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HAWKS - Day 20
of 26 (Thursday 8/7/03)
OVM club
members pitching in: Wayne, Tom, Gay, Darrel, and Tim.
Hawks students: Kasey, Tyler, Lacey,
Braden, and Jessica.
Weather: Nice, slight breeze
We had 5 students in attendance tonight. Jessica and Braden got in a
flight or two but left early. Jessica was a little rusty on the sticks
tonight probably due to her not flying for awhile. Braden on the other
hand is our newest student. He's doing really well, a natural. First
flight was last week and I had him doing loops, rolls, split-S's, emmelmens, and some inverted flying. Tonight was
probably his 3 and 4th flight overall. We worked on tailslides, death spirals, and smoothness. I'll
bet he'll be ready for his flight test before I can get the ground
school finished.
Speaking of tests. Last Tuesday I told Lacey he's ready to take his
test anytime he wants. He only needs to get with Darrel and make it
happen. He decided to do it tonight but first he wanted to take a
warm-up flight with me. So we went up and I went over all the things
covered in the test. He flew smooth and confident and did everything
great; he was more than ready. About mid evening we shut everything
down to give lacey the sky for his test.
The student is allowed to pick someone to be his or her flying buddy or
spotter for the test, just like we have someone standing with us when
we fly. Anyway he picked Gay to be his flying buddy. The flying buddy
can talk to them to help with their nervousness and offer minor
coaching assistance if asked by the student. The flying buddy is not
allowed to touch the controls and basically shouldn't offer advice but
can give advice if asked. Like the student may say " I think I'm a
little too high to land so I'm gonna go
around again" his flying buddy could say "Yea I agree" but the flying
buddy shouldn't be the one to tell the student that he's too high and
should go around. We don't split hairs on this but we do try to leave
the decision making to the student after all it is their test not ours.
When he was ready I replaced the plastic propeller on the plane with a
wooden one. We do this for all test takers. At the end of the test we
remove the prop, date it, and give it to the student as their wings sorta speak. They usually go around and get
people to sign it.
Anyway he did his frequency board - transmitter impound portion of the
test just fine, then moved on out to the flightline
for the flying portion. He was nervous as all get out. He was all over
the place and it looked like he was back in level one. Earlier when he
when we went up, people were flying and talking and not paying
attention to his flying. Now when he took off to start his test he
sensed it wasn't quiet because everyone busy doing something but that
everyone had stopped what they were doing and were watching his every
move. In the end he did fine, a little rough here and there but he made
it through. He's one of our better flyers and I wouldn't have set him
up to do his test if he wasn't ready. He got a big round of applause
when the plane came to a stop in the middle of the runway completing
the last part of the test, a dead stick landing.
I kinda feel bad for these kids during
test time because there is a lot of stress on them and some handle it
better than others but they gotta do it.
I, like many others, also enjoy test time, it's
fun to watch them sweat a little. I know they've given me more than a
few gray hairs over the season and for this one moment in time the
shoe's on the other foot.
Tyler and Kasey got their flights in but Kasey was more interested in getting the
flight-training matrix caught up, especially after watching Lacey take
his test. I wouldn't be surprised if Kasey
is next for testing.
It's been awhile since I've seen some of the kids. They seem to be
vacationing or something because there's a few who haven't been to the
field in weeks and we only have six more evenings left in the official
season, crunch time!
HAWKS - Day
21 of 26 (Tuesday 8/12/03)
OVM club
members pitching in: Wayne, Tom and Tim.
Hawks students: Kasey and Tyler
Weather: clear, humid, no breeze
We had 2 students in attendance tonight. This worked out really good. Kasey is
probably our best flyer at the moment since Lacey graduated last
Thursday. We only have 5 nights left in the 2003 Hawks season. I'm
hoping that a few more kids will solo before were through but they do
have to show up first. With only two students in attendance, Tom and I
were able to work all night with each kid. Tom with Tyler and me with Kasey. Tyler
worked on approaches and Kasey worked on
landings.
