flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
Here's what I saw in my very limited time at OSH today...
Because I had to drive rather than fly, I missed the arrival of the White Knight carrying SpaceShipOne. I did spend plenty of time at the Garmin tent and booth, among other places.
Step one was to purchase my ticket and an EAA membership. I haven't been a member since 1987 when my dad brought me to the show (back then, membership was required to get on the flight line).
I had parked in the red lot, so as soon as I was through the gate I was at the warbirds section, looking at a LOT of P51's.
Goal number one today was to take a look at the Garmin 396, and I hadn't been to the show in so long I had to buy a program for the maps and such. It was quite a long walk, and the mass warbird arrival overhead to start the airshow kept me entertained.
They did a tribute to Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin which included a dual missing man formation while taps was played. I think that was the only thing the whole time I was there that actually got every person to stop and pay attention. The crowd noise ceased entirely, people stopped walking and looked skyward. Not everyone knew what it was for (some nearby people asked me), but even those who didn't remembered the shows with the amazing jet-powered Waco.
Between AeroShell Square and runway 18/36 I saw N504EA (Eclipse 500) hooked to a tug with a crowd of Eclipse folks including the lucky guy who got to be the test pilot on their first flight. I peeked inside for a bit. It's smaller than I thought it'd be. I didn't sit down in it, but I'm not sure us tall guys will fit in there very well. I'd deal with it though.
I later caught another glimpse of N504EA parked next to N505EA in the Eclipse tent with a guard keeping everyone out.
I ended up at AeroShell Square, where the White Knight and SpaceShipOne were drawing lots of attention. From a distance (and from behind) I mistook it as the GlobalFlyer since I saw the Virgin logo on a tail - But then I saw the twin engines and knew I was wrong. WK/SSO looks very different in real life than it does in the pictures that I've seen. SSO also looks like it'd be pretty cramped for three people. However, it's certainly a striking, futuristic design that seems like something out of those "what will the world be like in the year 2000" books from ages ago.
Other things in AeroShell Square included some current military birds (F-16, C-130, etc.), Duggy ("the smile in the sky"), a Beech Starship that was used as the chase plane for WK/SSO and the GlobalFlyer takeoff and landing, a Dornier tri-motor (turboprop) flying boat, and plenty of other things you don't see on your ramp every day.
Due to the EAA map being cockeyed I went South from AeroShell Square. I spotted the Adam Aircraft tent. They had both an A500 and an A700. The A700 looks MUCH larger than the Eclipse. The interior appears to be longer if not any bigger around. However, it will certainly take a larger hangar with its large tail and what looked to be a greater wingspan. This thing is NOT built for a T-hangar, even a big one.
Walking out of the back side of the Adam tent, I spotted my number one goal: The Garmin tent. They actually had two tents and a large corner booth. One tent was playing a video about the 296. The other had three G1000 setups: One that you could poke around with, one in a glass case showing the display separate from the LRU's, and one in a nifty setup that included a Frasca simulator and a secondary PC with MSFS so you could do VFR as well. I watched a few others stall and crash trying to land the thing and then went inside. They had several 530/430 radio stack setups to play with and even one or two Garmin AT stacks. They also had quite a few 396's and an iQue.
I poked around with a 396 for a while. It does do weather on the automotive pages as well as the aviation ones. With a Street Pilot 2520 in my truck and a Garmin 430 in our 182, my brain speaks Garmin pretty well, and I was able to find things quite easily. This unit, while being a handheld, also has quite a few features that require your avionics guy to wire some things into your panel. (The 396 can still be unplugged and easily removed from the plane.) It can communicate flight plans back and forth with the 430 or 530, get TIS traffic info from a Mode S transponder, tune the SL30 or SL40 radios, and it can get power from the panel as well.
When I asked about the magnets in the antenna, I wasn't very happy with the guy's answer. It was something to the effect of "Yeah, but who cares? My compass could be spinning around and I'd probably never notice it. Besides, you've got the GPS so you know where you're going anyway..." Hmmm.
