Saturday on Whidbey island, one of the best kept secret 100$ hamburgers in the Pac NW, fun little airstrip too

hotrod180 wrote:

piperpainter wrote:Need a bigger tire back there!

Or maybe just a bigger or higher grade bolt!

You know, I almost said the same thing until I thought about it some more... I think I'd rather replace a sheared $1 bolt than a broken-beyond-repair $800 tailwheel assembly that "protected" a $2 bolt!

Of course, if this was a sub-standard bolt to begin with, by all means - get a bigger bolt!

Halestorm wrote:

Saturday on Whidbey island, one of the best kept secret 100$ hamburgers in the Pac NW, fun little airstrip too

I see your secret....and I like it!

River is almost frozen up!

Down to the river

A1Skinner wrote:River is almost frozen up!

Good to see you up, BTW!!

CapnMike wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:River is almost frozen up!

Good to see you up, BTW!!

Shhh. Don't tell anyone!

Took an EC145 to FL180 today.

Dang thing handles like a marshmallow up there

CamTom12 wrote:Took an EC145 to FL180 today.

Dang thing handles like a marshmallow up there

That's cool! Do you guys use portable O2 bottles when you're up there? Does it have enough umph to hover at that altitude?

CapnMike wrote:

CamTom12 wrote:Took an EC145 to FL180 today.

Dang thing handles like a marshmallow up there

That's cool! Do you guys use portable O2 bottles when you're up there? Does it have enough umph to hover at that altitude?

Yeah, portable oxygen bottles strapped to the floor behind us. One for each pilot with a third as a backup. Super awesome jet helmets with oxygen masks (very uncomfortable). And we wear parachutes just in case.

According to the performance models we've built for the thing over the last few months it won't. Slowest we got up there was 40 kts, fastest was 80.

It was a really fun flight that allowed us to collect a lot of data to help refine our engine performance model and collect some test day climb and descent data for a brief we have to give.

CamTom12 wrote:

CapnMike wrote:

CamTom12 wrote:Took an EC145 to FL180 today.

Dang thing handles like a marshmallow up there

That's cool! Do you guys use portable O2 bottles when you're up there? Does it have enough umph to hover at that altitude?

Yeah, portable oxygen bottles strapped to the floor behind us. One for each pilot with a third as a backup. Super awesome jet helmets with oxygen masks (very uncomfortable). And we wear parachutes just in case.

According to the performance models we've built for the thing over the last few months it won't. Slowest we got up there was 40 kts, fastest was 80.

It was a really fun flight that allowed us to collect a lot of data to help refine our engine performance model and collect some test day climb and descent data for a brief we have to give.

That's really awesome. It sucks to hate your job so much, doesn't it? I tell people that all the time... hehehe

CamTom12 wrote:Slowest we got up there was 40 kts, fastest was 80.

Is that KIAS or KTAS?

IAS. KCAS was roughly 30-70. I've got all the atmospherics, I guess I could do the true calcs when I get to work.

good stuff Tom!

Looks like we did between 52 and 120 KTAS. To validate our calculated Vy, we flew the climb at 50 KCAS from 2000 to 12000, where we slowed back to 48 KCAS for the rest of it. The descent was flown on the production gauge at 60 KIAS until 12000, then 75 to 4000.

Rate of climb varied from 1700 to 1355 fpm (not bad!) and rate of descent varied from 1667 to 2400 fpm (whew!).

Cool

Matt, I love that backdrop!

mountainmatt wrote:

Good to see you flying Matt. Nice pic!

Screenshot from my GoPro.

When you forget to take the tape off of your oil cooler on a 60 degree day its good to have a hay field handy. This was a precautionary landing. The temps never got too high but they were climbing. I had to beg for forgiveness on this one rather than ask for permission. Luckily the farmer thought a little more of me than the other hellraisers that last used his nice hayfield without permission. He shot their tires out...

All in all a good deal. Made a new friend!