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Grumman Goose!

2010-03-13T09:26:00.006-05:00

I recently got to take a flight on a real live 1942 G-21 Grumman Goose with radial engines. We flew from Dutch Harbor, AK and landed on water at Akutan, AK. It was pretty sweet!

Back under the Hood

2010-03-13T08:22:00.003-05:00

So, it's been a busy year with a lot going on since my last post in August. However, it hasn't been that busy on the flying front until this month. I've picked up my IFR training again for the last final push. I've got about 15 hours left under the hood, still have to pass my written test, and just need to get lots of practice.

I filed, which was cool (and stressful) again. Did a round robin from Newark to Rickenbacker to Lancaster, and back to Newark. So, that was two ILS's and two LOC approaches. The controllers at Rickenbacker were cool, and the guy on Columbus approach was helpful until the 5PM crowd started rolling in to CMH and he switched on Auctioneer mode and my radio transmissions "Uh...785SP...is....uh....procedure turn inbound.....Lancaster.....uh....5SP...." started crowding the airwaves. It was a good flight, but I have too try to stay ahead of the airplane more. You can see how disparate my approach into Lancaster was. I was all over the place! Well, I'll do better next time.

Flying Update

2009-08-10T23:42:00.006-04:00

It's been pretty hectic at work recently, so I haven't had the time to update the ol' blog recently. I've been really busy at work, which is a good thing - business is picking up and we've got some good opportunities, despite the government's best efforts to squelch new ideas and free enterprise. So, I haven't been flying as much....so I'll try to update my few flights here in a jiffy:

Greenville, SC - not much to look at in the way of many photos during this trip, but I did get one of the building clouds over the Appalachians that was pretty cool.

Traverse City, MI - I actually flew up to TVC twice in a week's time. I was on vacation, but needed to travel back quickly for a meeting, and it was just plain nice to have an aircraft to tour all the beautiful lakes from the air. Unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate well, and I was not able to do much flying. Let's just say that 470DS got several redneck airplane washes from the passing rainstorms while sitting idle on the tarmac. Here's a few photos of the cool rainstorms during one of my trips up.

I also snapped a photo of the Maumee River south of Toledo as I flew over at 4500ft MSL.

Hopefully, things will slow down this fall, and I can get back into my IFR training. I'd really like to get that completed by the end of the year, but it's about 16 more hours of hood time and passing the written test before I'm ready to take that checkride.

223,056

2009-08-10T23:37:00.003-04:00

Changed my timing belt for the 2nd time. The ATQ/AHQ engine on this 2000 B5 Passat V6 is definitely showing its age, because I replaced a lot of bolts that I didn't replace the last time around. Here's to hoping that the Green Stickermobile makes it another 80,000miles! Back off, Obama! This is one clunker that's going to keep on clunking!

222,222

2009-08-10T23:35:00.000-04:00

Only one time you will ever see all '2's on your odometer.....glad I made it this far!

IFR Cross-Country

2009-05-10T21:50:00.002-04:00

Last Monday, I finally had the opportunity to take my IFR Cross-Country. I was actually lucky enough to have TWO (2) experienced CFII's on my flight with me. My flight instructor, and her husband, who presumably was trying to escape lawn work yet claimed to want to sightsee, flew with me. We flew from Newark, Ohio up to Toledo, where we woke up the controllers on a beautiful VFR day to do a radar surveillance approach. It took them about 15 minutes, but they found a controller. I didn't do really great on the approach, winds were strong and shifty...but I would've been able to hit the runway...all 10,000ft of it. We then headed direct to the Sandusky (SKY) VOR for an approach into Burke Lakefront. I'd never flown into Burke Lakefront airport before, and it's pretty cool to fly that close to downtown Cleveland, and almost right over Browns stadium on the final approach for 6. I had a controller that vectored me into the initial approach fix and I really flubbed that approach, busting my altitudes and having some serious deflection, but I'm going to blame the 25kt tailwind on the ILS 24 approach down to circle around to 6. It was a very difficult and stressful approach, made more so, because I had two CFII's onboard evaluating my performance:). After a touch-n-go at BKL, I climbed out and headed south for home. On the way back at 7000ft, I managed to pick up a little actual time as well, popping in-and-out of clouds! It was fun, but I could also see how the quick transitions in and out would be disorienting. The final approach into GPS 27 at newark went pretty well, but I wasn't rushed and slowed down significantly.

According to the FAR, this flight had to be:

(iii) For an instrument—airplane rating, instrument training on cross- country flight procedures specific to airplanes that includes at least one cross-country flight in an airplane that is performed under IFR, and consists of—

(A) A distance of at least 250 nautical miles along airways or ATC-directed routing;
(B) An instrument approach at each airport; and
(C) Three different kinds of approaches with the use of navigation systems;

So, let's see...how did I do? I logged about 330 miles and about 3.3hours in the air. Aside from getting my written test done, I'm nearly ready for my check ride! However, I still need about 16hrs of simulated and actual instrument time, so I'm going to see if someone wants to be a safety pilot for me to fly under the hood with:). Dad? Paul?......anyone?

Hovercraft

2009-05-10T21:41:00.003-04:00

So, I was out doing a little photo shoot with my cousin James the other weekend, and it was pretty windy. It was so windy and bouncy during our photo shoot that James almost christened the Diamond with a little up-chuck du jour, but fortunately, the DA40 has a great climb rate and we were up in the smooth whistling air before any catastrophes occurred. I noted that the winds on the GPS were showing 50kts at about 4500ft MSL....and I thought - SWEET! I need to get that ground speed to zero and convert the Diamond into a hovercraft! Unfortunately, you can't control the winds. As soon as we got down to stall speed, the winds slacked off to only 44kts. Still, 12 kts indicated groundspeeed at 4500ft is still pretty cool. Now to get a photo of that elusive 200kt club....

Water Beads

2009-05-10T20:58:00.002-04:00

Beth & I applied a stain/deck sealer to our deck a week or so ago. Now, the water beads up like it has been rubbed with Carnauba Wax. I think that I'll see how it works on the ol' Passat!

Actual!

2009-04-22T21:34:00.003-04:00

Today, I got about 0.5hrs of actual IFR! It was my ninth IFR lesson, and we went flying through a blustery spring afternoon. Winds were pretty gusty and brisk today, winds at 280@9 gusting to 18 as I left Coshocton. The ceiling was fairly high, with an overcast layer at around 4000ft, but it was gusty. Since I wanted to do a little longer training flight to really get some different approaches under my belt, we planned a flight from Newark to Delaware, OH (KDLZ), then to Marion, OH (KMNN), then to Mansfield (KMFD), and finally back to Newark. We took off and headed towards Delaware, and immediately ran into some rainstorms. We vectored around the worst of it, but we were definitely NOT VFR, which was pretty cool. It was a very challenging day to fly, perhaps the most challenging that I have ever flown. There was a lot of windshear and updrafts/downdrafts, so I was constantly battling the altitude. Once I found a power setting that seemed to hold 3000ft fairly well, I'd hit an updraft and before I knew it, I was up at 3200ft, in a 10degree descent, struggling to get 250FPM down to get my altitude centered. I feel like I did pretty well with the communications, but the altitude holding and course headings with all of the wind changes were really giving me a hard time. It was definitely challenging. We did the GPS-28 and the GPS-10 approach into Delaware, and decided to scrap Marion, because of the poor weather. Instead, we headed straight to Mansfield for a couple of approaches there. On our way, at 4000ft, we headed directly into a cloud bank, where the snow was falling, BIG FLAKES, and started to pick up some ice on the leading edge. Not only was this my first actual, but it was also my first encounter with icing! Very exciting! Here's a depiction of a part of my ground track from Delaware, OH to Mansfield, and some of the weather that I flew around.

Smoky Mountains!

2009-04-11T09:05:00.013-04:00

Last week, Beth and I made the drive down to Gatlinburg, TN, home of 1000 go-kart tracks, pancake houses, and wedding chapels. Unfortunately, we didn't even have one single pancake when we were down there, because our goal was to HIKE! The Great Smoky Mountains holds a special place in my heart, mainly because it was where my parents led us on many a forced march as a child. It was where I first learned about water management on hikes and the importance of carrying your own food. On a typical hike as kids, we would race to the top of the climb, only to wait around starving for a half hour while Mom & Dad would saunter up with the food. While I had been to the Smokies a number of times, I hadn't been for several years, really since 2002, so my visit was long-overdue. Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are just as crazy as ever, a monument to miniature golf and salt-water taffy and fudge shops galore! But the mountains are familiar, well-worn like an old pair of underwear. Beth & I headed to the Elkmont campground, which is a very nice campground, surrounded by streams and the sound of rushing water. The rushing water sounds are very important to help drown out my snoring (at least for Beth).

Here's our sad little fire that we built. I understand that because of the emerald ash borer, that it's not a good idea to bring your own rotting wood into the park, but to make me pay $3/bundle for soaked wood? Outrageous! If the wood was free, I wouldn't say a peep - not me. But to fork out $9/night for a fire that never acheives steady combustion? Unacceptable! BTW - the flames that you in the picture there are from the firestarter that I had just crammed into the fire. I would've been better off getting those giant fire starter logs instead...

Our first hike was to Ramsey Cascades, and here's a view of the rushing water along the Little Pigeon River. Ramsey Cascades is a short, but fairly challenging hike. You climb about 2100 feet in four short miles, and most of that elevation gain is in the last two miles. The streams and scenery are definitely worth it, but it's not for the sunday stroller.

A mossy cove along the Ramsey Prong of the Little Pigeon River.

One of two bridges crossing the Ramsey Prong on the hike up.

The 80ft cascade of water at the end! It's definitely worth the hike!

I recall when I took one of my friends from Malaysia on this hike, promising a large waterfall at the end, and when we got to the top, he was a little disgusted with the puny falls. "You call this a big fall? I take you to Malaysia and show you a big falls!" It's still big for the East Coast of the US - most of our fresh water is contained in lazy rivers.

I also ran into a Slim Shady look-alike on the trail, hoarding her fruit snacks.....

And, I tried to measure the diameter of one of the large trees along the trail, but I think that I need a little larger wingspan.

The next day was absolutely miserable, it was 40-45°F and spitting rain in Gatlinburg, and I suspected that at a typical lapse rate of 4.4°F for every 1000ft, we would be in a blowing snowstorm on any hike above 3600ft (Gatlinburg is only at about 1600ft elevation). So, we applied our hiking energies to the Tangier outlet malls, and found some great deals....however, I was little perturbed at the 9.5% sales tax. I guess they gotta bilk those tourists somehow. The following day, however, was an absolutely perfect day for hiking, clear, sunny, and just some wispy cirrus clouds high in the sky. We decided to hike one of my favorite trails, the Alum Cave Bluffs trail to Mt. LeConte. I've hiked this trail many a time, and really enjoy the views and the memories of racing Joshua to the top. I wasn't in racing mode today, though, because there was a lot of residual ice and snow from the previous day covering some of the more challenging parts of the trail.

Icicles along the trail!

Standing on Heath Bald, just below Alum Cave Bluffs

A random fuzzy green moss bank along the trail - after a long Ohio Winter, I'm fascinated with green!

One of the many overlooks along the Alum Cave Bluffs trail.

Looking towards Newfound Gap from Cliff Tops on Mt. LeConte.

Snow and ice clogging the pine trees on top of Mt. LeConte - it was chilly up there yesterday!

Hanging out at the top of Mt. LeConte.

VFR Flying!

2009-03-31T21:08:00.006-04:00

Well, after having 14 of the last 16hrs behind the stick be under the hood, it was really nice to take in the scenery of a VFR flight! I flew with Dad down to Blue Ash, OH (KISZ) today for an early morning meeting and some breakfast. It wasn't an overly spectactular day, but one that you could tell was just waiting to have Spring come bursting out. Down in Cincinnati, I could definitely tell that Spring was about 1-2 weeks ahead of Coshocton. Pears were blooming, sprigs of green were out, and LOTS of yard has mower tracks on them. Definitely Spring....it's almost Opening Day!

Looking down Main Street towards downtown Columbus, OH - I swear, if I hear "Main Street to Wall Street one more time....."

Downtown Columbus in the early morning light

Blacklick Woods Golf Course - Blacklick, OH

Making the turn for final into Blue Ash, OH (KISZ) - there were 35kt winds about 500ft AGL, dropping to 7-8 at the surface - crazy!

Upon our arrival back in Coshocton, a rare sight - a jet on final for 22!

FULL AUTOBRAKE, FULL AFT T/R, check!

A shiny gleaming visitor to Coshocton, OH - we're getting 5000ft in a couple of months or so!

Omelette!

2009-03-31T20:36:00.003-04:00

We have a new addition to our household - a bird (an American Robin, I believe) has set up a nest in the wreath in our front door and has begun every one of the last few mornings singing very cheerily! I'm counting three eggs so far...I'm waiting until there's at least a half-dozen before I make an omelette!

IFR Training Update 2

2009-03-15T10:29:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been pretty busy at work, but have really tried to stay up with some sort of IFR training. Fortunately, the weather has cooperated, and I've been able to get a few lessons in. I've also passed the 250hr total time landmark, so that's something significant!

BFR/IFR Lesson #5
My biennial flight review was due the end of December 2008, but over the holidays and with all my traveling, it was just to difficult for me and my instructor to get together to do some flying. So, first chance that we got, I had to bust out a BFR first. It was really no problem, and we managed to squeeze in a couple of approaches at Newark to practice.

IFR Lesson #6 - Enter the Meatgrinder!
This was my first lesson flying into Class C airspace and doing multiple approaches to KOSU (Ohio State Don Scott Airport). Fortunately, this is a university airport, so I think that the tower and approach controllers are use to a bunch of slow operators on the radio and the zig-zag needle-chaser student pilots. It was a whole new level to focus on the approach and talk to approach controllers at the same time - YIKES! It was just sheer overload. I managed to execute 3 progressively better GPS-27 approaches into KOSU and didn't irritate the controllers too much, so that was good. My instructor said that I did pretty good, when I wasn't chasing the needle...which wasn't very often. Must. Do. Better.

IFR Lesson #7 - First File
This lesson was my first flight conducted solely under Instrument Flight Rules. It was a learning experience, and actually didn't go too bad. I had filed for a flight into Circleville, OH (KCYO), then an approach into Rickenbacker (KLCK), and finally to end up in Newark, OH (KVTA). It was a whole new level of pressure and intense focus to keep my heading, not chase the needle, and to hold that altitude. I did fairly well (at least my instructor said so!), and it really boosted my confidence level. Flying under instrument wasn't really that bad....

IFR Lesson #8 - VOR Tracking & Holding Patterns, DME Arcs
For this lesson, we were going to go through a couple of procedural items. Tracking and holding at VORs was first on the bill. Since the majority of my flying had been in the luxurious cockpit of a G1000-equipped aircraft, I really haven't used VORs for navigation very much. the training aircraft that I was using (N785SP) was a 172SP with two VORs and a Bendix/King KLN94 GPS, which is definitely NOT as cool as the Garmin product. So, it's been a real reverse learning curve as I've had to re-learn what the heck a VOR does, anyways?:) Add into that the fact that the DG on this particular Cessna has the tendency to precess about 20-30 degrees per hour, and it is a real challenge to make nice oval donuts in the sky. I also did a DME arc...honestly not too bad at all. You just have to know which direction the winds are coming from and you're go to go!

That's all for now - I hope to have a couple more lessons, and maybe a nice long IFR cross-country here soon. Stay tuned!

