Virginia Tech Hokies, 2007 ACC Champions! Annnnd I go flying anyway....

Listening to - Minus The Bear - I'm Totally not down with Rob's Alien...

Way to go Hokies! After falling to BC earlier in the season you come out on top and do it in style. Way to go guys.

I miss college. Yes, I still go to college, but I don't count Stony Brook as college.

So in other news, I decided to lay off the cough medicine Friday and this morning before I went flying. I felt fine and was hungry for some flying. Unfortunately mother nature opted for the winds to be a little on the strong side.

KISP 011356Z 31018G25KT 10SM FEW040 00/M13 A3034 RMK AO2 SLP275 T00001133 $

Nothing we can't handle though. My instructor and I decided that instead of bumping around for a few hours in cruise flight, we'd just stick it to the pattern at ISP.

We ran the full flight test possibilities. We did yer short field landing, yer soft field landing, yer short field soft field combo landing, your short field over a 100' obstacle (cause 50' is for wusses... just kidding) landing, yer power on and power off spot landings, yer emergency on base landings (basically a power off spot landing), yer no flap landing, yer soft field takeoff, yer short field take off over 100' obstacle, and I think that covers them all.... I could be wrong haha.

All of these are somewhat difficult unless you practice them religiously in light winds. Add the gust factor and it was a bitch, but the kind of bitch you get a kick out of in that sick and twisted mind of yours. Nothing gets me happier than nailing a short field 100' obstacle landing and stopping within close to 800' used. I LOVE the 150's 40 degrees of flaps!

Oh that reminds me we did a go around with full flaps which = a great challenge. For those unfamiliar with the 150, your pretty much time out how much flaps your putting in. There's no steps for it to click in like your 172 and the indicator is in an awkward position. After establishing full power and positive rate of climb, I retracted out the first 10 degrees of flaps. 400' I go to 20 degrees, 500' 10 degrees, and 600' flaps up. That keeps the transition smooth and prevents a huge loss of lift (especially in those gusts).

Overall it was 1.6 bumpy hours, but a good learning experience. On any other Saturday the pattern would've been full. 19E joined us for two landings then called it a day, and for the rest of the flight there was nobody in the pattern.

Oh yeah and the last landing we did was on runway 28 (we were doing our T+G's on 33R/L) to do another maximum crosswind component landing. This one was probably slight less than the 15kt demonstrated, more like 9-10kt crosswind. Of course the gusts made it difficult.

Inching closer and closer to those 250hrs.

In case I forgot to mention before, the plan is to bang out the long VFR XC to AUG and somewhere in NH/MA after Christmas, before I go to Italy!

Oh yeah I met my instructor for the Italy trip. Mario Mignone. He's a funny old guy with a thick Italian accent. Found out that we'll be staying in Messina in Sicily, and visiting Taormina, Castelmola, Tindari, Milazzo, Ganzirri, and Cantina. The itinerary is in Italian... and like I said before... I don't speed a lick of Italian so I'm using my Spanish knowledge to decode the itinerary.

Oh and NY is about to get you know what-ed by this winter storm. Now is the time I do not envy the pilots trying to deal with icing and de-icing and all that fun that comes with winter flying. Have fun Teller!!! I'm glad when it snows I don't have to go... But of course I get to go to work and remove snow anyway... Time and a half anyone?