Trip plans

One of my airplane partners left almost a week ago on a coast to coast trip and I'm about ready to jump on the aluminum tube and join him for a couple of weeks. We're planning on hitting several aviation museums/destinations as we cruise the midwest and the East coast before I jump back on the aluminum tube back to the West coast. It should be a fantastic trip as we fly through a part of the country we've never done before. I wonder where we'll get stuck unexpectedly overnight and for how long? Time will tell. More pics, postings, and PIREPs to come so stay tuned...

Power off 180 spot landings

I had a chance to go out and practice some of these this past Saturday and man are they fun! Using the 1000 ft touchdown markers as my spot, I managed to nail five or six of them, had to cheat and add power on one, and left one maybe 200 ft. short. It sure is a different sight picture when you're 100 AGL and turning while coming in over the run-up area (I only will do these maneuvers if the runup area is clear).

In the Arrow, I'm finding that the following works pretty well. Of course, I've had the benefit of one partner already doing this for his commercial certificate:

- Power to idle abeam desired touch down point
- *Immediately* start turning to the runway. So far, I find about a standard rate turn works.
- At the same time, roll in one handfull of nose up trim
- Pitch for 90 mph (vs. POH best glide of 105 MPH)
- Flaps once you have the runway made
- Be ready to arrest the 1000-1200 FPM descent rate
- Leave the prop full forward unless it starts to look like you'll leave it short

I've had several folks tell me that the CP certificate maneuvers are fun. They were right...and so far, I've only been practicing the steep turns, 180 power off spot landings, and soft field takeoffs. I'm trying to do some of the required maneuvers each time I fly now.

Oshkosh '08 pics

So I spend a couple of hours today resizing my pictures so I won't exceed the 100 MB/month upload limits of my free Flickr account. After uploading an initial batch of pictures, I get a warning that I'm close to my 200 picture maximum. Hmmm, I didn't realize that. Quick, plan-B, create a trial Smugmug account. So, for at least the next 14 days, my Oshkosh '08 pics can be found here. I'll play around with Smugmug and see how I like it. It's more expensive than Flickr ($40 vs. $25). Either way, it's time to pony up something in order to have unlimited upload capability.

15 minutes of fame

As I'm packing up at Oshkosh last Saturday morning, Jack Hodgson, the guy that writes the "Around the field" column for the daily AirVenture paper stops by the campsite and interviews me. I'm thinking he probably interviews dozens of folks at Oshkosh and there's little chance I'd make it into the daily paper (or even see it for that matter since I'd be leaving that evening and didn't know anyone that would still be around). It turns out I was wrong on both counts: http://www.airventure.org/2008/8sun3/around_field.html

A far more interesting story is this one about a friend's 17 year old son flying into Oshkosh for the very first time.

Off to work on downloading and sorting through pictures...

Headed home from Oshkosh

Wireless internet at airports sure makes the time pass more easily. I'm sitting at Denver International awaiting my connecting flight home. The morning started out early at 5:00 am central time as my friend and I had camped at Dodge County Wisconsin after departing Oshkosh yesterday evening. Based on the times Oshkosh closes their airspace and my flight out of Chicago, we had to depart Oshkosh Saturday after the air show.

Wow, as usual, quite a week. Great weather, it only rained for maybe 20 minutes one night. Lots of picture taking. I think I took somewhere around 2000 pictures. I have a bit of post processing to do this next week. Once that's done, I'll post some highlights.

Even with general aviation activity down these days due to higher fuel prices, the field at Oshkosh was full. Fly in camping closed Monday which is earlier than I've seen in past years. I'd have to agree with friends that folks may be saving up their flying dollars for events such as Oshkosh.

Sorry I missed out on any meetups with fellow bloggers such as Aviatrix. As wireless access in the North 40 camping area was down more than it was up, it wasn't until Saturday that I read her post on the subject. Bah, maybe next year.

While I'm looking forward to getting home after a week of dealing with the Midwest humidity (who invented that stuff anyway?), I'm also looking forward to Airventure 2009. Yeah, sounds wierd but if you've ever been there, you know what I mean.