Falcon Journey: It Begins

[surreal1221]

Did a flight last night with my wife. Did a little aerial tour of Newnan, Peachtree City, and Tara Field and the Atlanta Motorspeedway.

Was fun. My wife wasn't a huge fan of the Diamond 20 initially, but once we got in the air and she saw how stable the plane is she enjoyed every remaining minute of the flight.

Today went up and worked on some new CSEL manuevers, Lazy Eights, Eights on Pylons, and Steep Spiral.

All look like fun. The steep spiral is the only one that I don't feel all that comfortable performing, but I'll get over that in due time.

Lazy eights were much more comfortable than I thought they would be - those drawings in the books are deceiving.

Eights on Pylons will need some work. Have to remember, it's been almost 100 hours since I even did a ground reference maneuver.

But anyway. Plan for tomorrow is actually an IFR XC flight down to 55J (Fernadina Beach FL) for some crab cakes, legs, assorted seafood with the wife in the Twinstar. Will bring the camera and the minicam for the wife to video tape stuff.

Til then

[surreal1221]

Here are some photos from the trip down to Fernadina Beach, FL.
Coastline was finally coming into view.


On a right downwind for 22


Turning base to Final over the coast


Some formation boating or jetskiing, I wasn't paying much attention. . .


On a 3 mile final RWY22


Ended up spending about an hour and a half in Fernadina. Went and got some killer crab cakes at some place - can't remember the name.

Anyway, heading back to FFC, had some weather to go around. . .here are two shots of different storms.

This one was over the Dublin / Eastman area


This one was over Macon


My wife came along and was the photographer for the shots going into 55J. She had a good time, except for a few bouncing moments around the convection.

All in all - another 4 hours of ME, and 1.0 of actual.

[MFT1Air]

Nice flights. So, you're really comfortable with the DA42? Rumor also has it they have a tendency to overheat. Friends and I are seriously considering a purchase.

[surreal1221]

Oh, I'd highly suggest it.

And it's a real simple thing. . .fuel economy. @ 65% load, fuel burn is 8.8gal, TOTAL. 4.4 per side.

It's a great plane to fly.

[surreal1221]

Well guys, not too much this past week. Just a lot of SE time building, working on manuevers, and did a XC yesterday afternoon and today.

Today I went west into Alabama, to Shelby Co, just south of Birmingham. Nice little airport right on the interstate. After that, headed down towards the SE to get to Auburn, landed there, then launched back to the NE to Falcon Field.

3.1 on the hobbs.

[AUAeropilot]

Originally Posted by surreal1221

Well guys, not too much this past week. Just a lot of SE time building, working on manuevers, and did a XC yesterday afternoon and today.

Today I went west into Alabama, to Shelby Co, just south of Birmingham. Nice little airport right on the interstate. After that, headed down towards the SE to get to Auburn, landed there, then launched back to the NE to Falcon Field.

3.1 on the hobbs.

Awesome Josh, you're hitting up all my old stomping grounds. Did training out of AUO but flew into EET more times than I can remember. My parents live 15 minutes north on I-65, the interstate that parallels the airport. A little unnerving coming in on final with those power lines next to ya.

Do they still have right traffic for the north runway? I always thought that was kind of odd to send you over the top of the power lines rather than left. Oh well, I think it was for noise abatement or something along those lines.

[surreal1221]

Yeah man, it was a right traffic.

I had one hell of a time finding the airport. The interstate, with the buildings from the airport - make it look somewhat of like a regular old strip mall type deal.

But never the less, was a fun airport to fly into.

A little update. I may potentially have my CMEL and CSEL checkrides scheduled with Gary Kitely for 15/17th of September.

Kitely needs to have an ME candidate, with the FAA observing so that he can get approval as a DE in the DA42 Twinstars. He asked my instructor, or vice versa, if I wouldn't minding doing a CMEL ride with him while the FAA was observing. . .I said, sure why the hell not. I'll know for sure later this week.

May end up taking another trip down to AUO to stop in and talk to him for a few moments, word is he is getting a little lonely with not having any candidates for certificates or additional ratings from Falcon.

[AUAeropilot]

Well, good luck with it man. Kitely seems like a real easy going type of guy, but he also knows when it's business only, really down to earth.

By the way, I went to PDK to talk with the guys at Falcon. Some pretty good info. from them. I'm gonna go check out a few other places, but if they're all competitively priced, then Falcon here I come. They basically suggested that instead of finishing up my comm. single, just start in the twin star and get my multi. private, then work towards comm. multi. part 61 so that all the time I'm building during the comm. can count as multi PIC. I meet all the mins for 61, so why not log some multi PIC while training. They also said they should be getting one shortly, still at the factory for an AD compliance thing. They're supposed to let me know when they start a systems class on it so I can go ahead and get that knocked out so I can potentially rent the thing once I get my private multi.

