Cold, windy, and rainy day, but we had rainbows and lots of people showed up for our January Plane Crazy Saturday! The winds blew a constant 23 miles per hour with gusts up to 40, light rain showers passed through, but two airplanes actually flew in for our monthly event and lots of folks came to Plane Crazy Saturday from other towns, other states and we even had one guest from Italy!
     Phil and Scott Schultz came in their Cessna 150 and a Cherokee from Inyokern stopped by for a $100 hamburger!
     Brave souls ventured out to view some of the historic aircraft on static display, including the North American T-28B, Grumman S-2F Tracker and Canadair F-86E Mk.VI.
     Rebecca Amber of Aerotech News kept dashing out to take photos like this trying to capture the elusive rainbows that would appear, and then quickly fade away. You can barely see one rainbow between the tail of the F-86 and Chuck Coleman's Extra 300L.

Voyager Restaurant was full with people having breakfast or lunch and visiting with their friends or making new ones!
     Thank you to Heather Benes and Bill Deaver for helping at the Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation's booth that was set up in the Administration Building hallway. We were toasty warm and enjoyed everyone who stopped by to look at the books, posters, toys and rockets on our table!
     At 11 a.m. Chuck Coleman gave an outstanding presentation about his life as an Aerospace Engineer, pilot, aerobatic performer and instructor and expert aircraft homebuilder! One of his first jobs in the aerospace world was with McDonnell Aircraft working on the F-4 Phantom in St. Louis, MO.

Interestingly enough Chuck kept finding himself coming to Mojave from St. Louis for various projects, including the flight tests for the prototype Bede BD-10 jet in 1991. This was Jim Bede's attempt to introduce the first super-sonic homebuilt jet aircraft. Skip Holm was the chief test pilot on the project and Chuck served as pilot/flight test engineer.
     Chuck soon realized that Mojave Airport was full of exciting aerospace and flight test opportunities and worked with Scaled Composites as chase pilot on some of the most unique and inspiring air and spacecraft projects ever designed, including: Proteus, twin-turbofan, high-altitude, multi-mission, high-endurance aircraft; WhiteKnightI and SpaceShipOne, winner of the $10-million Ansari X-Prize in 2004; the round-the-world Global Flyer, an aircraft similar to the Voyager design, only jet-powered and pressurized for high altitude and now he is flying chase for WhiteKnightII and SpaceShipII for TheSpaceShip Company!
     One of Chuck's favorite photos was taken by Mike Massee in 2004 as Chuck was flying chase for SpaceShipOne!
Chuck actually had the opportunity to instruct and coach Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie in the art of aerobatics, pulling as much as seven Gs (seven times the force of gravity) with no G-suit and without passing out.

Of course both Melvill and Binnie had experience with G-force and aerobatics, but they wanted to be prepared for anything that might happen in SpaceShipOne, so time and time again they flew in the Extra 300L with Chuck and without Chuck, practicing daily before their record-breaking flights. Thanks to Chuck's expertise, building confidence and making their bodies resistant to unusual attitudes and positive and negative G-forces helped them meet the challenges encountered during their historic flights at Mojave Air & Spaceport!
Bill Deaver shot this great photo of Chuck as he explained why he thinks the Extra 300 is the best aircraft designed for aerobatics.

Bill stepped outside to capture a couple of photos showing the grey cloudy skies and the beautiful Extra 300L that Chuck Coleman flies in our Mojave skies on days I wouldn't even consider walking in. Wind doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest!
     An amazingly talented pilot and aerospace engineer! We are so pleased he came to Mojave Airport to stay!

Thank you to the staff and Unicom at Mojave Airport who are always so supportive of Plane Crazy Saturday. Ron Langford is the greatest and if you need fuel, he is there to assist you!
     See you next month on February 18 when Bill Brooks flies his deHavilland DHC-2 Beaver over to Mojave from Carefree, AZ!