Jack's Flying Blog

500 nm cross country from AZ to CA

2010-04-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Jack's trip report re: Prescott, AZ back to Lincoln CA via Furnace Creek CA to retrieve the Arrow. Quality bedtime reading!

Initially when planning this trip, I considered the more typical route of heading towards Lancaster, CA and crossing over the Tehachapi’s. Having been that route a couple of times though, I looked at the alternative of coming up the Eastern side of the Sierras and perhaps crossing over them at Yosemite. BIG rocks there, stuff in the 12,500 range so not something to consider lightly. I figured I could stop for gas at Furnace Creek in Death Valley then had the option of crossing the Sierras at Yosemite or the more familiar area around Lake Tahoe. Overall distance was very close between these two options.

I could file/fly IFR to Furnace creek but definitely not beyond that due to high MEAs. I filed essentially direct from Prescott to Furnace creek. Technically, via Kingman, AZ but it's on a straight line between the two. I could have requested a route on the airways to Las Vegas but figured I'd leverage /G capabilities and go direct (hence the straight line Eric). Requested 12000 and my clearance contained those wonderful words "as filed". The only change came when a LAS approach controller asked if I "was able higher". I figured I could possibly squeak out 14,000 but having never tried before, wasn't sure. The controller informs me that their MVA in that area is 14,000 so I reply with "I'll give it a try". Terrain avoidance wasn't much of an issue on my route at 12,000 so it must have to do with radar coverage. Much to my surprise, the Arrow made 400 fpm all the way up to 14,000. Nice...and boy am I glad I have oxygen. I'd planned on using it during the entire flight home anyway. Groundspeed at 12,000 was in the 130-135 range but when I got to 14,000, it dropped to 113 which sucked.

Prior to departure, the last check of my time enroute for the entire trip came out at 03:40 so I thought I'd see how things went to Furnace Creek and possibly not stop for gas but continue home (max I'll fly with full tanks is 4:30..but I don't like to). I'd already punched in the rest of my route and had been watching ETA times on the 430. About an hour into the flight, ETA at LHM was really going to result in more than a 4 hour trip so even before climbing to 14,000 and losing groundspeed, I'd decided to stop at Furnace Creek. Slowing to 113 kts GS more than sealed that deal.

About 35 minutes out of Furnace Creek, I start wondering when ATC will be able to have me descend. I have a lot more altitude to lose than normal. I ask for lower but am told they can't issue an IFR descent but I can cancel if I want...and I do. I start descending and in about four minutes, they lose me on radar and tell me to go away and squawk 1200. Now it’s just a matter of staying outside of the MOA until I’m under 3000 MSL. Landed at Furnace Creek and was lucky enough to catch the fuel guy at the pumps. It’s run by a gas station about a half mile away, cell service is non-existent, so it would have been a hike to get someone to come to the airport for fuel. Temp was a comfortable 78 degrees.

Depart, parallel the MOA for many miles (there was one in particular I wanted to avoid as it had a 300 AGL floor) climbing climbing climbing up to 12,500. Tried contacting flight service to open a VFR flight plan but couldn’t get in touch with them until I was almost over the top of Bishop, CA. By now, I’m staring at the wall of snow covered cumulo Granite, probably 35 nm away and I decide that 14,500 is a nicer altitude so up I go.

Now the fun/exciting/semi-uh-oh part. Having been in up/down drafts many times and this being my first time attempting to cross the Sierras near Yosemite, I’m watching very closely for up/down draft. As I’m maybe 4 nm away from the first set of snow covered pointy rocks near Mono Lake, the altimeter starts unwinding and the VSI goes from 0 to 500 fpm down in a heartbeat. Ok, we’re already at full power so prop to climb, pitch up...and...by the time it took to do just those two things, the VSI now reads 1000 fpm down. Without hesitation, I started a 180 degree turn to my right. I’m sinking all the way through the turn but as I roll out, the descent rate is back to 400-500 fpm. At about the 120 degree point of the turn, I glanced back over my left shoulder and despite the rocks being a good 4000-5000 ft. below me, I could sense the dramatic descent rate and it was pretty freaky. I knew I was going to be ok since *much* lower terrain was ahead and less than one minute prior, I was in an area of no downdraft...but still, it was a weird site picture and served to confirm that I’d just done the right thing. I also wondered how high above the terrain Steve Fossett had been before he encountered downdrafts (somewhere in the same general area from what I recall).

Time to execute Sierra crossing plan-B so I continue my present heading away from said big pointy snow covered rocks for maybe 10-12 nm then turn left and head direct to South Lake Tahoe. By now, I’ve recovered my lost altitude and am once again cruising at 14,500...then...going up! Hit a good updraft that took me up at 1000 fpm. I pushed forward a bit to keep the ascent rate lower but figured I’d take another 2000 ft. if mother nature wanted to give it to me. More altitude margin for attempting to cross the Sierras at Lake Tahoe would be just fine with me.

Approximately 30 nm South of Lake Tahoe, I decided to turn left and head direct to Lincoln, my home airport. I’m at 17K and change, watching the altimeter and VSI like a hawk. First ~20 nm or so go by and I’m still above 17K, no downdrafts, life is good. Then, a steady 200 fpm downdraft. Ok, pitch up, climb setting on the prop, and...*still*, 200 fpm descent. Ok, not good but not as immediate of a “fix it now” situation as near Yosemite. I was probably 3500-4000 ft. above a scattered to broken layer over the Sierras, I could see Lake Tahoe and the valley to the East where Minden NV lies (these were my Plan-C options, should my current Plan-B option not work. I’m passing through ~17,000 and figure I could keep up the 200 fpm descent for maybe 15-20 minutes before needing to execute Plan-C. Also, the second the descent rate increases beyond ~300 fpm, I’d do another 180 then head direct to Tahoe or Minden. My groundspeed absolutely sucked at 60-70 kts but the descent never went beyond 200 fpm. I experimented with the prop pitch, going from current 2500 RPM up to 2700, down to 2200 and spots in between to see if anything helped. Reason for trying the lower end of the RPM range is that I’d just read an FAA bulletin re: using a lower airspeed to maintain altitude during a prop over speed condition. I figured since my IAS was already way low (75-80 mph), I’d try the upper range, beyond normal 2500 climb setting. I also figured I’d try the lower end of the spectrum and places in the middle. There were short periods where ~2200 RPM and ~2700 RPM helped a bit...as in, stopped the descent but it didn’t last more than a minute so I went back to 2500 RPM climb setting. After 10-15 minutes of this nonsense, the downdraft stopped and I was able to climb so I eked my way back to 16,500 so I’d be at a recommended VFR cruising altitude. By now, I’m ~55 nm from home and it’s still looking like I’ll have to get a clearance for an ILS. Oh, forgot to mention that part. I’d been monitoring weather at Lincoln during the first leg and on the current leg. Conditions in the valley were broken at 6000 so I’d already been prepared to get a popup clearance into Lincoln.

I try for the second time to get in touch with Rancho Radio so I can close my VFR flight plan and this time they answer. I’ve already started my descent and it’s obvious that I’m going to arrive at Lincoln with several thousand feet to lose. Conditions went from broken to scattered so no cloud entry required today. By the time I’m 5 nm away and approximately on the 45 for left traffic to runway 15, I’m still at 9000 ft circling down through the scattered clouds. Lower the landing gear helps but I still do a BIG 360 descending at 1500 fpm (by now my ears are talking to me). Roll back out on the 45 at ~3000 and call it good. Land and make the first taxiway, skip refueling the plane, leave lots of stuff in it, and call it a day.

Lessons learned and things reinforced in my head:

1) It’s always good to have a plan-B and Plan-C when crossing pointy rocks (snow covered or not).

2) It’s always good to know exactly where/when you’d execute plan-B/C when crossing said pointy rocks. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, fix it *now*!

3) Supplemental O2 rocks, especially when you’re trying (or not) to set altitude records in your airplane.

4) When the Arrow isn’t at max gross, it can indeed cruise at 14,000 and does so rather nicely. Refer to previous point re: supplemental O2.

5) Gas at -210 ft MSL is expensive but if you’re visiting Furnace Creek, do so this time of year when it’s ~78F vs. summertime when it’s 125F

6) Our Davtron chronometer does indeed register double digit negative temps in Celsius!

1/3 shares of the Arrow for sale

2010-01-17T18:40:00.000-08:00

I'm currently in a 3-way partnership on a 1971 Piper Arrow and both partners have now moved out of state. As a result, I'm looking for anyone interested in co-owning, particularly if you live in the Sacramento, CA area. If so, either post a comment with an e-mail address or drop me a note at REMOVE&CHANGESTUFFINCAPSzerofourtangoATgmailDOTcomREMOVETHIS (remove the CAPS and change the obvious).

Some particulars:
3610 TTAF
1030 SMOH
287 hrs on new Hartzell 2-blade prop
GNS-430, King KX155 com2, dual glideslope
EDM-700 engine analyzer
Narco DME & xpdr
4-place DRE Symphony intercom
Davtron M803 clock/chronometer/OAT/voltage

$200/month fixed costs covers hangar/insurance/annual
$40/hr. dry ($20 engine reserve, $20 maintenance fund)
Very healthy engine reserve and maintenance funds

IFR certified, no damage history, all logs since new, excellent oil analysis from Blackstone Labs
Remaining partner (me) holds Commercial certificate and instrument rating. Earned both in this airplane.

Ok, enough of the classifieds...back to you regularly scheduled blog reading :-)

Questions asked, required flight maneuvers, and reflections from my commercial check ride

2009-12-15T21:15:00.001-08:00

A list of what I can remember having to answer and do for my commercial check ride last week, in no particular order. I know I don't remember everything...but here's what I do recall:

Oral Exam:

Logbook review. Had to show required day/night VFR cross country, long solo cross country.
Prove that the aircraft is airworthy. Reviewed current airframe, engine, and propeller logs, discussed our current recurring airworthiness directives, showed examiner the binder of all airframe ADs for our plane that I'd compiled.
What documents are required to be in the aircraft?
Reviewed my cross country flight plan and weight & balance calculations, asked to show where were were in the CG envelope
Has me review the weather information I'd printed out for the simulated cross country flight.
If we were farther forward in the CG envelope, would we fly faster or slower? Why?
What are the required VFR day instruments?
One of you required VFR day instruments isn't working. Can you fly? How?
What holds the landing gear up in your airplane? What holds it down?
Is the automatic gear extension system in your aircraft functional (vs. overridden)? How does it work?
What is trim used for?
What type of electrical system does your aircraft have? 12 volt or 24 volt?
How does a constant speed propeller work? What happens when you increase the throttle setting? What happens when you decrease the throttle setting?
What type of oil do you use?
If the governor failed, how would you deal with it?
What is the maximum altitude of Class E airspace?
Sectional questions: What does the shaded magenta area mean? What about the shaded blue area? What about the area enclosed by this thing that looks like a zipper? Points to a MOA and asks "what is this?". Same thing with a restricted area. Asks how to find hours of operations for MOA and restricted areas. Asks"Can you fly through a MOA? What about a restricted area?" Asks if the hours of operation for MOA/restricted areas are local or zulu. Points to class E airport and asks what dashed magenta circle means.
Class C airspace: What are the visibility and cloud clearance requirements. Do you need a transponder? What are the entry requirements? Same set of questions for Class B airspace
Points to an airport, says it's a 90 degree day and asks if can we take off or not.
What is density altitude?
What is pressure altitude?
What happens if you fly high enough long enough without oxygen?
What are the oxygen requirements for crew and passengers?
You mentioned having an oxygen bottle, what type is it?
Have you ever flown someone that experienced motion sickness? How would you handle it?
What would you do if you thought you had carbon monoxide in the cabin?
You have an engine fire in flight, what are you going to do?
How long can an ELT battery be used before you are required to replace it?
Draws a taxiway/runway intersection, asks what is the sign you'd see on the right side as you face the runway. What would be on the other side of this sign?
If ground control clears you to taxi to a runway, what does that mean if the route takes you across other runways?
Draws a runway with numbers 30 and 12. If runway 30 is right traffic, where is downwind, base, and final. If runway 12 is left traffic, same questions.
Light gun signals. What does flashing red mean? Solid red? Flashing green? Solid green? Red/Green?
Points to a METAR from my cross country weather information, has me decode it
What is an airmet? What is a sigmet? What is a convective sigmet?
What does a prog chart tell you?
What two things are required in order for an aircraft to enter a spin?
How do you recover from a spin?
There had to be more questions I was asked...I just can't remember them right now :-)

Flight:

