This year for our trip to Catalina Island, we took a flight to the island on Island Express Helicopters, just as we did last year. I took some video of the last trip that you can see at this link. Damsel took some stills this year which I stitched together in the composite below - the helicopter arrival at the helipad - the departure over Los Angeles Harbor - Passing Avalon Bay - on the pad at Pebbly Beach.

However, we did something this year that we have never done before - we took firearms. I made a couple of calls to Island Express and Catalina Express (the boat coming back) to inquire about the policies for bringing firearms for non-CCW private citizens. (We have the Utah CCW but the idiots in the California Legislature deem that to be worthless here).

The helicopter folks told us to declare the firearms to the attendant who would ensure that they were packed in the baggage compartment. We were instructed to pack the ammo in separate luggage.

The boat people said to present the weapons to the Captain of the vessel before boarding and the same admonition for packing ammo as before.

Since we didn’t want to take the guns with us during the day while we were touring and dining, we had the hotel clerk lock them in a safe compartment for which I was presented the only key.

We packed the guns (S&W 686 and 442) in their original cases with padlocks. To avoid blatantly carrying gun cases in the terminals and around the streets of Avalon, I packed both cases in a paper supermarket shopping bag which I kept with me at all times until surrendering to the transportation agents.

Lessons learned - we can get both revolvers into a single case since the 442 is very small and the 686 has a short barrel. The safe boxes do not have any padding, so there was metal-to-metal contact during storage and handling of the box. Next time we will put the guns in a pouch or padded gun case when we put them into the safe.

This past weekend, we celebrated Armed Forces Day by visiting some of our military folks who brought some static displays and military equipment to show off to the public. The Army brought this UH-60 Blackhawk for all to sit in, touch, photograph and just plain gawk.

While I gawked, I remembered something that a 70’s news anchor, Harry Reasoner, said when he compared airplane and helicopter pilots with the following statements:

The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by its nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly.

A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying, immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.

That is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why, in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened, it is about to.

- - Commentary by Harry Reasoner, February 16, 1971

As you may or may not know, I am a pilot - I’m rated in both airplanes and helicopters. While I agree with Mr. Reasoner’s basic corollary, I can see that it only applies to a pilot while flying a particular aircraft type.

For example, while flying airplanes under visual conditions, I do a little drill by identifying potential emergency landing sites around the airplane - an alert, but mostly casual drill. But, when piloting a helicopter, I find myself making slight course changes in order to be in a position to autorotate to a landing site. Sort of like a stepping-stone approach to navigation. It’s a bit more intense then the airplane drill.

When not flying, I like to think that I can be as extroverted or introspective as conditions warrant.

Damsel got this nice photo of a vintage Beech 18 as it flew overhead today. She says that the sky was filled with nice wispy clouds all day and it was pretty nice. Click on the image for the 800×600 pixel image.

For me, the B-18 is a nostalgic symbol of my days in Naval Aviation. I flew co-pilot in one of these for a former Blue Angel pilot who invited several sailors to join him on a currency flight. Later in my (short) Navy career, I maintained avionics on these and other reciprocating (piston) engine airplanes and helicopters. The military designation for the Beech 18 is C-45.

Wikipedia has this and more about this venerable aircraft.

The Beechcraft Model 18, or “Twin Beech”, as it was better known, is a 6-11 place, twin-engine, low-wing, conventional-gear aircraft that was manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. This model saw service during and after World War II in a number of versions including the United States Army Air Forces C-45 Expeditor, AT-7 Navigator, AT-11 Kansan, and for the United States Navy, UC-45J Navigator and the SNB-1 Kansan. An estimated aggregate total time in service for the aircraft time is in excess of 20,000,000 hours of flight time.

The Beech 18 is the most modified US-certified aircraft design, with over 200 FAA approved Supplemental Type Certificates on record for the aircraft.

The aircraft uses have included aerial spraying, sterile bug release, fish seeding, dry ice cloud seeding, aerial fire fighting, airborne mail pick up and drop, ambulance service, numerous movie productions, skydiving, freight, gun and drug smuggling, engine test bed, skywriting and banner tow. A number of Model 18s were operated as passenger aircraft, The Model 18 was also the first aircraft flown by Philippine Airlines, Asia’s first and oldest airline. Many are now in private hands as highly prized collectibles.

Driving home this afternoon, I saw this cloud formation. It’s an ‘atmospheric wave’ which is formed by the atmosphere rising and falling like ripples in a pond. When the air rises above a threshold, its temperature drops below the point where visible moisture condenses. As it flows downward, it warms again and the moisture evaporates.

This type of formation can occur in the lee side of mountains or ahead of an approaching front under the ‘right’ conditions. This wave is one ahead of a front since there is rain in the forecast later this evening.

Pilots of smaller aircraft are wary of areas where these form since turbulence can be severe to extreme. I can tell you from personal experience as a pilot that it is not much fun trying to keep the wings level in even moderate turbulence.

UPDATE: The forecast was accurate - our chance of rain is now 100% at 7:50PM PDT.

Today, we had errands - we took the dog to the groomer, shopped for groceries (in two stores), bought some DVDs and visited the Western Museum of Flight. While I was there, I got into the cockpit of an F5 fighter jet and snapped this image of the instrument panel. You can see my feet on the rudder pedals at the bottom of the picture (click to enlarge).

