Pinch hitting (piloting)
Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2004 3:13 pmWell after getting back, and settled in for a time, I get a call at about 9:30. It seems that Tasman Tours had a Pilot got sick and is therefore unavailable for a scheduled flight this week. Frank from Wyoming dropped my name and contact information. So I made arrangements to get to Pellston (KPEL) Regional via a 172 rented from NMC! A nice deal is that a student has to get some hours anyway and is going in that direction!
Prepping the plane...
As I was waiting at runway 136, I saw another 172 pull up behind me (the student had the plane, so I snapped this one!)
Since the route was so short, we elected to just stay VFR (squawk 1200, no flight following). The weather has been rather overcast and cloudy, so we stayed at about 4500 feet instead of at the original 5500 as planned. The wind bounced us along. I forgot how fun a 172 flies!
En route to KPLN...
Just as we announced our intent to land on runway 5, we heard two other calls over the radio! One was from a plane planning to take off on runway 32, and another was from a Lear planning to land on 32 (the ILS one). Talk about being squeezed!
Well it all turned out allright, the plane departing was up and away just as we were on final (I handled the plane as the student was a bit nervous then), and we were already to parking by the time the Lear announced being on final!
When I got to the parking, my jaw dropped. Nobody told me the gig was in a Maule!
:D:D
Although I didn't get pictures, I had the opportunity to play with one of these back when I was in Vancouver! Man, I was feeling good while taxiing!
Though we were close to our destination, I took note of the PLN VOR (just in case). And of course, I took the clients near the Mackinac Bridge (you just can't experience Michigan without seeing that!)
Man the cool thing about these planes is that they get up to speed fast! I was already at 140 Knots by the time I got in the air! It's slowing down that can be tricky....
Well, the passengers wanted to land on the water, so I radioed to be sure it would be okay to do so. The only thing was that it was quite choppy on the big lake...
A friend of Mr. Gutierez's (my passenger), named Alundra was on the ferry from St. Ignace. He called her on his cell and she snapped this one of us...
Well it took me one go-around to get oriented (I miss the spoilers on the Lancair). When we landed Alundra (dunno her last name) got this as we were coming in...
Well, this is a job I can live with! I'll be here for a few days! Hopefully I can find something to do while Mr. G and Alundra do stuff on the Island (I have free reign when I'm not flying them...so long as I'm not drunk when they want to go somewhere!)
Prepping the plane...
As I was waiting at runway 136, I saw another 172 pull up behind me (the student had the plane, so I snapped this one!)
Since the route was so short, we elected to just stay VFR (squawk 1200, no flight following). The weather has been rather overcast and cloudy, so we stayed at about 4500 feet instead of at the original 5500 as planned. The wind bounced us along. I forgot how fun a 172 flies!
En route to KPLN...
Just as we announced our intent to land on runway 5, we heard two other calls over the radio! One was from a plane planning to take off on runway 32, and another was from a Lear planning to land on 32 (the ILS one). Talk about being squeezed!
Well it all turned out allright, the plane departing was up and away just as we were on final (I handled the plane as the student was a bit nervous then), and we were already to parking by the time the Lear announced being on final!When I got to the parking, my jaw dropped. Nobody told me the gig was in a Maule!
:D:DAlthough I didn't get pictures, I had the opportunity to play with one of these back when I was in Vancouver! Man, I was feeling good while taxiing!
Though we were close to our destination, I took note of the PLN VOR (just in case). And of course, I took the clients near the Mackinac Bridge (you just can't experience Michigan without seeing that!)
Man the cool thing about these planes is that they get up to speed fast! I was already at 140 Knots by the time I got in the air! It's slowing down that can be tricky....
Well, the passengers wanted to land on the water, so I radioed to be sure it would be okay to do so. The only thing was that it was quite choppy on the big lake...
A friend of Mr. Gutierez's (my passenger), named Alundra was on the ferry from St. Ignace. He called her on his cell and she snapped this one of us...
Well it took me one go-around to get oriented (I miss the spoilers on the Lancair). When we landed Alundra (dunno her last name) got this as we were coming in...
Well, this is a job I can live with! I'll be here for a few days! Hopefully I can find something to do while Mr. G and Alundra do stuff on the Island (I have free reign when I'm not flying them...so long as I'm not drunk when they want to go somewhere!)