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THE MAGAZINE OF THE REDSTAR PILOTS ASSOCIATION

Red ALERT

Summer 2013

Red Alert Summer 20132

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Red ALERTFeaturesAll RedStar XII ................................................................ 6 Porterville 2013

The Ladies of ARS .........................................................13 The A Team

POW Memorial Flight ...................................................... 14 Nixon Library Tribute

The New Overhead Pattern ............................................ 18 Flying a Safer Recovery

Travel Pod for a CJ-6 .................................................... 20 The Pod Mod

Kirk Heiser’s CJ-6 ........................................................ 22 Tinkle’s Chang

Density Altitude .............................................................29 Summer Killer

Out-of-Control Flight ....................................................32 Which Way Is Up?

Swamp Thunder ............................................................ 34 Waycross 2013

Blue m&m’s .....................................................................38 The Flight Leader Checkride

Making Formation Pilots .................................................39 A Soapbox Sermon

Advanced Handling Maneuvers ......................................40 Gaining Confidence and Skills

ColumnsPresident’s Message........................................................4 Standardization and Growth

Newbies ......................................................................... 16 New Members

New Formation Quals ......................................................17 Making the Grade

Aircraft Systems ........................................................... 24 Yak-52 Fuel System

KONG’S Korner ............................................................ 30 Effective Communication

Flight Lead Corner .........................................................38 Don’t Embarrass Yourself

Maintenance Hangar ..................................................... 43 Aileron Hinge Crack

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12 regions. Each region has volunteers who host contests. The majority of the members don’t f ly contests. The majority of the members don’t own sailplanes—they rent from clubs or commer-cial operators. As you can see, the SSA and the RPA are the same, but different. However, I think his thoughts about growth are relevant to the RPA.

Both organizations were initially formed by a small cadre of de-voted aviators for the unique enjoyment of their aircraft and their fellow pilots. Over time, more pilots joined and the organization was formalized. Over more time, more pilots joined, dues were charged, and a newsletter was published. Volunteers began orga-nizing events but more and more of the members did not partici-pate for various reasons. Membership began to decline because the majority of the membership didn’t feel like they were getting any bang for the buck. Simultaneously, government bureaucra-cies and other outside forces began to infringe on the organiza-tion’s aviation enjoyment. As a result, a symbiotic relationship between the organization and the membership was forged.

The organization’s responsibility to the membership is to provide them with things of value and to represent them on the world-wide stage. The SSA initially focused on contest f lying and the latest high-end com-petition aircraft. Their magazine and orga-nizational focus responded to the desires of the initial cadre of members. The RPA’s ini-tial focus was on formation f lying. Red Alert and our regional organization, likewise, re-sponded to the desires of the initial cadre of members. As the SSA grew and the competi-tion pilot became the minority member, the

SSA had to refocus to include the renter/club pilot, vintage air-craft, basic training, maintenance, and safety issues. Similarly in the RPA, the formation pilot has become the minority member and the RPA has been refocusing to include more safety, mainte-nance, new equipment, and a more diversified member exposure in Red Alert. On the world stage, the RPA represents the mem-bership through affiliation with FAST and Warbirds of America.

The members’ responsibility to the organization is to stay in-volved. This means renewing memberships, recruiting new mem-bers, volunteering to help, and communicating ideas. A growing membership means more friends to f ly with, more sources of good information and ideas, and more volunteers to help with re-gional and national events. Our passion for aviation faces serious challenges. There is the global demand for fuel and oil. There is a bureaucratic threat in the form of increased oversight and regu-lation from government agencies directly and indirectly involved with aviation. There is the threat from special interest groups who don’t like our airports, our noise, or where or how we f ly. A robust RPA membership means we can immediately support aviation alphabet groups in getting the word out on hot topics or quickly mobilize large numbers of aviation supporters. Bang for the buck comes not only from what the RPA gives the member-ship, but from what the membership gives the RPA.

Thank you again for your professionalism and participation.

Terry “Mags” Slawinski

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Greetings, Comrades. The 2013 f lying, clinic, and airshow season is off to a great start! So far, I have attended three

outstanding formation training clinics, f lown some excellent acro sorties, and participated in a few $100 hamburger f ly-outs. I am looking forward to Oshkosh and several more clinics and f ly-outs in the last half of the year.

I would like to discuss two topics with you. The first is standard-ization and the second is growing the RPA.

Standardization is usually thought of as a way to codify a repeti-tive procedure. It is also used to establish acceptable levels of per-formance. While I agree with these definitions, I also think of it as a philosophical approach to a complex activity like f lying our warbirds. It helps us mitigate risk. The standardization each of us uses, expands and contracts with the complexity of our mission. It helps you plan, brief, f ly, and deal with contingencies wheth-er you are f lying locally, going for that hamburger, performing acro, or f lying formation.

Contained within this standardization phi-losophy are personal minimums, check-list procedures, minimum levels of perfor-mance, and standard operating procedures. Solid knowledge and strict adherence to these four areas will help you establish a very high level of professionalism which can help shield you from the ever-present dangers of complacency, get-home-itis, and time compression. We have all seen, heard, or perhaps fell victim to isolated incidents, like launching with inadequate fuel, oil, or air quantities, attempting a takeoff or landing with marginal or below minimums ceiling, visibility, or winds, moving the prop with the mags on, trying to land with the gear up, busting a mini-mum altitude or airspeed during aerobatics, spitting a wingman out of formation, or recommending a pilot for a FAST check ride without ensuring his knowledge and f lying skills meet FAST and RPA formation standards.

Each one of us establishes our level of professionalism by answer-ing one question. That question is: “How good do I want to be.” If you f ly formation as a f light leader, you are also establishing a level of professionalism not only for your f light members but for the RPA as well. The good news is that we continue to nudge our level of professionalism ever higher through our Culture of Ex-cellence. We have an outstanding reputation within the warbird community. Our events continue to be attended by many pilots from other signatories and we have the most sought after train-ing materials available. The RPA has you, the membership, to thank for this stature.

With regards to growth, the President of the Soaring Society of America (SSA) recently wrote about the need and difficulty of growing the SSA—another small, unique segment of the Gen-eral Aviation community. The SSA has about 10,500 members, and a paid business staff located in their building in Hobbs, NM. Their paid magazine staff publishes 12 issues each year. Their full membership dues are $64 per year. They are organized into

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RedSTAR PILOTS ASSOCIATIONVOLUNTEERS OFFICERSPresident Terry Slawinski [email protected] Vice President Scott McMillan [email protected] David Jester [email protected] Ron Lee [email protected] OF DIRECTORSSouthwest Scott Andrews [email protected] Joe Griffith [email protected] Dave Jester [email protected] Rob Mortera [email protected] John Shuttleworth [email protected] Joe Wilkens [email protected] Mike Carter [email protected] Scott Glaser [email protected] Rich Hess [email protected] Relations John Graham [email protected] Standardization Skip Slyfield [email protected] Jill Gernetzke [email protected] Physiology Roger Kemp, MD [email protected] Store Byron Fox [email protected] Dean Henthorn [email protected]/FAST Records Mark Weidhaas [email protected] Sales John Warwick [email protected] RED ALERTEditor Mike Filucci [email protected] Editor Alan Cockrell [email protected] Editor Robert Genat [email protected] Director Robert Genat [email protected] Barnett [email protected] Dilley [email protected] Genat [email protected] Harris [email protected] Lipaz [email protected] Pastorino [email protected] Sims [email protected] Trammell [email protected]

Editor’s NotesMost of us have pulled the chocks and have taken to the air for the summer flying season. There is a flurry of activ-ity throughout our regions—pilots knocking the rust off, working on formation qualifications, refining aerobatic capabilities, re-establishing G-tolerances, heading out on cross country trips, and just plain enjoying being back in the sky again. With that in mind, we have a terrific collec-tion of material in this issue that you will find useful as you refresh and hone your flying skills.

MikeRed Alert is your magazine and would not exist without your input-your stories and experiences are what bring the magazine alive.

2013 ISSUE DEADLINES

Winter: 25 November

Please submit material to:

Mike Filucci [email protected]

Material contained herein is published for examination and evaluation of the reader. The RedStar Pilots Associa-tion has made no attempt to verify any of the contents and accepts no responsibility for any items printed in this publication. Articles written and published in this maga-zine are for entertainment only and are the opinion of the author(s). They are not intended to be instructional in nature nor promote deviation from a published f light procedure in any aircraft or technical f light manual, FAR, law or other regulation. The contents are not in-tended to be construed as offering legal advice or counsel.

Cover

Ahmed “Med” Ragheb f lying with his new travel pod mod (page 20) at the Waycross, Georgia clinic. Jon Blake is on his wing.

Photo by Chris Dilley

THE MAGAZINE OF THE REDSTAR PILOTS ASSOCIATION

Red ALERT

Summer 2013


As the 25th of April approached, months of preparation by the All

RedStar staff were coming together. Tak-ing the lessons learned from prior years; Postal, Bomber, Animal, Grins, Sparky, Taz, Speedo, Weeds, Gomez, Condor and MADDAWG began the event planning as early as October, 2012. Each took a piece of the puzzle and began the hard work re-quired to bring a complex event like this together. This year would be different. The goal was to increase the value to par-ticipants while lowering the costs of the event and increase the f light time avail-able for training—all this without losing any of the fun factor for which this event has become known.

Thanks to the generosity of Mike Qua-tacker, ARS 2013 would be conducted in a superior venue. Mike built an Oshkosh prize-winning RV-8, which is maintained along with his car collection in a uniquely configured hangar. Complete with a com-mercial kitchen, bar, conference room, private offices, rest rooms, multiple f lat screen displays, an observation deck, and mezzanine lounge, with dance pole. Just outside was a massive mobile BBQ, and abundant ramp space. This was, indeed, the ideal facility for ARS. To make it even better, Mike cleared out all of his gear in order to dedicate the facility to ARS. From

this day forward wherever he goes in the southwest, Mike will have brothers and sisters in the RPA.

Another goal this year was to spend less time in ground school and more time in the air. This was because of feedback and the abundance of training resources avail-able at this ARS. We knew from registra-tion that several pilots were very new to formation and several who were seeking

wingman or f light leader cards. With four designated check pilots, seven designated IPs, and several very seasoned lead pilots, we were able to meet the needs of the par-ticipants. In order to free up more event time for f lying, our Air Boss, Scott Glaser, and the event check pilot, Duke Molter, collaborated in conducting ground school prior to the event via Webex. This was un-charted territory for most, but it worked

By Darrell “Condor” Gary with photos by Robert “Speedo” Genat, Ryan “Snapper” Pastorino, Duane “Boogr” Trammell, and Marian Harris

Well organized, efficient and fun loving are the best ways to describe All Red Star’s registration desk staff. Here Bomber (left) and Sparky are laughing at something Animal just said.

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very well. Upon arrival there was a formal Q&A for the Webex ground school par-ticipants.

As April 25th approached, several events transpired that would test the adaptabil-ity, f lexibility and bench strength of the Southwest Region. The Event Organizer, Hartley “Postal” Postlethwaite, was forced to cancel because of the imminent ar-rival of his new daughter Lilly. He would, however, be present throughout the event, both in spirit, and image. The full-scale photo of Postal’s head was present at all events, especially at the bar, and in some cases it suffered extreme abuse including

being dropped, attached to a f lour bomb. Air Boss Scott Glaser arrived a day late because of job requirements and a rapidly moving front kept the early arrivals, in-cluding the Event Check Pilot from their planned arrivals on the 24th. “Condor” had been involved in the planning and agreed to fill in for “Postal” as Event Or-ganizer and MC, Gil Lipaz, took over the schedule board and filled in as Air Boss until Scott’s arrival. Gil continued to help run the schedule throughout the event, matching training resources with training needs. Job well done! The front cleared out overnight and most participants were in place by late morning on Thursday.

At the end of f light operations on the 25th, Scott Glaser and Terry Slawinski, filling in for the delayed Skip “Ranger” Slyfield, briefed and ran the carrier landing com-petition. Groups of four were released into the pattern and were graded on the preci-sion of their pattern, the glide slope/speed control during final approach and, of course, the accuracy of their touchdowns. During the debrief, egos and reputations

were left shattered on the ground, and in the end it was Mark Pe-terson, f lying his Alfa Jet, that walked away with the champion-ship trophy and bragging rights. The rest of the evening was spent preparing for the next day, get-ting dinner and rekindling old friendships. The latter, after all, is the heart of this event.

Friday brought with it perfect f lying weather. After the morn-ing stand-up the schedule board was full and the dedicated air space train-ing blocs would be full throughout the

day. A few late arrivals joined the action and including staff we totaled 74 partici-pants, making this one of the largest ARS turnouts ever. In addition to the YAKs and CJs, we had eight T-34s in attendance. They came to win the competitive events

and they were also available to contribute to training. They have become our broth-ers and are always welcome at RPA events.

