Something old...

So just a day after flying the Geronimo, my friends ask me if I can pick up a Mooney for him. Sure why not, I love Mooneys! Come to find out it was the Mooney I used to own! It had an annual due. It was a nice surprise
Then he comes to me asking if I would take the 150 into KSAT leave it and pick up the Mooney. better yet. The 150 is another plane I owned before. It is also fun to fly. It has a 150 horse engine in it rather then the factory 100 horse. This thing leaps off the ground!



Here is my arrival into KSAT
It ended up getting very turbulent on th ereturn trip, and it had turned into a cross wind at Kestrel, which made for an interesting landing. It has been an interesting few days, you just never know whats going to pop up next!

Something new...

You know its a good feeling when you have one of those "I just love flying" days. After fighting the weather the last few days today was perfect. Calm wind, clear skies, cool temps. I had to meet a friend at KSAT to pick up a plane that needs an annual. I have never flown a PA-23-160 Geronimo conversion. Basically it's an old Piper aztec that went through a face lift and engine upgrade. It is always fun to fly a new plane. It is not easy. Things are in different locations, and it takes a little getting used to. Then the second part of the challenge was flying it into Kestral airpark. It is an interesting little airport. A 3000 ft runway that slopes down the side of a hill. If you look close you can see the drop. Coming in from the Northwest your approaching the top of the hill (Approaching from the NW in the photo above). Just after you cross over the numbers the runway drops out from under you. Lucky for me winds where calm, or slightly out of the north. This allowed me the peace of mind that I could roll out up hill, in case I came in a little fast and landed long. Which I did. It was a smooth approach, but I have a habit of carrying a little extra airspeed if I am unfamiliar with the plane. It was still a nice touch down and rolled out without braking. I was impressed with the Geronimo. It was fast, had a great climb rate, and was a very stable plane! Even though I had never flown one, I had no problems flying it at all! I'm not sure why, but it is always fun adding a new type of plane to the logbook, and trying new airports. I think that's why aviation is so appealing. There is so much to do, learn, and experience. Each day, every flight brings something new. while Flying I look down and feel sorry for the 99.5% of the population that will never experience the freedom, the excitement, and adventure that pilots enjoy. Monday I get to ferry a Mooney over for an annual. This one will not be new as I used to own her! It will be nice to see her again! Fly Safe

Happy New Year!

Wow, almost half way through January! There is a lot going on right now. Things could be better, could be worse. I have an offer on the table to fly for a private party. A guy I met through a friend has two planes and wants to hire a pilot to fly Him around. I'm working on a proposal to give him. It will be a little while before the plane is ready to go. It is going through some maintenance right now. I was working with an A&P friend today. He is doing an annual on a plane I used to own and he needed a little help. I don't mind working on them once a while, but I don't think I could do it as a career. Well, it seems that 2009 will be an interesting year for me. Hopefully I will have some great news to report over the next couple months, of course the other side of that coin is that I could have some bad news...My cup is half full though, So i believe I will have good news...Have a great 2009 everyone!

North Pole Under fire for Flight Dept.

Santa Called Out for Using General Aviation Aircraft
An unidentified internet-based watchdog group has challenged Santa Claus' use of a privately operated sleigh on his annual rounds. In an unwritten statement, the group maintained: "Why should he be entitled to that wasteful perk? He could be flying coach for much less than it costs him to operate his own private, luxury aircraft." The group further stated that it had received support for its position from several members of Congress (representing both sides of the aisle) and at least one of the Big Three automakers, who wrote: "He doesn't use it that much anyway. It'll save him a lot of money to get out of this business." (One of the congressmen interviewed by the group is reported to have asked, "Santa who?") Radar tracking of the sleigh's overnight flight last night revealed multiple, multiple WAAS approaches to non-ILS-equipped rooftops. Claus was reached early this morning, just after completing his annual marathon flight in the vintage, reindeer-powered STOL-craft and asked to comment on the challenge. Obviously peeved, he responded:
"What a crock of caribou-poop! Please, ask one of those think-tank geniuses to explain to me how I'm going to manage this one-of-a-kind itinerary on the airlines. Geesh!
"Oh, and Merry Christmas to ALL and to ALL a goodnight."


I have not been very good at updating the blog lately. Still a lot going on that I need to get straightened out before I fully go into detail here. I did want to share a wish for a MERRY CHRISTMAS and Happy New Year. As I/WE celebrate the Birth Of Jesus Christ I want to thank everyone who has stopped by and taken the time to read my blog. Thank You

A beautiful day to fly!

