Arty Trost, January 31st, 2012
After a week at Oshkosh, we were ready to head home. The first day out, we had a steady headwind of about 6-10 mph and averaged 60-65 mph over the ground. (At least that's what Wayne and I did - Bob as usual zipped along much more quickly.) My Talon was so perfectly trimmed out that when I was trying to remove one sectional from the rubber bands around my right thigh (the way I keep my sectional in sight in my open cockpit aircraft) to get to the underlying sectional and both sectionals suddenly sprung free - I grabbed for them, totally taking both hands off throttle and stick. Caught them - and suddenly realized that the plane was just flying along straight and level with absolutely no rudder or stick inputs. Yeah! Read More >>
Posted in LSA, Ultralights, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Kristen Seaman, January 23rd, 2012
It was a cold morning at 8 am when my coworker, who is also a CFI, and I headed out to the Piper Archer we were going to fly to breakfast. Our destination was Kitty Hawk Restaurant in York, PA.
Our first step was to defrost the plane, which had developed a thin coating on every surface. The nozzle on our glycol tank was broken, so my coworker ended up pouring the glycol onto the wings and tail and we used cloths to spread it along the leading edges and as many surfaces as we could. Unglamorous as it sounds, I knew how important this was to do, especially with my aviation weather background (although at school in Florida, frost was not a common issue). As my coworker described it, the plane looked like an orange slushy, but she deemed it safe to fly and we began the pre-flight inspection. She showed me her process, which involves starting at one wing, checking the fuel, and making her way toward the propeller, other wing, tail, and back to where we started. Everything looked good and I hopped into the left seat, while she climbed into the right. Read More >>
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Certification, Private, Training | 6 Comments »
Arty Trost, January 20th, 2012
What can I say about Oshkosh- the largest airshow in the world? (Although the sponsoring organization, the Experimental Aircraft Association, calls it AirVenture, everyone calls it Oshkosh.)
First, there were planes, planes and more planes. People come to see the planes, and there were thousands of planes. I heard that over 10,000 planes fly in and during the week it is the busiest airport in the world! Hundreds of RVs (the planes, not the camping vehicles,) hundreds of Cessnas, hundreds of everything, it seemed. Read More >>
Posted in LSA, Ultralights, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Jason Miller, December 14th, 2011
One of the things I find consistently more difficult as I gain experience flying is maintaining the diligence I know is required to maintain safety. I believe in standard operating procedures. I practice them and I teach them. I’m a full time professional CFI, after all, so most of my flight time is in an instructional environment and yet I still find that my procedures continually need tweaking and improvement. I most often fly in the training environment, one in which we have the luxury of always choosing the safest option. There is no training mission that HAS to be flown ... there are very few external time pressures ... we follow protocol every single time (as a matter of training as much as maintaining safe operating procedures). Read More >>
Posted in Training | 1 Comment »
Evan Krueger, December 13th, 2011
My GPS track from Carbondale to Dyersburg
For my first night cross-country of this semester, my instructor and I flew to Dyersburg airport in Dyersburg, Tennessee. I spent the hour before the flight preparing for my first night flight in over a year. I made sure that I had my flashlight and an extra set of batteries. I also was reading up on the newer 2003 Cessna 172R. This would be the first time I would fly the newer 172 and although they aren't incredibly different, it’s important to know about the differences. The biggest difference between the new and old models is that the newer R models are fuel injected instead of carbureted. While this means that carburetor ice is now impossible, the downside is that the aircraft are a bit more complicated to start. Little changes included inertia real seat belts and strobe lights. Overall, the R models are nicer. Read More >>
Posted in Airplanes, Training | No Comments »
Arty Trost, December 13th, 2011
Landing at EAA AirVenture on Monday, July 26 was SUCH a thrill! The largest air show in the world!
The turf runway slowed me down nicely and as I taxied up to the “gate” to the ultralight area, a volunteer sped up on a small scooter. Unfortunately, I had no way to alert the helpful volunteers that my brakes had failed 4 days previously and I hadn’t been able to fix them. He came a little too close to my wing, probably assuming that I’d brake, and I promptly took off his left mirror! Lots of apologies all around, and then I had lots of folks helping me push the Talon to a parking spot near Bob and Wayne. (There’s a strict “no engines on” rule in the tie-down area.). Read More >>
Posted in LSA, Ultralights | No Comments »
Evan Krueger, December 5th, 2011
Now that the Thanksgiving break has come to a close, it’s time to get back to business. With a mere three weeks left in the semester, there is a lot of flying to be had with little time to have it. Although the break was meant for relaxation, I managed to get some flying in (not to say that it wasn’t relaxing!). It occurred to me earlier this year that in the two years I’ve had my pilot’s certificate, my family had never flown with me. I felt sort of guilty since they had provided me so much support during my initial training. I asked my sister, Jessica, if she would like to get lunch with me on Black Friday. We set a departure time of 10:00 am so we could both participate in the crazy Black Friday crowds. Read More >>
Posted in Aviation Lifestyle, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Steve Tupper, December 5th, 2011
I'm at the 2011 annual convention of the International Council of Air Shows at Paris Las Vegas. It's an annual gathering of almost everyone who matters in the airshow industry. The image above is from the welcome reception last night. ICAS is always festive. It's a reuinion of really good friends who might not see much of each other over the course of the year. Or, if they do see each other at airshows, everybody's working and there isn't time to catch up. Read More >>
Posted in Aerobatics, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Arty Trost, November 29th, 2011
Leaving Wyoming was such a relief! We were tired of fighting the wind, high density altitude, (12,500’ DA over Cheyenne) and taxiing 10 minutes for take-off on 10,000’ runways. Although the hills of South Dakota were gnarly, there was a feeling that we’d left the worst behind. Read More >>
Posted in LSA, Ultralights | No Comments »
Steve Tupper, November 16th, 2011
On Sunday 6 November, I rode along with The Hoppers, a four-ship team that flies the Czech-built Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatross. It was a one-day practice session that took place at various airports across northern Illinois. I shot the team’s promotional video over the course of two days at the Battle Creek Field of Flight Airshow and Balloon Festival in July. It was overcast with low visibility both days for the initial shoot. Read More >>
Posted in Aerobatics, Training | 2 Comments »
After a week at Oshkosh, we were ready to head home. The first day out, we had a steady headwind of about 6-10 mph and averaged 60-65 mph over the ground. (At least that's what Wayne and I did - Bob as usual zipped along much more quickly.) My Talon was so perfectly trimmed out that when I was trying to remove one sectional from the rubber bands around my right thigh (the way I keep my sectional in sight in my open cockpit aircraft) to get to the underlying sectional and both sectionals suddenly sprung free - I grabbed for them, totally taking both hands off throttle and stick. Caught them - and suddenly realized that the plane was just flying along straight and level with absolutely no rudder or stick inputs. Yeah! Read More >>
