The Hollister Air Show Adventure!

[SgurlEd]

Originally Posted by SgurlEd

Vance is preparing himself for the show right now!

My pix from my Droid are not posting....sorry! Tim....HELP! ;-)

[Vance]

The pilots briefing was informative and to the point.

The FAA mechanical went thought my paperwork and gave me the ok to fly.

I did the pilot work on Friday.

I was blustery today with 15kt wind gusting to 20 kts according to the air show boss. I saw 20kts indicated air speed on the ground waiting to take off.

The turbulence was causing some abbreviated acts because of the turbulence with a large wind shear at around 150 feet. The Super Stearman didn’t do its inverted ribbon cut and Doctor D didn’t do his engine out loop.

I was doing an engine out vertical descent to land and hit the wind shear and lost 75 feet of altitude in an instant. I just dropped the nose and added power and The Predator just flew right out of it. I ran out of rudder and abandoned the landing attempt.

The announcer said The Predator seemed the least affected by the gusting wind and was exceptional smooth. He did a very nice job and the crowed was enthusiastic on my taxi by.

The cold windy weather kept the attendance down and we are hoping for better tomorrow.

I had a great time sporting around and backed up around 30 feet straight and level.

I saw 2,200 feet of climb several times.

It all fit together very well and people were particular generous with their praise at the pilots dinner tonight. The most common comment was that they didn’t know any aircraft could fly that way. We flew from backward ground speed to over 115kts of ground speed 50 feet off the deck. Gyroplanes are simply amazing. It was exciting standing with giants.

I took Mike’s grandson Bruno flying after the TFR expired. He is blind in one eye and he loved the idea of a blind pilot. The blind flying the blind so to speak.

It is time to call it a night.

I will post pictures of the flight up and back probably Monday if I can find some energy. I have been on low energy and feeling under the weather since getting sick Thursday.

Thank you, Vance

[Vance]

During the preflight I saw something that looked like bug splatter on what might be considered my cheek plates that turned out to be a crack.

I will post pictures of it later.

In my opinion it made The Predator not airworthy.

There was no fixing it with the available resources in the available timeframe.

Managing not flying in the show and managing the kids, location, tools, removing the blades and loading the aircraft took until almost 10:00PM. There were trying to restore the airport to pre/airshow condition and anywhere we were seemed to be in the way or about to be locked up.

Ed drove down to SMX and had to take a couple of shots at bringing the trailer and blade box back and arrive at the airport around 8:30 PM. We managed to get in and use the gantry crane I had secured to finish up loading The Predator in the dark. We are spending the night at Mike’s and driving home tomorrow. Mike helped us until after 10:00 PM.

The airshow adventure story will have to wait until I get some things managed.

Today the weather was perfect and the show had much better attendance.

Winds were mostly below 15kts.

Thank you, Vance

[ckurz7000]

You might have saved your life and the life of others by discovering the crack. Not flying the second day in the airshow and having to trailer the Predator back home is certainly a small price to pay for that. Still, I know how it feels...

-- Chris.

[Vance]

Thank you Chris,

I feel fortunate to have spotted the crack in the poorly lit hangar. There is no question that bringing her home on the trailer in one piece is much better than the alternative.

The announcer gave me a big head by repeating, "Vance is such an air show professional that he grounded the aircraft rather than risk performing with a less than perfect aircraft." He had lost two friends who had flown shows with known defects.

Each time he would say it a wave of new people would come over to see what had grounded the aircraft with some requesting the autograph of the “Air Show Professional” on their program. The program had the same information and pictures as the website.

The three and a half hour drive home with The Predator looking in the back window of the van seemed a little like failure and helped to adjust my head to a more managable size.

Because of all the fun we had it was harder to stay awake than maintain a good attitude.



Back to the Story with Pictures.

Friday morning I felt like I hadn’t slept and had the dopy sort of feeling I get when I am overtired.

