good santa???

anything new goin in the flight bag? got a cool new bag? how did santa
treat you? since he's a flyer too.


got a little hand-crank led light. run 1 or 3 bulbs bright. 1 min crank
gets 1 hour of light and very nice light at that. as a new pilot with
not too many night hours...just enough to pass, really, i've already
had fun with rental lights(or not) and now my bag is heavy with
flashlights. this new one is very lightweight.

dan

houstondan wrote:

anything new goin in the flight bag? got a cool new bag? how did santa
treat you? since he's a flyer too.

Got Buffett's new book! Been wanting that.

got a little hand-crank led light. run 1 or 3 bulbs bright.

Got that for my birthday last month. It's nearly ideal - just one flaw. You
really can't tell colors apart in that light. I was trying to trace some
electrical wires with it last week. Two cables had gray insulation. One cable
had white. I had to come back the next day with an incandescant flashlight. The
LED one is great for a preflight check, though -- it's not too bright.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

"houstondan" wrote in message
oups.com...
anything new goin in the flight bag? got a cool new bag? how did santa
treat you? since he's a flyer too.


dan

Although not directly aviation, I got a neat little 3.2 mega pixel digital
camera (Konica Minolta XG) that takes movies at 15 or 30 frames per sec -
unlimited time, records audio, .8 sec start time, 3x optical zoom, less than
..75" X 2.5" X 3.5". Just a little more than $200. I will promise to use it
taking aviation related pictures, as much as possible! g
--
Jim in NC

Jim, that little gift is completely related to aviation. If it's in
your flight bag, it counts, right? :-)

Jack Allison
PP-ASEL, Instrument student

anything new goin in the flight bag?

I got everything I wanted, which amounted to:

- Good screw-drivers
- Good drill bits
- LED flash light
- A warm sweater

That last one is DEFINITELY part of my pre-flight checklist lately!

Happy New Year!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I "got" everything I wanted. And I also was able to "give" something
priceless.

I "got" good enough weather to fly my family from WI to MI Friday afternoon
(Christmas Eve) and I "got" good enough weather to fly them back early
Christmas morning. I "gave" them a Christmas with both sides of the family.

After waking up to -15F Friday morning, the wife and I worked until noon and
then prepared to depart as temps rose to -3F. The Aztec presented us with
another gift as the heater worked great at 9000 ft and -25F.

Lake effect clouds moved in below us as we left land behind and headed out
over Lake Mich. As we neared Grand Rapids, I tuned in their ATIS and it
advised that the lake effect clouds and 1000-2000 ft overcast to broken was
producing snow showers and visibilities of 1-2 miles. An instrument
approach would be needed to get into Hastings, and the only one they have
(VOR 12) would require us to circle to land into the 260 @15 Gusting to 25
knot winds using Rwy 30. We were IMC from 8000 down to 2000 where we broke
out ice free and entered a clear pocket surrounded by the snow showers. A
couple more miles and the runway popped into view. We circled and made a
real "greaser" landing on the snow/ice covered runway.

The next gift we got was from the owner of the hangers at Hastings MI, he
let us use one for the night as we were expecting to head back to WI early
the next morning. No door, no heat, but with electricity and the EZ heaters
on the engines combined with a couple blankets kept the big IO-540's toasty.

Christmas morning it was warmer, nearly 9 above! We plugged the jumper
cables into the auxiliary power outlet and used the car to run the Janis
heater. It warmed up the cabin nicely as we pre-flighted and loaded up the
sleigh. Although GRR was reporting overcast of 2300, the in-laws never saw
us after we left the ground. We climbed out into an east wind that combined
with the super low density altitude had the Aztec climbing at nearly 2000
fpm. We turned west and continued to climb to our enroute altitude of 6000
ft, which unfortunately kept us in the soup.

Although no ice had been reported, nor expected according to FSS, once we
were 1/2 way back across the pond I noticed a few specks on the windshield
and kept a watchful eye on the wings. Sure enough, a thin line of rime
began to form.

Christmas seems to bring out the "low man on the totempole" for controllers.
On the way to MI a female controller at Chicago Center requested me to
descend from 9000 to 4000 the exact minute I had leveled off after climbing
out. I questioned her intentions and she questioned my destination. I
stayed at 9000 until she got it straightened out. Now we were on our way
back to WI with a little ice building and I recognized her voice once again.
After 4 requests to descend from 6 to 4000, she finally answered and let me
down. I had been listening to OSH ATIS which was reporting a scattered
layer at 5200, so I felt 4000 would be low enough and it was. Once we broke
out the ice started to sublimate and we were in the clear except for the
occasional scattered snow shower.

An uneventful visual approach into STE and we were back on the ground and
headed home to see what Santa had delivered while we were away.

All in all it was a nice experience. We "got" to spend Christmas with both
sides of our entire family (and of the lake!). Something that would be
impossible without general aviation!

