photo blog

Two degrees Celsius per 1,000 feet.  That’s the rule of thumb.  It was about 68F on the ground in Pittsfield when I left on my second Solo Cross Country for Millinockett.  They was already a few “cells” of showers moving in from the south that I was eye-balling pretty hard.  I scooted over to Central… Continue reading »

Nathan had a “Daddy Day” coming to him.  Jess was off to a conference so we planned to hang out together.  I asked him what he wanted to do and he said “something to do with airplanes.”  Hmm.  I gave him the Maine travel book we have and told him to find something.  He came… Continue reading »

My first Solo Cross Country!  And a big one.  Over 200nm and 2.8hrs of flying.  I went from Pittsfield to Lewiston, over to Fryeburg and back to Pittsfield.  I contact Bangor ATC on the way out, they handed me over to Portland ATC.  Just as I was getting ready to descend into Fryeburg, Portland contacted… Continue reading »

I wore it out.  OK, not really.  But after I returned from my trip, the annual/100hr inspection was due.  For a rented airplane, it has to take place every 100 hours.  For airplane owners that fly typically less than 100 hours a year, it’s done annually.  What does the mechanic do?  I have no real… Continue reading »

Nothing terribly exciting here.  Lost some video and audio towards the end, but I give you a Weather report and a couple landings.  This gives me five hours of solo, so now I can get signed off for my Solo Cross Country flights.  Those are much longer, requiring at least one leg 50nm long.  One… Continue reading »

No Lesson 21.  No video for that one.  It was a discouraging day.  I just flew around and did poorly on my “coordinated turns”.  So, here’s Lesson 22.  A few steep turns and some stalls.

Nothing grandiose about this “lesson”.  I solo’d around Pittsfield’s pattern, practicing landings.  To make things a bit more interesting.. I included some video of my cockpit “studio”.  Enjoy.

I finished my Towered Airport requirement today.  We thought we had it taken care of with the last trip to KBGR, but I did touch-n-go’s and the regulations state I need to do Full Stop landings.  So I only had one full stop landing previously.  So, even though Ron was on vacation, he had signed… Continue reading »

So this was my big “towered airport” requirement.  I needed to flying into Class C or D airspace and land at a towered airport.  Maine only has two towered airports, Bangor and Portland.  Both are Class C.  The biggest challenges here are handling the radio frequencies, a minimum of five to switch between from Pittsfield… Continue reading »

Not much of a Lesson.  That is, a lesson in flying.  It was really a lesson in passenger briefing. Jess went shopping with her Mom and Nathan and I had a “Daddy Day”.  I wanted to surprise Nathan with a trip to the airport and give him a “hangar” tour.  I talked to my CFI… Continue reading »