Twice in one weekend!

Saturday Donut Fly-In

I flew the kids to McKinney on Saturday morning to meet local pilots and let my boys snarf some donuts. This was an EAA Chapter meeting- my first. It was great meeting so many welcoming pilots. Several were very inquisitive about the airplane.

What kind of engine does it have? What's the cruise speed? How much fuel does it hold? What do you think of the T tail? How's the ride? What's the range?

I sensed that a few of the guys were impressed a girl pilot with kids showed up. Rusty was doing his Saturday morning work out.

I tried to shake everyone's hand and engage in chat about flying and airplanes. I learned:

• Filling up a large fuel drum can cause static electricity to build up which can cause a fire. The pilot who told me this said he blew out the flames at the gas pump both on the drum and on the fuel pump nozzle.
• If you want to book The Dorms for your next AirVenture at Oshkosh trip, I'm told you have to reserve for next year within hours of the event ending this year. (I guess we'll be camping.)
• Seahorses can grow to be about a foot tall.
• Many pilots who are members of EAA are not necessarily flying experimental airplanes. Some aren't even pilots!

The flight there and back was fast and uneventful. For some reason, there wasn't much traffic- which was surprising and pleasant!



Sunday IFR Practice

I went up with my instructor to do an approach at McKinney (TKI), an approach at Rockwall (F46) then an approach at Addison (ADS). No matter how much I think I'm prepared, I'm not. Conceptually, I understand what I need to do for these approaches. But staying one step ahead of things and having all my information on hand during flight is still a challenge. For one thing, I'm using my iPad for plates which is crammed into my knee-pad covered by a plastic sleeve that restricts a little of the view at top and overheats it when the sun is directly overhead. That's no excuse, but it doesn't help either.

I learned on Saturday if my iPad gets over heated, it doesn't work. Paper plates are in my future again.

I look forward to my next flight later this week. Hopefully I'll be more on my game.

Our wallet so speak lost weight this week. It was thin to begin with then we needed the magnetos to be serviced. It starts up fine now and has ample power. We knew airplane ownership would not be a cheap experience. 

My mom's sister Blenda Fouse passed away this last Sunday peacefully at home. The memorial is tomorrow in Manhattan, KS- a mere 370 nautical miles away.

Guess what we're doing tomorrow.

Yep, you're right!

We're planning to fly 3 hours to be with family and pay respects. Then fly 3 hours back home. Just in time for the kids' bedtime.

Friday will be business as usual with work and kids at summer "camp".

Such is the life of a private pilot.

Stay tuned for details this weekend.

"I need a destination." 

That's what Rusty said to help me understand why he wasn't good with just going up and flying around the area for practice and staying current.

Sulphur Springs, TX has an airport right next to a small lake. Across the street from the FBO is a restaurant. We have a destination!

Rusty was going to be the pilot-in-command to Sulphur Springs, I would fly us home. So my job during the preflight prep at Addison was to safety brief  the boys and get them settled into the back. While we waited to taxi around a construction zone, I noticed the gas cap on my side was lifted a bit. I noted it to Rusty and at the run up area near the runway I hopped out to settle it back on.

After the rest of our run up, we took off. I snapped a few pictures of the boys and us:

"What do you call a pig who knows karate? Pork chop!"	Waiting to taxi at ADS
Addison's tower during take-off	Josh checking out the city from 2,000 feet up

Then I saw this and panicked briefly. "Oh [expletive]! We need to land! The fuel cap is off again. We can go back to Addison, or land at Rockwall."

Gotta love the wire that keeps the cap from falling away. This also affirms my love for low wing.

Rusty thought about this for a second then decided on Rockwall. "Where is Rockwall?"
"Just past that bridge over the lake," I pointed. He hates Rockwall, but I guess that seemed better than Addison in that moment.

Rockwall Municipal Airport has a couple hazards to know about. High electric lines run perpendicular to the runway so you have to see them, come in higher than you normally might for a runway, then descend quicker than you normally might. The runway is short with a raised middle. And there's full grown trees at the other end of the runway. It's a real joy of an airport if you're into that sort of thing.