Regular takeoff, short field takeoff, soft field takeoff.
Short field landing, soft field landing, power off 180 spot landing.
Simulated cross country flight to first checkpoint then says "Our ground speed is x and we're y miles from our destination, how long will it take us to get there?.
Diversion. Examiner says "The destination for your cross country flight is fogged in, where are you going to go, how far away is it, how long will it take us to get there, and how much fuel will we burn? Oh, and the GPS just died".
Chandelles, one each direction.
Lazy 8s (one)
Steep turns, one each direction. I was given the option of rolling from one to the next or stopping between them.
Power on stall, clean configuration while turning (in this case left, simulating departure stall while turning crosswind).
Power off stall, gear down, full flaps while turning (in this case left, simulating base to final stall).
Slow flight. Maintain specific heading, turn to specified heading while maintaining specified altitude and airspeed.
Simulated engine failure/forced landing (from 2000 ft, chose a road with a field next to it, would have taken the field had this been for real)
8s on pylons, about 3/4 of one complete maneuver. 180 degrees into the second half of the 8, examiner said "That's good enough"

Things that I felt made a positive impression on the examiner. These were not required but went a long way to convey how I approach flying and maintaining my airplane:

Showed my binder of all airframe ADs and explained that this was a work in progress with a goal of having all ADs for our plane in one place and a note referencing where in the logs any terminating actions had been taken. Examiner commented that this was an ambitious project and agreed that it is an excellent way to learn more about my plane.
Had printed diagrams of a constant speed prop and governor with my notes on how they both work. When asked how they work, I replied "I have a couple of diagrams that I can speak to" to which he responded "I thought you might".
Wherever possible, I stressed safety as a top priority in the decision making process.
I related as many personal flying experiences as possible into my answers. For example, when asked about density altitude, I related how I handled a 9600 ft. DA takeoff from Rawlins Wyoming, what were the conditions, book numbers, and how if this had been on a much shorter runway, I'd have spent the night in Rawlins. In another example, I related how I spent the night in Lancaster during my long solo cross country flight, due to poor weather over the mountains.
Showed my homemade checklist, emergency procedures, light gun signals, transponder codes, etc. This is several laminated pages that are on my kneeboard.

CP-ASEL-IA

2009-12-09T20:51:00.000-08:00

After four scheduling attempts, I passed my commercial pilot check ride today. In so doing, I exchanged my private pilot certificate for a commercial pilot certificate. I can now (almost) get paid to fly. There is the matter of obtaining a second class medical certificate vs. my current third class medical certificate.

Started at 4:00 am this morning in order to print out the weather information required for my simulated cross country flight, fill in the navigation log for said cross country flight, make sure I had everything I'd need for the day, and fly for a bit before the check ride.

Arrived at the airport around 8:00 where the temperature was a balmy -1c. With such cold temps (ok, cold for Northern CA) I saw 2000 feet/minute climb rate for the first time. Impressive for a 200 HP Arrow.

The oral exam went well and took a bit over three hours to complete. Nothing really unexpected and very much conversational vs. being asked question after question. I had several opportunities to relate my answers to real world flying experiences. As expected, I had to look up a couple of items in the FARs and the FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. As with my private pilot check ride and instrument rating check ride, things were no different in that if you didn't know an answer but knew where to find it, life was good.

A quick break for lunch and we launched on the flying portion of the check ride. This took 1.8 hours. We started with the simulated cross country and shortly after hitting the first check point, the examiner had me perform the diversion. Unfortunately, I miscalculated my heading based on a position error where I thought we were. Mistake #1, completely my fault and I've since determined what I'd do differently next time.

Next up was air work. Conditions were pretty hazy so visual landmarks like mountain peaks, etc. were not as easy to see as usual. This bit me during the first steep turn as I rolled out on the incorrect peak in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Fortunately, altitude and airspeed were right on for this steep turn (to the left) so the examiner had me do one to the right and I nailed the proper heading when rolling out. Had to repeat the first chandelle as I didn't hold constant pitch during the last 90 degrees of the turn. Did one to the right and another one to the left than it was on to lazy 8s. These had been giving me fits and I've found them to be the most difficult of the maneuvers. I managed to perform one each direction within tolerances though. Next was slow flight and turning power on and power off stalls which went well. Descended to 2500 ft for a simulated engine failure/forced landing. Next was 8s on pylons which went fine. By this time, it's near sunset so we headed back to the airport for landings. Short field landing, short field takeoff, soft field landing, taxi back for soft field takeoff, then the power 0ff 180 spot landing then heard those wonderful words "If you can taxi back to parking without hitting anything, you can have your commercial certificate". Phew, done.

I'm spent...and for some reason, don't feel like flying for a bit. Go figure :-)

Almost a check ride

2009-11-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

Another time lapse since posting anything, especially about the commercial certificate.

Two sentence summary: I've spent the better part of the past two months working with a CFI on my commercial certificate. Flying twice a week, I've managed to complete the training requirements and am apparently performing maneuvers and answering questions well enough that I'm endorsed to take my check ride.

You're now up to speed and hopefully this post will make more sense.

Three weeks ago, my CFI drops those wonderful words "Let's see about scheduling you check ride" on me. I casually reply with "Sure, sounds good, let's look at the calendar" while panicking inside and realizing that the next three weeks mean more time hitting the books and working on the flight maneuvers.

I spent the last three weeks doing the following:

- Finished going through the oral exam guide, making copious notes of things I need to review, print out, read, memorize, know where to find in the regulations, etc.

- Re-learning the finer points of old school flight planning via pencil lines on a sectional, plotter, and a whiz wheel. Re-familiarized myself with my electronic whiz wheel.

- Actually followed the instructions on the sectional for plotting a course from one side of the chart to the other. Ah, fond memories of figuring that out the first time I did it several years ago.

- Hand calculating weight and balance numbers. Ok, so I used a spreadsheet to check my math, liked it so much that I made it look like the old school example from the Piper weight and balance form that is part of the aircraft flight manual. Is that bad? :-)

- Replaced the starter in our '99 Corolla. A subject worthy of its own post and has absolutely nothing to do with commercial certificate check ride preparations other than the fact that I had to divert time and attention to it. Hey, "diversion", that fits...it all makes sense now...er, never mind, I digress.

- Made a long/ever growing list of things I'd think of that I didn't quite know off the top of my head.

- Printed out the recurring Airworthiness Directives for our plane and was reminded of always learning something new. For one AD, I discovered that I can perform the inspection. For another AD, found that our aircraft serial number isn't listed. For a third AD, found that the one listed in our logbooks has been superseded by a new AD (doesn't change anything for our plane, more of a bookkeeping thing to reference the new AD number). Note to self: run all of this this by our mechanic the next time I see him.

- Read, fly, fly, read. Read some more, fly some more. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I took yesterday off from work so I could study and fly. Did ok on the flying maneuvers but visibility limited things enough that I had to cut flying short. Came home and studied more and finished up as much of the required mock cross country flight plan as I could. Earned bonus points by actually using the wind side of the manual whiz wheel. Thankfully, my private pilot book has illustrated examples. I also discovered U-Tube videos on the subject. Figures.

Got up at 5:00 am this morning, printed out weather, punched wind information into my electronic whiz wheel and cranked out the final information for the mock cross country flight plan and arrival weight and balance numbers. Double and triple checked that I had everything I needed. Aircraft logs, flying gear, books, lunch...check, check, check...ok, off to the airport only 30 minutes after I'd planned. My goal was to fly for an hour and a half or so, refuel, then fly to my flight school (located at a different airport than my plane).

It was a great morning to fly. Great visibility and a horizon to use for steep turns, lazy 8s and chandelles, not something that I've had all the time lately. I was fairly pleased with all of my maneuvers but didn't have as much time as I would have liked for practicing some of the landings. I land and when I turn on my phone....beep, new message. I call, it's the examiner saying he has to cancel as he's not feeling well.

Just like that, my day is changed. It's slightly disappointing that I'd prepared and couldn't get a chance to take the check ride but on the other hand, the examiner made the right decision to cancel. It's no different than a cancellation due to weather (as yesterday would have been). In the end, no worries as I figure I have a bit more time to review things like CG weight shift formulas, weather theory and think of even more things I don't know off the top of my head. So now I spend another couple weeks in the seemingly infinite read, fly, fly, read loop. I really can't complain, there are far worse fates in life.

To be continued...

T-minus two days until launching for Oshkosh

2009-07-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

Yea, it's that time of the year again. In two days I start the annual migration/pilgrimage/whatever you want to call it to Oshkosh. No aluminum tube travel this year. Nope, we go the proper way, via my plane. It really is the only way to go when it comes to flying to Oshkosh. Commercial travel is faster and cheaper but you miss out on so many things. No airport dogs/cats to pet, no meeting the wonderful folks who work at and run our nation's little known airports and, most important, no experiencing the Oshkosh arrival. There is really nothing like flying yourself into the busiest airport in the world when Airventure is going on. It truly is an experience most pilots should put in the logbook.

This year, we travel the Southern route with stops in AZ, NM, TX, and IA. Well, that's at least the plan, we'll see what transpires due to weather. Speaking of weather, this is my first year traveling this distance with on board XM weather. Having watched some stationary thunderstorms in the AZ/NM area over the weekend, I know this will be an invaluable addition to the avionics suite for the ~35 hours of flying from/to the Left Coast.

For a preview of what's going on this year, visit www.airventure.org

Airwork

2009-05-10T22:54:00.001-07:00

I've finally started working on the flying portion of my commercial pilot certificate. It's been a long time coming (passed the CP written test more than a year ago) but now that nice flying weather is here, it's time to dust off the Gleim maneuvers manual and get to work. So far:

Steep turns: Tons of fun. More challenging at the minimum 50% bank, doing two back to back/one each direction. Need to keep working on them.

180 degree power off spot landings in the Arrow (with the glide ratio of a streamlined brick): Combination of fun and interesting. Gear down, power to idle abeam the 1000 ft. touch down marks, *turn now*, flaps when the landing is assured (or you know you're way too high...rare in my plane), cheat and pull the prop back the instant you think you might be short....oh yeah, fun fun fun. The interesting thing is that I tend to land them 100 ft. longer than allowed. More practice needed.

Chandelles: Fun but I've only tried them once. Need to work on the proper pitch attitude to establish then hold. Nice way to gain altitude for the steep spirals though.

Steep Spirals: Have only done one. Nice way to lose all that altitude gained doing chandelles.

Slow flight: So far, this is the easiest part of the airwork. It's also the least exciting. It does have the distint advantage, however, of consuming less fuel so it's not all bad :-)

Not much ground covered in the past couple of weeks but it's a start. My plan is to get out at least once a week, more if possible, and work on all of the maneuvers until I have them dialed in. Oh, and poke/prod/beg/cajole my instructor friend into getting current in the ranks of the CFI world so I can log the necessary dual instruction.

Barnstorming - A Documentary Film

2009-03-10T20:51:00.001-07:00

Check this out: http://www.barnstormingmovie.com/trailer.htm. Looks *very* cool...

New photo site

2009-02-20T21:31:00.001-08:00

Well, it's not really new, I just updated my links section so tep.smugmug.com is new there. Anyway, here's a photo site from a friend/first ever CFI (yes, those two really can co-exist :-) ). This would be the same guy I'll blame for giving me a reason to sink money into a DSLR when he said "My D80 is for sale". Oh well...the D80 is likely holding its value way better than anything I have in the stock market right now :-)

http://tep.smugmug.com/

Also, his Flickr photo stream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stpilot

No pause button

2009-01-25T22:45:00.000-08:00

It's funny how you never know at the start of a day just where things might go or what you might learn that will impact your day in an unexpected way.

About a week ago, I found an old friend on Facebook. Brian grew up two doors away from me during my Jr. high and Sr. high years. I can't even remember the last time we spoke or saw each other. It's strange how the mind works (or doesn't in my case) with things like this where you can't put your finger on a specific time or place yet you know it's been an incredibly long time. All the while, you wonder where the time went. You start counting years only to be shocked at how many have gone by.

In a quick reply on Facebook, Brian asks "Did you hear about Neil?". Neil grew up across the street from our house and was a year younger than me and Brian. The three of us goofed around a lot, went fishing, rode bikes/skates/skateboards, played baseball in the street and got in trouble from time to time. We were typical Jr. and Sr. high boys. My first thought at Brian's question is that this isn't good news about Neil. An e-mail later, my suspicion is confirmed and I find out that Neil was killed in a cycling accident last year. As I read that line in the e-mail, I wanted time to stop for a minute so that I could take things in. I wanted to hit the pause button...why isn't there a pause button in life? I've been in this situation before, several times, yet I still just want things to stop, just for a minute or two. A childhood friend is no longer alive yet I'd gone about my life for a year or so not knowing this. When I find out, it seemed only fair to pause time so I could catch up with things.

