Category Archives: Flying Stories

Blogging In Formation: Six Aviation Bloggers, Six Posts, Six Days

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Blogging in formationINTRODUCTION
Starting this week, six aviation bloggers will join forces to provide a series of powerful posts. Think of us as “blogging in formation” for the next six days. These daily posts will describe how the author came to be part of this amazing thing we call FLYING.

You don’t want to miss this. Tune in to the specific blog listed below on the appropriate date and you’ll be glad you did.

And if you like what you see, share it with your friends! #blogformation

 

Karlene P

 

Starting on Tuesday, May 7th is Karlene Petitt at Flight to Success

 

 

Eric A

 

Next up on Wednesday, May 8th we have Eric Auxier of Adventures of Cap’n Aux

 

 

Ron R

 

On Thursday, May 9th Ron Rapp tells his story at Rapp.org

 

 

Dan Pimentel

 

Friday, May 10th, it’ll be Dan Pimentel of describing the journey at Airplanista

 

 

 

Andrew H

 

And on Saturday, May 11th, we have Andrew Hartley of SmartFlightTraining

 

 

Brent

 

To end the series, Sunday, May 12th, we finish off with Brent Owens here at iflyblog.com

 

 

We really hope you enjoy this series and if you want to see more blogging en masse, please share it with your friends and leave us feedback.

Potential ideas for another future collaboration? Let’s hear them!

by Brent Owens

blogging in formationBlogging In Formation is a blog series where six aviation bloggers come together to deliver their personal message about how they were drawn to flight. Each author will create one post that tells their story during the weeklong campaign.

You can see their posts at:

The series runs the May 7th-12th, 2013

Lessons learned: Cessna 421 “The boss’s open door policy”

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C-421

Flying is an amalgamation of victories and defeats, thrills and chills.

Therefore let us not forget, “there but for the grace of God, go I.”

This fine Summer day dawned really beautifully. I had a trip for an owner of a C-421B from KDUC (Duncan, OK) to M25 (Mayfield, KY). We were under contract to manage the airplane, which was owned by a construction company. 
 
This trip was to take my passengers to Mayfield, KY and then the aircraft owner (non pilot) and I would go to Tullahoma, TN for the night. 
 
We dropped off 5 happy construction workers for their weekend off and saddled up for the relatively short hop to TN. The owner was in a hurry to get home too and with the CAVU (ceiling and visibility unlimited) weather it didn’t take long to be underway. 
The 421 has an airstair arrangement on the left side of the fuselage behind the wing composed of a bottom (stair) and a top (window) that clamshells together.
As I was trained, I always closed and secured the door myself only this time, as the owner followed me into the airplane, he said he would get it. Normally I wouldn’t even consider having a passenger secure it, except he had owned the airplane for years. I assumed he was more than familiar with how it works – many of you are shaking your head right about now.
 
I started engines and taxied to the end of the relatively short runway. After a quick run-up, scan for traffic, and a radio call, we took the runway.
 
Power up, brake release, acceleration normal, and we roared down the runway. 
 
As soon as I rotated, I heard a loud pop and lots of air noise coming from the behind me, followed by the Owner yelling something unintelligible. 
 
It didn’t take long to figure out what happened. The top of the door was wide open. 
 
I should mention that the 421 is pressurized so the cabin pressure, combined with slip stream, is what opened the improperly latched door. 
1968_cessna_421a_50c4f10d6177bcessna-421-welcome-aboard
 
I was mindful of my speed not wanting the top clam shell to impale itself into the horizontal stab. I also pulled the props back to keep the propwash at a minimum.
 
We stayed in the pattern and landed uneventfully. 
 
Total flight time: under 5 minutes!
The cause: The owner left the safety chain off the door handle. 
 
So there are a few valuable lessons to be learned here:
  • Never assume when it comes to flying. Trust but verify, as a former President said
  • Don’t let anyone, other than trained crew members accomplish safety sensitive functions
  • Don’t let the customer (or anyone) rush you
  • Keep cool when things are going wrong – this was the only part I got right. Doors have brought down lots of airplanes, mostly because of the distraction

As has been said many times, flying is amazing, but it’s also extremely unforgiving of mistakes.

Fly safe!

by Brent Owens                                                         Subscribe to this flying blog

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Private Pilot Family Man

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aviation blogThis is a fictious story of an average middle-aged guy with a family that also has an affliction – it’s called flying. NOTE: This could be anyone.

Jack is a loving family man. His wife and two kids mean everything to him. But now in his 40s, life is starting to provide more opportunities to chase his dreams; those dreams include becoming a pilot.

Growing up, his uncle flew in the Air Force. So naturally, at family gatherings Jack was always mesmerized by his uncle’s stories about the airplanes, the missions, and the excitement of being a pilot.

Jack decided it was time to learn to fly. His family was very supportive and the costs wouldn’t be that much different from what they spent on their unused boating and golfing expenditures – both of which went bye-bye.

no boats or golf

The training was an awesome experience. In his whole life, Jack couldn’t recall feeling such determination and satisfaction in accomplishing a single objective! The sense of confidence and pride was palpable.

flight training

After training, the real fun began, he was taking up family, friends, and colleagues every chance he got. His flying was split between local and short-to-medium cross countries. He and the wife would fly off on weekends, while the kids where at Grandmas. It was everything he had imagined and more.

