Where are your chestnuts roasting this year?

Merry Christmas, all!
—
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Most pilots I’ve met talk about how they have always dreamed of
flying.  So let’s get more specific.  What kind of dreams?

I’ll go first.

My earliest flying dreams didn’t involve an airplane at all.  As a
very little kid I had just learned how to "dog paddle" in a swimming
pool.  I was very proud of that achievement, but it just wasn’t
enough!

That night I remember dreaming that I was standing in the front yard
of my parent’s house, and dog paddling for all I was worth!  The
harder I could thrash my arms and legs, the higher I could go!  Over
the telephone poles, looking down on all the jealous neighbor kids, I
was having the time of my life.

Later in life I "graduated" to actually dreaming of being a pilot in
an aircraft, then realizing that dream by finally getting my PPL, but
those early dreams are still very vivid in my mind.

Anybody else care to share their dreams?

Merry Christmas to all,

Steve Job

By the time I got in the air, I was happy and all was well with the world.  After doing some night full stop landings, I followed I-84 up to Beacon and back just to "go somewhere" and then came home.  By now temperatures were just below freezing, but it was clear and so I didn’t give it much consideration.

Landed without incident, braking was good (and was also reported good by aircraft before me), and I taxiied to the ramp, a relatively unfamiliar part of the airport since we moved the airplanes.  The airplane seemed to be sliding a bit, as if there was ice on the pavement.  Well, of course there was; the wet pavement had frozen in the interim.  I was afraid of that, and this meant that putting the plane away would not be as easy as taking it out.  After a struggle I did manage to get it pushed back over the ice berms (pulling up on the wing while pushing back helped, as did pulling with the tiedown ropes when I got close enough).  But when I was pretty much done, I noticed there was frost on the wings, which hadn’t been there before.

Which got me thinking – maybe the FAA isn’t so crazy after all.  If frost can form while the plane is  just sitting there, why could it not form while the plane is flying?  (yeah, there’s some frictional heating, but we could lower the temp a bit more, no?)  And if frost isn’t such a good thing to have on takeoff, it’s probably not so good in flight either.

Any thoughts?  Have you seen this before?

Jose
—
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

I decided to take the next step and replace the door seals.  I did the right
one yesterday, and the left one today.  While things were apart, I decided
to paint the door edges which would be visible after the seals were
replaced.

My girlfriend came to the airport just as I was finishing up.  Her sister is
visiting from Iran, and they both wanted to do some sightseeing over the
Eastern Shore.

The weather was just a little bumpy, but the visibility was great. Nothing
but a few cirrus above us.  It was a great flight, lots of low and slow for
picture taking.  And, it was so damned hot that you could cook a frozen
pizza on the glareshield.  And that was without any significant leaning.  In
fact, I think I will do that next time.  Kinda like Bob Hoover.  I’ll put a
cup of coffee on the glareshield and watch while it …doesn’t … cool ..
off.  Or, I could rig up a pump and have a pressurized cabin.  I’d be fine
right up to the flight levels.

It was Sherrie’s first flight in a light plane.  I doubt whether there is
any GA in Iran, so it might be her last for a while.

It was a great day, beautiful flight, and a good feeling of accomplishment.
Most of the time, life sucks.  But not today.

I’ve known Harmut from many years ago when he was flying his Ercoupe
from the Bay Area.  He returned to Germany a few years ago and wrote
this report from his native land on the differences between US and
German GA.
—
Everybody’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s a really
easy way; stop participating in it.
 ~ Noam Chomsky

I don’t know where you live, but of those listed, I would lean toward
Pro-Flight IF you find an instructor you click with. Proximity of Sea-Tac is
irrelevant…the Sea-Tac airspace will have an impact on your training
wherever you go. Becoming familiar with operations in and near Class B
airspace will give you a huge advantage over someone whose instructor shies
away from congested airspace.
Acuwings is new to me, but they have an impressive fleet according to their
website. If you can swing the finances, go there and train in the Cirrus.

Galvin’s is the 800-pound gorilla. Probably the best of the bunch insofar as
quality is concerned. They have been in the flight training business since
before I got my private in 1962, and you don’t survive in this business
unless you provide a superior product. Don’t be put off by taxi
distances…that’s a poor argument, and it would apply to Wings Aloft as
well.

Wings is a club, as you note, and that’s a good thing. They have a lot of
club-type activities…fly-outs, seminars, dances, parties, etc for those
who are interested. Their planes are well-maintained and the whole operation
is polished. It’s not Galvins, but then again Galvins is not a club.

You quote someone at Pro-Flight as saying a two-weekend ground school is
tough…try one weekend! Don’t be fooled…the sole purpose of these "ground
schools" is to prepare you for the written exam, nothing more. Aviation
Seminars, a traveling road show, simply goes through the questions on the
exam (they are available to the public) and tells you why what they say is
the correct answer is correct…very little depth…and they do it in one
weekend. There are question-answer-explanation books that do the same thing
at your leisure. If you want to get more insight than that…and you
should…both ASA, Gleim, and the Kings have DVD courses. Maybe Pro-Flight
uses one of them. Go to The Aviator’s Store on Boeing Field and look at what
is for sale.

PremAir is not for you…it is aircrew training.

The best advice that you got was from Acuwings….you have to have an
instructor with whom you can communicate. Everything else is secondary.

Bob Gardner
"Chris L" <clusard…@aol.com> wrote in message

news:4ee1abdb-9054-405b-b890-4d3560ceda76@d4g2000prg.googlegroups.com…

- — -

> Hello, I know virtually nothing about flying, but am planning on
> getting a private flying license. I have already talked to a few of
> the schools in and around the Tukwila/Renton Washington area, and want
> to know which is the best all around school.

> (1) Pro-Flight Aviation Inc uses a relatively quiet airport (Renton),
> but it’s still close to Sea-Tac International airport. It seems to be
> the most cost effective, has only 3 teachers, uses a DVD interactive
> course as the ground school, and one person has told me they are not
> very customer friendly. A person there said it’s very very hard to
> learn ground school material in a cram 2 weekend course.

> I bought for $109.99 the "Virtual Test Prep an Aviation Ground School,
> Private 08 Pilot" to study and prepare for the airplane private pilot
> FAA Knowledge Exam by ASA. I also bought the book Guided Flight
> Discovery Private Pilot by Jeppesen, because the owner of the company
> said I would, basically, have to read certain sections.

> (2) Galvin Flying Service is expensive, has 25 trainers, but uses the
> busy (taxing time etc) Boeing airfield.

> (3) Acuwings is also uses the quiet Renton airport, says they’re more
> customer friendly, will be "starting" a new/free ground training class
> in Jan, use old aircraft (80′s), will teach me on a Tomahawk. A person
> there told me to learn from an instructor who I like.

> (4) Wings Aloft has 15 to 20 instructors, requires a membership, and I
> will call them back to talk to the right person.

> (5) PremAir is open Monday through Friday, but I have to call them
> back to see what they offer.

> (6) Northway Aviation is about an hour away, so it’s too far to drive.

> It appears that I can get the license in about 6 months if I take
> lessons two to three times a week (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) for about
> an hour each time.

> So what should I do,
> Christopher Lusardi

> P.S.: It’s all for fun and remotely work related. But, I can be able
> to pretend that I will to become an astronaut some day. [[:-))