So, instead, I've gone about my day doing normal things but also taking time to think about life roughly 35 years ago when we were kids. The memories keep coming back and they're vivid. Neil was the kid that broke his arm skating down a hill but not making the corner. Neil went fishing with us. Neil built and rode skateboards with us. Neil was part of our seemingly daily summertime trips to the neighborhood pool. Neil played baseball in the court with us and did his fair share of shagging the tennis ball when it went into the Eastman's back yard. I learned about Nike shoes from Neil . Several times he'd saved his money and while on trips to (I think) Los Angeles, buy a pair of Nike Bruins...blue if I recall correctly and you could only get them in LA. Neil also had the biggest olive tree on the court in his front yard. This tree supplied endless slingshot ammunition and I can't count the number of cars we pelted while they drove past our street. We never got caught thanks to Neil 's yard having bushes with a built in tunnel system.

I wish I had a chance to know what Neil had been up to the past 20+ years and to talk about the fun we had growing up so many years ago. Sadly, I'd let time and distance take it's toll on things and have been out of touch for far too long.

News such as this can make you reflect and want to reprioritize some things in life. We're not guaranteed tomorrow so we need to make the most of the time we have today. The song "We Live" by SuperChick is rolling through my head right now. Listen/video here Lyrics here

Midwest/East coast trip, day 17, the end

2008-09-17T05:47:00.000-07:00

It was a bonus aluminum tube travel day as I stopped in Charlotte, NC and Las Vegas,
NV before getting home to Sacramento. A 12-hour/2-stop day but it was the lest expensive ticket given booking on short notice.

While it's been an amazing trip, I'm glad to be home. Living out of a suitcase and checking in/out of hotels every couple of days gets kind of old after a while.

Trip stats:

- Hours flying the Arrow: 9.1. Less than I'd expected but they all involved flights to places I'd never been before.

- Aviation museums/attractions visited: 6 (Chanute, USAF Museum, New
England Air Museum, Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, Udvar-Hazy, Fantasy of
Flight)

- Non aviation museums/attractions visited: 1, the naval museum in
Norfolk. While they did have some exhibits on naval aviation, the
closest thing they had to an airplane was a big model of an A6 Intruder.

- New states flown to (or over): 11 (Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
New York, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida)

Midwest/East coast trip, day 16

2008-09-16T16:19:00.000-07:00

Day 16, Fantasy of Flight

We visited Fantasy of Flight today. The unique thing about Fantasy of Flight is that they restore aircraft to flying condition vs. static display. It's a fairly small facility but they have several unique exhibits, especially the walk through diorama type displays.

Any aircraft homebuilder would be in heaven here on the tours of the restoration hangar. At the moment, they have ten or so aircraft undergoing restoration but they have many more in several warehouses and shipping containers.

Admission is a bit pricey but if you hit their website, they have a two for one deal that takes adult admission down to the $15 range.

While there, two aircraft were flown. The first was a Feiseler Fi 156 Storch.

The second aircraft flown, though not part of the afternoon display, was a T6 that just came out of annual and Kermit Weeks himself was at the controls.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 15

2008-09-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

Day 15: Leesburg, VA to Leesburg, FL via Columbia, SC

With 3 hours of driving and 6 hours of flying, it was a very long day. The alarm goes off at 4:45 and within 30 minutes or so, we're on the road for the 3 hour drive from Norfolk to Leesburg. This is the earliest we've been up and out the door on this trip.

Getting our IFR clearance out of Leesburg was a snap this time since we knew the secret to file and/or expect STILL intersection as the first point along our route. STILL is a fix on the approach plates for Leesburg and isn't on the low altitude IFR charts.

I wish this was my ride for the day...but no, in our lowly Arrow, Leesburg VA to Columbia, SC was a 3.5 hour flight. For me, it happened to be the first time using supplemental oxygen. Once you get used to the cannula tubes sticking up your nose, it's not all that bad. I can hardly imagine the rats nest of tubing though if using a 4-place system vs. 2-place.

After a quick gas and lunch stop in Columbia, SC, it was time to head to the other Leesburg, the one in Florida. This leg was 3.1 hours and we had to maneuver around some of the afternoon weather. Nothing too bad but it was interesting to use the 496 to watch some of the larger thunderstorm cells that were 50 miles from our path.

Welcome to Leesburg, FL. This storm cell was a baby one, topping out at a mere 17,000 ft. There was another one much farther away to the Southwest that had tops reported at 40,000 ft.

Other than the aluminum tube ride back to the West coast, I'm done flying anywhere for this trip. It will be a 12 hour day of airports/airlines but I'm looking forward to being home.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 14

2008-09-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Day 14: More of Hampton and Norfolk/third (and last ) of several non-flying days

A short list of accomplishments for the day:

- Slept in

- Breakfast at a place called "Pops" in (I think) Norfolk. Yum :-P

- Fired several .40 cal rounds at a local indoor gun range. My first time shooting in a very long time. First time firing two .40 cal pistols (Glock and Sig). Lots of fun.

- Internet access and getting caught up on e-mail and blog posts (the reason for three posts today)

- Discussed flying options for tomorrow and took a peak at the weather. It looks like a go for heading South to Florida.

- Played a ton with this little guy named Elvis:

Midwest/East coast trip, day 13

2008-09-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

Day 13: Cruising around Hampton and Norfolk/second of several non-flying days

We get a guided tour of Norfolk Naval base as airplane partner's niece is in the Navy. Said airplane partner is a Navy veteran and was stationed at Norfolk many moons ago. The USS Eisenhower was in port and the best part of the day was that we managed to get a tour. As the Eisenhower was pretty close to deploying, there were a fair amount of crew aboard and lots of activity. The best part of the tour was going up to the flight deck. We were able to walk maybe half the deck before a master chief gave us the boot. It turned out that some NJP or Non Judicial Punishment activity was going on. A whole bunch of folks were at Captain's Mast and I guess the Navy figured a half dozen civilians walking around overhearing things wasn't a good idea. Not that I was listening all that much mind you. I was way too busy imagining what the flight deck would look like when flight operations were in progress.

Left the camera behind for the tour of the base. The only thing I missed was a couple of E2s in the pattern.

After the tour of the Navy base, we hit the Naval Museum in downtown Norfolk. The best part of the museum is being able to walk out onto the USS Wisconsin battle ship.

The least fun part of the day was dealing with the repair shop as I had to sort through bad sell phone connections and some confusion on my end in order to understand what the shop had done and what was/wasn't working. In the end, the airplane will be fixed by the end of the day but in talking to our regular A&P, it sounds like we may have an issue with a portion of our gear auto extend system (which we thought had been disabled...at least it functions as though it's disabled per Piper's recommendation).

Midwest/East coast trip, day 12

2008-09-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

Day 12: The day after we broke the airplane and the first day of several non-flying days

Negative aviating on day 12. The plane is in the shop at Leesburg, VA and it's looking like it won't be done by the end of the day so we opt for the automotive form of IFR travel or "I Follow Roads" down to Hampton, VA to visit some of my airplane partner's family. While in Hampton, it's a waiting game on the airplane.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 11

2008-09-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

Day 11, the day we broke the airplane. Sigh...another night in the DC area. Not that I'm complaining, I can think of much worse spots to be unexpectedly stuck with a broken airplane.

Upon raising the landing gear, the gear in transit light stays on while all gear down indicators go out and eventually, the landing gear circuit breaker pops. When the gear lever is returned to the down position, voila, three green gear down indicators. This little sequence of events happened upon departure from Leesburg today so we elected to return to the airport and have a local shop take a look at things.

The good news is that we now know what to expect for an IFR departure out of Leesburg. This morning we'd checked with one of the local flight schools for any preferred routing heading South out of the DC ADIZ and the answer was essentially "nothing special". I filed a route that would take us West out of the ADIZ then South then Southeast to our next destination, a route that avoided any restricted areas and got us out of the ADIZ as quickly as possible. I thought it was a nice plan until we called the clearance delivery folks at the Potomic Tracon. We get a different route and the initial waypoint is an intersection that doesn't appear to exist on the IFR enroute chart. Adding to this, in the end, we were unsure of the spelling. We thought we had it but it turned out that both of us copied it differently when getting our clearance. I then called clearance delivery a second time for further clarification and we let the GNS-430 find the intersection for us.

One very cool thing that happened is an impromptu arrival of six Army helicopters. Five OH-58 Kiowas and one UH-60 Blackhawk arrived as I was putting some gear into the plane. I look up and see multiple helicopters arriving on runway 35 and in no time, get my camera out of my backpack and start snapping pictures. They parked every chopper within 100 yards of where we
were parked. Very cool.

I can hear it now, "Honey, I'm going to be late tonight, had to stop in Leesburg for gas" :-)

No word from the repair shop so we call in the morning. I say odds are 50/50 that we wind up driving to our next destination while the airplane gets fixed. We'll see what tomorrow holds.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 10

2008-09-10T06:28:00.001-07:00

Day 10: National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center and wandering the Capitol Mall.

I've always wanted to visit the Air and Space museum and that was before the Udvar-Hazy Center was built. Having now been to Udvar-Hazy, I still want (need?) to get to the Air and Space museum but that would require more time than we'll have in the Washington DC area.

On the drive to DC, we see a big Sikorsky helicopter and in an instant wonder if it's Marine One. In the next five seconds, I grab my camera, remove the lens cap, turn it on, roll down the car window and click four images. I was lucky since it was flying left to right and I was in the front passenger seat. This is the best image I captured. Sorry, no rotor blur as the camera was in automatic mode. I really didn't think I'd be taking pictures at sixty miles per hour on the freeway :-)

The Udvar-Hazy center is fantastic and definitely on any airplane nut's must see list of museums. The crowds were extremely light and we spent around four hours wandering the exhibits and taking pictures. With three levels, you have a variety of views and it's obvious that much thought went into how and where to position each aircraft, spacecraft, missile, and satellite. To see everything, you really need to walk each of the levels.

My personal favorite since my Dad flew the F-105 in Vietnam. Their F-105D is predominantly displayed on the museum floor along with several other Vietnam era aircraft. I like the fact that this (and every display at Udvar-Hazy) is uncluttered so that you get great views of the aircraft. I believe this is the sixth F-105 I've seen on the trip.

After Udvar-Hazy, we headed to DC as I wanted to see the Vietnam memorial. Little did I realize that we'd see much more since it is located on the Capitol Mall. Our trusty GPS guided us to the DC area and we found a spot to park near the Lincoln Memorial. We wandered from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument. They were out of tickets to go into the Washington Monument so we walked back through the WWII memorial then made our way to the Vietnam Memorial and eventually to the Korea Memorial.

Going through all of the war memorials certainly causes one to pause and reflect upon the tremendous sacrifices made by those serving in our armed forces and their families. Say what you will about whether we should or should not have been involved in the various wars but the fact remains that thousands upon thousands of people serving in our military faced the horrors of war and way too many gave their lives in the process. Each person was doing the jobs they were assigned, whether they volunteered or were drafted. It didn't matter, they went, many died, and they all deserve our respect.

The closest I've ever been to facing the results of a war was when I was five years old and my Dad was flying the F-105 in Vietnam. I can still remember exchanging reel to reel tapes and hearing the different tone in his voice when he'd just come back from a hairy mission and with a battle damaged aircraft. My Dad was one of the lucky ones but he personally knows several of the names on the Vietnam wall.

To all of our veterans and current active duty personnel, I say thank you for serving our country so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.

To those who served in Vietnam and came home to a nation that, for the most part, failed to recognize your accomplishments and sacrifices, I think you guys/gals were robbed of the respect you deserve. Thank you for serving in an unpopular war, in one where our government and military leaders created an environment where winning seemed impossible. You have my deepest respect.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 9

2008-09-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

Day 9, a travel day to the Washington DC area.

We entered the dreaded Washington DC ADIZ and lived to tell about it :-) Actually, a friend who has been through the ADIZ VFR says it's a piece of cake. While we did so today IFR, I'd have to agree. Well, there was that one moment about 10 miles from entering the ADIZ where Patomic approach said they'd lost our transponder. The funny thing is that the reply light was lit almost solid green with all of the replies. A few minutes later, they tell us all is well as they're receiving the mode-C replies ok.

It was pretty much an uneventful IFR flight from Poughkeepsie, NY today. We had to spend a few minutes on the ground figuring out the route we were given and there was one re-route about half way to our destination. Nothing too major but given the unfamiliar airspace, it was nice having two IFR rated pilots on board so we could split up the flying duties.