Rusty landed us safely at Rockwall. Along the taxi way, I hopped out again to secure the cap, this time tugging on it and testing it thoroughly before getting back in.

No fuel was lost in the incident.

Rusty inquired about a caution light that was on. I noted the Alt switch was off. I'm not sure if it had been off the whole time or inadvertently en route. Either way, we flipped it on and the caution light went away. We continued our flight to Sulphur Springs without issue. Elliot fell asleep so soundly, he missed the second landing and parking!

Elliot is our Sleeping Beauty

We ate at the Red Barn Restaurant. It was OK food, but nothing to write home about.

I was pilot-in-command going back home. We had trouble starting the engine. Either I flooded it by advancing the mixture too soon (most likely) or there's some electric issue. It finally caught to everyone's relief. The flight home was fast. Along the way, Rusty noticed volts were measuring low. I landed fine and taxied us to parking.

We've decided to have the alternator looked at this week by the mechanics at US Sport Aircraft. We now know something is not just right. So we'll have that looked at and hopefully it will be a simple fix.

Lesson Learned
We practiced extensively for emergency situations. Having the fuel cap off during the flight surprised me but I kept my wits and knew what we needed to do. Even though we didn't need to land off of an airport, my first reaction was to look around for a spot just in case.

We intended to fly to Lubbock this past weekend but ran into weather issues. More details to come. First, I need to find my packed camera...

I PASSED!!!!

barely, but I PASSED!!

woke up early, dressed into my Pilot Fish shirt
got caffeinated
got fed
parked in the shade at the end of runway 15 near Addison
crammed and reviewed notes for ~45 minutes
hands shaking
legs shaking
palms sweating
damn near hyperventilated at one point
10 till, drove to the test site
confirmed 12 ways from Sunday that I was who I said I was and indeed actually wanted to take the test
the test time was quiet and I relaxed as I answered things I knew to be right
end of the test, got the paper that says PASSED in all caps

Pilot Fish (Threadless)

Now what?!

I have so much to do in the next week it's crazy. Regarding pilot stuff, the next stage is to get into flying again and practice IFR flights.

Tomorrow I'm taking a written EXAM for my Instrument Flight Rule rating. Passing doesn't mean I'm done, it just means I can focus on other stuff in life like- everything.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Me trying to study with 5 kids* in the vicinity:

"If a half-standard turn rate is maintained-"
"Mom! Elliot's hurt!"

2 minutes later...

"Where a holding pattern is speci-"
"Mom! I need help with this!"

1 minute later...

"During the en route phase of an IFR flight, ATC advises..."
"Mom! Josh is throwing ants!"

1 minute later...

"For IFR planning purposes, what are the compulsory..."
"Um, Ms. Sarah? Can I call my mom with your phone?"

2 minutes later...

"What is the MDA and visibility..."
"Look at me Mom!"

1 minute later...

"Which range facility assoc-"
The phone rings.

I gave up.

It's pretty useless to study at home (or at a playground as in this morning) unless I'm locked away with headphones.

I feel like I may never be able to take this written exam for my IFR rating.

*It's common for neighborhood kids to hang out at our house and/or tag-along to nearby playgrounds. We've had as many as 8 kids- 6 visiting neighbor kids.

As a birthday present to my mom, I flew to Lubbock to spend the night and catch a zombie movie. (I loved Warm Bodies!) The challenge was the timing of everything. Let's rewind...

Leading up to the weekend, it was unclear if I would be able to fly at all. US Sport Aircraft was short on airplanes and long on reserved flights. After noting that Sunday would be too windy to come back, my only option was to leave on Friday after work and return Saturday evening. The first challenge was moving my reservation. Luckily, US Sport was able to get another insured airplane added to their reservations and move schedules around. Hooray! US Sport saved the day!

The next challenge was leaving on time Friday. I ducked out of work as quick as I could, packed up, checked the local weather a last time, kissed everyone good-bye then I was off to the airport.

