Float Plane Flying - Kenmore Air

Last week, when I was in Seattle for the week, I decided to take a lesson.  I did a little bit of online research and found Kenmore Air.  Kenmore, dubbed as "The Seaplane Airline", operates a fleet of de Havilland Beavers and Otters (DHC-2 and DHC-3) to locations all around the Puget Sound.  They also have a small flight instruction fleet with 2 PA18 Super Cubs, 2 Cessna 180s and at least one more Beaver.  I called the flight instruction desk about 2 months before I actually was planning on going out to Seattle.  One, because I wanted to make sure they had availability on this busy pre-4th of July week, and two, because I was super excited.  I got a lesson at 8:00 am on Wednesday the 30th.

My travel to Kenmore was an adventure because I didn't have a car and had to walk for 1.5 miles to the Ferry, then sit on the Ferry for 35 minutes, then take a bus to Kenmore.  I left the hotel at 6:10 and arrived at 8:10.  Oops, a little late! The sign was a beautiful site to see.

I walked into the main office and said I was there for a flight lesson.  The other customers in the office were probably a little confused because they were probably there for a flight to the San Juan islands.  My instructors name was Nile, not Niles, but Nile.  That took some getting used to.  He gave me a quick review of all of the A/C systems and where all the switches were that I would need.  This was the first aircraft that I have flown that had a stick instead of a yoke.  It was pretty neat, i think I like it better.  We casted off from the dock and headed out.  We did a run up and then followed the west shore of lake Washington until we could head out to the Puget Sound.  I've made a very very rough sketch of our flight below.

The orange circle is where we did some take off and landings.  We did quite a few of them, including confined space take offs, crosswind and normal landings.  Step taxiing was pretty fun.  I ended up logging 1.6 hours.  Here are some more photos of the day.

I highly recommend taking seaplane lessons.  It's great to do a different type of flying.  I'd like to get my rating some day, but I'll try to do it somewhere less expensive.... hehe

Best 4 hours I have ever taken off work

It is kind of sad that I haven't posted anything about this yet. It was one of the most amazing days of my short aviation life.  2 weeks ago on a Wednesday, a very affluent friend of mine offered me a chance no one in their flying mind would every turn down.  The conversation went something like this:
"Ben, this is Adam.  What are you up to one Friday?"
"Just work, why is that?"
"Well, if you are available on Friday afternoon or evening, I would like to invite you to see my WWII airplane collection and hang out with some WWII Vets."
"That sounds fantastic, I would love to join"
....
The conversation continued for a little bit about the details.  Also, his name isn't Adam, but I've decided to protect this guy.  He lives a pretty private life.

So, Friday comes along, I worked in the morning and left to pick up one of the Vets.  He was actually in the Korean War, but had some fantastic stories.  We met Adam at the Eagle Creek Airport (KEYE) and flew down in a Baron to Bloomington (KBMG) to see the airplanes. When we landed, we taxied over to the hanger and on the ramp sat a Twin Beech.  This Twin Beech (Beech 18) was the SNB-1 model.  This airplane is one of two flying in the world.  that's right, one of TWO in the WORLD.  There are other models of the Twin Beech, but of this one, the first navy variant, it is one of only two.  I think it was important to say that 3 times.  Well, not only is this airplane still able to fly, it was also able to take up some guests.  Guess who got to sit in the co-pilot seat?  This guy!  It was fantastic.  The controls are not fully duplicated, so my side didn't have rudders, but I did have the yoke.  The reason it wasn't fully duplicated was because of the nose gunner seat.  I also got to sit in this seat when we were flying over Bloomington.  That was pretty fantastic.  Ok, so maybe that was an understatement.

When we arrived back at the airport, we got a tour of the other airplanes.  Because I don't have enough time to tell the story about all of these, I'm just going to list them.
- Beech Staggerwing
- Boeing PT17
- Alexander Eaglerock A-1
- Beech 18 SNB-5
- Beech E18S - (Super 18)

There is one other plane.  I didn't want to put it in that list because it doesn't deserve to be listed.  It is far too superior.  Most people have probably never heard of that plane, but ask a soldier that was in the Pacific Ocean for WWII, and there will be fond memories.  This plane is a PBY-5A.  This is a flying boat manufactured by Consolidated Aircraft from the 40s through the 50s.  These flying boats, sometimes known as the Black Cats, were used in late night bombing raids on Japanese convoys traveling in the Pacific.  They are amazing aircraft, and we did get to walk around inside it and sit in the cockpit.  Quite a fantastic opportunity.