Seattle & San Francisco

2009-03-15T09:22:00.013-04:00

It's been a very busy February, so I haven't posted much recently. I've been continuing my flying, but mostly in a Southwest 737 cattle car type of flying, instead of logging PIC time. My travels at the end of January took me to the west coast for a welcome escape from the cold and snow of Ohio. I think that it's fairly common opinion that Seattle, WA is much more cloudy and rainy than any Ohio city, and after my few trips to Seattle, I'd have to say that it's about the same as Coshocton, OH. If you look at a comparison of total average cloudy and sunny days per year, we're really not that different. I think that those giant bodies of fresh water have something to do with the constant scud blowing across Ohio....I'll let you look at the data and see if the day I was in Seattle was 1 or those 58 days - it was just absolutely beautiful!

Cloudy Days per Year
Seattle, WA - 226 average
Pittsburgh, PA - 203 average
Cleveland, OH - 202 average
Columbus, OH - 190 average
Yuma, AZ - 52 average

Sunny Days per Year
Seattle, WA - 58 average
Pittsburgh, PA - 59 average
Cleveland, OH - 66 average
Columbus, OH - 72 average
Yuma, AZ - 242 average

We had a couple of meetings in the morning, but took some time to take a ferry across the Puget Sound towards Bainbridge Island. and headed towards the Olympics. It was fairly warm (45°F or so) and just so brilliantly sunny.

Mt. Rainer was out for the sun too!

A seagull enjoying a little VFR conditions (and the free ride from the bow wave from the ferry)

Enjoying the sunshine - Ohio had about 6-10 inches of snow falling as this photo was taken. See ya, Suckers!

Here's the typical clouds, taken on Neptune's Beach overlooking the Strait of Georgia, near Bellingham, WA

After all that fun in Seattle, I headed south to San Francisco for a trade show for the rest of the week. I had the opportunity to fly on Alaska Airlines for the very first time, and I have to say that I was pleasantly impressed. Service was great, the newer 737NGs are comfortable, and they serve a real microbrew (Alaskan Amber) in a real glass bottle on board the flight. Awesome! On the ground in SF, I met up with my brother Sam, who joined us for the tradeshow appearance, and to escape the clouds of southern Michigan.

Here we are overlooking the Yerba Buena Gardens in SF, just north of the Moscone Center

Sailboat on the Bay - catching the wind and the sun

SS Jeremiah O'Brien - Last time, I took the tour and had a great time

Cable Cars are Excepted down at Fisherman's Wharf

Heading down the hill to Fisherman's Wharf - the classic San Francisco Cable Car photo.

Dungeness Crab & Oysters at the Raw Bar at the Farallon. Yum!

Heading under the Golden Gate Bridge - this photo was taken from the Extra300 that I rented for the afternoon.

Look at all that beautiful cross-bracing! Again, taken from an Extra 300, cruising at about 20ft above the waves.

What a nice-looking group of people...Uhm...on...an Extra300 Ferry Boat...

8 inches of alternating snow and ice layers on the Passat when I got back - a week of what I missed in the warm California sun. It took me about 30 minutes to chisel my way into that frigid car!

Cold

2009-01-18T16:21:00.002-05:00

Like most of the midwest, it's been pretty cold lately. We hit -14°F on Friday, which is a new record temperature since 1890 or something like that in Coshocton. I haven't been flying much recently....translation....AT ALL.....but I am still admiring clouds from the ground. Here's a photo of some truly impressive mounds of water vapor emanating forth from the Conesville AEP power station. That's a lot of heat going up in in the air!

Clark Griswold is an Amateur

2008-11-29T10:10:00.003-05:00

Beth and I went on a quest to find the perfect Christmas tree yesterday. We managed to pick up a modest 13ft tall Serbian Spruce at Sheetz's Christmas Tree Farm in Coshocton, OH. Beth is still in recovery, but I love the huge tree! Go big....or go home! Clark Griswold is an amateur!

Vegas, Baby, Vegas!

2008-11-01T23:45:00.015-04:00

It's been a little while since I have blogged, but that's mostly because I've been busy at work and doing other stuff! Well, last week was a busy week. I flew on Monday and spent the rest of the week in Las Vegas for a tradeshow. It was a pretty hectic week, with all of the customer meetings and frantic schedule, but there were some bright spots. We stayed in the quite new, and quite opulent Palazzo Casino/Hotel. It was over-the-top, just like everything in Vegas, but most importantly, it was only a short walk away from the tradeshow.

Bright Spot #1 - Playing golf (and conducting business) at the Revere Golf Club in Henderson, NV. I played in a scramble, so I don't really know what my score was, but I probably would've shot about 100, the way I was playing. It was a beautiful course, but really surreal to be standing on lush green grass in the middle of the Mojave Desert. I can't imagine what the water bill is for this course! It was a little different to play golf where you were pretty limited as to your choices for shots....as in, there was a clearly defined landing area, and the rough...well, it was rough! I wish that my camera battery didn't die half-way through the course, because it was beautiful. Oh well, I managed to get some decent photos before it all went south.

Teeing off, getting ready for my 300+yd drive

Looking down the 18th fairway of the Lexington Course

The picturesque 12th hole at the Lexington, with Mt. Charleston in the background

The bunker-rich 7th hole, complete with waterfall at the end!

Bright Spot #2 - Tasting the succulent wholesome goodness of a Double-Double, Animal Style at In-N-Out Burger. Yum. Oh, and a very good spicy Octopus Roll at Japonais at the Mirage was pretty nice too!

In-N-Out! Best Burger in the Land!

Spicy Octopus Roll at Japonais. Very tasty!

Mom enjoying her Orchid Martini - pretty tasty

Bright Spot #3 - Hanging out with my big brother, Mr. JNW and hiking in Death Valley. The last time I was in Death Valley, I was recovering from a $220 speeding ticket (87 in a 55), no A/C in my car, and not much money in my pocket.. Things have changed over the last 10 years, but I still don't have any money in my pocket!

Death Valley National Park. They even had a handicapped parking space out here!

A couple of German tourists at Zabriskie Point

Zabriskie Point....my feeble attempt to copy the great Ansel Adams

Sitting on the fence...or the California State Line. Almost in Governator territory!

The famous sea level sign near Furnace Creek in Death Valley

A couple of artists, hanging out at the Artist's Palette

The long, lonely road to Badwater

Yes, there is water in Death Valley. It's pretty salty, though...with bugs and crap floating in it. Yuck.

Lowest point in the US! - 282ft below sea level

Frozen Ice Floes in Newfoundland....or muddy salt flats in Death Valley?

Early Morning Sun on the Death Valley Dunes

Fuzzy Cacti, looking south down the Death Valley Basin

The Beatty Club - a cozy, quaint honest-to-goodness cowboy saloon

Cool sand on my feet, looking northeast over the Death Valley Dunes

Cool shadows on the sand dunes - I could've shot 100 photos of the sand here.

Death Valley Dunes

Death Valley from Dante's View - 5400ft over Badwater - Very Impressive!

IFR Training

2008-10-23T02:52:00.001-04:00

Well, I’ve been pretty busy at work and at life recently, so this blog entry is a little bit of a catchup. Over the last month, I’ve started instrument training, and it’s given me some additional excitement to look forward to when I strap on the ol’ set of wings. Now, I absolutely love flying, but over the last 240hours of VFR flying, I’ve been delayed, frustrated, and had those days where you check the weather about 100 times, hoping beyond hope that the current conditions will improve just enough for me to travel 50NM and catch better weather just...out...of...reach. Also, most of my flying is done in support of my professional life, and it’s just rather inconvenient to be on the phone with customers or vendors discussing the weather and whether it will stay nice for our visit (like they really care). There are also the last-minute changes in plans, like leaving the night before or at 4AM instead of 7AM, to beat a low-lying cloud front that is coming in.

I’m not naïve. I know that an IFR ticket is not a guarantee for smooth, on-time departures and arrivals. You’re faced with a whole new challenge when it comes to weather, icing, and potential disorientation – the stakes go up considerably. However, I will be able to fly on those days when the weather is just not quite VFR, or when all I need to do is punch through that overcast layer to find sunlight and avoid bouncing along in the muck below.

Lesson 1 – Checkout & Orientation
This lesson was basically an orientation flight. I had called in to the local flight school to schedule IFR training, so I didn’t know my instructor, and she didn’t know me. So, she needed to find out if I really was ready for IFR training, or if I was living in this alternate universe where 50hours of Microsoft Flight Simulator equals simulated instrument cross-country time. After a whirlwind tour of the Columbus, OH Class C airspace, she determined that 1.) I could fly the airplane without crashing or doing anything stupid, and 2.) I could talk to ATC without stuttering and hogging the airwaves, to wit: “Ahhh…Cleveland...I mean…uh…Columbus Approach….Diamond 470DS….ahh…..with Yankee….umm…..request flight following into….ahhh….Oscar….Sierra……Zulu….I mean, Uniform…Zero-Delta-Sierra.” (followed by silence as the controller silently stuck his Inexperienced GA Pilot Voodoo Doll full of pins) “Aircraft calling Columbus Approach, say again?” Well, all that to say, my instructor found me a suitable candidate for IFR training, and so we made plans to meet again soon.

Lesson 2 – First Approach
It was a nice warm fall evening when I took to the skies to attempt my first instrument approach. We were flying the VOR-A approach into Newark-Heath (KVTA). We briefed the approach on the ground, and then my instructor had me fly a circuitous path in the sky to see if I would get all muddled up. I didn’t get too muddled, just busted my altitude a couple of times (Precision flying is HARD!), and then she put me into the VOR-A wringer…without the aid of a nicely loaded approach procedure on the G1000. So, I had to do something that I haven’t done for 150hours…..fly to a VOR and track a heading exactly. VFR flying really doesn’t demand the same level of precision, and I’ve had LOTS of non-precision VFR flying experience. It was a tough approach, because there was a pretty stiff wind from the south at about 25knots, which would routinely switch to an 18knot wind from the north west at or around the target altitude of 3000ft. This made for some tough needle tracking. I would be correcting for about 30 degrees right, and then I would overshoot and have to correct for 15 degrees left….it was totally crazy, and my armpits were very sweaty. This was some tough flying! I have to say that the result was a little less than satisfying. This approach was a circling approach, and so I didn’t end up looking down the runway, but rather overflying the field at about pattern altitude. I landed and zipped home to go read my new Instrument procedure book.

Lesson 3 – Old Technology
After starting my training in the 2006 Diamond DA40-180 with a G1000 glass cockpit, I was saddened to learn of an incident involving the propeller and some foreign objects. Long story short, N470DS was out of commission for about 8-10 weeks with a prop strike and subsequent engine inspection. However saddened I might be, I had just had my appetite whetted for this new challenge of instrument flying and so I arranged for rental of a C172SP. Though equipped with a GPS and two VORs, this Cessna 172SP was old technology compared to my usual candy-ass G1000 cockpit. This lesson involved several back and forth VOR approaches into Zanesville, OH (KZZV), where the Initial Approach Fix (IAF) is the VOR located in the center of the field. So, my instructor had me fly the VOR-22 approach, then the VOR-4 approach, then the VOR-22 approach. She was very kind and tried to point out all of the positive things that I did. “Your procedure turns were really great and you didn’t make any wrong turns.” Thanks. Fact is, I stunk up all three approaches. Big time. I couldn’t center the needle to save my life. If you had a GPS track of 785SP that evening, the airspace around Zanesville would’ve looked like a 3-year old got hold of a big black crayon and scribbled all over the town. I was off to the left, then overcorrecting to the right, then back on track again. It was truly painful. My only remotely saving grace was that I didn’t butcher the LOC-9 approach into Newark. I think that gave my instructor just a little bit of hope that I might actually get it.

Lesson 4 – First ILS approach
Newark’s G1000-equipped C172SP came out of the avionics shop, and so I was flying back with my electronic crutch, the wonderfully powerful G1000 avionics suite. This was a morning flight, and it was simply a absolutely perfect day to begin flying. Calm winds, beautiful sunrise, low mist, brilliant fall colors – truly one of those days where you feel so blessed to see the world from the air. At least, this is how my instructor saw the morning. I was staring into the G1000 screen with my home-made foggles, desperately trying to salvage my future as an IFR pilot. The calm winds and smooth transition from surface winds to winds aloft really helped. We flew the ILS-22 approach into Zanesville twice that morning, and I didn’t do too badly. Of course, flying approaches with the G1000 is pretty sweet – there is a tremendous amount of situational awareness, what with the wind components and the estimated position and altitude trends. I was really stoked when I took my foggles off at the Decision Height point on the approach, and there I was, about 1mile off the threshold of 22, dead-nuts on the glideslope! I knew that the ILS was a precision approach, but I wasn’t prepared for the dramatic reveal. It was pretty cool, and I want to do it again soon. After that little personal triumph, we flew the GPS-27 and the VOR-A approach into Newark before landing. It was a good lesson. I’m sure that the next time I fly, it will be gusting and bouncing all over the place, but I was grateful for the success in the cockpit today. I’ll be crammed into the meat grinder soon enough.

Need for the Bailout Explained (in 2007 by John Cleese)

2008-09-28T22:50:00.002-04:00

I saw this in 2007, after that first big blip in the market, when the first cracks in the thin veneer of mortgages began to appear. Rather astute for a few comedians, wouldn't you say? Call or write you congressman and tell them to VOTE NO on the bailout plan. This plan is bad for America and bad for Americans. Free markets should be free to succeed and free to fail. If you rescue the "dodgy" risk-takers, it will only be a matter of time before they take dodgy risks again.

Wings Over Coshocton 2008

2008-09-21T21:14:00.008-04:00

This weekend, I went to the 3rd annual Wings Over Coshocton Airshow. It was a beautiful day for the airshow, and probably about 6000-7000people showed up! It was a really good crowd, and a great airshow. It's really nice to have an event like this in the community, that gets people out to the airport and get kids excited about airplanes and flying. As one of the "big kids" in attendance, I had a really good time and can't wait for the next one! Thrills, spills, chills....it's all part of the show, folks!

Jack Kuntsen's American Firebird Extra300

C-47 crossing air show center...look at those clouds!

A C-130 Hercules from the Mansfield ANG wing

Jim "Fang" Maroney leaving the smoke trails for his Hammerhead turn

The Dodge "RamJet" jet truck act and Jim Maroney competing for smoke effects

Me and Jim "Fang" Maroney in front of N470DS

Me & Beth in front of N470DS (on static display at the airshow)

Two Hundred Thousand!

2008-09-21T20:44:00.002-04:00

Quite the milestone for my ol' 2000 Passat V6 GLS sedan....the green funkmobile, the stickermobile....passed the 200,000mile mark on my way to choir practice tonight. When I bought it in September 15, 2000, it had 36 miles on the odometer. Eight years later, I driven it the equivalent of 8 times around the world. Of course, it only took me 3 years to pass the 100,000mile mark back in 2003. So, here's to holding out for 300,000miles until I pass it on to a college kid and get the 2012 Passat GLS V6....or maybe a BMW 5-Series....Hmmm......

Aerobatic Introduction

2008-09-20T09:10:00.003-04:00

Last night, I got to have the most incredible 15 minutes of fun that I've ever had in an airplane. I had an aerobatic introduction ride with Jim "Fang" Maroney in his highly modified Super Chipmunk aircraft. We flew loops, a cuban 8, 4-point rolls, 8-point rolls, inverted flight, a vertical tumble, a tailslide, a hammerhead, a couple of snap rolls, spins, an extreme power-on stall, and just tons of fun. It was basically a shortened version of his show routine, except at 3000ftAGL. It was totally awesome. I'm going to sell our house and move into a trailer so that I can own and fly an aerobatic aircraft. It was that cool. All I want for Christmas is an Extra-300.