Most of the major muscles felt like they had been strained.

My stomach was still gurgling away and I kept an airsickness bag nearby.

I made the poor aviation decision to leave the house in the dark and head for the airport with the unreasonable fantasy I could mitigate the challenges created by my substandard mental conditions and still leave at sunrise.

Ed launched behind me in the Ford van so we could load it with whatever we might need plus a bunch of flowers she had potted for Mike and Bev who were going to entertain us while we were in Hollister.

I took the shot cut across the fields with the top down trying to get used to the temperatures in the low forties when I was smacked in the face with a lot of water. The wind was up and they were watering some of the fields with high pressure oscillating sprinklers. The wind and the oscillation hit just right to miss the windshield and wake me up with a splash. The next half mile was like being in a thunderstorm as the water was blown across the road.

I was awake now but cold and wet.

I started on my preflight with a drop light and it worked out pretty well although slowly.

I felt very absent minded and double and triple checked several things. I packed my radio call sheets for all the alternative airports and marked up a current chart with our route.

If the headwinds were bad I would stop at King City (KIC) for gas, if things looked better I would head up highway 25 to Hollister without stopping. The GPS wanted to take my through a mountain so I needed to navigate with a chart and marking it with a wet erase has made it easier to read in the open cockpit as long as it doesn’t rain.

I called Lockheed Martin and got a particularly gregarious briefer. He gave me the TFR for Hollister (CVH) first. The airspace would be closed from 11:00 to 3:10 for high performance aircraft aerobatic practice. He laughed and said “I guess that doesn’t include you!”

I told him I was flying in the airshow and that is why I was flying to Hollister. I received the longest, most detailed briefing I have ever had. He kept warning about the wind and turbulence near the mountains. He was a pilot and had a lot of hours flying in that area. It was both helpful and frustrating as the minutes ticked away. He helped me understand where Shawn Tucker’s aerobatic box was because the description is very fuzzy. Theoretically we would be well below it but I didn’t what to go beneath it anyway.

He also helped me understand where some restricted air space adjacent to some MOAs.

It was time well spent but still frustrating.

Ed showed up and my low brain power slowed the loading process considerably.

An hour and ten minutes later than my fantasy we were wheels up.

I had two and a half hours to fly 130 nautical miles and stop for gas at least once with a 20kt to 40kt headwind.

The ceiling was at 1,200 feet with tops at 2,800 feet. We found a hole and climbed through it. I love the power of the IO-320. At 4,000 feet I pulled the power back to 2,400 RPM and settled into a little over 80kt IAS cruse. We were bobbing around quite a bit in the gusts and the higher we got the slower the ground speed with a worse of 53kts of ground speed at 82 kts indicated air speed. I watched my ETA slip back at each check point.

The fog was right to the ground in the Huasna Valley. That is the white stuff you can see over the ridgeline in one of the pictures. The sun, still low gleamed off the moisture.

By the time we were ten miles from SBP things had sort of cleared up but since we were at 4,500 feet we flew direct over the mountains to PRB.

I was getting cold even with my Nomex jacked with the fleece lining. I didn’t take many pictures because the cold bit into my fingers when I held the camera over the windshield. I can’t work the camera with the gloves.

We began our descent as soon as we cleared the ridgeline and it got a little colder as I ran her up to 90kts indicated air speed..

I was excited to see Paso Robles in the distant mist. I had managed to make the 47 nautical mile flight from SMX to PRB into a 55 nautical mile flight dodging the clouds. It took almost an hour. I landed long and hustled over to Self Serve. We filled up quickly and then had to push her quite a ways to the terminal/water closet. I was quite winded and it reminded me that I was not in peak condition for the flight.

I will post more pictures later and add to the story. For now I am going to take a nap.

Thank you for riding along, Vance

[PW_Plack]

Vance,

You seem to have struck a good balance between avoiding excess timidity and breaking a link late in the potential accident chain. The day is not a failure if it provides two more pages for the book!

