A
few years bac k, I wa s dea ling
withtheblahs and de cide dthat I
neede dsomet hing mo reexcitin g
toflytha nthe tru sty old Ce ssna .Ibo r-
rowed from my retirem ent saving s and
boug ht abe autifulRV-8, 170 HP ,with a
cons tant speedprop .Two ye ars late r, the
trustyold Ces snamoved to Idah oand was
replaced byan RV -9Athat soonhad afull
glasscockpi twi th twotouch screen s.
How do they compa re? With po wer
offand ful lflaps, the RV-8 comes do wn
lik eabrick. Wi thpower off and noflap s,
the -9A com es down like athistle. Th e
br ick andthe thist le.
Looki ng back four years, wh en I
bou gh tthe -8,the gr eas ein thetailwheel
ste ering had congealed and the steering
pin was stu ck inthe retract edposit ion.
Th isme ant that the -8had nosteeri ng and
no tailw heel cent ering. After this was
found and fixed,the plane was aloteas i-
er toland, but by then Iwas snakebit.
Fif teen mont hs after bu yin gthe -8,major
sur ge ry gr ound ed mefor six mo nths.
Just asIwas recoverin gfrom that
sur gery, a buyer came alo ng for the
Ce ssna and the-9A app eared ontheho ri-
zon. Af terafirst fligh tafter surgery with
anoth er CFI, Iwas well eno ug htogive
the Ce ssn abuy er acheck ou tin thefami l-
iar airpl ane, and when the RV -9A got
he re, wi thasmorga sbo rd of avion ics ,I
could atleast flyitarou ndthepattern. It
wa ssafe eno ugh for solo,anyway, but I
ha dto rebuil dmy flyi ng skills andlearn
the new avi oni cs.
Onc eIwa scomf or table in the-9A, I
wa sthenready tosta rt flyi ng the-8 again,
kno wing that Iwould be abetter pilo tfor
be ing able to fly bo th thebrick and the
thi stl e, ifIflewthembo th we ll.
The brickha sbou ncy land ing gear,
andwhe elland ing sreq uire conc ent rat ion
andcoo rdination.Ioften land with abit
of powe rontouchdown so thatther e’s
mor etim eto ease insome for wa rd stick
afterflar ing asifthelanding wasgo ing to
be athree -po intlandi ng. Wi th the tai lup,
the pl anewillweatherv ane, but wit hthe
tail dow nandful lflaps, thewing still has
lif tto keep ful lweigh toff thewh eelsand
the reis som eblanki ng of the rudd er by
the flap s. My cho ice is to land thre e-
po int, no flaps ,incros swi nds, but Ido n’t
pr actic eiteno ugh. And whe nI’m inprac -
tic e,Icandono -bou ncewh eel lan dings
wi th thepow eroff.Sati sfyi ng!
The thist le land slik eanynose whe el
airplane, mo stly.Ihaven’t got thehang of
land ingit reallynos ehi gh, and onc ethe
ma ins touc h, the no se tends to com e
do wnprom ptl y.Atleast on my plan e,
the reis lessdi rection al sta bi lit ythanwi th
asteerable no sewhe el beca use the nose-
wh eelcastor s. Infact ,mypla ne ha sless
dir ectio nalstability on thegrou nd than
oth erplane swith castoring nose whe els.
It’s notapr ob lem, but if you don ’t pa y
clos eattent ion ,you’ llwand er all ov er the
runway like a stude nt pi lot.
Emb arras sing.
Cross countr yis diff erent, too. My
firstfligh tinthebr ick was a30 0-mi le
jaunt , starting a three-da y trip from
Ca lif orni atoGeorgia. Na vigati on was a
Ga rmin portabl e,mou nt ed onthe pa nel,
bu twith XMweathe r. Mostrecently,that
port abl e was remove d for anot her
po rtabl etobemounted, but Ibroke the
rulesand remove dthefirst one be fore the
secon don ewa sreadytobe instal led.Fleein g hurri cane Irm a, with the
autopi lot inope rat ive, the new GPSon the
floor besi de me and with all the accumu -
lated str ess of pr epa ring thehouse ,the
br ick was notfun to fly. When Idisc ov -
ered tha tthe auto pi lot wa swor king afte r
all, the fly ing bec ame muc hmore relax ed
and I ha d time to che ck the ADS -B
weat her and ge ner ally have a feel for
how the flight wa s progressing.
Howe ver, the destin ation airpor t ha d a
eight knot s, and Iwas tir ed. Ididn’ tland
anywh erene ar wh ere Iwa nt edtoalong
therunw ay,but Itouc hed downreason -
ably gent ly onthecent erl ine and kep tit
there .Enco ura ging.
Th ethistle, ontheothe rhan d,has two
Garm inG3 XTouch scree n,ADS -B inand
out, a two -axis aut opi lot , and is IFR
equi pped.When Iwo rkit rig ht, it’s rea lly
swe et,butther e’sstill bored omonatwo
hou rGP Sdirect leg.Waitin gfor thesys -
tem to tellmetoswitch fuel tank sis only
marginal ly more exciting than wat chi ng
paint dry. And sometim es the autopilot
does n’tdowh atIthin kit’s going to, and
tha tcan bereal exciti ng.Som etimes it’s
me, sometimes it’san inter mittent pr obl em
tha tIthi nkI’ve identified.
