teakettle31

A Site To Catalog My Aircraft Adventures

Boeing 777

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Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Boeing
Aircraft Model: 777
Aircraft Nickname: “Triple 7”
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Large Jet
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown:
Date First Flown: 07/17/2006
Location First Flown: Paine Field, Everett, WA
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Boeing flight test. Tom I.

Aircraft Experience
As of: 07/29/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 145
Number of Times Flown: 45
Other Aircraft Models Associated: 777F, 777-9

Recollections: My summary of the 777 is that it is an AMAZING AIRPLANE, performance wise. But (sorry Boeing bubbas), I don’t particularly enjoy it’s handling qualities. They’re not bad…it’s just not as tight as the other Boeings.

First the performance. I might have the numbers slightly wrong but I was part of a crew that flew from Seattle to Cairns, Australia (for the purpose of testing a specific engine thrust configuration (called “Thrust Bump”) that could only be duplicated at Alice Springs, AUS. We took off, flew over 14 hours and landed in Australia. It only took about a “quarter of a tank of gas”. Now, we didn’t have any passengers but, still. Amazing performance!

So, why didn’t I like the way it handled? It just wasn’t “tight”. Starting with the flight control check on the ground….if you move the yoke too rapidly, the airplane starts waggling. It carries on from there. I believe it achieves its impressive performance being being optimized aerodynamically and structurally. That makes for a somewhat “flexible” airplane, which is fine, as long as it’s handled gently. Best flown on autopilot. It’s a very successful airplane, and promises to live on with the advent of the 777-9.

It also has some cool systems, including a “Crew Response Monitor”. This system monitors a number of controls in the cockpit–things like the Flight Management System, radios, and the like. If there are NO INPUTS by the pilot on these monitored systems for a certain amount of time (something like 90 minutes) a Caution level message comes on. Go longer and the message turns Red (warning level). Well, what else are you gonna do on a 14 hour transit but test the “Crew Response Monitor”? So, there we sat…making sure not to touch anything. And the monitor didn’t go off. “Did you touch something, Van?” “Nope, did you Bob?!” And, try as we might, we couldn’t get it to work. Upon landing, we squawked the clearly-inoperative monitor. The response from Engineering (I can just see the engineer rolling their eyes) is “it’s an option, that airplane doesn’t have the option”. Oops. Still need to find an airplane with the option and do that test again.

Oh, yes, and it has a nice Ram Air Turbine (RAT).

Boeing KC-46 Tanker

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Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Boeing
Aircraft Model: 767
Aircraft Nickname: Pegasus
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Large Jet
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Turbine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown:
Date First Flown: 10/05/2016
Location First Flown: Boeing Field, Seattle, WA
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Boeing Flight Test, Norm Howell

Aircraft Experience
As of: 07/29/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 174
Number of Times Flown: 67
Other Aircraft Models Associated: 767-2C, KC-46, 767-300

Recollections: The USAF needed a tanker to replace the aging KC-135. After years of contractual wrangling (including Airbus first winning, then losing the competition, and an aborted lease arrangement derailed by Senator John McCain) Boeing finally started working on the replacement. The program was as administratively complicated as is humanly possible…the basic airplane was an Amended Type Cert program called the 767-2C, this would be combined with a Supplemental Type program (STC) called the KC-46A and it would all be managed by 3 different FAA offices, at least 3 USAF offices, and two different wings of the Boeing company. Whew! The meetings were exhasuting!

The airplane was good to fly, although the program was fairly limited in scope from a pilot perspective…owing to similarity of design with it’s predecessors. So…the “good Aero stuff” (like braking, takeoff and landing performance and much of the basic stability and control) was either nonexistent or limited in scope. The “refueling stuff” promised to be interesting but FAA management decided to delegate that mostly to Boeing. What was left was a series of systems testing and basic fuel system testing, along with the ever-interesting testing concerning Smoke and Fire protection aspects.

The airplane was, to me, proof of the adage “a Boeing is a Boeing”. There was talk of getting me a type rating in the 767 but, in the end, the KC-46 was–on the flight deck at least–closer to a 787 than the original 767. And, the procedures we so similar to the other models that transitioning to it was simple.

The best part of the program was the goal….of fielding a successor to the KC-135 that would serve the USAF Warfighter.

Cessna 150/152

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Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Cessna
Aircraft Model: 150/152
Aircraft Nickname:
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane SE Piston
Category: Airplane
Class: Single Engine Land
Engine Description: Single Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown:
Date First Flown: 08/22/1981
Location First Flown: Corpus Christi, TX
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Did not record

Aircraft Experience
As of: 06/06/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 98
Number of Times Flown: 65
Other Aircraft Models Associated: C-150, C-152

Recollections: Even though the Cessna 150/152 is one of the most common training airplanes in the world, I didn’t fly one until after I’d gotten my Navy wings. The purpose of this flight was to enable me to add a Single Engine Land FAA rating to my newly-minted FAA Multi-engine Land rating…a rating which I had received by “equivalency” while getting my wings in the Navy’s T-44 King Air.