Kasey has mastered takeoffs so the
big item on his plate is landings. We probably did about 15 to 20
landings total with a handful of deadsticks
thrown in. He was greasing them in all night. He's ready for his solo
test; he's outgrown the program.
Our field is set up in a North South direction facing east. The puts
the sun at our back in the evening. Were surrounded by woods with the
closest treelines on the East and North
sides. When you set up your downwind leg and turn on final from the
North you're over the trees. After the turn on final is completed and
you're headed in you need to make the call as to when you think you've
cleared the treeline and then let off the
elevator a little so the plane can swoop down for the landing. If you
wait too long the plane will be too high and you'll be coming in hot.
The South approach is almost unlimited. Kasey
and I worked on landings from the South most of the night.
"Tree monsters to the North"
Since there was virtually no wind I decided he needed a few landings
from the North under his belt. We did about three good landings even
though he was nervous about the trees. The last landing he was a little
lower over the trees than before but still visually above the trees. I
figured he would be ok if he didn't lose any altitude. When he turned
on final he let off on the elevator just enough to cause me to let go
of the switch on the buddy box to grab it, too late. The tree monster
reached out and pulled down old number#2. All I saw was the plane, nose
down, rocking back and forth like a metronome as it headed for whatever
fate was waiting for it. There was also a loud noise like the crack of
bat at a baseball game coming from the same direction and at the same
time. Just like the famous Inspector Clouseau,
I put two and two together and figured that these two events were
related.
I scratched #2 off before I even went looking. I was hoping it wasn't
stuck a hundred feet up in the tree. I was already planning on a single
flightline for Thursday since we
haven't finished the backup (plane #3) yet. We sent out a search party
and found #2 after about 15 minutes. It was sitting on the ground
"completely intact". Don't ask me how but it made it to the ground from
about a hundred feet up with only a cracked leading edge in the
stabilizer. The loud noise I heard was from the wings leading edge. It
took a whack out near the tip but no damage. From the sound of it I
thought it had broke in two. I took it
home, a little CA here, a little CA there, and were
back in business. Learning to Land does take its toll.
HAWKS - Day
22 of 26 (Thursday 8/14/03)
OVM club
members pitching in: Wayne, Tom, Ron and Tim.
Hawks students: Jessica, Kaleb, Kaleb (the younger), Nate,
and Brian
Weather: Nice, slight breeze
We had 5 students in attendance tonight. This worked out good because I
was hoping for an easy night. Kaleb (the
younger) and Nate are still in the early
stages of training. Kaleb (the younger)
wasn't feeling to good when he got to the
field so after a flight or two he sat the rest of the night out. Nate got a few flights in then sat out the rest
of the night with his buddy Kaleb.
Kaleb (the older) is at the point
where he's taking off great. He can takeoff
in either direction while he stands on the flightline.
He doesn't have any orientation problems during the takeoff roll where
the plane is transitioning from coming at him to going away before it
lifts off. Tonight I worked with him on landings. He's done a few
already but he has the same problem as many of our students. That is
getting in the right starting position in the sky, with wings level, to
start your final approach to the runway. Start too high and you'll over
shoot, too low and you won't make it without adding more power, too
much to the left or right and they'll be zig
zagging all the way in trying to line
up on the runway. This seems to be a hard spot for most kids. I work on
this with most of them when we learning to land. I show them that if
they get into the right area of the sky, based on
their height and distance, to start with then their landings are
almost automatic. So even though they takeoff ok and when they do land
they do it well, hitting that area in the sky to start their final
approach is sometimes tough for them.
Brian showed up just about closing time. Brian is a Hawks's member from last year but this year he's
tied up on Tuesday's and Thursday's with other stuff. He did manage to
show tonight in time to get a flight in. He's a good flyer and would
have soloed by now if he could have flown this season. He did bring a
rocket tonight though. I don't know anything about rockets but Josh,
one of last year's graduates, does rockets on the side. So the both of
them worked together and set it up in the middle of the runway. When
they lit it up it really scooted. I lost it for a few seconds in the
late evening sky until the chute blew. It was really cool. Sorry to say
though the rocket went into the woods nearby and I think it's lost forever . Josh's Dad Marty,
said that maybe he'll bring a few rockets down to the field next week
just for ya ya's.