Tomorrow: The Udvar-Hazy museum.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 8

2008-09-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Day 8: Windsor Locks, CT to Poughkeepsie, NY and the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome

After a short 0.7 hour flight from Windsor Locks to Poughkeepsie, we headed to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. Well, not after determining that I'd messed up the rental car reservation, having booked it for Monday instead of Sunday. As it turned out, the rental car company wasn't open Sunday. Fortunately, the guys at Millbrook Aviation worked out a rental car as one was due back shortly after we arrived.

As a kid, I'd been to Old Rhinebeck a couple of times. It was always a fascinating place to see the WWI aircraft fly. The simulated dogfights never got old.

Today the show consisted of several biplanes cutting a roll of toilet paper and bursting balloons, The Flying Farmer (aka Stanley Segalla), and some 1/3rd scale WWI remote control aircraft. It was an enjoyable couple of hours sitting in the shade, taking pictures, and remembering the times I'd spent there as a kid.

If you ever get a chance to visit Old Rhinebeck, I'd highly recommend it. http://www.oldrhinebeck.org/ for more information.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 7

2008-09-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

Day 7, New England Air Museum, Windsor Locks, CT.

This is air museum #3 for the trip and it was a good one with many fine examples restored and living indoors.

My Personal favorite, an F105 greets you as you walk in the first hangar. Unfortunately, there are so many aircraft (as if that can ever be a bad thing) that you can't get a good shot of this F105. It's definitely one of the best examples I've seen, on par with the one at the Air Force Museum in Dayton.

My favorite nose art, on a great looking B29.

I had not seen an example of this particular B25 model. It was a 75 mm cannon mounted in the nose, along with four .50 caliber machine guns.

Overall, this was a great museum to spend a few hours wandering around. There is also an audio tour available which I would suspect is worth it. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the audio tour was available. I missed the big banner above the entry to the first hangar and didn't realize the significance of the numbered exhibits until it was too late.

I would definitely put this one on the "must see" list. If you fly into KBDL, I'd recommend paying the extra $$$ for gas at Signature in exchange for using a crew car for getting to/from the museum. They've treated us like we're flying a corporate jet even pulling our Arrow into their hangar without us requesting it (and not charging us for it).

Midwest/East coast trip, day 6

2008-09-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

Day 6, Williamsport PA to Windsor Locks, CT

Another travel day today as we flew a fairly short 1.7 from Williamsport PA to Windsor Locks, CT. Initially we'd thought about hitting the New England Air Museum today but decided to put it on tomorrow's agenda since the rain will finally catch up to us. It was a nice flight and Windsor Locks was a reasonably busy place to get into.

Williamsport airport lies right next to a fairly long ridge line and the departure (as well as yesterday's arrival) was fairly bumpy. Once we get out of the vicinity of the airport, however, things were smooth. We did this leg VFR today as we once again needed another IFR chart but the local FBO at Williamsport didn't have it. Fortunately, we have the entire US VFR sectionals via Air Charts.

The FBO at Williamsport was a Piper dealer a long time ago:

Life Flight cranked up maybe 100 yards from us:

Midwest/East coast trip, day 5

2008-09-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

Day 5: Dayton to Williamsport, PA via Ohio State. Posted on day 6 since the hotel did not have wireless internet access :-(

Today was a flying day. More F16s in the pattern. How come it's hard to get too much of that? After we'd cranked up, we received a few more waves from the pilots as they taxied by. Nice. I have since found out that the F16s are from the Royal Dutch Air Force (thanks for the tip Eric). Apparently friendly F16 drivers.

We had to make a stop at Ohio State for some charts as the local FBO in Dayton didn't have the particular one we needed.

If you ever need charts for this area, these guys have them while many other FBOs around may not.

So it was one 0.3 leg and a 3+ hour leg today. We could have gone farther but after lunch at the Williamsport airport, it felt like enough for one day.

Williamsport, PA, home of the Little League World Series. We missed it by a couple of weeks but that's probably not a bad thing as hotel availability was likely non-existent.

The journey East continues tomorrow. Weather should cooperate but I keep wondering when we make a right turn at the East coast where hurricane Hanna will be. Ike too for that matter since it's shaping up to be a much stronger storm.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 4

2008-09-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

Day 4, the National Museum of the US Air Force

With over 300 aircraft and 17 acres of displays, this museum is absolutely HUGE and should be on every aviation nut's "must see" list. The best part is that most of the display aircraft are located inside which makes for much better quality displays.

We managed to get through the museum in one day but if you want to read all of the information on each display, you'd need at least two.

A highlight was visiting the Presidential aircraft displays and being able to walk through several aircraft that served as Air Force One. In particular, walking through the Boeing 707 that served several Presidents, was an amazing experience. There are not many places where you can experience such a unique piece of American history .

After walking around on concrete for several hours, my legs feel like they've had quite the workout. Time to prop them up and read for a bit. That and check the weather for tomorrow as we head further East. At the moment, things look fairly decent but time will tell where we may have to hunker down for a day or so depending on what hurrican Hanna does up the East coast.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 3

2008-09-02T17:19:00.000-07:00

Day 3...and it really is day 3 so I'm finally caught up! Ah, the wonders of finally having internet access. Let's see if I can keep it that way for a while.

The Dayton museum didn't happen today as we arrived a bit too late to head over. What did happen, however was a series of takeoffs and landings by a bunch of F-16s. This after a 1.7 hour IFR flight from Indiana.

Got a wave from the pilot in this one. Too bad I chopped a bit of the airplane. Oh well...I was zooming in/out for the fly-by and taxi-by shots and missed this one by *that much*.

So the plan is to hit the Air Force museum when they open tomorrow and make it a full day affair. We'll see if we can get through the whole thing in a day. Then it's a matter of watching the latest hurricane forecasts for Florida to see how badly the remnants of Gustav and the new one, Hanna, might mess up our weekend plans.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 2

2008-09-02T17:03:00.001-07:00

Day 2: The Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul, IL.

After an hour flight in our trusty Arrow, we landed at the former Chanute Air Force Base and taxi right up to the museum.

Chanute history goes back a long time, pre-1920's. The museum has an extensive time line of the base history and quite a few nicely done inside exhibits, one hangar, and a collection of fairly weathered aircraft outside. Overall, definitely worth the price of admission at $7.00.

Favorite aircraft on display: The F-105 painted in Thunderbird colors and the B-58 Hustler.

Another great part of this trip was that the gal working the front desk loaned us her car so we could grab lunch. We hit a local Chinese buffet. Mmmm, yummy :-P

It was nice visiting a place that my Dad flew T-33s and C-47s in/out of a long time ago. In addition, being a former Air Force brat, I always enjoy visiting an old base. There's something about the buildings and the way the streets tend to be laid out that feels very familiar.

Next stop: the Air Force museum in Dayton.

Midwest/East coast trip, day 1

2008-09-02T11:57:00.001-07:00

Day one of my East coast trip, the aluminum tube ride to ORD. Not much to report on this front other than on time service from United. That and I started reading The Testament by John Grisham, a book I'd recommend.

The interesting thing about today's trip, at least to me, was when I booked mytickets. My final destination was Indiana so I wound up searching for airfares from Sacramento to Indianapolis. I found a reasonable fare on United with good departure and arrival times. I was a mouse click away from buying the ticket when I remembered my airplane partner telling me I should fly into Chicago then taking the bus to Indiana as Chicago is much closer to my final destination than Indianapolis. I quickly looked up direct Sacramento-Chicago flights. Hey, look, there's a direct flight on United but whoa, the fare is $330 *more*...but wait, what's this? It's the same United flight from SMF-ORD that I'd take if I flew SMF-ORD-IND. I looked at things several times and sure enough, a direct SMF-ORD flight was $330 more than SMF-ORD-IND...for the same flight on the SMF-ORD leg.

Hmmm, so why exactly would I want to book a direct flight? :-) Hey, I know, I'll book the SMF-ORD-IND flight then take the bus from ORD. So that's what I did.

Thinking about it after I'd booked the flight, I decided to call United and ask if there was any penalty for not boarding the connecting flight. I get the standard "If you change your flight, there's a $150 surcharge plus airfare difference" answer to which I reply "But I don't need to change my flight and I don't care about loosing any value of the ORD-IND leg". The answer is then "Well, ok, there's no problem with that".

So that's what I did. I still have the unused ORD-IND boarding pass in my pocket.

After arriving in Indiana, my airplane partner and I took a trip to the airport in order to clean up the plane a bit. As the sun is setting, what looks like a Supercub on floats lands and taxis in. It turns out to be a brand new Top Cub from Cubcrafters and is being ferried to Canada as the first Canadian certified Top Cub on floats. It was a great looking airplane.

Hopefully I'll post more interesting aviation stuff in the next day or so. Actually, the first couple of posts will be delayed somewhat as I don't have internet access. Life without the internet...what a concept :-) No internet access explains why a couple of days worth of postings show up all at once. No, I'm really not compressing time.

Trip plans

2008-08-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-11T20:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Required reading for anyone flying into Oshkosh

2008-07-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

In addition to the NOTAM, here are two articles by Rick Durden that should be required reading for anyone flying into Oshkosh. Rick is very blunt and in your face about things but he makes several excellent points.

Original article

An updated reminder for this year

If you're flying into OSH, please first print out and read the NOTAM then read the two articles.

Oshkosh countdown

2008-07-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

In a couple of days, I depart for Oshkosh. I'm going via aluminum tube vs. the Arrow this year. Not nearly as exciting but way more cost effective given a Left Coast departure.

My camping gear is packed into a huge 18"x36" duffel bag with some room to spare. New REI backpacking tent and sleeping pad included. Life in the North-40 should be dry and comfortable.

One very cool thing is that I should be able to arrive at Oshkosh the right way, in a Cessna Skylane. Well, ok, "the right way" is in a certain '71 Piper Arrow but I'll take a Cessna 182 arrival vs. bus/van/car any day. I lucked out as a friend is planning to pick me up in Chicago and we'll then fly to Oshkosh. How cool is that? Definitely the next best thing to actually flying there in my own plane.

Blue Angel ride

2008-07-09T21:57:00.000-07:00

My brother sent me this today: http://www.terwilligerproductions.com/flyingfullcircle/ Absolutely an awesome experience...I'm seriously jealous! :-)

California burning

2008-07-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Just found this over at Pilots of America. Some amazing pictures of the recent fire fighting activity in California: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/californias_continuing_fires.html

Camera upgrade

2008-07-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

A couple months back, my Cannon SD100 died. I may have dropped it or it was in my backpack and slid off the wing of the airplane to the ground...I really don't remember. What I do know is that I tried taking an in flight picture of an MD-80 landing on a parallel runway but the viewfinder was all messed up. Seeing as I was the acting safety pilot, the camera quickly went back into the flight bag. After I got home, the camera would take pictures like this:

Eventually, they started to look like this:

Nice, eh? Cool effects and pretty colors aside, either way, not good and tend to get in the way of cool things like airplanes...oh, and family, the dog, etc. Wait, the dog *is* family. The cat too :-)

What to do...what to do?

I've always wanted to get back into photography but never made the leap to a digital SLR camera. I asked a bunch of friends, the ones that take awesome pictures, for recommendations, what they like, dislike, etc. A couple weeks ago, a flight instructor friend and I headed to the Golden West EAA fly-in where I was able to borrow his Nikon D80. Wow, what a difference and extremely easy to use. Some of the results:

Relentless

F-18 demonstration

Hawker Sea Fury

Nice looking T6

In short, I was sold and wound up buying the D80 from my friend. Now it's time to learn as much as I can and experiment by taking lots of photos. At least it's digital so mistakes are free, right? :-) All that stuff from my high school photography classes is coming back to me. Mr. Schwerin would be well pleased.

I'm now set in the camera department for my upcoming trips to Oshkosh and down the East Coast.

Another cool EAA video

2008-06-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

Just saw this on www.airventure.org

It must be the first day of summer or something...Oshkosh is just over a month away.

New milestone...

2008-06-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

...unfortunately, non-aviation related. For the first time, I broke the $50 mark putting gas in my car.

It's a Civic.

11.7 gallons and it was just North of $51. I realize many folks with larger vehicles these days would love to have $50 fill the tank. I can only imagine what gas is costing some folks on a monthly basis.

Still...$50 to fill up an economy car? This is crazy. I'm still shaking my head.

Necessary Aviation Content: I hear gas is $5.60-something at my airport. Sounds about right as it's been running right at $1.00 more than regular unleaded.

