captbrando's log

N204SG on the ramp

This was a very enjoyable flight for me for many different reasons. For one, I was able to share it with my cousin! Was awesome having Alex flying right seat. The weather was beautiful, and we had a reprieve from the crazy winds that we’ve seen in North Texas.

I also got to play with my new Drift HD170 camera and Panavise mount! Check out the video on Vimeo here. It’s a little bumpy while we are on the ground simply because the ground is BUMPY! The only runways I have ever landed on that were as smooth as glass were recently repaved ones like Stephenville (KSEP) or the north 1-2K feet of Denton (KDTO). I’m going to take another look at the mount that I am using to see if there is a potentially better option that might have a bit more cushion for the runway activities. Also, there is no intercom audio on this one because I was missing an adapter cable (should have read the WHOLE review), but that will be remedied for the next video!

We took off to the north and headed south east toward Dallas. I’ve learned that when the winds are from the north, air traffic around downtown Dallas gets pretty complicated. We had to do some circles outside of Addison’s airspace to wait for a path to be opened up for  us. Once we were granted in, we had to stay east and south of downtown Dallas (you can see in the video). I was OK with this because for some reason the G1000 was kicking out a strange error that I had seen before, but was not part of the normal operations. Apparently there are other conditions where you want to leave the fuel pump on (as opposed to following the checklist which instructs you to turn off the fuel pump in many scenarios). I found another screen that I can use to diagnose issues around fuel PSI that is not in the main engine readout on the MFD. Also would LOVE to figure out how to get that readout back on the PFD. Low fuel PSI did not negatively affect the FLOW of fuel, but I think it made the engine run leaner than it should have, and one of the cylinders started heating up a bit. Nothing that would have caused an unsafe issue because I had Dallas Love very close if we had an emergency, and flipping on the fuel pump immediately resolved the problem.

You will also see me using the autopilot a bit. If you can get set up on an altitude prior to entering ATC control, the autopilot absolutely helps from a workload management perspective. See me enter a heading change at 3:40 in the video when we were cleared over the top of DFW Airport.

If you are wondering why my right hand seems to eternally have a pen in it, it’s because I will write down instructions from ATC if they give me rapid fire details so I can read it back. When in congested, controlled airspace, it’s pretty critical to be on your toes and focused.

Anyway, great flight! Hope you enjoy the video!

The lyrics to my new favorite bluegrass tune! Info:

Hinky Dinky Dee
One Riot One Ranger
Trad.; PD; arrangement by One Riot One Ranger; addtn’l lyrics by C. Williams

Paul Brown – banjo, vocals
Mark Gaskill – guitar, vocals
Peter Remenyi – resonator guitar, vocals
Chas Williams – mandolin, vocals
Mark Wyatt – bass, vocals
Engineered by Dean Imboden @ Rome Recording Studios, Columbus, OH
Produced by One Riot One Ranger

Listen on iTunes.

CHORUS:
What’s the man’s name Hinky Dinky Dee
Mighty bad man but he can’t catch me
Great big bag and a great big hoe
See him comin’ and away we go

Horse and a flea and two little mice
Sittin’ in a corner, shootin’ dice
Horse foot slipped and he fell on the flea
Flea says “BOO there’s a horse on me!”

[CHORUS]

Mandolin! (spoken during instrumental)

Hawk and the buzzard went to war
Hawk came back with a broken jaw
Hawk and the buzzard see the crow
Ain’t gonna go to war no more

[CHORUS]

Dobro! (spoken during instrumental)

Rabbit jumped up with a great big smile
Hound dog running a solid mile
Rabbit’s foot slipped and he said “Oh me!
I believe right now that the joke’s on me!”

[CHORUS]

Guitar! (spoken during instrumental)

Was an old man and he had a wooden leg
Had no bananas nor bananas could he beg
Saved all his money till he couldn’t save no more
Now he’s got bananas and a big banana store

[CHORUS]

Banjo! (spoken during instrumental)

Man took drink of milk one day
“Good ol’ cow!” is what he had to say
Man took cow and a dish and a spoon
And away they ran jumped over the moon

[CHORUSx2]

See him comin’ and away we go.

Preflight!

One week before this flight, Chris asks me how long it takes us to fly to the airport by her sister’s house (about 20 minutes) after she sat through some Friday afternoon traffic to get home. I said, I’d be happy to fly us as a family down there, but just remember that the amount of time will be pretty close to the same because we have to drive to and from the airport and pre-flight the plane. She said, let’s do it.

So we did!

This was the first time that we flew as a family where everyone was outside the womb. Payton flew once before when Chris was pregnant, but n0t since she would need her own headset.

We got to the airport, moved all of our gear into the DA-40, and got started! Unfortunately, Chris had to hold Garrett’s car seat on the way down because the seat was too large to allow me to fully control the yoke to fly the plane (which could be a very serious problem). Garrett sat right seat and enjoyed!

This is how she rolls!

It was a busy day, and ATC vectored us around several areas of congested airspace and around other airports. We did not have clearance in to the class Bravo airspace on the way down, but did get cleared on the way back (FWS AFW DTO). I took FULL advantage of the autopilot so I could monitor the radios and watch for traffic (in addition to relying on the collision avoidance feature of the G1000).

We landed without incident, were marshaled in, and met the cousins outside the FBO. This was the first time that they saw a small plane, and both kids were crawling all over it while we unloaded our gear.

We loaded all the kids up in the van, waved Buh-Bye, and then headed our way back to the plane to get going! Upon takeoff, we saw the kids in the van and flew right over the top of them before heading back to KDTO. We went direct Alliance first, then direct Denton to avoid traffic. We landed on a very warm ramp, expedited our taxi off the active, and parked right back where we started just an hour prior.

Fun little flight, and my new audio cable works FANTASTIC!  See the video below!