New Tool

The first official family flight went well for the most part. My oldest son had the beginnings of an ear infection that didn't announce itself until we landed back at LVK, that put a damper on things after a nice return flight.

Prior to leaving I downloaded Voyager Free Flight from Seattle Avionics. I had been switching between the Golden Eagle and AOPA flight planning software, not impressed enough with either to pony up and purchase.

The Voyager software has a nice interface and, for my purposes, a good straight forwarded flight plan picture. All the info is right there, it downloads automatically, and the kneeboard printout has all the required information right there.

The only other thing I would want is the actual sectional available.

Check it out if you haven't.

I want a new club

On second thought, lets not.

To make better use of my flying I really need to integrate it into family life. To do that it really had to start working for the longer trips that I would like us to take.

Currently I have two sources for aircraft the Alameda Aero Club and Ahart Aviation.

The Alameda Aero Club is great classic all volunteer club. I had my 172 on leaseback and eventually sold it to the club. Unfortunately the club is not geographically friendly (and off my beaten path) and my current and future flying calls for something with more performance and/or room than a 172 can offer.

My other source, Ahart Aviation, is good for ad-hoc rentals. No monthly fee and a selection of late model aircraft, which is nice. Unfortunately, this being training oriented business; they expect high daily usage and impose a 3 hour a day minimum. This really limits the use to short overnights.

Much like what the Aviatrix did in her last job search I've decided to set a concrete goal with a timeline in my search for a new place to spend my flight dollars.

The more reality you can give something, the easier to recognize it when it shows up.

To start with, location, my beaten path takes me along the I-680 corridor in the East Bay. For that reason I'm going to limit my choices for a home base to KCCR and KLVK, with KLVK being preferred.

What club type? Any place where the goal is about cost sharing. If there is a profit making goal anywhere in there then extra money needs to come from someone. A partnership would be nice, but I don’t have the financial ability to do that at the moment. A smaller equity club would work.

Those daily minima? None would be the best, but an arrangement where I can take the plane for a week without breaking the bank.

What about the aircraft?

Well to keep the other half happy, it has to be comfortable to sit in, and not have an interior that resembles a 70’s Pinto. When it comes down to it, ugly airplanes and low pilot salaries exist for the same reason. Pilots will do just about anything to fly. Anyway, the non-pilots won’t.

Two doors is important for loading and unloading, especially with child car seats, which we need to contend with for a while longer. (Note to manufacturers, how about Latch for aircraft seats?)

It has to be able to get somewhere in a reasonable amount of time, and a headwind shouldn’t reduce it to less that freeway speed. My personal line of demarcation is currently 140-150 ktas.

Useful load has to be enough for two adults and two kids. But the most important factor is width of cabin. We need enough room in the back for an adult and a car seat.

There are some other details instrumentation (IFR ready and current in case I can manifest that instrument rating) and what not, but the most important factors are listed.

Where does this point to currently?

Well the late model 182t/s are a good choice, and what we’ll be taking to the grandparents house this weekend. It is a bit the station wagon of the sky.

The SR-22 has some nice things going for it, can’t beat the parachute for the non-pilot peace of mind. Unfortunately the insurance and high initial cost make these very pricy rentals.

I have a soft spot for the DA-40. It’s fun to fly and sightsee with. Space would be an issue with all the kid gear we have to haul.

So what’s the top choice? Well it’s the TB-20, it has very wide cabin, two doors, reasonably fast, and hauls a bunch. I did a demo flight a few years back and have wanted to fly one again.

So there it is, I’m giving myself until Aug 1st, let’s see what happens.

Jamba man

I stopped for my after workout Jamba juice this morning, and had a fun conversation with the usual folks who work there about this weekend’s upcoming flight to SoCal.

It was refreshing to see how excited they were about flight, and flying. They asked a few questions, and seemed surprised at how easy it was to just go rent a plane.

As I was driving away I started thinking, between the class demo and this episode, I need to more vocal about my flying. Share the enthusiasm.

It's bad enough that the airports have high fences; I shouldn't build one around me as well.

Rewards

My oldest son brought out a rolled paper with a blue yarn bow when I arrived home on Friday. After the big welcome home hug fest I undid the bow and found a thank you card from the Kindergarten class for teaching them about airplanes.

It was signed by all the students, with a few hand drawn aircraft decorating the space.

Life is good.....

Kindergarten Afterword

I did the kindergarten demo yesterday and it was a blast. There’s nothing like the enthusiasm of a bunch of kids learning about something new. My wife did her normal volunteer time in the classroom after I left and she said I was the talk of the afternoon. Smiles for me.

I went ahead with the ideas I mentioned last time. I wanted to have something to see and something to touch. I came up with an internal thought on the demo in the form of a possible question and answer.

What makes airplanes fly? Imagination. (We do what we can imagine, and just think what these kids might do someday.)

A poster board with a class B sectional, onto which I attached a aerial picture of the school, another of the neighborhood, a shot of the 182 cockpit and an outside picture of the plane was the something to see. The kids we all over picking out the classroom and the construction of the new school buildings.

One interesting note, that confirmed something that I had been thinking about in preparing. Every single one of the kids in class had been on an airplane. Amazing, in my kindergarten class there was only one kid who had. His dad did a lot of traveling, and this kid used to tell stories about all the famous Hollywood types that he had met. Times have changed.

I handed out all the headsets for the touch portion and the kids had a great time trying them all on.

The kids asked some great questions, “Can you fly through clouds?”, “Can you fly at night?’, “How far can the plane fly?”, “How high where you when you took the picture?”

My homework is to find out when the next LVK open house is(4/23/2006) and let the class know. I already have a couple of the dads who have mentioned they want to go for a ride with their kids, so I need to follow up on that.