Grettings all ye pilot/netters. Quite often, there’s a thread about some
neat places to go. Someone always asks abouta good place to fly to, or
where they can rent an airplane in a certain area. The answers seem
to involve some good-sounding suggestions, and purchasing one of the
various books available about such matters. This seems to provide us with
only some clue of what’s good, and takes up a lot more space than its value
merits.

What I’d like to do is compile a listing of great places (in the USA) to go,
where we are the contributors. Here’s how I’d like to start it: email me
some of the places that you know of, in the format provided below. I’ll just
throw it all into a file that anyone can ftp.

For starters, I’ll just put it into two files, EAST & WEST, the dividing
line being the Mississippi River. If this list really grows, I may put it
into files by state, but we’ll deal with that when the time comes.

Here’s the format I’d like to use:
STATE:
AIRPORT:
COMMENTS:
RENTALS:

STATE need only be the two letter abbreviation.
AIRPORT should be the three letter identifier, followed by the airport
name, followed by "IAP" if there’s an instrument approach. For example,
"GED, Sussex Cnty Airport, IAP."
COMMENTS should be anything interesting that you can do from this airport,
once you are on the ground! I don’t want any information that you might like
to have while flying there (rwys, hours, lighting) that you couldn’t find
in your Flight Guide, A/FD, or AOPA handbook. I just don’t want to take up
that kind of space for something which you could find yourself if you really
do go there.
RENTALS should say what you could find for how much. For example,
2 C-152s@$43/hr, 1 PA-28-161@$58/hr. That’s about it.

OK, here’s the most important thing: DO NOT START MAILING THESE PLACES TO
ME YET! I’m simply posting this so that everyone can post any suggestions
on what they’d like to see, or what isn’t necessary or whatever. If we
decided that there should be a fifth entry once this got started, it’d
start to become a big mess, rather than a neat little listing. So post any
opinions or suggestions you might have now, and we can start this thing
later.

… Michael Colalillo — BSME, CFI, CFII, MEI — mike…@cris.com
— Blue Wave/QWK v2.10

A question (or two) for those more experienced than I…

I am currently a student pilot nearing the end of my PPL training.  
Perhaps it is just that I never paid attention to the sky before flying,
but the sky over Baltimore has never seemed grayer.  Everyday its 3-5
miles vis in haze and ultra-high humidity with 30-50 percent chance of
T-storms.  Because I have set my personal minimums to 5 miles vis and no
cells in my area, I rarely get to fly lately.  And when I do, its usually
a strugle to "see and be seen".  I periodically here of wonderful
(50 mile) visibilities elsewhere and blue (not gray) skies.  

My questions:

1.  Do I have new pilot-itis as far as the sky always looking gray?
2.  Where are the places in the U.S. where the skies are most friendly?
    Bluest?
3.  I am particularly interested in info on mid-Texas as I may be moving
    there in the next year.

Thanks to all who respond.

–
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Stuart Tomares, M.D.                            Office: (410) 955-2035
  Johns Hopkins Children’s Center                 Fax:    (410) 955-1030
  Internet: stoma…@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu

Howdi ALL:

One of these days I was reading PLANE & PILOT Magazine (June ’94 issue)
and got interested in a kit plane they mentioned: the Velocity 173.

The article says it is manufactured by a Velocity Aircraft, of Sebastian,
Florida, but they do not mention the company’s address.

As I am thinking in asking for more information about that aircraft, could
anyone be kind enough to provide me the mailing addres of Velocity Aircraft,
in Sebastian, Fla.?

Thanks, in advance.

Joe Nery
InterNET: joe.nery%man…@ax.apc.org

… To have fun, stay at home. To have a great time, fly gliders.
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

Well, I just completed my quarterly trip home, from Oakland to Phoenix, to
visit our family.  It was chock full of some new weather experiences for
me, and I thought I’d share.  Our plane is a Turbo 210 (non pressurized).

