Thursday, February 14, 2013

New Plane, New Site!

Last time I posted on here I was excited about moving to Seattle and renewing my passion for aviation.  Seattle, even with the less that awesome weather, is a flurry of aviation activity.  From organizational activities, fly-in's, expo's, museums and just awesome places to go, Seattle and the Puget Sound areas is a great place to call home.

The big development for me is forming a partnership with another pilot on a V-Tail Beechcraft Bonanza.  We are based at Paine Field (KPAE) and keep the gorgeous plane in a hangar.  Since forming this partnership represents a new chapter in my aviation life, I have decided to create a new blog to chronicle this new adventure.  The new site is V-Tail Pilot and I will do my best to post each and every time I take the plane out.  I will be archiving this site, so after a few years, it's time to make a change.

Please check out the new site, it should be a fun ride...

V-Tail Pilot Steve

Thursday, April 26, 2012

What is 861?

861?  This number could be many things to many people.  The number of movies they have seen in their life.  The number of miles they flew to get to Airventure in Oshkosh.  The cost of Avgas in the next year of two (OK, that may be a stretch, but who knows...).  But for me, it has a meaning all it's own.  It's the number of days in between posts to this blog, which is bad enough, but the really sad thing is that in those 861 days, I have only flown an airplane 4 times.  4 TIMES!!!  I am so ashamed, I may need counseling!

But here's the story...

I've written in the past about my issues with the quality of equipment available for rent, and the ridiculous price many FBO's charge to rent said equipment.  Add to it the rising cost of fuel and you have quite a few compelling reasons to stay firmly planted on the ground, just watching the action in the sky.  In North Carolina, every time I turned around, a flight school/rental outfit was closing it's doors, airports weren't busy and many of the people I hung out with just weren't flying.  The days of getting a call from a buddy asking "hey, you wanna go fly today, weathers great and I have the plane reserved?" seemed to dry up completely.  The only people I knew who were flying did it in their own planes and mostly for business.  Picking up and taking a random trip to Florida while my friend attends a few days of meetings wasn't really in the cards for me, I had a real job too, just not one that let me fly to meetings.  However, I may need to find one of those soon...  but, enough of that, back to the story.
So, needless to say, flying took even more of a back seat in my life and I became really discouraged, even started to think that it was a waste of money that I pursued my pilot's licence at all.  I began to focus on my career and decided that flying is something that should be in my past.  It was a fun ride, but, time to move on...

Then came a phone call that changed everything.

One day, in late July 2011, I received a phone call from a Microsoft recruiter asking if I would be interested in talking about a management position on the main campus in Redmond, Washington.  Now, being in IT for almost 17 years, I have always wanted to work at Microsoft and it seems that me telling so many people about it finally made its way to the recruiters.  Actually, I found out it was a good friend of mine who worked at Microsoft in Charlotte, but a guy can always dream.  Long story short, I interviewed, flew to Redmond to interview some more, then accepted a job and before I knew it I was on a 757 heading to Washington with a few suitcases and lots of dreams.  My wife and kids would soon follow as she had to stay behind and get everything ready to sell.  She's a saint, really, best wife ever!

As luck/faith/karma, call it whatever you want, would have it, I ended up purchasing a house 3 miles from an airport in Snohomish, WA.  I actually didn't know the airport was there when I purchased the house as every time I would meet the real estate agent at the house it was raining (go figure, rain in Seattle) and there were never any planes in the area.  It wasn't until after we signed all of the purchase agreements did I notice all the planes turning base to final right over my house, it was a wonderful discovery!

The airport is Harvey Field (S43) in Snohomish, WA.  It's privately owned by the Harvey family and it has to be one of the coolest places I have every been.  When I was in NC, you could go to an airport for hours and you were lucky to see 1-2 planes flying.  At Harvey, it's busy all of the time!  Between the GA planes, helicopter training and the skydiving operations, you will be hard pressed to get a moment of silence.  Needless to say, something awoke in me when I discovered this little gem just a few miles from my house...

It's now April and I am beginning the journey back to becoming a proficient pilot.  I will be starting my instrument training at Harvey soon and my plan is become the best pilot I can.  I can't wait to begin to experience all of the beauty that the Pacific Northwest has to offer from the air.  My goal is to never wait 861 days between blog entries and hope to never go more than a few weeks in between flights.  I want to use this blog to journal all of my flying adventures here in the PNW and elsewhere, where ever that may be...

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Mustang Carter's Christmas Essay, Priceless!!!

Normally I wouldn't do something like this, but this was just way to awesome to pass up!!!

Some people may remember my son, Carter, from the Tweet-Up at Sun-N-Fun 2009. He and I were there and we had a great time! The MyTransponder guys were very gracious not only to me but Carter, who was and still is 7. Carter has really been bitten by the aviation bug and it shows in so many aspects of his life. He is always drawing little Blue Angel pictures on his school work, 747's on his notebooks, etc, etc...