At the end of the training day Mike “Vi-per” Maloco briefed and along with his scoring judges, ran the Air-to-Ground competition. There was lots of enthusi-astic competition and as usual the safest place on the airfield was on the target. There can only be one winner and this year the honors went to Ron Aldredge pi-loting this T-34 with Betsy Brittenham as his bombardier.

After putting the aircraft to bed for the evening everyone gathered poolside at the hotel for the traditional BBQ. In addition to the excellent food provided by Team Red Eagle and the most excellent array of adult beverages, we had extraordinary musical talent—The Fjord Trimotors, pro-vided by Tiger Squadron. It was another

With a wisp of tire smoke coming off of the mains, Mark Peterson makes another “OK-3” pass during the carrier landing competition in his Dornier Alpha jet. His picture perfect landings

garnered him the ARS Carrier Landing Award for 2013.

Dave “Slammer” Casey brings his spotless Yak-52 in for an attempt at the 3-wire during the

carrier landing competition.

Friday night’s barbecue at the hotel is a great time to get to know some new people , eat a great steak and have a cocktail or two.


memorable evening and many stayed until the wee hours prepar-ing for the next day’s events.

As Saturday dawned, there was excitement in the air. The sched-ule was filled with “rec. rides,” “check rides,” and the formation challenge. After the morning stand-up, and the group photo, the briefing areas, the ramp, the taxi way, and runway were filled with activity. The check pilots and IPs were scheduled back-to-back throughout the day. At the end of the training day, Dave “Costco” King took over the schedule, and ran the formation challenge. Participants had previously been issued the rules and limitations, safety considerations and judging criteria. Last year’s

winners, the Red Eagles, were not allowed to compete this year and would assist “Costco” with the judging. The competition was exciting, and the results were close. In the end, it was the “Tor-mentors” four T-34s from Arizona who would claim the title of Formation Challenge Champions. Nicely done, nicely done: Todd “Judy” McCutchan, Kevin “Drag” Carson, John “Flipper” Flippen and Tom “Monk” Mitchell.

The awards banquet was a catered affair, held in the hangar. Con-dor acted as MC and has become tradition—political incorrect-ness, and ridicule were the order of the day. Anyone with thin skin need not attend. The awards for Carrier Landing Champion,

(above) Andrew “Limey” Webb took to the air for his Lead check ride with Ron “Little Wood” Lee as one of his wing men. Webb was successful.

(left) While All RedStar has its fun side, f lying and briefings were taken quite seri-ously. Several areas around Porterville were designated specifically for f lights.

Busted! And the 3 of hearts goes on the 4 of clubs. Ryder Adams capped off his first All RedStar by getting his wingman patch.

The Tormentors team take to the sky over Porterville to practice for it’s upcoming Formation Challenge competition. Lead pilot is Todd “Judy” McCutchan, right wing John “Flipper” Flippen, left wing Kevin “Drag” Carson and in the slot is Tom “Monk” Mitchell.

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The Tormentors team take to the sky over Porterville to practice for it’s upcoming Formation Challenge competition. Lead pilot is Todd “Judy” McCutchan, right wing John “Flipper” Flippen, left wing Kevin “Drag” Carson and in the slot is Tom “Monk” Mitchell.

The RPA is blessed to have a so many instructor and check pilots. Space limits the full names of each, so call signs will have to suffice. From the left: Dumpster, Viper, Wink, Flipper, Costco, Batman, MADDAWG, Ranger, Mags, Condor, Beav, Blade, Gomez and Heyzeus. Those in this group fulfilling the additional role of check pilots are: MADDAWG, Ranger, Mags and Blade. In their lifetimes, these gentlemen have amassed thousands and thousands of hours of f lying and generously donate their time and skills to hone and improve the abilities of those individuals who are interested in obtaining a wingman or f light leader FAST qualification, and diligently work with those who are new to formation f lying to teach them the techniques required for safe f light. The donation of their instruction time at ARS often means their plane sits on the ramp with-out being f lown. The RPA would not be the organization it

is today without these hard-working gentlemen.


Air-to-Ground Champion, and Formation Challenge Champions were handed out with appropriate commentary by the com-petition coordinators.

The not-so-prestigious “Bone” award is given by majority vote for the most ob-vious lack of situational awareness and pathetic airmanship. This year it went to Marc Russell, who graciously consented to give a lovely young woman a demo ride in the T-34. After carefully pre-f lighting the aircraft and taking his passenger on the walk-around to explain the complexities of the aircraft (he was totally unaware that she was a private pilot), Marc conducted a thorough safety brief and actively assisted in strapping his passenger into the para-chute and seat harnesses. Marc started the aircraft and upon receiving the signal from his f light Lead began to taxi. This would have been much easier if he had re-moved the chocks and chains before taxi. Apparently he was distracted during the pre-f light.

The ladies of the ARS staff: Bomber, Ani-mal, Grins, Sparky and Taz have reserved unto themselves the right to bestow upon whichever pilot they so designate the conspicuously ridiculous “Pimp Daddy” award—always accompanied by great cer-emony and a humiliating narrative. The criteria for such an honor is not entirely clear, and is only known to the five judges. This year’s winner is usually quiet, and well behaved. This is also the first year in memory that his father has not accompa-nied him to the event, and there was a not-ed behavioral metamorphosis and, based

upon demonstrated performance, it was well deserved. Congratulations Gil Lipaz, “Pimp Daddy” 2013.

Judging for the final award, “Night Crawl-er” could not be completed until Sunday morning. However, ARS 2013 did produce two new Lead designated pilots; Andrew Webb and Mark Weidhaas, along with three new Wing designations for Ryder Adams, Brian Maisler and Zachary Reed-er. Congratulations to all. This can only be accomplished through hard work and a commitment to excellence.

In Postal’s absence, Condor took over as MC at the awards din-ner. The food was outstanding and drinks f lowed as freely as the

laughter.

Mike “Matchbox” Quataker graciously opened his hangar and his heart for this

year’s All Red Star.

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Da Judge, MADDAWG Molter, congratulates Formation Challenge Champions: John “Flipper” Flippen, Todd “Judy” McCutchan, Tom “Monk” Mitchell and Kevin “Drag” Carson.

Bombader Betsy Brittenham hugs her pilot Ron Aldredge upon receiving the Air-to-Ground award.

In nominating the eventual Bone Award winner, Marc Russell, Kevin “Drag” Carson gave a dramatic demonstration of Russell’s macho ap-proach to his pre-f light and preparing his attractive blond passenger with extensive details of the T-34’s aerodynamics and his f lying skills. But when ready to taxi, Russell’s plane would not move. In his excite-ment to help the young lady with her belts, he forgot to not only remove

the chocks, but also the tie down chains. Congratulations Marc!

Prior to presenting the 2013 ARS “Bone” award Michael “Viper” Malo-co took it for a short f light with appropriate sound effects. This is the award that no one wants to receive because it’s given for a total lack of situational awareness. Each year the nominees are legion, but only one

can be selected for utter cluelessness.


To close out the Banquet the call sign re-view board was opened. After much de-bate and as confirmed by a majority vote of those present, the following individuals will forever be known in aviation circles by their new call signs:

Mike Quatacker MatchboxLarry Bierkman RainmanKevin Carson DragMark Russell PuffyJacquie Warda KittyBrian Maisler MollyTerry Norbraten BinkyCarol Andrews ChillyKirk Heiser Tinkle (formerly T-Pot)Mike Maloco Vapor (formerly Viper) subsequent rules review may in-validate this proposed change.

The formal activities were concluded and the serious partying began. Apparently this balmy moonlit evening lent itself per-fectly to facilitate the coveted pole dance competition. The ladies were simply no competition for Brian “Ziggy” Neunzig, who appeared to be very well practiced at this event. The evening went late, the sto-ries got better, the behavior more animat-ed, and it must be said that it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Skip “Ranger” Slyfield brings Postal into the awards dinner via Skype. Postal had to miss this year’s event due the imminent birth of his daughter. Hopefully next year his plans for con-

ceiving a child are scheduled better.

Each year All RedStar has grown because of the excellent organization and outstanding f lying by the participants. It’s the RPA’s largest west coast event. Keep the end of April 2014 open, so

you can attend.

Carefully selected by vote of the ladies and awarded by Animal, this year’s prestigious Pimp Daddy award went to Gil “NAFOD” Li-paz. Lipaz, as the most recent recipient, was festooned with the traditional cape, feathered boa, cane and hat. Unfortunately, his celebra-tory dance, caught on video, was banned from

YouTube.

As Sunday morning dawned, the staff as-sembled to review the criteria, and general observations, to arrive at a vote for the “Night Crawler” award. By unanimous vote, it was determined that Dan “Dawg” Delane was most deserving, based upon sustained performance throughout the event. We are certain that his son, who accompanied him to ARS, is very proud. Various groups gathered on the ramp and at the airport café to say goodbye to friends old and new. As you might expect, each group put on a departure display be-fore heading home. There is no better sal-utation for aviators.

For me, this was an emotional time. Knowing that I was facing open-heart surgery two weeks following the event, I could only wonder, was this the last time I would be able to f ly with these outstand-ing aviators, these incredible men and women whom I have come to think of as brothers and sisters? So many shared ex-periences, so many good times over so many wonderful years, this cannot be the end. I am writing this article two weeks post-surgery and let me assure you that I will be back stronger than ever and I will treasure every opportunity that I may have to f ly with you. This just doesn’t hap-pen anywhere other than the RPA.Fly Safe! Condor


Every wheel has a hub that allows it to turn smoothly. If it’s precise, the

wheel can turn fast and true. There are five dedicated women who form All Red-Star’s high-speed hub. They freely give of their time, year after year, so the others can f ly and enjoy the event. They do their work effortlessly, and always with a smile. They are the first people a registrant sees when checking in. They have the rental car keys, take lunch orders (and deliv-er), keep everyone hydrated, have snacks available, and cool the kegs of beer for the evening’s first cocktail. They are our moms, sisters, daughters, mistresses and wives at All RedStar. These angelic ladies can also bust balls and crack an off-color joke well enough to make a sailor blush. Even though we thank them over and over, words cannot express how much we appre-ciate them and what they do.

A sign of acceptance in the aviation commu-nity is a call sign and each of these ladies has one. But here’s a little information about each of them you may or may not know.

Amy “Bomber” Glover is the group’s anchor. She’s attended every All RedStar since the first one was held at Castle Air Force Base. Bomb-

er’s married and is the proud mom of two daughters: Bryer and Lyal. During a conversa-tion at All RedStar, Bomber and Grins real-ized that they both attended Humboldt State University at the same time, but didn’t know each other at that time.

Rachelle “Grins” Gary first attended ARS five years ago, and has become a fixture at both All RedStar and Desert Thunder. She was ini-tially brought into the RedStar community by her father Darrell “Condor” Gary, but keeps coming back because of the relationships she’s made. Grins also helps local animal rescue centers by providing a foster home to dogs that have been abused and neglected. While in her care she lavishes these dogs with affection while working to prepare them for their per-manent homes.

Julie “Taz” Nunes joined the All RedStar fam-ily ten or eleven years ago, and lives in San Jose. She volunteers as a docent at the Point Sur lighthouse, is a ghost hunter, and even made an appearance on the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures with her ghost-hunting pals known as Ghost Girls Paranormal Group.

Lysandra “Sparky” Donigian also comes with av-gas in her blood as the daughter of parts

supplier Doug Sapp. She missed last year’s All RedStar because of a foot injury she suffered while training for a half-ironman competi-tion. This long-time All RedStar volunteer got married in 2010, currently lives in the Seattle area, and works for Google.

Amanda “Animal” Walthour is All RedStar’s class clown. She has one of the biggest hearts on the planet and brings laughter to everyone she comes into contact with. She’s a dog lover with two of her own. Animal is also a 12-year All RedStar veteran and every year she gives out the Pimp Daddy award with an outrageous presentation that brings the house down with laughter. Like Bomber, Animal also worked the very first ARS and has continued to do so ever since.

Grins spoke for all the women when she said, “The camaraderie among pilots is like none I have ever experienced—I feel so lucky and blessed to be a part of this aviation commu-nity.” And we’re blessed to have these five out-standing women on our All RedStar team.

The Ladies of ARS

From left to right: Julie “Taz” Nunes, Rachelle “Grins” Gary, Lysandra “Sparky” Donigan, Amanda “Animal” Walthour, Amy “Bomber” Glover.


On May 23, 2013, four Nanchang CJ-6 aircraft piloted by members of Southern California’s Tiger Squadron Airshow Team flew a special and historically significant

event over the Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, CA. The four-ship flew to honor almost 200 former POW’s and their families who arrived

from around the country to participate in the Vietnam POW Reunion.