After I'd satisfied most of my curiosity about the 396, I headed back out to the tent to have a go at the sim. I was the last pilot of the day... Just barely squeaked in there! I wanted to try an approach on the G1000, so I had them put me on the ground at MSN (I had no plates, so I had to fly an approach I was familiar with.) I asked for an 1100 MSL overcast because I wanted to land out of an ILS, but I got one better: When the Frasca instructor station is used to move the plane, the MSFS part takes like two minutes to catch up. So, I just did a 0/0 takeoff and the MSFS (VFR) portion never caught up with me - All it showed was blue sky. I punched in a flight plan right back to MSN via the ILS 21. Anyone who's familiar with the 430 or 530 won't have much trouble using the GPS functions of the G1000 since they're basically the same. I flew direct HOBIG, did the procedure turn, came back in and flew an ILS to the ground, landing it well enough that I didn't get the red screen on the MSFS box. Not bad for my first time with the G1000!
A few impressions of the G1000 itself: The resolution is excellent. The horizon line never gets any "jaggies" (it must be antialiased). With such a large display of AI-type information, it seems ultra-sensitive at first. Once I got somewhat used to it though, WOW! You can do a two-degree bank with amazing precision if you want to.
The primary flight instruments are replaced as follows:
AI - Horizon line and the familiar blue over brown are the background for the entire display. The pitch index is right in the middle and the ends of the scale can change so that when you pitch way up, for example, you don't end up cluttering the HSI portion. The bank index is an arc up "in the sky" with an arrow underneath. This is where the "ball" is too, but more on that later.
DG/HSI - There is a graphical HSI in the lower half of the screen, centered left to right. It's slaved, so no need for that knob. I never needed the OBS knob as the GPS flight plan set it for me automagically, but I think it's got a dedicated knob on one side of the screen. The heading bug knob is on the right side of the screen in the middle, and the heading bug can be set to the current course by pushing the knob in. There is also an indication of what the nav source is for this HSI, and it can be set not only to Nav/GPS like with Garmin's steam nav gauges, it can also be set to Nav2 and it knows when you're on a localizer frequency and says so. In addition, the arrow is purple for a nav-type indication, and turns Green for GPS indications. Smart idea.
Airspeed indicator: Tape, left center of the screen. There are little arrows marked "R," "X," "G," and "Y" for those V-speeds and I think more of these can be set. The colored "arcs" are replaced by color bars along the right side of the tape. There is also a purple trend line on the side closer to the center of the screen. That had me a bit confused because at first it made me want to push/pull the yoke opposite of where I should have to correct the trend, but I got used to it fairly quickly.
Altimeter and VSI: Tape, right center of screen. You can set an altitude bug. Altimeter indications are on the inner half of this tape, VSI on the outer side.
Now, for the turn coordinator: This is the instrument I was most confused about WRT how the glass panel replaced it. On the G1000, there is a purple turn trend arc on top of the HSI part of the display, and there are tick marks for half and standard rate turns in each direction. The ball is replaced by a horizontal line immediately underneath the arrow on the bank index that slides left and right just like a ball would. Step on the line. When you're coordinated, the line makes the bank triangle look bigger. It's kind of hard to explain, but it works well.
You can only see one nav (the HSI), but you can easily switch indications from nav1 to nav2 to GPS and back by pushing the "CDI" button on the bottom.
Transponder functions are controlled by pressing the "XPNDR" button, which brings up buttons for VFR, ALT, IDENT, etc. along the bottom. To set a specific squawk, you push one of those buttons and it transforms the buttons into number keys. (These "buttons" are all the soft keys along the bottom row of the display.)
The G1000 also replaces the engine gauges, putting graphical ones down the left side of the MFD. There is a lean-assist mode and most everything you would expect out of a good GEM is there.
You can bring up small windows in the corners of the PFD (out of the way of the instrument indication areas) for things like traffic, terrain, weather, flight plan, etc. if you're properly equipped (for TIS traffic and/or datalink weather).
