A Man and His Airplane

As I noted in my previous post, I went flying this past Saturday. What I neglected to include is that it was the hottest temperature that I've ever flown in. It was already 90 degrees Fahrenheit when I got to the airport. That's 32 Celsius for my metric-inclined readers. I actually opened the POH and checked the performance numbers before I started my preflight inspection. I was already pretty confident that Ariel could do it with no problems, but I wanted to make extra sure. The book said it was okay, though the takeoff roll would be a hundred or so feet longer than in past flights, but Harvey Field has a long enough runway. In addition, I knew that I'd be about 350 lbs. below maximum weight, and the chart assumes you're at the max. When I did take off, the plane performed just fine, and I had no problems clearing obstacles and making the noise-abatement turn that is requested when taking off from runway 33. In fact, the plane seemed to perform more or less normally, a...

On July 6, my plane goes into the shop for its annual inspection. Because the annual inspection that was performed last year occurred in June, it's legal to fly it until the end of June this year without another one. Because the shop at Harvey Field is as busy as it is, they couldn't get me in until July 6. This means that, next year, I can fly it without an annual until the end of July. I'd like to work the schedule for the annual inspection around the calendar so that, at some point, it's done in fall or winter, but that would take several years at least and is still subject to their available capacity. Because this is the last weekend in June, I went flying today. During the flight, my airplane developed another apparent fault. This one appears to be with the intercom, or something related to it. So that's another item to add to the list of things to look at and, hopefully, take care of when it's in the shop. As I started rolling down the runway, which at Har...

My father obtained his private pilot license about two years before I was born. At the time, he was living near Reno, and working at Reno Airport as an air traffic controller. A few years after I was born, we moved to southern California. When he sold our house, my father accepted a 1947 Taylorcraft as partial payment. I distinctly remember seeing that airplane at that house. I think it was after we had moved, and we were visiting. Because the house was outside Reno proper, and in a sparsely populated area, you could land and take off using the road. Over the years he had it, he kept at a few different airports. I remember one small airport he had it at for a time, Lake Wohlford Resort Airport (8CL1) not far from Escondido. Located on the top of a hill, and with a runway only 1345 feet in length, you had to know what you were doing to land there, and it was best if you had a small, slow airplane like Dad's Taylorcraft, or the Cessna 140 that a friend of his owned. My father took me...

So far, all of my flights have been for the sake of flying itself. Although I have flown to and landed at other airports, I haven't stayed there. I've always taken off again right away. I haven't stopped for the stereotypical "hundred dollar hamburger" or any other reason. My goal has been to build experience at flying cross country, and getting used to operating at unfamiliar airports. Today was supposed to be a fly-in at the airport in Hood River, OR for members of the Beech Aero Club. However, the weather is marginal and it has been postponed a week. A couple days ago, the forecast for that day was for reasonably nice weather. However, predicting the weather that far out in this region is far more an art than a science. Today, the forecast for next Saturday is not nearly as good. As that day approaches, of course, the forecast will improve in accuracy. Here's hoping that it turns out nice enough to go. While I've very much enjoyed my flights so far, I u...

This past Monday, which was Memorial Day here in the United States, I did something I've been wanting to do for some time. I flew over the Cascade mountains. My destination was Bowers Field in Ellensburg, WA. My goal was to accomplish the following: Verify that I could, indeed, fly over the Cascades to eastern Washington. Get some experience at flying at higher altitudes. Get a feel for how my airplane performs at those altitudes. I used FlyQ to generate a VFR flight plan and filed it after a couple of course tweaks. I left the altitudes at the suggested values. I filed the flight plan before leaving for the airport, then activated it right before takeoff using the Leidos EasyActivate™ Service. For those unfamiliar with this process, Leidos is the company that manages many of the flight services functions for the FAA, including filing, activating, and closing flight plans. If you have your account set up correctly, they send you an email when you file a flight plan. It contains a l...