I packed up, preflighted, said siyonara to Kyle then off I went. The takeoff was in the dark and nicely uneventful. For this flight, I was lazy and didn't do the whole written flight plan w/ winds and distances and fuel calculations. I went on a hunch that the GPS would not let me get lost and that my fuel would be plenty. I was right on both fronts, but I still wished I had prepared better. The winds aloft caught me off guard.

Sometime after the bravo shelf when I reached 6500, the winds were stronger aloft than I anticipated and I forgot how slow this airplane was (about 100 knots) so my timing was off. I told my mom I would be in Lubbock around 9pm after a 2.5 hr flight.  Eh, no.  The winds were pushing on me so much, my groundspeed was about 77 knots (88 mph). My flight was actually 3.6 hours. I was a full hour late getting there. My mom was getting very nervous and anxiously waiting for me to call.

Munday, TX was my GPS waypoint between Addison and Lubbock. Sometime after crossing Munday it was so dark I could not tell the horizon from the night sky. I kept my eye carefully fixed on the two most important things at that time: the altitude and the pink GPS line. As I told Rusty after I landed, "I watched that pink line like it was my religion!" I didn't have auto-pilot so I made constant adjustments fighting the wind. I was also freezing cold! I had cabin heat on and a coat but the part of the cabin higher than my lap was still very cold. I had packed gloves but couldn't find them in my luggage during the flight.

When I finally had the airport in sight, I landed in the dark without incident. (This was the first time I had landed at night at this airport.)

I called my mom to let her know I had landed and I could tell she was very relieved.  I tied down the airplane after pushing it into place in the dark without a tow bar. (I love tow bars.  Sooo much easier!)

Fast-forward through the night of wine drinking and girl talk.

I checked the weather forecast the next morning to see if anything had changed. Nope. The forecast for winds on Sunday were still there. I looked online to gauge when the best time would be to leave that day. The most ideal times were morning or night. There was supposed to be moderate winds during the day of 12-16 knots.  If I waited until 9pm or so they were supposed to die down a bit, but I wasn't convinced. There was a low pressure system moving across the far north of the Texas panhandle pulling air towards it. If I left at 9pm I'd be back in Dallas late, which I wasn't keen on.

But I was stuck until things calmed a bit. So my mom and I made the best of it by catching the matinee and going out for a nice late lunch at her new fave restaurant.

While I was sitting at lunch with her, I was facing the traffic outside and could see a flag high up on a building blowing in the wind. It was straight out for much of the time. But sometimes it went limp for a moment. I watched that flag during the entire lunch noting the wind pattern of gusts and time the flag was limp.

I decided during the lunch that I would try to take off during one of those calmer periods. I called a weather briefer again after lunch to get an update. Their information at the time was almost an hour old. The briefer said she didn't have gusts in her current report but I knew differently being outside.

I filled up, kissed and hugged my mom, taxied to the end then waited for the oil temperature to warm up. While I idled, I watched the grass near the run-up. I was too far away to see the wind sock but I could see the grass and feel the airplane shimmy when a strong gust blew.

Then, it happened.  Winds started to die a bit. I took that as my cue! I quickly lined up then put full power in. Normally these airplanes rotate at about 42 knots but I kept it down until nearly 60 to make sure I had plenty of speed. As soon as I lifted up, I crabbed probably 20° into the wind.

I loudly woo-hooed myself then focused on the upcoming crosswind turn.

The flight home was much faster: it was the normal 2.5 hours without drama. I was hoping to be back before everyone left US Sport but I landed in the dark again.

Lessons I Learned: 

• Don't shortcut the planning. I didn't plan well enough for the winds from ADS to Lubbock. Luckily I had plenty of fuel. But I realize now that it could have been a dangerous decision with different margins for fuel.
• Use all information available. Even if it's grass.
• Don't let fear impact safe choices. Looking back, I didn't have a compelling reason to leave when I did. I had a fear of being stuck that clouded my decision-making.

Flight home from Lubbock during sunset.

It's been since late December since I'd last flown. In that time, LOTS has happened! But not with regarding to aviation. 

booo.

