A brief history of jet fuels

by Graham Email

...is contained here.

Flying in the Aleutians - Part 2

by Graham Email

For some reason, I started to read about the Aleutians this weekend, and it expanded into a posting on my "other" blog here.
One of the items that I ended up reading about was the operation of secret reconnaissance aircraft out of the island of Shemya in the 1960's. The two aircraft that were operated out of the base were highly modified one-off RC135 aircraft, Rivet Amber and Rivet Ball.
Operating in a challenging environment that was both meteorologically and geopolitically turbulent, both aircraft met untimely ends. Rivet Amber disappeared while on a ferry flight from Shemya to Fairbanks AK for routine maintenance in 1969; no trace of the aircraft has ever been found. Rivet Ball slid off of the runway after landing at Shemya due to hydroplaning; the aircraft ended up in pieces at the foot of a 40 foot cliff, with a broken fuselage. Fortunately there were no casualties, although the aircraft was a write-off, and was broken up on the spot.
Shemya continued to be used as a US Air Force base (supplemented by its use as a refuelling stopover point for some commercial flights) into the 1990's, before the US military withdrew. Operations out of Shemya are hazardous even for large aircraft; Cobra Ball II, a replacement aircraft for Rivet Ball, crash-landed at Shemya in 1981, destroying the aircraft and some crewmembers lost their lives. I have already decided that I shall never operate a canard pusher out of that airport...

Flying in the Aleutians - Part 1

by Graham Email

I have been reading about the Aleutians, that interesting archipelago West of Alaska where the wind never stops blowing, sometimes at a ludicrous average speed.
This book explains some of the interesting features of Aleutian Islands weather and how to cope with them if you are a pilot...
A number of the airports in the Aleutians exist because of US military activities in the islands, initially during World War II, but later during the Cold War, when US reconnaissance aircraft flew missions to watch Russian missile development and testing activities. Several large airports and their facilities (notably Shemya and Adak) date from that period.
Flying in the Aleutians is a difficult proposition, especially if you have a small airplane, partly because the weather is challenging (for "challenging" read "often downright dangerous").
Here is a sample METAR weather summary for Shemya on 1st December 2008:

PASY 012235Z 03033G45KT 7SM BKN028 OVC032 01/M02 A2982 RMK

The wind report is wind at 030, 33 knots gusting to 45 knots (!). The runway orientation is 10-28, meaning a colossal, gusting crosswind. Not the sort of place to be testing your plane's crosswind limits...

The other factor making flying challenging is that Avgas supplies are extremely limited. In most of the Aleutians, the only piston engine fuel is Mogas. A quick look at the Airnav database entry for Adak, which was a US base in the Aleutians, and is the best airport in the Western Aleutians, shows that Mogas is the only available fuel for piston engines. There is no 100LL available at any airport west of Unalaska (Dutch Harbor). If your plane cannot operate on 87 octane fuel, I suspect that you cannot operate west of that point, unless you can find a source of premium Mogas near an airport.

Trip to Marathon - October 2008

by Graham Email

Mary and I flew down to Marathon FL for a snorkeling trip in October 2008. Sadly, bad weather meant no snorkeling...a large disappointment, but that simply means we will have to make another trip down there soon...
We flew the plane from Lancaster to Dothan AL on the first flight leg. That flight leg was pretty uneventful, except that we had a headwind for most of the way, which is not usual (Murphy's Law strikes again!). We flew at 7500 feet for most of the way. At Dothan, a large headwind and some turbulence made the landing a wee bit exciting, but the headwind resulted in a short roll-out.
After grabbing a bite to eat, refuelling and adding a quart of oil, we headed for Titusville (Space Coast Airport) for an overnight stop. Because we had left Dallas 2 hours later than planned, the last hour of this flight leg was in darkness. We got VFR flight following the whole way into Titusville, which meant we got a clearance through Orlando airspace. We landed in a stiff headwind to the West at Titusville (out over the bay towards the Shuttle landing center, u turn over the bay to final), parked the plane, found a hotel and spent the night unwinding.
The following morning, we got up late, ate lunch at the airport cafe, put some fuel in the plane to get us to Fort Lauderdale Executive (where cheap fuel was advertized on Airnav) and took off for Fort Lauderdale. The flight down to FLL was uneventful, except that we got handed off a lot of times between the various ATC zones, being on VFR flight following. This is a busy ATC area, and it was clear from some of the conversations we could hear that a number of pilots were far from proficient at dealing with ATC, mainly becauee English was not their first language.
The fun began to start after touchdown at Fort Lauderdale. On switching to the Ground frequency, the conversation went something like this:

Me: 131JF wishes to taxi to the FBO
Gnd: Which FBO? We have 5 FBOs on the airport
Me: The one offering cheap fuel
Gnd: Don't know which one that is. Which FBO do you want?
Me: um...er...

