Цитата Сообщение от RB
А напишите письмо в Новую Зеландию там возможно поселяться впечатлениями о том как летает Ишак?
Ну можно и не писать даже ЕМНИП ты ссылку постил


We start the procedure again; start, warm, chocks out, taxi. It's now that I discover that when cold and slightly nervous, I can't seem to say Polikarpov November Zulu Juliette India Papa. After a few tries and butchered read backs, we settle on Poly 45 and get on with it.

It's odd to get to the end of the runway and just go. Everything that could be checked was done at the blocks, so switch to tower and go. It's a very simple cockpit, no trims, no flaps, basically no breaks, throttle and prop control stick and rudder. What else do you need? It's a little hard to line up as the runway is very wide and forward visibility is none but the edges look about right, so power up and hold on. Quite soon the tail comes up and visability is fine then. I know the speed to fly off but the airspeed gage is inside and I'm looking out, so I just wait and when she's ready, she just flies off very nice. Everyth

It's now, while collecting my thoughts that, I realize my head is slamming back and forth, left to right. I try lowering the seat. It's worse. I try raising the seat. It's no better. This is really not very comfortable. I get to the practice area do a stall, a few rolls and decide to land before my neck wears out. On the way back to the field, I decide to try a slip, in case I need to peek out to find the runway on final. As I feed in left rudder the plane responds except at about half rudder it gets very smooth. I mean the engine is purring the sky is blue and my head is staying over my shoulders.

What I had thought was engine vibration was simply the airstream attaching to my helmet as the prop slipstream went through the cockpit from left to right. Knowing that this was the source of the vibration, although unpleasant, it was less threatening. After my flight, Ray did inform me that most people after flying with a helmet, went to a cloth helmet and goggles, smaller and not as smooth, which prevented attached airflow on your head.

To keep sight of the runway when landing, you must do a turning approach and end up as you roll out of the turn over the threshold of the runway. Except for having to hold a lot of elevator (no trim), the approach is easy with a wheel landing and roll .

In the next few days, I'd fly four more times in this little plane. During the Russian front portion of the air display, I'd get to shoot down a JU-52 German transport equipped with smoke on one engine. Of course, I'd like to do so at air show center. It was here that this plane was really fun to fly. Low pilot workload, very agile and it could come down hill like you wouldn't believe. I'd go out to one side of the show, hold up high and dive like an eagle (Yastrebok!) on my prey.

Much like many pre-WWII types, this is an airplane that doesn't lend itself well to normal operations at civilian airports. An example of this was the photo mission that CAF wanted for its newest plane. After the airshow waiver is over, there is about an hour and a half of daylight left for the cameras. Most of the planes join in groups of three or four on a camera plane and take turns on the camera side. This makes the join up easy and sometimes planes will go to several camera ships orbiting over separate landmarks.

The first snag is the join up point was 23 miles away. The Poly has a 60 gallon fuel tank and at power burns about 70 gallons an hour. In low cruise, it can be as good as 35 gallons an hour. Combine that with afternoon winds and my low experience level, I want to be landing 30 minutes after I take off. Also it's very flat in Texas. In formation, there is no time to navigate and the compass in the Poly always points 060 regardless of heading. I'm not familiar with any of the local landmarks so I want to stay near the airport. We brief that Jim McCabe, flying the FM2 and I would launch on the C46 and orbit seven or so miles from the airport. They want some solo pictures of me and some of me and the Wildcat together for Bob Reiss who donated both planes. The photographers swear they only need a few minutes to get what they need, then the C46 would leave to the remote orbit and other subjects. This was not my first photo mission and I knew that we'd have to call low fuel before the photo guys would let us go, and that's exactly what we did. At this point I have to say a big thanks to Jim. He took the lead and got me home. The radio in the Poly is invisible when the sun is near the horizon. Midland approach was turning us to compass headings away from the airport and giving us frequency changes. I was counting clicks on the radio frequency selector trying to stay on the same freq as my leader. We'd been up for about 30 minutes and were headed away from the airport when Jim called approach and declared us low fuel. In the towers defense, everyone was on a photo mission and we all were coming back at the same time from all points of the compass. Anyhow, on 5 mile final, they cleared us to land straight in. Jim asked for a circle to land so I could find the runway. Not only did they say no, they informed us the big runway was closed indefinitely and told us to use the narrow, short one. Jim replied roger but he would be a low approach, only then return to land thus leading me to the runway and then getting out of my way. Thanks Jim.

In sharp contrast to this, was my last flight, which was one of the great flights of the year for me. Much like a combat sortie, we briefed our flight and flew our brief. I taxied out after the Yak and was launched with the Russian flight. Our mission was to intercept the Germans at air show center and shoot them down, then racetrack around for some photo passes. Everyone had their assigned places and on the head-on passes, altitude and runway sides assigned. It was a gas. I circled high and waited for my target then dove down to a trail position at mid-field and shot out his right engine. I had to laugh when it was his left engine that smoked. Oh well, my imaginary bullets had a slight curve. After the photo runs, a nice tight pattern to my runway and a slow taxi in waving to the crowd finished my flight. This was what the Poly was made for and it really showed its stuff. To me, that's what all CAF airplanes are all about, time machines that can share with pilots and airshow crowds, events and machines from times past. We are lucky.