I have be-friended the owner (Ray) of a sim place near Addison called Aviation Training & Resource Center. I'm coughing up the big bucks to fly his RedBird simulator with its G1000 panel. I've gone twice and will probably drop by sometime this week. These big buck, by the way, are still cheaper than getting into the real deal, and I can start practice right away (no taxiing, no loops to get into position). That said, I'd rather fly any chance I can get.

Today I flew US Sport's Cessna from Addison to Ennis Municipal airport and back. I did a practice VOR/DME approach. My tracking was spot on, my altitude was (more or less) spot on, and my landings were smooth and easy. Not nearly as rough as in December when my flare was too shallow making for a rough landings.

Today was also the first flight where I took my iPad mini instead of having paper plates on my lap.  I had plates in my bag (of course) but it was so nice having everything in one small place. I dig this new technology!

Ground school is done so my next focus is to get ready for the written exam. Anyone who knows me knows I get debilitating test anxiety. The more I study and prepare, the better I'll be. I have an app to quiz with when offline (doctor's waiting room, pack meeting, Josh's piano lessens) and I have a book that could break a nose if hurled in the right direction. I also have a study buddy named David (an older pilot also interested in IFR stuff) though he's less motivated to get his rating.

I'm on the schedule to fly more next month. Hopefully weather and maintenance cooperate!

I went up again this morning to practice an ILS approach at Mesquite. It was a good flight in that we survived and I have identified areas to continue practicing on and learning. I feel comfortable with departures, now I need to refine my procedures to bug my heading and altitude changes ahead of time. I'm still getting used to approaches so I can't claim comfort there yet.

While I was driving home, it dawned on me that having an IFR Practice checklist will help me be more prepared. Something like this:

I may tweak this a bit before I go up again next week but it's a decent beginning.

With my mom only minutes away from Town & Country Airport in Lubbock, it makes sense from a pilot perspective to fly in to the small strip for a weekend visit. Renting a small airplane is expensive and adds its own complications, but the big payoff is more time with my mom. Here's how our travel options compare:

From Dallas to Lubbock

*Varies. Renters charge minimum flight hours, usually fuel cost included/reimbursed. C172 is about $145/hr 
Short distance + long time = expensive

Learning from our past adventures, we gave the kids Dramamine, had games for them to play, a nap pillow (inflatable), and extra barf bags just in case. Luckily, there was no puking this trip. Just emergency peeing in a bottle.

My mom did us supreme by renting a Jeep to pick us up then get around town in. Parking the plane is free if we pay for gas, which we need to do anyway.

The original master plan was for me to fly us to Lubbock in the 172 and for Rusty to fly us home. However, I have fallen out of practice landing the 172 in crosswinds. The last several times I touched down on one wheel before the other or came down a bit hard. It was decided Rusty would fly us. Although I absolutely love to fly, I was at peace with this.

Captain Rusty & Co-Captain Sarah

Elliot killing pigs & Joshua asking me to stop taking pictures

We flew in a Cessna equipped with a Garmin 1000 and an autopilot making the journey super easy. We were cleared to fly directly over DFW airport. Major commercial airplanes were landing below us. I had an awesome picture of DFW and a commercial flight landing below us, but those pictures are MIA.  :-(

Once we were out of the busy DFW airspace, we climbed to 6500 feet where we met 25-30 knot headwinds. We played with Garmin's engine assist feature to lean the mixture. I got it leaned to 8.4 then later we leaned it even more to 7.7 gallons per hour. The headwinds were making me nervous. We had enough fuel to get there but we were touching the yellow warning mark at arrival.

I found the airport...

"Do you have the airport in site?"
"Looking."
"It's right there- almost under the nose."
"Oh shoot, I need to turn!"

...Rusty did a good landing.

We filled it up with fuel and emptied out our luggage. Mom picked us up and away we went for our weekend visit.

Although Rusty wanted to return Sunday afternoon, there was no chance of it. High winds directly crossing the runway kicked up dust causing marginal visibility. We hung out for one more day (yay!) and spent time with friends.

Monday morning we packed up, said our good-byes then prepared to go.

Then the propeller wouldn't budge.

