07.31.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:12 pm by jrhilliard
I flew up to St. Maries, Idaho (S72) last weekend with a couple of friends. They took a 152, I flew my 140. I could almost keep up with them when we were straight and level. Not bad for having 25 hp less than them!
We camped along the St. Joe River for the night, then flew home on Saturday afternoon. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Sunny, calm, and about 85 degrees.
Since our route took us directly over Lower Granite (00W), I decided to drop in on our way home and add another airport to my logbook. It’s a cool little place along the Snake River. It was built by the Army Corp of Engineers for when they need fast access to the Lower Granite Dam.
As an interesting matter of trivia, one of my friends who flew up to St. Maries with me works for the Corp of Engineers in their financial department. He told me construction of the airstrip cost $62,000. So now you know!
The strip is just that, a strip. No parking area or tiedowns that I saw, although a person could probably pull off in to the dirt and stake down their plane if they needed to. The runway is gravel, but the center 30 feet or so is packed and oiled, so it’s a step above a lot of other gravel strips out there. It’s also 3400 feet long, so even on a hot day most planes can get in and out fairly easily.
The only mildly tricky part is flying the pattern. The canyon walls on each side of the river are fairly steep, so I had to fly a long, high downwind, intentionally overshoot final on the base leg, then follow the river in on final. Pretty fun actually, although I bet it could get a bit sporty on a windy day–there’s potential for severe turbulence through the canyon in that case.
It’s times like these, of just playing around with a plane, that keep my addiction to flying strong. There’s always a skill to improve upon, something new to try, or a new place to explore. Airnav reports this strip only has 25 aircraft/month use it. I guess I was one of the 25 this month!
Here are some pictures:
Following the river on final:
Lined up and ready to blast off:
Thanks for reading!
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07.27.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:35 am by jrhilliard
My brain is kind of fried from school this week, so I couldn’t think of an interesting title for this blog.
Last weekend I flew over to Portland to be in my former roommate’s wedding. I don’t generally believe in using small aircraft for serious transportation, rather than pleasure, but my trip worked out alright. I was bucking 20 knot headwinds the entire way, so I wasn’t gaining much time versus driving, but at least it was fun.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find PDX practically deserted when I landed. Every other time I’ve been in there it’s been a madhouse, so having a smooth arrival was a good way to start the weekend.
On Sunday, before I headed home, I called up my old instructor and offered to take him flying. He’s a first officer flying CRJ-700s for Horizon Airlines (Alaska Airlines’ regional airline) now and has about 2500 hours I think. Nearly 100 of those hours came from flying with me four years ago though. He did my entire instrument training and most of my single engine commercial training with me.
We had a blast. It was a great feeling to be flying together for the first time in years. It was also a bit of a strange feeling to have the tables turned for a change. Last time I flew with him, he was the almighty instructor who could make the plane do whatever he wanted, while I struggled my way through learning soft field landings in an Arrow. This time around, I was coaching him through tailwheel takeoffs and reminding him of what regs applied to VFR traffic.
It’s funny how the student/instructor relationship gradually morphs over the years in to nothing more than a couple friends flying together. Both of us are very proficient in our respective areas now and it struck me how far we’ve both come over time. Neither of us is “above” the other anymore. Now we’re a couple professional pilots who can both learn from each other.
But beyond all those deep thoughts, it was straight up fun to see my friend flying VFR in a small plane again, for the first time in years. He had a huge grin on his face and kept saying, “Wow, this is SO much fun! This is SO slow!” That proves he’s a true aviation geek, not some dumb jet jockey.
Here are some pictures from the weekend. As I’m used to, flying through dreary weather in the Columbia River Gorge:
I hung out and took pictures while my old instructor gave me a tour of downtown Portland:
I aimed the camera over my shoulder and took a few pics as I lifted off out of PDX on my trip home:
The return flight through the Gorge on Sunday night couldn’t have been more beautiful, this time with a 25 knot tailwind pushing me along at 110 knots across the ground:
Someday I’ll own an open cockpit biplane. In the mean time, I’ll settle for cruising on a nice night with the windows open:
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Unfortunately, I found out this week that it’s not financially possible to get my plane insured for teaching in it. The best underwriter bid $4800/year in premiums, with a $5000 deductible. Pay that for a $20,000 plane? I don’t think so. It’s just not worth it. I figured I’d have to charge about $150/hour to even come close to breaking even, and nobody is going to pay that for instruction in a Cessna 140.
Maybe if I get an overwhelming demand (25+ students/year) in the future I’ll get the commercial insurance, but I doubt that will happen.
But that’s ok, I guess. I still love flying it for my own recreation.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, no, I won’t teach in it without insurance. I don’t care about the hull value nearly as much as my personal liability. What happens if a student loses it on landing, swerves off the runway, and totals somebody’s $300,000 Bonanza in the parking area? What happens if a student puts it up on its nose, puts their head through the dash, and runs up a $100,000 medical bill?
It would financially ruin me for years to come if I didn’t have liability insurance.
