Occasionally I get a note from another pilot asking about my flying, my training, the plane, or the airport. Usually the advice is too specific for general readers, but my reply to this one was long enough that it was worth posting on the site.
Pilot, who wrote, owns his own little Piper airplane and received his private pilot certificate about a year after I did. He wants to start instrument training, but hasn’t yet found an instructor. He wrote:
Friday was a gorgeous day in the middle. There was a fog bank that hovered off of the shore for the whole day and occasionally drifted inland for half a mile, but it was warm and clear above the fog. I flew out to Catalina to collect my parents. We loaded the plane to its limit and it flew (slightly slower) off of the humped and bumpy runway at Catalina’s Airport in the Sky to Torrance’s Zamperini Field.
Well, there’s no way around it. Some of the services I use when I am flying are provided by the Federal Government. The government appears to be controlled these days by larger interests than just the common citizen, so the airline industry is trying to get the FAA to impose “user fees” on little planes. Click to continue »
Angel Flight
Jaime O. was unlucky. He was born with trouble with his small bowel and liver. But he was lucky, he was born in the state of California, so the state will help him. He’s on a list to get a new liver. The UCLA medical center is helping while his liver fails and while he waits for a new one. Jaime is two years old. He has a social worker who helps schedule the visits to UCLA’s medical center in Westwood and helps translate, when necessary, for Jaime’s mother, who only speaks Spanish. Click to continue »
Boarding at KSMO
On February 15th, a Thursday, I flew my newest niece (Eleanor Electra Lehman) up to Santa Barbara so that she could have lunch with her dad (Sharalyn, her mom, rode in back with her). Ellie is already a veteran of small planes, having ridden out to Catalina months ago with my brother at the controls. And he then flew the three of them all around Florida, staying clear of a tornado that was passing through at the same time. Click to continue »