By Gil “NAFOD” Lipaz with photos by Julie Sims and the Nixon Library


In early 1973, millions of American families gathered around television sets to watch America’s long-held Vietnam prisoners

of war triumphantly step to freedom during Operation Home-coming. It was an event that united Americans when they saw these 591 men finally return home, after some spent as long as eight years under unthinkable conditions in Laotian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian prison camps. As we know, most of the soldiers coming home from Vietnam did not receive a warm reception back in the US, but the POWs, most of whom were avia-tors, were celebrated and came home to a hero’s welcome. For many Americans their release and return to the States was Presi-dent Nixon’s crowning achievement, and to these POW’s, Nixon remains a hero to this day.

On May 24, 1973, President Nixon hosted a formal dinner at the White House to honor the returning POW’s. A giant tent was erected on the White House lawn and almost 600 former POW’s and their spouses, or dates, were afforded free reign to roam the White House before sitting down to what is still the largest din-ner ever hosted there. The greatest entertainers of the day were invited to perform, including Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, and John Wayne.

Now, 40 years later, the Nixon Library Foundation hosted the “40 Years of Freedom Reunion;” a two-day event starting with a dedication ceremony at the Nixon Library and Museum, and concluding on May 24th with a commemorative formal dinner, exactly 40 years after the one at the White House. In attendance were 189 former POW’s and their families. The only thing that would be missing was the promised military f lyover which was to include a B-52 bomber and four F-18 Hornets in a missing man formation. But, fortunately, word travels fast in the RedStar com-munity, and through the RPA’s Facebook page, I met the presi-dent of the NAM-POW Association, Tom Hanton, who received my offer to f ly its event with great appreciation. I don’t think the irony of us f lying Chinese aircraft was lost on Tom, but I pointed out that we are proud Americans and patriots and after all, we won the Cold War, and now get to f ly these beautiful aircraft for fun. He welcomed us warmly and expressed how thankful he was that this important element of the event was being filled by the Tiger Squadron CJs. I led the f light with Craig “Heyzues” Ekberg,

Doug Zeissner, and Pete “Eeyore” Fowler as wingmen.

The f ly-over included five passes, ending with the missing man. The assembled crowd was asked to rise for this last pass that served as the official opening of the ceremonies. After complet-ing the mission, we landed at nearby Fullerton airport and were transported to the Nixon Library to join the celebration. When we arrived in our f light suits, we were greeted by an adoring crowd of people expressing their appreciation for the f ly-over. We have f lown many events over the years, but there was a real sense that this one was different. It was very humbling to be so appreciated by a crowd of veterans who sacrificed and suffered so much for this country, and deserve our appreciation. It was a great honor for the Tiger Squadron to participate in this event, and I took special pride in having had the honor of leading the f light.

Aside from the satisfaction of being a part of this historic event, we were treated to a wonderful BBQ, were each presented with a commemorative challenge coin from Tom, and we even had a private tour of the Nixon Library grounds. It was a great day!

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Gil “NAFOD” Lipaz leads a f light of four Tiger Squadron Nanchangs for an event at the Nixon Library to honor Vietnam POWs.

Following the f ly-bys, the Tiger Squadron pilots and their GIBs joined the festivities at the library.


Ryder AdamsAfter many years of flying with friends I finally jumped in and got my PPL in January of 2012 and attained my multi-rating in April the same year. My origi-nal plan was to purchase a six passenger plane to transport my wife Chris, our two sons Matt and Max and the two dogs to our vacation home in Arizona. For-tunately Craig Ekberg saved me from such misery by putting me in the back-seat of his CJ-6 and showing me how much fun flying can be.

Three backseat rides in a Nanchang CJ-6 and my idea of buying a “normal” air-plane went straight in the round file. After many years of racing motorcycles, driving fast cars and boats, and even a few passes in an alcohol funny car, the flights I took in the CJ-6 made perfect sense, “Why fly straight and level when you can do this.”

I purchased my own Nanchang CJ-6 in January, and after a lot of time and help from Tiger Squadron, I received my Wingman certification at All Red Star in Por-terville.

Turns out that Chris and I can fly to Arizona and the boys can watch the dogs.

Col Dave “Slammer” Casey I first got the flying bug at age 12 when my Uncle Bob took me up in his 1958 Morrisey 2150. The “Mighty Mo” has been in the family for over fifty years and I still fly it regularly while introducing the next generation of aviators to the thrill of flying. The call of duty and the lure of fighter jets came in 1972. I was hooked and spent the next 30 years flying in the US Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve—mostly in the venerable Phantom. When the shooting start-ed in 1991, the pucker factor picked up during 25 combat mission in the RF-4, during the Gulf War. In addition to my military experience as an aerial tactics instructor, flight examiner, Phantom demo pilot and Squadron Commander I hold a civilian ATP and CFI as well as FAST cards from both the Commemorative Air Force and Reno Air Racing Association. When not on patrol over SOCAL in my Yak 52, I’m up in my recently completed RV-8 or crossing the pond in a 777 for American Airlines. My copilot Mimi Airhart comes along as my tail gunner when she’s not serving the troops at the LAX USO. It is a privilege to fly with the RPA and we are happy to join the fur ball any time.

Terry NorburtonAs far back as I can remember my dad took me flying. I was told I rode in the back of a Piper Cub in a baby seat while my father did some pattern work back then. However, I didn’t earn my private pilots license until September 1994. I flew for a couple of years, but then put that on hold so that I could drive U.S. Navy ships around the world for the next 11+ years and then finish my mas-ters degree at the Naval Postgraduate School. In 2007, I became a member of the Monterey Navy Flying Club, and fell in love with its last remaining 1956 Beechcraft, Mentor T-34B. Shortly after getting checked out and joining the T-34 Association, I attended a few local formation clinics and other warbird gatherings—I thought I’d died and gone to aviation heaven.

Since then, I’ve tried to visit as many fly-in events as I could. But, the grand daddy to date was ARS XII. That had to have been one of the best structured, yet friendly, flying events I could ever have hoped for. All of this year’s par-ticipants were friendly, helpful, funny, and darn good pilots! Got to fly with my own breed of warbird as there were nine other T-34s, but also partook of a special opportunity to fly formation with a couple of CJs. I had a great time!

Formation flying with a group of pilots who take it as seriously and as safely as they do really makes a difference in acquiring such a unique flying skill. I really appreciated all the great advice and mentoring I received during this year’s event. I can’t wait to “join up” for All Red Star XIII next year.

Newbies


Mark Peterson Mark grew up surrounded by aviation. His father Ed was a B-24 Liberator pilot during World War II and flew 29 missions for the Army Air Corps in the Euro-pean Theater. After returning to civilian life, Ed found ways to keep aviation in his business and personal life. The aviation bug bit Mark at an early age—he started flying at the age of six in a Piper Cherokee Arrow and accumulated over 1000 hours of left seat time before he received his pilot’s license. Mark soloed at age 16 and received his private pilot’s license at 17. Since then, he has flown over 30 different types of aircraft and accumulated over 3900 hours of flight time. Mark is an ATP and type rated in the Cessna Citation series.

Like many children with the aviation bug, Mark built P-51 models and dreamed of flying the Mustang one day. In November of 2005, he was fortunate to have all the right details come together and acquired a P-51 Mustang. Since then, Mark has accumulated over 450 hours in the P-51 and strengthened his love and admiration for the aircraft.

In 2007, Mark was able to acquire a Dornier Alpha Jet and has worked to refine his skills in high performance jet fighters.

Someone once told him that you don’t ever really “own” a warbird. You are just lucky enough to take care of one for the next generation. Mark was also told that flying a P-51 was like flying a National Monument. Great care and abso-lute dedication are required. Mark has taken this responsibility to heart and cares for the Mustang and Alpha Jet with all the honor and dedication they deserve.

Congratulations to our pilots who have aChieved formation qualifiCation

Wingman David Marten 3/1/2013 Robin Hou 3/2/2013 Matthew McNamara 3/3/2013 Lynn Miller 3/3/2013 Mark French 3/17/2013 Tom Geoghegan 4/7/2013 Richard Tomich 4/11/2013 Anthony Ginn 4/26/2013 Brian Maisler 4/26/2013 Zachary Reeder 4/26/2013 Ryder Adams 4/27/2013 James Burke 5/18/2013 Flight Leader Hank Canterbury 1/3/2013 Mark Grant 3/9/2013 John Harte 3/9/2013 Chuck Marshall 4/5/2013 Michael Foster 4/6/2013 Andrew Webb 4/27/2013 Mark Weidhaas 4/27/2013 Carlos Ortiz 6/1/2013

Certificate of Formation Qualification

Presented By The RedStar Pilots Association To:

____________________________

In recognition of the successful completion of the prescribed course of

formation training as required by the RedStar Pilots Association and the

Formation And Safety Team (FAST)

Aircraft Make, Model and Registration Number:

______________________________________________________

Recorded on this ______ day of __________ in the year __________

__________________________________ __________________________________

Qualifying Pilot

Check Pilot


By Terry “Mags” Slawinski [email protected]

The New Overhead Traffic Pattern

The military invented the overhead traffic pattern to enable large numbers of aircraft f lying in compact formations to ex-

peditiously land in minimum time and use a minimum amount of airspace. Even if you don’t f ly formation, the overhead should become a part of your traffic pattern skill set because it keeps the single engine pilot closer to the field at pattern altitude in case of engine failure, hones your turn circle and energy management skills, and is fun to f ly.

In the latest edition of the RPA formation manual, with the “fun-damentals” chapters available on the web site, there is a detailed description of the overhead traffic pattern using a 45° bank break as the new training standard instead of 60°. The purpose of this article is to explain why this change was made. Please read both this article and the overhead traffic pattern section in the manu-al for a complete understanding of this new standard.

The primary reasons for this change are:

1. To enhance the safety margins in the final turn.

2. To provide pilot’s with easily recognizable visual references for proper downwind spacing.

3. To provide pilots with a more comfortable break turn.

The overhead is the most inconsistently f lown event I see in the RPA. It all starts in the break. I rarely see wingmen roll out be-hind the leader. I see shallow breaks, angling downwind legs, and downwind legs wider than the leader’s. When I ask why, I hear “After rolling out from my 60° break, I’m too tight on down-wind,” “The leader is too tight,” or “Looked OK to me.”

From my first RPA overhead 11 years ago to the present, I thought the 60° break put me tighter on downwind than it did in my F-16. However, I consistently made the final turn work by getting right into a 45° bank turn. I also knew I didn’t have much of a turn-circle pad available. Based on these two observations, I decided to do some turn-circle math on our overhead pattern.

The most critical segment of the overhead is the final turn. This is a dirty configuration, low power, descending, low altitude, me-dium to steep banked turn event. So, I started with the 60° bank break at 120 KIAS at 1000’ AGL for Yaks and CJs. Using no wind and instantaneous turns, I came up with the following numbers:

1. Break turn diameter = 1440’

2. On downwind, this is a 34° look-down angle to the runway and puts it under the wing, approximately ⅔ inboard from the wingtip (figure 1). This is what scares pilots.

3. A 30° bank/1.14 G final turn diameter = 1421’

4. A 45° bank/1.4 G final turn diameter = 1157’

5. The final turn is f lown in a -28° oblique plane with a diam-eter of 1470’

6. Using the above 30° and 45° bank turn numbers, I deter-mined that turning room available for both the 30° and 45° bank final turn exceeded the turning room required but it resulted in a meager pad of only 49’ to 313’! This explained why downwind looked tight and why the final turn required a consistent 45° of bank. It also explained why any pilot who did not correct for overshooting cross winds, poor runway alignment on initial, or an angling in downwind could find themselves in a potentially dangerous overshoot situation.

Next, I did the math for a 45° bank break and came up with the following numbers:


2. On downwind, this is a 25° look-down angle to the runway and puts it under the wing, approximately ⅓ inboard of the wingtip (figure 2).

3. The 30° and 45° bank final turn diameters are the same as above.

4. The final turn is f lown in a -22° oblique plane with a diam-eter of 2510’

NOT JUST FOR FORMATION PILOTS

Runway intersecting wing approximately ⅔ inboard from wingtip—too close to runway on downwind

Runway intersecting wing approximately ⅓ inboard from wingtip—ideal position on downwind


5. The turning room available for both the 30° and 45° bank final turn, again exceeds the turning room required by 1089’ to 1355’. This is a much more generous pad that does a bet-ter job of protecting pilots from overshooting cross winds, angling-in downwind legs, and misalignment on initial.

The last thing I did was to consult with the USAF UPT Training Department at Randolph AFB. The T-6 Texan II IPs told me they f ly initial at 1500’ AGL at 180 KIAS. They break at 60°, roll out on downwind with the runway under the wing at 60% out from the wing root, and f ly final at 120 KIAS. I did the math on their overhead and came up with the following numbers:


2. On downwind, this is a 25° look-down angle to the runway, and puts it under the wing at 60% out from the wing root, the same as our new 45° break.

3. The final turn is f lown in a -22° oblique plane, the same as our new 45° break.

4. The turning room available for both the 30° and 45° bank final turn exceeds the turning room required resulting in a pad of 874’ to 1373’, almost the same pad as our new 45° break.

