In The Pattern - Flying Blog and Pictures

Flying video from Greensboro

2011-01-27T23:00:00.001-05:00

Flying video, taking off from Greensboro's new runway, 5L.

Checking out the new runway at Greensboro (GSO), or as many refer to it, Piedmont Triad International

2011-01-22T20:09:00.003-05:00

First post in a few months, been BUSY.

Emily and I flew up to Greensboro today for a short cross-country to land on an almost new runway. The runway was built in tandem with the opening of a new FedEx hub at the airport. It is 9000' x 150' of awesomeness. The weather was nice, cloudy up around 9-10,000 feet, cold, weak wind gusts, smooth above 2500', and good visibility (about 30-40 miles I'd say). Pictures are below of 1) short final into the runway, 2) holding short for takeoff back to TTA and 3) a view of the airport as we leave the area. In the last picture you can see an RJ sitting rolling out from landing on runway 5R. Check out the video of the takeoff here. Pretty cool.

World's largest airplane, Antonov 225, at Charlotte (CLT)

2010-10-05T20:25:00.001-04:00

Emily and I were in Charlotte this past weekend for a wedding. In normal style we went to the airport to watch some plane action. Saturday wasn't very busy so we decided to head back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding a little early. On the road around the southern end of the airport I spotted the double tail of the AN-225, otherwise known as the largest airplane in the world. Originally built to carry the Russian space shuttle on it's back, it is now used to carry very large cargo loads around the world. It has a maximum takeoff weight of about 1.32 million pounds, which is 50% heavier than a fully loaded C-5A (according to this article).

I was able to go out a couple of years ago when it made an appearance at RDU and watched it takeoff at about midnight in the rain. Below are a couple of pictures I took of it while it was sitting on the cargo ramp at CLT. I've also included a video of it taking off from runway 36C at CLT yesterday. Too bad I wasn't there to watch it take off.

Flying for Jerky

2010-09-05T22:55:00.000-04:00

There's a beef jerky outlet in Concord, NC. Naturally, that's a reason to fly somewhere. The Concord Regional Airport (JQF) is about 80 nautical miles WSW from Raleigh Executive (TTA). Why I've never flown there in my 4 years as a licensed pilot I do not know. The best I can come up with is that I was reluctant to get that close to the busy airport in Charlotte which, according to our trustworthy friends at Wikipedia is now on the list of top 10 busiest airports in the U.S. That's kind of intimidating. One of these days I'll go 16 miles past today's destination and make my presence known at the #10 busiest airport in the country.

Jerky is not the only reason to fly into Concord as it's solid cross-country time from Raleigh Exec. A little further than the minimum 50 miles, but not so far that it becomes crazy expensive. Total flight time was 2 hours even. I got to hear "Cleared to enter class bravo airspace" for the first time today, so that was exciting.

With purchase of fuel at the FBO we were allowed to borrow a sweet Crown Victoria crew car with a "permanent" NC plate, just like a real cop. The facilities and people at the FBO were great.

Of course I have pictures taken by copilot Emily.

Right base for runway 2 at JQF takes us right over the Lowe's Motor Speedway with the Charlotte skyline in the background.

Charlotte skyline from about 10 miles to the NE.

No caption necessary.

Final approach to runway 2 at JQF. Smooth landing. That's I-85 to the right, looking north.

Crew car Crown Vic, looking like a cop, Jerky in the background.

You could refer to me as "air crew". That would make Emily my "escorted passenger".

Concord Regional FBO. Great service, friendly folks, nice facilities.

Really busy day at Concord Mills Mall. Lots of cars.

The climb-out from JQF gave us a great view of the Lowe's Motor Speedway, drag strip, and dirt track.

Lightning photos at Myrtle Beach

2010-07-29T20:19:00.001-04:00

I know this is a flying blog, but weather is very much related to flying. I took a stab at some lightning pictures earlier in the week. We were on a family vacation to Myrtle Beach. I like how these turned out.

Flying Video - Final approach into RDU from La Guardia

2010-07-17T23:40:00.000-04:00

This video was taken a few weeks ago on our way back into RDU from La Guardia. We were riding in a CRJ900, just like the one pictured in my previous post. I do love watching the pros.

Aerial pictures of North Myrtle Beach

2010-07-07T13:38:00.000-04:00

Taking off from the Grand Strand Airport (CRE).

Barefoot Landing.

