Hey, if you're the guy who took off on runway 18 in the light blue and white Piper retractable at Sunriver, OR (S21) Sunday around noon, what the hell was wrong with your engine? With the sputtering I half expected not to see the plane pop up above the trees... And I was really surprised you...

On 2006-08-26, B A R R Y wrote: All I can say is I can't believe I ever flew with those things. The difference was truly startling. The true value of the money I spent on the expensive set was unbelievably apparent. When I forget to turn mine off, leaving...

I found my nose gear door detached from the linkage while preflighting at Boeing Field. In theory all I needed was a phillips head screwdriver, but I had to disassemble the end of the linkage to get to it, which required removing a cotter pin. Leatherman to the rescue! Of course now I'm thinking...

For a long time I've been meaning to convert my cost of ownership spreadsheet into a web page. Over the weekend I wrote a rudimentary sc-to-html converter (sc is an ancient, terminal based spreadsheet). http://ben.com/flying/costown.html I've already filled the page with caveats and disclaimers...

I have a Nokia 8260 on an AT&T plan. That phone does AMPS 800 (analog) and TDMA 800/1900. It's got coverage almost everywhere, which is why I have not upgraded it for almost 4 years. The only airport I've ever flown to where I didn't have coverage was Trinity Center, CA (O86) which is in a bowl...

I might have cause to fly from the Portland, OR area down to San Diego at the end of the month. Any suggestions on places to stop, stretch my legs and get a bite to eat in the middle? The straight-line halfway point is around Reno, NV, but that would involve cutting across some mountain ranges...

For a non-turbocharged piston airplane, does cruise altitude really matter? I made a complicated spreadsheet which produces a fairly simple answer: Unless you climb way above your critical altitude, trip time and fuel burn don't vary much at all. Over a 500nm trip, it only takes about 4% longer...

Frances is projected to run straight up the peninsula. Where are the planes going to hide this time? -- Ben Jackson http://www.ben.com/

When I returned to the US from Canada on Sunday the inspector told me he could no longer accept a form 339 and the $25 fee in person. He said I should just buy one online. That probably explains why I had so much trouble finding the PDF form before I left. -- Ben...

Tommorow the Blue Angels will be practicing near Hillsboro, OR in the afternoon at the same time a Presidential TFR is active in an overlapping area. You think they'll shoot down the Blues? Looks like I picked a hell of a day to try to fly from Hillsboro to Seattle! -- Ben Jackson

In article , Squirrel wrote: My main requirement is that public transportation be available from the airport to downtown. The MAX goes directly to PDX now so you can ride the train downtown. I'm not sure what the...

Leaving OAK I called ground and asked for flight following to 7S3 (which I gave by name and spelled phonetically). Later, while I'm taxiing they come back with "where is that" and I couldn't imagine how I could help them if the identifier didn't, so I came up with "near McMinnville", which is both...

I usually pump my own, but today I called ahead and had the FBO fill it for me (only 53 cents more/gal!). I wasn't even present for the fueling so I was extra paranoid during preflight, and I swear the 100LL was not as "blue" as it usually is. It smelled like gas, and when I finally got a big...

What route do you fly most often or feel most comfortable with? How far could you wander from your home base without needing a map or even a compass to find all the cities and airports? -- Ben Jackson http://www.ben.com/

What do you look for beyond a normal preflight when you're about to go on a long trip? For example, if you were flying from the west coast to Oshkosh you wouldn't want to be within 10 hours of an oil change or a 50/100-hour inspection. -- Ben Jackson http://www.ben.com/

Let's say someone (not me!!) is crazy enough to buy a Cessna 152 or 172 and instruct in it at a towered airport. What sort of ratio of Hobbs to tach time would you expect? The value (I've played with .85 up to 1.0) has a surprisingly large effect on how much you have to charge for the...

The fuel selector in my Comanche is ringed by the pushbuttons that let you read the quantity in tanks other than the selected tank. My index finger is just long enough that I manage to scrape my knuckle on one of these each time I switch tanks in a counter-clockwise direction. In a Cessna 172D I...

While I was on the phone with my CFII discussing whether we wanted to try to fly in this weather (typical metar from the past 2 days: KHIO 311953Z 08012G20KT 10SM CLR 06/M10 A3024 RMK AO2 PK WND 10027/1902) I heard a loud thump from one of my dining room windows. My wife spotted the dead bird...

In article , Snowbird wrote: We have Lightspeed headsets. We use Foggles for simulated instrument training. Jeppshades work with Lightspeed headsets and there's nothing to interrupt the ear seal. If you figure out a...

My new (to me!) Comanche has an odd EGT instrument. Across the top, in blue, it is marked in "% Range" with 60, 70, 80, 90, * and below that it's marked in white "Ex Temp x100 deg F" with -3, -2, -1 and *. There's a tiny thumbwheel which can adjust it, though it doesn't have a lot of...