International Aerobatic Club CHAPTER 38 January 2010 Newsletter

PREZ POST Happy New Years! First of all, I would like to welcome everyone to 2010. It seems like each year goes by faster and faster. 2009 was a very difficult year for the economy, aerobatic community, Quisque .03 and industry. Like many of you, I’m looking forward to a much brighter year. The economy seems to be turning around, aircraft are starting to trade hands, and camps are starting to get scheduled. Unlike the rest of the country, the Bay Area weather has been rather calm, Cory Lovell allowing many of us the opportunity to get in a few practice President, Ch 38 sessions. I’ve also talked to several members who are taking the winter months to change out radios, upgrade engines, and fix the little things kept getting pushed out because of a contest. Integer .05 Continued on Page 2……….

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As you may have noticed, this is the first newsletter in a couple of months. With the unfortunate loss of Che Barnes and the retirement of Peter Jensen, we did not have anyone come forward to help with the Newsletter (we’re still looking for a couple volunteers). 2009 was also a crazy year for me, hence the fact I haven’t been able to get out a newsletter. I left my job in September to travel to Spain, then over to Germany of Oktoberfest. I also took some time to put together a website for Sukhoi and spend some time doing formation aerobatics training with Bill Stein and Russ Piggott. It was a well-needed sabbatical after 9 years at Adobe. My vacations finally coming to an end and I’m starting a new job on Monday. I’ll be taking a VP of Sales roll with a small start-up that was formed by several Adobe engineers. The company focuses on streaming Live High-Definition video and hosting web collaboration solutions. President Obama recently used their solution to stream a speech from China to 15,000 people in the US.

I’m working on putting together several things in the next couple of months. We need to get a date set for the holiday party. I’m also looking for suggestions for possible meetings topics. Darren and I are working with the Hiller Aviation Museum to have the March meeting as a community outreach day at the museum, with aircraft displays and possibly an aerobatic demonstration in a waivered box next to the airport.

PS: I was lucky enough to receive a holiday card from Tiger Woods (see below)

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Almost getting to fly with By Darren Pleasance

As is often the case, when one door closes, another Every once in a while a really cool opportunity opens. When I got to OSH for the IAC Board comes along and for me, that "while" was just a meeting (via the airlines), I learned that I'd be few weeks ago. seated next to Bob for dinner that night at the head table as a way of saying "thanks" to originally I received a call from 's office asking agreeing to give him the ride. me if I'd be willing to fly Bob Hoover back to

Oshkosh for the annual Aviation Hall of Fame award Needless to say, dinner was one of the more banquet. Bob was being inducted into the Hall of interesting ones I've had. I told him I used to fly a Fame and was looking for a ride out to OSH because Sabreliner and he launched into a great story about he apparently doesn't like taking the airlines. how that was originally the T-39 and he was the

for the plane. He talked about doing Well, I agreed to do the trip in my twin Cessna and aerobatics in the plane and how he was often asked began planning the adventure, though about 5 days to roll the plane when he was giving demo rides to before I was planning to head for to various Air Force generals when they were trying to pick him up, I received a voicemail from Robert A. sell the plane to the government. "Bob" Hoover himself thanking me for the offer to

fly him to OSH, but letting me know he'd found I also asked him about what type of maintenance he another way out there and would regretfully not be had to do on his Shrike, given he'd shut the engines able to travel with me. Although I was clearly off so frequently at high speeds. His response was somewhat disappointed at losing the opportunity to quite interesting. He told me that when Victor spend a day out and back talking with Bob, it was Aviation originally put the engines on his plane and also a bit of a relief since the weather the week of he told them of his planned two-engine dead stick the OSH meeting was scheduled to be marginal and routine they told him he should expect to have to the thought of slogging across the country in overhaul the engines about every 25-50 marginal weather in my twin Cessna didn't excite hours. They told him the extreme shock cooling and me too much. "abuse" would crack cylinders and exhaust stacks

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and he'd start warping valves and lots of other bad stuff.

