Originally posted at: http://leftbase.com/?p=1375

Spent the weekend with a Greg and Evan in Ohio and found it to be quite an adventure flying over the weekend. I got to town Saturday and we spent a day wrenching on Greg's plane before Evan and I decided to head over to his direction. Greg and I put together this video of the fun we had at his strip.



Afterward, Evan and I flew over to his strip and found the winds tumbling over the hill leading to high turbulence on approach. The Maule is a compromise airplane. It's pretty good in short fields and it's pretty good for cross country, but it isn't exceptional at either. One of the ways that they tuned it for short field was to give it very large flaps, but the tradeoff for that is smaller than typical ailerons. In order to use a strip like Evan's, I need to be on approach at about 40 knots. The problem was that with my short ailerons I was going stop-to-stop keeping the airplane upright at 60 knots. I tried to touch down, but because I was faster than I needed to be, kept floating each time I hit another little gust of wind. I think I probably would have been ok if I just planted it and worked the brakes, but unfamiliar fields are kind of a bad place to push you luck. All in all, it was *way* sketchier than my approach in Philo. At Swingle's the strip is pretty well sheltered, so once you are below the trees there isn't nearly the same level of rolling winds.

Still, I'm looking forward to coming back to both when conditions are more favorable.

After bailing out at Evan's I planned to go to Columbus as I have been there a few times and like the folks there. Evan is about 60 miles east of Columbus so I had plenty of time to monitor the weather readings and see how things were shaping up. Columbus caters to jet traffic and only has two parallel runways, facing nearly due west. Yesterday the windows were from 220, putting them at 60 degrees across the runway. Crosswind landings in a tailwheel aircraft are always challenging, but the winds were 17 gusting 30. That puts the gusts at a 26kt crosswind component. That's pretty much a recipe for an insurance claim in anything with a rudder smaller than a DC-3, so I looked around for other options.

Just past KCMH is Ohio State University (KOSU) and they had a runway facing 230, right down the pipe of the winds. Rather than call for a clearance though Columbus class C, I flew a few miles north and went under the outer ring, calling State when I got about 10 miles out. They cleared me for a straight in approach and the I spent what felt like the next 20 minutes trying to go against the wind to get to the airport. Without crosswinds to deal with, I was able to slow to a normal approach speed, about 40kt, on short final which gave me a ground speed of 15-20kt! I think I should be able to log my time as helicopter for this trip! Really weird to feel normal pressures on the controls, see a normal speed on the airspeed indicator but look out the window and feel like you're in a hover.

The tower there was having everyone take Hotel, Charlie, Alpha to the ramp but, in a move that I both welcomed and found pleasantly surprising, noticed that I was a tailwheel aircraft and let me taxi all the way down the runway to within a few feet of the ramp so I could avoid having to taxi with the stiff winds. Very forward thinking of them!

On the ramp there was a minor hiccup with a rampie that stood where it was hard for me to see him over the cowl, but soon enough La Naranja Danzante was tied down and sitting pretty until I'm ready to head be to Chicago.

That was some excellent video. I felt like I was there.

What a bunch of wanna be brush pilots....

Heee'sss Baaack

What a pile of Fun

Haha, that was great! Good times in Ohio.

Good to see Blackie finally fly. It sounds boosty.

Stoked to see that beast of a machine fly! There was a moment there though I thought evan was going to become a tree hugger!

Zzz wrote:Good to see Blackie finally fly. It sounds boosty.

Wait till you hear it in person. Crummy on-board mic's don't do it justice. I've never heard another engine quite like it. Sounds like a race car of the sky.

DrifterDriver wrote:Stoked to see that beast of a machine fly! There was a moment there though I thought evan was going to become a tree hugger!

I already am a tree hugger! Sawdust runs through my veins, although some may contest that it's oil and gas now. But seriously, 12 G30 (and quartering) in a 700lb airplane is nothing to laugh at. I was churning the butter for sure!!!

Maybe that's what "Blackie" should be called- "Boosty"

The sound is really amazing. Like nothing I have ever heard. Of course with the over boost he was probably making 180hp at 5200 rpm.

That looked like a sporty day, gotta love the insanity of taking our pampered toys knowingly into places that put them at risk Looked like a real fun day, wish I could have been there.

I think Swingle is cheating though, with those large access panels forward of the doors, that makes it way too easy to get at things under the panel, it takes all the fun out of working under there (I'll probably steal that idea, as long as it buttons up tight, don't need any more drafts). Watching the sequence of him replacing the inspection hole cover back on the tail made me real glad I have made a permanent mod back there: a large triangle of fabric is now history, exposing for all to see the tail spring attach bolt, base of the rudder post, and more. This area takes a beating, and after an especially hard smack down like I had the other day, it is real nice to easily eyeballs things back there.

I've never seen someone put an inspection hole cover on by turning it inside out.

tcj wrote:I've never seen someone put an inspection hole cover on by turning it inside out.

Hey, easy there bub. This is a learning process for everyone......

Kudos for the perfect placement of Kojato. Great video!

Excellent! Cool video and good to see Swingle back in action!