Go Kart With Wings

"Wow this thing looks like a go-kart with wings!"

That's what my brother said when he saw the Tecnam Bravo that I was preflighting on Sunday the 5th.

I decided to ask my brother to grab his fancy new digital SLR camera and come to the airport for some awesome flying photography action, as the weather was just about as perfect as a guy could ask for. 80°F, low humidity, good visibility and just a few scattered clouds meant that I couldn't in good conscience do yard work while the Bravo sat idle at the FBO.

Now, I just got checked out in the Bravo last week and I wanted to fly it on my own to get more comfortable with it, and with the winds a little calmer than the gales that I had for the checkout, it seemed like a good opportunity.

So, we launched and took some pics of my house, my in-laws house, the local church, and a popular lake. I also wanted to get a landing in at a nearby airport (KGYL) instead of just working from my home base (KFCM).

It was gorgeous up there with good visibility, smooth air, and not too much traffic, though for the first time a passenger of mine spotted traffic before me (a plane flying near my home airport but not in the pattern).

All in all, it was a great flight. I had a lot of fun flying this nimble little go-kart with wings and my brother snapped a ton of pictures, some of which are included here. If you get the chance, fly one of these cool little buggers, they are way too much fun.

Tecnam P2004 Bravo

Flooded Gravel Pit

My House


A Church

Lake Waconia

GPS Track: Google Earth

Logbook: Logshare

New Airplane

Many months ago they took away the Cessna 152s I was training in. So, they finally replaced them with a Tecnam P2004 Bravo airplane, a neat little 2 seat Light Sport airplane. I've wanted to get checked out in the airplane for awhile (meaning, trained on the specific airplane to satisfy the rental facility's insurance demands) so finally I went in and did it. Well, it's a neat little airplane and I'm going to have a lot of fun flying it.

First, it's a nimble little airplane with plenty of zip. It doesn't hurt that the plane is brand new - 32 hours total. It still smells new inside. Also, it is a stick instead of a yoke, which at first I thought would be hard to get used to but it's not at all. It feels very natural and more "free" than a yoke at times.

First thing we did was takeoff and do some turns around a point. Amazingly I can still pull that off, so then we climbed to 4000 feet and did power-on and power-off stalls (these simulate stalls in takeoff and landing configurations). I recovered from them easily, but I noticed it stalls more like the 152 than the Warrior - it tends to drop off the cliff after the stall, whereas the Warrior kind of vibrates and mushes along until you push the nose down.

After the stalls, we did steeps turns which I messed up at first. Here, the stick vs. yoke was throwing me off because of the way I am used to holding my steep turn in the Warrior. It's easier to hold the yoke perfectly still than a stick - but after a couple of tries I was getting it. The other thing that was throwing me off was that the attitude indicator is in the glass panel display...and with the bright sun it was difficult to see the tiny hash marks for the bank angle.

So after steep turns we headed back to the airport, and Jim showed me the GPS system where you can lock onto your airport and it draws a line right to it. From the practice area I could probably find my way to the airport on pure instruments (hope I never have to!) but it was nice seeing how it worked.

The first landing was ugly due to me overcontrolling. The Warrior has a robust control system that requires a bit of effort to manipulate, but the Bravo has smooth as silk movement in the full range of motion. I did land the plane without breaking anything and my second landing was very smooth. I forgot, though, how much a crosswind throws these little planes around, so the Bravo is not for flying in gale force / hurricane force winds.

All in all, it was a lot of fun to fly and it's nice having another option if I'm just going up with 1 other person. It doesn't hurt that it's a new airplane with glass panel and GPS displays, either.

Rusty but trusty

I'm sad to admit that I let my currency for carrying passengers lapse. Regulations (FAR 61.57 to be precise) says that I have to have 3 full stop take offs and landings in the preceding 90 days to be able to carry passengers with me. As of June 9, I only had 2 T.O.s and landings. When my wife starts to hound me about staying current, I know I'm overdue for some stick time.

