Archive for the ‘110knots Flight Log’ Category

Well it really came down to the wire on this one but at 16:00 local we made the final GO call for our trip to Oshkosh this year. We had delayed the trip due to conditions at the north 40 aircraft parking grounds since we are flying in Frank’s Cirrus SR22 and the wheel pants go for around $2000 each! But everything changed when I got a last minute hard surface parking reservation at the Baslier FBO. So as of now we are a go for launch!

I will post facebook updates so check in using our facebook page to the right. We are departing tomorrow morning Friday 7/30.

Lots of pictures and video to come

Yet another chance to meet-up with my fellow pilot friend Gary http://gmflightlog.blogspot.com of the Northeast Flyers and also get some more IFR experience along the way. I had originally planned to fly our Cessna 182RG since I had just earned my complex / high performance endorsements and logged the required 10 hours in the aircraft, but due to a failure of the gear warning system the aircraft was grounded so we took our trusty friend N159SP. Read the rest of this entry »

Flight log 6/25/2010

This was our second attempt at our dinner flight to Hamilton NY. During the last flight we made the call to divert to Lincoln Park due ATC routing and a wicked headwind. This time things would go more smoothly, well at least we hoped it would. Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday 6/7 my friend and fellow flying club member Stephen asked if I would like to fly to Hamilton NY for dinner on Friday night. As I am always looking for a chance to fly under the hood and check out new places I agreed.

The original plan was to leave work and head directly to the airport but since I left my camera and change of clothes at home I stopped by the house on the way. As soon as I got in I saw my son. I was hoping to avoid running into him since he always makes me feel bad about flying without him. What can I say, he loves spending time with his daddy and his daddy loves spending time with him. Sure enough, after checking with Stephen to make sure it would be ok to take my son I quickly got him ready and ran to the car just in time for rush hour traffic!

On our way to the airport I called Stephen and asked him to get the airplane ready. I wanted to fly IFR on the first leg since there was an overcast layer at about 4000 feet. As I pulled into the airport Stephen informed me that he was still waiting on fuel and on top of that my overcast layer was quickly breaking up. Read the rest of this entry »

(UPDATE 5/15/2010) During the days leading up to this trip I had been working on my planned flight to London Ontario Canada for the Diamond Aircraft Factory tour with the Republic Flyers. I had even canceled this flight at one point so I could stay an additional day in Toronto.  Unfortunately due to a strong low to our north witch was bringing with it 40+ knot headwinds, low IFR conditions and embedded thunderstorms I had to scrap that flight (see flight to Canada not to be for more information).

The night before, a cold front came through which cleared the air of the thunderstorms but also brought with it stronger surface winds. As the flight neared it became obvious that I would have to contend with some wicked winds at least during our return trip, so the day before I called Ed and asked his comfort level with flying with his niece on a windy day. He assured me that she was a veteran flyer and bumps have never been an issue. I also knew that my son responds well to bumpy air (he falls asleep) hopefully he breaks this little habit before becoming a pilot himself.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well I hate this but as they say “it is better to stand on the ground wishing you were in the air then to be in the air wishing you were on the ground”
After spending way to much time and money getting ready for my flight to Canada for the (Diamond Aircraft Factory Tour with the Republic Flyers) I have decided to pull the plug. The final nail in the coffin was when my estimated time in route (ete) went from 3:30 to over 4 hours due to a strong headwind thereby requiring an en-route stop in hard IFR conditions. Read the rest of this entry »

While in route to Martha’s Vineyard my friend and fellow flying club member Stephen and I experienced an alternator controller failure (basically a voltage regulator). It wasn’t a big deal since we were in day visual conditions and the engine does not require electrical power to operate. I have learned a few things from watching the video.. Read the rest of this entry »

My Son Steven and I have now logged about 6 flights and I figured it was time to do a bit of writing on the subject. From about the time my son became old enough to hold a toy airplane he has been fascinated with flying. Sometimes I think he is more interested in airplanes than I am. I just hope his interest doesn’t wane as flying becomes more and more “routine” for him. My wife on the other hand has never really caught the flying bug. There was a time when she “unenthusiastically” flew with me almost every weekend but at that time I was a new pilot and her dislike for small planes was confirmed on more than a few bumpy summer afternoons Read the rest of this entry »

Ocean City MD
One of the most common questions I am asked as a pilot is “what is the furthest place you have flown to?” If you are a pilot you know what I mean and after being a pilot for 9 years you would think I would have some really cool answer but actually I didn’t. During the years I had made a few flights to locations such as Nashua NH, Manassas VA, and Providence RI with other pilots but since they did the flight planning and most of the flying I considered myself more of a passenger than a crew member. Read the rest of this entry »

Finally some IMC!
After all of  my IFR flight training you would expect to see some actual IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) flight time in my log book, but after about 42 hours of IFR time there wasn’t much. Just a few flights at altitude in and out of the cloud layer, not what I would consider IMC. Well yesterday I made up for some of that. I didn’t think my simulated instrument time provided enough experience to just hop in the plane solo, takeoff into the soup and fly an approach to minimums; so I opted to fly with an instructor. After calling the flight school the dispatcher let me know that one of the instructors would head up to the airport in about an Read the rest of this entry »

I have been working on my IFR rating for about a year now and after a few months of pretty intensive training I went for my IFR check ride with my DPE (FAA Designated Pilot Examiner).
My first step was to sign up for the IFR ground school at American Flyers in Morristown NJ. I attended the IFR ground course and studied at night. After the 3 day course I took the IFR written exam and passed with a 90%. It wasn’t the 100% I was aiming for but I will take it.  Read the rest of this entry »

My first flight in a Helicopter.

While attending EAA AirVenture 2009 I decided to check out the Bell 47G helicopters flying above our camp site every day. So I headed over to the EAA museum. Paid the $40.00 and waited my turn for the flight.

As I was waiting I thought to myself… No one knows that I am taking this flight. I hope we don’t crash! Just then I ran into my friend Dwight.. Read the rest of this entry »

My flying club 150th aero flying club had our annual picnic at Andover Aeroflex airport 12N on Saturday 6/12/2009. The weather was bad over most of the state so flying our planes up to the airport was out of the question, but I did get the chance to take some shots of the Piper Cubs making their trips around the pattern using my new Cannon HF s10. If you live in the area and would like to check them out follow this link to the Andover Flight Academy. Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t flown an airplane since being laid off from my job of 9 years in early May. So I finally decided to get back up in the air. Maybe flying would dispel my “I don’t have a job” funk.

The plan was to depart from Morristown KMMU and make the short trip to Alexandra Field N85 for some landings and then play it by ear. The weather in the northeast has been a bit unsettled to say the least, so when I woke up Sunday morning to rain I wasn’t surprised. Hoping that the weather would improve I moved my reservation to later in the afternoon. Read the rest of this entry »

My first impression was “this ain’t no VFR training airplane!”. This was My first flight in Keith Smith’s (ks flight log) Lancair 360 and my first flight in anything faster than a Piper Arrow. Read the rest of this entry »