The Crosswind

Correction

Off i c ia l mon th ly p ub l i ca t i on o f EAA Cha p te r 1 23 2 In c lud i ng GF CA News

April 2014

Volume 2, Issue 4 March Meeting-Steve Silver, U-2 Pilot

As we “went to press” on last month’s edi-

tion (pushed the “send” button on my

email), I rushed to drop in a short article on

our expected presentation for the March

meeting, which was scheduled at that point

to be Phil Simon and some great infor-

mation and videos on the Fairey Swordfish,

nicknamed the “Stringbag”. At the last mi-

nute, however, Phil was able to persuade

his friend and former “student” (Phil was his

line instructor pilot at United at one time)

Steve Silver, a former U-2 pilot, to speak.

It turns out that Steve had also done quite

a few formal briefings on this subject, and

he not only gave a great overview of U-2

operations but also of aerial reconnais-

sance as a whole, with a slide show that

was originally created for his professional

briefings.

First of all, you notice that Steve looks like

you’d expect a U-2 pilot look. I know,

we’ve all seen fighter pilots that in real life

look like the guy you’d meet in line at the

grocery store, but Steve actually looks the

part. That said, Steve’s description of typi-

cal missions made them seem more like

endeavors in endurance rather than some

wild-eyed, hair on fire, roller coaster ride.

Sure, much of a typical mission is spent

right up in the dark corner of the U-2s per-

formance envelope, where the difference

between cruise speed and a high altitude

stall is only about 3 knots, but at that point

you’re more a systems monitor as the air-

craft is on autopilot for much of that time.

The U-2 is a single seat aircraft as used for

operational missions, and the new pilot

usually gets only four orientation flights in

a two seat trainer before being declared

fully “operational”. Steve pointed out that

after an initial climb rate of 8,000 feet/

minute (with no afterburner) the U-2 is

hand flown to 60,000 feet, at which point

the autopilot is switched on. The U-2 in

mission profile is always in climbing mode;

the throttle is set and climb will ensue as

fuel is gradually burned off, and it will

max out at 70,000 feet. At that altitude

the sky is black above you and you can

definitely see the curvature of the Earth.

Prior to a mission the pilot will sit in the

ready room in his pressure suit and

breathe pure oxygen for an hour to pre-

vent contracting the “bends” caused by the

formation of hydrogen bubbles in the

blood while climbing to altitude. The pure

oxygen purges the nitrogen from the

bloodstream. The cockpit itself is pressur-

ized to 35,000 feet, and while the pilot’s

suit is not pressurized routinely, it is com-

pletely sealed and the helmet’s faceplate

is fully in place as the suit will pressurize

immediately should there be any reduction

in cabin pressure. Suffice it to say that it

would be disastrous should that happen,

and in fact one U-2 pilot was lost when his

cockpit lost pressurization and his face-

plate was open.

Of course, this makes eating and scratching

your nose problematic, and Steve showed

and described how both are done (think

food in a toothpaste tube that can be in-

gested by straw through a port in the hel-

met).

When the time comes to land the U-2 sur-

prisingly has a 15 knot crosswind

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 2

capability, although the pilot has to rely

heavily on input from the chase car be-

cause of the single sailplane-like landing

wheel and the fact that the cockpit configu-

ration makes it tough to judge height

above the runway. With all that wing area

and overall light weight at the end of a

mission the U-2 will land at ultralight-like

speeds. In fact, the pilot can fly the wing

all the way down to 10 knots, and with a

15 knot headwind it’s possible for the

ground crew to walk up and re-insert the

wingtip pogo wheels while the pilot keeps

the wings level.

Over the years Steve has added infor-

mation to his briefing regarding the air-

craft that is being touted as the U-2’s re-

placement; the Global Hawk. This infor-

mation is especially pertinent now, as the

administration just released it’s budget

proposal for FY2015 that would remove

the U-2 from service. It’s possible that this

proposal can be removed from the budget

and the U-2 could continue to fly missions-

that’s happened before-and Steve feels it’s

important to note some of the differences

between the mission capabilities of the two

aircraft.

First, while the Global Hawk can fly mis-

sions of up to 36 hours, it can only reach

60,000 feet and has a payload limited to

2,000 lbs. This limits the amount and types

of equipment it can carry, namely to digital

photographic equipment (compared to the

multitude of electronic listening and coun-

termeasure equipment that can be carried

by the U-2, along with multiple very high

resolution optical cameras). Further, the

Global Hawk requires two sets of ground

crews; one mission control element, usually

in a trailer at Beale AFB in Marysville mon-

itoring the mostly autonomous flight via

computer screen, keyboard and mouse

(there’s not even a joystick!), and a second

in-theatre landing and recovery element

with it’s own set of operators.

