You can't always get what you want but if you try sometime you'll find you get what you need.
That's a very cool story and a great attitude!
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Shawn's plane projects
- Thread starter ShawnR
- Start date
That's a very cool story and a great attitude!
The intermittent machining cuts probably is a result of the Lattice Stucture of the extension arm. They are generally made of a tough spring steel with carbon nodules in the steel material. The carbon nodules can be extremely hard (almost diamond hard) and will chew up HSS bits.
Those tail dragers mean you get to stretch you neck often to see on the ground. LOL
Those tail dragers mean you get to stretch you neck often to see on the ground. LOL
So many members are pilots I thought I might share my story. A few already know parts of it.
Once upon a time, a younger and much more furry critter had a dream about building his very own Seawind.
It's an amphibious 4 seater said to be the fastest in the world at the time. I even bought the plans but no hardware. I have no idea if I still have them. They will probably show up and be pitched when they get rid of everything that is me after I am gone.
I used to carry a photo of that plane in my shirt pocket with me wherever I went.
I flew once or twice a month back in those days with an uncle on my mother's side who would fly down to get me from Brampton and also with a co-worker in town. Maybe they needed to share their passion or maybe they just needed or wanted a buddy to fly with. Both would regularly let me take the controls. I loved it.
But I could not afford the kit or the extras the kit required. So it was only a dream. Then one day, another young fellow stopped by my office, told me that he had heard that I wanted to learn to fly and asked if I wanted to join their flying club. Why not, I said! Let's go to lunch and talk about it. Someplace during that first visit he told me that getting my pilots license included putting the plane into a spin and recovering from it......
He had no idea what he did to me. With my height and size and fur, everyone jokes about putting me into the circus. I hate circus rides. There is no way in hell that I am ever deliberately putting a plane into a spin. My dream died that day. A few hours later I cut my photo into strips and threw it into the trash can beside my desk.
Yes, I know I could get a license today without spin training. But I'm simply too old now with the shakes and very poor vision. It isn't happening.
Today, I fly R/C. I don't belong to a club. I just do my own thing. I particularly love helicopters and have a half dozen. The biggest is a full collective pitch chopper - a Blade 400 3D. Some can fly 3D acrobatics with it, but I don't. I just fly for fun.
I also had a quad drone that I used for farming surveys but it divorced me one day 3 years ago and just headed for Mexico. I never found it despite weeks of searching. I'm guessing it ditched someplace out in Lake Erie.
The closest I ever really got to flying a real plane was to use Microsoft Flight Simulator to go on pretend flights in a downloaded plane that was similar to the seawind. Usually an Icon A5. I have owned every version of flight Simulator since it was first released. I usually fly in full reality mode with no assists. I'd be marginally confident in my ability to fly a real plane if I ever had to.
The Icon now comes standard with the latest version of MS Flight Simulator. And I love the fact that the scenery is now all live streamed satelite imagery so I can land or takeoff from my own farm.
When looking for a photo of the seawind I ran across the following article. If you like flying small planes, it's a good read of a bad situation. It's a bit hard to believe this guy kept going up. 7 crashes in 7 days. Sounds like a crazy bat trying to be a cat with 9 lives but was forced to quit when his wings got clipped permanently. I would never have left the ground the first time till everything had been gone over with a fine tooth comb. He lived to talk about it, but his plane is at the bottom of Lake Michigan someplace..... What a waste.....
Hope you enjoy the reads as much as I did.
Here is another version of the story.
www.record-eagle.com
Once upon a time, a younger and much more furry critter had a dream about building his very own Seawind.
It's an amphibious 4 seater said to be the fastest in the world at the time. I even bought the plans but no hardware. I have no idea if I still have them. They will probably show up and be pitched when they get rid of everything that is me after I am gone.
I used to carry a photo of that plane in my shirt pocket with me wherever I went.
I flew once or twice a month back in those days with an uncle on my mother's side who would fly down to get me from Brampton and also with a co-worker in town. Maybe they needed to share their passion or maybe they just needed or wanted a buddy to fly with. Both would regularly let me take the controls. I loved it.
But I could not afford the kit or the extras the kit required. So it was only a dream. Then one day, another young fellow stopped by my office, told me that he had heard that I wanted to learn to fly and asked if I wanted to join their flying club. Why not, I said! Let's go to lunch and talk about it. Someplace during that first visit he told me that getting my pilots license included putting the plane into a spin and recovering from it......
He had no idea what he did to me. With my height and size and fur, everyone jokes about putting me into the circus. I hate circus rides. There is no way in hell that I am ever deliberately putting a plane into a spin. My dream died that day. A few hours later I cut my photo into strips and threw it into the trash can beside my desk.
Yes, I know I could get a license today without spin training. But I'm simply too old now with the shakes and very poor vision. It isn't happening.
Today, I fly R/C. I don't belong to a club. I just do my own thing. I particularly love helicopters and have a half dozen. The biggest is a full collective pitch chopper - a Blade 400 3D. Some can fly 3D acrobatics with it, but I don't. I just fly for fun.