Looking back at the airport.

Turning out over the ocean before heading back to Raleigh Executive (TTA).

Nothing but water out of the right side of the plane.

North Myrtle and Cherry Grove. You can see para-sailors.

North Myrtle and Cherry Grove, looking north up highway 17.

Looking south back at the airport.

Landing video at Myrtle Beach

2010-07-05T08:48:00.000-04:00

Video of me landing at the Grand Strand airport yesterday.

Airline flying pictures

2010-07-03T17:17:00.012-04:00

Had a chance to get some good pictures earlier this week from the plane both going and coming back from NYC. The flight was from RDU to LGA in a CRJ900. The flight to LGA went up to I believe 32,000 feet and took about an hour, the flight coming back cruised at 28,000 feet and took about an hour and fifteen minutes. The weather was great for "big plane" flying.

Shortly after departure from runway 23R at RDU, so over Morrisville, about 6:25am.

Nice picture looking towards the sun with the misty clouds down below.

Same as above.

Our plane for the trip to NYC, CRJ900. We flew on the same thing back to RDU.

Shorty after departure from runway 4 at LGA, we made a left turn towards the northern part of Newark. This is a picture of the Hudson River looking south, Manhattan Island on the left, New Jersey on the right. The USAirways flight that crashed in the Hudson went down about 6-7 miles past the bridge you can see going over the river.

Somewhere over the northern Virginia on a beautiful day. I love how dark the sky gets at higher altitudes.

Falls lake with a small grass strip just north of Durham. The highway you see is I-85.

On the downwind to runway 5L at RDU. Good view looking east of the interchange where NC-147 (Durham Freeway) dumps out onto I-40.

Flying to La Guardia tomorrow

2010-06-25T22:34:00.001-04:00

The wife's family is heading to NYC tomorrow for a long weekend. Our flight leaves RDU at 6:15am and is due to arrive at La Guardia (LGA) a little before 8am. Here's a few good pictures of LGA, all from Airliners.net. I'll have pictures/videos of our actual flight next week sometime.

Flying Pictures

2010-06-18T22:06:00.003-04:00

Just some more random flying pictures. The pictures show:

1. Flying over Raleigh, a good view of the RBC Center, Carter Finley Stadium, and the NC State Fair Grounds. Right in front of the wingtip you can see a little bit of the clearing around RDU.
2. Kenan Stadium and Carmichael Gym (where Michael Jordan used to tear it up) a couple of years ago.
3. Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) and the American Tobacco District, a couple of years ago. You can see the construction of the Durham Performing Arts Center on the right.
4. Seeing the clouds with their own shadows gives some cool perspective... at least for me.

Raleigh Executive to Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport

2010-06-13T22:25:00.001-04:00

I was finally able to get my brother up in the plane on Friday after a few months of rain-outs and low-ceilings. I got off work a couple of hours early and drove down to Sanford to get ready while my brother drove up from down south. The plan was to go to Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport (IXA), which opened last year just south of Roanoke Rapids, NC. It was about 84 miles one way, and the flight path took us directly over downtown Raleigh.

The weather was very hot, about 91 degrees. There was a convective sigmet (basically big and powerful thunderstorms) about 100 miles to the west. I was a little concerned by it, but felt confident that the weather would be no factor for us.

Crawling around on the hot pavement during pre-flight checking the wheels and the underside of the plane was brutal. I was in a rush to get the plane started so we could have some air movement while we were on the ground.

Even though it was hot the air was surprisingly smooth and pretty hazy. There were scattered clouds about 5,500', so I decided to level off at 3,500 for the first half of the flight. It wasn't as high as I would like to have been, but good enough. We had a great view of Cary and Raleigh on the way up and got some great pictures. I always enjoy flying over familiar places. Here's a picture of Carter-Finley Stadium and the RBC Center.

As we approached IXA there was only one other plane taking off. They headed off in the opposite direction from us so no big deal. We made left traffic for runway 20 and greased the landing. A picture of the final approach to IXA is below.

The FBO was already closed for the night so we just taxied back to the runway and took back off to the southwest back to TTA. The plan was to climb to 4,500' for cruise. About 4,000 I started to notice the apparent lack of visibility, and realized that I was arguably in a VERY thin cloud that really couldn't be seen, but did cause a pretty quick decrease in visibility. I immediately descended back down to 3,500' to avoid going out of VFR conditions.

