Well, I’m kinda late posting this one. I didn’t fly today, I flew on December 10 with James! Had a fun time in the Diamond DA-20. After flying that one a few times, I really have come to love how easy and fun it is to fly. I’ve not been in a Cessna 172 in a while, but the next time I go, that’s what I’m going to take up. Figure it would be nice to get back to a normal yoke vs. this fancy stick thing I’ve been doing.
Course, I won’t feel like a fighter pilot either, but oh well.
Anyway, easy quick flight. Did a tour north of Alliance and came back to land. We both had stuff going on that afternoon so an extended tour was not an option. Here’s a video of me on final!
Today was a quickie to get checked out on North Texas Aero’s new DA-20! I went with an instructor to learn all about this fun little aircraft. It’s larger than the SportStar, but smaller and faster than the Cessna 172. It also has a center stick like the SportStar, but was much easier to fly. It has a few quirks in the mechanics of how it flies, but nothing that was not easy to conquer.
We did the standard maneuvers, including slow flight, steep turns, stalls, and engine out procedures. I made my field quite nicely, though traffic made us cheat a little bit. We had to continue past where the instructor wanted to do the engine out, and wouldn’t you know he had me set up on a HUGE green field. It’s not uncommon to find farmland, but it is uncommon to find such a large patch without any obstructions.
Then it came time to practice landings. There was a 10kt, 20° crosswind component gusting to 19kts. Now, those of you that have flown with me know that I do well in high wind situations. Today was no different. SMOOTH AS GLASS BABY! I promise you, if it was calm air I would have botched them for sure.
Odd quirk about my piloting skills.
Anyway, did a few of those, dodged all of the 172s pulling banners over the Texas Motor Speedway, a few helicopters, and headed back home. Pretty solid showing today!
Yep, I’m late with this one. I actually did this flight on July 20 with Cayce! This flight included a run from 52F to KAFW then to KXBP (Bridgeport). Have a GREAT video below. Pay special attention to the 4 minute mark where a big ass bird goes flying probably 50 feet in front of us from left to right.
OK folks, I think I have the issue fixed. Turns out, not only were there issues with the electronics in the sending stations, but the CONSOLE was busted as well! Wait for the weather data to catch up, but you will now see updated weather here!
Update (8/1 @ 8am)… SPOKE TOO SOON! ARGH. This is unbelievable. I must have some kind of magical RF blocking technology in my house that is not letting the signals make it all the way back to my office. It might be time to do some creative cable routing………
Update (8/1 @ 10am)… Maybe have a workaround. Rerouted some cables and have the console higher in the closet… stay tuned.
Update (8/1 @ 5:30pm)… Still having reception issues, even with rebroadcast. Apparently there is some crazy stuff going on in the closet. Tomorrow I will route some cables from one room to the next through the walls and see if I can get a connection from the console that seems to have good reception.
Update (8/2 @ Noon)… Been up routing cable in the attic. I always remember how much I hate fiberglass insulation AFTER I get down. Ugh. Half of the cables are routed, other half requires me making noise near a sleeping baby. I may be dumb, but I’m not THAT dumb. Hope to have a fix in the next 2 hours.
Update (8/3 @ 9am)… Wade is going to help me get cables punched down correctly. Tomorrow maybe.
Update (8/4) @ 7pm)… So you are NOT going to believe this. SOMEHOW, the channels of our baby monitor overlap with the weather station. Both in the 900MHz range, and that’s the damn problem. Thanks to Davis for helping me figure it out! Now I just need to figure out the right combination to reduce the signal->noise ratio. Expect some funny readings over the next few days.
