Thursday, March 30, 2006






Here are a few pics from the ride we took the other night....chris jami and myself in the captains chair. Spring weather is among us here...im excited for the weekend. time to do some great flying. enjoy!!

Friday, March 24, 2006

First timers

So I guess spring is supposed to be here by now huh? Well, Mother Nature is having second thoughts on that I guess. The forecast for the weekend is for rain and snow tomorrow. And possibly on Sunday as well. It is pretty annoying when you are only able to fly with students on the weekends and the weather consistently does not cooperate. Whether it is the wind, the clouds, or now precip and freezing temps….its enough to make a guy like myself want to move to Florida. I think I can handle thunderstorms and hurricanes better than I can deal with a winter full of gusty crosswinds and ice filled clouds. But I digress.

The weekend is slated to be a good one, if the weather cooperates. I am scheduled to work the dispatch desk on Sat morning until around noon. I’ve got one of my better students lined up for a flight to tune him up for his re-solo. He’s new to town and needs a new solo endorsement from myself. Easy flight. Late afternoon I have a new student who has about 30 hours, but wants to finish his license. This should be an interesting flight. Flying with new people always keeps me on the edge of my seat.

Speaking of new pilots, I took my friend Chris and Jami up in the airplane last night. We loaded up the c-172 and headed west towards Front royal and Winchester. We were headed into Winchester (kokv) for a touch and go and I asked Jami if she wanted to try a landing. She was excited so I said I would handle the rudders and the power, she could do the flare. I carefully watched her and coached her every movement. As we came over the grass I said, keep bringing us down; we crossed the threshold at a beautiful height and I explained that ill being the power back and I wanted her to level off, then I told her to keep the airplane at this height and not let it sink. She started to instinctively flare the airplane. I was in utter amazement. Granted she did not have to worry about maintaining airspeed on final, or putting in flaps or steering on the ground after touchdown, but she still did a whole lot better than a lot of students I’ve seen. I think we might have a new student on our hands. I gave her a logbook with her first 1.5 in it.

It was great to get back in the left seat and I enjoyed being the sole manipulator of the controls for a change…..

We took our friend Dave flying as well. We had a picture of him on my clipboard propped up on the instrument panel in cruise flight. As his girlfriend sat next to me I watched as she held the picture in her hands. Dave had been flying with me once before, and he wanted me to take him flying back in January. I guess he finally got to go back up with me again.

Monday, March 20, 2006

things that go bump in the day

Wheels up and back in the sky once again. Right on schedule, the weekend arrived and the winds fired up. Saturday saw the worst of the weather pass through. Winds on the surface were gusting once again to 27. But more dangerous were the winds aloft. Moderate to severe turbulence below 8000 ft all over the region, and a mountain wave that, according to a pirep, was quite severe. A driver of a Cessna 172 reported a descent over 500 fpm while trying to cross the ridge. He had full power and was pitching the aircraft for Vx…or best angle of climb. Not sure how he got out of it, but that alone was enough for most of the instructors, myself included to cancel our flights.

Sunday was forecast to be better, however the forecast changed and those winds hung around. The severe turbulence was gone, and the mountain wave wasn’t as vicious so I decided to give it a shot. My first flight of the morning paired me with a private pilot….from Jamaica….that hadn’t flown in 4 years. No problem. I told him it would be bumpy but if he didn’t mind a few bumps we could go. So we headed out and I showed him the preflight. We hopped in the airplane and departed off runway 35. I requested a vfr climb to 3000 and a class bravo clearance, and Potomac departure was able to accommodate. I wanted to get out of the low level bumps as soon as I could. It worked, sort of. We headed over to Winchester and flew around. Let him get used to the airplane, as all his ppl training was done in a Cessna 150. He came to me with .8 of an hour in a 172. We did an hour in the practice area and headed back. I briefed him on the landing, and asked if he wanted to try to land it. We agreed that I would help him on the controls as it was a pretty gusty crosswind. To be exact I wrote down the winds…280@16knots gusting to 27. The wind was 70 degrees off the runway heading(350) and nearly exceeded our xwind capability of the aircraft. We were almost test pilots. He did a great job on final until over the grass. We went below the trees and lost our wind. He had let us get slow and the windshear bit us. I felt the sink, called for some power, he didn’t respond so I took controls, went full power and got out of there. he asked me to do the landing the next time around and I totally greased it. My biggest fear was botching another landing with a student, for the second week in a row.

