SPC #036-Podapalooza 2010 from Oshkosh

It’s that time again…now that we’re home from Oshkosh, it’s time to share this year’s edition of Podapalooza.  This was recorded live on EAA Radio on Friday, July 30th, 2010.  Enjoy.

The Pilotcast Flight Crew

@FlyingCheezHead, @BillWil, and @StephenForce

Stephen Force at Pod-A-Palooza 2010

Sloshkosh Start

Some of my friends and I arrived in Oshkosh last night…unfortunately the grounds at the airport are soggy from 10 inches of rain last week, so we’ve been relegated to a hard parking lot a few miles north of the airfield…along with a bunch of other people.  I’m being told there are about 5 more of these lots that EAA is setting up until the grounds dry out…along with a couple hundred parked on the road near the entrance to the camping area at the airport.  Good times.

Here are a couple of pictures…the last one is our rig for the week, along with a map of where we’re at (hopefully temporarily).

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Map picture
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SPC #035-Stage III Check Prep, Hijacked!

Welcome to episode 35, finally, of the Student Pilot Cast, “Stage III Check Prep, Hijacked”.  I’m Bill Williams, and I’m learning to fly in front of the world. Come join me as I prepare for my Stage III Check with a different instructor.  This has been updated to point to the proper media file.

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New website!

Hello everyone.  I’ve got two pieces of good news today.  First, I’ve got another episode done.  Second, I’ve migrated to version 2 of the Student Pilot Cast website.  The new website is going to make it much easier to get episodes and show notes out, cleaner to distribute the podcast episodes once they are released, and generally make it much easier for me to publish.  That, I’m hoping, will help me get more episodes out in a timely manner.

Like I said, I finished another episode of SPC, but wanted to get the website finished and released before publishing the next podcast.  That said, the cutover may cause a little bit of weirdness in iTunes, Zune, or whatever other pod catcher you are using.  You may, for example, all of a sudden be told that all of the episodes are new when they aren’t and other things like that.  If you do experience any problems, please let me know by sending me an email (the address is mentioned in each episode), by tweeting me at http://twitter.com/billwil, or simply use the "Contact" link up above on this website.

Thanks again for listening.  I’ll get that next episode out right away.  Enjoy.

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SPC #034-Solo, Shorts, Softs, and FOD

Hello again SPC listeners.  Today’s episode takes us on a solo training flight on a very busy day to practice performance landings and takeoffs (shorts and softs).  We have everything from FOD to go-arounds in this episode, so enjoy.

I was nearing the end of stage III in my training, so I was almost in the home stretch.  I also explain in this episode the cramming of flights I had to do over just a few days to finish stage III.  This flight was the first of them.

As mentioned, If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.

Lastly, don’t forget to go check out the newly released (out of beta) myTransponder.  This aviation oriented social networking site is great.  To commemorate the recent full release and the fact that it is now open to anyone to join, I’ve created a group on myTransponder called, “Fans of the Student Pilot Cast.”  Please head over to the site and sign up if you haven’t already, and by all means, join my new group!

Thanks again for listening, and enjoy the episode.  Then, get out and fly!

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SPC #033-Into the Night, Part II

This is part II of my night dual cross country flight.  This part takes us from Marana Airport in the far northern part of Tucson back to Chandler. 

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[KAVQ-KCHD]

I mentioned the Remos GX LSA flight from Oshkosh in this episode.  Here is the link to the Airspeed episode that covered this.  My flight video from this will be coming in the future.

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter for the latest news from Student Pilot Cast land at http://twitter.com/billwil

If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.

I hope you all enjoy the episode.  Please send comments and feedback.

SPC #032-Podapalooza 2009, Part II

This is part II of Podapalooza 2009, the part of the show that was not broadcast live on EAA Radio.  This took place at Oshkosh, July 31st, 2009.

If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way. 

Enjoy the episode.