The flight back was somewhat uneventful. We went back over downtown Raleigh and NC State University just like before and made our way down US-1 to TTA. There were several other planes in the pattern, but we fit right into the left downwind for runway 3 and made another very smooth landing. The ride was pretty much bump free. They call that ego flying because it makes you feel like you're really good (even though I know better).

The photos below are 1) looking south down Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh, 2) NC State's campus, 3) pretty cloud picture, and 4) final approach to runway 3 at TTA.

New flying pictures uploaded

2010-05-13T10:00:00.001-04:00

Well, not new, but newly uploaded. Just a few pics from my trip with Emily to the Grand Strand Airport in North Myrtle Beach in October 2008. View more on my Flickr page.

Raleigh Executive Jetport (TTA) to Laurinburg-Maxton Airport (MEB)

2010-05-10T21:27:00.000-04:00

Flashback to 1995

Me: Tom, I got this game called Flight Simulator. It's awesome.
Tom: I need to get that.
(2 weeks later) All of our friends: You guys need to stop talking about that stupid game.

Flashback to 1999 or 2000

Me: Tom, do you want to go out to the airport? Maybe a plane will come in tonight.
Tom: Yeah man. I'll meet you out there.

We had just gotten our drivers licenses, which meant we could get to the airport without having to catch a ride from our parents. I had no idea that hanging out at the nearly abandoned Laurinburg-Maxton airport (MEB) would feed my interest (obsession?) as much as it did. Tom and I would meet, talk about school, girls, planes, and whatever else was on our minds. One evening the night security guard let us go up into one of the broken down Boeing 747s that was rotting away on the 70 year old tarmac (MEB was originally a glider training facility during WWII). While inside he popped open one of the side doors... "do you boys want to walk out onto the wing? I bet the airport's insurance company would have had a fit. Most nights we would just hang out and hope for a plane. They rarely came.

Said "rotting" 747.

Flash forward to last Friday

Me: Tom, do you want to go flying tonight after work?
Tom: Yeah man.
Me: Where do you want to go?
Tom: Let's fly down to Laurinburg.

It was a great flight. Friday was a hot day, about 85 degrees when we took off with scattered clouds around 7,000 feet. We climbed to 4,500 after takeoff where the air was bout 60 degrees and perfectly smooth. Flying in the late afternoon and dusk is a real treat. The air is cooling off, taking away most or all of the bumps, and the setting sun from a mile above the ground is a fantastic sight. (If you don't believe me, check out this picture from airliners.net. You can't tell me that's not the best view around.)

Some would say that the weather was marginal; I would say that it was marginal only if you were looking into the sun. The haze was heavy enough to where you couldn't see more than 3-4 miles in the direction of the sun. The other direction, which was the direction we were going most of the time, showed 8-10 miles of visibility. I felt safe, and we were legal, so we pressed on.

Fayetteville approach canceled our flight-following about 12 miles out from Laurinburg. We flew out over Wagram (suburb of Laurinburg, if you can imagine) so Tom could see his childhood home. From there we flew south down 401 over downtown Laurinburg. I demonstrated a "flawless" steep turn to show off a bit, and then turned towards the airport. Runway 23 at MEB has a right traffic pattern, which was a bit awkward but turned out to be no problem. After a nice landing, we taxied took off back towards TTA.

I couldn't feel the wheels touch down onto the runway at TTA. Yes, it was that smooth. Enough bragging.

Tom's been my flying counterpart since middle school. Now if I can only convince him to get his license (excuse me, certificate) then it would be safe to say that we've come full circle.

Flying Picture of the day/week/month/whatever

2010-04-23T20:54:00.002-04:00

Awesome weather picture taken somewhere between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL). That's one heck of an office view. Original image location at Airliners.net.

Safe and Competent

2010-04-19T22:41:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I had the pleasure of my second bi-annual flight review (BFR) thanks to the FAA's regulation requiring that I be reviewed by a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) every two years. This is to ensure that I am unlikely to kill myself or anyone else, or at least unlikely to destroy someone else's property. In normal Wings of Carolina Flying Club fashion, the club's safety regulations are more stringent than the FAA's. To fly a club plane, each member much have the equivalent of a BFR every single year. On years where it is not the FAA mandated review, it's called a Club Annual; they're the same thing. Although the review can be annoying once a year, the club's safety record speaks for itself.

