Engine out procedures

Finally, a weekend where I do not have a million things going on and can fly.  The weather cooperated however it was incredibly hot and as you can see from the start the video below take off and climb was sluggish.  Today's DA was 3180 so not a lot of power today in the climb out.

I wanted to do some power off simulations so I can see first hand the glide characteristics of the plane.  The book said that it's best glide speed is 79mph and it certainly seems to have held true.

The first power off 180 was so/so but the second one was a real belly flop, but I guess in an emergency it's nice to know you can get it down if needed.

AOPA Article Video Shoot

Wow what a crazy two days....the AOPA came down and did a full photo and video shoot in addition to a follow up interview.  I can't wait to see the article (it's scheduled for September issue of AOPA Flight Magazine)

On Tuesday I got to the airport very early to take some morning drone footage while the airport was nice and quiet.  We ended up shooting videos for almost 3 hours, it's so interesting to see how all of that comes together to produce a small piece on the internet.  I can't wait to see the finished product.

On Wednesday the other members of the AOPA came in from Maryland to do follow up interviews and to shoot some one on one video interviews.  I can't wait to see how that turns out, we ended up recording almost 3 hours of video and spent another hour taking pictures.

Here are just a few of the RAW video from the shoot.  These videos have no edits but still really cool shots...

iFly 740

It's pretty evident that most of the avionics in the plane are pretty dated.  A few months back I was able to pick up a gently used iFly 700 unit for the plane.  While having an iPad is great, I still wanted something that was geared specifically for aviation without fear of an arbitrary update rendering the app useless.

While an older unit the iFly 700 worked great and I was able to use it on a few flights, as seen in a few of my videos.  Well, fortunately the guys over at Adventure Pilot also follow the blog and sent me a note asking if I would like to upgrade my 700 to a brand new 740 unit!

Well the new 740 arrived today and what a difference!  The WIFI updating is very nice and it will even connect to the stratux ADS-B unit.  I like the idea of the backup battery being able to power the unit in the event the plane power goes out, and I'm really stoked for the ability to have an "augmented" instrument panel which can serve as backup to my steam gauges.

I cannot wait to try this new unit out!