May 22nd Young Eagle flights at W29

Chesapeakesportpilot organized a day for boy scouts using the EAA's Youth Aviation Activity program

This allowed the boy scouts to get their Aviation merit badge.

 I flew Young Eagles which is a lot of fun. I flew 4 kids, Collin, Igor, Patrick and Ethan. The kids had a blast, it is so much fun to hear the reactions from the kids. Awesome, amazing, I can't find the right words to describe it. They thank you after wards and have a big smile on their face. And that is the purpose of the Young Eagles program, introduce kids to aviation.
After that I flew one the scouting moms, Terry. She had never flown before! So I made sure that we flew very smoothly. I used a new tool to make a video of this flight, it are sunglasses with a small video camera in the bridge. It shows everything I look at. I will post the video soon on Youtube.

Another great day of flying!

May 16th Flight to Carroll County Airport for EAA 1384 Chapter Meeting

Sorry that I have not posted for so long, no idea why just kinda forgot about this blog I started. For the last couple months I have been trying to fly to DMW to attend the EAA Chapter meeting. I have been a member of EAA Chapter 1384  for a number of years. I used to live in Westminster, now after having moved twice I live in Bel Air. I could drive to Westminster in about an hour but flying there is just more fun. So the drive to the Bay Bridge airport and back is about 2 1/2 hour, the flight from W29 to DMW and back is about 90 minutes. Flying there takes 4 hours hahaha but it is much more fun. Look at this map, the blue line is the direct route, orange and green is what I did :-)

As always I want to share lessons learned and I had one on this flight.

I flew a Tecnam Eaglet with a glass cockpit and I have flown the plane before. When getting ready to take off I set the altimeter setting on the glass panel and after take off I turn north to cross the water on my way to Rock Hall. I climbed to 2500 feet, at Rock Hall I called Martin State Tower to request transition. I requested to cross at 2000 feet. I got approval transition but no lower than 2000 feet. Class B is at 2500 feet there so I descended and after a while I just got this feeling that I was lower than 2000 feet. It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened. Every time I changed the altimeter setting I had changed on the glass panel but not on the analog altimeter. I still use the analog altimeter more as I am more used to it. I updated the analog altimeter setting and I saw I was below 2000 feet. I quickly climbed up to 2000 feet and was fine.
This is one of those moments where you slap yourself on the forehead, 2 altimeters means two altimeters to set, it sounds so simple. I wondered why I did not notice and know one thing. It was quiet bumpy that day so most of my attention was focused on flying the plane. No excuse here just my observation.

Fly safe!

EAA's Tom P was there too

Van's LSA RV12

SKY Manor Fly In

LSA Skyarrow N435SA at Sky Manor (N40) Fly In

Sky Manor EAA Chapter 864 Fly In

I flew from W29 to N40 Sky Manor airport today. As a sport pilot I have not done my sign off for Class B airspace so I planned to go around Philadelphia's Class B on the west side at 3500 feet under the outer self. My route was W29 - 58M - N57 - N10 - CKZ - N40.

Lessons Learned

• After taking off from W29 I noticed that quickly that the headwind was stronger than planned so I called Flight Service and amended my ETE. Had not done that before. Not a major lesson but was happy that I make the call right away as it did take me longer to get there. Next time I have to give myself a little more extra time for ETE as landing and parking at a Fly In takes a longer than a normal airport arrival.
  

• We all know the ground rule of VFR; See and Avoid. And even when using Flight Following you must have your head on a swivel. Today I had probably 5 planes coming at right me or close at the same altitude that ATC did not call out. 2 were gliders, funny enough they told me about traffic 6000 feet higher. So really keep you head on swivel even when using Flight Following.
  

• Do not use an airport with glider operations as a way-point. You will find gliders circling there :-) I did see the glider symbol while planning the flight but did not act on it, some might call it stupid but I learned that lesson today. 

• I use the www.enflight.com online flight planner. The reason I use this flight planner is because you can set your own weather minimums and when planning it will show these weather minimums in color coding on the sectional. When making the return plan I quickly reversed the departure and destination airports codes and the departure time. What I did not do was to adjust the cruising altitude. It has the option to electronically file your flight plan, so filled both with an altitude of 3500. Not a big problem, I adjusted the cruising altitude when I called to activate my flight plan. Also plan higher if you can as the air will probably be more smooth than down low.

• As soon as I was clear of Class B airspace ( I flew under the outer self) I wanted to go to higher altitude to get a smoother ride. I requested a higher altitude but ATC told me that altitude is at my discretion. I was not aware that I could change my altitude, I guess a left over from listen to ATC on United commercial flights :-)

Pieter