A blustery wind blows up dust and limbs and rock. Small arms fire ricochets haphazardly off nearby boulders as a patrol of U.S. soldiers hunkers down, screaming enemy positions over the wind. Cut off, out of ammunition and in need of medical supplies on a remote hilltop in northern Afghanistan, the men are desperate. Air support is impossible, horrible weather and a well armed enemy position down valley make any sort of low-level drop too risky. Ground-based help is five days away –IEDs have reeked havoc on the narrow mountain roads. Then, from 25,000 feet above the chaos, and nearly 30 miles away, a massive canopy unfolds from the cargo bay of a passing C-130. Carrying 10,000 pounds of supplies, weapons, and ammunition, the ram-air gliding parafoil quietly steers itself toward the soldiers, using an onboard GPS system.

PADS are in the House

Precision Aerial Delivery Systems (PADS) are revolutionizing the way supplies reach otherwise inaccessible locations while reducing risk to aircraft and ground personnel. Both military and civilian aircraft have been dropping stuff for decades, but with limitations. Low-level drops, while accurate, leave the aircraft and crew vulnerable to enemy fire, require ground forces to establish a suitable LZ, and risk giving away positions. The inverse applies for drops from higher altitudes. It’s not a successful drop, after all, if the plane and crew safely make the drop, but the supplies end up 50 miles away in enemy hands. Prior to the invention of the parafoil in the mid-1960s, there were plenty of technical limitations. The basic parachute provided no lift, only creating drag to ensure a safe landing. With limited steering and minimal glide capabilities, the parachutes used in WWII and subsequent battles were of the kiss-on-the-cheek, push-out-the-door, and hope-for-the-best variety. Even at this early stage, however, the parachute proved itself an invaluable tool in quickly and cheaply delivering men and supplies.

Dreamt up by a Canadian-American kite maker named Domina Jalbert, the ram-air parachute—or parafoil—is a non-rigid airfoil that forms by forcing air into rectangular slots at its leading edge. Sewn shut at the trailing edge and sides, the trapped air allows the fabric airfoil to maintain its shape with the help of battens, or ribs, positioned along the span-wise axis. Jalbert’s design was a quantum leap ahead in parachute design. It did not just fall, it flew. Fast forward 50 years, when self-steering parafoils the size of 747 wings that carry loads in excess of 30,000 pounds, can successfully reach an LZ, within meters, landing into the wind and programmed to include an airspeed reducing flare. Fostered by the U.S. Army’s Natick Research Center, in Natick, Mass., the Joint Precision Aerial Delivery Systems is a combined Army and Air Force program designed to make stupid airfoils smarter and stronger. Systems capable of handling 10,000-pound loads are already in use in Iraq and Afghanistan, while testing for higher load limits (up to 60,000 pounds) is currently underway. Airborne Systems of Pennsauken, NJ recently completed a successful test drop of 30,000 pounds using its Megafly PADS system. The heavy lifting MegaFly uses up to five separate sections, based on load weight, to create a single airfoil. Once on the ground, the modular system can be separated into smaller loads, recovered in less than 30 minutes, and repacked in roughly eight hours. Its glide ratio of 3.75 to 1 means it can be dropped nearly 40 miles from the target.

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Flying into Anchorage a few years ago, I saw what appeared to be a C-130 on the ramp next to runway 7L. Only when we got closer did I realize that this airplane was a lot bigger than the active-duty 130s on the military ramp across from the end of 7R. Then, I vaguely remembered hearing about the C-133.When I asked around, I got similar versions of a second- or third-hand story from other pilots who had been coming through Anchorage for a long time. The story went like this: The 133 did still fly about once a year, and when it did, the operator paid the fine in advance for flying it illegally. It seems that was a bit of an exaggeration. Because it was a restricted category airplane, they flew it on government contracts, moving heavy equipment for the state of Alaska. That airplane, N199AB, made its last flight in August 2008, from Anchorage to Travis AFB, near Sacramento, Calif. to be displayed there. Video of its arrival at Travis can be seen online at: www.flickr.com. I had the pleasure of talking about the 133 with Dick Hanson, a navigator with the 1st Air Transport Squadron from 1962 to 1965, and Edward “Sandy” Sandstrom, a flight engineer and standards/evaluation check engineer on the 133.