5. Two things allow the T-6 to use a 60° break and still have the same downwind look-angle, runway placement, and final turn pad as our new 45° break. First, they have a 60 KIAS difference between the initial and final turn airspeeds, and second, they f ly initial at 1500’ AGL versus our 1000’ AGL.

Putting all this together with the manual results in the following overhead summary:

1. Fly Initial at 1000’ AGL at 120 KIAS.

2. Break using a maximum of 45° of bank, no wind, maintain-ing 120 KIAS until rolling out on downwind. Vary the bank angle as required to compensate for misalignment on initial or overshooting cross winds.

3. On downwind, slow to 90 KIAS and place the runway under the wing at ⅓ inboard from the wingtip, ½ inboard from the wingtip is the minimum acceptable displacement.

4. Approaching the perch, configure for landing.

5. Fly the turn to final at up to 45° of bank. Always strive to use more bank in the first 90° of turn, and make the last 90° of turn a rolling out maneuver.

6. If final turn bank angle exceeds 45°, a go around is strongly recommended.

Turn circle math and military validation allowed the RPA check pilots and the BOD to vet the new overhead break training stan-dard at 45° of bank. Following the procedures in the current RPA formation manual will give you a safer, more precise, and more comfortable overhead pattern.

Train often, train hard.

Terry “Mags” Slawinski

35

#1

#2

#2

#2

#1

#1

perch

initial

• Initial: 1000” AGL, 120 KIAS• Break: maximum 45° bank, 120 KIAS• Downwind: slow to 90 KIAS, place runway under the wing, ⅓

inboard from the wingtip• Approaching the perch, configure for landing• Fly the turn to final at up to 45° of bank• If final turn bank angle exceeds 45°, a go-around is strongly

recommended


In 2007, I attended my first Waycross clinic, where I met and made several new RPA friends. One of the people was Tom

Bennett, whose Nanchang had pylons and dummy bombs hang-ing under the wings. I liked the tactical look, but I know from my time in the Air Force, f lying F-4s and F-16s, that every external store creates a drag penalty. Although, the addition of the pylons and bombs didn’t seem to have a major affect on the performance of Bennett’s plane.

I asked him if he could send me the plans for his pylon design. Bennett graciously sent me a PowerPoint presentation that out-lined the step-by-step process for building the pylons, and test-ing procedures.

I had a set of pylons built, and ordered two dummy bombs from a surplus store. That year at Sun and Fun, I f lew with my CJ-6 with the dummy bombs hanging under the wings.

My Nanchang GIB (Girl in the Back), wife Lori, always wished that the CJ-6 had enough baggage space to carry her luggage, folding chairs and my traveling gear. As I started thinking about ways to increase my baggage capacity, I went back to my Air Force f lying days when we had “travel pods” attached the air-craft’s hard points, to store our personal gear when we went cross country. The idea of using my Nanchang’s pylons for travel pods offered an opportunity to carry more baggage, close to the center of gravity, made a lot of sense to me.

While in Lakeland for Sun-N-Fun last year, I visited my friend Bob Setzer. There, I saw the external fuel tanks he built for a Lancair IVP. They looked very smooth, and were just the right size–60-inches long and 13-inches in diameter. Using my current pylons, Setzer made a set of detachable light-weight Pods for my CJ-6. I wanted the pods to be easily detachable from the pylons, so they can be added and removed as needed. When completed, they weighed a little under nine pounds each.

I mounted them in time for Waycross this year, and tested them empty, in straight and level, and at 30° of bank, at normal cruise. To expand the test envelope, Jim “Pappy” Goolsby agreed to f ly as my safety chase with Chris Dilley in his back seat to record and observe. Pappy briefed the overall mission and I briefed the test objectives, procedure, and the Test Safety Hazard Analysis (TSHA) involved with the f light. The mission profile took us over the Okefenokee Swamp away from habitable areas. Once in the area at a safe altitude, the first test point was to check for high-speed stability. Pappy passed the lead to me, and I deployed him to a loose, route position; close enough to observe the pods, but wide enough to be clear if anything came off the airplane, or if I encountered a rolling moment as a result of store separation. The pods were successfully tested to 190 knots, with no adverse roll effect. After the termination call and acknowledgment, I cleared Pappy to come in for a close look at the pods, and he re-ported no apparent damage, or visible vibration. We then set up for the G-limit tests. As we briefed, the plan was to do an incre-mental build up, with a pause between each test point to allow for a visual check of the pylons. Our plan was to attain G loadings of two, three, and four Gs, with Pappy deployed in the observation position. I planned to achieve the desired G-loading in a pull-up maneuver, so I could have the aircraft in an upward vector, in case of any structural or loss of control issues. The G tests were successful, and the return to Waycross was uneventful. I f lew the rest of the Waycross events with the empty pods attached.

I f lew the airplane to Sun-n-Fun to test cruise performance. I no-ticed a three to four knot decrease in cruising speed at a normal cruise setting of 650 mm manifold pressure and 1900 rpm, with a 60 gallon fuel load. I plan to f ly more tests with various bag-gage loads and at different altitudes, to get the best combination of fuel and baggage loads but, so far, the small cruise penalty is a small price to pay for a very happy GIB.

Travel Pods for a CJ

By Amed “Med” Rasheb with photos by Chris Dilley and the author


The shape of the travel pods is identical to external fuel tanks built for a Lancair—60 inches long and 13 inches in diameter. The construction is composite, keeping weight

low.

Here’s one of the pods, just prior to paint. A f lange has been added that allows attachment to an under-wing pylon—the nose piece is attached

with a series of screws. The total weight per pod is under nine pounds.

The pylons providing the hard points for attachment of the pods are permanently mounted to the wings. The pods are attached to the pylons, and then retained in place, by four feet with threaded adjusting rods. While removable on the

ground, there is no way to jettison the pods in f light.

Here, “Med” has opened one of the pods by removing the screws that attached to nose piece. These handy pods blend well with the overall

design of the Nanchang, while doubling the amount of usable storage.


Kirk “Tinkle” Heiser’s CJ


Kirk “Tinkle” Heiser’s CJ

Manufacturer : Nanchang (1985)Model: CJ-6AEngine: HousaiProp: Standard Nanchang

Misc Upgrades: High compression pis-tons, automotive ignition and side ehaust, all by Bill Blackwell

New front and rear instrument pan-els by Dee Grimm with ICOM A 210 led Nav/Com

Smoke system tied to stick with fight-er grip

Custom nose art of Heiser’s wife inshort shorts


It has been said that curiosity killed the cat. Well in this case curiosity certainly created a lot of work for me but I did learn a great deal in the process of exploring the workings of the Yak-52 fuel system. I must first apologize to the CJ and TW communities—

I’m not certain how, or where, the fuel systems on these aircraft differ, so I’m only able to speak to the Yak-52 drivers out there. I do expect that other similar aircraft fuel systems should be close enough to make this an interesting read.

aircraft systemsYak-52 Fuel System By Scott “KONG” McMillan [email protected]

primer line is attached to the #2 Intake tube and from there leads behind the #9 cylinder to the blower injector

CarburatorFuel Air Separator

Fuel Pressure Transducers

Oil Pump

Fuel Pump

Fine Fuel Screen

Fuel Water Separator

Firewall Shutoff

Primer

Check Valve

Check ValveSystem Drain

Main Spar

Header Tankw/ Flop Tube

Left Main Tank

Right Main Tank

Fuel Vapor Return Line

(Upper) Main Vent Line

Anti-‐Shipon Loops


Upper Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Firewall

Oil Diluter Valve

WARNING When you pref light your airplane, if, upon open-ing the canopy for the first time, you smell fuel in the cockpit, it is likely that you have a fuel prob-

lem that should be addressed immediately.

NOTEThis diagram depicts the newer, two line fuel vent system. In this newer system, as fuel in the header tank expands, it vents

into the main tanks via a second vent line.Older Yaks have a single vent line system

that has a tendency to vent fuel overboard as it expands.


The history of my adventure begins with an ever-increasing odor of fuel in the aircraft. I originally thought it might have been caused by fuel seeping past the primer seals, but as it got progressively worse, I decided that it was time to find the source of the leaking fuel. Evidence of a fuel leak, in my case, became evident as I began to see more and more blue streaking on the lower fuselage emanating from the wing root fairings, and around the ADF antenna holes (I long ago removed my 14 pound ADF antenna, and covered the holes). My first area of suspicion had been a crack in the main fuel tank, since I have previously had cracks in both of them. This, however, did not seem to make sense, since fuel was pooling under the aft seat, an area that my GIB, Zoë “Click” Albrecht, didn’t ap-preciate much. The only way to know for sure was to start removing wing-root fairings and f loor panels until I had found the source. What I discovered was pretty straight-forward, (keep reading for the answers) but since I had already removed the seats, f loor panels, and all the rest, I decided now was the time to keep at it until I had a complete understanding of the system. The remainder of this article is a description of the operation of the fuel system, along with photos and diagrams of the major components, and likely areas where failures could develop³.

primer line is attached to the #2 Intake tube and from there leads behind the #9 cylinder to the blower injector



Oil Pump

Fuel Pump

Fine Fuel Screen


Firewall Shutoff

Primer

Check Valve


Main Spar


Left Main Tank

Right Main Tank





Upper Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Firewall

Oil Diluter Valve

WARNING When you pref light your airplane, if, upon open-ing the canopy for the first time, you smell fuel in the cockpit, it is likely that you have a fuel prob-

lem that should be addressed immediately.

NOTEThis diagram depicts the newer, two line fuel vent system. In this newer system, as fuel in the header tank expands, it vents

into the main tanks via a second vent line.Older Yaks have a single vent line system

that has a tendency to vent fuel overboard as it expands.


#2 Intake Tube



Oil Pump

Fuel Pump

Fine Fuel Screen


Firewall Shutoff

Primer

Check Valve


Main Spar


Left Main Tank

Right Main Tank





Upper Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Firewall

Oil Diluter Valve

The Yak-52 fuel system (mine being a stock system, with no add-ons) is fairly straight-forward. It is a typical, gravity-feed system, with one engine-driven fuel pump that supplies fuel, under pressure, to the carburetor. The main-tank ca-pacities are approximately 61 liters each, with one header tank that holds 5.5 liters. Fuel from the main tanks f lows from the tanks, through check valves located under the front seat (photos 1&2), to the header tank. All of these check valves function about the same. They have a port covered

by a hinged, brass, f lapper valve (photo 3). It’s my opinion that these valves would be very unlikely to stick closed, and thereby prevent the f low of fuel from one of the tanks.

As a side note, we have all seen fuel levels vary from side to side during operation, but the simple operation of the fuel check valve itself cannot be prevented from opening unless it physically jams in the closed position. However, these are free-f loating valves and are not prone to jam-ming—so I find this to be very unlikely given the design and the materials that are used. What is most likely causing the fuel to burn unevenly is what is know as the “yaw effect.” If the aircraft is not trimmed properly, or is being f lown in uncoordi-nated f light, the fuel burn will be uneven between the two main tanks—essentially, fuel follows the turn/bank indicator ball. If the ball is displaced to the left, the fuel will f low to the left, i.e. out of the right tank to the header tank and vice-versa. If you find your system burns unevenly to very low levels (less than 20L) then I would suggest you inspect the valves for contamination or corrosion. Uneven fuel burn could also be the result of a restric-tion in the main fuel lines. While you have the system apart, carefully inspect the lines from the tank to the check valve. If they are hard and brittle it may be time to rebuild them. The small fitting on the front of this particular check valve is the primer draw port (more on this later).

The check valves in my Yak had some evi-dence of leaking around the base of the caps, as evidenced by fuel staining. Each cap covers an O-ring and a rubber seal (photo 4). These can be replaced pretty easily, but just make sure you put it back together with some fuel lube to keep ev-erything pliable.

From the main check valve, fuel f lows aft to the header tank. This tank is located under the left foot of the back-seat pilot (photo 5). This tank contains the f lop-tube assembly for inverted f light. It is inserted into the tank on the outboard side and can be removed without removing the header

#1: check valve assembly under front seat

#2: check valve assembly

#3: check valve as seen looking through oppo-site side with opposite check valve cap removed

#4: cap removed with O-ring and rubber seal

#5: header tank


#2 Intake Tube



Oil Pump

Fuel Pump

Fine Fuel Screen


Firewall Shutoff

Primer

Check Valve


Main Spar


Left Main Tank

Right Main Tank





Upper Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Firewall

Oil Diluter Valve

tank. The main source of my fuel leak was located in this area. The f lop tube assembly (photo 6) is screwed into the tank. There is an O-ring under the large nut, and this one had become hard and cracked, and needed replacement. It would have been a simple job had I known in advance that the f lop tube could be removed without removing the tank. The tank removal itself is pretty tough. There are four fittings that need to be accessed and guess what—they are all safety wired? Oh well, that’s why I’m writing this article so you won’t have to go through all of the pain.