Do you know who I should contact at FFC about seeing if I could take a quick look at one of the twins they have down there? PDK said they should be getting their’s shortly and they would reposition one as soon as I start, if it was before their's was delivered, but I just would like a quick glance at it before I "sign on the dotted line".

Keep us posted.

[surreal1221]

I'd just call them up at FFC, and see if they know when the next time a twinstar will be up at PDK. Tell them you're a potential multi student but would like to see the airplane before you commit to a school.

[Tim]

South Atlanta over at Tara is now PanPacific and they have a DA42, 2 DA 40s, and a 172. I got to see the DA42 yesterday. Thats a nice bird. I see why you are enjoying it so much.

[surreal1221]

Oh nice. . .another Diamond outfit. Falcon's going to have some competition.

I may have to give those guys a call and see what they have going on. Know if they have a website?

[Flyin_Trojan]

Here's the link;

http://panpacificaviation.com/Default.aspx?tabid=36

[surreal1221]

Thanks

[Tim]

The guy that is owns the school is going with newer aircraft. He doesnt have commercial single engine trainer yet. They are looking though. He wants a newer model to try and keep mx cost down.

I finally got an appt for my medical. My normal Dr wont be back in the office until October. He had some kind of surgery. I was able to talk this one office in to letting me come in next Wednesday as a walk in

[surreal1221]

Good to hear Tim, I'm sure you're itching to get back in a plane.

Just another mid week update. Still continuing a fair bit of time building. Heard more about my potential CMEL ride. Kitely won't know a definite date until the first week of September, so I'm waiting until then before I schedule anything with anyone.

If it happens to be after the 15th of September I'll end up going with the one and only other examiner that is checked out in the DA42 sometime before the 15th. The 15th is essentially the drop dead date to be a CMEL w/ CSEL priv.

Took the FIA written today, 88%, plan to take the AGI tomorrow and then visit the FSDO sometime early next week to take care of the first addition to an instructor certificate. Kind of exciting.

People have been asking me why I'm even bothering to get my AGI, and to me it's really simple.

Sure, as a CFI I can provide ground, but I'd love to have that additional rating on a resume, plus it'd be great if I could start teaching some ground school(s) before I have completed my CFI training, hence - making money before I'm a CFI.

I'm heading back into the air here in about an hour and a half, plan is to capture some sun set photos. Should be interesting.

[surreal1221]

Well, I have a few photos from the flight this evening. Not great or anything, but a few.

Our camera doesn't take great motion flights, and when at 2500ft, moving at 100kts. . .it's tough to get a good, clear shot of much of anything. But, have a few shots nevertheless and will upload them sometime tomorrow.

[Crockrocket94]

Don't forget about GOLD SEAL.

You can't obtain that little bugger without taking the AGI or IGI.

that and 80 percent pass rate with a minimum of 10 people sent to checkrides.

[surreal1221]

10 people huh? I'll see what happens. . .time constraints and all.

You guys seen anyone down from Falcon yet?

[Crockrocket94]

Yeah, you know Lucas Doreshenko?

[surreal1221]

Yeah, as children we grew up two houses from each other. We are good friends.

See him everyonce in a while down at FFC when he brings a plane down from Athens. Poor guy wanted me to go to lunch a few days ago, but I couldn't as I was taking a written and then had to escape to pick up my sister.

I take it he came down?

[Crockrocket94]

Yeah, he was showing the DA42 off.

My buddy Tom is moving to the Athens location to become a CFI up there. I need to make it up that way sometime.

[surreal1221]

Rog, what'd you think?

It's a damn nice and impressive plane, but could certainly pose a problem for a CMEL pilot who has only flown it and nothing else when transitioning to a traditional twin (throttle, prop, mixture).

But, I digress.

Update for this past weekend.

I took a DA20 out Saturday morning to South Carolina and kept it overnight. Visited with some friends (co-workers from my Air Force days), watched some UFC, and then returned back to Atlanta Sunday morning.

Was a fairly uneventful flight, Sunday morning provided a fair bit of fog across my route of flight, which was very pretty to see.

I do have a series of photos, just not a good way to resize them without losing quality.

But anyway - still working towards building time to take my CMEL w/ CSEL add-on checkrides here shortly (1-2 weeks).

[Crockrocket94]

I definitly agree.

Beautiful airplane, and spacious inside.

Ive sat in them before, but I still have yet to fly one.

Get those pix up

[Tim]

Finally got medical today. The nurse took my blood pressure 3 times. The first one she said was high. She did it the old fashion way. The next time with a machine it was normal. So they say we need a 3rd one to confirm. Talk about blood pressure going up? I thought there is no way its high. Sure enough 3rd time is was normal again. I think she just messed up the first time. They said my hearing was perfect. Imagine after 16 years of being on the ramp in some form my hearing hasnt changed any since day one at suthernjets. I guess ear plugs do really work.
Now its time to call Falcon and go over a see Ray. I guess he is the one to talk to? He sent me the email response back in June

[surreal1221]

Yeah, Ray, or Al, or Dan, or even Shawn.

Any of them can be helpful.