Today's flight for 2017

[Yooper Rocketman]

Did a little promotion work for aviation and our annual airport day by participating in our local parade.  The bear in the simulator airplane went over great.  The simulator plane gets set it up with a projector on the wall and a Snoopy the Red Baron simulator program hooked to the center stick for the kids during the event.

We had a 4 car police escort getting the Cherokee back to the airport after the parade (moved it TO the parade at 7 AM before there was any traffic).

Tom

[peevee]

42 minutes ago, 211º said:

Nice evening of the 4th flight over the fireworks with my younger son. Fun to see soooo many fireworks at once. 10 second video is attached, but doesn't do it justice. Fun. Fun. Fun.

IMG_0168.MP4.mov

For years I've wanted to do that a d every year something happens and I can't, work, weather, broken plane... Every year.

[Andy95W]

29 minutes ago, Hyett6420 said:

Come across to the UK on the 5th November and ill take you up and you can see the same.  We celebrate Guy Fawks. 

Interesting that we both use fireworks to celebrate revolting against the British Government.

[Andy95W]

13 minutes ago, Hyett6420 said:

Not quite Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the king but failed.  We celebrate that he failed.  The fireworks is a knock to the fact he used gunpowder (or tried to).  

Andrew

 

I'd always read it was to blow up the Houses of Parliament, I didn't know it's aim was to assassinate the king.  I gotta admit, this makes more sense.

[bonal]

9 hours ago, 211º said:

Nice evening of the 4th flight over the fireworks with my younger son. Fun to see soooo many fireworks at once. 10 second video is attached, but doesn't do it justice. Fun. Fun. Fun.

IMG_0168.MP4.mov

My wife and I did that a few years ago but was in our C150 as we did not have the Mooney yet. It was real fun.  But be careful as these shows now are being recorded by the use of drones. We watched a local show and you could see the drone moving all around the target area.

[rbridges]

8 hours ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

 

 

I love planes as much as the next guy, but I'd love to get a better look at the Mustang!

[Yooper Rocketman]

14 hours ago, rbridges said:

I love planes as much as the next guy, but I'd love to get a better look at the Mustang!

It didn't look that nice up close.  Paint and bodywork not even on the same scale as my '69 SS Chevelle.

Tom

[Danb]

Saw awesome fireworks last week in Windsor Ca. over the river between Detroit and Windsor they touted it as the best fireworks display in North America over a million watched from both sides of the border.

[PMcClure]

Left KPLR on Saturday with my daughter down to Destin, 1:11 enroute instead of the 6.5 hours it took the three cars also driving down. Katelyn is a great co-pilot and we had a few hours together before the rest of the folks came dragging in and complaining about traffic. HAHA   I enjoyed  taking my nephews and brother in law up for a site seeing tour along the beach, including a simulated rocket attack on the condo. (having convinced my nephew that the giant red button on the yoke was for heat seeking missiles). I also took my mother in law and niece and nephew on their first plane ride. My son had to come back to work, so we left Tuesday after dinner and landed in time to see the fireworks show at the lake. Put in a full day work on Wednesday and made it back to Destin in time for a dinner date with my wife. I departed this morning and after landing at KPLR, I washed the plane then flew couple of practice approaches.

Kudos to the folks at Lynx at DTS. Amazing amount of arrivals and departures came in and out and they managed it all very well. 

A few pictures below

This one is my niece doing the "astronaut" walk out to the plane. 

Dodging afternoon storms. Looks like it is raining sunshine. 

Sunset over the pass

 

Nephews

My daughter, AKA- Loopy Larry

 

Breaking out at 3'000 for a view down the coast

 

Sunset from the water

 

[Skates97]

Just a bit of a milestone.

On July 7th, 2016 I met my CFI at the airport and we made three trips around the pattern before I dropped him off at the base of the tower and taxied to the end of runway 26R before taking off into the air all alone, my first Solo Flight!

It is hard to believe that a year has passed.

Since that first solo flight a year ago so much has happened.

• I had 15.6 hours of flight at the time, I have flown another 124 hours since then.
• I passed my Check-ride on Oct 15, 2016 and received my PPL.
• I made my first actual long distance cross country to Arizona and took my dad on a short flight.
• I bought a Mooney!
• I made another 197 landings, flew over 7,800 nautical miles, landed in a total of 5 different states at a total of 28 different airports.

