Wayne Handley
Encyclopedia
Salinas Valley
The Salinas Valley lies south of San Francisco, California.The word "salina" is spanish for salt marsh, salt lake or salt pan.-Geography:The Salinas Valley runs approximately south-east from Salinas towards King City. The valley lends its name to the geologic province in which it's located, the...
of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, who currently reside in Groveland, California
Groveland, California
Groveland is a census-designated place in Tuolumne County, California. Groveland sits at an elevation of . The 2010 United States census reported Groveland's population was 601....
.
Wayne’s father wouldn’t allow him to fly while living under his roof, but in 1957, while attending Hartnell College in Salinas Wayne got in touch with the campus flying club, and took his first lesson in an Aeronca 7AC. Two years later Wayne had 70 hours in his logbook, left College and enlisted in the US Navy. Wayne trained through propeller driven aircraft up into the Grumman F9F Cougar
F9F Cougar
The Grumman F9F/F-9 Cougar was an aircraft carrier-based fighter aircraft for the United States Navy. Based on the earlier Grumman F9F Panther, the Cougar replaced the Panther's straight wing with a more modern swept wing...
and F-11 Tiger carrier based fighters. In 1963, when faced with the choice of either transitioning into the F-4 Phantom or taking an aerial application
Aerial application
Aerial application, commonly called crop dusting, involves spraying crops with fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides from an agricultural aircraft. The specific spreading of fertilizer is also known as aerial topdressing....
job back at home, Wayne chose to be with his family, and started flying agricultural operations in fixed wing aircraft and rotorcraft. Wayne began flying aerobatics after taking ownership of a Pitts S1C in the early 80's, entering his first International Aerobatic Club contest in 1983. http://avweb.com/news/profiles/182972-1.html
Today, with over 27,000 hours of flight time logged, Wayne is a highly respected, record setting aviator who received the California Agricultural Aircraft Association's Outstanding Airman Award in 1985, the International Aerobatic Club
International Aerobatic Club
The International Aerobatic Club is a division of the Experimental Aircraft Association and the National Aeronautics Association...
named him the California Unlimited Aerobatic Champion also in 1985, the Bill Barber Award for Showmanship in 1996, the Art Scholl
Art Scholl
Arthur Everett Scholl was an American aerobatic pilot, aerial cameraman, flight instructor and educator based in Southern California. He died during filming of Top Gun when his Pitts S-2 camera plane never recovered from a flat spin and plunged into the Pacific Ocean...
Memorial Showmanship Award in 1997, the Crystal Eagle Award in 2000, and the International Council of Airshows Sword of Excellence in 2001, and induction into the International Council of Airshows Airshow Hall of Fame. Wayne also set the world records for inverted flat spins in 1989 with 67 consecutive revolutions. Wayne beat his own record in April 1999 with 78 rotations flying a Giles G202. In 1999 Wayne also set multiple time to climb records in his Turbo Raven.
On the airshow circuit Wayne initially flew a Pitts Special
Pitts Special
The Pitts Special is a series of light aerobatic biplane designed by Curtis Pitts. It has accumulated many competition wins since its first flight in 1944...
Biplane in an act that he called Agrobatics in which he merged some of the techniques that an agricultural pilot might employ while applying chemicals to crops with his own graceful style of aerobatic flying. Wayne would fly under a ribbon stretched between two poles which simulated powerlines, afterwards he performed an inverted cut of that ribbon using his propeller. After a few years in the Pitts, Wayne started work on a one of a kind aircraft which would be known as the Raven.
Zivko Aeronautics
Zivko Aeronautics Inc. is an aeronautics manufacturer specializing in composite prototyping and design for aviation. The company was founded in 1987 by William and Judith Zivko and is located on Guthrie Municipal Airport northeast of Oklahoma City....
, and many other custom details such that the Raven was a one of a kind aircraft of Wayne's design. Very advanced for its time, the Raven was capable of +/-16G, over 380 degrees per second roll rate, a 4000 feet (1,219.2 m) per minute rate of climb, stunning tumbles, torque rolls, tailslides, and any other maneuver Wayne could create. This aircraft performed for airshow crowds for over a decade up until its August 2005 retirement to the Evergreen Aviation Museum
Evergreen Aviation Museum
The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is an aviation museum which displays a number of military and civilian aircraft and spacecraft, most notably, the Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose". The museum is located in McMinnville, Oregon, across the street from the headquarters of Evergreen...
where it will hang above the Spruce Goose.
In 1998, with sponsorship by ORACLE
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
, and seeking an even more impressive airshow aircraft, Wayne set out to create the exceptional Oracle Turbo Raven which was the world’s only aerobatic aircraft with a thrust to weight ratio higher than one (more thrust than weight). Teaming up with Richard Giles of Akrotech, and AgAir Systems, the ORACLE Turbo Raven came to life. The composite airframe based on the G-202 design had an empty weight of only 1,600 pounds
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
(725 kg) and was fitted with a 750 hp Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney is a U.S.-based aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation . Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation and military aviation. Its headquarters are in East Hartford, Connecticut, USA...
PT6A-25C turboprop that generated 2,800 pound
Pound-force
The pound force is a unit of force in some systems of measurement including English engineering units and British gravitational units.- Definitions :...
s (12,500 N) of thrust which gave the aircraft a power loading of less than 2.7 lb/hp at ready to fly weights. With this unheard of power loading the Oracle Turbo Raven could fly straight up, hover in mid-air, back up, stop, and then accelerate straight up out of the hover. The aircraft also had enough power that it could recover from flat spins simply by flying out of them with the nose still on the horizon. With a top speed of 300 mi/h and a roll rate of 450 degrees per second this aircraft was quite impressive.
Wayne once again got into the record books flying the Turbo Raven from brake release to 3,000 meters in only one minute and nine seconds on January 20, 1999. In July 1999 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh the Turbo Raven took three minutes, six seconds to get to 6,000 meters, and established the Turbo Raven as the fastest climbing propeller driven aircraft in the world. This aircraft was also able to reverse the pitch of its propeller blades in flight, and could actually slow down while diving towards the ground, Wayne used this ability to make very steep approaches to land, as well as for unique maneuvers where he could slow below stall speed while diving. Sadly, this aircraft was destroyed October 3, 1999, exactly one year to the day after its debut when the engine failed during one such approach at the California International Airshow at Salinas and Wayne was unable to accelerate above stall speed with the propeller in reverse pitch. Wayne was seriously injured, though fortunately he made a full recovery and was flying within a month after the accident.
The NTSB official accident investigation claims that the power-plant and the propeller were operating normally and blamed the crash on pilot error http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001212X19979&key=1
Today Wayne continues to train, coach, and evaluate aerobatic students and airshow
Airshow
An air show is an event at which aviators display their flying skills and the capabilities of their aircraft to spectators in aerobatics. Air shows without aerobatic displays, having only aircraft displayed parked on the ground, are called "static air shows"....
pilots from the ground and in flight in his Extra 300L as well as give safety seminars on spins
Spin (flight)
In aviation, a spin is an aggravated stall resulting in autorotation about the spin axis wherein the aircraft follows a corkscrew downward path. Spins can be entered intentionally or unintentionally, from any flight attitude and from practically any airspeed—all that is required is sufficient yaw...
and unusual attitudes. http://www.waynehandley.com