[StanFoster]

Vance- I actually feel its a good thing to be "once in a great while" rewarded with a "find" that needs to be fixed. This fights off complacency from setting in. My example was when my boring fuel flow tests rewarded me once with a reduced fuel flow that caused me to hunt it down till I found it. It was algae and I enjoyed learning about adding Biobor to my fuel, and not to buy my kerosene from G&S service station! Good catch and I can imagine you are already thinking of changes your new cheek plate could have to last longer without cracking. Stan

[Vance]

Thank you Paul,

I wish it was a balance, I feel like overconfidence is overtaking me.

I read the NTSB reports each day so I can identify the chain early on.

I imagine what the report about me would look like if things didn’t work out on one of my weather challenging adventures.

Destination myopia haunts me.


Thank you Stan,

I would be happier if I never found another thing.

I was stupid enough to briefly consider flying in spite of the crack.

The trepidation I feel about this may impact the joy I find in flying The Predator.

There are eight bolts that hold the hat on, in my opinion one was completely compromised and the crack was heading to compromise a second one. There were three cracks that I missed on a bolt hole on the other side.

I asked Ed and she said I inspected that area carefully Friday night and Saturday morning so somehow I missed the crack or it happened during Saturday’s performance.

I will post pictures when I get to Sundays story. I am going to do a lot more investigating before I choose a course of action.


“Paso Robles area traffic, White Gyroplane Lining up for takeoff Runway 1 for a straight out departure to the North, North West Paso Robles.”

I had just a little over an hour to make the meeting and a bus was outrunning us on the 101 near Hunter Legit.

It was 82 nautical miles to Hollister (CVH) from PRB.

I tried climbing and it was worse so I stayed low and ran the power up. My impression was the needles on the fuel gage were moving faster than we were.

I let my sense of mission get the better of me and headed to CVH direct.

This decision was assisted by the large dark cloud over King City.

I felt it was more than our approach that made the dark cloud seem to expand.

As we continued North West I felt it was getting darker and colder.

“It looks like rain” I said under my breath several minutes after the water was coming off the windshield in waves making strange patterns on both the windshield and my helmet visor. I dodged a little to the right in a futile effort to be less wet.

We were just on the edge of the cloud so it didn’t last that long and I didn’t get any pictures because my camera is not waterproof and I stashed it in one of the pockets with the big flaps.

The turbulence was getting pretty severe and I flew closer to the lee side of the hills hoping to lessen the gusts. I suspect it didn’t help but it seemed to pick up our ground speed.

15 miles out I heard a plane call runway 31 so at ten miles out I called “Hollister area traffic, White Gyroplane 10 miles to the South, South East at 1,200 feet in bound for a base entry for runway 31 to land, Hollister.” I quickly checked the AWOS and it was splitting the difference.

When I called again five miles out at 800 feet someone quietly said “the wind currently favors 24” I changed to a base entry for runway 24 to land.

We were off quickly and I scrambled out of The Predator, tied her rotor down and chained her to transient parking. I was off and running and in my condition this was a poor ground decision.

The meeting had been moved and there were several pilots much later than I.

It was a very through meeting with a Google earth representation of the area with hold areas, emergency landing spots and the abbreviated air show box.

The FAA officials seemed very nice and the airport manager spoke in addition to the Air Boss.

It was a half hour before I stopped shivering and breathing hard.

I filled out the waver beneath Eddie Andreini as he joked with Vicky Benzing. It was a heady experience.

The FAA aircraft inspector had left for the day so I was allowed to fly practice with a quick once over.

It began to pour and I quickly pushed The Predator into the hangar so generously vacated by ARIS Helicopters.

Some practice confusion and the Boy Scouts.

[Vance]

The wind was 25kts gusting to 38kts and the air boss reminded us that if it doesn’t feel right don’t do it.

