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EAA Chapter 309 was founded in 1973 by a small group of aviation enthusiasts. Since that time, the membership has grown in size and experience. Members come with a variety of skill and experiences. Current members have aviation backgrounds ranging from student pilot all the way to Airline Transport Pilot. Several are A&Ps and all share a love of aviation. Membership is open to anyone interested in aviation and learning about the construction of Experimental Aircraft.
Chapter 309 is planning to build a home at Gastonia Municipal Airport. Chapter activities include visiting member projects, seminars, fly-ins, Young Eagle Flights, and a good dose of Hangar Flying!
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"As real as it gets!"
John Wigney and fellow church member, Joe Booze arranged for chapter members to tour the US Airways training simulator on December 31. Chapter member Ron Miller who is an instructor on the Airbus simulators helped with the tour. About 15 members and guests attended.
Joe Booze is in charge of the maintenance and operation of the 10 simulators that US Airways uses to keep their pilots current. Each simulator has to be designed and maintained to exactly represent the real thing. The newest Airbus simulators are so real that new pilots qualified in the simulator can go directly to passenger carrying aircraft without flying a training aircraft.
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All of us got to fly. Joe allowed his group to hand fly - no auto throttle or autopilot. He added various "problems" such as engine out (the airbus fly-by-wire automatically compensates for the asymmetric thrust), thunderstorms, turbulence and blown tires on landing. Oh, yes Jim Dugger had to handle a fog white-out half way down the runway on take off. But the gang got airsick when Bill Repucci tried to side slip to the runway after being way too high on the ap
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Your Captain, Ronnie Brown and First Officer Kevin Cromie ready for take off. Flying the Airbus with it's side stick controller was pretty easy. It is also easy to over control or cause pilot induced oscillations. All you really need to do is put the control stick where you want the plane to go and let the fly-by-wire system do the work. I hand flew the straight-in approach to CLT 18R using the VASI lights and Kevin maintained the 140 kt descent speed. We got the plane on the ground after two landings (same approach) and Kevin got the plane stopped!
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