RED ALERT Fall 2008 - Redstar Pilots Association

FALL2008
THE MAGAZINE OF THE REDSTAR PILOTS ASSOCIATION
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S
E
R
U
FEAT
6 Vladimir’s Voyage
Vladimir Ystremski’s valiant voyage to
the USA in an AN2
BY R. BAKER & C. GARY
9 Regionalism
10 Dangerous Confessions
Don’t touch that prop until you read this!
BY JIM GOOLSBY
11 Safety
CJ6 AND YAK safety records
BY ALAN COCKEREL
16 Yak Demo Project
First in a series of building a Dream Yak52 Technology Demonstrator
BY J. GERNETZKE & D. GARY
17 Our Directors
Meet the new RPA Directors
20 Spark up your M14
Champion Iridium spark plugs may be
just the thing your M14 needs
BY STEVE STAUDT
24 Osh 2008
Here’s what its all about: Friends, Fun
and Flying
BY JIM GOOLSBY
30Think
Safety
or Stylin
you look cool but feel hot in your
flight suit?
BY DOUG GILLISS
31 Keep
Your
Paperwork
your paperwork straight and the
Feds off your back
BY JOHN GRAHAM
36 Mutual Support
Who’s got your back? Who are you looking out for?
BY DARRELL GARY
C O LU M N S
4 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
BY DARRELL GARY
13 There I was...
You CAN learn from other’s mistakes.
BY DREW BLAHNICK
14 MAINTENANCE
The Engine Doctor helps you give your
valves and adjustment
BY JILL GERNETZKE
34 CONTR AILS
Not just for jet jocks, everyone should
know what to say and when
BY DOUG GILLISS
40 THE FAST LANE
Make every debrief the learning part of
the each mission
BY DREW BLAHNICK
43 Mission Planning
RPA EVENT CALENDAR
The Quarterly Magazine of the RedStar Pilots Association © Redstar Pilots Association all rights reserved
PRE SI DE NTS ME S SAGE
This has been a busy summer for
the RPA. Elections were held for
the six Regional Directors who are
responsible for establishing the
goals of the RPA and for providing oversight of it’s’ activities.
The preparation
for Oshkosh was
demanding. A
video was produced by Todd
Robinson which
showcases our
aircraft, our pilots, our events
and our mission.
This was played
for visitors at
Oshkosh and it is now accessible
on our website. Commemorative
posters, shirts, coins, banners and
tri-fold brochures were produced
to support our presence at Oshkosh and to expand the public
awareness of our unique organization.
Air Venture 2008 was a once in a
lifetime experience for RPA members who were present. The Warbird area is the main attraction
for visitors to Oshkosh. This year
there were more than 400 Warbirds present which is the largest
turnout on record. With more
than 50 aircraft and more than 90
people present at the event, the
RPA presence was clearly evident.
The RPA tent flanked by Dave McGirt’s $400K multi-media center
on wheels was located adjacent
to the Warbird briefing building
and the cafeteria. This venue
was action central throughout the
week. The RPA flew in the afternoon Air Show every day except
Thursday due to a conflict with
our banquet. Highlights included
the Aerostars spectacular formation routine, the CJ-6 50 aircraft
formation and our 18 year old
phenom, Alex Land executing a
low altitude performance demonstration in the CJ-6. Witnessing
50+ radial engines come to life
4
RedAlert
at the same instant in a cloud of
smoke and a thunderous roar was
truly an adrenaline rush.
Venture 2008 celebrating 50 years
of the CJ-6, 30 years of the Yak52 and 15 years of the Red Star
Pilots Association would not have
happened if it were not for the
vision and more than one year of
hard work by our senior statesman “Pappy” Goolsby. His tireless
efforts supported by numerous
outstanding volunteers made this
all possible. Our Vice President,
David “Talon” McGirt working
with our Check Pilots and senior
lead pilots developed a “text
book” mass formation brief that
is now posted on our website. It
took an enormous effort to create
the brief, brief the event, fly the
event, safely launch and recover
all aircraft and provide a detailed
debrief of the mission. The life
blood of any successful event is
money. Our sponsors provided
approximately $11,000 to underwrite the costs of this event. Our
special thanks to David McGirt
and Xiocom, to Barry Hancock
and Worldwide Warbirds, to Doug
Sapp, Cannon Insurance, and
Windstar and to Ray Waddey of
Historic Art. Without your financial support, this event would
never have gotten off the ground.
This was a truly memorable
week. We can all be proud of the
incredible efforts of the many volunteers who contributed to the
success of this event and to the
emerging reputation for innovation and excellence experienced
throughout the RPA. I am proud
to be a part and I look forward to
the future and to flying with all of
you.
For me, getting to know our most
active members from Canada,
both coasts and everywhere in
between was a unique opportunity. The Pig Roast, the RPA
Banquet, the Warbird Dinner and
evenings spent at local venues in
town provided lasting memories
of wonderful times spent with
outstanding aviators. The growing stature of the RPA within the
Warbird community was readily
apparent. Thanks to Craig Winkelmann, the CJ-6 was on the
front cover of Warbird magazine
and a Yak was featured on the
back cover. The Warbird store
featured Yak and CJ-6 ball caps
for sale. The RPA had a strong
presence at the FAST and Check
Pilot seminars. “Skip” Slyfield
and Pat Giery gave entertaining
presentations to the general public on RPA aircraft and the organization. The media was ever present and the RPA got its share of
the spotlight. Only the RPA was
invited to the podium to speak at
the Warbird dinner on Saturday
evening. I had the rare honor of
presenting a beautiful oil painting of the CJ-6 to Rick Sigfried
and Bill Fischer of EAA Warbirds
of America. This extraordinary
painting was created by Ahmed
Ragheb (a former F-4 and F-16
pilot) who now flies a CJ-6 in the
Southeast. This will be proudly
displayed in the EAA Museum.
Dave Jester won Best Yak-52/CJ-6
and ‘Silver Wrench” awards for his
beautiful Yak-52TD. Ron Lee won
Judges’ Choice for his phenomenal Nanchang aircraft and Ed Noel
won Judges’ Choice for his Yak-52.
While Barry Hancock was given
Darrell Gary
the “Dirty Bird” award for his CJ-6, “Condor”
his company Worldwide Warbirds
won the “Silver Wrench award for
the Best Jet, Fred Stewart’s L-39.
Our expanded presence at Air
Editor’s Notes
nce
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You make t
RED ALERT
In this year of 2008, this great organization turns 15. Now I’m sure
everyone one of us can remember,
Editor Phil Cogan
if we try real hard, what it was like
Art Director Phil Cogan
to be 15. If you’re like me, you’d
Contributing Editor Drew Blahprobably rather forget. 15 is just
nick
one of those awkward years. But
Contributors Doug Gilliss,
15 is an important year - one of
Darrell Gary, Jill Gernetzke, John those in which we are trying to
Graham, Jim Goolsby, Ted Hart
establish our own independence
Communications Heather Frantz and our own identity - a year in
which we grow our responsibilities
Redstar pilots and maturity.
Association
President R. Darrell Gary
Vice President Dave McGirt
Secretary/Treasurer Ron Lee
Board of Directors
Northwest Ron Morrell
Southwest Gordon Witter
Northcentral David Mills
Southcentral R. Scott McMillan
Northeast Steve Dalton
Southeast Shane Golden
National Directors
Jim Goolsby, Byron Fox
Advertising Sales
Rob Mortara, Heather Frantz
advertising@flyredstar.org
The RedStar Pilots Association is a Federal
501(c)(3) Not-For-Profit registered in the
state of Virginia. The association mission
is to promote and preserve the safe operation, display and enjoyment of all aircraft,
jet to prop, aerobatic, sport, warbird and
utility, originating in the current and former
communist block nations. The RPA in effect
strives to convert Soviet Cold War “Swords to
Plowshares” and inspire young and old who
strive to be, or are fascinated by, the world
of aviation.
We are a FAA-sanctioned signatory to the
Formation And Safety Team body known by
the abbreviation; F.A.S.T. You do not need to
own an aircraft to become a full member.
Front and Back Covers Tyson Rininger
Instead we have an opportunity
to build strong RPA regions in
2009. As members, I would like to
hear what you have to say? What
activities would you like to see in
2009? How about a “formation
challenge” where teams from all
regions compete in challenging
standardized maneuvers over
simulated show lines for the title
of top regional team? By working
to become proficient at these
maneuvers in regional clinics we
build teams capable of attending
airshows branded as “RedStars”
and advance our organization
through corporate advertising and
sponorships. Perhaps flour bombing or spot landing competitions?
So it is for the RPA. In 2006 we adopted new bylaws designed move
our leadership into smaller geographic regions to place greater
responsibilities in six regional
directors to forward the goals and
ideals of the organization. In light
of the recent directors elections
now may be a good time to reflect
on how this move has effected the
RPA and the opportunities it represents for the coming years.
In any event it is up to us, the
membership, to spur our regional
In order for the regional system
leaders into action and demand an
to work as intended; to promote
organization to be proud of. Keep
adherence to a uniform set of
in mind that means contributstandards, teamwork, openness,
ing to this magazine as well. If
transparency and democracy, evyou have something to say that’s
ery regional director must actively pertinent to the RPA, keep it off
and continuously promote these
the YAK list and send it here! If you
ideals to all members in their
have great pictures, send them in!
regions. Directors are responsible,
both individually and collectively,
The more you contribute to the
to activley participate in providing RPA and RedAlert the better we’ll
solutions that support the mission get. Let’s all decide who we want
of the RPA.
to be when we grow up.
If we are lax and don’t urge our
directors to take charge and build
our strong regional organizations,
the RPA runs the risk of degenerating into small groups that share
an organization in name only or
worse yet, small closed groups
that have no affiliation with the
RPA. It is our responsibility to not
let this happen.
Association 2008 all rights reserved unless
otherwise previously copyrighted.
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All other photos copyright The Redstar Pilots
Fall 2008
5
Vladimir’s Voyage
BY ROGER BAKER & CHARMAINE GARY
This is the story of hope and
survival of a pilot and his unexpected adventures from Almaty,
Kazakhstan, across the wilds of
Siberia to his final destination,
San Diego, California. Vladimir
Yastremski, our Yak-Sukhoi-M14P guru and good friend, was
born near a small farming village
several hundred kilometers north
of Almaty, Kazakhstan. He and
his family ventured to Almaty,
the capital of Kazakhstan, when
he was just eight years old. They
lived in a quiet neighborhood, directly under the approach path to
the main airport. Vladimir’s uncle
went on to an aeronautical engineering institute in Riga, Latvia,
and his brother became involved
with the DOSAAF (Voluntary
Society of Assistance to the Army,
the Air Force and the Navy) training system. It was at this time
that Vladimir became interested
in airplanes.
Like most young men, he wanted
to find ways to impress the ladies
and what better way to do so
than by jumping out of airplanes!
Thus he became interested in skydiving. Now, not everyone has to
free fall from 10,000 feet through
the sky to capture a ladies attention, but if what you are doing
now isn’t working for you, this is
just another option. Vladimir’s
daily activities now included
maintenance on one of his Yak
18As in the morning, getting in a
couple
of
jumps
during
midday and
then
back to
work
maintaining
explains, the previous Captain
broke his leg thus creating a job
opening. For seven years he was
Team Captain, skydiving instructor and in 1979 became an AN-2
pilot for the skydiving operation
at the Almaty DOSAAAF. Vladimir was promoted to Chief of the
Skydiving Group and then was
named “Master of Sport of the
Soviet Union” for his ability as a
competition skydiver. Vladimir
was finally maturing and in 1978
he married Tatiana. Within the
next few
years they
began
a family
with son
Nikita and
daughter
Daria.
In the early
1990’s, as
the Soviet
Union was
In Almaty,
dissolving,
boys were
Vladimir
required to
elected
make some
to retire
decisions
from the
about what
DOSAAF
Vladimir pictured center and holding the radio (above)
they wantsystem.
ed to do in
As he says,
life at the
his airplanes
“Sometimes a small bird in the
ripe age of
for the
hand is better than a big bird
16. Vladiremainder
in the sky.” With few options
mir wanted
of the afteravailable in the collapsed Soviet
to be a military pilot; however, a
noon.
Republic, Vladimir began to look
minor physical issue prohibited
for an opportunity to ensure the
that so he continued with school
In 1975 he began pilot training
survival of his family. This opin Almaty. Upon graduating from at the DOSAAF where, with only
portunity came in 1992 when a
high school he joined the DOSseven hours of dual instruction,
pilot by the name of Sergei Boriak
AAF as a trainee in the pilot/main- Vladimir became the first out of
visited Vladimir and asked if he
tenance school in Kaluga, a town
his class of student pilots to fly
would consider ferrying an AN-2
near Moscow. He completed the
solo in the Yak 18A. He continued from Almaty to San Diego – he
four year technical course and
flying Yaks, sky diving and doing
immediately accepted. Vladimir
graduated in 1974 as a certified
his real job as a mechanic and
teamed up with Yuri Yeltsov, an
mechanic (that’s what we know
by 1977 he was offered the opoutstanding DOSAAAF pilot, and
as a Reserve Commission as a
portunity to become an AN-2 me- Gennady Kruchov. Together they
Second Lieutenant). Vladimir was chanic. The AN-2 was the workworked full time from February
then assigned as a mechanic to
horse jump plane of the DOSAAF through August 1992 preparing
his hometown DOSAAF aero club system. Vladimir was eventually
for their journey - from applying
with the responsibility for the
appointed Captain of the Almaty
for passports and visas to planmaintenance of two Yak 18As.
Skydiving team in 1978 because
ning routes and getting official
of his dedication, skill and, as he
approval for a myriad of items
6
RedAlert
necessary to fly in the FSU. It
was late August 1992 when the
great AN-2 flight to America got
underway!
As he prepared to depart, there
were a few necessities Vladimir
made sure to pack along with
him. These included Rubles,
then nearly worthless, 20 liters
of the “Everclear”
alcohol which was
used as a medium
of exchange and a
20-gauge shotgun
for survival protection should they go
down in the wilderness.
plete with swamplands, a central
plateau, and a complex system
of mountain ranges and uplands.
The region is rich in animal life
from foxes and wolves to bears,
leopards and tigers. The region’s
remoteness and harsh climate obstruct the exploitation of natural
resources and make it difficult
for human existence. With this in
In late August of
1992 they took off
across Siberia in the
AN-2, where along
the way the icing
became too heavy
to continue in any
direction but down.
As they descended
they found clear
air and stopped in
Okhotsk, a region
of 9,000 foot mountains. The bright
spot of the stop
included three nice
smoked salmon and
three liters of good
red caviar. That,
along with good
bread, sustained the
crew until they were
sick of caviar and
salmon.
Pilots know that
there are times you
must rely solely on
your instrument panel to guide
you through. Siberia makes up
roughly 77% of the total area of
Russia and is known for being
notoriously cold! The region,
which is larger than Canada,
also boasts the world’s largest
forests and is divided into 3 major
geographic areas that are com-
mind, they simply struggled east
to clear weather and continued to
their destination of Magadan.
Terrain, however, was not the
only obstacle in their way. The
instrument panel on the AN-2
was almost as barren as the landscape over which they traveled.
Their only navaid was a single
antiquated ADF. Many times they
flew across ominous landscapes
utilizing only poor maps to follow
terrain features while flying under
500’overcasts hoping to find a
radio signal to aid in navigation.
Fuel efficiency is an important
part of travel. The AN-2 normally
has about 300 gallons
of fuel on board which
provides six hours of
flight time plus reserve.
They added two auxiliary
tanks in the cabin plus
three 55-gallon drums
which could be pumped
into the aux tanks. With
reasonable reserves,
they had about 10 hours
of fuel on board. That
may seem like a lot, but
one must consider the
speed associated with the
AN-2. At normal cruise
power, burning approximately45-55 gph, the
AN-2 thunders along at a
sizzling 100 mph. Consequently, 10 hours equals
only about 1,000 statute
miles. This meant that
fuel arrangements had to
be made in remote parts
of Siberia.
