Some highlights from this time around. I ended up taking some aerial shots of Pop’s new deer lease. For him, it was insanely helpful as they have been struggling with certain areas of the lease as far as brush and terrain. Its not been very easy to get back there. So Wade & I flew out there with the GoPro sticking on the back of the plane to take shots.

This was not the first time I had flown with the GoPro suction-cupped to a plane, but I will say that it was a very strange sensation. I almost wish I had rudder trim on that plane as I had to put a small input into the rudder to counter the drag from the camera. Even as small as it is, physics can be a pain.

Other than that, it’s been a day flight here, lunch run there, just enjoying being up in the sky. It’s been a pretty hot summer, so I’ve avoided getting up in the air for that reason. It’s great at altitude, but on the ramp it REALLY sucks. In fact, I went up yesterday for currency and was in and out of the airport in 45 minutes (from hangar door open to hangar door closed) and I’m sure I smelled lovely after that. For the short period I was up above 800′ AGL, it was LOVELY. But that was only a little bit of the time. Anyway, here are my stats thus far:

• 121.2 total hours
• 330 Takeoffs/Landings
• 6.1 night
• 3.1 Simulated Instrument
• 51.3 Cross country
• 33.9 Dual
• 92.6 Pilot in Command

Will see you guys in the sky soon!

Yep, been a while since I have posted, but I really have not had any super momentous flights to discuss—until this weekend! Did another downtown Dallas tour, but due to some photo shoots going on around downtown, they had to route me way east and over Fair Park. That’s OK though, it allowed James to take these two shots.

Kristen got to tag along as well! She is a mighty fine pilot I should add, so she needs to get down here and start training for real!

On the way back, we were routed south of Love Field, and directly over DFW Airport at 3,500 feet. Someone else flying 29W also was routed over DFW on Saturday, so maybe it was just a slow day and the controllers needed something to break up the monotony! Either way, James got to have his first flight directly over the airport.

The other thing I’ve been working on is keeping the bubble centered. I find that I get pretty lazy with rudders when I am flying, and I’m trying to break that bad habit. I’ll ask my instructor to keep me honest when I do my biannual flight review next month. Next time I go, I might have to get back in the saddle of 29W!

News reporters seem to be making a huge deal about Kelly Dr, the road that borders the north end of the active runway 17, where the word “STOP” is painted on the ground to warn drivers of aircraft overhead. This road is actually not managed by the airport, but I don’t see that as a safety issue. There are signs EVERYWHERE that help drivers understand where they are—not to mention that when you are on that road you see the runway right there. In the video it is unclear to me if the driver stopped and looked, but the result seems to clearly indicate that he did not. I’ve waited at the STOP line before and watched planes flying in on final. If the weather is OK for landings at the airport (there are no instrument procedures here so fog or low clouds are not an issue), there is no reason why you can’t see or hear an aircraft. The driver was the trigger that caused the accident—and if he had been paying attention like a self-proclaimed aviation enthusiast, he would have seen that aircraft and waited until it was over the runway to continue. But was it entirely the driver’s fault?

Landing and takeoff are the most dangerous portions of flight. Things happen very fast on landing, so pilots must be alert. If you go to YouTube and look for cockpit videos focused 0n the pilot in command you will see very few eye blinks and a pupils-dilated, steady gaze out the window and at the instruments. Every time I fly that approach to 17, one of the things I am looking for is idiot drivers who are not paying attention to the signs and crossing into my path. My hand is on the throttle and I can quickly goose it to go around if needed. And believe me, when I land, I’m going to find that car and give the driver a talking to. The pilot of the plane in question was a student, but a student at the flight school on the field. There is no question in my mind that he had landed aircraft dozens of times at that field and was well aware of the danger of cars (as well as other unwritten rules at that field). So, it’s not like this was his first time landing there. He should have seen the car and gone around.

But even that isn’t really the issue. Go watch the video and watch his approach right before he crosses the white fence on the north side of Kelly Dr. He sinks quickly which turns his steady, straight line descent into a dangerous curve.

One of the first things you are taught when shooting approaches is to have a stable, constant descent rate into the into the field. You learn this especially with fields with obstacles on either end of the runway, which is why the touchdown point you aim for is not at the end of the runway, but 1,000 feet from the end. Back to the video, you’ll notice that he sinks dramatically, clearing the fence by 2-3 feet, and slamming his landing gear right into the SUV. He wasn’t over the runway yet, but he was just 5 feet off the ground? That’s dangerous. Unsteady approaches during a checkride would cause an FAA examiner to think twice about passing that student.

Was this a preventable accident? Absolutely! Both parties were at fault. A pilot with an unstable approach and a complacent driver who wasn’t paying attention to where airplanes are when near an active runway.

Does this impact my view of Northwest Regional Airport? No! I’m more concerned about the issues we’ve been having lately around working fuel pumps.

There have been a string of accidents related to that airport recently, but it’s nothing to do with the airport. In every case it was some form of pilot error. In fact, I went through all the NTSB accidents listed for that airport and this is the first time a car has been struck. When it comes down to who is at fault, the NTSB will blame the pilot for failing to maintain a safe altitude. I can’t say I disagree with that ruling, either. When talking to my family about this, I mentioned that steeper approaches wouldn’t allow something like this to happen, but as always, I will remain quite vigilant about traffic on Kelly Dr. when landing.

Pilots can use this as a safety reminder for airport operations. It could’ve been a whole lot worse. Thankfully it wasn’t. Everybody walked away with minor cuts and bruises. This is an easily preventable incident with a proper, stable approach and pilot awareness of the traffic around the runway.

Next flight was taking my uncle and cousin up for a tour around downtown. About halfway through the flight I looked over at my uncle and realized that the door was open! No big worries, she still flies fine. Just noisy. And if you happen to go searching for the ATC recordings (I’m too embarassed to post them here) you can hear how loud it was, and how hard communication was. Next time that happens, its an immediate landing to get the door shut, then we can go again.

Our club just got a new plane as well, a 1961 172B. Boy, she is a SWEET bird. She may not fly fast, but she is clean and has many upgrades both inside and outside the plane. I got checked out on her early this AM and loved every minute sitting in her left seat. I’m really looking forward to spending time with her in the air. Now, I also realized I have been counting my cross country hours incorrectly. According to FAR §61.1(3)(i), any flight as a private pilot where I land at another airport is technically cross country. So I’ve WAY underestimated my cross country hours. I fixed it on this page, but won’t go back unless I need it to justify a rating of some sort. Here are the stats.

• 104.1 total hours
• 294 Takeoffs/Landings
• 6.1 night
• 3.1 Simulated Instrument
• 40.0 Cross country
• 32.7 Dual
• 75.5 Pilot in Command

Will see you guys in the sky soon!

Anyway, in order to be fully checked out in this aircraft, it’s time to get a new endorsement! High Performance Aircraft, here I come!

I flew an hour this morning and will go back to finalize the endorsement. I was surprised at the sheer power of the aircraft as she clawed through the dense morning air. She LEAPS off the runway, and races to wherever you want to go. This is by far the most powerful craft I have ever flown, even though it is only about 30 kts faster in cruise than the DA-40.

Landing her is going to be a challenge I am accepting with open arms. After flying a stick aircraft for so long, switching back to the yoke takes practice with trim. Where small inputs and relatively light pressure makes a huge difference in the DA-40, this craft requires a steady hand on both the trim wheel and the yoke. I’m looking forward to spending lots of time with her!