Crazy I say...just crazy

And now for something completely different, installing an engine

2008-03-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

Background: Brother is building an RV-6 and around Christmas time the big brown box from Lycoming showed up. An early Christmas present of sorts. He had a few items to contend with before hanging another 180 lbs off the front end of the airframe so he's been busy since the big brown box's arrival. Two weeks ago, I get the "Do you want to help hang the engine?" e-mail. Um...let me think about this for a nanosecond or two. Heck yeah, I'll be there. Last Saturday was the day.

After a 2.5 hour IFR (I Follow Roads, 0 AGL via non-flying Civic) trip to Bro's house, it was time to start the fun. In addition to my brother, his buddy, a fellow airplane builder, joined the festivities.

Baby Lycosaur waiting to meet Mr. Engine Hoist. This looks so familiar as it's essentially the same engine in our Arrow except it's not fuel injected (an extremely expensive option BTW).

Hooked up and ready to move:
The three of us were extremely careful not to bump anything hanging off the rear of the engine (prop governor in particular) against the RV's engine mount or firewall. There was a small bracket to remove from the governor that made things easier in this regard. In general, getting things to line up so that we could start fitting the upper mounting bolts through the engine mount and Lord mounts was fairly straightforward.

Inching closer, being extremely careful while moving 180 lbs of metal towards the engine mount and firewall:

Closer. This is where "bolt #4" aka "the evil bolt" holds the engine...but I'm getting ahead of myself :-)

We were working from some instructions written by another builder who had experience installing a few engines in RVs. Unfortunately, the instructions were not written up in a checklist fashion. Instead, you had to wade through several paragraphs that contained forward references to other paragraphs.

The top two mounting bolts installed with relative ease. A couple adjustments of the engine hoist, pull engine here, push engine there and we could thread the nuts onto the engine bolts.

Things are looking good:

The first of the bottom bolts was somewhat more difficult to line up in order to get the bolt through the required hardware. At this point, things are looking better and better. The three of us are thinking wow, this isn't all that hard. We were seriously wrong about this but wouldn't realize so until hours later.

At this point, it was time to make a parts run as one of the four engine bolts had a manufacturing defect. Parallel to the bolt, there were a couple of indentations that looked as if you'd crimped the bolt with a set of pliers. Seeing as any reduced strength from one of four engine bolts that secure a very expensive engine to the airframe would be a bad thing, it was a no brainer option to replace the defective bolt. Fortunately, my brother's friend has the same engine mounting bolts awaiting his future engine installation so it was a matter of a short road trip. For me, it was a chance to see an RV-8 under construction. Very cool.

Once we returned from the parts run, things started getting interesting. Ok, not really interesting, more like hard, difficult, a pain, less than fun, etc. since the fourth bolt hole just didn't want to line up. Here's what it looked like:

We push/pull/grunt/groan/lift engine/lower engine for a long time but the alignment doesn't improve. Some movement of the engine makes it worse, some makes it better. Since each engine bolt angles inward and down (top bolts) or up (bottom bolts), it's like solving some strange multi dimensional geometry problem but where certain movements had the opposite of the desired effect.

We try using a drift pin to line things up but it doesn't help much. The defective engine mounting bolt meets an untimely demise and is converted into a larger drift pin after it meets Mr. hacksaw and Mr. bench grinder. It's sacrifice was in vane, this doesn't help either.

Frustration sets in.

We bust out the Van's instructions for installing the engine. These are much shorter but don't offer a ton of help. Briefly, we contemplate removing the engine mount from the firewall, mounting it to the engine, then the entire assembly to the firewall. In short order, we're convinced that this doesn't really change anything. Hmmm, what to do, what to do?

We talk about removing bolt #3 (the other bottom bolt), and install bolt #4. Maybe bolt #3 going on last will be easier(?) It seems reasonable so we proceed. Unfortunately, it doesn't really improve things. It seems as if both bottom bolts are now looking like the above picture, maybe each is slightly closer to being centered. Better seems relative at this point.

More contemplation, more frustration, more reading of the installation instructions. At a critical point, Bro's friend takes him away from the scene for a much needed milkshake at In & Out.

I have an idea. At least I think it was me but by now, it's hard to remember the sequence of things. What if we can push up on the bottom of the engine to improve the alignment of the bottom bolts? A couple of 2X4s and the scissor jack from sister in law's car get added to the mix and things look better but not quite good enough for both bottom bolts to align. Things are better. At this point, that's a good thing.

Disclaimer: The details are starting to get fuzzy in my brain so the following may not be entirely sequentially correct. At some point, we manage to get bolt #4 lined up and the nut threaded on. Bolt #3 is not installed so we've essentially shifted the original problem to the other side of the engine. The bad news is that the misalignment looks maybe the same, maybe slightly worse. It's hard to tell. More pushing/pulling/grunting/groaning/etc. but things don't change a lot.

I think it was Bro's friend that thought of the next idea. What if we can move the Lord mount out of the cup like structure of the engine mount and get the bolt through the engine boss? We proceed.

In an almost anti climactic finish, less than five minutes after this idea was considered, shazam, Bro announces "it's through". He threads the nut onto the bolt and we wiggle the engine to get the Lord mount to seat into the engine mount. Tightening up all of the bolts, removing the scissors jack from below and the engine hoist from above and this is the final result:

And that's all there is to it! Take three Engineers and given enough time in one day, they actually can install a Lycoming engine on an airframe.

In the end, it was a fun and educational experience for me, the only non-builder of the installation team. The next time I'm at my favorite airplane repair facility, I need to ask my favorite A&P about engine installation tips/tricks. For some reason, I have a feeling I'll walk away smacking myself on the forehead and having visions of the "Wow, I could have had a v-8" TV commercials.

Passed CP written

2008-03-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

I made the first tangible bit of progress towards my commercial pilot certificate today by passing the written test. As with the instrument written test a couple of years back, I posted my best score when taking the test for real. Weird but, ok, I'll take it. A pass is a pass. :-)

Now it's time to hookup with a CFI and plan the flying part. With the days getting longer and temperatures getting warmer, I need to start getting out for power off 180 spot landings, 60 degree steep turns, Chandelles, etc. Sounds like fun to me. If all goes according to plan, I'll exchange my private pilot certificate for a commercial pilot certificate sometime in early Summer. Cool!

One thing to mention re: written test prep material. A friend loaned me his Gleim test prep stuff and it was excellent. I already had the ASA book but found the Gleim had better explanations for some things. Also, I found the Gleim CD based test to be an excellent way to study and take practice tests.

A couple new photo sites

2008-02-23T12:18:00.001-08:00

What, two blog posts in one day? Um...yeah, after a long silence, go figure :-) I suppose I could blame it on spending my time on the Commercial Pilot written test preparation and that would be partially true. Speaking of which, I figure I'm approx. a week or so away from actually scheduling the test. I've been spending a ton of quality time with the Gleim test prep on my computer.

Anyway, checkout Jay Beckman's photo sites I've added to my blogroll. Jay is a fellow pilot and hails from the uber-hot region of Arizona. While he's not frying in the AZ summers, he takes some very cool photos. Since he recently created a zenfolio site, I thought I'd do a little shameless advertising for him.

The reasons I go to Oshkosh every summer...

2008-02-23T11:11:00.001-08:00

Ah, here we are in the middle of winter and EAA comes out with this video. It is absolutely the best description of why I go to Oshkosh every summer. This year, I might go via the aluminum tube route vs. flying the Arrow but that's ok. Being able to hang out in the North-40 with friends I've made over the years will be worth the price of admission.

Moving video

2007-12-25T09:31:00.000-08:00

Not aviation related but I felt this was worth of posting. As I understand, this was put together by a 15 year old young lady. Granted, I'm somewhat biased as my Dad was an Air Force pilot but watching this made me think more on the subject of supporting our troups so I thought I'd pass it along.

One chapter down in ASA CP written test prep.

2007-12-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

One chapter down (basic aerodynamics), nine more to go. Lots of highlighting. Good thing that I bought that new 4-pack the other day.

So far, so good. I've had a few "Um...I have no idea" thoughts as I read through and attempt to answer the questions. I definitely plan to read through relevant chapters of a CP text or buy the FAA publication FAA-H-8083-25, Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. I'll be borrowing my partner's Gleim CP text and brushing up on the aerodynamics stuff in short order. The stack of books continues to grow.

I've found a couple of websites that look like they'll be good candidates for practice tests. I haven't tried either of these yet but plan to do so fairly soon.
http://exams4pilots.org
http://mypilottests.com

It must have been a bad day at the ASA printing facility as my FAR/AIM showed up with a 25 page section upside down. Kudos to Amazon.com though. The return process was painless. They paid for return shipping and had a new copy to me in a matter of a couple days.

It's not all books/no flying. I'll be learning some of the commercial maneuvers from one of my partners who just recently earned his CP certificate.

Next up: Aircraft Systems...

A new piloting journey

2007-11-30T12:14:00.000-08:00

I've just taken the first small step towards obtaining my commercial pilot certificate. Granted, it's a small step (ordered & received written test prep book plus an '08 FAR/AIM)...but it's a step none the less towards my transition from PP-ASEL to CP-ASEL.

All I need to do now is start studying for the written test and I'll have accomplished my goal for '07. I figure I'll take the written test in early '08 and start the flying portion in late winter or early spring '08. There is that small matter of my CFII and whether he'll be located in California or Oregon but that's ok. First thing first: study for the written test, pass it and have it out of the way.

I do have two nice advantages that I plan to exploit. One: A nice complex aircraft at my disposal. This is one of the reasons I bought into the Arrow and after nearly three years of ownership and several hundred hours flying it, things are extremely familiar and comfortable. Two: One partner just recently received his CP-ASEL certificate so I plan to use his knowledge to learn the maneuvers in our plane.

I'm hoping to post more about my experience progressing from PP-ASEL to CP-ASEL. For the immediate future, I'm sure this will not be very exciting since it quite likely may involve rants about written test questions and such. :-) Blah...I promise it will be more exciting some number of months down the road.

New prop, one less AD & great customer service

2007-10-21T11:34:00.001-07:00

This past December, I was lamenting our options in dealing with AD 2006-18-15, the repetitive eddy current inspections on our Hartzell prop hub. Our prop had been through three overhauls and it likely would not have made it through one more (prop shop did some measurements while on the plane and it was a matter of how thick the paint was as to whether or not it could go through another overhaul).

We considered repetitive inspections as well as priced out our options for 2-blade replacement props. We'd ruled out 3-blade options mostly due to the increased cost. After posting about it on Usenet, I received an e-mail from Kevin R. at Hartzell telling me about their 40% discount on a replacement prop and hub. As it turns out, this was about $1400 less than what a local prop shop had quoted me for a 2-blade McCauley prop & hub. My partners and I pondered the options and decided to go with the Hartzell option.

This past week we had the prop installed and it looks and works just fine. Yea for us! AD 2006-18-15 has been terminated. One thing I wanted to mention is the great customer service response from Hartzell. I'd been a little soured on them due to a pretty lame response to my questions of their guy at their booth during the 2006 AOPA expo. My experience in dealing with Hartzell for the replacement prop, however, dramatically turned my opinion around. Kevin provided all of the information for ordering the prop as well as answering a bunch of questions about returning the old prop. It was a very positive interaction and in the end, we received exactly what we were looking for at a substantial discount.

Milestones

2007-10-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

Aviation milestones come in various forms. There are certificates, ratings, aircraft/people/hours flown, owning a plane, flying to new locations, or just learning to do something a different way. Some milestones are small and seem insignificant while others (like passing a check ride) are absolutely HUGE. Whatever the milestone, I've always enjoyed them at the time as well as when I crack open the logbook for a peek backwards in time.

A few days ago, I did just that with my logbook. Part of this was prompted by knowing that I'd recently added another digit to the "hundreds" column of my total flying time. After realizing that I'd added another 100 hours, I started thinking about where I'd been and what I'd done in that time.

I remember my first 100 hours (nearly 80 of which involved getting my private pilot's license). When I hit that first 100, it was a nice little milestone in the same year that I earned my PPL. Sure, not a big deal but, it was fun to reflect on the fact that I'd spent 100 hours untethered from the planet and doing something that I enjoy beyond measure.

Taking a look through my logbook, this last 100 hours in the air has taken me to quite a few wonderful places and let me do several great aviation related activities. I've had a chance to:

Fly my youngest passenger ever, a 3-year old. He now talks about airplanes all the time and calls me "Captain Jack". I've already apologized to his folks for their future expenses getting Anthony's pilot's license :-)

Flown another Angel flight, this time to Santa Monica enabling a cancer patient to get some regularly scheduled experimental treatment.

While on the Santa Monica trip, I just had to stop by Van Nuys. Didn't get a chance to land on 16R but that's ok, it was very cool just being at such a great GA airport.