I copied this blurb from the museum’s website:

The Western Museum of Flight is a non-profit, educational institution dedicated to preserving and displaying aircraft history and artifacts of Southern California’s aviation heritage. The Air Museum’s educational programs give children an opportunity to see and touch the airplanes that made aviation history. The Air Museum offers an inside look at completed and in-progress aircraft restoration projects. The Western Museum of Flight’s collection includes numerous Warbirds, aircraft and target drones, piston and jet aircraft engines, aircraft components, aircraft ejection seats, World War II instruments, aircrew accessories, and an extensive model aircraft collection.

I took this close-up of the Goodyear Airship ‘Spirit of America‘ during a pass almost directly over the house this past weekend.

You can see the twin 210 horsepower engine nacelles configured as pushers. Behind the props are a pair of scoops which collect some of the propwash to direct airflow to ballonets which assist airship trim and control. The gondola is about 22¾ feet long and can hold a pilot and six passengers.

Coincidentally, the light display had the word ‘ON’ displayed which looks like it’s saying ‘NO’ from this angle.

President Bush will be paying a visit to Robinson Helicopter in Torrance, California tomorrow. That’s about a mile and a half from our house. We’d like to go see and hear the President, but admission is by invitation only.

Bush to visit Torrance on Wednesday

President Bush will pay a visit to Robinson Helicopter Co. in Torrance on Wednesday as he urges Congress to pass three free trade agreements.

Bush will take a tour of the company, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of civilian helicopters, and deliver remarks to employees.

Robinson Helicopter posted a record year in 2007, largely on the strength of its exports to 55 countries. Much of that success is due to the declining value of the dollar, which makes American exports less expensive to foreign customers.

“We’re an unusual story because we’re not outsourcing everything,” said Kurt Robinson, a company vice president. “I think it’s pretty exciting that we get the president here. It’s fun to show off American manufacturing.”

In his State of the Union Address on Monday night, Bush urged Congress to approve trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, which would reduce or eliminate tariffs on American-made goods.

“These agreements will level the playing field,” Bush said. “They will give us better access to nearly 100 million customers. And they will support good jobs for the finest workers in the world: those whose products say ‘Made in the USA.’”

Read the article in the South Bay Daily Breeze.

A hundred and four years ago today, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flights from Kill Devil Hill, close to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their history-making effort sparked the greatest period of technology in the United States and abroad.

I took my first flying lesson on December 16th, 1961, just a day short of their 58th anniversary. By then, the sound barrier had been broken, satellites were in orbit, the Russian, Yuri Gagarin had already orbited the Earth, and John Glenn would be in orbit within a couple of months. It was a great time to get into a career in aviation or aerospace.

What makes Wilbur and Orville Wright’s achievement so significant is not only that it was the first time in history that a manned, powered aircraft completed a fully-controlled, sustained flight, but it proved to naysayers around the world that heavier-than-air flight was practical. After the Wrights proved their critics wrong, the field of aeronautical engineering was born. Governments, universities, and inventors soon began dedicating vast resources to understanding the science of flight and methods of building improved flying machines. In essence, every event and discovery in aviation either led up to or followed from the flight of the Wright Flyer, and it changed the way we live forever.

Image and text courtesy of AeroSpaceWeb.org.

You might think that facing away from the blast fence and tying down to concrete-reinforced pad eyes would be precautions to take in case your AirBus jumps the chocks during engine run-up. But I guess they do things differently in France.

Via AP:

Emirates carrier denies Airbus injuries

An Airbus 340-600 lies on the tarmac at Toulouse Blagnac airport, southwestern France, Friday, Nov. 16, 2007. The aircraft slammed into a wall during engine tests on the ground on Thursday.

An Airbus spokesman also corrected the company’s statement late Thursday that seven employees of Etihad Airways were injured, saying they in fact worked for a firm contracted to test the plane.
 

Ten people were injured Thursday during engine tests of an Airbus 340-600 near the southwestern French city of Toulouse shortly before the jet was scheduled to be delivered to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad. Airbus said nine people on board were injured, along with one person on the ground.

Airbus Chief Operating Officer Fabrice Bregier said late Thursday that seven Etihad employees were among the wounded. “It was normal for the client to be present on board the plane,” Bregier said.

You can click on each image to get a closer look.

On this Veterans Day of 2007, in addition to thanking all the veterans for their service, we wanted to recognize a special veteran, David Tallichet Jr. who recently passed away here in Southern California.

Image right: Proud Bird Restaurant - click for large view.

Tallichet flew 20 missions over Europe in the second world war, and then came to California where he became a successful restauranteer and entrepreneur. He was best known for his Proud Bird Restaurant located right next to the final approach path at LAX. David also established Ports O’ Call Village in San Pedro, California, which is a nautical-themed collection of restaurants and shops.

Image courtesy 100th Bomb Group - Milton Alvo crew. Standing (left to right): Walter M. Gibson, Jr., Milton Alvo, David C. Tallichet II and Donald E. Israel, Kneeling: George I. Murray, Boleslaw V. Bitel, Farrell J. Davis, Woodrow W. Wilson and Leonard G. Woodruff. Click on the image for close-up view.

Read the complete article about the life of David C Tallichet, II, from the South Bay Daily Breeze:

Continue reading » A Special WWII Veteran