Is this really January?

I have a small oil leak on the top of the engine case.  Since it was a nice day with 60 degree temperatures, I headed to Halstead so Mark could take a look.  It was a beutiful evening to fly with smooth skies and a great sunset.

                                      The master mechanic checking things out

                                         View out the front enroute to Stearman

                                      View looking out the back right window

A cold flight

The weather warmed up some today and I had another chance to fly.  That makes 11 of 23 days so far this year.  I invited my friend Larry from work and his daughter Juliana to come along.  Larry has his private pilot's certificate, but has not flown a lot in recent years.  He thought the Stinson was lighter on the controls compared to a Cessna 172 he most recently flew.  Larry did a good job keeping the ball centered and maintaining altitude!  Larry has some Super Cub time in his history, so he understands tail draggers.

Other than being cold, it was a pretty smooth flight.  With the Lycoming engine conversion, the heater does not seem to put out as much heat as I remember my dad's Franklin powered Stinson having.

Ride of a lifetime

We had another beautiful flying day so I worked in another after work flight.  That is 7 flight days out of 12 so far in 2016.  Friends from work, Kumar and Jim, came along.  Jim had a previous flight in the Stinson last summer, so he took the back seat and Kumar was up front.

After we got to altitude, I turned the controls over to Kumar, who has no flight experience but a lot of desire.  We did straight and level flight, turns, even a climb and descent.  He did a great job.  I told him any other airplane he learns in will be easier since it will probably have interconnected rudder and ailerons.  Plus a nose wheel.  He described it as "a ride of a lifetime."  Jim also thought the back was very comfortable and said he could have fallen asleep.....it was like a Lazyboy recliner!

Stinsons were known for their comfort back in the day.  Glad N678RD still meets the mark.

Doing the dance

After flying the first 5 days of the new year, the weather went down hill, as was bound to happen. Today was finally a nice day again with light winds, clear skies, and warmer temperatures.  My friend Dan from work and I took a late afternoon flight.  This was Dan's first tail dragger experience.  He did a nice job coordinating turns and manuevering, so we came back to Stearman to do a few touch and goes since the wind was light.  Dan did a fine job, and learned a little about tap dancing on the rudders during takeoff.

Flight number 100

The new year is off to a great start so far as I have flown each day!  Work starts again tomorrow and the weather is bound to change.  In the mean time, I took friends from our church Kinze and Layne for a ride late this afternoon.  It was flight number 100 since finishing the restoration.  I have almost 72 hours logged, so lots of half hour sight seeing flights like this one in those 100 flights.

Kinze at the controls...very smooth

Kinze up front and Layne in back.  Next time we need to put

 a pillow under Layne's booster seat so he can see better.

Another GoPro video

After breakfast with the guys from church this morning, I decided to try my hand at another GoPro video.  The result is on the link below.  Another fine flying day in Kansas.....just on the cold side. This time I mounted the camera in the front right windshield.

Stinson Flight January 2, 2016

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

It is a beautiful New Year's Day in Kansas.  I got a GoPro camera for Christmas and have been waiting on the chance to try it  out.  I mounted it to the aft right window inside the Stinson and hooked up the audio cord.  I also used a filter to eliminate the propeller distortions.  It all seemed to work well.  Now I just have to get better as a movie director!  I also want to buy an external mount and get some cool outside shots!

This is about 6 minutes long.  Some portions are sped up from real time to keep it from being even longer.  I ran out of storage space just after touchdown, so use your imagination from there!

New Year's Day Flight