2006 and 2007 Oshkosh trips. There's just something about traveling a long distance via spam can. Along the way, I've stopped in some out of the way places, found some great spots to eat, and met several great folks.

Flew into the 2007 Salinas Air Show and hung out right in front of where the Snowbirds parked.

Participated in two young Eagles events where I've had the privilege of flying 17 kids, a couple of whom had never flown before.

Stayed mostly IFR and night current. At the moment, these are two areas I need to work on :-) I guess that's what happen when a few months go by with little flying activities.

Continued to hone my aircraft ownership skills via performing oil changes and whatever else I'm legally allowed to do on an airplane. I doubt I'll ever become an A&P but it sure is fun learning more about what I fly.

Looking ahead a bit, I'm hoping to celebrate a couple more milestones in the near future. I hope to start working on my commercial pilot certificate perhaps early next year. I also plan to complete the next phase of the FAA's WINGS program in lieu of a BFR. I figure it's money well spent getting some recurrent training.

So, yeah, it's fun looking back a bit and remembering things along the aviation journey. If you haven't done so lately, crack that logbook open and remember where you've been and what you've accomplished.

Seven more Young Eagles

2007-10-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

Today was our second annual "airport day" at my home field and I had the privilege of flying seven kids as part of the EAA Young Eagles program (www.youngeagles.org).

It's amazing the different reactions kids have when flying. Some are very excited and ask tons of questions while others hardly say a word (until they are back on the ground and talking to their parents about how fun it was). Today I had kids on both ends of the spectrum. Sometimes I had to ask for it to be quiet so I could hear on the radio and at other times, I was the only one talking as I pointed out landmarks.

Another 1.6 hours in the logbook but a very special 1.6 hours as I had a chance to share my love of flying with seven kids ranging in age from 8-12. Three of these kids had never been in an airplane before and I was lucky enough to be their first pilot. Now, *that* is very cool. I'm not sure who has more fun, the kids or me.

If you ever have a chance to participate in something like this, jump at the chance. Even if you have to rent an airplane, I guarantee that it will be some of the most enjoyable flying you'll ever do.

Field replacing an alternator

2007-08-18T23:21:00.000-07:00

While I'd hoped to post some Oshkosh related items during the trip, that...um...never happened :-)

The trip great as usual. We stopped in a few new places this time which meant we found a total of three new airport dogs to pet. No new airport cats to report though.

Everything was going well with the airplane until approximately 50 miles from Oshkosh when I notice a low voltage indication on the engine analyzer. I go through the drill of cycling the alternator but nothing changes...still reading right at 12 volts where it should be 14-14.1. At this point, I'm not too terribly worried since I recently installed a brand new battery and it's a wonderful VFR day. I do, however, shut down COM2, transponder, and the DME. When arriving at Oshkosh, one never knows when you might be required to hold due to arrivals being temporarily closed.

All goes smoothly with the arrival. Well, there was a Cirrus pilot who got a little concerned (unnecessarily so) about the tight arrival spacing. I was #2 in our flight of 6 and tower called the base turn and cleared my friend ahead of me to land. All of a sudden, the gal in the Cirrus, on maybe a 2 mile straight in final (likely an IFR arrival), says to the tower "You can't do that, I'm on final...I'm going to have to do a 360". Tower responds with "Mam, unless you see something I'm not, I don't see any issues here". Never mind that her doing a 360 in either direction would have been a bad idea due to the current arrival flow. I'm listing to this as I wait for tower to call my right base and clear me to land on 27. My brother picks up the Cirrus, we extend somewhat downwind until tower calls our base and everything works out fine. Sure, the spacing was tight...if this had been a normal airport but this is Oshkosh, you're expected to land on the numbers at the same time someone else is touching down maybe 2000 ft. in front of you. Ah, but I digress...

We setup camp in the North 40 and the next day, I start to investigate our alternator problem. It turns out that the ring connector to the main output stud had broken off due to being old and somewhat rusty. After breaking off, it sat there and arced such that the stud was worn approx. a third of the way through. The stud was also very loose. And, to add insult to injury, we found a crack in the alternator housing. End result: we decide to replace the alternator. It may very well have been the original and I know it had been rebuilt at least once in it's lifetime.

Fortunately, I have a friend who lives about an hour away from Oshkosh and who does a ton of his own maintenance. He is also logging time towards becoming an A&P. He shows up with tools in hand and the first thing we do is crimp on a new ring connector. I then spend a couple hours visiting the vendor exhibits and decide on buying a new Plane Power alternator. Yikes, $450. Ah, but it comes out of the partnership maintenance fund so it's "free"...as in "already paid for". Very cool :-)

The next day, we have the alternator installed and I crank up the plane and verify that it puts out 14 volts with everything electrical turned on. Life is good. It gets even better though as I have another friend who is an A&P and he shows up for a party the next night and says "I understand you need a sigh off for an alternator installation". Why, yes...yes I do. We wander over to the plane, he takes a look, and writes up a logbook entry for me. It sure is nice to have friends in aviation.

Just getting started...dropping the lower cowling:

The installation in full swing:

The rest of the show was great and the trip home uneventful with the alternator outputting it's normal 14-14.1 volts the entire way home.

Oshkosh preparations

2007-07-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

When I start pulling the camping gear down from the garage storage, it's officially Oshkosh preparation time. Bright and early this morning, me and my airport dog in training hit the garage and did just that. Out came the step ladder and down came the camping gear. Airport dog in training was more interested in chewing on sticks in the front yard. He has no idea that his world is about to change when I disappear for 11 days.

Today was a banner day in the Oshkosh related mail department. The last of the ordered charts arrived in the mail...one more thing to check off the "to-do" list. All I need now is a North Central AFD and I'm set. Well, that and print out a bunch of NOS approach plates for a bunch of airports. Last year I ordered and hauled way too many bound NOS charts. This year, I plan to print out whatever I think I'd need based on planned gas and overnight stops. Not only do I kill less trees this way, I haul probably 6-7 less pounds on the 3000 nm journey.

Even better in the package receiving department, my Aircraft Spruce order showed up today. The main component of which is a new Concorde RG battery for the Arrow. Our old battery is on its way out and I really don't want to get stuck somewhere on the way to/from the Left Coast to Oshkosh with a dead battery.

It's time for some serious hangar rat duty. Battery replacement, mounting a fire extinguisher, replacing wing tip screws/washers with new stainless steel hardware, troubleshooting the copilot side PTT switch not working, and gluing on the pilot side right rudder pedal rubber pad. Oh yeah, tonight may be a late one at the hangar but that's ok, I'm long overdue in the hangar rat department.

Another item checked off the Oshkosh to-do list was updating the W&B spreadsheet I've perfected over the last couple of years. I still have to plug in a couple of final numbers but, for the moment anyway, we're approximately 100 lbs under gross with full fuel. Life is good :-)

T-minus 13 days until launch. If I can, I'm thinking about adding blog entires along the route.

Wing skin crack repaired

2007-06-03T13:52:00.001-07:00

Ok, so here's what the fix for our lower wing skin crack looks like:

My friendly A&P suspects oil canning of the lower wing skin. Sounds like this can be caused by a couple of things. Walking on the wing walk area for one and putting the plane on jacks for another. This type of repair is somewhat common for Arrows. There was another one in for annual, sitting right next to ours and it had both sides done. Now I have something to look for when crawling around other Arrows. Reminds me of my brother and how he pokes around homebuilts looking for things that other folks (like me) would never notice.

The plane is out of annual and I performed the required test pilot duties this afternoon. The funny thing is that I was planning to have a friend fly his plane back to my home airport so that he could fly me back to the airport where we had the annual done, I could pickup my car, and go home. All was well and good until we hop in his plane for the return flight and it won't start due to a solenoid problem. So, we put his plane in my hangar then flew back back where we had the annual done. Hopefully the stars will align tomorrow such that he can get someone to look at his plane and we can get our respective babies back in their normal nests. Not that another excuse to go flying is a bad thing :-)

Wing skin crack...ah, it must be annual time!

2007-05-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

It's been far too long since posting anything. Add to that the subject of this post and...well...I'm not sure what to say...other than owning an airplane is always an adventure :-)

After a trip to Redding, CA Friday for an eddy current inspection on our prop hub (another subject altogether...but I'll resist the temptation to digress), one partner and I were crawling around under the Arrow cleaning stuff up a bit. I was under the right wing wiping out the wheel well and generally cleaning the goo off of the landing gear. I started working inboard of the gear, wiping off dirt and grime when I came across this:

The crack is in the forward wing skin, just forward of the rivet line attaching the skin to the spar. It is approximately three inches in length. At the moment, I'm getting some initial feedback from various friends and owners associations. Overall, however, the jury is out on a final solution for fixing this. Judgment day will come next week as we drop the plane off for the annual inspection. Fortunately, we deal with a great repair shop so I'm confident that we'll get the strait scoop on how best to proceed. Bah...just when we were hoping for a more reasonable repair bill than last year when two wing ribs had to be replaced as a result of performing a Piper service bulletin (the dreaded SB1161 for any Piper owners out there). We were on the bleeding edge of that one and it was a rather costly repair. Thank goodness for a partnership and cost sharing!

Here's to hoping for better future posts.

When parts leave the airframe

2007-02-24T09:43:00.000-08:00

Reading John's post about the possibility of a window departing the airframe reminded me of a time when, shortly after takeoff, it was rather obvious that we'd left something on the runway.

I'd flown a co-worker to Minden, NV for an...um...offsite breakfast meeting to discuss how we should approach some software development tasks. Ok, that wasn't it at all. We purposely planned to fly out for a quick breakfast and Minden was the perfect location as I hadn't taken the Arrow on any high altitude/mountain flights. A great way to start the work day, BTW.

Fast forward to the takeoff roll leaving Minden. Everything is normal, positive rate of climb, gear up, turn left 20 degrees on departure, starting to think about the 1000 ft. AGL checks when my co-worker says "We lost the oil door back on the runway". Huh? Sitting up a little more in the seat reveals a nice D-shaped hole in the cowl. Yep, no oil door. Suddenly my mind is filled with questions and it's time for some quick piloting decisions. Do I return to look for it? Do I keep going? Wait, what if it hit the tail/stabilator? Crud, a new oil door is a couple hundred bucks...argh...time to go back to the airport, take a look at the plane then try hunting down the oil door.

We return to the airport, shut down, checkout the plane, then start the oil door hunt. Fortunately, there was no damage to the airframe (well, other than the funny D-shaped hole):

A guy working the glider operations stops by in his truck, says "hop in, we'll drive down the runway to look for it", and off we go. 10 minutes later we see it off the right side of the runway, barely scratched. Our new found friend in the truck calls up a mechanic and after force fitting a piece of hinge wire in place and applying the appropriate amount of 200-mph tape, we're good to go. "How much do we owe you?" I ask. "Nothing" is the reply. Amazing.

As we're crossing Lake Tahoe on the return trip, I have visions of the door flying off to a watery demise. I keep a good eye on the door and it doesn't move.

Thinking back, I don't know exactly when the door came off. Likely, it was just about at the point of rotation. I didn't even see it. My co-worker saw a flash of white as we were about to rotate.

So, stuff leaving the airframe is never good. I'm fortunate that it I found my wayward part. I'm more fortunate that the wayward part was something small. I'm most fortunate that there was no damage to the airframe such that keeping the shiny side up and the dirty side down was a challenge.

Not quite one-six right

2007-02-20T21:44:00.000-08:00

I recently had a chance to fly down to Southern California for the first time. Since the initial destination was Santa Monica (KSMO), I figured my logbook needed an entry to Van Nuys (KVNY). While I would have loved to hear "Arrow , cleared to land one six right", I had to settle for the "...three four left" version followed a minute later by "...switch landing runways, cleared to land three four right".

Note to self...next time, park somewhere on the East side of the field but we wound up at Million Air since we didn't really think ahead as to where we should have parked. Ah, next time...

Now, if I could just find my camera and post the only picture taken the entire trip...#2 behind a G-IV.

A few random flying pictures

2007-01-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

A recent visitor thought I needed more photos...so, here you have it, a post with a few random flying pictures.

My ride, a '71 Arrow-200

11,000 MSL, before sunrise, headed to Palm Springs

Departed Lancaster, climbing to 10,000 so I can pickup my IFR clearance back home.

The entire valley, from Bakersfield to Sacramento is fogged in. Nice to know that I could get down through the overcast if I needed to.

Oshkosh towel rack, 2005

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe. From a few years ago on a clear winter day. One of my favorites.