Story of the C-133 Cargomaster

Douglas designed the C-133 Cargomaster as a replacement for the piston-powered C-124 Globemaster II. A big advantage of the high-wing C-133 was the ability to drive vehicles right into the back of the airplane at nearly ground level. And it did lift a heavy load. Hanson explains: “We had the world record for a while in the 133 for hauling 100,000 pounds of cargo. We didn't often do that, because we needed more fuel for range, but we hauled tanks and road graders and trucks and all kinds of heavy duty stuff. Douglas built 50 C-133s from 1956 to 1961. Ten were lost—nine to crashes and one to a fire on the ground. Some of the losses were attributed to unpredictable stall characteristics. Sandstrom recalls: “We did something to fix that. Joe Denefield was here from Edwards [Air Force Base]. His job was to figure out why the airplanes were going down. I flew the test missions with them, and we found that the right wing was stalling before the left wing. We never let it get too far into a stall, because if that wing stalled, you dropped into a damn near 90 degree bank, and your recovery was impossible. So we put a stall strip on the left wing just outboard of the engine. The stall strip was just a piece of angled aluminum, maybe a foot long. Then, when the airplane stalled the nose fell through and you didn't stall one wing or the other.”

The Cargomaster’s giant propellers had a sound that people have compared to the B-36—the Convair strategic bomber powered by six 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360s. Cracks caused by “sound impingement” vibration plagued the 133 throughout its career. Sandstrom explains: “It's the biggest prop in the world, 18 feet. The B-36 had an 18-foot propeller, and these were a derivative of that propeller. At 100 percent RPM, its tip speeds were supersonic. The vibration was such that the maintenance guys could stand on a newspaper, and pull the newspaper out from under their feet. They put ‘belly bands’ on the airplane. If you look at one of the airplanes, you'll see these bands that go all the way around, just like on the KC-135 (Boeing 707/720-based Tanker).The belly bands didn't help on the one that went down in two pieces in Nebraska. This crack happened by the side cargo door—the upper, aft. There was a crack there and it propagated all the way back across to the wing spar, underneath the fairing and everything. Then the nose broke off and the pieces fell.Structural problems with vibration were partly due to the expectation of a larger power plant. Sandstrom explains: “The C-133 was designed around a 9,000-shaft horsepower engine, and they did not get it. So that’s why the metal used in the airplane was thinner than what they would have used with a 9,000 SHP engine. And that's the reason for the belly bands and what have you.The available engine was the Pratt & Whitney T-34, a fixed-shaft turboprop similar to the 5,000 HP Allison T-56/501 used on the Lockheed C-130, P-3 Orion/L-188 Electra, and Convair 580. On the subject of the T-34 engines, Sandstrom helps correct some misinformation: “I see all these [published] numbers floating around. The C-133 A model shaft horsepower was 6,500, and the B model was 6,950. The T-34 came from the Navy J-34, and that was the first jet engine ever produced by Pratt & Whitney. They had a blank piece of paper when they designed that engine.”

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Yeah...it's summer. There's an air show here, a fly-in there, a time-building cross-country trip scheduled with friends, and lots of juicy bug crap on the glare shield after each flight. Yep, it's summer...pass the glass spray! And, oh yeah, there's that one summertime weather feature that scares all pilots across the country: The summertime thunderstorm. Storms are not nice to small planes. They’re not nice to anything that flies, in fact, and it's not just the vicious turbulence that can turn you and your plane into a twisted wreck. There's hail, lightning, microbursts, wind shear, and...fog!To better understand the summertime thunderstorm, we've got to put on our geek hat and review what weather on earth is really all about. It's simple: The sun heats up the land and water most near the equator and that warm air has to move up and away to the cooler parts of the earth. On a large scale, we see frontal systems where these large-scale wind patterns clash. We call these frontal systems. But on a local scale, there's that one process of heat exchange where a mass of warm humid air rises and cools, forms a mountain of a cloud that can go way up to tens of thousands of feet, followed by a huge cascade of rain and colder air that comes crashing down to earth, unleashing the mother of all whoop-ass that we call the thunderstorm.