Rusty tried a few more times, adjusting mixture, throttle, fuel pump, no fuel pump, turn the key- click click.

It was the battery gone kaput.

I called the place we rented from for guidance then located someone at the airport to jump the battery. No, it's not like a car with another airplane hooked up. I assume it's a battery or generator contraption. The guy that showed up to help us decided it would be faster for him to hand crank the prop than to rig a 24 volt battery to jump us. After about 6-8 nerve wracking turns and a few false ka-chugs, it finally started! Images of lost limb with blood splattering the windshield and boys scarred for life melted with relief as he backed away and waved us good-bye.

Thank you Dan!!!

Rusty's voice was lost from a recent cold so I handled radios for a little bit until he got it back loud enough. Enroute to Dallas, we had almost no wind to contend with so we made good time. Although we were tempted to climb to 7500 feet to take advantage of better winds, Rusty decided to just chill at 5500. We knew Addison was reporting haze and we could see it like a cloud on the land.

Somewhere between Lubbock and Addison

Traffic much?

The boys both had to pee on the way home. This time I was more prepared having a Vitamin water bottle. (wider opening, sturdier structure)

In all it was a good flight both legs and I don't regret being Rusty's co-pilot for a moment. Yeah sure I love to fly, but this time I got to take pictures and relax!

We discussed approach plates this evening in ground school. What once seemed so mysterious was dissected and defined. Not only are there tons of abbreviations yet to learn (I don't know them all yet but you bet I'll make fun of them here), there are different kinds of approaches and various complications to watch out for.

We looked at a few very simple approaches (small town airports) based around VOR technology. In a nutshell, ya find your inbound radial and get on it (following procedures), fly over various points that signal an action (like descend), until you're close enough to see the airport and land.  I'm feeling inspired by the minutephysics series on YouTube (my choice of the month for pre-bedtime kid entertainment) and aim to create a fun (accurate) depiction of reading approach plates. Someday. maybe.

ok, I may end up being a loser like this character:

I digress- The whole journey from point A to B seems so straight forward in concept that I can't wait to try it out in the airplane, something called "shooting an approach". Monday morning I have a date with an airplane and good weather. Hopefully both will be in attendance.  :-)

This morning was perfect conditions to practice flying in IMC. It was overcast up to 3,300 feet, low crosswind, functional C172 Skyhawk-

er, maybe.

I put myself on the schedule for an impromptu practice flight but turns out the newly maintained Cessna is not been test flown to ensure recent GPS upgrades are in proper working order. After the test flight, the schedule is packed by other students and people going up for discovery flights.

Instead of flying today, I'm being domestic: sweeping the floor, washing dishes, cleaning the downstairs bathroom, making lunches.  All busy work to take my mind off the canceled flight.

Maybe next week Friday will work out.

Palestine, TX FBO

This morning I started the day with a cross country flight. I intended to fly to College Station but enroute the CFI decided to divert us to other closer to home locations. We canceled flight following after playing hide-and-seek with a helicopter not far from Navarro Mills Resv. We went east to Palestine where the friendly FBO lady let us use her facilities and see the AWOS computer screen display.

Kyle Raper, CFII - standing on Piper LSA N921DD

We took off from Palestine headed a short distance to Athens, TX. By this time, the wind went from smooth to choppy. We bounced around at 2,500 ft. AGL towards Athens. That landing was fun and survivable!

Inbound for ADS, we stayed in turbulent air. I did most of the flight in my foggles. I almost wished we had gone to College Station but the wind was pushing on us so much we would have taken a boring long time.

Elliot admiring the view

Earlier this week I took Elliot up for a birthday flight. He had a good time but he said he was feeling "car sick" less than halfway through. We did a full stop at Caddo Mills where he got some candy before we headed back. This was a healthy challenge for me to take a 5 year old up. I had to teach him where to step for getting in, what not to touch or turn, and manage my flight with kid related interruptions. He kept wanting to put his feet on the joystick which would have pushed the airplane nose down. We talked about crashing and how we can prevent that by not putting his feet on the stick. In flight I had no feet problems from him.