Short final, South Lake Tahoe, flying a a rental '67 C-172

A look back at my 2006 flying stats

2006-12-31T10:02:00.000-08:00

Having seen mention of a few folk's 2006 flying stats, I thought I'd drag out the logbook and take a peek to see what I'd find.

Totals for 2006:
124.1 hrs total, all of it PIC in the Arrow. Yeah, more complex time :-)
8.8 hrs. actual IMC
26.3 hrs. simulated IMC
15.0 hrs. night
63.6 hrs cross country
30.8 hrs. dual
67 instrument approaches,

1 instrument rating, maintained VFR day/night currency and instrument currency plus logged my fourth trip to Oshkosh.

All in all, 2006 was a very nice flying year. I'll conveniently ignore the $8K in required repairs after our last annual and a new Hartzell prop hub AD requiring repetitive 100 hr. inspections (at $300 a pop) or a new hub. Ah, in a partnership, at least such costs are shared.

One goal I've had since becoming a co-owner in the Arrow is to fly at least 100 hours per year. There's no magical justification in that number though...it's more or less a nice round number picked at random that, for whatever reason, makes me feel owning a plane is more justified. As if owning could ever really be justified...but that's another subject.

Here's to wishing everyone a great 2007. May 2007 bring you more hours, nice weather, successful check rides, clean annual inspections...whatever makes for a great flying year (maybe a sharp drop in 100ll?).

There's a first time for everything

2006-12-29T15:38:00.000-08:00

The old saying "There's a first time for everything" rang true a couple weeks back as I did my first missed approach in actual IMC where I had absolutely no ground references in sight during the entire final approach segment.

I'd flown to Haward, CA (KHWD) on a fairly benign IMC day. The trip down was more IMC than VMC. Some in/out of the clouds but mostly just brief glimpses of the ground, no horizon though. When I pickup the weather at Hayward, they're calling it 1700 overcast and 2 mile visibility in mist. Approx. 25 miles from Hayward we pop out of the clouds and start getting vectored all over the place as they fit our spam can into the arrival flow. We do a bizarre sequence of 180 and 90 degree turns for 20 minutes in and out of clouds before getting vectored to the final approach course and a descent. Back in the goo, it's getting bumpier and the approach turns out to be one of the more challenging ones I've done. It's a localizer approach with a 440 ft MDA and 1 mile vis. I get the approach clearance somewhere around 9-10 miles out and it's bumpy enough that keeping the localizer centered and a 500 fpm descent rate is pretty tough. The missed approach point is .9 DME from the localizer and as I watch the DME count down, we're still in a big white cotton ball. I'm thinking "ok, where did they hide the airport?" I start thinking seriously about executing the missed approach as we hit 1.5 miles and we're at approx. 1200 ft (yes, I know, higher than I should have been). As the DME clicks down to 1.1 with absolutely no hint of ground/airport/etc. (anything but cloud) in sight, it's time to go missed. Everything on the throttle quadrant goes full forward, positive rate of climb, gear up, flaps up, inform tower that we're going missed, and we get a left turn heading two four zero, and a climb to 2000 ft. At this point, I'm thinking all I want to do is get into VMC conditions and sort things out. I get handed back to Norcal approach and hear the expected "Say intentions" after I check in with them. I ask for a minute to sort things out and they comply with a vector out over the SF bay (not that I could have seen anything that resembled water below us). By this time, I'm ready to go land somewhere, decompress, eat, and reschedule my Hayward appointment so I request vectors to our alternate, Livermore.

As we're headed to Livermore, the controller informs another pilot trying to get to Hayward that the conditions are now 200 ft. overcast. Gee, no wonder we couldn't see anything...the weather had gone in the toilet in the 30-40 minute time frame from the ATIS observation to when we were on the approach. Not uncommon this time of year in that part of the bay. Still, a good reminder of how quickly things can (and do) change.

By the end of the day, I managed two instrument approaches in actual conditions, added another 1.6 to the actual IMC column of the logbook, received my first speed restriction on an approach (don not exceed 110 kts on the Livermore approach), and flown my first missed approach because I couldn't see the airport (and wasn't under the hood :-) ).

Nice words from ATC when filing /g

2006-11-29T21:13:00.000-08:00

So here I am cruising back North from Lancaster, CA at 10,000 ft above a low overcast that went as far South as Bakersfield and as far North as Sacramento. Life is already pretty good since I was wheels up before 7:00, I was cruising in the sunshine at a cool 4c and my IFR clearance was pretty much as expected.

I get handed off to Fresno approach and after I check in with them, the controller asks "Is this Mark?". Mark is one of my airplane partners and knows just about every controller up and down the Sacramento valley. "Nope, Mark is home wishing he was flying today" is my reply. Five minutes later, I hear "Arrow xyz, you can put that GPS to good use, cleared direct ". A quick glance at the GPS tells me I'm 181 nm from home. The amended clearance likely didn't save me more than five minutes from my original routing but it was very cool to realize the advantage of being able to file /g

As a side note/PIREP, should you need to stop in Lancaster, KWJF is a nice airport and the folks at the Oxford suites will come and pick you up. I had to stay the night due to some pretty strong winds over the mountains. I really didn't feel like surfing the mountain waves in a P28R only to deal with single pilot night IMC in the Sacramento valley so I spent an unplanned night in Lancaster. As the saying goes, "got time to spare, go by air".

Correction re: $95 GS

2006-10-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

I stand corrected. Our little adventure at the avionics shop where we found our second glide slope simply disconnected due to recessed connector pins cost us $190 to fix, not $95. So, while I was off by a factor of 2 on the price, still, less than .2 AMUs doesn't seem all that bad.

Definition: AMU=Aviation Monetary Unit=$1000

A partner and I flight checked the plane with a combined 5 ILS approaches. Second GS worked like a charm. I definitely prefer using the #1 nav head when flying an ILS though. It's a Garmin, has a bigger donut, GS needle isn't hinged on one side, plus it just feels more normal to look at the #1 nav when flying an ILS. When #1 is driven by the GPS, even with the GS flag up, it seems way too easy to get confused and think you're on the glide slope. That's where the handy dandy round suction cup style soap holders...er, I mean, instrument covers come in handy. Should #1 nav go belly up, out come a custom instrument cover.

A little redundancy for a mere $95...priceless!

2006-10-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

It's funny how anything less than $100 seems cheap when it comes to fixing something on an airplane (especially when it's your own airplane). Hmmm, must be because after the inevitable $1000+ repairs, anything less than $100 seems like chump change. Go figure.

When we bought the Arrow, one thought I had when looking at pictures of the panel was "Cool, dual glideslopes!"...only to later discover that the glideslope in the #2 nav head didn't work. I don't recall if we were told or if we surmised that we may not have a glideslope receiver for the #2 nav. After just now poking around a bit on the web, I've learned that our nav radios have built in glideslope receivers.

We had the plane at the avionics shop to get the VORs tuned since it's never good when the #1 VOR indicates six degrees left of course when the #2 VOR indicates (correctly) that you're on course. It turns out this was an easy fix for the avionics guys. While doing the work, they informed us that we do indeed have a glideslope receiver on the #2 nav and that our problem can likely be fixed for an hour of labor ($95). We authorize the hour for diagnosis and the problem turned out to be a few recessed pins in a connector. The end result? We now have a functional #2 glideslope and it only cost us $95...ah, life is good. Compared to a rough estimate of $1700 to buy/install a second glideslope receiver, the $95 option is...well...chump change.

Of course, now we *need* to go test fly the plane. Like I said, life is good! :-)

First Young Eagle flights and some unplanned maintenance

2006-10-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

Just over a week ago, our airport had it's first annual open house type event. I'd been looking forward to it for about a month when a fuel leak seemed like it might keep me from flying kids as part of the EAA Young Eagles program (http://www.youngeagles.org/).

The day before the event, I'd taken the plane in for a couple minor maintenance items only to fly home, jump out of the plane, and find fuel dripping from the gas coalator. I'm thinking, rats, if I can't get this fixed, I can't fly in the morning. I make a few phone calls, one of which is to my mechanic and get some troubleshooting advice. The next morning, I'm able to get dirty removing the lower cowling so that I can tighten the nut that holds the gas coalator together then re-safety wire it. Shazam, problem solved. A quick test flight once around the pattern, land, check for leaks and it's time to fly some Young Eagles. Good thing I brought a clean T-shirt, I needed it.

When I pulled up to where they were staging the Young Eagles flights from, I can't believe the line of kids waiting. I fill out a form since I'm a first time Young Eagles pilot and within minutes, I have my first three kids and face my first major challenge, shortening up the two rear seatbelts. The rear seat passengers are the smallest folks to have graced the rear seats. It's a good thing since the Arrow doesn't have a ton of rear seat leg room, especially given that I fly with the seat pretty far back. After about 5 minutes of futzing with the belt adjustment, the two guys in the rear seat are ready, I climb in and the kid in the right seat climbs in. We do a short passenger brief, I get a few questions and it's time to go.

Normally, the airport is non-towered but today, they're operating a tower frequency as well as a ground frequency. It's a good and necessary thing as they're conducting some warbird flybys, Young Eagle flights with probably 10 planes participating, and many other flights in/out of the airport. I am happy to report that not once did I begin a radio transmission with "Anycity traffic, ...".

The first flight went fine, even with the little guy sitting behind ignoring the fact that I really meant what I said about needing it quiet at certain times. If it hadn't been for the pilot isolate feature of my intercom, I'd have pulled his mic. jack as he was quite content to make all sorts of noises over the intercom. Oh well, he was having fun...

I land and wind up repeating this process three more times before the event comes to a close. In one day, I go from 0 to 12 Young Eagles. Reflecting on the experience, it was awesome. Hearing things like "This is so cool" from a 15 yr. old on her first small airplane flight, "Everybody looks like little ants" from one of my younger passengers, "This is awesome" several times from other kids was great. Answering questions about becoming a pilot, owning an airplane, where I fly, etc. was also a lot of fun.

By the end of the day, I was pretty much wiped out. So much, in fact, that the plane didn't get the normal post-flight bug wipedown. That turned out to be the perfect excuse to come out to the airport the following day and introduce the new dog to the hangar. Not a bad trade really. He seemed to enjoy himself.

The unofficial count I heard was that we flew 205 kids that day. Not bad considering the original target was 100 kids. I feel privileged that I could use the gifts and talents God has given me to bless 12 of those kids with a free airplane ride.

If anyone has a chance to participate in a Young Eagles event, I'd strongly encourage you to do so. It is a great opportunity to share our passion for flying with kids that will, hopefully, get inspired to learn how to fly. Whatever it costs in terms of airplane and fuel expenses is worth the smiles you'll get in return.

Future airport dog

2006-09-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

My wife and I just adopted a 7 month old Pointer mix puppy. Little does he know that he's about to become, among other things, an airport dog. Not as a full time canine job though. More along the lines of being there on days when the 6 ft. hangar rat (me) feels the need to tinker with the plane and/or improve/clean/whatever around the hangar. On such occasions, our new pooch will get to come along so he can learn the finer points of hanging out at the airport. I have a feeling that so long as I bring a tennis ball, some doggie treats, water bowl, and a comfy blanket to lay down on, he'll be perfectly happy.

Every airport needs an airport dog...or cat for that matter. When you shut down near the fuel pumps or tie up in transient parking then walk into the FBO, there should be an airport dog there to greet you with a friendly wag of the tail. It's like icing on the cake after a trip to a distant airport.

Once while stopping for gas in Siskiyou County, CA for gas, I'd filled the plane then while walking into the FBO building, noticed that somebody had been watching me. I don't recall the breed but the pooch looked at me, wagged his tail, and figured I must be ok. Either that or the fact that I bought some 100ll kept him from attacking :-) His price: a couple minutes of scratching his ears and neck. I walk into the FBO and repeat the same process with the airport cat. You gotta love general aviation.

I walk back outside and the dog is now laying in the shadow created by the fuselage. Obviously, he's guarding the plane for me. A little coaxing and I get him to move so that I can start up and be on my way. Yep, every airport needs an airport dog. I figure our latest addition to the family is my way of carrying on this time honored tradition of general aviation.

The joys (ok, maybe some sorrows) of aircraft ownership

2006-09-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

After reading a few blog entries on ownership, I've been reflecting on my experience as a co-owner. By no means am I an expert on the subject as I've only been at it for a year and a half. As with earning your pilot's license though, there is always more to learn. The cool thing about owning is that you have untold opportunities to learn about your airplane.

