Caption Contest #42 - Ends Wednesday 11.17.10 At 9PM EST

 It's always unfortunate when things like this happen, but there's no use crying over spilt milk, and since someone got a picture of the aftermath, seems like finding a way to have a little fun with it is somehow ok. So here's your new chance to whip up a caption good enough to wind up fetching you a bacon sandwich at Oshkosh 2011.

 You've got til Wednesday evening at 9pm EST to submit your clever/funny/cool captions. Then, I’ll pick the best 5 (or 6) and put ’em in a poll for everyone to vote on for all day Thursday and Friday so we can find the winner.

 The Rules: 

1) Max of 3 submissions per person

2) Submissions go in the 'comments' area 

3) Game ends Wednesday at 9pm EST 

4) Keep it clean!

 Then, anyone who wants to can cast their vote will be able to starting Thursday morning and running thru til 9pm EST Friday. The winner will be posted Saturday morning 11-20-10. And hey... go easy on the brakes!

Amazing Video! 8 Year Old Tears Up The Sky With RC Helicopter!

 I was doing some avgeek searching on youtube when I stumbled across a video of a 3 year old doing 3D akro with an electric RC airplane. I wasn't sure it was for real, so I did a little research. It's for real! He's an amazing little guy, who's 8 years old now, and can fly RC fixed wing and helicopters at an astonishingly high level. 

 His name is Justin Jee, he's from New Jersey and flies out of Clarkstown, New York. You can find lots of videos at the youtube account redcorvettez06 and all kinds of info at JustinJee.com. Truly awesome stuff! 

Justin Jee, an amazing 8 year old RC pilot!

Caption Contest #41 Winner(s) - Goblin Revenge

 Ok, here's the deal. The airplane in the pic is the Douglas XF-85 'Goblin' (goblin: noun- a grotesque sprite or elf that is mischievous or malicious toward people), and I think this time around, the goblins were really working against us. Some real life people were acting like goblins Friday night when squarespace.com (the platform that AirPigz is built on) was maliciously attacked bringing down thousands of websites. The downtime knocked out the last 3 or 4 hours of voting, but since things were back up by about 10pm, I decided to extend voting til midnight. And, in the last 2 hours of voting, the second caption shown here caught up with the first and we wound up with another tie.

 Instead of having a tie-breaker poll tho, I figured both of these captions deserve a bacon sandwich at OSH11 for having to deal with the mayhem. So congrats to twitter followers @bradkoehn for the top caption, which just might be the most words ever in a winning caption... and to @jimway for the lower one, which I'm pretty sure is the fewest words ever in a winning caption. And as always, thanx to everyone who submitted a caption... it wouldn't be a contest without you!

 There's gonna be a lot of bacon flying around at my campsite in Camp Scholler at Oshkosh 2011, so it's a good thing I've already started drawing up plans for a super swine sizzler! And remember, the bacon sandwiches are specifically for AirPigz game winners, but there will be free bacon strips available to anyone who wants to stop by and chew the fat : ) Details on the days and times for the official AirPigz bacon parties at OSH11 will be posted in July, but you need to make plans to be at OSH11 right now! Oshkosh 2011: July 25-31.

CoolPix - Airshow: Kent Pietsch 'Jelly Belly' Motorhome Landing! (3 Pix)

(click pic for hi-res)       Kent Pietsch landing on the motorhome runway!

(3 pix)

 I had a really cool opportunity at the Indy Air Show back in June... and these three pix are the result of it. Airshow pilot Kent Pietsch (say peach) does some of the coolest aerobatic routines in his humble 1942 Interstate Cadet, including landing on the tiny runway on top of this motorhome while it's driving down the runway. At some airshows he uses a modified pickup truck with a platform mounted above it, but either way it's very, very impressive. (learn more about the Jelly Belly sponsored Cadet and Kent Pietsch in AirPigz podcast #12)

 He was making some promo passes down the runway that were being videotaped by a guy in the bed of a pickup truck that I was riding in, except I was hanging out in the breeze sitting on the passenger door sill with my still camera. What an awesome sight it was to be this close to Kent! His skills with the Cadet are amazing. I was really impressed with how well he could put the airplane right where he wanted it... and how much fun he was having doing things like this picture shows, putting just one wheel on the platform.

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Video: Blue Angels F-18 Refueling... In The Clouds!

 This video from 2009 would be cool enough if it was just an F-18 sucking up some gas from a KC-135, but it's more than that. It's a Blue Angels, F-18 sucking up some gas! Oh but wait, it gets even better... they're actually flying thru the tops of the clouds while the Blue Angels F-18 is sucking up some gas!

 And to top it all off (no pun intended), the pilot has added some excellent voice over to explain a little about the refueling process. This is a must see video if there ever was one : )

Cirrus Still Has A Vision (SF50) For The VLJ Market

 With Piper stepping up the game with an enlarged PiperJet 'Altaire' beginning to take shape, it's good to see that the Cirrus Vision SF50 jet is also still moving closer to market reality. Both of these airplanes will benefit from some good old competition as they make their way thru design changes and certification efforts in the future. While the two airplanes take very different approaches to the small personal jet concept, and will likely offer significantly different advantages, they both seem likely to draw a good audience.

