Pancakes at Desert Aire

Today I flew over to Mattawa, WA for pancakes at Desert Aire (M94). The local airport community hosts a pancake breakfast at the airport every Fathers Day weekend to raise money for airport improvements. The weather was typical  for a June day, with a low overcast around Puget Sound and sunny and clear East of the cascades. I filed IFR and climbed through the clouds to a glorious view of Mount Rainier sitting above the cloud deck.

Low and Slow

While visiting family in Florida, my mother-in-law arranged for a friend of hers to take me flying. We headed out to KZPH early this morning with the plan being to practice some formation flying with a couple of other pilots from my mother-in-law's friends flying club. The forecast called for morning fog, with clearing after 9:00 am. The clearing part of the forecast turned out to be about six hours off, so to kill some time, we headed to a local Cuban breakfast spot (Flaco's) for a bite to eat, where I had one of the best cafe con leche that I've ever had. After breakfast, the fog still hadn't cleared so one of the pilots had to leave and after another hour the other pilot for the formation practice also had to leave. It was nearing Noon and the ceilings were slowly lifting and by 1:00 pm the ceilings were beginning to exceed 1000'. For the Bellanca, 800' is a prime cruising altitude so we launched and headed West for a bit and then North up to a private grass strip for some landings. This was my first time at the controls of a tail-dragger and was able to log a few tenths and performed an assisted takeoff from FL43.

Watch Landing at FL43.

Washington to Florida Final Day

With 600 miles remaining, we departed KBWG and pointed the airplane South East towards the Florida coast. The weather was clear all the way and winds aloft were 32 knots so that meant a 170+ knot speed over the ground. Our flight path took us right through the middle of Atlanta Hartsfield so we may have had to deviate around, increasing our enroute time. But the contollers were accomodating, and we were able to fly right over the top of the country's busiest airport at 6000 feet. With Atlanta behind us, we headed for Jacksonville and then South down the coast past Daytona, Kennedy Space Center, and into Melbourne.    

Hartsfield Int'l



Washington to Florida Day 3

Today was a two leg day since we lost time waiting for the starter to be repaired in Missoula. The day started with a 5:30 am wake up call so that we could get breakfast and be ready for takeoff by 8:00 am. Since we had originally planned to stop in Kirksville, MO on Thursday night, we were able to still stop for lunch today between legs.
The flight to Kirksville took four hours and the highlights along the way were the opportunity to circle Mount Rushmore and view the Black Hills and Bad Lands from 9500 feet.

After lunch, we departed for Bowling Green Kentucky and landed just after sunset. In Bowling Green the FBO crew was very friendly and arranged a hotel when we landed and shuttled us to the hotel. Out of all the FBO's on the trip, CO-MAR at KBWG gets the best in service award. 

Washington to Florida Day 2

With status of the Commander up in the air, we got up leisurely, ate a big breakfast and walked the river front near downtown Missoula. About 10:00am we got the call from the mechanic at Minuteman that the starter could possibly be serviced, and if that didn't fix it, a new one would have to be over-nighted, which would mean that we'd spend another day in Missoula. Fortunately, a little after 11:00 am, the good news came in that all was good and the airplane was ready to fly again.

With the starter operational, we boarded the shuttle back to the airport, did some flight planning and departed KMSO for Gillette, WY. (KGCC). The route today was MSO->CPN->HIA->BZN->LVM->BIL->SHR->GCC. The flight was smooth all the way to Gillette. After landing in Gillette, the crew at Flightline set us up with a room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites for almost half off the internet rate.

Washington to Florida Day 1

With the plane loaded and the pre-flight complete, we picked up our IFR clearance and departed KRNT at 12:00. After a short climb Northbound we turned on course towards Ellensburg. It was a picture perfect Washington day with unlimited visibility and views of Mt. Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens. After passing Moses Lake it was time for the inflight beverage and snack service. Spokane was the next waypoint in the flight plan, but ATC gave us a vector East towards Mullan Pass to save a few minutes of flight time.

After a fuel stop in Missoula, we departed for Billings and climbing out of Missoula we noticed a small amount of fuel eminating from the right tank cap. This was probably excess fuel from the top- off that had been trapped between the tank opening and where the fuel cap sits. But as a precaution we returned to Missoula to check it out. We requested to stop on the taxiway and get out and check the fuel caps. With fuel caps secure we proceeded to start the engine and get under way. The key word here is start the engine and after a few turns of the key, nothing happened. So without a running engine to move, we radioed the FBO for a tug back to the ramp. 

Since the mechanics were already gone for the day, we had the FBO arrange a hotel and now we wait until tomorrow for the mechanics to troubleshoot. With any luck, the repair will be a simple one and we'll be on our way again.

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From The Right Seat

Even while teaching, I get to sometimes just assume a passenger role and look outside and enjoy the scenery and snap a few photos. Here's a collection of some random shots taken from "The Right Seat".

From The Right Seat