Flyers with certain kinds of elite status on American Airlines occasionally earn something called a “systemwide upgrade” (sometimes known as an eVIP or VIP). These upgrades allow you to move up one class of service, inventory permitting, on any flight operated by and ticketed through American Airlines and typically expire within the current or next calendar year. Iâ€ve used these things over the years to upgrade into a Business class seat on a long haul flight that was booked on coach, and recently have even been lucky enough to use one to get into First class. Pretty sweet!

Then American Airlines enters bankruptcy. While the status, miles, and upgrades for elite fliers are kept intact, something strange is happening.

American Airlines is part of the OneWorld alliance that includes such prestigious airlines as British Airways, Qantas, and Cathay Pacific. These airlines partner in order to broaden their geographic reach by operating flights for each otherâ€s fliers, known as “codeshares.” Essentially, this means that in some cases, you can book a ticket marketed and sold as British Airways but end up flying on an American Airlines plane, as I did this week.

Due to a number of factors, bankruptcy being a big one I suspect, airfares at American have risen dramatically over the last six months both domestically and internationally. In some cases, booking the exact same American Arlines flights under a OneWorld codeshare will save you money! In my case, I saved 15% on my fare by booking all of my flights as British Airways, even though Iâ€ll be on an American Airlines plane for the long-haul components (Dallas to London).

But hereâ€s the catch. I donâ€t have any status with British Airways! This means that as an American Airlines Elite flyer sitting on an American Airlines aircraft that chose the lowest fare by buying through a partner, my years and miles with American are worthless. American cannot touch the ticket if they didnâ€t ticket it, and British Airways wonâ€t touch it because I donâ€t have status with them. I would not expect to use an American Airlines upgrade on a British Airlines aircraft, but I would expect to be able to use an American Airlines upgrade on an American Airlines operated flight regardless of how it was marketed to me.

Essentially, itâ€s a standoff—American Airlines tells me to call British Airways, and British Airways says ring or visit an American Airlines agent. In fact, I learned that the only way that an upgrade can occur is through a complimentary upgrade when a flight is oversold. So even though I have expiring upgrades with American Airlines that I am begging to use, their policy prohibits agents from allowing their best customers to use their status when the flight is marketed as a codeshare.

For the record, I love American Airlines. Iâ€ve been flying them pretty much exclusively since I was a child on my grandfatherâ€s Airpass. In fact, I have many fond memories streaking across the sky in those silver planes with red and blue stripes. Iâ€ve been flying with American so long, I remember when they had 747s and MD-11s, and I flew on DC-10s and 727s with their sometimes-flaky tail-mounted engines. I am sure there are many people rooting against AA while they restructure, but as someone with over 2 million miles with the airline, Iâ€m rooting for success. Iâ€m rooting for a new executive team that takes competitive pay without ridiculous bonuses that hurt the pay of of pilots, mechanics, and agents.

American Airlines canâ€t forget their loyal customer base that is now having to justify staying a customer. I urge American Airlines to remember us so that we continue to fly the friendly marketed and operated skies while delivering revenue, growth, and seat sales for years to come.

Well, it’s finally happened. After three and a half years of flying I hit the 100 hour mark! This time with a couple of Infosec friends as we hit up the classic Hard 8 in Stephenville (KSEP) for lunch. What a great day to fly!

The only thing about yesterday’s flying was the stiff northern winds at altitude. Did get some Class B time on the way back in, and saw a few big aircraft in and out of the DFW Terminal Area. This time we had our primary radio go out on N204SG. I love this aircraft, and haven’t flown it in several months. Getting back behind those big glass screens was awesome, and I just wish we had both radios working. I like having two sets of radios as it allows me to snoop on other frequencies without leaving ATC. Alas, was a bit clunky yesterday.

Did also get to make some good use of the autopilot on the cruise portion of the flight. Hand flying when you are altering the plane’s configuration is fun, but holding straight and level for 20-30 minutes is kind of boring. Yaay autopilot!

Yep, lazy again. I had two flights in the last few months totaling 1.8 hours and 15 landings. Nothing super fun.

WAIT! Except THIS!

Nice little exchange between a rather happy tower controller and my crew while flying around. The airport was not terribly busy on the second flight, but there were jet operations happening and a bird can cause problems with those things. Enjoy that!

On the earlier flight, it was pretty much business as usual, but it got super busy toward the end. Five planes in the pattern, and others getting turned away that wanted to do touch & gos. It was race weekend so I couldn’t head over to Alliance, but wanted to.

Now, on to the flight I had last weekend! Yes, still behind, but here we are.

James & I took the DA-40 up at the last minute to get some currency time and test out a route I want to do later in the year. We FINALLY made it to Tyler! For those of you that read often, you might remember I have tried this trip nearly three times now, all of them scrubbed due to weather at Tyler Pounds Field.

This flight was unique for a few reasons.

1. While this was a DA-40, I had never flown this DA-40 before.
2. I was back to using steam gauges, glass cockpit (G1000 panels) in this bird.
3. James learned how to taxi! Steering with your feet is hella weird if you have never done it before.
4. I am becoming increasingly comfortable with RPM/manifold pressure settings in climb, cruise, and descent on this bird.
5. For whatever reason, we were flying at 10-15 KIAS slower than we should have been. Neither one of us put anything on the airframe to cause this, but it slowed our progress down considerably.
6. I was cleared into Class Bravo on the way back (not on the way out), but skirted the edges of the shelf for the most part, per ATC request. Frankly, I think I was hastily given clearance into Bravo upon departure and I was never given the instruction from the tower. When I asked the controller, he said I was cleared, but then immediately started to vector me underneath Bravo.
7. The controller at KDTO (who will remain nameless here) got a little antsy with me as this one tends to do. I was cleared to land, read back my clearance, and then was asked by the controller minutes later what my intentions were.  For real.
8. Got the HD video going, but again had some audio issues. I will get this resolved FO SHO on the next one. I know exactly what I need to do to make sure it works. Frankly, it’s not my top priority (flying the plane is), but I want to get some good video for you guys.

So I’m good for a few weeks! Next flight may be over to Pop’s new lease, or back down to Tyler to see friends.

Also, this was the first time I got to use my new HD camera to record the flight. Unfortunately, not only is there an interesting isolation that happens in the in-flight audio management, but my Garrett was just humming in the mic. So that’s pretty much all you hear. To make matters even worse, the camera was faulty and making some terrible recordings (since fixed).

Anyway, quick three takeoffs and landings!

I got my first pair of glasses as a young child in elementary school, and wore some kind of corrective lens ever since. For those of you that live with glasses or contacts, you know how much of a hassle they are—or better yet, you know how much of a hassle it is when they are not working properly or when you are missing them.

I had bad eyes. Really bad. I couldn’t see the big E on the chart without corrective lenses. I was between a -9 and -10 diopter correction, with astigmatism, in both eyes. That means that if I had a prayer of seeing what time it is in the middle of the night, I had to buy a clock with BIG digits, keep it close to the bed, and squint really hard to make it out. My eyes were so bad, in fact, that I wasn’t even a candidate for LASIK (here is an explanation of the difference).

After much personal reflection and discussion with my wife, family, and friends, I decided to go to an eye surgeon to see if there was anything that could be done to correct my vision. I learned that I was a candidate for PRK and set my surgery date. My surgeon told me that PRK will provide me a much more stable long term result than LASIK would, but the recovery is much longer and more involved. LASIK patients tend to have 20/20 vision within weeks, where PRK patients could take months or up to a year to fully settle into their permanent vision.

On my surgery day, my wife and I made our way after breakfast to the surgery center. The butterflies started as I walked into the operating room with the big laser. Not like James-Bond-strapped-to-the-table big laser, but a large room that was 2/3 machine and 1/3 people. Had I been wearing my glasses, I am sure I would have been more intimidated, but I was being lead around by “handlers” that put me on the big table while my wife watched through a window.