Friday was just Beautiful! Unfortunately our planes are still grounded for Maintenance so no flying with my Students, but I did get a call to fly with my Father-in-law. He had a mission to complete. We needed to fly to Fredricksburg TX to pick up a piece of equipment for the auto pilot in his Baron. The night before a cool front came through (we don't have COLD fronts in South Texas) and the air was so clear! There was a bit of light chop (a little wind shear) but nothing to bad! Once I arrived at the airport Jimmy had already the Cessna out of the hanger and pref lighted (now that is nice!). He offered to let me fly left seat, something I have not done in a while. I decided to take him up on the offer since as a cfi I don't get that chance very often. Then He pulled out the low enroute chart and approach plates for T82 and said I needed to fly the VOR-A approach and do a hold so I could keep up my currency. If you don't know what this means, Basically I put on a view limiting device (so I could not see outside the airplane) and shortly after Take-off I began flying the airplane only by looking at the Instrument inside, no outside reference! I flew it OK, the hold wasn't to bad, and the VOR approach brought me out right on target. It was funny I looked up to search for the airport looking straight out and thought I was off course because it was actually between my 10-11 o'clock position, then he reminded me of my 25 degree wind correction angle! Its funny how soon you forget stuff when you are not using it! So, one hour after engine start we arrived. Its also funny that for 10 minutes prior to our arrival there was nothing going on at the airport. No sooner then we begin our final approach into the field we had two aircraft coming in behind us and 3 wanting to take off.
So we get on the ground and go to the avionics shop to take car of business. After a little small talk and looking at some really really cool new airplane gadgets (which ranged in price from $10,000 to $15,000) We decided we better get out of there! Just about the time we get back to the airplane we spot a Cessna 190 behind us with engine running...Nothing had to be said, we both new we where not going anywhere until this beautiful airplane was off the ground. There is just something about an Airplane with a radial engine. The sound they make to me is like music! I have always said if there was another time in history that I should have been born it was the late 30 early 40's. I love the airplanes, I love the music, and even the look of that time! People just seemed to have more respect for themselves and one another.

Isn't she a beauty...



Now, listen to her singing...It does not sound nearly as good as it does in person, but you might get the idea.


OK, so now that she is gone we can get in and fire up. I'm back in the right side, and Jimmy has this leg...so I get to look out the window and take some pictures! T82 Otherwise known as Gillespie county airport is nice airport in the Hill country of Texas. Located in Fredricksburg Texas it is a favorite place for pilot's to come and have a $100 Hamburger. Also on field is a very nice hotel, The Hanger Hotel. It has a balcony on the second floor so you can go outside and watch Planes coming and going! My wife and I will be spending a night there real soon. I look forward to it. Here is a view of the Hanger Hotel

Here is another view with the Diner sitting just to the right...Look at the nice crowd of planes sitting on the ramp outside the diner on a Friday afternoon.

The diner has a 40's feel to it. They play old swing/big band music and have it decorated like a 40's diner. They even have a banquet hall dressed up the same way. It's a fun place!

Waiting for takeoff we watch another 172 coming in for a touch and go. This plane is also based at KSAT.

Finally our turn to go, departing runway 32, watch as I pan to my right you will see the diner, the hotel, and a DC-3 sitting on the grass on the right side of the ramp.


The ride home was nice, a little bumpy but nothing to bad. The clear skies and cool temps where a welcome relief for us here. Sometimes we forget just how fortunate we are here the United States. We have such freedom and opportunity.

Arriving back a KSAT On Final 30R KSAT

Flying the Baron.

I got a chance to go fly the Baron a couple days ago. I never pass up that opportunity! There is just something about sitting between the engines instead of behind one! It was a nice day. We departed KSAT and flew up to HYI to meet a friend and check out a Mooney he is working on. This guy had to rebuild nearly half of each wing. Someone had run the Mooney off a runway and in a fence. He built new spars and ribs by hand, and it was amazing to see how they looked like factory new parts. After looking over the work progress we all decided we needed a $100 hamburger, so of to the airport cafe'. It's just a small little place there at the San Marcos airport, but it has a pretty good burger. From there we hopped over to KBAZ for some "cheap" fuel...$4.35 a gallon. When you burn nearly 30 GPH cheap gas is a must. After our fuel stop we departed KBAZ and made our way back to KSAT, it was my leg and everything was going fine. We had been told to fly to the SAT VOR which is typical when arriving from the north east. Once we made it to the vor things took an interesting turn. Over the VOR I expected a turn to the south for a 12L landing, but the call didn't come When the guy (ATC) did call he sounded all freaked out telling us to switch to another approach frequency and that we had radio problems. We switched back and forth to the two radios we had, all the while approach was turning us back to the north away from the Airport (we could hear them they couldn't hear us). Finally the turned us back south to the field and cleared us to land runway 12L. I went ahead and let Jimmy have control of the airplane (since it is his and he is more familiar) and just like that they could hear again...come to find out it was just a push to talk issue. After regaining radio communication with ATC they calmed down a little and everything went just fine from there!

Getting paid to fly!

FINALLY, the time has come...I am getting paid to fly!!! It seems it has taken forever to get to this point. I have started working for a flight school that primarily has foreign students. My first day I was assigned 3 student, a couple days later I picked up a forth. All of them have been flying for a while. They are all Private pilot students. I have not yet had a new 0 time student. I think taking on these students who have been flying already has been more of a challenge. There is a certain amount of time that it takes to get to know the student, learn where their book knowledge is and what their flying abilities are. They are an interesting mix. One is a young guy from Saudi Arabia, another is a girl from India, and then I have two guys from Mexico.
We have had only one full week of flying so far. My second week they grounded all the planes so the maintenance personnel could get all the planes back into perfect condition. Airplanes used for primary flight instruction usually are not the best looking planes out there. They tend to get abused. The FAA started ramp checking us pretty hard so the Owner of the school decided to self ground the fleet and ask the FAA to come in and inspect the planes and tell him what they wanted him to do. We are in our second week of being grounded. While I am thankful to see the owner is being responsible, it really stinks not being able to work!
So far it has been a good experience. You learn real fast how to make rules for the students, you also learn to never take your eyes off them. Even though you are not actually flying the airplane you are watching everything and keeping yourself ready to take over.
I can tell already that this CFI thing is going to be a very interesting experience.