My name is Tom Comet and I want to welcome you to TomAir. This channel will follow me on my adventures in aviation from flying my twin engine cessna 337 skymaster to my professional life where I work as a drone pilot in the film industry (www.droneboy.com). I am exceptionally grateful for the adventures, relationships and learning experiences that aviation has given me and I want to share my perspective from above with you. Come along for the ride and join me for a flight on TomAir.
great plane you have !!!..I have close to 1000 hours PIC ...flown in 5 summers forest fire detection contract with Magaero, based in N SK....I will be back there this summer too..my sixth year !
Thanks for reaching out and for your story. I have been thinking about doing a "Skymasters at Work" video and Magaero would be a great place to visit for such an episode. How many SMs do they have flying out of SK?
This is one high strung pilot … type “a “… my observation… and that’s exactly why my father convinced me , I would make-a terrible commercial pilot … and I agreed …
Excellent debrief and very interesting. The secret to a long, healthy life is always be prepared, be resourceful and keep your cool like Paul does. You’re handling of this last incident reminds me of Mike Patey’s successful emergency landing in his super high performance Lancair Turbulence after his turbine engine grenaded while cruising around 25,000 ft with IMC below. You both are rock solid consummate pilots. And you both have methodical test pilot mind sets. Cautious not cavalier.
I remember in the mid 1960s I was a boy in elementary school in Orlando Florida. Even as a kid, I had a love for the sky master when I first saw it with the stiff gear. I closed my eyes for a minute, and it takes me down memory lane.
Thank you. Most of the "why did it happen" can be found in this follow up episode - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sDjojQN-unM.htmlsi=zkpAOOzBdiEKLdRV
We kind of feel that same way and we never did get a real answer to that. I suppose they determined that we were fit and able and, perhaps, the resources were needed elsewhere. The sooner you can get one rescue done the sooner you can move on to the next one...
He sounds like what i say to people who love to talk to my Jack Jack when we are out at the park or store. They think its soo cool and yes i really do love and enjoy him. But I openly tell the people its difficult, hes really loud, takes a lot of time and maintenance No they probably dont want a cockatoo and they really dont make good pets.
I have a couple questions. #1. Is there a firewall fuel shut off? #2 How many holes are drilled into the firewall for the passage of controls, wiring and plumbing and weren't they sealed properly? #3 Isn't there a fresh air inlet to the cockpit? And is the inlet for that away from the fuselage far enough to not introduce any smoke from a fire originating in the engine compartment? #4. Is there room for a Lycoming engine where that V8 was? (An IO-720 would sound nice.) #5. Can the canopy slide back a bit in flight or does it hinge sideways? Were you afraid that would have been a mistake in this case? I'll echo others and tell you that it was a great story, and rivals the Lake on the frozen lake story.
This is more of a "Paul Question" but, unfortunately Paul is not a big RU-vidr. In fact he is not a RU-vidr at all as he is too busy flying. I will try to get some insights from him on these questions.
Hi Tom. Found you through one of Paul’s cousins. Absolutely and thoroughly enjoying these stories. Not a pilot myself, but a bush rat who loves aviation and survival stories. Love your content and I will be watching the skies to see you over my house next to CNY3!(Guess I won’t be seeing Paul’s Mustang for a while though!) Thanks for the entertainment!!!
Curious Tom. Your Insight G4 I believe is a primary instrument for most if not all of your engine parameters. Why isn’t it set up to power up with the master. I have a JPI 900 primary in my plane and it is wired to turn on with the master.
That's a good question and I will ask my AMO who did the install. I actually do still have the legacy analog engine monitoring instruments on the right side of the panel (CHT, Oil Temp, Oil Pressure etc.) but I do reference the G4 primary. Perhaps that factors into it.
The G4 is only certified primary for EGT, CHT, and TIT. The manufacturer requires that the G4 be powered off the avionics bus. Your JPI900 is certified primary for all required engine parameters, which is why it must be power off the main bus. Hope this helps!
The Skymasters are not really any more costly than other legacy general aviation aircraft. The biggest issue is that there are TWO engines so that aspect is 2X cost. Parts are readily available for most of the systems and components. The first couple of years were costly as I brought the aircraft back from 20 years of not being used much. Now that I have things under control there is not much maintenance apart from annuals and the odd things here and there.
@@ScottsSynthStuff Yes it was. It was a very sad environment. They gave us some CYKZ branded wheel chocks they had lying around and they are at my hangar.
Hello and thanks for watching! Great question - In order to get BRMD maps on Garmin devices you buy the SD card from the good folks at BRMB ( www.backroadmapbooks.com/destination/gps-maps/ ) and stick it in the SD card slot on the Garmin and BOOM - you have awesome maps of whichever region of Canada you choose. However, I think I just saw something on Facebook today where they were talking about Garmin licensing the BRMB data and possibly including that with new Garmin devices. I'll look into that and get back to you.
@@fly-n-m9445 Actually I had that wrong. BRMB is "licensed to be used in Garmin devices" but does not come pre installed (ie: you have to buy the cards & the GPS device). If you do a lot of remote or cross country flying in this country it is well worth it for piece of mind.
What a great looking aircraft, fascinating design details, i really like the instrumentation and panel layout, very good to have a proper standby attitude indicator that is so well positioned I’ve not seen a weather radar display located like that, very clever
@@tomairtv I think we were all taught that, but there are so many negatives to selecting it at such a late stage in the approach; re-trimming for the new flap setting, re-capturing a descent profile after the ‘balloon’ from the new flap setting. In fact, in any single, the traffic pattern should be flown so that we can make the field at any point. Below about 500 feet, the aircraft should be in the landing configuration, at about the right speed and on the right profile. In 42 years of flying, I’ve never seen that technique.
There is a fleet of 337's operating out of my home base at CYHD here in Dryden, Mag Aero operates a fleet of them for the MNR Fire Detection operations up here in NW Ontario. I doubt they are as well-equipped as yours!
Thanks for that. Yes, I was aware of both those 337 fleets but that is a good reminder too. Always good to know where assistance and knowledge might be located...
Thanks for the hard work! In the early 80's I trained in a Tomahawk that we kept at a farmer's grass field a couple of miles from home, and after I was OK'd I'd hop it 10 miles to the county airport for lessons. The farmer had a Skymaster. What a beautiful machine. This one isn't the slickest with the cargo pod and the radar, but dang-it it looks pretty capable.
