Meet the G1000!

Today I met my new best friend, C172SP equipped with G1000 - Glass Cockpit! It's never been so much fun and friendly to fly under IFR! I am not talking too much this time, one picture worth more than 1000 words...



View from my window, Lake Desston, north Florida:

Stage 1 behind us!

Today I had my stage 1 check, harsh instructor, but smooth flight. Besides basic instrument flying, and basic maneuvers (stalls, slow flights and steep turns) we had some partial panel, unusual attitude recovery, VOR tracking, time and distance calculations, and to finish with a gold key, engine failure in IMC conditions - something that could be really a pain in the ass if you don't have a GPS. But if you do, simply set your plane to the optimal glide speed (68 KIAS on the 172SP) and press "NRST" on your GPS, and it will give you the nearest available airport to land. Just press "direct to" and there you go - we managed to glide until Flagler airport.


As promised, here is the picture, stupid smiley face... and also another one after the flight, just landed at sunset. Beautiful view!

Santa's schedule

Looks like Santa Claus is been busy, and so our school. Everyone looking forward to finish their stage checks before the holidays, so bad time for flying. Instructors with no time, we sitting home praying to find a free spot on the schedule. Happily the guys that are staying in school in the holidays (that includes me) will get to fly a lot, because a lot of people went home...
Here is a nice Extra 300S next to me on N5 intersection, leaving Rwy 7L @ KDAB. Nice plane ah?


And here is my window view, on a long wait at the same intersection, busy but beautiful flying day!

What every man likes

This week it's been tough, one stage 3 Ground School exam today, tomorrow GS final. Add 3 simulator classes and one flight just to keep the dust-off, enough to let me sleep 6 hours a night at the most. On the picture you can see some of the Seneca fleet on the ramp @ our school.

The week is not ended and I forgot to mention that tomorrow evening there is a big "Christmas" party at school. Free drinks and dinner, then who cares? And if we are talking about parties, we have to be veeery careful around here. Since Daytona is on the shore, and the air here is relatively hot, it's needless to say parties are pumping all around. Well, it's not Miami Beach, but maybe could get a little close. If you don't take care, you will be spending more money on parties than on flying. People here are very nice, the norwegian guys (half of the school population) are alcohol-lovers so every pub you go or every party in town, they'll be there. Last weekend we made many good norwegian friends, after a couple of shots... Yeah, so if you ask about social life for young pilots, this is the place to come. Besides all, there are thousands of students @ Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University so the city is packed with pilots and aerosciences students. Many many international students from literally all over the globe, and also some hot chicks from New Smirna Beach as well.

Engines: Yeah, this is the city of the engines. I am not sure if this is because the huge NASCAR stadium next to the airport, but most of the country's motorized events are in this city. From Harley Davidson parades to old-car collectors expositions, you can see in the road virtually every car that you saw on TV or in the movies. Even these really old racing cars, you see it on the weekends sometimes. If you like cars, you are going to be amazed. Look at what you can find on the streets:












Just a little taste of what goes on here... My friends want me to buy a bike and enter their freaking "bike club". They all got sport motorcycles, crazy pilots, wanna feel like they are on top gun or something. Here you don't need by law to wear a helmet, so you can do it next to a taking-off jet, just like in the movie :)
You can buy a suzuki 600, 2002 for only $4000! That is so cheap compared to anywhere else I used to live, and such a temptation... but not enough money for that Xtra pleasures now... concentrating savings on flying!!
Good weekend everyone!

Foggy and grounded

KDAB 301353Z 36005KT 1/2SM -DZ BR OVC002 19/18 A3023 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 1 1/4 DZB20 SLP236 P0000 T01890178

This was yesterday's METAR. As you can see, visibility 0.5 miles, fog/mist and overcast @ 200 feet. We could barely see the buildings on the streets!
I have to say that was very beautiful to see the big jets taking off and instantly disappear in the fog, only leaving their roar behind. I am so mad I am not flying, I could get some actual instrument time! The problem is I am in stage 1, and stage is only VFR and "under the hood". We can fly IFR only from stage 2 on... So I've been grounded for the last 3 days because of weather. We all know how does it feel, don't we?
So, I've been walking around the airport area, and I found out Embry Riddle Aeronautical University is just across the street. I went there for a walk, I had some time free now because of the weather. Very big university, beautiful, and they have many many planes. Most of them C-172s with garmin G1000 glass cockpits and Diamond DA-42 twin stars also featuring glass cockpit and leather seats. It's a very expensive school, but anyone of you that can afford to study there I would strongly recommend. They not only have a flight school, but they offer degrees in many aeronautical areas like weather forecasters, meteorology, aerospace engineering, computer sciences, airport infrastructures, air traffic controllers and much more. They also offer some graduate programs, best thing to do is to check their website


I happened to find that nice picture on the Internet, that is what happened at Embry Riddle's fleet last winter... since then they bought all glass-cockpit airplanes. Now I think I know why they are so expensive: it's just about the insurance they pay to their planes.