All this time he was renting, but he really aspired to own his own airplane someday. Being mechanically inclined, he considered building an airplane as on option, but two years after he got his private pilot license, he bought a nice C-182 and started his instrument training instead. Building would come later.

Being back in the training regiment was fun and challenging, but doing it in his own airplane, it took on a new twist – in a good way.

instrument checkride

A year later he was instrument rated and really feeling good about his skills. He and his  wife could strike out on longer trips with more flexibility. He still likes giving rides to Young Eagles and taking up friends, just for fun. It’s always rewarding to share your passion.

Nowadays Jack will think back to the time that they spent their disposable income on unfulfilling hobbies and when he does, he smiles in a way that anyone could see that he more than satisfied with the tradeoff. Good choice Jack!

Let us spread the word that there may be more Jacks (and Jills) converted to our religion.

by Brent Owens                                                                   Subscribe to this flying blog

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Teaching myself aerobatics: Don’t try this at home!

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Bucker Jungster I and me

Teaching myself aerobatics: Don’t try this at home!
Disclaimer: this post is for entertainment only. I do not recommend anyone using the concepts or techniques employed here by the author.

Dateline 1992. I was a starving flight instructor flogging my way to a logbook full of flight time in hopes of moving on to the “big iron” some day.

Since my original goal to be a G-pulling fighter pilot was derailed by bad eyesight, I had settled on flying buses to pay the bills and flying aerobatics on weekends.
It was a reasonable goal, but my impatience got the best of me – I wanted to do aerobatics now and I didn’t have access to an acro mount.

So on a shoe-string budget I sourced an old plans-built biplane that was fully aerobatic. You can read about my Bücker Jungster I here.

Now that I had the proper airplane, there was another small wrinkle, it was a single place so there was no place to put an aerobatic instructor.
The smart thing to do at this point would have been to go take a 10 hour aerobatic course up in Oklahoma City or down in Dallas, but I was never accused of being smart.

So it was that I carefully taught myself aerobatics.

Very carefully. Luckily there was a lot of information out there on spins due to some recently spin-related crashes in Pitts Specials. Since my airplane was similar to a Pitts I heeded the warnings and rehearsed the recovery techniques in my sleep (Beggs-Muller method).
I also consumed every instruction manual I could get ahold of. I would go out for short flights and often only work on one maneuver at a time.
Once I felt like I had the hang of a particular figure, I would string my known repertoire together. Continue reading →

RV-8 Aerobatics: Video

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 RV-8 flying

I shot this video in 2011 during the 40 hour test phase of my RV-8. The music is totally cheesy and way over done, but at the time it seemed appropriate. I didn’t have a lot of time on the aircraft at this point so the aerobatics aren’t perfect by any stretch – still aren’t.

Hope you enjoy it.

Shot with a Drift170HD attached to the composite tip attachment screws holes on the vertical stabilizer.

by Brent

Fall Flight: A short video

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fall landing RV-8

Fall Flight: A short video
I shot this video back in October during the height of fall foliage season in Ohio. It’s short and not too dramatic, but I thought I would share it now that we are in the throes of winter and the flying up here is scarce.

The video was shot with a Drift170HD using a head strap. I’m still waiting for decent weather to test drive my new GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition; more to come.

Brent

Keeping my ticket in my pocket: A TFR tale

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TFR Interception

Keeping my ticket in my pocket: A TFR tale 
by Jim Savage
I recently encountered a situation that could easily have turned very bad for the endeavor of me retaining my pilot certificate.

I can remember a time, not all that long ago too, when I might look out the window, use my eyes, nose & ears to determine that the weather was fine and go flying without actually making a call to the FSS for a weather briefing – I was only going up for a local flight, right?  How many times back in the day did we wash the airplane on a beautiful, sunny day and following the dirty work, jump into the airplane, take it around the patch a time or two to “dry it off”?  Or maybe flying back-to-back students, did you always call the FSS for a briefing for each & every flight?  Or a local sight-seeing flight at sunset for a couple of excited Young Eagles?  Folks, times have changed and the events that I’m about to share really brought it crashing home for me. Continue reading →

What brought you here? Your journey to General Aviation

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space shuttleWhat brought you here? Your journey to General Aviation
All of us have a different story of how we came to be involved in general aviation.

For some, you are just starting this journey, for others, it has been a life’s quest.

Being involved doesn’t mean you have to be a licensed pilot or to even fly at all. There are all levels of participation and they all matter.

I came upon this path in a pretty conventional way. I wanted to be an astronaut. Born in 1970, I missed the Space Race, but the Space Shuttle was heating up as I was coming of age and that coupled with Sci-Fi really got my juices flowing to go beyond our Earth. Continue reading →

A Christmas story from WWII

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 Higher Call a Christmas Story

A Christmas story from WWII
Four days before Christmas 1943, in the darkest hours of WWII, a miracle took place. Two enemies—an American bomber pilot and a German fighter ace—met in combat over Germany and did the unexpected: They decided not to kill one another. Even more incredibly, as old men, they found one another and became best friends.

“A Higher Call,” a new book by Adam Makos, tells this story and more—it explores the mysteries—how did the German pilot become the kind of man who would spare a bomber? What other harrowing missions did the American pilot fly? How did each man change after seeing his enemy’s eyes?


Click on the little book cover to order a copy today!

 

Merry Christmas my pilot friends