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Happy birthday to me! Biplane ride!


Kirk

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(I want to share this but I'm not sure where to put it.)

My wife and step-son gave me a pretty cool birthday gift (I'll be 60 on Monday).

 

Biplane.jpg

 

The smallest aircraft I've been in up to this point in my life is a 20 seater Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia commuter plane.

 

I'm really pretty excited! :D

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Great! I'm happy for you, Kirk. The picture on that shirt looks like a Stearman with a speed ring*. If that's what you're going in, you're in for a real treat!

 

I took this picture in the mid-70s, just north of Albuquerque, looking north towards the Jemez Wilderness west of Santa Fe. It's the Stearman we had on leaseback at Pegasus Aerial Sports in Albuquerque. It had the 300 HP Lycoming with a constant speed prop and a metalized fuselage (a former duster). I got 138 hours in that airplane, giving rides, instructing for checkouts, towing banners, and such. It was a sweet flying machine, though a bit much for many folks in the ground handling.

 

Once you see the world framed by a pair of wings, you'll never look at flying the same again.

 


* A speed ring is the round cowling over the radial engine. On the machine pictured here it cut drag tremendously, changing the descent in the pattern at idle from roughly a 45º angle to roughly a 30-35º angle, so allowing a bit more speed, and an easier time getting over the top on a loop or doing a split-S. You see the plane here without the speed ring.

 

NC4408NFlt09_sm.jpg

 

The picture here is with the speed ring. It was taken while taxiing at Coronado Airport (4AC, now defunct, but in FSX) north of Albuquerque.

 

NC4408N_Taxi.jpg

Edited by lnuss

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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Great -- you'll love it. The one I pictured above was a 1943 Boeing PT-13 (same age as me). When you find out, I'd like to know what engine it has (perhaps the Continental 220 HP, or maybe a Jacobs). I presume it has the original fabric fuselage.

 

Enjoy!

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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That was the absolute best thing ever!

 

BiPlane-3.jpg

 

BiPlane-4.jpg

 

BiPlane-5.jpg

 

BiPlane-8.jpg

 

That's the pilot, Jordan, his assistant and wife, Candace, and the guy in the middle with the goofy smile is me.

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Everyone looks goofy, Kirk! Great shots from the flight. I see we share the same "horseshoe haircut"!;)

 

I look stupid squatting on that little stool waiting for a ground ball!

 

Here's a thought...maybe we should form the "Flight Simmer's Horseshoe Haircut" club. Bet we'd have a bunch of members!:eek:

Edited by mrzippy

Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer!  ✈️

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I'll bet you're right. LOL.

 

It's never really bothered me. I started losing my hair in high school and it's just what it is. Same thing with my age. Friends and family are making big deal out of me turning 60. "Does it bother you turning 60?" "How are you handling the "Big 6-0'?" And I'm like, it's just another day, really. :D

 

I think I've found my birthday present to myself, however. Golden Age Simulations has a Stearman. I don't know much about the company, but it looks legit. I may have to learn to fly this taildragger.

Prepar3d v4: HP Omen Desktop. Intel Core i7-8700K (6 Core, 3.7GHz), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11GB dedicated GDDR5X), 16GB RAM, 2TB Hard Drive, 1TB SSD, 512GB SSD, Windows 10.
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I'll bet you're right. LOL.

 

It's never really bothered me. I started losing my hair in high school and it's just what it is. Same thing with my age. Friends and family are making big deal out of me turning 60. "Does it bother you turning 60?" "How are you handling the "Big 6-0'?" And I'm like, it's just another day, really. :D

 

I think I've found my birthday present to myself, however. Golden Age Simulations has a Stearman. I don't know much about the company, but it looks legit. I may have to learn to fly this taildragger.

 

I was 22 when it started leaving! There is a freeware version of the GAS Stearman crop duster over at the SOH site.

 

thumbnail.jpg

Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer!  ✈️

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Looks like you had a great time, Kirk. But wooden steps to get on the wing walkway? Wow! Now you know what it looks, feels, sounds and smells like, such a different experience.

 

Did he give you any stick time? Did he do any aerobatics?

 

Now, should you read Richard Bach's book Biplane, or his other book Nothing By Chance, you'll better understand some of the things he says in that book about the 1929 Parks biplane he had then.

 

maybe we should form the "Flight Simmer's Horseshoe Haircut" club.

 

I'm in...

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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No stick time, unfortunately. He had the front seat pretty much gutted except for the gauges.

 

He asked me about the aerobatics and I politely declined, which I now regret. I didn't know how I was going to react to being in a small aircraft (and not sitting at my desk in the stability of my home :D ) so I didn't want to get myself into something I couldn't get out of.

 

But there's always next time. And there will definitely be a next time!

 

And thanks for the heads up on the freeware. I'm off to check it out right now!

Edited by Kirk
Prepar3d v4: HP Omen Desktop. Intel Core i7-8700K (6 Core, 3.7GHz), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11GB dedicated GDDR5X), 16GB RAM, 2TB Hard Drive, 1TB SSD, 512GB SSD, Windows 10.
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He had the front seat pretty much gutted except for the gauges.

