International Young Eagles

Above is a short video post of International Young Eagles Day at Sky Manor that took place on June 13, 2009. While I put the video together, the photographer that took all the shots was Adrienne Riggs. One of the great joys of airplane ownership is taking kids up in an airplane, and letting them fly. I never get tired of seeing their expressions when they are up in the air. It was great fun flying the kids in the Twin Comanche again!! Below are additional pics of that day.

Sun N Fun / Key West Trip

Well, another aviation journey is behind us. For this trip I was joined by Matt, a flight instructor that has some TwinCo time and Robin, an instrument rated pilot building a Vans RV-8 in his garage. This year our trip consisted of first stopping at Sun N Fun, and then onward to Key West. The flight down to Lakeland on Wednesday sorta sucked. For the first half of the trip it was IFR / marginal VFR, and the second half consisted of moderate turbulence and headwinds. At one point we attempted to climb over the bumps, but were getting a 40kt ground speed in a shallow climb over 10,000 feet. No that is not a typo, a 40kt ground speed in a Twin Comanche. Compounding the weather, we had difficulty managing the temps on the right engine. This has been memorialized through my posts on both the ICS Forum and the Delphi Forum. I won't re-hash them here. We landed in Kissisimee again (ISM) and were greeted with smiles and warm weather. By the time we arrived in Lakeland it was clearing out, and we got to see a lot of airplanes. Later the next day we headed to Key West to meet some folks from the ICS for drinks. This was the first time I have been to Key West and have to say it is a great place to see. Thursday evening we ended up at Sunset Deck (near the Westin), and a bunch of us watched the sun go down over cocktails and dinner. I cant begin to describe how beautiful it was to witness. Hopefully the pic above does it some justice. Judging by all the people, it seems to be a nightly ritual. Charlie Horton and his wife Melody were there. Alan Cheek was there with his wife Anna, as was Skip and others. We talked most of the evening about flying. Charlie told us some great stories about racing his Comanche 400.

Key West is a fun place. Lots of bars, lots of sights and seeing it all from a scooter without a helmet is a blast. Flying to the Keys was also an experience. Because I fly a twin, I shot straight across the gulf. Throw in a bit of haze, it becomes an IFR flight. It really is difficult to determine visually where the horizon is. It was a light blue haze straight up and down, at least until we were 30 miles out. So we were on the gauges for most of the trip out. We found ourselves talking how difficult it must have been for Lindberg to cross the Atlantic in a much lesser airplane with virtually no nav equipment. Approaching Key West International, flying over the pristine blue water and seeing all the sail boats was a thrill. Other than almost having a bird-strike on short final, it was a perfect flight. (My flight instructor friend Matt seems to attract birds whenever he flies. Recently he diced up a number of Canadian geese in a Cirrus SR-22). I elected to have him only fly at the higher altitudes.

We met other Comanche flyers such as Steve Davis, who was joined by Ed Hoger, a real life Alaskan bush pilot. Nick Constantine, a general contractor in New York. Nick was joined by Jose, who flew a 152 all the way down to Brazil. A group of us hit the Conch Republic restaurant for dinner and drinks, had several beers at Sloppy Joes, and got side-tracked at the Garden of Eden Bar. A bar where clothing is optional. I elected to keep my clothes on in order not to chase the patrons away.

We saw Hemmingway's House, the Southernmost Point, witnessed a bed race, and saw a really old cemetery in the middle of the island. One of the locals there pointed out an interesting headstone. It was a gentleman that died at the age of 50. On the headstone it said, "I Told You I Was Sick". (See pic above). How many people laugh at a cemetery - I did that day.

It was disappointing to see the trip end, as there are so many things to see, and difficult to leave the overwhelming beauty of the island. Two days clearly was not enough! We left Sunday, and as bad as our trip down was, our return was just perfect. Smooth as glass and severe clear. It was by far one of the nicest long cross countries I have been on. Flying over Ocala we saw John Travoltas home at an airpark. We saw all his airplanes from 5,000 feet. We basically shot straight up the coast, one stop in Charleston, and were back in N.J. in 7 short (and enjoyable) hours. For trips like these the Comanche shines - great ground speed, roomy, great useful load and reasonable fuel burn. It was also great meeting a good group of people from the ICS that shared the same love of the Comanche as myself. I can't speak for others, but this is something we are planning to do next year!!

