2016 today's flight

[DXB]

41 minutes ago, carusoam said:

Dev,

Which airport did you use down there?

Best regards,

-a-

Lakefront (KNEW) in New Orleans, right in the city.  Cool place to land - 18R and 18L approach ends jut out way into Lake Pontchartrain like a pier.  Very nice FBO facility (Flightline First), waived facility fee, reasonable nightly parking, and fuel not wildly overpriced despite being in a major urban area (hear that, KPNE in Philly?).  

[Marauder]

41 minutes ago, carusoam said:

Dev,

Which airport did you use down there?

Best regards,

-a-

Lakefront (KNEW) in New Orleans, right in the city.  Cool place to land - 18R and 18L approach ends jut out way into Lake Pontchartrain like a pier.  Very nice FBO facility (Flightline First), waived facility fee, reasonable nightly parking, and fuel not wildly overpriced despite being in a major urban area (hear that, KPNE in Philly?).  

You got to stop over at N57. We are down to $3.99

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[carusoam]

KNEW = Café du Monde.  Coffee and Beignets.  John from MS sent us...

Great memories!

Best regards,

-a-

[flyboy0681]

My wife and I will be heading to New Orleans in a few weeks. Is KNEW the best airport for the task?

 

 

[DonMuncy]

1 hour ago, flyboy0681 said:

My wife and I will be heading to New Orleans in a few weeks. Is KNEW the best airport for the task?

 

 

In my opinion, yes. It is close in to town and has most anything you need

[Yooper Rocketman]

I did a little pattern work yesterday.  It just happened to coincide with the ski jump tournament.  This is one of (if not THE) biggest international ski jump meets in the U.S.  This year we even had several U.S. boys up in the top mix of jumpers.  Usually the international jumpers dominate.  Reports are we had the largest crowd ever (notice cars parked quite a ways along the road coming in too).

Tom

 

[Yooper Rocketman]

Just found out this AM that an American won yesterdays competition.  First time since back in the 60's.

[chrisk]

Saturday I took a day trip to Galveston KGLS.  Leaving KGTU it was cloudy with ceiling around 800, and those conditions existed until after the FAF into KGLS.  Shortly after landing, the blue skies broke through on the island.   On the way home, cloud cover started again over the mainland.  The day finished with an instrument approach back into KGTU.

[gsxrpilot]

Climbing out over Austin yesterday evening. It cleared up just enough to go VFR and watch the sunset between the layers.

[FlyDave]

Not from my Mooney but this is what Northern California looks like this time of year. In the summer it's called "The Golden State".

These views remind me of the train set I had when I was a kid with the town, trees, etc.

[Lance Keve]

No pretty pictures, but you all know the feeling when riding the big tailwind.  This is from yesterday headed back home.  NJ - MA (KBVY).

M20E - 5500 feet, level flight, 24/24.  Rode it for a long while before it dropped into the 160 knot range.  Made it home in record time with no rush to see my sons basketball game.

 

[Yooper Rocketman]

I guess it's all a matter of prospective.  I remember my first "True" cross country flight.  (BTW, I consider a "True cross country" flight one when you depart your first fuel stop you are still heading the same direction as the leg before the fuel stop).  Anyway, I was flying with my dad from the U.P. of Michigan to Douglas WY to visit my sister in my Cessna 150.  One the way out, dad was complaining the cars on the Interstate below us were making ground on us.  One the way home we saw an impressive 118 knots.  Boy were we pumped.

When we bought the Rocket, we flew my F model to St Paul, MN and took airline to Seattle.  Flying the Rocket home, we stopped in St Paul to pick up the F.  My partner, an E Model owner, took off first in the F, filed for 11K, with me following about 10 minutes later.  When Departure finally turned me over to Center, I had just leveled at 17K.  The center controller asks me  "two Mooneys going to Iron Mountain, you guys together?"  I said yes and asked him "how fast are we going?"  (We had a ripping wind out of the west).  He said "who, you or him?"  I replied "both of us".  He said "929PG is doing 200 knots" (to which I am sure Steve was grinning ear to ear).  He said "I've got you at 297 knots".  I kept the power in long enough to see 300 knots but I've have never seen it since (2001).

