Citabria = Wow!

I started my tailwheel endorsement training today in a Citabria at KVKX (Potomac airfield, Maryland) and 2W5 and had a bunch of firsts for me. They included:

• tailwheel takeoffs and landings
• really steep turns (60 degree or more)
• loops, that was something else
  
• spins, that was even more something else
• grass field landings
• flying a non-six pack (instrument layout) airplane
  

The Citabria is, unfortunately, very tight for my legs (knees almost in my ears I think) so I would probably not want to fly a lot in it but I think that plane can do pretty much anything.

tailwheels and you learn something every day

Here's a tidbit that I didn't know until today:
"The name Citabria is simply Airbatic spelled backwards." (I picked that up from http://ke3gg.net/whatis.htm).

The reason that I bring that up is that I'm looking to get a tailwheel endorsement so I'm going to get a lesson this weekend.

fascinating video on tailplane icing

i stumbled on a fascinating video on tailplane icing at:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2238323060735779946&hl=en

from what i've heard about the recent accident it sounds like a potential culprit. one of the many interesting points is that flying on autopilot would reduce that chance that the pilot would "feel" any change in control due to accumulation of ice on the tailplane (horizontal stabilizer).
it's worth it to watch the entire video. at 15:45 minutes in, there's an actual tail stall during a test flight causing a pitch down that is clear evidence of a very dangerous situation for an unprepared pilot. this happened to a tail that had only a portion modified to simulate icing. i can't imaging how bad it would have been had the entire surface been iced.

logbook finally in a database

I finally got around to making a little MySQL database and putting my 17 pages of logbook into it (and finding some addition errors). It's interesting to do things like query for number of flights for each day of the week, hours per month/year and so on (kind of like using a spreadsheet to do all sorts of what if exercises rather than actually doing any work).
At least it's useful and gives me a few more practical database exercises to work on.

winds aloft (and wind shear)

I was hoping to fly today on across country down to KXSA (Tappahannock in the Richmond area) but the winds are probably a bit too high.
This is what the winds aloft look like now:

DATA BASED ON 010600Z  
VALID 011200Z   FOR USE 0800-1500Z. TEMPS NEG ABV 24000

FT  3000    6000    9000   12000   18000   24000  30000  34000  39000

EMI 2752 2748+02 2757-03 2746-08 2847-23 2855-35 276948 277057 266663

This says that EMI (Westminster) weather winds are aloft are from 270 at 52 knots at 3,000 feet and from 270 at 48 knots at 6,000. That's a big high for our little bug smashers.
The current weather at Dulles (KIAD) shows:

KIAD 011133Z 0112/0218 19008KT P6SM SKC WS020/26040KT

That says that winds at the surface are from 190 at 8 knots (not bad at all). However, it also says that there's a wind shear alert of winds from 260 at 40 knots at 2,000 feet.
I've never actually seen a wind shear alert so it caught my eye right away. Looks like it's a flight sim day for me today.