Light Sport

This week I had the chance to fly my first Light Sport Airplane. The airplane is a Flight Designs CTSW, and it was a great flying plane. It has a 100 h.p. Rotax engine and burns only four gallons an hour. It was a warm day and with two big guys it left the runway in about 5oo ft. With 15 degrees of flaps we climbed at about 650 feet a minute. It is an impressive little airplane.

Here is a picture of a Cessna 172 panel that I flew the day before and the panel of the Flight Designs. One of the drawbacks to the Flight Designs is the price. One equipped like I flew is almost $120,000. For that kind of money you can choose from a lot of good used “traditional” airplanes with a lot more capability.

See How It Flies

Someone sent me this website, http://www.av8n.com/how/. Dr. John Denker has written a great book on flying and has put it out for everyone to read.

I have spent time with several of the chapters and have found them to be very well written. One of the greatest parts of the web book is the index, http://www.av8n.com/how/htm/xref.html. If you want to look up anything, there it is.

Take sometime and check it out.

The Finer Points

I came across this the other day, the Finer Points Aviation Podcast, http://thefinerpoints.net/podcast/.

It is hosted by Jason Miller, a CFI from California. The topics are very interesting and the ones that I have listened to are less than 10 minutes each. Listen to the intro music, it is an original tune from Jason. I have listened to several of them and have enjoyed each.

Have fun out there!

The Cool Classroom

Here is a picture of the two simulators that we have in our classroom. The Kishwaukee Education Consortium has done an amazing job at getting the aviation program up and running, I am glad that I can be a small part of it. These simulators are at our classroom at DeKalb Airport. A Cessna Fuselage has been purchased for the sim on the right.

Both simulators us the Elite software, it is a great simulator package. I have used both the ASA On Top and the Elite packages quite a bit. The Elite is a little better but the ASA On Top is very hard to beat for the money, around $125.

Airplane Flying Handbook

Almost 15 years ago my flight instructor asked me if I had a copy of the Flight Training Handbook, I said no. He handed me a copy and said "Read This, if you are not flying read about flying". I did not spend very much time with it, the book was very dry.

The Flight Training Handbook had not been updated in years, the typeset was not easy to read, and the diagrams were not good. So 19 years after the Flight Training Handbook was last updated it was reborn as the Airplane Flying Handbook FAA-H-8083-3. Now there is new diagrams, larger print, an even a little color. Then only 5 years later the book was updated again and became FAA-H-8083-3A.

Now this little -3A is a much better book. All of the diagrams are now full color and a nice glossary has been added. I wish that I had spent more time with this book in the beginning of my flying career. This is a great book for the beginner and an excellent refresher any pilot.

VTS Aircraft System Software

In August I started teaching an Aircraft Systems class for Kishwaukee Education Consortium. The class is made up of high school seniors, they are a great group of motivated students.

This is the first year for the system class and it is made up of second year aviation students. We are still working on getting more hands on items for the students to help them understand the things that we are teaching. I have started to use the VTS Aircraft Systems Software to help with some of the visuals. The class was discussing how aircraft instruments work and I used the software to show how the principle of Rigidity In Space worked, it is so much easier to show how something that abstract works instead of trying to just explain it and use my poor artistic abilities to show it.

This software has made it much easier to explain how the systems work. VTS has added short video clips, sounds, and great 3D images. I wish that I had something like this when I started learning to fly or was working on my A&P.

On Final - Runway 15 DuPage(DPA)

I had been out acting as a safety pilot for my friend George when I took this picture. It was a nice clear cold Chicago winter day. The airplane is a Cessna 172SP from the Westosha Flying Club in Wisconsin.

Westosha Flying Club is one of the best run flying clubs around. If only I lived closer I would be a member. They have a nice fleet and great prices, check them out at www.directwfc.com.

Track That Flight

I saw an old college roommate this morning who flys a Beech King Air 200. He flew into DuPage Airport(DPA) from Greensboro(GSO). He told me about a website called Flightaware.com.

This is a great web site for tracking flights by N number, Airline code or airport identifier. You can see how many of a particular type of airplane is in the air, or check out what flights are coming or going into a certain airport. It is worth the time to check it out!

The First Post

This is the first post on In The Air!

Soon you will find information on airplanes, airplane things and places to fly. There will also be information on other miscellaneous things that might come to mind.

We will see you soon, In The Air!