New Resident

There is a new girl in town, and she has taken up residency in our T-hangar. Yup, that's right. A DiamondStar DA40-180, fresh from the factory with new plane smell. We pulled out the shoehorn and squeezed that 39ft 2in wingspan into a 41ft wide T-Hangar. Definitely NOT like parking a Cessna 172. Anyhoo.....after weeks of talking and planning and trying to work things out with the Diamond rep, we finally got our CFI checked out and got a complete walkaround of the aircraft. It is really difficult to plan four separate schedules, in conjunction with weather in two locations in Ohio in November. Well, now we eliminated two of the big variables and are just down to scheduling Walt's availability and the local weather in Coshocton.

Joe Miller from Midwest Corporate Air in Bellefontaine, OH flew out to I40 this morning to show us around the airplane and get our local CFI, experienced in G1000-equipped C182's, checked out in the G1000-equipped DA40. Insurance requires about 10hrs of instruction in the aircraft prior to solo and carrying passengers, so Walt will be busy for some time to come. Hopefully, he can learn to get that nosewheel on the centerline soon (see photo). No vacations to Florida this winter.......unless......let's see.....10 hours......I'm thinking that the best way to fill that time out is to take a long trip down south to find some sun. Route proving for the next adventure with the wife! Unfortunately, I'm banished from the new aircraft until I get my PPL. I'm close enough that I'll just get all mixed up in my head....or so the CFI says:). I'm willing to wait - there will be plenty of time to fly this new machine, and there's no competition for the C172 on the ramp at the moment.

Below, you can see Walt guiding her off runway 4 at I40. She's really a nice lookin' airplane...just a big Skipper.

There was also a nice King Air B100 up on the ramp at Richard Downing this morning. I talked to the pilot a little bit, but he wasn't real friendly....maybe I didn't know the right questions to ask. I tried asking him about his job, and what his career plans were, and what he liked about flying the King Air....maybe he didn't feel at liberty to discuss that much. From his registration number, I deduced that the owner is based in Hutchinson, Kansas, but I can't figure out what they were here for and what company was here. I guess I should've just asked the pilot, but I needed to head back to the plant. Anyways, I took a shot of his plane....I liked it.