I don't know why it took me so long to tell that story, but it was a great time.  In 2 days I'm going to be having my first seaplane lesson.  I'm pretty excited for that as well!  I'll post about the flight afterward.

I love dogs, duh... (Rescue Flight #3)

Alright, you all probably know this, but I love dogs.  Dogs of all kinds.  Labs, Bassets, Weiners, Basenji's, etc.  In fact, aside from my Shar Pei/Lab mix Bo, the Basenji and Shiba Inu are my two new favorites.   BUT, that is not what I am writing about.  I'm writing to tell you about my most recent flight in support of PilotsNPaws, a non-profit organization that helps dog, cat Wand all animal rescue organizations connect with pilots to move these dogs to safety.  I've done three rescue flights, and this is about the third one.  I'll give a summary first, and if you have the same attention span I do, then you can skip the commentary later on.
Route: KEYE -> KJVY -> KEYE -> HAI -> KEYE
Passengers:
KEYE - KJVY - KEYE - Annie
KJVY - KEYE - KHAI - Mason, Honey (Collie Mixes) and Rufus (Australian Shepherd)
KEYE - KHAI - KEYE - Bobby and Ann (not Annie)
Weather - Clear and beautiful.  A little bumpy on the final legs.
Airplane: N146K a Cessna 172P

The Details:
I took off from KEYE with Annie.  We headed out to the Shelbyville VOR to try to get away from the KIND Class Charlie Airspace and to avoid the MOA and restricted airspace near Camp Atterbury.
The flight down was uneventful.  The FBO at JVY was nice and super friendly.  They let Annie and I hang out while we waiting for Barb to bring the pups up from further south in Kentucky.  She was unable to fly because of fog in the morning, but it cleared up by the time we departed.

We packed Honey and Mason in their own crates and put a harness on Rufus.  They were all super sweet and barely cried at all when we were flying.  We leveled off at 4500' after a 300 fpm climb.  Annie was enjoying herself, which was awesome because I was nervous about her flying.  Rufus was a sweet heart and just laid down in the back as soon as we leveled off.

We landed at KEYE uneventfully and let the dogs out to go to the bathroom.  Annie decided she was done and I took Ann and Bobby up for the rest of the flight.  We were about 100 lbs shy of the gross limit on the C172 with the 180HP engine, and I could tell it was a hot day.  We were climbing pretty slowly.

The flight to KHAI was pretty nice.  A little bumpy down at lower altitudes because the ground was heating up quite a bit.  It wasn't terrible, and no where near what can be felt in late July on a partly cloudy day.  We dropped off the pups with the rescue and wished them good bye.  They had been great, probably my quietest transport so far.  We made it back to KEYE without any issues monitoring KIND approach to hear who was coming in.  I don't always get flight following, but I almost always listen to approach to see who else is around.

I've attached a few photos above, but here are some more.  Those pups are darn cute.
Thanks to Barb, Ann, Bobby and Toni for the photos.

A Boring Monday

This past Monday was one of the most beautiful days I've seen around Indianapolis.  The forecast called for "abundant sunshine" and the meteorologists were correct.  I started my Rolls-Royce AE 3007 Line Maintenance course on Monday (I am the technical point of contact between Rolls-Royce and Cessna for the Cessna Citation X, which utilizes this engine).  This fact is only important because we get released from training at about 3:30 in the afternoon and that the customer training center is right next to KIND.  I got to see all of the Southwest B737s take off and land all day.  Of course there was a healthy representation from AA, UAL and DL.  And the inevitable Airtran...  Anyway, this inspired me to find somewhere to fly.  I texted my friend Beef, actually his name is Jeremy, but he got that nickname back in college at Rose-Hulman.  He said he would be waiting for me at the airport upon my arrival.  Beef lived in South Bend, so I got to fly to a new destination, KSNB.

The start of the flight was uneventful.  I flew up there via the OKK VOR and the GSH VOR.  The 172 doesn't have a GPS, but I did have a little handheld one I used for Hiking and Geo-Trecking back in the day.  I bring it along and program my route as a second source of information outside of my directional equipment.  It's a nice piece of equipment to have along.  I flew right by Grissom AFB and I got to see some of the neat planes they have on the ramp and at the museum from 7500'.  I called in to KSNB when I was about 23 miles out.  The vectored me in for a straight in to runway 36.  I made a great landing, and I remembered to enrich the mixture before my decent.

I stopped at Atlantic to find out that I didn't write down the unicom frequency and I had just pitched the Green Book in the back.  I idled out front for about 20 second and then decided to call the tower to ask.  Just as I did that the line guy hopped out from around the corner and parked me.  I had a nice experience at SBN, except that the "facility fee" was $40.  Ouch... Too bad it is the only FBO.

