First things first:
Please join me in congratulating the newest Private Pilot in the world! (Sorry Chris and Ricardo!) -- one U.S. Private Pilot Cris C., who earned his wings today in Cessna 739 with DPE Andrea E. at Chino. Cris turned 17 yesterday, and we look forward to all of the hot dates he will get to brag about now that he has an airplane. Woo woo!
Way to go, Cris!!
For those who missed our Paso Robles trip, you missed a fun and casual gathering, tasty lunch, and the chance to fly F-18s... (simulatedly). Of course, the best laid plans never turn out as desired, and the clouds were slow to adios themselves.. here was our final tally:
Skylane 073: Had to shoot IFR to a 300' ceiling! First one there, nice work Elian and company!
Bonanza 5R: Had to shoot IFR to a 500' ceiling! Piece of cake.
Bonanza 11N: Decided clouds were for suckers, went to Big Bear instead.
Cessna 739: Asked SoCal for diversion to SMX, no, SBP, no, SBA, no, L35, no.. SMX, really. Joined up 20 minutes later after the OVC005 turned to CLR. Ha ha.
Skylane 7N: Orbited the clouds right where PRB should have been. Peeked in when the time was right. That's precision, ninja-like flying. Nice work, Peter!
Cessna 17J: Figured it would be better to be sipping a milkshake at Bobby A's, wishing they were flying, than to be flying in the scud wishing they could have a Bobby A's milkshake instead. Hard to argue with that logic!
Archer AC: Decided life was better at Harris Ranch altogether, amongst steaks and clear skies for miles around. I think he was the cleverest pilot of us all!
The museum was a lot of fun, and so was the sim and the random assortment of planes to look at / crawl around. A nice saturday afternoon diversion, and thanks to all who made it! We look forward to doing something like this again soon, hopefully with better results. :)
I'm sure any pics we have will make their way to Facebook. :)
it was foggy because F-18s make clouds
Are you out of challenges? Wish you could come up with a story that really impresses the leatherfaced old pilots on the bench -- instead of being trumped by "well there I was, flying an improvised coconut husk glider out of the guam POW camp..."
If you're a knucklehead with an airplane and a free afternoon, there's really only one thing you need to do.
Fly a C150 into LAX.
Imagine the side-splitting laughter SoCal Approach must have dished out when they heard this on the radio:
"SoCal Approach, Cessna 11630, 150/U, landing LAX"
Imagine the serious-faces they suddenly wore when the pilot answered their query with
"No no, really, landing LAX. Ready to copy my reservation number, SoCal?"
I'll wager they made this face
I have mixed feelings about this one, but the pilot who did this flight-planned it masterfully, and despite the $65 ramp fee, the absolute lack of 100LL fuel available, and the fact that he only got one cookie from Landmark Aviation (the General Aviation FBO at LAX, where the ante usually starts at a Citation X) -- he seems to have been real happy to write in "KAJO KLAX" into his logbook.
That must've been one hell of a cookie.
Landing 25L, which is a 200 foot wide by 11,095 foot long patch of asphalt... I think I'd get lost just taxiing. I think you could land sideways in a C150 if you were real good. I also think LAX Tower needed a microscope to find our poor little 630. Good thing she's bright yellow!
Cool pictures, though. :)
Thanks for not earning us a phonecall from the FAA, Jake!
Cessna 630... cleared to do... whatever it is you think that thing can do.
That's all I know at the moment. Oh! How about some maintenance news:
Cessna 68U has an overhauled nose strut. Someone's landing lacked pizazz. :)
Cessna 25R is hoped for this week. (shh, don't jinx it)
Cessna 17J's transponder is (sigh) acting up again. We are out of people to punch for this, but it will probably return to the cave-trolls at Tom's for service later this week.
Cessna 630 probably could fit inside of an A380's Engine pod.
Cessna 739 isn't bothering anyone. Thanks, 739!
==
Blue Skies!
- Mike