The actual process of being under the laser was not that bad. The most painful part was the speculum that kept my eyelids open. It pressed on my cheekbones and caused me quite a bit of discomfort, but there was no pain from the laser itself. While the laser was going, I was instructed to focus on a little orange dot. Sounds easy, right? Well consider that you can see (and smell) the laser vaporizing tissue from your cornea. It looked like a lightning show, but again, no pain. After 60ish seconds under the laser for each eye, my handlers lifted me up and asked me to read the clock.

I COULD READ IT!

My vision was not crisp or perfect by any means (read the differences between PRK and LASIK to understand why), but I could see orders of magnitude better on my way out of the big room dominated by the machine. After a minor post-op exam, I was sent home with a shield over my eyes that would have looked fashionable only inside a chemistry lab. The drive home was where my discomfort started. See, the doctor prescribed a smorgasbord of drops and pills, but not until after my surgery. As the drugs used to numb my eyes started wearing off, I felt quite a bit of discomfort. It was a combination of aching pain and what I can only describe as sand grit. Think about walking into a sand storm, opening your eyes for 30 seconds, and then blinking. It felt like that all the time. I kept my eyes closed with the seat leaned back and prayed for the pharmacist to fill those prescriptions rapidly. One tip, if you decide to go through with this surgery, URGE YOUR DOCTOR to give you the prescriptions BEFORE you have surgery so you can fill them in advance and take the pain medications as soon as possible.

I got home, laid in bed, and waited for the drugs. My doctor prescribed a pain medication as well as an anti-anxiety drug to be administered several times throughout the day—the primary goal being to sleep the weekend away. My eyes needed to rest and stay closed to promote healing and regrowth of tissue scraped away during the PRK procedure. I literally lost that weekend. I have only flashes of memories here and there and for the most part I slept.

The next week saw me getting my bandages out (basically clear contacts to protect the cornea) and slowly returning to work. How much time you should take off of work will vary with the kind of work you do. I would highly recommend taking a full week. I found it hard to read my computer screen during the first week of my recovery, and often had minor headaches that would test my concentration.

The most frustrating part of my recovery was waiting on my vision to improve. While LASIK patients dance around with 20/20 vision within a week, PRK patients take longer to get to the same level. When I used my clear drops, I could see a perfect 20/20 for a few seconds until my eye absorbed the medicine, and then it would go back to anywhere from 20/60-20/100. In fact, I couldn’t read the 20/20 line without correction until almost four months later—and even then it was blurry. I was paranoid about my vision problems, but just needed to be patient (as do you if you are reading this post-op). My vision improved week by week (it was hard to track daily improvements), and then month by month. Over the last four to five months, the improvements have been so subtle that I didn’t notice them until I spoke with my doctor and we reviewed my history.

I still have a few side effects that I am told will not clear up. I have trouble when light is shined directly in my eye or looking at bright objects when ambient light is low. Traffic lights at night have tiny starbursts around them. If I go to a concert with moving stage lights, I have a hard time seeing the stage when one of those lights moves over my face and near my eye line. I’m finally off my steroid drops (and the additional drops I had to use to keep my internal eye pressure under control), and I am now dealing with dry eyes. When my eyes get tired at night or dry, I don’t see a crisp 20/20—more like 20/30. My doctor told me that these could get better or even disappear over time.

So, was it worth it?

Every penny. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Even with the long term side effects, I can read 20/15, and recently read 2/3 of the 20/10 line at the surgeons office. During my recovery I would notice new things on a weekly basis, but the one thing that made the biggest impression on me was something that happened at 3am one night about a month after my surgery. I was sleeping on my side, facing my wife’s side of the bed and woke up. Wondering what time it was, I lifted my head up a bit to read the small clock on HER side of the bed. I instinctively looked at the clock that would allow me to move the least, and then I had one of those adrenaline fueled moments where I said (not aloud, wife would smack me), “Holy crap! I just read a clock that was six feet away from me in the middle of the night!”

Choosing your doctor is important. I would not choose a doctor that treats LASIK and PRK like an assembly line, and if you choose PRK you should ensure your doctor does plenty of those procedures. You want a doctor that will his time with you and focus on your needs. You will pay more for this, but it’s your vision! You elect to travel to find a doctor as well. Dallas has a high concentration of experienced refractive surgeons advertising prices anywhere from $500 to $3,000 per eye. Before booking your trip, make sure you talk to your doctor about how long you should wait before flying home.

I’ve been free of glasses and contacts for over a year now. It’s the little things that remind me of how cool this is. Things like opening my eyes under water while swimming, reading the clock in the middle of the night, and not being crippled when the tiniest spec of dust floats into my eyes. PRK may not be for everyone, but it was definitely for me.

Click here to listen to the audio: DFW to Boston High Approach

Transcript (in case you can’t pick up the conversation):

Pilot: Tower, American 1152, We’re a little too high, we’re going to break off the approach.

Tower: American 1152, Roger, climb and maintain three thousand, fly runway heading.

Pilot: Three thousand, runway heading, American 1152.

Essentially what has happened here is the pilot realized that he had too much altitude on his descent to the runway, and could not lose that altitude safely and within the operating regulations of his airline. So he called the tower to go around. He didn’t execute a missed approach here as he was on a visual approach. The main difference is that missed approaches have a specific flight path to follow and the pilot would let the tower know he is executing a missed approach. He would then, most likely, be handed off to departure as soon as he was not a factor to other planes the tower was responsible for directing. Since he was doing this visually, the tower had him climb to an altitude of 3,000 feet and maintain the runway heading as to not affect other arrivals or departures.

Tower: American 1152, fly heading 360, maintain three thousand.

Pilot: 360, three thousand, American 1152

Tower: American 1152, turn left now heading of 290, remain this frequency.

Pilot: 290 on heading, remain this frequency, American 1152

Tower: American 1152, 360 and just, uh, remain this frequency

Pilot: 360 and this frequency, American 1152

Now this part is standard vectoring around traffic and getting us set up to do the approach again. But it appears there was a slight miscommunication, or just some quick jogging as in a very rapid fashion the heading changed by 70 degrees.

Tower: American 1152 contact Boston Approach 133.0, Good day.

Pilot: 33 0 American 1152, Good day.

At this point, the tower needs to transfer our flight back to one of the regional approach controllers so he can focus on the incoming and outgoing traffic. And if I must say, in the original, unedited audio, this controller sounds REALLY excited when he clears someone for takeoff. I get a kick out of it every time.

Pilot: American 1152 back with you about… uhh. uhhbeddebydyyuh the ILS 27.

Tower: American 1152, Boston Tower, wind 320 at 19, Traffic is a CRJ, short final, runway 27, cleared to land.

Pilot: 27, cleared to land, American 1152.

Now we land.

Tower: American 1152, right on Kilo, contact ground, point niner.

Pilot: Right on kilo, point niner, American 1152.

Then we exit the runway, and contact a ground controller on 121.9.

Afraid to fly? Don’t be. Even with all the minor issues here, you can observe MULTIPLE safety nets that keep us all safe when we fly.

This was a very enjoyable flight for me for many different reasons. For one, I was able to share it with my cousin! Was awesome having Alex flying right seat. The weather was beautiful, and we had a reprieve from the crazy winds that we’ve seen in North Texas.

