Art Imitates Life

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Joe and our niece Melissa are pictured here. Joe is a naval flight surgeon. When he returned from his one year deployment in the middle east, his Dad (George) handed him the keys to a “like new” Mustang Cobra as a surprise. George reconditioned the engine and vehicle during his son’s tour overseas. Another Mustang restoration project was presented to his daughter a couple of years ago.

A nice story in itself but more extraordinary in that Joe’s Dad is confined to a wheelchair. George lost the use of his legs when his bunker was blown up during a firefight in Vietnam.

George and Joe both have our gratitude and admiration.

It seems that Ford introduced this ad honoring our military which, although not identical, features a Mustang also as part of the story. Five minutes long but perhaps one of the best ever Ford commercials.

Connecting Flight

Most wing walkers stay on the same plane.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58L3m0dqVDY]

Red Bull finds new ways to push the envelope into the unimaginable. Skydiver Paul Steiner climbs from one glider to another and touches the rudder of the other plane while in mirror flight. Folks in Baldwin Wisconsin might have not have thought this was impossible but I did. That is, until I saw it.

Hanging Loose Over a Volcano

Maui is a tropical paradise like none other. It was where I finally made good on a promise that someday Mrs. Wilko and I would travel to a nice location to make up for the honeymoon in Wisconsin 33 years ago. “Someday” finally arrived for the two of us last week and it was better than advertised.

One of the “must do” items was renting a plane and flying around the islands. To do this, I headed to the only airport open to general aviation which is the busy terminal in Kahului. There’s two ways to get access to a plane at a FBO. Either you get checked out in the plane or fly dual with an instructor. I’ve done both when travelling across the U.S. and this time it was more efficient to fly with an instructor with my wife snapping away from the back seat (with the final tally at 230 aerial shots). The instructor didn’t do any instructing but most operations won’t part with an expensive airplane unless they’re sure of your skills or have someone in the right seat as plan B.

We were greeted warmly by a guy who had all the appearances and mannerisms of Surfer Dude. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. He was a great guy, but very relaxed in his approach. “Hang Loose” is the common expression in the Islands. Hanging Loose and flying just never went together in my vocabulary. It was raining and rain brings poor visibility and ceilings. “Not to worry” says Rick our instructor. “It’ll be fine after we head South”. Hang Loose. I was skeptical, having been burned by IMC conditions in the past without filing a flight plan from the get go. We launched in a 172SP behind a commuter jet and after flying through many holes and layers in the clouds we found partly cloudy skies and bright sun.

Flying on Impulse

"Solar Impulse" is the name of the all-electric aircraft which is intended to circle the world using solar power. It made its first maiden flight this week over Switzerland.

With the wingspan of a Boeing 747 and the weight of a car, never before has an airplane as large and light as the Solar Impulse flown before. It lifted off at a speed no faster than 45 kmh (45 mph) and, once airborne, completed a series of turns by gently tilting its wings that measure 63 meters (208 feet) from tip to tip.For the test flight Scherdel was forced to rug up with special underwear, windproof overall and heated gloves and shoes since the cockpit had no shell around it. When asked how the plane behaved in flight Scherdel said, “So far it was very well-tempered. But I have to say that today we were flying very slow – at one point the ground speed had dropped to 12 knots per hour".

At 12 knots it will take about 75 days. Glad I won't be the pilot in the open air cockpit. What a treat if it encounters any weather which I suspect will ground the plane. While it's an engineering marvel, it's a vastly underpowered engineering marvel. Power is one thing that's mighty handy when you run into an aviation problem like wind shear or less than perfect landings (not that I'd know anything about that). If there's turbulence you will get pushed around pretty hard in a kite.

It would be impressive to use the "Impulse" for a fly-in pancake breakfast. Tie down space might be tight but you wouldn't need to fuel it up for the return trip.

So You Think You're a Good Stick?

Try this

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3dxLsCYDbI]

Low level aerobatics with short excursions into 12 g territory and knife edge turns.

What's not to like?

Red Bull Air Racing began last week with Defending champion Paul Bonhomme winning the first of the 2010 season in Abu Dhabi.

Man On The Moon

From Flying Among The Stars To Dancing With The Stars

AOPA has a write up with some unknown (at least to me) facts about the second man on the moon. He had "The Right Stuff".

Buzz Aldrin has lived an extraordinary life. He graduated third in his class at West Point, downed two MiGs in Korea, got a Ph.D. in Astronautics from MIT, and completed what was at the time the longest spacewalk in history before Apollo 11. Here are some of his thoughts on flying.

Favorite aircraft… No hesitation—it was the F–86. But the T–28 was something that had a lot of promise. I tried a double Immelman and passed out on the way up. I woke up heading straight down for Texas with the throttle in one hand and a stick inanother. I didn’t do that again until I had a G-suit in an F–86.