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SPC #031-Podapalooza 2009, Part I

Hello, everyone! Here is the first part of the audio from Podapalooza 2009 from Airventure in Oshkosh, July 31st, 2009.  This part contains the audio from the show that was broadcast live on EAA Radio.  After the radio station had to cut away, we continued Podapalooza and I will bring you that audio in the next episode.  By then, I’m hoping to have my Remos flight video completed, and I will release that shortly thereafter.  Here are a couple of photos from this years show.

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Getting ready to start
20090731_2441The Pavillion filling up as we get started
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Stu talks about his first impressions of Oshkosh
20090731_2459Stephen Force cracks wise, I’m sure
20090731_2482Jack getting a comment from Rod 20090731_2416Threw in a pic of the Terrafugia for good measure :)

Don’t forget, if you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.  Freddy has included many stories from his over 9000 hours of dual given time that help you learn what to expect and how to make decisions as you start your training, perfect for the beginning pilot.  Air Freddy sponsors this podcast through these e-book sales, so you’ll be supporting The Student Pilot Cast as well with a purchase, and I appreciate that.

Let me know what you think of Podapalooza 2009!  I hope you enjoy it.  Now, get out there an fly!

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A Morning Flight to Prescott

I don’t usually post current events (besides Airventure) on my website since it is more a historical record of my flight training, but today I’m changing that.  While I prepare my video episode from my demo flight in a Remos Light Sport aircraft from Oshkosh, I thought I would post a quick summary of a flight I took last weekend.

Last Saturday I took a quick flight with a friend of mine who’s thinking about becoming a pilot.  Some members of The Phoenix Pilot Group were headed up there that morning to have breakfast, and see some of the airplanes on display by Cessna, Cirrus, Piper, Beech, Diamond, and Mooney at the Prescott stop of the Arizona Aircraft Expo.  My friend wanted to take a flight, and since this was going on, we thought we’d head up there to check it out.

The weather was sketchy here in the usually nice Phoenix area.  For a few days we had a weather system passing through that brought a lot of moisture and unstable air.  That meant humid mornings with lots of clouds and possible scattered thunderstorms in the afternoons.  I had been following the weather, and when I woke up that morning I took a look outside, and sure enough, there was what looked like a couple of layers of clouds, some as low as 1500 feet from the ground.  My weather briefing confirmed that, but it looked broken enough to get out, and the weather in Prescott was supposed to be better, so off to the airport we went.  My youngest son, Trey, accompanied me as well.

After the pre-flight, we were off.  My usual course of action to head north is to immediately open my flight plan on departure from Stellar Airpark in Chandler, AZ, and then quickly get over to Phoenix approach to request a northbound transition through the class Bravo airspace directly over Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.  I did this, and quickly got a left 360 for spacing before being cleared into the airspace.  The approach controller cleared me to transition over Sky Harbor (KPHX) at 5000 feet MSL.  As I was climbing and approaching the transition, it became obvious that I wouldn’t be able to maintain Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and climb to 5000 feet.  I contacted the controller and let him know that I was unable to comply with the request and maintain VFR.  I told him that I could maintain 4000, and maybe go higher later, and he accepted that, and cleared me on the transition at 4000 feet.  Later, I actually had to drop down to 3,500 ft to remain clear of clouds, and the controller was kind enough to coordinate my transition of Deer Valley’s (KDVT) class D airspace. 

It turned out there were several layers of clouds that day, scattered at about 4000 feet, broken at about 6000 feet, and overcast at 8000 or so.  Visibility was also terrible under those layers, which is very unusual for Phoenix.  While flying the transition I probably only had about 8-10 miles of visibility.  In contrast to what I normally fly in, which is 10 times that, this seemed rather limiting.  My passenger actually asked me if I was concerned as we dodged clouds over Phoenix in poor visibility, and I thought for a second, and realized that I wasn’t really. We had many outs, and were on radar and in contact with Phoenix approach.  Even if we couldn’t get out of the valley due to low clouds, or a thunderstorm in our way, we could have landed at half a dozen airports that were either in sight or would be in a few minutes if we flew toward them, including even PHX right below us.  Also, I was still pretty confident that we would be able to climb out of the valley toward the better weather north of us.

