918 Days

918 days after arriving in the US it is time to leave and head back to Ireland. I returning home to Ireland with no regrets.

So long America. See you next time.

N54288 KCHD

Last Adventure

Had my last adventure in the US. 3.5 hours logged on a cross country between Oregon and Seattle. Landed at KRNT which is my 42nd airport. Never quite made it to 50!

SEATTLE TAC

VFR transition across SEATAC class bravo was amazing.

Return flight is available on Flightaware.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N5440H/history/20140521/0212Z/KSEA/KPDX

Photos to follow.

Seattle Seaplanes - Part 2

Aborted take-off and my first glassy water technique approach and landing.

Seattle Seaplanes - Part 1

Check out my video from last weekend. Hopefully it motivates someone to go and try Seaplane flying.

Busy Evening at @flypdx

Flew into KPDX after a long week at work. Busy at KPDX and the surround airspace, but TRACON still found time to slot me in. Gotta love flying in Portland.


Cockpit Audio

http://k007.kiwi6.com/hotlink/8794y4h9o3/PDX_Class_Charlie_Arrival.mp3

AOPA Article

Big thanks to Jill at AOPA for her continued coverage of my aviation journey. She wrote an article about my pending move away from the US. Was a nice surprise to check my Twitter feed today to see this!

What I said is true. GA is very special in the US. Fight to keep what you have because its amazing!

http://blog.aopa.org/flighttraining/?p=3170

First Seaplane Flight

Logged 1.6 hours. 7 water landings and signed off my BFR. What a great day to go flying in Seattle. Booked a two hour training flight with Seattle Seaplanes based at Lake Union in Seattle, WA.

0W0, Lake Union, WA

WATER RUDDERS - UP

We departed Lake Union which lies just north of downtown Seattle. Flew over Lake Washington and then transitioned the northern part of Boeing Fields airspace before heading NW over the Puget Sound towards Port Orchards where we would perform the majority of the training maneuvers. 

Performed 95% of the flying myself. First take-off and landing was tough but I soon got the hang of it. What an amazing experience. When I return to the US I will be sure to add on this rating.

Downtown Seattle

Inside FLOATPLANE 21T

Flying NW over Puget Sound

Beach Landing in 21T!

Downtown Seattle

KPDX Arrival Video

Landing 10L KPDX.

KPDX

First time landing at KPDX today. Turns out it was my wife's first flight in Oregon too. Great service provided by PDX TRACON and TWR.

Video to follow.

Happy Wife!

PDX Class Charlie Airspace

Mount Saint Helens Video

Short video of my VFR photo mission to Mount Saint Helens on Friday evening. Unfortunately the new GoPro camera position looking forward did not come out too well. I still need to experiment with the best position.

New Camera Angle

Discovered a new camera angle on my GoPro. Here is a short video of me landing at Sportmans and Twin Oaks last weekend (no audio).

Mt. Saint Helens

Another first. Picked up flight following from PDX TRACON and headed north east on a photo mission to Mt. Saint Helens. The volcano peaks at 8600'. I followed the procedure stated in the AFD and flew counter clockwise at 10500'. 

On the return leg back south, PDX offered me a class charlie transition overhead KPDX and onwards to 7S3.

A great day to fly in Oregon!

Crater @ Mt. Saint Helens

Mt. Saint Helens VFR 10500'

Overhead KPDX VFR 3600'

Long Cross Country

Great flight Saturday visiting another new airport (KEUG). Flew over 210nm. Flight following from PDX DEP/APP, CASCADE APP and SEA CTR. Received flight following the entire way. Great service. No charge!

Great day to go flying in Oregon. Lots of activity at 7S3 yesterday and the surrounding airports. Landed at my 39th airport (KEUG). Aborted an approach at Newport, Oregon (KONP) due to high winds. Had an aircraft be told by SEA CTR to call a landline. Landed back at Sportman on the way back to 7S3. A great day to be a pilot in Oregon.

Video to follow soon.

Planned Route

Busy 7S3

Final 34R KEUG

Flying in Ireland

Here is a 10 minute video of my flight in Ireland last week. 

I will blog about the flight later this week.

#letsgoflyingireland

Logged 1.0hour and 1 landing in Ireland today. First flight in Ireland since passing my FAA PPL in June 2012. Photos and details to follow.....................

Twin Oaks - Runway 20

Here is the video from my flight last week. Great being airborne again. Loved the challenge of landing on runway 20 for the first time. Video quality is rather poor with the evening light fading but hopefully you get to see how much fun this approach was!

Back In The Saddle

First flight in 70 days went well. I chose to fly on a day with a crosswind! Flew to two airports that I had previously visited in Oregon. Wind from a different direction so landed in the opposite direction than on previous flights. Best part was returning to my home airport and landing 20 instead of 02. First time flying this approach. Loved the approach through the tree line. The attached photo doesn't do it justice. Preferred landing direction so that one can land uphill avoiding the trees on the 20 approach!

Happy with my performance today. Took my time with the pre-flight. Flight was fine. Landings were only okay. Key today was taking my time and working the checklists. Happy with my decision making. Didn't push outside my comfort zone and I had the confidence to tackle the 20 approach for the first time. Pitch and power down to the numbers. Wind was light after landing so I probably could have landed 02. Next aircraft behind me landed 02.

Flew with a student pilot who wanted to learn more about talking with Towered airports. He had a blast!

Going to start flying to new airports from next week. Have just over two months left in the US. #letsgoflying

Video to follow soon.

Short Final 20 7S3

SKYHAWK 5440H

One Day!

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.