States I Have Flown In

I have been extremely busy as of late with work and life, so I haven't had a chance to get on here and post anything cool in a while. So for my first post of the year, I thought I would share with you this map of all the states that I have flown to and landed in to date. Part of my "bucket list" is to land a plane in all 50 states in this great country. If I can pull off all 50 in a Cirrus, that would be even cooler yet, but we'll see. Of all the states so far, all 33 have been with a Cirrus so I'm off to a pretty good start, but Alaska and Hawaii are going to be tough to do but we'll see.

As you look at the map you will see two states surrounded by green that I have apparently missed. The first one is Vermont. Two summers ago, I took my family out to Ft. Drum, NY on business and in the process we attempted to hit all the states we could while we were there. The on the morning that we attempted VT, it was very windy and turbulent and as I set-up to land, my wife was NOT having a good time. Because of this, I aborted and we climbed back up to smoother air and hoped to attempt it another day. Unfortunately due to bad weather and short on time, we never got back up there and had to return home. This summer I once again went back to Ft. Drum, but like the first time the weather turned really bad and I was not able to attempt it safely, so I just came home.

Maryland is the other state that I missed, but this time it was purely due to poor planning. On that same trip last summer, I plotted out a fun route up the east coast both IFR and VFR to ensure that I hit all the states on the coast. It was executed flawlessly and was a fantastic trip. Upon arriving back home and working on my logbook, I noticed that I had picked an airport right on the border of Delaware that was just to the north and NOT IN MARYLAND. I was pissed to say the least, but it was a great adventure and now I will just have to find another excuse to go back and try again!

This summer I move again and this time to the West coast, so WA, OR, CA, NV, UT watch out, I’m coming to get you very soon!

Picking up a pimped out Cirrus

Had the great privilege of helping out a fellow Cirrus owner by picking up and flying his aircraft home after getting some work done. The plane N60034, a 2003 Cirrus SR22 G1 was just completely pimped out to look better than a new Cirrus. The owner had the plane painted, interior completely redone and had a new four-blade MT propeller installed.

Midwest Aircraft Refinishing strip and repaint the entire aircraft. The quality of the paint job is like nothing I have ever seen before. It has numerous fades and color variations and all the colors have a little metal fleck in them, which really looks sharp. All stripping and numbers are painted (no cheap vinyl here) and then a final clear coat is applied to make the entire plane look wet. TRULY AMAZING! It’s not to say it’s perfect, but the flaws are few are unnoticeable unless you really look for them. Regardless, this paint job is better than any new Cirrus I have ever seen and better than any aircraft paint job I have ever seen! I would love to do this to my Cirrus!

SCS Custom Interiors in Duluth (the same manufacturer that does the factory Cirrus interior) replaced all the seat covers and foam as well as added new leather armrests and leather wrapped yokes and renovated the old plastic to look new and colored it black. The seat covers were custom designed to the owners specifications and were reshaped to look like the new G3 version and had suede inserts added to the design.  The plane also received a new suede headliner and a Cirrus G3 bolster and center console panel was installed.

Finally Midwest Aircraft Refinishing also installed a new MT four-blade composite propellor to round out the package. This was a great add-on not only for looking amazing, but for also being 27 pounds lighter, it helps increase the useful load of the aircraft. This propeller also makes the plane a little quieter and takes out some of the vibration. Performance wise, the plane seemed to climb a bit better and also aided in slowing the plane down a bit if you chopped the throttle. Not really beta, but kind of like that when at speed.

Prior to having all this work done, the owner also upgraded all the G430 com/navs with the new Garmin GTN650s and is looking at getting a DFC90 installed next month. With all the work he has done to this aircraft, you have to wonder why anyone would want to buy a new aircraft. This aircraft looks, smells and performs just as good as a new 2012 Cirrus and is every bit as capable, yet total cost is a quarter of a new one! I had a great time picking it up and flying it home from Wisconsin and I’m guessing this will be the closest I will ever come to actually flying a “new” aircraft.  Thanks for the opportunity Justin!

Size Does Matter

The new Apple iPad Mini

After a couple of weeks of flying cross country in some good IMC, I am completely sold on the new Mini. Although technically there really isn’t much different about it other than being smaller and the LTE cellular connectivity; size does matter. I have been using an iPad for flying (mainly as a backup) for almost two years and it has completely changed how I do preflight, flight plan, navigate, and maintain situational awareness while flying. The more I use the iPad and Foreflight, the more I like it because it’s just such a great tool for pilots. The new Mini just seems to make it that much better because the size is more convenient for the cockpit. It’s basically the size of a typical kneeboard and doesn’t clutter up your lap/cockpit as bad as the full size iPad. I haven’t had any issues with reading approach plates, sectionals or IFR charts. I put it through its paces several times when ATC would give me reroutes and I would have to figure out my clearances with Foreflight before programming the navigators and it all works great. Like I said, there really isn’t anything new about it other than size, but the size just seems to work better (at least for me) in the cockpit.