My New Toy

2008-09-17T21:46:00.010-04:00

Thanks to Hurricane Ike and all the fallen limbs in my two yards, I have now become the proud owner of a brand-new 3.8hp, Stihl MS290 Farm Boss Chainsaw with a 20" Bar. While not the coolest chainsaw out there, this one is very powerful and cuts wood like butta. Butta, I tell ya! It's totally awesome and I have a very fun weekend ahead of me between lumberjacking and attending a local airshow.

Hurricane's A-Comin'...

2008-09-17T21:46:00.009-04:00

...Board up the door....Worstest calamity that folks ever saw.....girls run and hide, brave men shiver....I'm Mike Fink, King of the River! (click here for the video of the song)

Here's the METARs from Sunday at about 1:40PM in the afternoon. I was sitting at Port Columbus at Gate A2, contemplating that I had made the right decision to fly commercial and not attempt to land for fuel somewhere with 35kt gusts. The remnants of Hurricane Ike had been blazing up the Mississippi River Valley after landfall in Houston. I was pretty amazed to see the gusts at 55-60kts, and then promptly loaded onto Southwest Airlines' "Shamu One" 737NG for a whale of a trip to St. Louis. It is a pretty cool paint scheme for the 737...complete with Sea World Themed overhead bins! No sooner had I landed at my destination and had powered up the ol' CrackBerry when my wife called with a panicked sound in her voice. "DAN! TREES ARE BLOWING OVER! THERE'S 70MPH winds here!" Well, that was just great. Here I am in sunny Omaha, with a light breeze and I have missed the fun of Hurricane Ike roaring through Ohio. Apparently, we had some serious excitement - a total of 8 trees blew right over....and I was 600miles away and totally missed the fun! Oh well, at least I've got a chainsaw and some firewood out of the deal....

Sleeping Bear Dunes & Traverse City, MI

2008-09-06T11:33:00.031-04:00

It was a beautiful Labor Day weekend. I honestly can't remember when the weather was this clear and calm. There was a frontal system waaay up north over Montana, and Hurricane Gustav was threatening New Orleans and the gulf coast. However, up here in Ohio and Michigan, there was a beautiful high pressure system that was responsible for tons and tons of clear air dropping out of the sky. Originally, my plans for this weekend were to fly up Saturday and spend Sunday and Monday camping and swimming on South Manitou Island (awesome photos of Lake Michigan at this link) with my brother Sam and his wife Kate. However, my wife was struggling with some serious congestion after a week of work in the germy middle school where she works, so to avoid a repeat of painful sinus infections and decompressions that she experienced on our recent trip to Hilton Head Island, we decided to scrub the trip. So, here I am sitting, looking at the NOAA website and all that calm, clear, air all over the Great Lakes, and I was starting to get a little wistful about missing the view of those lakes on that clear, clear day. Well, all was not lost. Beth's congestion cleared up on Saturday, and so we made plans on early Sunday morning to dash up to Traverse City for Sunday evening. South Manitou Island was out of the question, but Sleeping Bear Dunes wasn't! The flight up was fairly quick - only 2-3/4hours from I40 (even with a slight headwind!), and the weather was clear, clear, clear. Literally....not a cloud in the sky for that 330 miles. Beautiful! I finally got to see this wonderful area from the air without a rushed schedule or inclement weather - it was truly the most beautiful area that I have ever visited from the air. I'm usually a little let down when I fly down along the Atlantic - the water is too green and turbid for my liking. This water? Clear and cold with a million shades of blue ranging from deep dark midnight to nearly lumenescent sky blue. Awesome.

The twin lakes of Cadillac, Michigan from 8500ft MSL

Grand Traverse Bay with Mission Peninsula dividing the waters of the East and West Bay

Crystal Lake, Michigan - quite possibly the prettiest lake I have ever seen from the air.

Lake Michigan shoreline, just north of where the Platte River empties into the lake

Looking up the shore of Lake Michigan, with the Empire Dunes, then Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Manitou Islands further past them to the north

Sleeping Bear Dunes with Glen Lake and Little Glen Lake in the background

South Manitou Island from the south and about 4500ft MSL

Sleeping Bear Point in the foreground, with the sweeping shoreline of Glen Arbor Bay and Pyramid Point off in the distance

Wheeling over the natural harbor over South Manitou Island

The lighthouse at the southern tip of South Manitou Island

The remains of the Francisco Morazan, shipwrecked in 1960

The dunes at the southern tip of North Manitou Island

Look at how absolutely CLEAR that water is!

The steep sand dunes of Pyramid Point

Looking north over Lake LeeLanau

Cherry Orchards near Lake Leelanau

Suttons Bay on the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay

Grand Traverse Bay

West shore of the West Bay

Lots of boats in the water on the West Bay

Downtown Traverse City, Michigan

Final for Runway 18 at KTVC - Cherry Capital Airport

Clear, calm Lake Michigan at Glen Haven, MI

My beautiful wife relaxing by Lake Michigan, near Glen Haven

Pebbly beach near Glen Haven, with the dunes of South Manitou in the distance

The mottled sand dunes of Sleeping Bear Point

Waves slowly eroding the sandy shoreline at Sleeping Bear Point

My very best Michael Phelps impression - I'm going for the gold!

Ingition!

2008-08-27T20:01:00.003-04:00

It finally happened. After 16 years and hundreds of rounds, I have finally entered the new millenium of golf. I have purchased a set of new Nike Ignite irons (3-PW), with a 3 hybrid iron. I'm very excited to go from this set of 30-40yr old MacGregor Jack Nicklaus Personal Model clubs:

to this:
I'm projecting sub-par rounds later this year, followed by a stint in Q-school for 2009, perhaps a major championship in 2011, and winning the Masters by 2012. Yup. That sounds good.

Indiana Rainbows

2008-08-14T21:04:00.007-04:00

Here's a riddle for you....I took this picture in Indiana, but I was in a different state at the exact moment when the photo was taken. Where was I? (and don't say "at the airport").

Why, I was in Indiana, Pennsylvania, of course! I had taken my brother-in-law, Casey, to visit his wife attending her PhD classes at IUP, and I needed an excuse to go practice my flying (and landing). It was a beautiful day, cool and sunny, with a nice broken layer of clouds at 6500ft. On my way, I managed to snap a photo of Tami Longaberger's house...very nice, and I wonder how many baskets are crammed into that place?

Tami Longaberger's humble abode....pretty nice, huh?

We cruised on east over Zanesville, Wheeling, and around south of Pittsburgh, PA at about 9500ft. As we crossed over Washington, PA, I could see that the clouds were getting much taller, so we ducked underneath the layer and saw a couple of scattered rainshowers, which when the light hit them just right made a beautiful rainbow.

Rainshowers & rainbows over Indiana, PA

Rainshower over Monroeville, PA

When the light is just right, you can see TWO rainbows!

I was pleasantly surprised to see the inside of the terminal at Indiana County (KIDI) was a giant tribute to Jimmy Stewart, one of my favorite actors. There was also a really beautiful looking golf course just off the end of the runway. I'll have to come back here for two weeks, drink cold beer, and have someone hold my hand and say 'poor, poor thing'. As Elwood P. Dowd would say: "Wouldn't that get a little monotonous, just Indiana (or Akron), cold beer and 'poor, poor thing' for two weeks?" Well, I think that Harvey would have something else in mind -

A couple of towering thunderheads over Lake Erie

Treehill Country Club, just north of Sewickely, PA - Looks like a nice course to play!

Trains queueing at the Conway Railyard, the largest train classification yard between New York & Chicago

Heavenly rays, peeking through the clouds over New Philadelphia, OH

The Maryland-SC-Ohio Triangle

2008-07-29T21:18:00.014-04:00

I've been flying a fair bit recently, so now that I have a little "ground time", I'll take the opportunity to catch up on a little blogging. I recently flew a neat little trip with Dad - we headed to the Maryland coast and then south to Rock Hill, SC, and the back home. All right through a wonderful high with nice weather and clear skies. A monster storm had blown through that night, and it was just clearing up as we made our initial descent into Salisbury. I have to say that the 60NM perpetual TFR around Washington is just totally stupid. Is the strongest, most powerful nation in the world scared of a 2300lb Cessna 172 with a max useful load of 900lbs, when anyone can rent a 26ft Ryder truck and drive it within 60NM of Washington? Golly gee whiz! I think it's a good idea.....I mean, who would protect all of the poor Beltway lobbyists and policy pundits from scary "GA" airplanes? Sheesh.

Okay, well, enough complaining. Our intended route of flight flew well south of all those freaked out people, and over the Chesapeake Bay, which is a huge body of water. There were a lot of barges, fishing boats, and a lot of choice beach spots. I could almost taste all of those lobsters and soft shell crabs, just flying over! Here's a photo of some of the shifting sandbars just off the west coast of the bay. That some pretty clear water for the bay, but I guess if you have the right angle and there's not too much slit in the water...you can see lots!

Can you see any soft-shell crabs in that sand?

I'll bet that it's pretty fun to hang out on that little sandbar and fight the sandflies away:).

Just one of the thousands of tidal rivers on the Chesapeake Bay - I love how squiggly these rivers are!

Tangier Island, right in the center of the Bay - I'd like to go there someday - apparently the residents of this island have a very unique dialect and they serve really good soft shell crab sandwiches....MMmmm.....

We talked to Patuxent Approach and steered well clear of the restricted military flying zones (they were HOT) and ran downhill into Salisbury, MD and touched down.

Short final for Runway 32 at KSBY - just 50ft higher than the ocean!

We stopped in to admire the FBO and got a quote for hand-washing a plane - only $200 for a hand-wash & wax! Not too shabby.....if you have $200 more than you need. The people were really friendly and helpful, and we felt right at home. After having some of Tim's Pizza & Subs, we were back in the air and heading to South Carolina. The air was really calm, although really hot, and I was pretty happy at 4500ft for a while, until I needed to climb up to 8500ft to stay up sort of above the clouds. This is one of my favorite things about flying....just gently weaving in-and-out between big puffy clouds. It really gives the sky texture and gives you a sense of how fast you are going. The relative motion of 150kts at 10,000ft above the ground isn't too impressive.

Cloud shooting over Virginia at 8500ft - Check out the wrap-around view!

The Surry Nuclear Power Plant on the James River. This powerplant had a really unique cooling pond that cut a channel all the way across the Hog Back Island Peninnsula to take advantage of the river flow.

Lake Gaston, VA - a huge lake system on the Virginia/NC border. It looked like a lot of people were enjoying the water as we flew over.

Just west of Lake Gaston on the Roanoke River is Kerr Lake, another giant reservoir

Taking a quick look at the Old North State Club, a golf course on Badin Lake, NC

We landed in Rock Hill and surprise of surprise - we saw a Diamond DA40XL on the ramp! I think that it's the first time (other than Oshkosh) where I've landed at an airport with another Diamond. We tried chatting with the pilot, but he was a chartered jet pilot flying alongside the owner as a safety pilot and he was very grumpy. Apparently, he was sorely disappointed to stoop low to fly the DA40 because it wasn't a jet and it wasn't super fast. WELL, EXCUUUSE ME! I know a bunch of pilots that would be tickled pink to fly the DA40 (myself included). Sheesh....the attitude of that guy was unbelievable. Well, we packed it up and headed out to dinner at Harry & Jeans - a nice little eatery only about 4-5 miles from the Rock Hill Airport. I had some absolutely delicious crab cakes (all that flying over the Chesapeake bay made me hungry for crab) and then went to sleep at the Crampton Inn. The next day, we arose, played a little golf at the Waterford Golf Club (a Hale Irwin course), and I managed to almost break 100, so I wasn't ready to buy a new set of clubs.....just not yet:). We packed it all in the plane and headed back north to the arms of my loving wife. The trip back had us flying over some interesting altostratus undulatus cloud layers over the Appalachians. These clouds are typically indicative of icing conditions in the winter time and can be pretty hazardous when it's chilly out....but in the summer, there's little occasion to drop below the freezing level. We tried flying along at 8500ft, but quickly saw that the clouds were higher still. So, we managed to get the ol' DA40 flying along at 12,500ft....which is the highest that I have ever personally flown. We needed a couple of degrees of nose-up attitude to keep flying at that altitude and could only muster about 130kts of true airspeed at that altitude. The DA40 really is a lot happier flying at 7500-8500ft - that's where you get the best combo of performance and fuel economy.

Cruising above the altostratus undulatus clouds at 12,500ft.

Heading north over a high cloud deck at 12,500ft.

Checking the calibration of our altimeter with a snack bag of Hot Fries!

Swooping back down into Coshocton over the Conesville Power Station.

Lake Ann, Michigan

2008-07-15T23:55:00.010-04:00

It's that time of year again - back in the northern part of the Lower Penninsula of Michigan, right around Lake Ann, MI. I did not fly up, because....well....rental cars for a week are fairly expensive and Dad gets sad puppy dog eyes when his favorite toy is missing from its hangar for a WHOLE WEEK. So, to make things easier, we just drove up to Michigan. This week has been fun so far - I went hiking with Beth and her Dad at Sleeping Bear Point in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We avoided the bushes of poison ivy and managed to catch some pretty incredible views of the point, and of North and South Manitou Islands, just a couple of miles offshore. Follow that up with a little impromptu boxer short dip in the refreshing waters of Lake Michigan, and you have the recipe for a pretty fun day. Also, you get some pretty funny stares from the people that see you with wet shorts looking like you have just peed your pants in a big way.

The steep climb up the dunes - watch out for Poison Ivy!

Looking out over Sleeping Bear Point towards South Manitou Island

Look! A Big Great Lakes Freighter passing off shore! Ship, SHIP!

Not much of a beach to stroll on! There were some pretty good waves at the point, but as you walked further into Glen Haven, then settled down.

We're staying on a little lake that is called Lakeview Lake, just north of Lake Ann, which is probably about 20 acres in size, and is fairly nice and shallow - great for swimming and some light fishing. It's very close to a really fine golf course (Mistwood), and has some fun facilities for the kids - shuffleboard and a nice sandy (pebbly) beach.

Teeing off at Mistwood Golf Course, Lake Ann, MI

Boats lined up along the shore of Lakeview Lake, near Lake Ann, MI

I also discovered that Big Head Todd & the Monsters were playing at a local concert venue (Interlochen Center for the Arts) only about 15 minutes away from Lake Ann. As usual, it was an awesome show, but a little different that most BHTM shows that I have been too. Very diverse mix of people from people in their 60's to kids. One funny thingut kind of funny, because this Interlochen place is a boarding school, so there were all these kids in blue polos and navy blue shorts. It was like the real live “School of Rock” (one of my favorite movies). The teenagers kept trying to jump up and rush the stage to stand in front, and the dorm mothers kept sending them back to their seats. It was hilarious, with all the camp staff talking on their walkie-talkies throughout the whole concert (“So and So is getting a BUTTLOAD of demerits tonight!”) The rock finally won, and the teenagers got to see Todd Park Mohr's nimble fingers up close and personal. Beth went along and enjoyed herself, so that was lots of fun for me - we're going to tour the country together following BHTM to every concert. They're in Cleveland on August 31st! Woohoo!

I even managed to catch a rockin' Big Head Todd & The Monsters show at Interlochen! Awesome!

