Move on over Hedley...

[Nark]

I was in an airshow last weekend and these pic's was sent to me from a friend. The first one is too good not to share.

I was waiting my turn in line behind an AT-6 Texan ready to wow the crowd. Somehow I think the P-51 stole my thunder though...

[North Shore]

Sheesh, Nark - can you do it -2G inverted with your 15 year old kid flying in formation, though?

[Hedley]

Great shots!!

I love it when it's airshow season again

A friend of mine was at the Ottawa/Gatineau airshow on Saturday
with his unbelievable lens and got some great photos of my Pitts
sequence:

viewtopic.php?f=95&p=524503

Here's a teaser:



Needless to say, Transport was investigating Monday. Really.

[dji]

hedley do you happen to know what kind on lens+camera that was taken with?

[Hedley]

I will ask - I know nothing about that stuff. All I know is
that I felt pretty inadequate around that lens

Here's some more photos he took. As I said, these
are massaged-down versions - the original 6MB photos
are mindblowing:

Hammerhead up:


Tumble:

[Blakey]

Hedley,

Great pictures! Two questions though:

1. This was you flying an air display in Canada? I thought that was verbotten? Next thing we know Cat will be operating a FTU in Canada!

2. This is your Pitts? With an "N" registration? The FAA shows it registered to PITTSPECIALS LLC out of Newark. Interesting choice of registration numbers in any case!

Sorry I missed the show though, looks like it was a good one!

Blakey

[Hedley]

This was you flying an air display in Canada? I thought that was verbotten?

Good question. Keep in mind two things:

A) I flew it in Quebec - La Belle Province - not Canada.

B) I only flew a solo routine. Even in Quebec, my airshow team
would not be eligible to fly in an airshow, even though we are without
a doubt highly qualified to do so, and can do so in every other country
in the world. There is a limit to Quebec's independence. In the words
of the Transport Superindendent from our last visit to the Tribunal:

"We have to find some legal way to stop them".

Pitts? With an "N" registration?

That Pitts was purchased at the insistence of Transport
Canada. It amounted to a de facto enormous fine. Cherry
Pitts S-2B's ain't cheap.

We spend incredible amounts of time, effort and money
trying in vain to keep Transport happy. Six months of
paperwork went into the Gatineau airshow, and I spent
around 3 hours yesterday answering questions about
aerobatics - apparently most of Tower C went completely
bananas when they heard I was flying aerobatics again.

I really haven't a clue what all the fuss is about. I'm
just a formation pilot, and frankly, I make a pretty
low-rent solo pilot. I am not, and will never, ever
be, in the league of Sean Tucker, Skip Stewart, Freddy
Cabanas, Rob Holland or Gary Ward when it comes
to solo aerobatics.

None of the above superb pilots would ever be
tolerated in Canada. One has to wonder why.

Interesting choice of registration numbers

Yeah Unlike every other pilot on the face of
the earth, I DO NOT put my name on the side of any
airplane that I fly - lacking in humility, IMHO. Instead,
I put the name of the aircraft on the side of it:

PALE HORSE

But I'm not sure why I bother, because not ONE SINGLE
person has ever understood that

Death Rides A Pale Horse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horse ... Apocalypse

Two people died in that aircraft a few years back - check
the NTSB reports. I'm quite fond of it, actually, even though
the first time I flew it, it tried to kill me, too - the elevator
jammed in a vertical downline, which was inconvenient.

By the way, does this headset make me look fat?



btw, note the American flag which all our airplanes proudly fly.

[Blakey]

So I guess Quebec is in your 1/4 of the world then!

no record on the NTSB site under that registration. Shouldn't it be green? It would look better in formation with the Stearman then!!

[Hedley]

no record on the NTSB site under that registration.

Some looney tune (not me) changed the registration to
that of "the beast" after the fatal accident.

Shouldn't it be green?

Thank you - that is the first intelligent comment I have
received about the "Pale Horse" moniker

It would look better in formation with the Stearman then!!

