Boeing Factory Tours

Official @Boeing photos are now available. Hopefully I will blog about my visit to the Everett and Renton factories in the coming days.

#avgeek & 777-300ER

Admiring the 747-8

Photographs courtesy of @Boeing

Someone once told me...................

Someone once told me that I should get IFR rated before moving to Oregon. That has to be the understatement of the decade! Weather has been really poor since New Year which has resulted in me only flying once. Also had to renew my medical which I took care of last week.

Tried to fly at the weekend but a weather system came through from the pacific.

Fingers crossed I get to fly this week.

Refueling 40H Saturday

Ready for #AGF14

I'm all packed for #AGF14. Expect some photos to be uploaded over the weekend.

Attending #AGF14 Sunday

Not flying much due to the really non VFR flying conditions here in Oregon. I'm holding out for March!

This weekend I am attending the Aviation Geek Fest (#AGF14) in Seattle. Tune back in for an update Sunday evening.

Here is a link to the 2013 event. Doesn't it look great? I will be attending the event at KBFI as I couldn't get a ticket for KPAE.

First Flight 2014

Planned to fly this morning over to Aurora State to practice some pattern work. Then heard a pilot friend was in town. The cloud lifted and we set off for a tour of the pacific north west coastline.

Logged 2.2. Fun flight with Flight Following from PDX DEP and SEA CTR. We flew WNW at 6500'. Then stayed north of the airport as a King Air shot ILS approaches into runway 26. After a full stop at KAST, we headed south along the coast line. We picked up a slight headwind of 35kts. Ground Speed dropping to 65kts at one stage!

Then got confused with my runway numbers at KTMK. Landed on the correct runway but I was calling it 01 instead of 31! Whoops! There was no one around to see!!

Enjoyed dusting the cobwebs off for the first flight of 2014. Weather allowing I will be flying with my wife on Thursday. 2014 is going to be a great year!

SKYHAWK 40H and a Beaver!

Overhead KAST on the Pacific Coast

3500' VFR Along PNW Coast

2013 Year

2013 will be my last full year in the US as I am returning back to Europe in July 2014. It's time to look back at what I've written in the logbook in 2013.

PiC Time Logged - 56.3hrs
Airports Visited - 29
Aircraft Flown - C172
States Flown In - AZ, OR, TX & WA

Highlights 
There are lots of highlights for the year but my top five are;
1. Passed through 100hrs PiC,
2. Landed at my first airport >7000' MSL,
3. Class B flying including landing at KPHX (5th visit) in May,
4. Only flying with a empty right seat once,
5. Flying with my Dad for the first time.

Regrets
1. Not camping at #OSH13,

I do have a couple of other regrets, but I can fix them in early 2014 so I am not going to write them down.

Happy New Year. Blue skies and tailwinds for 2014!

Flying With My Dad

Grounded

Grounded due to ice conditions and low vis. This sucks. Happy New Year everyone.

Flying with Hoptown Flyer

Thanks for Hoptown Flyer for getting his version of our flight out on YouTube before me. I don't like watching myself and I did enjoy this one! 

First flight in a month and first flight in cold weather. Was apprehensive but everything worked out okay.

$100 Hamburger - Class Bravo Airport

Nowadays it is difficult to fly that $100 hamburger flight due to the rising cost of rental aircraft/fuel. However on 13th December 2012 I had my first "official" $100 hamburger as a Private Pilot.

I've had many aviation highlights since moving to the US in November 2011. In Europe it can be a challenge flying into a large airport and parking for free! You would think landing a C172 at an Air Force Base (without the F-16 escort) and spending two days with the F-16 pilots would be enough satisfaction in one lifetime. But on the 13th December 2012, ATC gave me clearance to land on 07R at Phoenix Sky Harbor (KPHX) airport in Arizona. 24 months prior to that, learning to fly was still a dream. Never thought I would be doing this in a million years.

Planned Route CHD -> PHX

As most of you know, ATC is my passion. I'd practiced the possible radio calls a million times whilst driving the car to and from work. I had already flown halve a dozen or so class bravo transitions but this was to be my first flight landing. I didn't want to mess this one up. After picking up the ATIS, I was so nervous making that first call to PHX APP. I was prepared for them to say "you want to land a Cessna here?" followed by "frequency change approved, good day!" And this would be followed by my FBO telling me they had a call from PHX Tracon! Thankfully that never happened and PHX Tracon/Twr provided an excellent service. 

Gotta love Cutter Aviation. Leading FBO servicing major airports across southwestern United States. They hold a monthly cook off in the autumn and winter months in order to promote the services at the FBO. Parking fee waived for the day and some great food providing A simple call ahead a few days before is requested to ensure your parking spot on the ramp.

