Yeeeaaaahhhhh!! 8-)

Its that kinda time here, when trees are bright red and yellow, and its clear day. Last greetings from summer in our climate.

So i set myself to ride Sting TL-2000 at local aeroclub! they do offer this experience. pilot asked what am i doing for living, i said - im sax playa in local band, but i have hobby simming.
He said - take controls then. next 15 minutes i was like this -  :o
My butt felt all the motion!
He said lets turn toward Chekerill (local artificial mountain for skiing). i banked plane to 10 degrees and some time later said - its darn scary to bank it more!!!
He said - nahhhh, let me show you. that turn at 60 degrees of bank made me much more than that  :o
he also made rapid descend with high bank angle before landing. we went down from 2500 ft to 500 ft or so in couple of seconds. i havent noticed sink rate, coz THAT WAS darn SCARY, and i was in the "heart of oh sh*t situation" as Lou called it once :)
after he leveled for downwind leg i said: That was AWESOME!!!, its cool that i made pee just before flight  ;D

Next week im gonna ask him to fly me through the most scariest maneuvers possible! I'll take a pair of spare pants just in case ))

Hour later i jumped with chute from 3000 ft for the second time. thats not scary, - its cool, but not scary! lots of f-words were said during descend. Especially because my balls jammed by chute, and darn helmet just....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargghh, - darn helmet, you know :)

And its very beautiful up there, so clear, as if it's a different world...
i'll get my video with jump next week i guess ;)

BTW, who thinks that FSX world looks dull without people - i couldnt see em from 1000 ft...cars - yes, you gotta look hard to track people. FTX scenery and REX looks pretty close to real. You just dont feel it in FSX...

AWESOME!!! You sure are one very lucky man! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Good for you windplayer, that first flight in a real aeroplane where you actually get to do something is a real remember when. The next one is when you go all the way and then one day go solo on your own. Remember that like it was yesterday.

Yep and your right FSX terrain is pretty well like the real thing, the only thing that is missing is a little clarity of all those little things but above 5000 ft you don't see it anymore.  8-)

Hey, good on you, Windy!!! What fun!! Not sure about the sky diving though!! Look forward to the video!

Congratulations! It sure is an experience. I'm flying an SR-20 two hours a day four days a week for school currently, it certainly is living the dream.

I WANT YOUR JOB AS SECOND JOB :)
Guess what, my body still remember G forces, so i kinda feel it in sim now! Not like in real, but as a far echo of that feelings...
I'll fly again that hollidays, or next week :) No way you can be healed from that.

Guys! I logged 50 more minutes to my flight time! 40 mins of my piloting. No longer afraid to make turns at 45+ bank angle :)
We flew to village with woman convent. When we were about 1 mile from it, i felt something called "violent windshear". Crap, that was scary.
I think it happened because i used a lot of f-words, and so on :) I said it to pilot, he laughed and said - "well, maybe...or maybe its just a small wind"  ;D
We flew over some high ranked politics villas :) And i saw sheeps. they look like small dots from 1500 ft.

Guys, how you fight with negative G-forces? Its scariest thing out there. It scares almost to panic  :o Like- OMG, what i have done! we falling?  ;D

Now i got 1:10 mins of flight time with 55 mins of my piloting! ::)

The events caused your smiley count to significantly increase. Guess that flying makes you happy.  :)


Quote:

We flew over some high ranked politics villas. And i saw sheeps.

Now that's a strange combo. You weren't flying in NZ, were you?  :D

CoolP wrote on Oct 10^th, 2012 at 8:16am:

The events caused your smiley count to significantly increase. Guess that flying makes you happy.  :) Quote: We flew over some high ranked politics villas. And i saw sheeps. Now that's a strange combo. You weren't flying in NZ, were you?  :D

Maybe the politicians were the sheep!  :o ;D ::)

;D I wonder how politicians see us?  :o

CoolP wrote on Oct 10^th, 2012 at 3:50pm:

;D I wonder how politicians see us?  :o

Well, we know how the FAA sees us...