The BFR consists of basic air work, various types of take-offs and landings, controlled field operations, and an oral review of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs). My instructor for the day, Sam, and I sat down Sunday afternoon and began by reviewing the answers to the quizzes required by the club. The quizzes cover club rules and specifics about the plane I fly. Again, not required by the FAA, but helpful to the safety of the club members and planes, which keeps costs down for all of us. After grading the quizzes we discussed some airspace rules, required equipment, different things shown on the chart, and even what I can legally do as a Private Pilot in regards to using the plane and my certification for commercial purposes. Pretty interesting stuff.

The flying portion was good. We took off around 5:30pm, so the day's weather was winding down. The air was smooth and cool, which made the air work much easier. We started off with a couple of steep turns and went straight into stalls and slow flight. There's something that feels very unnatural about flying at 50mph. All of these are maneuvers that you don't want to screw up if they happen while you're less than 1000' above the ground in the traffic pattern, so you practice them to ensure that you can recover without losing too much altitude or making things worse.

Once the air work was complete I went under the "hood" to simulate instrument flying. While under the hood I turned us towards Fayetteville Regional and navigated about half of the trip, contacted approach control, and prepared for a visual approach into the airport. Of course I got to take the hood off about 15 miles out so I could land visually, but I was really happy with how the simulated instrument flying went. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to afford the instrument rating.

In Fayetteville we requested a touch and go and were cleared for the option. First I did a soft-field landing, simulating a landing on a grass runway. The main wheels touched and, without letting the nose wheel touch, performed a soft-field takeoff. We were cleared for left traffic and performed a short-field landing and takeoff before heading back to Raleigh Executive.

The last thing we did was a gliding approach and landing. The point here was to simulate landing without an engine. On the downwind leg "abeam" the touchdown point, we pulled the engine back to idle and had to time the descent and turns so we could glide in and land without any power. It was a success.

When we got back in, Sam had to fill out a form reviewing what we did and making any comments. He wrote that I am "safe and competent" along with a few other comments. I had a lot of fun, even though it was a review/test.

Flight from Raleigh Executive to MCAS Cherry Point (yeah, that's right)

2010-03-31T22:14:00.002-04:00

Thanks to the forethought and planning of one of my fellow Wings of Carolina Flying Club members, I recently was able to fly into MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Cherry Point (NKT). About 8 planes from our club took the 116 mile trip from Raleigh Executive (TTA). It was a really nice day.

The weather was beautiful, in the mid 60's and crystal clear. There was a bit of gusty wind, but up at 5,500' it was as smooth as glass.

The view looking east-ish towards Beaufort and Cape Lookout

I was cleared to land on runway 32L using a base to very short final so I could sneak in before another club member, who was in a Cessna 152 on a 6 mile final. I felt I was getting a bit short-changed on this approach so I requested to follow the Cessna on final in, which the controller kindly allowed.

Final Approach to runway 32L. 400' wide, pretty big.

They practice carrier landings here. This is the arresting gear for the
mock carrier landings that they've pulled off of the runway for us.

The runway from edge-line to edge-line is 200' wide with an extra 100' beyond that, making for a 400' wide strip of pavement that is about 8,000' long; big strip of concrete. The excessive width made the gusting cross-wind a little less of a problem than it would have been on, let's say, a 75' wide runway. Long story short, the landing was pretty darn good (if I do say so myself). We were given taxi instructions to our parking spot, shut down, and got out. Clearance to land required a VFR flight plan, so I had to call Flight Service to close that.

The tower. If you look close on the right you can see a Harrier flying by.

The first stop of the tour was a hanger that housed a Cessna Citation and two military equivalents of a DC-9. All three of these were for the travel of Marine higher-ups. We got to go inside one of the DC-9s, but the pictures didn't turn out so well (that's why they aren't included here, sorry). Also in the hanger were two search and rescue helicopters. I didn't catch the exact model, but take a look at the picture. They were pretty awesome.

Planes in the hanger.

Search and rescue helicopter.

After the hanger we were treated with an up-close and personal view of the Harrier Jet line. They had quite a few two-seaters for training. Our tour guide was a Harrier student pilot, and had a lot of interesting info. I won't go into any details here, but we learned a lot and left much more impressed with the plane than when we got there. During our tour there were 3-4 Harriers flying around the base doing some training.

Up close and personal with a Harrier.

From here we went to eat lunch at a restaurant on the base. I was about to starve. It was good, not great. Our tax money at work.

