Flying Summers Brothers
Colin and Adam take to the air

As a pilot, I train constantly. One of the things I loved about learning to fly was that as soon as I was signed off to solo I could go out in the plane and, as long as I focused, I would be a better pilot when I returned. Apparently all of the FAA examiners pause before giving out the certificate allowing you to be a pilot and they say, “Remember, this is just a license to keeping learning.”

That’s why I try to fly twice a week, both because getting rusty is a life-threatening trap and because as long as I pay attention (rather than just enjoying the ride), I get a little bit better. I learn to land a little more smoothly in a crosswind, I get just a little more concise and professional speaking to the tower controllers, and I get the checklists ingrained a little more deeply in my behavior in the cockpit.

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Our tenth flight across the country brought us to the follow Fixed Base Operators, so I reviewed them for the Airnav web site. Eastward FBOs were already reviewed, and I also wrote reviews for our Spring Break 2009, and 2007 trips. Airnav really needs to get it together to make the data available on a portable device (like an iPhone or iPad), so pilots can plan where to land (and where to park) when we were aloft.

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When we cross the country, in fact on most of our longer trips, I fly with some napping passengers. I’ll look in the back and Rudy will be reading a Piers Anthony book on his Kindle but Dexter’s head will be tipped against the window. Or Dexter will be watching 1776 (the musical) on his iPhone and Rudy will be out cold. Nell gets a lot of reading done in the plane (since her WiFi is dead on her laptop), and alternates chapters of whatever book she’s got with little five minute cat naps. Read the rest of this entry »

Small person with Brush

The plane needs to be cleaned. Ellie spent over an hour scrubbing it. Adam spent some smarter time finding the reason oil was slipping out of the engine and onto the outside of the plane.

Soon, Adam is going to find out how to put in some blog entries on his own, because he’s already put 125 hours on his plane.

Arch

August 6th and 7th, 2010

This summer little N971RD flew 6,800 nautical miles, helping us traverse the continent, bringing me up to visit Nell while she was on set in Toronto (watch Warehouse 13!), and showing us, again, parts of the country we would never otherwise see. I thought of that as I stared down from the top of the St. Louis arch.

Our two crossings (eastbound and westbound) need to be written up properly, but they have been added to the Crossing the Country page at the bottom, so you can at least check the route. We keep saying that we are going to zig zag across sometime and see a lot more, but then when we are in the plane closing the distance to our destination is very addicting and we all keep the nose pointed straight ahead.

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Survived the Flight

N3989L managed to bring home Kylee, a dog for Ellie’s birthday. Usually the dog is carsick and Adam was a little worried about the interior of the plane, but the flight went okay. Kylee is a rescue dog. On arrival at Adam’s house the dog took off for a night away, which convinced her that the warm house was a better alternative.

Adam is back to contributing to the blog, at least by proxy.

Wingtips

Just behind Adam’s plane (N3989L, with the snazzy red paint job) you can see the wingtip of the business jet. It’s a loop of some sort. I’ve never seen anything like it. Neither had Adam, which is why we have a snap of it.

Our ninth flight across the country brought us to the follow Fixed Base Operators, so I reviewed them for the Airnav web site. I also wrote reviews for our Spring Break 2009, and 2007 trips. I wish that Airnav had an iPhone or iPad application, so we could plan where to land (and where to park) when we were aloft in the plane. Read the rest of this entry »