Continuing forward from the f lop tube assembly, the fuel f lows through the main spar and past another check valve. This particular valve is located under the pi-lot’s left foot (photo #7) and serves two purposes. The primary purpose is to pre-vent reverse f low when diving the air-plane. The second purpose is to allow the

primer to pressurize the fuel system for-ward of this point. So as you look back at the diagram you will see the primer feeds to this point in the left position, and in the right position, feeds fuel to the injector

behind the #9 cylinder, into the blower. I know from two personal experiences that you can keep the engine running with the primer in the left position should you lose fuel pressure (this is a story for another article).

From this check valve, fuel f lows through the firewall to the fire shutoff valve (photo 8). This valve is connected to the red han-dle forward of the throttle, in both cock-pits. Following the fire shutoff the fuel f lows through a water separator (gascola-tor type device) and then to the engine- driven fuel pump. The engine-driven fuel

pump shares a common drive shaft with the oil pump—the logic being to minimize the number of parts and create a more compact unit in the engine compartment. Fuel pressure can be adjusted by loosen-ing the locking nut on the bottom of the pump (photo 9), and adjusting the pres-sure screw. Normal range should be be-tween .2 and .5 Kg/cm². The middle of the green band is fine.

#6: f lop tube assembly

#7: check valve located under pilot’s left foot

#8: fuel-fire shutoff valve

On a stock Yak-52, there is a device called the oil diluter. This is an electrically con-trolled valve that allows fuel to mix with the engine oil near the oil pump, thereby diluting the viscosity. Based on the outside air temperature, the pilot could reduce the viscosity at shutdown by opening the valve for a few seconds, which would ease the startup the next morning. Multi-viscosity oils, and the fact that I won’t go f lying at minus 22° makes this an unnecessary step, but it does work, as advertised, if you’d like to try it someday.

The next step for the fuel is the fuel/air separator, known in the Yak service man-ual as the compensation tank (or de-bub-bler as some call it) (photo 10). The pri-mary function of this tank is to produce steady and continuous fuel pressure to the carburetor. The small line that emerges from the top of the tank and leads back to the header tank has two restrictors in-stalled that help maintain that steady fuel pressure. You can see where the restric-tors are installed, because the fitting is painted red at the restrictor location. This device works on the principle that fuel will

#11: fine fuel screen

#9: fuel adjustment nut on bottom of pump

#10: fuel/air separator with long feed tube and short pick-up tube removed


#2 Intake Tube



Oil Pump

Fuel Pump

Fine Fuel Screen


Firewall Shutoff

Primer

Check Valve


Main Spar


Left Main Tank

Right Main Tank





Upper Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Firewall

Oil Diluter Valve

stick to the inside of the sphere, while the fuel vapor will not. The fuel vapor will be forced out of the top of the sphere by the pressure of the system, and fed back to the header tank. Fuel is pumped out against the inside of the sphere and then picked up again in the middle of the sphere by a pickup tube. The design is quite inge-nious—the end of the pickup tube is lo-cated in the exact center of the sphere, so no matter what angle the aircraft is in, it will always have a fuel supply².

Once the air has been removed, the fuel f lows through the fine fuel screen just above it (photo 11). The element in this fil-ter is extremely fine, and can be replaced. You should inspect this filter at each con-dition inspection for signs of metal con-tamination coming from the fuel pump.

Attached to the top of the fine filter is a line that leads to the two fuel pressure transducers (photo 12). This line also has a restrictor—a tiny cone-shaped device that reduces f low but does not impede pres-sure. This is installed to prevent a major fuel loss should the line to the transducers break. The transducers are located on the firewall, just next to the main oil screen. These send signals to the respective gauge in each cockpit. From the fine filter, the pure fuel supply f lows to the carburetor (photo 13). The carburetor itself contains a finger-screen, located on the back of the unit, but it is not depicted on the diagram. This filter should also be checked annu-ally.

Now that I’ve talked about the fuel supply let’s go back and talk about the venting. The fuel venting is not too complicated, but I did discover that my Yak, being one

#12: pressure transducers

of the last Soviet-era production models (November, 1990), has a two-line vent sys-tem as opposed to the older, single-line vent system—and significantly longer vent tubing off the main tanks than previous versions. In talking with some aircraft home-builders, it appears that these long loops, extending well above the tanks, are there to prevent siphoning of fuel as it ex-pands in the heat of the day. The location of these loops is forward of the front in-strument panel (photos 14&15), and can be seen through the inspection plate, on the right side of the aircraft nose, look-ing up. I have watched older Yaks relieve themselves quite profusely, until the caps are removed, to relieve pressure. My Yak never did that, and now I understand why.

The other vents on the main tank are at the lower aft, inboard corner, and connect to the upper aft vent, on the header tank. I believe this helps maintain the header at 100% capacity, which is necessary to pro-vide positive fuel feed to the f lop tube in all attitudes. The 2½ minute inverted limit is most likely a result of tests that showed the header tank unable to maintain full capacity under negative G loads³.

So, what have I learned, and how will I modify my annual inspections, based on my investigation. The system itself is re-liable, and will most likely work without fail, under normal operation. The annual inspection should include an inspection of all three fuel screens for contamination, and the check valves for evidence of leaky O-rings or seals. If you are concerned that the f lop tube may not be f lexing properly, remove it, and test it. It is a pretty hardy unit, but also something that could be eas-ily replaced by an inventive tinkerer. It’s just a piece of f lexible rubber tubing, with a brass weight inserted in the end. The tube itself is pushed onto the fitting, and safety wired in place. One final note—ac-cording to the service manual, every 100 hours or at the condition inspection, remove the fuel tank covers under the wings, and inspect the tanks for signs of fatigue cracks across the strengthening beads. These areas have been a consistent point of weakness in the tanks, but can be repaired by a skilled welder.

Fly Safe and Fly Smart, KONG

(If you have questions about your fuel sys-tem, feel free to call Vladimir Yastremski at 619-379-1860.)

#13: carburetor

#14: portion of loop seen through access hatch

#15: fuel line loops


#2 Intake Tube



Oil Pump

Fuel Pump

Fine Fuel Screen


Firewall Shutoff

Primer

Check Valve


Main Spar


Left Main Tank

Right Main Tank





Upper Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Lower Vent Fitting

Firewall

Oil Diluter Valve

AfterwardsIt wouldn’t have been the full experience without the following tidbit to share. I completed the reinstallation of the system components and hurriedly put the f loor panels back in place so I could get to Plat-tevalley Airpark (18V), north of Denver, and complete my engine inspection with the help of our local Yak mechanic, Stew-art Bergner. Taxiing out, I smelled the dreaded, pungent odor of 100LL. “Damn it Jim, I’m a pilot not a mechanic!” (I thought to myself). I turned around on the taxiway, and returned to my hangar, sure that I had forgotten to tighten a B-nut, or some other simple item, in my rush to get moving. What I discovered was a small fracture in the header tank that had been ready to open up, at some point in the future. Fortunately for me, when I tightened up the B-nut the crack opened up, and allowed fuel to leak out. I removed the tank⁴ and had it welded. I’m thinking about joining a Russian pit crew, as I can now remove and replace a header tank in mere minutes.

Notes:

1. I am neither and A&P or an engineer, but I have turned enough wrenches on Yaks to feel pretty confident in my un-derstanding of the system. If you are not like me, I highly recommend that before you attempt to repair your Yak fuel system, you seek out some experi-enced help.

2. I’m a bit suspicious that at high power settings there may be a lack of suffi-cient fuel f low to the de-bubbler caus-ing some surging in my engine, but I’m still investigating this issue.

3. This is only my opinion. There are most likely other factors, but this is the one I came up with.

4. 32 gallons of 100LL is quite expensive. Fortunately, I had places to store it until I got the tank welded and rein-stalled.

Every summer writers warn about the effects of density altitude on aircraft per-formance; and every year pilots mush off runways into trees and power lines.

Why is that? For one thing, density altitude is a nondenominational, equal opportu-nity killer. It doesn’t matter what kind of airplane you’re f lying or what rating you might have.

Conceptually, I think everyone who completes ground school in pursuit of a private pilot certificate understands that with higher altitude or hotter temperature, aircraft performance decreases. But, even some experienced pilots don’t appreciate the sig-nificant impact of high temperature and/or high altitude on an aircraft’s ability to f ly. In part, the performance degradation is masked in many POH tables—it really doesn’t jump out at you.

A friend of mine who has been a private pilot for some time had his “Aha” moment when he was shown a Koch Chart, which you will find below. To determine the additional runway distance—and corresponding decrease in rate of climb you will penalized at any given temperature, take a straight edge and line it up with the tem-perature on the left scale, and with the airport’s pressure altitude, as shown below, on the right scale. You may determine airport pressure altitude by setting the Kolls-man window at 29.92 and noting the altimeter reading. Next, check the effect on your aircraft performance on the scales in the middle of the chart.

In this example, with a pressure alti-tude of 6,000 feet (Big Bear’s field el-evation is 6,752 feet) and a temperature of 100° F, you will need to increase your standard day normal takeoff distance by at least 200%—and you should expect 75% decrease compared to standard-day climb performance.

After seeing this chart during a Wings seminar, my friend commented that he now understood why he had such a hard time taking off and climbing out from Albuquerque one summer day several years before. To his dismay, he realized he had been an accident wait-ing to happen for all those years, be-cause he didn’t appreciate the drastic effect higher altitudes and higher temperatures have on every airplane’s performance. My son and I had a similar experience one summer day taking off from a high altitude airport. But, because we were aware of the density altitude, we readily accepted a little crosswind to use a longer runway, rather than the one more aligned with the wind.

You can see from the chart above, that rising temperature profoundly affects aircraft performance, specifically takeoff distance. That’s because there are fewer molecules of air going over your wing to generate lift; through your propeller to push and generate thrust; and into your engine’s fuel/air mixture to generate power—a triple threat. A good solution: take off early in the morning before it gets hot, if your schedule allows. If not, check your takeoff data carefully; make sure you have plenty of runway available, and use it all. Density altitude is so critical many airports now include it in their ATIS. So, if you’re taking off from an airport with an elevation of 4,000 feet and the ATIS is reporting the density altitude at 7,000 or 8,000 feet, an alarm needs to off in your head: “Did I calculate my takeoff data accurately and with the most current weather information?”

Density AltitudeBy Rich Martindell letsgoflying.wordpress.com

There’s even a density altitude app: Above Mean Sea Level


KONG’S KORNER By Scott “KONG” McMillan [email protected]

Effective Communication

In the most recent article I discussed f light physiology and fa-tigue management. The summer edition of Kong’s Korner will

focus on effective communication skills and how they apply to formation training and f light. First and foremost, it is important to know that everyone hears, listens, understands and complies in different ways. It is rare when two different people can com-municate effectively without a common language or understand-ing. Socioeconomic background, regional dialect and cultural differences can have a significant impact on our ability to change our intended message into one that can be understood by the re-ceiver. Take for example the situation Captain Picard (Star Trek TNG) found himself in when faced with an alien species that spoke only in metaphors. Without the knowledge or understand-ing that went along with the metaphor it was completely indeci-pherable even though the words were spoken in English. He had to learn how to communicate using familiar words and phrases, in a new and complex way.

The various backgrounds that RPA members have grown up in can often wreak similar chaos in the FAST environment. We have all been in a briefing where the other three members of the f light all f lew in the same service, perhaps even the same squadron. Well, if you’re a civilian guy like me, you are clearly at a disad-vantage when it comes to effective communication. These guys speak a language that sounds familiar but has no semblance of meaning. It is very important for the lead pilot in this situation to know everyone in his f light, and limit his use of colloquialisms, and non-standard terminology. Not doing so will surely have a negative impact on those in the f light that do not understand what-in-the-heck he’s referring to. Conversely, use of standard formation terminology, proper radio phraseology and clear in-struction will help a new student achieve success in less time and make him appreciate what it is we do.

When we talk about a common language, I’m referring to the Airman’s Information Manual (AIM), the RPA formation manu-al, and a standardized instructor cadre. The AIM is the common language of aviation or “Rosetta Stone” that gives each individual pilot the basis for what is discussed in our manual. It tells us how to operate in the airspace environment, and how to f ly in accor-dance to the FARs. Formation skills are not taught in the AIM, but a good lead should have a good working understanding of its contents because as a lead, you are ultimately responsible for the safe operation of your f light. Our manual, having just undergone a complete revision, is the derived language that keeps us all safe. It allows us to have an understanding, from the beginning, of what is expected before, during, and after each formation f light. With a basis of understanding, and a common language, we can begin the process of learning. Education in any discipline is criti-cal to the effective and, in our case, the safe implementation of those skills. That is why the RPA strives to have a standardized instructor cadre that can teach and implement the skills required for safe formation f lying. A good instructor pilot can make the difference between a safe formation pilot and one who is just get-ting by. As an instructor/evaluator, I have seen effective com-munication turn a struggling formation student into a super star

and have also seen the opposite happen when the communicator fails to get his message across.