Tom

 

[Deb]

It's been a beautiful 2 days for flying in South Florida. Yesterday we flew to Sarasota (KSRQ) and couldn't do better than a 30 kt headwind at 4,500 ft on the way over. Fortunately, we had a 40 kt tailwind on the way back at 9,500 ft.

Today started like this:

We flew to Leesberg (KLEE) (only a 10 kt or so headwind) for a program hosted by Wipaire, maker of floats. Unfortunately, they don't make floats for Mooneys :-( One of the presenters showed this slide:

That panel certainly looks familiar...

Gas was $2.77/gal, so we filled up! We had a nice 30 kt tailwind coming back, and Orlando cleared us through their class B airspace.

 

[gsxrpilot]

This was my flight on Friday. KHYI to KFGU, 720NM, 40.1gal, 5 hours, non-stop.

11,500ft, WOT, 20", 2430 rpm, LOP.

The picture was about half way crossing the mighty Mississippi.

[gsxrpilot]

The return trip today. VFR on top, 720nm, 12,500ft. 19"/2400, 6 hours, 49 gal, one fuel stop. I spent some of the time on the mask. Forgot the cannulas at home.

[bradp]

Had a great flight from FWQ to FYJ (Middle Penninsula Airport, West Point VA) to visit the baby's auntie. 

180kts over the ground for most of the trip was great.  Bumps as all heck at 5.5, smooth as glass at 7.5.  Didn't go any higher because the littler one is getting over a cold and I didn't want her ears to hurt on the way down.   The ride into FYJ was spirited - I'll post a video of the landing.  Something like 11G19 quartering across the runway. 

Auntie met us with Crab Muffins (English muffin with lump crab and cheese), some fancy cider for my wife's birthday, and some real old fashioned coke in the glass bottle.  We planned to head over to W75 Hummel for some Oysters at Merrior (definitely worth the trip for this place.  Mmm).   Loaded up with Auntie in the plane and headed for Hummel - a short 5 min flight across the peninsula.   On climbout some dude in a Sundowner calls "Beechcraft Blah blah blah inbound VOR-A approach".  looking around - nada.  On downwind we see said Beechcraft climbing out from below us left to right and he makes his call "Missed approach VOR-A."  Made me less than happy and as he was nose to nose with me, making late calls, not operating in the pattern descending below pattern altitude.   The really depressing part was that I'm pretty sure he was with an instructor.   I told him over the CTAF we were transient and operating VFR and he should be making standard calls with reference to the field,  breaking off his practice approach in the immediate vicinity of the airport to enter the pattern if he was going to be operating at or below pattern altitude. 

 

We head over to Hummel and take a peak.   For those unfamiliar, W75 is 2300' that sits in a cool little cove next to a bridge that crosses the Rappahanock river.   I'm 200 below gross, the DA is no factor, but looking at my performance calculations, we are just fine.  Reality, on the other hand, doesn't match up with those book calcs...   Remember that squirrley approach into FYJ 15nm away... same deal here.  I needed to carry an extra 8-10 MPH and am catching all sorts of +/- 5-10kts of LLWS on the final to my 2300 x 25 ft intended runway.  Stall horn appropriately intermittently chirping, but I'm carrying too much extra airspeed for plan to plant it right on the numbers.  So I call off the approach and go around.  Climbout is the same catching some LLWS on the way up too... so I'm not climbing out at Vy either... need more A/S buffer.  Oh and there's a buzzard who's enjoying the wind and need to go around him.  So I decide that it's not in the cards but want to do another low approach and fly along the runway to see how the climbout might be.  Next time the approach is perfect, ready to plant it right on, but I've made my decision that W75 isn't going to be our destination today and add power, fly along the runway and climb out at 100 mph up and over the trees with a comfortable margin.   Landing would have been just fine, but I wasn't thrilled about performance / wind conditions on departure if conditions remained as they were.  So we head back to FYJ.  That buzzard is still there - hasn't moved from his spot.  Go back to FYJ and hear out friend in the Sundowner still calling the VOR-A "missed approach" without calls referencing location.  Urgh.  Watch out.  I land and he lands behind me. 