KNEW Redeux

2008-07-04T15:56:00.011-04:00

It was just a few days after the beginning of summer, so what better place to visit that hot, humid, New Orleans, Louisiana? Hmmm.....Seattle, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Traverse City...a few places come to mind, but I was headed down to the Gulf Coast for a couple of days at another tradeshow in New Orleans. We left early on Saturday, so as to make it down in time to 1.) set up the booth, 2.) check into our hotel room, and 3.) play golf by the gulf.

The flight down was right through the disapppating aftermath of a huge line of storms that had raced across Ohio and Kentucky earlier that morning. When we took off from Coshocton, we had to fly just under a cloud deck at about 2500ft that cleared up shortly after we passed Zanesville, OH. We climbed up over the cloud deck and danced among the shrinking clouds at 7500ftMSL.

Dillon Reservoir, near Zanesville, OH - The June rains have filled it back up!

Climbing through the clouds to the clear air on top!

Clear of clouds and cruising in the morning sunshiune on top....

We had some pretty stiff winds to cope with on the way down - 30-35kt cross-winds from the west, so our time enroute wasn't speedy. It really makes a big difference when you're only traveling at 100-105kts groundspeed versus 135-145, Those extra knots really start to add up over a couple of hours. One of the really cool things about this flight was that there were still some patches of virga or rain at these higher altitudes, and the sun was just at the right angle to catch a few really cool rainbows. Here's a photo of the best one - A giant, sweeping bow of color across the sky....and look! A Diamond right at the end of it! No pots o' gold in these rainbows!

A Diamond at the end of a rainbow - that thing about Pots o' Gold are definitely not accurate!

As we headed further south to our first fuel stop, the skies cleared up over Oak Ridge, TN and continued to be clear as we descended over Chattanooga Class C airspace into Barwick-Lafayette (9A5) municipal airport. We flew over the Sequoyah Nuclear Power Station, just north of Chattanooga, apparently one of the most efficient producers of electricity in the nation between 2000 and 2002 - only 1.14 cents per kW! That's some cheap, clean energy!

The Sequoyah Nuclear Power Station, just north of Chattanooga, TN

Chattanooga Metropolitain Airport - Lovell Field

Entering the pattern at Barwick-Lafayette (9A5)

Turning final for runway 20 at Barwick-Lafayette.

Upon landing at Barwick-Lafayette, we landed and were greeted by an friendly gentleman that helped us with refueling and gave me a quick tour of his home-built biplane project (a Sorrell Hiperbipe) in a nearby hangar. This little aerobatic biplane had a Lycoming IO-360 installed on the front, had side-by-side seating, and looked like a very hot little ride! In that same hangar, was a Taylorcraft F-22, serial number 1, from the newer Taylorcraft production line! Pretty cool! After we packed up, and switched pilots, we headed down south over Birmingham, AL, over Meridian, MS, and straight to New Orleans. We had to fly fairly high - 8500ft to get in-between the clouds, but the air was fairly stable, so not much turbulence, and it was really cool to zig and zag between the towering clouds, knowing that they were not full of rain.

A Southwest 737 landing at Birmingham Airport

Navigating the cloud canyons over Mississippi

Towering cumulus clouds sparkling bright white in the morning sunlight

Clouds over northern Mississippi

One of the really weird things that we continued to see as we flew over Mississippi, where these huge lots of what looked to be white semi-trailers. They were scattered in a couple of different places, and Dad & I were wondering what they were, when we suddenly realized that these were FEMA trailers that were in "storage". What a tremendous waste of money to have all these trailers just sitting in a field rotting and not being used or sold...but then, who would want them? Isn't central planning great?

Anyone need a couple of thousand FEMA trailers?

We managed to sneak into New Orleans, right before a torrential downpour that was making its way up from the Gulf. We managed to accomplish our goals of setting up the booth, checking into our squallid hotel, and playing a round of golf at The Player's Club of Louisiana. That was a pretty nice golf course, with difficult approach shots, and very deceiving distances. I kept playing my 100yd clubs, when I should've been playing my 150yd clubs. Oh well - it was a good time, and they had really great food at the clubhouse.

No Scud Running

2008-06-04T06:06:00.004-04:00

I'd sure glad that I don't have to fly through all this. Last night, we got pounded with storms, and I woke up with a tornado warning for my county. I hope that my commercial flight isn't delayed too much!

Curses! Foiled again!

2008-06-03T23:39:00.005-04:00

I was going to have a blog entry about flying into Chicago Midway today, but the weather wasn't cooperating. Low IFR and heavy thunderstorm, complete with torrential rain, hail, tornados, wind shear, and a whole bunch of other nasties that made me fly in a WN (Southwest Airlines) 737-700 cattle car today. The forecast for tomorrow isn't any better. So, instead of having another cool post about flying to Des Moines, I'm going to be taking said cattle car into Omaha, then driving to Des Moines. Maybe I'll take a photo of the weather that will actually turn out to be flyable VFR. I need an instrument rating.

Edenton, NC

2008-06-01T00:16:00.012-04:00

I've been frightfully busy at work and at home, and haven't had a chance to catch up on my flying blogging...or blogging flying....which is it? Well, two mondays ago, I flew down to Edenton, NC, right on the Albemarle Sound. I had just gotten back from our trip to Hilton Head Island, and was right back in the plane for a trip towards the eastern end of North Carolina.

Today was a special day, because I was traveling in a small airplane with my brother Joshua for the 3rd time in my life! Trip number one was when we were both very young and I remember taking a night flight over Columbus. Trip number two was when we were older with one of my friends and after a couple of stalls (which I thought were really exciting), Joshua didn't feel the same way about them. Trip number three was a beautiful, perfect clear day, and we were flying over the appalachians, over the Shenandoah valley, and down along the ocean. It was a very beautiful flight, one that I will have to take again soon, and really special to have my older brother along in the airplane...hopefully, he'll be interested to take a few more airplane rides in the future. For our trip, we had very favorable winds for the trip down - almost a direct tailwind at about 40kts. It was awesome, and I managed to record my highest level ground speed of all time - 193KTs! I'm still waiting for that elusive 200KT level flight club.....of course, I'll probably need 50kt tail winds for that one....have to keep my eyes peeled for the high tailwinds aloft!

After being in Hilton Head for a couple of days, it was a pretty cold morning for the middle of May. Temperatures in the morning were only 41°F, and as we climbed through 4000ft over Cambridge, OH, we ran through some precipitation that sounded and looked like snow! Of course, I didn't believe that it was really snow with all the global warming going on, so it must've been fluffy chunks of rain or something. We headed down past the Ohio River and into the wild, wonderful wilderness of West Virgnia. The part of West Virgnia that we flew over is a really beautiful part, but very desolate and devoid of towns and people in general. Not a lot going on down there! Since I wasn't flying, I didn't have a lot of foreknowledge about the trip or the terrain that we would be flying over, so it was a pleasant surprise that we were flying over the Dolly Sods and the Shenandoah Valley and national park! Those places are really beautiful places, and hold wonderful memories for me - fun places that I have been with my brothers.

Check out the view! What a panorama from 8500ft! (taken over the Dolly Sods)

Flying over the Dolly Sods and Spruce Knob Wilderness at 8500ft - 40kt tailwind!

Shenandoah National Park from 10,500ft - Lush, green mountains!

Closeup view of the Blue Ridge Parkway - it's a really beautiful highway over these mountains, with incredible views on either side!

The Rappahannock River, near Port Royal in Virgnia

Farmland in North Carolina, next to the Albemarle Inlet - 60NM from the Barrier Islands.

The historic town of Edenton, North Carolina - taken just as we're entering the pattern at KEDE

Turning final for Edenton - Lined up for Runway 1! Where's those life jackets.......

It's just a slight crab....short final for runway 1 at Edenton

A very unique sight from the air - a ski and golf resort in a bowl-shaped mountain

The four-season resort of Massenutten, VA - what a unique location!

Seneca Rocks, West Virginia - Trad climbing mecca of the Appalachians.

Dolly Sods on the return trip - where did those clouds come from?

River Greens Golf Course in West Lafayette, OH - getting close to home!

Approaching on the 45 for runway 22 at Coshocton - we're home!

Hilton Head Island (KHXD)

2008-05-24T23:11:00.022-04:00

Last weekend, I flew with my wife and two friends of ours (Dan & Krista) down for a brief visit to Hilton Head. I'd been wanting to fly into Hilton Head ever since I got my license...well, actually, ever since I visite Hilton Head Island, and rode my bike over to the FBO, and poked my nose through the chain-link fence and watched aircraft takeoff and land. How cool would it be to fly to the beach? Well, as it turns out....pretty stinkin' cool. Early Saturday morning, we drove to the airport and pulled the Diamond out of the hangar. Dan (a fellow pilot) was kind enough to manage the preflight and to figure out how to sump the tanks for water. We packed our meager changes of clothes into the back of the DA40, crammed the ladies in the back (note the very spacious accomodations in the rear of the DA40), and headed south as fast as we could (which was about 145kts ground speed). We took off just in front of a sweeping cold front that was blistering its way south from Canada. In Coshocton, there was a high overcast...perhaps 14,000-16,000ft..but the further we went south, the sunnier it got...and the more cloudy it got on the ground. South of Charleston, WV, the light poofy clouds at 3000ft began to consolidate and join forces to become a beautiful low overcast layer. It was really smooth and peaceful on top, and Dan did an excellent job of hand-flying the Diamond all the way down to our first stop for fuel in Shelby County, NC (KEHO).

Bright Sunny VFR on Top over West Virginia

A hilltop farm in Virginia peeking through the breaking clouds

Midfield turn over Shelby County, NC (KEHO) to join the downwind pattern for Rnwy 23

Short Final for Rnwy 23 at Shelby County - I like this photo (obviously NOT taken by me)

Once we arrived at the peaceful airport of Shelby County, we discovered that the FBO was closed. Hmmm. We all needed to hit the bathroom, and I had specifically picked this stop because it had a newer terminal building. Well, fortunately, one of the hangars was open, and there was a very friendly guy just sitting in there reading a book. I love small airports! He offered us bottled water and the use of the bathroom, which the ladies appreciated. And, then, we sat outside in the early morning sun until 10:00AM rolled around and we could buy some 100LL to continue our journey. Sure enough, at 9:50AM, the weekend calvary appeared and brewed a pot of coffee, filled us up with AvGas, and sent us on our way with a cheerful smile. Did I mention that I love small airports? We had a short leg (1hr20min) in front of us to get down to Hilton Head, and we all wanted to feel the sand between our toes soon. So, it was on down over Columbia, SC's airspace, and straight towards Hilton Head. Upon arrival into the Hilton Head airspace....it was pretty busy! There was a US Airways Dash-8 and a couple of other aircraft ready and waiting for departure, and four planes in the pattern and getting in line for landing. It was BUSY!

After landing, we were met immediately by a line attendant that took our fuel order, and let us borrow his golf cart to take our luggage back to the terminal. Talk about service! I was really impressed with the service that we got from the FBO at Hilton Head - even though we just had a small single, we felt like we were treated as if we had just stepped off a Gulfstream jet. we stood in line F-O-R-E-V-E-R at Hertz for our rental. Person after person was turned away because there weren't any cars left. I was starting to get a little worried about the status of our rental reservation, and when we went up to the counter, the lady said "You're not going to believe what car I have left." Oh no, I thought...we'll be in a full-size van or a truck or something - I had just reserved a mid-size rental, but at this point, I didn't really care as long as it had wheels to take us to the beach. We ended up with a brand-new Volvo S80, which the ladies fell in love with immediately. I did have to admit that it was fairly nice, although not quite as nice as my nearly 200,000mile Passat. Well, we were whisked quickly to the beach, swerving in and out of traffic between the blue-haired ladies with dark sunglasses hunched over their steering wheels.

Relaxing by the pool...trying to get a little sun exposure before we hit the beach.

The wide, wide hard-packed beaches at Hilton Head Island

Seashells on the beach at Hilton Head Island

Scaring the locals with our red, red sun-burns.

Preflighting the plane to head back to Ohio.

After one short day, unfortunately, we had to start heading back. There was a thick line of rain that was moving over the Appalachian mountains towards Charlotte. I was fairly nervous about flying back, and thought that we might just have to wait it out for another day, but duty called - or actually, Dad called and wanted the airplane for travel the next day. Cloud tops were about 5500-6000feet over charlotte, and patchy rain, but no real convection or thunderstorms, so I figured that we'd be okay, although we might have to dodge some rainstorms. Since we were needed a reliable fuel stop on the way back, I planned to stop at a destination I'd hit before - Rock Hill, SC. Their FBO is really nice, a beautifully-equipped lobby, and is very spouse-friendly:). After a quick fill-up and some fresh coffee, we climbed back into the airplane and headed back to Ohio. Leaving the Charlotte area was very pretty with the fading light of the sun streaming in under the clouds. It wasn't meant to last, however, as we headed towards the grey abyss of the rainclouds over the mountains.

Departing Hilton Head Island - Overlooking the southern end of the island.

Tybee Island, GA - a wonderful little island just outside Savannah, Ga

Fading light under the clouds over Charlotte, NC

Here's a little view of the high overcast with some rain showers - even though it was rainy in places, the visibility was really very good.

After the mountains, we were rewarded with a little sunshine.

Muirfield Village Golf Club

2008-05-22T00:38:00.004-04:00

Since next week is Memorial day, and the start of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, OH, I thought that I would share a couple of photos of that famed golf course for your viewing pleasure. I'd love to play a round (or two) on this golf course. I know that I'd be lucky to score under 100 and I'd probably lose about 4 sleeves of balls, but I'd still like to try it.

Muirfield Village Course Overview

The 1st, 9th, 10th, and 18th hole at Muirfield

The front nine holes at Muirfield

Dayton & Indianapolis

2008-05-15T23:10:00.011-04:00

I've been really busy recently (so what else is new). On Tuesday (May 13th), I flew to Dayton, OH to pick up my good friend Charlie who was in the US for a couple of weeks. It was a beautiful day for flying, and it was fun to share my new hobby with him. We used to work together for a major wheel & brake supplier to the aerospace industry. It was fun to get back together with him and to catch up and talk about all the changes and things happening in our lives. Life sure does move fast! We had a nice lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Dayton, then it was back to Ohio for some golf and some fun times together. Tuesday was really nice and clear, just cool enough that it was perfect for flying - great visibility! On the way, I snapped a couple of photos of the Newark and Columbus area.

The city of Newark, OH from 6500ft

Moundbuilders Country Club - Check out the circular Native American mounds that are part of the course!

I'm not positive, but I believe that this large estate in New Albany, OH is probably owned by Les Wexner of "The Limited" - It's simply outrageous!

The corner of Columbus, OH where I grew up - Just across the street from Don Scott OSU Airport

The Columbus Zoo - I've spent many a day here looking at the elephants and gorillas

Left Base for Runway 18 at Dayton, just over Tipp City, OH

3 mile Final for Runway 18 at Dayton-Cox International Airport

It was pretty fun to fly into Dayton, probably because I had been to that airport so much when I worked for Goodrich AWB traveling around the world, and because I had seen so many airshows from the tarmac when I was a kid. It was really neat to be able to talk to the controllers and land on the runway myself. Very cool. I'm really getting more comfortable talking to approach, tower, and clearance delivery controllers, which is encouraging, since I'm trying to study for my instrument rating (in my copius free time). Here's a couple of photos of the Goodrich Aircraft Wheels & Brakes plant in Troy, OH that I worked at for several years after school. Lots of good memories, good friends, and cool engineering stuff going on down there!