By the time they reached
Magadan they had flown
a total of 40 hours and
decided it was time for an
oil change and 50 hour
inspection before continuing. Upon completion of these tasks, they
then proceeded on for
three stops to Anadyr, a
small city on the Bering
Sea. Vladimir had prearranged for
fuel to be available upon arrival
but then found that the promised
fuel had been used in an emergency and that no fuel was available. With this slight bump in
the road, they took up residency
in the dismal town of Anadyr to
►
await more fuel. After two
Fall 2008
7
weeks the fuel still hadn’t arrived.
With their money dwindling the
three member crew decided to fly
back to Almaty.
they also found out there was
no fuel in Provideniya. This was
becoming routine amongst their
stops. When their clearance did
come they were forced into a
After a two week recupera300 mile crossing straight across
tion period at home, they again
the Bering Sea to Nome, Alaska.
returned to Anadyr only to find
Given the very basic heading
there was still no fuel. They took
indicators available in the AN-2,
matters into their own hands and combined with the extreme dechartered an Antonov AN-26 to fly viation / variation in the northern
about 600 kilometers north to the latitudes, maintaining a course
town of Tschmedt, located well
was of no small concern.
above the Arctic Circle, where
with the help of their “Everclear”,
They left for Nome on an overcast
which proved more valuable than day and were flying across an anRubles, they were able to source
gry sea of white caps. The steady
the necessary fuel.
beat of the 1,000 HP ASH-62 engine and 4 bladed prop was very
The next destination was Provcomforting but they knew that if
ideniya, on the Bering Sea. This
they had any mechanical probwas their last stop before crossing lems or any navigation errors, no
into U.S. airspace. They had been help would be available. Nearing
required to designate a crossing
Nome they began to establish
date and had been assigned a
communication with the radio
crossing “window” of three days
tower and the controllers were
by the Russian authorities prior
extremely helpful and kind. This
to all of the delays encountered
kindness continued until they
along the way. With this date in
landed only to find themselves
the distant past and with only
being greeted by local police and
one telephone in the town at
then arrested because apparently
the local Post Office, standing in
no one had communicated that
line to make a call requesting a
there were no longer any U.S.
new crossing window became
customs available in Nome. By
the normal way to spend two
simply getting out of the airplane
hours each day. They decided
they were breaking the law. Luckthey could use this time as an
ily for them, the sheriff’s idea of
opportunity to study English
incarceration was to check the
from an “International Aviation
three guys into the local Holiday
English Phrase Book” since they
Inn, which, according to Vladimir,
didn’t speak the language and
was seven days of heaven! If
knew it would be needed at some you’re going to get arrested, appoint to communicate over the
parently Nome is the place to do
radio. Since they didn’t know
it.
when the new clearance would
come, it was necessary to pack up The sheriff contacted Al Hicks, the
the airplane for departure every
San Diego organizer responsible
day. They had been able to keep
for the flight, and credit card paytheir “Everclear”, their biggest
ment was arranged for the motel
commodity, by explaining to the
and anything else they may need.
customs agent that it was part of
A week later Al arrived in Nome
the aircraft deicing system.
to help his guys continue on to
San Diego. A waiver was issued
As if the clearance delays were
for a flight to Fairbanks to clear
not enough to hold them back,
customs and from there they flew
8
RedAlert
to Whitehorse, Canada. Probably
not the best choice considering
none of the AN-2 crew had Canadian visas and were again greeted
by police and placed under arrest.
This time they were only detained
for two hours before Canadians
issued the crewman visas and
they were on their way again.
While it seemed they were back
on track, another ugly discovery
was made as they went on to
Montana. They only had one
time entry visas for the U.S. They
had entered at Fairbanks, flew
into Canada, and were now illegal
to re-enter the U.S.! Many phone
calls later, all was forgiven and
they pressed on until they were
able to identify the I-15 which
CCCP 32933 Landing
helped lead them to Palomar
airport in San Diego County.
The elapsed time of the trip was
almost three months from August
27 through October 22. The flight
took 17 legs and a total of 82 flying hours. After the experience
of getting here, Vladimir decided
to stay in San Diego as the trip
home was no longer appealing. Eventually his family joined
him and they set up residency in
the San Diego area. This is the
journey that brought Vladimir to
the United States where he has
become an important part of the
RedStar Pilots Association. His
expertise and strong work ethic
keep us all in the air.
REGIONALISM: The Real Mission of the RPA
In this article we will briefly look
at the success of our transition in
2006 to a “regional” organization. At that time and with great
effort we published new Bylaws
that allowed the election of
6 regional directors to help
run regional operations,
focus local training, organize
volunteer support and facilitate member communications (see map). This allows
the national organization to
focus on strategic priorities
such as the publication of
training and standardization tools and manuals, the
central website, store products, magazine publication,
fundraising, and as you recently
witnessed national events like
Oshkosh.
ship? Ask yourself, do you know
where to turn for support for
local training needs in your area,
do you have someone to communicate these needs with that
are responsive to the best of their
abilities, Do you feel informed of
regional events through membership wide communications?
If something in the RPA doesn’t
work that should, do you know
who to go to with a gripe and
hopefully a solution? While the
RPA has always supported regional and local squadrons to facilitate
esprit de corps, it is too easy to
fragment in to local “clubs” at the
expense of our national objectives for a united and informed
There is a clear need for Regional
Directors to be involved in the
goals and programs of the overall association as leaders and
managers. The identification
of both RPA shortcomings and
their possible solutions will come
from the regional directors as
they listen to their entire regional
memberships, coupled with their
knowledge and use of the tools
and programs fielded or being
developed by the RPA. In return,
the RPA must work toward finding solutions that best support
the needs collectively recognized
by these regional directors. One
of the most important functions
we accomplish is initial and reoccurring formation training (as
well as other training topics), the
development of a comprehensive
regional training schedule, and
the motivation of local members South East members training pilots in the “Five” at
Waycross, GA.
to host such events, is in large
part dependant on the active
involvement of regional directors. membership, standardized in our
procedures and involved in our
How does a successful regional
collective priorities.
system support your member-
During our preparation for Oshkosh and the national “Five Zero”
mission involving several pilots
from each region to fly a highly
complex mission over Air Venture,
a request was made to train
locally at regional clinics. Were
we successful in our regions
in pulling together at the local level for a united effort
nationally? These and other introspective questions the RPA
needs to examine in its’ efforts
at being the best it can be. If
we are to remain a growing,
united Warbird association, the
RPA must ask its regional leadership to commit to pursing
our national and
regional goals of our members.
By being both a well informed
and well integrated team our
leaders will continue to move our
organization forward.
The RPA is conducting a broad
review of the Oshkosh air mission
from cradle to grave in an afteraction report to be published on
the website. One of the questions
we must ask in this analysis is
how well are we prepared to
execute regionally in support of
national objectives?
In 2009 the RPA will redouble its
efforts to clearly communicate
to the members and its regional
leadership exactly what the mission of the RPA is, and what their
part is in achieving it. We hope
you will support your association in this effort; if you have a
question concerning national
or regional issues, from website
functionality, member communications, training to planning a flyin, we urge you to contact your
regional director today.
Fall 2008
9
Confession is Good for the Soul but ...
BY JIM GOOLSBY
They say that confession is good
for the soul but it can be real embarrassing to the confessor at the
same time. I know. Once more
the old culprit - distraction - stuck
his hand in, and this time it could
have been very serious.
It is Sunday morning and our last
day at Oshkosh AirVenture. All
but five or six of the 60-plus Yaks
and CJ-6s of RPA’s big celebration were gone. The “North
Forty” was virtually abandoned
of aircraft. The wife had dropped
me off very early before she
headed for Midway and an airliner to PHL. I had finished the
last of cleaning out the tent and
shipping out some stuff. I had
even stopped for a little breakfast
at one of the few stands that
opened early.
As I walked the last 100 yards towards “Dee’s Three Toed Dragon”,
I noticed that three CJs with their
pilots mounted up were preparing to start and head for the west
coast. I asked if I could join them
for the takeoff and then split off
to the south. They said they’d
wait for me. All I needed to do
was pull my propeller though
as I had packed up earlier in the
morning.
I hurried over to my machine and
started the propeller pull though.
The first blade was normal. But
as the second blade went passed
TDC, the engine kicked over, out
of my hands, and went through
two more blades before it
stopped!
I was dumbfounded! I felt all
kinds of emotions from total
confession, to suspicion, disappointment and, finally, total embarrassment. It took me about 10
seconds to accurately place the
blame and then feel the incredible luck my life seems to process
for such stupidity.
Now back to the day before.
10
RedAlert
Saturday is the last flying day at
AirVenture and yours truly was
going to fly in the lead flight.
I climbed into the cockpit
early, buckled up, pumped on the
primer, than flicked up the battery switch. Nothing. No flicker
of needles – just nothing. And I
couldn’t hear the oil tank valve
rotating opening. I concluded
that I had the deadest of dead
batteries. I should have stopped
right there. However, next to me
on the flight line, Hal Provo saw
my dilemma, jumped out of his
aircraft, asked if I had air pressure,
and offered to manually open the
high pressure solenoid valve. I
said I did have pressure. He said
to turn the mags to ‘both’ which
I did. When he opened the air
valve, the engine would kick over
but then spin backward because
of the magneto timing. After
trying this procedure two times, I
analyzed my situation and made
the decision to stand down. I
realized that even if I did get the
engine started, since I had an
alternator and not a generator,
I would still have no electrical
power after start up since the
alternator needs some battery
power to operate. Plus my oil
tank valve, which is electrically
operated, would have remained
closed, starving my engine of oil.
It was a wise decision.
I secured the cockpit, I thought.
But something must have distracted me. I neglected to turn
off the mag switch.
Now back to the future.
I stood looking at the now still
propeller. I looked around to see
if anyone had just seen what had
happened. No one. The other
pilots were still busy with their
heads down in their cockpits and
none of the EAA linemen were
in sight. No wittiness? I calmly
walked around the wing and
nonchalantly climbed into the
front cockpit. Yep, looking at the
mag switch, there it sat on 1&2
position. The real culprit was
confirmed - me.
I went through my normal startup and when the flight was ready,
I taxied out and followed out in
the number 4 position. Run-ups
complete, I tagged on to deputy
lead’s wing for the element takeoff. Once airborne and out over
the lake, I turned south while the
rest of the “left coasters” turned
left to the west. After I said my
‘good-byes’ on Tach 1 and set
my course south to the Michigan
shore line, I put my new auto pilot
to work. I now had time to contemplate what had just happened
to me.
I will admit that it took me a while
(at least somewhere at 9,500 feet
over Georgia) to decide to confess
this episode, but when I started
to consider the past and the
friends that had been affected
by things like a ‘hot prop’, I knew
I had an obligation to tell all. My
good friend Mike Filucci, our very
own FAST president, will passionately discuss his episode and
painful consequences with a very
similar situation. I went through
all the things that could have
happened when that airplane sat
there all day and all night with a
hot engine - just waiting. I contemplated what might have happened if the engine had started. I
knew I would have to ‘fess up’.
So there you have it troops. I
stand before you in total nakedness and my command pilot’s
wing with another coat of tarnish.
In aviation you must never assume things, including assuming
the mags are OFF before doing
the pull through. You simply
must check that they are OFF by
personally checking them before
you pull that prop though – each
and every time.
I have sinned. You should not.
Y
T
E
F
A
S
BY ALAN COCKRELL
Safety Record Review:
Something Amiss
“I knew something was amiss,”
was what one guy told the investigator, when the airplane settled
lower to the ground than usual
and he saw pieces flying off the
propeller. The gear handle was
up when it ought to have been
down. What a sickening sensation that must have been.
But there’s a far more nauseating feeling than that, like the
one a group of people had when
they heard this on an airport
loudspeaker that was tuned to
Unicom: “We’re crashing. We’re
going in.” One of them recognized the voice as the Yak-52’s
backseater. He said it sounded
calm. Both pilots, highly experienced professional aviators,
died in a near vertical impact.
Investigators found a three buck
screwdriver jammed in the elevator bellcrank.
Here are a few more snippets
from the 156 accident reports
I reviewed involving RPA type
aircraft:
I first realized something was
not right up front. Something
was digging into the ground, the
nose was low and the next thing I
knew I was upside down and the
ground was crashing through the
canopy.
and restart the engine.
The pilot stated that if he hadn’t
worn a helmet he would surely
have been killed.
The aircraft struck the ground at
about 45 degrees nose down and
had been spinning left at impact.
After pulling through about six
blades the engine fired.
Several witnesses observed the
tandem seat jet maneuvering at a
low altitude over the pilot’s hunting camp prior to the accident.
The airplane was last observed
entering a left turn to try and
make a field and, according to
the wingman, the pilot tried to
extend his glide.
It goes on and on, all 156 of them.
You can look them all up yourself,
but I saved you the effort. I only
looked at US and UK reports
between 1993 and the present
because those were easy to extract pertinent information from.
Other nations’ accident reports
are harder to decipher. Here’s the
ugly summary:
A toxicology test of the pilot’s
blood showed an alcohol level of
0.10%.
A fifth witness stated the airplane
was doing loops, got too low and
could not get “back around.”
The passenger was ejected during aerobatics.
The pilot’s medical certificate and
BFR had expired.
After the engine failed the pilot
gave control of the aircraft to the
unqualified backseat passenger
while he went heads-down to try
the US and UK but intuitively
I believe Yaks are in the vast
majority, so we would expect
them to show up in the largest mishap category. Someone correct me if this is a bad
assumption.
Notes for this chart:
1. Yaks include Yak-52, 50, 18,11,
9, and 3.
2. I don’t have any data on the
total number of each type of
the above aircraft in service in
Notes for this chart:
1. Of the two accidents pending final results, I found out
(unofficially) from the NTSB
investigator that in the most
recent one the aircraft was
observed to make a low flyby
over the airport and perform
a roll prior to impact. It did
however appear to complete
the roll before pitching down
into the terrain. The investigator was able to establish
control continuity.
2. CFIT=Controlled Flight Into
Terrain, which includes for the
purposes of this chart airshow
accidents, collisions with
obstacles, power loss induced
crashes, and terrain impact
due to continued VFR in IMC.
3. There are many more jammed
elevator incidents than are
reported. Some have not
resulted in crashes.
Don’t think our wallet full of tickets and fat logbook insulates us
from becoming one of these unhappy statistics. Commercial and
ATP rated pilots were involved in
slightly more than half of all Red
Star type aircraft mishaps. Look
at this:
►
Fall 2008
11
and ATP certificate holders get a
larger share of this unsavory pie.
Now, a little trendology.
Notes for this chart: Ground
mishaps include loss of control,
hitting objects, brake failure, runway excursion and bad propeller
handling. My intuition tells me
that forgetting to turn on the
main air valve (i.e. FAILURE TO
USE CHECKLIST) is responsible for
most of this ugliness.
Note that this chart represents
fatal accidents, not fatalities.
The actual body count is much
higher. The fatal rate increased
steadily throughout the late
1990s as more aircraft arrived
from the Eastern Bloc, peaking in
2003. Interestingly, according to
FAA summaries, the overall general aviation fatality rate peaked
about the same time. Sadly, we
spiked again in 2007. Year 2008 is
half through and so far we have
Notes for this chart: Includes
gear-up landings, gear collapse
on ground, and raising gear on
ground.
only one.
this type mishap the investigators
all said that “minor damage” resulted. It may be minor to them,
but destroyed propellers, dented
flaps and cowlings, and bent
crankshafts don’t ring as minor
damage to most of us.
Here’s one with a recent big spike
but maybe now going in a better
direction. As before, this chart includes loss of control on ground,
hitting objects, brake failure, and
runway excursion. This chart
emphasizes that our Achilles heel
continues to be misuse of the
pneumatic system, something
that USE OF THE CHECKLIST can
The engine failure trend spiked
the same year as the fatal rate
spiked. But happily, most of you
who experienced the sound of silence got on the ground without
much ado.
