Halfway There

BFR time.

My last Biennial Flight Review was in November of 2007, so I've been trying to get a new one in the log book so that I can continue to exercise my Private Pilot privileges beyond the end of this month. I'd planned to fly it with my friend and CFI Travis, but his unexpected departure from DYL last month negated those plans. I'd also entertained the prospect of getting my tailwheel endorsement up at VanSant and having that count for my BFR, but after discussing it with Jay (the new FBO owner) we decided that it would be better to get the BFR done at DYL and then work on the tailwheel at my own pace. I'm budgeting 6-10 hours for the tailwheel and wasn't sure how quickly I'd be able to get it done, so I didn't want to be grounded with an expired BFR until that occurs. So, I met the new CFI at Leading Edge while on the ramp a few weeks ago and decided to jump on his schedule. We scheduled 10:30am to 1:30pm on Friday 11/20 for ground and airwork in N92789'er.

I woke up Friday morning to bright sunshine, clear skies, and calm winds. It looked like a perfect day to fly but a quick check of the TAF predicted otherwise. Winds were forecast to pick up mid-morning and get quite gusty as the morning progressed. Right on schedule, the wind speeds climbed and I closely watched the METARs as my BFR time neared. I got Doylestown at about 10am and parked near the departure end of Runway 5 to get my stuff together and reassess the weather situation. Automated weather was reporting winds 310 at 16G23!! Ugh. The windsock was pegged with almost a direct crosswind. I called for a formal briefing and was not surprised to hear that Airmet Tango was in effect through 03Z. The briefer repeated the winds for DYL at 310/16G23 and I also asked for our intended destination, TTN, which was reporting 330/13G19. Some quick calculations showed at +/- 22 crosswind component, which is well beyond both my personal and the aircraft limitations. I packed up and headed to the FBO knowing that I may not get to fly today.

Kian was ready and waiting for me. First question out of his mouth was "do you think we should fly today?" I quickly gave him the weather summary, shared my calculcations, and offered my opinion. In short, I told him that I would not launch solo into these condition. He got a big smile and said that I'd just passed the ADM portion of the BFR. Apparently, he too had no intentions of going flying, but was testing me. Off to a good start.

For the next hour and a half he grilled me on flying topics, interspersed with the occasional flying chit chat. Long story short, he's a young guy, recently ex-Piedmont Airlines pilot. Got tired of the schedule and saw furloughs on the horizon and decided to make a change. He's a wealth of information and is eager to share and teach. I think it will be a very good resource for me. I did well on the oral portion of the BFR, brushed off a few cob webs, and learned some new things.

We decided to try to fly again this Friday and booked 789'er from 12 - 3. Long range forecast looks decent. Will be closely watching in the coming days to see how things progress.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I think I'm going to do it...

Tailwheel. Yep. I'm going for it!

This has long been a dream of mine. My non-equity prospects have dried up. I'm in grad school through August so pursuing the IR in earnest right now is probably foolish. And our recent house appraisal was shocking and disappointing so now's not the best time to dive into full share ownership. I think that the tailwheel time might be the perfect way for me to do something new in flying without a huge financial or time commitment. Plus, I'm certain that it will help improve my technical skills.

My BFR expires at the end of November and I'm budgeting 6-10 hours for the tailwheel. While the endorsement would qualify as my BFR, I realize that my schedule, the weather and turf condition (VanSant is grass) may make this a several-week process. I don't want to be grounded if I let my BFR expire, so my plan is to knock that out at DYL in the next few weeks and then get on schedule up at Van Sant.

I was up there this morning and the place just overflows with classic airport charm. Bud was working the FBO desk at the new Vintage Aero and very graciously let me go snoop around the hangar. All I can say is "wow!" I had Delaney with me, and she and I cracked the big metal hangar door and peeked inside. Utterly amazing.

The photo below does not do justice to the collection of aircraft in the hangar at Van Sant. For the next 20 minutes she and I respectfully gawked at the planes. On this quiet, rainy, windy morning, Delaney and I stood alone in this hangar surrounded by flying time machines. Even she seemed to sense the significance of the moment. It was quite an experience.

We left as quietly as we'd entered, pulling the huge hangar door closed to keep out the howling winds. I am excited to return, hopefully next time behind the controls of the J3.

Beautiful Flying Weekend

Wow! What a perfect flying weekend. Mild temps, light breezes and abundant sunshine. Doesn't get much better than this in the Northeast in November.