I also had a quad drone that I used for farming surveys but it divorced me one day 3 years ago and just headed for Mexico. I never found it despite weeks of searching. I'm guessing it ditched someplace out in Lake Erie.
The closest I ever really got to flying a real plane was to use Microsoft Flight Simulator to go on pretend flights in a downloaded plane that was similar to the seawind. Usually an Icon A5. I have owned every version of flight Simulator since it was first released. I usually fly in full reality mode with no assists. I'd be marginally confident in my ability to fly a real plane if I ever had to.
The Icon now comes standard with the latest version of MS Flight Simulator. And I love the fact that the scenery is now all live streamed satelite imagery so I can land or takeoff from my own farm.
When looking for a photo of the seawind I ran across the following article. If you like flying small planes, it's a good read of a bad situation. It's a bit hard to believe this guy kept going up. 7 crashes in 7 days. Sounds like a crazy bat trying to be a cat with 9 lives but was forced to quit when his wings got clipped permanently. I would never have left the ground the first time till everything had been gone over with a fine tooth comb. He lived to talk about it, but his plane is at the bottom of Lake Michigan someplace..... What a waste.....
Hope you enjoy the reads as much as I did.
The Sad Story of the Seawind 3000 N8UU
This post is no longer active as it is out of date. I’ve left it here so that the comments remain available. The sad story of the Seawind 3000 is fully revised and included as a part of Pilot…
fearoflanding.com
Here is another version of the story.
Seawind Saga: Pilot who crashed in Lake Michigan had 7 crashes in 7 days
CHARLEVOIX — A small amphibious airplane is on the bottom of Lake Michigan after crashing during the Fourth of July weekend — but fasten your seatbelts because the pilot says
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TorontoBuilder
Ultra Member
Reminds me of my brother's first helicopter which ditched in a swimming pool on its maiden flight...
It was a cox sky copter free flight helicopter... the dumbest thing to let loose in a densely populated city. but hey it was the 1970s.
I did not know you were into R/C especially helicopters. My former business associate flies r/c helo acrobatics. It scares me just being around when he is practicing.
I've met people that resemble that guy. He pointed to pieces hung on the wall of the barn and said "I crashed that one over in the pasture" and on the other wall, more pieces "I crashed that one over in the neighbor's hay field..." and so on around the barn. A few years later I saw the multi-colored one that he was flying that was pieced together from more than one plane, For Sale in good condition......
Darn shame about your friend telling horror stories about spins, I found them an eye opener but persevered. The instructor really should have done a better job of describing what was going to happen so it would have been less of a surprise. The up side is they taught well how to recognize the path leading to it and how to instinctively react so you don't get into a full spin.
D
Yes. Darn shame. Spins were fun. I've lost track of how many I practiced in the process of getting my license. But then I've always said I'm way too dumb to know better.Darn shame about your friend telling horror stories about spins, I found them an eye opener but persevered. The instructor really should have done a better job of describing what was going to happen so it would have been less of a surprise. The up side is they taught well how to recognize the path leading to it and how to instinctively react so you don't get into a full spin.
D
I had one of those things about 15 years ago! It was like trying to balance a broomstick with a plate one top on the end of your finger ! And also kind of scary...those blades in CP mode whirling around at 100mph
Fun but stressful ! I only ever managed to get good enough for some basic hovering/forward flight, the crashing got to expensive for my wallet at the time
Kudos to anyone that can even hover one of those!
@Tecnico & @jcdammeyer. I really don't care how much others enjoy a spin. At my size, even spins on the ground are life-threatening events. I am NOT EVER doing it up in the air in an airplane. I don't even do Ferris Wheels.
One time, I took my youngest son up in a small Ferris Wheel. He begged me and I figured I would just close my eyes and against my better judgement I agreed.
We were joined by four big teenagers - maybe even early twenties. As soon as our gondola cleared the ground I realized I had made a HORRIBLE decision. Perhaps the last bad decision I would ever make. Those four boys, with the help of my young son, started spinning the gondola using a large center wheel as leverage. Clearly, my life was over.
But I was terrified. Fear produces strength beyond science. I grabbed that wheel and the spinning stopped despite their best efforts. They bitched, hollered, swore and yanked. The wheel was frozen solid and might even have twisted axially.
The operator saw all this and let me off after just one circle. He gave the boys another extra turn too.
I live to tell the story. Yup, there will be no spin training for me!
One time, I took my youngest son up in a small Ferris Wheel. He begged me and I figured I would just close my eyes and against my better judgement I agreed.
We were joined by four big teenagers - maybe even early twenties. As soon as our gondola cleared the ground I realized I had made a HORRIBLE decision. Perhaps the last bad decision I would ever make. Those four boys, with the help of my young son, started spinning the gondola using a large center wheel as leverage. Clearly, my life was over.
But I was terrified. Fear produces strength beyond science. I grabbed that wheel and the spinning stopped despite their best efforts. They bitched, hollered, swore and yanked. The wheel was frozen solid and might even have twisted axially.