Elliot during candy break

Elliot is five today! Out of parental guilt that he gets less attention than his older brother, we upped the ante with birthday plans by going to GattiTown. He had such a good time with his buddies playing games! Afterwards, he had fun at another friend's house celebrating her birthday. I'm sure he'll sleep good tonight.  :-)

This is the last year for Elliot to be a pre-schooler. He's doing pre-K this year then it's a pay raise for us (yay!) and Kindergarten for Elliot (yay!) next August. But this also means I need appreciate just where he is right now. It's his last year (well, 9 months left) of ultimate freedom. He's all play right now and few responsibilities. As he wiggles into slightly baggy new pants labeled 5, I am reminded how much he'll grow by this time next year and what a great age he is at now. I love his quirks, his thoughts about the world and how simple pleasures make him content. I also adore his smile and moments of hugs and kisses.

On the pilot front, I went for a flight Friday to Sulpher Springs with one of my CFIs. For most the flight there and back I was "under the hood". I did pretty good keeping my altitude and heading, and making adjustments as needed. I was also good at a steady decent in preparation for landing. Landing at Sulpher Springs was good if a bit long, so we taxied back instead of doing a touch and go. Going to Addison was fun. I kept the foggles on until we were well on final. In fact, when the foggles finally came off, I was staring at a threshold and ILS lights guiding me towards the landing. My landing at ADS was smooth and awesome.  :-)

I'm going up again tomorrow to take Elliot up with me in a light sport. He's excited to ride up front. If conditions are right, I may let him shake the wings a bit at higher altitude.  I may do a couple lazy-8s, a stall, and some s-turns. All stuff that's good to practice and somewhat entertaining for a young co-pilot.

Destination: maybe Caddo Mills.

But really, it doesn't matter much where we go so long as Elliot has a good time.

Last Friday I flew a short cross country flight from Addison to Durant, Oklahoma. Land lubbers know these cities are about 86 miles apart and would take about 90 minutes to drive there. For pilots, this is a mere 61 nautical miles taking about 40 minutes or less- in a Piper LightSport.

My Type

We had a stiff south wind that pushed us there in record time (ground speed 125+ knots) but made coming back home torturous (ground speed <85 knots).

I wore my "foggles" most of the way. There are a variety of vision limiting devices to help IFR pilots train.

Mine are comfortable and I'm convinced they didn't contribute to feeling nauseous like these type:

My CFI's Loaner

Of course, I didn't have to go fancy with my own frosted shades. I just choose to be somewhat stylish and comfortable, unlike these alternatives:

Duct Tape, mate?	Literally a hood

Ground school is tomorrow evening when we discuss navigation and radio calls. I'm looking forward to it like any good aviation junky.

Speaking of, there was another accident this week at Northwest Regional. This time it was the fault of an SUV driver driving in front of a landing airplane that caused the accident. Luckily, nobody got seriously hurt, although the student pilot is calling it quits for flying.

What gets my goat is the SUV drivers are frequent visitors to the airport, so they should know better! The husband and wife in the vehicle claim they didn't see anything, but video also shows they didn't stop to LOOK UP before crossing right by the end of the runway.

Situation awareness people!

And read a bit down how nasty the wife is right afterwards.
</ my soap box>

I will be taking flight lessons for an IFR rating. For those non-pilots reading my blog, here are some terms you may see and what they mean:

VFR - Visual Flight Rules - clouds are 3000+ ft up and you can see more than 5 miles away (think clear skies)

 MVFR - Marginal Visual Flight Rules - cloud ceiling is between 1000-3000 ft and/or you can only see 3-5 miles away

VFR

MVFR

IFR - Instrument Flight Rules - cloud ceiling is 500-1000 ft up and/or you can see 1-3 miles away

LIFR - Low Instrument Flight Rules - cloud ceiling is below 500 ft. and/or you can see less than 1 mile away (think fog)

IFR

LIFR

IMC - Instrument Meteorological Conditions - weather that requires flight by reference to instruments (clouds)

VMC - Visual Meteorological Conditions - flight by ground reference

IMC

ILS - Instrument Landing System - ground-based instrument approach systems with radio or high-intensity lighting that guide aircraft to the runway.