I agree with MarkOz,  your a very lucky guy!  I'm green with envy!!!  :D

:) since Izhevsk is former top secret closed city, you cant fly over it without filing tons of paper. But you dont need any papers to overfly local state governor's son villa. But, anyway, KGB still watching us  ;D

Those sheeps,..i mean real ones, in the fields, - they look funny. Fields looks like a carpet, and sheeps just a small dots that like holes in that carpet :)

This time i flew ROKOAERO NG4. Guess what (about FAA), that plane is capable of spins and some other aerobatics, but local laws prohibits it. No way i can scare myself falling in spin, - too bad, coz that is a fun way to prove that Earth is rotating  ;D

BTW, our climate much like NZ south! Sheeps looks the same i think  :D Suddenly i started to love bush-flying  ::)

CoolP, Guys! i bet you have local pilots who can take you to ride  - you gotta try to fly if you didnt tried it yet!!! Thats something you gotta know, it helps simming too  ;)

Don't scare the sheeps, promise me.  ;D

Good point on the rw flying (in other planes than the big airliners). I have some (passenger and short 'try yourself') time in the Katana and C172 and my impression was that there's sim flying and rw flying, and both don't have much in common at times. Oh, I forgot about the Do 27, which was the best one for me.
For the GA sector, it very much feels like being on rails in the sim while the rw plane gives way more action and of course feedback. Depends a bit on the sim in use, FSX is very (too) stable in my eyes. Or it goes completely nuts over some wind change.  :o

So my view changed to really see the sim as the procedural (nav training is cool) or game thing, not as a substitute for the real event in terms of the actual flying. Well, I'm looking for some time in a turboprop since a while. A friend of a friend is a frequent King Air pilot, so maybe that will be the first time I actually sit in such a plane. My smallest commercial one (in the back, as passenger) was an ERJ in Spain, so I'm lacking of experiencing the turboprop segment so far.

As said, being passenger in an airliner doesn't really count. This also shows in your texts I think. The pure GA stuff really is fun, but, unfortunately, expensive too. I know quite some folks not flying anymore due to the costs and reverting back to just simming.

You know what really kicked a..? Being in a glider. That was, together with the winch start, a lot of fun and also very cool due to the way to just ride the winds. And it's less expensive too. If I ever get my girlfriend in such a thing, I will be king.  :D

There are some fine models in the sim but the wings being that looooong and flexing together with the winds is just amazing and very relaxing in the rw. Well, one needs some nice weather for this or you have to cheat like many folks now do, with the gliders plus small engine in the back.

Thats true CoolP! And about gliders - that true in power of two! That should be a kick a*s experience. we dont have it here, but i can extrapolate. Not only you sitting in tiny cabin with a HUGE view, but its like you sitting in a chair, which flies in the sky  :o And its very light, so you gonna feel all bumps up there :)
I d like to have piper cub :) thats a cool plane for fun in terms of money. But its still expensive to get license in Russia. GA here is underdeveloped.

P.S. Sheeps safe! instructod will not allow me to descend below 1000 ft :) He likes to do it himself. rapid descends still way over the limits of my spookometer :)

i made small video about my december flight.
I continuing to fly, not that often, but when i got free time :) Thats really cool way to live  :D
Its in russian, but who cares :)

Ilya, dont jerk the stick (c) instructor - at the end of vid :)

Watch in HD ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEpTHROe7UU

Great video windplayer! Good music too! ;D

What is the aircraft you are flying?

Thanks Mark!

Its STING TL-2000 Ultralight. We have this small plane, and a bit bigger RokoAero NG4 with glass panel on left side + steam gauges on the right side. And we have Cessna 172, but i didnt flew it.

This Sting is very light, and controls are very responsive) NG4 a bit heavier, but fun to fly too :) Instructor likes to scare guys like me, - that flight was recorded at first day after major maintenance (engine overhaul), so pilot said - well, lets not stress it, first day....and after that he did that dive :) I flew all except takeoff, landing, dive, and low pass over the pilots's friend's house ;)

You sure are lucky. ;D

I wish I could do that sort of thing. No chance for me now.

Nice one, Windy. So you saw signs of extraterrestrial life up there?  :o Seems like the plane allows for a great view, huh?  :)

Say, did the low temps harm the experience in any case? You always stayed below the clouds, but did icing or snow cause any trouble for you guys?

yeeeep, there is extraterrestrial life, or, it could be drunk tractor driver Vasya :) It happens here )

Sting TL-2000 VFR aircraft only, with great view. But we never flew into clouds, its prohibited.

