Flying Summers Brothers

Our fifth and sixth trips across the country led us to these Fixed Base Operators, and I wrote the following reviews on Airnav, which is the site many pilots (including me) use to select an FBO or even an airport. (I reviewed the FBOs for my 2007 trips across the country, but somehow neglected to do it for our 2008 trip. Really, I need a master list of places we have been, just in case there are some we don’t like.) Click to continue »

The fifth and six crossings of the continent were a huge success. There was some bad weather and a few bumpy rides, but in general the family is getting better and better at enjoying the sights from the little plane and the adventure of traveling in little hops across our nation.

Click to continue »

These are the bees that were left when I returned to the plane. Most blew off when I started it up. The remaining dozen stayed on until run-up (the engine is at 2,000 RPM for a few moments). There were two left who hopped off as I taxied to the transient parking area.

I used window cleaner on the canopy, but there were still a couple on it the following day. (Poor fellows, no idea where the Queen might have gone, they just return to the last place they knew her to be…)

I try hard to fly twice a week. Otherwise I wonder how sharp my skills are and flying isn’t something you want to do when you are rusty. Even a little. Mistakes, especially when they start to chain together, take the situation out of your control very quickly.

Last Spring I had two incidents that made it seem like I should be flying more, but they were really just random. Click to continue »

Forty-one hours on the Hobbs timer and we have returned from our Spring Break trip to Washington, DC. It is a little difficult to write up, since there were four blogging authors along this time. There is a page summarizing the entries for the trip, so you can see what Rudy and Dexter wrote. That page also has links to the plan for the trip and rules in the plane. Nell took a lot of the photographs and they are captioned mostly with her comments. I will try to stick to the flying portion of the story, since I like to think that’s what my readers are coming to the site for. This page collects my write-ups of each day of flying. Click to continue »

Saturday, April 11

It was great to wake up and know that we would be home that day. I looked at the weather and showed Dexter that if we had stayed in Albuquerque we would still be stuck there, because there was currently a thunderstorm circling the town. He said he knew Albuquerque was a place to get stuck.

I filed an IFR flight plan and studied the freezing levels, ceilings, and radar maps for our route of flight. It was drizzling off and on. The radar showed arms of rain that were sweeping through the Phoenix area. We had a quick breakfast downstairs at the hotel and headed to the airport. Click to continue »

Friday, April 10

My entries are all on days that we flew. If there were entries for days we just got in the plane, I would have one for yesterday, too. But maybe Rudy’s entry will help explain:

I forgot to mention one thing about our cross country flight: while in St. Louis, we got a flat tire that was going take all night to fix. So mom and I hopped on American Airlines and flew to L.A. I felt pretty guilty about bailing on Dad and Dexter, but I just couldn’t stand another night on the road.

Click to continue »

Wednesday, April 8

Our original plan, of visiting Boston for a few nights and having Nell and Rudy leave from there, was de-railed since visiting Nell’s dad was one of the main reasons to head north and we got to see him in New York. We looked at the schedule for the remainder of Rudy’s spring break and decided that it would be most fun if we all flew back together. (This meant giving up the adventure of Dexter and me flying back with Alex, which was a little disappointing.) Click to continue »