The operator saw all this and let me off after just one circle. He gave the boys another extra turn too.
I live to tell the story. Yup, there will be no spin training for me!
Chicken lights
Forum Pony Express Driver
Is a “spin” different than a “roll”?
Yes. A spin involves a deliberate loss of lift and then the plane plummets directly down to earth. Usually in a spiral. Death at the end of torture. I'd crap myself and have a heart attack the moment the plane lost lift so it doesn't really matter what comes after.
In the case of a roll, there would also be fecal matter all over the windshield - not doing that either.
To be fair, some planes just sort of wallow when they lose lift. Others just drop the nose a bit and then recover. Id be ok in those. It's those rivet Buckets I am terrified of. All spoken as a bedroom armchair computer pilot.
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When I was training for my pilot licence my instructor at the Goderich Airport was a bushpilot from Northern Ontario. His favourite saying was . . . “It is legal as long as you are training”.
His reason for doing ‘spins’ was so that you recognize when you are entering a spin and knowing how to recover and pull out of one.
Even when you are practicing a spin recovery, allow about 1000 ft altitude loss per revolution.
We used to practice a move called ‘Side Slipping‘ to land during strong crosswinds.
Landing in Goderich meant a crosswind 50% of the time.
His reason for doing ‘spins’ was so that you recognize when you are entering a spin and knowing how to recover and pull out of one.
Even when you are practicing a spin recovery, allow about 1000 ft altitude loss per revolution.
We used to practice a move called ‘Side Slipping‘ to land during strong crosswinds.
Landing in Goderich meant a crosswind 50% of the time.
@Susquatch - that Seawind looks like a cool amphibious plane.
Would it land on a Great Lake or would you need a smoother landing pond ?
Would it land on a Great Lake or would you need a smoother landing pond ?
Yes. Pull back the wheel until the airplane stalls. Cessna 152's and 172's are very forgiving and just tend to plow straight losing altitude. You then give a rudder pedal a jab and off she goes. The key thing for dealing with a spin is not to look out the side of the aircraft. Look straight ahead. Hit opposite rudder and push forward (not an instinctive move).
I think that's why my instructor had me doing it a lot. Knowing how to recognize and get out of a spin.
My wife and I now have ended up teaching Ballroom Dancing. One of the key things we tell students for the fast turns is look up. Spot the wall to where you want to be but keep your head so that you are really looking at the junction between wall and ceiling. Then spot the next wall the same way. Turn head and look and let body follow.
The end result is there's less churning of the fluid in the inner ear and one doesn't get dizzy. Look at your feet while spinning and you are destined to perhaps even fall.
To add to what @Susquatch said, you get a spin by slowing the plane and pitching up until its about to stall aerodynamically (wings lose lift) then push the rudder full to one side. That motion slows one wing enough that it goes into stall (no lift) while the other doesn't so the plane rolls and pitches nose downward at the same time. From there it descends kind of like a Maple seed, spinning - not as fast as a Maple seed because it's bigger but you get the idea. From the pilots seat it appears quite dramatic the first time you see it in person and you get a pretty good view of the ground. Like I said, it was an eye opener for me.
In training you do it with an instructor and they are required to be very proficient at putting the plane in a spin and recovering - it is really quite safe under those conditions.
I recall that the instructor had to work at it to get it to spin because it wasn't that easy to get the C-152 to spin every time and it's a trainer. To recover you back off on the pitch up control input and push the rudder the other way until it stops spinning then back it out. Apparently, many planes will come out of the spin if you just let go of the controls, they're that stable. Not that I've tried that.... There's a bit more detail but that's enough for now. For those interested there's lots on the net that describes it better then I can.
The take away is that you have to do enough wrong to provoke a spin that you should have alarm bells ringing in your ears before you get too close, then take appropriate action.
In the past the student had to learn to do it solo, not any more thankfully. The training emphasis has moved from learning how to recover to learning how to recognize the signs that lead up to it and taking appropriate measures. It's drilled in so it's reflex more than thinking.
You learn to avoid going to slow for the conditions and not to do dramatic maneuvers when you're going slow like setting up to land etc. You're also taught how to recognize and recover from the initial stages that lead to a stall/spin.
For anyone thinking of learning to fly don't let that stop you, you'll only have one or two lessons where spins are demonstrated and you won't have to do it alone. Also, ask your instructor to walk you through what's going to happen BEFORE hand on the ground. There are 'way too many "war stories"/bravado stories about spins that unfortunately build up in the student's mind and cause apprehension before getting there. I know I heard about how other students were intimidated by spins so I had a picture in my mind before I got there. I didn't enjoy it but I got it done and moved on to the next stage.
OK, that got long winded but fills in some of the background.
D
Why was that? I don't recall them being dramatic and they were always easy to recover from.
D
PS @ShawnR sorry about the thread drift! Your tail wheel mod turned out great although you didn't wind up with it on the front.