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

Orcas Fly-In 2011

We've missed the last few Orcas fly-in's either due to weather or the timing didn't work out. That wasn't the case this year, so we loaded up the airplane with camping gear and took off for Eastsound. We packed lite as we didn't need to bring meals since the EAA hosts a potluck dinner and the Eastsound fire department puts on a pancake breakfast each morning. The plan was to fly up late Friday afternoon and return to KRNT before noon on Saturday due to the TFR(s) in place for the Blue Angels and Sea Fair aerial activities.



On top enroute to KORS

Camp '907'

Mt. Baker

Dinner at Friday Harbor

We've flown to Friday Harbor for dinner numerous times over the years and I never get tired of this destination. This evening was a comfortable 70 degrees and very little wind, so sitting out on the deck over looking the ferry dock was quite enjoyable. I've started taking my pocket camera along and this time I thought I'd document the variety of places to eat on the Island.

Lots of Flying

The past 30 days have been keeping my writing hand occupied with making logbook entries. I have a new private student and a new instrument student that have been keeping me busy for several days during the week and weekends. Plus I've had to reacquaint myself with the C172S and the C172S with the G1000. Seems that timing is everything and when my then potential new student asked about training with me, I was interested in the opportunity but still needed to find an airplane to train in. I was fortunate to find a local flight school that allowed me to come on board as a part time instructor. Interestingly, a few recent flights have been in and around rain showers and I've seen numerous rainbows and during a solo flight in the G1000 I swore that I flew right through a rainbow since the colors seemed to pass right through the cockpit. Not sure if the rainbow is an allegoric or metaphoric symbol, but sure is nice to have the opportunity to pass on some flying knowledge and bring another pilot or two into the dwindling pilot population.

On another topic, I'm really liking the ForeFlight app for the iPad. With version 4, they've added digital A/FD pages and improved performance. All I need now is a decent knee board for the tablet to make it more accessible in the cockpit.

Engine Break In Complete

This week we hit the 15 hour mark since the engine overhaul and after the oil change and compression check, the shop gave us the OK to resume normal operations. Also during the month of April, the area received many inches of rain and as usual the rivers in the lower valleys flood. Captured this photo during one of the break-in flights.

25 Laps

Today was the long awaited first break-in flight of the newly overhauled O-470. We had attempted to get a flight in yesterday, but during the run-up there was an issue with the prop control so we had to taxi back and call it a day. With the prop control fixed we taxied out and made a request to the tower to circle over the airport at 1500'. The tower approved the request, and we climbed to 1500' and entered the pattern. The break-in instructions say to fly at 75% power for one hour, so once at altitude, the power was set at 23"/2450 and we went around an around and around, overall 25 laps.

At the end of the first hour, we landed and returned to the shop for another inspection to make sure that things were ok with the engine and to verify that there were no leaks. After getting the ok, we departed again for another hour in the air and after the hour stopped at KBVS to get something to eat. After lunch, repeated the same thing and put another hour on the engine before returning to KRNT.

Next up will be an oil change/inspection and then we'll be good to go for another 12 hours until the next oil change.

Back in the Air Soon

The freshly overhauled engine was delivered last week and the mechanics started the installation. We're hoping to make the first break-in flight by the end of the week. We opted for factory TCM cylinders this time around since we had three ECI cylinders fail within a 200 hour interval. Two had the cross-hatching wear down resulting in loss of compression and another experienced a broken valve guide. At the time, we also went ahead and replaced the remaining good four cylinders (when the first two failed), so who knows if they would have eventually succumbed to failure. (Previous post on the engine).

The engine shop did their best to help us with some of the costs, but in the end it was ECI that didn't stand behind their product and in my opinion manufactured three faulty cylinders. That's a 50% defect rate.

So moving forward with the cylinder problems behind us, we should have another 1500 hours or so of smooth and relatively maintenance free flying.

iPad in the Cockpit

I bought an iPad back in October have been evaluating various flying apps and electronic charts. So far, I like ForeFlight and JeppTC. Since I already subscribe to Jepp View the chart downloads are free and Foreflight costs $75/year for its download service. I've taken the iPad along in the cockpit for the last few flights and tried using it for instrument approaches in the Frasca. So far the device is useful and provides added benefit as a pilot, but I still haven't found a descent way to mount or keep the tablet accessible in the cockpit. I've see some yoke and dash mounts and a few iPad knee boards, but so far the knee board from http://mygoflight.com/ looks promising. I'm currently using a Speck case which works as a lapboard when opened up. Also, with IOS 4.3, the switch on the side of the iPad can now be configured to lock the screen. A few times with IOS 4.2, if I moved my leg, the Jepp charts would rotate and not be easily readable.

Here's the Foreflight and Jepp displays: