AOPA Pilot Blog: Reporting Points

AOPA Pilot Chief Photographer Mike Fizer photographed Cessna’s new Skycatcher above San Diego Tuesday night. This was the last of two formation flights I flew with Cessna test pilot Dale Bleakney. I also did a review flight during which I got a demonstration of proof that the spin problem is fixed. Bleakney cross-controlled it (full aileron, full opposite ruder), stalled it, and was still able to maneuver left, right, under perfect control. Then he had me do it. No problem.

We had a variety of light on our air-to-air led by a Cherokee Six. Rain clouds, rainbows, lenticular clouds piled 11 layers high over the mountains east of French Valley Airport (45 miles north of San Diego), and finally, night.

Turns out the Canon 5D can also capture still photos in very dark conditions. His camera was mounted to a multi-thousand-dollar gyrostabilizer. When it’s running, the plane moves around it–not the other way around. You look at the camera and think it is bobbing up and down, but actually that is the aircraft moving around the stabilized camera. We’ll have articles out on the Skycatcher in a couple of months.

Mice thought they had a nice home when they settled in the alternate air intake of a 1968 Cessna 182. They didn’t count on the owner actually using alternate air. Read about it here.

All winter my wife and I watch what we eat, but all that resolve and co-discipline flies out the window during my first exposure to airshow food. Every year this takes place in Lakeland, Florida, at Sun ‘n Fun, the first big airshow of the year. There are just some foods that mark the beginning of the airshow year. This year I kicked off the show with an Italian sausage sandwich smothered in grilled onions and peppers. Not bad.

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