ILS

 Lessons will be in a Cessna 172 equipped with a Garmin G1000. I know C172s, and I'm looking forward to gaining experience on the G1000. 
(Here's a G1000)

I expect that getting IFR rated will be the most frustrating and most useful training to being a safer pilot. Best part is- I get to fly more!  :-)

Yes, we spent about $100 on a flight to Stephenville, TX for BBQ yesterday evening. (then we paid another $100 to come back home.) Since we decided we felt so liberated about not buying an older airplane that would cost us too much to comfortably keep over 10 years, we decided to treat ourselves (and the boys) to a short jaunt to Stephenville. The BBQ is very good, the atmosphere very outdoorsy and the flight was excellent there and back. Rusty flew us in while I took us back home.

Then, I found another Mooney today while saying good-bye to the previous "for sale" webpage. I noticed a newer only-slightly pricier Mooney for sale that had a nicer interior, that had a nice dash with IFR and weather instrument, that had new paint, low airframe time and years to go before an overhaul. This one is a 1978 M20C Ranger.

It's blue and white (y'all know how I feel about the color blue!). What I love the most about the plane is its affordability. I simply don't want to fly our finances into the ground. Whether we rent or buy, my bottom line goal is to be as economical as practicable. Excluding the occasional $100 dinner adventure!

There are some logistics to figure out. The plane is outside of San Antonio and we are not. The people selling the plane cannot fly the plane to meet us somewhere closer. "You'd have to come to us" the seller said.

It would take about 2 hours to fly there. But we can't fly it back to ADS ourselves because we're not yet certified for retractable gear. We'd need to have flight lessons in the plane that we're buying to be checked out as safe to land it.

To Buy or Not to Buy.

That was the question this morning.

We found a nice 1965 Mooney M20C for sale in Roanke, TX hangared at Northwest Regional. The plane was priced within our budget for a bank loan so we began the process of getting quotes and researching how to be plane owners: insurance, patio tie-down, annual maintenance and inspections, estimated fuel use for a year. I went on a test flight yesterday and was blown away at how easily it flies itself and accommodates the pilot. It had onboard weather, a Garmin 430 w/ upgrades, some new instruments and a nice auto pilot.

The plane as-is would fit our budget just fine. But looking 10 years out, the idea of ownership seemed to weigh us down. It's a 1965 airplane so in 10 years it will be a 50 year old plane. Most bank loans won't lend for airplanes over 50 years old. To get around that, we would need to make the plane sell itself by upgrading the paint (it currently has some chips but otherwise it's ok), upgrading the interior (from this to something like this), and upgrading the instrument panel (which has outmoded stuff that isn't used). And it would need a major overhaul costing at least $17,000 in the next 4-5 years.

These expenses stretched out over 10 years and divided into a monthly budget comes out to be more per month than the current rental rates where the planes are hangared and maintained for us.

I know the seller will be disappointed that we're turning down his airplane: we were so close. We already got approval for a loan, already called for a patio spot at Addison, already submitted information to an insurance company, already researched where to get upgrades.

Perhaps some day we'll find a pilot who's interested in a partnership who matches us in location and airplane needs. Or perhaps we'll find a plane that matches our budget better that we won't be stuck with.

Until then, we'll enjoy flying a variety of airplanes from renters and if we decide not to fly for some reason (health, budget, weather) we won't pay anything.

I am so excited to be taking off tomorrow morning!  :-D

I ran from work early to start my weekend. After this post I'll feed the family and start packing. After the boys go to grandma's I'll fill in my cross country flight plan with corrections for winds aloft and radio/weather frequencies at my checkpoints.

UPDATE: Although a Piper LightSport's Rotax engine can run on mogas (it's actually better to run on motor gas in the long run due to less build up around the spark plugs), the engine can also take avgas AND mixing should be fine. So we'll depart on mogas but refuel on avgas.  The rental place will reimburse us for gas charges upon return.

I'll be taking lots of pictures and make a detailed post upon return.