CASCADE FLYER December 2004, Vol. 04, Issue 12

Website: http://co-opa.rellim.com/

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE:

Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas! For some it might also be
Chrismukka, Chrismahanukwanzakah or maybe just the
Yuletide season. For us it is the annual CO-OPA
Christmas Party!

For the Pot Luck, the chapter will provide the main dish
of Ham. That frees up the members to bring an
abundance of salads, side dishes and desserts for our
annual feast.

After the Pot Luck we'll conduct out usual Chinese
Auction gift exchange. Seems like everyone has a
slightly different view of the rules so we will decide on
them at the meeting. What we can all agree on is that
everyone needs to bring a gift of vaguely aviation nature.
New or used is fine, but it must wrapped. Many of us
have goodies buried in our flight bag that have not seen
the light of day in years. This is the time to pass them
around and make someone happy.

The OPA board has asked me to put the a question to the
membership. State dues have not risen in many years, but
costs continue to rise. The OPA board proposes to raise
the annual dues from $20/yr to not more than $23/yr. It
seems like a very reasonable plan to me, but the OPA
board would like to have a consensus from the entire
membership before making the increase official. We
will take a quick poll Thursday and I'll pass the results
back to the board.

The City of Bend had a Thank You party for the Bend
Airport Ad-Hoc Committee. All the members received
personalized aerial photos of the airport. That will be a
reminder of their service to the city and soon will be a
reminder of how far the airport has changed as a result of
their efforts. CO-OPA was well represented on the
Committee by Ed Endsley, Dale Evans and Ken Sandine.
With luck the City will follow one of the Committee's
recommendations and appoint a permanent airport
committee to continue the fine work.
You can see some of the results of the Ad-Hoc
Committee's efforts in the recent changes at the airport.
That work you have seen on the east side of the airport is
the installation of utilities and a road. The city's goal is
to be ready for ground breaking of a new factory on the
east side by January or February. With luck maybe even
a developer can be found next year to partner with the
city and open up the rest of the east side.

The Nelson Road relocation is nearing the final stages.
The plan is to remove the old road, pipe the irrigation
canal, and grade the area for a proper safety zone next
year. Not having to worry about traffic on Nelson Road
will landing on 34 is a big relief to me.

I would like to thank again our last month's speaker John
Taylor for coming out to our meeting. John spoke on his
aviation business course and the general MHCC plan to
turn students not only in to qualified pilots, but also into
qualified aviation professionals. Aviation is about a lot
more than just piloting.

Also at the November meeting we conducted our annual
elections. The entire board was returned to their
positions. David Sailors will continue on as
Secretary/Treasurer and Nancy Lecklider will continue
as Vice President. Proving there is no accounting for
taste I was re-elected as President. Dave and Nancy
contribute a lot behind the scenes and deserve the thanks
of all of us.

If you have any ideas for speakers, or presentation topics,
please forward them to me. Bend seems to be just full of
aviation stories waiting to be told.

Calendar:

16 December - Monthly Meeting and Xmas Party
18 December - Monthly Flyout

20 January - Monthly Meeting
22 January - Monthly Flyout

17 February - Monthly Meeting
19 February - Monthly Flyout



Christmas Project:

For the third year in a row, our group has decided to
sponsor a deserving child at Pilot Butte Middle School.
As a group we want to make a real difference in one
child's life this year. Also, for the first time this year, a
portion of our donations will go into a fund the PBMS
staff can use to pay activity fees for a few deserving
students.
Don and Norma Wilfong are coordinating this with some
of the staff at the school. This has worked out very well
for all concerned the last two years and surely will work
well this year. You can reach them at: 389-1456 or at
dwnw@bendbroadband.com

We raised about $250 dollars at our November meeting.
That is a good start and surely we will do better as the
word gets out. School is out this coming Friday so now
is the time.
To make donations you can reach David Sailors at: 617-
8936, or at dandt@deschutes.net


Old Wives Tales and other dis-information:

A lot of the practical knowledge of aviation is passed
from pilot to pilot. One of the benefits of the CO-OPA is
to provide a time and place to share our experience so
that all may learn and benefit from it.