Goodrich AWB in Troy, OH

Later that week, I flew over to Indianapolis, IN with Dad. We had a little business to attend to, and it meant flying under some low scud to get into Indianapolis, IN. It was a high overcast when we were in Columbus, but as we headed west of Dayton, the clouds descended and we were cruising along at 2000ft, dodging the radio towers. It was pretty exciting, especially when the controller gave us a slight tail-wind landing on Runway 32 - good thing that there is 8000ft to play with!

Flying between an interstate and a hard place East of Indianapolis, IN

Check out the crab! Established on final for runway 32 at KIND

Helicopter Saw!

2008-05-15T22:39:00.004-04:00

I was up at the airport today and saw this super-cool saw attached to a Hughes 369 helicopter. There's a separate motor for powering the saw blades, but I still can't imagine hovering and swinging this saw blade through the trees....it must be over 100ft long! I found a video of a similar helicopter in action on YouTube. I think I'll stick to fixed wing flying, myself.......click HERE for the YouTube video.

See the Light!

2008-05-08T21:06:00.006-04:00

So, we're scheduled to get some bright 50watt XeVision HID XV-19-W lights to replace our weak, weak, halogen lights sometime this month (or maybe next month). Whenever the FAA office in Cleveland decides that they have taken enough time to process the 337 form. In the meantime, I found this super-cool step-by-step instruction manual on the web for installing said HID lights into a Diamond DA40's wingtip. Click HERE for the instructions. I wonder if I could just replace them myself....

Cross-Country to Linden, NJ (KLDJ)

2008-05-03T12:44:00.013-04:00

This past week was a busy one. I flew with Dad out to Linden, New Jersey (KLDJ) for a tradeshow appearance at the Meadowlands. We were scheduled to leave on Monday via car (ugh. 9 hours in a car to New Jersey), because it was low, low IFR all across PA, but Dad came down with a bad cough and waws sick, so we postponed our trip to the following day. Tuesday morning arrived, and Dad was all hopped up on anti-histamines, so he felt good enough to fly. Also, the weather had moved on down futher east and south and the clouds over Pennsylvania were clearing up.

We got the plane all ready - during our last annual, we had an oil separator put on the engine, and does it ever make a difference in the cleanliness of the aircraft. Not only is the bottom of our aircraft NOT coated with a thick film of oxidized 20W50, but we don't have to add as much oil to the engine. Very, very nice....and environmentally friendly - Al Gore would be proud. We took off and climbed above above a nice broken layer at about 4000-4500ft MSL and headed towards Pittsburgh Class B. I neatly executed my very first Class B transition (thanks to Jason Miller of the Finer Points), and captured the momentus occasion on film (er..um..flashcard).

First Class B transition for me ever! I'd like to thank my wife, my parents, and my flight instructor.....

So, that was it. Inside Class B - it wasn't hard at all to talk to the yinzers at Pittsburgh Approach - they were very friendly and helpful (unlike Chicago Approach), and were happy to offer advice and information. They gave us a squawk code for flight following all the way to Linden, NJ. I liked them....or at least the specific controller on duty. So, I headed north of KPIT to Zelienople, PA where I picked a direct course to Linden, and climbed to 7500ft to stay on top of the overcast layer. It was fairly broken, and I kept monitoring the METARs in Eastern PA and NJ to ensure that 1.) It was VFR under the layer, and 2.) I would be able to get down closer to my destination. We cruised along and listened to the chatter - snapped a couple of photos of some powerplants along the way.

Plume from a power station along the Ohio River, pushing lots of water vapor up in the sky.

Another power station along the Allegheny River

We also flew over Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA, where my brother, sister-in-law, and other good friends graduated. It's funny to think of all those students, rushing around, trying to get to their classes, stressing out about their finals, and wondering if they're going to find any girls after they graduate, and all those things...as I'm crusing serenely at 145KTAS over a mile above their stressful lives.

Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA from 7500MSL

We continued on our way across PA at 7500ft, and as we got north of the Harrisburg TRSA, the sky started to become a rather full overcast. We talked to Harrisburg approach, and they had a 747 in the pattern doing touch and goes. Everyone was giving it a wide berth (as well they should). Going inverted because of wake turbulence would not be super-cool:). We started heading down through the clouds over Allentown, PA and ended up slipping under the New York Class B shelf.

Turning Base for runway 27 at Linden, NJ (KLDJ) over the NJ Turnpike

We entered the downwind for Linden, NJ (KLDJ) after monitoring the AWOS. It was windy - 14G21 from 310. Runway's at 27...so, we'll be fine. Well, the approach was a little dicey. There were aircraft on final for Newark International (KEWR) about 1000ft overhead, and there were a lot of ground obstructions to look out for - the ConocoPhillips Bayway Refinery, tall petroleum tanks and power lines on final for runway 27 at LDJ. As I neared the ground, the forward slip that I had the DA40 in took about all the rudder that I had. I made it on the ground, but it wasn't pretty.....and as I rolled down the runway, I say why. That windsock was standing straight out and was at 90° to the runway! It was the toughest landing that I have ever done....so, 14G21 from 90°......it was definitely exciting, that's for sure! I took a look over at Dad, and his knuckles were just a little white from gripping the sides of the aircraft. More exciting than Cedar Point!

Short Final for 27 at Linden - check out that smokestack!

After the tradeshow was over, complete with a dinner at Frankie & Johnnie's on the Waterfront in Hoboken, NJ (which is an excellent steakhouse, and apparently where "On the Waterfront" with Marlin Brando was filmed), we headed back west. It was a very nice evening for flying. Clear, relatively calm, and great visibility. We flew low (about 1000-1200ft above ground level) to stay under the westerly winds to make better time. We stopped in Lancaster, PA to fuel up, and then headed to Columbus, OH (CMH) to drop off a colleague and then home to Coshocton. It was a fun trip, and most importantly, we didn't have to fly commercial!

Butter Valley Golf Port (7N8) - Where you go from Cessna to golf cart.....All golfers in the pattern, please advise...FORE!

Butter Valley Golf Port (7N8) - a golfing/flying paradise! I'm heading back there someday.

Colorful sunset over the Susquehenna River south of Harrisburg, PA

Three Mile Island Power Station - Harrisburg, PA

Fading light over the Lehigh Tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike underneath Blue Mountain

Cross Country to Omaha, NE

2008-04-25T20:52:00.017-04:00

On Wednesday, I took a nice long trip in the DA40 to Omaha. Over 1300miles and 11 hours in the cockpit! It was my longest day in the airplane so far....and honestly, wasn't too bad. If we had flown in a straight line, we would've been landing in Salt Lake City, so....I'm thinking that a western/west coast cross-country really isn't too far beyond the realm of possibility.

It was a beautiful day, although it started out a little hazy, the skies cleared up very nicely over Illinois. We had originally planned to stop for gas in Pontiac, IL (KPNT), but over the Indiana border, I whipped out my BlackBerry and managed to connect to 100LL.com to check and see if there were any cheaper FBO's. Just as I suspected, gas was only $3.96/gal in Washington, IA (KAWG). A few clicks of the G1000 cursor later, and our flight plan was adjusted another 80miles to Washington. We had stopped there last year on a trip to Des Moines, and it's a pretty nice little airport with intersecting runways and a nice little self-serve operation.
We crossed the Mighty Meandering Mississippi river on our way to Nebraska. The mississippi is a lot different than other rivers (like the Ohio) that I'm used to. It just seems to wander all over the landscape, and doesn't really appear to have a reason for being where it is. The Ohio River, on the other hand, is right in the middle of a valley, which gives you a pretty good idea of why it is there and not anywhere else.

Downtown Washington, IA

Turning Base for Runway 13 at Washington, IA

Diamond DA-40's look best on the ramp at an airport 350NM from home

Happy pilots paying less than $4.00/gal for 100LL - guaranteed to put a smile on any pilot's face!

After grabbing 35 gallons of 100LL, we took off and continued to head west, however, as I was climbing through 2000ft, we noted that there was a strong 24kt tailwind. Since I like to fly low (and fast), we stayed at about 1000-1300ft AGL for the remainder of our travels across Iowa. Since I was flying the second leg, I only managed to get 1.5 hours of time, but it was a fun 1.5hrs. We landed on 14L at Omaha, and it was a beautiful landing (if I do say so myself). Smooth as whipped butter, it was. Of course the 18kt headwind coming straight down the runway didn't hurt at all. I think that my groundspeed was about 35kts when I touched down. Nice.

Downtown Omaha, Nebraska - home of the Union Pacific Railroad, Boys Town and many other american institutions

After the meetings were done, we packed it up and headed home for Ohio. The weather was good all the way back, and we didn't have a change of underwear, so we kind of needed to head home:).

Power-on turn onto Runway 18 at Omaha - Heading Home!

A big, big soybean oil refinery at Council Bluffs, IA

We had a little gustier, bumpier ride back, and really had to climb high to get above that tailwind we rode on the way in. It was 9500ft before we settled into a nice cruise with a slight quartering headwind. We managed to stay away from the nasty, nasty looking thunderstorms that were building across Kansas and heading our way. It's pretty stinkin' nice to have a G1000 with XM weather on board. Have I mentioned that before? Here's a picture of the Nexrad and cell movement. Pretty cool to have this information updated every 6-10 minutes on your dash. Very cool.

Angry weather, just about 50NM south of us. I love XM Weather!

From 9500 ft, there really wasn't a whole lot to see. It was still not really springtime yet, so the ground hadn't sprung into green life yet. We basically watched for other traffic, tried to estimate how far the looming cloudtops in the horizon were, and listened to some XM radio. As we crossed the Mississippi, I snapped another picture - all that water just really amazes me....plus, that we're just letting it all flow down to the Gulf instead of using it or something...

The Mighty Mississippi from 9500ft

I tried to get my Blackberry to work again to check out fuel prices, but no dice. I think that at 9500ft, we were too high. It really couldn't decide which tower to lock on to to download all the web pages. So, we made our descent into Kankakee, IL, for some fresh gas and a bathroom break. On our descent, we crossed over a really cool quarry with a very, very green water covering the bottom, and some railcars with cool shadows. I like it!

Railcars full of limestone gravel - heading to a driveway near you!

Green water at the bottom of an Illinois quarry west of Kankakee, IL

Short Final for Runway 4 at Kankakee, IL (KIKK)

Fading light of a long day - she's fresh and ready to keep flying!

Flying Season!

2008-04-21T22:01:00.004-04:00

It's flying season again! Here you see my three sectionals spread out on the floor for my flight to Omaha (KOMA) this week. I'm headed out for a little business, but couldn't resist the look of the charts spread out on the floor. I can't wait to get back in the air!

Mountain Biking in Moab!

2008-03-20T23:33:00.040-04:00

No posts for a while - I've been busy. New house, busy at work....oh, and I took a short little trip out to one of my mostest favoritest places in the US. Moab, Utah, home of the absolute best mountain biking I have ever done anywhere. Period. I honestly can't imagine that another place on this continent would be better. Moab has it all. Rolling singletrack, bomber downhills, technical slickrock, steps, ledges, jeep roads, off-camber, incredible traction, awesome vistas, killer climbs, and the list goes on and on. About they only thing that they don't have is slippery tree roots - I think that Ohio and Michigan have the monopoly on that. This trip was a repeat of a trip that I took with my brother Andrew and his roommate Dan back in 2002. We all work together now, so we took the time off together and headed West. Basically, we did a re-peat of the college-era trip, except this time, we didn't have to choose between food or gas. It's nice to have a little money in the pocket to enjoy time off with good friends in the outdoors.

The trip started with a non-stop drive out to Dillion, Colorado, where we hooked up with my cousin-in-laws (Beth's cousins) and managed to squeeze in a day of boarding at Keystone. I'd never been to Keystone before, so that was...educational. I think that I like Vail a little better. There were some times when it got a little crowded...but maybe that's just what March skiing is like on a Saturday in Colorado. It was good to be back on a board, but I was hankering for sunshine and the desert. Too much snow in Ohio this winter - time for some dry desert air! After boarding, we headed to the Dillion Dam Brewery for a little pick-me-up and then drove to Grand Junction, where we hit the local Wal-Mart at 1:30AM for camping supplies. Two more hours of driving across the black Utah desert and we arrived at a campsite by the Colorado River. Did we open up the doors and unpack the tent for a hard-earned rest by the river?

Nope.

Did Andrew turn the car off and say, "Let's sleep in the truck. It's only 3 hours to sunrise."?

You betcha.

Okay, so let me paint the picture for you. We'd spent 28 of the past 48 hours in the truck. We had just gone snowboarding all day, then drove 6 hours. We had been generating methane since dinner at a staggering rate. My legs were sore in that special snowboarding shin splint way that indicates your possession of a desk job, instead of the one you really wanted to have for the winter, riding lifts and taking photos for Transworld Snowboarding magazine.

Well, since Andrew & Dan were in the front seats, they just leaned back and started snoring away. I was in the back of the truck with all the junk, and couldn't stretch out. So, I spent the next three hours shifting every which way that I could in a vain attempt to try and get comfortable. I can only imagine that must be what sleeping is like in one of those prison cells that are too short to stand up in, or too narrow to actually lay down in. I got about 10 minutes of sleep in about 10 different spurts before I saw the sky brightening. Extremely crabby Dan stated emphatically. "Guys. I'm done with this. We're going into town. I need to walk around and get some coffee. NOW." A breakfast bagel and a couple of cups of organic coffee later, I was back to my usual self, Easy-Going Dan.

We headed over to the Barlett Wash trail for a good re-introduction to biking on Utah's slickrock. Slickrock (or Navajo Sandstone) is a super-cool sandstone formation that is very much like petrified sand dunes. It's got incredible traction, and is really fun to ride on, because you can climb, traverse, or descend slopes in a way that just isn't possible on regular rock or dirt. The Bartlett Wash is pretty wide open, you can pick your own lines and just goof around. Very fun and some great views.

Looking West at the end of the Bartlett Wash

The vast expanse of Navajo sandstone that is the Bartlett Wash

After riding the wash, we headed back to claim a primo campsite by the Colorado River. Can't let all those other bikers have the good spots, can you? We set up a pretty good substitute for home, relaxed for a little while, and then headed out to enjoy the sunset at Arches National Park.

Our home away from home
Stairway to Heaven (or maybe just to Turret Arch)

Balanced Rock - looks like it might topple any moment!

South Window Arch, Arches NP

A couple of grimy stoner mountain bikers hanging around Arches NP

Fading light at Delicate Arch, Arches National Park

And the morning and the evening were the first day in Moab. The next day, we headed just north of Moab to a trail we had never ridden before. The Sovereign Singletrack, a relatively new trail (only about 5-6 years old), was the next ride on the menu. We really had a hankering to ride the Porcupine Rim trail, but after some guy at the Poison Spider Bike Shop said that it was wading through thigh-deep snow and leaving behind a bloody snow-cone, we decided to skip it this time. This time only. Next time, the Porcupine Rim is first on the order. Anyhoo, on to the Sovereign Singletrack trail - very fun, very fast, and no steep climbs. It was a very gradual, rolling trail that was really a lot of fun to ride. It didn't have the same views that other trails had, but had awesome flow, and was just good clean fun. We got a bunch of awesome photos, and here's just a couple of the choice ones.

Epic flow, awesome downhill! (Uh....that's me burning it up)

Andrew negotiates one of many tight switchbacks on the Sovereign Trail

Check out that view - Moab High Countryl

Man, do I love my new digital SLR!

