EBACE 2010

I got to spend some time earlier this month in Geneva, at EBACE- European Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition. While I have been to the NBAA convention in the US, this was my first exposure to the European scene.

The display halls and static displays were bustling and the event reported to be the best attended EBAC of all time. There seemed to be a lot of interest in the light jets in particular, with several Mustang and Phenom 100s on display and many people's first look at the CJ4 and Phenom 300.

Trip to Napa, CA

Heading into summer it was kind of nice flying in a below ISA atmosphere. With the power reduced, we were still seeing a KTAS of 354 in the Mustang. We then enjoyed one of the most memorable tours and tastings of Napa, CA at the Rubicon Vineyard.

Helicopter First Solo... for the 2nd time

In August 2008, I soloed a helicopter. Immediately thereafter, work got really busy and I had to stop.

I've resumed my training and have set some goals to gobble up a bunch of helicopter ratings. Today I got to solo again. Here are some pictures that my instructor took.

After my instructor got out, I did some hovering, pedal turns, pick ups and set downs, and then some pattern work with normal and steep approaches.

My instructor picked up a rock for me from the river bed as a memento. I have one from my first first solo, too. :) Now I have two pet rocks. :)

Fun week of fun aviation fun stuff

From last Thursday thru this upcoming Saturday, I've had nothing but awesome aviation related stuff on my plate. It all started off on last Thursday morning where I had to figure out a way to safely get to Apple Valley airport to compete in the Los Angeles Gold Cup aerobatic contest. The winds were absolutely terrible. Landing a Pitts in calm winds is difficult enough, 35 knots gusting beyond that makes life pretty challenging. Ontop of the challenge of getting the plane on the ground safely, I had my hands full during practice day (Thursday) as the winds were blowing 90 degrees across the aerobatic box (a 1000m x 1000m x 1000m cube in the sky) which you have to stay in when you are flying a contest.

Thankfully, the winds calmed down the following day when the contest actually began. I had one of my better contest performances placing first in the first of two flights, and second in the last flight, which gave me my first first place overall finish. Which was cool.

Arriving back in the office on Monday, we had a great day working with Casey on the CJ market... followed by a fun acro flight with Casey. I hope he doesn't get an acro plane as I don't think I'd like to compete with him as he's an awesome stick.

I'm currently onboard a Virgin America airbus using onboard Wifi headed to Washington DC for an event with the Experimental Aircraft Association's President's Circle. It's a group of the EAA's top donors that get together and have fun doing cool aviation related activities. We're getting a private tour of the FAA and the pentagon as well will have dinner with two congressmen, the FAA administrator, and the secretary of transportation. Should be a fun experience!

Flight of the Meridian

I had the opportunity to ride along with my friend Brian on a training flight in his new Piper Meridian today.

Brian has a few less than 500 hours and decided that jumping from Cirrus to single pilot jet was bit too big of a leap for him at this point, so he's going to build some turbine time in the Meridian first and then move up to a jet.

We met at Gillespie Field near San Diego. Brian's instructor in the Meridian, Bill, is a very experienced in Meridians and is also an A&P mechanic. He had lots of great experiences to share.

The flight plan took was to take us to the mountainous Big Bear, California, but as we approached the ridge, the winds aloft on the G1000 PFD read about 65 knots at 12,000 feet, so Brian wisely chose to divert from Big Bear to another excellent training airport in Thermal, California, near Palm Springs. As we began the turn away from the mountains, we pretty much got pummeled by moderate to severe turbulence. Had we gone any farther, it would have not been fun.

I found the Meridian to be quite a nice little turboprop. Although I didn't get a chance to fly it, it appeared that the airplane's operation is quite simple and that it's easy to fly.

We have quite a number of jetAVIVA clients who have transitioned from single-engine turboprops like the Meridian to single-pilot jets, and many more asking us about trading-in their single-engine turboprops for single-pilot jets all the time. I plan to get checked out in the Meridian pretty soon so that I can be of better service to these clients.

Pretty View of Catalina

On Friday, a client and I were able to overfly Catalina during a Phenom 100 familiarization flight. The weather was perfect and the island and airport just looked absolutely beautiful. It's been awhile since I last landed at the Catalina Airport. I can't wait to go back. Check out these pictures.