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New Line of Angle Valve Cylinders
Schweiss Doors Easy Splice Connections
Flying Into Writing: It’s All About Your Perspective
By Eric McCarthy
Corrizo Plain and hills in bloom as far as we could see. (Eric McCarthy)Cruising along serenely with my friend and fellow CAP squadron-member, Derek, we passed over the LA Coliseum at 8,500 feet en route to Van Nuys VOR (VNY). We were flying up the Central Valley for one of my photo missions in my friend, Rich’s, Cessna. It was a beautiful day with few clouds and unlimited visibility. We had a bit of a headwind as we traversed the mountains on V107 north of the Fillmore VOR (FIM), and had been anticipating some turbulence, but it never materialized, and we were able stay at 8,500 feet for the crossing.
There’s some pretty inhospitable territory in those mountains, with not many options for an emergency landing. Subconsciously, I began to “cheat,” adding a little “insurance altitude” by climbing to 9,000 feet; Derek called ATC to request a block of airspace between 8,500 feet and 10,000 feet. Other than the airliners passing way overhead and a couple of business jets on their way to Van Nuys (KVNY), there was no other traffic, so our request was immediately granted.
Entering the Central Valley south of Taft, the scenery changes dramatically – from rugged, forested mountains to rolling hills and flat agricultural land that stretches to the horizon. Much of the land below us throughout this area has been scarred by oil production, a pock-marked labyrinth of drilling sites, empty pads, and storage facilities, but to our left is a spectacular view of the Southern Coastal Range and Carrizo Plain in full bloom. The recent winter rains brought out the vibrant greens and brilliant yellows of the wildflowers covering the hills and valleys as far as the eye could see! These hills and valleys are usually a monochromatic tan suede color, so to see them in bloom like this was quite a treat!
Resilience: One Airman’s Story of Faith, Service
By Janis El Shabazz, 340th Flying Training Group Public Affairs
This feature is part of the “Through Airmen’s Eyes” series on AF.mil. These stories focus on a single Airman, highlighting their Air Force story).
Sandra and Gabriel Rousseaux, Senior Master Sgt. Jon Rousseaux, Dr. Amy Holder and Maj. (Dr.) Dax Holder pose for a photo during a fundraising run for ‘Any Baby Can’, a San Antonio-based organization that serves families with children and youth facing serious health or developmental challenges, to raise money for sudden infant death syndrome research. The Rousseauxs lost their son, Joshua, to SIDS in 2010. (Courtesy photo)Senior Master Sgt. Jon Rousseaux was like many children who grew up in a military family. The self-described man of faith and service followed his father, a retired chief, into the Air Force – and after 19 years, he is still at it. In fact, he just re-enlisted for four more years. Rousseaux’s years of service have strengthened his faith and resiliency, helping him through the most difficult time of his life.
Co-workers describe Rousseaux as a steady, easy-going guy whose steadfastness and determination helped him rapidly ascend the ranks. Everyone agrees that, usually, not much upsets him – but the events that happened in May 2010 shook him to his core.
Rousseaux said it was a typical day. He woke the kids, made breakfast, and dropped his infant son, Joshua, off at day care and older son, Cayden, at school. It was Joshua’s first week in day care. Rousseaux said what happened next was like a surreal nightmare – but it was broad daylight and painfully real.
“I got a call from my wife, Sandra, that Josh had stopped breathing,” Rousseaux said. “I was on my way to the day care when I got another call telling me to meet the ambulance at the hospital. Nothing can prepare you for the scene of your tiny baby laying on a table with a flurry of doctors trying to stabilize him and not knowing what is happening because everything is happening so fast.”
Flying the Legendary Spitfire
By David Brown
Richard Paver’s superb shot of MJ627 shows the classic lines of the Spitfire/ (via Heritage Hangar)For many years, I had harbored the desire to fly a Spitfire. This dream started when I was allowed, as a schoolboy, to sit in the cockpit of a Spitfire at RAF Woodvale, and had persisted since my early flying days in England. Together with fellow Air Cadet, Alan Walker, I had spent my weekends at Woodvale supporting operations to fly other Air Cadets at 10 Air Experience Flight, which enabled us at the end of the day to wangle a quick 15-minute flight in the Chipmunks. After college in England, and more Chipmunk flying with the RAF and in civilian life, I started a career in the flight testing of jets, initially in England, and flew light aircraft at weekends.