One of the highlights of the day was the opportunity to see the air traffic control facilities. I got to visit the inside of a control tower for the first time. It was similar to what I expected except for the people in there. I was expecting some older, seasoned-looking controllers (like what you see on Top Gun). I get up there and there are about 10 really young looking guys -- yes, younger than me -- half of them training and the other half being trained. Because it was Saturday they were all dressed in their street clothes, making it all seem a little less impressive. Notice I said "seem", it was still all business. It was great to see everything from their perspective.

View from the tower. That's N81917 out there (I fly it sometimes).

From the top of the base to the bottom, we found ourselves next in the radar room. Radar rooms, to those of you who don't know, are really dark. My eyes adjusted to the low red light, but I couldn't imagine working in there for several hours without going a little crazy. Beyond that, it was still very cool to see the radar screens, have the controllers explain what they do and, again, see it from their perspective.

The surprise of the day was when the Marines asked if they could come see our planes. We scoffed, "sure, yeah right, you can come look at our planes." To our surprise, they were actually very eager to see them. It dawned on me that most of these guys probably have never seen planes up-close other than Harriers and other cool military planes. A Piper Warrior is a new thing to them. It was pretty cool.

Marines checking out my plane.

Parked plane with Harrier in the background.

Taxiing out among the Harriers.

Coastal Carolina Regional Airport (EWN) with New Bern and the Neuse River.

So all in all it was a great trip. I got to land at a military base, saw some planes up close that I've never seen up close before, saw air traffic control, and got to fly the longest flight of my "career"; yes, 116 miles. It was a great time.

Raleigh Executive Jetport (TTA) to Lumberton Municipal Airport (LBT)

2010-02-02T22:32:00.001-05:00

The original plan was to fly to Greensboro to get a few pictures of the new runway, but the weather was not cooperating. There were low clouds west of Sanford, and as a non-instrument rated pilot, I have to be able to see the ground and navigate by reference to it alone. Sure I can use the GPS and other nav radios, but my primary source of navigation still has to be reference to objects on the ground.

The skies to the eastern side of TTA were clear. Lumberton seemed to be a good choice, no clouds between TTA and there, and a good route that took us over Fayetteville. I dialed in a new setting on the camera that morning in hopes of getting sharper images and thought Fayetteville would provide some good photo ops. I think it worked.

Our route

I planned the flight at the last minute. We did this one a couple of years ago so the flight plan itself was already done. I just had to get the weather and apply the winds to our flight plan. Interesting side note… while I was on the phone with the weather briefer he mentioned that the briefer next to him was talking about a large fire in New York City. I actually forgot about that until right now, but haven't heard anything so it must not have been a big deal.

It was morning and an AIRMET had been established, but was expiring at 10am local. To those of you who don't know what an AIRMET is, it stands for "Airmen's Meteorological Information". Basically, it's an advisory/description of the occurrence or expected occurrence of some sort of weather phenomena which may affect the safety of aircraft operations (yeah, I stole that from wikipedia). AIRMETs give info on instrument conditions (ceilings less than 1000' and/or visibility less than 3 miles), turbulence, or icing. All things for me to avoid.

We had the plane until noon, and had about 50 miles to go and back, so we were pushing it on time. We started up, taxied to runway 3, and off we went. We made left traffic, but continued climbing through pattern altitude of 1200' MSL. Upon reaching 1700' MSL (500' above pattern altitude) we turned south toward Fayetteville. Direct flight to Lumberton is not allowed because of the restricted areas above Fort Bragg. Our course took us towards the lesser known of the two air bases in Fayetteville, Simmons Army Airfield.

Simmons AFB in Fayetteville. If you look closely almost in the middle of the ramp
closest to the camera you can see a helicopter hovering about 50' off the ground.

From here we turned slightly toward the west and pretty much followed I-95 all the way to Lumberton. In the distance we could see where it all began for me, the Laurinburg-Maxton Airport (MEB). It was about 20-25 miles away. It's always satisfying to me to see something that clearly from that far away.

From about 12 miles out we could easily make out LBT in front of us. Up until this point I had been on with Fayetteville Approach for traffic advisories. Once LBT was visible, I let them know and they cleared me to change to the airport's local radio frequency. We executed a standard pattern entry to runway 5 and had a nice landing on a really flat runway.