I ended up picking an FBO, which turned out to not be the FBO offering cheap fuel. Their 100LL was $5.50 a gallon. However, they were really nice people, not afflicted by the "go away little guy" mindset that seems to afflict many big-airport FBOs, so we bought some fuel from them rather than start taxiing all over the field.
I also discovered that the right hand wheelpant screw securing the wheelpant to the wheel had departed somewhere in flight from Titusville. I did not have a sufficiently long spare screw in the toolkit. Fortunately the very helpful FBO guys rooted around in a scrap fasteners bin in the FBO hangar, and found a screw that I was able to use as a replacement.
Upon getting back in the plane, we had to talk to Departure Control to get a clearance to depart. This is often a step that I forget at big airports, and Ground always has to send me off to Departure Control to get a clearance - my bad. On receiving the VFR clearance, I noticed that it called for me to climb to the North-East, although Marathon is almost due South of Fort Lauderdale. When I inquired "why this direction", the controller explained that they always send aircraft out to the North East for Fort Lauderdale Approach to pick them up.
I lined up, took off, turned North East and switched to Fort Lauderdale Approach. They asked me "coast route or westerly route?". I responded "coast route". I had asked for 2500 feet heading South which Departure Control had read back to me. However, Approach now told me "head for center of Fort Lauderdale at or below 2000". My GPS line of flight would take me to the West of the city, so I settled down on the GPS route. I was then switched to Fort Lauderdale Tower. I flew just West of the airport at 2000 feet. Then they handed me off to Miami Center.
Which was where the trouble started...after about 10 minutes, this happened:

Miami: "Sir, you are 6 miles inland from the coast"
Me: "I am aiming to intercept the inner coast"
Miami: "You are still 4 miles from the inner coast. Turn East immediately"
Me: "131JF turning left heading 090"

After about 3 minutes, I was approaching the outer coast, so I started to turn South. Less than a minute later, I was in trouble again:

Miami: "We need you out over the ocean. Turn back East"
Me: "131JF turning back East over the ocean..." (thinking: where do they want me? The Bahamas?)

I eventually settled about 1 mile offshore, and headed down the coast. After that little exchange, Miami pretty much left me alone, except that when I suddently had to climb to 2400 to avoid entering a cloud, they asked me if I wanted an altitude change. I replied "need 2500 to avoid IMC" and they authorized it, left me alone for a while, then terminated radar service as I flew over Key Largo.
The good news was that as we left the Miami area, the weather steadily improved; the low clouds more or less disappeared and the light turbulence we had been experiencing all of the way down the coast from Titusville also vanished. We flew the last 50 miles to Marathon in blissful peace over the blue and green waters of the Keys.
Descending and dropping onto long downwind at Marathon, I extended to allow a Citation to depart, then flew around the pattern, touched down unventfully and we parked the plane, tied it down, and managed to get a shuttle bus up to the holiday hotel in Islamorada.

The Long-EZ was activated at 12.45 CST today!

by Graham Email

Just before lunchtime, the crisp bark of a Lycoming O-320 was blown across the tarmac by the remains of Gustav at Lancaster Texas.
N131JF was fired up after 368 days of inactivity. Help provided by Jesse Huerta, and the J&S Aviation Pressurized Engine Oiling Kit (see above posting for more details). The engine ran like a watch until we shut it down once the CHTs reached 300 degrees.
In addition to running the engine for the first time, the Annual Condition Inspection was completed and signed-off, and the transponder was re-certificated.
Since I completed my Biennial Flight Review on Labor Day with Gerhard, the plane is now fully legal and the pilot is fully legal. I now have no choice but to fly.
The first flight for a while will occur at the weekend, once the modified aero devices (gear leg fairings, wheelpants and spinner) have been fully primed. That way the plane does not look like a patchwork quilt...

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