Poll anyone?

My friend Rand recently did a poll on who was reading his blog. Honestly I do not know who comes by here and reads this. I do have a counter so I know it gets hits, but I have not really looked at the history of visits in months. At one time I knew this blog had hits from 13 different countries. I never really thought this blog would have any "followers" since its just my random thoughts about where I have been so far in my short aviation career. I wanted to be able to keep track of what is going on. Kinda like a log book. I go back every now and then and look at my old log book entries. It triggers memories of past experiences and flights. I try to add information in my log book entries not just about flight details, but where I went, with who, did we go for a $100 hamburger...was it any good? Was it their first flight? It is interesting to read those older entries. So back to Rand, He was curious who was reading his blog, and it made me curious too. I would like to know about your aviation background. If you care to share check out the poll to the right. Feel free to leave a comment if you would like to share in more detail your flying experience...or non-flying as I am sure there might be a pilot to be reading the blog too :-)

In Memory of...

First I want to offer my condolences to the friends and families of the victims of flight 3407. God bless you. You all will be in my prayers. I was shocked to wake up and see the news on the web that a Dash-8 had gone down. For those of us in aviation, especially General Aviation we know and understand that accidents can and do happen. We never like to see it, but obviously we do learn from it, and it continues to make aviation the safest form of transportation. With each accident we learn something new. Just today I watched a video produced by NASA talking about tailplane stalls due to icing. I had never heard of this before and the stall characteristics and recovery of a tail stall are completely different then for a wing stall. There is speculation at this point that icing is what cased the accident of 3407. we will not know for sure for some time. I know crashes like this make big news. There is a lot of false information being reported, and there are even those who publicly are saying horrible things about the crew. The simple fact is there was a crash. We lost brothers, and sisters, moms and dads, and sons and daughters. Let the pros do their job, figure out what happened, and lets all learn from it. Now let's honor the memory of those who perished.

Learning to fly!

WOW, $100 to learn to fly with a "qualified" flight Instructor! The funny thing is, half of those planes are still sitting on a flightline somewhere still flying!

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