Notes for this chart: Includes
engine failure, loss of control,
and CFIT. Notice that commercial
12
RedAlert
This chart seems to be headed
in a happy direction. Again, it
includes gear up landings, gear
collapse on ground, and raising
the gear on the ground. I noted
in the reports I read concerning
remedy.
This gets us Yak drivers’ attention,
continued on page 42►
especially
BY DREW BLAHNICK
There I was…
If you’ve experienced or witnessed an event that would benefit our community of pilots through sharing the experience and lessons learned with others, then welcome to
“There I was...”, the newest member of our re-occuring quarterly articles. All identifying information to include name, aircraft and location need not be a part of the article.
I was attending a training clinic
in the Northeast region in DE this
summer, leading a single wingman and his instructor to provide
a platform for the student’s rejoin
training. As I taxied up to the
runway, a Piper series aircraft was
holding short of runway 33. After
some delay (perhaps awaiting his
IFR clearance), the pilot of the aircraft was gracious enough to tell
the tower he was willing to move
out of the way to let the formation take the runway.
room to get by and he can re-exit
at Bravo”. While tower was pondering the merits of this solution,
I made a second radio call “Piper,
if you can make a left 180 there
we have enough room to get by”.
The piper began a left 180 as I approached the runway hold short
line. I positioned my flight on the
runway in “position and hold”
awaiting takeoff clearance while
the piper exited the taxi way
behind us and made a quick 180
back in to his original position.
33
Situation efficiently solved and
everyone’s happy right? Well,
there was just one problem. The
tower radioed, “Zulu flight, I gave
November XXX permission to
enter the runway, did I give you
permission to enter the runway?”
Ahhh, the best laid plans to save
both of us a little time just got
tarnished by that little big thing
called coordination (and how
about that regulation covering
entrance on a tower-controlled
runway!?). To say I know better
is an understatement, no excuse, somewhere in the several
seconds approaching the hold
33
33
The tower instructed the Piper to
taxi down the runway and exit at
Alpha (about 1500 feet down) and
backtrack to runway 33. With no
aircraft in the pattern or behind
me, and a little desire to save this
kindly pilot some avgas and taxi
time, a quick look at the runway
revealed that he had more than
enough room to simply make
a quick left 180 on the runway
to let me pass by. As the Piper
began moving on to the runway, I
called “Tower, if the aircraft would
just like to take the runway and
make an immediate left 180 Zulu
Flight has more than enough
short line with the aircraft turning around to await my entrance,
the requirement for one more
radio call was omitted. “Uhh,
sorry about that tower, totally my
fault, was trying to save everyone
some time”, to which he replied,
“I understand, you don’t have to
give me a call, but you need my
permission to take the runway”.
After giving as friendly a “thanks,
sorry about that” as I can muster,
he cleared us for takeoff. A call to
the cab after the flight resulted
in a chuckle and “I knew what
you were doing, but ya got to
ask first”. And he is very right of
course, we fly at non-controlled
airports so much as warbird
pilots that it’s probably a good
reminder of the fact that due
to the high number of runway
incursions over the last decade,
that hold short line is a brick wall
without those golden words over
the radio. While this situation
may not have been a safety issue,
it was a mental slip that no one
need make – a less cheerful tower
controller could have asked for a
phone call, and those words no
pilot wants to hear.
Fall 2008
13
Valve Clearance Setting How-To
BY JILL GERNETZKE
I was somewhat perplexed when
a member of the RPA editorial team suggested an article
on valve clearance setting was
needed. Why, I asked myself?
Agreed, it is good to get back to
basics but what are the ramifications of improper valve clearance
setting? This is not an issue I
hear about from my customers.
I suspect most people do an adequate job performing this task.
However, if you set the clearances
too tight or too loose you may
experience a loss of power perhaps slight - and/or retained
heat. Excessive heat will shorten
the life of your engine. If a valve
is open, damage may result to the
valve and seat. In addition, this
article provides a segue to alert
readers about a lurking issue with
the valve train and a seemingly
easy replacement of a gasket and
o-ring at the lifter housing. While
this article is written specifically
for the M-14P, the basic steps are
the same for the Housai and the
AI-14RA engines. Consult your
respective maintenance manuals
for appropriate clearances.
I like to urge A&Ps and owners to
consult the M-14P Maintenance
Manual - aka The M-14P Bible
- for all routine maintenance. I
read through Task Card No. 247
to discern any confusion or poor
translation in the text. Alas, there
are a couple of points that beg a
clearer explanation.
Let’s start at the beginning with
the required tools. The M-14P
tool kit has a pair of specialty
tools that are used in the actual valve clearance setting. (See
photo.)
One of these tools does double
duty to release and secure the
valve cover cable wing nut and
also as a flat blade to adjust the
rocker arm screw. The other
tool is a narrowly ground hollow socket which loosens and
14
RedAlert
tightens the jam nut on
the adjustment screw. In
addition, you will need a
spark plug wrench, a set
of feeler gauges, a 19 mm
wrench, a flat-bladed screwdriver
and a TDC (Top Dead Center) tool.
I frequently receive calls filled
with consternation over lack of
having a TDC tool. Quite frankly,
I like using the Russian TDC tool
but the job can accomplished just
fine with a brass drift or other
long tool that will slide into the
spark plug hole opening. I also
like to record the clearances on
an inspection sheet.
Here are the basic steps for setting the valve clearances on a
Cold M-14P engine:
1. Remove the front spark plugs.
(I prefer to remove cylinder
numbers 1 and 9 rear spark
plugs for ease of access.
2. Remove all of the rocker covers by releasing the rocker
cover cable wing nut with
the Russian tool or a Crescent
wrench.
3. Inspect the cables for frays
or loose wires and
replace as necessary.
4. Remove the rocker cover
gaskets and wipe clean.
(Soaking the silicone gaskets
in cleaning solvent will cause
them to swell and no longer
fit properly - Do not do this!)
Replace the gaskets if they are
flattened and/or heat hardened.
5. Inspect the rocker covers for
cracks or corrosion that may
be responsible for an oil leak.
Wash and set aside.
This is also a good time to
inspect for leaks at the rocker
arm bolts on the outside of
the rocker box. It is possible
to stop a leak by removing the
cotter pin on the rocker arm
bolt and tightening one more
flat on the castellated nut and
installing a new cotter pin. It is
possible to do this 2 -3 times
before the crush washers bottom out. When it is time to
replace the crush washers on
either side of the bolt, I would
advise getting some advice
on this procedure.
6. Find top dead center compression stroke on a cylinder
by placing your thumb over
the spark plug hole and turning the prop in its normal
direction of rotation.
7. Install your TDC tool or drift
and find TDC on the piston.
(You may move the prop
back and forth in small easy
movements, holding your tool
on the top of the piston and
watching for the top of its
travel at the spark plug hole.
If you have the original Russian tool there is a scale and
pointer that simplify this task.)
Both valves will be closed in
this position and you will be
able to rock the rocker arms a
small amount.
NOTE: The firing sequence of the
engine is 1-3-5-7-9-2-4-6-8. I
prefer to perform the procedure
in this sequence instead of
pulling the prop through until I
get to the next cylinder on the
engine.
8. Install your feeler gauge
between the rocker roller
and the valve stem by pushing down on the opposite
side of the rocker arm (the
adjustment screw side). The
acceptable gap is .2 to .45 mm
(.008 - .018”) with the optimal
setting of .3 mm. With experience you develop a feel for
the correct clearance and the
job moves along more quickly.
The first few times you do this
job, take your time and do it
thoroughly. Helpful hint: It is
advised to dedicate a set of
feeler gauges with about a 30
degree bend to them. This
angle fits the geometry of the
cylinder. At the proper setting
the gauge will slide easily
between the two surfaces,
neither getting caught nor
having any gap or slop. Look
closely, also.
9. If you must adjust a valve,
loosen the adjustment screw
jam nut 1 - 1 1/2 turns only
using the hollow socket end
wrench. If you fabricate a
tool make sure the angle you
grind on the socket or box
end matches the geometry of
the rocker box, arm and nut.
You do not want this wrench
to slip and if it is not properly
fabricated, it will.
There is a warning in the
M-14P Maintenance Manual
that talks about the valve
sinking and the tappet end
leaving its seat. Huh??? (See
Cutaway photo.) If you look
at the valve train cutaway,
you can see that at the base
of the pushrod, there is a
cup and spring as part of the
hydraulic lifter. It is technically possible to loosen the
adjusting screw enough that
you will allow enough slop for
the pushrod to jump off of the
cup. Be diligent about your
work. Loosen the jam nut just
enough to allow you to turn
the adjustment screw.
Also, take heed not to turn the
adjustment screw out more
than half of threaded portion
of the body - no more than 10
mm from the surface of the
rocker arm surface. (10 mm
is a lot!) You do not want to
break the tappet ends.
10. When you have reset the
clearance, tighten the jam nut
while holding the adjustment
screw in place. (This is why
having the hollowed socket
wrench is necessary. If you
can’t hold the adjustment
screw, you will change the
clearance when you tighten
the jam nut.)
11. Once the jam nut is tight, recheck the clearance. It is not
uncommon the first time you
do this job, to have to go back
and redo the procedure. Have
patience, you really do get a
feel for this procedure.
12. Go ahead and do the other
valve.
13. Repeat these procedures for
each cylinder.
14. If this is your first time, I
would advise you check all of
the clearances and security
of the jam nut one more time
after they are all set.
Have you ever had a visitor
drop by just to shoot the
breeze while you are in the
middle of a job like this? It is
too easy to overlook a step.
Check your work.
15. Reinstall the rocker covers
and cables. Make sure the
rocker cover is seated squarely
before latching over the cable
and wing nut. If you are doing this task for the first time
and installing new gaskets, I
advise shortening the wing
nut travel by turning it in all
of the way and then latching
the cable over. It is probably
too loose. Back it off a half or
full turn. This is a feel by trial.
When you get just get a positive resistance over center, it
is enough. Any more and you
will fray or snap cables.
16. It doesn’t hurt to take one last
look at the seating of all of the
covers. By doing this you will
pick up on one that may not
be correctly seated.
17. Reinstall the spark plugs using
the appropriate torque value.
18. Reinstall the ignition leads to
the plugs.
Lastly, I would like to address
another issue involving the valve
train. A frequent complaint is
over leaks around the hydraulic
lifter housing. When I receive a
call for the gaskets and o-rings
for this housing, I put the brakes
on the customer and advise that
it is better to live with the leak
until engine overhaul or repair.
In order to replace these parts,
you must remove the pushrod,
pushrod tube and hose. The
danger ensues wit the removal of
the housing. (Refer to the valve
train cutaway photo.) When you
pull the housing off, you release
the lifter body and allow for a
bushing and pin to fall into the
crankcase. This is a potentially expensive retrieval of these parts in
which you may need to tear the
engine down. This is just too risky
and should not be performed in
the field.
Fall 2008
15
The Best that Money Can Buy
BY JILL GERNETZKE AND DARRELL GARY
Darrell’s Story
The more time I spend flying
the Yak-52 in the company of
good pilots, the more attached
I become to this versatile aircraft. Like most aircraft owners
I frequently speculate about the
‘what ifs’:
What if I had more horsepower?
What if I had a different propeller?
What if I had more fuel onboard?
What about smoke, electric trim,
and advanced avionics?
As I have become more familiar
with the activities in the different
regions of the RPA, I recognized
that there is an incredible amount
of innovation taking place across
the country. I first witnessed it
in the CJ-6 community and in
the past two years within the Yak
community. For my aircraft, I
wanted more power, endurance,
versatility and sustainability. If I
was to make this investment of
time and money, I wanted to start
with the best platform available.
At this point I went to the source,
Jill Gernetzke at M-14P. Jill was
able to locate one of the last Yak52s to come off the production
line in 1990. This aircraft had always been kept in a hangar. Both
the airframe and the engine had
less than 200 hours total time.
Best of all, it came with an extra
zero time Series II M-14P engine,
air bottle, compressor and other
critical spare parts……..perfect!
From the far reaches of the realm
we sought the leading edge
of proven innovation. Names
like Sapp, Victory, Yastremski,
Gutierrez, Coy and Savarese immediately surfaced along with
M-14P, Moriarty and Blackwell at
the Deer Valley “Skunkworks”. In
discussing the project with Jill, we
realized that there were many options available at a wide range of
prices. Many critical decisions involving compromise and budget
considerations would have to be
16
RedAlert
made. It also became apparent
that our experiences would be of
interest to RPA members who are
or will be forced to make many of
the same decisions as our Yak and
CJ-6 fleet ages. It was then determined that this aircraft N90YK
would become the technology
demonstrator for the RPA.
I’ll leave it to Jill to tell you about
how the decisions were made
and how the project is progressing. Jill will identify sources and
demonstrate optimum installation techniques and she’ll review
equipment capabilities and
performance/budget compromises. Along the way Jill is going
to share with you interviews with
many innovators that contributed
to this project.
a procession of sorts..... friends
and family stopping by to see the
airplane for one last time.
N90YK was everything I knew it
to be. “Pristine” is a word that I
rarely use. This Yak was pristine.
It looked like it did when it was
rolled out of the factory. The
only upgrades were U.S. tires and
altimeters. Everything else was
stock. The air system is tight - no
leaks....ever! The engine starts
on the first blade. An absolute
dream! Darrell is now the proud
owner of one of the most stock
and low time Yak 52s in the country..... and is changing that in a
big way!
In a distant conversation with
Darrell Gary, he placed me on
alert to find him an exceptional
and low time Yak 52. I told him
that I might know of one that fit
the bill. In the back of my mind, I
had a customer with a new M-14P
he was willing to sell. Life had
intervened with five kids and a
different mission in his life. I now
contacted him with an additional
query: Would he be willing to
sell his Yak 52 AND the engine?
After some time pondering and
talking with his wife, the decision
was made to sell the Yak. Over
several years, I had spoken with
him and knew it was always a
consideration. (As a sideline, I
had assisted the owner, his best
friend, brother, father and others
assemble the Yak at Gesoco in
Vermont in 1995 - fresh out of the
box.)
First of all, I would like to
acknowledge Darrell for being a true leader. I have been
impressed with his professional
guidance and team-building
capabilities of the RPA. Now, he
has taken the reins in leading our
community down the path of innovation by using his aircraft to
demonstrate the modifications
being manufactured and installed
in this country. We have a lot of
“in-house” talent in the good ole
U.S.A. and you will be witness
to this talent. Darrell views his
newly purchased Yak 52 as a platform to accomplish several missions. When the project reaches
fruition we will, as a team and
a community, have produced a
Yak 52 that moves us beyond full
dependence upon the manufacturers, propels us ahead in technology, explores new advances in
performance and showcases the
unrealized value of this wonderful
aircraft. As a project manager, it
just doesn’t get any more exciting
than this!
When I arrived in Minnesota to
conduct the pre-buy inspection,
the owner’s five small kids were
at the hangar. They were upset
that their airplane was going to
be sold. Throughout the day, as
the inspection progressed so did
The scope of the project does
not lend itself to a single article.
As we complete each phase of
the project, we will provide you
with a detailed account of the
installation, interviews with the
people that continued on page 37►
Jill’s Story
Meet the New RPA Regional Directors
NORTHEAST:
Steve Dalton
Steve started his aviaition career in a J-3 Cub. From that humble
beginning he went on to become a Check Pilot and Chief Pilot for
Southwest Airlines where he works today. Along the way Steve 14
years in the USAF and flew about 1,000 hours each in the T-38, F-4,
and F-16 and became an Instructor/Evaluator in all three. He also
worked for Northrop in Los Angeles where he was involved in the
F-20, F-23, and other black programs.
