MG MGB and MGB GT Tech Talk
John Ellis and I are driving to Ocala, FL tomorrow, 700+ miles as the crow flies the PT-19 and bringing the old bird home on Saturday. We couldn't catch a hop so we're renting a car and dropping it in Ocala. I don't know of anybody I can wave at on the way back, but we may be landing at Millington, TN near Tom B's place. We've got some funny logistics on the way down and may have to land there coming back, screwy details, I won't get into them.
How do you make a quick fix on one of those old birds if the motor gives out when you're over rural Alabama? Just wondering.....
That's the least of my concerns. John Ellis and I built and installed that motor, she made it down there, and has been flying all winter without missing a beat. Remember me telling about test flying it over snow covered ground? Age has practically nothing to do with the condition of an airplane. Flyers know who's life in hanging in the balance and that it actually is. Usually when I climb out of an airplane I'll say, "Well, we cheated death one more time."
I thought "PT-" was just a boat designation.
Dad flew ww2 stuff. I have a piece of one of his planes that he saved after it crashed; wood, a trainer. He also saved a plane with a 1:1 glide ratio. It quit near the base. He was ordered to bail, but put it into a nose dive instead, gained enough air speed to pull up and land. Everyone thought he was a hero for saving a scarce piece of equipment. He didn't tell any of them he was too chicken to jump.
Stop by if you're in the neighborhood...&, there's a PT-17 at Moontown Airport...grass field
Looks like our flight path could be right near Gurley, if I knew how to spot your place I'd do a turn on your house, but sometines we fly IFR. That is I Follow Roads and in this case we'd be closer to Birmingham. I don't know where she's at in Ocala, but tail draggers operate better on grass than on pavement anyway.
Doing turns on a house is not as easy as it sounds. Putting that wing tip on a chimney and holding it there through a 360 takes quite a bit of skill, there's always a little wind. I can almost do it, but I don't fly but 5 or 6 times a year.
After the third time John Ellis turned her over to me was when he learned I had never flown an airplane before. "how did you keep the wings so level, course so straight & level, not skid her, and cooradinate your turns like that?" he asked. "I don't know. I guess from riding motorcycles all my life." was all I could think of.
I IFR over my place all the time....when you hit the Tennessee River follow it west till you see the big bridge over Lake Guntersville....run that highway north to the first major intersection on right...stay straight over it & cut to the mountains at 11 to 12 o'clock from intersection till you see US72 running east/west....its not the highway you're over but the next one north...follow it west to Chevron station on right side thru Gurley & turn towards 2 o'clock...over a small mountain you'll see my subdivision....take her up a bit over the Chevron & drop down to 1000 immediately over the mountain...look for the cars right under you....if you pass over the high school or Moontown airport, you've gone too far...
...tell me what you think about the garage addition...roofer should have shingles finished tomorrow
Ooops, meant to say, "I VFR" over my place....just follow my VFR directions
"I don't know. I guess from riding motorcycles all my life." was all I could think of.
That makes sense John, letting centrifugal force keep your butt fastened to the seat of a motorcycle is exactly how you fly a coordinated turn in an airplane.
Man, I had enough trouble getting there in the Dakota. I'll just keep an eye out for the place, I pretty well remember the layout, but not how t drive there.
Guess that's it. I just kept it feeling right in the seat of my pants. roll in with a little rudder, tweak the stick back a little, and keep here feeling balanced while watching where the nose is on the horizon. There is no T&B indiacator in the back cockpit. Should be, but there isn't.
We could probably get by with that for one pass, our N number is pretty small and nobody would ever see it. They sure as hell wouldn't know what to call it, there's probably less than a dozen of them still flying.
You got it. Flying those old birds is just "seat of the pants" Sounds like a lot of fun!
Moontown is the neatest grass field I've ever been to. I believe it has more traffic than Huntsville Int Airport. I hope to come over sometime this summer and visit some friends in Huntsville. Tony I'll stop buy your place to say hi and check out your projects.
That's funny - my instructor said the same thing. He couldn't figure out how a 40 year-old could fly so well co-ordinated when his 20 year-old students couldn't hold straight-and-level. I said it's just like riding a motorcycle!
I'm afraid my wings aren't as exotic as yours - but Mary and I love to fly it anyway. Also slowly working on an RV-6a (yeah, I know, real pilots fly tail draggers!).
Have a fun and safe trip.
As one of the front enders on the birds I flew would tell us,
"you simply keep your number of successful take offs and landings equal and there isn't a problem."
JDW... the 1000 has been known to be missed by about 250 over Big M Farms...buzz then land at Moontown & we'll bring you some sandwiches....
...David....Moontown has a huge ultralight contingency...I've seen it so busy on Saturdays that they have to man the tower...drop in & gimme a call, I'll come pick you up
Tony -
If John is flying north from Birmingham, shouldn't he turn east at the Tennesse River instead of west?
I dunno, David...B'ham is way west on a straight shot from Ocala to Memphis....I figure they'll detour west to miss controlled airspace around Atlanta but they shouldn't have to go any farther west than over West Point or Auburn at most....then, a shot up the east side of B'ham keeps them out of its airspace also & puts them directly over Guntersville & east of Huntsville's airspace....from Gurley they can skirt the northern edge of Huntrsville airspace & shoot straight for Memphis....can you guess I try to dodge controlled airspace with lots of big airliners?
Well, there you go. I thought he would be coming up on the west side of Huntsville instead of the east. If IFRoads is this complicated, I imagine true IFR is downright complex.