Nice lean, Andrew!

Just one of many steep and rocky descents - pretty technical in places.

Dan takes the speedy curve with style. Moab style.

I get up-close-and-personal with a scrub pine. Moments before I crashed, I ridiculed my biking companions as "wussies" as I started down the ledge for not taking the drop. Only my pride was injured in this instance:).

We were very tired after riding the Sovereign trail, but weren't about to quit yet. The next day, we warmed our tired muscles, packed the high-energy food, and headed off for more punishment. The next trail o' fun on the menu was the legendary Slickrock Bike trail. Built in 1969 by motorcylists, this 12 mile loop is probably one of the best biking trails in the world. It's got a unique layout, and is definitely the hardest, most technical trail that I have ever ridden. Very, very challenging, physically demanding and just more pure fun than any trail I've been on. One of the interesting things is the way the trails are marked with periodic white stripes - how else do you know where the trail leads when you're biking on bare rock?

Look at those grins! Those guys don't have a clue about what punishment awaits!

Look how much traction I can get on the Slickrock - It may not look like it, but that's a fairly steep hill.

Taking a break at the feet of the Beautiful La Sal Mountains.

I love this photo - riding from slickrock to the snowy mountains!

This is at the half-way point on the trail. We've biked about 7 miles and climbed about 900ft so far. Feel the burn!

Follow the little white stripes....

Dan takes a ride on the wild side - just off the edge of a cliff.

Bombing down the slickrock - gotta love that front suspension!

Just one of many trail views - I love how the trail winds back and forth across the slickrock...

Riding back to the car - thankfully, it's mostly downhill from here!

Well, the Slickrock trail totally kicked our butts. I can't remember the last time that I felt that fatigued. Basically, I just wanted to crawl into my sleeping bag and not wake up. However, instead we headed into Moab for food. Rule to remember - never order food after you've ridden the Slickrock Trail. We all ordered WAY too much food and couldn't finish it all - lesson learned....but it all tasted soooooo good after that ride. The next morning, we chose a less-demanding ride because we had to start heading back to reality. The patience of the wives was wearing thin, and the money was drying up, the real world was calling. It was a sad day. We chose the Amasa Back trail, which is pretty much a short steep climb up, and then a great downhill back....oh, and it's got the most incredible views of the Colorado River Valley...simply amazing!

The beginning of the Amasa Back trail - still down in the canyon.

Andrew living on the edge - 1000ft off Jackson Hole!

Happy Mountain Bikers from Ohio

From the top of Amasa Back, you get an incredible view of Behind-The-Rocks sandstone fins juxtaposed with the La Sals

Mmm....Tuna and Ritz Crackers overlooking the Colorado

Super-cool Potash mine and processing plant....in Potash, UT (Coincidence?)

The stark desert beauty of the Colorado River Basin

No End in Sight

2008-02-29T22:44:00.002-05:00

I recently watched this first-rate documentary about the war in Iraq, and the subsequent occupation. Since this war has been going on for almost five years, you forget about the reports of chaos and rioting that were happening in 2003. It's an honest look at the failures of the Bush administration in planning for an extended occupation. Contrast that with the intense planning that happened almost two years in advance for the occupation of Germany following WWII, and you can begin to see how this whole conflict has been mismanaged by a bunch of NeoCon hacks. Again, thanks to the freedom of the internet, you can watch it here.

Hilarious Aviation Story

2008-02-29T22:35:00.002-05:00

I read this incredibly hilarious aviation story entitled "Cadet Barf" from the Captain's Log blog. It is the funniest thing that I have read for a long time - I laughed uncontrollably. Beth just couldn't understand why I was hiccupping all night. It wasn't the Gentleman Jack, I swear!

McCain - Conservative or Fascist?

2008-02-27T08:29:00.002-05:00

Here's a good article by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., describing the shift in the republican party to a militaristic statism (fascism). McCain, the Republican party's annointed one, is not so much liberal leftist as right-leaning fascist (just like Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco). Link to the article here.

Many of my Republican friends criticize McCain as a leftist. I can see the point. But we ought not be too quick to believe that all forms of antilibertarian ideology are leftist. We need to recognize that there is a form of nonleftist statism of a very distinct kind. It is not socialist in the traditional sense. It believes in a corporate state, combined with protectionism and belligerence in foreign policy. The right-wing predecessors here are Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler, and the name of the ideology is fascism.
For more on this, see John T. Flynn's As We Go Marching. He listed some points of the fascist program. It is a form of social organization "in which the government acknowledges no restraint upon its powers," is managed by the "leadership principle," and in which "the government is organized to operate the capitalist system and enable it to function — under an immense bureaucracy." In fascism, "militarism is used as a conscious mechanism of government spending," and "imperialism is included as a policy inevitably flowing from militarism." "Wherever you find a nation using all of these devices," he wrote, "you will know that this is a fascist nation."
Republicans are prepared to push this agenda, altered to fit the American political context, in this election. Their number one tactic to retain power is impugning the patriotism of Barack Obama. It seems like a puzzle, but an opinion piece by William Kristol in the New York Times offers a clue into the basis of the Republican campaign. He first makes a big deal out of the fact that Obama used to wear an American flag pin on his coat, but now no longer does so. He drags this up as if to accuse him of disloyalty to the American cause."

Sick Passat

2008-02-24T16:05:00.002-05:00

My Passat is sick. It fell into a ditch and sprained its oil pan. So, now I've got a new one on order (oil pan, not Passat), and Beth & I had a sweet ride in a tow truck today! It was awesome!

Published! (well, sort of)

2008-02-21T23:29:00.007-05:00

I recently had some of my aviation-centered writing published in the February 2008 issue of Aviation Consumer magazine. They performed a review of the DA40 and asked for owner feedback to complement their review. Since I've been a huge fan of the Diamond Star ever since I taxied out with the canopy open at Appleton, WI for that demo flight in 2006, I was happy to oblige. Here's my contribution:

Overall, the DA40 has a very sleek, modern look that never fails to attract attention from ramp workers and fellow pilots at any FBO where you chock your wheels and fill up with 100LL. Not only has Diamond Aircraft executed a very beautiful and compelling aircraft design, but they have followed it up with responsive and outstanding customer service. Emails or phone calls to the factory are responded to very promptly.

Flight Controls
The coolest thing about flying the DA40 is that there is a stick. That’s right, just like a P-51, just like an Extra300, just like an F-15. The flight controls have a nice live feel with just the right amount of feedback, which is due to the solid control rods used for aileron and elevator control, as opposed to cables that can stretch and give. As such, they give a very direct and immediate feel to the controls in comparison to the spring-loaded side stick of the Cirrus SR20/22.

Cockpit/Avionics Layout
The DA40 cockpit has a very functional and ergonomic layout with the backup steam gages placed in a neat row up at the top, and the main throttle, fuel, mixture, and cabin air controls right in the center console - all within easy reach for both pilot and co-pilot. I have flown a G1000-equipped Cessna 182, and the dash-mounted yoke really gets in the way of the soft-key buttons on the PFD. This is not the case in the DA40, because of the control stick in your lap (see above). The main centerpiece of the dash is the two displays for the G1000, which are awesome, invaluable flying tools. The amount of information that was available on the G1000, from key airspeeds for the aircraft (Vx, Vy, Vr) to accurate fuel levels, and a complete engine management package (cylinder temps, manifold pressure, exhaust temps, oil temps, amp draw). Add to that the real-time XM weather downlink with Nexrad and METARs/TAFs, terrain avoidance, and charting capabilities, and you wonder why you'd ever need a paper chart again! Diamond made the right choice in installing the Garmin avionics in the DA40.

KAP140 Autopilot
We have the KAP140 Bendix/King 2-axis autopilot installed in our DA40. As a King Air first officer in North Carolina commented to me – “Wow, that’s a lot nicer than the autopilot I fly with.” Having an autopilot really helps to hold altitude and maintain heading during high-workload situations and on long cross-country flights, but the DA40 is already very stable and when trimmed properly, and doesn’t really require much control input to maintain straight & level. The KAP140 can also be a little finicky, and the pitch trim sometimes fails during the startup system check. It’s good in one respect that if the servos and clutches don’t register the right torque or current draw, then it kicks it into fail mode. However, it can be a little disconcerting when you get inexplicable intermittent failures associated with the autopilot. Usually keeping your hands off the flight controls and pitch trim during the startup sequence ensures that the system checks out okay. (Note - The KAP140 does not like cold weather. Usually when it's below 20°F in the hangar, you can't get the autopilot to start up until it's had a chance to warm up for about 20-30 minutes of flying. - A small cabin heater fixes this problem).

Initially, our KAP140 autopilot experienced a disturbing tendency to porpoise during autopilot controlled descents. Even if only a 100fpm descent was dialed in, the autopilot would gradually increase in greater and greater oscillations of ±700FPM. The fix was to install a secondary static pressure port, which Diamond paid for (Did I mention that Diamond’s customer support is outstanding?). After the secondary static port was installed, the KAP140 controlled climbs and descents with unwavering accuracy.

Front Seats & Cabin Comfort
The leather-covered seats recline slightly and are extremely comfortable to sit in for long cross-country flights (6+hrs). They are fixed to the frame of the aircraft and certified to 26g’s for crash protection. That's right - no unsettling shift backwards during climbout when the seat pegs come loose from their track and the aircraft seems to “leap forward”. In the DA40, the rudder pedals adjust for different height pilots, so you don't have to worry about seat adjustments. Did I mention they were comfortable? The downside of the DA40 cockpit is that the cockpit is a little on the small side. The comfortable height of a front-seat occupant is practically limited to less than 6’-3” to keep your knees from hitting the dashboard.

Rear Seats & Cabin Comfort
The rear seats are even more comfortable than the front seats, with integrated foot holes for the longer-legged occupants. My long-legged wife loves the “footie holes” as she calls them. The view from the rear is truly panoramic. At no point do you feel like you have been crammed into the back of an aluminum can. The large side door for rear access is a class stand-out in a world of 4-place GA aircraft where you have to squeeze through, climb across, and crouch down into your seat, hoping that a claustrophobic panic attack doesn’t hit you right after takeoff. The large door opens wide and the rear seats also fold down flat, leaving a long (7+ft) cargo bay for golf clubs, skis, snowboards, and other bulky luggage items.

Sight Picture & Cabin Comfort
Aside from the comfortable feeling of sitting in the cockpit (provided you are shorter than 6’-3”), you have a 180-degree wrap-around view from the front seats, which is totally phenomenal. Scanning the skies for traffic and checking the pattern before takeoff are easily accomplished, thanks to the low wing, no windshield pillars, and wrap-around canopy. The downside of the bubble canopy is that it gets rather warm on the ramp and at low altitudes during the summer months. When the temperature hits 90°F, you tend to taxi with the canopy wide open and climb for cooler air as soon as you can after takeoff. Fortunately, the DA40 has a 2-position canopy latch, so that you can “crack” the canopy during engine run-up and on landing rollout to restore some airflow to the stifling occupants of the cockpit. Diamond has also put a nice cutout into the front glare-shield, so that you have good forward visibility for taxiing, even with the canopy wide open.

Cabin Heat & Ventilation
Because of the bubble canopy, the DA40 gets pretty warm on hot sunny days, but is very pleasant to fly on a 60-70°F sunny spring or fall day. The large, anodized aluminum air vents pump a lot of airflow into the cabin when fully opened, but what the DA40 really needs is an A/C unit for handling the hot weather better. I can’t imagine what it would be like to fly a DA40 in Florida in the summer. For cold weather ops, the cabin heat works very well and the door seals keep out stray drafts, even when the outside air temperature was -15°F (-26°C) last winter. The defrost vents work okay, but it can take a while (10-15 minutes) to clear the windscreen of all traces of breath-induced frost.

Flying the DA40
Flying the DA40XL is effortless and quite a lot of fun. With a 40 gallons of 100LL and 3 big people on board, the aircraft comes off the ground quickly and readily climbs at 700ft/min on a 95°F day with high humidity.

The large rudder gives plenty of help on tough cross-wind landings, giving a performance characteristic of 20kts cross-wind component. The large rudder also provides for effective ground maneuvering without the need for much differential braking on gently curved taxiways. It’s a slight transition to move from an aircraft with a steerable nosewheel to a castering nosewheel, but after a few trips down the runway, controlling the aircraft on the ground is very natural. The DA40 has a very wide stance and is very stable on the ground, even when the winds are gusting up to 20KTs.

Slow flight characteristics in the DA40 are remarkable. Even at 45kts indicated with the stall horn wailing away, the controls are rock solid and you can turn the aircraft back and forth without any adverse flight characteristics. The stall characteristics tend to “mush” the aircraft down, but there are no disconcerting wing dips or noseovers to contend with. You can take the DA40 through a 15-20° banked turn at 45-50kts without having anything un-toward happen. Very comforting when you consider your standard approach speeds are 65-75kts.

Due to it’s motor glider heritage and long wings, the DA40 can be challenging to land simply because it wants to fly! Landings are easy enough, but careful attention must be paid to airspeeds on base and final, or you’ll end up floating half-way down the runway. Typically, approaches are made nose low, and a little throttle is held in to slow the descent rate. If you try to land the DA40 with an aggressive flare, you may end up with a tail strike on your hands. However, Diamond Aircraft has thoughtfully provided an aluminum skid plate on the tail to prevent any real damage to the expensive airframe.

Landing Lights
The biggest drawback to the DA40 are the very weak 35watt halogen lights that are a poor excuse for landing lights. Night flying in and out of rural airports can be very challenging and downright scary sometimes, since the dim lights don’t provide much advance warning of nocturnal wildlife hanging out on the runway. They also don’t provide enough light to effectively navigate strange taxiways at night, which is a real drawback. One of the frustrating things about this deficiency is that Diamond offers a HID lighting option on the DA40XL, but has not provided DA40-180 owners a retrofit kit or service bulletin to take advantage of the increased safety that better lights would provide. We contacted the factory to ask if they could provide assistance in filing a 337 form with the FAA to retrofit our DA40-180 with the better lights installed in the DA40XL (same wing, same wiring), and we were told that Diamond didn’t want to provide any documentation to help with this installation. Diamond really needs to offer a service bulletin or optional service letter for this option.

Fuel Pump Troubles
We have had two defective fuel pumps in our DA40. The fuel pumps would simply not turn on when the switch was activated, requiring us to get out of the aircraft, crawl under the belly and tap on the fuel pump to get it going. To Diamond’s credit, they replaced both fuel pumps at no charge, which is really great service, especially when you consider that these pumps are used in a number of other aircraft and aren’t really Diamond’s problem. Good job, Diamond!

Overall, The DA40 is a very efficient and capable aircraft. With the 50kg gross weight increase, the useful load of the DA40-180 is just over 900lbs. That means with the extended range 50 gallon tanks, you can fly with three adults for 4 hours at a fuel burn of 9gal/hr before stopping for a comfort break and to buy a cold snickers bar. The DA40 is not a speed demon, but is reasonably fast at 135-140KTAS achievable with 9gal/hr fuel burn at 7500ft. The engine seems to be happiest when running at about 2350RPM and 22-23inHg of manifold pressure at 7500ft. We have the two-blade Hartzell prop on our DA40 and have experienced no problems whatsoever with it. The swept blades look good on the ramp and the pull the aircraft through the air with no complaints. The DA40 is a great cross-country machine and is a true pleasure to fly.