Flights of the Global Hawk are a pre-

programmed dance of GPS coordinates,

linked together in modules starting with

taxi, takeoff/aborted takeoff, the mission

itself, return to landing area, pattern, land-

ing and taxi back/shutdown. Steve re-

ferred to this process as “stitching”, noting

that changes to the Hawk’s flight plan can

easily be “stitched” into the pre-set pro-

gression. He also noted that the Hawk’s

operators only have a limited view (“soda

straw) video view forward for landing.

The sensor operators can get a snippet of

what the Hawk’s cameras are seeing in

real-time, and the flight operator can stitch

in a change to re-direct the aircraft if de-

sired or necessary. No human is put at risk,

but the ability to have human intelligence

“on-site” is lost, as well. So, while technolo-

gy has made it possible to fly reconnais-

sance missions on the other side of the

world from an office chair in California or

Arizona, it currently not possible to repli-

cate all the capabilities that the U-2 has

provided for over 50 years.

Steve Silver, U-2 Pilot (continued)

April Meeting-Phil Simon Fairly Swordfish

Join us this coming Tuesday evening, April

8, for our April chapter meeting where our

speaker will be our own Phil Simon. Phil has

put together an interesting presentation on

the “Stringbag”, the Fairey Swordfish. The

Swordfish was a 1930’s-era biplane tor-

pedo bomber that, since it was in the RAF’s

depleted inventory at the start of WWII,

saw significant action throughout the war.

Phil’s presentation covers many of these

actions, including the attack that disabled

the German battleship Bismark, and videos

of it operating off of merchant ships con-

verted to use as “aircraft carriers. As you

might imagine, with ship’s speed of 20

knots into a wind of 20-30 knots would

result in a fairly short takeoff run, and

landings that could be “arrested” by deck-

hands.

There will be pizza/salad/soft drinks for a

small fee at 6:30, with the meeting at 7:00.

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 3

DRAFT IDEAS FOR A CHAPTER LOGO

(email your own version, comments/suggestions/submissions to eaa1232@gmail.com)

A B C

D E F

Gnoss Field/Marin County Airport Open House (the first in a series of low key, inside-the-fence events for Marin residents, Gnoss Field tenants and pilots from all over)

Saturday, April 12 11a.m. to 2 p.m. North Ramp

-Free BBQ (while it lasts)

-Variety of Display Aircraft

-Young Eagle flights

-Aeromodelling demos

-Fly-bys

Contact Ken Mercer at mercer.k@comcast.net with questions or if you’d like to volunteer to help out

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 4

Received this great image via e-mail from Ernie Ganas…(can you imagine the vortices from the 380?)

...and thought it might be interesting to add the prototype Sub-Sonex jet for perspective:

Volume 2, Issue 4 Page 5

CALENDAR

April 8 EAA Chapter 1232 monthly meeting, C.A.P. trailer Gnoss Field, dinner 6:30, program 7:00. This month Phil Simon will hi-

light the history of the Fairey Swordfish biplane, with lots of good video.

April 12 Airport Open House, North Ramp Gnoss Field, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. free BBQ (while it lasts!), planes, a few Young Eagles

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 6

An All-Round Nice Guy (via John Lannom)

Via e-mail from John Lannom:

I forwarded the note on the Gnoss Field spin

training to a friend in Australia. He re-

sponded with the Kai Tak article which thou

might find interesting. j

“In the days when Kai Tak airport was

operating it was the base for the Hong

Kong Flying Club, so being in the same

environment as the big aircraft was a nor-

mal part of light aircraft flying. However,

the introduction of the Boeing 747 in 1971

changed things somewhat. A separation of

about two minutes between one of our

aircraft and a preceding jet had previous-

ly been considered adequate, but we were

soon to find out the hard way that the

wake turbulence behind the Jumbos was

quite a different matter from that of the

smaller jets.

One afternoon our Chipmunk, flown by a

very experienced Auxiliary Air Force pilot,

was on finals about four miles behind a

747 but, of course, on steeper approach

path. All was well until about twenty feet

above the runway when the Chippie ran

into one of the vortices left behind by the

big jet. This had been drifted across into

the centre of the runway by a light cross-

wind. The aircraft rolled uncontrollably,

one wing tip touched the ground and the

aircraft cart-wheeled down the runway. In

the process both wings folded back, the

engine was torn from its mounting and the

fuselage broke behind the cockpit. Fire

engines and the ambulance were soon on

the scene. but amazingly the occupants

were unhurt, showing,

a) the value of having a good four-

point harness, and

b) the desirability of dissipating your

energy over some distance rather than

coming to a sudden stop.