Phew! OK, enough about the G1000. They kicked me out after I landed and I headed back towards AeroShell square, stopping by the Seawind tent this time.
The Seawind is one of those planes that looks like it'll be a LOT of fun and certainly on my list! The interior is quite roomy, at 6'4" I wouldn't want to be any taller and try to fit in it, but the cabin is quite wide and there was plenty of legroom. They're using a Sagem glass panel ("Huh?" It used to be Arnav, one of the options in the early days of Cirrus). A few interesting items: There is an avgas-powered trolling motor right next to where the nose gear is, and it retracts for flight as well. Speaking of the nose gear, it can be steered in the traditional method with the rudder pedals, but there is also an electrical steering system with a rocker switch and a pushbutton "center" switch. I want one!
By this time, most of the exhibitors were leaving for dinner. I did get to peek into a Javelin jet (complete with fake cardboard panel and a picture of the avionics!), a couple of Mooneys (Mmmmm, G1000 Mooneys...) and some other stuff. I also collected free stuff, ate a brat while enjoying Sean Tucker's performance, and just basked in the coolness (figuratively speaking, of course) of being at the big show again!
The last thing I did was to go to the edge right near 18R so I could watch how the departures are handled. The EAA volunteers and FAA controllers handled things quite smoothly, with signals you'd have to be a blind idiot to misread.
As I began walking back towards my car, I reflected on how amazing some of the technology we have now is. White Knight and SpaceShip One, all the VLJ's, and the G1000 would have been beyond most of our wildest imaginations 10 years ago.
And then it started raining and I got very wet. I was glad I didn't fly in today, I might not have made it back out. Maybe next year... Sigh. If only I had a couple more days to spend there...
Because I had to drive rather than fly, I missed the arrival of the White Knight carrying SpaceShipOne. I did spend plenty of time at the Garmin tent and booth, among other places.
Step one was to purchase my ticket and an EAA membership. I haven't been a member since 1987 when my dad brought me to the show (back then, membership was required to get on the flight line).
I had parked in the red lot, so as soon as I was through the gate I was at the warbirds section, looking at a LOT of P51's.
Goal number one today was to take a look at the Garmin 396, and I hadn't been to the show in so long I had to buy a program for the maps and such. It was quite a long walk, and the mass warbird arrival overhead to start the airshow kept me entertained.
They did a tribute to Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin which included a dual missing man formation while taps was played. I think that was the only thing the whole time I was there that actually got every person to stop and pay attention. The crowd noise ceased entirely, people stopped walking and looked skyward. Not everyone knew what it was for (some nearby people asked me), but even those who didn't remembered the shows with the amazing jet-powered Waco.
Between AeroShell Square and runway 18/36 I saw N504EA (Eclipse 500) hooked to a tug with a crowd of Eclipse folks including the lucky guy who got to be the test pilot on their first flight. I peeked inside for a bit. It's smaller than I thought it'd be. I didn't sit down in it, but I'm not sure us tall guys will fit in there very well. I'd deal with it though.
I later caught another glimpse of N504EA parked next to N505EA in the Eclipse tent with a guard keeping everyone out.I ended up at AeroShell Square, where the White Knight and SpaceShipOne were drawing lots of attention. From a distance (and from behind) I mistook it as the GlobalFlyer since I saw the Virgin logo on a tail - But then I saw the twin engines and knew I was wrong. WK/SSO looks very different in real life than it does in the pictures that I've seen. SSO also looks like it'd be pretty cramped for three people. However, it's certainly a striking, futuristic design that seems like something out of those "what will the world be like in the year 2000" books from ages ago.
Other things in AeroShell Square included some current military birds (F-16, C-130, etc.), Duggy ("the smile in the sky"), a Beech Starship that was used as the chase plane for WK/SSO and the GlobalFlyer takeoff and landing, a Dornier tri-motor (turboprop) flying boat, and plenty of other things you don't see on your ramp every day.
