Archive for October, 2006

For Sale – Cherokee Six

Sunday, October 29th, 2006

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.

Fall Dressage

Saturday, October 28th, 2006

Just back from the 24th Annual Col. Bengt Ljundquist Memorial Championship Finals hosted by the Virginia Dressage Association at the Virginia Horse Center. It is an impressive place, lots of stabling, indoor riding arenas, covered arenas and outside rings, plus the Coliseum which has a huge arena at ground level, grandstand seating and a 2nd level shopping and dining area.

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Valentino did very well with all the distractions and especially fun was a practice ride I had in the Coliseum on the first day, he was very comfortable in there and I had a lovely canter all the way around. I was very happy with my rides, we made some improvements on our last showing and we came home with two 6th place ribbons out of classes of about 15.
Beautiful fall weather, lovely scenery, fall foliage and excellent company made for a memorable weekend. Can’t wait to do it all over again!

Fall Flying

Friday, October 27th, 2006

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.

The Cirrus

Friday, October 27th, 2006

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.

Tax Dollars at Work

Sunday, October 15th, 2006

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.

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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.

Passage to India

Thursday, October 12th, 2006

In late September I traveled back to Asia, returning to Singapore and then on to Mumbai (Bombay) and Bangalore, India. This was a business trip, meeting with colleagues in the three locations and touring our new facilities in the Indian cities.

I reached Singapore courtesy of Singapore Airlines 18 hours non-stop flight over the north pole, down through Russia, China, Mongolia and Thailand. The flight passed surprisingly well, though the combination of eating, working and sleeping had to be carefully managed. A choice of 60 films to watch helped and I was able to catch-up on some I’d missed.

Singapore always impresses. Clean, orderly, secure, managed. Beautiful skyline, modern and aged buiding inter-mixed. Wonderful food, fascinating people.

India – quite an experience. It’s wrong to overlay western standards and then to comment on the differences. It’s wrong but difficult not to do so. Impressions – traffic, people, poverty and wealth, heat, energy, drive, enthusiasm, people and even more traffic.

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My photo’s: Singapore, Mumbai, Bangalore

Away for 10 days, Lynne and I connected most evenings over Skype video-conferencing from my hotel rooms. It made a big difference and helped a lot. Seeing Jackson & Spencer, the house etc made it easier somehow.

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I traveled back through Heathrow, 10 hours from Bangalore, lay-over of 4 hours in Heathrow (I called mum!), 8 hours to Philly and home!

New Aircraft

Thursday, October 12th, 2006

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