Short final to runway 5, LBT

Because of our lack of time we taxied straight back to the runway and took back off. I wanted some good pics of the airport, and the sun was to the southeast, so I turned east and then south after taking off so we could get a good view of the airport with the sun behind us before heading back home to the north. Emily takes great pictures.

Lumberton Municipal Airport - Runway 5 is the one on the far left with the big "5" on it.
I-95 is the highway on the other side of the airport. If you've ever driven down that way
you may recognize the big water tower painted like an American flag directly
above the wing out by the highway.

We got back in touch with Fayetteville Approach for traffic advisories. The trip back was a lot like the trip down. The weather was fantastic for flying, clear and smooth air. On the way back over Fayetteville we got a good view of the Fayetteville Regional Airport (FAY) off the right wing.

Fayetteville Regional Airport

Minutes later we were flying over Fort Bragg with Pope AFB (POB) in the background. The controller said that the restricted airspace over Fort Bragg was inactive at my altitude, which I'm assuming means I could have flown right through. I stuck with the original plan and flew around, but I did get a little closer to Pope than I usually do. It was pretty cool.

Fort Bragg with Pope AFB

Coming back into TTA there was only one other plane on the radio who was doing an instrument approach to runway 3. He was in a faster plane than me so I gave way to him. To enter the pattern I had to overfly the field at 1700', then loop around and descend at the same time 1200' to enter the left downwind for runway 3. We landed at 11:56 (4 minutes to spare!). Great trip, it was fun.

Hudson River crash recreation video - a year later

2010-01-21T22:48:00.001-05:00

Click on the video to see the full size version on YouTube.

Pretty cool video of a potentially tragic event with a miraculous ending. I like how you can read the conversation between captain and co-pilot, even though you can't hear it on the radio transmissions. All business, working to get the plane down safely. A year later and it's still unbelievable that nobody was killed.

New Runway at Piedmont Triad International (GSO)

2010-01-19T20:00:00.005-05:00

Emily and I were riding through Greensboro a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to ride by to see the new runway at GSO, and this was a good opportunity. We took some pictures, although it's hard to see the runway from the low angles we were able to see it from. Once it opens I'll fly up there and request to land on the new runway to get some better pictures.

The runway is being constructed because of the new FedEx hub that has been built at GSO. This should make for some pretty amazing plane watching, as FedEx uses big planes (A310s and MD-11s, among others). As a hub, they'll be coming in and out frequently. With that and the Honda Jet factory based on the field, GSO is really emerging as quite the contributor to the aviation industry in NC. Pictures Below...

Kind of hard to see, but here is new runway 23R at GSO

Freshly built FedEx hub. This will make GSO a good plane watching airport.

Back to watching planes

2010-01-18T20:21:00.002-05:00

I haven't been up in a few weeks, the week before Christmas actually. Maybe this weekend, if the weather is good. Emily and I went to the top of the parking deck at RDU on Saturday with a couple of our friends. It was cool (temperature) and really nice. There weren't many planes moving in and out, but a few made appearances. I think we saw 2 or 3 Southwest 737s take off, a Dash-8 take off, several RJs (regional jets) move around, and got a great view of the in-progress construction of terminal 2. Good time at the airport. Check out the pictures.

Emily, Kristen, and Josh

Terminal 2 Construction at RDU

The Mini Super Cub Flies!

2010-01-10T21:24:00.007-05:00

We pulled out the Mini Super Cub for the first time today. It went much more smoothly than I expected for the first time out. No catastrophic crashes (notice I didn't say "no crashes"). I was really impressed with how well the plane bounced back after a couple of nose dives into the grass. The battery doesn't last very long, only about 8-10 minutes of flying. But today it was so cold that 8-10 minutes was enough. I may need to get a couple more battery packs and charge them before going out when it warms up. Overall, it was a lot of fun.

It was interesting to me that this plane seemed to fly just like the plane I fly, and just like any plane, even as large as a Boeing 747. All planes have the same forces working on them (lift, thrust, drag, and gravity). So regardless of size and weight, they all fly basically the same.

The Mini Super Cub is from Hobby Zone, if you want to get one for yourself.

Thought about going flying today... but I didn't.

2010-01-10T00:02:00.001-05:00

The plane came available yesterday for this morning. The person that was going to have it occupied came back early so I considered reserving it taking to the skies today. But, I decided to pass, it was just too darn cold. The temperature at the time I would've been cranking the engine was forecast to be about 20 degrees F. The combination of thicker oil and decreased battery performance (not to mention the frozen engine components) would have made it really difficult to start. If you crank for too long, you could even burn out the starter.