Due to the EAA map being cockeyed I went South from AeroShell Square. I spotted the Adam Aircraft tent. They had both an A500 and an A700. The A700 looks MUCH larger than the Eclipse. The interior appears to be longer if not any bigger around. However, it will certainly take a larger hangar with its large tail and what looked to be a greater wingspan. This thing is NOT built for a T-hangar, even a big one.
Walking out of the back side of the Adam tent, I spotted my number one goal: The Garmin tent. They actually had two tents and a large corner booth. One tent was playing a video about the 296. The other had three G1000 setups: One that you could poke around with, one in a glass case showing the display separate from the LRU's, and one in a nifty setup that included a Frasca simulator and a secondary PC with MSFS so you could do VFR as well. I watched a few others stall and crash trying to land the thing and then went inside. They had several 530/430 radio stack setups to play with and even one or two Garmin AT stacks. They also had quite a few 396's and an iQue.
I poked around with a 396 for a while. It does do weather on the automotive pages as well as the aviation ones. With a Street Pilot 2520 in my truck and a Garmin 430 in our 182, my brain speaks Garmin pretty well, and I was able to find things quite easily. This unit, while being a handheld, also has quite a few features that require your avionics guy to wire some things into your panel. (The 396 can still be unplugged and easily removed from the plane.) It can communicate flight plans back and forth with the 430 or 530, get TIS traffic info from a Mode S transponder, tune the SL30 or SL40 radios, and it can get power from the panel as well.
When I asked about the magnets in the antenna, I wasn't very happy with the guy's answer. It was something to the effect of "Yeah, but who cares? My compass could be spinning around and I'd probably never notice it. Besides, you've got the GPS so you know where you're going anyway..." Hmmm.
After I'd satisfied most of my curiosity about the 396, I headed back out to the tent to have a go at the sim. I was the last pilot of the day... Just barely squeaked in there! I wanted to try an approach on the G1000, so I had them put me on the ground at MSN (I had no plates, so I had to fly an approach I was familiar with.) I asked for an 1100 MSL overcast because I wanted to land out of an ILS, but I got one better: When the Frasca instructor station is used to move the plane, the MSFS part takes like two minutes to catch up. So, I just did a 0/0 takeoff and the MSFS (VFR) portion never caught up with me - All it showed was blue sky. I punched in a flight plan right back to MSN via the ILS 21. Anyone who's familiar with the 430 or 530 won't have much trouble using the GPS functions of the G1000 since they're basically the same. I flew direct HOBIG, did the procedure turn, came back in and flew an ILS to the ground, landing it well enough that I didn't get the red screen on the MSFS box. Not bad for my first time with the G1000!
A few impressions of the G1000 itself: The resolution is excellent. The horizon line never gets any "jaggies" (it must be antialiased). With such a large display of AI-type information, it seems ultra-sensitive at first. Once I got somewhat used to it though, WOW! You can do a two-degree bank with amazing precision if you want to.
The primary flight instruments are replaced as follows:
AI - Horizon line and the familiar blue over brown are the background for the entire display. The pitch index is right in the middle and the ends of the scale can change so that when you pitch way up, for example, you don't end up cluttering the HSI portion. The bank index is an arc up "in the sky" with an arrow underneath. This is where the "ball" is too, but more on that later.
DG/HSI - There is a graphical HSI in the lower half of the screen, centered left to right. It's slaved, so no need for that knob. I never needed the OBS knob as the GPS flight plan set it for me automagically, but I think it's got a dedicated knob on one side of the screen. The heading bug knob is on the right side of the screen in the middle, and the heading bug can be set to the current course by pushing the knob in. There is also an indication of what the nav source is for this HSI, and it can be set not only to Nav/GPS like with Garmin's steam nav gauges, it can also be set to Nav2 and it knows when you're on a localizer frequency and says so. In addition, the arrow is purple for a nav-type indication, and turns Green for GPS indications. Smart idea.
