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January 05, 2011
November 04, 2010
WENATCHEE AIRPORT
We went for a flight yesterday to KEAT, Weanatchee Regional Airport - pretty much on a whim. With the record warm tempratures in the Pacific Northwest, we much take advantage of the great weather when we can get it.
The flight over the Cascade Mountains was spectacular - the larch trees were in full color. On the east side the orchards were if full autumn color as well - amazing scenery.
Many airports in our country and around the world are named after some one - usually some great and heroic aviator. It's fun to learn the history of why airports are named the way they are. Wenatchee Airport is named "Pangborn" - the first to cross the Pacific from Japan. They dropped thier landing gear in the ocean so they could make it then did a controlled crash at Wenatchee Airport to win the prize.
The flight back to Boeing Field past Mt. Stuart and the Enchantments was just as awesome. Fall and winter flying on nice high-pressure days in the Nortwest can be fantastic - but you have to be ready to go when the opportunity arises!
October 12, 2010
Mel gets his seaplane rating with Leslee at Ft. Langley Air in British Columbia
The weekend before last provided exceptional October weather in Vancouver. We had clear skies, no wind, and warm temperatures. The perfect combination for seaplane training on the Frasier River.
The Fort Langley Air office and hangar are located at the Fort Langley Airport (CBQ2), the base of all their Float Training and Charters. Approximately 57Km (35miles) driving distance east of Vancouver International Airport (YVR), Fort Langley Air is just east of historic Fort Langley, the birthplace of British Columbia, Canada.
Leslee is a good friend whom I met via the Cascade Flyers in January of 2004. She's an excellent instructor with thousands of hours in seaplanes. Come up to Vancouver some weekend, and get your seaplane rating! Check out www.fortlangelyair.com for all the information.
I received seven hours of dual and .6 of solo in their C-182 C-FCDQ. Flying up to Harrison Lake and other beautiful destinations at 500' was a thrill! On the third afternoon, I was ready to solo. I was as excited and scared as I was on my first solo years ago. But, Leslee had prepared me well, and it was loads of fun doing five "circuits" as they call them in Canada.
September 30, 2010
THE EVEKTOR SPORTSTAR PLUS - LIGHT SPORT AIRCRAFT
Two CF members went flying on a recent nice day in the Evektor SportStar Light Sport Aircraft. Wow - what a ride! The SportStar really succeeds in making general aviation modern, accessible, fun and somewhat affordable.
The airplane flown was a 2007 model Evektor SportStar Plus, made by Evektor Aerotechnik in the Czech Republic. It was the first Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) to be certified by the FAA. The MTOW is 1,320 pounds and it's powered by a 100hp Rotax engine.
The three bladed wood composite propeller is driven by a gearbox that lets the engine turn at 5,800 RPMs while maintaining a much slower propeller speed of 2,600 RPMs. Conventional flight controls are driven by a stick, one for each pilot and one throttle control on the panel. The split type flaps are controlled manually by a lever between the seats and this aircraft was equipped with the optional electric trim.
If you are interested in learning more about this fun airplane send a message through the email list-serve. Flying around in a bubble-canopy is fantastic! Thank you RH for the photos, facts and fun!
September 29, 2010
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL FACILITY TOURS
Our member David L has spent enormous time and effort organizing ATC facility tours of ARTCC, TRACON and the Tower. Thank you David!!! The organization and sign-ups occurred on our email list-serve.
Great job and well worth the time.
September 01, 2010
Fantastic Flight into SEATAC Today
What a beautiful day to fly from CYVR to KSEA. A good friend of ours was on LH490 from EDDF to KSEA today, arriving at 11:13 PDT. We scrambled N731TM to fly down to pick up him and his son to bring them back to CYVR for the weekend.
After record rainfall yesterday in CYVR (55mm), we expected IFR and even ice for today's flight. However, the weather forecasters were totally wrong, and we woke up to nearly clear skies! We departed at 10:53 on CYVR's Runway 26L, after a twenty minute ground hold for "metering" into KSEA. Wonder why? The weather was good down your way, too. Then enroute, we were given one 360 and vectors all over the eastern part of Juan de Fuca Strait:
(http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N731TM/history/20100901/1730Z/CYVR/KSEA)
But, hey, we didn't mind as the scenery was beautiful.
Finally we resumed the JAWBN1 arrival and were cleared down to 2200'. Then the controller asked, "are you going into KSEA or KBFI"? We we replied, "KSEA", he assigned us 3000', instead, with a new vector to the airport. Cleared for the ILS 16R, we between a Delta 757 and an Alaska 737.
We learned that tower handles all ground ops west of Runway 16L, after we switched to ground to ask them to taxi to US Customs. OK, back to tower, and we were sent via Taxiway Q to the South Ramp to Gate S-1, right next to the Lufthansa flight on which our friends had just arrived!
What a flight.
Posted by Mel Rushton, your CYVR Blogger.
June 21, 2010
AUSTRALIA'S 737-700 WEDGETAIL AT BFI
During a pre-flight the other day at Boeing Field a new RAAF 737-Wedgetail AEW & C came screaming in for a landing on RWY 13R. Ironically I met someone who works for the program in Seattle and he sent some of these declassified photos.
June 17, 2010
WEEKEND FLYING-McMINNVILLE, OREGON - EVERGREEN FLIGHT MUSEUM
More weekend flying - from the most recent couple of nice days. I keep checking in with Cliff Mass but improving weather does not look too hopeful.
Rob and his main co-pilot, Randall, flew from Seattle to beautiful McMinnville, Oregon to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. A GREAT place to go!
The main attraction is the Spruce Goose, from Howard Hughes which was rescued from Long Beach, California by Del Smith the guy who started Evergreen Airlines.
This should be on your long list of destinations - it's only 1+25 from Seattle in a C-172 (no-wind).
June 15, 2010
WEEKEND FLYING- MOUNTAIN FLYING CHECKOUT & TRIP TO THE SAN JUAN ISLANDS
Milo and Craig took to the skies on Saturday - a gorgeous break from the coldest, wettest & cloudiest spring on record in the Northwest (RRrrrrg!)
Here is Milo's account:
"Hey - I flied a lot! I got my first flight to get checked out on the DA-40 and I got my mountain flying endorsement from my CFI at Galvin. We flied to Cle Elum at 8.30 am on Saturday morning... it was awesome! So awesome I decided to repeat the experience yesterday on the DA-20! I already posted some pix on FB. Let me include some in this message. Saturday afternoon, Craig and I got Stewie to FHR to have a late lazy Saturday lunch... awesome flight... and there's always something to learn from Craig!
As I told you yesterday in the afternoon I flied again to Cle Elum... going up was sweet... coming back was rougher because the wind - 20 KTS from 270 - picked up and the DA-20 was not enjoying that! :)"
Here is a great shot of Roche Harbor - and the ski slope landing strip there.
Happy pilots having fun!
Here are some photos from the public Cascade Flyers Facebook page, there is also a movie there too - check it out!
Landing and a great pose at beautiful Cle Elum airport:
THE iPAD FLIES TOO! WEEKEND FLYING - iPAD, MAP, REALITY, CUTE PILOT!
Matt & Cees took to the skies too over the weekend. These pilots on a mission to see if their iPad, discussed in a previous post here, would track the aircraft's position in the air while flying using only GPS signal and not the cellular signal which was not available.
It was proven to work! The proof is in the video here,
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ihPcjN7fE), sorry the embed is not working for now.
(But there is a GREAT shot of a VERY cute pilot at the end of the video as a reward)
Here is another beautiful screen shot of the moving map on the iPad, real time data - WOW!!!
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