Wednesday, August 24, 2005

First Nephew


Landon was born around 8:30 pm on 8/23/05. The 7lb11oz healthy baby boy was delivered in fairfax hospital, VA. This ranks up there with one of the highlights in my life. Probably as cool as the day I became a liscenced pilot. Landon was a stubborn little guy, and didnt want to join us...but mom hung in there and made it happen. We all figured it would be close to midnight when he would be born, but he decided he had enough and made a run for the door. We were all pleasantly surprised when he came when he did. We rushed to the hospital in time to get a look at him and hold him before they kicked us out. Meredith is recovering for the next few days and will be bringing baby home before the weekend. Thank god for a healthy baby, and a safe delivery. My first nephew has no idea what he is in store for.......solo at age 16, ppl at 17, comm-sel at 18.......commercial airliner at 21. Oh yes, I have my work cut out for me.
(btw...ignore the time stamp on the pic)

Sunday, August 21, 2005

c177rg cardinal checkout complete

So, I had probably the best day of flying in some time today in the cardinal. An airplane i struggled with last week felt like an old friend today. We headed out of leesburg up towards Frederick. started with some steep turns, then the stall series, then some gear emergencies. Cessna landing gear systems are different and not what i was used to so learning how to operate the emergency gear extension system was crucial. We then headed back to Leesburg for some landings. I greased the first x-wind landing and then we headed back for a power off landing. I was well within 200 ft of my intended landing spot. Then we finished up with a couple of engine failures on takeoff. when we cleared the trees Ray pulled the power and i landed with no flaps and on the remaining runway. It was a new experience for me and a real eye opener. things really happen fast.

I also got another endorsement. The FAA requires that anyone who wants to fly an airplane with an engine over 200 horsepower, needs to receive and log ground and flight instruction in the operations of a high performance engine. Since the Cardinal was 225 hp we did the training and I was signed off to fly high performance aircraft. Pretty cool huh?

xc trip KHEF-MRH







So, a trip to the beach was in order since summer was quickly coming to a close. I decided to meet a friend down at Emerald Isle in the outer banks North Carolina. I was to take the warrior(pa28140) from manassas(khef) to moorehead-beaufort airport in NC. I filed IFR and got my clearance. The clearance was "arsenal 1 departure to csn, radar vectors to HANEY int, Harcum VOR, Cofield VOR, Newbern VOR, direct. I was in the clouds most of the way at 7000ft. With a nice tailwind I made it down in just over 2 hours. not too bad. As i passed Cherry Point MCAS I picked up the airport. was cleared for the visual and canceled IFR. I landed runway 3 and taxied in to meet my buddies. The way home was equally as fun. I picked up my clearance and departed runway 26 from moorehead. Climbed up to 6000 and was soon cleared direct to cofield and then to Richmond, brooke vor, and casanova before being cleared for the visual approach into manassas. It was a real learning experience for me since i had to divert around several buildups that wouldnt have been a whole lot of fun to fly through. Summer time presents a unique hazard in thunderstorms, and after i flew through the first buildup i decided it would be better to circumnavigate the weather rather than fight to keep wings level and altitude in check while flying through. All in all a great trip. Logged over 5 hours of flight time, 2 landing, vor tracking, 1 hour of actual instrument, and got some great experience talking to ATC. Regardless of what anyone says, Wash Center will, and does, help you out when you need it.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Cardinal c177rg checkout

Washington DC is sitting under some of the hottest weather we have had in a while. Combine the heat and humidity(95 degrees) and some really bad haze and you have a less than ideal day to go flying. None-the-less....my instructor Ray and I headed out to the Cardinal for our first flight since my CFI checkride. He showed me the subtle differences in systems from the Arrow, and the similarities I could relate from my days in the Cessna 172. After a thourough and sweaty preflight we climbed in. I got my ADIZ clearance, and we checked the AWOS. Wow, 2800 ft density altitude. This is gonna be interesting. The higher the density altitude(pressure altitude corrected for non standard temps) the worse(or better) your performance. In this case our performance was much worse. He told me to fly by feel and get to know this new bird with the bigger engine and way nicer avionics. She was equipped with a Garmin 530, dual display, autopilot, TCAS(traffic collision avoidance system) and some nice radios. We headed up to DMW-carroll county MD. My first landing there was terrible. Its been a while since ive bounced an airplane. I bounced the cardinal, about 3 times before we settled down. The next landing was much nicer. we did a soft field takeoff out of there and headed over to 2w2-clearview airport. We are talking about some work. the runway is 1800 ft long, and one side has a slope so you better hope the wind is blowing downhill. We dragged it in over the trees, and put it down in the first 500 ft. rolled to the end and took off on the downhill. I rotated at the published airspeed(55 kt) and climbed out....barely. we cleared the trees by no more than 100 ft. interesting. there was some serious pucker factor. we came back in for another landing and takeoff. these were both much better. One thing i learned about cessna retracts is that you dont pull the gear up while trying to clear something. the mechanical drag of the gear in motion destroys performance. lesson learned. the arrow you got rid of the gear and drag when you were clear of the runway. I experienced a real practical application of short field technique. its just not the same when there is actually an extra 3000 ft of runway in case you mess up. its one shot or no shot. The we headed back to JYO-leesburg. he yanked the power on me abeam the numbers. i forgot how those cessna wings like to fly......full flaps and a slip on the base and I greased her in. So, what did I learn? bigger engine means better performance, but also means more to do. Cowl flaps are there for a reason, and density altitude and hot temps are serious business on a short runway. Oh yeah, and dont pull up the gear till you are clear of anything. Cant wait to take this bird onto the grass strip next weekend, and then on a x-c trip somewhere.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Savannah to Dulles on a crj-200

