Learning New Tricks In Hilton Head
After 300+ hours flying behind the R9 screens, I thought I knew everything there was to know about R9. But at the risk of sounding like an “old dog”, yesterday at the R9 User Group Meeting in Hilton Head, I learned a couple of cool new tricks! The weather was excellent and Hilton Head is […]
Bahamas Practice Flight
My international radio license arrived yesterday in the mail. Earlier in the week, I saw online that it had been approved. But didn’t get the official paper in the mail till yesterday. That meant that today was the day for the long overdue Bahamas flight!! It was really perfect timing because the plane is going […]
Back To Normal IFR (Sort Of)
The past 2 weeks have been quite an unusual flight pattern for me. No X-Countries, No IFR or VFR flight plans, not even enough altitude to require oxygen! No the plane was NOT grounded… In fact, I had numerous flights. But they were all short “flight-seeing” journeys that gave me the chance to share the […]
Photo Opps And Dodging Airspace
Today was one of those traditional $100 hamburger days. An IBM colleague of mine (Richard) was visiting from Spain. He has heard me rave about flying for years and I thought today was the perfect day to show him firsthand. The plan was either to fly to Key West or Palm Beach, both of which […]
Annual Done! Cleared for Takeoff!!
As promised, the guys at Leading Edge came through and finished the annual today right on schedule! Reminds me of the old A-Team quote “I love it when a plan comes together” 
So now it is time to turn my attention to planning the next journey. Tomorrow, I am planning to go to the […]
Annual Drama
After last week’s “heavy flying” week, this was a no flying week (except for JetBlue). I needed to be in New York for some IBM business. As usual, I felt the urge to multi-task and decided that this was the perfect week to get the annual inspection done on the Cirrus. The annual is not […]
Early Morning Commute
Normally, I work from home… But today was different. A number of my IBM colleagues were in Miami today. Since they were “in the neighborhood”, I felt compelled to go work from Miami for the day. In typical IBM fashion, I have grown accustomed to collaborating with colleagues from around the world, who I rarely […]
Heading Home VFR
Today the weather in Houston was not bad… But the weather forecast along my route home and in FL was downright ugly. Fortunately, PIREPS showed a lot of the weather did not have very high tops along my route. So my plan was to depart VFR, climb up to 17.5k and if needed get an […]
Trip To TX
The trip to Houston this past Sunday happened “almost” as planned. On the one hand, it reaffirmed my flight planning/route selection process. But on the other hand, it reinforced the need for flexible plans enroute. when I was getting ready to depart, I thought the weather was “perfect”. Shortly after takeoff the visibility (and views) […]
Night Currency
The FAA has a bunch of currency requirements for all US pilots. The basics are as follows: For VFR Private Pilots: 3 takeoffs/landings every 90 days For Instrument rating: 6 instrument approaches (+ intercepting/tracking/holding) every 6 months There are more detailed nuances… But, I won’t bore you with the details. Since I am a very active pilot, […]