After this calamity we made a practice,

even with the greater separation time, of

ensuring that we touched well down be-

yond the point where the tyre smoke from

preceding heavy aircraft was seen. [This

indicates where the aircraft has touched

down and from this point onwards, as it

slows and the nose is lowered, the wake

turbulence diminishes rapidly].

With the Chipmunk gone, the club began

looking for a replacement. The Singapore

Flying Club had a Beagle Pup 150 for sale

and a deal was done. There remained the

question of getting the aircraft to Hong

Kong and after a discussion over the phone

it was agreed that two of their members

would fly it up. A direct flight was not

possible, so the route they would take

would be from Singapore to Kuching in

East Malaysia, then Kota Kinabalu, next,

across to Zamboanga in Mindanao, up to

Manilla, then finally across the China Sea

to Hong Kong. The total distance was

about 5,200 kilometres, the last leg being

1,100 kilometres over water and there-

fore, in a small single-engined aeroplane,

the one likely to be the most nerve wrack-

ing.

A ferry tank was fitted, flight plans were

duly deposited with the authorities con-

cerned and approvals received. So far so

good! All went well until the plane landed

in Zamboanga. At this stage I should men-

tion that unbeknown to our two pilots, Min-

danao was experiencing an armed insur-

rection by Islamic militants, in fact I believe

it still is. On taxiing to the terminal the

aircraft was surrounded by armed troops

and the pilots placed under arrest. The

troops were unimpressed by flight plans

and had no intention of letting the pilots

contact Manilla. However, as the pilots

were trying to convince the soldiers that

they were not connected with the rebels an

important looking person in a flying suit

and with lots of gold braid arrived on the

scene to find out what was going on. The

situation was explained to him and he in

turn spoke to the troops who withdrew ra-

ther gracelessly.

The new arrival apologised for the incon-

venience that had been caused, and to

make up for this he offered accommoda-

tion to the two pilots for their overnight

stay. This was gratefully accepted and

they were whisked away in a chauffeur-

driven limousine to a large mansion. Then

after a shower and a shave they were

taken out to dinner. But that wasn’t the end

of the evening’s events. Instead of return-

ing for a good night’s sleep, they found

themselves inducted as judges at the Miss

Mindanao beauty contest, a task which

they willingly undertook, though I might

add that the entrants, being good Muslim

girls, wore modest sarongs, not bikinis.

The following morning they were taken to

the airport to find that the Beagle had

already been washed and re-fuelled

ready for the next leg of the journey.

Their host was there to see them off, and

as a parting gesture he gave them his busi-

ness card which, he said, would be helpful

if they had any further problems. I can’t

remember the name on the card, but it

Hotel Golf Echo, with the offending Jumbo

in the background.

Volume 2, Issue 4 Page 7

Web Gems-This Month’s Best (if clicking these links doesn’t work copy/paste them into your browser’s address window)

Brussels Air Museum (courtesy John Lannom). Amazing. http://www.sbap.be/museum/brussels/

brussels.htm

Full Immersion Flying (also from John): http://player.vimeo.com/video/65863381

Reno Gold Race 2013, from cockpit of Steve Hinton’s Voodoo: http://vimeo.com/75721498

Irish Jig at Birmingham, GB http://youtu.be/7P9OAng32F0 you may have seen this, but it’s still some pretty incredible footwork

Here’s some more impressive footwork-we’ll be doing this during our next meeting: http://

youtu.be/PZt4ONIzH7Y

Dynon Skyview Touch http://youtu.be/648Ah_bHLg0

Hold onto your GoPro if you’re going to lean out of the airplane: http://youtu.be/QrxPuk0JefA

You’ve seen the Flightaware version of U.S. air traffic, here’s the European version:

http://www.flyingmag.com/pilots-places/pilots-adventures-more/mesmerizing-video-tracks-flights?cmpid=enews031814&spPodID=030&spMailingID=20527870&spUserID=NDc4NjI2OTgyOQS2&spJobID=280972195&spReportId=MjgwOTcyMTk1S0

Our own Pat Scanlon, from a nicely-done promotional video: http://youtu.be/x2i5x4EfVXs

Blakesburg Antique flyin http://photos.antiqueairfield.com/Blakesburg-2013-Jonathan/i-VWDHGnj

An All-Round Nice Guy, (continued)

went on to proclaim that he was:

Well, certainly the last claim proved to be

true. However, they didn’t have to put his

card to the test as they had no further trou-

ble while in the Philippines.