Steve’s love of and dedication to aviaiton really shows. With about
18,000 hours total time, Steve has logged some 3,000 hours in
mostly antique civilian planes like Stearmans, Tiger Moths, various
Fairchilds, and probably every model of Piper or Cessna made before 1960.
He’s also spent 800
hours in the Yak-52 and
CJ-6 and has been an RPA
Instructor Pilot for several
years. Recently Steve was selected to be a FAST Check Pilot.
Steve also holds a solo and formation aerobatic ACE card and
performs at several airshows a year.
“In the Northeast we have an established culture of professionalism in our flying and our training. My goal as the NE Director
is to continue to build on that expectation of excellence in all
we do. As fuel costs rise I believe more localized regional events
each year is in our future and I will work hard to make them safe,
productive and fun.”
DATA
Name: Address:
Phone:
Email: Call Sign:
Aircraft Type: STEVE DALTON
9671 Gulley’s Cove Lane
Easton, MD 21601
443-786-1832 (cell)
410-763-7340 (home)
flatspins@gmail.com
MOZAM
Yak-52TW
SOUTHEAST:
Shane Golden
Shane “Sparky” Golden started flying in 1990 after graduating from
The Citadel with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He started flying
formation in 2004 and has logged over 600 hours in the Yak-52, 300
of those in formation. Shane works as an engineering manager and
lives in Leesville, SC with
his wife Scarlette
DATA
Shane plans to focus on
formation currency and
Name: SHANE GOLDEN
more advanced trainAddress:
2253 Irvin Risinger Rd
ing events like “Desert
Leesville, SC 29070
Thunder”
Phone:
901-526-5425 (cell)
Email: scgsmg@bellsouth.net
Call Sign:
SPARKY
Aircraft Type: Yak-52
Fall 2008
17
NORTHWEST:
Ron Morrell
Ron flies for the the airlines and is a business owner who manages
two Real Estate offices as a Designated Broker. He’s extremely
interested in creating a more interactive environment for the Red
Star Pilots in the Pacific Northwest and maintains a good relationship with the Co of the Cascade Warbirds EAA Warbird Chapter
with whom he’s having discussions about RPA inclusion in the
local fly-ins and Airshows. Ron hopes to increase the number and
quality of FAST qualified pilots here in our area.
Ron hopes to build on the EAA Cascade Warbirds success in the
Pacific Northwest so the RPA can showcase our professionalism
and “esprit de corps” and forge a new and unique Warbird community.
I’ll push for the RPA members in this area to get together more
often and grow our
numbers. With the
support of the RPA we’ll create a cadre of F.A.S.T. qualified pilots
DATA
and the means to keep these airmen current and qualified. With
Name: RON MORRELL
the current high fuel prices, it more important than ever to deAddress:
1005 N. 33RD PLACE
velop talent and camaraderie locally by building enthusiasm for
RENTON, WA 98056
attending the flying activities with dedicated pilots who keep
our aircraft from becoming just hangar queens.
Phone:
425-463-6519
I committed to having every owner of an Eastern Block aircraft
AND every Warbird enthusiast in the Pacific Northwest become
an RPA member. I applaud Darrell Gary’s commitment to grow
the RPA and help the outlying regions to keep their warbirds
lubed and fueled and airborne!
Email: ronmorrell@comcast.net
Call Sign:
DRAGGIN 23
Aircraft Type: Nanchang CJ-6A
NORTH CENTRAL:
David Mills
Flying for over 25 years and having accumulated 3500 flight hours, 400
of which are in formation, David of Moline ,IL is a FAST Lead pilot. “My
goal for the North Central Region is to conduct two premier formation
training and proficiency
events every year and to
DATA
double the RPA’s FASTqualified member’s in the next
Name: DAVID MILLS
two years.”
Address:
Phone:
Email: Call Sign:
Aircraft Type: 18
RedAlert
3455 14th street
Moline, IL 61265
563-650-0174 (cell)
309-762-9693 (home)
dmills@millschevy.com
MILDRED
L39-C, T6-G
David owns an L-39 Albatros in which he’s logged
better than 800 hours. He
regularly flies air shows
in the mid-west with the
flight team known as the
“Hopper’s.” David also owns a North American T6-G.
SOUTHWEST:
Gordon Witter
Gordon “BUZZARD” Witter served 10 years in the USAF as a fighter
pilot, instructor pilot and test pilot followed by 30 years with American
Airlines where he held positions of line Captain, Manager Flight Operations Technical and Chief Pilot. During his military and airlines careers
he was qualified on the T-33, F-86D/ L/ H, F-102, F-106, C/KC-135, B-47,
B-52, DC-6, DC- 7, DC-10, B-707, 720, 727, 747, 757 and 767. Gordon has
been a Yak-52 owner/operator since 2000 and a RPA member since its
origination and is a FAST
Check Pilot and a RPA repreA
sentative to national FAST.
DAT
As the organizer of Desert
Name: GORDON WITTER
Thunder, an annual tactiAddress:
1425 Highland Drive
cal flying clinic, and leader
of the Yakovlev Eskadrilia
Solana Beach, CA 92075
4-ship show team, Gordon knows how to keep the fun in flying!
Phone:
858-755-5278
In his spare time Gordon serves as the Chairman Emeritus of the
Email: GLWitter@aol.com
San Diego Air & Space Museum.
Call Sign:
BUZZARD
Aircraft Type: YAK-52
Gordon’s goals for the SW Region will continue to center around
the development of flying events that are educational, fun and
promote safety for the members, as well as showcasing the
quality of RPA training and the benefits of RPA membership.
SOUTH CENTRAL:
R. Scott McMillan
Born and raised in Denver, CO, Scott’s a 4th generation Colorado native who’s been lucky enough to never have had to leave his home
state for a job in aviation. Scott has flown for United since 1990 and
does Line Check work on the Airbus. “My passion is flying but I
love instructing.”
Looking for something fun to fly, Scott bought a Yak in 2001. “What
I got was a whole new group of friends that enjoy my passion for
these airplanes.” Since earning his Wing card in 2002 and his Lead
card in 2003, Scott flies his Yak 100 hours a year. “I can honestly say
that I’ve met some of my closest friends at these clinics, friends I
consider to be some of
my best friends in the
world.”
ATA
D
The South Central Region is quite active with large groups in
Texas and Colorado and Scott plans to get these groups together whenever possible.
Scott is dedicated to building more exposure for the RPA both
in the warbird community and the media. HE plans a continued
emphasis on training and education for RPA pilots. He believes
the training events promote the greatest part of being an RPA
member: the fun and camaraderie we all share.
Name: Address:
Phone:
Email: Call Sign:
Aircraft Type: R. SCOTT MCMILLAN
10718 Flagler Dr.
Parker, CO 80134-7639
303-877-7607 (cell)
aviatr@aol.com
KONG
Yak-52
Fall 2008
19
The Champion Iridium Fine Wire Spark Plug for the M14 Series Engines
BY STEVE STAUDT
For years now M14 Series engine
operators have asked Champion
to develop a premium plug for
their engines since the original
equipment plug just did not perform up to expectations. Champion has been working on developing a new design for some
time now, where both massive
electrode and fine wire designs
were designed and evaluated. It
has long been known that the firing end is rather small on a 14mm
plug and due to the massive
electrode design closing up the
firing end of the plug; it leaves
very little open area for proper
scavenging of deposits which can
lead to deposit accumulation and
make servicing very difficult.
Champion called on its extensive
experience with fine wire plugs
and elected to build prototypes
to validate the expected increase
in performance. The fine wire
design proved to be a wise decision. This design opened up the
firing end to provide much better
scavenging and made cleaning
and gapping a snap. Test cell and
in-flight evaluations indicated
this design would provide much
better engine performance than a
standard massive electrode plug.
Many people think the only advantage to using fine wire plugs is
the longer plug life. Interestingly
enough, long life has nothing to
do with why Champion makes
fine wire plugs. The fine wire
design makes engines start easier
on both hot and cold starts, provides for smoother running and
gives better performance and
economy. Massive electrode
plugs with their large ground
electrodes have a tendency to
shroud the spark from the fuel/
air molecules. Whereas the fine
wire plug, with its much smaller
electrodes, allows the spark to be
out in the open exposed to more
fuel/air molecules, this provides
a more efficient combustion. In
testing conducted several years
20
RedAlert
ago on twin Cessna’s with the
TSI0-520 (310HP) series engines,
it was found that the engines
equipped with fine wire plugs
performed so much better than
with massive electrode designs,
the fuel burn was reduced by
4%. The reduced fuel burn alone
actually offset the purchase price
of the plugs. It still remains to be
seen just how much of a saving
M14 operators will see, but 1%
or more may be a reasonable assumption.
The iridium electrode design
also provides for much longer
plug life, than a standard massive
electrode. Iridium is a precious
metal similar to platinum and is
an excellent conductor of electricity; it is also very resistant to spark
erosion, providing for a much
longer electrode life. In addition, iridium is not susceptible to
corrosion from lead in the fuel,
such as platinum and nickel alloy
electrodes. Because iridium is
so resistant to electrode erosion
the plugs do not need to be
gapped as frequently as massive
electrode designs reducing maintenance costs.
The Champion RVL38S is designed exclusively for the M14
series engines and incorporates
iridium center and ground electrodes. It also has a wide-open
bore design to reduce deposit accumulation and to make servicing
easier. The connector barrel uses
the metric M18x1 thread size used
on the Russian harness so adapters will no longer be needed. The
life of the plug for the M14 is still
unknown, because endurance
testing is still ongoing, but based
on our experience with other engines of similar horsepower and
displacement 1200-1500 hours life
would be a reasonable expectation.
Servicing the Iridium Fine Wire
Proper inspection, cleaning and
gapping is important to long
plug life. This is true with any
plug massive or fine wire. There
is a misconception that fine wire
plugs should not be cleaned
abrasively. Both abrasive cleaning and glass bead blasting are
approved methods of cleaning
fine wire plugs. But we caution,
many people are too aggressive
with the cleaning process and this
can lead to damaged plugs and
shorter plug life. When cleaning
fine wire plugs, air pressure going into the cleaner should be
a maximum of 80 PSI. The plug
should be given an abrasive blast
of four or five seconds and blown
off with air. Make a visual inspection of the firing end and give it
another four or five second blast
of abrasive if needed.
If lead beads are present these
should first be removed with a
vibrator type cleaner, or a ground
down dental pick, using care
not to side load the insulator. A
conductive metallic track can be
left on the insulator, from the
metal cleaning tool, and the plugs
should then be abrasive cleaned
to remove this conductive track.
Clean the connector well each
time the firing end is cleaned
to reduce the possibility of connector well flashover. Petroleum
products and aerosol contact
cleaners should not be used for
this purpose. Champion has
found over the years that isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab is
the best product for cleaning the
connector well.
A visual inspection of the exterior
of the plug should be made.
Look for anything that might be
cause for rejecting the plug from
service. This would include damaged installation threads and connector barrel threads. Also, look
for a damaged hex, caused by the
socket. The hex can be damaged
from use of a twelve point socket
rather than the recommended six
point socket. Inspect for insulator cracks on the firing end and
inside the connector well. Bulged
or mushroomed connector barrels are indications of over torque
of the B-nut and are cause for
rejection as are flat spots on the
connector threads. Flat spots
are caused by side loading with
the socket during installation or
removal and result in cracked
insulators.
If the plug does not need gapping, leave the ground electrode
alone.
Use of Thread Lube
Thread lube should be used sparingly. Many problems are caused
by excessive use of thread lube. It
is not necessary to coat all of the
installation threads with thread
lube. If you are using Champion
2612 thread lube skip the first
Gapping the Fine Wire Electrode thread and apply a ring of thread
lube (about the width of the
The easiest way to gap a fine wire brush) around the installation
plug is to gently clamp your spark threads. If using an aluminum
plug socket in a vise and use it
or copper based anti-seize again
to hold the plug. Use the CT-450
skip the first thread and apply a
wire gap gauge to check the gap. dot of anti-seize about the size
Recommended gap is .016. The
of a match head in three places
CT-457 is used to close the gap
around the circumference of the
by applying a side load to the
installation threads. No thread
ground electrode being careful
lube should be applied to the
not to disturb the center elecconnector barrel threads or the
trode. Do not overwork or bend
ignition lead B-nut.
the ground electrode excessively.
Installation
Aircraft plugs should always be
installed with a new or annealed
copper gasket. 14mm plugs
require 17 to 21 foot pounds of
torque. After the plugs are installed the ignition lead insulator
should be cleaned with a rag and
isopropyl alcohol. The insulator
should not be touched again with
the fingers after cleaning to avoid
contamination which can be
conductive and may result in connector well flashover which is a
source of engine roughness. The
B-nut should be installed finger
tight then tightened one eighth
turn with a wrench. Do not over
tighten the B-nut.
DC-4 compound should not be
used on the ignition lead insulators. A clean dry installation is
recommended.
Fall 2008
21
Oshkosh 2008
All things good start at the crack
of dawn. And so it was as I pulled
myself out of bed, dressed and
headed for my hangar behind the
house. The sun was just topping
the horizon as the hangar door
reached its stops, and you could
tell even at that time of the day
CBs would be percolating by
noon. The whole southeast was
just itching to grow these monsters. I wanted to get a head start
and get as far north as I could
before they started. But that was
not to be. I took off and headed
to 28J just 17 nm north to fuel up
and start the flight to West Bend,
WI (ETB). But I found an oil leak
while fueling at the pump and
had to head back home to cure
the problem. After a closer inspection, I identified the problem
as a leaky fuel pressure line from
the engine fuel pump. By the
time I got every thing straightened out and was able to head
north it was 1300 hours. Yep, the
CBs were there and, after doing
some scud running down to a
thousand feet at times, I ended
about 25 nm west of my course
before I found a hole to the north.
At my first stop, Kaolin, GA (OKZ),
I found the airport deserted,
gas pump locked and a very
uncooperative guy on the phone
about getting gas. I just gave
up and headed over to Athens
(ATH), tanked up, then headed
for Smithville (0A3). In route,
I once again dodged CBs over
the Smoky Mountains, finally
getting into dryer air behind the
stationary front. From there on
it was a piece of cake. I got a
final treat for the day as I passed
along Chicago’s lake front right
at sun down. I landed at ETB at
2200 hours in pitch dark. While
performing his nightly rounds,
the airport manager gave me
a ride to the hotel. That was
Wednesday and I slept like a baby
that night.
The next day RPA members
24
RedAlert
started to arrive. I had expected
only 12 aircraft for the entire ETB
practice but in the end we had
some 35 aircraft there. We need
to thank Craig Payne for setting
up our facilities with EAA Chapter
1158. They had the very best
setup I’ve ever seen and were
gracious hosts to boot. They let
us use their large meeting room
with up-to-date video equipment,
plus their computer and printer
system. Craig had arranged for
lunches to be delivered each day,
and a shuttle bus between the
hotel and airport. It was a first
class operation all around. On
one evening our group headed
to one of the fine eateries in West
Bend that Craig had reserved
for us. It was a great choice. On
Sunday evening the EAA chapter members had a barbeque
cookout in front their hangar and
with our combined members we
totaled well over 100 folks. Nice
people and nobody went hungry!
We did a lot of practicing there
with Russ Dycus. Using a handheld radio on our special TAC frequency, he dressed the formation
as we flew over head. Since the
special formation (the number
“50”) used a line abreast and trail
formation to make it up, flights
would fly over the field in both so
that Russ and Dave McGirt could
evaluate and kibitz over the radio.
On Sunday afternoon we did a
full dress rehearsal. (Well, not so
full as we were short a few aircraft.) But we practiced the join
up and flew the number. Below
you see a picture by Bob Mercer
of the practice flight. You can see
the “0” was short some aircraft,
but the practice showed we were
very near, if not ready, for the
show.
