taking off from kemt (el monte) runway 1

Flying Again!

After a grueling 5 month wait...I'm flying again! My flying buddy Ron sold his Cherokee 140 just after I completed my IFR cross country flight (that was back on July 29, 2009) and bought a Comanche 250. The Comanche needed a lot of work to get it back in flying shape as it had been sitting for 12 years.

The airplane has been repainted, had a new leather interior installed, the panel retooled, new fuel cells installed, and much more. I will be presenting N7720P as soon as I shoot some beauty shots of her.

My first flight was just the other day and it was with my CFII Steven Wilson to begin the familiarization process and get signed off to fly a Complex and High Performance airplane. That should take somewhere between 5 and 10 hours...but Ron's insurance company wants me to get 10 hours of instruction logged before they will let me fly the airplane anyway so we're going to have some fun and do some learning at the same time.

After the Complex and High Performance instruction is complete I will get back into the IFR training and finish that up as soon as possible.

Jim Fackler Dynamics, More photos

More photos

Replacing Fuel and Brake Lines on the Cherokee 140

It has been awhile since I last posted on the Flying37 blog. Some time off after my dad's death was apparently needed. I have been flying a lot and hiking a lot and I'm going to get back into the swing of blogging starting today. First, my flying buddy Ron decided to replace the rubber fuel lines on the Cherokee 140 just because. He also figured that while the tanks were out it would be a good time to replace the brake lines. Nothing indicated that either of these lines needed to be replaced but since they were original factory items from 1968 it certainly wouldn't be a bad idea. There's a lot of screws to be undone to get the tanks out but with a powered screwdriver it's not such a bad job.

After getting the tanks off it became evident that the fuel sensors had been leaking at the seal for quite some time. Not a big leak, but who wants Av Gas in their wing? The fuel lines were pretty shabby. The rubber was rotten (the steel inside was fine) and they looked worse for the wear. The brake lines looked fine, but it felt right to replace them. The local A&P made up new fuel and brake lines and the fuel sensors were sent away to be rebuilt.

With everything else checking out okay, the airplane was put back together when the sensors returned just a few days later. That first test flight after maintenance is always a bit of a nervous time, but N6794J performed flawlessly.

Beer Run!

My flying buddy Ron and I flew from El Monte to Redlands, California yesterday to visit the Hangar 24 Brewery. They make their own beer there and we like it. I had my Growler (holds about a six-pack) refilled and Ron bought a Growler. After we got back home it sure tasted good!

It was a cloudy day, we stayed low all the way there and had a great flight.

Ron's "Not So Good" landing at Catalina

Catalina Island is not the easiest place to land an airplane. Especially when you are not lined up with the centerline, and overcorrect, and are too high, and are too fast, and land anyway....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28343733@N03/2947451973/

My Flying Life....So Far

My Flying Life...So Far

I began my flight training in April '06 at Universal Air Academy at
the El Monte, California airport (KEMT). I trained in a Piper Archer
II low-wing airplane.

I passed my Private Pilot Certificate checkride in November '06. Just
before getting PPL my flight instructor Camron introduced me to Ron.
Camron had been training Ron in Ron's Piper Cherokee 140. Camron told
me it was a good, solid airplane. Ron and I started studying together
(pretty much 4-5 nights a week for a month).

After getting our licenses, Ron and I started flying together in a
quest for learning. Ron does not like to fly alone and had been paying
instructors to go along with him on joy rides. I have a very flexible
schedule and was looking to fly anytime, anywhere. The fact that I
have a relatively small amount of discretionary income and Ron was
enjoying an upsurge in his business was a perfect combination. Ron
won't even let my buy him lunch. I worried for awhile that maybe I was
taking advantage of him but he made it clear that he is getting more
out of it than I am.

I do all the flight planning, weather checking, flight plan filing,
cockpit cleanup, hangar door opening and closing, airplane pulling in
and out of the hangar, and more. I love doing all that stuff anyway.

Ron and I GO places. We've flown the Cherokee more than 200 hours in
less than two years (ah! My bi-annual is coming up!). We've been to
more than 45 airports. We've gone to Mesa and Yuma, Arizona. We've
gone to Jean, Nevada several times. North Las Vegas too. We've gone to
Modesto, Placerville, Napa, Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs,
Gillespie Field, Ramona, and on and on and on. Next up on the list is
Salt Lake City and then, hopefully in October, we are planning to go
to Lake Of The Ozarks, Missouri to visit Ron's daughter.

Usually, Ron flies to wherever we're going while I navigate and do the
radios. Then, I fly back while he takes over the Nav/Comm duties.
We've learned each other's tendencies, habits and weaknesses. We push
each other to be better. It has worked out very well.

Ron and I have talked about me buying his airplane (and then he would
buy a bigger one...something he talks about almost daily). He won't
allow a partnership though. It's all or nothing. So I was planning to
start saving up, borrow some money from my mom, maybe also from my
best friend who's a Southwest Airlines pilot...whatever I could do to
make it happen.

But there is another airplane that will be for sale soon that might be
the perfect entry into airplane ownership for me. My CFI Camron has
been training a guy in the guy's own 140. He wants to sell it as soon
as he passes his IFR checkride. The owner told Camron he wants $26,000
for it. Camron and I could bring one other person into the deal and it
would be very affordable. We'll see.

Ron has no interest in trying to get his instrument rating. He's
annoyed by some of the things you have to do (fly to Paradise VOR
first, then on a Victor airway). He likes to cut corners, go direct,
get there faster. I've tried to set up flights that simulated an IFR
path but he doesn't want to climb that high (10,500 feet to cross the
mountains?! We only need 6500! No Way!) So I gave up on that idea. I
think the only thing that would be attractive to him about an IFR
rating would be the ability to get out of El Monte on the endless
foggy early mornings.

I, on the other hand, am attracted to the challenge of being a better
pilot. I started studying IFR on my own almost a year ago. I've bought
and read lots of books. I got to a point where I was not getting any
better though. I kept getting 82s and 83s on the practice written
test. That would pass, but I want to be in the 90s and, more
importantly, really understand the concepts. In order to jumpstart my
learning and get a better understanding of IFR flying I enrolled in an
IFR ground school class at Mt. Palomar college in San Marcos.

No Flying....4 days in a row

This week was going to be the one where I got to fly every single day. That is, until the weather had its say. Every morning, starting with Monday, I was planning to go somewhere early with my flying buddy Ron. And every morning the fog kept us on the ground.

Finally today it looked like we would be able to get out of El Monte and go somewhere. But the fog lingered until around 11. So Ron spent the morning redoing the gold stripes on the blue and white Piper Cherokee 140. It looked great when done and when I arrived at around 11 Ron had just noticed that the front strut was sagging again. Again! We've had it fixed, resealed, jimmied and more at least three times in the past three years. In between we were constantly having it filled with nitrogen.

Enough is enough. Ron took the airplane down to Dick at FAST Aviation at the KEMT airport and Dick is going to completely rebuild the strut. It might be ready Friday around 11...about the same time the fog is supposed to be burned off....let's hope!

El Monte Takeoff

Taking off from an airport is a unique experience. Here, the little airplane that could (Piper Cherokee 140) takes off from El Monte Airport (KEMT) early in the morning and turns left crosswind.