This Weeks Flying Lessons 12 May 2011

Mastery Flight Training LLC has published the following lesson to help pilots prepare for the upcoming flying season. With the ever improving weather, many pilots will dust off their planes and head off in the wild blue yonder for the first time in many months.

Follow the link below to read a report that discusses some issues that rust and not so rusty pilots face.

12 May Flying Lessons

Enjoy and be safe!

First Solo Cross Country Flight

I shared this through the Lets Fly WA web site but since it is currently down, I figured that I would re-post it here.
This flight was from Auburn (S50) to Hoquiam airport, better know an Bowerman (KHQM) with a great little cafe right on the field and a nice walking trail with great views.

Enjoy and be safe!

Lake Hood Seaplane Base

The Seaplane Base at Lake Hood (PALH) is about three miles southwest of Anchorage, AK 

Lake Hood has about 200 flights a day making it the world's busiest seaplane base. 

The seaplane base is actually located not just on Lake Hood but also Lake Spenard. 

Watch where you are going if you are interested in flying in to Lake Hood for the first time as its about 1 nautical mile from the Ted Stevens International Airport. (PANC) 

Have fun and be safe!

Lake Hood Seaplane Base

Flight-seeing in Alaska

I would like to introduce you to a few options for seeing the beauty of Alaska from the air. The following companies offer flight-seeing trips at a reasonable price and have come highly recommended by the locals that I have talked to.

I do not have any affiliation with these companies and receive nothing for this post in return, this is just a list of suggestions.

Grant Aviation - Anchorage

Rust's Flying Service - Anchorage

The Denali Flight-seeing Company, K2 Aviation - Talkeetna

Era Alaska Flight-seeing - Denali and Juneau

I will post more as I discover them as well as reviews of their services as readers report them to me or, better yet, as I use their services for my own adventures.

Please let me know if you have had any personal experiences with these companies and their tours.

Check back often because I will be posting interviews with local pilots and videos of flying around this beautiful state.

Be safe! 

Lets Fly WA web page update

The Lets Fly Wa web page is currently down but will be back up again as soon as I get settled here in Alaska.

For the time being, all updates to the blog will be posted here and I can be reached through the comments section of this site.

thank you

Flying in Alaska

I was wondering how much interest there is in finding an airplane partnership in the Anchorage area.

I'm trying to gather information on planes for rent from private owners, ownership groups and such for a research project.

If you are interested in forming a partnership, are in one, or rent / lease your privately owned airplane to individuals then please let me know about your experiences. 

Lets Fly WA web page

The main web page for letsflywa.com and the wordpress blog is down for the time being.

I am sorry if you have been trying to log in and keep getting rejected but I am currently out of state and can't resolve the issue just yet.

Please Help the Tacoma Youth Marine Foundation

 For more information, check out the link at the Boat Washington web site.Tacoma Youth Marine Center

Normal Airflow Over a Wing Example

The image above shows how air flows over both the bottom and the top of the airfoil.
You can clearly see how the air flowing over the top of the airfoil is moving faster than the air going underneath.

Its the acceleration of the air flowing over the top that causes its pressure to drop which in turn causes lift to be produced.

It must be understood that this example of how lift is created is only the tip of the iceberg and the there are volumes of material written on this subject that describe the production of lift from different points of view and in great detail.

Understanding the image above will help you at the private pilot level, leave the more complex physics equations to the designers.

Enjoy!

Have the correct manual for the plane

You might wonder why pilots that have flown many type of airplanes have such a large library of manuals.
I bet that if you looked a little closer at the books themselves you would notice that not only does this home library include the obvious subjects like weather, regulations, places to go and so on but that it also has what seems like many copies of the same manuals regarding the type of airplanes that the pilot might fly.

After all who really needs a different manual for a Cessna 172P and a 172N?
Aren't they both Cessnas?
They aren't even that far apart in years produced so why do you need a different manual for each?
You might even find two manuals for the same year and model of plane but one has a packet of papers attached to it. What is the reason for this?

We all can see the need for a separate set of manuals for different types of planes like Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft and so on, but why do we need the rest of them?

The answer is very simple.........  No two airplanes are exactly alike.

I fly two Cessnas that are only about 3 years apart in age but one of them has a bigger engine that was installed as an upgrade. Why does this matter you ask.

The answer might not jump out at you until you read the performance data that is included with the pack of papers that is attached to the outside of my manual. These papers are part of the STC or supplemental type certificate that is required when major changes have been made to any aircraft.

The difference between these two almost identical airplanes becomes more apparent as you calculate the amount of weight the plane can carry, how fast it can climb and how much fuel you burn at a given power setting.

As you look closer at what information is included the reason becomes much more clear.

One plane might have the old style of transponder while the other has a new Garmin GTX-330.

I think you would agree that the old style analog transponder with rotary dials is a little different than the fully digital Garmin product with the push buttons and a menu screen.

Guess what? You'll need a manual for those as well. Are you beginning to see how quickly the library can grow?

The next time you are looking for the perfect gift for the pilot in your life you might want to think about a gift certificate to Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobel or your local pilot shop so they can add to their ever growing library of books.