It is still like a dream that I have my pilot's license and I have my own plane. I still get a rush every time I push the throttle in and start rolling down the runway. I hope that feeling never goes away. I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

[bradp]

Ran up to Butler to do a pitot / static check. Saw a spartan executive from 1939 up close.  Polished like a mirror. Big Pratt radial.   Gorgeous airplane.  I think there will be 5 parked in a row in the Vintage section at Oshkosh this year.  Something like only 15 exist- only 5 or 6 still flying.  Built like a tank.  This this belongs in the smithsonian when it's done flying.  

On the way back had an interesting IFR conundrum areas of mod-heavy precip along final to calm wind runway 26.  I don't want to go in that.  So I ask approach how the final to 8 looks - he says clear as a bell.  The issue is what if I need to go missed?  The missed approach procedure would put me right in the precip.  I can tell now that that precip was not convective but I didn't know or couldn't tell at the time.   Field reporting 1-1/4 bkn 800 and I'm coming up on the FAF.  What do you do? 

I thought my options were 1- cancel the appaorach cleance and hold until the precip moved off the Missed procedure 2- cancel the approach and ask to be vectored / divert to another airport (AGC to the north)  3- ask for a DVA (vector) away from the precip in lieu of executing the published missed (not sure whether this is legal for approaches but it's how we get vectored on instrument departures often). 

What I did was 4- made sure that i could see the airport surroundings prior to the FAF even though I wasn't technically in VMC.  By the time I descended from the FAF I had some of the airport environment in sight with the rain moving east out of the way.  So once I was in class G airspace I could ensure cloud and visibility clearance, cancel IFR and not have to execute the missed.  If i couldn't ensure I could be VMC legal for class G, I would have scrubbed the approach prior to the FAF.

I was too busy to get a picture of the new Garmin doodad in the air - had to wait till I landed.   The panel shot shows pretty nicely the MA fix Furix sitting in the stuff where I didn't want to be   

[kpaul]

8 hours ago, bradp said:

What do you do?

You can always ask for alternate missed approach instructions.  You will generally get a heading and altitude (initial vector) and then contact the controller for further guidance.

[KLRDMD]

Not a fun flight today. LA to Tucson (KVNY-KAVQ) in the mid afternoon. 2.5 hour flight at 11,500 ft and got the crap beat out of me the whole trip including deviating for weather. I give purple a wide berth.

First photo shows the weather on the iPad, second shows the weather out the window and the third picture shows the storm scope.

 

[sgrooves]

Didn't take any pictures, but today I passed my instrument check ride. Oddly enough, and I didn't realize until this evening, it was EXACTLY 2 years from my first solo flight.

Getting my instrument rating in my own plane was a huge driver behind the purchase of my Mooney. I made it a goal to pass as soon as possible. Took the written as soon as I put a deposit down on the plane.

Got my Mooney last May and after learning the plane (and dealing with some squawks), I started my IFR training in January this year. Took about a month off in between for annual/vacation. Excited to get the certificate wet on a long cross-country from NC to WI next week (no, not OSH)! I'll be sure to add photos then.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Skates97]

6 minutes ago, sgrooves said:

Didn't take any pictures, but today I passed my instrument check ride. Oddly enough, and I didn't realize until this evening, it was EXACTLY 2 years from my first solo flight.

Getting my instrument rating in my own plane was a huge driver behind the purchase of my Mooney. I made it a goal to pass as soon as possible. Took the written as soon as I put a deposit down on the plane.

Got my Mooney last May and after learning the plane (and dealing with some squawks), I started my IFR training in January this year. Took about a month off in between for annual/vacation. Excited to get the certificate wet on a long cross-country from NC to WI next week (no, not OSH)! I'll be sure to add photos then.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Congratulations!!

[carusoam]

Way to go SG!

 

Hey Brad, nice description of planning how to stay away from crummy weather going eastwards....

 

Ken, Nice photos of real life, ADSB, and Storm Scope!

 

I was not familiar with asking for alternate Missed Approach procedures. Can anyone fill in some details on this?

 

Best regards,

-a-

[Oldguy]

Since we have been fairly well grounded by weather over the past few weeks, today was a great day to make a breakfast run up to KRMG. Filed with FF and briefed.

Looked good. Clear and clear. Launched at 7:00.

Smooth and fairly clear.

But then....

 

 

Welcome to the South. Don't like the weather? Wait an hour or so. Really.

It ended up being OVC 100 and 1/4 visibility. Turned around and went home.

But got to fly, so not all was lost. Plane ran well and it was still CAVU at the home drome. And there is always next week.

