Just home from the 20 day Oshkosh trip -- with extra stops added
Savannah to Oshkosh, with long cuts and detours to see friends and family. 17.1 hours, 8.8 logged as actual, and as Siri would say, almost 2,000 nanometers (nm).
Interesting tidbits:
* On the flight north, I was on top of the smoke (mostly) from Knoxville to half past Michigan with no visible horizon and just a tiny patch of ground showing. Reports along the way were 3-5 miles in haze and smoke, clear above. Glad I wasn’t slogging through it VFR like Vic Syracuse!
* Went across Lake Michigan at 10,000 on oxygen (my physiology likes O2), paralleled off shore for a ways before going all the ways across because of buildups. The RV-9A gives a very rough ride in buildups, and they’re well worth avoiding.
* From southern Iowa to Knoxville, flew IFR at 7,000 because the clouds had not read the forecast. Only went through some occasionally, though.
* Stopped for gas in Vandalia, IL. I texted the stop to my sister, but Siri corrected the spelling to Vandalism, IL.
* IFR to Savanah over the Smokies at 9,000, in and out of clouds, so that I had plenty of options in case the engine went poop. Then up to 11,000 for a better view of what buildups might be ahead, Only time on the trip I had the synthetic vision turned on. ADS-B weather was a little on the pessimistic side in terms of precip, but handy for avoiding those buildups.
* While letting the autopilot fly the plane and me paying attention to situational awareness and alternatives, it occurred to me that I was using knowledge, judgment, and experience, but very little skill was required. After all, how much skill does it take to turn a knob or touch a screen? But, let the autopilot fail, especially with no warning and in a time of high workload, and it’s a whole ‘nother ball game.
One result of my base to final turn accident research is identifying botched steep turns as an accident mechanism. When I gave that forum on Tuesday, to an absolutely full Forum 3, two of the men in the front had witnessed such accidents. I also gave a demo flight to an editor and he was glued to the flight instruments on his side. 55° bank, 30° nose down, 500+ feet near instantaneous altitude loss, ball centered and AOA on the green dot the whole way. It’s one thing to read about it or see a video, it’s another to see it with your own eyes. Base to final turn loss of control does not mean high AOA, does not mean stall/spin, just like a botched steep turn at altitude or a runway overrun does not mean stall/spin.
I also flew the Redird sim, focusing on AOA. LockheedMartin provides the flight dynamics, and the Redbird AOA response to gusts bore no resemblance to what I observe in the RV-9A. I suspect that the gust model has no vertical component, or the airspeed is undamped, or a combination.
Based on this trip, and the flight with the editor, the next AOA data gathering flights will be on final approach in summer thermals and downdrafts. We’ll see what the data says… and the videos.