So what can we do as formation pilots to enhance our communi-cation effectiveness in the FAST world in which we live? Simple thing, so simple that we often do them without thought. Let’s talk about each facet and how best to put it to work for us. On the receiving end it is important to hear, and I do mean hear what is being said. Too often we have the volume turned down a little bit or have a distractive voice in our headset. Make sure that your headset is the right one for your airplane. It should al-low for clear reception in our radial-engine environment. Assure that you have briefed your GIB that communications should be kept to a minimum, and only to those things of a critical nature. Your GIB should be made aware of the serious nature of what you are about to do. As for listening, we all know that it is distinctly different from hearing. If what you hear is not what you were expecting or not clearly understood don’t assume, don’t guess, ask for clarification.

The piece about understanding is a two-way street that takes both the speaker’s, and the listener’s help to achieve. You as the speaker must assure yourself that the listener has understood your message, and you as the listener must clearly understand the message being sent. How do we accomplish this in a forma-tion f light where eye contact and body language are next to im-possible to ascertain? We do this with positive hand signals, head nods and our standard language. For example, if you are Lead and you want a cross-under by #2, you will hold up your fist and wait for a head nod by #2. If #2 does not see or understand this signal, he should do nothing—a clear signal to the lead that the message was not received. Another try at the signal when the sun is not shinning on #2 may do the trick. On the other hand if #2 nods his head, and proceeds to move over making way for #3, then the common language has failed and radio communication is necessary to clarify the situation. In neither case should one of the pilots assume that they have either given or received the proper signal, until it has been confirmed by the appropriate ac-tion. I have seen too many leads look to their wingman, give an instruction and, before the wingman has had a chance to prop-erly acknowledge the signal, the lead looks away, oblivious to the effectiveness of his own communication, until it is too late.

The final piece of effective communication is probably the one that has the most impact on a formation f light. That one im-portant piece is the one that often gets overlooked, especially in familiar circles, and that piece is the debrief. I could write (and very well may) an entire article on effective debriefs, but for now, let me just touch on a couple of key points. The debrief is a teach-ing event. It is the best time to reinforce the positives and the best time to critique the negatives. The lead is the key to a good debrief. He must note everything that happened during the f light and use our common formation language to both reinforce those positives and correct the negatives. We have all been privileged to sit in a two hour debrief and walked away wondering to our-selves: “Didn’t anything go right?” A debrief normally shouldn’t


take more than 30 minutes, or so, and everyone should walk away with a clear understanding of the good, the bad and the ugly of the f light. If that’s not happening in your f lights, then call one of the check pilots, and spend some time learning how to make your debriefs more effective.

That’s all for this month, next month I will talk about what makes an effective leader and how to put those skills into practice.

Fly safe and f ly smart, KONG


Out-of-Control Flight (OCF)Last year, at All Redstar (ARS), Doug Sapp hosted training for

out-of-control f light (OCF), and emergency landings. I didn’t get the opportunity to take either training last year and cannot say I was really eager to try my luck at out-of-control f light, but it was one of those “I think it would be good for me” thoughts. Anyway, this year at ARS Skip “Ranger” Slyfield asked if I wanted to do an OCF ride, and I said, “Sure, why not?” Oddly enough, I wasn’t anxious about it, partly because I had talked with several others who had taken this training with Skip.

Skip and I got together to brief the f light, which was very inter-esting, and almost all new information to me. Just to give some perspective to those that haven’t done this kind of f lying, I am a non-military f lyer, own a stock CJ, am Lead rated, with about 600 hours of formation time, and f ly frequently. I’m comfortable doing loops and rolls, and seem to be able to stay out of trouble, most of the time. I had never experienced a situation where a CJ had, essentially, stopped f lying, and that’s exactly what we did—fortunately we were several thousand feet above the fields of Porterville, which was what we had intended.

Skip, on the other hand, is more than qualified for teaching OCF. In addition to over 1200 hours in Nanchangs and Yaks, his last job as a Navy jet IP was as OCF/SPIN Standardization Instructor, with way too many inverted spin f lights in the T-2C Buckeye.

G-WARMUPSkip started the brief by discussing what are called G warm-up, or G-check maneuvers. The purpose of this is twofold—first to make sure the pilot and aircraft are both compatible with 4 to 5 G loadings, and secondly, to f ly inverted for a moment to see what falls out. Actually, this is a good exercise before any serious aero-batics maneuvering. Also note, Mike “Beav” Carter had an excel-lent article in the Spring 2013, Red Alert magazine called “The G-Straining Maneuver,” which fits right in with the G warm-up scenario.

Skip then listed a series of maneuvers we would be doing in which we would explore how to sense the onset of buffet, how to correct for that situation and resume normal f light, or how to recover if we allow (or force) the aircraft into an out-of-control situation or to “depart controlled f light.” We started out doing some recovery from unusual attitudes, which we’ve all probably done, to a somewhat lesser degree. This is pretty fun. Skip puts the aircraft into a very unusual attitude and says, “RECOVER!” Now, that didn’t seem like it was going to be too hard back when we were sitting in the briefing room, because all you had to do was figure out if you were going up or down, find the horizon, level the wings and pull out—gently. I must admit here that there were times during this ride that I didn’t know if we were going up or down, and where the “foxtrot” the horizon went. I should also tell you that Skip is really terrific in talking you through all these maneuvers, helping you out—particularly when you are pointed straight down, without a clue what to do next.

FALLING LEAFSkip demonstrated a “falling leaf,” which is one of those exercises that demonstrates that the rudder is really useful at times, and you can “walk” the CJ down at some pretty impressive vertical descents. Not too hard, particularly if you let the nose down a bit and the CJ straightens right out.

STALLS AND ACCELERATED STALLSWe did some turning stalls, which by this time seemed really benign, then some accelerated stalls, which also seemed reason-able until, of course, the aircraft departed f light and f lipped over on it’s back. This is where you really learn to love a CJ, because it simply wants to return to f lying—once you get the mantra: NEU-TRALIZE, WAIT (for airspeed), ANALYZE what you need to do and RECOVER. I never really knew why the Chinese painted a vertical white line on the instrument panel. Well, guess what? Line the stick up with the white line, look at your legs to make sure your feet are centered on the rudder pedals, release your death grip on the stick, and you are “NEUTRALIZED.” Then you WAIT.

By John Long [email protected], photo by Ryan Pastorino


Wait for what, you think? Well, the CJ will happily resume f lying once it picks up some speed. It really likes to f ly by the time it gets to 85 knots or 150 klicks, and obviously isn’t about to resume f light much below that. The other good news is that the CJ really likes to point it’s nose down, like a horse going back to the barn, which is a really good way to begin picking up airspeed. After a few of these you realize the horizon really is still out there, and the trick is to level the wings, and pull out. Not too hard, unless you want to experience another stall, which we know can happen at any speed, and any attitude.

LOMCEVAKWell, if you’re still in the game here, Skip will demonstrate a Lomcevak. Actually, this was a rudder-triplette departure, which is similar to a positive-G Lomcevak. I’m clueless how we got into this fix, but it seemed like we pulled the nose way up, bled off a bunch of speed, then pulled and cross controlled until the CJ simply had had enough, and where it went is still a mystery to me. But, guess what? NEUTRALIZE, WAIT, ANALYZE and RE-COVER. It’s kind of a lifetime guarantee. I have to admit that Skip keeps harping on monitoring the airspeed, the altimeter and the turn indicator, and at times I didn’t even know what, let alone where they were. Possibly, my gyros had tumbled?

Another interesting point about doing stuff many of your pre-vious instructors told you NEVER to do, is the position of the ball located on the turn and bank indicator. I’m sure every pi-lot knows to “step on the ball.” WRONG! It might be possible that stepping on the ball in the first place will help prevent you from getting into a situation where you need to monitor the turn indicator to figure out which way your are spinning—at which time stepping on the ball is exactly the WRONG thing to do. Go figure.

AEROBATICSThen we did some aerobatics in which I demonstrated my knowl-edge of how not do them, and Skip again really nicely pointed out possibly we should keep the nose going up, so as not to arrive at ground level too soon.

APPROACH STALLOn the way back to the airport, we dirtied up the aircraft and ex-perimented with approach-to-landing stall conditions. We were still up high, which is a very nice place to feel the onset of buf-fet and immediately roll out, unload a bit, add power, and f ly whatever direction the airplane is happy with—which may not be lined up with the runway. By the way, those of you who are a bit anal about a little oil on your aircraft—these exercises give a whole new meaning to “dirtying up.”

Finally, we headed back to the airport where, fortunately, I still had enough mental acuity to get it safely back on the ground. Then we proceeded to water up, and de-brief. We reviewed the f light, and Skip gave me more information on the maneuvers. My overall thought on this experience was: “This is great, this made my whole weekend at ARS.” It also points out the value of belonging to an organization such as RedStar, and attending an event such as ARS.

What am I going to take away from this experience? Will I ever attempt some of the maneuvers in the future? By myself? I don’t think so. Well, maybe the G warm-up, that seems to be a good idea. Stalls left and right didn’t seem too bad, as long as I don’t overdo it. The Lomcevak—no way! I’m not that crazy.

Let me leave you with this scenario. You are forming up with some friends, or possibly people you haven’t f lown with. They are FAST rated, the f light is well briefed, and will include some extended trail. We all LOVE to do this, but this day, for whatever reason, the lead is a bit extreme, and maybe you are back there trying to catch up, or reposition, and inadvertently cause the air-craft to depart from controlled f light. Maybe you were a tad slow recognizing the onset of buffet, but hopefully you’ll remember the mantra: NEUTRALIZE, WAIT, ANALYZE AND RECOVER. If you’re lucky enough to be f lying #4, you won’t have to tell any-one—except possibly your GIB, if he or she is still talking to you.


Waycross 2013By Jim “Pappy” Goolsby [email protected],with photos by Chris Dilley


Waycross, Georgia was first settled in 1820. It had several other names until incorporated in 1935. The population is

some 13,000, and it’s not the richest town, money-wise, in Geor-gia. But what they lack in Yankee greenbacks, they make up for in hospitality. Its main industry is a major railroad repair yard (one of only three in the US), where heavy duty locomotives are overhauled.

That being said, two major rail lines bisect the city from NE to SW and NW to SE, making it very easy to designate formation prac-tice areas. The north area we call (what else) “Yankee”. The south one is “Gator” since it lies over the Great Okefenokee swamp, from which f low the headwaters of the old Suwannee River. The east and west sectors are named after hamlets there. Although the city lies off the beaten north/south interstates (and even the east/west ones), it’s a favorite stop for f liers because of cheap fuel, and the nice folks there. And it lies right in the geographic center of RPA’s SE Region.

My personal odyssey started on Thursday, the day before the start-up time. The weather was just plain crappy, with a num-ber of places just barely VFR. Waycross (AYS) showed IFR with 600v800 and 4 nm vis. About noon, I noted a very slight rise in the ceilings of stations to the west that seem to be moving along a line of thunderstorms whose southern edge lay across AYS. It

Opposite page, top to bottom: Norbert Steinwedel, Bill “Pirate” Mills, and Paul Franzon. Above: morning ops/safety briefing prior to the day’s f lying. Bottom, left to right: Shane Golden, Robert Langford, Jon Blake,

BJ Kennamore, and Jay Land debriefing the first formation f light of Swamp Thunder


was only a 57 minute f light for me, and I timed it perfectly. When I was 40 nm south, the AWOS reported the ceiling 800 overcast, 3 nm. I kept trucking on with good skies behind me. At 10 nm I heard 900 and 3. At 20 nm south the AWOS called the ceiling 800 overcast 3 nm. I kept trucking on with good skies behind me. At 10 nm I heard 900 and 3. Descending to 1,000’ at 4 nm south I saw runway 36, and with a calm wind, I called a straight-in and landed. Taxiing to a prearranged open hangar, rain started to pat on the canopy. Ten minutes later, I could not see across the field.

With “Dede’s Three-Toed Dragon” safely tucked away in a han-gar, I caught up on the local scuttlebutt with the ramp guys, then they handed me the keys to a crew car. I headed into town to catch up with “Mrs. Scarlet,” Shane Golden, and Bob “Lefty” Lang-ford. They had come down the day before to beat the weather.

The next day, the weather was still crappy, especially to our north, and we didn’t expect to get the number of airplanes that had signed up for the weekend. But by afternoon, they started to trickle in by ones and twos—a few doing some serious scud run-ning. It was nice surprise when all were counted and we had 30.