This year, at school, his teacher asked the class to write an essay on how they would like their house decorated for Christmas. Pretty straight forward question, right? Here is what Carter came up with... Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Happy Flying!
CessnaSteve

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

It feels like I am cheating...

From my first flight I have only used Paramount Flight Services at KJQF in Concord, NC. JQF is a towered airport under the Charlotte Class B umbrella, a very good place to learn! I knew I wanted to learn at a towered airport, I originally thought I wanted to learn in a low wing aircraft and after attending an open house, I knew I wanted to train with an instructor I met named Ron.

I initially trained in a Piper Archer II for my first 3 lessons but there was something that bugged me about that plane. The right front seat back always popped off during flight. It didn't affect the plane in flight, it just bugged me. My thought process was if that was broken and never fixed, what else might break? I just wasn't comfortable with a plane that seemed neglected.

I transitioned to a 1981 Cessna 172P (N50863). I enjoyed the view from the high wing airplane and was feeling pretty good about my decision to switch. As my training progressed, things started to happen to 50863 as well. The alternator field fuse kept blowing in flight, the nose wheel shimmy dampener badly needed replaced, radio's and instruments always on the fritz, etc... All in all the plane seemed to consistently get worse without anything being fixed. It just seemed that every time I would fly, the plane would be at about 85% or less. Most times my instructor said "let's just go so we don't waste our time", but it was always frustrating and sometimes a little scary! At one point late in my training I had such a bad experience with the plane on a solo flight that I decided I was done with flight training! It was a terrible flight in that plane and I just assumed all rental aircraft were POS's. Luckily, I have a wife who encouraged me to go back and finish. I originally wanted to switch schools, but I really wanted to finish with Ron. He was the one part that kept me coming back to Paramount and 50863.

After 3 months of deciding what to do I came back to Paramount with a goal of finishing as fast as possible. I had 32 hours at this point. I wanted to be done, pass my check ride and get out by 40 hours, the FAA minimum! A very aggressive goal to say the least. I talked to Ron and he seemed to think I could do it. Over the next few weeks, and 41.3 total hours, I finished training, passed my check ride and was now a licensed pilot!

That was then, when I was training. Everything seemed so new to me and it was hard to take a step back and look at things for what they were. I was always so excited to fly that it was easy to overlook all of this for the shear excitement of what was happening.

Now here I am, 5 months after my check ride and I have logged only 6 hours of flight since getting my ticket! Crazy? Maybe not... In the 3 times I have flown since getting my ticket I have had issues with 50863. Little things that really didn't bother me too much since I am so used to them from training in that plane. But, now I have passengers, none of which have ever flown before!

The first time, nothing major, just a little issue with the fuel sumps under the wings. Easily corrected and was not a factor, but still another issue. The second time was with a buddy of mine who was visiting. I had noticed that the nose strut was fully extended on the ramp when walking up to the plane. I asked to person at the school and he said the A&P had done that during the last 100hr because it wouldn't hold pressure and it wouldn't be a problem. So, we went up. When returning to the airport, I did everything right. As I was flaring to land, the nose wheel hit first and the plane began to porpoise. Nothing big, I performed a go around. I landed the next time around, this time with a much more exaggerated flare to ensure the nose was clear. Only after we got in the car to go home that my friend told me that the bounced landing and go around had scared him. Not something I ever want to do to someone who had never flown GA before!

The third, and last time, I flew 50863 I had my 9 year old son Kyle with me. This was a special trip for the two of us, it was the first time he had ever flown with me! We decided to head out to Hickory NC (KHKY) and take a look at the museum they have on the field there. The trip out was uneventful. A little bumpy but nothing major. Leaving was a different story. On our take-off roll, at about 45kts, the nose wheel started to shimmy terribly causing the plane to shake. In the split second it took me to figure out what was happening, the plane quickly leapt from the runway and we were flying. The vibrations slowly stopped and Kyle and I looked at each other. Then he told me "I am scared, but I know you are a good pilot and we will be OK"! That is exactly NOT the way I wanted our first flight together to go... As we flew back to Concord I debated what I wanted to do. I wasn't sure what had happened to the nose wheel. Was the wheel loose? Had something broken off? There were a lot of questions going through my head! The safety of my son was first and foremost! I thought about calling the tower and asking for a flyby to have them take a look, but I decided not to. I just figured I would make a serious soft field landing and hold the nose off as long as I could. I did just that. I held the nose off for a long time and as I set it down, there were no vibrations. It was a major relief to say the least!

It was then I knew that I did not want to fly 50863 anymore... Strangely, it was a hard decision. It was like breaking up with a girlfriend of 18 months. One that treated you badly, didn't much care for you and always caused you stress, but still, girlfriend none the less...

This week I scheduled a checkout flight with another rental outfit at a nearby airport. It's non-towered, a little bit further to drive and the plane is a little older than 50863 but it is in much nicer condition, and, to add icing to the cake, it's cheaper!