Beautiful Diamonds

2008-02-21T21:07:00.004-05:00

I was surfing the Airliners.net website and came across these amazing photos of Diamond's finest aircraft - simply beautiful! This guy even got the strobe flash in the shot!
I also liked this photo of a DA-42 on landing - the blur in the background, the fading winter light...simply beautiful! (Hmmm...I guess I say that alot...)
Check out the photos yourself! Click here for my search (there's even more good ones out there!)

Why We Fight

2008-02-17T22:35:00.004-05:00

I recently saw a first-rate documentary about the rise of the military-industrial-congressional complex and America's imperialism. Why We Fight is an effective, well-done, non-partisan discussion of the question: Why do we fight? Why are we fighting in Iraq? Why are American men and women dying overseas? My favorite parts of the documentary were the clips of President Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961 warning the citizenry of the potential threat to America's future of the military-industrial complex - it sounded rather like Ron Paul! Every citizen should watch this documentary before voting this year. We need to stop the warmongering NeoCons that want nothing more than to expand wars and military conflicts at the price of our personal liberties, national economy, and most precious of all - the lives of our men and women in the armed forces. You don't believe me? Check it out - plans for a nuclear first-strike war with Iran have been on the drawing boards since 2005. Over $9 million has been donated in this election cycle by defense contractors. Watch this documentary today - thanks to the freedom of the internet, you can watch this video online at Google Video here.

Big Head Todd and The Monsters

2008-02-14T22:26:00.004-05:00

Last night, I went to a concert of one of my favorite bands, Big Head Todd and the Monsters. It was a great show - good music, and lots of it! They played for about 2-1/2hours, without a break. I had last seen them in 2002 at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, OH. It's a small, filthy little venue, which is really the perfect way to see a good show. $20 got you in the door, and I was about 3 rows back from the front - in the perfect position to see Todd Park Mohr's fingerwork on the guitar. I really like seeing shows in small venues like the Newport - it's so much more fun and intimate than a huge arena with assigned seats and a band that plays for the contractual 90 minutes and not one minute more. You can really feel the energy of the band and Big Head Todd definitely gives you your money's worth. Their live shows are legendary for being awesome!

On another note, this band is unique among the music world in that they gave away 500,000 copies of their latest album, All The Love You Need, for FREE! I find their attitude towards freedom in music and art...almost Austrian? Here's what the lead singer, Todd Park Mohr, said about their latest album:

“We see the record as our main marketing tool. It’s no longer a source of income--not that it ever has been for me, given the way major labels work.” The free distribution of the new CD continues the tradition BIG HEAD TODD AND THE MONSTERS started when they began giving away new songs, demos and live cuts on the www.bigheadtodd.com website three years ago.

“Art should be free,” MOHR said at the time. “I’ve always rejoiced at the crumbling of the old empire,” MOHR told the Denver Post. “Digital music diversified the music that is being created, and it also makes a level playing field for artists. Culture is a lot more interesting when there are a lot of little things going on instead of a couple big things happening, and that’s why this is the Wild West—it’s so fun to be listening to music right now.”

Art should be free! I love it! These guys get it - the more people that listen to their music, the more popular they become. Did Monet paint beautiful paintings because he knew that he would make it big, sell millions of lithographs? Did Beethoven write symphonies to be on the top 10 classical charts for hundreds of years? No. They had talent, created art because of their love for it, and because it was good....it was embraced and loved and replicated and styles were copied and people immortalized the art. Bach didn't need a recording executive to make him a hit for the ages. Why should Big Head Todd? More power to you guys!

A Very Blustery Day!

2008-02-11T18:06:00.000-05:00

I know what Winnie-The-Pooh would say if he was looking at the METARs and winds aloft today...25KTs gusting to 38! It was a little much for me today, but it would've been fun to get out, climb to 9000FT and register a 200KT+ ground speed on the DA40.

"Oh the wind is lashing lustily,
And the trees are thrashing thrustily,
And the leaves are rustling gustily,
So it's rather safe to say,
That it seems that it may turn out to be,

It feels that it will undoubtedly,

It looks like a rather blustery day, today,
It sounds that it may turn out to be,
Feels that it will undoubtedly,
Looks like a rather blustery day today!"

National WWII (D-Day) Museum

2008-02-09T20:41:00.000-05:00

While in New Orleans, I had to take a quick trip to the National WWII (D-Day) Museum. I'm a big WWII buff, especially the European theater, from all sides of the conflict - English, French, US, German, Russian, Italian - it's a very interesting period of world history. This museum was interesting in that it told the story of WWII fairly well through photographs, battlemaps, audio, video, and had a number of artifacts. Originally built as the D-Day museum, it was founded by Stephen Ambrose, who wrote such books as Citizen Soldier, D-Day, and Band of Brothers. It's also based in New Orleans, LA because the landing craft (Higgins Boats) that carried so many thousand brave soldiers to storm the Normandy beaches on D-Day were built by the Higgins company of New Orleans. There were a lot of artifacts about the Higgins boats, but it was a good general overview of the conflict. While we were there, the staff kept buzzing about a $300 million expansion that was being built across the street. Since the original museum was built merely as a D-Day Museum, it didn't have enough room to adequately cover North African, European, Pacific theaters of operation. It was definitely worth a visit, and will be really worth a visit when the expansion is complete.

A Higgins Boat, or LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel)

Check out the U-G-L-Y welds on the armour plating on this Sherman Tank!

Seven Steps to be a good citizen and control inflation. I wonder if we'll see posters like this again?

Nothing like a little devalued currency - Steel Pennies were minted during the war.

Plans for a Higgins Boat - build your own!

Personal Message from the British Commander, Bernard Law Montgomery on the eve of D-Day

Liberty University Speech

2008-02-08T23:10:00.000-05:00

Excellent speech by Ron Paul at Liberty University. Despite what McCain tries to say about conservativism, and what Huckabee says about Christianity...Dr. Paul is the real deal. The best thing about his campaign is that it's not about him. He doesn't have an ego - it's about America, the Consitution, and Freedom for each and every american citizen (including those who are not yet born)!
(links to part 2, part 3, part 4)

MTV gives Ron Paul a fair shake?

2008-02-02T22:27:00.000-05:00

I watched the Republican debates on CNN last week, and frankly was disgusted with the inordinant amount of time CNN allotted to hearing Romney and McCain bicker over who said what and when. CNN cut Ron Paul off repeatedly, didn't ask but 1 or 2 questions, and even though Huckabee whined about not getting enough questions, the good Doctor didn't whine at all. Isn't it ironic that MTV gives Ron Paul a fair chance to answer questions? Thank you MTV. Maybe I'll watch Road Rules or something like that now... (More videos here, and here)

Cross-Country to New Orleans (KNEW)

2008-02-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

Last week, I went to an industry tradeshow in New Orleans, and part of the hard work was flying down in the DA40 (the stresses of the job, let me tell you). Monday morning, we had a really beautiful trip ahead of us. A front had just gone through, and it was clear skies and unlimited ceilings all the way from Ohio to Louisiana. Here's a picture of N470DS, sitting on the ramp, waiting to stretch its wings. I was supposed to meet Dad at the airport at 7AM to leave, and I was about 5 minutes late. I sat around for a while, and no Dad. So, I gave him a call, and he was running a little behind schedule. Dad had been in a hurry to leave, because he wanted to make it down to New Orleans in enough time to play 18 holes before nightfall. However, we'd have to book it to make it down. Monday morning was quite cold - 10°F! I was glad that I had warm gloves as I pulled the aircraft out of the hangar. After Dad showed up, we loaded the plane, pulled the nose plugs, and headed south. The air was really cold, as you can see from the photo I took of the Muskingum River valley over Coshocton. The AEP Conesville Powerplant was churning out the water vapor, giving a really unique misty look to the valley from the air.

Looking south down the Muskingum River towards the AEP Conesville Powerplant

However cold the air was at the surface, it began warming up very quickly as we gained altitude. While the air at the surface was about -12°C (10°F), about 4500ft up, we had gained temperature to about 3°C (39°F). It started to get so warm that we had to turn the cabin heater down!

A very frozen and four-wheelered Dillion Reservoir, north of Zanesville, OH

The separation of the colder moist air layer close to the ground and the warmer air layer above it, really gave a very dramatic inversion layer. Here's a couple of photographs of the airlayers. Please forgive the dirt on the lens - the camera needs a dusting.

Plumes from two powerplants on the Muskingum River, south of Zanesville, OH

Looking east up the Ohio River Valley, just over Portsmouth, OH

The very chilly town of Portsmouth, OH - sunlight on frosted hills in the morning - Beautiful!

The further south we went, over Kentucky, the air continued to warm up and some familiar landmarks came into view. Here's a series of photos of the Red River Gorge and Cave Run Lake area in East-Central Kentucky - I've spent a lot of time in that area, but I think that this is one area more beautiful from the ground than the air. Correction - everything's more beautiful from the air....maybe just a little more recognizable:).

Over Cave Run Lake, Kentucky at about 8500ft MSL

A typical sandstone bluff in the Red River Gorge - I think that I've camped on this bluff, but it's hard to tell from the air

Well, I tried to find Natural Bridge, Kentucky, but it's fairly hard to see from the air. You see that thin strip of sandstone in the center of the picture below? That's it. You really have to know where to look - it's not an overpowering natural wonder from the sky:). From the ground, however, it's a sight to behold.

Natural Bridge, Kentucky from 7500ft MSL

After wasting a little time circling over Daniel Boone National forest in Kentucky, we turned south and kept flying. Our route down was very similar to the route that I took when I flew to Bay Minette, AL along the gulf coast. That was the last flight of N7016G, but this time I was flying in the DA40, with a G1000 and longer legs. Since we had more fuel on board, we bypassed Rockwood, TN for Fort Payne, AL, just south of Chattanooga. We determined that Isbell Field (4A9) was just about the half-way point between Coshocton and New Orleans at 395NM enroute. The turn was very quick, the service was friendly, and the locals were talking about someone driving through their chicken barns. It's hilarious how you can walk into any small airport and it's like you've found the same set of old codgers, sitting around talking about the weather.

Looking south over the Appalachians, towards Knoxville, TN and the Smoky Mountains from 8500ft MSL

The winding Chattanooga River, cutting through the plateau right outside Chattanooga, TN. Beautiful!

Here's a nice little house with a Million-dollar view of the river valley!

A quick turn and refuel at Valley Aviation in Fort Payne, IN

After refueling, we headed south to Birmingham, AL, then south-west over Mississippi towards New Orleans. We called Birmingham approach and stayed away from the traffic, and about 40 miles south, we got handed off to...nothing. Apparently, there's no low-level ARTCC in this part of the country. After flying over endless swamps, hills, rivers, and few towns any bigger than Warsaw, OH, I can see why. Central Mississippi is almost a desert...with trees and the occasional river. One thing that has become abundantly clear to me during my air travels is that there is no shortage of open spaces and land in this country. While large metropolitain areas become more and more crowded, there is more than enough elbow room for billions of people in this vast land.

A river barge, loaded with grain, slowly chugging its way south through Mississippi

Central Mississippi

It's always dramatic as you approach the ocean. You see the coastline appear, first as a false horizon about 80-100miles out, then it becomes more and more apparent that you're looking at the coast, not the horizon. I knew from the maps that Lake Pontchartrain is huge, but you can't really get a good sense of how huge, until you see it from the air.

Looking south at the Gulf Coast near New Orleans and Biloxi, MS

The truly vast, truly shallow Lake Pontchartrain

North Coast of Lake Pontchartrain

Houses ready for the flooding along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain

As we were over the middle of Lake Pontchartrain, Dad suddenly realized that we were missing LIFE JACKETS! Don't tell the plane that we're over water, I told him, and it'll never know. Besides, how else would you want to approach Lakefront airport? Over the flooded, bombed-out houses? Yeah, give me some dirty salt water anytime. We descended into Lakefront Airport, with a nice little 8KT cross-wind, landed, rolled out and parked the plane. It had been 745NM from Coshocton, and took about 6.4hrs on the Hobbs meter. Not too shabby for a day of flying! Now, next on the agenda was golf!

AHH!!! Water, Water, everywhere on the MFD!!!!

Lakefront Airport (KNEW) from about 8 miles out over Lake Pontchartrain

Short Final for 18R at Lakefront Airport (KNEW)

$400,000 Mortgage, anyone?

2008-01-26T22:52:00.000-05:00

The head of the Government Accounting Office (GAO) describes how the future obligations of our country will cost about $400,000 per household. Oh, and you don't get a beach-front vacation home for the cash. Just a failed war in Iraq, a bunch of people on welfare, Social Security, and a host of other programs that we really don't need. Vote Ron Paul 2008!

Freedom to Fascism on MSNBC?

2008-01-24T00:20:00.000-05:00

It's actually a fair interview by MSNBC. If you haven't already - watch Aaron Russo's "Freedom to Fascism" Then, click here and give Ron Paul $50 before it becomes worth $42. Go Ron Paul 2008!

Good as Gold

2008-01-22T08:30:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that a UK newspaper allowed this article about the fallacies of fiat currency to be printed! It sounds...almost Austrian! (dare I say) Perhaps I have underestimated our english-speaking brothers. We need more "hands across the sea, and all that, what-what?"

Central Planning, anyone?

2008-01-20T22:31:00.000-05:00

Good article on the fallacies of central planning by Jim Fedako. I live in a rural area where a new ethanol plant has just started grinding corn to make ethanol for fuel. I've heard of the oil for food program, but food into oil? Good thing that we can't figure all this stuff out on our own. I'm so glad that the government is here to help us make sense of our lives. What would I do with all that freedom? I'm sure that I would waste my life doing something unproductive like flying....

Crosswind Landing Practice

2008-01-20T14:29:00.000-05:00

It had been exactly 1 month since my last trip in N470DS, and I was feeling the winter blues. Work had been piling up, and the clouds had been scudding their way across Ohio. Friday morning dawned bright with the promise of clear skies and brisk winds. A perfect day to brush up on the landing skills and work on some tricky cross-wind landing skills. Did I mention that it was windy? At 7500MSL, I picked up a 40KT tailwind, just so that I could get feeling of speed. Not a personal speed record, but still up there. I need to see if I can acheive membership in that exclusive DA40 200KT club...of course, that will require 60KT tailwinds. Fastest winds I've ever flown in have been 50KTs. So, when I see 60KTs, I'll try to see if I can head up in the air....then maybe I can also register a groundspeed of 0KTs as well as that 200KT speed record. Well, my purpose for flying was not to set any speed records, but to practice my landing skills. Since my flying has become infrequent of late, I knew that I really needed to get out and do some serious practice, especially if I wanted to carry passengers this winter. Winter flying has its own share of hazards without me failing to execute safe landings.

Conditions were perfect for a challenging crosswind landing practice session. I contemplated flying west to get into more clear air, but I decided that the gustier conditions in Eastern Ohio, near the Ohio River would give me a better educational experience. Plus, there's lots of hills to create ground turbulence. I've landed in flat land with signficant cross-winds before, and it's just a question of the proper rudder-elevator cross-control slip down to the runway. It's a totally different situation, when you're bouncing in gusty ground turbulence. It's a lot more fun, for starters.