Sometimes old wives tales and plain old ignorance gets
passed around as well. I am guilty of passing on some
ignorance lately and wish to atone for my error.
Recently I was pontificating to a few members about
VFR-over-the-top. The FARs define it as "the operation
of an aircraft over-the-top under VFR when not being
operated on an IFR flight plan".

Given the way the clouds pile up on the top of the
Cascades this is an important operational detail. Often
the weather is clear in the Willamette Valley and in
Bend, but not on the crest of the mountains.

I was under the impression that VFR-over-the-top was
legal for Multi Engine Airplanes but not for Single
Engine Airplanes. This is not true. After several weeks
of discussion on AvWeb an FAA representative
proclaimed that as far as he could tell VFR-over-the-top
is legal as long as you are flying Part 91. If it takes FAA
personnel weeks to decide how a rule like this applies I
do not feel too bad about having had it wrong before.


Web doings:

Check out the CO-OPA website if you have missed the
recent newsletters: http://co-opa.rellim.com

Regards, Gary


SUPERSONIC SURVIVOR:
By T. Karr, President Carolina Aero Club

Hanging in the straps of his parachute and feeling the
cold night air on his face, Brian Udell felt as if a freight
train had collided with his body. As he struggled to
inflate his life preserver before plunging into the icy
waters of the Atlantic Ocean, he realized it had shredded
with the force of the supersonic windblast.

With his teeth and one functioning arm, Brian feverishly
retrieved a one-man life raft that hung from a fifteen-foot
lanyard off his right hip only seconds before entering the
water. After popping back to the surface like a bobber on
a fishing line, the salt water made him painfully aware of
the open wounds, cuts, and scrapes that were strewn over
his broken body. The thought of blood pouring into the
water inviting sharks for a late night meal motivated him
to attempt to get into the partially inflated raft.

As he kicked his legs, Brian's lower limbs felt as though
only a thread attached them. Exhausted and unable to
enter the raft, thoughts of death quickly consumed his
mind. Knowing he would be unable to survive the night
under the extreme conditions, Brian began to pray. The
next several hours of survival and the many months of
excruciating rehabilitation make an almost unbelievable
story.

Brian holds the record for surviving the highest speed
ejection from a U.S. Fighter Aircraft at nearly 800 MPH.
He survived four grueling hours 65 miles off the Atlantic
Coast in 60-degree water, 5-foot seas, and 15 MPH
winds at night. Brian's determination, perseverance,
faith, and sheer will to survive is unparalleled. His story
of survival, recovery, and return to the Strike Eagle is an
inspiration to everyone.

Brian is a very accomplished aviator. He began flying at
age nine and took his first cross-country flight at age ten.
Since that time he has accumulated over 4000 hours in a
variety of both civil and military aircraft. He was one of
only sixty candidates across the United States selected to
attend the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program.
Brian graduated number one in his class and was
awarded the Air Training Command - Commanders Cup
Trophy. Brian was one of the first Lieutenants selected to
fly the F-15E Strike Eagle. He graduated from Strike
Eagle training and received the top academic award.
Brian went on to his operational unit where he became
an Instructor, Mission Commander, and Air to Ground
Top Gun winner. He has flown over 100 combat
missions in Southwest Asia and logged nearly 2000
hours in the Strike Eagle. Brian received four Air Medals
and three Aerial Achievement Medals for combat
missions over the skies of Iraq. Brian's military career
spanned ten years.
Brian left the Air Force in 1999 and he is currently a
pilot with Southwest Airlines. "Brian Udell kept us
spellbound for 45 minutes. You could hear a pin drop,
except when he made everyone laugh."