So, my day starts off yesterday(Sunday) in lovely Savannah Georgia. My plan was to take the 1230 flight home which still had seats open. However I decided to stay longer. After some careful thought I figured trying to get on the 730 flight was my best option. There were 4 seats and two listed. So, I showed up an hour earlier than departure and learned there were actually no seats on the 7:00 flight but the 930 was wide open. So, they book me on the 930 and I wait. An hour or so passes and its getting close to boarding time, and I don’t see anyone in the gate area. I soon learn that the flight was canceled and that I would have to come back in the morning for a 6 am departure. Lovely. As I called my friend to come scoop me I sat pondering what would happen to me in the morning. There were seats, and there were plenty of flights, but you really never can tell when flying stand-by. I woke up this morning and was so tired. I made my way to the airport-ksav- and was given a seat. 11b. great, no window but it would do. I figured I could sleep most of the flight. Not so. The departure was great. Nice smooth rotation and we were quickly at altitude in the crj-200. one of Bombardiers finest. I settled in for the hour or so flight. As we passed over Richmond(which I identified with a skillfull eye) and joined the arrival routing, the woman behind me decides its bathroom time. this is where the story gets good. She decides that she was too big to get out of the seat unaided and every time(total of 3) she uses the back of my seat as a crutch. She would use my chair to support her weight and launch me backwards as she climbed out. The flight attendant has been doing her best all flight to help this poor woman, but is obviously at her wits end. The lady cant buckle her seat belt….so the FA brings her an extension, being as political as she can…..but I could tell she didn’t get much sleep and was worn out. She finally gets settled(I think) and I can see the runway at Dulles to my left out the window. We are on a downwind leg for landing to the south on 19Left. She decides its bathrrom time again. Runs in there coughing up a storm. The flight attendant comes back again. (mind you were in a critical phase of flight close to the ground) and tells her to sit down. The lady responds frantically that “shes seen shows in tv about airline tragedies”. Im not sure what that had to do with her seatbelt not being on, but nonetheless as the aircraft settled in over the runway and began the landing flare she went into nervous shakes, and ultimately let out a huge shriek as the wheels touched down. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer flight……….minus this lady. I didn’t want to stare on the plane so I got a good look at her in the terminal. It was an interesting sight.

Anyways, that was my Sunday/Monday. 6 hours in the terminal, 1 great flight, 1 freakin weirdo lady, and a non-rev nightmare and im home. Who could ask for more?

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

I AM OFFICIAL

Saturday July 30th, at 830 am we departed Leesburg airport for Frederick municipal airport to take our checkrides. Myself, another commercial candidate and his instructor climbed in the arrow and departed IFR to FDK. ceilings were low so we requested the ILS approach to runway 23. For those that dont know, and ILS is an approach to landing in low visibility conditions which gives you runway centerline guidance and keeps you on a 3 degree glidepath to the runway. You are allowed to descend to within about 200 feet of the ground before being required to fly the missed approach. Anyhow, we broke out of the clouds right at decision height(dh) and landed uneventufully. We parked and I met the examiner inside. She ran me through about a three hour oral exam. We talked about everything from runway markings to lesson plans to aerodynamics. It was thorough and a good learning experience for me. The clouds were still hanging around so I sent in my buddy to get his oral out of the way. I went and grabbed a crabcake sandwich. Oh how i wish i were done.

The flight started uneventfully with a softfield takeoff with a tailwind at high density altitude. we climbed out and went north of the field to do some airwork. We started with steep turns, slow flight, stalls and then a lazy eight. then we did eights on pylons, turns around a point, and then back to the airport for a power off landing. After the engine out we came back around for a soft field landing on a short field. I was officially a CFI. To date of the coolest feelings I have had in aviation.

So, nowI am on to my multi engine rating and to find a couple students. Exciting stuff.

I was offered a position flight instructing at the flight school I trained at. I will start in a few weeks.