Aviation Explorers

Learn to fly a 1918 Thomas-Morse Scout biplane...

Explorers: Have you seen the Studio Ghibli film "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", where the main character, Nausicaä, flew a jet-powered aircraft? The Open Sky M02J weight-shift controlled experimental jet, made by Tokyo University of the Art professor Kazuhiko Hachiya, was inspired by the film. I took this picture at the night airshow at Oshkosh AirVenture last year - the jet flies quite well.

Happy Birthday to Col. Bud Anderson! And thanks to Sun’n Fun for using my photo.

At our meeting on January 10th we planned out a trip from Ithaca (airport code KITH) to Lakeland-Linder Airport in Lakeland, Florida (KLAL). With the help of pilots Mike Brown, Mike Thompson and Jerry Friedman, the Explorers considered what the best route would be. What does best mean, anyway? Using the AOPA Flight Planner website, we planned a fuel stop every four hours or thereabouts, and added an overnight stop. We discussed some good stops for lunch, too, based on Mike... and Jerry's previous trips to Florida. Then, we looked at a route from Florida to Mack Mesa, Colorado, where Jerry was. OK, maybe Colorado isn’t usually considered to be on the way between Florida and New York, but what’s the point in having an airplane if you can’t stretch a point here or there? Our other task for the January meeting was to plan out our Post schedule for the year, which will be posted shortly.

Aviation Explorer Post 62 had a very enjoyable virtual meeting yesterday. Our guest speaker, Jerry Friedman, joined us from Fruita, Colorado, by Zoom to describe his many experiences in aviation - as a private pilot, commercial pilot and Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic (A&P) with Inspection Authorization (IA). He showed pictures of some of the airplanes he's owned over the years, and talked about the differences between East Coast flying and operating out of a mile-high airport in the deserts and mountains of western Colorado. Our next meeting will be on January 10th, to discuss and plan out our schedule for 2021.

General Chuck Yeager passed away yesterday at age 97. Yeager's career began in World War II, where as a P-51 fighter pilot on the Western Front, he was credited with 11.5 enemy aircraft. After the war, Yeager became a test pilot of many types of aircraft, including experimental rocket-powered aircraft. As the first human to officially break the sound barrier, on October 14, 1947, he flew the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet, for which he won both the Collier and Mackay trophies in 1948. He then went on to break several other speed and altitude records.