Despite a to-do list that is out of control, I managed to squeeze in 0.8 in N94006 on Saturday morning. Had initially planned to fly to PTW and then home via a low approach at Van Sant (no grass in the rental). Saturday morning I thought I'd change the plans and make a stop at N10, but a briefing for busy jump operations made me decide otherwise. In the end, I just decided to sight see. I flew up and over Van Sant at 1000' above TPA and then just took my time coming home across the north end of Lake Nockamixon and then over Lake Galena before joining the pattern at Doylestown.

I knew the weather would bring people out of the woodwork to go flying, and tried to get airborne on the earlier side of the day. I was also exhaused from work and school this week so I didn't do a dawn patrol. I had a reservation from 9:30 - 11am, but got there around 9am. Temps the night prior had dropped to about 28 and there was still frost on the cars when I left, so I drove to the airport fully expecting to have to de-ice. Much to my delight, the sun had worked it's magic and 006 was frost-free when I preflighted. Leading Edge wasn't pre-heating on Saturday so I primed liberally and let her idle for a while before taxiing to the hold short line. Take off and climb were nice and smooth and the old 152 didn't do badly in the cool morning air. Radio was busy and almost immediatley I was looking for traffic. Lots of back and forth with other guys sharing the airspace but everyone's position calls were clear.

On the way home from Nockamixon, I cruised in via Lake Galena with the intent of entering the pattern on an extended crosswind. Just as I made the call, a twin Cessna inbound from the west announced his intent to also enter on the crosswind. Knowing that he further out but much faster, I initiated and called a 360 for spacing, for which he thanked me. This is where it gets interesting. I flew the 360 and re-established the extended crosswind, announcing the whole way. Just then, I see a small high wing (TriPacer, I think) climbing out on the upwind between myself and the twin Cessna. No biggie, I know the plane and believe he flies NORDO. But hot on his tail is a red and white RV. Mind you, the twin Cessna and I have been making clear position calls and the RV called his departure so I know he's on the radio. He takes off and climbs like a bandit aiming right for me! I call my position and ask him to confirm that he has me in sight... no reply. I expedited my turn to downwind and he climbs out behind and below me. By this time there's also a Mooney that is following me on the crosswind, whom this renegade RV cuts between. I call the midfield downwind because now I can't see the RV, and the Mooney gives me a head's up that the RV is very close. "Don't worry" the RV pilot now replies, we're departing to the SE. With that, he passes me from behind off my right wing at the same altitude! I made a sweet landing and probably could have made the first taxiway if I'd really wanted to. Cleaned her up and went around again. Another nice landing wrapped up a nice morning of flying.

Check out this picture. This plane landed gear up at Doylestown on Friday. I was told that is was not a mechanical failure, but simple pilot error. Apparently the guy was flying in for some sort of meeting with the local DPE. Bummer.

On another note, I'm thinking about enrolling in an Instrument Rating ground course at Doylestown in January. It's like $279 and runs two nights a week for a month. I haven't mentioned it to Kelly yet until I decide whether it's a good idea. Any thoughts? Anybody interested in joining me?

Van Sant Airport (9N1)

My plane is back on the rental line but the wx's been IFR for days. I needed some sort of flying fix, so I packed the kids in the car this morning and headed up to Van Sant. I have one landing at 9N1 in my logbook but that was about 5 years ago, so I thought it would be fun to stop by and take a look.

It's a great little grass strip airport, located only about 9nm from KDYL. This little gem is practially in our back yard. It has all the characteristics of a true, classic airport, including a turf strip. I've always wanted to get my tailwheel endorsement and just recently added it to my short flying to-do list.

The kids were sound asleep when I got to Van Sant so I wasn't able to go into the FBO to say hello. Seeing the grass strip in person got me motivated to pursue the tailwheel endorsement, and I called when I get home to get some more info on what would be required. Sadly, I was told that Sport Aviation is going out of business next week and the future of their planes and instruction is in jeopardy. They told me to call after November 1 to see if the J3 would still be available for instruction and rental.

I'm bummed but not totally surprised. I saw a post a few weeks ago on AirNav noting that the owner's retirement was imminent... just didn't imagine that it would happen this quickly. Keeping my fingers crossed that things remain as they are with the new owners. In the meantime, I've rekindled my interest in the grass. I have an upcoming BFR and may seek permission to work on the grass operations and take the plane into 9N1.

N92789

I found this old picture of N92789. This was taken in December of 1994, during a Discovery Flight that I took with my dad.

She's wearing a new paint scheme now but 789er's still working the rental line. This will always been one of those special planes because of this one flight.

