Going to the dark side

[rocket]

GOING TO THE DARK SIDE


Well it had to happen sooner then later. I always dreamed of an old 180 as my next step, up as it were, but the more I became familiar with my '61 tripacer and what I had learned to make her do I had began to think I really had no need to move…up: big wheels, skis, floats, and stop to stop fun.


Next comes my buddy Rob and two teenage kids, business, etc. and no time to fly his dream 182. He comes to me one day and says, man I am going to sell her. Damn. 300 hour 230 hp, 0 time prop, ugly as hell inside and out. Yep, this ones for me!


I have two buddies who had not paid for their annuals yet and I called each one and said pay up. All I wanted from each one of them was one each 10X10 Bushwheel wheel. I had a couple well worn 10x8.5 tires off a Beaver collecting dust in the back of the hanger. I borrowed a set of solid axles and brake torque plates from the guy down the strip. Another well worn 8.50 for the nose; she already had the big Airglass fork on the front.


If you look real close you can see gray beach mud on the bottom of the wing.

Oh ya!!!




Rocket

ps. Whatever you do, don't tell my other girlfriend!

4391

[PeterL]

My first plane was a 1955 Cessna 180, it was ugly. Look like a poor old dog left out in the cold, one wing off, only two old seats up front, yellow paint so sun bleached that when you washed it the paint would run off. Oh well, I can look over all that!!!! $11,000 later it was all mine. Had to fix the wing -$3,000 more. after, new paint and interior, some used radio's from a Navajo that I was flying. A good friend and I purchased 2780's (floats). Total investment $25,000, but that was in 1986.
At that time my aviation career was moving up, Learjets to King Air's to Navajo's and then to the bigtop.......flying a Beaver on floats in Wawa, Ont. Took my 180 there from Calgary for the next two seasons and had a blast. Beaver flying in the morning and bombing around in the 180 in the afternoons.
'87, got a job in Ottawa, charter flying, sold the old girl. Had I known that I would have met my wife, whom is a pilot also, I would have kept her. (The C-180 I mean).
Oh well, have the '53 Pacer and it's great fun. Plus it's great to meet all cool people on Steve's site and the Short Wing Piper Club.

PeterL

[nicka]

Hey Rocket is that Brook's Camp's Garrett Otter behind your new SUV? I did some work on that a few years back and that is one hell of a nice airplane. Have fun with the new camp hauler.

[SuperPacer]

Very Cool Rocket,

And resourceful, collecting on some "accounts payable" and "hanger parts" to make it into a very useful addition toyour "stabel". So, do you know anyone with a spare Cont 520 & MT Prop? that will really make things happen!!

Enjoy the day
John
Pacer from Utah

[andya]

love the old straight tail series too.

[rocket]

Nicka-otter is local lodge owned. -10 without auto start. You light this fire by hand!

4395


Gota tell you it took a hand full of days before I could fly her down the center line slow < 40 indicated. I just needed to use ALL the rudder in a way that would have my tripacer doing a barrel roll down the runway. Not holding the centerline is funny when you think about it. Why? Because every time I landed I laid out the grease nice and thick, every stinking time; most landings I could not tell if I was on the runway. Really! Of course this doesn't mean diddley if I can see the centerline out the copilot window...or out my own!

I did have her every so lightly on the nose once but we are done with that now that I know she will not fall out of the air at less then 50 mph.

I do have a new apreciation for my tripacer's manuverabiity. Even on floats she will fly circles, literally, around the 182 and with a fraction of the control forces. In the past I was trained to use the trim to fly a spam can but the 182 takes lots of rudder and arm action to move her around.

In flight texting is much improved over the Batplane!




Rocket

[Troy Hamon]

Wow Rocket...is this the adventure machine now? You going to be looking for skis and floats, or are you going to keep a stable of two now?

[pa20]

Nicka-otter is local lodge owned. -10 without auto start. You light this fire by hand!

4395

Rocket

-10 Garrett? As I recall, they initiate ignition and fuel flow automatically, but you have to modulate the fuel flow during the start. Is that what you were referring to as "light the fire by hand"
Looks like someone missed the start locks on shutdown! :-)

[rocket]

Troy,
pilot am note sure how I am going to manage a stable of two. I thought I MIT sell the Batplane to finance a PPonk conversion but that doesn't really make sence with the engines and prop times.

Skis this winter for sure and perhaps floats but only if some one bends Somthing expensive this winter.

look for us boating down to royal coachmen if you fly up the Tikchik

Mark,
on startup one has to toggle the fuel pump to keep the temp below a hot start. A little unnerving at first and I do not do it often enough to not be worried. the real issue is knowing the state of charge of your batteries as the starter rpm infects the start.


rocket

[Ed Brown]

Talk about ugly duckling's; here's one I've seen the past few years at Oshkosh. Finally met the owner this year. An interesting character he is too. A PhD scientist who invented and developed the plasma TV before selling the rights to Panasonic. In spite of how bad this plane looks, he keeps it in excellent mechanical condition.

[andya]

Ed , sent you a PM

[Troy Hamon]

We found Rocket's new ride parked at the lodge, but couldn't find him anywhere...
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/66268_185842878219752_1826484176_n.jpg

Then he showed up racing across the lake right as we took off. Tried to lure us back with ice cream, which was tempting...but we were hoping to spot some critters so we left while we still had good light. Didn't find much in terms of critters though. Should have taken the ice cream.

[rocket]

TRoy,

we were going to scout for some caribou in my Big Wheel (name of new plane) after we returned from the nuyakuk falls tour but it was getting late. instead we just unloaded the prop boat into the jet boat and headed up Tikchik lake, through the chauekuktule river, and into the upper lower Chauekuktule at the outlet of the Chikumanuk river for a little char and grayling action. The char and grayling were not as accommodating as one would prefer. As the sun was setting the moon was rising for one of the most memorable boat rides in my life. Knowing you two were flying home made me a touch julouse. If the lodge installed runway lights and I had about a hundred more hours in the new bird I would have went out and enjoyed the full moon from the air.



Rocket

4403

[rocket]

To get a better idea about the part of alaska Troy and myself are flying around:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0pnzVg8KpIGQy0Zv5dnX1Wb9GZmP4hO O2

the bread crumb will go away in 14 days.

Rocket

[Curly]

Now that is what we would officially call a designated "Remote Area". (or in aussie speak "the arse end of nowhere".)

Had a google earth look and while it is remote, it sure is a stunningly beautiful area.

[Troy Hamon]

It was easy to see the few caribou we did spot near where we hunted a couple years ago. But that's because there isn't any snow there. In areas where the patchy snow cover is on, it would be pretty challenging without flying a lot. But with the weather we've been having, we should have some pretty good ice on the lakes. I stole three lake rocks from the bay next to the runway at the lodge, and after we left I found a nice lake to drop them on. Made a bit of a tactical error though. Most of the lakes have three sections of ice, look to have formed in between three wind events. The last one is the clearest. I figured since it was most recent, if rocks bounce on that it tells me about the rest of the lakes. So we flew over the clear ice and dropped three rocks. Then we came back around and couldn't find the first one, then found the second but too far away to get a good look at whether it was up on top or wedged in, and finally a good look at the third rock sitting up all proud on top. Hmm. Like to see that first one and get a better look at the second one. Came back around and couldn't find any of them. Another pass, couldn't see them. Oh well, didn't need to land anyway.

The problem is that the clear ice is dark, so the black rocks totally don't show up. I had to be right down looking at them in profile to see them at all. I should have dropped them on the white section from the first freeze, would have been easy to evaluate at least that. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we have plenty of ice on most of those lakes, but I just like to be real sure...