broadband powered navel-gazing

flying without pants

Spring has sprung here in Chicago. The big meteorological master switch in the sky seems to have flipped from "CRAPPY to "NICE." So to celebrate the kickoff of the flying season, I booked some time w/ Pete from Midway Aviators to go get re-current flying the plastic plane.

The DA40 Diamond Star is my trusty steed of choice when I'm not flying for big brother blue. It's sleek, it's modern, and it's a hoot to fly.

Note the wheel pants are off. The penalty of a knot or two is worth it. Since I like being able to actually inspect the brakes, wheels and tires... vs. just pretending to when the fairings are installed.

For both insurance compliance and my own peace of mind, I was demonstrating my ability to fly the aircraft for the instructor today, vs. just taking passengers up for fun. I hadn't strapped on plastic since last Fall, so taking advantage of a beautiful Sunday morning to get re-acquainted was time well spent. Flying the diamond is different than the Cessnas that I usually drive for CAP. Staying current, competent, and confident in both kinds of airframes is important to me.

My good friend & Project Pilot mentee Mandy came along for the ride. She's going to make a fine pilot one day. She took some very nice pictures. I look forward to flying with her in the left seat some day.

Sunny, with light winds, I got to get some cross-wind landings in without having to work too hard at it. Other than missing a radio flip, where I inadvertently made my initial CTAF call while I was still on the Tower frequency... the flying was to standard. That turned out to be pretty much the only glitch of the morning.

Now that I've got the hands back, anyone want to go flying?

roger! roger!

:: This will teach me to leave my flight bag un-attended...

I guess I won't have much trouble getting Amelia to keep her headset on the next time we go flying!

"Pirates in the Corn"

Yesterday I flew an Initial Familiarization Flight [I-FAM] with one of the new guys [FNG] in the unit.

Andy has one of those unpronounceable Greek last names with too many consonants for his own good... so I think I may take a lead from his former co-workers and just give him the callsign, "ZORBA."

We launched out of Lansing, IL [IGQ] in a CAP Skyhawk, and made the short hop over to Chicago Midway [MDW] to give him a chance to see what operating at the Squadron's home 'drome is like.

The airport wasn't too busy at that time in the morning, so instead of taxing all the way to parking, we asked Ground Control to amend our clearance and let us taxi right back to the runway. We copied our new departure clearance as we taxied back, and were all set to go before we even got back to the other end.

We took off again into the hazy morning air and headed to Morris, IL [C09] which features one of my favorite airport greasy spoons. Pancakes do taste better at the airport.

En route Andy spotted a big skull and crossbones in the corn below us. So I suggested he grab his camera and I maneuvered the plane into position to snap a picture. It was a good teaching moment and we got a good picture.

The cornfield maze is located on Siegel's Cottonwood Farm in Crest Hill, IL.

hugo's hanger party

Here's Amelia at the controls of my squadronmate Hugo's Piper Cherokee 140.

The highlight of the weekend, was Hugo's Hanger Party, hosted at Lewis Airport. (LOT)

This little get-together kicked off at Noon, and ran well in to the evening. Hugo kept firing up the 140 throughout the afternoon to give kids a quick air ride, or let some of the other pilots fly around the patch.

Lisa observed that under most conditions, it's not easy to get Amelia to smile on cue for the camera. But she just loved climbing around the airplane. She was all smiles in the cockpit. So this time, the tough part was just catching her sitting still long enough to snap a picture.

Of course, she got a tad upset when I eventually had to pry her away from the airplane when it was time for someone else's air ride. [a real chip off the old block, this one!]

About a half dozen of us from the Squadron showed up, which I figure qualifies it as a sanctioned LPA event. It's great when we get the chance for folks from the unit to mingle with spouses, kids, etc.

Hanging out at the airport as a family might just become a regular habit.

I'd be just fine with that!

happy summer

It's been a great summer.

Here's to many more!

-The Rakic family

Down the Chute

As the salt mines the office closed down a bit early on Friday, in recognition that everyone was already mentally checked out before the long weekend...

I took advantage of what was forecast to be the last of the good flying weather... and took the DA-40 up for a short hop.

Here we are on final approach to 4L at Midway. [MDW] That's Mike in the right seat, and the picture was taken by a colleague of mine from work, [we'll call him "Bobburt"] sitting in the back, who went along for his first time up in a small plane.

I just love this photo, I had to share.