Monday morning dawned clear
and, after some practice flights,
we planned one more full dress
rehearsal. But that was not to be
and that can only be blamed on
BY JIM GOOLSBY
the FBO there with his 500 gal
truck. He was slow in delivery
and had to make frequent trips
to refuel it. Since we were to
do the air show arrival into OSH
in mid-afternoon, Dave and I
discussed it and determined that
we would not have enough time
to do the practice flight, land,
debrief, plus get refueled and
launch all aircraft in time to make
the arrival into OSH. The troops
were in their cockpits ready to
start for the practice when Dave
and I scrubbed the practice. This
would hurt us later.
The sortie into OSH for the Warbird arrival part of the show was
without incident. Dropping that
practice flight allowed us to have
a decent lunch, plan and brief
the flight into OSH. We even had
enough time in route to practice
our arrival formation.
At OSH the “advance team” of
Lefty Langford and Tim Williams
had gotten the EAAWB ground
staff whipped in shape for our
arrival. For the first time, our
parking was orderly, well thought
out and set us up for the rest of
the week’s flying. My only gripe
as Mass Lead was I was parked
the furthest out of anyone which
required a very long walk to and
from my plane! Also awaiting
us this year was our 40 x 40 tent
which served us well. Raymond
Waddey USMC, an artist, had his
paintings displayed all round the
tent which not only were for sale
but provided great ambience for
our lunches, briefings, debriefings
and end of day beer call. Wild
Bill Walker had set lunch service
for us each day, and our group
chowed down on what all agreed
were the best box lunches ever. I
received a lot of compliments and
I noted that not many members
were late for lunch call. Wild Bill
and Lefty Langford were also
responsible for the beer coolers.
They stayed full even to the last
day. There was no excuse for any
of us to be thirsty for whatever
type drink we wanted.
Tuesday - July 29, 2008:
Air Show Preparation
Those of us who had booked
into the dorms at the university
had our own private bus waiting
in front of the Black Hawk Commons. Instead of fighting the
crowds for the public bus, which
would only stop at the front gate
of AirVenture, our bus took us
right to the “North Forty” and just
100 yards from our aircraft or the
RPA tent. This saved 20 minutes
of walking or a tram ride from the
front gate. This day was spent
getting ready to fly the show
with the morning being free and
a briefing at 1345 for the pilots.
That day we put up some 25
aircraft.
Also showing up that morning
was Jane Zhang. In a serendipitous coincidence, Jane stumbled
on to RPA’s plans for OSH. She
contacted our head honcho,
Darrell “Condor” Gary, who
turned her over to me. It turned
out that she was headed for an
aviation conference in Shanghai
and offered any help. After an
exchange of e-mails and phone
calls, it turned out that she and
Bushi Cheng had a mutual friend
and that both would be at the
conference. She is an interesting
person. A successful business
lady who tired of the rate race,
Jane married a UAL pilot, got
her pilot’s licenses and now with
partners is trying to set up general aviation programs in the PRC
as well as build a museum on the
last surviving WW2 airfield where
the “Hump” pilots landed in
China. A really really interesting
project. Well I’ll make a long and
honestly interesting story short,
she returned to the U.S. and OSH
with the 75 lithographs that were
autographed by Bushi and video
message to our membership. We
owe her a great deal of thanks.
That evening there was a special
briefing for the next day’s show
which would feature our whole
association with an emphasis on
the CJ-6. Dave “Talon” McGirt has
been the Ops Officer for this entire program. Getting 50 aircraft
into the air, sorted out, briefed
and coordinated with the EAA Air
Boss, is no easy job. Talon’s ops
plan was 31 pages long, which he
had offered it up to a group of
hard bitten check pilot/leads to
“refine” months in advance. But
despite their kibitzing, it ended
up being the best thought out
plan for what we needed to do.
And except for the unplanned
events, it stood us well.
Wednesday - July 30, 2008:
The Big Day
I seem to remember the morning
starting out with a cool nip in the
air but with clear skies. It did turn
warm but we were blessed with
low humidity all week. All the
troops showed up early for the
briefing. All the highlights of the
previous night’s briefing were reviewed plus we touched upon the
last minute items and updates.
After mounting up, strapping in,
and checking in on our tack frequency, 46 aircraft started their
engines on the call from Talon.
At the appointed time I released
brakes and began to lead the
entire armada toward runway 27.
There was a freaky radio problem
at the end of the runway where I
lost com with Talon, so I switched
over to the Air Boss who gave us
the takeoff clearance. We were
on our way.
For the most part the flight went
off OK, but our performance was
not as stellar as we had hoped for
when it was time for our big day
in the sun. The practiced join-up
went well and well before the
appointed time for the overhead,
we were on our way in and very
nicely in the “50” formation. We
were coming in from the north
for the one and only pass that
we would be able to make in the
air show that day. Just five miles
from show center, Air Boss asked
us to turn and give him five more
minutes. It seemed the big iron
guys playing the Reno Race part
couldn’t get their act together
and get on the ground when they
should have.
It was not possible to turn this
31-plane formation without
breaking it up. The “zero” was
made up of Bravo flight and was
on the left. The “five” was made
of Alfa flight on the right. All CJ6s. The Yaks and extra CJ-6s were
in the back in Charlie flight. MC
made the call for Bravo Lead (Terry Calloway) to start a left turn,
then for Alfa Lead (me) to start
a left and go into trail behind
Bravo. This was with less than 10
degrees bank angle until we were
now headed NE away from OSH
with Charlie flight in trail of Alfa.
When the big iron guys were
finally out of the way, we were
cleared back in. To say that reassembling the “50” took some luck
and a bit of excellent flying on all
our flights is an understatement.
Calloway picked the right bank
angle that allowed me to lead my
Alfa flight in a basic rejoin on the
inside of his flight just as he rolled
out on a heading to show center
and called to take the lead. The
heading change I had to make for
show center was very small.
But in the turn some confusion
happened in the rear. A number
of flight members got out of position and were a little slow getting
back in position. We were well
over head when the formation
took on some resemblance of the
“50” we had planned.
At this point Alex “Gabby” Land
did his thing. Pulling up and out
of the rear formation and entered
a 4 turn spin into show cen- ►
Fall 2008
25
ter for the start of his acrobatic
routine in his CJ-6. Looking at
the video afterward you can see
why this young man went just
five days later to earn 6th place
in the World Acrobatic competition. Gabby showed the precise
flying capabilities of the CJ within
its limits. There were a number
of firsts embedded in Gabby’s
routine, including the first time
he ever flew a routine at OSH,
the first time a CJ-6 ever flew a
acrobatic routine at OSH and the
first time a single ship acrobatic
routine was flown by a warbird
during this part of the show at
OSH.
In the mean time the rest of us
were breaking up the big formation trying to get spacing for the
overhead break landing on runway 36. Now what was planned
sounded simple in the briefing,
but it turned out that timing was
a very important ingredient not
quite appreciated. As soon as
Gabby’s routine ended, four big
iron props and jets were cleared
to takeoff on runway 18 and
instructed to stay down low and
pass underneath our flights as we
came in from the south. When
the last of them were airborne,
we were to pitch out and land on
runway 36. The problem was we
had turned in too soon. I soon
found myself as lead, seeing
Gabby still flying his routine as
we approached show center. I
heard MC make a radio call, but
for some reason he didn’t hear
my response transmission. I soon
noticed that Gabby had finished
his routine and I made the break
for the landing. As I rolled out
on the perch, I looked down and
saw that a SeaFury and L-39 were
still over the runway on takeoff.
At this point I received a call from
MC to hold my downwind until
his call. That done and on his call
I led the flights in.
The rest of the landings with the
rear flights went OK but we did
26
RedAlert
have one major guff that, except
for the heads of those involved,
no major accident happened. But
the recovery on our 46 aircraft
was not a pretty sight.
This put a little damper on the pig
roast, but with the free beer and
wine, that didn’t last long. We
can thank Rob Mortara for that.
The food was just fantastic! Rob
is a Bonanza guy as well as a CJ-6
owner and RPA member. He was
one of the first to volunteer last
year when requests went out for
helpers. He recommended the
pig roast and offered to take care
of the details. It sounded like a
neat thing so I left it in his hands.
I didn’t hear one complaint. We
had a few “interlopers” (yep
there are folks at OSH who crash
parties they don’t belong to) but
somehow they found the money
to pay when confronted. But we
had legitimate guests, too. Space
around our tent was limited and,
since T-34 guru Charlie Nogal and
salesmen Bill Austin relinquished
some of their space for the caterer to service our roast, they
became our guests too! Believe it
or not, we had beer left over that
night!
Thursday - July 31, 2008:
No Fly Day
The day started out early for all of
us. At 0700, the F.A.S.T. board of
directors had its second meeting
of the year and, of course, our
muck-a-tee-mucks needed to be
there. Then our check pilots did
their duty by attending a check
pilot standardization meeting.
Although I am a check pilot, I
missed the meeting because I
needed to go meet our guest
speaker, Bud Evans, and get him
in though the front gate. I had
never met Bud in person but had
read so many of his articles that
I felt he would be an excellent
guest speaker at our banquet.
Bud Evans had quite a back
ground as a test pilot during the
“Nifty Fifties” and was the principle test pilot on the F-104.
Bud and I got over to Pavilion #4
in time to catch the last part of
our forum. This year the forum
was run by Al DeVere and our
guest speakers were already
there. Jack Wang gave an excellent talk of the history of the CJ-6.
Jack had some excellent historical
pictures of the CJ-6’s first test
flight plus excellent insight on
the CJ-6’s future in China. Doug
Sapp, an OSH first timer, spoke
on the care and feeding of the
air systems. Doug was also one
of our sponsors and so not only
had he contributed good money
toward the event, he was contributing his knowledge. This he has
been doing for some 20 years.
After getting Bud over to our
tent to meet the troops and get
settled in, I then met up with
Ahmed Ragheb when we drove
up to Appleton to pick up a painting. This was part of the next
significant event in our celebration. This particular endeavourer
actually started back in January
at our Waycross formation clinic.
“Med” offered to do an oil painting of a CJ-6. Now Med is not
your usual RPA member. He flew
F-4s and F-16s in the USAF and is
now a production test pilot for
Gulfstream. But he is an excellent artist, too, with a number of
his paintings already hanging in
significant places. His style and
technique reminds me of Keith
Ferris’ work. Med had finished
the painting called “Nanchang
Sun Rise” and had taken the
painting up to Appleton when
he ferried a “green” G4 from the
Savanna plant to their paint shop
in Appleton. That saved us shipping cost.
Meanwhile our troops had the
day off as there was no War Bird
airshow on Thursday - except for
Skip Slyfield. “Sly”, a former Navy
pilot and Pat Giery “Kato” both
Delta 777 captains, who possess
great wit and who love to talk.
For that reason I asked them to
be the narrators at the “WarBirds
In Review” that the EAA puts on
for the general public during the
week. Each day they feature a
different warbird.
Friday - August 1, 2008:
Change of Plans
We had planned to fly in the
show this day but what we didn’t
realized until too late was that
the EAA had planned a late show
this day with our part ending just
very short time before we were to
have our banquet. We could not
change the caterers nor the bar
time, so we just scrubbed our flying in the show. We later learned
that this caused the Air Boss some
disappointment and a very large
hole in the show venue.
The success of the banquet is
attributable to the efforts of a
number of people. Katie Wilson
arranged the caterers menu and
setup. Zoe Albrecht created and
arranged for the table center
pieces. Craig Payne took care of
awards and trophies. Al DeVere
arranged the minting of our special coins. The brothers Shelbys
provided some really nice door
prizes.
We started out with showing
some candid stills taken to that
point and then a video of our
flyover. We showed a video message from Bushi Cheng that was
taped during the conference in
Shanghai and that Jane Zhang
brought back with her. Next,
our boss Condor got up and
eloquently put on the deserving
praise of those who had worked
so hard setting up this whole experience. Believe me there were
a bunch. Then we ate.
Bud Evans, our guest speaker, was
next after dinner. This guy has
done it all. He flew P-80s during
Korea and was a test pilot on
numerous aircraft at Edwards. He
is not a grandiose speaker, but
somewhat quite and unassuming in manner. But the stories he
can tell you about the far side of
the envelope of airplanes where
few pilots have been would - and
soon will - fill a book. We were
lucky to get him for a speaker.
Next we handed out the special
coins. The coins are, of course,
like no other. When the idea of
celebrating the 50th anniversary of CJ-6 and putting up 50
CJs over OSH came up, I wanted
some way to show significant
participation in the event. I also
wanted some way to get the pilot
group really interested in coming.
The design for the coin started
from a drawing by Phil Cogan
that was to be used as a logo
for the event. After numerous
e-mails and phone calls between
Phil and me, we came up with a
design that would fit onto a coin.
Al DeVere took care of the rest.
The coins are numbered, but not
in the way you may think. First
there is only one coin with the
number one (1) on it. That coin
was put on a special plaque and
sent to Bushi Cheng. The rest of
the coins are by flight number
and flight position. In other
words “1-1” (see below) went to
the flight leader (me) of the first
flight. Coin “3-3” belongs to the
deputy lead in flight 3, in this
case Phil Cogan. And so on. Alfa
flight was made up of flights one
to four and was the number “5”.
Bravo was flights five to eight and
was the “0”. Charlie was nine to
eleven and Mike was made up of
13 to 14-1.
Alpha Flight — The 5
1-1 Jim “Pappy” Goolsby
1-2 Hal Provo
1-3 Craig “” Ekberg
1-4 John “Chevy” Ford
2-1 Randy Webb
2-2 Forest “Flush” Johnson
2-3 BJ “BJ” Kennamore
2-4 Harry “Bam Bam” Dutson
3-1 Harold “Batman” Morely
3-2 Jay Wells
3-3 Phil “Shortbus”Cogan
3-4 John Zecherle
4-1 Randy “DaBear” DeVere
4-2 John Long.
4-3 Tom Elliott
Bravo Flight — The 0
5-1 Terry “Pumper” Calloway
5-2 Ron “Woody” Lee
5-3 Barry “Bdog” Hancock
5-4 Bill “Pirate” Mills
6-1 Paul Batliner
6-2 Craig Payne
6-3 Keith Harbour
6-4 Pat Giery
7-1 Mike “Blade” Filucci
7-2 Gill Gutierrez
7-3 Ernest Rischar
7-4 Ahmed “Med” Ragheb
8-1 Byron “Blitz” Fox
8-2 Dee Grimm
8-3 Hank “Hoot” Gibson
8-4 Richard “Sweat shop” Langer
Charlie Flight Yaks and CJs
9-1 Terry “Ski” Slawinski
9-2 Dave “Dead/Goatboy” Jester
9-3 John Shuttleworth
9-4 Timothy Stevens
10-1 William “Wild Bill” Walker
10-2 George Myers
10-3 Shane Golden
Fall 2008
►
27
11-1 Jimmy Fordham
11-2 Aaron Marshall
11-3 Mike Love
Mike Flight - Mission Command
13-1 Dave “Talon” McGirt &
Jeffrey “Linedog” Linebaugh GIB
13-2 Robert “Lefty” Langford
13-3 Tim Williams
13-4 Alex “Gabby” Land
14-1 Skip “Sly” Slyfield
From here the program for the
banquet sort of fell apart. Not
that there ever was one. Awards
were handed out. Buddy Moman,
Doug Sapp and Al DeVere were
strong armed into being judges
of aircraft. These three gentlemen seem to gel on their ideas as
to what was deemed important in
judging our various aircraft. And
the results were:
“Comrade’s Choice”
Best Yak: Ski Slawinski
Best CJ-6: Craig Ekberg
Than the “fun” award were
handed out:
1. Long March : British Columbia
to KOSH - Peter Waddington
and Bryan Nosko
2. Minimum Restoration Award:
(aka Dirty Red Bird) - Jay Wells
3. Capitalist Pig Award: Most
pimped out over-the-top ride
- Ron Lee
4. Warmongering Imperialist
Award: Most lethal looking
Red Menace - Jim “Pappy”
Goolsby
Note. Blitz complained that he
had 2 guns compared to the single gun on Pappy’s aircraft however the judges noted that Blitz’s
guns were of a lower caliber than
the single 37mm cannon. Also
the rockets were quite a formable
addition.
