Haven’t been up in a while…

That Pilatus trip back on January 22nd was the last time I have flown.  It’s not the longest time I’ve gone without getting up there, but it’s close.  At a little over a month now, I need to get in the air this week.  I told Brit last night that I needed to.  She said “Go ahead!  You need to.  I’m not stoppin’ ya.”  I think I will go flying this week sometime, but I’d like her to come with me.  We’ll see how time works out this week or weekend.

Until then…

Pilatus PC-12 trip

January 22nd, 2008…

I was asked to crew (SIC) the Pilatus PC-12 on a trip for the family that owns the airplane on a trip to Mason City, IA.  We picked up our pax at St. Louis Lambert (KSTL), the we were off to Mason City.  It was cold in St. Louis, but Mason City was a freakin’ ICEBOX!!  So cold, that after the airplane sat outside for 5 hours, the battery had gotten low enough, that it wouldn’t turn the turbine over 9%.  Won’t start.  We had to get a power cart for the start, and got on our way.  Dude, it was cold.

Flew a Glasair II FG

January 12th, 2008…

I’m getting pretty close to being current with my posts in this blog…just a few more to go.

On this day, I was invited to fly a friend’s Glasair II FG. This is the fixed gear version of the slick Glasair II. What a ride this thing is!! You almost lay down in the cockpit, feet straight out in front your waist to the rudder pedals. It felt weird, but I suppose one gets used to it after a while. I’m glad my RV is not seated this way however…

The airplane flew BEAUTIFULLY, and is VERY responsive. We did some gentleman’s aerobatics consisting of rolls and loops, and another manuever that I can’t remember the name of. It was fun. I would say that it is more sensitive in pitch than the RV’s, but the RV’s have a better roll rate.

Mark has a smoke system in the airplane, and he laid a smoke trail down the runway at Pontiac, then I took the control’s and flew it down to my friend Doug’s house. I laid a smoke trail down his runway…only to find out later that he wasn’t even home!! It was fun anyway.

After another loop or two, I was feelin’ green so we headed back to Bloomington. I didn’t get sick, but I was certainly done with the upside-down thing. Here’s a video of the last two rolls…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dswioZkc26c

Cool beans!

Night currency

November 29th, 2007…

I’ve been out of night currency for quite some time, so I thought I’d jump in one of the two seat Diamond DA20’s to get three to a full stop in.

I ended up making it a bit more of a fun early evening/sunset flight than just night currency.  I took off just prior to sunset and headed down towards Lincoln (KAAA).  On my way, I flew over Jack’s house to say hi, then proceeded on.  Lincoln is about 30 miles south of Bloomington.  I learned to fly at this airport, so everytime I come back to it, I really enjoy it.  My sister and brother in law live in Lincoln as well, so I flew over there house, then landed.  It was now dark, officially.

I took off again, and headed back to Bloomington for a few more landings.  No one was flying in or out of Bloomington at that time, so I asked the tower for use of any runway to practice night crosswind landings.  The winds were light at 7 knots at the surface, but blowing quite a bit more at pattern altitude and on down final.  A good crab angle, then wing low for the flare.

That was a nice evening.

No more King Air

Well, as it turns out, my last flight in the King Air happened on October 11th, 2007. The airplane has been sold…and I did it. I sold the airplane to a group in Canada. My company says we will replace it, but it will surprise me if they actually do. Bummer.

Back to just selling airplanes, with the occasional trip in the Lear or Pilatus…