Every one decided to fly a little just to get the feel of it but most cut it short.

I had two new experiences that I hope our more experienced will help me understand.

I took off and climbed quickly to 800 feet and dove toward the end of the airshow box seeing right at 100kts indicated air speed. I turned hard right and pegged the VSI at 2,200 feet per minute climb. The nose seemed up higher than usual and as I began to relax back pressure the nose continued to rise until I reduced power and turned right to keep the rotor loaded. I have not had this experience before.

After some maneuvering I worked my way to the south side of the air box and headed back toward the runway with the wind at around 80kts indicated air speed in a slight descent. I had to steepen my turn to stay inside the box and had a pretty good angle of bank when I suddenly seem to drop vertically about 75 feet. I was at full power and should have been climbing. The resistance to back stick seemed less than usual for the angle of bank. After the descent the amount of required back pressure returned and we climbed a little without changing the control inputs or throttle setting.

I was not able to find a way to repeat this and I didn’t do anything to arrest the descent, things simply returned to normal and she began to climb.

Because of the gusting wind and the size of the airshow box I was much more focused on ground reference and the disquieting feel of the cyclic may have affected my perception of altitude.

The announcer later commented that we seemed smoother and more controlled than the other aircraft and he said I was the only one who didn’t go over the 500 foot line. There were no spectators Friday so it didn’t matter.

I tried to do a simulated engine out landing and I ran out of rudder and there wasn’t much feedback from the pedals so I decided to go around. Once I gave her some throttle the rudder feel and authority was restored.

I landed on 24 and taxied to the hangar.

I spent a lot of time on the post flight inspection and added ten gallons of gas.

We did some shuffling but we managed to find a spot.

I felt The Predator was in the company of giants.

At four a large group of young people showed up and they were skillfully managed by a few adults.

They went around to the different aircraft and some asked some very switched on questions.

One young woman who was about eight was able to identify the inlet and exhaust on the Lycoming. Anyone familiar with a O-320 knows this is a remarkable feat as they appear similar. I went on to explain where other things were and how they worked. She understood what most of the instruments do and how the air speed indicator worked. I loved the interaction. She wants to be an astronaut.

Ed showed up and we where off to a wonderful dinner at Mike and Bev’s with a remarkably eclectic group of around 16. As we drove toward the hills we saw thunder and lightning. Shortly after we were seated marble size hail began to fall. It didn’t last long but I was glad The Predator was in the hangar.

We went to bed early because I still need to figure out our routine, print the air show knee board card and write the information for the announcer at first light.

It had been a long day.

The weather was supposed to be better Saturday.

The Show will take a little longer to put together because I need to get the pictures, I will post it as soon as possible.

Thank you, Vance

[StanFoster]

Vance- You add so much to this forum. You are the giant we are amongst here. THanks for all you do.



Stan

[All_In]

Hi Buddy!

I agree with Stan, as usual!!!

Sorry for the illness to both you and your gyro but thank you so much for taking us along!!!

[Vance]

Thank you for the kind words Stan,

I am working on the size of my head and you are not helping my friend.


Glad to have you along John, you are not helping either.

It has been fun to remember many of the magic moments that get lost in the jumble of a weekend like this and share them with my friends here on the forum.

It is intimidating to realize I am writing to enough people to fill that hangar.

I appreciate the kind words a lot because I am haunted by the feeling I am pontificating about imagined grandeur.


Onward with the telling of the adventure.

6:30AM at Mike’s and it was time to figure out what I was going to do in the show and write something to give the announcer.

I was still feeling under the weather and this is about the eighth version. Nothing sounded right.


The Predator Autogiro

The Autogiro is a footnote in the history of rotary wing flight.

It preceded the successful helicopter by more than ten years and many of the things that were worked out on The Autogiro were critical to making a helicopter work.

The main difference is the rotor is unpowered. The only thing that makes it go around is the wind.

The propeller pushes her through the air.