I could go for that.
Ron, who graduated from the program recently and is a very good flyer
started to help out with a little instructing tonight. It was good to
see.
Last night, Wednesday, several of us went to the local EAA for some
flying with the Civil Air Patrol Cadets. Two of our students from last
year are Cadets and they invited us to their monthly meeting. They got
permission for us to fly at the local airport which was cool
considering that the past airport manager would permit static displays
only. So maybe were in for some changes here. We took the Hawks planes
with us and flew the Cadets around until dark. It was a good time.
Maybe we'll get a few more Hawks members out of it.
Four more nights left in the official season. So much to learn so
little time.
HAWKS - Day
23 of 26 (Tuesday 8/19/03)
OVM club
members pitching in: Wayne, Tom, Josh, and Tim.
Hawks students: Kaleb (the younger), Nate, Tyler, and Brian
Weather: Nice, slight breeze
We had 4 students in attendance tonight. Tom worked with Tyler on
approaches while I worked with the younger kids, Kaleb
and Nate on more of the basics. Kaleb wasn't too enthused about flying tonight.
I think he's enjoying more of the activity at the field rather than the
flying itself. He only took one flight then went back to the picnic
table with the other kids for the rest of the night. He enjoyed playing
with the prop balancer that Glenn brought. I used the opportunity to go
over prop balancing with them as part of their ground school. We tested
all the props in our supply/repair toolkit.
Josh's new plane (an Extra 300) made its initial test flight tonight.
Darrel did the honors. Darrel said it flew like it was on rails. Engine
problems are all that needs to be fixed. I'm working on getting
pictures of our students with their first plane. I got Josh tonight
with his Extra. I still need to get Ron's, Lacey's, and Brian's. Brian
arrived too late to fly but he did bring his new plane, a SuperStar 40. He bought it last week but as far
as I know it's not been flown yet. So I didn't get a picture of him and
his plane either. As I get them I'll post them until I run out of my
allotted room in the picture album on the website. Then I'll start to
delete some of the older ones to make room for the newer ones.
We had a number or visitors tonight, some adults and some kids. We
introduced ourselves and talked a little about this and that. I did
manage to take three of the visiting kids up for their first flight. I
was told later that one of the kid's plans on joining the Hawks next
year. One of the adult visitors, I talked with, made a comment that the
last field he visited he felt like the invisible man. He said there
were people there but he just couldn't seem to get anyone to talk with
him, which's too bad.
The activity at the field made it look like a flea market, which is a
good thing. There were groups of people here and there. A lot of
milling about talking going on. We've been doing real well this year
with getting people to the field and with new members. Many of us point
to the youth program for this turnaround. I would have to agree It's a
good thing. Three years ago if you didn't have your engine running then
all you heard were crickets.
The grapevine has it that there will be rockets going off on Thursday.
Cool.
Three more nights left in the official season. So much to learn so
little time.
HAWKS - Day
24 of 26 (Thursday 8/21/03)
OVM club
members pitching in: Wayne, Tom and Tim.
Hawks students: Kaleb (the younger), Nate, Kasey and
Tyler
Weather: Very hot, Very humid
We had 4 students in attendance tonight. Not much going on tonight. I
worked with Kasey who is ready to take his
test. So we went over the test together to get him comfortable with it.
Kaleb only had one flight again
tonight.