We’ve done this trip a number of times, and, surprisingly, weather has
really never come into the picture.  Nonetheless, of course, I got the
full briefing the night before which indicated pretty-severe VFR the whole
way.  The only exception was going to be the need for an IFR departure to
get out of the cloud blanket covering OAK.  No big deal, as I fly IFR in
VMC anyway when the family’s aboard.  We were going to be leaving by about
8:00 to avoid any possible afternoon storm buildups or ground heating over
Arizona.  A quick morning update showed basically no change.

My first clue of unpredicted weather was that OAK was VFR enough for us to
get out without getting our clearance.  I always hope for this, as the IFR
departure route is somewhat circuitous and adds much time/fuel to the
journey.  I always have a backup filed from a VOR just south of the bay
that goes the rest of the way to Phoenix.  OAK center is always more than
happy to clear me for this.

The sky starting turning that weird gray color, and winds were more
southerly than predicted.  About halfway to Palmdale (PMD), I tried to get
flightwatch and was unsuccessful.  In fact, there were a few of us on 22.0
all trying to get through and nobody could.  On reporting back on
frequency, I said "23F is back on frequency… I was unable flightwatch."
He said, just as calmly as you could imagine,  "Yeah, I guess they’re
having some pretty bad weather down there."  I said, "Down where?!?!?!"  I
had been listening to a hiwas a bit ago that said nothing.  He then read
me a convective sigmet that was just being released that covered the whole
area between PMD, Palm Springs (PSP), LA, and San Diego.  Thunderstorms
moving in from the south, tops to 20.  I was thrilled.

I dialed up the nearest hiwas and sure enough, it was now broadcasting the
sigment.

I took another couple of minutes off-frequency to try to get ahold of an
FSS to see if there was any specific news.  Bakersfield radio said, "What
convective sigmet?"  I swear, they had NO record of it.  He told me that
everything ahead should be way clear.  Right.  This, to me, was just about
the most amazing thing of the whole trip.  He went back 4 times to try to
find any information about upcoming storms and could find nothing.  I
said, "I was just listening to hiwas which WAS talking about storms."  All
he could tell me was that, since I was currently with the approach control
from a naval air station, "Maybe they have a different idea of what a
convective sigmet is."  Go figure.

I started planning.  For each segment of the route, I started figuring out
where we would land if it became apparent that our route was going to be
blocked off.  Let me recommend to all that, if you don’t normally do this
on a long trip, find good intermediate stopping points should weather move
in unexpectedly.  Sure, I had plans based on the legally-based alternate
rules for arrival, but I’m talking about finding a good waiting point for
the whole family.  We passed an airport every 3-5 minutes, but which ones
had hotels, food, etc…, that would make for a good waiting stop…
possibly overnite?  I pulled out my california airport guide and started
checking out each airport we passed.  This was plenty to do while I was
also watching the weather develop and talking to controllers, flight
watch, and FSS outlets.  This would not have been possible in an IMC
environment.

As I was passed off to LA center, I started using the controllers.  The
first guy told me that he had just diverted some commuters a little south
of PMD, but I told him I could see to PMD and it looked OK (just that gray
crap everywhere).  He said the next controller would have more info.

The next guy was talking with a jet passing PSP who was reporting stuff
starting to build there.  I asked for, and got, a northerly diversion from
what I could see was a gray-turning-to-black area RIGHT over PSP.  I was
concerned, given the report of south to north movement, that this might
put me into stuff I could not see yet (visibility was about 25 miles), but
I was entirely prepared to land as soon as I saw any type of blockade.  I
kept careful view on my backside to make sure I wasn’t going to be
surrounded.  There was nothing happening there.  It really looked like the
stuff over PSP was pretty stationary, and that I was going to be able to
make it fine.

After about 50 miles, I asked for, and got, direct to Blythe (GPS direct)
which put me back on my original path.  I could see nothing more really
ahead (except the really weird gray stuff all over), and a new call to
flight watch confirmed that there was nothing ahead.  Whew!  As it turned
out, the ACTUAL weather was never as bad as the sigmet was predicting
(luckily).  However, the tension level had been significantly raised.