I also got to play with my new Drift HD170 camera and Panavise mount! Check out the video on Vimeo here. It’s a little bumpy while we are on the ground simply because the ground is BUMPY! The only runways I have ever landed on that were as smooth as glass were recently repaved ones like Stephenville (KSEP) or the north 1-2K feet of Denton (KDTO). I’m going to take another look at the mount that I am using to see if there is a potentially better option that might have a bit more cushion for the runway activities. Also, there is no intercom audio on this one because I was missing an adapter cable (should have read the WHOLE review), but that will be remedied for the next video!

We took off to the north and headed south east toward Dallas. I’ve learned that when the winds are from the north, air traffic around downtown Dallas gets pretty complicated. We had to do some circles outside of Addison’s airspace to wait for a path to be opened up for  us. Once we were granted in, we had to stay east and south of downtown Dallas (you can see in the video). I was OK with this because for some reason the G1000 was kicking out a strange error that I had seen before, but was not part of the normal operations. Apparently there are other conditions where you want to leave the fuel pump on (as opposed to following the checklist which instructs you to turn off the fuel pump in many scenarios). I found another screen that I can use to diagnose issues around fuel PSI that is not in the main engine readout on the MFD. Also would LOVE to figure out how to get that readout back on the PFD. Low fuel PSI did not negatively affect the FLOW of fuel, but I think it made the engine run leaner than it should have, and one of the cylinders started heating up a bit. Nothing that would have caused an unsafe issue because I had Dallas Love very close if we had an emergency, and flipping on the fuel pump immediately resolved the problem.

You will also see me using the autopilot a bit. If you can get set up on an altitude prior to entering ATC control, the autopilot absolutely helps from a workload management perspective. See me enter a heading change at 3:40 in the video when we were cleared over the top of DFW Airport.

If you are wondering why my right hand seems to eternally have a pen in it, it’s because I will write down instructions from ATC if they give me rapid fire details so I can read it back. When in congested, controlled airspace, it’s pretty critical to be on your toes and focused.

Anyway, great flight! Hope you enjoy the video!

Hinky Dinky Dee
One Riot One Ranger
Trad.; PD; arrangement by One Riot One Ranger; addtn’l lyrics by C. Williams

Paul Brown – banjo, vocals
Mark Gaskill – guitar, vocals
Peter Remenyi – resonator guitar, vocals
Chas Williams – mandolin, vocals
Mark Wyatt – bass, vocals
Engineered by Dean Imboden @ Rome Recording Studios, Columbus, OH
Produced by One Riot One Ranger

Listen on iTunes.

CHORUS:
What’s the man’s name Hinky Dinky Dee
Mighty bad man but he can’t catch me
Great big bag and a great big hoe
See him comin’ and away we go

Horse and a flea and two little mice
Sittin’ in a corner, shootin’ dice
Horse foot slipped and he fell on the flea
Flea says “BOO there’s a horse on me!”

[CHORUS]

Mandolin! (spoken during instrumental)

Hawk and the buzzard went to war
Hawk came back with a broken jaw
Hawk and the buzzard see the crow
Ain’t gonna go to war no more

[CHORUS]

Dobro! (spoken during instrumental)

Rabbit jumped up with a great big smile
Hound dog running a solid mile
Rabbit’s foot slipped and he said “Oh me!
I believe right now that the joke’s on me!”

[CHORUS]

Guitar! (spoken during instrumental)

Was an old man and he had a wooden leg
Had no bananas nor bananas could he beg
Saved all his money till he couldn’t save no more
Now he’s got bananas and a big banana store

[CHORUS]

Banjo! (spoken during instrumental)

Man took drink of milk one day
“Good ol’ cow!” is what he had to say
Man took cow and a dish and a spoon
And away they ran jumped over the moon

[CHORUSx2]

See him comin’ and away we go.

One week before this flight, Chris asks me how long it takes us to fly to the airport by her sister’s house (about 20 minutes) after she sat through some Friday afternoon traffic to get home. I said, I’d be happy to fly us as a family down there, but just remember that the amount of time will be pretty close to the same because we have to drive to and from the airport and pre-flight the plane. She said, let’s do it.

So we did!

This was the first time that we flew as a family where everyone was outside the womb. Payton flew once before when Chris was pregnant, but n0t since she would need her own headset.

We got to the airport, moved all of our gear into the DA-40, and got started! Unfortunately, Chris had to hold Garrett’s car seat on the way down because the seat was too large to allow me to fully control the yoke to fly the plane (which could be a very serious problem). Garrett sat right seat and enjoyed!

It was a busy day, and ATC vectored us around several areas of congested airspace and around other airports. We did not have clearance in to the class Bravo airspace on the way down, but did get cleared on the way back (FWS AFW DTO). I took FULL advantage of the autopilot so I could monitor the radios and watch for traffic (in addition to relying on the collision avoidance feature of the G1000).

We landed without incident, were marshaled in, and met the cousins outside the FBO. This was the first time that they saw a small plane, and both kids were crawling all over it while we unloaded our gear.

We loaded all the kids up in the van, waved Buh-Bye, and then headed our way back to the plane to get going! Upon takeoff, we saw the kids in the van and flew right over the top of them before heading back to KDTO. We went direct Alliance first, then direct Denton to avoid traffic. We landed on a very warm ramp, expedited our taxi off the active, and parked right back where we started just an hour prior.

Fun little flight, and my new audio cable works FANTASTIC!  See the video below!

Been about two months since the last flight in 4SG, and enjoyed this one as well! It’s not as sexy as this Eclipse 500 that was parked on the ramp next to US Aviation, but still lots of fun!

This flight had Ryan and Doug as my passengers and again we tried to make the run down to Tyler. One of these days, I’m going to get there! This time the weather was nice and VFR to the west and north, but all IFR like to the east. Even two hours later when it was supposed to be cleared up Tyler still showed marginal VFR to IFR conditions. That’s no fun.

So we decided to make a turn north and head up to Ardmore. I’d been there before, and was hoping we could grab lunch after landing. Turns out, The Blue Pig closed over eight months ago. DOH. And that airport was freaking deserted. One guy in the tower, three guys in the FBO, and a Snickers to fight over. So we talked to the guys there and they suggested we hit Gainsville and eat at Dieter Brother’s Restaurant. We took back off and headed south to Gainsville and had an interesting interaction with ATC. We were flying at 4,500 feet mainly because the run to Gainsville from Ardmore is only thirty-three miles (20 minute flight). We’re headed south and get the following call:

ATC: “4SG, traffic between 2- and 3-o’clock, eight miles, traffic is descending through 7,000 feet, type unknown.”

Me: “OK, we’re looking, but don’t have the target in sight, 4SG.”

Essentially what that communication was is a warning to me to avoid traffic that is not in the ATC system. Since there is no requirement to always stay in contact with ATC outside of controlled airspace, you might often run into another plane that is not in the system. At this point, we were looking but didn’t see him, and I looked down at my traffic avoidance system and noticed that it was not functioning (for some reason).

ATC: “4SG, traffic, now 2-o’clock, fife miles, traffic descending through 6,000 feet.”

Me: “We still don’t see him, do you want to give us some vectors to avoid, 4SG?”

ATC: “He’s not in the system, so I have no way to tell you what he is doing. Standby.” (ATC did not want to give me vectors in case it ultimately made things worse for us)

Me: “OK, still looking, don’t see him, 4SG”

ATC: “4SG, traffic now tree miles, descending through fife thousand, do what you need to do.”

That was a new one. I’ve never been given that instruction by ATC before, but I figured if he didn’t have a better option for me, it was time to climb over him and turn right to have him pass below and to our left.

Me: “OK, we’re going to climb over and turn right, 4SG.”

Right about the time we zoomed up 500 feet, I saw this guy. He was moving pretty fast, and possibly headed into the Sherman/Denison area, but would ultimately pass in front of us by about two miles.