MzeroA on blog talk radio - Aviation topics over the net

Listen to internet radio with MzeroA on Blog Talk Radio

This guy has a great radio show that focuses on flight training, safety, planning, aviation news and more.

Check him out and add him to your favorites, you won't be sorry!

The FAA releases guidance on ADS-B

The FAA is now saying that if you want to fly in Class Bravo in the year 2020 that you will need both an ADS-B out transmitter as well as your current Transponder.

Watch the video below from AOPA for more information.

Space Shuttle Cockpit View of Landing

Ever thought about flying a glider? If you have but weren't sure what it would be like, check out this video from the cockpit of the biggest and fastest glider ever built!!

Apollo 11 close up and personal

This video of Apollo 11 taking off is absolutely amazing!

We have all seen the video of rockets and the space shuttle taking off over and over again but this video is taken of the engines at an amazing 500 frames per second.

What this means is that the video is in slow motion so you can clearly see everything from the first moment of ignition to the launch vehicle clearing the tower.

The event recorded only lasted about 30 seconds but because it is shown in slow motion it will last for about 8 minutes.

Listen to a moment by moment description of everything that is happening.

Apollo 11 Saturn V Launch (HD) Camera E-8 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.

1960 Cessna 175A For Sale

Shared Ownership
1959 Cessna 175A 3 shares remaining!!!!

General characteristics

Crew: one pilot
Capacity: three passengers
Length: 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m)
Wingspan: 36 ft 0 in (10.97 m)
Height: 8 ft 11 in (2.72 m)
Empty weight: 1,339 lb (607 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 2,350 lb (1,066 kg)
Powerplant: 1× Continental GO-300C six cylinder engine, 175 hp (130 kW)
Performance

Maximum speed: 148 mph (236 km/h)
Range: 598 miles (957 km)
Rate of climb: 850 ft/min (259 m/min)

MOGAS STC

More information and photos to be posted soon.

E-mail me for more information until then.

charles@letsflywa.com

TTAF: 2300 SMOH: 450 Last Annual: 1/2009

Washington Tax Increase Could Be History

The Washington State House voted on a revised version of the tax bill that does not include the aircraft excise tax increase.

The 0.5 percent excise tax would have cause many private pilots and small companies to flee from the once strong aviation scene that has existed in Washington State since Bill Boeing and family founded their small company.

Aviation in the state is, in my opinion, a shadow of its former self. Every airport that I visit appears to be home to rotting hangers and under used General Aviation aircraft.

Years ago you could park at even the smallest of public use airports and watch the flight training or see the family airplanes being loaded for a vacation.

There are many reasons for the quiet airfields fields today. Every part of the country has hit hard times and are just now starting to recover but what I have a problem with is when the government fails to remember that their income is tied directly to the people.

How much tax revenue did the state lose when Boeing moved jobs out of state because of disagreements with the state?

How much would they lose if boaters, pilots and others stopped using their pleasure craft?

In the short term they would increase their revenue but as time went by, registrations would fall and the world of aviation would continue its decline.

Thank the people that spoke up against this last attempt to raise the excise tax.

AOPA, WPA, NBAA and the thousands of people that called and wrote their representatives.

By the time you read this, the April 12th vote on this bill proposal should be finished. I hope that our state will make the right choice for all involved and that they have listened to the people.

If we are allowed to keep more of our money, we will in turn spend more of that money and as a result, the State will collect more in taxes that are already in place.

Everybody wins and everybody is happy.

Fly safe and fly a lot!

Flying the VFR transition over Sea-Tac Airport - KSEA

Well, after months of fighting the weather, mx issues and scheduling.... I finally made the trip. My route was OLM-PWT-SEA-S36-PAE on the way up and on the way back it was PAE to OLM direct.

I got myself all worked up trying to make sure my calculations and everything were spot on and it all worked out almost perfectly. I was a matter of a couple of minutes off of my ETA, working with ATC was a great experience and made life easy and I learned a lot.

The only complaint that I have is that I only took 2 photos.... I forgot that I had the camera with me and then I dropped it under the seat during an unplanned bump.

The first pic is to the north of SEA and the second is to the south just before I crossed the numbers for the VFR transition.

Today was a very good day. :)

FAA Checkride Oral Portion Video

I thought you might like to see this video of a mock checkride.

This is from the late 1990's but covers everything that is presented during the oral portion of the checkride.

I hope you enjoy it!

Where is the Spruce Goose

Ever wonder what happened to the famous Spruce Goose?

The largest airplane of its time is housed at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Ore.

This huge seaplane was the brain child of Henry Kaiser and with the backing of Howard Hughes became the largest wooden aircraft ever built.

In The Shadow Of The Blade

Has anyone seen In The Shadow Of The Blade?

I have been talking with some people that I work with that either flew, crewed on or was dropped out of Huey choppers during Viet Nam and they are searching for this video and sound track.

From what I understand it is a heart tugging show full of real stories from the people that truly walked the walk.

Below you'll find a clip I found of the title song, please listen to it and share your story if you have one.

I am trying to get a copy of the documentary and will include a full review.