No icing during winter, we have cold and dry air most of the time, but during autumn and spring we not flying for about a month. Because runways unclean, and there usually rain or snow + temp near 0C = > icing conditions.

Jan 3 i flew with low clouds layer at 600 ft and overcast. We did some fun and our artificial horizon stuck at all the way nose down attitude. That was something. milky snow below, merging with milky sky above with no visible boundary :o I said - AH stuck, pilot said - naaaah, dont worry dude,  i never use it  ;D
Hes much like Lou, flew as a line pilot all of his life, now retired and just having tons of fun :)

As for cold - plane works fine at -20C dry air. Engine is ROTAX 912 - is fine. We have a heater in cabin, but last time i froze insanely. There was -25C or something. So cold affects pilots not dressed well ;) Like me.

Rain and wet snow cause problems, so we not flying if its happens.

You can find our airfield at coordinates  - 56 46' 18.27'' N  - 53 11' 28.46'' E
We usualy use long and narrow runway 18\36. Pain to clean during season change. At winter we use snow runway :)

windplayer wrote on Mar 4^th, 2013 at 5:53pm:

You can find our airfield at coordinates  - 56 46' 18.27'' N  - 53 11' 28.46'' E We usualy use long and narrow runway 18\36. Pain to clean during season change. At winter we use snow runway :)

And there it is. With the extraterrestrials.  :D
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8421/windysplace.jpg


windplayer wrote on Mar 4^th, 2013 at 5:53pm:

Hes much like Lou, flew as a line pilot all of his life, now retired and just having tons of fun :)

I forgot to ask. Which planes did he fly? Are some of those in FSX? Does he use the sim too?

:) There is more cool alien stuff to the west, and some sun sybol on the field itself. And a lot of it nearby :))

Instructor flew Yaks 40, 42 last years. Actually there wasnt a big variety of aircraft types in USSR. Tu-134,154, An-2, 24, Yak 40, 42 - most of non-international aircraft park. He never did international flying. And he flew pretty much of everything smaller than Yak 40 at different times.
He never tried FSX, and he's unkool computer user. We darn lucky we have guys like Lou here :)

Just out of interest, what is an 'unkool computer user'?  :)

Tu-134, that's a unique one. Must have been so nice to look through the glass nose of the first models. A glass cockpit, so to speak.  ;D

:) unkool comp user, naaah, cmon, you know what it means ;)


tu -134 front view fun for navigator only! And i think its scary sometimes :)

CoolP wrote on Mar 4^th, 2013 at 10:33pm:

Just out of interest, what is an 'unkool computer user'?  :)

I take it that - unkool computer user = someone who is not savvy with computers - or something like that. ;) ;D

yep ;D

windy, all that snow!  :o

Never gets below 25°C here in winter.

In summer, mostly 45°+ in the shade.

Cappy wrote on Mar 24^th, 2013 at 6:37am:

Never gets below 25°C here in winter

Your loss!  :P
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/4931/funnypicdump4.jpg

Cappy wrote on Mar 24^th, 2013 at 6:37am:

windy, all that snow!  :o Never gets below 25°C here in winter. In summer, mostly 45°+ in the shade.

Unlike Cappy, who must live closer to, or in, the tropics, it does occasionally drop below 0 degrees C in winter where I live. We get snow about once every 3 years. Most Aussies say that where I live, is the coldest place in Australia. :o

:) It never snows in ORBX AU - thats what i noticed!
We still got lots of  snow! Unusual, but not unexpected. Last several days temp was below 0C daytime. Like -7C or in that numbers :)
Today a bit warmer, and snow melts , but veeeeery slow :)

So basicaly we got January, February, Marbruary, Aprilbruary, Maybruary, etc  ;D

In 2001 Snow fell on May  :o - that was really unusual.
Usually we got green trees between may 1, and may 9.

But looks like that holidays was last in winter flying season. If temp will stay below zero, then it will be possible to use snow runway next holidays. Otherwise all flying will be stopped till snow gone completely, and weather stabilize. So next flight season opens in May or close to. We use skis at winter so snow runway condition critical for us.

In ORBX AU, you will only see snow on the Australian Alps. Fly from Melbourne to Canberra (or vice-versa) during the Winter (June - August) and you will see it.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/AustAlpsRegionMap.png
Image from Wikipedia.

