USB Envy

Inspector Ali G was over in Ireland and sent some photos of a nice Cub at Athboy airfield, just to the west of Navan. It’s not in the seemingly standard D-Day invasion stripes colour scheme, just plain green. This is actually more likely, as the “invasion stripe era” only lasted for six months. According to Wikipedia:

“One month after D-Day the stripes were ordered removed from planes’ upper surfaces to make them more difficult to spot on the ground at forward bases in France. They were completely removed by the end of 1944 after the Allies achieved total air supremacy over France.”

Of interest to me was the photo of the cockpit. There is an 8.33 radio and a Mode-S transponder like ours (albeit in the opposite wing root to ours), but also a twin plug USB charging port!

A USB charger would be great for running Skydemon in flight. Longer distance multi-day trips like Normandy next summer would seriously benefit from inflight charging. I have to take power packs on longer journeys to keep it running. A short bumble around the patch like the screenshot below is OK:

The overnight trip to the VPAC meet at Wickenby needed a forest of cables, power packs and cables. Trip report to come soon…

Oil Change

Time for a 25 hour inspection and oil change on the RV:

Cold oil doesn’t flow so well out of the sump, what better way to warm it up than to go flying…

Initially there was quite a low cloudbase as we headed out towards Montrose:

But then there was a big gap and we powered up into the blue:

Centre of this pic is a contrail way off over the North Sea…

…which the SkyEcho unit identified as Lufthansa 452, Munich to Los Angeles.

Off the wingtip is the old WW2 airfield of Kinnell, which is probably what RAF personnel said when they heard that they were posted there!

Montrose harbour and the basin looking nice in the sunlight now that the clouds were clearing a bit…

After 1.3 flying hours, the oil should be warmed up enough. Back to base…into the hangar, cowlings off and drain the oil. Despite the quick-drain plug making it easy, I still managed to spill some on the floor.

A few bits of cardboard and a chocolate tin “drip tray” and all is well.

As well as the oil change, the 25 hour inspection is just a general look around for leaks, cracks, broken wires etc. All hinges get lubricated and the tyre pressures adjusted where necessary. The yellow tape on the wing root screw line is replaced, and the aircraft gets a bit of a wipe down…WD40 and a rag for any oil stains, and baby wipes for crusted on insects on the prop and leading edges. It’s just an interim look around between the annual inspections.

All was good and in the guise of a leak check, it was time to fly again. The aircraft is good-to-go for another 25 hours. Just as well, as the Cub is in with the engineers for its annual, and will be out of action for a couple of weeks. Sometimes it’s a pain running more than one aircraft, and sometimes it’s an advantage…

D + 6

It’s 12 June, so D-Day plus 6. It was on D+6 that the 79th Infantry Division started disembarking on Utah Beach as part of the follow-up forces. The division was fully ashore by D+8, and entered combat on the 19th, pushing past Valognes towards Cherbourg.

The L4 Grasshoppers (including ours) of the 79th Inf Div played a large part, directing the fall of artillery, and perhaps even naval gunfire, as the big guns of the RN and USN were still parked off the beaches. I can’t find any information about where they flew from, probably just a random field cleared of cows.

There was one airfield hastily constructed on 6 June by IX Engineering Command as an emergency landing ground at Poupeville near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. The site of ELS-1 has long since returned to agriculture, but at the time it was a “sod 2000ft runway” – about 610m in modern terms. Looking at Google Earth it appears that the engineers just had to knock out a small bit of hedgeline to combine two fields into one and… Tadaaaa! Instant airfield, just remove cows.

Some of the liaison aircraft did fly across to Normandy, but a large number will have come ashore over the beaches packed into a “Deuce-and-a-half” truck. I came across this photo recently (Source: internet) which shows a reproduction of the package:

Whether that is a real Cub or a model is not known, it would seem a shame to use a real aircraft like this, perhaps it is an unserviceable airframe restored just enough to look good. As an exhibit of how things were done 79 years ago it is pretty good.

Talking of 79 years…next year is the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Less than a year until “L-Birds to Normandy 2024” – can’t wait.

Random Photo Dump 2023

Just some photos from the archives. I need to stop taking pictures as there are always far too many to put in the posts, but some of them are quite nice. Others just show random routine stuff. Here’s a selection:

Raindrops on the Cub’s strut

I deliberately went flying under a rain shower to try and give the Cub a wash, but as you can see the raindrops just sat there and didn’t do anything.