Saturday dawned bright and clear. After breakfast (southern style BEG, i.e., bacon, eggs, & grits) we headed for the field. More airplanes started coming in and soon the ramp was filled almost entirely with Yaks, CJs and several other types. Head RPA muke-ty-muck, Terry “Mags” Slawinski did the ground school for five of the newbies, and the rest of us started some serious forma-tion. Lunch each day was typically generous portions of southern cuisine—hot pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, chips, pickle, cookies, and various drinks.

That evening, the troops were on their own for dinner, and a number of us headed for the Mexican place that is a favorite amongst us Swamp Thunder regulars. After a filling meal, we then headed for Oscar’s Bar & Grill, the only place any respectful RPA pilot would hang out. By the way, I noted a bottle of JW con-spicuously perched at the front of the choice liquor shelf. What is “JW,” aka “Jeremiah Weed,” you ask? For those not in the know, this is the favored beverage of real fighter pilots. It is thought to be a concoction of recycled JP-4, blended with 130 octane gaso-line, and some form of rotting vegetable. The locals won’t touch it, and roll their eyes in disgust when it’s poured out in front of them.

One thing that was sadly missing this year was our best and fa-vorite bar maid, call sign, “Tackle Box.” A few years ago she be-came one of our GIBs after making sure we got the best service at her bar. Her drinks were quick and perfectly mixed (as if any of us had a perfect sense of taste). She was cute and had character, plus numerous ring piercings on nose, eyebrows, ears, and lips (and no telling where else). Her call sign came about when our late comrade, “Wild Bill” Walker noted on first seeing her “My God honey! You look like you fell into a tackle box!”

The next morning began with an ops and safety briefing. Soon the ramp was rumbling with the deep tones of radials, and with wafts of drifting light blue smoke. All four sectors of the training area soon had a f light, or even two, operating in them. Lunch was done on the run between f lights, as the day progressed

That evening, we immensely enjoyed a performance of “Letters from Home.” These ladies are just plain great! We first came to know them, Chelsea VanderHamm, Erin Diaz, Sarah Frack Hal-ey, and Heidi Shafer last year at the warbird airshow in Naples, Florida. They were the rage there, and we just had to have them at Swamp Thunder. These four gals sing the same songs, in the exactly same style and tone, as the Andrew Sisters. I grew up lis-tening to the Andrews Sisters’ records, played time and again by my parents, and they were songs and sounds you just didn’t for-get. The WWII vets loved them to death, and lots of tears (hap-py ones) f lowed on hearing songs like “Rum and Coke-a-Cola,” “Buggy Woggy Bugle Boy of Company B,” and my favorite, “I’ll Being See You.”

So there we were, eating steamed oysters, corn, chili, hot dogs, hamburgers, drinking beer, and being serenaded by these tal-ented ladies. And, boy could they play the guys. There were some proudly displayed lipstick impressions sported amongst the group.

Food eaten, beer gone, and the ladies done with their show, we all (the ladies and their crew too) headed for Oscar’s and some serious dancing. There is nothing like a noisy, crowed, somewhat smoky, bar full of happy Southerners. Yours truly even “cut the rug” with one of the ladies and came up with some inventive moves on the f loor. (Not bad for an old fart, if I do say so my-self.) Am I trying to say we had a great time? You betcha!

Hank Gibson demonstrating the tail hook mod as he captures the 3-wire


Day two started with another BEG, and, believe it or not, most all hands were on deck for the 0830 ops briefing. Then the f lying started up again. This time, the girls and their husbands were our GIBs, and they had a good time. There was some real excite-ment for the blond bombshell, Erin. I was on the f lightline, with my back to the runway, when I heard the unmistakable sound of an airplane scraping on payment. With Erin as GIB, the left gear folded on a Yak-52 on roll-out. I turned in time to see the airplane making graceful left turn toward the grass on the wing tip. The prop never touched and the pilot simply turned off the engine. The only damage was to fabric on the aileron, the aile-ron hinge shaved down some, and a slightly bent wing tip. Poor Erin thought she had done something wrong. Anyway it will be an easy fix and with a little duct tape he was able to ferry the airplane home.

We had another hangar dinner that evening, and once again the gals performed, just for us. It was a different routine, but still in the Andrews Sisters style, and with their songs. Our guest speak-er had to cancel out, as he was just getting out of surgery and wasn’t in tiptop shape. I was assigned to come up with an aviation trivia contest. I stumped a good many guys. One question: “How can you determine your actual latitude with a weighted string and a protractor?”

(see page 39 for Jim’s solution)

Above, top to bottom: Shane Golden and Jay Land.Left: Jon Blake leads a vic with Ahmed Ragheb on his left wing and

Shane Golden on his right wing.


FLIGHT LEAD CORNERWe are going to take a break from our discussions of f light

Lead tips and techniques in this edition of the Flight Lead Corner. We are going to address one of your most important re-sponsibilities as a f light Lead—formation check ride recommen-dations.

Before anyone can present themselves to a check pilot for their wingman or f light leader check ride, they must have completed a recommendation f light and the f light leader must sign the RPA/FAST recommendation form. When you sign that form you are basically telling the check pilot that the applicant is completely qualified AND PREPARED for his/her check ride.

Making the determination that the applicant is ready for a check ride involves much more than just seeing how good their rejoins and wing work are f lown. Check pilots have had applicants show up for their check ride who did not meet the minimum f lying hour requirements, had no idea that wingman and f light leader practical test guides existed, gave a five minute cave-man brief-ing for a f light leader check ride, or thought they could get an

RPA FAST card without even joining the RPA.

These applicants, who were unable to complete their check rides at the time, all showed up with signed RPA FAST recommenda-tion forms. The f light Leads who signed these forms totally failed the applicants in these cases.

Your responsibility as a f light Lead is to NOT sign that form un-til you have ensured the applicant meets the qualifications listed in the FAST Foundations and Principles document, reviewed the Wingman or Flight Leader Practical Test Guide with them, ob-served their f lying abilities and determined they meet the stan-dards required—and finally, reviewed the RPA FAST Evaluation Form with them so that they know what will be expected of them during the check ride.

Your job as a f light Lead is to take care of your wingies. Don’t let them down, and embarrass yourself, by signing their RPA FAST Recommendation Form before you ensure they are completely qualified and prepared to successfully complete their check ride.

By Steve “Mozam” Dalton [email protected]

Blue m&m’s

I once read a story about a rock and roll star who had a clause in his contract that stated he had to have a bowl of blue m&m

candies in his dressing room. As I read this I thought to myself, “Blue m&m’s! What a prima donna?” Then I read further. As you would expect, a rock and roll concert is a very elaborate logis-tics challenge. There are the staging, sound system, lighting sys-tem, pyrotechnics, electrical requirements, and a myriad of other details that are essential to creating a great performance. As it turned out, the rock star didn’t even care for m&m’s, they were just a f lag for him. He knew, as soon as he walked into his dress-ing room and saw the bowl of blue m&m’s that the organizers of the show had been attentive to the details of his contract and he could be reasonably certain that the other, really important details had been attended to. If the blue m&m’s were not there, it was cause for concern, as in, “What else have they forgotten?”

When a pilot comes forward for a f light leader recommendation ride or checkride, there is an item on page five of the FAST Flight Leader Practical Test Guide that is equivalent to blue m&m’s:

Materials Required for the Practical TestTo be an effective flight leader and instructor, and to ensure standardization, all applicants for lead pilot should have in their possession the following materials:

Four-part FAST Intercontinental Formation Guideline:

• FAST Foundation and Principles

• FAST Maneuvers Guide

• FAST Radio Communication and Visual Signals

• FAST wingman and flight leader practical test guides

Formation manual for applicant’s formation organization

All other applicable SOPs and policy guides for the applicant’s formation organization

Formation proficiency report forms

Formation checkride forms

In the past, f light leader applicants who had been properly pre-pared for the checkride showed up with a three-ring binder with these documents neatly organized—and they had reviewed the material so they had a working knowledge of what was expected of them. More recently, I’ve started to see applicants who have the documents loaded and organized on an iPad or other e-read-er. If the applicant does not have either, it’s time to ask, “What else have they forgotten?”

Why does this FAST requirement exist? Unlike the military, the airlines, or a corporate organization, the RedStar Pilots Asso-ciation has no extensive, extended hierarchy that f lows upward, as in the Air Force example, to a squadron commander, a wing commander—all the way up a chain of command to the Penta-gon. We are a fairly f lat organization, with most of the respon-sibility for maintaining our standards and culture of excellence resting squarely on the shoulders of our f light leaders. Obviously, a f light leader who does not know the standards, cannot uphold the standards.

By Mike “Blade” Filucci [email protected] Flight Leader Checkride


How many of us who f ly formation, were self-taught? Not me, but perhaps others? I know self-taught formation pilots who

get together and f ly, more often than one might guess. I have seen them f ly together and I fear for their safety. Every rule we have been taught was written in blood by those before us in the military and airshow business. “Self-taught” is OK for an artist or writer but seems downright dumb for formation f lying.

My point is that all of us learned from the efforts and patience of others. In my case there were fellows like Don Andrews, Mike Filucci, Randol Webb and Jim “Pappy” Goolsby. “Pappy” is not just a call sign. Years ago, Yak Pilot Club guys started calling him that out of respect for his leadership, drive to do better, and just plain persistence.

I was a slow learner; something about f lying close to other air-planes does not seem natural to someone born without wings or feathers. Several experienced folks sat in my back cockpit while I f lew off someone else who did not mind breaking in a newbie. Later, while training for Lead, I gained valuable experience f ly-ing 2-ship lead. Seemed like a natural progression to me. With sporadic practice between widely spaced clinics, it took about 4 years and 25 hours of formation f lying to get my wingman patch. Obviously, a lot of folks invested their time in my development.

Flash back to 1997 when I attended my first formation clinic. It was put on by NATA the week before Oshkosh and was attended by everyone except L-Birds. Over 120 airplanes gathered to prac-tice. The entire “T-ship” series and Mustangs as well. Over the first 2 days I sat with a few other newbies and waited for a hop. Everyone was busy I was told, getting their proficiency reports out of the way. So I sat outside next to the door, along with an-

other fellow waiting to f ly his Thunder Mustang and we both lobbied for a hop. That other fellow was Dave Morss who became well known as a Test pilot and Reno racer. I finally got a break when three Edwards Air Force test pilots, who were there for the fun, and took pity on the plight of the newbies. One of the Yak guys left after the first day and a half, disgusted with wasting the $100 fee and his time. But, I did learn a lot in two days.

Jump back to 2013, Waycross. As the Muckity Mucks gathered for some sort of conference, I was handed the marking pen to put up Sunday morning f lights. Over a dozen pilots were sitting around the FBO lobby. The first 4-ship went together quickly; a few guys just wanted another hop. I noticed a young man who had spent considerable time the day before sitting around looking for a 2-ship ride with an instructor. So I asked for another pilot to step up and lead a training sortie for the fellow. Dead silence, not a word from anyone. Perhaps I had inadvertently spoken in Klin-gon, so I repeated the request in English. More silence as I looked around the room at blank stares. So then I asked, “how many of you guys ever had someone f ly 2-ship for you when you needed it”. Robert Langford’s hand shot up. “Lefty” later told me: “you got me there.” “Lefty” earned his wingman patch with “Pappy” back when Yaks/CJ’s were new to the Warbird inventory and we were treated as “untouchables”. All of us depended upon others stepping up to mentor and pass on the skills to a newer group of aviators. You can’t just go to a nearby f light school and sign up for the formation course. It comes from within our own brother-hood.

Leadership isn’t just about leading a f light, and you don’t need a patch to be a real leader. Without folks who lend their knowledge and skills to those who follow, the chain breaks and we falter as an organization and as individuals. So, step up when it’s your turn to answer the call and we will all be the better for it.

By Craig Payne [email protected] Formation PilotsA Soapbox Sermon

A string and a protractor...Using an ordinary “Sporty’s Pilot Shop” type plotter, put a string (or piece of thread) though the center hole. Put some kind of weight on the string so that the string stays vertical. Now, find the north star (yep its done at night). Use your eye to sight along the straight edge of the plotter so that you can see the horizon. The string should be crossing the compass part of the plotter at the 90°/270° reading, i.e., indicating level. Now rotate the straight edge and line it up with the North Star. The angle between the 90°/270° reading and where the North Star lines up will be your latitude. If the angle is, say, a 31° change, then you are somewhere along the 31° north parallel. The greater the angle the further north you are. In the early sailing ships, when they found an island, they would measure the latitude while there and enter it into the log. The next time they wanted to go there, they would simply sail south until they saw the same angle on the North Star, then turn west, keeping the North Star at the same angle. They would eventually come across the island again. Amelia Earhart’s navigator, Fred Noonan, was doing the same thing, except he was using a “Sun Line.” It was thought they turned the wrong way to follow it, realized their mistake too late, and ran out of gas.

Jim “Pappy” Goolsby


Introduction

This article is the last of three that attempts to make us all bet-ter, more proficient, warbird pilots. The first (Winter 2012)

was about understanding and mastering accelerated stalls. The second (Spring 2013) was making sure our bodies are able to handle G-forces. In this article, we will build upon those skills to introduce, and fine-tune, our aircraft handling mechanics.