Rod in The Box

I had great time visiting my good friend Shannon in Dallas. I got the fantastic opportunity to fly a Dassault Falcon 50 simulator. (I wrote about it in detail on my other blog)

Shannon & Santina were really great hosts. We went to a great Mexican joint, and they threw one heck of a BBQ on Saturday night.

Shannon and I then road tripped across central Texas, where I got dropped off here in Austin to attend the iMedia Agency Summit conference for work. It's not typical for me to end up on the road on my birthday... but if that's how it goes, this was really best way to go.

CAP in the local news

 

Civilian Air Patrol performs 95 percent of the nation's inland search and rescue missions. Roughly 100 lives a year are saved through its efforts. But in this day of terrorist threats, its mission continues to evolve.

FOX NEWS: Civilian Air Patrol Helping Protect Against Terrorist Threat

Back in April, I got the chance to strap on CAP airplanes for most of a weekend.

While I was airborne, the local FOX News affiliate came out to the mission base at Dupage [DPA] to shoot some video and do a story about CAP's potentially expanding role in Homeland Security.

I'm not really broken up about not being around for the press interviews. I've gotten my time in the bright camera lights on other occasions, so I'm happy to let some of my comrades log some time in front of the camera.

While they were doing the public relations thing, I was off aviating in support of the region disaster relief exercise. That's just fine with me.

Of course, it makes me want to slap my forehead every time the news guys call us the civilian air patrol.

It's the Civil Air Patrol.

Yet again, we live up to our reputation as the Air Force's best kept secret.

short trip to grandpa's

Yesterday we flew the short hop from Bad Axe [BAX] to Romeo. [D98] This was one of those days when I really wished I had my instrument ticket.

Fog and low ceilings kept us from departing in the morning as planned. We made the best of it by having lunch with family in town before taking off once conditions were right.

When I say, "right," what I mean is the ceiling was 2500 and visibility 5 miles. Definitely not a bright sunny day, but safe enough. We dodged around one small shower, and made it in only half an hour. [vs. a two hour long drive!]

Amelia cried a bit during run-up and taxi, but she was pretty content for the flight. She just hung out in her baby seat playing with a dangling toy. Lisa sat in back with the baby and kept her occupied.

This flight marked Amelia's first time talking over the airplane's intercom. Lisa leaned over and Let Amelia talk into her mike. I believe she said, "Gaaah!" Not bad phraseology for a 10 month old.

I did something I rarely do, I flew a straight-in approach to 18 at Romeo. I'm usually religious about flying a standard pattern, but with no traffic in the area, and my cruising altitude just 300 feet above pattern altitude, it made the most sense to just pull back the power and maneuver down the glideslope. Winds were calm, and it was a nice smooth full stall landing.

It was a bit of a homecoming for me in more ways than one. Romeo is where I first solo in an airplane way-back-in-the-day. We landed on the very same runway. [opposite direction]

Grandpa Voja pulled onto the airport just as we taxied to parking.

taking a break

It's been a crazy summer.

Lisa and I have taken a week of vacation from work, to come back to Michigan and visit with family.

The weather was fantastic this morning when we departed Chicago. [MDW] Clear skies, calm winds, and good visibility made for a great day to go fly. As usual, we got clearance directly to the lake shore, flying just South of the skyscrapers of Downtown. We flew along the shoreline, transitioning past Gary, [GYY] and up to just past Michigan City. [MGC]

2 things that stood out about this flight:

• I had planned for a en-route cruising altitude of 5,500 MSL. That never work out as planned. A broken layer of clouds started building up over the route of flight. I was tempted to stay VFR on-top, but chose to stay below the cloud deck. It seemed no matter what altitude I picked, there was always a reason to go someplace else.
• The other was all the other VFR traffic up there today. Lot's of folks on their way to Oshkosh for AirVenture. On a typical day, it's rare to see too many other GA aircraft en-route. Today they were everywhere. A couple times as we flew up the lake shore, I could point other traffic to Lisa flying parallel to our track. The Traffic Information System [TIS] really came in handy.

As we neared Bad Axe [BAX] the satellite down-linked NEXRAD showed some cells of weather to the West and to the North of the airport. So as the autpilot did a fine job of managing some light chop, I kept an eye on it. It was great to know exactly where the weather was the whole time. I can't say enough about the situational awareness of the glass panel in the Diamond Star. This stuff takes the guess work out of making trips like this.

The pay off was a smooth landing, and Amelia coming out to meet us at the airplane. Cool.