Asheville Flight (The Movie)

It's just a little montage of video clips I took out the windows on the way down, landing and on the way back. It's set to Andrea Bocelli's "Con Te Partir".

(Another) Flight to Asheville, NC

This is the 3rd or 4th time I've flown to Asheville, NC for a meeting. It's a great flight of around 330 miles as the crow flies (also known as 350 miles as ATC wants you to fly). I was out of the house around 715a and was airport about 30 minutes later. I climbed to 9,000' for the flight down and the weather was gorgeous. There wasn't much to speak of in the way of clouds, but it was made up for in wind. My headwind on the flight down was about 10-15 knots. Yuck. (I know, I know. You airline guys were fighting upwards of 100knots today in the flight levels!)

Millionaire at AVL is the only FBO, but they do it well. My car was ready to go when I got there and they had fresh cookies on the counter. Hard to beat. After my meeting, I headed back to the airport where my airplane was parked across the ramp (short walk) and fueled per my instructions. I loaded up and headed out to the runway after watching a Blackhawk land a couple hundred feet away. Man, those are loud! Once I was #1 to take-off, a pair of Navy T-38 Talons (actually they were Marine T-45 Goshawks - thanks, Dave G!) came in and landed right in front of me. Very cool to see them whip around a hill just west of the airport and dump all that speed and land. Color me jealous to the extreme.

After taking off and finally getting pointed north by ATC, it was smooth sailing home at 8,000' and then 5,000' after pointing the business end of the airplane more east (even altitudes going west, odd going east). Also, I dropped 3,000' instead of 1,000' since the winds aloft were actually more favorable the further down I got. I was cruising between 150-160 knots GS. Not bad.

Once I finally got to the Lima area, I canceled IFR and readied to land. Listening to Lima and Findlay's weather didn't give me the warm and fuzzies - wind 170@19G29 for runway 23. Fun! I got in OK and didn't have to go around, but I was certainly ready. It was a great trip and I was picking up Kaden from the grandparents' house by 645p.

Check out all the photos by CLICKING HERE.

Cute Baby Girl Stuff

After a little work sponsored baby shower this evening for Laura, I thought a small montage of baby girl stuff would be fun to look back on.

Flying to Fort Wayne

Whitney and I flew the Arrow (well, I flew it and she rode along) to Smith Field in Fort Wayne, IN to meet up with Justin and Crystal for some lunch and hanging out a bit. The skies were pretty clear and temps were right around freezing.

After they picked us up, we headed to Casa Ristorante for lunch. That was some great food! They are well known for their salad (two cheeses and great house dressing) and they have the brick oven pizza too. Yum. I had the Pizza Genovese which was fantastic.

After hanging out at their house for a bit, we headed back to Bluffton with some nice tail winds. Justin and Crystal apparently saw us flying over Fort Wayne while following the river to see their neighborhood. Neat!

Patient Cruiser

On the way to grandma and grandpa's this evening, I stopped at Hog Creek to get a little photo for the Picture Ohio blog. Kaden was quite patient waiting in the car while I wandered (no more than) 10' away.

He looked cute when I got back.

Cold Weather Cruisin'

Kaden and I spent some time outside in the 30 degree weather today on his different modes of transportation: scooter, big wheel, excavator and Jeep.

Brrr!

First "Picture Ohio" Post

I made my first post to my new blog called "Picture Ohio". I just thought it would be cool to (try to) take at least one photo per day of Ohio as the season changes, weather changes and the landscape changes. I'll try to keep it up, but if you've kept a blog before, you know how hard that can be.

Anyway, the first photo post is up!

http://pictureohio.blogspot.com


UPDATE: The blog name was changed to "Picture Ohio". This is why the screen shot is different.

Late November Ride

The way I see it, if it's late November and the temperature is over 60F, I should probably use it to make a good ride on the Masi. Ride I did. I suited up and cruised east on SR 81 until I got to 30 minutes of riding, which incidently took me to the Hardin/Allen County Line.

I had my camera with me since I wanted to get a shot of a river nearby, but I didn't stop since I was cruising and it's sometimes hard to get back in a rhythm again.

Anyway...

Playing AeroFly on the TV

I was playing AeroFly Professional Deluxe last night on the main PC and had an idea: what if I loaded this on the laptop, connected it to the 50" Vizio plasma via RGB and hooked up the joystick for Kaden. Hmm.

I installed the software this morning and within 30 minutes Kaden was flying around a virtual landscape in a virtual R/C F-16 and C-130. Sweet! I got the impression that he enjoyed it since he stood at the coffee table for hours today playing.

After another charge, we'll be at it again!

Kaden Visits Grandpa at Work

I took Kaden to visit grandpa at work today so he could show Kaden off to the coworkers. He was a pretty big hit and managed to score some free candy from a fellow officemate. He digs the Sour Patch Kids.

After the building tour, grandpa took Kaden out to the parking area and got him a cab tour of one of the back hoe's. Sweet! He liked it quite a bit even though he wasn't going anywhere.

Next time we go, I'm sure he'll ask to take it around the property for a lap or four.