August 3, 4, & 6, 2008

August 3, 2008 ; Today we attended Kars Under The K, the annual gathering and exhibition of antique and classic restored automobiles held in Keremeos. Restored automobiles seem to be quite a popular hobby here in the Okanagan / Similkameen region of the B.C. Interior. I suppose that's true wherever the weather is relatively good year round, and there is an abundance of affluent old men. Palm Springs, California is the best example.

 

August 4, 2008 ; Happy 150th Birthday to British Columbia

This morning we had a long meeting with our new investment broker / financial advisor. I recently "fired" the investment broker / financial advisor we "hired" about 15 months ago. We have met with Norm, our new investment broker / financial advisor twice in Penticton for short meetings, and now have met with him twice at Riverside RV Park Resort for long meetings. I am making significant changes, with long term implications, to our investment portfolios. I am now doing what I thought of doing, and should have done, 18 months ago. But ... now I feel like I'm shutting the barn door after the horse is gone, considering the very large declines in the value of our investments over the last 18 months. Oh, well ... I can't reverse time, and ... better late than never, I guess. Norm has met with us twice here at Riverside RV Park Resort, at his suggestion, which is a nice, comfortable way to meet, from our perspective. And he met with us today despite it being a holiday. We are feeling good about our decision to "fire" the other guy, and "hire" Norm. He seems to have a much better understanding of our lifestyle and goals. He "gets it" !

 

August 6, 2008 ; Dan Air Flight 403 / Mountain Performance Course Flight 3

The temperature reached about 100 degrees today. I like it ! Today's Mountain Performance Course Flight 3 was ... WOW ... bizarre ! While I flew, Joanne ran errands in Penticton.

Prior to my flight, my instructor briefed me on today's lesson activities. We started with a simulated short field takeoff, with a tall obstacle at the end of the field. The objective was to be airborne, at a higher altitude than the control tower by the time we passed by the tower. No problem. I was expecting a simulated engine failure on takeoff, at 500 feet altitude, with a forced approach either to the golf course, or back to the airport. My instructor pulled the throttle back to idle, simulating an engine failure, well before I had climbed to 500 feet. I knew I was too low to attempt a turn back to the airport, and I couldn't see the golf course yet. Okay ... I selected a plateau on the mountain right beside the airport. Well done ... I passed that test. We "contour crawled" to Oliver. I flew with the wingtip about 50 feet from the mountain side. Good ... next flight he wants me at 30 feet from the mountain side, less than the length of one wing. We flew through Vaseaux Canyon, which is about 500 feet wide with vertical cliff sides. We climbed over Vaseaux Canyon and practiced steep turns at 30 degrees of bank. Okay ... been there, done that ... many times. Then steep turns at 45 degrees of bank. Okay ... been there, done that ... a few times. Then ... steep turns at 60 degrees of bank. Sixty degrees of bank ? ! ? In a Cessna 172 ? ! ? Okay ! We did it with no flaps, 10 degrees, 20 degrees, 30 degrees, and 40 degrees of flaps. Thirty degrees was the most effective configuration, making the turn with the least amount of radius and highest degree of “stability”, so to speak. Then ... a continuous descending steep turn at 60 degrees of bank into Vaseaux Canyon. There’s a pretty fine line between that and a spiral dive ! ! ! Once fairly deep into Vaseaux Canyon, he had me make repeated 180 degree turns within the canyon walls to prove that it can be done, in a 500 foot wide canyon. Halfway through my first 180 degree turn, facing a wall of rock in front of me, I said " I don't think so !" He said "just bank it more, pull the nose up, and keep going". HMPH ... made it ! Did that three or four times.