If you ever get the chance, fly down to Key West. I have a feeling you wont be disappointed.

See ya next year.

Ferrying A Comanche To The Twilight Zone

Submitted for your approval. I looked at a few Comanche's before buying my twin, and had an interesting experience that I thought I would share. The journey starts out with me ferrying a plane from several states away back to my home state of N.J. for a pre-buy inspection. In short, I could not come to terms with the owner and the plane had to be returned . And this is where Rod Sterling would say, 'we are about to enter the Twilight Zone'. I decided to hire an out of state ferry pilot. Why - because it was inexpensive (Mistaaaake!!!) . On the day the plane was to be ferried back, I called the airport (from work) and asked if the plane had left - it did. I got back to my responsibilities, and expected all would go well. Later that evening I got a call from the owner asking where the plane was. I told him I didn't know what time it departed, but he should arrive shortly. I went to sleep early that evening, and the next day I noticed I had several calls from the stressed out owner on my cell - THE PLANE NEVER SHOWED UP!! I panicked - was there a crash? Was the airplane stolen? Later that day we found out the ferry pilot left the plane 20-miles away due to weather - strange, as the weather was supposed to be severe clear. A few days later the owner went to pick up his Comanche, and what he found was incredible. The interior was a mess! It looked like John Belushi had a frat party in the plane. There were potato chips strewn all over the cabin. There was oil stained finger prints on the panel. The ferry pilot apparently enjoyed chewing tobacco and left a spit jar on the floor. He missed the jar a few times and there was tobacco stains on the floor and leather seats. Speaking of stains, there were unidentified yellow stains in the plane - yes, he was carrying a "little john". (Clearly he was out of practice with his precision approach). To top it off, the plane had a portable Garmin 496 that was missing.

The owner was fit to be tied. He began questioning people on the flight line, and the story got more bizarre. Several people said, "the man that flew that Comanche was drunk"! Witnesses said the pilot stumbled out of the plane. While de-planing he unshamefully put two empty six packs on the ramp. Oddly enough, he thought it was completely appropriate to empty his "little john" right on the ramp. His last act was to take the portable GPS and quickly exit the airport, while a yellow stream from his little john made its way across the ramp. Do you hear the twilight zone music playing?

In his drunken stupor the pilot failed to realize this airport had surveillance cameras'. His drunken behavior was captured, along with his theft of the GPS, and his act of giving the ramp a golden shower. Naturally when confronted, he denied everything but changed his story when hearing about the cameras. His story was that he took the GPS to safeguard it from theft - how thoughtful. He attributed the other mess to vandals. You know the kind - the tobacco chewing, potato chip eating kind that use a little john when vandalizing a parked airplane. Clearly the gene pool need a little chlorine.

I apologized profusely to the owner, even promising I would buy him a new GPS and detail his plane. I monitored the flight on a flight tracking web site. It seemed after he departed my home airport, he landed 40 miles west for a short stop. We suspect to pick up his friend Mr. Budweiser. I also noticed he did not hold an altitude for more than 10 minutes. He porpoised between 6 and 4 thousand feet all the way back. It also showed that his flight became more and more erratic as it progressed. Everyone I tell this story to, even the old-timers, are amazed. Jaws drop. This guy made that crop duster in Independence Day look like a model pilot! The difference is Independence Day is a fictional movie, this ferry pilot is REAL!!

Did I learn anything? If someone is going to fly your airplane, make sure they are not drunk. Second - never dump your 'little john' on the ramp...you never know who is watching. This really is not a laughing matter - it could have been a disaster. Fortunately no one died, no one got hurt, and while the airplane was soiled (as was the ramp), it was not damaged. Being a pilot is serious business. The cheapest price is not always the best deal. We all cut corners in our lives - don't do it with your plane or your flying...or you might end up in the Twilight Zone!!