Then new call signs were awarded.
“Rubber” went to John Zac (It
seem he had a rough time staying
28
RedAlert
in trail.)
“Stripper” went to Jay Wells.
“Rorschach” went to John Long.
“Dead” went to “GoatBoy” Dave
Jester. (This stuck “Ski” as necessary since Jester in the movie
“Top Gun” came from the line
“Jester’s Dead!”) Personally I liked
“GoatBoy” better.
Then the infamous Boner award
was handed out. This award
is fickle, although I personally
believe it has an affinity of going
toward the leadership in our organization. It was once awarded
to someone for forgetting to put
the gear latch on or, while in the
fading light of day, calling the
wrong runway from what his initial approach was on. This time it
moved from the East coast to the
West coast. Our store manger,
Byron “Blitz” Fox, now has charge
of it and will deem who should
get it next. Beware.
at far flung places (their home)
also dictated that some leave
early. And for others, it was the
pressing of other life issues that
drove their departure. Despite
these departures, we still managed to put up over 45 aircraft for
the airshow. Barry “Bdog” Hancock did the honors as Mass Lead
that day. I opted for a wing spot
and wandered out to my plane
at the given time. I climbed in,
strapped up and flipped up the
battery switch only to find I had
a deader than dead battery. Hal
Provo tried to get me started but
when we realized my alternator
wouldn’t work anyway, we gave
up and I hand signaled Bdog my
plane was broke. I didn’t have
much time before the different
exhibitors would be closing so
off I rushed after a replacement
battery. This rushing bit led to an
accompanying article “Confessions -” you should read.
At some point during these
proceedings the painting “Nanchang Sunrise” was shown to the
membership and that is when
our membership learned that the
painting was to be presented to
the EAA Warbird Museum the
next evening to be put on permanent display.
While chasing after the battery,
I was able to watch my guys fly
overhead during the show. They
did me and the RPA proud.
Door prizes drawn
The food is always good and
there are several hundred people
who show up for this event. It’s
here the ‘really, really, big’ awards
are handed out. This year RPA
was a significant part of the proceedings. Darrell “Condor” Gary
with “Med” at his side presented
the painting “Nanchang Sunrise”
to the EAA museum, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the
CJ-6. As far I as I know, this is the
first time this has ever been done.
Then the EAA started handing
out its awards. This year the:
“Judges Choice: CJ-6 Award” went
to our own Ron “Little Wood” Lee.
The “Judges Choice: Yak-52
Award” went to Ed Noel
The “Best Yak-52/CJ-6 Award”
I later checked the number of diners at the banquet. We had just
70 but the caterer reported nearly
all of the food she sat out for 110
people was gone! It was a very
decent meal. And the cash bar
helped, too! There was definitely
the RPA looseness and noisy feel
to the ball room. It was kind of
late when the troops dispersed.
Saturday - August 2, 2008:
Warbird Spectacular
Another beautiful day dawned. A
number of our troops started to
head for home as many had been
at OSH for over a week. Weather
The day ended with a number
of RPA members attending the
EAA Warbird Banquet at the EAA
Museum.
went to Dave “Dead-Goat Boy”
Jester and his Yak 52TD.
The “Dirty Bird” award went to
Barry “Bdog” Hancock for his
CJ-6. His company, World Wide
Warbirds won the “Silver Wrench
Award” for Best Jet (L-39).
Sunday - August 3, 2008:
RPA Stand down
Another beautiful morning as my
wife dropped me off at my plane
then headed for Midway airport
and our condo in Wilmington.
This, by the way, started her little
adventure. I untied and loaded
up “Dede’s Three Toed Dragon”
and, deciding to do a complete
preflight later, I headed over to
our tent. I straightened up the
tent area and collected up some
stuff that needed to be shipped
out. I was fortunate enough to
get an EAA lady to give me a ride
to the shipping center in a golf
cart. That done I headed back
toward the “North 40”, stopping
and having breakfast on the way.
Reaching the tie down area I
found three West Coasters heading out, so I decided to tag on
to them at least for the takeoff.
Please read the accompanying
article for what happened next.
The flight home to FD44 was
in beautiful skies with my only
weather being towering CU just
around ATL. After putting the
Dragon in her hangar, I took a
long hot shower, and slept a long,
deep and happy sleep that night.
Try as hard as I can I know I have
missed mentioning names of
folks who made this all happened. Heather Frantz help this
computer Neanderthal by sending out a number E-Com and
keeping track of who was coming
and who paid in advance.
Members like Bob Fitzpatrick
and Peter Waddington and Bryan
Nosko who lent their Yak-52 and
CJ-6 to be displayed in the EAA
Warbird Trainers Area for the
entire week. One early morning I
happened by there in time to see
Bob and his wife dutifully dusting
off their airplane for another day’s
showing. These people were
great spokesmen for us. I have
always admired Bob’s well kept
52 and was pleased to see a CJ-6
looking just like it just came off
the factory assembly line.
It was once said that “The only
difference between perfection
and mediocre was attention to
detail.” My wife Dede, of 43 years
was my detail person on this
project. She knew what I was trying to accomplish and made me
focus on the details.
Finally, a large part of this could
not have been possible without
the sponsors that stepped forward with some $11,000. Without
this support, our members would
have had to pay double the event
fee they did. So kudos need to
go to Cannon Insurance, Xiocom,
World Wide Warbirds, Windstar/
Nexus, and Doug Sapp LLC.
These sponsors have supported
RPA for years and it is very much
appreciated.
Well, that is all I can write about
this year at OSH. Nothing is perfect but I look on this as the glass
being almost full. Once again I
got to see, touch, hear, and even
smell the people who make up
our organization. We have talent
and loyalty in our membership.
That is good for the future because the world is changing and
that type of membership will be
needed.
Fall 2008
29
Safety. . . Or Just Stylin?
BY DOUG GILLISS
Do you really need flight suits,
helmets, boots and gloves to fly
an Experimental category, former
military aircraft? Are pilots just
suiting up for style, to attempt to
impress the uninitiated and easily
impressed segment of the civilian
pilot corps?
Admittedly, there are some pilots
who would don the flight suit,
adorn it with patches and strut
around the local airfield restaurant waiting for questions about
the airplanes this “hotshot” may
fly or has flown. No real military
pilots or qualified civilian pilots
who fly Experimental jets and
Yaks or CJs would likely fit into
that category. But let’s address
the use of flight gear that is
mostly military garb. Do you need
it? Let me break it down item by
item, then you decide.
Flight Suit
Nomex flight suits have saved
many lives. There are USAF
pilots who survived accidents
where they would have been
badly burned had they not been
wearing a Nomex flight suit. For
a while, there were speakers at
safety events who personally had
survived crash fires and shared
their experiences with other pilots. These suits work, and when
you think there may be (literally) a
ton of fuel thrown in contact with
engines heated to hundreds of
degrees from an accident, you’ll
want one. Even though you don’t
anticipate an accident you have
car insurance don’t you? Even
with a one in a million chance I
would wear a flight suit that pro-
tects me—besides, I like placing
all my gear in the same place so
it’s easily accessible in the plane
from the flight suit pockets.
Nomex gloves are a good complement to the flight suit. I hate
to touch hot metal in the airplane
in the summer without them.
Wear them and you’ll avoid some
of the common scratches and
scrapes from working around,
preflighting and flying the airplane, plus you’ll know that in
case of disaster when things get
really rough from a crash fire your
hands will be protected.
Boots
You may never intend to jump
out of (eject if you have hot seats)
an airplane, but if you engage in
aerobatic flight or mock air-toair maneuvers, fly air shows or
frequent formation flights, you
probably have a parachute on
board. The landing won’t be so
safe if you don’t wear flight boots.
They also have the advantage of
protecting your feet climbing in
and out of the airplane and operating the rudder pedals. They are
not just for emergencies. Wearing
running shoes or dress shoes increases your exposure to injuries,
burns or slipping off the airplane.
Helmet
Helmets offer many advantages on every flight, not just for
emergencies. It’s easier to hear
radio transmissions with a helmet
equipped with a good set of ear
pads. They also keep your head
covered from the sun; keep you
warmer in winter. In the event of
a lost canopy they offer protection from the elements. If you fly
any maneuvers beyond straight
and level a helmet will protect
you from inadvertently contacting the canopy. Turbulence can
cause you to bounce around the
cockpit too; without a helmet
you could be injured, banging
your head against the canopy,
sometimes violently. I know that
situation from personal experience, more than once. One time,
in severe turbulence that was
unforecast and came and went in
seconds, I was thrown against the
top of the canopy, despite being
tightly strapped in with belt and
shoulder harnesses. I ended up
uneasy but uninjured.
Availability
Flight suits are available from
vendors and individuals on the
Internet at relatively economical prices ($25-$100 used, $200
new). Gibson & Barnes have a web
sale on Mondays; check it out. Be
sure to get real Nomex, not just
a look-alike. Boots are available
there too, but also in boot shops,
sporting goods stores and military surplus stores. They range
from about $50-$150. Helmets
cost more when you include all
the communications gear from
headsets. There are only a few
suppliers, try CustomFlightHelmets.com for a discounted price
on a helmet with any design you
want.
Wear the proper gear for flying;
no need to wear it when not flying.
Parachute Shop
1-800-872-2488
New & Used Parachutes, Inspections & Repacks
Pepperell Airport 165 Nashua Rd Pepperell MA 01463
www.parachuteshop.com
30
RedAlert
Yak-52 Purchase Paperwork and Beyond...
But hold on – this is just the start
of the paperwork process that
must be followed to protect your
interests and make you (and
your plane) legal to own and fly.
Below is a list of all of the various paperwork items you need
to ensure are complete to make
the administrative side of aircraft
ownership. Any pilot is familiar
with the acronym A.R.O.W. from
their training days. This refers to
the documents required to be on
board any aircraft prior to flight
operation:
The purchase agreement does
not have to be a Perry Mason, full
blown chapter and verse legal
document. Rather, it must clearly
state what you are buying, how
much you are paying, how you
will pay for it, what the seller will
deliver, how you can walk away
if you don’t like what you find,
etc. The AOPA web site has a
very thorough copy of a sample
pre-purchase agreement. I used
their template and crafted my
own agreement for the purchase
of N15YK.
Airworthiness certificate
Registration
Operating limitations
Weight and balance
Remember? Well, owning an
experimental aircraft introduces
additional paperwork requirements. After I had contacted the
previous owner of my Yak-52 and
had most of my questions answered to my satisfaction, it was
time for the paperwork to commence. Below is a chronological
listing of the paperwork trail I
followed that is meant to serve
as a template you may choose to
follow if you decide experimental
(or non-experimental) aircraft
ownership is for you.
Purchase Agreement
Although the Purchase Agree-
Make sure that you spell out
everything, in as much detail
as you can, that you are buying
along with the aircraft, including
tools, GPS devices, parachutes,
tow bars, etc. The agreement
should mandate that (a) the seller
warrant he holds legal title to
the aircraft and that title will be
transferred to the buyer free and
clear of any liens, claims, charges,
or encumbrances; (b) the aircraft
is in airworthy condition; (c) the
aircraft has a current annual
inspection; (d) the aircraft has a
currently effective special airworthiness certificate issued by the
Federal Aviation Administration;
and (e) all of the aircraft’s logbooks are accurate and current.
Upon delivery of the aircraft and
payment of the balance of the
purchase price, in accordance
with the purchase agreement,
R
O
ment should be complete
prior to the plane being
subjected to a pre-purchase
inspection, if you don’t
have a signed agreement
now is the time to get one.
Do not proceed any further
without an agreement
signed by both you and the
seller! While you may be
buying the plane from your
friend or relative, issues can
and do arise that have the potential to stress relationships unless
they are proactively addressed in
the Purchase Agreement.
A
Your research is complete, your
desire to own a former Sovietbloc aircraft is at an all-time high
and you’re ready to begin the
actual purchase process. As luck
would have it, a Yak-52 caught
your eye on Trade-A-Plane or
Barnstormers.com and you’ve
contacted the owner to begin the
acquisition process. Following
the outline in the first article in
this series in the winter 2008 issue
of Red Alert, you and you’re A&P
have completed the pre-purchase
inspection and resolved all issues
– it’s time to write the check!
W
BY JOHN GRAHAM
the seller shall execute an FAA
bill of sale (see below) granting
good and marketable title to the
aircraft to the buyer.
It is imperative that both parties sign and date the Purchase
Agreement and that each retain a
copy of the executed agreement.
As the saying goes, you are only
as good as your contract. The
acquisition of an airplane is a
significant financial investment
and it should be treated as such.
Handshakes can be honorable
agreements and a preferred
method by many of doing business, but please do not rely only
on that.
Title Search
Never, ever buy a previouslyowned airplane without first
performing a title search. Once
the funds exchange hands, you
lose almost all of your leverage.
While you may legally be entitled
to receive a return of monies paid
to an unscrupulous ‘seller’ who
did not own the plane you just
acquired, the reality is that you
will probably never see a dime of
that money.
Having a title search performed
is very easy. Personally, I have
always used the AOPA title service. After providing a few pieces
of critical information, the title
search folks will research the
aircraft and report back items
such as the registered owner—
according to the FAA — and any
liens filed against the airplane. It
is important to know of these ►
Fall 2008
31
items so that any discrepancies
can be taken care of prior to monies changing hands. If you are financing a portion of the aircraft’s
purchase price with a lending
institution, they will (most likely)
not even process your application
until the aircraft has passed the
title search process.
FAA Paperwork
The FAA must also be notified
that the aircraft has been sold
and informed as to the identity of
the new owner(s). To accomplish
this, there are two forms that
need to be completed and mailed
to the FAA. Both of these are
multi-sheet, carbon copy forms
and must be completed as originals (i.e., you cannot make a copy
of the form and complete). AOPA
or the FAA (through your local
FSDO) can provide these original
forms.
Form 8050-2 – Aircraft Bill of Sale:
This form is to be completed at
the time of the sale and before
any monies exchange hands.
Since no formal titles exist for airplanes (unlike for cars or motorcycles), the owner of an airplane is,
for all practical purposes, deemed
to be the person registered with
the FAA as the owner. As such,
the registered owner must sign
the Bill of Sale form. Make sure
that all registered owners sign
this form and follow the instructions to the L-E-T-T-E-R or it will be
returned to you by the FAA.
Form 8050-1 – Aircraft Registration Application: This form is best
completed at the time of the sale
but it is not as urgent as the Bill of
Sale form. This form registers you
as the new owner of the airplane
and allows future inquiries into
the FAA N-Number ownership
database to identify you as the
proper registered owner. Do
not forget to print and sign your
name. The pink copy of the
8050-1 serves as the temporary
32
RedAlert
registration of the plane until the
permanent card is sent from the
FAA and should be kept in the
plane at all times.
Personally, I like to complete both
forms at the same time, make
photocopies of them and mail
them together to the FAA. This
has proven a most reliable method and I have yet to encounter an
issue using this approach.
Insurance
It goes without saying (but I will)
– do not fly your plane until you
have it insured. It is best to have
the plane insured (both for hull
value and liability) at the instant
the funds are paid to the buyer. I
always alert the insurance agent
well ahead of the sale, obtain a
quote, know that coverage can be
bound with a phone call once the
transaction is concluded and remember to make that call as soon
as I pay for the aircraft. If the
proverbial meteor hits your new
Yak-52 at that moment of initial
ownership and you are uninsured,
you bear the full loss. I also keep
a copy of my insurance agent’s
card in my plane along with a
summary letter of the coverage
levels maintained.