It turned out I was right.  After crossing over Deer Valley we were able to continue climbing and the low clouds did disperse the farther north we went, and we were able to fly between an overcast layer above us and a scattered and dispersing layer below us.  While flying at our assigned altitude (I think it was 6,500 feet) heading north, we had a Southwest Airlines 737 fly directly over us as they headed into Phoenix (approach had warned the other pilot and me, and we had each other in sight, and the controller had us separated vertically).  After traffic was behind us and no factor, the controller gave us a higher altitude after cautioning of wake turbulence from the three-seven.  At this point we were good to go and continued on toward Prescott.  The ride was cool and smooth for a summer flight in Arizona and we were cruising at about 8500 feet.

As we approached Prescott, we heard on the center frequency that we were being followed on that another airplane was cancelling their VFR approach into Prescott because of weather.  We were about 15 minutes out, so that worried me a little…but from my vantage-point, it looked like I could easily duck under a layer that was hanging around the area, and get into Prescott.  We continued on, and cancelled flight following as we turned westbound at Prescott Valley so we could get ATIS and start talking to PRC tower.  Sure enough, visibility under the 8000 foot layer that we ducked under was pretty good, and rain showers washed the plane a bit as we approached the airport.  The wind was kicking up pretty good, over 20 kts, but almost directly aligned with a smaller cross runway (runway 12) that they have at Prescott, and that’s where I was headed, so the wind would not be a big factor.  There was a bit of gusting, but I would just come in with a little extra speed to compensate.  Even this smaller runway 12 was still 4400 feet long, so I wasn’t worried about that. 

Besides asking for the tower to call my base for traffic I knew was on final, but couldn’t see, the approach and landing was pretty uneventful.  With the wind coming at me, normally it would have seemed like a slow approach, but KPRC is over 5000 feet in elevation, and with the heat of the summer, density altitude is routinely over 8000 feet, the approach seemed pretty normal (the thin air compensated for the headwind, making it seem sort of normal).  The same thing happened a couple of hours later on our departure; the headwind combined with the high density altitude cancelled each other out, and it felt like a normal takeoff in the valley.  Interesting.

After landing and parking near Legend Aviation where the event was taking place.  We were a bit late to meet up with Phoenix Pilot Group members, but we ate a nice lunch at the restaurant there, and then got to browse around some nice, new airplanes from Cessna, Mooney, Beech, Piper Diamond, and Cirrus.  Man, those are all nice airplanes.  Then, it was time to go.

The weather had actually improved a bit in the valley, but was still pretty low in Prescott.  It was easy to get out, though, and on the way back my passenger snapped a few photos, which I’m including here.  When we arrived back at Stellar, the air was hot (and humid by Arizona standards), but we had enjoyed the nice cool air in Prescott for a few hours, had a nice meal, and had seen some beautiful airplanes.  A good morning of flying for sure.

Town of Prescott Valley on our way back home
Prescott Valley, a town close to Prescott

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Approaching KPHX from the north

KPHX Tower
A close-up of the KPHX Tower

Crossing over KPHX at 3500 feet

Sky Harbor (KPHX) looking down the runways

One of my crew for the day

My navigator on the way back

 
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SPC #030-Nexair Saratogo NX

We continue my coverage of EAA Airventure with episode 30.  Today I present an interview with David Fetherston of Nexair Avionics about their new airplane, the Saratoga NX.  The NX is a rebuild from spinner to tail of Piper’s Saratoga, but with all new avionics, speed mods, etc.  It’s a very interesting value in a travelling six-seater mini-van.

Along with the interview, I want to share several pictures with you of their first product of this program, a 1982 fixed gear Saratoga.  Enjoy.

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The Saratoga NX

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The Rear and Baggage Door

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Panel from the Rear Seats

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The New Interior

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Weight-Saving LED Light

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The Panel from the Pilots Door

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Avidyne’s R9 PFD

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The FMS Display and Keyboard

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The Whole Panel

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The New Switches

I hope you enjoy the interview, and I want to once again thank the folks at Nexair.  I’m impressed with what they’ve done.  I’d love to hear from you on what you think.