 This video does a lot to stir the juices of excitement for where Cirrus is headed with their Vision. Be sure to check out the updated Vision info on the Cirrus website, and I especially recommend you view this 24 page Cirrus Vision Update pdf from October 2010. I also plan to compare the airplanes more closely in the near future... but for now, put a towel under your chin to catch any uncontrolled drooling and enjoy the video!

Caption Contest #41 - Ends Wednesday 11.10.10 At 9PM EST

 After a week of rest, the Caption Contest is back and ready to challenge your sense of avgeek wit. I could be wrong (familiar territory for me), but this pic should stir up all kinds of fun. So c'mon, tickle your funny bone and whip up a snazzy caption for this vintage image. And remember, the winner will snag a brand new bacon sandwich at Oshkosh 2011 (you wouldn't want an old one, would ya?)

 You've got til Wednesday evening at 9pm EST to submit your clever/funny/cool captions. Then, I’ll pick the best 5 (or 6) and put ’em in a poll for everyone to vote on for all day Thursday and Friday so we can find the winner.

 The Rules: 

1) Max of 3 submissions per person

2) Submissions go in the 'comments' area 

3) Game ends Wednesday at 9pm EST 

4) Keep it clean!

 Then, anyone who wants to can cast their vote will be able to starting Thursday morning and running thru til 9pm EST Friday. The winner will be posted Saturday morning 11-13-10. Oh... be sure to watch out for goblins on this one : )

Video: Crabby Plastic Airplane - 787 Crosswind Tests In Iceland

  This video isn't new... these Keflavik Iceland 787 crosswind tests were conducted back in early September, but it's sure worth watching if you haven't seen it. Youtuber Dabb has done an awesome job of bringing us in close on some of these passes, and being shot in HD makes it one of the few videos that I pretty much demand you watch in full screen mode - click the 'four arrows' icon in the bottom right corner of the youtube window for that.  For geeks like me, seeing these challenging takeoff's and landings with this kind of details is simply spectacular.

 I specifically like watching the inboard aileron movement when it can be seen, and the large amount of rudder movement at times. I also like being able to see thru the spinning fan when looking into the nacelle in certain views. Those high crab angles give us a chance to see the airplane from a more direct head-on view than we'd normally expect to get. It's also fascinating to see the horizontal tail shake as much as it does on some of the roll outs! That kind of stuff used to make me a little uncomfortable til I realized it's pretty much normal across the board on really big aircraft.

 So anyway, watch this video. It's a great opportunity to see the 787 looking rock solid in some pretty strong crosswind conditions. And if you're anything like me, you'll watch it 5 or 6 times : )

Video: JETMAN Goes Akro!

 Yves Rossy, aka JETMAN, has been entertaining himself (and us) for several years now with his small turbine powered wing strapped to his back... and now he's added akro to the show! Jumping from a hot air balloon platform yesterday in his home country of Switzerland, the former Swiss Air Force pilot and current airline pilot performed both rolls and loops using a new, smaller wing (3m span) powered by 4 small jet engines.

 It's all very impressive... but I'm wondering when he's gonna strap a skateboard to his belly and show us how the land the thing, instead of using his parachute for landing! Hmm? (are skateboard wheels rated for 130mph?? : )

1968 Piper PA-35 Pocono - Underpowered ‘Wide Body’ For 18 Souls

The one and only Piper PA-35 Pocono - circa 1968

 (7 pix)

 The voiceover in the PiperJet Altaire video I posted the other day said that the Altaire has “the largest cabin ever in any Piper aircraft”. Well, that might not be completely accurate… meet the Piper PA-35 Pocono.

 Piper Aircraft was on the warpath in the 1960’s… after introducing the PA-23 Apache in 1954, which happened to be their first American Indian named airplane as well as their first twin, Piper was really pushing an enlarged line of twin engine aircraft. The 4-place Apache grew into the 5-place Aztec by the late 50’s, and when the 60’s began, the Aztec had been made into a 6 seat aircraft with 250hp hanging off each wing. Soon after, in 1963, the PA-30 Twin Comanche first flew, then there was the PA-31 Navajo first flight in 1964, and the PA-34 Seneca first flew in 1967. That’s a lot of development of production-bound aircraft in a relatively short period of time.

 But their biggest twin-engine effort was an airplane you most likely have never heard of… the Piper PA-35 Pocono. While the other aircraft that had exited the Piper design laboratory were relatively logical extensions of other Piper projects, the Pocono was a wild departure. The intent was to provide a small airliner that would appeal to the growing number of feeder airlines. The basic concept for accomplishing this was a really wide fuselage cross section. The Pocono fuselage was seven feet wide! Umm, did you hear me?  Seven feet wide! This allowed the approximately 40 foot long fuselage to be set up to carry a total of 18 souls, with the passenger cabin having three seats across, in a 1-2 configuration with an off-center isle between.

 When you consider the advantage of easier CG handling by reducing the number of passengers seated well forward or well aft of the center of gravity, along with the really large loading door, the separate split airstair door up front for the cockpit crew, and the overall generally good looks, the Pocono seemed to be on a really great journey.

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