Me: “FT. Worth Center, 4SG, we have the traffic in sight and he will pass in front of us. Won’t be a factor.”

ATC: “4SG, good to hear (could almost hear the ‘phew’ in his voice), maintain VFR, resume own navigation.”

Me: “Resuming own navigation, 4SG.”

After that excitement, things went pretty smoothly from then on out. Denton was VERY busy all day with the nice weather, but we didn’t have to hold anywhere on approach and landing. Nice flight!

After getting rated in the DA-40 with that beautiful glass cockpit, Cayce, Nancy, and I made a run down to Stephenville for some BBQ! The original plan was to go into Tyler, but low ceilings and en-route IFR conditions sent us west.

Initially, we had to hang close to the ground, which makes me very uneasy. We finally got a hold of a flight service station that helped us decipher the clouds we were looking at outside the glass. Sometimes clouds are an optical illusion, and you can’t really tell where the lines are until you are in the clouds. For someone not on an IFR flight plan, that can be terrifying and illegal! After we determined that climbing was acceptable, we shot up a few thousand feet.

We had some serious headwinds on the way down that turned into tail winds on the way back. 160Kts over ground on the way back is pretty fun! Makes for a very short flight.

We had some fun with ATC on the way back as we usually do at some point during the flight. We were cruising at 6,500 feet heading direct to KDTO from KSEP, several miles outside of the Class Bravo airspace (including the 30NM ring around KDFW), and we heard the following conversation from Ft. Worth Center:

ATC: “Eagle 1234: Traffic, twelve o-clock, fife miles, traffic is a Cessna at six thousand, fife hundred.” (At this point, I started looking around because any small plane is often entered into the ATC system incorrectly as a Cessna. Shortly after I started looking around I saw a blip pop up on my traffic avoidance system.)

Eagle 1234: “Roger, we’re looking but don’t see him yet, Eagle 1234.”

Two minutes pass.

ATC: “Eagle 1234: Traffic, twelve o-clock, tree miles, turn left heading 270.”

Eagle 1234: “Turn left, heading 270, Eagle 1234.”

At this point, I looked out the right side of the aircraft and saw the wingspan of an ATR-72 banking away and behind us, but coming up quickly from below. At this point, there is no way the pilots could see us because they would almost have to look through the floor to find us.

Me: “Ft. Worth Center, 4SG, we have that Eagle traffic in sight and he will pass behind us.”

ATC: “Roger 4SG, maintain VFR.”

Then a few minutes later that poor eagle flight got the call to re-intercept the intersection or point they were shooting for on their departure. So thanks to us, fully abiding by regulations, some poor schleps on their way to Abilene or something had to fly around us in our glorified lawn mower in the sky. It’s amazing flying in the system and watching all of the various elements of the air traffic system work to prevent accidents.

Was a great flight, and a great airport! Hard 8 in Stephenville is SO MUCH better than the one in Coppell.

• 85.9 total hours
• 248 Takeoffs/Landings
• 6.1 night
• 3.1 Simulated Instrument
• 27.1 Cross country
• 30.0 Dual
• 58.9 Pilot in Command

I have fallen in love with the DA40. Am going to enjoy flying this more!

It’s been a while since my last flight because I finally took the plunge and got PRK (like LASIK), and I have not turned back. My vision was so bad I could not see the big E on the chart, and now I’m seeing 20/25 uncorrected. There is still some healing and potentially an adjustment to be done, so by this time next year I hope to be seeing a very crisp 20/20.

FAA requires that you see at least 20/40 uncorrected to pass a Class 3 medical, so I got my forms signed off and I’m ready to go!

I needed to do a few things before I could just go nuts again. First, I needed to get my Biennial Flight Review done. This review is mandated by the FAA to include at least one hour of ground instruction and one hour of flight instruction. My flight instructor grilled me on the ground, and frankly, I learned a few things. For example, in a Class G airport, I could do touch & gos with a 1,500ft ceiling. Never thought about it that way because with clouds 1,500 off the ground I typically stay home.

But of course, I couldn’t make it that easy. NOOOOO. I decided to also get checked out in a new aircraft at the same time! The Diamond DA40 is the bigger brother of the DA20 that I have some hours in. But it doesn’t stop there! This plane also had a Garmin G-1000 glass cockpit, autopilot, AND a constant speed propeller, none of which I have ever flown before! Talk about making something that should be relatively routine a royal challenge!

The plane looks like its younger, sporty brother, but it sure does not feel like it. From the minute you sit down in the seats, you can tell that this aircraft is a well maintained, sporty little guy.

And really, not that little!

The useful load is comparable, if not better, than many of the 172s I have flown, and it cruises faster with similar fuel consumption! That glass is BEAUTIFUL. I found the interface very intimidating at first, but after working it a bit, I really love everything about it. I found that it was easy to monitor engine performance, and easy for navigation. It even has collision avoidance built in!

The constant speed propeller was another fun difference. It was almost like driving a standard transmission, but without hard/fast gears. After flying it and taking diligent notes on the ground, I am confident I can master this method in a very short period of time.

Oh, and the instructor messed with me. I’m flying along and all the sudden I notice the control stick becoming very hard to move. I looked out at the aileron and couldn’t see it responding either. I asked him what was going on, and he says, “Oh, I turned on the autopilot.”

THANKS FOR THE WARNING!

Autopilot was AWESOME. Holy moly. I could program in a course into the G-1000, engage the autopilot, and that’s all she wrote.  Very cool.

The last thing that was interesting was the amount of travel that the control stick had to do in order to complete my round out and flare for landing. It caught me by surprise. Still much lighter touch than a traditional yoke, but definitely quite a bit of travel to flare compared to the rest of my experience in flight.

Overall, LOVED flying this plane. Can’t wait to go back up!

Want to guess what it was?

Yep, it was the iPhone integration and XM Radio. I got back into my car after dropping off the Silverado and found myself wanting to tune to the 90s on 9, or Blue Collar Radio.

No such luck.

With the iPhone integration and iPod port, I could listen to all of my music that I normally carry with me and tune to it through the truck’s radio interface. No poking around the touch screen for me! And when a call came in, I could focus on the road, hit one button on the steering wheel, and solve whatever crisis the world had presented to me via the miracle of the Ma-Bell handheld transceiver.

Callers on the other end could tell I was in a car, but they said the audio was crisp, and it was not a challenge to hear or understand me at all. I truly do miss that feature, and even though my current vehicle has something similar, it is not set up for bluetooth, OR the iPhone integration. It makes me a very sad panda.

Thank you very much to the North Texas Chevy Dealers for letting me tool around in one of your trucks for a month!

Before I go any further, I should explain. I’m not just a run of the mill music listener. I didn’t major in music in college, but I did learn more than one instrument, spent six years of my primary education in band, and took a music theory class. Certain harmonies in certain situations give me goose bumps, but you can’t really feel the music unless it fills the space you are in.

If you ask the wife, she says (ok yells), “IT’S TOO LOUD! Turn it down!!” I, on the other hand, have it at a volume in which the space is filled with the music. It doesn’t hurt my ears, but I can hear all the tops, all the bottoms, and every middle tone quite clearly. Just means you have to turn it up a little bit.

That said, I have had a few situations where the stock speakers just won’t perform. Keep in mind, many entry-level stock speakers in any vehicle  are going to have this issue for me, and I would always opt to get a better speaker than the basic one. With the fantastic audio options that the sound system offers (XM, Bluetooth, iPod integration, Auxiliary audio jack, 36 available presets, CD), you need something additional to make the sound really jump.

This weekend is RACE WEEKEND! I’ll do a final Silverado post after that last lap is run.