Beef picked me up and we went to the Heston Supper Club for dinner.  I saw something here I have never seen before.  There was a section of "combinations" that you could get for dinner.  The were the usual "surf and turf" type things.  But, under that item, it didn't list what the surf was.  Instead it was in the heading for the section.  It said "All combinations are served with choice of potato or vegetable, a soup or salad and an 8 ounce prime rib".  Now wait a second, are you telling me that this comes with a SIDE of Prime Rib?  I'm in.   I got the barnyard, which is a half slab of ribs, a 8 ounce prime rib and steak fries.  It was delicious, as you can see here:

Beef dropped me back at the airport and I preflighted, called Clearance Delivery and told them I was at the FBO, departing South Bend and heading toward Indianapolis via OKK.  I didn't bother going through GSH because it was only about 7 miles from KSBN. CD gave me a squawk code.  Just as I had they had finished the sentence, I was ready to roll, but remembered I hadn't removed the chalks.  I shut down the engine, hopped out, grabbed the chalks and then got back in and started her back up again.

I got my taxi clearance from tower and headed to runway 8R.  I took off without any issue but at about 500' agl, I looked at my transponder to make sure it was in ALT mode.  It was, but but it was also displaying 1200, which is NOT the squawk code assigned to me.  I called tower to ask what my code was again and then apologized for me being amateur.  He said something like "it happens to all of us".  I didn't really laugh because he just agreed I was being an idiot.

I flew on to OKK and watched  some large carrier type airplane to a couple of laps in the pattern at Grissom AFB.  It was really cool to see.  Granted, I could only see the lights and the call sign was non-descriptive.  But it was still neat to see.  When I was about 4 miles due east of KGUS, the carrier asked for a departure to Shelbyville, about 70 miles south.  I saw the carrier take off, turn north (presumably for the departure procedure) and then about 5 minutes later, I saw the same plane in front of me heading south.  I guess he was faster than my little C172.

I was soon passed off to Indianapolis Approach, and the following transfer took place:
Me - Indy Approach, Skyhawk 146K level at 6500'
ATC - November 146K, turn to heading 210, and uh... expect runway 14
(at this point in time, I became very confused but quickly realized what happened)
Me - Indy Approach,  my destination is Eagle Creek, I must not have been clear enough when talking to CD in South Bend
ATC - No problem, continue on current heading, altitude your discretion, maintain VFR
Me - blah blah blah.

This had not happened to me before, but it serves me right for not being clear to Clearance Delivery.  I was used to the controllers at Evansville (EVV) who just want to know what the direction of flight is because they don't offer flight following very far out.  It was a great trip, and I wish I had the funding to do that more often.  My next trip might be to fly down to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.  It will be me, Annie and Coby.  I'm excited.

My Easter Flight

On Easter Day, my parents and I flew out to St. Louis.  We left Indianapolis Metro (KUMP) at about 0715 Eastern.  The skies were clear and the winds aloft were about 25 kts on the nose.  We were in the Cessna 182, so our ground speed was still around 120 kts.   The first hour and 30 minutes were not very exciting, climbing up to 8500' using the KAP 140.  We used the GPS and followed it in to St. Louis via the STL VOR.  During the decent we passed right in front of the active runways at KSTL.  We got to see a regional jet taking off and then continuing over the top of us.  Neat to see from that perspective.

Easter was great.  We had Ribs and Chicken Marsala and other delicious foods.  I got to see my cousin Ryan, my step cousin Megan, my Aunt Sara, my Step-Uncle Grant and my Grandparents.  it was a neat little Easter.  I can't remember the last time I've seen the Aunt and Step-Uncle.  They all wanted to go up and fly with me, but it was really really windy on the ground.  In fact, the winds at take-off were 18 kts gusting to 23.  They were about 50 degrees off runway heading which, for those of you playing along at home equates to a 13.7 knot crosswind.  The Max demonstrated in a 182 is 15 kts.

dAnyway, we took off and headed south around KSTL.  We went about 2 miles north of the St. Louis arch and engaged the KAP 140 to take us back to 7500'.  We got a hefty tailwind and our ground speed was nearing 175 kts.  On the decent into Indianapolis, we hit 178 kts, which is quite impressive for a Skylane.  But, ground speed isn't a good measure when you aren't actually attached to the ground.  I made a pretty good landing at KUMP given the 15+kt winds on the ground and made the realization that I had officially been the pilot of an airplane going over 200 mph.  But only ground speed, with a 30 kt tail wind.  Whatever, I'll take it.  Bring it on Mooney Acclaim.