I also "got" a good magnetic screwdriver and bit coming (it was back
ordered). (I've had the little hand held crank flashlight for a few weeks,
an early Christmas present to myself

Jim

Jim, glad to hear that the flight worked out well and you had a good
time... I noticed the weather Christmas Eve and again in the morning
and wondered about your flight...
Chicago is a big TRACON with lots of controllers that come and go, but
I wonder if that lady is the same one I bumped into a few years back
when I needed an IFR file to cross Lake Michigan... We were departing
IFR from an uncontrolled field with a flight plan and a squawk code
from center... Center advised we would have to climb VFR to 2000 feet
to make radio contact with Chicago from there... I stated that we had
1500 foot overcast and would have to penetrate the cloud layer before
making contact with Chicago... Center said to call back on the phone
right at departure... I did that, was given clearance to depart at a
specific time five minutes later, a squawk, a heading to fly, and a
clearance to climb to 4000 until I could contact Chicago... Center was
right on the money and by the time I got to 2000 Chicago was loud and
clear... I called, and called, and called, all the way to my 4000 foot
clearance... Finally the lady answers my tenth (or whatever) call with
a snarled order to remain vfr and stay clear of her airspace... I
replied with UNABLE, and she went right on talking to airliners and
refused to answer me again... Once I realized that this shield maiden
from hell was not going to answer I turned west to stay out of the
Chicago B, found a small hole in the cloud deck and spiraled down... It
was a long, long ride around the south end of Lake Michigan, avoiding
Chicago airspace, to get back to Michigan... I remember her in my
prayers, still...

denny

She provided some additional entertainment along the route. Several times
her supervisor stepped in to correct her mistakes. My wife (who usually
sleeps in flight) even found it amusing.

Oh, well, everybody has to learn sometime, I'm sure she felt she was under
the gun because her commands to the airliners were coming out faster than a
Browning .50 cal.

Jim

"Denny" wrote in message
ups.com...
Jim, glad to hear that the flight worked out well and you had a good
time... I noticed the weather Christmas Eve and again in the morning
and wondered about your flight...
Chicago is a big TRACON with lots of controllers that come and go, but
I wonder if that lady is the same one I bumped into a few years back
when I needed an IFR file to cross Lake Michigan... We were departing
IFR from an uncontrolled field with a flight plan and a squawk code
from center... Center advised we would have to climb VFR to 2000 feet
to make radio contact with Chicago from there... I stated that we had
1500 foot overcast and would have to penetrate the cloud layer before
making contact with Chicago... Center said to call back on the phone
right at departure... I did that, was given clearance to depart at a
specific time five minutes later, a squawk, a heading to fly, and a
clearance to climb to 4000 until I could contact Chicago... Center was
right on the money and by the time I got to 2000 Chicago was loud and
clear... I called, and called, and called, all the way to my 4000 foot
clearance... Finally the lady answers my tenth (or whatever) call with
a snarled order to remain vfr and stay clear of her airspace... I
replied with UNABLE, and she went right on talking to airliners and
refused to answer me again... Once I realized that this shield maiden
from hell was not going to answer I turned west to stay out of the
Chicago B, found a small hole in the cloud deck and spiraled down... It
was a long, long ride around the south end of Lake Michigan, avoiding
Chicago airspace, to get back to Michigan... I remember her in my
prayers, still...

denny

Denny wrote:
Jim, glad to hear that the flight worked out well and you had a good
time... I noticed the weather Christmas Eve and again in the morning
and wondered about your flight...
Chicago is a big TRACON with lots of controllers that come and go, but
I wonder if that lady is the same one I bumped into a few years back
when I needed an IFR file to cross Lake Michigan... We were departing
IFR from an uncontrolled field with a flight plan and a squawk code
from center... Center advised we would have to climb VFR to 2000 feet
to make radio contact with Chicago from there... I stated that we had
1500 foot overcast and would have to penetrate the cloud layer before
making contact with Chicago... Center said to call back on the phone
right at departure... I did that, was given clearance to depart at a
specific time five minutes later, a squawk, a heading to fly, and a
clearance to climb to 4000 until I could contact Chicago... Center was
right on the money and by the time I got to 2000 Chicago was loud and
clear... I called, and called, and called, all the way to my 4000 foot
clearance... Finally the lady answers my tenth (or whatever) call with
a snarled order to remain vfr and stay clear of her airspace... I
replied with UNABLE, and she went right on talking to airliners and
refused to answer me again... Once I realized that this shield maiden
from hell was not going to answer I turned west to stay out of the
Chicago B, found a small hole in the cloud deck and spiraled down... It
was a long, long ride around the south end of Lake Michigan, avoiding
Chicago airspace, to get back to Michigan... I remember her in my
prayers, still...

denny

Denny;
This sounds like a lost comms issue. Why did you not continue on your
last clearance and follow your filed flight plan? You were on a IFR
flight plan from the moment you rolled off the runway with your void
time clearance and she should have had your strip in her stack. Did you
contact the center afterwards to ask about this?

Yup, I know all those things... It was not a lost comms situation, she
answered my call (finally) with an order to remain clear of her
airspace... And for about 10 milliseconds I considered squawking 7700
to force her hand, but decided against it as I knew I could slip down
through the cloud deck without major risk... All the way around Lake
Michigan I was picturing the various tortures of the damned for her and
relishing my revenge... It was late night by the time we got home and
the next day was back to running my business after being gone and by
the time I got the deck cleared there I had cooled down... No one was
endangered - because I made appropriate decisions... So, I made one
final decision to just drop it...

If it had been night, or I was solid IFR in thick stuff, I would have
hit the 7700 button and let the cards fall where they might...
Cheers ... Denny