REVIEW - Sunriver Oregon: 2 of 2, Summer

REVIEW
Sunriver Oregon offers summer fun in golfing, tennis, swimming, paddling canoes, fishing, biking and more. And of course there is a good airport in the middle of it all. But mother nature often provides the best entertainment with astonishing cloud displays, especially when a thunderstorm occurs near sunset.

For several summers now I've spent time with family enjoying the natural beauty of the high desert around Sunriver and the activities available within the resort area. The entire family enjoys swimming and it's a perfect place for the kids to learn to ride a bike, with paved trails separate from streets with cars.

As a pilot, I love open space and good views of the sky and Sunriver has that and more. There is an observatory on site, staffed by volunteers, where you can spend time learning about the night time universe, but I find the most spectacular and awe inspiring moments in nature can occur as the sun is near setting and a thunderstorm is breaking up. In Sunriver, this seems to happen at least once a summer and the colors and shapes can be unforgettable.

THis URL gives you specific airport information including a live airport webcam: http://www.sunriver-resort.com/sunriver-airport.php

Onward & Upward! ~ rfb

MENTOR - Use your 'Visual Yardstick' to judge Distance-to-Clouds

Mentor
Learning to judge distances from clouds can be hard in the beginning of your flight career. Here are three techniques for developing your own 'Visual Yardstick.'

If you know your altitude above the ground, or the length of a nearby runway you see on the ground, or the height of a mountain ridge or tower that rises at least 1,000 feet above the surrounding terrain, you can use any of the three to develop your own 'visual yardstick.'

The key is using visualization, which gets better as you practice. Say you are 2,000 feet above the ground. Look at that distance. envision a red hot laser beam, straight down, or a huge yardstick. Next, mentally tip that yardstick up 90 degrees and swing it around. Would it reach that nearby cloud? Would it reach through or fall short? It may help to envision a square, with the distance down being one defining leg and the horizontal distance being another. You know the difference between a rectangle and a square. Do the two envisioned legs between you, the cloud and the ground form two sides of a rectangle or a square? This is a very useful way to judge cloud distance.

Another way is using the length of a runway you see on the ground. Let's say you can see a runway your chart says is approximately 4,000 feet long. Imagine the Jolly Green Giant coming along and picking up the runway. How many of those runways would fit between you and the cloud? 2 runways would be 8,000 feet. Half a runway would be 2,000 feet. See how it works?

Another way to develop a visual yardstick is with a tower or a ridge that is a known height above the surrounding terrain. On a close scale, you can use the size of your own aircraft. It is likely the wingspan of your aircraft is around 3o feet. Suppose it is 32 feet from tip to tip. Three of your aircraft flying wing to wing in tight formation would be 100 feet. If you are this close to a cloud in VFR conditions, you'd better be taking steps to get farther away!

The point to all of this is that you can use known object sizes in your visual field of view to estimate distances to other objects. Any visual skills you can develop will help improve your technique and this one is tried and true by many pilots over many years.

Onward & Upward! ~ rfb

FLYOSOPHY - Glider Pilot's Fervant Wish Taking Off on Tow

FLYOSOPHY - Most often all goes well, on tow. A smooth and serene ride to the release point. Still, it's a thin filament line between success and early release...

Lord may my rope not break
But if it must
May it not be too low
Or too slow
But make it high
And if high make it clean

Separating machines
With room to soar
And time for more
And look over the
Tow pilot too.

Onward & Upward! ~ rfb

LOGBLOG - Christmas Day flight

LOGBLOG
Christmas day flights are special. The alignment of the Holiday, good weather and an airworthy plane ready to go are too great a combination to ignore, especially when you have a friend ready to go too.

12/25/1980 - Christmas day flight with my brother.

Citabria 7ECA, N1014E, SZP to LCL. Christmas Day. Sightseeing around County.
.8 hours. 164 hours total time.

