Past Pilots

I received a nice note from the AOPA which was sent into the "Letters to the Editor" section and wanted to share that here.

August 17, 2016

To the Editor:

Arriving home from work yesterday, I saw the September issue of AOPA Pilot sitting on the kitchen table

so I made a quick grab and headed to the recliner for some reading.  After a few minutes of thumbing

through the pages I ran across an article called "The $1,000 Cherokee" written by Jill Tallman.  Wow, this

excellent piece brought back some fantastic memories.  The reason for this is that N2886T is the aircraft I

completed my first supervised solo with at the now gone Alameda airport (Q64) in Albuquerque.  The date

was May 19, 1976 which was during my sophomore year of High School and my morning aerial

adventure made me show up late for class so I was sent to the Principal’s office.  When asked for an

excuse, I told Mr. Barefoot about what had just transpired and held out my certificate of solo flight.  He

looked it over, gave me a smile, a handshake and handed me a hall pass.

The last time I saw N2886T was on May 21, 1992.  I had flown a Skylane to Tupelo from Atlanta and

noticed it sitting in an area for permanent tie downs.  I walked over to where she was parked and spent

time reminiscing about that special day.  Thanks for helping me make another flight down memory lane

and I wish Mr. Atkins many years of great times and safe flying with the Cherokee I'll never forget.

25 hour oil change

Finally hit that magic 25 hour goal that we had set and it was time to change the oil.  

Again as before i was relieved to find that we had no trash in the oil filter.  This time however I opted to send the oil off for analysis.  Should have the results back in a few weeks.  

No Glitter! 

AOPA Live!

We made it to this weeks edition of AOPA Live!  Our segment is around the 8:23 mark.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/aopa-live#.V60rmP02mOA.gmail

The real purpose of this blog has and always will be to remove the mystery of airplane ownership and to emphasize that GA aircraft ownership is possible by the middle class.   I am so grateful that the AOPA picked up on this and not only produced this story piece but also highlighted it in their broadcast.

Some XC time for Cody

Cody received his solo endorsements and was able to get some solo practice time in this afternoon.

Few nice pictures from the flight between destinations.

Offical AOPA Digital Article and Video

The digital edition of the Sept Issue of AOPA Flight is out now and has a link to the video piece that was done back in June.

Read the full article here and watch the video segment at the end.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2016/september/pilot/The-$1000-Cherokee

What a weekend!

Boy what a weekend....hot on the heels of the AOPA article we had 3 major accomplishments back to back.

First, I finally was able to take the Cherokee up for my first solo flight.  What a flight it was!  Second, I was able to fly my first formation flight and on a beautiful summer evening.

Finally,  Cody received solo sign off and was able to solo the Cherokee for the very first time.

Enjoy these beautiful pictures!

 

AOPA Article

The article on the little Cherokee is out!  Seen in this month's issue of AOPA Flight Magazine.

First Long XC to Darlington SC

Hey guys,
Sorry for the delay it's been so brutally hot here for the last month that flying is just miserable. Today however we braved the heat and decided to take the little Cherokee for her first long cross country.
There were a few showers in the area and I wasn't really keen on flying through rain so practiced a little storm avoidance. Aside from a pretty good 17kt cross wind at our destination it was an uneventful flight. The little plane is doing great and did just fine today zipping around.
In total we flew right at 115nm which is the longest (in one sitting) that we've flown so far. The next goal is to take her on a first trip. Thinking I might take it to the beach for the day here coming up soon.

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!

Visit to KCLT

Hey guys,
The weather has been bunk lately so not much flying, but if you've been following along on the blog I've updated a few videos of our recent flights.
I wanted to drop send a quick update and let you guys know that we are currently planning our first "real" trip in the plane, just as soon as schedules and weather allow. The planned route is KEQY -> KFLO -> KMYR

The reason for this is that I really need more exposure to controlled airspaces. I want to get more familiar with them particularly as I begin to venture outside of my 'home turf'. One of my buddies who is also a CFI and majors Pilot has started working with me on this and you can see him in the last video as we took a late evening flight. He's really pushing me (in a good way) to really expand on my flying and get more comfortable with not only the plane but experiencing new things...such as flying in late evening (dusk) and getting controlled work. As such he organized a tour of the KCLT tower for me and a few friends from Monroe.

While I know it's not really cherokee related but I thought you guys might want to take a peek at what the guys on the other end of the radio see...

This is the actual radar station that the controllers use. They have many of these stations and this one was tuned to Monroe. I was able to apologize in person to the guy I get flight following from to go 20nm in my 85mph airplane. LOL (KEQY->KUZA) I was finally able to visualize what the systems do when they hand you off between the different airspaces.

I'm sure there are some controllers reading this and I'm sure they can expand on what I saw or fill in the details that I got wrong but it was a great experience and I am truly grateful for the chance to visit. I was able to ask and get answers on several questions I had about flying in and around Charlotte, and it has helped ease some of my fears of speaking on the radio in controlled airspaces or wondering what I could and could not do...

Here is what the supervisor sees he will see all planes heading towards the airport (in this case KCLT) and can pull up any radar and any 'screen' he needs to fit all the guys in.

Late evening flight

I went to the airport last Friday not planning to go fly but it was such a beautiful day.  After some prodding from a friend we decided to take the plane up for a quick stroll around town.  However once we got in the air it was so smooth and clear we decided to head over to Anson county (KAFP) for a quick touch and go.

This video is a little longer than my other ones just because it was a nice view, particularly on the return trip to KEQY.

We have begun planning for our first "long trip" right now we are planning to fly to Florence (KFLO) and to Myrtle Beach (KMYR)