But take that integration one step further and plug it into the integrated iPod jack. Now you can play back any kind of audio that you would normally listen to with your earbuds over the car! You can do this two ways. You can control the device directly through the radio and play music loaded on the device, or you can plug it into the auxiliary audio jack (takes a normal 1/8″ audio plug) and listen to Pandora or other programs that generate audio.

I’ve been playing with this feature almost every time I get in the truck, but I wanted to take it a step further.

iTunes with Truck from Branden Williams on Vimeo.

I decided to go from identifying a song to, buying and downloading that song, to finally listening to the song in the truck. I drove to one of the many Starbucks by my house and used Shazam to tag and identify the song that was playing in the store. Shazam identified it, and gave me an option to buy it on iTunes. $0.99 and three minutes later, we were listening to it in the truck! No more writing it down on a napkin and forgetting to buy it when you get home.

Instant gratification to the max!

How Big is the Bed (part deux) from Branden Williams on Vimeo.

OK, before I go into the list of things we fit in the back, how cool was that flyover? I couldn’t have timed that ANY better. I joked that I paid the Alliance tower controller $20 for the delayed start, but of course, that was not entirely accurate.

Now on to the cargo—that’s an impressive list of stuff! Here’s what we got in the back:

• Not one, but TWO kayaks
• A deer blind
• Sleeping bag
• Coleman stove
• Truck Tent
• Deer decoy

That’s quite a bit of gear to take with you on your next hunting or camping trip! The bed easily held all this gear, and could hold quite a bit more. You could even put the gear on the bottom and kayaks on top, strapped down to the bed of course.

Having this much cargo room is dangerous on the pocketbook!

It happens to the best of us, right? You rush to the airport and have every intention of writing down where you parked, or taking a picture, or making a song about your parking spot.

(Sung to Beethoven’s Fifth): Here is my caaaaaaar!  Near Gate C Eleveeeeeeeeeeeeen.

And of course I have NEVER done anything like that. Ever.

So here I am, leaving the Silverado somewhere on the second level of Terminal D, running to catch a flight. Usually I write my parking space down right away, but this day I didn’t. It became Future Brando’s problem.

Two days later I arrived back in Dallas, cursing Past Brando (that guy is a JERK), preparing myself for the long search for a white Silverado that my key starts. I decided to use the “Find My Truck” feature, also known as the “Press-The-Panic-Button-to-make-Car-go-BEEP” feature. One thing that I like about Chevy’s version of this feature is simply pressing the button (instead of holding it down) will make the vehicle beep and flash three times. Much less intrusive than the long beeps that you can never seem to stop, even standing right next to the car.

I lost my truck! from Branden Williams on Vimeo.

As you can see from the video above, once I got in range of the truck it dutifully told me exactly where I could find it. One thing I have found so far is the remote has a tremendous range. Other vehicles I have driven tend to be within about 30-50 feet before they start working, but I’ve been a good 100 yards, line of sight, to the vehicle and had it respond.  In that video, I am about 35-40 yards away when it started responding.

It’s a time saver!

Some fun notes:

• Watching the hosts transform from their first cup of coffee to morning host was cool!
• When I arrived in the green room, the Today show was on (oops)
• We got to see Danny Boyle (director of Slumdog Millionaire) from the green room, but he didn’t come in and say Hi.
• I did not eat any of the scrumptious food that was just off camera.
• The boot camp out in the plaza looked scary.
• The hosts were AWESOME.
• We didn’t get to take the trucks on the plaza, but we really wanted to.
• Even on a show like GMT, there will still be someone in the green room acting like a grumpus. It wasn’t me.

Check back soon for a post on how I found my truck at the airport, and another feature you need!

• Leather package: unless it was strictly a work truck. In that case, I’d stay with the cloth seats.
• Chevrolet Wi-Fi: making your car a hotspot is pretty sweet and convenient for those occasions where you are not near reliable, free Wi-Fi.
• Rear-view camera: for safety. If you go on the Silverado website, there is a version that is integrated with the rear-view mirror.
• Running boards: My wife is not very tall, and she would love a step.
• Crew cab: the extra room can be useful!
• ONLY if I had the crew cab, I would go for the optional center console.
• Power sliding rear window: seriously, how could you go wrong here?
• Lockable sliding toolbox: If you own a truck, you will often find yourself in a situation where something needs repair. A waterproof spot to keep some of your tools and roadside assistance kits is a must.
• For colors, definitely the Imperial Blue Metallic exterior with the Light Titanium interior to keep things cooler in the Texas summer.

What about things that might be nice like a bed liner? I am truly on the fence here on this one. If this was strictly a work truck, I would probably not bother. That said, a bed liner does come in handy when you are worried about scratching that paint or putting dings in the bed with a heavy haul. It also helps to keep cargo in the same place as you drive around town.

This certainly “Ain’t yo’ Daddy’s truck!”

Just looking over the downloadable Silverado catalog makes me salivate.

One note, I did find a bug in the software of the audio system as it relates to the iPod jack.  It made for a rather humorous situation, and I know exactly how to reproduce it. I was on the phone with my airline on the way to the airport, and was using the Bluetooth audio feature. I have an iPhone 4, and when you have lots of activity going on (on the phone, forgot to turn off Wi-Fi, screen backlit, Bluetooth enabled and in use) the battery can drain in an almost comical fashion.

I was about halfway through the call when the agent put me on hold, and I figured I would plug in the phone for a bit to top off the charge before hopping out at the airport.  When I plugged in the iPhone, I noticed that the hold music suddenly sounded different. I’m listening closely and I think I can hear some Third Eye Blind under the New Age Muzak. Surely my airline didn’t all the sudden feel like a cool ’90s kid.

When the agent came back on the phone, her hold Muzak was gone, but Third Eye Blind was still playing under her voice. Thinking it might be something with the bluetooth, I turned it off and brought the iPhone up to my ear, and was greeted with some classic Stephan Jenkins vocals so loud that I could not hear the agent any more. I wondered if the vehicle had just said “tell that fancy thing to PLAY” when I connected it, so I unplugged the iPhone and the music immediately stopped.

So until a patch comes available, be sure not to plug in your iPhone in the middle of a call made on Bluetooth.

In the meantime, ENJOY this beautiful Texas fall weather we are having!

Going to the Texas State Fair was a tradition in my wife’s family that she talks about every October. Ironically, we’ve known each other for more than ten years and this year was our first trip as a couple (with two kids in tow!) to visit Big Tex, the Midway, the auto show, the vendors, the livestock, and of course, Fletcher’s Corny Dogs.

We used OnStar to get us to the gate ((Check back later for a video of this.)), and pulled in to park. For all the great things about the Silverado, one thing I’m still getting used to is driving a vehicle with such a long wheelbase.  My Tahoe was the last vehicle I regularly drove with a long wheelbase, and I’m still getting used to the dimensions of the Silverado.  After all, I don’t want to return the beauty with a scratch on it!

Many of the parking spaces in Texas are wide enough to accommodate a truck with its doors open, but the parking at Starplex ((I don’t care what you call it, but I know it as Starplex!)) at Gate 10 certainly was not. Even still, we were able to get into the back seat without too much trouble and with zero dings to the car and truck next to us. I definitely could not open the back door all the way, but I was able to close the front door and had plenty of room to get the squids out.

Chevy was a BIG sponsor of the Fair. Right after walking through the gate, we were greeted to the Chevrolet Town Square, where we learned about child safety (do you know how long your squid needs to be in a booster?  Or the back seat?), looked at more Silverados (look at those sexy vehicles!), and could test drive any number of Chevy vehicles.