In the USAF fighter world, we used a term called “confidence maneuvers.” This refers to a set of exercises designed to allow a pilot to discover and master f lying an aircraft at the edges of its performance envelope, while exploiting the unique abilities of that particular aircraft. With that in mind, I’m going to de-scribe a series of maneuvers that every RedStar pilot should be able to execute. I usually f ly two advanced handling hops a year (single ship) to practice, and perfect, these skills. Mastering these maneuvers may also help you recover the aircraft from uninten-tional attitudes and bad situations, close to the ground.

Profile and BasicsPlan this sortie as a single-ship mission. You can gain valuable insight by f lying in the pit and/or bringing along a fellow RPA aviator. The profile is not difficult, nor time consuming. A 30-45 minute f light and some open airspace is all that is required. Plan a 2000’ AGL hard deck (cease maneuvering altitude) for all exercises, and start spins at least 5000’ AGL so that you can allow things to develop, and recover with room to spare, if you were to perform the post-spin recovery less than perfectly.

I will describe CJ-6 and (Yak-52) airspeeds and maneuvers in this article. Other aircraft can also perform this series of maneuvers, but airspeeds and altitudes may need to be adjusted, depend-ing on aircraft performance. Begin the sortie mentally ready, perform a thorough pref light, and ensure at least a 5000’ AGL ceiling, and good visibility with a defined horizon. Perform a standard start, ground operations and a single-ship takeoff. Fly to your working area and warm up with some steep turns and clearing turns on your way. Ensure you, your co-pilot, and your aircraft are ready—then set up for a G-awareness turn.

G-Awareness TurnStart by accelerating to at least 120 knots (110 knots) and, with a clear maneuvering area, roll and pull to 3-4 Gs, for at least 90° of turn. Practice your “hooook” maneuver, and evaluate how you and your co-pilot feel. Unload the aircraft, and accelerate to 140 knots (130 knots). Roll into a 4-5 G turn for at least 90° of heading change, with a slightly nose up attitude. Energy will deteriorate, and you will naturally ease off the Gs by the end of the maneuver.

StallsMuch can be learned by performing stalls, both clean and con-figured. First, let’s practice maneuvering during a standard clean stall. Yes, I said maneuvering, not just recovering from the stall. The CJ-6 and Yak-52 have very impressive maneuvering capabil-ity nearing the stall. Because of the dihedral and wing twist on the CJ-6, it performs extremely well at high angles of attack. The Yak will as well, up to a point, with the main difference between the two being the amount of rudder required to maneuver. The CJ-6 can use aileron, even with the wing stalled, however, the Yak exhibits adverse yaw characteristics and is not as control-lable on the margins.

AdvAnced HAndling MAneuvers

Gaining Confidence and SkillsBy Mike “Beav” Carter [email protected]

G-awareness turns

3-4 G turn for 90°

4-5 G turn for 90°nose slightly high

unload and accelerate


For the clean-stall exercise, clear the area, start about 1000’ above the hard deck, and set approximately 60% power at 90 knots. Gill shutters may need to be opened to keep the motor cool during high AOA f light, at high power settings. Firmly pull the nose up to about 30°-45° of pitch, and watch the airspeed bleed off. Approaching 65 knots, watch for and feel the airframe buffet, and the nose-down pitch tendency. For the first stall, recover by unloading the aircraft slightly, adding power and coordinating rudder, and aggressively f ly out of the stall. You will feel the nose wander a bit, but if you have unloaded properly, the plane is f ly-ing, wings level, with minimal altitude loss.

Next, set up as above and establish the nose high attitude at 60% power. This time, approaching the stall, smoothly add power and coordinating rudder. On the Yak-52, this may require nearly full rudder def lection, on the CJ-6, certainly at least half rudder. Un-load to just below the buffet and hold the plane in this attitude. Watch for the aircraft to climb when f lown correctly. Small pitch and power changes will make large changes in vertical speed. When you are comfortable with this high-powered slow f light, make some gentle turns. For the CJ-6, these turns can be made with aileron and coordinating rudder, and will be relatively crisp. For the Yak, these turns are made only with rudder, and left turns may be slower and mushy. Finally, after experiment-ing with this maneuvering capability, unload the aircraft aggres-sively, and note how quickly f lying airspeed is regained (rudder is required for coordinated f light). These two clean stalls can be repeated in many different variations.

The configured stall is begun with gear and f laps extended, and 80 knots. Using ground references (a simulated runway), begin a standard turn from the base position. Increase backpressure, with the nose slightly below the horizon, until you recognize the accelerated stall. Immediately unload and watch the nose resume tracking. Increase bank and backpressure a second time, and ex-ecute a more severe stall, noting the loss of nose track and the tendency for the nose to drop suddenly. Immediately add power, coordinating rudder, roll wings level and recover from the stall. Note the altitude loss from stall recognition to recovery. Perform

one more stall, this time pulling very hard at over 60° of bank. Pull right through the stall and watch what happens. Try these in both right and left turning finals. The result will be a very nose low attitude, with a great deal of altitude loss. The goal of this exercise is to recognize and recover from the final turn stall before the nose drops low. Image this scenario below 500 feet and you’ll quickly recognize why you must be proficient at this rec-ognition and recovery. Set a simulated ground level altitude and see if you can recover at various AGL start points before “hitting the ground.”

The high-G, accelerated stall is f lown similarly, on entry, to the G-warmup maneuver. Begin with level f light, 75% power, and 120 knots (110 knots). Roll into approximately 80° of bank and smoothly execute a level, 4-5 G turn. As the energy bleeds down, aggressively pull to the buffet, and then unload slightly. Let the nose drop slightly to stabilize the energy and establish a 3-4 G turn. Perform several pull-unload iterations and note the tenden-cy for the nose to stop tracking at full buffet and the differences in left and right turns. Finally, pull to a full accelerated stall. The CJ-6 will simply stop tracking, and the nose will drop quite low. The Yak-52 will do the same, but may actually tuck very nose low in a right turn, or snap roll in the opposite direction from a left turning stall. Execute an accelerated stall recovery by unloading the aircraft, adding power, if required, and recovering from the resultant dive.

SpinsNow that we have mastered the stall, let’s work on spins. Many people are afraid of spins, but our aircraft are very easily recov-ered, and it’s important to understand the cause and recovery from a standard spin. There are many good articles on the web concerning the aerodynamics of spins. I will not go into the de-tails of why aircraft spin, but rather, how to enter a controlled spin and apply the proper recovery procedures.

Both the CJ-6 and Yak-52 will recover easily from a spin when the proper procedures are followed. Having said that, if you are not familiar with spins from previous aircraft or military training, I’d encourage you to get some spin training in your CJ-6 or Yak, before attempting these maneuvers yourself. My personal opinion is that if you f ly aerobatics, you need to have spin training. Never think that because you are not deliberately spinning the aircraft, that you cannot get into a spin. Spin training will make you a better pilot, and will prevent you from performing the wrong re-covery in the event of an inadvertent spin.

Both the CJ-6 and Yak-52 are nose heavy aircraft with strong inertia, while spinning. Therefore, I recommend spinning for no more than three turns, because well established spins will re-quire very strong control forces (the Yak-52 manual says up to 200 lbs of rudder and 90 lbs of stick force). The f light controls may appear to be “locked” in the pro-spin direction—they are simply held there by aerodynamic forces. Controlled spins of two to three turns will give you the capability to recognize spin char-acteristics, apply the proper recovery controls, and minimize al-

start:90 knots/60% power

aggressively unload to break stall and recover

pull 30°-45° pitch,approach & hold at edge of stall

make gentle rudder rolls at stall speed

Clean stall


titude loss. Again, if you have never had spin training, do not attempt to spin your aircraft until you have been properly in-structed! This is common sense, but I had to say it anyway.

To prepare for the spin, make sure your aircraft is in the proper CG range, fuel balanced, and pilot and co-pilot well strapped in. It goes without saying that all loose items are also stowed. For you CJ-6 owners, consider bringing a co-pilot along, because the plane can be nearly impossible to spin with a single pilot on board! Climb in the working area to have at least 5000’ AGL. Plan to start the recovery not less than 4000’ AGL, as a spin recovery may require up to 1500’ of altitude. This will keep you above the 2000’ AGL hard deck, which is safe and comfortable.

To enter the spin, begin with the same parameters as the clean stall series. As the aircraft approaches the stall, continue to feed in elevator as you add rudder in the desired spin directions. Be-cause of engine torque, right spins are easier to enter. Continue to hold full aft stick, neutral aileron and full spin rudder until rotation begins and the nose settles to about 30°-60° nose low. If you hold the pro-spin controls for at least one revolution, the spin should be established. You’ll have a rotational rate of near one half revolution per second when established, and the rotation may increase if the spin is held longer than two turns. It’s then time for the recovery.

In general, you can recover a Yak-50/52 and CJ-6 using the same procedures. The CJ-6 was designed to be spin resistant, and nearly self-recovering. I recommend CJ-6 drivers use the full re-covery procedure, as it ensures a rapid, controlled recovery, and will translate well to other airframes. To recover from the spin, smoothly pull the throttle to idle, apply anti-spin rudder, and unload the elevator to between neutral and full forward. In very well developed spins, it may be necessary to apply pro-spin aile-ron in the Yak to add adverse yaw to stop the rotation or add full forward stick to get the nose to track down. Once the rotation

5000” AGL90 knots, 60% power

30°-45° nose high

approaching stall• full aft stick• full R or L rudder

hold pro-spin controls until established

Spin entry

stops, neutralize the rudder, and recover from the resultant dive quickly to prevent excessive altitude loss. You will exit the spin in 60°+ of dive, and airspeed will build rapidly.

If you do not neutralize rudder, you can start the aircraft spin-ning in the opposite direction. If you use aileron during the re-covery in the pro-spin direction, the Yak may f lip over and per-form an inverted spin. The CJ-6 is docile in comparison, and I have yet to ham-fist the CJ-6 into doing anything but recovering. In fact, simply pulling the power to idle and releasing the con-trols will work for most CJ-6 spins.

SummaryOver the past few months, we’ve covered topics to make us better warbird pilots. Whether you use your CJ/Yak primarily as a GA aircraft, only for formation f lying, or pulling Gs and aerobatics, it’s important to master the characteristics of your aircraft. Dedi-cating at least a couple of sorties, or parts of sorties per year to advanced handling exercises can not only make you a better pi-lot, it can save your bacon some day, when things go awry. Good luck and be safe.

Beav

Mike “Beav” Carter is co-owner of a CJ-6A. He is a retired USAF Lt. Colonel, with experience in the F-4 and F-16. He is a graduate of the F-16 Fighter Weapons School, and was an operational test and evaluation pilot, instructor pilot, f light examiner and F-16 squadron commander. He is currently an airline pilot and serves as one of three RPA National Directors.

rudder: centered, when rotation stops

• throttle: idle• stick: forward, past neutral• rudder: opposite turn direction

recognize spin direction

recover from the resultant dive(avoid high airspeeds)

Spin recovery


maintenance hangar

In an effort to share information, here is a little something we discovered on my bright-red CJ this winter during the annual

inspection. We found small cracks underneath the inboard aile-ron hinge on the left wing. We immediately looked at the right wing to see if it was cracked, only to discover that it was worse.

On my CJ-6, the inboard aileron hinge is attached to the rib with eight bolts. At this attachment point, the rib is reinforced on the inside by a doubler, spot welded to the rib, to help carry the extra load.

It would seem there was a bit of weakness at this point (at least on my plane). On both wings, the bottom bolt hole had begun to develop a crack. The right wing was the worst, with both the rib and the doubler cracked through from the bolt to the pivot hole (see picture cracked RH wing hinge rib).

We had to fix this and did so by making two extra plates to strengthen the whole unit and prevent any further cracks.

Aileron Hinge Crack Repair By Dan Fortin [email protected]

If you find cracks, feel free to come up with your own repair as appropriate for your situation, and use of the airplane. This is the solution we came up with.

For reference purposes, my CJ-6 has 4800 hours TTSN and is equipped with an M14p engine.

I later found out from Doug Sapp that the hinge is riveted on the wing when the aircraft is manufactured in China. When the time comes to replace the bearing in the hinge, the military maintenance and repair workers remove the rivets, and replace them with bolts, like those used on my airplane. In the process, if they are not careful in getting the holes perfectly aligned, and then force the bolts through—when everything is tightened, un-equal stress on the rib can eventually result in the development of cracks.

Technically, airplanes that still have the original rivets should not be affected by this issue.

Left hand rib with crack—inside doubler was not cracked

Right hand rib with crack—rib and doubler were cracked

New doubler plates—top plate in-stalled outside rib, and bottom plate

installed inside the wing

Cleko fasteners holding plate in place during installation

Completed repair

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