Southern California offres spectacular flying year round. Santa Paula is a unique airport worth visiting just for the history even if you are not home based there. We departed Santa Paula Runway 22 in our blue and white taildragger, headed down to the coast at Ventura, followed Highway 33 up to the Ojai Valley and then meandered down the hillside following Highway 150 along it's pathway bordering the Sespe Wilderness area, back to Santa Paula. The air was Crystal clear and calm, without a cloud in the sky. A few boaters moved about Lake Casitas, and the hills were showing the first winter green from the recent rain.

Onward & Upward & Merry Christmas! ~ rfb

REVIEW - Sunriver Oregon: 1 of 2, Winter

REVIEW
Sunriver Oregon is a community of homes, vacation rentals, restaurants and shops nestled in a bend of the Deschutes river, with a very nice paved and lit runway, with fuel service. It is a unique destination area with different attractions in winter and summer.

Winter in Sunriver brings temperatures in the 20's but it's a dry cold, so you won't mind much if you are dressed for the weather. Call ahead and schedule a sleigh ride in a one horse open sleigh (Yes you get to live inside the famous holiday song!). The photographic vistas are amazing, and if you can keep your camera from freezing or fogging over you can catch subtle shifts of purple pink and yellow at sunrise and sunset over vast fields of untouched white snow.

To hear sleigh bells jingling from a horse when you can't hear the muffled hoof-steps in the snow and to be aware of motion because you see it yet barely feel it as the runners glide through the snow is an unforgettable experience. Along the way you may see blue herons fishing in the Deschutes river, or coyotes hunting mice in the fields, sniffling through the snow in lonely one's and two's. You will forget you are within half a mile of a jet capabable airport and feel as if you've stepped into an old western vista.

The kids will enjoy the Christmas breakfast with Santa, and you will enjoy the accommodations and sledding or cross country skiing on the bike trails, and hills, conveniently covered with snow to suit your needs.

The airport has a 5,400 foot paved and lit runway and is served with 100LL and JetA. Airport information is at: http://www.airnav.com/airport/S21

Sunriver resort information is at: http://www.sunriver-resort.com/

Resort information on the airport with live webcam is at: http://www.sunriver-resort.com/sunriver-airport.php

Onward & Upward! ~ rfb

REVIEW - The Spruce Goose at McMinnville airport

REVIEW

Where did the biggest airplane in the world go? To McMinnville airport in McMinnville, Oregon. What happens when you take a small child to see the world's largest airplane.

It does not look like the world's biggest airplane

as you approach the specially built glass-walled

hanger in McMinnville, Oregon, but the airplane just

keeps getting larger as you near it, until once inside, it towers over everything including aircraft you thought of as huge, like full-fledged bombers.

The child in the photo, an aficionado of airplanes and things that fly from an early age, stood not much more two and a half feet tall when this photo was taken, capturing the look of surprise and joy as she looked up at the tail of the huge aircraft.

The Spruce Goose was moved to Oregon from California in the 1990's, and a special hangar was built, which is now a full-fledged aviation museum, with a wide spectrum of aircraft from cloth and wire antiques to supersonic jet aircraft. There is an aviation learning center and gift store with hobbyist and model materials as well, along with a good snack bar serving light lunches and drinks.

You can reach the museum by driving west on highway 99 from the Portland area towards McMinnville, but the fun way is to fly in to McMinnville airport, KMMV and walk across the street to the museum.

Information about the airport is at this site: http://www.airnav.com/airport/KMMV

Information about the Evergreen Air museum is at: http://www.sprucegoose.org/

If you visit the museum, please consider taking a moment and adding your thoughts to this post.

Onward & Upward! ~ rfb

MENTOR - 'Pulsing' a control technique when you fly

Mentor
Discovering your own best technique to handle the controls of an airplane can be accelerated by using this method.

How do you hold the control column and rest your feet on the pedals? Do you squeeze tightly? Let go often? Use both hands? One hand? Three fingers? It seems simple, but how you touch the controls determines how the plane will respond and fly. How you touch the controls also determines how you get feedback to your brain and directions from your brain out to your hands and feet.