What I remember most about this flight was the man I flew with. Unfortunately, my logbook is not very detailed and I didn’t record his name. But I remember him and the flight well. I was getting a check flight from a local Corpus Christi, TX Fixed-Base-Operator (FBO) from which I planned to rent the C-152 to take a checkride with the FAA. The instructor seemed ancient to my only-recently-winged 23 year-old self. He didn’t say much and, frankly, I wasn’t sure he was really “with it” as I flew the plane out to a working area to demonstrate slow flight, stalls, etc. After some basic air work, he directed me to fly south towards an uncontrolled, austere landing strip for some pattern work. “Austere” is a kind word for UNBELIEVABLY narrow. The strip’s paved area was maybe a total of 10-15 feet wider than the C-152’s landing gear. Beyond that lay what appear to be, at best, rocky bare earth or, at worst, sand that might “swallow” up the 152. Ok, no problem….it’s my first time in this airplane but I’m a Naval Aviator, after all. Upon arrival we did an aerial inspection of the strip, to discover there was a 15-20 knot direct crosswind. I pointed this out to the elderly instructor who’s un-rushed response was “So?”. Well, I guess I’m going to have to do this, I thought. So, I setup my best pattern, tried to stay ahead of the plane and think through the challenging approach and touch and go….account for the wind in the pattern, use partial flaps (the strip was plenty long, if not wide), get that top wing down early enough to judge the wind, remember to keep the aileron into the wind when on the ground, don’t forget the carb heat, etc. Well, let’s just say the approach, landing and touch and go were–while not my best work–safe. I didn’t go off the side of the narrow pavement. I felt fairly successful, having only flown the plane for maybe 30 minutes at that point. I do remember that I was fairly active on the controls but my instructor seemed just barely awake. He was nowhere NEAR the controls (surprising to me) and appeared to me to be just this side of conscious. After I lifted off, I looked over at him and said “What next?” (hoping the answer would be “that was great, let’s go home”). Instead, he answered “Mind if I show you one?” and, for the first time that day, he took the controls. I remember being nervous…my youthful reflexes and recent Naval wings of gold had combined to make my landing safe but not comfortable…what was this old guy going to be able to do? Well, his approach, landing and touch-go were flown with minimal control movements, it seemed like there was no wind (though it was still there), the airplane appeared to be on an “invisible rail in the sky”, and the runway might’ve well have been a hundred feet wide….and I watched him perform a flawless pattern, smooth as can be, with no hint of working hard. After that, he gave me back the controls and gave me a few tips during my next pattern. Tips I remembered and used on every crosswind landing that I’ve flown since. It took me a while, but this young “whipper snapper” learned a thing or two from the “Yoda of Corpus” that day.

Hawker Horizon

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Hawker 4000 Horizon (file photo)
www.airliners.net
Hawker 4000 test “everything INCLUDING the Kitchen Sink” (drain mast testing)
(c) The Raytheon company

Anti-skid inoperative test gone bad
(c) Bob Stoney

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Hawker Beechcraft
Aircraft Model: 4000
Aircraft Nickname: Horizon
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Business Jet
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown:
Date First Flown: 05/19/2004
Location First Flown: KBEC Beech Field, Wichita KS
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Darren Gould, Beech flight test

Aircraft Experience
As of: 07/29/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 190
Number of Times Flown: 130
Other Aircraft Models Associated: Raytheon, Hawker, Beech 4000

Recollections: This airplane is probably the best handling business jet I’ve flown. It flew like a dream, with very smooth controls, good stability but not so much that it adversely affected controllability and a cockpit that was dead-simple to operate in. As nice as the machine was, it was a nightmare from a certification/project perspective. Much delayed, it was Beech’s first Transport Category certification and I just don’t think they were ready for the level of engineering required to certify it. That, and the program went on long enough that there was a lot of turnover in the personnel working it.

For me, it was a test pilot’s dream. Though just a “project pilot” (not the lead, that job was accomplished by Kevin Campbell who, as I have mentioned, was the best mentor a person new to civil cert could have) I got to do a lot of the Stability and Control work, field performance (both takeoff and landing), and braking…along with a wide variety of systems and failure-case testing. It was an excellent program in that respect and I enjoyed working with a number of very good test pilots. In the end, I flew “the heck” out of the airplane and may have known it as well as a pilot can know an airplane. All of that was for naught, however, in that I never received a Type Rating. The FAA, like a lot of large organizations, has inertia for days and an administrative decision by an FAA employee meant I wasn’t “qualified” to receive a type rating. There is no less standardized a process than how test pilots get (or don’t get) type ratings. Oh, well.

The airplane was finally certified (after I transferred to Seattle) and sold in some numbers prior to the production being canceled. I still dream of the chance to fly it again someday.

Boeing 787

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Boeing 787 (file photo)
The Boeing Company

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Boeing
Aircraft Model: 787
Aircraft Nickname: Dreamliner
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Large Jet
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown:
Date First Flown: 04/30/2010
Location First Flown: KVCV, Victorville, CA
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Boeing Flight Test (Heather)

Aircraft Experience
As of: 06/06/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 415
Number of Times Flown: 126
Other Aircraft Models Associated: B787-9, B787-9, B787-10

Recollections: In virtually every way, the Boeing 787 was revolutionary. From it’s advanced aerodynamics, to composite structure (enabling, in part, that aerodynamics), to full 3-axis fly-by-wire flight controls, to advanced engines (from not just one, but two manufacturers), to advanced electrical, pneumatic and avionics systems this airplane was truly “all new”. The target was to improve fuel efficiency by 20% and I think they got close to that.