Skip to main content

Even the big boys have fun once in a while

I'm still waiting for my engine to be re-installed on my plane so, in the meantime, I rented a 172 this past Saturday to keep my hand in and make sure I didn't get too rusty. Because it had been long enough since I'd rented a plane from Snohomish Flying Service, I had to take an instructor with me. While the FAA has no problem with me hopping in a 172 and taking it up, SFS has their own currency requirements driven, I suspect, mostly by insurance requirements. Other than the added cost, though, I didn't mind as it gave me someone to talk to and share stories with as we were flying around.

While we were up there, something pretty cool happened. After we took off we headed southeast toward Snoqualmie Falls at about 3000 feet. We flew past the falls then turned around and headed back. This plane, N734LQ, is equipped with a Garmin GTN 650 GPS navigator with ADS-B In, so it can display nearby traffic. Ross, the instructor, noticed an interesting-looking plane heading in our general direction. It turned out to be a Boeing 737 MAX 10 and it was flying just above our altitude, a couple miles off to our left, heading the opposite direction. Neither of us had ever seen an airliner flying around that low unless it had just taken off or was about to land. It did a loop over the Snoqualmie area, then headed off to the north.

At the time, we assumed it was performing some sort of test flight. However, after I got home and posted about it to the Flights Above the Pacific Northwest group on Facebook, other group members responded with the answer. It was doing a fly-by over The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge where the 2022 Boeing Classic golf tournament was being held. If I'd known it was going to be doing that, I probably would have remained clear of the area. As it was, I don't think we interfered with their flight plan. At least I hope not.

Here's the track of their flight from FlightAware. You can see where they were flying a holding pattern before heading in for the fly-by.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Approaching the annual

I know I haven't been posting much, but that's mainly because nothing much of note has been happening. I've been flying, but not really going anywhere in particular. The engine continues to run very well, and the plane is still solid. I was hoping to do more "destination" flying this year but, for whatever reason(s), it didn't really happen. Next year, hopefully.... On the horizon, though, is the annual inspection. It's already scheduled for mid-December, since the last annual is good to the end of that month. I've also arranged for it to be an owner-assisted annual. I'm told that every airplane owner should do this at least once and I can certainly understand why that is the case, even before I do it. I will be learning about my airplane in a way that nothing else will match and, incidentally, save some money at the same time. I'm looking forward to it. Leading up to the annual, I have been compiling a list of squawks that I want to take care ...
Post a Comment
Read more

April showers....

I haven't been flying in a few weeks due to the weather. It has been a rather wet April and the alignment of rain showers with the weekend has been exquisite. I have nineteen hours on the engine so far. The plan is to run it to 25 hours, then do the first oil change. At that point we'll most likely switch to regular oil. I do have Camguard that I intend to use but my understanding is that, with a new or overhauled engine, you should run at least one oil change interval on regular oil without Camguard before starting to use it. If the weather is nice at some point during this next week, I may just take a half day off from work and go flying, then make up the time later.
Post a Comment
Read more

Precipitation

The weather was rather nice yesterday and I was able to get up in the air in the afternoon. The flight was pretty uneventful, essentially another jaunt up to the north and back. There were two things that were a bit different from the norm. First, on the way back to Harvey Field, I ran at full power. I've done full power runs before; it's a part of the break-in process for an overhauled engine. And I did another good long one yesterday. I was doing a bit better than 110 knots on the airspeed indicator, and that's with the built-in calibrator for true airspeed set for the temperature and altitude so it should be pretty close to what I was actually doing. Yep, still not a fast plane, but I still think the roomy cabin and large fuel capacity make up for that. Second, as I was flying back to Harvey, I decided not to straight back but rather to take a quick detour off to the east to prolong my full-power run. I turned east, then headed back north for a bit. I saw a couple of clo...
Post a Comment
Read more