I am really looking forward to starting this new relationship with my new mistress! I hope it lasts a long time and she treats me as well as I will treat her!

CessnaSteve

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

18 Months Later...

It's now October 21st, 2009, 18 months since the last time I posted on this blog and so much has happened. First off, I am now a pilot! It took me a little over a year and I successfully passed my FAA checkride on June 22nd, 2009. It was a great day to say the least, one that I will always remember.

There are several reasons I decided to come back to this blog and I really hope that I will start using this to share my thought. The first and most important is that since getting my ticket I have not been flying much (sigh...). For some reason it's so much harder than I ever expected to motivate myself to get up there. Then there is the financial aspects of flying. Spending $100+ dollars per hour for sight seeing and taking friends up is hard to swallow at the moment, given the current financial climate. Another item spinning around in my head is the rent vs. buy concept. I pay $116.00 per hour for a ragged out Cessna 172P and I feel like I am throwing the money away. But, that's a whole seperate topic for another time...

As I progress through this process I want to use this blog as a means for student pilots, newly minted pilots and any other pilot to understand what is going on in my head. I hope to use this as a spring board to other social media channels so I don't feel like I am the only person in the world going through this process.

CessnaSteve

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

How I got here...

It was Father's Day 2005. I had been married for 6 years, had 2 awesome little guys to take care of and my family life was great! My wife had been hearing me babble on and on about wanting to learn to fly since we met in 1997 but it was never really in the cards financially. This Father's Day morning was nothing special. It was a Saturday and it was a beautiful day in Indiana. My family made me feel great, like most do on Father's Day. We got up, ate breakfast and generally had a nice morning. I was content just hanging out with them and life was good. About noon, my wife brings me a card. I just figured it was the typical Father's Day card and opened it up to read it. To my surprise a gift certificate slid out. It said "Redeem this for a 1 hour Discovery Flight from Indianapolis Aviation"! I was excited to say the least. I asked my wife when I would be able to go and she informed me that I better go take a shower, my Discovery Flight was scheduled for 2:00 p.m. that afternoon! Off we went!

Upon arriving, I met the CFI and he told me what to expect. We walked out to the Cessna 172SP and he went through the pre-flight. A short bit later we were taxiing to the runway and before I knew it we were airborne. The flight was amazing. I was able to fly for most of the time and we basically went on a sight seeing tour of Indianapolis. It was awesome and I was hooked! My wife even took video of the whole thing so I could re-live the fun. Well, good thing she took the video, after the discovery flight, we agreed that we still couldn't afford flight lessons...

A few more years went by and I never stopped thinking about how great that discovery flight was. I used to go over to the airport on my lunch breaks and watch general aviation aircraft take off and land, hoping that someday I would be the one behind the controls. It just never happened.

The time is now September 2007. I had just made one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life. After many months of recruiting me, I decided to accept a management position with Lowe's Companies in Mooresville, North Carolina. This meant that my family and I would be moving away from everything that I had ever known to a totally new city and culture. Not only is everything new, I would be in NC for the first 2 months by myself as my wife stayed behind to get the house ready to sell. It was a difficult 2 months.

Once everyone got settled in the new house and community I decided to start doing a little research on flight schools in the area. In Indy, there were 6 great schools within 30 minutes. The outcome in NC wasn't as good. There were 2, both 30 minutes away in opposite directions. I started dropping hints to my wife and she seemed a little more receptive this time. I noticed that one of the flight school was having an open house in early February 2008. This was perfect! I could take the whole family, the kids could climb on the airplanes and make airplane noises and I could meet all of the staff and see if there was a personality match between me and one of the instructors. It all happened just like that!

The weather was terrible, rain and sleet! Luckily Paramount Flight Services had access to a huge hanger and all of their aircraft were in there for everyone to see. They also had tons of food and cookies for everyone! It was a really nice open house. My family had a really nice time and the kids were having a blast hanging out in all of the aircraft. I got the opportunity to meet all of the CFI's that Paramount had on staff. One guy in general caught my attention, Ron Capello.

Ron is a pilot for American Eagle and I think this is what caught my attention the most. I am only 33 years old but I didn't want a CFI who was 22 and only trying to build hours so he/she could move up to the airlines. I wanted a CFI who taught because they wanted to, not because they had to! Ron was that, plus he was super nice to my kids, my wife and he seemed to have a good personality and sense of humor. All things I wanted in someone I would be spending so much time with. So far, things were looking great!

After the open house at Paramount my wife and I had a lot of discussion over the financial means for me to finally do this. We talked about the pro's and con's of everything and it was going to be tough. There was one major reason for me wanting to become a pilot and that is my grandfather, Jim Applegate. He had a passion for aviation and I have always respected and looked up to him. I have told my wife that it is a dream of mine to take him up after I get my license. Well, he is getting old, 81 to be exact, and I don't know how much longer I will have. This came up when my wife and I were talking everything through and we both decided that it would be better not to wait until it's too late. So I called Paramount and signed up!