Eindecker tinkering

The Eindecker has been a bit neglected recently., with an electrical snag that means we need a new ignition switch. I now have the switch, but haven’t got around to installing it yet. Either the hangar has been too cold or the weather has been too nice. As an interim measure I gave the aircraft a good clean and inspection, pumping up the tyres and lubing the axles. I just need to get on with the switch installation…

Random mountain
Busy at work
Traffic display

It’s actually my phone stuck on the panel with velcro. I found that the SkyEcho device can feed several devices at once. The phone goes to a full screen traffic display on Skydemon, whereas the iPad only has a small display in the corner of the screen. It can be made slightly bigger but it is nice to have a separate display on the panel. Just like the big airliners.

Traffic on the map

Skydemon still displays traffic on the map too, so we have multiple sources of information.

And a Cub picture to finish. Always like a nice Cub picture…

The Fisk Arrival

Good spring weather brings the Cubs out. Here’s Dave’s India Delta in from Cumbernauld:

Good weather also means that we can get up high without freezing to death:
The last time we were up at 6300 feet was over Glenshee in the depths of winter with the windows open. That was COLD.
Looking at the gaps between the clouds you can see what John Gillespie Magee Jr. was on about in his poem High Flight when he wrote about “footless halls of air”…
On the way back in we got into a bit of a traffic jam…it was the Perth Airport “Festival of Flight” open day the next day and lots of people were inbound. It was so busy that the slow Cub was getting in the way of everybody else so we decided to climb out of the circuit pattern and hold off to the west of the airfield for a bit. Give the traffic a chance to die down. We were there for about 20 minutes just loitering about…every time we decided to commit inbound somebody else would call on the radio for rejoin. We just let them get on with it. The radio operator in the tower was working like the proverbial and didn’t need our slow Cub cluttering up that place.

Eventually the airwaves quietened down and we were able to get in to land. I was reminded of the Oshkosh Fisk Arrival. Well, not reminded, because I’ve never flown it, but it’s famous. EAA Airventure is the annual convention held by the Experimental Aircraft Association at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It’s massive. There are usually about 10,000 visiting aircraft…TEN THOUSAND!

Getting all these aircraft in safely requires a bit of forward planning. The “Special Flight Procedures” NOTAM regularly runs to over 30 pages. Most of the traffic comes via the Fisk arrival from the southwest.

Fly to the town of Ripon, fly at a certain height and speed, follow the railroad tracks northeast to Fisk, stay in line, no overtaking, listen on the radio and do as you are told. There are giant coloured circles marked on the runway to aim for. Apparently it’s not uncommon to have three aircraft touching down simultaneously on the purple, red and yellow dots. It’s organised chaos, and it works.

Here’s a traffic display on one of the quieter days, showing the stream of traffic routing northeast up the tracks towards Fisk:

It all looks very organised, compared with the mad scramble into Perth from all points of the compass. I want to have a go.

Also check out two of the airfields to the north of Berlin in the top left corner…one called “Broken Prop” and one called “Objectionable” – There are some stories to be told..!

New Destination…and Some Light Reading

With the weather starting to pick up it was time to take the Cub somewhere new. Despite the fact that Balado airfield is just down the road from Perth (literally), we had never flown in. Probably because it’s generally a microlight field with some quite short runways. They have been doing a lot of work, putting in new hangars and a new clubhouse…it is a popular destination for flyers from Perth, so it was time to see what all the fuss was about…

The entry in the Pooley’s guide states “PPR for first timer users” so I rang up and was told to come on down. For those of you not up to speed with strange aeronautical abbreviations (SAA), the “PPR” stands for “Prior Permission Required” – when you ring up they can let you know of any changes to the published procedures or any relevant stuff like new hangar construction on the old disused runway, that sort of thing.

At the holding point, waiting for landing traffic…

Departing from the downwind leg. Balado is only 14 nautical miles from Perth, so about 14 minutes at Cub speeds:

Passing Perth city centre:

A view of Balado airfield from above, looking more or less south. Easily visible are the outlines of the two disused wartime concrete runways, now covered with chicken sheds. The airfield was known as RAF Balado Bridge, named after the little village visible at the top of the photo. It SHOULD have been called RAF Kinross, but this might have caused confusion with RAF Kinloss, on the Moray coast.