SAFETY CORNER: by Joel Premselaar

Spear a passing fish while you're standing on the shore.
Missed, huh! Just in case you'd like to know, that's
refraction at work. What's that got to do with flying (no,
it wasn't a flying fish)? Puffing up and flaunting my ego,
I'll deign to tell you. Let's start with the windshield. You
can find G.A. aircraft with half-inch windshields that are
installed with a significant slant. This translates into
more thickness that you're looking through than a half-
inch thick piece of windshield. Couple this with
curvature and what you're looking at just ain't where you
see it. Now fly several different aircraft and you have a
good excuse for your lousy landings. If you think that's
difficult to cope with, pity the poor naval aviator who's
trying to hit a target or making a carrier landing. He/She
has to peer through a highly sloped extra thick
bulletproof flat glass plate. Aside from the carrier
landing, the problem is compounded during supersonic
speeds. Light rays bend as they pass through the
optically denser air in shock waves. Low frequency
vibrations (about 40 cps) blur your vision as you pass
through the sound barrier. Be sure to keep all this in
mind as you rip through the airways in that hellion of the
cosmos, the Cessna Skyhawk.

The expression "Oculogyral Illusion" is as ugly as the
illusory phenomenon it defines. In layman terms, it
simply means the dizziness you experience after spinning
around. As a child, my contemporaries and I used to spin
around to see who could remain standing after x number
of turns. I discovered that I would not topple if I aimed
an extended finger pointed at a distant object; try it - it's
fun. As a consequence of performing successive rolls
during airshows, I regularly experienced oculogyro
illusion. I was able to cope with it by aligning a piece of
airframe with a distant reference point. Of what interest
is this to those of you who do not do aerobatics? I have
to tell you that maneuvering to escape a mid-air collision
can induce the subject phenomenon. Worse yet, turning
your head at night or during instrument flight can induce
it. I guarantee you that if you turn and bend over to pick
up a pencil or whatever during night or instrument flight,
you'll subject yourself to an oculogyro illusion
experience.

Now on to the "Gibson Effect." Many, many times you
have watched even experienced pilots make a beautiful
approach to a landing only to see them suddenly flare too
high then --- uh oh, kerplunk! Of course this never
happened to you so I'll try to explain why it happens to
those other guys. First, keep in mind the case where
while driving a car, near objects along side appear to
pass rearward considerably faster than distant objects.
Approaching a runway on let's say a 3° glide slope, there
is a point that doesn't move; we'll call the aim point.
Surrounding it will be some marks; e.g., tire marks, oil
spots, painted runway markings, whatever. Now recall
the car driving analogy. Closing on the aim point, the
various markings in one's visual field appear to expand
and, at a specific distance the markings will seem to
explode radially from the fixed aim point (see the figure
below). Those "other guys" will react in a predictable
manner;
I repeat ---uh oh, keplunk! Try this. Hold your thumb
and index finger about half an inch apart and move them
toward one of your eyes at a constant rate. Just before
you touch your eyelash, your fingers will appear to jump
apart. Do this in private or you'll find yourself
surrounded by people in white coats carrying a straight
jacket.

What should that "other guy" do to remedy the problem?
I know the FAA types won't like my solution; make a
flatter approach to lower the perspective and the range
rate to the aim point. Let's consider the concept of the
aim point as it relates to the actual touch down point.
Even on a navy type "no flare landing" on a runway, the
main mounts do not hit the aim point. In fact, conducting
a carrier landing in an aircraft with a long fuselage, such
as the F8 Crusader, the eyeball's aim point to tail hook
distance is what we had to consider.

Since we're on the subject of landings, I guess it would
be appropriate to treat the subject next month. I will
present my way and the reasons for my techniques. Note
that I use technique in the plural. I will address the
landing techniques I use to cope with differing
circumstances. My ways are heavily flavored with those
of Uncle Sam's Navy. Don't try to pass an FAA check
ride the way I advocate landing. I insist that they are
considerably safer and less labor intensive. Aside from
the FAA ride, remember that menus exist is because
different people like different things. There are as many
ways to land an aircraft as there are pilots, so if you're
happy with the way you're doing it, it must be safe since
you're still alive. I'll simply suggest ways to make it
safer.


