PropBlast

Of all the various airport websites I've seen, this one strikes me as being great! Not only does it have a design that is rather simple, it puts all the information a pilot needs right up front.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone to an airport's website to get information that would be handy to know before flying in there only to find a piece of "brochure-ware" that serves no purpose other than perhaps to stroke some administrator's ego.

Next time I'm in New York state, I'll try and make a trip to see this strip. I mean, how many times have you come across an airstrip where the terminal building/cafe is a converted barn! Can't pass that up! Go check 'em out at this link [http://www.skyacresairport.com/].

Sometimes you have to look at photos you find on the web and just say WTF? It is hard to place context to this beauty. It looks like a Canadian registered Cessna is being pulled over at a drunk driving checkpoint. Perhaps it is coned off after an emergency landing? You decide...

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I never linked up this article to the blog on the site. Silly me.

Anyway, here's some pictures and text about a trip to Sedona [KSEZ] that Lori and I made in August.

It was a very fun flight. We decided to extend this from a day-trip to an overnighter as it looked like we might end up with the typical morning marine layer on the day we were to leave so we opted to spend the night in Laughlin [KIFP]instead. It was Lori's first trip to Laughlin in out plane and I think she really enjoyed it. Plus she won $70 or so playing slots. Not too bad!

[http://propblast.org/articles/Carrier_Landing_at_USS_Sedona.aspx]

I was in Wisconsin recently for work and had the opportunity to go flying with my good friend Andy in his Piper Cherokee Warrior (shown at left pre-flighting it at KUBE in Cumberland, WI). Having seen this plane before he purchased it, I'd say he has done a great job in fixing this craft up. He has turned it into a nice, stable IFR/VFR platform.

I even got .3 hours flight time myself! Flying it was pretty simple and it was under CAVU skies that we explored the area around Cumberland. Got to fly up towards Long Lake where we were having business meetings and then down towards Rice lake (KRPD) (shown on final at left). This was also my first experience in flying right seat. Because of this, I thought better of attempting any landings. I still think I'd like to go up with an instructor to practice this skill some more before attempting a landing from the right side.

This flight also provided a couple of more firsts for me. Not only did I get to act as a safety pilot for the first time for a pilot under the hood (we figured it was silly to NOT take advantage of the situation for Andy to fly a simulated NDB approach into KUBE to apply towards his IFR currency. The other first I got was after he went missed on the approach into KUPD, we circled around and he lined up for runway 18, which is a 2000 grass runway. We did it as a simulated engine out landing and ended up a little short so he added power to carry us over the road and land on what would be the numbers in the grass. The grass runway was amazingly smooth and the grass had good braking action, allowing us to stop short of the asphalt runway 9/27 that crosses the grass strip a little past the halfway mark.

Thanks Andy for a great morning of flying!

This is pretty funny stuff. For more videos about the movie "Flyboys" click here.