Expen$ive? The short answer is...well, yeah, so what was your point again?
I've heard many folks say that there is no way that ownership is cheaper than renting. I'd agree that when factoring in every dollar that leaves your pocket when you buy and maintain your own airplane, it's going to be a long time before you save any money (if you ever do). OTOH, the per-hour operating costs of owning *might* be less than renting. In my case, for the first year of ownership, this is true, even when considering our unscheduled maintenance. Bottom line: factoring everything in, it's going to cost a bunch of money. One can blow a ton of money on cars, boats, big houses, etc. Is spending a large chunk of cash on a plane (or part of a plane) really any different? I don't think it is. Given what I paid for a 1/3 share of the Arrow, it's not all that different than buying a new car, maybe somewhere between a Honda Accord and a small SUV.

We've had a few unexpected $1000+ maintenance items and experienced a rather painful first annual (the required repairs, that is. The *inspection* was less than $1000. Still, when I consider how much I'm flying now vs. when I was renting, it's worth it to me. The expression that goes something like "If you can light a $100 bill on fire and watch it burn up without being concerned, you're ready for ownership" is pretty much true when it comes to aircraft ownership. When something only costs a couple hundred to fix, the airplane owner tends to rejoice (I know we sure do).

For us, one huge advantage is splitting the costs among the three of us. As a result, I firmly believe that co-ownership is the way to go. Unless, however, you have a bunch more disposable income and can afford outright ownership. I figure that a three way partnership in the Arrow is a step or two up the airplane food chain in terms of what I could afford if it was just me. This directly translates into my being able to fly a lot more (to the tune of around 170 hours in the first year of ownership).

Convenience

This is where ownership/co-ownership has a real advantage over renting. When I rented, rarely could I make any last minute scheduling changes or go flying on the spur of the moment. Now, even with two partners, it's almost like owning my own plane. Our schedules don't overlap much so there is little conflict when it comes to scheduling. Sure, there are occasional conflicts but we've managed to work them out with no problems. I hear lots of people saying that convenience is the main benefit of paying more to own vs. rent. I'd agree that convenience is a big benefit but it's not the only one.

Chance to be a hanger rat

A true hidden gem of airplane ownership is the chance to transform from whoever you are and whatever you do at your day (or night) job into a happy hangar rat. Whenever you spend time in that over priced metal structure housing your (also over priced) airplane, life is just so much better.

Every time I open up our hangar, I feel like someone should pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming. There's just something about seeing *your* airplane sitting there waiting for you, welcoming you to go fly (or, change the oil, wash/wax, whatever). On those occasions where I don't fly, I have a ball being a hangar rat. I could spend untold hours futzing with the plane or improving the hangar. Oh, wait, I already have spend untold hours doing these things. Can I log that?

Add in the fact that other hangar rats tend to be in close proximity and it just doesn't get much better.

Just last weekend, I spent the morning moving/rewiring the switch for our overhead lights. A simple job that required maybe $15 for wire and tie wraps. Open hangar, turn on stereo, park truck in front of hangar (leaving aviation radio on local CTAF), pull the plane forward a couple feet (so I can walk behind the wing), pull out the tools and life is good.

New terminology, the AMU

I have to give credit to John K. on the rec.aviation newsgroups for this one. It came from somewhere else but I first heard it from him. In aircraft ownership, when talking dollars, there is an important conversion factor. 1 AMU (Aviation Monitary Unit) = $1000. So, when it came to our pitot/static cert., rebuilding our altimeter, and replacing an AP roll cable, saying "The repairs cost 1.3 AMUs" sure sounds better. It worked for the repairs that were performed after our last annual. It was still single digit in terms of AMUs. Proof positive that ownership is expen$ive.

All things considered, I'm glad I'm in the position to co-own and I feel very fortunate to be doing so.

Most interesting ATC radio communication I've heard

2006-09-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

"Arrow xyz, turn left heading two seven zero, vectors for active air show"

Last Sunday, my wife and I were cruising home from the San Francisco Bay area at 4500 MSL descending to 3500 MSL, just East of Concord, CA (KCCR). I'd been trying to get in touch with the local TRACON for flight following but the bay area frequencies were pretty jammed so I opted to wait until just prior to entering Travis Air Force Base's airspace and contacting Travis Approach. I call them up, they have me change frequencies, ident, they give me the local altimeter setting then tell me to stand by for a squawk code.

Everything is normal, right? Um…no, not exactly. The next thing I hear is "Arrow xxx, turn left heading two seven zero, vectors around active air show". Now, *that* got my attention. I hang a 110 degree turn to the left and start wondering where I went wrong in my pre-flight weather & NOTAM briefing. There were no graphical TFRs along my route and I'm wondering if I missed a NOTAM for an air show at Stockton, Lodi, Tracy, Rio Vista…Travis AFB maybe.

A minute later, I get vectored heading 360 degrees and this will pretty much put is over the center of Travis's air field. I'm thinking that Obviously, the air show activity isn't at Travis. Five minutes or so later, I'm told I can resume my own navigation so I turn back to my original heading before this little zigzag and fly maybe three miles away from Travis's runways but now at 3500 MSL.

Before I exit Travis's air space, I hear two other spam cans get vectored around the air show activity. Funny, nobody asked "Travis approach, where is the air show?". I sure wanted to but didn't want that on record with the ATC recordings.

When I got home, I searched through the NOTAMs and googled everything I could think of for local air shows. Zip…nada…nothing. So, I'm left wondering if Travis was doing something in a corner of their air space and just wanted everyone to stay the heck away.

Ah, well, I didn't bust any TFRs and it was a pleasant flight. I'm still scratching my head wondering what was going on though. If any Bay Area folks know what was going on, please drop me a line.

Oshkosh 2006...long...very long

2006-08-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

A long-ish trip report on our adventure this year...

This marks the fourth year I've made the trek from the left coast to
Wisconsin for the big show. This year, it's me, my wife, my brother,
and his wife stuffed into our '71 Arrow. With four of us and 36 gallons
of gas, we can haul a grand total of 165 pounds of gear. Not a shred of
camping gear made the trek this year. Fortunately, I have a friend who
lives in the Twin Cities area and he delivered the camping goods.

Left coast to Oshkosh:

Day 1: Lincoln, CA to Elko, NV for first gas stop. We wanted to make
it to Wendover, UT but with a long climb to get over the Sierras and a
slight headwind (yes, despite the fact we were going East), KEKO was the
first gas stop. We were planning three hour legs with our limited fuel
carrying ability.

Elko to Ogden, UT for gas stop #2 and lunch at the Auger Inn restaurant.
Note to self: Next time, hit the self serve fuel pump on the North
side of the tower next time. The FBO topped off the tanks after being
told to fill to the tabs. End result: we stay in Ogden for the night as
it took them forever to defuel 14 gallons of 100ll. It was for the
better since the ride across the mountains to the East of the Salt Lake
area would have been quite bumpy. So...if anyone stops in Ogden for
gas, I can't recommend the FBO that resides on the South side of the
tower. Can't remember their name (nor want to).

Day 2: First leg is Ogden to Rawlins, WY. Wheels up just after sunrise
and the air was very smooth. Quick stop at Rawlins for gas and we're
off to Alliance, NE for gas and lunch. Last leg is to Iowa City for Jay
and Mary Honeck's pre-OSH bash at the Alexis Park Inn and Suites. Park
Inn & Suites. First Bratwurst of the trip...yum.

Day 3: Iowa City to Oshkosh as a flight of three with the Honeck's and
Edwin Johnson in his Maul. We manage to keep sight of each other all
the way.

I need to stop here a second and explain a bit about the Oshkosh arrival
procedure. It's spelled out very clearly in a NOTAM. When you're
approx. 50 miles away, you tune in the arrival ATIS and listen for the
weather conditions and which runways are in use. You then aim for the
town of Ripon (there is even a GPS waypoint for it now) and arrive at
1800 MSL and 90 kts (for our class of airplane). You look for other
aircraft and essentially get in line with 1/2 mile spacing between you
and the guy in front. You fly right over a set of railroad tracks at
1800 MSL and 90 kts. You listen to the Fisk approach controllers as
they identify aircraft by type/color and you don't speak on the radio
unless asked a question by the controllers. As they identify you, they
ask you to rock your wings so they know you hear them. Then, they
instruct you to proceed a specific direction for a specific runway (each
of which is spelled out in the NOTAM). You then switch frequencies to
one of two tower controllers (runway 9/27 or 18/36), depending on what
the Fisk approach controller had you do. If things get a little bunched
up, there are two possible locations to hold. There are two lakes.
Green Lake is outside of Ripon and Rush Lake is between Ripon and Fisk.
Sounds pretty simple, eh?

When we listen to the arrival ATIS, we learned they were holding over
Green Lake. Ok, no problem. We enter the hold and it's just no fun as
there are planes everywhere...a couple of miles from the shoreline
(you're supposed to be over the shoreline), flying slower than 90 kts,
and talking back to Fisk approach (and other pilots) on the radio. We
end up doing maybe 6 laps around Green lake before bugging out to Fond
Du Lac for gas/food/pee stop. I call Jay from Fond Du Lac and find out
that he made it through the gauntlet and is parked in row 558. After an
hour and a half or so, we find out that they're not holding so launch
from Fond Du Lac and the arrival goes pretty much ok. Well...until
we're just turning final for runway 9 and a Meridian is about a mile
away at our 3:00. Tower is talking to him and doesn't seem to see us.
I'm set for a go around but the Meridian zips by then tower sees us and
has us put it on the numbers. Welcome to Oshkosh (though I didn't hear
those words this year). We end up in row 575, just abeam the Hilton.

The camping gear soon shows up and we set things up. It's warm and
humid but everything is suddenly right in the world because, well, we're
at Oshkosh and we just setup camp next to our plane.

Stuff we did, in no particular order:

Saw a pair of F-22 Raptors. Very cool demonstration!
Watched the B-1 arrive. Also very cool.
Walked around a British Lancaster. It's amazing how different that plane sounds when flying...almost like a flight of P-51s. Hmmm, must be those RR Merlin engines.
Watched the ultralights come and go one morning in their little chunk of airspace.
Sat one table away from Chuck Yeager while eating breakfast at the Hilton one morning. Later on, my wife made a comment to another guy at a nearby table...turned out it was Harrison Ford. Only at Oshkosh...
listened to Bob Hoover give a talk about his flying days.
Toured the museum (again)
Hit the seaplane base (again)
Got wet (again...rained like crazy one night and my bag was up against the side of the tent. oops).
Generally walked ourselves silly in way too much heat/humidity. It was a ton of fun though.

The trip home was fairly uneventful. We made two nights out of it. The first night was Ainsworth, NE and the second night was Winnemucca, NV. I had the most wicked cross wind landing of my life at Winnemucca. Very gusty and shifting winds and I had to work pretty hard on that landing.

Ok, this was a really long post. Believe it or not, I could keep going...but I won't. I should have posted this a long time ago. Been meaning to, just never got it finished...until now.

33.4 hours flying time for the trip.

Bend, OR from the right seat of a C-172

2006-07-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I can't log PIC time since it's not my airplane (and I'm not PIC for this flight anyway)...but that's ok because 3:00 flying sure beats 8:00+ driving from Northern CA to central OR. Besides, the view at 10,500 MSL is much better.

Another benefit of today's flight is that it served as a warm-up for next week when four of us cram into the Arrow and head for Oshkosh for AirVenture 2006. 30+ hours of flying, six days camping next to the plane, basking in all things aviation related, and time to meet up with a bunch of friends I've met there over the last three years...I can hardly wait.

One word of caution about Oshkosh/AirVenture. Once you go, plan on pretty much doing it for the rest of your life. It's a gathering like none other in the aviation arena. Part air show, part aviation convention, and thousands of aircraft.

Hmmm, only my second post and I managed to get on the same Oshkosh theme...

First posting

2006-07-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

So, I've been following folks like John over in Freight Dog Tales (now Aviation Mentor), Flight Level 390, and a couple others and figured it was time to start my own flying blog. I have no idea how often I'll post nor how exiting you'll find the subjects...but figured why not see how it goes.

A bit about me...well, at least the flying stuff. I'm a private pilot, instrument rated, co-owner of a Piper Arrow, and fly out of the Sacramento, CA area. I fly to/from the SF Bay Area fairly often, have been to Bend, OR, and love the cross country trek to Oshkosh.

In addition to several folks that blog here about aviation, another great source is the Usenet newsgroups. Specifically, I'd recommend rec.aviation.piloting, rec.aviation.owning, and rec.aviation.student. There's a fairly high signal to noise ratio in those groups and I've personally met several members (all of which are great people). The funny thing is that I wound up meeting many of those folks personally at Oshkosh. Hmmm, how come that word keeps coming up? :-)

Speaking of Oshkosh...a small glimpse of what it's like from camping in the North 40...