Well, he said in his career with the Shrike he went through three engines, and he said every one of them made it to TBO (2,000 hours). He told me he'd run the engines right up to the red line on cylinder head team and oil temp quite often, and then shut them down completely for several minutes while he'd do his routine, start them back up mid way through and climb back up, and then do it all over again with dead stick flying all the way to his famous Ut Sed Est touchdown and coasting into the announcer's stand. He was, not surprisingly, a big fan of the Lycoming IO- 540 engine.

He told stories of escaping from Stalag 1 in Germany toward the end of the war by stealing a Focke Wulf FW-190 and scud running just beneath the clouds to keep from being shot down by an American fighter, and then landed in a field in Holland, and of testing the F-100 and deciding it was the best airplane he'd ever flown, and managed to convince the air force Thunderbirds to adopt it despite their huge resistance.

I also had a chance to talk briefly with Lance Neibauer, of Lancair fame. He was also inducted into the aviation hall of fame and I managed to catch up with him for a bit about the thrill of living in Bend, Oregon, having spent the last year living there myself.

Overall, was quite the interesting dinner and evening. The setting for the dinner was great, too, sitting in the EAA museum, with the tables surrounded by a highly polished P-38, two P-51s, a Mosquito, and a few other planes that were equally interesting.

The event is open to the public so if you're ever up for an adventure, and an opportunity to see the who's-who of aviation, by all means add this event to your calendar next year. For me, it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a ton of fun.

Oh, by the way, when I was sitting next to Bob Hoover at dinner I asked him how he ended up getting out to OSH since he didn't fly with me. Turns out a friend offered him a ride in a Cessna Citation so, for some strange reason, he choose that option rather than my 35 year old twin Cessna that would have whisked him to OSH with only 1-2 stops and a mere 8 hours of flying. Go figure...

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IN MEMORY OF CHE BARNES

BARNES, Che Jeremy Lieutenant Commander Jan. 27, 1974 - Oct. 29, 2009

Lieutenant Commander Che Jeremy Barnes, age 35, was killed in the line of duty on Thursday, October 29, 2009, shortly after 7:10 p.m. Che was the pilot in command of a Coast Guard C-130 that was on a search and rescue mission off the coast of San Diego. His airplane and six crew members were struck mid-air by a Marine Corps Super Cobra helicopter flying a night training mission.

Che grew up on a small organic farm in Yolo County's Capay Valley, California. He graduated from Esparto High School in 1992 and entered the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. Che graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering and during his 13 year military career, Che flew every aircraft in the Coast Guard, including three years flying the Coast Guard's Falcon Jet from Puerto Rico, five years flying the Coast Guard's H-65 Dolphin Rescue helicopter from San Francisco and two years flying the Coast Guard's C-130 Hercules in Sacramento. Che touched the lives of many through his service with the Coast Guard and was decorated with many medals and honors including the Elmer F. Stone Award in early October 2009 for demonstrating exceptional performance in Coast Guard search and rescue operations in a fixed wing aircraft.

Che was fascinated with aviation at an early age and as a boy avidly built and flew radio controlled airplanes and later worked his way through flight lessons to solo a single engine plane on his 16th birthday. When not flying for the Coast Guard, Che flew his Pitts Bi-Plane in aerobatic air shows. In addition to flying, Che also enjoyed playing his guitar, singing, photography, writing, reading and was pursuing an MBA. Che was also an advisor and partner to his family's farming company and retail store in the SF Ferry Building, FarmFreshToYou.Com.

.Nostrum Che’s Pitts S1T is currently for Sale.