Neitherplaneismu ch goo dforflyi ng
incumu lusclouds, though.Wh en you hit
bum ps, onewi ng will often dropquickly,
anditcan takeattentio nto keep theplane
level.Th eautopilot help stheRV-9 Aalot ,
withaltitud ehol d.The -8has asingle axis
autop ilot, but theelectric ele vat ortrimon
the -8 isno tspeed sensitiv eandtoofas tto
trimeasi lyat cru isespeed.
Ye ars ago, Ikn ew aman who se fle et
includ eda1928 Mo noco upe ,aHarmon
Roc ket, and sever al oth er pl ane s withradically diff erenthan-
dling characteristics.
An d when I was an
active CFI ,givin gdu al
in severaldifferentCessnasand Pipe rs,I
saw differe nt handling cha racteristics.
The br ickand thethistlearego od stepsin
this dir ecti on, buthowmanyairpl anes
doe sama nne ed? Just on emore.•••••
The thistle nowhasADS-Bout,so I
now get traffi c uplinks. Mostly. At
Sa va nna h, forwhatever reason,Idon ’t
get uplin ks of all thetrafficthattowerand
app roa chare talkingto.Idon ’tthinkit’s
me ,assome of thetrafficis displayed,
pro bab ly the air- to-airADS-B.
And the nthe re’sthequestionofpr o-
cedures. When ADS-B magically
app ears in your cockp it, how arefol ks
suppo sed to kn ow howtouse it.“Traffic,
10 o’ cloc k,four miles,”saysapproach.
“Ar e you referri ng to 40V ?” says I.
“Ye s,” says a very surprised approach
con troller. Wha t’s the cor rect way to
com munic ate?
And ha vi ngthetraffic onADS-Bis
aso- wha tto the controllers, the ywantto
know whe nyou ha veitvisually.Makes
sen se to me, asit’slots easiertoavo id
traffic vi sua lly thanonacoc kpi tdisplay.
Now is it pronounc edA-D-S-B,as
I’ve always heardit,orads-bee,assome
say it. But it’s lotsmorefun tosay,“I’ve
got tha ttraffic onthe fishfind er.”
And my ADS-B rebatecheckcame,
eno ugh to most ly cove rtheinstallationin
the thi stle. Sorry,only onerebatecheck
per pe rson ,not perairplane.42 In Flig ht USACelebrating 34 Years De cember 20 17Homebuilder’sWorkshop
Ed
WischmeyerTHE BRI CK AND TH ETHISTL E
flew ov erthe Missi ssip pi three times. Th e
bi- pla neflew reall ywell this year and we
did n’t ha ve any major issues or prob-
lems.”
Tucker is plan nin gonret iring from his
issolo act after the 201 8airshow season.
DeGenna ro comm ent s: “It’sgoingto be
excit ing, Se an isretiring as asoloperforme r
next year. It’s going to bethe lastyear for
the bi-plan eand it’sgoi ng tobe areallyspe-
cial thingtosee and we aregoing to do the
sam erout ine as wealw ayshave. Th at air-
plan e (Chal lenger III) is goin g to the
Smi thsoni an and weare prettyproudofit.”
De Genna roha sbeenpe rformi ng his
ow nrout ineund er the nam eJoh nny Din
theteam’s Ex tra300. He ha sbe en per-
for min gatthe team’s 2017 shows and
comm ente don hi splans for 2018: “Sean
is me ntor ingme in flyingand ge ttin ginto
this whole thin g. It is qu ite anint ere stin g
experienc eand it’sthe bes tdisc iple flyin g
yo ucando. It’s beenablast thi sye ar andnext yea rif Ido my job righ t, Iget toste p
down inalt itude and Iwi ll add to the rou -
tine andhave some fun .”
Nati ona l Av iat ion Ha ll of Fame
induc tee Patty Wagsta ff per for med a
worl dclass routine in he rExtra300 atthe
air show .2015 Art Scholl Award winn er
Ski pStew art fle wapowe rde mon str ati on
in his modif ied Pitt sSpe cial. Seve n- time
consecut ive U.S. Nat ional Aerobatic
Cha mpio nRob Ho llandper forme dinhis
one ofki nd MX S-RHmonop lan e. 1994
Inte rna tiona lAer oba tic Cl ub Cha mpio n
Matt Ch ampi on pe rfor me dasolo rout ine
in his Extr a300LX and the nflewatwo -
ship per for mance wi th Ro bHol lan d.
Mat tYou nki nperf or med an aer obaticrout ineinhi stwin-engine1940 Beech18
aircraf t.Rand yBallflewhi sVietnam era
MIG- 17F at the sho w.TheMI G-17Fcan
maintain upto8GsandBall fliesspe edsup
toalm ost 700mphduri ng hisrout ine .Bob
Carl tonflew hisSu bSo ne xMi rco jetdur -
ing the show. The Microj et can reach
speed sof300 mph. 2013EAAWarbird sof
America Ha ll Fam e ind uct ee Lee
Laud erback show ed the Jacks onv ille
crowd the capab ilities of the TF -51
Mustang.TheTF- 51 Craz yHorse is adu al
cock pitvariant of theP-51Musta ng.
Th e sta tic di spl ays for size of the
Jac kson ville sho wwaslacking innum -
ber s.The rewereatotalof 22ondisplay.201 7 NAS Jack so nville Air Show
Continuedfrom Page 33
Ma tt Youn kin in his twi n engi ne 19 40
Be ech 18. (Mike Heilma n)
Con tin ued on Page 43