I'm not sure how you'd "gut" a Stearman cockpit. All that I've seen have no inner wall covering, just the inside of the metal/fabric covering of the fuselage with lots of large tubing and a power quadrant mounted on one of the tubes at the left side of the cockpit.

 

Take a look at the pictures in this link and see if that's what you had.

 

Oh, were the stick and rudder pedals removed? They're all you need, perhaps with the airspeed indicator once in a while.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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FSX - FSX Early Aircraft

FSX Stearman PT-13A

[ Download | View ]

 

Name: stear12.zip

Size: 79,178,398 Date: 11-07-2007 Downloads: 11,096

 

 

FSX Stearman PT-13A. This file contains a revision of Dave Eckert's PT Series with minor updates for FSX. This package contains 12 repaints and 17 splash screens. Package compiled for easy install. Package by David Grindele.

1 Comments

 

Kirk - This is a great download for Stearman aircraft They are a "hoot" to fly and you will be able to gain some tail dragger experience! It's a large download with several aircraft, but no one says you have to keep them all, you can whittle them down to just a few to give your computer some breathing room! You can only fly one at a time!

 

Rick :cool:

Edited by Downwind66
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After seeing those photos I guess all he took out was the stick and pedals (although the rods that the pedals would attach to were still there). Maybe it just seemed "gutted" because I'm used to seeing the C172/182.

 

Thanks for the heads up on that Stearman PT-13A! That's from Flyaway, right?

 

So, stick and pedals only, huh? No flaps, no yoke. This should be a hoot! I'm gonna give it a go today (between football games. :D ).

Prepar3d v4: HP Omen Desktop. Intel Core i7-8700K (6 Core, 3.7GHz), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11GB dedicated GDDR5X), 16GB RAM, 2TB Hard Drive, 1TB SSD, 512GB SSD, Windows 10.
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After seeing those photos I guess all he took out was the stick and pedals (although the rods that the pedals would attach to were still there). Maybe it just seemed "gutted" because I'm used to seeing the C172/182.

Keep in mind that it was originally a WWII Army Air Force trainer, so it didn't need the fancy interior, nor did it need that extra weight. And interior padding wouldn't have affected the sound level, either, since the cockpit is open.

 

So, stick and pedals only, huh? No flaps, no yoke. This should be a hoot!

Keep in mind that when on the ground you'll see nothing straight ahead, so looking out the side at a 30º to 45º angle, part of the time, comparing what you see in that range on either side, and part of the time looking straight ahead and using peripheral vision to align with the runway, is how you do it in real life. You experienced some of that in your flight, but the view from the front is even more limited than it is from the rear, so it'll be slightly easier from back there.

 

I'd suggest using the VC, not the so-called 2D cockpit, and from the VC my above description works more or less as I described when I'm flying the Dave Eckert Stearman, which I've been simming with for years.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

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Welp. Learning to fly the new Stearman is going to have to wait... I screwed up my installation of P3D. LOL. I copied the FSX Stearman folder into my Sim Objects/Airplanes folder (along with the default FSX C172) and now my P3D crashes when loading the airplanes. I know it's safe to copy over the default C172 because I've done it before. Even after removing those folders my P3D still crashes during startup.

 

That's what I get for taking shortcuts. :D

 

I'll get into the event logs and get it fixed here as soon as I can put a couple free hours together.

Prepar3d v4: HP Omen Desktop. Intel Core i7-8700K (6 Core, 3.7GHz), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11GB dedicated GDDR5X), 16GB RAM, 2TB Hard Drive, 1TB SSD, 512GB SSD, Windows 10.
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Outstanding Kirk! Happy you enjoyed the ride in the Stearman. I got my first ride in a Stearman almost 20 yrs ago. I liked it so much that the owner asked if I wanted to get a check out on the airplane. Of course I didn't pass it up. The owner of the airplane was from a neighboring state and wanted to keep it in Tenn. for a while and told me that I could fly it any time I wanted to as long as I kept fuel in it. Do you think I passed up the offer? Heck no! I put 40 hours on the 220hp bi-wing baby before the owner reclaimed her. That was a sad day, but i sure had alot of fun flying it.

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If anyone is interested...

 

It wasn't the Stearman or FSX Default C172 that botched my Prepar3D. It was a freaking Windows update that coincidentally installed itself the night before!!

 

I rolled back to before that update and everything is fine. Just fine.

 

(Back to the Stearman. :D )

 

We live very close to the little airport that the Stearman flies out of. Right around 10:15 this morning I heard the unmistakable sound of her single engine. Sure enough, there she was in the clear blue sky, with someone else in the front seat, exactly one week after my ride.

 

#jealous

Prepar3d v4: HP Omen Desktop. Intel Core i7-8700K (6 Core, 3.7GHz), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11GB dedicated GDDR5X), 16GB RAM, 2TB Hard Drive, 1TB SSD, 512GB SSD, Windows 10.
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