She flies more like a fixed wing and the point is that she can’t stall or spin so in many ways she is much safer than an airplane.

She cannot hover like a helicopter and takes off like a fixed wing aircraft but an Autogiro can land with very little landing roll.

She is very maneuverable and that is what Vance is demonstrating.

This particular Autogiro was designed and built by Mark Givans over two years. It is unique and his own design.

Vance Breese, the pilot was injured in a motorcycle accident while racing at The Bonneville Salt Flats. He is blind in one eye and flies with a special license called a Statement Of Demonstrated Ability. The lack of depth perception makes it difficult for him to tell where the ground is.

“The Predator” is Vance’s motorcycle in the sky. He flew it up from Santa Maria Friday morning along the roads he used to ride on his motorcycle. In an open aircraft you can smell the smells and feel the temperature changes on your face.

Yes, he got wet and cold on the way up here.


This is what I printed out for my knee board so I didn’t get confused, not take advantage of the wind or leave something out.

I gave a copy of this to the announcer.

AB 129.525 CTAF 123.0 AWAS 120.425

Set altimeter to 00 feet at 24

Take off on 24 and climb at 50kts

HS to E box descending

Right 90 degree turn best angle of climb

180 descending down runway

L90 best angle of climb

180 to N power off steep descent hard turn before line.

L 90 at end of box climb into the wind south

L slow 180 S turns to E

L 180 W pull power, recovery 100’

Figure eight at show center finish E

L 180, slow flight to end of box W

Climb L spiral inside box to 1,000’

Simulated engine out descending spiral

Exit east and land
Taxi to air show center U turn in front of crowd

Taxi to display area, shut down before fence line.


I will have to work with Ed on some pictures of Saturday’s airshow performance and get to some pictures of what grounded us.

I am off to Smokey’s LG machine to plan the repairs.

Thank you, Vance

[MarkG]

Vance

Glad to hear you had a great time at the airshow!! Sorry to hear about the cracks.... Where the cracks in the aluminum side plates or the steel structure they attach to?? Glad you found it on the ground!!

[Vance]

Originally Posted by MarkG

Vance

Glad to hear you had a great time at the airshow!! Sorry to hear about the cracks.... Where the cracks in the aluminum side plates or the steel structure they attach to?? Glad you found it on the ground!!

Hello Mark,

Your Predator was a hit at the show.

People could not imagine flying a P51 or an Extra 300.

The loved the idea you designing and building a Gyroplane.

Many people commented how well she did in the wind.

I was going to save this till Sunday’s adventure.

Since you asked here are three pictures of the part that triggered the grounding of The Predator.

The long crack runs beneath the right front lower rotor head bolt hole.

The three smaller cracks are near the left rear lower bolt hole.

None of the cracks enter the bolt hole and all go right through the material.

There is no evidence of the sides of the cracks working against each other on the larger crack.

There is no sign of aluminum powder emanating from any of the cracks.

Smokey and I both feel the cycles fatigued the material and the cracks formed quickly.

I may have missed the beginnings in my preflight Saturday morning.

The aggressive air show maneuvers may have brought things to a head.

I saw 2,200 feet per minute in both directions and several turns were quite abrupt from over 90kts.

In a simulate engine out landing from a vertical descent we fell through a wind shear in Saturday’s show and did what I feel was an aggressive dive and pull up to keep from impacting the runway.

The Predator has 1165.3 hours on the tachometer.

I hope to have her flying again in a month.

What is the alloy those plates are made from?

Thank you, Vance

[JEFF TIPTON]

Vance on the long crack, when you have time cut across the end of the crack so you can open it up see if the coloration is the same the length of the crack. Dark coloration would indicate an old crack, whereas shimmy would indicate a more recent development. The color may change to shinny at the closed end indicating a progressive crack. The same can be accomplished on the other cracks to determine old or new.

Interesting on the opposite sides and ends.