Space Ship One

This is the best write-up I have seen on the flight that
won the "X-Prize". I have added a few photos ˙˙ Ed
There is also a video (5.3MB, no audio) from Scaled
Composites that really gives you a feel for the ride. You
can download the video from:

http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/video/X-Prize-
flight-2.wmv

Mike Melville on Space Ship One
-- A report from Thomas Wall
------------------------------
I just had the extreme pleasure of speaking with Mike
Melvill yesterday, the pilot of SpaceShipOne's first two
flights above the Karman line of 100 km. MSL, and with
his wife. He gave a 45-minute presentation to the
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association conference in
Long Beach on Thursday, and got a several-minute
standing ovation. I was able to speak with him for a short
while after his talk.

Since he was speaking to pilots, he didn't have to
translate for the "general public" or pull many punches.
He spent almost half of his time going over the flight
controls and the entire cockpit layout inside of
SpaceShipOne, explaining how it is flown. I think this is
the first time this has been explained publicly in such
detail, and it was amazing. There are actually four
separate flight regimes, and each is flown differently.
Just after launch, it flies like a piper cub, using a joystick
and rudder pedals with mechanical linkages to the
controls (no hydraulic assists). When it goes supersonic,
the aerodynamic forces are too high to be able to move
the stick, and the controls are subject to flutter. So they
use an electrically powered trim system, flown using the
"top hat" switch on the joystick and a couple of grips on
the arm rest of the pilot's seat. (There are backup
switches to the left of the instrument panel, which had to
be used on one flight.) This moves the entire horizontal
stabilizers, not just the elevons on the trailing edges.

Eventually, they get high enough and the air gets thin
enough that they can again use manual controls, although
the response is totally different than lower down. But
that goes away as they exit the atmosphere; the Reaction
Control System nozzles are then used for maneuvering in
space. Coming back down, the pilot has to reverse the
sequence. There is no automated switchover of control
systems; the pilot has to remember to move from one
system to the next at the right times.

The rudder pedals are not linked. Each controls one of
the two vertical stabilizer rudders separately. You can
push both rudder pedals at the same time, and get a fairly
effective speed brake, with both rudders canted outward.
Push both fully forward and they engage the wheel
brakes. But these are not very effective and are only
really useful for steering input during rollout. The real
brake is on the nose skid: a piece of maple wood, with
the grain aligned down the centerline of the airplane. He
said it was the most effective braking material they could
find.

We talked about G forces on Tuesday, and I got some of
it wrong. He says that he gets hit with about 3Gs kicking
him backwards as soon as he lights the rocket motor.
He's supersonic within about 9 seconds later. But he
immediately starts to pull up into an almost vertical
climb. So he also gets over 4.3Gs pushing him down into
his seat just from that maneuver. The combined force is
"very stressful" and Mike says it's "important not to
black out" at that point. He's going 1880 knots straight
up within 70 seconds. On re-entry, the aircraft goes from
being absolutely silent while in space to generating a
deafening roar as it hits the atmosphere again. He's going
about Mach 3.2 by that time, and has to survive about
5.5Gs for over 30 seconds, and lesser G forces for longer
than that, as it slows back down. It sounds really intense,
both as he explains it and on the radio.

A couple of interesting side notes: SpaceShipOne has a
standard "N" registration number; but it is licensed as an
experimental "glider". Apparently there was a huge
bureaucratic hassle trying to license it as a rocket
powered spacecraft, which they just sidestepped by
calling it a glider.