The initial inclination is to squeeze the controls too tightly, after all, it's an AIRPLANE right? It MUST take a lot of strength and energy! (We've all seen the Bugs Bunny cartoons where the hapless hare is the pilot and is tugging on the controls with all his might). Actually, the exact opposite is true. The lighter the touch, the better for all.

I recommend a technique I call 'pulsing.' Put your hand on a pencil or some object right now. Let it sit still for a while. Notice how you start to lose sensitivity to the object? Now, do it again, this time, gently 'pulse' or move your fingers on the object. Don't lift them off the object, and never squeeze hard, just alter the pressure by pulsing on the surface.

Why is this useful in the airplane? Several reasons:

First, by pulsing on the controls, you remain sensitized to every nuance of movement in the controls caused by outside forces - usually wind - and you can react accordingly, with equal counter pressure. Notice I said 'pressure' and not 'force!'

Secondly, by pulsing, you become aware of what input is from you and what is from the plane or outside forces like wind, and you are more likely to react appropriately; and less likely to lean over to pick up a pencil and have the other hand, clutching the control column in a tight grip, guide the plane astray unknowingly.

Third, by pulsing on the controls, you are maintaining an active pathway from your brain to your toes and fingers, and also these muscles are remaining warmed up and ready for slight movement, all it usually takes to control the plane well. You will be more likely to avoid a sluggish response when a response is needed, and therefore less likely to over-control the aircraft when you do respond.

Try this technique on your next flight! Write and tell me what you think or if you have any questions.

Onward & Upward! ~ rfb

REVIEW - Columbia Airport, Columbia California

REVIEW
A picturesque historic gold mining town with an airport campground on a paved and a grass strip runway. What better place to land an antique aircraft for a stay?

Maybe the most fun you can have in an airplane is in a low and slow antique tailwheel aircraft, like an Aeronca Chief. The Chief is an excellent way to explore the countryside from the air.

In Northern California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills where Steinbeck once roamed, lies the small gold mining town of Columbia. The airport has a paved and lit runway and a dirt strip. Most interestingly, there is an aviation campground on the strip.

Once I landed my restored tan and blue Aeronca Chief and set up camp for the night. Just before sunset, a perfectly restored red Taylorcraft floated across the sky, and the pilot, looking down and seeing my yellow and blue antique Aeronca, decided to land, and taxied over next to me and shut down. I introduced myself. He was returning home to another state after winning the best of show in an antique aircraft contest in Watsonville.

We stayed up talking late, two modern pilots with restored antique aircraft sitting in a campground next to our tailwheel planes with a crackling wood fire and stars overhead in the black sky. It was a magical moment. The next morning he left early, but the Cessna 182 on the other side had a family, with two kids. I was impressed at how neat they were and how happy they were as they cleaned up their site, loaded up their airplane and took off while I was packing. This was a magical special place, I thought as I lifted off and headed south.

The town of Columbia itself is within walking distance of the airport. Head to the northern end of the paved runway and pick up the trail and walk through old gold mining country for perhaps a mile. On the way, steep canyons with deep crevices reveal what happened to the ground when the gold was extracted with water cannons long ago.

The town itself is a destination, with an old time store, restaurant, and other tourist attractions of the gold rush days and the California west. In the middle of town is a small white cottage, that in the 1980's had one resident, the last regular resident of Columbia. Her husband had known a California governor and was instrumental in getting Columbia preserved as a historic district, and creating an agreement for his wife to live there for the rest of her life.

The outside of the house will be familiar to you if you have ever seen the western movie 'High Noon' with Gary Cooper. It is the house he goes to seeking help, and Frank Morgan, who went on to star in M*A*S*H hides inside while his wife says he is not home. The movie people knew the lady who owned the home and spent some time there. Inside her house, were years of photographs showing the house and areas were often frequented by the Hollywood movie industry.

For sheer fun, romance, history, challenging flying, good services, food and choices between nearby hotels or camping, Columbia rates a solid 10 on my scale of good destinations for pilots.

The Columbia Chamber of Commerce site is a good place to start, at http://www.columbiacalifornia.com/
and the airport itself can be found, with photos and pilot data, at http://www.airnav.com/airport/O22

Onward & Upward! ~ rfb

FLYOSOPHY - What happens if children see what pilots see?