Another item many aircraft owners like to have is a Hold Harmless
or Release of Liability form signed
by all passengers. One of the true
joys of aviation is taking aviation
and non-aviation friends and
enthusiasts up for a ride. Since
there are inherent risks present in
every flight, having the passenger
read and sign the release form
offers a moderate degree of protection, although in our litigious
society it is often suspect as to
how much protection this type
of signed document affords. Still,
better to have it versus not.
State’s Rights
Depending on which state in this
great nation you call home, you
will probably have to pay some
sort of tax on the purchase of
the aircraft and also register the
aircraft with a specific state governmental entity.
Tax: Since I live in Illinois, I paid a
percentage of the purchase price
as a sales-like tax to the Illinois
Department of Revenue. Since
I was not sure how this whole
process worked, I reviewed their
website and made a few calls
until I eventually talked to the
right person. I soon had the
forms and they soon had my
money. I am sure there are plenty
of stories of tax schemes where
this-guy-my-brother-knows only
paid a fraction of the tax as he
under-reported the sale value of
the airplane. What you report to
the FAA and to the state government as a purchase price of your
airplane is your business. Life
has taught me that the tax man
taketh some now or the tax man
taketh a lot later. I view the fees
and taxes I pay to fly, whether
they be annual or one time, to
be the price of admission to this
wonderful vocation.
Registration
The Land of Lincoln also requires
that all planes be registered. The
fee is modest and my beautiful white and red paint scheme
now boasts a lovely Illinois-state
shaped sticker on the starboard
fuselage. If you are not sure if
your state requires registration,
start with your state’s Department of Transportation (usually
the Aeronautics Division) and
they can usually direct you to the
right source for answers or forms.
As an aside, your state may also
require you, as a pilot, to register with them. Illinois requires
individual pilots to register for
two year periods and the fee
is nominal. As with any local
government, it pays to ask and
get the right information. I have
found that compliance is always
the path of least resistance.
The Experimental Category
Up until now, the purchase of
your experimental airplane has
been the same as that of a certified GA airplane. However, there
are several additional items with
which you must comply to be
completely legal. Luckily, your
local FSDO can help with most of
them.
First, the word EXPERIMENTAL
must be clearly displayed on the
aircraft so that all may see it. The
Federal Aviation Regulations
(FARs) require this, but you may
also request a modified tail (or
‘N’) number with an ‘X’ in it to
indicate your airplane is experimental. For example, my Yak-52
is N15YK, but if I was granted
permission to remove the EXPERIMENTAL from the side of the fuselage, the N-number would need
to be changed to NX15YK. The
FAA’s website or your local FAA
representative (see FSDO below)
is a great source for the details
of how to go about making this
change.
What’s a FSDO?
At some point in your training,
you were told about the local
Flight Service District Office
(FSDO) and all of the benefits
they can provide. You will soon
become intimately familiar with
some of these benefits as you
continue with the acquisition
of your experimental RedStar
aircraft.
During the purchase process,
you will discover that the experimental aircraft does not
have a traditional airworthiness
certificate from the manufacturer present from the time it
was manufactured (i.e., as do all
U.S.-certified airplanes). You will
need an inspection by the local
FSDO so that they can issue a new
Special Airworthiness Certificate
(SAC) and Operating Limitations
for the aircraft. You should have
received a copy of the limitations
under which the previous owner
was operating. When you contact
the FSDO, ask for the maintenance side to schedule an experimental aircraft airworthiness and
operating limit inspection. They
will direct you from there.
In my case, the FSDO representative and I talked a few times on
the phone before he came out
to my hangar and conducted an
inspection of the Yak-52 I had
recently purchased. He had the
completed Operating Limitation
paperwork with him and soon
thereafter I had the SAC. It was
a very efficient and painless process. Both of these documents
are to be kept in the plane at
all times with the SAC being on
‘display’ so it can be seen through
the cockpit canopy (presumably
in case you are not present during a ramp check or other similar
event). Your plane will probably
be categorized as ExperimentalExhibition’ – the FSDO representative can explain exactly what
this means and the limitations
imposed by such a classification.
I also was given a requirement to
make a flight log book entry using FSDO-provided wording once
I received my High Performance
/ Complex rating required to fly
the Yak-52. The FSDO agent even
provided the wording for the
entry.
Finally, you will have to file a
Program Letter with the FAA, via
the FSDO, each year. This is a very
easy letter to write and several
members of the RPA would be
glad to share their letters for use
as a template if you just ask.
FAA Regulations & Inspections
Certain latitudes are afforded
the experimental aircraft owner,
especially in terms of the use
of non-certified equipment
and parts and the types of
maintenance items that can be
performed by the owner. However, you must still have an annual inspection (called an Annual
Condition Inspection) performed
by an A&P / IA and you must still
follow every FAR and other FAA
rules and regulations.
If your aircraft comes equipped
with parachutes, these must be
inspected, too. The FAA is in the
process of moving to requiring
parachute inspections (which
consist of a repack and safety
inspection) every 180 days, effective early 2009. Again, the FAA
website or your local FSDO can
provide additional information.
The paperwork requirements of
buying and owing a Yak-52 are
not onerous nor are they significantly more than that of a traditional GA aircraft. These rules are
well known by experimental aircraft owners and are easy to follow. Several document examples
exist on the Internet and I would
be glad to provide any reader
with a copy of any of the above
items via email at cubflyer1940@
yahoo.com.
Buying an airplane like a Yak-52
is a significant investment of
time and money. Hopefully the
paperwork involved is now better understood and a little less
concerning.
F
OR
FAS
T
MA
TIO
QU
ALI
FIE
N
D
Fall 2008
33
CONTRAILS
Besides learning how to fly an
airplane, these days a pilot has to
master the skills of communicating with a range of other aviation
professionals just to complete a
flight. It’s a feeling of both power
and sometimes humility (when
not done right) every time you
push that microphone button and
begin broadcasting. The aviation
“world” out there hears what you
say and instinctively formulates
a quick assessment of your proficiency. Air traffic control people
have shared opinions with me,
indicating they can determine
the level of flight experience and
professionalism by what the pilot
says over the radio.
BY DOUG GILLISS
are no controllers involved, such
as at uncontrolled fields, proper
radio communication is still important for safety.
As pilots upgrade to faster and
more complex aircraft the need
for both knowledge of the proper
radio calls and timely calls becomes even more important. The
airplanes are going faster and
more planning is necessary for a
safe and orderly departure and
arrival to any airfield. In essence,
you have to upgrade your radio
skills along
them standard broadcasts of the
aircraft position, following the
prescribed location calls from
the Airman’s Information Manual.
You also hear some non-standard
calls, ones that make it difficult to
determine exactly where the aircraft is. For example, I have heard,
“CessnaXXX approaching the
field.” What does that mean? Five
miles out? Ten miles out? Who
knows? If entering controlled
airspace with a tower operating
such a call would require a followup inquiry by the tower operator
to more precisely
deter-
Ground, tower
and air
traffic
control people
as well as other pilots have
to be able to listen to many pilots,
understand what they want and
communicate back with them
the necessary instructions or
information. Often, particularly in
high-traffic areas, there are several people attempting to communicate simultaneously. All have
a message to relay, whether it’s
a pilot who needs to speak to a
controlling agency or a controller
who needs to give a pilot instructions. Sometimes it’s frustrating
to keep waiting for a break in the
communication exchanges to
insert your message. Occasionally, another pilot “steps on” your
message, further interfering with
radio transmissions.
Generally, radio exchanges work
well through a system of standard
phrases and responses, keeping
transmissions as brief and accurate as possible. Even when there
34
RedAlert
with new pilot skills for faster
and more powerful aircraft. But it
is not only pilots flying jets that
need to hone their radio transmission skills. There are some
hazards at many airfields that
are caused by pilots of all levels
of proficiency. Let’s call it what it
is: radio discipline. Since it is not
perfect and it can be a safety issue, let’s review some of the common breaches of radio procedure
and identify what the standards
are. We will leave IFR communications—a much more rigid set of
guidelines—for another day and
focus on VFR flying.
Common Problems
1. Aircraft position If you fly more
than a few times a year you will
hear all kinds of position descriptions given by pilots, many of
mine the aircraft’s location. At
an uncontrolled field such a call
over the Unicom frequency would
do nothing more than confuse
all the pilots flying in the airport
traffic pattern. Such calls, instead
of informing controllers and other
pilots just add to unnecessary
radio chatter and block the frequency for other aircraft.
Similar calls that only obscure
communications that we have
all observed include: coming
up on the 45, south of the field,
overhead (At what altitude?
Pattern altitude?), ready to turn
in, downwind (Which runway?
Which airport?) At uncontrolled
fields problems compound because other airports may use the
same Unicom frequency. So it is
important to identify the precise
location—downwind—and the
runway—runway 18—and the
airport—French Valley Airport.
That way, everyone in the area
knows where you are.
The basic calls are simple and
taught to new pilots everyday. I
find it’s the more experienced pilots that get casual in their radio
discipline. Location is usually the
first of these calls; broadcasting
a non-standard call impairs the
safety of all the nearby aircraft.
Calling: “45 to downwind, runway
18, French Valley Airport,” then
calling downwind,
base and final
with the
same run-
way and airport designations is a
foolproof way to stay legal, safe
and professional in operating the
aircraft radio.
Jet aircraft and aircraft that fly at
higher cruise altitudes can often
receive radio transmissions for
many more miles than aircraft
flying at lower altitudes. I have
heard radio calls from Catalina
Island when I was 50 miles inland
in Southern California, going to
an airport that used the same
Unicom frequency. Often three
airports’ radio transmissions can
be heard on the same frequency.
Aircraft position calls are especially important when entering
airspace controlled by a tower.
I have heard tower controllers
chide pilots entering their air-
space without an initial contact.
Besides being an FAA regulatory
violation, such radio procedures
risk the safety of other aircraft in
the area. Similarly, failing to know
your exact position and contacting controllers for clearance into
Class B airspace before entering
the airspace is asking for an FAA
violation.
Safety and professional practices dictate following easy
guidelines: know where you
are, make the appropriate radio
calls, describing your position
using standard terminology—
including the airfield name at
uncontrolled airports.
2. Made-up calls. Maybe some
pilots believe they will sound
more experienced or knowledgeable if they make calls that
are made up or combinations
of calls that they have heard or
used in different environments.
For example, no pilot is cleared
to hold at an uncontrolled field,
so why would they announce,
“BeechcraftXXX, on to position
and hold.” It makes no sense.
What are they going to do next,
release themselves and clear
themselves for takeoff at an
uncontrolled field? Obviously,
the pilot (pilots—I have heard it
numerous times) may have made
that call at a controlled field
after receiving instructions from
a controller. However, it clearly
does not apply at an uncontrolled
field. Conversely, at controlled
fields when a controller clears a
pilot on to the runway to hold for
takeoff, the pilot needs to confirm that instruction and runway.
Confirmation of that instruction is
sometimes neglected also.
Other favorites include: left final
(On base? On final? Turning final?
Hard to tell),
turning
out
of
traffic (Departing the pattern,
left, right or where?),
arriving, and many more
you have heard.
Standard radio calls are established so everyone knows where
each aircraft is and what their
intentions are. Using calls that
pilots cannot be certain of the
message threatens safety.
3. Brevity. The days of Citizens
Band-type radio chatter for civil
aircraft are gone. To quote Section 4-2-1 of the AIM “. . . Jargon,
chatter and CB slang have no
place in ATC communications.”
Being professional also means being brief and precise in your radio
transmissions. Being brief without
giving the desired message is
not acceptable either. If you limit
transmissions to the standard terminology you will be both brief
and informative to other pilots
and controllers. Prepare what you
will say in continued on page 41►
Fall 2008
35
Mutual Support
BY DARRELL GARY
Mutual support is a term that we
usually associate with tactical
formation. We think of it as two
or more aircraft operating in close
coordination in order to optimize
defensive and offensive maneuvering and to more effectively
prosecute an attack. The lone
wolf quickly becomes vulnerable.
Mutually supportive movement
of aircraft maximizes lookout,
enables fluid maneuvering, optimizes communication, greatly
enhances defense and allows the
concentration of offensive capabilities.
Mutual support is a concept that
we should incorporate in every
flight. It begins in the brief and
ends in the debrief. Flight members should be prepared to assist
each other in the preparation and
positioning of all aircraft prior to
flight. They should be prepared
to assist the designated Flight
Leader in assembling all information necessary for the successful
planning and execution of the
mission.
Prior to taxi, each member of the
flight should carefully check his
aircraft and any other aircraft
in his/her field of view for discrepancies. In the run-up, this
should be repeated: checking the
position of canopies, controls,
for visible fluids or anything else
that may be questionable. It is far
easier to discuss and confirm it on
the ground than it is to deal with
it in the air. On the runway you
should carefully check the other
aircraft in the flight one last time.
In flight, mutual support is even
more critical.
The concept of mutual support
has been utilized since WWI. It
was further developed and formalized as tactical doctrine by
Werner Molders and employed
by the Luftwaffe in the run-up
to WWII. The basic two ship
element, section, rotte or para
is the building block. The two
36
RedAlert
work together in support of each
other in combat, in emergencies
or in response to any situation
that confronts them. This bond
cannot and must not be broken.
In combat they work together to
optimize mutual defense and to
prosecute coordinated attacks. In
emergencies they work together
to ensure the safe return to base.
If the Lead pilot loses navigation
or communication capabilities,
the lead may be passed to the
Wing pilot who then would be
responsible to safely return the
flight to base. In more critical situations, the element may join in
close formation to assess damage
and to provide escort services
to base or to the scene of the
crash. In the latter circumstance
the escort aircraft would become
the on-scene commander for the
Search and Rescue until relieved
or upon reaching Bingo fuel.
Upon return to base flight members may assist each other in
establishing proper position. In
the pattern, flight members check
the configuration of the other
flight members. It gets busy in
the pattern during multi-aircraft
arrivals. Pilots become distracted
and abandon ingrained habit patterns. There have been numerous
reports of saves from gear up
landings within the RPA. A timely
“Tiger two ..Check gear” call is
far less embarrassing than bent
metal, injury or a fouled runway.
After landing recheck the configuration of all aircraft….flaps up.
The bottom line is don’t be afraid
to communicate if you feel that
something may be wrong. Don’t
allow a bad situation to become
worse.
Always take care of each other
chocks to chocks. What happens
to your Wingman happens to you.
Allow nothing to compromise the
integrity of your element and you
will be rewarded with many years
of safe flying.
Do you know what the meaning was behind our
new motto of “Serious Fun”?
Serious in that we regionally train at our clinics
and have the finest knowledge and tools available
of any civil formation or warbird group, and fun
because we use these tools and a commitment
to training in an effort to improve our level of
proficiency. This ensures flying together under the
RPA banner is always safe and fun.
If we flew with several formation standards and
didn’t care about our formation skills, then would
flying together would be neither fun or safe.
YAK PROJECT continued from Page 16
produce the products, comparison of alternatives on the market
and performance data. As Darrell
mentioned, he has brought the
well known names in the RPA
community together to fulfill his
vision. The RPA community will
benefit from the compilation of
the talent and a review of what is
available to you as a consumer.
Before your eyes, you will see this
stock machine experience a complete makeover.
Modifications will include fuel
tank replacement with larger
capacity bladders, a souped-up
engine and exhaust system, new
canopy glass to include a Malcolm canopy on the front slider,
avionics upgrades which include
EFIS, GPS and an entire new
panel, paint and fabric and electric trim to name a few. You will
be front and center to receive the
product comparisons, cost analysis and helpful tips to assist you
in avoiding the learning curve. In
addition, N90YK is undergoing a
weight loss program and we will
keep you apprised of how lean it
becomes.
Your RPA president has taken the
lead and all of the community
is set to benefit from his experience.
