Category: flying

Flight Log – 2013-10-04

I had every intention of a making a much longer flight, but by the time the plane was free and I got to the airport, there were showers and possible embedded thunderstorms moving in our direction, so I decided to just do the requisite 3 trips around the pattern to be current and go back for the previously planned flight another time.  Temp 28°C, winds 270@04, alt 30.05, few at 4500, overcast at 6500 when I started, lower than that when I finished, just 25 minutes later.

 

Takeoffs & landings: 3
Time: 0.4
Total time: 223.4

Flight Log – 2013-08-15

Got a little cross-country flying in on Thursday.  Temp 22°C, winds calm (at surface, a little bumpy at altitude), alt. 30.14, clear.  Added 2 new airports, I10 (Noble County) & 4G5 (Monroe County).  Hand flew most of the flight, the auto-pilot still seemed a little squirrelly (it couldn’t hold a course at all when I last flew –in June– with Harold).

Flight log – 2013-06-12

Finally after almost 11 months, I finally went flying again.  It was a pretty nice day, though it got rather warm toward the end.  Temp 30°C, wind calm, alt 29.92, very hazy, 1.6 on the Hobbs.  Hold at APE, followed by 3 approaches VOR-A@KVTA, GPS28@KLHQ, GPS27@KVTA, with 2 landings at KLHQ and 2 landings at KVTA. Happy to be back in the air.  Hand flew nearly all of it, the auto-pilot appears to be on the fritz.  IPC completed, so I’m legal to rent, legal to carry passengers, and legal to fly IFR.  KVTA is in the top middle with the red, yellow, and green (landings and trips around the pattern).  The hold is the purple loop at the top left.  KLHQ is at the bottom left (landing and trip around the pattern).  That little bump in the middle was when I turned on the autopilot heading back to do the GPS28@KVTA and it tried to do S-turns around the actual GPS track.  Harold is going to have the auto-pilot looked at by the maintenance people.

Yup, I’m still alive

As I commented last year, I don’t tend to post here much lately, but I am still alive.  As you can see from the sidebar, I’ve started riding again this year (about a month earlier than last year, though I have no plans at present for a century this year), but have not flown in far too long, I hope to rectify that this week.  I still do plan to start posting more stuff here, but have had some issues with motivation that I hope to explain shortly.

Flight log 2012-07-13

Flight review complete. Temp was a very pleasant 23°F, but the wind got ugly for the final 2 landings. Winds 140@13G22. Alt. 30.19. Did the GPS28@4I3, cirle to 10, followed by 2 touch and goes, followed by VOR-A@KVTA, circle to 9, touch and go, and full stop. I used Foreflight on the iPad for the approaches, no paper plates in the cockpit.

Flight log 2012-05-18

I got checked out on the new G1000 C172 (I last flew the old one 3 or 4 years ago) today.  Next flight I’ll have Harold help me get used to using the iPad with ForeFlight on the cockpit.  Temp 24°C, wind 100@07, altimeter 30.11, clear.  Just local flight, but the plane was up at Knox County (4I3) while they resurface the runway at KVTA.  1.0 on the Hobbs, beautiful day to fly.  The AMOD didn’t lock on before take off, so I don’t have the Google Earth track this time.

Flight Log 2011-09-23 and 50@50 update

Sorry it took so long to post this.  In Sep, I visited my 49th state, Hawaii.  We had a wonderful time.  We spent most of the week on Maui, but we went to Oahu for a day, most of which we spent at Pearl Harbor.  Our last day there, I rented a C172 and flew around Molokai, Lanai, Molokini, West Maui, etc.  Temp 26°C, wind 050@15, alt 30.09, a few clouds @ 4000.   Alas, I didn’t turn the GPS on to get the flight track.

Lanai from our timeshare the first morning
Honolua Bay
Arizona Memorial
USS Missouri
2 Pearl Harbor survivors, ages 91 & 95
With BGen Jerome Hagen, USMC(ret), author of War In The Pacific series
Sunrise at Haleakala
Elephant Island (off Molokai)
Molokai
Molokini
Bay on the way to Hana (don’t remember the name)
Sunset over the surfers near Ho’okipa Beach

Flight Log – 2011-08-23

I was due for some flying anyway, so I decided to get some night flying in.  It turned out to be a beautiful evening for it (though it was starting to get a little hazy by the end).  Temp 21°C, winds 190@06, alt 29.96.  I decided to fly over to KZZV where I discovered that the beacon is messed up (not flashing blue, only white), then on to KLHQ, then followed 33 for a while and tried to see the house in the dark, then finally back to KVTA for the requisite 3 take-offs and landings to full stop.  I am again legal to carry passengers at night.  Here is the track.

Why I’ve been quiet, etc.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t write much here anymore.  What little I do write I tend to put on twitter or facebook (other than my flight logs which continue to go here).  What I haven’t mentioned is that I also have another blog over at myfitnesspal.com which is strictly devoted to my exercising/weight loss efforts.  I joined the local gym on my last birthday with the intent of getting stronger/healthier (and by getting stronger boost my metabolism to dispose of some excess tonnage).  I may eventually link that here, but haven’t done so yet.  On my last birthday, I was up to a higher weight than I’ve seen in about 2 years.  Since that time I have gotten stronger (though not at the pace I had hoped for) and lost some weight (also, not quite at the rate I had hoped for), but I’m not where I expected to be.  Part of it is due to timing and injury (the trip to Scotland was great, but did through a bit of a monkey wrench in the workout plans).  I also made plans to compete in the Columbus half-marathon in Oct, however, very shortly into beginning training for that I had the aforementioned injury (knee) that has thrown those plans into doubt (I will post on that here soon though)  That being said, I expect to consolidate some of that stuff back here (and/or double post) on this blog in coming weeks, so if there is anyone other than bots from search engines reading this, I really will be updating soon (as soon ans I feel I can take the time from my SANSFIRE talk prep).

Flight Log 2011-06-13

This flight was intended to be an almost-IPC.  Since it had been more than 60 days since I had flown, I had to go up with an instructor to get a refresher to rent at KVTA, so I figured I might as well get some better use out of it and get instrument current, too.  Plus, I got a break on my renter’s insurance this year because of getting some dual instruction last year, so I figured it couldn’t hurt.  However, when I did the run-up, the oil pressure gauge was pegged at the top of the gauge.  I put the squawk on the sheet and we taxied back in and switched from N785SP to N20626.  Of course, when I got that preflighted and fired up, we had radio problems.  I couldn’t hear Harold through headset.  We went with the speaker and hand mike and decided we’d just do 3 times around the pattern.  On the first one, I was too low and slow on final and made one of my poorest landings in a long time.  On the second time around, Harold realized that the radio problem was that someone had flipped the ISO switch on the comm panel.  The second and third landings were much better.  I very nearly grounded both planes though.  The pilot’s left brake was very soft, though Harold claimed his wasn’t, so…  Anyway, I’m current to carry passengers again, but I’ll try to schedule something later in the summer to get instrument current.  0.3 hours and 3 takeoffs and landings.