 

[DMJones]

This was a couple of days ago, and I made a longer post in the Vacation section, but I think this counts as "flight-seeing"...

Over western Montana and northern Idaho.

 

[MyNameIsNobody]

My wife and I flew over to see Queen concert (Adam Lambert fronting) in Omaha yesterday afternoon. Flew to KCBF, Council  Bluffs and Uber'd. Easy flight at 6500. A couple deviations from flight following for parachuting. Nice FBO. Downtown Omaha was a blast. Nice brew pubs, a cigar bar and a killer Queen show. Return today saw 130 knots in climb (ground speed). Nice and cool at 7500 with DAn Auerbach's new album (Waiting on a song) for entertainment. 153 knots LOP at 9.5gph and smooth. 1.2 for flight vs 4 hour drive. I love GA.  I love my Mooney and I love going to great live shows with my bestee...

[MyNameIsNobody]

On 7/10/2017 at 3:00 PM, Hyett6420 said:

As THE QUEEN, Brian May etc?  If so im insanely jealous. 

Yes.  He was fantastic and really the "true" frontman.  Very personable stage presence.  Really felt a bond by the end of the show.  He is a tremendous guitarist/showman.  I have a short video of a portion of his guitar solo on my phone.  I will try and attach.  A Pink Floyd feel to it that was amazing.

IMG_1334.MOV

BEA68F15-7808-49EC-A3D3-1BB91ADE842A.MOV

Edited July 14, 2017 by MyNameIsNobody

[Yooper Rocketman]

I was just getting ready to board my plane for a flight Saturday AM and looked up and saw a hot air balloon coming into the airport.  I was floored he had that kind of control to make it to the airport, which the pilot initially said he "had planned it".  Later he laughed and said his intended destination was a mile or so south, but the airport ended up working out.  He had come from about 15 miles away in an 1:15 minute flight.  The winds were so light on the ground he was able to keep the envelope inflated and sit on the ground without moving,  My passenger, for my flight that day, and I carried the balloon basket over to the ramp for a better surface to drop the envelope on (with the pilot adding a bit of heat to keep the load balance just below lift off).

Looks like I might be able to trade a Lancair ride for a balloon ride after talking with the pilot.  That's always been on my bucket list.

 

 

 

[PMcClure]

26 minutes ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

I was just getting ready to board my plane for a flight Saturday AM and looked up and saw a hot air balloon coming into the airport.  I was floored he had that kind of control to make it to the airport, which the pilot initially said he "had planned it".  Later he laughed and said his intended destination was a mile or so south, but the airport ended up working out.  He had come from about 15 miles away in an 1:15 minute flight.  The winds were so light on the ground he was able to keep the envelope inflated and sit on the ground without moving,  My passenger, for my flight that day, and I carried the balloon basket over to the ramp for a better surface to drop the envelope on (with the pilot adding a bit of heat to keep the load balance just below lift off).

Looks like I might be able to trade a Lancair ride for a balloon ride after talking with the pilot.  That's always been on my bucket list.

 

 

 

Love it - but looks like he should have gone around - after three bounces you have to worry about the nose gear collapse or a prop strike! 

[kpaul]

Best balloon flight I had lasted just over a hour and covered nearly 20nm, but we landed in the same field we departed from.  Drove the chase crew crazy.  It's all about finding the right altitude to capture the winds.

[aviatoreb]

11 hours ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

I was just getting ready to board my plane for a flight Saturday AM and looked up and saw a hot air balloon coming into the airport.  I was floored he had that kind of control to make it to the airport, which the pilot initially said he "had planned it".  Later he laughed and said his intended destination was a mile or so south, but the airport ended up working out.  He had come from about 15 miles away in an 1:15 minute flight.  The winds were so light on the ground he was able to keep the envelope inflated and sit on the ground without moving,  My passenger, for my flight that day, and I carried the balloon basket over to the ramp for a better surface to drop the envelope on (with the pilot adding a bit of heat to keep the load balance just below lift off).

Looks like I might be able to trade a Lancair ride for a balloon ride after talking with the pilot.  That's always been on my bucket list.

 

 

 

Hahah - bucket list. Balloon bucket.

[Raptor05121]

It's been almost 2 months since I've been in the air. I've been irritable at work and my stress level has been peaked out like never before. 

I went to the hangar the other day just to sit in the plane, spiders have already made a home in and around my plane. Small web in the baggage compartment and over the prop.