Just look at this interior! Our Silverado is not quite this nice, but only because we don’t have the wood trim, leather seats, and that center console. This layout looks more like a Tahoe or Suburban than a pickup.

We spent a good thirty minutes at the Chevrolet Town Square before heading into other areas of the Fair.

We were a bit early to the gate to both avoid the crowds, and accommodate my work schedule. I was worried that we would be standing around, but with all the activities at the Town Square, we had plenty to do!

After that we walked through several exhibits and ultimately to the auto show! Looking at all those new cars was quite a bit of fun, and Chris is becoming partial to the Buick Enclave.

Soon it was time for lunch, and then time to head home! Payton LOVES turkey legs! While I was gnawing on mine, caveman style, she kept looking at me saying “Please? Bite? Please? Bite?” For a little squid, she sure did eat quite a bit of it!

Enter OnStar’s Emergency Button! When I had my demo of OnStar at my North Texas Chevy Dealer, I learned that the Emergency Button isn’t just for when you spill your coffee ((Seriously, don’t use it for that.)), it’s also for lending help to your fellow man when they need help. I’ve now used this button twice, and aside from it feeling good to help out my fellow man, it is incredibly easy to complete the report.  In the video below, you will see that the entire conversation takes less than ninety seconds!

Being a Good Samaritan. from Branden Williams on Vimeo.

While this report was relatively minor in severity (a stalled car is not normally a big deal, but in a construction zone where you have two lanes and concrete barriers it can be deadly), the other report I reference in the video was much scarier.

We were driving on 121 South where 820 and 183 join in around the North East Mall (Hurst), and as we crested the hill from the southbound 183 ramp, we noticed that one of the overhead lights had fallen and was sitting in the roadway.  Normally, an obstacle that large would be easy to avoid, but it was sitting in the road RIGHT over the hill.  Drivers only had seconds to react before crashing into the massive kettle reflector.

Calling in that report was my first use of the Emergency button, and just like in the video above, I reported what I saw and how far behind me it was. The only way it could have been easier is if OnStar was implanted directly in my brain.

When I got the Chevy Silverado Extended Cab, I must say I was a little worried. When I started this adventure, I wanted to make sure my family got to take it with me. I opened the doors at my North Texas Chevy Dealer, and there was hope!  The rear-hinged back doors that are on both sides of the cab opened very smoothly and more than wide enough to move car seats in and out.

So I gave it a shot!

We loaded up the car seats, and headed out to dinner with PLENTY of room for all of us. In fact, the next night I piled three other adults in the cab and those sitting in the back were plenty comfortable!

But on to the car seats. In the video below, I loaded up both kids in the back seat so you can see how much room they all have:

Silverado Cab from Branden Williams on Vimeo.

I have yet to fill the cab or the bed up, but thatâ€s for a future adventure to Cabelaâ€s!

The Chevy Weekend Warriors campaign is being sponsored by your North Texas Chevy Dealers who gave me a 2011 Chevy Silverado, Texas Edition, to test drive for five weeks and blog about my experiences using the truck. The North Texas Chevy Dealers have given me some fun missions to go on and have provided me with gift cards to complete the missions.

For more information on the Chevy Silverado, check out the Silverado Website. Follow the Gotta Love Chevy DFW Facebook group, and check out Twitter at @chevydfw. Finally, follow all of the Chevy Warrior adventures by tracking the hashtag #chevywarriors!

Just a short one this time, but that’s what currency requirements do to ya! My next flight will most likely be my biannual check, sometime in the next few months. For this flight, just Garrett & I went for a ride.  It was extremely hot, so we just did a couple of rounds up at Gainsville and came back.

It was PRETTY busy at Gainsville, and there were numerous light aircraft between KDTO and KGLE.  I think this may have been the busiest airspace I navigated outside of a Class B so far.  Garrett enjoyed himself and grabbed the yoke once (don’t do that, please).

Pretty uneventful.  After my biannual, it will be off to see Springfield at F46!

Takeoff from KDTO was uneventful, though I input the tower frequency incorrectly so it took a double check on the radio with ground to make sure things were working well.  I received a report from ground initially that I was having audio issues.  Anyway, takeoff, and hand off to regional approach.  From there, cleared into Class Bravo.

On the climb out, two things started happening that derailed us a bit.  The first was an electrical problem that caused our Garmin 430 to go on the fritz.  The backlight was not working, and it also housed our primary navigation and radio control.  I quickly switched that off and went on backups, so no real issues there.  We did have some feedback issues with the primary radio, so I completely turned it off (as opposed to keeping the mic on COM2 and listening to audio on COM1/COM2). While this felt like a short or grounding issue, it also popped the main alternator breaker which basically stopped it from charging the battery while in flight.  While the ammeter was indicating a slow drain, we had most of the electrical systems off and it wasn’t until we were doing some radio transmitting (outside of Class Bravo) and flap adjustments that I noticed how serious the issue was.

A quick pop of the breaker back in and careful monitoring of the electrical systems showed that things were at least operating within tolerances, so we left it.

The second issue was carburetor icing in my climb out, which I have experienced only once before.  Yes, icing can occur in a carburetor when the temperature is as high as 70 degrees and it is humid outside.  We had both during our climb.  So we had to halt the climb while I turned on the carb heat to melt the ice.  It melted, we resumed our climb, and didn’t have any more problems once at cruise.

The landing at KSEP was by far my smoothest landing, ever.  I call it luck more than skill, but wow.  We parked and had Hard 8 pick us up.  We had a tight timeline, so it was a quick lunch and then back in the air.  Thankfully we the engine was not too cold and we had sufficient power to crank it over.  Takeoff and the return flight was uneventful.  TOO quiet.  I even called a normally busy regional approach controller just to make sure my radio was still working—a frequency that is usually very busy was dead quiet for a good ten minutes.

Landed and had the thing turned off with a good ten minutes to spare!  Though, crippled.

Regardless, had a good time and logged three landings and .8 hours.

Next, my kick ass right seat warmer James was back in town, so we took 8348M from DTO up for a spin around down town!  The airspace was pretty congested, so this was the first time I had to hold over White Rock Lake.  Like just do circles.  WHEEEE.  That was a nice 1.1 hour flight.  Just before that, I needed to get re-current with this rental facility and logged .6 hours with an instructor.  He was VERY happy with my proficiency, and pulled an engine out on my downwind.  Stuck the landing. Total of four landings with those two flights.

I have some video from our downtown trip, so when I get some time I’ll edit that together for you guys.

Been a while since I posted anything on the Mobile Blog, hasn’t it?  Well, as per the usual, I was totally ahead of my time.  Then Twitter and Facebook exploded in popularity and mobile usability.  I don’t like doing things twice, so now all of my mobile pictures end up getting posted to my Twitter feed or Facebook page.  Those of you that were big followers of the Moblog know how to find me in those areas, so just expect to find them there!

Course, I won’t feel like a fighter pilot either, but oh well.

Anyway, easy quick flight.  Did a tour north of Alliance and came back to land.  We both had stuff going on that afternoon so an extended tour was not an option.  Here’s a video of me on final!

James & Brando and the DA20! from Branden Williams on Vimeo.

Today was a quickie to get checked out on North Texas Aero’s new DA-20!  I went with an instructor to learn all about this fun little aircraft.  It’s larger than the SportStar, but smaller and faster than the Cessna 172.  It also has a center stick like the SportStar, but was much easier to fly.  It has a few quirks in the mechanics of how it flies, but nothing that was not easy to conquer.