The visitors we had on Tuesday night were back again. Tom took a young
lady up for a demo flight late in the evening. Too late in the evening
it appears. The plane got inverted high over the trees but not high
enough. Tom pulled up elevator and didn't have enough airspace under
him to complete the loop. He should have rolled out instead but don't
we all have 20/20 hindsight. Anyway the plane disappeared behind the
trees with a crash boom bah. It was so dark at this point that I didn't
think we would have seen it unless we stepped on it. Visibility in the
woods was about 20 to 25 feet. After about 10 minutes of stumbling
around in the dark we found it sitting on its wheels. The left
stabilizer took the worst damage; it was just hanging there. The right
side leading edge of the wing had about 18 inches missing back to the
main spar but the spar itself wasn't damaged. This is about a two-night
repair job. With only two Hawks nights left in the season we'll fix it
at our leisure. Somebody sure is looking out for these planes. This is
the third time theses planes have crashed in the woods from high up and
came out with only minor damage.
Two nights and one plane left in the season. So much to learn so little
time.
PS. they're cutting back the contractors at the Nuc
plant and I've been told my last day will be next Friday. As Spoc would say "there's always possibilities", I
hope so. Anyway I'll try to post the last two installments but no
guarantee they'll make it.
HAWKS - Day
25 of 26 (Tuesday 8/26/03)
OVM club
members pitching in: Wayne, Tom and Tim.
Hawks students: Kaleb (the younger), Nate, Kasey, Tyler,
and Brian.
Weather: Nice with a little breeze
We had 5 students in attendance tonight, another quiet night. We only
have one plane flying at this moment because of the crash last
Thursday. We haven't had time to fix it or finish the new LT due to the
Float Fly this past weekend and other obligations.
Tom and I took turns with the flying. Because we only had the one plane
and one more night left in the season we didn't do any landing
practice. Kaleb and Nate
took their flights then sat out the night at the picnic table. Tyler
and Kasey are at the point of doing
landings. Since we cut those out tonight I worked with them on flying
inverted instead. Kasey was more nervous
than Tyler
but after awhile was actually starting to do the pattern inverted. Also
he tried his hand at doing consecutive rolls on the LT40. He started
out good but the more he thought about it the more he lost it. It was
fun anyway.
Brian showed up with his new plane, a SuperStar40. Darrel loaned us a
buddy box to use with Brains radio. After the local motorheads fixed his engine I took him up. We
flew two flights until it got dark enough for the mosquito?s to come out and boy did they ever. I
never heard the dinner bell. I hate it, just when you're coming over
the threshold for a landing and a half dozen mosquito?s land on you and start feasting. You
can't do anything but land the plane first before smacking all the
bugs. You can tell it's late in the season because at the 8 o'clock
quitting time it's almost to dark to fly and the bugs are on the hunt.
One more night left in the official season. So much to learn so little
time.
HAWKS - Day
26 of 26 (Thnjoying more of the activity at
the field rather than the flying itself. He only took one flight then
went back to the picnic table with the other kids for the rest of the
night. He enjoyed playing with the prop balancer that Glenn brought. I
used the opportunity to go over prop balancing with them as part of
their ground school. We tested all the props in our supply/repair
toolkit.
Josh's new plane (an Extra 300) made its initial test flight tonight.
Darrel did the honors. Darrel said it flew like it was on rails. Engine
problems are all that needs to be fixed. I'm working on getting
pictures of our students with their first plane. I got Josh tonight
with his Extra. I still need to get Ron's, Lacey's, and Brian's. Brian
arrived too late to fly but he did bring his new plane, a SuperStar 40. He bought it last week but as far
as I know it's not been flown yet. So I didn't get a picture of him and
his plane either. As I get them I'll post them until I run out of my
allotted room in the picture album on the website. Then I'll start to
delete some of the older ones to make room for the newer ones.
We had a number or visitors tonight, some adults and some kids. We
introduced ourselves and talked a little about this and that. I did
manage to take three of the visiting kids up for their first flight. I
was told later that one of the kid's plans on joining the Hawks next
year. One of the adult visitors, I talked with, made a comment that the
last field he visited he felt like the invisible man. He said there
were people there but he just couldn't seem to get anyone to talk with
him, which's too bad.