FLYOSOPHY
Flying alters your perspective on the world. Sometimes it alters your understanding of how others might see the world.

From the air, the grittiness of the world fades away. Garbage, graffiti, people with bad attitudes, traffic noise and congestion; all become part of that 'other world', the world you left behind and don't have to return to - yet.

Flying my Aeronca Chief through Southern California's Banning pass in the late 1980's I had a vivid reminder of the difference between the flying world and the everyday world form the ground. Since the Aeronca Chief cruises at around 70 miles per hour, things happen slowly, and can be more deeply appreciated.

Over the desert, the summer temperatures were sizzling and the sky was rich blue. I could see for miles in any direction and clearly see small details passing below on the ground. Passing into the Los Angeles basin, I found myself at 4,500 feet and just at the top of a haze and smog layer completely obscuring the ground. I needed to descend, and yet I found I did not want to descend. the sensation was of leaving something pure and clean and sinking into some unknown muck. Because of my slow descent, about 200 feet-per-minute, the transition occurred slowly. For a moment I was poised between two worlds, with the clear clean blue sky and the view of the endless mountains all around me and a frightening dirty surface I was about to enter.

Then I was in it, and was surprised by the sudden crisp, acrid, burning stench at that upper level of what I came to call the 'smogopause.' My eyes watered. and then the most amazing and terrible insight occurred. Once below the reflective surface of the smogopause layer, I could see through to the ground, through the 4 miles of visibility. Above the blue sky faded away, and my world became dingier and... normal. I turned the plane in a 360 degree circle and discovered I could no longer see the mountains behinds me, only about 8 miles away.

The sobering realization was that a child, entering the age of awareness of their surroundings and playing in their backyard, would have an entirely different impression of the world than I, and would not realize the air could be clear and blue, the view could be limitless and the smell of the air could be sweet and clean. I have no solutions to this, only the belief if these kids could see the world from above as I had that day, it would profoundly alter the way they thought about their world, and might alter their behaviors in it.

Onward & Upward! ~ rfb

LOGBLOG - First flight, a memorable experience!

LOGBLOG
You never forget your first flight, and looking back to that first entry, it all comes back in a rush of vivid memory and sensation.

9/27/1975 - First Flight

AA-1B, N9922L. OXR - Local, Demo Flight, AA-1B Local area, SPL VFR departing from local area, sight see, use of controls, Rtrn fr Lndg. Landings, 1; J.A. O'Brien, Instructor; .6 hours

My memory of this flight is vivid, in patches. The plane was bright red. The canopy reminded me of fighter planes. I was 15, a sophomore in high school, and hooked beyond my wildest dreams. I had touched the controls of an aircraft in flight and it responded to my commands. Left, right, up, down; constrained by my instructor without my awareness, I was in awe of flight. I did not realize until this moment, looking back at that logbook entry, that we departed the airport area under special VFR. I do recall some haze, however! The canopy had a lock-stop allowing a few inches to remain open in flight. We tried it, and the breeze was fantastic on a warm southern California day. I split my time between looking at the instruments which seemed very important, and out the window, at the Pacific ocean sparkling just to the west in the afternoon sunlight with the stark silhouette of the Channel Islands breaking the sunlight on the ocean, and lake Casitas, directly below.

Onwards & Upward! ~ rfb

MENTOR - Maximize the value of your training time

MENTOR
When you are learning to fly, time and money are both precious commodities. Here are some strategies to help you get the most of both

The fastest I ever saw anyone complete was 0 through instrument in three months, but that guy bought a motor home and lived at the airport. Seriously. Average time for someone who can fly twice a week and is serious about it is 6 months to a year for the Private, depending on life stuff and weather.

