Thursday, August 16, 2007

I fly to work


Don't read that as I fly for work... I just commute to work in an airplane. Not all the time, but so far this summer about 2-3 times a week.
I live 50 miles away by car, and it takes 55 minutes. When I fly, it takes about an hour and 10 minutes. WTF? That's from door to door.
10 minutes to Gene's, 10 minutes to preflight the plane, 35 min to warm it up, taxi, take off and land (depending on the wind), 5 minutes to tie it down and 10 minutes to work.
Do I mind? How can you mind, no traffic, speeding by the little cars down there, the freedom of flight and of course the "Cool Factor"! The cool factor is slightly diminished by having to bum a ride to work and back, but is somehow also raised by who picks me up and drops me off.

Besides the plane started life as a Cessna 152 Commuter, so even though it is now a Texas Taildragger, it's my commuter. As the days get shorter, my commuting ability will change.

So, since tomorrow is a teacher work day, I might take it off too. The question now becomes, "Where should I fly?"

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Texas Taildragger




I'm flying all over the place this summer. I will be getting back to work on the Sonex pretty soon as the 152 will move to another place for a while. Ervin will be using it to finish his training for his private pilot's license.

It's been fun, but expensive at $4.60 + a gallon for avgas. Oh well. I have about 400 hours and over 25% of them are tailwheel hours now. The Sonex will run on car gas and about the same number of gallons per hour although it runs 170 instead of 105 or so.

I feel special even though at work I feel like a big fuckin loser! It seems our district doesn't want old men as school administrators.