I recently returned from a short trip to Gatlinburg. After going on weekends for years I learned this trip I will never do the weekend thing again. A totally different place to visit and shop in during the week verses the weekend.

After several years of wanting to I was finally able to visit the “Tennessee Museum of Aviation” in Sevierville. The museum is located at the Sevierville airport just about three miles out of the center of town. Admission is $12.50 for adults and their web site can be found at www.tnairmuseum.com.

Unlike the museum at Dayton this is a living museum. Over half of the planes are in flying condition and several regularly make trips to air shows in the eastern U.S. and Canada. The stars of the museum are a pair of very rare P-47D Thunderbolts. But there is a F-86 Saber Jet, a pair of Mig-17s, a Mig-21, two P-80 Shooting Stars, a T-28 Trojan and a forward fuselage section from a B-25 that MGM used to make air to air movie shots including “Catch -22”.

All the planes are located in a hanger where the walls are painted white. This is much better than the hangers at Wright Patterson as you can get better light reflection and some very good pictures. They have two warbird flyins a year. We just missed this years October gathering by one week. Check their web site for next years shows.

I am sending Ben some pictures I took. Look for the drip pans under the engines on some of the planes to see the ones in flying condition. I recommend you stop by this museum some time. It is only 10 -12 minutes from I-40 at the Sevierville exit. Just allow more time on weekends.

Photos in the Tennessee Museum of Aviation gallery.

I have been going to Toledo almost every year since 67. That’s 1967! For forty years I have seen many new ideals displayed for the first time. I remember DuBro showing their new Helicopter where the engine sat above the rotor head and turned the rotor by reaction torque from the regular model propeller mounted above the engine. Stone age by today’s standards.

Receivers at one time were as big as coffee mugs. Control was either on or off as it was on the early reed units or it was “somewhere about here or there” as in Galloping Ghost. Today we have full house receivers as small as your thumb with precession from our servos better than we can feel or sense. At one time you paid $100 or more per channel for your basic radio. Today you can get twice the radio with programmable mixing and 20 plane memory for a fraction of the cost of those early radios.

I have seen models change from all wood affairs to today’s man made construction material. A .60 size model engine was considered big at one time. Today we see engines big enough to use in a riding mower and I am not even mentioning the jet turbines. The day of these big fuel hog planes may be numbered as well as we are seeing more batteries replacing fuel as the primary source for power. Size and complexity does not seem to be a barrier as these electric models are doing things today that were not possible even 5 years ago.

Like I said I have seen a lot of progress as well as evolution of our hobby no mater what your interest is. There is something for everybody.

To the old guys like me we are seeing what may be the opening shots of the biggest revolution our hobby has ever seen. I’m speaking of the explosion of 2.4 GHz on the radio scene. There was a time a CB operator could lay down on his mike key and shoot down every model for 20 miles. Later on the narrow band receivers we use today were a big help but we are always competing against pagers and industrial equipment for our frequencies. If you don’t believe me let me show you what electrical noise you are flying in. It will scare you. Channels that have been clear of interference for ever and ever can suddenly become useless and there is nothing you can do except pick up the pieces and move to a different channel with your next plane. All the while knowing it can happen all over again. The 2.4 GHz radios will end this version of Russian roulette as they have millions of channel combinations. There are several protocols for how these radios work. Some lock onto several channels at a time. Others move up the band through the channels so fast that if they hit inference you will never know it before they have moved on to another channel.

How they work is not as important as the fact they do. Futaba has come out with dedicated radio systems. A new company called Xtream is selling replacement modules and receivers to update your current systems. But JR in my opinion is leading the pack. Not only are they selling new dedicated systems for 2.4 GHz but they are selling replacement modules for some of their older systems that are on 72 MHz. If that wasn’t enough they showed systems where JR modules would plug in and run Futaba radios. It’s just beginning.

Show highlights:

• A matching set of three Apache helicopters with rotors I guess 45-50in span all electric power. Just Awesome!
• A large heavy missile cruiser with detail I could NEVER do. Inside and out!!!
• Jerry Shape’s “Grand Espree” which was still wood sheet 3 weeks ago.
• Lee testing all the flight simulators. The one by MRC he liked best.
• Great guys in both the LSF and Kennedy Composite booths.
• Lee came home with a new Blaster 2 hand launch. Bruce – Lee has been warned about the goat.