I asked him if it had a yaw string; he laughed and said
that would have burned off. By the way, the registration
number is N328KF, where 328K is the number of Feet in
100km. (White Knight is N318SL - Burt Rutan's 318th
design.) Mike says that the flight director system (called
a TINU) was developed completely in-house by a couple
of 28-year-old programmers, and is absolutely fantastic
to fly. That's why they don't need a yaw string. But I had
heard over the radio that Brian Binnie had re-booted the
TINU just before the landing approach during the X2
flight, and it took quite a while for it to come back up. So
I asked Mike what that was about. He says that during
re-entry, the TINU loses its GPS lock. So it keeps trying
to go back to catch up, re-interpolate and compensate for
the missing data, and this keeps it a little behind in its
actual position calculations.

The pilot has no straight-ahead vision at all, so they have
a real issue landing: they can't see the runway!
The way they do it is to fly directly down the runway at
9000 feet; then they do a (military style) break and fly a
full 360-degree pattern right to the landing. The TINU
gives the pilot a "blue line" to follow and a target
airspeed (which produces a given rate of descent). If the
pilot follows the blue line, right to the break point and
through the two 180 degree turns, it will put him right
onto the runway at whatever touchdown point he selects.
But the TINU has to be absolutely current when this is
going on. So at something above 15,000 feet they reboot
the TINU and get it re-synched with the GPS satellites
again before setting up for the landing!

He also talked in detail about the rocket motor, and had
photos of its insides after firing. The nozzle throat
actually ablates as the motor burns, enlarging the interior
throat diameter as the burn progresses. He described the
problem they had on the June 21 flight: The rocket motor
nozzle was skewed by about 1?2 degree to one side.
This generated a surprisingly high lateral torque trying to
turn the aircraft. If it had been up or down pitch rather
than lateral, the controls could have handled it; but the
lateral yawing forces were too great for Mike to
compensate as the atmosphere thinned. The result was
that he was pretty far off course.

Mike says he reached apogee, rolled the spacecraft over,
and was surprised to see the Palmdale VOR directly
beneath him. That was 30 miles away from Mojave and a
long glide home. He says it's amazing how fast a
relatively small deviation can produce large distances
when you're going Mach 3!

For one of the static burn tests, they had fire and safety
crews all standing a mile away, ready to duck if anything
went wrong. In the middle of the test, Mike and Burt
Rutan walked up to the front of the motor assembly and
felt the pressure vessel that contains the N2O. Mike
knew he was going to have this same thing strapped onto
his back soon, anyway, and he wanted to know how
much it vibrated, how hot it got, and how loud it was. It
was deafening, literally. It turns out that, with the nozzles
they use at high altitudes, it's actually not that noisy
inside the spacecraft. But he still wears hearing
protection.

Scaled Composites seem to have fabricated quite a bit of
the rocket motor themselves, including the N2O tank
(which is also the structural core of the spacecraft) and
the nozzle casings. It would be interesting to hear from
Michael's friend exactly what parts SpaceDev designed
and what they manufactured.

I took lots more notes. Very interesting stuff.

W. Thomas Wall



STAY REAL!

"Before you become too entranced with gorgeous
gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind
you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not
wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of
the other and we need them all."
-Arthur C. Clarke



NAMPA, IDAHO FLY-OUT !!

Sat. Nov. 20....It was cold, crisp and frosty with blue
skies over Bend as we rolled our plane out of the hangar
at Pilot Butte International and flew out to Bend where
the other brave and hardy souls were gathering for the
scheduled fly-out to Nampa, Idaho.

Mike and Ann Bond (Cardinal RG N2123Q), Curtis and
Jackie Turner (Apache N4387P), Bill and Betty Witt
(Skylane N9944E), Ed Endsley (Ed rode with the Witts)
and Don and Norma Wilfong (Skylane N20757) made up
the stalwart group of flyers ready to break the surly
bonds of earth and head East into the rising sun. I
understand that Joel Premselaar was going to join us but
had some problems with a frozen lock and couldn't get
his plane out of the hangar at Sisters. "Sorry Joel" we
missed seeing you and that pretty Bonanza.

