The Long Taxi

I did it! I have finally departed SOCAL and arrived in The Old Dominion.

Vital Stats:
Distance: 2564.3 SM
Days: 4
Hours behind the wheel: 36.4

I've been to Tuscon, Las Cruces, godforsaken West Texas
Odessa, Abilene, more of Texas that I seen,
Texarkana, Little Rock, Memphis in my truck,
Knoxville I'm almost there
I've been everywhere

Safe and sound in the Virginia countryside. I'm going tomorrow for my check flight at a local FBO and should hopefully be back to flying soon.

All the best,
BC

Waking them up...

Over the weekend, a Piper crashed in the mountains east of San Diego. As reported, the first indication of the accident was when a Sheriff's helicopter on routine patrol saw the wreckage. Although the plane probably crashed Friday, it wasn't spotted until Saturday and it made the local news Saturday night without identifying the type of airplane or the victims.

By Sunday night, the story was running on the national wires identifying that two Navy personnel had been killed in a Piper after departing MYF. My heart goes out to the families of the two victims. Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

This one hit a little close to home. When I first heard about a plane going down, my primary concern was for the members of my clubs, hoping it wasn't one of them. Once the national story hit, the only thing I could think is that my wife and/or parents would hear about it on the news and be out of their minds before they could reach me. I put in a few phone calls at midnight east coast time to let them know about the accident and that I was safe on deck. An ounce of prevention and all that.

The accident aircraft was not a part of either of my flying clubs.

When I first started flying, I filed a VFR flight plan for every flight, including local hops. As I have become more comfortable flying, I've stopped doing this, only filing for cross country over the mountains or when flying out of one club that requires it. The VFR flight plan, like flight following, is an insurance policy. It's free (for now) and may make the difference between being rescued or not. I think it's time I rededicate myself to filing on every flight. It can't hurt.

I also think this is a good chance to plug support for AOPA (and every other aviation alphabet group except the ATA) in the fight against user fees. If I try to file and/or use flight following on every flight for safety, how differently will I and other pilots feel about it if we have to give up our AMEX number just to talk to a controller?

Six days and a wakeup and I'm home.

Short Final

My original plan for leaving San Diego and moving to Virginia included a bit of a detour by way of Oshkosh, WI, where I planned to check out the show and meet up with some other bloggers. However, I haven't seen the Chief Photographer in six weeks with one more week to go, so I have decided to forgo Oshkosh. No offense, but as much as I like airplanes I like my wife even more.

I have five working days left as a full time Naval Officer. There are two projects I have to put some finishing touches on and I have some admin drills to close out, then I will be departing SOCAL on Friday afternoon to begin my drive back to Virginia. Three and a half days of driving will land me in Charlottesville to begin the great adventure of being an unemployed business school student.

The transition from full time military to grad student and then to the civilian business world will be challenging. If you count my four years at the Naval Academy, I have been in the Navy for 16 years, all of my adult life. In some ways it has been difficult, with long deployments and little communication with home. In other ways, it has been extremely rewarding to work with outstanding professionals who dedicate their lives to serving their fellow citizens. I won't be leaving the Navy entirely, however, as I have joined the Navy Reserve to be a part time sailor.

I am looking forward to starting this next phase of my life. I have to learn a new language and how to dress (uniforms are easy). Luckily, my wife is an experienced professional with an MBA of her own and does a good job of looking out for me.

Five days left. The gas is full, three down and locked, on centerline, on airspeed, on glideslope...

Another burger run

I had set up a meet today to fly with a few friends. K and C both work in my office. K is a PPC with about 250 hrs who hasn't flown in about 9 months due to work on his house. C is the guy who showed up to take over my job as I transition to grad school. He got his PPC in August 2001 right before GA got shut down in September 2001 and never went back up. In fact, his last GA flight before today was his PPC check ride. It was a great day to not only go flying, but to show them around my club at MYF.

We had planned to go to CNO, see the museum, and hit Flo's for a gut bomb, but the weather prevailed against us. Atypical for July, the marine layer has been burning off late and closing in early over the past week, and it did it again today. By the time it burned off, it was too late to go to CNO and have time to stop for fear we wouldn't make it back before the low ceilings closed in again. Instead, we decided to make a quick burger run up to F70, a nice and easy friendly flight.

After showing them the details of an Archer, we loaded up, fired up, and called for taxi. Taxiway H and A to 28R, number 2 behind a bunch of arrivals and an IFR release, then a downwind departure over Cowles Mountain. North over Lake Jennings and Barona at 3500, transition RNM at 3500 climbing to 4500, cruise up Pauma Valley and start our descent into French Valley. I did a 5 mile 45 entry to left traffic Rwy 18 and made a fairly decent landing despite the crosswind.

After a good burger and discussing some possible future business plans, we saddled up and headed back. Same route back, cleared for the visual 28L, and one of the best landings I have made in a long time. The crosswind was 8 kts from the left. I maintained a good lineup in slip, flared correctly, the stall buzzer chirped, the left main chirped, the right main chirped, then the nosewheel settled as I gracefully slowed down and made the turn onto Taxiway G.

K enjoyed the flight and is definitely interested in getting back into flying. C is extremely interested. He needs an updated medical, probably a few practice flights with a CFI, and a BFR to get up to date. They both have the card of one of my favorite CFI's, the guy who soloed me back in the day (and also happens to be a friend of K).

I don't know how many more flights I will get in SOCAL. I am down to 11 days before I depart for the East coast. I may try for one or two more, we'll just have to see.

Disappointment

I had most of the day off from work today, so I decided it would be a great time to go fly. Southern California is VFR almost every day in the summer, but today Mother Nature decided she was not going to cooperate.

KMYF 051953Z 26006KT 3SM HZ OVC003 20/17 A2990 RMK AO2 SLP121 T02000167

KSAN 051951Z 28007KT 6SM HZ FEW005 OVC006 20/17 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP126 T02000167

KSAN 051908Z 051918 22008KT 5SM HZ OVC008
    TEMPO 1922 3SM BR BKN006
    FM2200 25010KT P6SM BKN011
    FM0300 21005KT 6SM HZ OVC010
    FM0600 17004KT 5SM BR OVC009
    FM1100 18005KT 4SM BR OVC007
    FM1700 19006KT 6SM HZ BKN010
       

Sigh............