Seems that LASS regular and handlaunch enthusiast Brian Kopke got together with fellow DLG-flinger Bruce Davidson and flew out at Bruce’s “ranch” in Shelbyville a few weeks ago. One of them returned home one plane shy of a quiver.

Brian got his Photon II discus-launched glider caught in the tallest tree on the lot. Repeated attempts to extract the plane have been fruitless. Bruce has sent in some photos to attest to it’s predicament as his goat (“Nickolas”) and his pygmy donkey (“Lucy”) stand guard.

The annual LASS Night Fly went down on Saturday evening with a group of guys from the Bluegrass Soaring Society showing up and strapping glow-sticks to sacrificial planes.

Photos were taken: 2006.11.25 – LASS Night Fly!

First up, check out the “Super AVA Music Video” (15MB), and then check out Gordy hand-launching into a thermal and showing how well the Super AVA does with low-level lift in Gordy and the Super AVA vs the little Bubble (3.5MB)

Megan and I wanted to share with you the experience we shared Sunday. Through a close friend of Megan’s we were invited to visit ALTEON, a Boeing Company that has a flight simulator that pilots use to train on the 747s, the 200 series which is like Air force One except that it didn’t have the defense gadgets. We were introduced to Edgar Smiley, retired flight engineer who currently supervises the use of the simulator. We were told that use of the simulator ranges $450 an hour plus.

Read on for the whole story and then check out the 2005.11.17 – 747 Sim gallery.

When we arrived the simulator was in use by a pilot brushing up on a flight he had scheduled to LAX. When we entered what we saw was basically a box on 6 hydraulic cylinders that responded to the crew’s input and the weather conditions that were programmed into the simulator’s computers. The audio outside and inside the simulator while not as loud as the real thing was realistic.

Our simulation was a night time departure from Louisville off a northbound runway. Skies were clear, the stars were out and you could see the lights outlining downtown Louisville. For each of us take off was a breeze. We headed North following 65 for about 10 miles then to the West for about 10 miles and then on to the South. At about 15 miles to the Southwest of Louisville we swung back to the East until such time we would turn back to the North lining up with SDF’s runway for final descent and landing ( I hoped).

Optimum bank angle was 30 degrees and yes I somewhat knife edged a couple of times(surprise surprise) but not severely and was able to recover without too much altitude lost. Although the passengers probably lost their lunch. I being first up was delighted with a good flight and a landing where life and limb was spared. I did however tear up a lot of green earth between runways by the time I had finally stopped. Edgar did say I left an impression on the runway on initial touchdown. My second flight no big deal. squarely lined up on the runway at touch down blistering through so fast that I didn’t stop until I skated thru all the lanes on the Waterson and destroyed the plane and all the passengers. Oops!!!

Megan’s flight was smooth and easy and nothing eventful on the first flight. She landed on the runway just about picture perfect. The second flight? Well as she cart wheeled wing tip over wing tip down the runway I thought the simulator was going to burst into flames. Wasn’t pretty. Thank God it was a simulator!!!

Despite it’s being a simulator it was all too real. You got caught up in the realism as the feedback from the yoke, and the lights, gauges, the sounds the sense of urgency to correct and then your over correcting. My favorite was “Sink Rate, Sink rate” and “Pull Up – Pull Up”
There was stress involved.

I remember Edgar saying this plane was set up perfectly and that it was all up to the crew as to how well it performed and that energy management was key to a successful flight. Hmm…Sounds familiar.

I am hoping that sometime, probably months out that perhaps we can bring a guest or three out to try their hand.

Megan and I had the extreme pleasure of riding in a 1942 Stearman PT-17. We caught the ride out at Bowman Field. Megan’s trip was out over the Ohio and mine was out to J-Town. We both loved the adventure. While I have been in a Cessna and many a commercial flight it was nothing compared to an open cockpit. The plane is owned by American Aviation Academy 459 9960. A 15 minute flight is 49 and a 30 minute is 90. The 30 minute is what I did but I believe I could have done it all day.

I hope you enjoy the pics.

Tony and Megan took some great aerial photos, specifically of their house and of the LASS field (awesome!).

I have posted the pictures in the 2005 .04.16 – Stearman Ride gallery. Check ‘em out!

I took a ride in an ASK-21 today over the Mojave (sp) desert today an in full size soaring. Local Larry Jolly took me up. We released from tow at 1500 feet and worked our way up to 10,000 over the course of the 1.5 hour flight. What else can I say but WOW.

I've posted the photos in the Bruce and Larry Jolly take a Full Sized Ride gallery. Check 'em out!