Weekend In Portland

We didn't have any plans to fly this past weekend, but one of the 182 partners cancelled his trip so the airplane became available. On a whim we packed the overnight bags and launched for KHIO on Friday after work. We ended up staying a couple of nights and visited the Oregon Zoo and did some exploring in downtown portland. The flight back was mostly IMC in an out of the clouds at 6000'.

Another Trip to the Spruce Goose Cafe

Flew a friend up to 0S9 for breakfast this morning. The Seattle temperatures were forecast to be in the 90's so we wanted to get an early start before the temps got too hot. Turns out things weren't that cool in the morning with the OAT pegged at 85F at 9:30 am and temps aloft weren't much cooler. We were in trail of a Beaver Amphib in the pattern at 0S9 and on the ground I talked to the pilot and he had come from Seattle where his plane is docked outside his house on Lake Washington. The Spruce Goose Cafe was packed and we waited 20 minutes for a table, but completely worth the wait for a huge plate of breakfast food. We made a leisurely trip back with a flight over Snoqualmie Falls and Rattlesnake Lake.

The Joys of Airplane Ownership?

The airplane is finally back from the mechanic after waiting six weeks for a new starter drive assembly from TCM. We opted to buy a genuine factory part vs an overhauled part just for the peace of mind that we weren't buying someone else's broken part restored to 'factory' standards. If an overhauled alternator for your car fails its no big deal, but a failure with an overhauled airplane part might end up being a big deal. We've also purchased overhauled parts in the past and ended up buying new ones due to the eventual failure of the non-factory part. The negative aspect of buying factory parts is the cost. A factory part may cost 2-3 times more than an overhauled part. For a $100 part it's not that significant of a difference, but in the case of a starter drive assembly an overhauled version was $1000 and a new one $3300.

Luckily, having airplane partners helps bring the repair costs down but with each big repair bill my average hourly cost goes up. In the last couple of years, we've had to overhaul all of the cylinders of the O-470 (at 600 hours), replace the DG, overhaul the propellor hub, and replace the starter drive.

Its Been A While

I'm usually pretty good about blogging my flying adventures, but I just realized that I haven't writtten anything since April. It's not that I haven't flown in two months, it's just that I haven't flown myself or family/friends anywhere. Looking at my logbook, I've logged around 20 hours from the right seat as an instructor. So come to think of it, I have done a lot of flying in the last 60 days, including an IFR cross country, numerous instrument approaches, and a couple of flight reviews.

Another Airplane in the Logbook

Today I had the opportunity to give a flight review in a Commander 114. How I ended up flying in the Commander is an interesting story. We had just recently obtained a hangar for our 182 and pushing the plane into the hangar is a bit of a chore. I remembered that one of my friends who is a partner in a Commander had an electric tug sitting in their hangar. I inquired as to the status of the tug and the owners ended up giving me the tug. I think the functionality of the tug was intermitent and they just wanted to recover the hangar space. During that conversation, one of the partners of the Commander was up for a flight review and during our discussion I disclosed that I was a CFI. One thing led to another and a review was scheduled.

The interesting thing is that I had been a passenger in the right seat of this Commander a year or so prior before obtaining my CFI. Now, I was in the right seat again, but this time as a CFI and evaluating another pilot for a flight review. It's wierd how things in life come full circle. The review went well and I even got to fly from the right seat for bit and land the airplane.

Black Berry Milk Shake

Gone are the days of the $100 hamburger, so from this day forward I'm using the phrase "$100 milkshake". The last three or four flights that I've made involving a food stop of some sort have included the consumption of a milkshake. The most recent being the black berry shake at the Spruce Goose Cafe at 0S9.

Today we boarded the family airplane and headed up to the Jefferson County Airport for some lunch (and a milkshake). The place was crowded as usual but it was warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. While sitting there eating, I watched a blue and yellow Beaver taxi up and spin around into the parking spot next to our 182. The only problem was that the parking spots aren't big enough for a Beaver. But as it turned out the Beaver's wings are higher than the 182 so no problem, the wings just overlapped above the 182's. I've parked the 182 with some overlap on low winged airplanes before, but this was the first time that a bigger airplane over shadowed the 182!

Poker Run

Last weekend one of the local flying clubs hosted a hop/skip/jump and poker run. The objective was to get some short field experience and visit a few airports that aren't in the typical Puget Sound $100 hamburger rotation. After each landing every pilot got a playing card and at the end of the day the pilot with the best poker hand won a one hour rental in a C172. The route for the day was as follows: KBFI, 2S1, Port Orchard (private), 8W5, W10, Diamond Point, (private), 0S9, KOKH, 13W, W16, KBFI.