It's never too early to start planning right? Or maybe it's that I am getting tired of shoveling snow. In any case, you'll want to mark your calendar to remind yourself that the Red Bull Air Race is scheduled to arrive in Detroit, MI on May 31st and June 1st. This will be one of two stops in the United States, and I am planning to attend. This would make a great "Fly-In" event for all you aviation bloggers!
Tickets and Hospitality Packages go on sale April 1st.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
1-800 How's My Reporting?
Here is a link to a news story about a guy in Indiana who made an emergency landing on I-70, after having a problem with (what sounds like) carb icing. Watch the video embedded in the story.
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/15395833/detail.html#
The reporting is actually fairly good compared to others, the only hiccup for me was a strange emphasis on "his only engine". I guess the general public needs to be spoon fed info (to an airplane nut, it is not shocking that this single engine aircraft has only one engine).
The only problem with spoon feeding the non-flying public info is when that information is wrong. Here is a link to an LA Times story about the Corona crash several months ago where two aircraft collided in/around the traffic pattern.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-planes22jan22,1,1200341.story?page=2&track=rss
There is an error in the story that I felt was worth correcting, the part about "A lack of air traffic control is common for small airports like Corona Municipal, which has two runways but no tower." I contacted one of the authors of the story to ask about their math error with respect to the number of runways. The response I got made me wonder what else the "media" is just throwing together as fact. The guy from the newspaper wrote me back to say something to the effect that "Corona has a runway 7 and a runway 25, that's two runways". I gave him a short tutorial on how a runway is numbered, and he wrote back to say that a correction would be issued. Even though this is the year 2008, and the Internet is quite mature as a medium, the LA Times has still not corrected this error in the story. Would it be too difficult to change some HTML? Why is this a big deal you might ask, I think that saying this airport has more runways than it really has is misleading and makes Corona sound like a big airport that is dangerous because it has no control tower.
Am I being too critical? Let me know.
Oh, and I hope the Dad in the first story never treats his daughter to another airplane ride...
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/15395833/detail.html#
The reporting is actually fairly good compared to others, the only hiccup for me was a strange emphasis on "his only engine". I guess the general public needs to be spoon fed info (to an airplane nut, it is not shocking that this single engine aircraft has only one engine).
The only problem with spoon feeding the non-flying public info is when that information is wrong. Here is a link to an LA Times story about the Corona crash several months ago where two aircraft collided in/around the traffic pattern.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-planes22jan22,1,1200341.story?page=2&track=rss
There is an error in the story that I felt was worth correcting, the part about "A lack of air traffic control is common for small airports like Corona Municipal, which has two runways but no tower." I contacted one of the authors of the story to ask about their math error with respect to the number of runways. The response I got made me wonder what else the "media" is just throwing together as fact. The guy from the newspaper wrote me back to say something to the effect that "Corona has a runway 7 and a runway 25, that's two runways". I gave him a short tutorial on how a runway is numbered, and he wrote back to say that a correction would be issued. Even though this is the year 2008, and the Internet is quite mature as a medium, the LA Times has still not corrected this error in the story. Would it be too difficult to change some HTML? Why is this a big deal you might ask, I think that saying this airport has more runways than it really has is misleading and makes Corona sound like a big airport that is dangerous because it has no control tower.
Am I being too critical? Let me know.
Oh, and I hope the Dad in the first story never treats his daughter to another airplane ride...
Monday, February 25, 2008
Out of Hibernation
Time for these flights: 3.0
Total Time: 96.4
Landings: 310
(This post is two flights)
Nature served me up a great day for flying, thankfully, it coincided with my PIC currency date. My wife joined for a simple flight over to Ann Arbor, to make two of the required three landings. The pattern was chocked full of other pilots out enjoying the sunshine and blue skies, Tower asked me to make an "S" turn on final for spacing (a first for me). On the next trip around the pattern, I got an extended downwind re-extended to fit a fast twin engine airplane in front of us. Back to Mettetal to complete the third required landing. Currency, check!
The winter weather has delayed my joining a flying club, and so I am still learning the little "details" of 95T that give it *ahem* character. Comm 1 is labeled Comm 2 and Comm 2 is labeled Comm 1.
On my most recent flight, a friend from work joined for some pattern work and a local sightseeing flight. Initially, I had planned a cross country to Smith Field in Indiana(just north of Fort Wayne). The weather forecast seemed great the night before, a check of the area forecast the morning of started to tell a different story, and I was glad to have scrubbed when I saw METARs talking about 3 miles visibility, clouds at 500 ft, and freezing fog.
It was fun to treat my passenger like a student and explain everything that was happening and why. I even tried to get him to do a radio call, which he declined. He was a good sport, running through checklists, spotting traffic, and seemed to be having as much fun as me.
My passenger tally is currently at 7, and I hope to increase that number now that I am out of hibernation.
Total Time: 96.4
Landings: 310
(This post is two flights)
Nature served me up a great day for flying, thankfully, it coincided with my PIC currency date. My wife joined for a simple flight over to Ann Arbor, to make two of the required three landings. The pattern was chocked full of other pilots out enjoying the sunshine and blue skies, Tower asked me to make an "S" turn on final for spacing (a first for me). On the next trip around the pattern, I got an extended downwind re-extended to fit a fast twin engine airplane in front of us. Back to Mettetal to complete the third required landing. Currency, check!
The winter weather has delayed my joining a flying club, and so I am still learning the little "details" of 95T that give it *ahem* character. Comm 1 is labeled Comm 2 and Comm 2 is labeled Comm 1.
On my most recent flight, a friend from work joined for some pattern work and a local sightseeing flight. Initially, I had planned a cross country to Smith Field in Indiana(just north of Fort Wayne). The weather forecast seemed great the night before, a check of the area forecast the morning of started to tell a different story, and I was glad to have scrubbed when I saw METARs talking about 3 miles visibility, clouds at 500 ft, and freezing fog.
It was fun to treat my passenger like a student and explain everything that was happening and why. I even tried to get him to do a radio call, which he declined. He was a good sport, running through checklists, spotting traffic, and seemed to be having as much fun as me.
My passenger tally is currently at 7, and I hope to increase that number now that I am out of hibernation.
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