They Grow So Fast

During these hot summer days, thunderstorms can grow from a big, fat, cauliflower heap of cloud to a Katana-crushing killer in about under 30 minutes. Remember the development cycle from your knowledge tests? The first stage of a thunderstorm is known as the cumulus stage. The cloud towers high above its neighbors, and is primarily filled with updrafts. Glider pilots love these, although I just finished reading a story about a guy who got sucked into the base of one. Not cool...especially when you don't have instruments to tell you which way is up and you don't have oxygen. Flying near these things can give you a rough ride, so remember the cute FAA jingle: “Skirt 'em, don't flirt 'em.” The next stage of a thunderstorm is known as the mature stage. Believe it or not, the definition of a thunderstorm is when lightning is first detected and rain starts to fall. It’s that simple. This is the stage where there are both violent updrafts and downdrafts in the storm. Near the ground, you may first get that “calm before the storm” that makes you want to tempt a quick departure away from the weather, only to get the scare of your life when high gusts from the base of the storm rock your world and make you wish you never took up flying in the first place.

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I think it’s fair to say that for most pilots—even those who fly under their power every day—the gas-turbine engine seems a magical contraption that shouldn’t be able to do what it does. Questions abound. How does something so small produce so much horsepower? With so few moving parts, why do they cost so much? And what are these strange occurrences—hot starts, compressor stalls, and flame outs to name but a few—that can quickly end a flight and cost hundreds of thousands to repair? Gas turbines allow helicopters to fly, tanks to zip across the desert, and airliners to carry hundreds of tons across the globe on a daily basis. But how do they really work?

Gas turbine engines are a genus of the jet engine species which includes rockets, ramjets, and other exotic variants. All these engines are reaction-type engines, meaning they create propulsion by expelling a mass, typically of accelerated air, in harmony with Newton’s famous third law of motion: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” They are also internal combustion engines, as they mix fuel and air, set it alight in a combustion chamber, and harness the hot gases to push or spin things. The process is described thermodynamically by the Brayton Cycle, named after George Brayton, an American engineer in the 1800s. The four-stage cycle is amazingly straightforward as it depicts the movement of air through a gas turbine. Stage one is “compression,” which in essence allows the greedy engine to take a much bigger gulp of air than the size of its mouth. Stage two is “heat addition,” when jet fuel is added to the compressed air and burned. Thanks to the addition of heat, “air expansion” occurs in the third stage and, finally, in the fourth stage the hot air is pushed out, or “rejected” through the exhaust.

Turbojets

The compressed air is then fed into the combustion chamber where energy (i.e. fuel) is continuously added and the mixture is ignited, creating temperatures up to 1,500 degrees. In a “turbojet” engine, the post combustion gases, which have increased in both volume and velocity, are forced though a set of windmill-like blades called turbines which, via a shaft spin the compressor and creating a continuous source of air for the entire system. Once safely past the turbine wheels, the fast moving gasses are directed through the exhaust nozzle, delivering the thrust necessary to push the engine and hopefully the airplane it’s bolted to through the atmosphere. The turbine engine exists to gobble up air and spit it out at a higher velocity than which it entered.

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Cruising Along in My Waco

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Three in a Row

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The Sikorsky

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Right Side Up. Right Side Down.

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Oshkosh Girls

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Hold on tight Tyson!

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Escape from the everyday with a visit to the relaxing and romantic island of Santa Catalina. Shift your life from overtime to Island Time on the magical island of Catalina, just minutes across the beautiful Pacific Ocean from the Southern California mainland.After landing at the scenic Airport in the Sky and enjoying a bite to eat at the DC-3 Gifts & Grill with its delicious buffalo burgers and picturesque overlooks, discover the rest of the island.