Under stress… I was by myself after I saw the guy bail out of the MiG well north of the Yalu River. As a solo heading south, I didn’t have anyone protecting my rear end. The airplane wasn’t climbing as fast as I thought it should. I realized with great embarrassment that my speed brakes were out. I was trying to climb back home with full power and my speed brakes out. How stupid can you be? Experience as a pilot brings a successful pilot—the experience of knowing how to control your emotions by a real increased alertness.

Falling from the Edge of Space

This year, Felix Baumgartner’s will attempt a freefall from 120,000 feet and will also attempt to break the speed of sound with nothing but a space suit.

In the hostile stratospheric environment Felix plans to traverse, hazards include temperatures as cold as minus 56 degrees Celsius; an environment with too little oxygen to sustain human life; and air pressure so low that decompression sickness and embolism. During his ascent beneath a 30-million-cubic-foot polyethylene balloon filled with helium, Felix will depend on a sealed capsule to provide a pressurized environment; but once he depressurizes the vessel and opens the door to step off, his full-pressure suit and helmet – what engineers call a “Pilot Protective Assembly,” or PPA – will be his only life-support system until he reaches the safety of the lower atmosphere.

Pretty impressive. While this is a record-setting attempt, the first man to do it faced more unknowns. Colonel Joseph Kittinger’s first attempt was a near-disaster when an equipment malfunction caused him to lose consciousness. His automatic parachute opener in his equipment saved his life after he went into a flat spin rotating at 120 rpm sustaining 22 g’s. Kittinger's final jump was at 102,800 feet reaching 614 mph. ). Pressurization for his right glove malfunctioned during the ascent, and his right hand swelled to twice its normal size.

That’s not all

After Kittinger’s efforts to help the USAF understand high altitude bailouts, he later served three combat tours of duty during the Vietnam War, flying a total of 483 missions. He was shot down while flying an F-4 with the Triple Nickel squadron and later spent 11 months as a prisoners of war in the "Hanoi Hilton".

Mr. Baumgarner’s attempt is phenomenal and will no doubt gather a good deal of PR for Red Bull. Col. Kittinger's didn't get endorsements although his contributions were crucial to the early days of the space program . While his record-setting days are over, he never stopped flying. No doubt he'll become a little more famous as the new record breaking attempt gets underway.

First Place

p>Beautiful weather in Chi-Town this past week. Upper 70's, mostly clear skies and dry.

This morning: 52 degrees and constant rain which, as it happens, was the day of our first 5k race of the season. It finally did stop raining...after we returned home. It's all in the timing.

Son #2 finished in first place. Pop was just glad to finish. Next up for SN2: The Illinois Marathon and a half triathlon before the tackling the actual Ironman this summer. That's a 2.4 mile swim, biking 112 miles and running 26.2 miles. I'm of the opinion I should be cheering rather than getting carried away in a stretcher. Besides, it would be dark and no one would be around by time I crossed the finish line.

The Windy City

Sometimes it is. Thankfully runway 18 was just reopened otherwise it would have been pretty sporty. I was amazed at how far I was pushed downwind and was especially vigilant for wind shear. Mrs. Wilko inquired as to my state of mind, flying in gale force winds. Actually, it's more of an attitude adjustment than loss of senses. Nothing focuses the mind or provides the exhilaration like breaking the surly bonds. The unpredictable wind at times acted like a bucking bronco but with the appropriate increase in speed and less than full flaps it could be tamed. Normally this is a busy airport. Today, I had the place to myself and after boring holes in the sky returned to make six circuits with nary a soul in the pattern.

Chicago IL (Chicago O'Hare Intl) [KORD] hourly observation on the 2nd at 3:51pm CDT (2051Z) wind 190° at 27 knots gusting to 42 knots, visibility 10 miles, 20,000 feet scattered, 25,000 feet overcast, temperature 26°C (79°F), dewpoint 9°C (48°F), altimeter 29.67.

Chicago/Aurora IL (Aurora Muni) [KARR] hourly observation on the 2nd at 3:52pm CDT (2052Z) wind 190° at 24 knots gusting to 34 knots, visibility 10 miles, 25,000 feet broken, temperature 26°C (79°F), dewpoint 11°C (52°F), altimeter 29.67.

Yah. It was worth it.

Aviators TV

Sky King was a weekly aviation television series from the 1950's and the name of the pilot who rounded up the bad guys using his Cessna 310 plane. It fired the imaginations of many aspiring young pilots. I hope that this new program does the same.

The Aviators is a new weekly magazine-style TV series featuring interesting people, the latest aircraft, the coolest technology and the best fly-in destinations. We will take you behind the scenes to show you how airline pilots train, how planes are built, and how ATC works. We will profile aviation businesses and showcase aviation products. We will provide safety tips for private and recreational pilots and career tips for professional pilots. The Aviators is all-things-aviation: “For everyone who has ever gazed skywards.” In the United States, The Aviators will be distributed to all 356 Public Broadcasting Stations in the fall of 2010.

Have a look at the preview .