My second student is a guy that ive been trying to fly with for a while now. We first flew together back when we had the electrical failure, and have only had one other flight in the pattern between then and now. So we headed out into the wind. Nice takeoff and climb out. Headed west via rt 7 and used some pilotage to have him find Winchester airport for me. We did a few maneuvers in the area and then headed over for a couple landings at Winchester(kokv). Winds were 16 knots but right down the runway. Made it nice and easy for him to have good landings. Made my job easier too. We departed the airport back to Leesburg and I wanted him to learn how to enter and exit the ADIZ. He made his intial call up to Potomac and we were rudely dismissed. As we circled outside the ADIZ we watched the airliners entering the downwind for rwy 1L at KIAD. The controllers were busy. One large jet after another, and no sqwawk code for us. So I tried two more freqs before we finally got a code. So, my teaching moment was kinda ruined and I had to kinda ad-lib to get us back home. But at least got to see what to do when that happens. I will say it again, the ADIZ is a good thing for national security, but damn it’s a pain in my a$$ every day that I fly. Nine times out of ten it’s a piece of cake with no problems. But that tenth time it really bugs the crap out of you. Some controllers act as though they are god…..and treat smaller GA aircraft as though they aren’t worth their time. Ok, end rant.

So we ended the flight with a pretty wild time on final, and a pretty long touchdown. But it was a safe landing on the centerline and the plane will fly again.

Overall not the best weekend of flying, but I did get some time in the logbook. Broke 490 total time, so I am slowly getting closer to the elusive 1000 hrs. I have a pretty good feeling that once I start teaching full time I will fill the pages in my logbook pretty fast.

Total time=490.7 Multi time 9.8 1hr PIC multi. That is soon to change.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Arrow Time

It’s been a pretty crazy couple of weeks for me, but I think the dust has settled and we are all moving forward. There is definitely something to be said for having someone on your side upstairs. This past weekend was tremendous for me as far as the flying goes. Sat morning I made my way out to the airport for a 10 am show with a student who was signed up for his first lesson ever. Huge responsibility for me. My first student from scratch. He was excited, motivated, and ready to fly. I took him out, showed him the Cessna we would be flying, and we started in on the preflight. I had him read the checklist item and I showed him what we were looking at. After the preflight, we climbed in and I taxied us out of parking. Once on the main taxiway headed out to runway 35 I let him take the controls. I showed him how to taxi using the rudder petals to steer and to keep us on centerline. We did the run-up and then we took the runway. I had briefed him on the takeoff. I kept us going straight with my feet and kept an eye on the airspeed. When we hit 60 knots I had Ahmed gently pull back on the yoke. Before he knew it we were airborne. He was really pumped. I let him fly us west staying under the Dulles class B airspace, and had him climb us out up to 3000 as soon as we could. Once clear of the ridge and the ADIZ boundaries, we went up to about 4000 to get above the thermals. Nice smooth air for his first flight. We did some turns, climbs, descents…..he had a huge grin on his face. After about an hour we headed back to Leesburg. After a brief delay getting back into the ADIZ we got our code and I had him descent us down to around 1500. He was a little unnerved by the thermal activity as it was a nice warm day in the DC area. I took over a mile outside the pattern and landed us on runway 35. He complimented me on the landing…..glad he didn’t know otherwise. I had a little bounce to it. I guess its all good right? So he’s signed up for his second lesson. He’s all set to get started. I am as well.
My afternoon was a checkout in the arrow. The PA28R-200. Retractable gear, constant speed prop. We headed off on a x-c he had planned up to Chambersburg PA—N68. A nice little skydiving strip. We landed, taxied in, and right before departure back out we were bombarded by about 6 parachuters. Pretty cool to see. After departure, we headed over for a landing at Hagerstown (khgr) and then a landing at Frederick (kfdk). Full stops at each. Then we headed home for a nice smooth landing back at Leesburg. As usual, a gorgeous sunset on the way back southwest bound. Something I have really found enjoyment in. Nothing better than a nice sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains at the end of a long afternoon of flight instructing.

