A long days flying.

[Curval]

Originally posted by Habu
You have been in Buttonville? That is where I learned to fly. They have a Druxy's deli there but I went to Guelph for breakfast that day. Not a bad meal but the runway is like 20 feet wide.

When I went to York University we had to do a science course as a prerequisite for your degree.  I chose the class called "Science of Flight".  There was a WHOLE lot of fairly complicated (for me) physics involved in the class, which was somewhat of a nasty shock, but one thing we had to do was either:

1.  Do a few flights on a simulator

OR

2.  Actually take a plane up with an instructor.

Naturally I chose #2.  

We tried to go on 3 different occasions at Buttonville Airport (which is why I had spent the time to sit and eat breakfast there) but each time the weather wouldn't co-operate.  When we finally went the instructor let me take the controls for most of my flight...including take-off.  He dealt with the radio, navigation, flaps and trim...but I had the yoke.  Amazing experience.

[LePaul]

You know, I remember you looking around at various o-2's a while ago but never heard back on what you bought, from where, etc

Do tell!

Gorgeous planes....love to find a worthy one someday

[Habu]

Hi LePaul

Right now I own an ultralight trike and a 1957 Cessna 182.

The Cessna is getting a major restoration with new long range tanks, wing extensions, Horton Stol kit, Fuel flow instrument, new paint and some minor sheet metal work.

The O2 in the pictures has been sold as of last week to some buyers in North Bay Ontario.

I have my eye out for another O2-A that is more authentic. That one had the radio rack removed and the did not have a gunsight etc. As a warbird it was missing enough stuff that I thought it would not have the same value as one that is original. I have found 2 others that I am interested in and will post the details when I go see them.

Having said that I will miss that plane. I logged almost 200 hours in it over the past year. It was a great plane to fly.

[CyranoAH]

Thanks for the thread Habu!

[AquaShrimp]

While the O-2 fleet was retired and mothballed to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, as recently as 2005, 0-2s were spotted operating out of the military side of Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.

[LePaul]

Boy that's not an inexpensive upgrade!

One of my friends has been re-doing a 1980-something C-172.  I happened to be there when his new motor and prop arrived.  $29,000 bucks right there.  He had just put the seats in instrument panel back in the aircraft...he had it in his paint shop for a fresh priming and several coats of white paint.  He's putting the wings and elevators back on in a few weeks.

I so miss flying.  Since I bought a house and the affiliated costs that come with it, flying was the first thing to have to be sacrificed for now.

[Habu]

Hi LePaul. Here is another photo essay on the other two planes.

On Saturday I decided to go and visit the place that is working on my Cessna. Since it is 4 hours away I decided to take the ultralight. Below is a picture of the it. It has a 100 hp engine and cruises at 90 kph.



View just after takeoff. Climbing out over some trees.



En route. This is what the earth looks like from 3000 feet up. I am making 100 kph or just about 60 mph. The beautiful scenery is southern Ontario. I had a bit of a tail wind so my GPS (not shown) indicated I was actually making close to 70 mph over the ground.



Another shot of beautiful southern Ontario. There are not a lot of people living in this part of the province. The roads are never busy. This lake is man made, there is a dam at the other end.



I landed and gave the guy the parts that he needed to finish my airplane. Here is a picture of the fuselage without the wings and tail on. It is about to be stripped. I will post a picture of it once it is painted.



Flying home. Remember that tail wind on the way there? Well now it is a headwind. To try and avoid it I climbed up above the clouds. Wind often is vastly different just above a cloud layer. I was rewarded with a wind that was blowing opposite in direction so I had a tail wind both ways. Only problem is that at this altitude it is damn cold. Even though it was high 80's on the ground it was close to freezing up here.




A shot of my instruments on the way back. Notice I was over 6400 feet at this point. I eventually leveled off at 8000 feet as that is where the best wind was. Hard to believe that a thing that looks like a lawn chair under a hang glider wing can motor along at 90 kph and climb up to 12,500 feet (the highest I have had it up to.)

[SFRT - Frenchy]

 I'll be craping my pants.

[deSelys]

I sooooo would like to jump from your lawnmower... 6000 ft would be plenty enough!

Very nice pics, thanks

[ChickenHawk]

Awesome pictures.  You are a lucky man Habu.

[Habu]

Thanks for all the comments.

Sometimes when I fly really high I do get vertigo. I start to think of my whole life hanging on a single bolt and it is all I can do to keep from descending as fast as I can down to 1000'.

Of course any drop over 50' is probably not going to have a great ending so there is no rational reason for being afraid at 9,000' and not at 1,000'.

[Larokkit]

Habu,  
   what brand/model of ultralight is that,wondering what one might cost . its a very cool plane.  thanks for the pics.

[Habu]

Mine is a DTA Voyageur 912S. It is an expensive one since it is priced in Euros and the exchange has been bad. I paid about $50,000 CDN for it when I got it 2 years ago, I see they are now listed for $38,800.00
on the US dealers site. It is very robust and I wanted one that had been overbuilt in terms of strength. However there are good ones out there that cost less.


DTA Trikes

If I were buying one now I would also check out this  one made in Australia. They make a good one with a 912 engine as well.

Airborne Trikes

You can also get them with 2-stroke engines for under $20,000 USD new and probably half that used.

[Larokkit]

cool,thanks.