Fresh out my Hangar....

[Matt Wynn]

Sky Unlimiteds AT6D Texan/Harvard in RHAF (Royal Hellenic Air Force) markings.... on final straight now.... just checking it out before i upload....

[awj112]

Showing off a bit are we? :icon_lol::salute:

[Matt Wynn]

Showing off a bit are we? :icon_lol::salute:

just standard cruise altitude for me :icon_lol:

[SteveB]

just standard cruise altitude for me :icon_lol:

Go on admit it your afraid of heights ;)

[Matt Wynn]

i find altitude above me handy, requires nice levels of concentration to fly low :icon_lol: it's great low level practice...

[Blackbird686]

To see the wind from that prop at low altitude over the water actually create a little "ruffle" of the waves, would be an excellent effect! I have also noticed this with jets. Get low and fast over the water and no rooster tail. :icon_lol:

Very nice repaints, Matt... as always! :guinness:

BB686:USA-flag:

[Sunny9850]

You might be able to get something like that by adding a scrape or possibly better a float contact point in the center of the aircraft and the appropriate distance below the AC. As long as the mains are "longer" than that float or scrape point it should not affect the airplane when landing on solid ground.
I have not looked at the how, but the Virtavia/Alphasim Ekranoplan has a very nice spray effect when flying in ground effect over the water.

In real life I prefer altitude below my belly over space over my head.....even the best of engines can hickup. And a few feet mean zero reaction time before an unplanned touchdown :icon_lol:

Cheers
Stefan

[Tom Clayton]

Just maintain a decent amount of speed, then if your engine fails you can yank back on the controls to gain some space and scrub off speed to get the gear down!:jump:

[Sunny9850]

Have you ever flown a tank dry on a IO-540 ??? It gets your attention I can tell you even when you do it on purpose like I did right over my home base.
The old gal might just decide that even with restored fuel flow she does not want to simply re-light. And the zoom climb with zero power ends at probably 400-500 ft above where you started it.
With the Saratoga's "well thrown brick" like glide characteristics that means about 20 to 30 seconds above the ground. Not counting the time it might take you to utter the commonly heard expletives.

No time for trouble shooting.....just enough maybe to pick a suitable spot to put the aircraft down so that you can walk away from it. That is fine for FS but not my cup of tea for real world flying.
I do have one dead stick landing under my belt in our Archer. That one was a mechanical failure that occurred while on downwind with two on board and approximately 20 gal of fuel. That was a piece of cake. I hope that is it for the next 9000 hours :engel016:

:ernae:
Stefan

[WND]

I'm like you Sonny - I like a little space between me and the ground!!! Don't think I ever took a 'cross country' of any length less than 6500'.. Usually up around 8500 to 10500 - it's cooler up there anyways!!

And again like you, in over 40 years, I had ONE incident that I can say brought the "p-factor" up a little!!! Coming back from Florida one time heading home to New Hampshire I pulled the power back to decend and all of a sudden I had a stuck valve!!! Needless to say I had a 'one shot deal' to land - it just so happen it was Bader Field in Atlantic City and it was at NIGHT!!! Had one person on board!!!

When we got out, we both kissed the ground!!!!!

Bill

[Sunny9850]

Altitude is money in the bank IMHO. Having flown a bunch of rather wrung out C206 and C210 while Predator A and B models were factory tested hammered that home. Though we never had any inflight issues with them after all. Bit a few "what's the bloody thing doing now ?" moments to be sure.

The surprising thing about the dead stick in the Archer was just how natural it all felt. The heart rate did not really go up until a while after she had rolled off the main runway. I have to thank my friend and CFI Nick for that .... Rare was the training flight all through private and instrument training where the Warriors or that very same Archer did not have a simulated engine failure at one point or another.
So I knew virtually ever possible approach angle from anywhere around home base that would get her safely on the ground.

It also hammered home however that had that same failure occurred only 20 minutes earlier over the rugged terrain of the mountain range that separates LA and the Inland Empire from the high desert around Lancaster and Edwards AFB things might not have been quite so easy to work out.
I have changed my routing of all flights since then....you really never know.

Cheers
Stefan