I used the iPad Mini on several flights without any case and I love how thin and tiny it is, but quickly realized that it does need to be in a case to protect it just in case it slides off the lap onto the floor. I researched cases at all the major electronic stores as well as on line and found that once again, Otter Box had the best case. I purchased my Otterbox Defender case on Amazon for $45.33 with free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/OtterBox-Defender-Series-Hybrid-Case/dp/B009WU5XUG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1354423762&sr=8-5&keywords=ipad+mini+case

This was $20 cheaper than anybody else and the case is awesome. The overall dimensions are still pretty small, but the rubber silicone outer shell keeps the iPad Mini from sliding around. The case really protects the Mini well and definitely worth the money!

If you are looking at purchasing an iPad for flying, I would look very hard at the Mini. I use it all day for surfing the web, e-mails, Facebook, book reading, etc and love it. It’s easy to carry around and fits in the coat pocket. Once again, thanks Apple for another great product!

My mini is here!!!

Finally my iPad Mini came today!  I preordered this back when they were announced and they just released the cellular version and mine came today.  I am a huge fan of the iPad and absolutely LOVE having it in the cockpit when I fly.  It just makes cockpit managment so much easier and cleaner and now with a smaller iPad, I think it will be even better yet.  With it's smaller size, it shouldn't take up so much lap space and it is significantly lighter as well.  I'm not sure if there is a RAM mount for it yet, but that might also be nice for the iPad mini as well.  The size appears to be just right for reading approach plates, but I guess I'll just have to go up and burn few holes in the sky and test it out.  I'll post more once I get a chance to play with it a bit!

No iPad - So Lost!

Last Saturday I had a last minute to fly to Atlanta.  I have made this trip many times before and it’s only an hour flight, so it’s not an insane trip.  I had to fly to Falcon Field (KFFC) for a quick stop and then over to Peachtree Dekalb (KPDK), which is on the other side of Atlanta.  The weather was scattered clouds, so there was a little IMC, and it was mainly VMC for most of the flight.  I filed my IFR flight plan on the iPad and then did my preflight and jumped into the plane.  I tuned in the G430s, checked the ATIS, picked up my clearance and departed.   As I was climbing out I then realized that I forgot to put the iPad in the plane and had left it in the car!  CRAP!!!  This was the first time I had done that and at that point felt very lost since I no longer had that quick ability to use my iPad to reference airport diagrams, NOTAMS, or my IFR Low Charts.  It was amazing how reliant I had become on that iPad.  Luckily for me I had my paper charts in the plane, so I was legal, but it’s just not the same as the iPad.  The Cirrus has pretty much all the data a pilot could ever need, so it’s not like I was in any danger, but the point is that I had become so accustomed to having Foreflight at my fingertips, that it really through me for a loop.  For trips to Atlanta, it’s pretty much GPS direct and vectors to the ILS.  Now if this had been a trip to the north east around New York, Philadelphia or Washington DC area, it would have been a totally different story and I would have turned back!  I love my iPad and it really has changed flying, but I guess I need to work on my preflight a bit to ensure I don’t do that again.  Maybe the new iPad Mini I purchased will help me to not forget it! ;-)

We made the 2013 poster!

Last week I received a Facebook post and an e-mail stating that one of my picture submissions was selected to be in the 2013 Cirrus Aircraft poster!  SWEET!  I'm excited to see how it comes out.  Here is the picture that was selected.


Morning Fog - Sherman Army Airfield, Fort Leavenworth, KS



No Baggage Fees!

Thank god that Stack Air doesn’t charge for luggage, because it would cost me a fortune!  For our flight to Minnesota, we took quite a bit of stuff to make it through a nine-day vacation.  Believe it or not, we were well within weight and balance specifications with no problems.  This pictures shows all the stuff we took with us AND I carried 77 gallons of fuel as well! 

The family and "stuff" on the ramp at Brainerd.  This all came out of the Cirrus!

What was really funny about this trip, was that once we arrived in Brainerd we found out that our rental car (Ford Fiesta four door) was WAY too small and couldn’t carry all of our stuff you see in this picture.  Thankfully my father was there waiting for us and helped my wife take everything to the airport, while I departed for a short trip to Wisconsin.  There are very few planes out there that will allow you to carry the load that we did safely, and the Cirrus is one of those planes!  LOVE MY CIRRUS!