Welcome N54288

For my first visit, flight time was less than 20 minutes. Total distance flown was less than 25nm. In the end, I was very happy with my RT comms. I did mess up the clearance delivery on the way back out of PHX but I was able to fix that on later flights.

SKYHAWK 288 Ramp Photo KPHX

Loggged 0.9hrs there and back. That equated to $90 + tax = approx. $96. This became my first $100 hamburger flight plus I had change!

Ended up flying into KPHX five times between December 2012 and May 2013. Each time was amazing. So glad I was able to experience it in the US. The experience is definitely in ten life experiences. 

Hoptown Flyer @ Twin Oaks

Please join me in congratulating Hoptown Flyer. He flies out the same airport as me in Oregon. Took him flying this weekend in 734KU. He had a taste of what his PPL ticket will enable him to do once he closes our his training in the coming weeks. Lets all wish him good luck!

Follow him on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHoptownFlyer

Back in the saddle

Flew for the first time in a month. Added my 37th airport. Flew north from 7S3 to KCLS (Chehalis-Centralia). Planned to go further north but the wind was 350/20kts at around 4000'. This resulted in only 90kts ground speed in the cruise. Flight following with PDX DEP and SEA CTR on the way. 

On the return leg there was a SCT050 layer. With freezing temperatures I avoided the cloud. Flew back at 3500' MSL. This was too low to pick up flight following with SEA CTR. Once clear of the cloud, we climbed back up to 5500 for the remainder of the journey.

Logged 2.1hrs. Fun flight.

KCLS - Chehalis-Centralia

Inbound UBG VOR Climbing to 5500'

View from KU

Flickr Account

Have created myself a Flickr account to show off my new Canon Rebel T3i photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92868683@N02/

Patience

Thanks for being patient over the last few weeks. Feeling the effects of Oregon weather. Not flying as much. Great adventures planned in the new year. I have 30 weekends left in the US before returning to Europe.

I do have a trip planned this Sunday. Heading north towards Seattle if the weather is nice to me. Stay tuned.................

KKLS

Enjoy this short video from my flight to Kelso (KKLS) two weekends ago. Another new airport with another first time passenger. Fun times!

734KU booked for the 7th December. Expect a new video soon.

Flying Adventures

I'm going to start blogging about flying other than mine.

Check out two videos of people claiming to have the worlds shortest commercial flight. 

World's shortest commercial flight? from IndoPilot on Vimeo.



Aren't we lucky being pilots?

Two Years in US

Celebrating two years in the US this week. So many dreams fulfilled. So much more to do in the next 8 months.

Flying With Wife

SKYHAWK 288

Flight Sim Video

Made a flight sim video. Love A2A's C172 trainer. Helps pass the wet days in Oregon when I can't fly real world.

2014 Ambitions

As the year draws to an end what are you looking forward to in 2014?

2014 is the year I head back to Ireland. But I have 7 months flying left. Here is my list;

(0) TRACON tours and lots of them (this is P0!)
(1) Seaplane flying in Seattle,
(2) Flying in the the clouds (with a IFR rated pilot of course!),
(3) Fly to California from Oregon,
(4) Land at KBFI and KPAE,
(5) Cross the Canadian border (legally!)
(6) Fly something other than the C172!

and I would love to do some more flying in AZ but I don't know if that will happen.

I have to make the most of my time between now and July 2014. American dream will soon be over.

37th Airport

After a three week break due to life and weather(!), I was back flying again at the weekend. I'm enjoying venturing north to the Oregon/Washington State border. This time, I landed at Kelso Southwest Washington Airport. Despite being a dry weekend day, there was not a sole around. Saying that, Scappoose was very busy on the radio. Took me 5 minutes to get through the delta airspace at KHIO. If I knew it was going to take that long, then I would have just climbed above their airspace!

Had another first time flyer too. Work colleague from intel, so I was sure to fly overhead the factory in Hillsboro we are both working at. Always fun making sure that right seat stays occupied. 

Plan is to survive the next three months and hit the ground running (pardon the pun) come March. Lots of great adventures planned.

Intel, Hillsboro Oregon

Columbia River

Short Final 30 KKLS

Video to follow soon.

#letsgoflying

Oregon wx sucks! Been grounded over the last two weeks. Clear weather didn't line up with my work/personal schedule. However, all going well, I will be flying this weekend. Stay tuned!

In the mean time, enjoy reading the AOPA article about life after a failed checkride. I get a mention!

http://flighttraining.aopa.org/magazine/2013/November/feature-deal.html