Sunday was the morning of my 8k race in DC. St Patty’s day 8k to benefit the Special Olympics. I used the opportunity to raise money for the family of my friend who had just recently passed. I was very successful, and thank all those that helped me with my effort. I also had an excellent run, finishing at my best time to date.

The afternoon I spent with my commercial student. We went up in the Cessna to get him back in the saddle. It’s been a while since he’s flown so we went through the PTS and did all the maneuvers he would need to know. For not having flown in a while he did exceptional. After the airwork I told him to take us to Winchester (kokv) for some landings. We were on the edge of some weather and it was moving in. On about a 3 mile left base for runway 32 at Winchester I asked him what he thought about the weather. He said “Let’s go back to Leesburg”. I concurred. I told him that’s exactly what I am looking for him to do with his commercial training. Start making good decisions based on experience and knowledge that he has….no longer relying as much on a cfi for guidance. Growing exponentially as a pilot, and eventually a CFI. We are going to get into the Arrow next time. I am excited to teach him about the gear and the constant speed prop. It’ll be a real experience for me.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

the morning after......

With the passing of a good friend, come many mixed feelings that each personal interprets and processes differently. I experienced a whole spectrum of feelings. It started with doubt and disbelief. How could the lord take someone so young and strong so quickly? It didn’t seem fair, and certainly could not be true. It was as though we were all waiting for Dave to walk into the party at any minute. Then those feelings of disbelief and shock blended into feelings of sorrow and grief. We realized that he was not coming back and it was a hard thing to deal with. But, but the grace of god we were all blessed with a large group of friends and a family to lean on. We cried, we laughed, we told Dave what a punk he was…..and at the end of the day it made us feel better. Now that the wake and the funeral have passed we can move on with the mourning process and move forward. This is my first death of someone so close to me as an adult, and it was very difficult. But seeing a church filled with close to 1000 people, from as far away as Korea, it really touched my heart. My feelings are slowly turning now to a mixed feeling of great joy in knowing that Dave is with the lord in an awesome place, but very sad in that we will never live with him on this earth again.

In my attempt at gaining some assemblance of normalcy, I went out to the airport Saturday morning to work my dispatch shift. A guy called looking for a flight review. I offered to do it for him in his own aircraft. He flew a TB-20….a Trinidad. A very nice aircraft that would’ve been a joy to fly if it were a hair bigger. But I enjoyed messing with the avionics and letting him show me how to operate the autopilot. His BFR consisted of the standard ADIZ departure. Once over Winchester we did some stalls, slow flight, steep turns. Being an obvious master of his own airplane, I decided to shift gears and see if this guy really knew how to use his avionics. What a blast. 6 miles south of the Martinsburg VOR we set up the radios to fly the ILS approach to runway 26. We crossed the Initial approach fix and turned outbound before making the procedure turn inbound and intercepting the localizer. The winds were strong and you could see the autopilot was crabbing the nose of the airplane quite a bit to the right to maintain on the center of the localizer. We reached mins and cut off the autopilot and put the bird down in a fabulous x-wind landing. Dip the right wing to maintain runway centerline, but straighten the nose with left rudder and land on the right wheel. A complex yet graceful maneuver when done with finesse.

