Not a cage, but will get you around the weather.

[EddieC]

So there was some rain in our area, and it was making me feel droggy. It was cold and dark, and was only noon. Like come on weather! Stop dragging me down!

Luckily, I have my commercial pilots license with my instrument rating, so I hopped in a piper seneca turbo charged twin engine aircraft, and got my IFR clearance out of Santa Monica Airport. I decided I wanted to see the sun and some blue sky.



Decided to mess around and do some 45 degree steep turns. We were skimming along the tops of the clouds and went through our own wake at the end of the turn.

http://s778.photobucket.com/albums/yy68 ... 110810.mp4

Then, It was getting a little late, so I upped the speed to 160 knots, and booked it back to the airport. Time to go to work

http://s778.photobucket.com/albums/yy68 ... 111720.mp4

Ride the pcx 3 miles south and get to Los Angeles International airport. I work for Menzies Aviation as the export freight supervisor for Qantas Air Cargo. I oversee the process of getting freight off trucks, built up onto pallets, and into the cargo hold of passenger aircraft including the Boeing 747 and the Airbus A380. I never actually touch the freight, but I I'm the one who checks all the paperwork, puts the information into their worldwide system and make the "dead load" which is a manifest of all cargo onboard including dangerous good information and special load items such as animals and livestock. We have 5 flights per day that depart Los Angeles and go on their way to Australia and New Zealand. We also have a freighter that comes in once a week. Here are some pictures.

[Woolley]

But what mpg do they get

[EddieC]

Haha! The twin engine burns 20ish gallons per hour.... Aviation gas 100 octane Low Lead (100LL) . Costs $6.50 per gallon. (Scooter gas is only $3.90 here). But in that hour you can travel up to 180 miles in calm wind. The 747 and A380 are probably something ridiculous.

[maddiedog]

Wow, that's really really cool. The propeller looks strange in the video, I guess it is because it is spinning so fast.

Do you own the Piper? That would be so cool to own a plane, although I'd imagine it would cost a small fortune to maintain.

[EddieC]

Nope. Don't own the piper. Even a used one will cost you around 100 grand, and yes, it is a killer to maintain, insure, and park. I rent this, along with a few other aircraft out of Santa Monica. This being the fastest and largest one, cost $250 per flight hour to rent (including fuel). Luckily, I get most of the cost covered with an educational fund that my aunt set up. So long as I'm involved with flight training, joy rides are covered at 75% because it adds to flight time. I'm in the process of training to be a flight instructor, now that I have my commercial license.

[Woolley]

The propeller looks strange in the video, I guess it is because it is spinning so fast.

Propellors can look crazy on video:

[EddieC]

That looks crazy! Cell phones always make the prop look like horrizontal lines, even when taking a picture, but my nikon SLR will capture the blades where they actually are with a slight blend behind their path of travel, like you would expect with a film camera. I don't really know what causes this, but it only exists with cheaper digital cameras

[maddiedog]

It is due to the capture rate of the camera. The optic sensor has a low-bandwidth bus attached to it, so it doesn't take the picture all at once. Video cameras capture at a certain framerate, and depending on the framerate, the prop will look different (same goes for spinning car wheels, for example, they might look like they stop or spin backwards).

As for the SLR, it has a much nicer optical sensor that captures the whole image momentarily. The motion blur is how far the prop moves in the milliseconds that the optic sensor is open to capture the image.

[EddieC]

I guess I did know what causes that, but I was referring to cheap digital cameras that make the blades appear somewhere that they could never be...like in that youtube video that woolley posted. On my cell phone it looks like the propeller is a horrizontal window blind. My SLR makes total sense to me. I've always had a passion for photography and in all honesty I prefer to work with film, but have my digital SLR to keep the costs down =) I didn't know, however, about optic sensors and different bandwith busses, googled it a little. Pretty interestinghow it all works, always fun to learn new things!

[Fiah]

It's called the 'rolling shutter' effect. Look it up

[EddieC]

Had some great weather yesterday, so instead of training, we decided to fuck around over the ocean.. Only rule when flying over water is that you have to stay at least 500' away from any persons, or vessel. So... ya we did that.. And also had a near bird strike.. I think you can see it in the video around 2:15.

This time we were in a Cessna 182. A high wing single engine aircraft. This trip is from sata monica, to pointe dune... in 5 min!. Our average speed was around 150 kts. about 173 US Statute MPH. Check it out

http://s778.photobucket.com/albums/yy68 ... 8293c9.mp4

[gn2]

I've done 150 knots with a 20 knot tailwind ten feet off the deck in a glider.
So that's close on 200mph ground speed with no engine.
Isn't gravity fun.

Looks something like this...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK5XVGV8eM8

[maddiedog]

Damn, Eddie, you guys were hauling ass.

GN2, your link is broken, youtube took down the video

[gn2]

I just checked and it seems to be working

[maddiedog]

Here's what I get on my side of the pond:

Untitled.png (155.62 KiB) Viewed 7550 times

Fuckin copyright laws...

[Taz]

small world. I was flying gliders when I was 17 and low passes soon after (sometimes between the trees). Moved on to my CPL/IR after doing my glider gold C but now i've got the PCX for even more fun.

[Fiah]

Here's what I get on my side of the pond:

Untitled.png

Fuckin copyright laws...

Same here (German version). I'm getting really fed up with half of Youtube being blocked.