Just visible between the village and the east/west runway is the dome of the former NATO satellite communications groundstation, which closed in 2006. The new airfield is on the green patch closer to the camera, with an aircraft visible at the intersection of the grass runways:

Nice new shiny clubhouse, with the offices of the microlight school, coffee machine and snack shop. All done by contactless payment, even the landing fees:

Three of the new hangars. On the overhead shot you can make out the big new hangar as well:

Perth based Cub and Skyranger Nynja (note the registration!) parked up by the clubhouse:

Bob and Susie starting up for more aerial adventures – taking the long way back to Perth via Stirling, Dunblane and Auchterarder:

The wind direction had changed slightly, so I followed the Ninja to a different runway than the one I had landed on. I was effectively using them as pathfinders to lead me around the slightly unfamiliar airfield.

On landing back at Perth , instructor Jeremy ran over excitedly and said “I’ve got you a present, don’t go anywhere!” – he returned five minutes later with this… A Commando comic with a Piper Cub on the cover. Firing rockets..!

This really did happen in WW2, enterprising liaison pilots strapping weapons to their unarmed aircraft. The most famous was Major Charlie Carpenter, who came to be known as “Bazooka Charlie” and was officially credited with fourteen enemy tanks destroyed. If you have a quick five minutes, here’s the story:

Cubbin’

Some random photos from last week:

Refuelled and ready to go…
Sunshine on the rudder
Another epic Wallace Shackleton pic…
Little brother!

The yellow Cub is owned by instructor Andrew, and has recently arrived at Perth from Devon. The ferry flight was flown by Aaron, who runs Kirriemuir farm strip. All the way up the UK, with no electrical system, no starter motor (hand swing the prop to start) and a slow sedate serene progress through the sky.

It is a 1952 Super Cub, so it’s our L4’s little brother. Now that there are two, we can start the Perth branch of the Vintage Piper Aircraft Club!

Local Trips

Some photos and screenshots from winter flying. Sometimes the weather window is quite small in terms of size, so we have to stay local.

Winter winds can be quite gusty, staying in the circuit is great for practising those tail wheel landings…always looking for the elusive “perfect” landing that makes you want to go straight back up and have another go:

When I’ve been flying the Cub I find that my RV landings improve, and vice versa, so it would be churlish not to…

There has recently been a Service Bulletin released by Vans Aircraft warning of possible cracks in the elevator hinge bracket area. Compliance with the bulletin involved an internal boroscope inspection, requiring a hole to be enlarged to get the scope in. Luckily all our hinge rivets and brackets show no sign of cracks. Get airborne!

Just a local bimble. Longer range adventures planned for the summer!

High Altitude Cub

Winter weather can be tiresome. If it’s not wet and windy:

It’s snowy and windy:

But just sometimes, it can be lovely. Cold and clear with unlimited visibility and light winds:

Then it’s time to get the hat and gloves and warm coat on and get the Cub out.

Airborne with the smoke from the fire giving a good windication…

We decided to head north to the hills:

The Southern Cairngorms:

Following the road up to the Glenshee Ski Centre…

All that crappy flying weather with its extensive snow did have benefits to others. The ski centre car parks were full, with the overflow car parks in use. Lots of people visible on the slopes, just little dots from 5000 feet:

Unfortunately in order to take pictures with the phone I had to have the windows open…and it was ******* freezing! Some more shots through the open window and door:

Heading home and descending into the (thankfully) warmer air, the previously seen smoke had spread out a bit, and was indicating a very gentle flow to the southeast. In aviation terms, wind calm.

Weather like this tends to generate a lot of activity. Here on the 80 year old Cub’s modern navigation/traffic display (also called iPad with Skydemon!) you can see two aircraft in the traffic pattern at Perth. Not shown are the other four aircraft which weren’t fitted with “ADSB-out” – the circuit was chaos for a bit so we held off for five minutes before calling Perth Radio for rejoin.

The Cub can cause its own chaos in the circuit with its slow speed compared with the Cessnas and Pipers of the commercial training school. We do fit in beautifully with the club microlights though, so it’s just a matter of timing the run in.

The extra time spent holding away from the airfield can be used to warm up the pilot!

Happy New Year

The week between Christmas and New Year is weird. Back to work with the weather fluctuating between cold, crisp and clear to moderate snowfall:

Some days we didn’t even get the aircraft out of the hangar due to the poor visibility. It’s easier to launch from the hangar if we have to, and being inside stops the build up of snow on the airframe, like this Cessna 182 used by a local skydiving club:

Most days were grey and dismal and slightly depressing:

And then when the sun did come out, we still didn’t get any jobs! We did have to stand around in the cold for PR photos. Because of the low sun, the angles and the shadow of the control tower on the helipad, we had to park the aircraft right at the edge, with the attendant risk of the helilift running off the concrete and getting stuck. That sucker sinks even into frozen ground. Ask me how we know…

The show must go on. Happy New Year 2023..!