So I toddled on out to the airport and flew in the pattern for an hour. Here are the results of my landing attempts:

1. Too high, too fast - REJECT REJECT REJECT
2. Trying to remember how to fly the pattern. Landing was smooth as silk.
3. Figuring out how to fly the pattern. Landing was good but not perfect.
4. ATC threw me a bunch curve balls. First, they had me extend upwind (takeoff heading). Next, they had me extend my downwind (opposite takeoff heading) for an incoming medical helicopter. But my training and experience finally started to drizzle back into my head and I adjusted my pattern nicely for a greaser landing.

There were a few planes flying around but it was congested due to one runway being out of service to be extended from 3900' to 5000'.

The weather was partly cloudy, no wind to speak of, 75°F. I'm now current to carry passengers again. Woohoo!

Flight Status: **ACTIVE**

I went up for a half an hour today with my brother Joe, to see if I remembered how to fly. Turns out I do!

It was cool finally seeing green things from the air, instead of white and brown. There was a little turbulence aloft but nothing too bad. All I can say is thank goodness for checklists. Going through them really jogged my memory on procedures.

My GPS tracker decided to work today so I'll post the flight log tonight when I get home from work.

Google Earth: Flight Track

Logbook: Logshare

I haven't given up flying.

Seriously. But Minnesota springs are not known for good flying weather. It looks like there is some good weather in the next week or two so I can go out and see if I still remember how to fly.

On a related note, I got my "plastic" pilot certificate in the mail a few days back. It's a welcome addition to my wallet.

Positive Role Model.

My sister-in-law "Candice" called me up and asked me if I could give her foreign exchange student "Lars" an airplane ride. I told her that I would be able to make that sacrifice, and made the arrangements.

Now, some backstory is in order. This young man has been with a family since September of 2008, and apparently they are now going through a divorce and the environment Lars was in deteriorated significantly, until he actually started showing signs of depression. When Candice went to pick up Lars from his family (and get all his stuff) she said there were dirty dishes stacked almost to the ceiling, and dog hair and filth everywhere.

So, Candice had agreed to take the boy for the rest of the school year. Unfortunately, Lars was with another foreign exchange student who into some trouble, and he became collatoral damage. The organization that runs the foreign exchange decreed that Lars was to be sent home. In my mind Lars has been dealt a crappy deal, seeing as how much money these kids' families have to pony up for the experience.

So I decided that I would use this opportunity to give Lars a fun experience to temper the bad experience he had with his first dysfunctional host family.

First of all, Lars is a great kid, thanking me for the opportunity and joking around. On the drive to the airport I quickly briefed Lars and Candice on the what they needed to know about the flight.

Besides the overcast, the weather was good for flying and things went very well. After I configured for cruise, I gave Lars the controls and let him fly almost the whole time. He very naturally was able to hold course and altitude (flying right seat even!) and kept saying he couldn't believe he was flying a plane. He had a grin on his face almost the whole time and seemed to genuinely be having a great time. Candice took video and pictures which I burned onto a CD for him to take home.

I really hope when he thinks about his time in the US, that things like this stick out in his mind, and not the filthy hole he was trapped in for months on end. I present for your enjoyment a video and some pictures:

Full Airplane

Yesterday, at my wife's request, I reserved a plane for noon and met my wife, son, and neice at the aiport. We climbed into the rusty but trusty (she's old but she'll hold!) N2240G, the airplane that I used for my long solo cross country flight. You know, the one where the starter failed and some kind soul hand propped it for me, saving my bacon?

Anyway, I fired her up and we took off (I could tell I had a full load, we used a bit more runway than I'm used to) and headed out to the west to snap some pics and take some video, and let the kids have some fun looking out the window.

Having gathered all the pics and vids that we wanted, I headed back to Flying Cloud airport and learned that the winds had picked up from 9 knots to 14. Funny thing was, though, that on final approach, I hardly had to correct for any wind, but about 20 feet above the ground I could feel it pushing me off to the side. Right before touchdown it swung the airplane ever so slightly to the right so when the wheels hit the pavement we were a little sideways...this made for a bit of a "clunk" when we hit. Glad my smooth landing was on my wife's FIRST flight!

Some photos from the flight:

My house:



Pilot In Command™:



My neice:



My little boy: