Composite airplane check ride

The Robin

The Robin

The flight with Andreas in the Porsche powered DR400 just served to remind me that I really want to FLY an airplane. The club rules (and common sense) prevented Andreas from allowing me much pilot in command time in the Robin. The flight sated my desire to see the world from the air but did little for my need to rock the wings. With my German constantly getting better I found a general aviation club based right at Stuttgart airport. Stuttgart is a pretty good sized class C airport where GA planes share the single runway with the big boys. Seemed like a good place to get the feel of German air traffic.

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Justice, where is it?

Nothing but clouds since I received my Private Pilot Certificate. My father-in-law is in town and I would like to take him flying. Astonishingly, my brother-in-law has said it would be okay to take my fourteen year old nephew up (he loves maps and flying over his neighborhood is going to be great). I would like to take Nell for a flight… and maybe the boys. I am set for a flight to Las Vegas on Thursday in a Diamond DA40. It’s a full glass panel and it will be a good demonstration of what having a little plane for the Vegas trips would be like. Adam returns on Wednesday and we’re trying to plan some sort of airport-hopping trip to build some time and get used to cross-country navigation.

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Junkie Thoughts

Directly after getting my license I left for a three week data collection trip to the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart. I thought perhaps I would look into getting a flight while I was away. Nothing pressing you understand, not like an addiction, just an understandable desire to observe differences in customs. I made it through three days before I was surfing the web trying to find possibilities. At first it seemed there were no airports in Germany save the one I arrived at. Then, when I found airports I could not find FBOs. Turns out a lot of this problem was due to my not speaking German well enough to understand what I was reading. Eventually I found the resources for not one, but three flights, each a completely different experience. I think I can hold out ‘til I get home to fly again, but that is only because I am flying right away when I return.

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View from the Little Window

Could have been Oops

Could have been Oops

On my way up to Paso Robles to take my flight test I decided to hold the Elph out the little window to circumvent the problem of shooting through scratched plexiglas. A piece of advice: hold very tightly to your camera if you try this. There is a good deal more wind than you might suppose and I nearly lost the camera. That would have been typical.

By way of a short follow up to my previous post on the test: the story of a flight log. My grandfather’s enlistment in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps for the tail end of the First World War was a major source of entertainment for me as a child. There were photos to be examined, letters to be read, and most interesting of all a small yellow book with a leather clasp that contained all his flight data. A log book from the First World War probably only counts as an historical document in my melodramatic mind, but I got a real thrill as I flew up to Paso Robles knowing it was in my pocket. The last time that book left the ground in a single engine airplane, the plane was slow, ungainly, fragile and well armed. I made shooting noises as I flew up. Several planes took damage from my bullets, along with some farm houses and a VOR.

When I passed the test I asked the examiner to sign me off in my grandfather’s log as well as my own. Colin just had the same examiner sign the log for him. Hopefully I will not have to pry the book from his fingers as it is one of my treasured possessions.

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Second Judgement

Launch!

Launch!

It was a great flight up to Paso Robles. A little over two hours in the air. All the things that I love about flying. Dramatic paths cut through the clouds, an entirely different view of the way the weather lies on the land, a view all around the broad circular band of the horizon.

Following my virtual lines in the sky, drawn by the clever technology of radio transmitters and recievers, I scooted up the coast, past Santa Barbara and over the mountain range between the coast and the first part of the desert basin. Paso Robles sits on this plain, between the wet of the coast and the dry of the desert.

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Two Pilots

On the way up

On the way up

I passed. I now hold a Private Pilot certificate and the United States Government says that I can carry passengers in a small, single engine airplane which lands on terra firma (as opposed to the water).That’s the important thing. The truth is a long story. There’s a story for the way up (I forgot to bring a check, Nick forgot to give me the logs for the plane (but he wrote a check for the examiner, so I forgave him), and I saw a missile launch as I went past Vandenburg Air Force Base. Continue reading

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One Day Left

I flew yesterday at 10am. Eventually Adam and I will get around to describing our primary instructor, Bob Delleo. He’s a fairly strict guy and has exacting standards. That’s been, at times, very frustrating (and demoralizing) when taking a lesson, but from my reading it sounds like it makes for a better pilot. Your first instructor’s voice is in your head for a long time, so it should be a really helpful voice. Bob’s is.

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Freedom

The ADIZ is a special zone of airspace around Washington DC. The Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) is huge. It was meant to be temporary and was defined in February of 2003 when, well, I guess we were scared. Now they are talking about making it permanent. Continue reading

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On the way to Judgement in 777VP

judgement

Looking to Pass

I am not by nature suited to the rigor and attention to detail that is part and parcel of scooting about the sky without a chaperone. I am just not the detail guy. Big picture, fact bank, rapid extrapolation from known situation, sure, but always remembering to turn on the carburetor heat before landing in a Cessna 152 but not in a Piper Cherokee? Not my thing. So, I am a checklist guy. I mumble the checklist aloud to myself for each situation. Usually I have to have the damn thing in my hand. My big transition was leaving it the plane during the walk around. This cavalier attitude makes me nervous since I have already flown off into the wild blue with the key to the plane stuck in the cargo door. How do you miss that? Continue reading

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Adam's First Post

Adam with N777VP

Adam with N777VP

There is nothing more intimidating than following my brother. Whether it was rollerskating down steep hills or leaping off a speeding motorboat to see what it felt like, there is a little sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that is the fear of looking foolish. Especially in comparison. Following his writing is worse than trying to follow his driving. I have not his way with words, but there is a story to tell and I am the older (though less mature) brother.

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