Bought a Fairchild 24

[AIRIC]

Dave is seen here flying Stocky Edwards in the back of the P-40 in 2009. You can see more images of the P-40 flight and Stocky Edwards here.

http://www.airic.ca/html/stockp40.html

[Dave Hadfield]

Thanks, Jim but I'm a long way from comfortable in it yet.

And Terry summed up our effort to commemorate Canadian Pilots quite well.

As for Geneseo, I don't know. Not in charge of bookings. But I hope so -- appearance fees are often the issue.

That flight with Stocky was a life-memory.....

Dave

[Dave Hadfield]

Had a lovely flight to the cottage, which is near Sarnia, Ontario. I actually had those rarest of things with a light airplane -- good weather and a tailwind both ways!


(Those dots on the screen were not the camera -- they're the first bugs of the season, gathered on takeoff.)

Once there I was greeted by my brother Chris, who brought one of his guard dogs, Albert the Wise.

Last edited by Dave Hadfield on Thu Apr 26, 2012 12:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Dave Hadfield]

Once there I helped with the family cottage, power-washing it in preparation for a new coat of paint...



Met the new residents of the place...



And hung out with Chris, writing some music with him for his upcoming project -- recording an album from the Space Station (he's up for 6 months, leaving in Dec.)

Then had a wonderful flight home. Check out the Groundspeed.



I barely had time for a hard-boiled lunch!



Wonderful to fly this route. Driving is tedious because it so happens that none of the roads go anywhere near the straight-line direction from my house to the cottage. Everything is 45 degrees off. It takes 4:30 of miserable multi-lane highway driving. But flying, superb! As the crow flies, only 1:15 on the way back, charming and pleasant.

And in this rare case, economical. My truck would burn over a tank in that time. That's 16 gallons. The Fairchild, in 1:15, burns about 11. Clearly, everybody should own one!

Dave

[Dave Hadfield]

Flew to Gatineau last weekend.

Here's a odd one, help me out -- normally I fly around at 2000-2500ft. That day I flew at 5500 to avoid a headwind. I don't think I've ever been that high in the Fairchild (no heat). Normally I use 1925 rpm, which requires about 19" of manifold pressure. (It has a mp gauge because once upon a time it had a CS prop.) But that day I noticed that at 5500', it required only 17" mp to give me 1950 rpm. What gives?

I have a possible answer in mind, but if anyone has an idea why the Warner delivered those figures, please post it. I'd be glad to learn.

Anyway, got there, and was invited to Rob F's cottage for the evening. It lies about 30 nm north, and he has a 2800' strip carved into the trees. Meanwhile Robin and daughter Kelly had taken the airline, so we all met up and flew to the cottage. Here we are, parked for the night.

[Dave Hadfield]

Had a wonderful evening, with half a cow on the BBQ and all the trimmings, plus a midnight paddle round the lake under a full moon, and then back to Gatineau for a formation flight over Ottawa with a Canso.







And since it was Kelly's birthday, she rode in the back seat. Great to be able to share a trip like that. But it fact the whole thing was great: when you buy an airplane like the F-24W, you hope to be able to do small trips like this one to Rob's cottage. You hope that the weather and maintenance and time-committments will allow you to have adventures where everything works out. It's nice when they do!





More about the formation flight on the thread in Hangar --
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=45536

Dave

[Dave Hadfield]

Had a fine weekend at Gatineau. Our Formation Training Camp attracted about 30 pilots, and 25 airplanes. Crowded ramp!

My first flight was a 2-ship with a Mustang, me in the P-40 with Rob E in the back seat. Not many photos, but a couple...







Then the P-40 went unserviceable as they looked for an oil leak.



A lot of great photos, as usual, on Eric Dumigan's site http://www.airic.ca/html/vwocfc2012day1.html

[Dave Hadfield]

Second flight was a 3-ship, and Rob and I swapped seats. I'd never flown with T-28s before.

[Dave Hadfield]

Then on the last day there was a mass-flypast of downtown Ottawa, giving the poor citizen's of the capital something other to look at than tulips. There was a fighter formation, a harvard formation, and a yello bird formation. Since the P-40 was still out with the leak, I volunteered the Fairchild, which was still there from the previous week, and joined in.

The prep...



The walk-through...



The taxi-out...



The re-join...

[The Inspector]

Is that P-51 Jerry Janes' ex 'Cotton Mouth'?

[AIRIC]

That was a great weekend.

The VWoC Mustang was once Oklahoma Miss, 44-73463. Jerry's was 44-73973.

Cheers,

Eric

[Dave Hadfield]

Forming up on the Moth was interesting, since it's got the wing loading of a dandelion seed. I'd feel a solid bump while looking left at the others, and the Moth would vault out of sight. I'd immediately think I'd done something wrong, but then I'd see the Cornell (lead) hadn't moved much. Nope, not me, just the laws of physics on a bumpy hard-edged day working on all that de Havilland wing area. Monoplanes have it easy! And of course low-wing monoplanes have it even easier -- the Fairchild has a 3-pane windshield with plenty of distortion, and with the high wing you end up flying your station craning your neck and using about 6 square inches of it to look through.







It got much simpler when I moved into the slot for the diamond. The gull-wing shape allowed a much better forward and upward picture.

Anyway, once out of the city I peeled off and flew home. Very pleasant 3.5 hours. Lovely to have the legs for a flight like that, and the Warner pulled sweetly all the way home. Great weekend -- lots of airplanes, lots of good people, no incidents, and some very fine flying memories.

Dave

[Tiger Tim]

I don't really keep up with the VWoC events, will there be a formation camp next year and how would somebody get involved?

-Tim

[Dave Hadfield]

Yes, very likely. Just get in touch via the website. Bring an airplane, or not. Very good lectures and flight briefings, and you pick up a lot of tips from some top-notch people.

Or join as a volunteer and help out with marshalling and ground duties -- we can't exist without volunteers. Here is our annual Volunteer Photo.



Everyone in an orange polo shirt is a volunteer who helps staff our events. (They aren't for sale, those shirts.)

All shapes and sizes welcome.



And vitally important.



Dave

[Dragonflydh90]

I'd be up for a slot at the next training camp Dave, just need to get to Canada but that can be arranged.

A friend of mine, Marco (Harvard), was flying at this one. Hopefully he behaved.