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L-39... What A Ride

GT182

GT182

Charter Member
Here's some photos that were taken of my day in the PIO's seat. Even got some stick time too. Flys like a dream, just like in FSX. ;) Yeah, the Lotus L-39 is as close as you can get to the real thing. At least I got a compliment fro Joe Gano. He said not bad at the controls, those flight sims must be pretty good if I could fly the real thing that well. That made my day.

Not a lot of photos that really show much as I was real busy being the second set of eyes watching for other aircraft. And I did catch 2 he missed in the haze. Both were about a quarter mile off our 3 'oclock going the opposite way. One thing I did notice tho. In the flightsims when you look down at the ground, those checkerboard fields you see.... it's the same in real life. They do model em pretty close to the flightsims. LOL
 
sweet pics! How high did you guys go up?

You look pretty cool in them shades....got an ex-SEAL look...lol :)

-feng
 
Part 2

We shot an approach to West Chester County airport and headed ot to do some acrobatics. Started to so a loop but got into a high speed stall. Recovered from that and pulled almost 6.5gs. Then went one an did 2 loops with 7gs..... 7 at the top of the first loop and them 7 at the bottom pulling out of the second one. Waht a rush that is. Never blacked out, but came close coming out of the high speed stall. I wasn't quite prepared for that and saw grey for a bit.. LOL It was so hazy up at 8000' you couldn't really see much so we had to fly IFR for a bit. We turned south and headed for Summit airport down below the canal. Now here was the fun part. Joe wanted to do a simulated flame out. We flew parallel withthe runway and pulled a real tight drop with a tigh turn the opposite way to drop in over the threshhold. To do this simulation he just pulled the power all the way back to idle. Now the tricky part. Gear and flaps are down for landing but we don't land... it's a simulation, right? Well, power with this engine takes a bit of time to spool back up from idle and we had hesitated a bit too much getting the power back up. We dropped in real close got the gear and flaps back up and waited, waited.... and waaited for power. Didn't look good but it came back with a rush and pinned us back in the seats. Almost like an afterburner but not quite. After that it was back to New Castle County for a flyby and then land. Last photo is the G meter showing 7Gs. I joined the club.

Yeah, I still dream it at night. It was one hell of a ride with one of the best pilots I know..... Capt. Joe Gano USAF Ret. Served during the mid to late 60s in Germany flying F-102s.
 
We were up to about 9,000' for the loops. For safety just in case we had to bail out. Yeah, that I did not want to do.

That's why I was glad we recovered from the highspeed stall. Now if we had been up in the Mig-23, then we'd been a bailin out. That is quarranteed from what Joe said. 23s cannot recover from a highspeed stall, no way no how.
 
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Be careful with the MiG-21. There are 42 checklist procedures that end in ''eject!''
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~ Don Kirlin
The MiG-23 is the same. :)

One on the MiG-23 I love -

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We found that we could only do afterburner tests on the Flogger on clear days. If there were low clouds for the sound waves to bounce off, a lady who lives about a mile from the airport would call the FBO and complain, 'Stop rattling my china!'
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~ Jerry Parker

:)

(both quotes from the www.cwam.org website)

Great to see you got a great ride there Gary. Will be cool when all the Russian Warbird operators finally get together for a big airshow. Multiple MiG-15's, -17's, -21's, and -23's with the 2 Flankers and a whole ton of L-29s and L-39s - MUSIC. :)
 
That would be great Chis... imagine scarring the crap out of people with a gathering like that. LOL

I've had a "burner" ride in the 21, but that's all. I'm trying to get a ride in the 23 but not sure if that will happen any time soon. Even a "burner" ride will do. LOL

One thing about here at KILG.... there is nothing around that souds like the 21 on takeoff with the burner on, 23 too. You can tell it's not something you'd normally hear at a US airport. The sounds of both are that distinct.
 
GT, it sounds like you had a lot of fun while you were gone. The last time I got to do something like that was in 1997......:ernae:
 
Yeah Kofs I did. It was a good little vacation.... actually no rest as I was working, going to shows, working on the GTO, plus enjoying the summer and fall nights. And working on getting this old computer back up and running again. Time to build a new one once I find a part-time job.
 
Thanks for the very cool review of your flight :applause:

My favorite pic is of the G meter :kilroy:
Thanks again,
Marlin
 
3 of us were given t-shirts today for becoming members of the 7G Club. This is for us civilians, but I know all of you guys that were, or are, in the military flying fighters belong too. Tho you did/do it proudly in the military, we're just as proud we had the chance to join also. :gameon:

Here's the front an back.....
 
I got two complaints GT; the photos are not large enough and I was not second in line! :icon_lol:

Good way to celebrate the end of a Nor-Easter. :applause:

Caz
 
Nice pictures of a very memorable flight Gary. You are the envy of us all.

I have always found a real airplane to be easier to fly than the simulator. Because you can't feel the airplane in a sim you are always reacting to it. After a few tries you can feel the 2 Gs of the break turn. You KNOW when you are on AOA by feel. Not in the sim.

You certainly have passed your stress test for the year by pulling 7 Gs. Isn't it amazing how heavy that brain bucket gets at 7 Gs. :)
 
Thanks Caz and John.

Caz, if you were here and helped as a grond crew member, you'd get your shot at it. Honest.

John, you're right. Not like the "feel" of the real thing. Now if they made a Cougar HOTAS with force feedback that might help for the simulations. But I'm afraid they don't, and my back up Wingman Extreme 3D doesn't have it either.

Funny you mentioned Stress Test John. Another crew member used to smoke when he was in the AF and flew F4s and then F-15s. He, and his fellow pilots that smoked, said it actually helped as a prep for pulling high Gs. Even Joe said he couldn't believe the Gs didn't bother me seeing I smoked.

And the "brain bucket" didn't bother at all.... the one we use is pretty light to begin with. The only thing that bothered me was my butt.... that seat is hard with only a thin cushion on it. When they fly the 39 out to Reno they use a 4" piece of foam to sit on.
 
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