impromptu group flight, Sat Dec 11

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Keith Smith
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Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 8:38 pm
Location: Pompton Plains, NJ
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impromptu group flight, Sat Dec 11

Post by Keith Smith »

On the 3rd beta night (Sat, Dec 11), I was planning to fly SNA-MYF in the Saratoga. Jack (new PE pilot from X-Pilot forums) caught me on skype and asked to come along...so now we were two. We departed separately, then joined up 10 miles later along the coast.

Shawn departed SNA shortly after, VFR to MYF, and then Kevin joined him shortly after that, flying IFR.

Jack and I made 2 360's to allow Shawn to catch up, so now we were three. Alex was staffing SNA_APP, so we had distinct DEL, GND, TWR, SNA_APP controllers, and then LAX_CTR to cover the other tracon/enroute sectors....5 distinct voices in all by the time we were abeam the OCN VOR!

The three of us transitioned Miramar, caught a view of two F/A-18 drones taking off with a formation 60 deg climb out, then did a formation landing (the first live formation landing on the network, I think) on 28R at MYF. David Carman was orbiting the area in an F4 (I think) and made a parallel approach with Kevin to 28L/R, went around, then landed and joined us, swapping to a Malibu.

The four of us (Shawn, Jack, David and me) came up with the next flight, a VFR hop to Big Bear. Jack was quickly introduced to the world of Skyvector, and was loving it. Here's the route in skyvector.

As we were taxiing, I noticed Lee had connected to the network and was sitting by himself over at KSEE. I had a chat with him over the radio (I was logged in as ZLA Delivery) and invited him to join us. The 4 of us decided to stop in at KSEE (which was on the way) to pick him up. We did the first live formation takeoff....followed by the first live formation uncommanded left bank immediately after takeoff as the flight lead experienced a runaway aileron trim issue! We survived, made a right downwind departure and were soon in the pattern at SEE, left downwind for 27R.

I was #4, leading a valiant rear guard action (aka: dead last) and had a spectacular view of David Carman's (position #3) near-fatal slip on final. Receiving his updates at 5fps meant I truly got to see how messed up he really was :) He recovered, completed what had to be one of the faster underwear changes in flying history, and then greased it in.

The 4 of us made our way to the ramp where we picked up Lee, flying a beautiful Piper Comanche.

Of we went, then, towards JLI VOR, and then further north. Sometime along the way, David received some sort of free offer for food, and departed the network in spectacular fashion. He was quickly (and silently, somehow) replaced by Adam, who has been helping us test the network for quite a while now. It wasn't until he checked in on frequency with a sequence number that I knew he was even there!

I then noticed Jeff had logged in and was parked at MYF. Knowing that Jeff had been wanting to fly with other live traffic over the past few days, I invited him to join us enroute, suggesting he start out at KTRM and meeting us around Mt Baldi, near Palm Springs.

When it was clear that he'd still be too far behind us we did a series of 360's as a flight of 5 to give Jeff a chance to catch up. It was actually one of the highlights of the flight for me. Watching it on the scope and from the cockpit was awesome.

Jeff caught up with us, and so now we were 6. Comms were handled on 123.45, which is a specially-configured frequency that works more like a chat room than a radio, it allow you to talk and hear at the same time (unlike a real radio).

We cleared the ridges (some by more than others) heading into Big Bear, and then entered a left downwind for rwy 26. Lead was midfield downwind when I spotted a drone holding short of the runway....and not moving. It was Steve Ruiz's Big Bear to Daggett-Barstow flight. Thankfully, Virtual Steve held short for just a little while, and then departed on rwy 26 while lead was on base. Soon enough, all 6 were down at clear at Big Bear.

Next came a moment I'd be waiting for since I first started writing the code for PilotEdge...4 of us started up again and made our way to the runway for closed pattern work on the CTAF (122.725). What followed was 4-5 laps of pure fun. It was _identical_ to flying a real pattern, complete with the expected calls in the pattern, extending downwind to make room for a departure, turning an early crosswind in a turbo Saratoga to get ahead of a normally-aspirated Skylane that was climbing slowly on the extended upwind, short approaches, the works.

After that, we talked for a little longer on the ramp while a couple of guys took off again and put on an impromptu airshow.

It was an awesome night on the network...and all with just a handful of planes. It's going to be interesting when it really gets busy, can't wait to hear that CTAF gettin' used!

Thanks to Shawn, Jack, David, Lee, Adam, Jeff for making it such a fun night. I posted the pics on the facebook page
lwilliams
Posts: 206
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2010 8:32 pm
Location: Guelph, Ontario

Re: impromptu group flight, Sat Dec 11

Post by lwilliams »

It really was a fun night, thanks guys!!!

Lee
Lee Williams
Alex Stjepanovic
Posts: 1752
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 3:48 pm
Location: Novi Sad, Serbia

Re: impromptu group flight, Sat Dec 11

Post by Alex Stjepanovic »

That was fun from the ATC side too. Nothing beats a simple TRACON with a bunch of great pilots. Glad you guys had fun.

Here's a quick shot(Well it's *me*, what else did you expect, seriously....:D)

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2111/291h.png
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