AH-1 Cobra Pilot

After a long time flying, I finally got my tail wheel endorsement! I highly recommend it to any pilot as a skill improving experience. I recently read an article that said pilots who learn to fly in a tail dragger have an accident rate 60% lower. I wonder if there is an accident reduction for pilots with tail wheel endorsements? The article did not say... I got the endorsement in a J-3 Cub and a Stearman from here: https://ww2flighttraining.com/. Kevin is a great instructor and takes you to several grass strips in the local area so you can get more diversified training. He made it fun and interesting. I don't think you can find anyone better.

Great job!

Well, if the definition of ceramic is, as listed in your link, "an inorganic, non-metallic", that excludes lots of polymers, since they are organic. Seems more like marketing buzzword hype.

How about a picture?

I have had these in my J-model for some time now, and they are holding up well. I have made a few of these for other people. (I should have sanded these more before painting them, but they were a Beta test.) The eyeball vents came from Aircraft Spruce and are aluminum and plastic. They are not cheap, but very good quality. The size and shape of the fixture was made to accommodate these: I used carbon-fiber infused ABS. An acetone-based paint sticks really well and actually strengthens the print. They are attached with the same sized hardware you remove from the old vent covers, so you can put them in place without removing the overhead panel. I also designed another version with a lip that does have to have the overhead panel removed. PM me if you are interested.

I 3-D printed temporaries while I waited for replacements.

How much does he charge?

Yes, I am. I will PM you with the details.

If you do not have the retaining clip over the gear pump handle, your CB will pop once you move the gear handle to the UP position. Obviously, the gear will not go up, either.

Yes. It is too difficult to reach the hardware, otherwise. I do recommend attaching and removing the vent to the adapter prior to installing the adapter, just to ensure it goes in easier once you have it on the ceiling.

They attach with one bolt through the existing hole the old vent assembly uses.

Mine have been working for several years now, so I am reasonably confident they are good. I can make either the vents or the eyeball fixtures. PM me if you are interested.

Just doing the Math gives this engine a Specific Fuel Consumption of 0.345. That is pretty close to a big Cat diesel. If it sounds too good to be true...

This has lots of promise to make turbines cheaper:

In an effort not to repeat myself, look at my immediately previous comment. You will probably find the depictions counterintuitive.

Take a look at the link I included in a previous comment. It is surprising just how much of the airfoil surface has low pressure, even the underside, and just how little has high pressure.

Since I cannot post an image, you will have to follow the link to a bunch of plots that show something a little different. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=h_&q=plot+of+pressure+around+air+foil&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F368462380%2Ffigure%2Ffig9%2FAS%3A11431281120112258%401676377863994%2FPressure-distribution-over-NACA0012-airfoil-for-varying-angles-of-attack-where-Reynolds.ppm

Not quite correct. 1. Think of a symmetrical airfoil at zero angle of attack. Both sides will have high pressures in equal amounts up to a portion of the chord, and you have no lift or moment, but you do have drag. 2. How would that explain a stall?

I will take it! I will PM you with my address.

That is a pet peeve of mine; not clearly announcing your intentions. Always say "Full Stop", "Low Pass", or "Touch and Go" when you make any/all of your pattern position calls.

I have not yet read that issue of AOPA Pilot, but the conversation above makes me think of three things: As nobody above has mentioned it, does the article talk about compressible vs. incompressible flow? Pressure is simply Newton's Third Law in gas. Most of these things are really obvious if you take some time to play with a wind tunnel that has smoke generators and a rotatable airfoil.

A guy told a funny story about that. In AH-64 training, he and the other students would always feel really sick after clearing the tail while still on the ground and under the hood. (Since your vision came through the optics mounted on the nose, turning you head from 180o to -180o was very disorienting.) The instructor had a display showing where the student's helmet was facing, so if you did not clear the tail, you would get cussed out, and you still had to do it. One day, his buddy came in saying he had figured it out. "You just close your eyes, move your head from all the way back-right to all the way back-left then forward, and then you can open your eyes!"

Gaw! I always cringe reading things written by people with no experience or knowledge about what they write about. "Radio altitude" , etc.

Ours was FACIT. F Around, Call It Training.

In 1984, I think, the Navy LDO program changed from LCDR to CDR as the top rank they could make. Most of the LDOs in my AOCS class were more than happy to end a 20-year career as a LCDR.