Flew the Cirrus N470CD IFR to Florida to enjoy one of two major aviation events this year – Sun ‘n Fun, at Lakeland Florida, along with my partner Jim, and buddy Captain Ron H. Very enjoyable 6 hour flight, fine weather, and a bladder and fuel stop in Lumberton North Carolina. We also took advantage of a truck ride to the local foodery for a quick breakfast. Then off south again, out over the Atlantic for a while before coming ashore for the Florida portion of the trip.

We put down in Plant City, not too far from the Sun ‘n Fun show site, but far enough to avoid the mess of aircraft trying to land at the show site before the noon show time start! We rented a car and drove into the show. Three days of sun and fun, aviation, aircraft, pilots, aerobatics followed, with each day ending up the same – at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville in the show grounds, enjoying a newly-found beverage (beer) – LandShark – tasty, watching the sun go down. Nice.

I purposefully left all my cameras at home for this trip. It felt great and un-pressured.

We headed back north on Saturday, with good weather depicted for the full 6 hour trip. Jim was at the helm as we put down in Curtis L Brown Jr Field Airport Elizabethtown North Carolina. In the pattern we were asked if we wanted “…a hot-dog or hamburger, or both” for lunch. After three hours flying we opted for ‘both’. The Elizabethtown airport team provides free lunch to visiting aviators during the Sun ‘n Fun week. Great food, nice people, cheap(er) fuel…..we’ll be back!

This was my longest cross-county trip in the Cirrus. It performed flawlessly, and was very comfortable (we took turns napping!). We ‘filed’ IFR despite good conditions and ATC services were very helpful (as usual) and we got the altitudes and routing we requested, without exception.

Jim and I spent Sunday washing the Cirrus removing Florida dust, bugs and trip flotsam from the aircraft.

Great trip, good event, good flying experience, great company!

I’ve been watching NASA TV and following along with this mission since the day of the launch. I forgot to mention here, but a friend and I were lucky enough to catch sight of Discovery on the night it launched. (From Delaware!)
There in the Eastern sky, at exactly the time and position NASA said she would be, we saw the orange glow streaking across the sky. By the time I made the 10 minute drive home from our viewing point and checked on the shuttles location on NASA TV, she was over Africa. Incredible!

I vow to go see a launch before the current Shuttle is mothballed for good.

Having watched so much NASA TV, I’ve come to be able to recognize the various crew members voices, as well as whoever happens to be running the CAPCOM at the current time. It’s been such a pleasure to watch, and I learned more about the mission and the space program in the past 2 weeks than I have any time before it.

Here’s to happy landings and blue skies, Discovery!

More of Neil’s Aviation Blogs here including Flight Training, NASA, Aviation misc………

My only flying of the weekend took place on Sunday morning. My Dad had suggested to a few friends that we get together and fly out for breakfast since the weather would be unusually good for the time of year. We easily fit 4 folks in the SR-22, and our friend flew another in his beautiful Cessna 170. Destination: KGED, Sussex County airport.
the only note to an uneventful flight down state was the occasional flocks of Snow Geese we could see from the air. They swirl around and move together as one above the fields in lower DE, and the whole thing looks alien when viewed from an airplane. Quite a sight.

KGED seemed a little quiet given the good weather, but the breakfast buffet was in full swing, and the few folks that had made the trip were enjoying pancakes, sausages and bacon. I’ll definetly be going back for breakfast. A nice, clean restaurant with pleasant staff, good food, and fair prices, and that ever impotant view of the runway.

As we made our way back north towards home, we passed over Dover Air Force Base. You may recall that this summer, DAFB made national headlines when one of it’s monster C-5’s came up short of a runway and broke into 3 seperate pieces. Well, that C-5 is still sitting there at the end of the runway, looking alot like it does in this picture. I assume it was left during the investigation, but even after, moving such a behemoth aircraft will be a chore.

An animation was released showing cockpit intrumentation and animation of the C-5 before it found the dirt.

**- As The IFR Pilot pointed out, the YouTube link was yanked. So, ignore that one and see the C-5 animation, here.

Part 2 – flying the plane! Had a tough but enjoyable and rewarding day’s training, flying the aircraft over Long Island and New York state. I’m really pleased with the Cirrus, it’s fast and loaded with top-line equiment and functions that would be seen on any jet. Putting all this together, in the right sequence and to complete the task at hand is the goal!

Some good photos of J and my flight up to and over NY, and back to N57:

We have the Cherokee Six up for sale. Details here.

Briefly; Piper PA32-300 N3011X. Serial No: 32-7940093. Manufactured 1979. Engine: Lycoming IO540-K1G5, serial: RL-15755-48A, 300hp. Prop: 3-blade Hartzell HC-C2Y (2004). Range: 85 gallons. IFR Aircraft; Garmin 530, S-Tec 55X autopilot, HSI, Nexrad weather radar (2002). Tanis Heater System (2003). Green and white, gold trim, paintwork in very good condition (2001). Six seats, club-style, headset connections at all seats. Leather Interior, carpeting, beige, excellent condition (2001). Comm system facilitates cabin music and music cut-out. Air Conditioning and integrated fan. Doors Seals, inflatable. Large baggage capacity, rear and front. Cockpit and cabin cover (Bruce’s). Electric mains tug. Hangared.

Low and slow (and quiet), viewing fall foligae from 1500ft is spectacular. The Citabria is perfect for this, great visibility, slow-flight-capable.

My photo’s.

Started my required training for the Cirrus SR-22, using Glass Cockpit Aviation New York (Republic Airport, Long Island). J (my aircraft partner and co-owner) flew us there and had some training himself. Good flight over New Jersey, south of Manhattan, over JFK airport and into Republic.

GCA has a Cirrus simulator, one of two in the country. With winds gusting during the afternoon to 38mph we used the sim! J and I flew home that evening, after winds had subsided.

Delaware Air National Guard had its Open House and Air Show this weekend, a really nice event. Neil and I enjoyed a beautiful if breezy day (~17knots), strong local turnout that made the food lines long but the flightline manageable.

Lots to see, with the static display including C-130’s, the always-impressive Galaxy C-5 (2nd largest aircraft in the world?), jets, vehicles…the usual stuff.

The Air Show was very good and rivalled a lot of other shows of late. Highlights included the B-2 bomber (meanacingly quiet), and the F-22 Raptor (incredible maneuverability). Great show. Now I know wher my hefty tax dollars go!

My photo’s.

Hope to be flying a Cirrus SR22 GTS by month-end