Their assessment of the Manilla to Hong

Kong leg turned out to be correct. They

said that they listened to every beat of the

engine on the five and a half hours crossing

of the China Sea, and were very relieved

when Kai Tak hove into sight.

After a few days with us in Hong Kong, the

ferry pilots returned to Singapore on a

much less eventful flight with Cathay Pacif-

ic. As for the Beagle Pup, we found that it

was an absolutely delightful aircraft to fly

and it served us well for several years until

one day some idiot tried to fly up a valley

whose slope was steeper than the climb

rate of the Pup! But that is another story.

It was a pity that Singapore didn’t have

another Beagle to sell so that someone else

could have had a similar adventure.

The “Crosswind Drift” Newsletter-EAA Chapter 1232 April 2014 Page 8

Gnoss Field Community Association News

AWOS

Good news! Airport Manager Dan Jensen

and his new DPW supervisor, Eric Steger,

met with the FAA last month who confirmed

that the funds for the replacement of the

AWOS unit at Gnoss (which has been inop-

erative on and off for two years now) will

be released late March/early April. Work

will likely begin on that unit shortly thereaf-

ter. Funds will also be made available to

repair taxiways and ramp areas, and

DPW’s Road Division is likely to start that

work early this summer. More details to

come.

Airport Webcams

We thought it might be interesting to have

a webcam at the airport available online

where pilots could check the visibility or just

see what’s going on. In researching a loca-

tion to place this webcam we found that the

airport already has a system of security

cameras that they are in the process of

upgrading. Dan has agreed to work with

the vendor to provide a link to those cam-

eras once they’re up and running. Again,

we’ll have more details for you as they

become available.

New Website

GFCA member Tom Schiff has designed

and authored an updated website which is

not only cleaner and up-to-date but also

allows for easy addition of new features.

Tom is working on adding a calendar sec-

tion, and there will be other new features

to come as well. In keeping with our desire

to refer to Gnoss Field as the Marin County

Airport the web address for the new site is

www.marincountyairport.org , but the old

address of www.gnossfield.org will redirect

you to the new site, as well. Take a look at

the site and see what you think, and let us

know what features, links, items you’d like

to have on this site to make it useful to you.

Designator Change?

Along those lines, since it’s already known

as Marin County Airport (see the sign as

you turn on Binford) and since we really

want to emphasize it is Marin County’s air-

port, we’ve asked Dan Jensen to look into

changing the designator to “KMCA”, as

that designator is currently available and

would seem to make more sense than

“KDVO”. Here’s our first trivia question for

the new newsletter: Where does the

“DVO” come from?

GFCA Board Elections/Invitation

Not many people come to GFCA’s Board

meetings, and one of the reasons we start-

ed this newsletter was to better communi-

cate just what the Board’s working on. Elec-

tions for this year’s Board will be held in

June, and we always welcome fresh ideas

and new energy. If you’d like to know more

about Board operations or might be inter-

esting in serving on the Board contact

Board President Mark Sheron at

sheron@novato.net The next meeting will

be on Wednesday, April 16 at 7:00 in the

Pilot’s Lounge.

Airport Plan

At the request of Supervisor Judy Arnold,

DPW and the Airport Commission will be

holding a series of meetings to seek input

on future plans for the airport. The format

and dates/times/locations of these meet-

ings is likely to be announced in the next

month or so, so watch this newsletter and

the GFCA website for details.

Runway Extension Next Steps

DPW also advised that the Board of Su-

pervisors will be holding a Merits hearing

this summer, and the outcome of this hear-

ing will determine the future of the runway

extension project. The format of this hear-

ing will be much like the EIR approval hear-

ing, with lots of time for public input.

Corrections from March Newsletter

In our article about Gnoss Field where we

listed flight schools on the field, Sea and

Sky never actually did business at Gnoss,

and we completely forgot to list Training

Squadron! Mea culpa!

Volume 2, Issue 4 Page 9

Gnoss Field Community Association News

By Jamie Cavanaugh

Outdoor weddings have a tent or a barn

to cover rain & other inclemencies, but you

can’t cover an airport. And it rained… and

it rained. As in any calamity, we went from

unbelief to denial to anger and finally to

resolve. Flying is all about weather so why

shouldn't the pilot’s park get some instru-

ment flight conditions? Why? Because this

wedding has been 2 years in planning, is

as rare as upside down Jenny stamps and,

dangit, we just don’t deserve rain on our

precious parade.

But rain we got. It collected in puddles and

on wipers. It cleaned off our cars and our

airplanes. It washed out gutters and

streamed beside roads. And still it kept

coming. A September air show in Virginia

or Ohio or Florida would have a rain poli-

cy written on the ticket, but not here, not in

California. Steve Knecht, our event captain,

looked up precip records -just to shake a

fist at God- going back to 1960, as far as

records go for Novato, and learned that in

the past 53 years it has never -ever-

rained on September 21st.

A glance to faces showed determination all

around: each eye to the sky, trying to han-

dle the undoing peacefully, just like we

train for cockpit emergencies- keep flying

the plane, work with what you can do, ex-

pect a window of opportunity, never aban-

don yourself or your ship. All that was hum-

ming along with the loosening earth and

sudden lakes of water.

And time… we all knew the day could be

saved if we just had enough time for these

freak cells to pass over and let the natural

late summer brilliance shine down, as i fi-

nally did.

...we are no less

joined with our fly-

ing community, our

planes and the air-

port we call home...

We can say it's not fair, and we'd be right.

Like Jack Benny said when he won an Os-

car: "I don't deserve this award, but I have

arthritis and I don't deserve that ei-

ther.“ We're nice people, we just wanted

to have everybody visit us on this one day.

Is that so wrong? Who did we piss-off?

Who didn't get mentioned in our prayers?

WHY DID IT RAIN ON SATURDAY?

To borrow the wedding simile one more

time - as important as is a wedding, it is

nothing compared to the desire to be mar-

ried, to the words and deeds of love that

bring together the intended. And by as

much is our intention greater than the flood

that received it. Today, without the cere-

mony of support and celebration that was

planned, we are no less joined with our

flying community, our planes and the air-

port we call home. We are no less grateful

to the DPW and staff, to Judy Arnold and

constituents, to the thousands before us who

made possible our mission, who gifted us

this great resource of American flight.

Wings Over Marin was to be a day of

sharing our home, our wealth, our common

cause with everyone in the shire. That never

changed.

Pilot gatherings are infrequent, WOM is

exceptional: before 2010 (the 50th Anni-

versary of MCA) there have been only two

comparable events, meaning we average

one open house every 16 years. An FAA

representative told Mark our operation

was “perfect." We did everything right -

except the WX. That's not nothing. Planning

matters, showing up matters, putting on a

hat and taking your station at the gate

matters.

Maybe we just consider that a practice run.

And next time... there will be a next time...

we can truly say you ain't seen nothin' yet!

Some Thoughts Looking Back on Wings Over Marin II…

Ken Mercer, President/Young Eagles

Coordinator 415-378-8504

Phil Simon, Vice-President 415454-5496

Tom Schiff, Secr./Treasurer 415-515-6630

www.1232.eaachapter.org

www.facebook.com/EAA1232

eaa1232@gmail.com

San Francisco and North Bay California

EAA Chapter 1232-Novato, Ca Our monthly membership meetings are held the second Tuesday evening of each month (except

December), starting with dinner at 6:30 and followed by the main presentation(s) at 7:00. Our hosts are

the Novato Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol who graciously allow us to use their facility at 400 Airport

Boulevard, Gnoss Field, in northern Novato (in the south parking lot). Here’s a crude map, but please

do contact one of our officers for more information and/or directions:

In addition to our regular monthly evening meetings, many of us meet for lunch at noon every Thursday

at The Club restaurant at McGinnis Park Golf Course on Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael. The hostess on

duty can direct you to our “regular” room but again, please contact one of our officers for better

directions.

Membership is $25/yr. and is open to anyone-contact any of our officers (above, left) for details!

From Neil Cormia, who’s been working on a Onex (with Rich Gaines and Tom Ryan) and updating his RV-6:

Nice note in the latest newsletter about the Onex. I keep forgetting I did all the wiring. It's still a fraction of the work that went into

the mechanicals on the plane but it has been a big job! I just added ADS-B out to the RV-6 and am wrapping that up once I get a

fresh pitot/static/xponder cert from Jeff today. One more high tech plane takes (back) to the skies. I have not forgotten you'd like me

to speak about "How NOT to build an experimental Panel". We now have a roof leak (and damage) at Chez Cormier so it might be a

while before I get time to prepare a good PPT but I WILL do it, if only to prevent others from making the mistakes I have.

Here's the current RV-6 functional panel diagram:

Project Update/Preview of a Future Presentation: Neil Cormia-Panels for Experimentals