{"id":1966,"date":"2016-03-29T14:17:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T19:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/?p=1966"},"modified":"2016-03-31T05:53:49","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T10:53:49","slug":"march-19-2016-frank-time-low-and-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/?p=1966","title":{"rendered":"Mar 19, 2016 – Frank time low and fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time is ticking by, so I had to rewrite this post a few times to accommodate my delays.<\/p>\n

Went for a nice flight on\u00a0Sat (3\/19\/16) to relieve some stress prior to Bev’s\u00a0surgery. I’ll talk about the flight\u00a0after setting the tone for the days leading up to this particular Saturday.<\/p>\n

THE MINUTIA THAT BOGS YOU DOWN: Bev’s brand new freakin’ van is in the shop again this week!\"\"<\/a> For the second time since we’ve owned this car – less than one year – someone drove into the back of it\u00a0at a stop light. Unbelievable that we have to deal with this non-sense again. This van apparently comes with an ass-magnet.<\/p>\n

Once again the driver was not the same person on the insurance, so we expected a challenge regarding our deductible. As it turned out – the driver, the owner, and Geico all\u00a0accepted full responsibility. They assured me there’d be no bullshit and Geico went further to make some calls to ensure I wasn’t even asked for a deductible up front. Things didn’t exactly\u00a0play out that way when it was repaired, but I expect to get my deductible\u00a0back shortly. The work was completed within a week and it looks great so far.<\/p>\n

The other non-sense I am still dealing wit\"20160209<\/a>h is my hangar. \u00a0The damage there could have been worse, but it happened at a bad time with the coming of spring. I am now having to clear condor poo\u00a0off my airplane every week during bird nesting season, and it is frustrating beyond belief. Sussex County, like other bureaucracies, is responding slowly. I’ve been slumming around for February and March, and expect 3 more months before anything gets done. Argh!!<\/p>\n

Bev and I decided we needed to relax. She won’t be able to drive for a few weeks after the surgery, so we took the chance to head to the beach individually. I went by way of the airport, and spent another hour cleaning off bird doo. The winds were 16G20 and I almost decided not to fly. Not because those winds cause me any trepidation, but for two other reasons. They were very cool and damp winds that made me cold, and they made it particularly difficult to get the airplane’s cover off and back on by myself. This is why I have a hangar!<\/p>\n

CAP had three airplanes getting prepared for flying on the same ramp I was on,\u00a0so\u00a0I took my time getting ready. I preferred solitude for the kind of flying I’d be doing today, and thought it better to wait. I\u00a0removed my cover and crawled under the airplane looking around for bird’s nests. There were signs of nesting material and droppings up in the wheel well, so I did have reason to worry a bit more.<\/p>\n

The CAP airplanes departed north one after the other as I completed my preflight. They dominated the local frequency all the way to their\u00a0practice search area near Dover. I kept my radio calls to a minimum. No one would hear me over their chatter anyway. The running replay of every detail of what they were doing on the air made it clear they couldn’t find what they were looking for, nor could they find each other. I quietly wondered what they were trying to do, while being thankful they were\u00a0doing it to the north.<\/p>\n

My run-up was normal, and I took the runway for departure. It is not lost on me that I’ve gotten my airplane to the point where it is very reliable. Engine starts are simple – both hot and cold – and all systems are functioning as they should. I do have one\u00a0autopilot pitch circuit that is a bit twitchy, but it is ok for now.<\/p>\n

So todays mission was simply to find a reason to go fly and relax a little. I eased the power in and checked all indications. The sights and sounds are as exciting as ever. The sensation of being pushed back in your seat as the cold air gets sucked into those engines never gets old.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/20160319-Takeoff.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

I headed down to Ocean City, Maryland because I enjoy flying the GPS 32 approach out over the water.\u00a0The beach views on final approach\u00a0are incredible –\u00a0even on a\u00a0blustery winter day. As it turned out – the winds were gusting around 26 kts today, and favored runway 2. There was traffic on the field, so I decided to fly the GPS 2 approach instead. It doesn’t take you out over the Ocean, but it does give you a nice view on final as well.<\/p>\n

The approach went just fine, but was a bit anti-climatic. Turning final, my groundspeed dropped below 80kts with the headwind, so I had to add in a bit more power. Conditions were all visual, so I relaxed and enjoyed the view. The only challenge was a Diamond airplane that made a bunch of calls, but I was never able to acquire him.<\/p>\n

Approaching\u00a0the FAF\u00a0on the approach, I was surprised to get vertical guidance. If I once knew how to tell ahead of time whether or not\u00a0you’d get vertical guidance on a GPS LNAV approach, I’ve since forgotten. Still looking for\u00a0the elusive Diamond, I added power and did my CRAM, CLIMB, CLEAN, COOL routine to\u00a0initiate the missed.<\/p>\n

\"Snapshot<\/a>Now I’m around 900′ on the missed approach when I decide that the technical appeal of doing approaches isn’t\u00a0doing it for me today. Instead I thought I’d just enjoy flying a fast machine down low over the water.\u00a0\u00a0Accordingly, I stopped\u00a0my climb and headed up the coast to enjoy the view. \u00a0Well clear of the airport and any traffic, I descended a bit and enjoyed the sights even more.<\/p>\n

I really did have a great time working the airplane for a bit.\"Snapshot<\/a> Still south of the Indian River Bay, I was in fairly strong turbulence and could see no other traffic. I climbed a few hundred feet and performed steep turns over the water. The airplane is magnificent and makes it easy to look like you know what you are doing. Flying these maneuvers gave me the same sensations my motorcycle would while following a twisting back road through the woods. \u00a0I was having a good time.<\/p>\n

Landing back in Georgetown, I managed to get the cover back on by parking it into the wind. All was well, but I knew I’d have to come back down early next week, or as soon as I could. The bird droppings would have to be washed off again, and the wing root access in the wheel wells plugged with foam.<\/p>\n

The flying was amazing though, and I find it relaxing.<\/p>\n

Fly Safely my friends….<\/p>\n

Frank<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time is ticking by, so I had to rewrite this post a few times to accommodate my delays. Went for a nice flight on\u00a0Sat (3\/19\/16) to relieve some stress prior to Bev’s\u00a0surgery. I’ll talk about the flight\u00a0after setting the tone for the days leading up to this particular Saturday. THE MINUTIA THAT BOGS YOU DOWN: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-home-page","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1966"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1992,"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1966\/revisions\/1992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airdorrin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}