I still had the Spitfire dream, but Spitfires (especially two-seaters) are rare. Time passed and we moved on, Alan advanced into airline flying, and eventually progressed to a Senior Captain position with Cathay Pacific flying the mighty Boeing 747. By then, I had moved to California where I worked in Flight Test and various Advanced Design groups, taught aeronautical engineering at a university and the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, and was lucky enough to be involved on the periphery of various warbird operations. We corresponded occasionally, and I saw on Facebook that he now flew a Robin, G-FEEF (aka Fifi), which he based in England. He was also an accomplished warbird pilot and flew Spitfires, Hurricane Sea Fury, the B-17 Flying Fortress, and even the notoriously tricky Messerschmitt 109… pretty impressive.
GAMA Welcomes New Era of GA Development With Final CS-23 Rule
Yanks Air Museum
Experience the Legacy of American Aircraft
The P-40 Warhawk. (Courtesy Yanks Air Museum)Imagine a time back in historical America, when adventurous men and women flew our legendary aircraft for fun, for show, for profit, to set new world records or to fight and defend our freedom at all costs. Come to Yanks and see the aircraft that turned the tides, and changed the fate of America’s history forever. Oh, and don’t forget, these aircraft can fly!
At Yanks Air Museum, in Chino, California, the desire to honor and preserve historical aircraft has held a prominent place in their legacy since 1972. Founded by Mr. and Mrs. Nichols, who began the search for these world-renowned aircraft, that now span more than a century and a wide variety of eras, wars, conflicts, and events. When you step into one of their hangars, you are instantly transported to another time. You’ll feel a sense of wonder and awe as you explore airpower and how it has changed the world.
Planes of Fame Coffee Klatch
King Schools and Medical Rules
Bruce's Custom Covers Deals
Mid America Flight Museum 2016
By Nick Viggiano
Scott glover flying the P-51, Andrew Kiest flying the Beech 18 and Kelly Mohan flying the T-28. Matt Bongers was flying the photo plane SNJ-3. (Mid America Flight Museum)I started a new aviation journey about a year ago. Two friends who did not know each other (at the time) were pulling me to Mount Pleasant, Texas, and the Mid America Flight Museum. One longtime friend, Jason Bell, who lives in Mt. Pleasant, was finally bitten by the aviation bug and was pursuing his private ticket. The other, longtime friend, Erik Johnston, an aviation videographer, was volunteering and producing YouTube videos for the Mid America Flight Museum, based at the Mt. Pleasant airport.
Well, after a minimum of arm-twisting, one Saturday in February, I headed east from Dallas to visit my friend, Jason, and the Mid America Flight Museum.
After meeting up with and having lunch with Jason, we headed to the museum. As we drove onto the airport, in a hanger off in the distance, I spotted two gleaming three-blade props! Just the props were visible in the sunlight, and the rest of the aircraft was in the shadows.
I blurted out P-38! JB answered NO. As we got closer, I was dumbfounded! Now, I know my warbirds and military aircraft, but I am so-so with classic civilian aircraft. The aircraft turned out to be a rare bird. The Howard 250 is a post-war executive conversion of a Lockheed Loadstar and one of the only four built with tricycle-landing gear.
Flight Test: The Theory of Evolution
By David Brown
Many years ago, I was involved in production testing of a jet trainer in the UK. Initially we had unpressurized jets and used to climb to 30,000 feet for our production testing as a matter of course. With the exuberance of youth, we ignored the occasional sinus problems, the bends, fatigue, and other such inconveniences, while accepting the rock-hard cushions of the Martin-Baker ejection seats as part of the cost of doing business. A couple of years later, we had progressed to a pressurized version of the same jet, as by now the powers-that-be had realized that the Royal Air Force CFIs were having problems with the day-after-day effects of climbing to high altitude two or more times a day without the benefits of pressurization. From our flight-test point of view, we soon realized that life was much better in a pressurized aircraft.