Frost, the other potential problem to deal with, was likely to have been on the wings this morning. Frost can be difficult, if not impossible, to remove when it is 20 degrees F and no access to a warm hanger.

Plus, who wants to be outside in 20 degree weather?

Potential maintenance required by FAA for the Piper Warrior (that's the plane I fly)

2010-01-07T00:10:00.003-05:00

This article is from AOPA.org about a proposed airworthiness directive that could potentially affect the Piper Warrior (PA-28). It looks like it addresses an issue of the control wheel shaft coming loose. Below is a link to the full article. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Proposed Piper AD would affect 42,000 aircraft

Learning to Fly Part 1 - Ground School

2010-01-04T21:00:00.001-05:00

In January of 2005 I was working through the crossword puzzle of the Technician, the school newspaper at NC State University, during a break between classes. I saw a small ad near the puzzle for ground school that was beginning in a few weeks. Hmm...

I mentioned in an earlier post that I've always wanted to fly. As far back as middle school I can remember being really interested and wanting to learn. I don't know why I didn't look into it earlier in life. I think for a long time I talked myself into believing it was just for rich people who had a ton of money to spend, and that it would be a long time before I could afford to do it.

Seeing that ad prompted me to investigate a little. I went home and checked out the web address on the ad. The address led me to the website of the Wings of Carolina Flying Club. I was interested so I dug deeper. The flying club had included a page on their website that discussed learning to fly, the time commitment, as well as the estimated cost.

Now, I wasn't rich at the time (still not!). I didn't make a ton of money. But I was working almost full time as a waiter, and living off of the financial aid I received for school. So, for a while, I was able to put every penny I made as a waiter into savings. Voila: I had the money to fly. I emailed to sign up for the ground school, and received the schedule and other information.

My first night of ground school was my first lesson in weather. That day in Raleigh it snowed. If you're from NC you understand that, when it snows, everything shuts down. I called the instructor and asked if the ground school was still on. He sounded surprised that I was calling. Apparently it wasn't snowing in Sanford, which is where Wings of Carolina is located. So, the lesson was that weather isn't the same everywhere. Imagine that.

I got there early (one thing that playing football taught me, always be early) and was the second or third one there. I gave a polite "hi" and sat down to wait. Over the next little while more people showed up. In all I think there were 30 or so people. Next the instructor came in. We quickly found out that he's a nice guy but concerned only with safety and getting down to business. The ground school was ten weeks long, and we had A LOT of material to cover. We dove right in.

We all went around the room, introduced ourselves, mentioned why we were there, and class began. We started by taking a look at and purchasing all the materials including text books, study guides, testing materials, flight computer, and a few other odds and ends. From there, we began with the million dollar question: "How does a plane fly?" We went through the principles and various theories of lift, why it works like it does, and how a plane produces it. We also discussed the four forces of flight (lift, gravity, thrust, drag). This conversation led directly into the control surfaces and how the pilot controls the plane.

By this point the 3 hour class was over and all went home. There were lots of questions asked and good discussions. To be honest it was a bit of a sensory overload. I questioned whether or not I really felt like learning all of this new information while I was trying to do school and work at the same time. The questioning didn't last long, however. I found myself more interested in the flying than what I was learning in school (still am more interested in it, actually). It was awesome. I was finally learning about something that really mattered to me.

The next 9 weeks were the same. Sensory overload, tons of questions, lots of discussion, mental exhaustion, and enjoyment learning about my passion. The most difficult class to follow (and stay awake in) was the review of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs). Super important to know and understand, but mundane and a bit boring. No problem, it was leading towards flying an airplane.

The ground school ended and I was given an endorsement by the instructor to go take the official FAA knowledge test. I took this test on a special computer at the FBO (Fixed Base Operator) at the Raleigh Executive Jetport (TTA), which is where Wings of Carolina Flying Club is located. It's a timed, multiple choice test. You can miss only a certain amount and then you fail. if you pass, you're passing score is good for two years. You then have two years to get the flight training required for the private pilot certificate.

Learning to fly is a lot of information, but if you love it, it's worth it. It takes a lot effort, determination, and studying, but the rewards are great. Next time I'll write in detail about the flying portion of my training. It was a lot of fun.