π
2015-08-31 01:01
in Bm, Flying, Nflying
Like last year, I rented a plane and flew to Burning Man with Joyce and John, but this turned out to be a one way flight...
Apparently the turbo sprung an oil leak and I ran out of oil in the air, causing the engine to fail while we were flying. Thankfully I had started noticing that the engine was making a noise that wasn't quite right and expedited our approach to the runway, and as I did that the engine failed due to lack of oil, started vibrating heavily, and I eventually stopped it so that we could have a glide without all that shaking.
I almost made it to the runway, but since it was on the Playa, landing anywhere was fine, and I was able to steer towards the runway for smoother ground while decelerating on the ground, and get closer to the airport taxi area although in the end the plane did stop short and had to be towed there. While having an engine failure sucks, this was just about the safest place possible to have one, and the landing was uneventful.
As a first for this year, I also was able to bring and fly my motor glider RC plane I had spent loads of time preparing and testing. I have a separate page for these RC flights, and pictures/videos of Burning Man from the sky.
You can see most of the flight, airport, and BRC from the sky.
And do not miss my Main Burning Man 2015 report.
Pictures of the flight:
this is the smallest line at the entrance I've ever seen...
nicely marked runway
The landing was of course a bit unusual:
this is as far as we got with the rolling speed after landing. close but not quite :)
we got a bit of oil, but enough had been lost in flight that it didn't cover the windshield
The airport volunteers nicely helped to tow and secure the plane, and gave us a ride
The hole next to the yellow wires is obviously not supposed to be there
The customs department is still doing a good job :)
The airport has definitely grown steadily and is getting a lot of charter traffic, and even private jets. I also see that more people have been using my patented method of ceram wrap and painters tape I introduced in 2006 :)
nice taping job, but not enough tape to hold it
better job on this one, although it's missing the prop where playa dust will get to the grease
nice
Obviously, I wasn't able to fly home, and the charters were both full and wanting some $700-$1000 for a flight home, but thankfully I was able to find a pilot who was flying a few people back to San Carlos and had an extra seat in his plane:
room for 5, nice :)
exodus
Now that you've seen the flight, have a look at the real meat: Main Burning Man 2015 report. |