Ed Endsley has been duly warned that he is going to be
in deep trouble if he doesn't start bringing his wife
Sherry to the potluck/meetings and fly-outs so some of
us can meet her....I have spoken with her on the phone
and she seems very nice....I think she must be a
remarkable woman to put up with Ed...snicker snicker !!!
By the way Sherry...if you are afraid to fly with Ed you
can ride with some of the rest of us....

A little after 0900 hrs (1000 hrs Mountain time) We
headed for Nampa and encountered a bank of broken
clouds from the Burns area on East almost to the Idaho
border. This presented no problem as we cleared them at
about 9500 to 10,000 feet. The Turners in their very
recently and "beautifully" refurbished Piper Apache (this
was their first cross country since the refurbishing) just
about turned into ice cubes as their heater refused to
function. As they went "way up" the temps went "way
down"....I am not sure but I think I saw frost in their
eyebrows when they landed at Nampa.

The trip over was fairly uneventful and very pleasant
until we (the Wilfongs) were on short final at Nampa, we
were just off the end of the runway at about 100 to 150
feet when a C-152 cut right in front of us...(H
e was not on the radio at all) I exclaimed "OH MY
GOD" and it scared the "heck" out of Norma. I was able
to pull up and to the right, add power and go around...we
avoided an accident with the plane but I am not too sure
about Norma...she was "pretty scared"...

We (all 9 of us) went to the S67 Café, which is upstairs
above the FBO and ate, they serve breakfast all day so
even though it was noon in Idaho (Mountain Time) some
of us were able to have breakfast. We enjoyed the food,
the service was good (she never let your coffee cup get
empty) and the setting was great as you could look out
and watch the planes come and go. It as a good place to
stop and eat and fuel prices always seem to be a little
lower at Nampa.... 100LL was $2.92 a gallon.

There was a cold wind blowing as we walked the short
distance down to the Warhawk Air Museum. We were
behind a cyclone fence with locked gates and couldn't get
to the entrance of the museum....I pounded on a back
door while Ed crawled through a very tight spot, at the
gate, so he could get to the front entrance....by this time
they opened the back door for us and Ed had to squeeze
back through the fence again. We all entered and paid
the nominal fee... $5.00 for adults and $4.00 for
Seniors...(of course we were all much too young to
qualify as Seniors)

This is a very interesting Museum with a lot of mostly
World War II memorabilia both from Aviation and non-
aviation. You could spend hours looking at all the
planes, jeeps, cars, displays and much more. They havea
continuous movie going, with Bob Hope and others from
the war years that would be interesting to sit and watch.
It is also available for purchase. They have a gift shop
with all kinds of stuff if you are interested.

This is the second time some of us have been there and it
was still just as interesting as the first time....I would
strongly recommend it as a place to visit if you are
looking for a place to go for the proverbial $100.00
hamburger and while you are there be sure to visit the
museum.

The Turners had to leave a little before the rest of us as
they had guests and family showing up....their heater still
didn't work on the way home....I bet they get that
problem solved before they make the next winter cross
country.

After a bit the rest of us decided it was time to head for
home so we walked back to the planes, checked things
out and headed West. The broken clouds were still there
and the Witts (with Ed) climbed above them and flew
back at 10,500 or so. The Bonds tried it above the clouds
for a while and then decided to come on back down,
below the clouds and join the Wilfongs.

The Turners were not the only ones who got cold on this
trip...the Bonds had a malfunction with the pilots door
and it popped open, it was getting mighty cold in the
plane so they landed at Burns where they thought they
had the problem solved...but....the door soon popped
open again and they found that if they slowed down to
about 100 or so they could manage without totally
freezing. It took them a little longer to get to Bend but
they had more time to appreciate the scenery.

Everyone arrived home safe and sound, but in some
cases cold...it was a great trip and one we will probably
schedule again in the future...We missed those of you
who couldn't make it and we will look forward to seeing
you on future fly-outs.


Mike Bond, Newsletter Editor




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