K' crosse here is a little post===
I was laying here half asleep. My mind wandered back a few years ago to one of my prouder achievements. I remember standing up and saying in a loud voice, : room attention, I, aviatian Cadet Curry,JJ,L soloed today" then sat down to the usual congraulatons and horse play that accompaanies every Cadet's first solo..
For years afterwards I flew the USAF way, 'by the nunbers', which has proven to be the best way in general, They now hava fantastic instruments and computer systems that speak to you , even many systems that in an emergency that can fly the aircraft, in many cases far better that a human pilot can, but it wasn't until I drifted into agriculture flying that I really discovered true flying.
In Ag. work you are flying low as possible to the ground or trees, often less then 10 ft to apply the chemical with the most efficiency. At those low altitudes you simply do not have time to canstantly scan your instruments You have a constanly varying load .with steep climbouts. You are constantly playng with a potential stall - which gets most pilots in Ag work, along with running into objects, in my case a telephone pole guy wire.
In another caseI I was the wingman flying on the lower side. the ground curved to the left nd our sppeed should have been set up by the pilot flying rhe sloweset speed sector, me. My instruments were ahowing everthing as fine when I felt that lil suspicion of loss of air support, so without thinkig I broke formation and slid off my left in a shallow dive, hoping to build up airspeed , I was still in a sloppy prestall condition when i spotted branches sprouting of my engine. I was still too close to a stall for any evasive movement so I hit an enormus dead Sprrce tree squarely on my nose spinner, which decreased my speed further. from there on it is a litle hazy but I remember trying to trade off the tree's heght for a little speed gain. iIt worked, I gradualy started a slow climb above the surrounding forest,. I have the impression that I maintained a relatively level flight path , Althugh later they told me that the plane had dived straight into the forest and that I was killed
??
Another time I was flying low man on the totem pole in a deep curving canyon when my hi pressurt hose line broke and eventually dumped 150 gallon of diesel into the cockpit. I couldnt see anything, Instruments , clothes, gogles were coated with diesel, eyes were burning so I had to resort to the feel of being one with the aircraft and attenptwd to fly a level, silight climbout of the canyon. I was lucky, I succeeded and when the last of the Diesel had drained away and I could see once again I ws flying up, out of the canyon.safely.
These are two prime axamples where "by the numbers" would had gotten me Killed.
I frst experienced this when just flying, It was a bright summer day when I just knew I was one with the aircraft, I could feel it with my whole body, That is when I started have marvelous experiences with flying. I would seek Out Cumulos cloud formations, turn on the radio and have a sensous 3D waltz in the many hidden canyons of the cloud. It is hard to describe, just fantasric.
Todays pilots do not have that feel for' impending' stalls, in fact the civillian market has eliinated Spins which are a direct reult of a stall and kill many pilots very year
In Ag work you have a constant change of load and speed to contend with, which naturally modifies your Aircraft stall characeristics, even the temperature and altitude varies it.
I eventually settled on the Navy carrier aproach, semi controlled stall. The stick was for controlling the airspeed, the throttle for the rate of decent I could land across a standard runway.
I could go on for hours on the pleasure that flying gave me.
It is hard to be an athiest when you are dancing in the clouds Gals
I
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I have to take the bambinos to school, but when I return, I will tell you about why this gentleman (Sky Redhawk) ties into my (soon-to-be-told) miracle cancer story. Whoop-whoop!!!
