Another trip down to the airport

Well, I went down to the airport on a whim today. I was feeling like I needed to DO something. So I did. Michelle and I drove down with 4 of the 5 kids and I went to do some PR with people. The first contact I made was with an old acquaintance. Not only did this person remember my name, but he was very encouraging as to my unique situation. I had forgotten how much I enjoy being at the airport. This person and I talked for a while and then I left feeling much better about things.

As we drove away, I noticed the white truck belonging to another pilot friend of mine was parked in front of his company hangar. We drove over and I boldly walked into the open hangar door. This friend was more of a distant acquaintance, but after a few minutes he remembered who I was and we got to talking. In the hangar were two planes. One was of course the Cessna Citation CJ3 that I had seen before. The other was a Cessna 425 Conquest.

The conquest is a formidable aircraft. It weighs less than 12,500 pounds so you don't need a type rating to fly it. It is equipped with two Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines throwing out 450 shp each. This friend was telling me the joys of flying the Conquest and how it handles in the air and during landings. I'm a big fan of the trailing link main gear, and the Conquest is apparently no disappointment there.

The cockpit is comfortable and wide. Standard instrumentation (old school steam gauges) but a comfortable addition of three GPS devices (two Garmin and one Avidyne). And the seats were deep and plush. I've flown an airplane with leather seats, several times in fact, but these seats were absolutely COMFORTABLE.

I have not ruled out any opportunity of flying as a career whether it's with the airlines or with a private company. Today's excursion was sufficient to whet my appetite for getting into the cockpit of a turbine powered aircraft.

The two photos included are the Cessna Citation CJ3 and the Cessna 425 Conquest.

So close...yet so far away.

That's right, by the book I'm finished with my commercial multi-engine instrument pilot certificate. There's just one small hang up...the examination. Had I the money at the time and a decent instructor, I could have finished months ago. I have all of the required time. I am comfortable with all of the systems of the DA42 and am excited at the prospect of finishing.

Well, as rosy as that all sounded I haven't been in a cockpit for nearly 6 months. So I'll have to spend some time getting my chops back up. Cockpit time is ten times more valuable than car time. If you went 10 days without driving it's no big deal, you still remember how to drive and can do it well. If you went 10 days without flying it's like going 100 days without driving. You'd still be pretty good at it and things would come back to you, but you'd have to drive a bit to get used to it again. So now imagine going 6 months (approximately 180 days) without flying. That's like going 1,800 days without driving which is the equivalent of 5 years. Imagine how good you'd be driving then!

So, as an update to my adventures on my way to flying professionally, I'm still working hard at paying the bills, but don't have any excess money to pay for flight time (approx. $250/hour). But I know it will all work out in the end. I really prefer having a picture in every post so the one displayed here is a beautiful aircraft known as the Embraer E175.