Got my jet back from rehab- The Wave

[alaninaustria]

6 hours ago, Pete Fleischmann said:

Took this photo from the backseat of my L-39. The un-named nose-gunner failed to secure this screw driver which floated around during some aerobatics, and came to rest right here. 

 

I couldn’t reach it because it was on the other side of the plexiglass windscreen that separates the two cockpits. We were done after this, and flew a nice, mellow jet back home. Amazingly it stayed there until shutdown.

 

 

cheers

P

Looks like somebody is buying your beer for the foreseeable future?

Never ceases to amaze me! Glad it didn't damage anything or anybody!! 

Cheers

Alan

[Pete Fleischmann]

44 minutes ago, alaninaustria said:

Just awesome stuff Pete! 

Cheers

Alan

 

Hey, BTW - any update on that super largescale T-38 you had going? 

funny you should ask!

Timmy! Is kicking me off the fence and printing some parts for me soon, so yes! Gladly returning to my favorite project!

 

cheers

P

[alaninaustria]

Nice! Looking forward to seeing some progress!

Cheers

Alan

[Michael931080]

1 hour ago, Pete Fleischmann said:

Here’s a few shots from my semi-adopted kid Max, wrapping up the strike phase of pilot training-

 

Air to air phase next, then graduation and wings end of October.

very proud! Hopefully I’ll be able to bootleg a TX L-39 and fly in for that-

 

cheers

P

 

Looking good on your "boy" Pete!  Kudos to him for going after his dream!  Go Navy!

[Pete Fleischmann]

42 minutes ago, Michael931080 said:

 

Looking good on your "boy" Pete!  Kudos to him for going after his dream!  Go Navy!

Thanks-

He’s a Marine, and unfortunately the Marine students aren’t doing carrier quals. If he gets the F-35C (the Marines have a few) then he’ll CQ in the T-45 before RTU.

 

cheers

P

[Pete Fleischmann]

4 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Pete, talking about Migs and such:  based on your time in the saddle in NATO machinery, how much time would a MiG-21 driver have in an adversary situation from engine start to flame-out?  Small airframe,  big inefficient motor, no room for fuel, in and out of burner - it could not have been very long.

Not much-

scamble start, quick climb, intercept..plus ground ops. MiG-21 with a centerline tank, I’d say 45 minutes to flameout, but there are so many variables- certainly less than an hour

 

cheers

P

[Pete Fleischmann]

Here are a few L-39 servicing tidbits:

This is “the tool”. Most L-39’s require this special tool to get the fuel filler caps off of the tip tanks. It’s typically secured in the nose compartment-

 

This is the Saphire starter oil sight guage. It is on the Saphire  oil tank, buried in the belly at the aft wing root area. There is no easy way to check it. One way is to drop a multi-fastener hinged panel directly below it. Or, if the light is just right, you can sight down the gap between the bottom of the tailpipe and the engine bay and see it..or, you can drop a smaller panel on the right side of the fuselage and stick the full length of you arm in there and take a picture with your cellphone. I used the last technique to shoot this photo:

 

If you drop your phone..well then your going to have to open up the big panels on the belly and drop your phone onto the ramp.

Here’s that panel on the right side. It is directly below the engine oil sight guage- that little circle is the completely worthless viewing window. The only way to see the sight guage is to open up that panel and snake your arm up the hole, again with your cellphone flashlight in hand, and shine the light on the sight guage which you can now “see” through the view port.

 

now you know-

P

[John1]

As originally purchased, were all the servicing labels / stencils in English or Czech (or Cyrillic for that matter)?

 

[Pete Fleischmann]

I shot this for fun while training a student last fall in KPVD-

 

cheers

P

[Pete Fleischmann]

10 minutes ago, John1 said:

As originally purchased, were all the servicing labels / stencils in English or Czech (or Cyrillic for that matter)?

 

most were placarded in Russian. The two notable exceptions I can think of were the East Getman Jets and Thai; but I bet there are others 

[alaninaustria]

Interesting insights Pete! Thanks for sharing! Man, you would have thought that oil sight gauge would have been made a little more user friendly!

Cheers and fly safe

Alan 

[Pete Fleischmann]

Here’s a little L-39 formation flying. This is me flying off of the wing of my good friend Larry L. Getting vectored for a formation approach into LaTrobe PA.

If you look closely, you’ll see the speedbrakes on the belly of my jet pop out momentarily. Larry is a great pilot, and this was a formation lead training flight for him. A good wingman is always in position- no excuses; but a good flight lead can really help the wingman stay in position.

For example- it is critical that the lead NEVER pull his throttle to idle. A lead has always got to give his wingman a power advantage (either + or -) to be able to stay in position. If the lead goes to idle, all the wingman has to avoid pulling forward are the speedbrakes-

 

cheers

Pete

Edited August 30, 2021 by Pete Fleischmann

[Hawkwrench]

On 8/29/2021 at 8:40 PM, Pete Fleischmann said:

Here’s a little L-39 formation flying. This is me flying off of the wing of my good friend Larry L. Getting vectored for a formation approach into LaTrobe PA.

If you look closely, you’ll see the speedbrakes on the belly of my jet pop out momentarily. Larry is a great pilot, and this was a formation lead training flight for him. A good wingman is always in position- no excuses; but a good flight lead can really help the wingman stay in position.

For example- it is critical that the lead NEVER pull his throttle to idle. A lead has always got to give his wingman a power advantage (either + or -) to be able to stay in position. If the lead goes to idle, all the wingman has to avoid pulling forward are the speedbrakes-

 

cheers

Pete

We had a battalion commander flying the lead helo in a multi ship formation that was approaching an LZ one day. 

The lead ship always flies to the front of the LZ to allow room for the others. 

Nope, he flares around the middle and causes and log jam for the rest of the formation!

Thankfully no one got hurt, but a hawk did suffer a stabilator tree hit when they flared to avoid hitting the hawk in front of it.

IIRC, it was a day lift mission and not a NVG mission otherwise it might would have been worse.

 

Tim

Edited August 31, 2021 by Hawkwrench

[Oldbaldguy]

Imagine trying to hold position like Pete is doing with only 65 hp to work with and not much energy reserve.  Great fun, but I always got a headache from concentrating so hard.

[Pete Fleischmann]