 

We visit auntie's new house in West Point and decide to head over to Merroir for some oysters - about a half mile from W75.  Oysters half shell and broiled with country ham, home made sour dough / cheese bread with pesto, fish tacos, more oysters.  I'm a happy man.  Man that food was good.  Even the little one enjoyed some oysters.  Personally I don't know many 2.5 year olds who will willingly down briny oysters :-).   Ironic thing is the wind had all but died down by the time we drove out there.  Oh well.

 

We head back to the airport and head home over some beautiful night time scenery with tons of traffic into the Washington airports.  Potomac controllers are helpful and friendly as usual.  I stayed reasonably low up to around Winchester and then climbed up for terrain clearance.  That's when the crosswind turned into a headwind.  The closer we got to home, the stronger the headwind became.  Like a time warp with the GPS counter ETE just staying still.  I approached Cessna speed for most of the trip home 99-117 kts.  Oh well, it was a nice night and, again, smooth as glass.  More gusty crosswinds at home with some LLWS.  This time I took advantage of our 4000 ft runway, kept extra energy on final and plunked her down just beyond 1000 ft and made the second turnoff. 

 

Great family trip - departed at 12:45 pm and we were home by 9:45pm.   Would have been something like 7hrs of car travel each way.  Love my Mooney. 

-Brad

 

 

W75

Goodness on ice  

Loving em.

Baby and auntie. 

 

Baby at the "beeeech!"

View from Merrior restaurant

Momma supervising the Oyster adventure

Now that's a generous headwind.  

[PMcClure]

N1051K is back in the air! Finally got her back up again after especially long maintenance and travel schedules conspired against me. 6 new cylinders, new oil cooler, vacuum pump and main gear discs. Only a few minor squawks to debug. I was amazed at how much the discs changed the stance, ride and landing picture. Mine were 14 years old and in good visual shape. But the new ones raised the tail several inches and the ride on taxi was much smoother. Bounced my first landing. Was that due to new discs, out of practice pilot or wind gusts? Hope to get it back up Friday then start traveling again with her! 

[Yetti]

Today's flight reminded me of what I don't like about 172s   buzzing along at 110 knots...  The scenery does not change fast enough.  25 knot headwind.  the flight back was better and more in line with Mooney

Edited March 4, 2016 by Yetti

[FlyDave]

Flying from Los Angeles back home to the bay area I got a little rhime ice at 14K'. Asked for and got an immediate descent to 10K' and it all melted away. Nice IFR flight!

[Yooper Rocketman]

I hoped to add some more in-flight pictures today, on a 40 NM mile flight to ESC for an EAA Chapter meeting.  Got up and we had a 400' ceiling, 1 1/4 mile vis, neither of which concerned me.  It was the TAF's calling for FRZ RN that turned it into a 50 mile, one hour drive each way instead.  I have TKS, but not too excited about FRZ RN.

Maybe tomorrow.

Tom

[MB65E]

Great trip dodging systems this weekend in CA. Northern California is much greener than SoCal. Hope we get more snow in the mountains. 

[Hank]

My flight didn't go so well. Neither is this report, apple changed four words in the first sentence. It was absolutely beautiful today, blue sky, no clouds and light winds.

Got to the airport running about five minutes late. Typed in my gate code five or six times, no joy. Pulled up and rang the buzzer, after about four hits there came a lineman who opened the gate. (Second time in less than six months my gate code has been deactivated.) My safety pilot arrived while this was going on, so that I could get current again. So I drove to the hangar, pulled through the standing water to park and got back to the hangar still pretty dry.

Hmmm, key won't turn. Maybe I used the wrong one? The other key went right in, and also wouldn't turn . . . Doublecheck the key ring, yep,those are the plane keys. Three big keys (this hangar, old hangar, old maintenance hangar). Two of the three keys slid right in, nice and easy, but wouldn't turn.

i called the FBO, the desk people had "just left." But he rummaged around and found a number for me to call. I left a message while wondering about cutting into the new hangar building. If my wife and a pile of luggage had been waiting, this would have been a more attractive option. The line guy drove out with the master key to all ten hangars, and it also wouldn't turn. Another call to someone at home. I got tired of watching other planes and the skydivers, so I went home, plane unflown, new charts still in the truck, my hangar still securely locked. It's a good deadbolt in the people door.

That was my "flight" today. Forty miles each way, an hour of frustration at the field. It's supposed to be corrected now. Apparently they called a locksmith to make a copy of the key to my hangar because they didn't have one. (They gave me ONE KEY when I moved in in June '14; I made my own copy to give my wife.) The story is that he changed the cylinder instead of making a key. The city creates and changes access codes, and they don't feel the need to communicate with mere tenants. I had to remind the genius at City Hall last fall that it is illegal to accept rent money and deny access. So now they went and did it again . . .

Stay tuned for my next flight . . .

[Mooneymite]

Hank, there's a nice runway lot still available at Mallards.  

(Sorry for all your troubles.)

Edited March 6, 2016 by Mooneymite

[Marauder]

Hazy but nice day on the east coast.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MyNameIsNobody]

27 minutes ago, Hank said:

My flight didn't go so well. Neither is this report, apple changed four words in the first sentence. It was absolutely beautiful today, blue sky, no clouds and light winds.

Got to the airport running about five minutes late. Typed in my gate code five or six times, no joy. Pulled up and rang the buzzer, after about four hits there came a lineman who opened the gate. (Second time in less than six months my gate code has been deactivated.) My safety pilot arrived while this was going on, so that I could get current again. So I drove to the hangar, pulled through the standing water to park and got back to the hangar still pretty dry.

Hmmm, key won't turn. Maybe I used the wrong one? The other key went right in, and also wouldn't turn . . . Doublecheck the key ring, yep,those are the plane keys. Three big keys (this hangar, old hangar, old maintenance hangar). Two of the three keys slid right in, nice and easy, but wouldn't turn.

i called the FBO, the desk people had "just left." But he rummaged around and found a number for me to call. I left a message while wondering about cutting into the new hangar building. If my wife and a pile of luggage had been waiting, this would have been a more attractive option. The line guy drove out with the master key to all ten hangars, and it also wouldn't turn. Another call to someone at home. I got tired of watching other planes and the skydivers, so I went home, plane unflown, new charts still in the truck, my hangar still securely locked. It's a good deadbolt in the people door.

That was my "flight" today. Forty miles each way, an hour of frustration at the field. It's supposed to be corrected now. Apparently they called a locksmith to make a copy of the key to my hangar because they didn't have one. (They gave me ONE KEY when I moved in in June '14; I made my own copy to give my wife.) The story is that he changed the cylinder instead of making a key. The city creates and changes access codes, and they don't feel the need to communicate with mere tenants. I had to remind the genius at City Hall last fall that it is illegal to accept rent money and deny access. So now they went and did it again . . .

Stay tuned for my next flight . . .

Sorry the dominos lined up that day.  Man, I definitely believe that sometimes we just have "those days"...The ying to your yang my wife and I returned commercial from a beautiful week in Savannah and Charleston.  We flew commercial.  Got a push notice that our flight was leaving at 10:00 vs. original booked time of 6:40AM.  Slept in until 7:30, nice breakfast get to the airport and the plane is delayed 30 minutes...Uh OH...Only a 30 minute window at OHare.  I wait for gate check bags and think no way we made connection as it is 15 minutes to flight...Get to entrance and wife is there with an attendant that walks me down to expedite the boarding pass.  We made it.  Easy flights and a wonderful time.  Hunting Beach State Park (Beufort S.C.) is absolutely beautiful.  The food and Southern hospitality in both cities was amazing.  Better luck next time Hank.  Thanks for taking one for me...

Edited March 6, 2016 by MyNameIsNobody