Fast forward a decade or two, and I was ferrying a military turboprop trainer west across the USA, part of a two-ship formation. Again we were unpressurized, and at 24,000 feet, I was monitoring my oxygen blinker rhythmically opening and closing. Occasionally, I would have to give control to my colleague in the other cockpit, unclip my military-style oxygen mask, blow my nose, eat a sandwich, take a sip of water, etc. before clipping the mask back on. Again, we were on the same Martin-Baker ejection seats, and again the cushions were rock hard after a couple of hours droning west over Texas and the Arizona desert.
I liked the speed, as we were covering the ground at a true airspeed of almost 300 knots, better than doing the trip at low altitude in a general aviation aircraft with TAS of just over a hundred knots, as I was doing on weekends. But the discomfort of mask, bonedome, seat, harness, and parachute straps was a different matter
“One day,” I said over the intercom, “We will be able to do this trip in pressurized luxury and comfort.”
“But not today,” came the answer from our imperturbable test pilot in the front cockpit. A moment later, he resumed humming Willie Nelson’s “ …on the Road again…”
I have news for the world. That day has arrived with the introduction of the pressurized Evolution.
The turbine-powered demonstrator N424SM was the race pace plane for the Sport racing class at Reno Races in Sept. 2016. (David Brown)I first saw the Turbine Evolution at Reno last September when it was used as the pace plane for the Sport Racing class. I was impressed by the speed and intrigued by the fact that this was a kit-built plane.
In February, I was fortunate enough to meet up with Evolution Aircraft’s President, Kevin Eldredge, at Cable Airport in Southern California, get the inside story of the Turbine Evolution, and take a short flight in between the storms battering Southern California.
New Classes at Tomorrow Aeronautical Museum
Aircraft Spruce Customer Appreciation Days
New Classes at Tomorrow Aeronautical Museum
Fulcrum Labs Can Help You Pass the Drone Test
Gilroy Garlic Pageant
Crash Landing at Kimbolton, England – 1944 After a Bombing Raid Over Germany – in His Own Words
By Barbara Title
Byrd “Bert” Ryland in uniform. (Courtesy Barbara Title)“Our target that day was Hanover, Germany. Right after the bombs, we received three close hits that not only knocked out number four engine and caught number three engine on fire but also injured my co-pilot in the right leg, and my bombardier was also wounded in the upper leg. We went from 27,000 feet to approximately 5,000 feet in a spin. As we got it under control at 5,000 feet, the fire went out on number three, and we were able to feather it. By throwing out most of our equipment, we were able to maintain altitude across the North Sea. The crew took care of the wounded, and the co-pilot stayed in his seat to help me control the aircraft.
When the crew inspected the aircraft prior to trying to land my ball turret, gunner told me that the left main gear was partially hanging down and was holding on by hydraulic lines only. I couldn’t get any indication of gear condition, so the engineer tried to crank it down. It still didn’t come down, and I elected to land it in that condition, as I couldn’t have gone around after an approach and sure as hell didn’t want to bail out when I might have been able to save it. I made a good landing as far as it goes until I lost control of speed.
Journey to Recovery
By Senior Airman Kyle Johnson, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Public Affairs
(This feature is part of the “Through Airmen’s Eyes” series. These stories focus on individual Airmen, highlighting their Air Force story).
Senior Master Sgt. Janet Lemmons, the 176th Force Support Squadron sustainment and services superintendent, holds up a note her son Tommy wrote to her and his stepfather, Tom, when he was younger. She found the note among a pile of old receipts when she was looking to trade in some diamond earrings after his death. Lemmons tells everyone the note is a thousand times better than diamonds and she keeps it at her desk. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Kyle Johnson)Then-Tech. Sgt. Janet Lemmons realized she couldn’t breathe in the hospital room. It was as if there wasn’t enough space for her family’s grief and the air collectively. She had to get out.
Lemmons stepped into the elevator that would take her someplace where she could breathe, but the cold steel walls provided no comfort as they sealed her in. She took several deep breaths as the elevator descended. The doors opened on friends and family, and they all knew exactly what had happened as soon as they saw her.
Her oldest son, Tommy, was dead.
Lemmons stepped out into a surreal world where nothing was as it should be and didn’t feel like it ever would be.
“How am I going to laugh again?” said Lemmons, now a senior master sergeant and the sustainment services superintendent for the 176th Force Support Squadron. “What is life going to be like? How am I going to eat again? How is anything ever going to be enjoyable again?”