October 23, 2013 - Montgomery County (GAI)

Open-House Form Flight

Chef's home base -- Montgomery County Airpark (KGA) -- was having their open house today. Chef had asked Dragon Flight pilots if we would do a formation flight for the open house. We ended up with six airplanes.

The weather was OK, not real good, not real bad. We all met at Carroll-County airport at 8:30 AM to brief the flight. Here, I'm approaching Carroll-County airport. Notice the hot air ballon left of center. He was monitoring Unicom because when a bunch of RVs announced they were inbound, he said he was climbing. And he did, quite rapidly.

On the ramp at Carroll County. We did a thorough brief of the form flight. We were going to practice some, but as always happens, the time disappeared and we had only enough time to brief and then head for Montgomery County. Which is inside the SFRA, so we all had to file a flight plan.

The flight to Montgomery County was kind of interesting. We were in a loose echelon strong right. Chef was #1. I was #6 so I was on the end. We all called Potomac Approach in order and received our transponder codes. But then Potomac said we were too close together for him to pick us up individually. So we all split up. I soon lost sight of the other planes. Potomac identified each of us in turn and cleared us in. I headed in. I still could not see the other so I just headed for the airport. I knew everyone was still on the frequency but we couldn't really talk to each other because Potomac owned the net. After a few minutes I saw three RVs in echelon right formation, so I figured that had to be Chef, #2 and #3. I joined up on them but left a gap between #3 and me so #4 and #5 could slide in if they showed up. Sure enough a minute or so later I saw two more RVs in close formation. They saw us and soon were sliding into the echelon to my left. Chef told Potomac we had the airport in sight and we were cleared to go to the airport Unicom freq. Then we did an overhead break at Montgomery County and landed.

Here we are safe on deck at Montgomery County Airport.

There were a bunch of things at the Open House for visitors to look at.

Including our RVs.

Tim was one of the six with his bright orange Harmon Rocket.

Mark G. was also flying with us in his White and Red RV-6.

We did a quick refresher brief, then mounted up. Here we are taxiing for takeoff.

Engine run-up.

Because we were in the SFRA, we had to file flight plans for a local flight, then call up Potomac Approach to get transponder codes. Since it was a local flight, we did not have to talk to Potomac in the air, just squawk our transponder codes.

A good view of Montgomery County Airpark just after takeoff.

We started off in a wedge formation.

Then we shifted to a diamond with stinger.

I'm the last plane in line.

Now we are in echelon, strong right, coming in for an overhead break.

After the break, coming in for landing at GAI.

Taxiing back. I think the crowd enjoyed the show.

A quick debrief after the flight.

Some nice factory-built planes were on display.

The radio-control folks had some nice planes on hand.

Now that is a lot of drag on an ultralight.

The radio-control flyers put on an impressive airshow.

I love my RV, but have to admit it would be nice to have a cockpit like this!

Some nice wheels were on hand as well.

For some serious power, only a turbo-prop will do!

Now this was truly amazing. Clogs, in addition to flying his RV-8, dabbles in another hobby: drones!

He built this drone himself.

It has four electric motors driving propellers. When Clogs moves the joystick on the transmitter box, a computer controls the speed of each propeller as required to maneuver the drone per the joystick command. There are no ailerons, elevators or rudders. It's all done by the four props.

Furthermore, the drone has a GPS sensor and altimeter, so Clogs can tell it to hover at one spot, and it will just stay there, while Clog gets a cup of coffee. Even if the wind is trying to blow it from the spot. Clogs can even tell it to come home and it will do that automatically.

Finally, the drone has a video camera with a video downlink, so you can put on some goggles, and see the view from the drone's perspective.

Amazing.

The drone in flight.

A second drone, this one with eight props.

This was no kit and there were no plans. Clogs figured out how to build this thing just from information he got off the internet.

The drone is battery-powered, so it's important to have quality battery-charging equipment.

After awhile, I headed for home. Crossing Liberty Reservoir, the leaves are starting to turn.

Approaching the Baltimore Ravens practice facility from the west. As many times as I have flown over the facility, I have never seen the entire team outside practicing. But they won the Super Bowl last year so they know what they are doing.

I took quick turn around Miller's Island to look at the scenery.

Really starting to see some color here.

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