Yeah, I flew the 450hp "John Deere" green and white starburst
R-985 Stearman over to Gatineau for static display. The power
that thing has, is simply amazing. And, it's got the skinny wings
so it's actually a FAST Stearman, which I know is an oxymoron.

Did I ever tell you about the first time I ever flew the 450hp
Stearman? It was solo (as usual - sigh), I got to check myself
out in it. Decades ago I had flown Greg Reynold's Stearman,
and Freddy Cabanas's Waco, which helped.

Anyways, all the knobs go into the dash, I take off. I couldn't
see bugger all out front, but that's ok, I'm kind of used to that
in the Pitts by now.

It climbs pretty well. I leave all the knobs in, we level off on
downwind at 1000 AGL, and the airspeed quickly winds up
to 160 mph. No typo. The obvious thing to do was to raise
the nose and do a nice, positive G aileron roll. Sweet. Power
very gently off, sideslip for a wheel landing. Me like.

Knobs go in again. Again, an unbelievable 160 mph on downwind
so the nose comes up for +4G this time into a nice loop. Power
off, sideslip again for another wheel landing. Me really like.

What's incredibly cool about this R-985 Stearman is that it's
got inverted fuel and oil systems - which I am told is pretty
rare - so you can do neat inverted passes down the runway

[MichaelP]

By the way, does this headset make me look fat?

Yes.

[Hedley]

Damn. I guess I better try this, then:

http://www.clarityaloft.com/

[MichaelP]

Actually dumpy is the best body shape for aerobatics.

Roger went off in G OKAY (S1) and did negative flick rolls... Came back and told his partner Brendan all about it, so Brendan went off to try them...
Brendan was a lady's man, ace of the base aerobatic airshow pilot, cool sunglasses, cool manners, a favourite with the girls, and Roger's original instructor!
He landed, taxied in, and then could not get out of the aircraft unassisted, it took a few weeks for him to recover... Burst a few blood vessels in his brain probably.

Roger was short and dumpy and really fit.
Brendan was tall and somewhat slim.

Negative flick rolls? Be dumpy!

[Hedley]

I guess I'm in luck, then!

Personally I've always found negative snap rolls
to be pretty painless, because the G doesn't stay
on for very long.

You want some negative G, build up some speed
in a vertical downline, then push level. Easy to
peg the G meter at -5 doing that.

I remember after one flight, I landed, and I had
blown blood vessels all below my eye sockets - I
had the weirdest red/black eyes you have ever
seen, for the next few days.

[Shiny Side Up]

Roger was short and dumpy and really fit.
Brendan was tall and somewhat slim.

Its all about where your center of gravity sits apparently. Short people tolerate G-loading better than tall people. Its also why, on average, Women tolerate it better than Men.

[Hedley]

Short people tolerate G-loading better than tall people

All other things being equal - and they never are! - the amount
of positive G you can tolerate is a function of the vertical height
of the column of blood from your heart to your brain.

Rob Holland, who is a great friend of mine, is much too tall to
pull G - at least, that's what I tell him - he towers over me, and
I'm over 6 feet tall. Of course, in his MX2, he pulls and pushes
far more G than I ever will.

P.S. It's true that women on average have a higher tolerance
for nausea (motion sickness) than men do, which has nothing
to do with postive G tolerance. You can make just about
anyone barf by putting them into your clotheswasher on cold
for 45 minutes.

[MichaelP]

You can make just about anyone barf by putting them into your clotheswasher on cold for 45 minutes.

There's laws against that Hedley!

The one thing I warn everyone about is keeping the ball in the middle, it's not controlling yaw that makes people sick most of the time.
Visual sensations work too... we've had people feel sick in our DA42 FTD!

Some friends came back from an Aerobatic camp south of the border here saying you now need to use more speed and five G's to be able to compete at the Sportsman level!
There's no future in this in a Citabria or even a Decathlon!

They use more speed to compensate for the added G loading that removes energy. It covers an inability to fly an aeroplane well IMHO.
Sportsman should need no more than +4 G, and that's for a roll off the top.
+5 G is just plane (sp) stupid at that level.