I was up on the Bogong High Plains one January (back in '77 or '78), and there was still snow on top of Mount Bogong. I went tobogganing on it (it was no good for skiing).

CoolP wrote on Mar 24^th, 2013 at 6:02pm:

Cappy wrote on Mar 24th, 2013 at 6:37am: Never gets below 25°C here in winter Your loss!  :P http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/4931/funnypicdump4.jpg

Just stay away from my sheeps, they're getting a suntan.

I warned them about you windy...  :D

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/1712/4gbcard0922.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

PS. The insulation tape on the right hand gate is there so you don't burn yourself on the steel that has warmed itself up in the sun.

Markoz wrote on Mar 24^th, 2013 at 11:21pm:

Cappy wrote on Mar 24th, 2013 at 6:37am: windy, all that snow!  :o Never gets below 25°C here in winter. In summer, mostly 45°+ in the shade. Unlike Cappy, who must live closer to, or in, the tropics, it does occasionally drop below 0 degrees C in winter where I live. We get snow about once every 3 years. Most Aussies say that where I live, is the coldest place in Australia. :o

Ballarat Mark?
That's the coldest place in the world ! (*Shivers at the thought)  :)

I'm in the Nthn wheatbelt in WA Mark, roughly 300km N/E of Perth.
If you take Perth's temps and add +10°C that's what we get.
It rained yesterday, nearly 2 inches, first rains since Nov last year.  :o

Cold weather is a problem in Australia, because we don't get much of it ice becomes very problematic. I lost a very good friend when his Jetrangers intake iced up and consequently flamed out his engine.
All 3 onboard were lost.

Cappy wrote on Mar 27^th, 2013 at 4:18am:

All 3 onboard were lost.

Sorry to hear that, Cappy.  :-/

Quote:

Ballarat Mark? That's the coldest place in the world ! (*Shivers at the thought)  :)

Yep. That's what they say. ;D


Quote:

I'm in the Nthn wheatbelt in WA Mark, roughly 300km N/E of Perth. If you take Perth's temps and add +10°C that's what we get. It rained yesterday, nearly 2 inches, first rains since Nov last year.  :o

I went to Geraldton in March 1983 and the first four days I was there, it was over 40 degrees C. The hottest day was 46, the lowest was 42. Luckily I had my wetsuit and spear gun with me. I spent as much time as possible in the water spearfishing and trying to cool down. :D


Quote:

Cold weather is a problem in Australia, because we don't get much of it ice becomes very problematic. I lost a very good friend when his Jetrangers intake iced up and consequently flamed out his engine. All 3 onboard were lost.

Very sorry to hear that.

Markoz wrote on Mar 27^th, 2013 at 4:12pm:

I went to Geraldton in March 1983 and the first four days I was there, it was over 40 degrees C. The hottest day was 46, the lowest was 42. Luckily I had my wetsuit and spear gun with me. I spent as much time as possible in the water spearfishing and trying to cool down. :D

I'm about 150km east of Dongara (Just below Geraldton.)
40°C+ and the winds Geraldton is famous for doesn't make for comfortable living.
The hottest day I've ever been in was 52°C in the shade.
For shits and giggles I took a thermometer outside to see how hot it really was and the thing exploded in my hands!
It's max was 70°, so it was well over that.  :o
It was amazing how quiet things were, any living thing was simply trying to survive, no birds singing, no animals moving, nothing. Quiet eerie.

My house has 6 aircons.  ;)

I hope you had a good days fishing.  :)

*I remember being in Broome around that time in 83 and there was a massive Army exercise up the west coast and into NT. Where you there for that?
I was in the pub and the SAS stormed in with guns out looking for the enemy. Good times.  8-)

Cappy wrote on Mar 28^th, 2013 at 4:04am:

*I remember being in Broome around that time in 83 and there was a massive Army exercise up the west coast and into NT. Where you there for that? I was in the pub and the SAS stormed in with guns out looking for the enemy. Good times.  8-)

Sorry. I have the dates wrong. It was March 1984! I was discharged from the Army on the 3rd of March 1983 - exactly 1 year and 1 week after my near fatal motorbike accident. I was still recovering at that time, so it had to be March the following year. Sorry about that. :(

I did spearfishing every day when I was in Geraldton, Bunbury (I encountered my first shark here) and Albany, with very good results. I did try spearfishing in Perth, but it was fruitless, and I wasn't in Esperance long enough to do any spearfishing (about 1 1/2 to 2 days). Besides, when I was in Esperance, I was desperately wanting to see the remains of Skylab while there, so that took precedence!