We did the standard maneuvers, including slow flight, steep turns, stalls, and engine out procedures.  I made my field quite nicely, though traffic made us cheat a little bit.  We had to continue past where the instructor wanted to do the engine out, and wouldn’t you know he had me set up on a HUGE green field.  It’s not uncommon to find farmland, but it is uncommon to find such a large patch without any obstructions.

Then it came time to practice landings.  There was a 10kt, 20° crosswind component gusting to 19kts.  Now, those of you that have flown with me know that I do well in high wind situations. Today was no different.  SMOOTH AS GLASS BABY!  I promise you, if it was calm air I would have botched them for sure.

Odd quirk about my piloting skills.

Anyway, did a few of those, dodged all of the 172s pulling banners over the Texas Motor Speedway, a few helicopters, and headed back home.  Pretty solid showing today!

Flying with Cayce from Branden Williams on Vimeo.

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Update (8/1 @ 8am)… SPOKE TOO SOON!  ARGH.  This is unbelievable.  I must have some kind of magical RF blocking technology in my house that is not letting the signals make it all the way back to my office.  It might be time to do some creative cable routing………

Update (8/1 @ 10am)… Maybe have a workaround.  Rerouted some cables and have the console higher in the closet… stay tuned.

Update (8/1 @ 5:30pm)… Still having reception issues, even with rebroadcast.  Apparently there is some crazy stuff going on in the closet.  Tomorrow I will route some cables from one room to the next through the walls and see if I can get a connection from the console that seems to have good reception.

Update (8/2 @ Noon)… Been up routing cable in the attic.  I always remember how much I hate fiberglass insulation AFTER I get down.  Ugh.  Half of the cables are routed, other half requires me making noise near a sleeping baby.  I may be dumb, but I’m not THAT dumb.  Hope to have a fix in the next 2 hours.

Update (8/3 @ 9am)… Wade is going to help me get cables punched down correctly.  Tomorrow maybe.

Update (8/4) @ 7pm)… So you are NOT going to believe this.  SOMEHOW, the channels of our baby monitor overlap with the weather station.  Both in the 900MHz range, and that’s the damn problem.  Thanks to Davis for helping me figure it out!  Now I just need to figure out the right combination to reduce the signal->noise ratio.  Expect some funny readings over the next few days.

You saw the first one, here’s another one!

Brandoâ€s Morning Power Shake, Part Deux

• 2/3 to 1 cup 0% Horizon Organic Milk (6-9g protein)
• 1-2 scoops Strawberry Impact Protein by Chicago Nutrition Company (24-48g protein)
• 1/2 Banana
• Small handful of fresh blueberries
• Handful crushed ice

Drop in a blender and mix until mixed well.  You can substitute frozen blueberries to give it more of a slushy feel.

Over the last month or so, Garrett has a one word response to pretty much everything you say.  I never thought that the power of one word would cause Chris’s blood pressure to go up 10-20 points at dinner as she looks at me screaming “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!”  What’s that famous word?

“Why?”

Us: Garrett, please put your dishes away.

G: Why?

Us: Because that’s what we do when we are done with our meal.

Us: Garrett, it’s time to go inside.

G: Why?

Us: Because we need to eat dinner, take a bath, and go to bed.

G: Why?

Us: Because you need to go to sleep so you can rest for tomorrow.

G: WHY?

Us: Garrett, STOP RUNNING.

G: Why?

Us: Because I said so dammit! (At this point I saw pigs flying by our window after realizing I just turned into my parents.)

If this is any indication of how his formative years will be spent, I expect him to be challening the Man as often as he can.

GREATEST. INVENTION. EVER.

Holy crap, if you are a photographer, this is a MUST HAVE accessory for your camera.

Camera straps are something that most of us don’t think about… until we are using them. For starters, most camera straps proudly announce both the camera make and model, screaming “STEAL ME” from your neck and shoulder. Specifically, the new 5D Mark II from Canon says this.

Note to Canon: I understand you are proud. I am a proud owner of that magnificent piece of machinery, but seriously, everyone hates those “My kid is an honor student” bumper stickers just like we hate advertising how much we spent on the electronics slung across our shoulders. Some of us even go as far as blacking out the model number imprinted on the body, and others use duct tape and other tricks to make their cameras look like beat up hunks of junk to deter theft.

I immediately threw that camera strap away and purchased a generic one, and hated it just like I have hated every other camera strap I have attached to a camera I have used. In the field, using a camera strap is awkward even if you are only carrying one camera. Do I put it around my neck and support the whole weight of my camera in a manner that would make my chiropractor disown me? Do I put it over my shoulder and risk it falling off? How do I grab that thing and get it up to my face so I can see through the … damn… viewfinder.. ARGH.

Screw that.

The R-Strap series from BlackRapid is GENIUS. Here’s a video demonstrating how it works.  This strap allows you to put the weight across your core, and you can pick the camera up off your hip for super quick shooting without adjusting anything.  It’s the basic Ronco “Set it and forget it!” mantra.  You get it situated on your body, and just shoot.

I found it to be very comfortable to wear, and walking around even at a brisk pace did not cause the camera to swing around.  I suppose running would be an interesting thing to watch, but I don’t feel like trying that out.

The best part about this strap?  It makes me want to carry my camera around!

Thank you BlackRapid for this fantastic product!

At my standard ten miles out, I contacted Spinks Tower and informed them of my intentions. The controller asked me to report a left downwind for runway 34L. Right about this time, I noticed some heavy rain in the area. Nothing at the airport, but within a few miles of the runway. No thunderstorms or convective activity either. Just some spots of heavy rain.

Heavy rain looks funny from the air. When you are sitting at ground level or driving, heavy rain makes you wet and reduces your visibility. We’ve all been in those situations where you are driving down the road and come up on a heavy rain shower. We have to slow down, maybe put the wipers on high, and squint to see as much as we can.

The difference from the air, is that you can actually see rain falling at altitude (like Springfield & I did a while back) from a distance, and you can also see the areas on the ground where heavy rain affects visibility.

Or rather, you CAN’T see them.

Where trees and roads should be, just a grayed out splotch exists… even if you are below the cloud deck. It’s very strange, and while I had good visibility of the runway when I finally did reach the downwind leg of my approach, those splotchy areas were getting closer to the airport and were easily within two miles now.

The controller called me and said that there was rain in the vicinity of the airport, but nothing actually AT the airport. Based on where I was in the pattern, I was confident that I would make it down before any of that massive rain came my way.

I was correct!

As I was turning base, I heard a noise I had never heard before in the cockpit. It sounded like the “Tic-Tic-Tic” of tiny sleet on a window. I looked up and noticed little rain drops on the window. Still had great visibility, noted the rain, and turned final. Landing was uneventful, and once I was on the ground and clear of the runway, the tower had me contact ground control to taxi over to the FBO. Once we were there, and totally shut down, the rain picked up. Finally made it to the airport, but not the blinding rain that I was seeing from the air. Heavy rain for sure, but still with enough visibility to be VFR.

After the rain subsided, we picked up Uncle and did a flying tour of Mansfield. Then decided to do a couple of touch & go’s at Arlington, and finally headed back to Spinks.

After a bathroom break for the little one, it was time to head back before any more rain decided to pop up! We gave hugs, then got out of Spinks, heading to 52F. The flight back was uneventful, though I noticed that about 10 minutes after I landed, the other 172 from the flight school landed in the wrong direction with a slight tail wind. The runway at 52F is only 40 feet wide, and 3,500 feet full length.

NOT a lot of room for error. In fact, according to the NTSB, no fatalities have happened since 2004, but there are six accidents on file (one of which is that other SportStar), four of which are landing accidents. No incident occurred, but man, you gotta be careful about that stuff.

Anyway, good flight even if I didn’t climb over three thousand!

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