It reminds me of the French airforce flick rolling their CAP 10s. More speed and more G works better right! and they clapped their wings.

[Hedley]

you now need to use more speed and five G's to be able to compete at the Sportsman level!

Sigh. The more experienced and skilled a pilot, the less G he needs to
fly a sequence. My father leads our entire formation aerobatic sequence
(inside and outside loops, hammerheads, rolls, etc) with only +4/-3
on his meter at the end of the flight. Even if Transport does hate him -
thanks so much, Chris P - he is incredibly smooth and consistent, which
allows him to use less G.

Excessive G creates excessive drag, which kills energy, which is
why young aerobatic pilots - flying with too much G - think they
need more airspeed.

re: snap rolls breaking airplanes: they surely can. As a rule of
thumb, decrease the G during a torsional maneuver to 2/3
of the design G limit. Or, you could just read the POH

You probably never met him, but Curtis Pitts didn't think much
of the current fashionably brutal +14/-14G aerobatics that is
in vogue now.

[SkyWolfe]

By the way, does this headset make me look fat?

Yes.

I little like Mickey Mouse were my thoughts

[jump154]

Instead,
I put the name of the aircraft on the side of it:

PALE HORSE

But I'm not sure why I bother, because not ONE SINGLE
person has ever understood that

Death Rides A Pale Horse

If you'd have called it "Binky" I'd have understood...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(Discworld)#Binky

[c_172pilot]

Hedley... I am in awe! Great pictures! I have to see your show one of these days! It seems realy realy silly that transport has basicaly banned you from performing in Canada. It makes you wonder who's plam was greased to let the red bull air races into canada.

Cheers

C_172pilot

[Blakey]

By the way, does this headset make me look fat?

To tell you the truth, it makes you look a bit like Peter Besenyei. you can take that as a compliment as he may not look all that dashing sitting in the cockpit but he sure knows what to do while he's there! Peter only uses the cloth helmet due to "G" management issues so I'm wondering why you use the headset on top? ANR?

[Cat Driver]

Hedley,

Great pictures! Two questions though:

1. This was you flying an air display in Canada? I thought that was verbotten? Next thing we know Cat will be operating a FTU in Canada!

My last application for a FTU OC has not really been completed yet.

TC owes me $250.000.00 for the actions of Preuss and Nowzek in their handling of the application.

As soon as Preuss is gone I plan on writing the new DGCA and inform him of what transpired under Preuss.

I will make it clear that I have the expectation that unlike Preuss he will carry out the duties of his office in a morally acceptable manner and after a full examination of what happened to me and my company he will see to it that I get not only my money but the FTU OC.

I will be sending copies of the letter to the Minister of Transport and the opposition critics and also will post the letter here for all of you to read.

Should I get the FTU OC I of course would not actually open another flying school because I do not want to get a lobotomy to be able to deal with all the crap operating one would entail.

I will be interested in his response to the letter, if nothing else it will tell us a whole lot about how he plans on carrying out his job as DGCA.

Oh by the way I will of course share all correspondence with the great unwashed out there.

[MichaelP]

Oh by the way I will of course share all correspondence with the great unwashed out there.

Oh dear, that leaves me out

[Cat Driver]

Oh dear, that leaves me out

Not really Michael because you are an ordinary Canadian citizen working under the dictates of the ruling class in Tower C in Ottawa.

They truly believe they are somehow above us and thus we can be treated with utter contempt.

For sure it will be interesting to see what response I get from Prusse's replacement.

Lets hope he is smart enough to actually review my file before he answers me.

[Mitch Cronin]

Hedley, I won't bother with the quotes, you know what you said, ... I guess since nobody else is challenging it, I'll have to... It's nice to hear you're so proud to fly the American flag, but you need to know, when you are in Quebec, you are still inside Canada. No BS please. I don't know why you confuse the beaurocracy you hate with what the country is, but that's your choice...

Awesome photos! Thanks for posting 'em. Very nice looking little airplane.

Cheers,
Mitch