Skylab...

I sat on my roof and watched it come in.
Great fireworks show!

I remember all the shopping centre tours they did, showing off molten alloys. Not much left.

At the time it wasn't so wonderful, NASA couldn't guarantee it wasn't going to fall on Perth.

:o Guys! You living in microwave oven or what?!!!

See, where i live we too using duct tape over metallic gates, so when you open it at winter, - you dont stick to it! I guess you dont know what happens if you touch say aluminum at -20C by unprotected skin.

Kids always licking things, including metallic things like sleigh etc.
They stick to it with they tongue - and you need warm water to unstick it, or youll lose skin in that place! Every kid in our place learned that lesson ))

We have dry air also - so -30C in dry air - no problem! same for hot air, if it dry - its easier :)

Btw. still lots of snow here. Most of us unhappy with it :)

Yeah, "It's a dry heat."

That's what you tell your Turkey when you slide him in the oven!  :o

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1010/turkeyx.jpg

;D


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

;D
BTW guys! Im having beer right now.
It was working day in the band, so im relaxing.

Soon all be much more drunk than captains BillyBob and T-Bone together. (see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RiGF1xYNfM )

and i thinking should i fly today or should i fly tomorrow :)

new story suddently happened to me.

Yesterday i browsed social network and saw photos of very cute girl in the NG4 plane here, in our club. I thougth - WTF, my last flight was mar 23, i can afford some flying! (i invested quite a lot money in soundproofing my room, so i didnt planned to fly for a year or so), but i thougth - WTF, next summer i'll be one year older, LIVE NOW!

So i called club, and they had 30 minutes available. So i booked my flight, arrived, and guys asked - "what will you do? fly touch'n'gos or just hangin in the air?" I didnt studied to fly, what you see in my video - its just a bunch of sharp turns, everybody can do it!
If guys didnt asked me - i could just hang in the area and so on, but they used word "touch and go" in the question.

- WHAT??!! I CAN FLY TOUCH AND GO???!!!!
- Sure! Why just noodling, you know how to turn, - go fly circles on the grass runway! (we have wide grass runway for An-2 and narrow asphalt runway for light planes)

There is one thing about me and airplane,- Im not affraid of flying until im outside the plane on the ground. But when i climbed into the seat, just the idea that i need to fly this metal horrifies me, scares me, and do all creepy thing to me  :o

Instructor asked - if can i takeoff myself
- Nooooooooooo!!!
- Ok, rotate at 95 to 100 km\h, and keep it climbing. (like he didnt saw my huge eyes in that moment)
- Ok, he set takeoff power so no way back, and we off the ground.

He showed me how to perform first circle, i took controls, did 3 turns and turned to final. A bit of the crosswind from the right, some jerking of the stick and i did my first low pass over, well....almost over centerline. Climbed, and no jokes guys, i did my first touch n go!!!

My first touch was....well.....if was first ::) Wings remaind on the airplane, so the gear, we shoot some more circles, and instructor said - ok, now we'll do full stop landing on the narrow asphalt runway.
- Crap, i thought, i'll return the controls to instructor on final.
I was surprised that i didnt. I did the landing, and through all landings, instructor helped me with the flare.

Not bad for the first time i think. I didnt expect that i could have the chance to really fly ::)
Now, latter that day rain started, so i dont know about tommorrow, but if weather will be fine - i'll put my hands on the controls again! Now i gotta learn how to do a normal, safe for everybody landing  :D

Funny thing: Because of CaptainSim 727, i started to fly in simulator. Because of CS 727, i started to buy add ons, not stealing it via torrents. Over two and a half years i invested quite a lot money in planes, scenerys, and all that stuff. I started to buy software and music in general, not only FSX add-ons. No way all that real-world flying could happen without it.  :)

That's awesome windplayer! You are such a lucky guy.

Good on you Windy!!!

Flying is much more fun than a quiet bedroom.

Been a long time since I was ab initio but it's only another 30 or so hours and you can wear your wings!