Some Late Evening Flying

For the first time since my training and for the first time ever in the Cherokee, I was able to sneak down to the airport at dusk and get in some late evening / night flying.  It was a beautiful calm and clear night, perfect flying weather.

 

The coolest picture

 So was just taking a friend to pick up his plane after it's annual and on the way back we flew some formation and he captured the coolest picture I have ever had taken of the plane.  

This is just the most awesome picture, turn to final on Rwy6

And here are a few more shots from that flight.

Local Sighseeing

Beautiful clear day to fly over the lake, you could see for miles and smooth as silk.

 

Just checking out the clouds

 Sometimes you just gotta get up in the air and play around the clouds.  I'm not a religious person but there is something special (almost spiritual) that happens when you are up flying around clouds and such and you realize that no other human past/present/future will ever see the exact same sight that you are seeing.

It's almost like the entire universe is putting on a show just for you to enjoy, and for those few moments you feel like you can do anything.

Finally some new headsets

 Well I finally broke down and bought my first ever pair of brand new headsets.  I picked up a set of ANR headsets from Gulf Coast Avionics and I cannot begin to stress to you how much of a game changer this is.

I no longer get fatigued after flying and my head doesn't feel like it's in a vice.  I should have done this 5 years ago.

Beautiful Cross Country

 What a beautiful day for the LKR crew to fly out.

Did a great 5 ship flight over to CDH and up to PYG and back for fun and fellowship.  Was a beautiful day and everyone did great!

Density Altitude is a thing

It was very hot during my BFR a few weeks ago and the DA was really high (for my area) we were almost at 2900' so in turn with 2 people the Cherokee climbed like a rock.  

My CFI taught me some leaning techniques that I could do on the ground to counter the high DA on really hot days.  I decided to head out to the airport this weekend on July 4th to try out a few of these to make sure I could do them solo.

It was again brutally hot, almost 110 on the ramp with 80% humidity.  The DA at that time was 3100', I knew I had plenty of runway and the airport to myself.  

The Cherokee still performs poorly in high DA situations but it doesn't seem to struggle as much when properly leaned.  It's still pretty weird to have the mixture leaned so 'aggressively' and a little unnerving to see that control pulled so far back on takeoff.  But it makes a huge difference.

Another BFR in the books

Another year and another BFR in the books.  This is now my 2nd BFR after purchasing the Cherokee. 

Everything went well other than it was over 95 degrees and the heat was stifling.  Had a nice lesson in high density altitude as the DA had creeped up to almost 3000 feet.  The plane performs totally different at that DA (as was expected)

Repainted, Repaired and Refreshed

Repainted, Repaired and Refreshed the front cover for the panel.  I used my new 3d printer to print out some little 'patches' that I glued on the reverse side of the overlay.  Those will help support the cracks and help strengthen the overall 30+  year old plastic piece.

There were many repairs that had been done over the years, I removed all these failing repairs and redid the entire thing with more stability.

Spring Cleaning

Finally got around to a project I'd been meaning to do for a while now.  I finally broke down and took the vinyl/fake leather cushion thing off the plastic panel.  The glue holding the piece on had really started breaking down (and had gotten worse as the plane was used) and the piece had started to droop down. 

It was very annoying when trying to quickly glance at the comms because it would cover up what comm you were transmitting on. 

Now that I've removed that and gotten all the residual glue off I'm not sure what I wanted to do to refresh the panel?

Here is what it looks like now.

Flight to the Runway Cafe at GMU

What a great flight last weekend to GMU and the Runway Cafe!  Flew a 3 ship formation down to Greenville Downtown to enjoy a delicious meal and check out some cool airplanes.

5 year anniversary

5 Years ago today we were able to get the engine running for the first time in 10 years!

A great evening to fly

What a wonderful evening to fly around.  We flew a 3 Cherokee Formation from KLKR to KFDW and back.

It was a really great time, the winds were a little rough earlier in the day so we waited until around 6pm for the air to cool and the winds to die down.  Was smooth as glass on a nice spring day.