What works best is 2-3 flights per week with at least 1.0 - 1.5 hours in the air. To maximize that time so that minimal time is lost in the next lesson coming back up to speed from taking a day off, do this: Say you are flying Tuesdays and Fridays. Monday night, review ahead for what you will do the next day. Practice it on Microsoft Flight Simulator, if you can. The next day, do the lesson, then review it for at least 10 minutes afterwards with the flight instructor, then (very important part) be sure to ask them what part of the lesson you just did will carry into Friday and what new work will occur on Friday. Then repeat the cycle again Thursday night. And Repeat again.

In between times, fly the lesson over again on flightsim, asking yourself, what went well? What could I do better? This type of preparation will maximize the value of the time you pay for training and lessen the repeat lesson factor.

About the written: get it over with as soon as possible. Either very early in your training or before you train. It will help you immensely. You'll be better prepared and you won't lose time during flight training worrying about the written or practicing for it instead of flight maneuvers. The cheapest way to pass the written is buy all your own materials and hunker down and study as you would for any other college class. Takes a couple of months that way. The fastest practical way is to study with an interactive DVD like ASA, or the GLIEM series of training materials online, or take a week long course, just get it done, and with the highest score you can nail. If you score 100 or 90, you won't have an oral exam very long before the flight at all. If you score a 70 or so, expect a very long oral exam with the examiner prior to taking your flight test, and be prepared to explain how you now know the right answer for every one you got wrong.

(Disclaimer - I am biased towards the ASA Interactive DVD as I participated heavily in it's development, though I receive no money if you elect to use the ASA product).

Onward & Upward! - rfb

Why2Fly - Birth of a Blog on the Enjoyment and Practice of Flight

Birth of a Blog
Years of flight experience have not changed one simple fact. Flying is GREAT! It is fun, it keeps your mind disciplined and your senses sharp. It gives you a unique perspective on the world nearly incomprehensible to non pilots. Flying is one of the most profound experiences in my life and it is my hope that through these writings you may be inspired to deepen your own understanding of flight and perhaps, if you have not already done so, take on a new challenge and learn to fly

I've always loved flight. I have a memory, as a child of perhaps four, looking up at an aircraft passing overhead, silver fuselage and slanted wings, silvery grey in a white-blue sky with contrails streaming. The jet was passing left to right. We were in a playground, getting ready to leave. It was an early spring day as I remember the cold air on my face. My left hand in my Father's hand. "Airplane!" I shouted. I remember the transcendent feeling, and the joy at getting it all right, the use of the word, the knowledge of what the distant object was, the affirming nod and smile from my Dad.

That was decades ago, and I've not stopped enjoying flight. From kite building and plastic models in elementary school, flight lessons in high school, becoming a glider pilot, commercial pilot, flight instructor, chief flight instructor, aviation video and software developer, published aviation novelist, owner of an aerial photography business, owner of an antique aircraft, article writer for the Southern California Flight Standards District Office, charter pilot, glider pilot, tail-wheel pilot and antique aircraft owner and aficionado, my life has included aviation and flight since my earliest memories. My license and medical are current, though I am not flying as much as I'd like at the moment. I write about it, mentor a few pilots in the AOPA Mentor program, and watch for what opportunity may bring my way next.

The intent of this blog is four-fold; to share advice I give as a Mentor Pilot & Instructor, to chronologically share log entries from my logbook that may be of interest, to provide flying product and destination reviews based on my experiences and through 'flyosophy,' or flight philosophy, to examine ways in which aviation could be improved now or in the future for the betterment of individuals and the community at large. I be live aviation, if utilized to the fullest extent of our imagination, could make our world better in immeasurable ways.

My intent with this blog is to help pilots advance their skills, to provide knowledge about aircraft, products and destinations, to share lessons I've learned and documented in my logbook, and through 'flyosophy' to awaken the sense of curiosity and the drive towards excelling in and exploring our physical world that is uniquely understood only by those who actively fly.

The four approaches -

Mentor - proven techniques from years of CFI experience

Flyosophy - philosophy of flight in the present and for the future

LogBlog - lessons learned from flights in the log

Reviews - aircraft, flying products & destinations

It is my hope this blog will prove useful, enjoyable and thought provoking. I welcome comments and will respond as best I can.

Onward & Upward! - rfb