plane was to my inputs. The more I tried to correct, the more I overdid it. Lean sharp left to scoot us over for a better line-up. Then correct right to straighten out the lean. Then correct left to compensate for my over-correction to the right. I was able to get the oscillations under control in time to make a touchdown that put us across the center-line onto the left edge of the runway, with the stall warning buzzing intermittently - as it should. But I don't doubt that if we'd been in a real plane, both my passengers and I would have lost our lunches before returning to plant our feet firmly once again upon the face of Mother Earth!
As I climbed out of the cockpit and made my way out of the simulator room, Grandpa smiled. "Well you got it down!" he said, referring to the airplane. His cheesy grin betrayed his assessment of what I already knew: my landings need some work! Even though it was just a simulation, it still took a minute for my nerves to calm down. I felt sure that, if I could only get enough practice, I could eventually get my air work down in the simulator and learn to fly it flawlessly. I also felt that, in a real airplane, I'd get better feedback through the flight controls, a better sense of altitude and distance, and I'd be able to do a better job. Grandpa said as much - the simulators were more sensitive than the real thing. It took almost an hour for the perma-grin to dissipate from my face: I had just done what amounted to taking off and landing in an airplane for the first time, and living to tell about it!
After the simulator, we decided to go and raid the lunch line some more. I got a sandwich, and Grandpa grabbed some goodies to take home to Grammy.
Right about then, I had to leave to go meet up with Shelley. I was taking the kids for the rest of the day so she could go have lunch with her Mom and sisters and then go with them to the women's broadcast. After running down to the gas station just outside the airport, I came back with the van and unloaded the kids. We made our way through the terminal and out on to the flight line so the kids could have a look around.
Here's Owen watching the ailerons go up and down when he moves the control stick.
He was totally enthralled with all the buttons and levers and computer screens!
Dang it... where'd I stow my preflight checklist?!
Okay Owen, watch for engine speed to reach twelve percent, then advance the throttle to low idle position... can you hear the turbines spooling up?
(preparing for take-off in the life-flight helicopter)
Avionics Master ON - Check!
Oxygen - Check!
Flaps at 20% - Check!
Contact Tower one-two-one point niner-five...
(checking out the Australian-manufactured ten-seater owned and operated by the Civil Air Patrol)
Left Mag Check - Good!
Right Mag Check - Good!
Switch to Both
Alternator Check: Landing lights on, slight dip in RPM
Hey Dad, where's the start button on this thing?
...Cessna one-seven-three-three-sierra-tango clear to taxi runway one-eight via bravo, hold short...
(Me and my co-pilot in the Cessna 182... what I wouldn't give to be able to take the Fam to Disneyland in one of these babies!)
We saw a big biplane take off and then bank sharply over the runway, fighter-style, just a few hundred feet off the ground. You had to be there to hear the awesome sound of the propeller shredding the air as the engine worked hard, pulling the airplane through its hard bank and higher into the sky above us.
After that, Owen started complaining that he was ready to go home. For now, the fun was over, but I promised myself I'd be back here again soon. After all, I have an intro flight scheduled for later this week!
Sounds like fun. It was fun to see the multi-generational bonding you had over the flying. It is pretty awesome!
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