Of course, a lot of pilots whine and complain about insurance companies running the aviation industry nowadays, but I don’t blame the underwriters–they’re only crunching numbers and placing bets. The fact is, aviation is a high-risk area. It might not be high-risk in the sense of being physically dangerous (I wouldn’t be a pilot if I thought I was likely to die!), but it’s high-risk in the sense that there is a lot of money flying around that could develop in to very expensive lawsuits.
If I pay $5000/year in premiums, what are the chances that I’ll have a $50,000 claim in the next ten years? Statistically, quite high actually. The insurance companies are making a profit, but I doubt it’s a big one.
It’s sort of a depressing reality, but that’s just the way it is.
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07.18.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:33 am by jrhilliard
Maybe you have to be from Iowa to get that joke. Check out the movie “Field of Dreams” to figure out what I’m talking about.
Anyway, that’s where I went last weekend. The Northwest EAA Fly-in and Airshow in Arlington, Washington (KAWO) on the north end of Seattle. What a great time!
I was expecting it to be a lot bigger than it was, but I think my expectations were maybe set too high after going to Oshkosh four times. Nothing can compare to Oshkosh.
I almost liked Arlington better though. Its size made it a lot more personal and easier to get around at. I saw everything I wanted to see at Arlington which is almost impossible to do at Oshkosh. I think there were about 500-1000 aircraft at Arlington, compared to 10,000+ at Oshkosh.
This was the first time I camped at an airshow, too. It couldn’t get much better. There’s nothing like being able to sit under the wing of your own plane, hang out with friends, and watch an airshow from “home” in front of a tent. Then, after the sun’s faded from the horizon, crawl into a sleeping bag and drift off to sleep, only to be awoken the next morning by a big-bore Continental rumbling in to the sky.
Here are some pictures from the trip over on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day to fly. There’s still snow on most of the peaks in the Cascades!
Following the arrival procedure in to Arlington:
Just chilling around camp on Saturday night. A lot of the transient planes from earlier in the day had left for the night. The entire field around us had been crowded with planes a few hours earlier:
On Saturday night they did a “fireworks airshow.” I’d never seen anything like it, but it was sweet! Imagine a regular daytime airshow except with the performing aircraft using fireworks instead of conventional smoke systems:
The regular airshow on Sunday afternoon:
When we left Arlington on Sunday afternoon an airmet was in effect for mountain obscuration over the Cascades. Our trip home across Stevens Pass looked a little sketchy at first, but we made it through no problem. I’m going to *really* miss mountain flying when I move to Nebraska in a few weeks:
We stopped to eat dinner in Wenatchee (KEAT), then took off on the final leg home. It was an all around fantastic weekend:
What’s my next adventure? Should be flying over to Portland next weekend. I’m going to be a groomsman in my friend, Erik’s, wedding. The whole wedding party is staying at a hotel near Portland International (KPDX), so that’s where I’m planning to park. It should be an interesting experience, mixing my 140 in with 737s during the Friday afternoon rush!
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07.08.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:34 pm by jrhilliard
I went camping on Friday night with some friends. We flew in to Grand Coulee Dam / Electric City, Washington (3W7).
We didn’t get in the air until almost 7:00 p.m. on Friday night, so we didn’t have much daylight left by the time we landed. That’s why I don’t have any pictures from Friday night.
3W7 has a nice little camping area along the waterfront, but some other planes had beaten us to it. A Tripacer, Champ, and one other type, I forget what, were already parked by the lake when we arrived.
We decided to camp on the shore anyway, so we dragged all our gear from the main parking area down to the water. It took about two minutes of vicious mosquitos biting us to realize we hadn’t chosen a very good camping spot.
Since I was the only one smart enough to bring a tent, we trudged back to the picnic area by the main parking ramp and set up camp there. It has a large cement pad and fire pit. After getting a fire going, we cooked supper, then sat around talking until late into the night.
Before long, the conversation inevitably drifted to crazy flying stories. We began recalling memories of larger-than-life instructors from the past, the nasty weather we’d been through, and the landings so rough we thought we’d surely broken something.
It’s times like that night that remind me why being a pilot is so great. The stories are good, but more than that, there’s a common bond pilots share with each other. It’s not just about flying planes. It’s about going through ups and downs together. We’re all working to get ahead, but we all want to help each other along the way, too. We all have something to learn from each other. It’s a family, in a way.
I suppose some of my nostalgic thoughts come from knowing I only have a few weeks left in this flight program that’s given me so many memories. When I look back at my time here, I really appreciate the other pilots who have helped me out in one way or another over the years. I try to pass along the favor whenever I can.
I wonder what stories people will tell about me when I’m done here. Will they talk about what a great stick I was? Haha…probably not. Maybe they’ll tell the new student pilots what a walking encyclopedia of regulatory information I was. Or maybe they’ll say there was this guy who never really did anything dangerous, but somehow managed to break 75% of the college’s rules. Oh well, whatever they say, as long as they say I was a nice guy who cared about being good pilot, that’s all I can hope for.
Here are some pictures from Saturday morning, getting packed up and flying home:
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