Catalina Island is a unique blend of rich history, natural scenic beauty, and never-ending adventures. On your way into town from the airport you can search for the island buffalo or hike trails to hidden harbors and inlets and view dramatic coastline vistas. The island’s main town of Avalon offers quaint Mediterranean charm allowing you to slow down, relax, and enjoy all the things you love to do. Stroll through Avalon’s palm tree lined walkways. Linger at oceanfront shops. Dine on local island cuisine at casual beach view restaurants. Discover the crystal blue waters teeming with colorful fish by kayak, ocean raft, parasail or snorkel. Tee it up and play a game of golf. Or grab a good book, a beach chair, and a beverage and pick a peaceful spot on the shore to get away from it all.Now that you’re here – stay awhile. Catalina is the only island destination in California that provides a variety of accommodations -- from tent site camping to beach-front hotels, from family-friendly inns to well-appointed condos, from charming cottage vacation rentals to an elegant four-star country inn. Indulge in a luxurious ocean view suite or take your family to a comfortable beach bungalow close to town. Whatever your budget, Catalina has a place for you to unwind and rejuvenate.The process is described thermodynamically by the Brayton Cycle, named after George Brayton, an American engineer in the 1800s. The four-stage cycle is amazingly straightforward as it depicts the movement of air through a gas turbine. Stage one is “compression,” which in essence allows the greedy engine to take a much bigger gulp of air than the size of its mouth. Stage two is “heat addition,” when jet fuel is added to the compressed air and burned. Thanks to the addition of heat, “air expansion” occurs in the third stage and, finally, in the fourth stage the hot air is pushed out, or “rejected” through the exhaust.

CatalinaChamber.com

It’s all here and waiting for you on Catalina, your island paradise. When you’re on Island Time, you’re always having the time of your life.For additional information about Catalina Island accommodations, attractions, and activities, or to receive a free copy of the 2009 Catalina Island Vacation Planner contact the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau at 310-510-1520 or visit us on the website at www.CatalinaChamber.com.

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As predicted in Episode Three, Mr. Randy Babbitt has now been confirmed as head of the FAA. It is great that we now have a man with his breadth of experience in aviation at the helm. The issues he faces are broadly intertwined, complex, confusing, and expensive. Therefore, I urge all of you to help him see clearly the principled foundation upon which we constituents have helped build the aviation industry for a century here in our beloved country. I share in your vision that general aviation, business aviation, the airlines, et al, are all necessary ingredients for prosperity and hope. As such, let us find ways to encourage and nurture growth rather than choke it to death through increased taxation, heavy regulation, and sweeping security oversight. I’m encouraged by the efforts of AOPA and Harrison Ford as the spokesperson for the GA Serves America campaign. Their grassroots efforts will help recapture the importance of what you and I do in flying, whether as a hobby or a career. Check out their Web site at www.gaservesamerica.com. This site has a lot of resources to pass along to your buddies and politicians to help protect our flying liberties.

It’s such a cliché to claim that we live in a litigious society. But, reality confirms the cliché. In aviation, the consumer cost of regulation, litigation, safety, etc., probably approaches 50 percent of the cost of a certified airplane or component, fuel, oil, avionics and updates, and so on. Aside from the cost, the challenge of the times is how to recapture the excitement, sense of mission, and reward of professionalism and accomplishment within aviation. Is it now simply a business of schedules and models of profitability (or not!) and affordability? Or, rather, is there still within us that little kid looking through a chain link fence in wonderment at the miracle of flight? We are well into the 2009 season of air shows, and I bet everyone reading this has more of the little kid in his or her heart than the pressed collar formality of a business executive. Am I right? Is that you smiling with joy at the sight of a restored J-3 Cub or Cessna 150 that you first soloed in? Or does the thunder and precision of the F-22 Raptor or Blue Angels or Thunderbirds incite memories of your own greatest moments in aviation as a military pilot?