The activity at the field made it look like a flea market, which is a
good thing. There were groups of people here and there. A lot of
milling about talking going on. We've been doing real well this year
with getting people to the field and with new members. Many of us point
to the youth program for this turnaround. I would have to agree It's a
good thing. Three years ago if you didn't have your engine running then
all you heard were crickets.
The grapevine has it that there will be rockets going off on Thursday.
Cool.
Three more nights left in the official season. So much to learn so
little time.
HAWKS - Day 24 of 26 (Thursday 8/21/03)
OVM
club members pitching in: Wayne, Tom and Tim.
Hawks students: Kaleb (the younger), Nate, Kasey and
Tyler
Weather: Very hot, Very humid
We had 4 students in attendance tonight. Not much going on tonight. I
worked with Kasey who is ready to take his
test. So we went over the test together to get him comfortable with it.
Kaleb only had one flight again
tonight.
The visitors we had on Tuesday night were back again. Tom took a young
lady up for a demo flight late in the evening. Too late in the evening
it appears. The plane got inverted high over the trees but not high
enough. Tom pulled up elevator and didn't have enough airspace under
him to complete the loop. He should have rolled out instead but don't
we all have 20/20 hindsight. Anyway the plane disappeared behind the
trees with a crash boom bah. It was so dark at this point that I didn't
think we would have seen it unless we stepped on it. Visibility in the
woods was about 20 to 25 feet. After about 10 minutes of stumbling
around in the dark we found it sitting on its wheels. The left
stabilizer took the worst damage; it was just hanging there. The right
side leading edge of the wing had about 18 inches missing back to the
main spar but the spar itself wasn't damaged. This is about a two-night
repair job. With only two Hawks nights left in the season we'll fix it
at our leisure. Somebody sure is looking out for these planes. This is
the third time theses planes have crashed in the woods from high up and
came out with only minor damage.
Two nights and one plane left in the season. So much to learn so little
time.
PS. they're cutting back the contractors at the Nuc
plant and I've been told my last day will be next Friday. As Spoc would say "there's always possibilities", I
hope so. Anyway I'll try to post the last two installments but no
guarantee they'll make it.
HAWKS - Day 25 of 26 (Tuesday 8/26/03)
OVM
club members pitching in: Wayne, Tom and Tim.
Hawks students: Kaleb (the younger), Nate, Kasey, Tyler,
and Brian.
Weather: Nice with a little breeze
We had 5 students in attendance tonight, another quiet night. We only
have one plane flying at this moment because of the crash last
Thursday. We haven't had time to fix it or finish the new LT due to the
Float Fly this past weekend and other obligations.
Tom and I took turns with the flying. Because we only had the one plane
and one more night left in the season we didn't do any landing
practice. Kaleb and Nate
took their flights then sat out the night at the picnic table. Tyler
and Kasey are at the point of doing
landings. Since we cut those out tonight I worked with them on flying
inverted instead. Kasey was more nervous
than Tyler but after awhile was actually starting to do the
pattern inverted. Also he tried his hand at doing consecutive rolls on
the LT40. He started out good but the more he thought about it the more
he lost it. It was fun anyway.
Brian showed up with his new plane, a SuperStar40. Darrel loaned us a
buddy box to use with Brains radio. After the local motorheads fixed his engine I took him up. We
flew two flights until it got dark enough for the mosquito?s to come out and boy did they ever. I
never heard the dinner bell. I hate it, just when you're coming over
the threshold for a landing and a half dozen mosquito?s land on you and start feasting. You
can't do anything but land the plane first before smacking all the
bugs. You can tell it's late in the season because at the 8 o'clock
quitting time it's almost to dark to fly and the bugs are on the hunt.
One more night left in the official season. So much to learn so little
time.
HAWKS - Day 26 of 26 (Thursday 8/28/03)
OVM
club members pitching in: ? Hawks students: ?
Weather: Nice
I couldn't make it to the field tonight so I have nothing to report at
this time. We currently only have one plane flightworthy
so I'd be surprised if it survived the night. I'll try to find out what
went on and post it later.
UPDATE!! The last plane survived and everyone had a good time! (Oct
2003 )
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