No Visible Horizon

It’s doldrum season on my flying, when my pilot license and our airplane’s airworthiness certificate is being renewed.  No flying for a while.
It’s time to write about one of my favorite aviation books.  One I’ve given to my best pilot friends at Christmas.
  
  
No Visible Horizon, by Joshua Cooper Ramo, is a thrilling, breathtaking read.  His writing credentials [...]

Read Full Post »

The Reinvention of a Cessna Pilot

Cessna Pilot (n)  [sess-nah | pahy-luht].  1.  Straight and level  2. Flat-footed– use of rudder optional  3. Fifteen-degree banks, gingerly, 30-degrees maximum, 45-degrees death wish;  see also,student pilot, wimp, pre-Meynard neophyte.
     
        
       
  
  
  
  
  
The Cessna 152 is a sweet little thing under any circumstances, but a climb prop, upgraded engine, in-panel GPS, and other little goodies make flying it even [...]

Read Full Post »

I Acquire an Unusual Attitude

Carlo continues his story of flying with Meynard.  Over the course of two days, he is bombarded with new epiphanies on the theory and practice of flight.
   
  
  
  
The g-forces squeeze me into my seat as Meynard takes us through a loop, an aileron roll, a spin, and a hammerhead.  I follow him on the controls, trying [...]

Read Full Post »

And We Haven’t Even Started Maneuvering Yet!

Carlo continues his story of flying with Meynard for the first time. 
In two days he learns more about aerodynamics than most pilots do in years.  He is in a fabric-covered aerobatic airplane, yet his best lessons have nothing to do with maneuvering flight.
  
  
  
  
There was a large, yellow, thing in the hangar.  It was a spindly, [...]

Read Full Post »

Meynard the Medicine Man

Last November, I texted Meynard, needing therapy.  I was in Bangkok, after a rough month at work, too much travel.
Meynard is my aerobatics instructor.
He replied by text… .
  
“We can use the Decathlon as a psychiatric couch.  Combinations this time.  Cuban 8s and Immelmans.  Sequence of 6 maneuvers.”
  
Salvation!  My home leave was only three weeks away. 
I went nuts when the [...]

Read Full Post »

Yuletide Flying

The days sped by too fast.  One day I arrived in Manila for my annual home leave, my 73rd and last airline flight in 2008.
Just 3 weeks later, I was back on an airline flight to Bangkok.
  
  
  
  
In between, one of our best Yuletide Seasons ever.
    
Christmas mass at the Ateneo was nostalgic — the Church of the Gesu was decorated with a creche and photos commemorating the old Padre [...]

Read Full Post »

Close Your Eyes And Let The Force Be With You

I could only watch the aerobatic displays with envy.  But Carlo and I did actually fly an aerial dogfight, against the Navy, Malaysia and SEAir!  Well, sort of.
  
  
  
  
The balloon bursting boondoggle – airplanes prowling above the crowd and hunting down helium-fattened prey.
Most pilots quail at colliding with an object in an airplane! 
But there we were, chasing drifting [...]

Read Full Post »

Real Men Do It Upside Down!

 So there we were, behind schedule. 
The gusting winds had grounded the hot air balloons, skydivers and paragliders.  
The crazed windsock threatened to rip itself off its pole and blow away altogether.
The morose crowd packed the ramp.  
Buddy Lopa, our untiring “Voice of the Fiesta” Program Director, kept apologizing for the wind.
We were stressed!  The airshow was dying.
     
That’s when [...]

Read Full Post »

Thy Youth Is Restored Like the Eagle’s

Meynard’s Basic Aerobatic course was almost over.  I now had 9 hours of taildragger and aerobatic time, nearly 3 hours in the last sortie alone.  On graduation day, I practiced vertical maneuvers — loops and hammerheads. 
Then came the graduation exercise.
   
  

   
           
   
    
Graduation day was CAVOK after rain the previous day, and we regrouped for a briefing.  Meynard wanted [...]

Read Full Post »

The Secret Love Triangle Between Pitch, Bank and Airspeed

 
 

    
    
What a kick it was to call on the radio:
“Manila approach, one six niner one is Tango four at two thousand feet, commencing aerobatic maneuvers from two thousand to three thousand feet.”
Meynard and I practiced aerobatics at Tango 4, a training area 20 miles south of Manila.  Here we did spins, loops, rolls and hammerheads.
  
My first spin was an [...]

Read Full Post »

Aerobatics!

  
    
   
Aerobatics!! 
  
The World War II dogfights I read about in my youth were the ultimate competitive aerobatics.  The penalty for non-proficiency was death.  There is no second place in aerial combat.  Only the winner flies home.
I remember a book on WW2 flying.  The writer described watching Saburo Sakai, the famed Japanese ace, rolling his Zero fighter in a beautiful, curving firing pass against an American B-17 –  not an inch of slip or skid, perfectly coordinated, squeezing [...]

Read Full Post »

Aerobatic Pilot

  

                                                                                   Photo by Jaime Unson
 
I‘ve always dreamed of doing this.  Fly like a fighter pilot.  Not in a simulator, nor a demo flight.  I wanted hours and hours, multiple missions.  In a REAL MAN’s airplane.
And I chose to learn from the best aerobatic pilot in the country.
  
  
Meynard Halili, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, is one of those people [...]

Read Full Post »