Non-equity a No-Go

Dang, I knew I shouldn't have posted the pics and N number. I think I jinxed my non-equity deal.

After waiting almost a month, I called the owner today to follow up to my proposal. Not entirely surprising at this point, he pretty much said that they were still considering the arrangement but it wasn't looking good. I'm not entirely sure why because just a few weeks ago he seemed almost as excited as I did about it. I'm thinking it's probably likely that he expected my contribution to be a bit higher. I spent hours and hours massaging the numbers and solicited the opinions of many owners and pilots. Ultimately, I offered him four different options that involved varying degrees of fixed cost contributions, all of which had a cost to me (with fuel) in the low to mid $60/hour range. I currently pay $75/hour for the 152 so I had to keep my costs in this area because it wouldn't faciliate my path to ownership if I was paying more than the rental line rate, a point which I made clear to him from our first conversation. Plus, much as I'd like the convenience of the availability provided by the non-equity arrangement, I did have concerns about the awkwardness of handling squawks (despite the fact that he was contractually obligated to fix them).

It is what it is. He's still trying to sell and is asking 23AMUs. It's a 1969 C150J with TTAF +/-8000, SMOH +/-1200 with a TBO of 1800. Plane has one Narco Nav/Com, although he did say it was IFR certified when he bought it. It's not a bad plane by any means, but with a VFR panel, high TT, awful paint scheme, and a rental history I think the price is too much.

For comparison, this is the aircraft that I almost bought (and on hindsight, should have bought) last year. N53267 was owned by a long-time family friend so I knew the plane well. My price at the time was also 23AMU. Plane was a 1979 Cessna 152, I think TT was in the low 3000s, NO RENTAL HISTORY, full IFR panel and current cert, engine was nearing TBO but compressions were good. I didn't have my financial ducks in a row and the plane was rushed into a pre-buy and ultimately crated and shipped to India. I think my friend actually got like $27k for it.

So, assuming that the motor mounts get fixed on N94006, it looks like I'll be staying on the rental line for the forseeable future. Could be a good thing, I guess. This may force me to get my finances in order and pursue a purchase in earnest. I'd love to find a partnership, if I could, but I'm just not seeing them out there and especially not at KDYL. There is a 1/2 share in a PA-28-140 asking $15k, but I'm really a high-wing guy and if I'm going to spend this kind of money I think I'd rather have my own C150/152 for about the same price. In many ways, the low useful load of the Cherokee 140 makes it a two-place anyway, so although it would be nice to share costs, I just don't think it's the right plane at the right price for me at this stage.

Two old friends... 80A and Travis

Hello again, 80A. Goodbye, Travis. This pretty much summed up my flying on Friday.

The C152 (94006) has been down for a lengthy maintenance period and, despite the fact that I'm trying to pinch every penny until I see how my non-equity/partnership/ownership saga unfolds, I was starting to feel rusty. Friday morning was open, the local TFRs didn't start until 2:30, and 80A was sitting on the line begging me to take her flying. Need I say more? I jumped on the schedule and hustled over to the airport to take to the skies.

The usual crew was in the FBO when I got there, including my friend and CFI/CFII Travis. My BFR is due in November and I'd been meaning to mention it to Travis. I took the opportunity to mention to him that I wanted to get this knocked out in the coming weeks and, with a straight face, he replied "Didn't you hear? Today's my last day." At first I thought he was joking, but a quick survey of the faces revealed that nobody was smiling. "What?!?" I replied. I'd known for a while that he was getting homesick (he came to DYL from Nebraska) and that his lease was due for renewal, but I never really thought he'd bag it and head back west. I've been busy with school and work and haven't been at the airport much, and this one just snuck up on me.

Travis is one of those unique CFIs who is both a friend and a mentor. He had a really easy going instructing style and was a pleasure to fly with. I'd started my IR with him last year and shot my first approaches with him. Then I got sidetracked with life and didn't make much progress. He was always eager to chat and often joined me during my preflights just to see what was new. We also spent many an hour sitting on the picnic benches just chatting and watching the traffic at DYL. On hindsight, I really wish I'd taken advantage of the opportunity to do my IR rating with him in the right seat. I'm going to miss him.

After coming to my senses, I did manage to b.s. with him a little bit and then guide 80A around the pattern. Logged 0.4 on the Hobbs with 2 decent landings. I'd hoped to say goodbye to Travis when I got back, but he took an early Discovery Flight and our paths didn't cross again that afternoon.

I plan to call him to say thank you and hope that we can get together during one of his return trips to Philly. I owe him a beer.