The second time down the localizer was a real treat. The Martinsburg airport lies in between the Blue Ridge Mountains. There are ridges to the east and west of the airport. Field elevation is 700ft, and the tops of the ridge reach about 2k. Not the Rocky Mountains but big enough to set the scene for a great sunset. As we came down the final to the west runway, the orange ball of sun sat teetering upon the ridge waiting to set. As soon as the sun dips below it is only a matter of seconds before it disappears behind the horizon. The absolutely gorgeous sunset and the chance to fly in the plane reminded me how luck I am to be alive and to be able to chase my dream. The setting sun was somewhat metaphorical in symbolizing the end of Dave’s life, and the eventually beginning of our lives anew. Bringing with us the strength, wisdom and inspiration that Dave left us with. His 29 years of life allowed him to see and do much more than many people see or do in a lifetime. I anticipate spending my next 30 years in much the same way. And when we meet again, I will tell him about all the great places I have flown and foreign lands I have seen. And how he inspired me to be a better person. For this I am thankful.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

UPDATES

Its been a couple of weeks since I last posted on here, and I apologize for that. There isnt too much to report. I am axiously awaiting my last day at my job(may 12) so that I can head down to Ft Pierce Florida to fly a be-76 beech duchess around for 100 hours. When I get back I will be a full time CFI and probably be working at the Outback again to make ends meet. I was a cook there in college. Its decent money and I do alright at it, and nothing lasts forever right? Why is northern VA so damn expensive. Ive been weathered out quite a bit in the last few weeks due to winds, but I did get a chance to take my student into KIAD-dulles international a few weeks ago one late weekend night. the tower let us land and taxi back on rwy 1R. Huge thrill for my student. Had an A320 land while we were taxiing back. Pretty cool to be that close.

Anyways, not too much new to report in the world of aviation for me.....but I do have some rather sad news to report to my friends here. A very good and longtime friend of mine, Dave, passed away Friday March 3 at around 630 in the evening.

Dave had been living in Korea and was exposed to TB. When he returned to the states he went for a physical and the strain was detected using one of those TB tests noone ever thinks is worthwhile. No big deal right? Give him some antibiotics and the strain would die off before ever developing into full blown TB. So, the DR gave him some meds and said, hey, be careful this hurts x percent of patients livers. Great news doc, but it might help to tell him that he needs to have blood drawn every month to check for liver enymes(damage).

Two weeks ago Dave's liver began to fail. He got very ill and went to the hospital. The ER docs sent him home with some medication, thinking he had the flu. A few days later he was incoherent, delirious, and his urine was dirt-brown. Dave was in some trouble. He was quickly sent to the ICU and a plan was devised. He improved with some meds, and the idea was to try to regain some liver function using mass amounts of IV fluids. Two days after being sent to the general hospital floor, he was back in the ICU. This time he was out of consciousness. He had moments with his eyes open, but his pain was so severe the doctors chose to sedate him, verses giving him pain meds as to avoid further liver damage. Dave needed a liver, in a bad way.

He would never even get a a chance to accept one.

Last night we all stood vigil outside ICU 1 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. His parents, relatives, church people, friends, rugby team, and girlfriend were there praying beyond belief that he would pull through. Around 5pm Daves fever shot up to 106. His breathing was labored. He needed to be put on a ventilator. The cause of the fever was his brain squeezing under tremendous swelling out the bottom of the skull. This was the end for Dave. At 6 pm EST, March 3 Dave was removed from the ventilator to determine if he could breath on his own. He was pronounced brain dead.

Dave was 28, in excellent physical shape. He was an excellent rugby player, a smart kid, a friend to all, a great boyfriend, and a better son than his parents could have ever asked for.

More than all that though Dave was our friend. We all shared special moments with the guy in the last 15years, and we will miss him so very much.

Dave's parents, his sister and her husband and their newborn and 14 month old, and Dave's girlfriend were so thankful that we were all there for them. They had no idea that Dave had so many people that loved him. He is in a better place now..........

................We will miss you buddy.

We celebrated Dave's life like he would've wanted us to.....we toasted a pint in his memory last night.

Dave Bailey 12/24/76 - 3/3/06