Airspeed indicator: Tape, left center of the screen. There are little arrows marked "R," "X," "G," and "Y" for those V-speeds and I think more of these can be set. The colored "arcs" are replaced by color bars along the right side of the tape. There is also a purple trend line on the side closer to the center of the screen. That had me a bit confused because at first it made me want to push/pull the yoke opposite of where I should have to correct the trend, but I got used to it fairly quickly.
Altimeter and VSI: Tape, right center of screen. You can set an altitude bug. Altimeter indications are on the inner half of this tape, VSI on the outer side.
Now, for the turn coordinator: This is the instrument I was most confused about WRT how the glass panel replaced it. On the G1000, there is a purple turn trend arc on top of the HSI part of the display, and there are tick marks for half and standard rate turns in each direction. The ball is replaced by a horizontal line immediately underneath the arrow on the bank index that slides left and right just like a ball would. Step on the line. When you're coordinated, the line makes the bank triangle look bigger. It's kind of hard to explain, but it works well.
You can only see one nav (the HSI), but you can easily switch indications from nav1 to nav2 to GPS and back by pushing the "CDI" button on the bottom.
Transponder functions are controlled by pressing the "XPNDR" button, which brings up buttons for VFR, ALT, IDENT, etc. along the bottom. To set a specific squawk, you push one of those buttons and it transforms the buttons into number keys. (These "buttons" are all the soft keys along the bottom row of the display.)
The G1000 also replaces the engine gauges, putting graphical ones down the left side of the MFD. There is a lean-assist mode and most everything you would expect out of a good GEM is there.
You can bring up small windows in the corners of the PFD (out of the way of the instrument indication areas) for things like traffic, terrain, weather, flight plan, etc. if you're properly equipped (for TIS traffic and/or datalink weather).
Phew! OK, enough about the G1000. They kicked me out after I landed and I headed back towards AeroShell square, stopping by the Seawind tent this time.
The Seawind is one of those planes that looks like it'll be a LOT of fun and certainly on my list! The interior is quite roomy, at 6'4" I wouldn't want to be any taller and try to fit in it, but the cabin is quite wide and there was plenty of legroom. They're using a Sagem glass panel ("Huh?" It used to be Arnav, one of the options in the early days of Cirrus). A few interesting items: There is an avgas-powered trolling motor right next to where the nose gear is, and it retracts for flight as well. Speaking of the nose gear, it can be steered in the traditional method with the rudder pedals, but there is also an electrical steering system with a rocker switch and a pushbutton "center" switch. I want one!
By this time, most of the exhibitors were leaving for dinner. I did get to peek into a Javelin jet (complete with fake cardboard panel and a picture of the avionics!), a couple of Mooneys (Mmmmm, G1000 Mooneys...) and some other stuff. I also collected free stuff, ate a brat while enjoying Sean Tucker's performance, and just basked in the coolness (figuratively speaking, of course) of being at the big show again!
The last thing I did was to go to the edge right near 18R so I could watch how the departures are handled. The EAA volunteers and FAA controllers handled things quite smoothly, with signals you'd have to be a blind idiot to misread.
As I began walking back towards my car, I reflected on how amazing some of the technology we have now is. White Knight and SpaceShip One, all the VLJ's, and the G1000 would have been beyond most of our wildest imaginations 10 years ago.
And then it started raining and I got very wet. I was glad I didn't fly in today, I might not have made it back out. Maybe next year... Sigh. If only I had a couple more days to spend there...
I think if I did have a DA4x I'd have to get one of those new Lightspeed Mach 1's.
Something blew up outside! Beginning of the airshow, presumably... Continued walking out BOOM toward the main hangar BOOM door, walking BOOM BOOM faster and faster BOOM as the BOOM explosions continued. You could feel them even inside the hangar. Outside, there were all sorts of wonderful GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGABOOOM! warbirds flying BOOM all over the place. They weren't dropping real bombs - They weren't actually dropping anything, it was just timed BOOM pyrotechnics on the ground, but they had noise, concussions, and fireballs so I guess it was close enough.