Our ramp has been rather full lately. I was doing Opchecks this evening and with the nice sunlight I took some pictures. Also, there are some trip pics up from a XC to P33.

I had my first in flight icing experience today. I’ve picked up trace ice before, but this was the full blown real deal. We were flying a long xc from Phoenix to Long Beach, CA and just west of BXK we heard a pilot just west of Blyth state he was picking up ice and was unable to hold altitude. So we did the prudent thing and changed routing.

There was one really big cell covering our route and we through we were to the north of it. However, coming through the clouds at 12,000 feet we started picking up some trace ice. About this time I was starting to come up with options. Well, I never really got the chance. We headed into a clouds and within seconds the windshield glazed over. I looked out on the wing and there was about 1 half inch of rime ice covering the entire leading edge. Also, in edge of the air intake for the engine was also covered. I asked for and got a climb to 13,000 hoping to get to the top but that didn’t work. We were unable to get above 12500. Thankfully as we drifted back down to 12000 we broke out between layers. Fun stuff.

This is the right wing root about 15 minutes afterwards.

This is the cowling of the right engine.

It’s turning into Seattle here in (not so) sunny Phoenix. We’ve had rain off and on for the past few weeks and stuff is sure looking green, but it isn’t helping with the flight training any. So far it hasn’t put me too far behind, but that is a distinct possibility has the week progresses.

I did manage to get up to Havasu yesterday. It was a nice VFR flight over just below a solid ceiling at 11000. Coming back night “VFR” was an interesting thing. The decks had dropped to about 7500 and there was pretty heavy rain. Fortunately we were ok at 7, but the freezing level also came down so the whole way back we were at about 33 degrees in heavy rain. Icing, needless to say, was a
possibility. But, other then that the trip was a nice change from the sim and ground I have been doing.

The other down side of all this rain is ultimate has been canceled for the past couple of games. Blah. Now I don’t have anyway to NOT get fat and lazy. I guess I *could* start running or something…. naw I guess not.

Flew this morning to Yuma, AZ. (check out pictures!) It was a nice little break from all this sim time that I have been doing with my two students. I was supposed to fly a flight with one of the add on ATPs but due to a slight plane shortage I was off the hook for that. So, by 2pm I was headed home. Sweeet!

Also played Ultimate today. With all the rain we’ve had over the past few weeks the fields were pretty soft, which is something of a rarity around here. Not an over all great day for me (play wise). But, the ankle is still getting better all the time so that is nice.

Tomorrow looks a little bit busier then today. Sim, Sim, Cessna (to Flagstaff, I should bring my skies) and then a series of night takeoffs and landings. Good stuff.

Yet another slow day at ATP PHX. I’m sort of starting to like this. My student did his recheck this morning. Actually it was a continuation of a discontinued checkride due to MX. He passed no problems which was good and I got to take a look at the a/c that had the MX problem. Wow. The exhaust stack of the number one cylinder of the right engine was broken in half. All that hot air was flooding into the cowling and doing god knows what.

Anyhow, after his checkride I did about three hours of ground and then had planned on putting them in the sim, but it was in use. Oh well, nothing to do but call it an early day.

Both my students are taking there Private Multi rides today. One passed this morning and the other just left for the flight. So far so good. It always amazes me that it is possible to become competent in a brand new type of airplane in only one week. Good for them.

First ultimate game is tonight. Sounds like we have a pretty experienced team. That will be something of a first for me as for some reason I always seem to end up on the rookie team. Not that we don’t do well… just the experience level (not skill level) is pretty low.

A rather short day out here today. Flew two flights and that was it. It was sort of strange to have “time off” although I did get a chance to go play Ultimate in the afternoon. The sad thing (or annoying thing) is that it took me about an hour to get there. Route 60 was shut down in both directions about half way there for some construction so I get slowed down. Then when I finally got there it was about 3:25 (for a 3:30 start) and nobody was there.

So I drove over to Diablo (the other set of fields) to see if they were playing there. That took a whole bunch of time and did help any. I stopped back at the MMC fields on the way back east, and sure enough there was a game going on. Grr. All that driving! Tomorrow is going to be sort of like today. Two flights and then home to watch the Super Bowl…. except for the fact that somebody signed up to take a written tomorrow. Honestly, who take a written test on Super Bowl Sunday. Hopefully they will be done before 4.

Words to the wise from my desktop calender. Even though George Carlin may be having some “issues” he is still funny as hell.

One good reason for maintaining only a small circle of friends is that three out of four murders are committed by people who know the victim.

Thanks George.

A not so long day at work for a change. Good stuff. The down side being that it was pretty windy all day and I couldn’t get some time in the C172. Oh well. I guess there is always tomorrow. Also, I am checking that this script works from multiple locations. I guess it does. Fancy that!

Back Online!|I finally found a script that seems to work well with my version of PHP. (For reasons I don’t understand the PHP running on the server doesn’t handle file locking very well). So, the page is back with a slightly new design and a much simpler (ie easier) back end. There are a whole bunch of new pictures up. Also, I am working on the “about me” section. I’m allowed a LITTLE vanity right? There take a look and let me know what you think.