Please contact his brother Thaddeus @ 530-304-4244

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Private commercial spaceflight inched closer to reality Monday as Virgin Galactic took the wraps off SpaceShipTwo, the VSS Enterprise, during a special unveiling event at the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. More than 800 guests and media from around the world were on hand as Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson and Scaled Composites Founder pulled the wraps off the sleek space liner that will be the first vehicle to offer commercial suborbital space flights to the paying public. "It could not have gone better," said EAA President/Chairman Tom Poberezny, who was in attendance. "To see WhiteKnightTwo mated to SpaceShipTwo for the first time was indeed a sight to behold. "It was very dramatic to see, beyond all expectations." Read the story | See the photo gallery | See the video

The Newsletter of the Northern California Aerobatic Club, IAC Chapter 38 www.iac38.org Across the U. S. in an S1-T Che Barnes

I decided to forgo the editors column and write an article on Dodge. I don’t even want to think about how close I came to my recent airplane acquisition. It was one of the most memo- the runway lights. But one thing I know is true: I would rable aviation experiences I’ve had. rather be lucky than good any day of the week.

The Purchase It took me 3 more tries before I finally got her down. I left sunny California with a one-way ticket to New Jersey to pick up an airplane that I had never laid eyes on. As I At this point, I had to re-evaluate my plan, and I seriously watched the country smoothly float under the airliner below I thought about driving my rental car back to Newark and go- knew that the travel back was not going to be as easy. ing back to California. After talking with some people, in the end I flew her to a field with a wider runway and did 20 touch The next day I and goes. rolled onto Sus- sex airport For the record, prior to this flight I had about 75 hrs S2 time (FWN), New and did multiple touch and goes in the front seat of and S2B a Jersey, in a rental week and a half earlier. car with my windshield wip- I make no claims to be a good pilot, but for anyone who is ers on and a low going to fly an S1 for the first time, here is my humble ad- dreary overcast. vice: So much for sun- • Talk to at shine. Alex Be- least three lov is the other Sussex airport in the background people who owner, or, as oth- fly S1s and ers may put it, the get their take previous owner. Alex says that you never stop owning an on how the airplane, you just let someone else fly it for a certain sum of first landing money.. When I first saw the craft, my initial thought was, was. “Dang, that is a small airplane.” • The front seat of a S2B The S1-T, N621MS, is a Bay Area native and I was merely will prepare bringing it home. One of the other “owners” of the aircraft is you for the Cecilia Aragon—whom I had the privilege of first starting to Not a typical corporate customer in St. approach and fly aerobatics with in her Decathlon. Coincidentally, I also Louis visibility of an co-owned an S2-A that she used to own, N5300V. So, along S1, but the with this information, a thorough pre-purchase, talking to rudder work and ground handling is different. Mentally, everyone I knew of who had seen the plane (including Danny be ready. Adams of Aviat who did work on it), having Alex send me a • For your first landing experience, go to a wide runway. ton of pictures, I was confident that my seeing the airplane in Don’t do it on a 70 ft wide strip—set yourself up for suc- person would not affect my decision to buy. cess. • Let air out of the tires, there should be a significant bulge The First Flight on each side wall. It goes against a pilot’s natural inclination to admit mistakes • Do some air-work prior to landing. For part of this, fly at and bring them out in the open, but this is essential to avoid 120 MPH and jostle the rudders back and forth. Notice repeated errors in the community. It is in this light that I will the sensitivity. A half pedal deflection will make you hit tell about my first flight. your head on the side of the cockpit. Use this to help with initial calibration of your feet. I strapped in the airplane, taxied out to the runway, ran her up, • On landing, “dance” on the pedals a quarter inch each and was off. I did about 15 minutes of air-work then returned way. This technique may be controversial, but it does to see if I could land it. On the first landing, I did a 3 point give you immediate control feedback to help get you cali- just fine, but when I was on the ground with the stick full brated. As you get experience, you may not need to do back all hell broke loose. The simple fact was that I was not this every landing. mentally prepared for the sensitively of the rudders and I en- • Don’t be in a hurry or stressed. tered into a pilot induced oscillation on the runway. When I

saw grass I gunned the 10:1 pistoned engine and got out of

July 2006 - 7 - ! The Newsletter of the Northern California Aerobatic Club, IAC Chapter 38 www.iac38.org

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Send with check, made payable to “International Aerobatic Club Chapter 38”, to: Howard Kirker, IAC38 Treasurer - 2279 Ocaso Camino - Fremont, CA 94539

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