We descended out of 15 for 13, and this led me to think about something
else I really hadn’t considered before… the heat.  Yeah, it was warm out
there.  In fact, I computed that density alt, when we were indicating
15000, was really over 18000!  Sure, the plane had a field day and loved
it, but all of our O2 flow guages were set on 15, not 18.  Even at the
O2-richer 13000, where my kid ripped off her O2 mask (which she enjoys
wearing by the way), the density alt was still about 16000!  After a few
minutes, she started complaining of being a "little hot" and
uncomfortable.  That’s when it hit me, and we put her back on the O2.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip went fine, and we did arrive early enough
to avoid ground bumps.  Due to the non-helpful winds, we took 3:43 to get
there.  Oh well.

I know you all know this already, but let me just summarize a couple of
suggestions:

  A. On a long family trip, plan for weather wait-out spots from both
     an IFR (approach, minimums, etc…) view, AND a "will the family
     be happy there" view.

  B. Remember density altitude’s affect on your BODY.  If it’s really
     hot and you don’t have O2, a long trip over 10000 is going to be
     interesting.

  C. Think twice about information you get from the FSS, even "real
     time" info.  Double check against other sources.  And, even
     predictions of "bad" weather can still leave lots of travelling
     room.

  D. Winds being more southerly than predicted really IS an indicator
     of bad things to come.

  E. When times start to get tough, controllers can be some pretty
     helpful people (if you’re IFR).  Sub-suggestion: Fly IFR!  VFR
     guys were being denied flight-following left and right since
     the controllers were busy.

–
Eric Wagner               PP-ASEL-IA
Ithaca Software           Turbo Centurion N3423F
e…@ithaca.com           Oakland Flyers

 MG> What most people seem to do with their PPL’s is fly to distant,
 MG> gourmet  airport restuarants in order to get $100 hamburgers.

Mike,
You must be spying on me. At least in the old days we had the
Playboy Club in Lake Geneva and could appreciate the lovely ladies
who served them.  Sarah, don’t nail me on this.
                                        Burt Katz
                                        I Love My Bonanza

… **FLYING IS A GIFT****
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 OS/2

TV news crew in NYC seeks charter to Haiti (best from Miami?).
Any recommendations?  (Is it practical if US military may be
securing airports?)  Please respond directly to glo…@clark.net.

- Kris Herbst

I am a student motorglider pilot who, now that I’ve gone solo, is wanting
to buy a headset instead of renting one from the FBO. Could anyone offer
advice on lower cost headsets ?  Here are some I am considering:
–Flightcom  Eclipse   $165
— "   "     5DX-DSP   $130
–Flightcom  4DLX      $115
–Sigtronics S-40      $115
–Pilot      PA11-20   $140
–Softcomm   C-60      $150
These prices are from Marv Golden Discount Sales catalog. Also, can anyone
suggest who  to buy a headset from ?(which mail order firm that is!).
Larry Heilman

Do all of yourselves a favor and buy a Bonanza.   You’ll never own anything
else.   I’ve owned both Pipers and Cessna, nice planes, but I’ll never
own anything but a Bonanza now.   Handles like a fighter lands like a 172 (
only better).

Jason Simpkins
jsimp…@gulfaero.com
N8852A B-35

Yo!  Just started my PP work.  I’m looking at buying one of the video series
King, Sportys, FliteSchool, or maybe one of the advanced simulators –  MDM, MS
Flite Sim, Azure, etc.  Any comments on these or others would be grealty
appreciated.

Here, Here for the sailplane guys.  Went up in one last year and loved it.  Will
probably get the tickets later.  RH

just my brief contribution to the argument:

in my dual in the Tomahawk, had to correct an enthusiastic ground-buffet
induced uncommanded roll.  Required control input was enough to make the
molded rubber handle on the yoke pop off and bop me in the nose.

i was careful to use *gentle* control inputs after that.  stayed well clear
of the ground too.

"Tomahawk 05E, maintain altitude 2300 or below *please*" … like i said,
it was dual …

<BGB>  li…@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu