Category: Miscellaneous

Like many people, when I got my initial certificate I used my social security number as my airman id. Only in the last few years has it really sunk in just how little one should use that for any purpose so when I got an email from my flying club today containing a link at which I could change it, I went straight there. My new certificate will be in the mail shortly with a shiny new identification number. If you want to do the same, and you probably should, try this link at the FAA website.

Two Christmas presents I received from my family were UK aviation-related: a chart of the southern England airspace, and a handbook containing runway diagrams and airport information for every UK airport. They were both fascinating reading but one thought struck me right away: I didn’t understand a thing I read! Loads of acronyms in replace of our Class D, C etc, and other air space designations I didn’t recognise. It all looked very difficult to get from A to B. I would definitely a comprehensive ground session before getting near any British cockpit as PIC. I had always been under the impression that what we used here were ICAO standard terms but there is obviously more than what I thought I knew.

My Dad has said that next time I visit home he might treat me to a pleasure flight with an instructor, would be fascinating to do.

There’s a google map for everything these days, and Frappr hosts a lot of ’em. The good guy(s) at myflightblog.com have put one up for flight blogs – check it out.

We need more fast food outlets like this to keep our hungry pilot tummies sated.

So there are planes I would buy depending on the level of new found wealth I might enjoy (i.e. I win the lottery) but here’s one that is actually somewhat within my reach. Its certified for the sport pilot certificate and isn’t currently IFR certified (though it could be) but I think its very cool, and its only around $90k.

Read more about it on their website. And if you want to buy one for me, send me an email so I can arrange to pick it up.

Last night I finished my flying club-required annual review, spending an hour demonstrating the various take off and landing types. Did a pretty good job with the short-field, and the soft-field takeoff, but had to do a few soft-field landings before they were really good enough. The airport got crazily busy for a while, we were getting instructions to climb towards the tower, make ultra-short approaches, go-arounds and so on. A lot of traffic for about 15 minutes and then it died down. Pretty good fun though, and its good to be legal again.

Been planning on this one for a while but finally gotten to the point where I want to do it – leftturnwhenable.com will be a bulletin board site where San Diego pilots can share trip ideas, routes, problems and, most importantly, find trip buddies and safety pilots. Nothing there yet, but look out for it soon.

1.2 hrs PIC
Last night I was safety pilot for a guy I met off the Plus One Flyers club forum. In order to keep current to fly on instruments the regulations say that you must perform 6 instrument approaches, holding patterns, tracking and intercepting radials every 6 months. These have to be done in actual or simulated instrument conditions. Here in Southern California we don’t get many days where you can practice in actual conditions so the only way to do this is to wear a view-limiting device to stop you looking outside, and a safety pilot who tags along looking out the window and stops you flying into other planes or mountains.

Santa Ana winds had been blowing all day and so the winds aloft were acting weird. Over the coast the winds were from the west but a little inland they were from the east, each time we flew near the coast we got a little light turbulence. Serge flew an excellent circuit of approaches at Oceanside, Carlsbad and back to Montgomery, even landing with no lights working on the plane.

My currency expired yesterday so I need to get up with Serge and shoot the full 6 approaches. Hopefully I’ll do that later this month.

Welcome to my new aviation-related blog. This site will be a mixture of things: trip reports from the flights I make, interesting aviation news and reports, anything really to do with flying.

Coming soon will be the ability to specify your own airport weather reports so you will see the airports relevant to you rather than the ones I’ve chosen. I’m trying to think of things to put in the sidebars to make it more useful/interesting so if you have suggestions, leave me a comment or send me an email.

I’m trying to keep the comment spam at bay so if you find that you can’t comment, drop me a note and I’ll look into it.