Oshkosh/Airventure 2016!

Hello folks! Hope this finds you doing just fantastic. I was lucky enough to be able to make the trip to EAA Airventure in Oshkosh WI! I had a friend and his family who were driving down on the  Tuesday evening and then another friend who was flying back on Sunday. So I figured I might as well hop the ride while I had the chance. We left Tuesday after work and drove through the night and arrived at EAA 7:00 Wednesday night. I met my friend Peter Lubig and set up my tent beside his Piper Pacer. This was the same guy who I went to Sun n Fun back in 2014. The first day was a more laid back day for me as I didn't get a whole lot of sleep during the drive up. The days after that were well spend attending forum's, doing fabric covering workshops, and touring the many booths and displays. Every day starting at 2:00 was the daily airshow that I took in different parts of. I met alot of very cool people. Sunday morning we packed up and took off at around 8:30 for a very scenic flight around the north route around the Great Lakes. We cleared customs at Gore Bay airport and then continued our way to Midland/Huronia airport where the Pacer is kept. Enjoy the pictures!

I spent lots of time in the Warbird section!

Harisson Ford flying his beaver

The biggest plane in the Air Force inventory. C-5 Galaxy

A big hit of the whole week was having the Martin Mars water bomber attend the whole way from BC.

My campsite for the week

Beautiful Grumman Albatross that I got a tour of!

Headed home

More Beaver flying! My friend brought it to Bancroft ON where I live and so far I have put another 8 hrs on it! Soooo much fun!

Thats it folks! Until next time, be safe and have fun!

Float Rating!

Hello again. I finally decided to get my float endorsement! I was able to do the training in a Dehavilland Beaver which was very cool! I learned alot of new things, mostly about water takeoffs and landings as well as docking, sailing etc. In the air everything is about the same as a land plane. I can say it was easier then I thought it would be, mostly because I didn`t know what to expect.  I absolutely loved flying behind the mighty P&W 985 radial engine, one of the most reliable piston engines ever manufactured.  I got a few pictures as well as a bunch of videos of some takeoffs and landings. Had a great time learning everything and was able to log 7.4 hrs of rare Beaver floatplane time. Enjoy the video links first, followed by the pictures.

Visiting friends at their cottage and having a pop with them

Then we went to another friends campsite and had supper with him. The conditions were right for practicing sailing, where we shut the engine down and lower full flaps and open the doors to let the wind push you onto the beach. Steering is accomplished by opening and closing either door as well as moving the controls as needed for the wind to turn. It was pretty cool!

An inevitable task of flying a Beaver is filling it with gas, and LOTS of gas!

Spring & Summer 2016

Hello folks. Hope this finds you all doing well. It is way past due again for a blog update and I am home today due to it being a rain day so now is my best chance. I have been flying quite a bit in the Cirrus this summer until about a month ago when the plane went in for it's annual. Once a month I was going to Atlanta and twice a month I was going to Detroit so that made for some good hour building flights. I also went to Winnipeg MB which was a highlight since I have never been that far west in Canada before. I stopped in Dryden to stay the night with friends there and then continued on to St Andrews airport in Winnipeg to pick 3 people up. A few days later I took them back out there so that was a healthy boost to the logbook. Another thing I recently did was get my float endorsement which I will talk about in a seperate post. Enjoy the pictures below.

City of Toronto as seen while climbing out of Buttonville Airport

 Parked at Pentastar airport beside a mighty Gulstream

 Our rental car that was waiting for us in Atlanta one trip. Makes a good picture!

 Parked at Buttonville beside a Ornge medivac PC-12

 Headed west to Dryden

 Holding Short at Dryden beside an MNR waterbomber

 Re-fueling in Winnipeg