Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Flying Stuff Migrated to this Domain Well, I finally had to break down and cut and paste all of my flying entries manually.  I tried to get the directory from my work blog to work, but I guess I just don't know enough about radio userland to get it to work.  So, from now on, all of my flying entries will be found at this domain, here. 9:56:35 PM    comment []

WAP I love my wifi connection.  It is so cool to be able to take my laptop into a meeting and do work during meetings as I currently am doing.  I just explained RSS and Blogging to a Portal/Content Management meeting, and I can actually be doing it at the same time with my wireless connection.  I don't concern myself with the security issues as much as other folks. I know there is some risk, but I have only so much bandwidth for worrying, and it seems like I should not worry about things that I am not responsible for.  It would be cool to go warflying like phil did yesterday.  Although I am a commercially licensed pilot, I don't have the requisite GPS or  wireless card.  Need a copilot Phil? 9:37:40 PM    comment []

DaveMcNamee.com I have decided to move my flying stuff off of my product managment blog and onto davemcnamee.com, which just came online this weekend.  I realize that having non-work related information on my work blog is hard for some people to deal with.  This way there will be no ambiguity about the purpose of this particular blog, and I would feel comfortable moving it onto a state server.  Of course, my personality and attitude will come through still, but you will have to go to my other site to read about my flight training and other topics.  Look for the move to take place sometime this week.  I will post links to davemcnamee.com as I develop the content.  It's going to be cool. 9:37:15 PM    comment []

Betrayal/Reconciliation Last night Steve Lewis and I flew a Comanche, N6867P, up to Pocatello.  It was Steve's first flight in a Comanche since an engine quit on him in our club's other Comanche, N146P, and he ended up off the end of 13 at provo with the gear folded up underneath.  I wanted to practice some hood work and using the GPS on the way up, so I didn't look out the windows much until we got to Poky.  The weather when we left skypark was hazy, with CB to the south.  We had a 10 knot tailwind, and the ride was smooth all the way up.  After I landed on runway 3 Steve called his grandparents who came out and took us to Burger King.  After returning to the airport and showing the folks the plane, we strapped in again, this time with Steve in the left seat. We did a runup and taxied out onto 21.  Steve advanced the throttle, and away we went.  I can only imagine what that must have been like for him, after having his faith shattered in a crash that could have killed him, he was at the controls of the same type of airplane.  He hesitated retracting the gear, and understandably so.  We climbed out, with the combination of haze and the setting sun making effective visibility less than 10 miles.  Steve checked the fuel guages often, but there was never any problem.  Over Tremonton we could see lightning strikes to the east and west of our destination, but we could see the faint light of Salt Lake in the distance, so we believed we would be OK.  A quick call to Cedar Radio increased our confidence.  We made it back to skypark without incident. Having never been in any kind of crash, I guess I can't fully understand what it must have been like for Steve, getting back in a Comanche.  I hope I never have an experience like his.  But last night proved that he was overcoming the challenges that come with that kind of betrayal.  I think a solo flight would probably seal the deal.  9:36:41 PM    comment []

RV6 Mania I know you must all be dying to hear about my flight in Kory Branham's RV6.  Well let me tell ya, it was better than Christmas.  After flying down to provo in a cherokee I met Kory at his hangar at 8 am.  He had his beautiful plane, N29KB, all preflighted so we strapped in and fired up the lycoming.  It is 180 horse with a constant speed hartzell prop.  Plenty of ganas for such a small airplane.  We taxied out to the runup area, where we did a full runup and programmed all of the advanced avionics in the cockpit.  After waiting for a few 172's and Katanas to get out of the way we taxied out onto 13 and put it to the firewall.  The thing screamed into the air, and we headed for unoccupied airspace. We reached 9500 ft in no time with me at the controls.  After clearing the area we did loops and rolls.  The G forces from the first loop drained my sinuses and made me want to buy a share in his airplane.  After tightening our harnesses, we tried some extended inverted flying.  Usually you try to keep the blue side up, but it sure was cool to look up to the ground as we flew along strait and level.  We did some steep, 3 G turns.  The thing handled like a dream. The controls are very responsive, with 360 degrees of roll being completed in about 3 seconds.  Very little rudder is needed for almost all types of flying, and the view under the bubble canopy is unparralled.  Before heading back to Provo, we did an immelmann, pulling 2 Gs.  I flew it back all the way until turning base for 13 where I handed it back to its owner and builder for a smooth landing.  After that experience, flying the cherokee back to skypark was like driving a porsche on the autobahn and then getting back in your used hyaundai excell to drive home. I will update this article with pictures after I get the film developed (I know, I should have a digital camera.  I spend the money I would use on cameras on flying).  During our flight Kory told me all about his latest soaring experiences.  He also owns a high-performance sailplane that he has flown all over the state.  Now I want to try that, too.  9:35:54 PM    comment []

Summer Flying Adventures My flying adventures continue this summer, despite my lull in training.  I have been trying to go at least once a week.  This week I went with a friend and practiced instrument approaches, holds, etc.  It had been some time since I had done serious approaches under the hood, and my rustiness showed.  That's how it is with flying.  The currency minimums from the FAA are actually pretty lenient.  I was IFR/night current, yet if I was in real IMC I would not have been as sharp as I would like.  I was within parameters the whole time, but not as precisely as right after I got my instrument rating. Tomorrow I am going in an RV6 (pictured below) with the man that built it.  It is fully aerobatic, so it should be a lot of fun.  I'll let you know. 9:35:21 PM    comment []

Future Office Here is a picture of my future office. Although this is an airbus, and I would much rather be flying a good old american-made boeing, it conveys the general idea. I earned my commercial license last month, but my final goal is still several years off. I gotta get a ton of hours. If anyone wants to learn how to fly, I will be a certified flight instructor in a couple of months! :-) 9:33:58 PM    comment []

Flying: Not for Everyone Not too many people can understand the passion that most pilots have for flying.  I guess that goes for a lot of activities that take a large amount of dedication and that are slightly on the crazy side.  Of course, to the person passionate about that activity, it doesn't seem crazy at all.  To me, getting in a 40 year old Piper Comanche and blasting off by myself into the solid clouds is completely sane activity.  I get excited just thinking about it.  But to others, it's nuts, and I can understand why they think that. But, the beautiful thing about modern aviation is that there are many tools available to the pilot to make things like IFR flight safe.  The Comanche that I fly has a fairly nice instrument panel.  Moving map GPS is a very comforting thing, especially an IFR certified GPS.  Although an HSI would be really nice, I am very comfortable using the VORs.  The training that I received for my Instrument Rating and my Commercial ticket have taught me everything that I need to know to fly single pilot IFR safely.  And as I study for more ratings, my experience and knowledge increase the margin of safety even further.  Although risk can never be completely eliminated, it can definitely be controlled and minimized.  9:33:06 PM    comment []

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