We climbed out of Vaseaux Canyon and flew to the Oliver "practice area". We were going to do minimum radius turns using a variety of different, bizarre techniques. He explained a "hammerhead stall" and told me to perform one without him demonstrating it. < taking deep breath > Okay ... slow down to 80 MPH ... pull the control column all the way back, raising the nose to 45 degrees, until aerodynamic lift is lost and the aircraft stalls. Quickly, crank the control column all the way over, full deflection ailerons, banking at 90 degrees. Now the nose is up at 45 degrees, the wings are vertical to the ground instead of horizontal, and the aircraft is falling and flipping over. Quickly kick full rudder throwing it into a spin. After half a revolution of spinning, fully kick the opposite rudder pedal to stop the spin, slam the control column to full opposite aileron deflection to flip the wings from vertical back to horizontal, and smooooothly pull slowly out of the resulting dive, now facing in the opposite direction from where we started. HOLY SHIT ! ! ! I was turned around, having lost only about 300 feet of altitude, and had turned around within a radius of about 200 feet. What a stupid thing to do with a Cessna 172 ! No wonder these aircraft have cracks in them ! HA HA HA ! Let's do it again ! HA HA HA ! I did it four times. I suggested that it was an awfully extreme manoeuver to do in a Cessna 172, and I couldn't really see anyone doing that to turn around over a wheat field, like where I was trained to fly 23 years ago. But ... yes ... when the only other alternative was certain death by crashing into a mountain side, I could see choosing that manoeuver. And the point of the Mountain Performance Flight Course is to teach those alternatives to crashing into mountain sides. WHEW !

There was still one more very strange technique to learn. A "high speed" emergency manoeuver, performed just below the limit where full control deflection would tear the aircraft apart. At full throttle, pull the aircraft nose up quickly to about 45 degrees, then ram the control column forward to force the nose down, flying the airplane "over" an arc. At the point over the arc where one can feel one's butt rising up off the seat, at the point of passing through "zero gravity" into "negative g" ( hence the old term "flying by the seat of one's pants" ), crank the ailerons over to bank 90 degrees, pull the control column all the way back to prevent a spiral dive, zip around 180 degrees, roll out of the bank, pull up out of the dive before you "redline" the airspeed indicator and rip off the wings, et voilà ... you're turned around ! My instructor demonstrated it first. With nothing for me to hold onto while he demonstrated it, I experienced vertigo and nausea, something I haven't felt in an aircraft in a very long time. The "g" forces were quite strong. When I did it, holding onto the control stick, there was no sensation of nausea, just a bit of vertigo from the "g" forces. I did it four times. WHEW ! I pointed out to him that performing that manoeuver with a "civilian" passenger would result in puking in the aircraft. Yeah, he concurred, but better a puking passenger than a dead one. Good point !

On the way back to Penticton we practiced engine failures / forced approaches, sometimes while "contour crawling" right beside the mountain sides with no obvious acceptable places to land. But, surprisingly, the convective current "lift" coming off the mountain sides on a very hot day gave me superb gliding abilities, and I was always able to glide down the mountain sides until a suitable landing location in the valley would present itself. The moral of this Mountain Performance Flying Course is ... don't hit the mountain sides ! ! ! And ... even then ... if that does become the only option, they teach how to hit the mountain side "correctly". HA HA HA ! I'm not kidding !

My instructor pointed out to me some large red stains on a mountain side near White Lake. They were from fire retardant foam drops yesterday. There was a small forest fire there, and because it was near the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, the fire was fought aggressively from the air before it got out of hand. My approach and landing back at Penticton was to be a simulated short field. My instructor wanted me down and stopped on the runway before reaching the 500 foot marker lines. Oh ... well done, Daniel ! ! ! I was down and stopped well before the 500 foot mark.

Joanne picked me up at the airport and we went down to Okanagan Lake on the north side of Penticton for the Penticton Peach Festival activities. We parked and walked into Okanagan Lake Park. We wandered around all the vendor stands, bought a donair to share, and sat down to watch the music duo performing on the stage. First time since we left Ottawa over four years ago that we've had a decent, authentic donair. We didn't like the music duo so we left Okanagan Lake Park and wandered over to Gyro Park, to the Aboriginal Village set up there as part of the Peach Festival. Once again we wandered around the vendors. I was still hungry, and bought a barbecued salmon "sandwich". SUPERB ! ! ! A large, thick slab of wild sockeye salmon, caught in the Fraser River ( as only the First Nations people are allowed to do ), slowly barbecued, slathered with butter as it cooked, served on a large, thick, round, hot, fresh piece of bannock ( a slightly sweet Indian Fry Bread ). Joanne had a bannock dog ! A wiener served in bannock. After eating we wandered back to Okanagan Lake Park to watch another musical group, Kyle And His Amazing Rubber Band. We had seen this group perform before, at Cherry Fiesta in Osoyoos onCanada Day.

I realized, just now as I'm typing this, that my flight instructor forgot to give me the last exercise of today's flight, landing with jammed ailerons. I'll have to remember to remind him on our next flight.

DSK