As I mentioned in the last issue, I’ve got a bunch of ideas to streamline government bureaucratic integration with our flying, and I am hoping that the ideas will gain traction sometime in the near future. But the real issue is the survival of general aviation. There are hints of recovery in the economy, including aviation, but the partnership and spirit of cooperation is continuously under fire by the very groups that need fruit grown from the seeds of general aviation. Frankly, I don’t understand it! Perhaps GA is just the scapegoat for the titans of industry, society, and government to somehow justify their own inadequate efforts to make progress with budget shortfalls, bankruptcies and bailouts, and agendas that rely less on principles of the rugged individual and personal accountability.

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For generations, children around the world have been duped into eating their carrots by parents who claimed that the orange root vegetable was critical to quality eyesight. “You’ll go blind if you don’t eat your carrots,” the familiar fib rings. Well, as it turns out, these scads of unsuspecting yearlings aren’t the only ones to fall for the carrot myth: The German Air Force, or Luftwaffe, fell for the trick during World War II, as well. During the Battle of Britain, in the autumn of 1940, Royal Air Force pilots saw tremendous success shooting down Luftwaffe pilots in the dark. Somehow, the RAF was tracking the Germans before they even crossed the English Channel and, with remarkable accuracy, downing their planes before they had a chance to attack. The secret behind the RAF pilots’ success was Britain’s new radar system, the first of its kind.

British intelligence did not want the Germans to know about the advanced radar technology—which many countries were trying to develop at the time—so they propagated a misinformation campaign boasting that their pilots’ tremendous success was due to superior night vision. And just how did these pilots have such remarkable night vision that they could see and target approaching German planes? From eating carrots, of course. Lots and lots of carrots. The Air Ministry published reports in local newspapers about a special squadron of RAF pilots who had been fed an excessive amount of carrots specifically to improve their night vision. And why not? The misinformation played right into England’s Dig for Victory campaign, and actually encouraged English citizens to grow and eat more carrots, believing that it would help them get around during the mandatory blackouts imposed to deter German bombing raids.

One pilot in particular was touted to really love his carrots. John “Cats’ Eyes” Cunningham was the RAF’s leading nighttime pilot, collecting 20 kills—19 of them in the dark. While he was made a poster boy for the benefits of beta-carotene, in reality, Cunningham was the first person to shoot down an enemy plane with the use of radar. Incidentally, Cunningham was with de Havilland Aircraft before the war and returned to the company as chief test pilot after the war was over. He tested the world’s first jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet, in 1949 and the Trident 3, in 1969. He survived a terrible accident in 1975 after his plane ingested a flock of birds upon takeoff and passed away peacefully in 2002. As silly as the carrot rumor may seem in hindsight, it clearly worked. We can only assume that the Germans bit the bait, as it were, for the secretive radar system remained secret and the good guys firmly established air superiority over the Nazi regime. Of course, the deception played right into enemy hands, because traditional German folklore already held that carrots improved night vision. Hook, line, and root vegetable.

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Many technologies have been developed to ease the workload inside the cockpit. The glass cockpit revolution, for example, has maximized all available technologies and minimized pilot workload. But what about the aircraft itself? What technologies can we utilize to maintain and improve its upkeep?

The grease board has always been an ominous placard hanging on the walls of maintenance shops reminding both the aircraft’s owner and his or her trusted mechanic that work needs to be done: your tail number in black and the maintenance squawks in red. The owner and the mechanic work in unison to keep the ship airworthy and safe, gazing at the worn grease board for guidance.

Gone are the days of scribbling notes on the grease board. Since it’s every aircraft owner’s responsibility to maintain the airworthiness and safety of their aircraft, we have now found a better way to document maintenance records and simplify the process. In Section 91.405 of the Code of Federal Regulations, it reads: “Each owner or operator of an aircraft shall ensure that maintenance personnel make appropriate entries in the aircraft maintenance records indicating the aircraft has been approved for return of service.”

Enter the Time Trac

Keeping track of what needs to be inspected or replaced requires a great deal of time. The Time Trac is a fully integrated tool: a hardware/software package that is comprised of a small electronic data recorder that can be installed in any aircraft and a user-friendly software program for your personal computer. Data is stored and recorded, then easily downloaded onto your personal computer. Flight times, and a “journey log” are applied to life-limited components and mission information, recording up to 2,700 events in any one given flight.

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