NX90YK Project Priorities
PRIORITY 1
1. Remove existing engine and
package for shipment
2. Install new engine and accessories, install silicone ignition
wire on harness, B&C alternator. Replace nose case seal
and hoses
3. Complete firewall forward
visual upgrades
4. Add electric fuel pump
5. Install owner provided 3
bladed prop and install two
bladed prop on current owner
aircraft
6. Install modified exhaust
7. Replace original fabric with
Ceconyte or Stits (install two
axis electric trim if practical)
8. Install wing tip kit and position lighting
9. Replace rudder bearing with
sealed unit
10. Install FOD guard in tail section
11. Replace front canopy with
owner provided bubble
canopy (alternate replace all
glass)
12. Seal fuselage against smoke
intrusion
13. Custom upholstery on cockpit
bulkheads
14. Install Clark and Bose headset
jacks
15. Replace hoses
16. Install Hooker harnesses
17. Overhaul landing gear and
flap actuators
18. Install owner provided Infinity
grip in front cockpit.
19. Add cockpit lighting
20. Remove both existing warning light panels. Retain “G”
meter, Chip light and Alternator light
21. Upgrade avionics;
EFIS use separate pitot source
and flux valve, retain existing
airspeed and engine instruments
GPS integrate to moving map
of EFIS
Engine monitor
Fuel flow
Dual radio
ICS
Transponder
Vertical card compass both
cockpits near location of former warning lights
22. Move circuit breaker switches
to front panel
23. New paint per owner.
24. Add baggage compartment
with hard cover.
25. Add owner specified smoke
system
PRIORITY 2
1. Install auxiliary fuel
2. Install equipment for video
3. Replace canopy bungees,
screws with stainless, canopy
nuts, batteries, cowl louver
cushion ring
4. Install standby gyro and new
VSI
Fall 2008
37
BY DREW BLAHNICK
“…to provide the members with the tools, knowledge and training opportunities to promote universal standardization of
procedures, safe flying skills and the achievement of an ever increasing level of proficiency in their formation flying”
Serious Fun and the culture of
the mission debrief
Each FAST Lane article generally looks at some aspect of our
universal standard operating procedures (SOP). For those actively
flying these wonderful aircraft
, the concept of “SOP” for a
membership that spans an entire
continent (and many folks overseas) is one of the most important
safety features that comes from
membership in the RPA. For without one SOP, and the tools such
as the new formation manual to
support it, we would fragment
into countless groups speaking
a slightly different “formation
language” – unsafe and divided.
That’s not “Serious Fun” by anyone’s definition.
This article will explore one of the
toughest maneuvers out there
in formation, one that requires
almost all your faculties of perception, memory, patience, leadership, followership and even raw
guts. It’s the RPA mission debrief.
The RedStar Pilots Association
began in its present form in 2002,
and one of the desired cultural
traits of this organization was
and is an environment of honest
self-inspection towards a higher
level of execution. It means that
from the individual formation
students, wingmen, flight leads,
and check pilots, from the clinic
organizers, regional directors and
national officers, in fact all the
components of the RPA, we must
demand from ourselves and our
brothers a culture that respects
input, expects integrity, and always looks inward to improve the
way we fly, follow, lead, organize,
manage and execute; this is the
culture of the debrief.
Is there any difference between
a mission debrief and a typical
38
RedAlert
training or student debrief? Not
really, but we will be putting a
much greater emphasis in this
article on defining mission objectives and the analysis of their success. To begin, let’s look at where
the objectives come from – the
mission planning process.
The “Five Zero” mission at Oshkosh this year was unlike any
EAA mission the RPA has ever
planned, and hailed a new process for future such endeavors. A
panel of experienced RPA pilots
was assembled by the National
Officers under one mission
commander/mission lead. This
mission planning process, unlike
past practices that often resulted
in a frenzied last minute “plan
while we brief” culture, combined
the varied experiences of several
Flight Leaders and Check Pilots
to chair fly the mission for weeks
ahead of time. “Ahead of time”,
that’s a critical concept in mission planning. There is a saying
in the special operations world
that rings true for all of us – “The
plan is never a finished plan until
you’ve run out of time to plan”.
Solid mission planning takes just
that – time. With that time, one of
the most important functions for
the RPA, and perhaps your team,
is defining the specific mission
objectives; for they focus our
training before the mission, guide
our decisions during the mission,
and form the basis by which we
measure success after the mission.
Defining an effective Mission
Objective
Why are we flying this mission?
What is collectively expected
of us? What’s the focus of the
mission? In two and four ship
training flights at our clinics, mission objectives may be as simple
as listing the maneuvers to be
practiced in the time allotted.
No time on target requirements
or complex display formations;
these sorties may simply provide
a safe, productive and predictable training environment for
the instructors and students. A
mass formation at the airshow or
local fly-in, missing man tribute
or any public display mission has
very specific objectives, and they
should be well defined.
Whether this is accomplished by
the Flight Leader, or the entire
team, you should define the mission objectives as clear, achievable and measurable events.
Vague mission objectives is not
what you’re looking for here, i.e.
“Look good in diamond formation
for the opening ceremonies of
the Springfield County Fair” is too
vague. A better MO might be;
“Be overhead at 1200 feet agl +/15 seconds of the conclusion of
the National Anthem in Diamond
formation for a North to South
Banana pass with all aircraft in
position and no significant aircraft movement detectable from
the ground observer”
Is this a clear and achievable
mission objective? Will this motivate all members to plan, train
and execute at their best? Is it
measurable after execution? The
answer is clearly yes to all, and
defining such an MO (you may
have several for one mission) for
all flight members should be one
of the first steps in your mission
planning process. As mentioned,
such MOs define the baseline for
measuring success, and that’s
where the culture of the debrief
comes in.
We’re not going to write a long
article on debriefing, instead,
we’ll just cover the absolute
“must haves” and the outline for
mission oriented debriefs. This
debriefing format has all the
same elements of a training mission debrief, what happened, why
and how do we fix it, but with
qualified flyers tasked with a clear
mission, it’s crucial the debrief is
framed around those measurable
mission objectives!
Your Debrief Must Haves
For an effective debrief, it should
contain these elements;
Integrity. You can’t explore solutions unless all members can analyze the true facts of the mission.
Everyone makes mistakes, it happens and ultimately, this is how
we improve. Without integrity,
the debrief has no purpose.
A Rankless Environment. This
is the formation debrief, and it
doesn’t matter if the recipient is a
check pilot, regional director, mission commander, mass lead, your
best friend or your personal hero,
Chuck Yeager himself; everyone
is equal during debrief when it
comes to giving and receiving
input and/or assessments on the
mission. This includes the person
giving the input; it shouldn’t
matter if it’s a new T-34 pilot and
junior wingman you’ve invited
to fly in your group for the first
time – if the input is accurate,
the perceived rank or position of
the provider has no bearing on
the information presented. Have
you been to a clinic and seen the
student wingman recite something from the new manual that
seasoned flyers were unclear of;
these guys are sharp, their heads
are in the books and they just
may have the correct keys to the
kingdom.
A Nameless Environment. Much
like a rankless environment, the
debrief should not have a tone
best described as “personal” in
nature. This is a serious event, it’s
a learning event, keep it impersonal; you may even avoid the use
of first names and simply address
events using position numbers
when covering what happened.
“Number 2 in the diamond was
out of position; video review
shows about 4 feet wide during
the second banana pass”. Finally,
there is no room for individuals
allowing outside personal grudges to creep in to the discussion or
analysis.
Someone to lead/manage the
discussion. The Flight Leader
should normally manage the debrief along the format provided in
this article, in chronological order
of execution. We use the KISS
system here; you flew it A-B-C,
then debrief it A-B-C. You don’t
want this to meander down side
discussions that burn valuable
training/discussion time - as an
instructor and principal manual
author, more than once I’ve allowed myself to move the debrief
away from the mission at hand
to discuss associated training or
manual topics. Better to save expanded or unrelated instructional
discussions for Q&A sessions after
the debrief. Remember, even
though the debrief is managed
and led by one person, the rankless environment holds true during its execution for everyone.
Mission Objectives. You should
have defined them going in, now
write them on the board or repeat them exactly word for word.
And remember; clear, achievable
and measurable.
this part of the debrief should be
rather clear. Now we use the very
familiar format of what happened
(a rather objective recount of the
mission in chronological order),
why did it happen (recognizing
what deviations occurred and any
contributing factors) and how do
we fix it (recommendations for
changes in techniques, procedures, training, communications,
etc.).
In a training debrief, our major
focus is on learning and perfecting the standard operating procedures found in the RPA formation
manual. While we are not advocating not addressing the minor
corrections in a mission qualified
event debrief (such as an airshow
or mass formation display), the
debrief must address the mission
objectives. If a minor deviation
occurred that did not impact the
overall mission objective, address
it and move on using your best
judgment, “I briefed hand signals
to begin simultaneous run ups,
number 2 did not wait, causing
all wingmen to follow suit; being
heads-up in the brief is critical, let’s always strive to fly the
briefed plan”. The leader quickly
addressed a deviation, applying
the what, why and how, but not
seeing this as impacting the mission objectives, he/she doesn’t
meander down a side road and
moves on while qualified pilots
note the deviation and make an
internal note for future correction.
After objectively reviewing the
mission, if the mission objectives were not achieved, or only
Body of the Debrief
partially so, now explore the why.
What contributed to not achievThe mission debrief should ading 100% success? Often, there
dress a fundamental question,
may be several contributing facdid we achieve our mission objec- tors to not achieving the objectives? Yes, no, only partially? This tive for that phase of the mission
is why we avoid vague mission
and the nameless/rankless debrief
objectives, and why they must be culture helps reveal these. This
not only achievable, but measurprocess may reveal a contributcontinued on page 42►
able. With clear measurable MO’s ing factor
Fall 2008
39
Vladimir continued from page 7
TE
FPR NO
Did you know that your annual FAST currency, recorded or what’s commonly known as the FPR form
is actually to assess pilot formation proficiency?
While currency may simply mean a pilot has flown
X number of times during a certain time period,
proficiency relates to the degree of mastery of a skill
and/or body of knowledge.
The FPR is more a training and proficiency assesment than simply a means to log a formation sortie,
and we have new FPR forms to help with this.
You can download an FPR form from your website
www.flyredstar.org under the Formation menu.
40
RedAlert
CONTRAIL continued from Page 35
advance. Listen, think, transmit,
then release the mic button.
Brevity is particularly important
if you are in a high performance
airplane and rapidly approaching the field. You need to make
timely radio calls then listen for a
response or other aircraft.
4. Aircraft identification While
brevity is a virtue in radio transmissions, failing to properly identify your aircraft is not the time to
adopt brevity, especially on initial
contact with a controlling agency.
It’s important on arrival at an
uncontrolled field too. Regulations require that the aircraft
identification call include the
type aircraft and full registration
number. I know, some small airports are used to having the same
aircraft depart and arrive and
everyone knows who they are.
When they hear “6Golf is back,”
it means something to them, but
is not clear to other pilots not
based at that field. If the proper
identification is Cessna 1926G, the
abbreviated call sign is not the
professional way to identify an
aircraft.
It is never safe to assume other
aircraft or controllers know who
you are. Give the full call sign,
then if controllers abbreviate it
using the last three numbers and
letters, follow their lead.
Incidentally, Experimental aircraft
are required to mention the term
“experimental” in their call sign
on initial contact with control
towers [FAR 91.319 (d) (3)]. I usually use the “Experimental Jet”
prefix for all operations, whether
controlled field or not. You don’t
want that Cessna 152 ahead of
you in the pattern to assume you
will follow him on final approach
at 50 knots do you?
Solutions
The solutions for the common
radio transmission challenges
in general aviation are relatively
simple. First, know what the radio
transmission should be before
you broadcast. Listen on the
frequency to improve situational
awareness and so you don’t
cut out some other aircraft’s
transmission. Think the message
through before pushing the mic
button. When you have made
your broadcast get off the radio
and listen some more.
The fundamental principles of
brevity and proper calls go together to make your flying more
professional, more courteous,
and, most important, safer.
Pilots and controllers will be
listening for you, show them you
are safe and professional.
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RS
eDITO
NOTE
n submit an ar ticle
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Fall 2008
41
SAFETY continued from Page 12
when we remember that there
are more instances of jammed
elevators than this chart suggests.
It includes the one I had in 2005,
which I obviously survived. Possibly the widespread use of FOD
barriers that started after these
accidents were publicized may
have checked this problem.
This should press home to the jet
guys the need to double check
the canopy locking mechanisms.
One of these incidents resulted
in an aft CG, causing the L-39 to
pitch up after takeoff, stall and
crash, resulting in two deaths.
And we have good news: there
have been only two reported
formation related incidents, one
in the UK and one in the US, both
resulting in only minor scrapes.
We are doing a fantastic job of
safe formation flying.
In summary, we need to do these
things to save lives and money:
• •Diligently use checklists
• Avoid low altitude aerobatics
• Don’t allow ourselves to be
distracted
• Maintain our situational
awareness
• Watch for tell-tale mental red
flags which hint that some of
the aforementioned virtues
have been compromised.
FAST LANE continued from Page 39
that occurred before the event
itself; perhaps a late personnel or
position change to the formation
team. Go through each mission
objective - you may have one
for each phase of the mission.
A large complex event like the
Oshkosh Five Zero certainly had a
mission objective for launch and
assembly of over 40 aircraft – that
was a complex operation in and
of itself!
Conclusion
So to recap, try this standard
format for your critical mission
debriefs:
• Define clear, achievable and
measurable mission objectives
during mission planning
• After the event, restate your
mission objectives early in
the debrief or mission review
process.
• Review what happened in
the mission, be objective and
42
RedAlert
don’t get side tracked.
• Now address each mission
objective that was not, or only
partially, achieved. Explore
the “why” and look at all
contributing factors that may
have impacted your success.
Many of the solutions on how
to improve will become self
evident through this process!
• Finish off with group consensus on recommendations for
future improvement and end
it on a high note!
Speaking of mission debriefs, in
the Oshkosh “Five Zero” mission,
the Advisory Panel and Mission
Commander are completing an
After Action Report – in effect
a thorough, balanced and open
debrief of the mission with input
from those who flew it. This process will look at all the MOs and
strives to recognize all contributing factors impacting the mission
objectives. The goal is simple;
insure we are always improving
as one of the leading warbird associations in the World.
Is the Culture of the Debrief
covered in the manual? You bet,
check out Appendix C. While it
focuses on the typical training
mission debrief, the components
are all there and should be used
in every debrief in the RPA. If you
apply the information contained
here and define your MO’s in a
clear, achievable and measurable
way, your debriefs will be more
focused, effective, and will pay a
higher return on that most valuable of commodities; time.
Next in the FAST LANE:
Formation Abnormal
Procedures and in flight
emergencies..
Mission Planning
September 15 - 19 Lamar FAST Clinic
Lamar, CO (KLAA)
October 9 - 12 Desert Thunder IV
Thermal, CA (KTRM)
September 15 - 19 Operation Pumpkin Drop
Sanford, ME (KSFM)
October 17 - 19 Lone Star Red Star Fall Pack & Fly
Lancaster, TX (KLNC)July 25 - August 4 AirVenture
2008
September 20 Lancaster Air Fair
Lancaster, CA (KWJF)
September 26 - 28 Fall North Central Clinic & Fly-in
Mount Comfort, IN
(KMQJ)
Register for any RPA events online at:
www.flyredstar.org
October 3 - 5 Fall Formation Clinic
Easton, MD (KESN)
This special issue cover photo is by Tyson Rininger .
Buy Tyson’s book “RED FLAG - Air Combat for the 21st Century “
by visiting http://tvrphotography.com/redflag/
BUILDING YOUR FUTURE
PRESERVING AN AVIATION LEGACY
Fall 2008
43
Forward all non deliverable mail to:
RedStar Pilots Association
C/O Byron Fox
80 Milland Drive
Mill Valley, CA 4941
The RedStar Pilots Association is a non
profit organization dedicated to the SAFE
operation of Eastern Block aircraft. For further information or to become a member,
please visit: www.flyredstar.org
To advertise in this publication, please contact Robert Mortara robwork@robinhill.
com