First stop was at Carroll County (KTSO), Ohio, but unfortunately, the wind was straight down the runway. No challenge whatsoever. Just keep the groundspeed up, and angle of descent right, and you can land in 500ft. So, I flew over to Steubenville (Jefferson County 2G2), OH for a more challenging 60degree cross-wind landing practice. There's no AWOS at Jefferson County, so I didn't know what my landing conditions were, but the GPS told me 14kts at 60degrees right before touchdown. The approach was challenging, because this airport is on a bluff and has a lot of ground turbulence right at the touchdown end of runway 32. It seemed to be a fairly nice airport, and I waved at a few guys working on the erection of a new terminal building. I'll have to stop over next summer when it's completed. 5 landings later, I was done with Steubenville, and thought that I would head south to Wheeling (KHLG), because then I would get to talk to someone. I flew over to the Ohio River, and circled the very cool asymmetrical "Veterans" Weirton-Steubenville cable-stayed bridge. It's really a striking piece of engineering and architecture, especially when viewed from the air.
Further on down the river, over Mingo Junction, OH, I flew over a super-cool steel mill, run by the Wheeling-Pittburgh Steel Company. It basically took up the entire river bank, and was a massive operation, albeit not as big as the USX Steel mill in Gary, IN. Apparently, there is a lot of hot-rolled coiled steel in thicknesses up to 3/8" produced here. I'd like to get a tour.
I continued down the Ohio River and headed into Wheeling Class D airspace. Funny how your radio skills get rusty when you don't practice radio communications. I asked the tower controller if he minded me doing a bunch of touch-n-goes - "Nope. There is absolutely nothing happening today", he responded. Wheeling had 14kt winds at 70 degrees from the runway heading, gusting to 18kts - it was fun. Not my personal maximums, but healthy enough for some serious crosswind practice. Like all airports along the Ohio River, Wheeling is on a high bluff over the Ohio River, and it was bouncy and turbulent all the way down to the threshold. I punched out 6 landings on the 100ft wide runway, and had a great time, but it was soon getting to be time to head back. Back in Coshocton, I practiced another couple of landings at the home airfield, and then put 470DS back in the barn with a full tank of 100LL. It was a beautiful day for flying. Now, just to get my night currency again!

Decisions, Decisions

2008-01-05T23:32:00.000-05:00

Here's a question for you: Given the choice....which one would you pick?

Don't worry - this isn't some Florida Presidential Ballot....just an honest question. I have to say....I'm leaning toward the one on the right. What's that they say? "You can sleep in a plane, but you can't fly a house" It's truly a blessing that I don't have to decide. Both are part of my life. Yup. That's right, Beth & I are building a new house - it's pretty exciting to see it come together. I have to say, however, that after tasting the sweetness of cruising at 145KTAS and 9500ft, I'd give it all up to have my own DA40XLS. Hey, lots of people live in trailers!

Ron Paul on Bill Moyers

2008-01-05T23:23:00.000-05:00

Click HERE to watch Bill Moyer's interview of Ron Paul. Simple to understand, huh? Why don't more people get it?

Go Ron Paul 2008!

Google Ron Paul for President!

2007-12-20T23:55:00.000-05:00

He's the Six Million Dollar Man...more money in one day than any other presidental candidate in history. More than Obama, more than Hillary, more than Kerry, more than Dean...and all planned and executed solely by his bi-partisan supporters. That's right. No central plan from Ron Paul to raise money - just spontaneous, overwhelming support from average Americans that want their country back. Do yourself (and your country) a favor. Google Ron Paul, read for yourself about his message of freedom and prosperity for America, watch how he consistently speaks the truth on YouTube, see him make the Fed Chairman squirm, and join the rEVOLution!

Even Bill Maher likes him!

Winter Flying over the Appalachians

2007-12-19T19:59:00.000-05:00

It had been almost two months since I had last been flying. Things have been busy at work, and at home, and the weather has settled into that low Great Lakes scud that blows across Ohio for most of the winter. Yesterday was a welcome change - low humidity, high pressure and great visibility from Lake Erie to Florida. It was a perfect opportunity to fly south for some long-overdue business. I was also excited about the beautiful weather for another reason - Christmas came a little early for Dan this year! That's right, I am the proud owner of a slightly-used Nikon D70 digital SLR with an 18-70mm zoom lens, purchased for $418 on eBay. Now, I can finally take the pictures that I have been longing to take!

Tuesday morning came cold and clear. It was only 19°F on my drive to the airport, and even though the plane had been hangared and the Tanis heater was plugged in, the oil temperature was only 53°F before engine start. The KAP140 autopilot was just not going to cooperate, and didn't want to power-up until we had been running the cabin heater in flight for about 1hr. It finally came on over Charleston, WV. After take-off, we got VERY healthy climb rates of 1500ft/min....that's what nice cold, dense air will do for you! The winds were light at 6500ft - about a 20kt cross-wind from the west, and we made it to our destination in the usual time - about 2.7hrs from Coshocton, OH to Rock Hill, SC.

The visibility was truly breathtaking - probably the most clear air that I have seen over the Appalachian mountains. I always love watching the morning mists clear over the hills and the mountains. I got Dad to fly the leg down so that I could take lots of pictures. There was something very magical about flying over this barren winter wasteland.

Smoke and mist from a powerplant down on the Muskingum River

Look closely! There are ice floes on the Muskingum River!

Jackson County, WV (I18) - Watch out for the smokestack while on left downwind for 4!

Simply Beautiful! Mist rising off the Kanawah River south of Charleston, looking east.

Frosty treetops on a typical West Virginia river bend. I love this zoom lens!

One of the things that I've really been frustrated with when taking photos with my Sony point-n-shoot is the field of view. The DA40 has such an open canopy, and you really feel like you're sitting out in the open, on a bench 8000ft up in the sky when you're flying, and you just can't communicate that with a narrow lens. Hopefully the next few photos will give you a feeling of what the view is like from the DA40 cockpit!

Mountain ridges along the Virgina border - I calculated that we were seeing peaks about 75-80NM away!

Delicate cirrus brushstrokes across a deep blue sky - amazing!

Here we are turning left final for runway 2 at Rock Hill. You can see the nuke power plant on Lake Wylie, and just check out that wrap-around view. This is what I love about flying patterns in the DA40 - the runway is always in sight through the turns. Rock Hill was pleasant as usual, but not much warmer than Ohio. Weather was about 40-45°F during the day. After our meetings, we packed up the airplane and headed off into the sunset - it was a beautiful finish to a beautiful day.

HID Lights for the DA40 (FAA 337)

2007-12-19T18:43:00.000-05:00

In a previous post, I lambasted the weak pathetic lights installed on the DA40. These weak 35watt halogen candlelights just didn't cut it when it came to illuminating anything on the runway that you might want to see and avoid. This month, just in time for Christmas, a solution to this problem has appeared. XeVision offers a 50watt HID landing light that registers in at 8300lumens, which is about 10-15 times brighter than the stock halogen lights (500-800lumens). This landing light is model number XV19-W, and is designed as a direct replacement for the factory-spec'd Wheelen lights installed in the leading edge of the DA40 wing. Of course, if you buy a new DA40XLS, it comes with the lights. However, when we contacted Diamond support to see if we could get a service bulletin for the install, they did not provide much assistance (even though it's a drop-in replacement). So, until Diamond gets off their collective butt and gives some support for this much needed upgrade, the other option is to file a 337 form with the FAA that gives approval for a major repair or alteration (FAA form 337 discussion linked to here).

Apparently, all it took was someone to invest in the lighting upgrade and some brave FAA office to sign off on the 337 form. The maintenance shop that completed the upgrade was Advanced Aircraft Services in Lancaster, PA. An excerpt from the Diamond Aviators Association forums is as follows:

"My name is Jim Mazzante and I am a managing partner with Advanced Aircraft Services in Lancaster, PA (KLNS). We are an Authorized Diamond Service Center and have been working on Diamond Aircraft for about 5 years. Some of you may have know me and my Technicians when we worked at Airways. We are currently in the process of installing the HID lights from XeVision and should have them completely installed Thursday or Friday. I will try to post some pictures of the final install and a copy of the 337 once I get it approved from my FSDO. If any of you would like to have the install done, please feel free to contact me. Our direct line is 717-735-5179 or by email: Service@AdvancedAircraftServices.com."

Here's also the FAA Form 337 that Advanced Aircraft Services filed with the FAA and got approved. It's a public document, so any DA40 pilots may wish to use it with your local FAA offices. We've sent this to our trusty mechanics up at Winner Aviation in Youngstown, and are waiting for a quote on the HID light install......with those short Ohio winter nights, we are really looking forward to being able to see down the runway at night!

Chinese Refueling Drill

2007-12-07T00:51:00.000-05:00

If the Chinese build a Cessna Skycatcher with the same care and precision that they refuel a piston aircraft, I'm not so sure I want to take a ride. Hey, Ping Tsao....watch out, or you might get a mouthful of 100LL! Makes me REALLY appreciate the service that we get up at Coshocton Richard Downing for free. Here's the link to where I found this: James Fallows

Bob Hoover

2007-11-13T01:03:00.000-05:00

If you want to hear a great podcast about Bob Hoover, check it out here. Joe D'eon does his usually great job in telling the story of a true gentleman and living legend. You can read more about Mr. Hoover's amazing (and honestly true) experiences by picking up his book Forever Flying. It's a great read.

12 days

2007-10-10T21:48:00.001-04:00

It's been 12 days since I've slipped the surly bonds. Too long, too long, but the forecast this weekend is really good....hopefully, I'll get some flying! In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful memory of a dewy Oshkosh morning in the North 40. I can almost smell the port-a-potties....

Gathering of Mustangs & Legends

2007-09-30T20:40:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, I went to a really good airshow at Lockbourne AFB....er...I mean, Rickenbacker (KLCK) in Columbus, OH. It was the fabled Gathering of Mustangs and Legends, and it lived up to a good portion of the hype. There were about 80 or 90 P-51 Mustangs in attendance, and it was a really cool to have so many P-51s in the air, and on the ground in static display. There were a host of other top-notch airshow acts, Patty Wagstaff, Michael Goulian, John Mohr in his stearman, The Aeroshell team, and the Red Baron Squadron. It was a beautiful, clear, and nearly calm day on Saturday. We toured 1/4 mile of P-51's on static display. So many beautiful machines, polished to a spit-shine, obviously displayed with intense pride by their owners. I enjoyed the look into the ammo cans on Cripes A'mighty, just one of the gleaming P-51's.

50 cal Machine guns w/ Ammo, ready for the crew chief to re-load

The Canopy of Glacier Girl, packed underneath the Rickenbacker Tower.

Ina the Macon Belle, a Red-Tail P-51, flown by the Tuskeegee Airmen

Hmmm...was a Garmin 430/530 GPS Combo standard GI issue for a P-51?

Look at the lineup of Mustangs on static display!

The Horsemen....a precision P-51 Aerobatic team....not that anyone does snap rolls in a P-51,
but super-awesome to hear these babies screaming their way through some high-speed loops!

Beside the P-51's and assorted warbirds, there were a couple of good jet acts. There was a F-16 demo, an F-15 demo, and the F-22 full demonstration, all of which were followed by a P-51 accompanied Heritage flight. The Thunderbirds also showed up - really precision flying! I especially enjoyed seeing the full F-22 demonstration, complete with some flat spins, hairpin loops and sharp attitude changes, all courtesy of the thrust vectoring. I just kept thinking that it was a little too big and heavy to be really nimble. What would the F-22 be like if it was the size of an F-16, but had thrust vectoring? It was still cool to see.....and really cool that my budget telephoto lens (8x50 binoculars stuck to the lens of my digital point-n-shoot) worked well enough to get a nice photo of the action.

F-15 Strike Eagle Heritage Flight - Light 'em up!

Max Moga does a better job of staying in formation with 3 P-51's than he did at Oshkosh

A B-17 Flying Fortress catches the late afternoon sun.

An Avro Lancaster Bomber - 4 V-12's...this aircraft sounds SO COOL!

It wasn't 51 P-51's, but an overflight of 25 P-51's really was a sight to see.

Last flight in N7106G

2007-09-28T19:20:00.000-04:00

Well, it finally sold. N7106G has a new home in Bay Minette, AL (1R8) training wet-behind-the-ears Navy Cadets. Today, I left in the early morning (around 6:30AM), on a long trek in the trusty Cessna 172 from Coshocton, OH all the way down to the Alabama gulf coast. My flight plan was 650NM, but it was shaping up to be a beautiful morning. We were two days into the waning full moon, so there was plenty of light at night, but a large cold front came through on Thursday evening, leaving a wake of low-lying fog scattered in the hollers and valleys of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Things were good in Coshocton early on Friday, but because of all the thick fog, I decided to leave a little later, so that some of the fog would burn off in the rare event that I would need to set the Cessna down in some redneck's whisky still in Kentucky. You can see the mist that gathers and collects in the lower valleys. I took this photo near Hazard, Kentucky. It was really beautiful, and my camera really doesn't do it justice. The way the mist was rising and moving slowly made me think of those verses in Genesis where it talks about the spirit of God moving upon the face of the deep. Well, Hazard, KY isn't the face of the deep.....but it's definitely backwoods. My first gas stop was in Rockwood, TN (KRKW) about 60NM north of Chattanooga, and about 20NM west of Oak Ridge. I considered flying over Oak Ridge, just to get a photo, but I really needed to be down in Bay Minette. I really love flying over the Applachians early in the morning on a clear day. It really hard to describe the awesome beauty of these lush mountains as they emerge from the mist. You'll just have to ponder the pictures....

Looking East at the Kentucky/Tennessee border

Instrument Approach, anyone?

Looking South towards Knoxville, on the descent into Rockwood (KRKW)

Entering the pattern for Runway 4 at Rockwood, TN (KRKW)

It was a pretty quick turn at Rockwood. Just 21gals of gas after flying for 2hrs 45min....only about 8gal/hr! It sure pays to lean it out! The 172 performed beautifully.....very strong with the new pistons and the powerflow exhaust. Gaining an extra thousand feet of altitude was...dare I say...almost as effortless as the Diamond? Well, it is about 600-700lbs lighter with one person and half-tanks at this point in the flight. After refueling, I took a look at the winds aloft, and was seeing about 30kts-35kts at 3000-4000ft headed due south. Well, as soon as I took off, I grabbed ahold of that wave, and surfed it down out of the mountains over Chattanooga, where I was seeing ground speeds as high as 145KTs - in a 172! The winds petered out around Talladega, where my flight plan took me coincidentally right over the famed speedway! I wonder if you can fly in there while a race if going on......

Gentlemen, Start your engines! I've got a 130KT head start on those NASCAR boys at Talladega.

Alabama clouds from 8500ft

While I was whizzing over Chattanooga, TN, I was really astounded at the number of Nuke power plants that were along the Chattanooga river. There were at least three that I counted within a 40-50NM area. I managed to get vectored over one by Chattanooga approach - enjoy the view, Kendall! I guess where you have free cooling water, why not?

It was a pleasant 5.5hrs flight down to Bay Minette......now for the frustrating portion. I left Bay Minette, AL via Cessna 172 at about 3PM EDT. It's now 8PM EDT, and I've just been told that my last leg from Charlotte to Columbus is delayed. It will likely be 7-8hrs to fly back commerical. Did I mention that I love flying myself? Plus, you get to talk to controllers. Plus, you get cool "secret" codes to squawk....I love being a pilot.

Cessna + Columbia

2007-09-25T08:15:00.000-04:00

Read about the acquisition here. I wonder if Shawn Tucker will do aerobatic demonstrations in a Cessna 182 now.....I asked a couple of people about this at Oshkosh this year, and it was all "No, there are no plans....that's crazy...Columbia will always be a stand-alone company" Well, not so crazy, I guess. Here's the press release. Hopefully now, the Columbia 400 will be given the backing that it needs to beat the pants off Cirrus!