Thank you Erica Fox and LetsGoFlying.com

Check out our 'Out of the Box' Christmas present featured on Fox 5 San Diego

Congrats Mikel!

I now pronounce you man and tailwheel. Mikel did an astounding job the other day getting his tailwheel endorsement. The only reason this didn't happen sooner is because he just had to get married and go on a honeymoon for about a month. Just kidding, great job Mikel and we are happy to welcome you to the land of real pilots.

Crosswind Found

Congratulations to Clint Morgan for getting his Tailwheel sign off yesterday in the Super D. With some cooperation with Gillespie tower we were able to get some crosswind take offs and landings in on 17 and 35 which meant some of the most interesting pattern work I have ever been a part of. It was fun and fantastic to see Clint really take control of the plane and get that rear wheel on the ground every time no problem. Congratulations and as always Happy Flying.

Santa's Comin

Yes those props are spinning

First Solo

Congratulations to Hoby Hufford for his first solo! 3 nice, firmer
then he'd like, safe landings have brought him to the ranks of PIC for
his sport cruiser.

Lovely, Miramar

Deanne Workin It!

Cryin Shame

This Duke will never fly. It is well taken care of airworthy and has a
really nice interior with two well taken care of TIO 540s but it has
been donated to Miramar College with the stipulation that it will
never fly again.

Morning Glory Clouds Over Australia

What causes these long, strange clouds? No one is sure. A rare type of cloud known as a Morning Glory cloud can stretch 1,000 kilometers long and occur at altitudes up to two kilometers high. Although similar roll clouds have been seen at specific places across the world, the ones over Burketown, Queensland Australia occur predictably every spring. Long, horizontal, circulating tubes of air might form when flowing, moist, cooling air encounters an inversion layer, an atmospheric layer where air temperature atypically increases with height. These tubes and surrounding air could cause dangerous turbulence for airplanes when clear. Morning Glory clouds can reportedly achieve an airspeed of 60 kilometers per hour over a surface with little discernible wind. Pictured above, photographer Mick Petroff photographed some Morning Glory clouds from his airplane near the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.

Sent from my iPhone

View From The Top

This would be the Tower view of KSEE. I would like to thank the tower
crew and most especially Joel for givin us a great tour as well as the
skinny on airport operations. If you have never been in a tower, go
tomorrow you don't need a phone number just call them on ground and
time permitting they'll welcome you up.

Every tower I have been in they have been more then welcoming and
happy to see pilots on the field wanting to see the other side of the
airport.

Oh Wilbur

This is a quote from Wilbur Wright of the Wright Bros words we can live by as we push our bodies and our planes to the edge of the envelope

"In flying I have learned that carelessness and over confidence are usually far more dangerous than deliberatly accepted risks"

We accept risks everytime we start that airplane let's keep working hard to keep the carelessness and over confidence out of it.

Summer School In The 120

You can really learn a thing or two about flying a plane you are unfamiliar with. First thing you can learn to appreciate is how planes have evolved over the past 60 years, engine size, fuel pumps, general operating procedures its all different. Different good? Different bad?

Neither, just different.

In the 40's a POH didn't have every Vspeed it didn't have 100 performance charts it had general operating rules on how to start the airplane. These POHs had a understanding that you
would be mindful of limitations and learn to fly before you fly, more then anything to just have alittle more common sense and a little less technical knowledge. Now don't get me wrong I actually prefer to know every speed and have all those performance charts before I go fly and that is for above all other reasons...safety.

With that being said on Saturday, I had a first hand explanation on as to why Cessna prohibits
extended slips in their high wing aircraft...safety. Jerry shown above with his absolutely awesome 120, asked me to come out and work with him on some landings, being that it is a tailwheel I could not resist, and Jerry is a cool guy so that helps too. Anyway, this day we got off the ground just fine, last time with full tanks and me in the plane that almost didn't happen. This time all was going great until we were asked to make a short approach a fairly common request, we made a quick turn and chopped the power. Whether it was a thermal off the top
of a nearby hill or gliding pretty well in the Cessna we were getting close to the runway and we were still fairly high so we did a side slip to the left tracking our way down to the runway 27R. Left wing low and fuel selector switched to the left we made touchdown midway down
the 5400ft runway. On the touch and go, Jerry added full power and at about 100 off the ground the engine started to sputter. I took control and with the fence at the end of the runway not getting further away we made a safe but exciting landing stopping on the dirt just to the
left of the runway, plane fine, we were fine, oh and the engine was running just fine now too.

Lesson learned and Jerry and I are both better pilots now. On all 172's you will find placards warning about prolonged slips and engine starvation. There is no placard in the 120 nor is it in the POH, it is experience. Something that I guess they (Cessna) just figured you knew about. I now have that experience and I guess prolonged slips means about 20 seconds to Cessna. Now you know too.

First Solo Congrats!

Congratulations to Mark "Death Grip" Albert for getting his first solo done on 8/13/09 aside from going for one more landing then approved for he did a great job, and who can really blame him for getting in some extra flying!

P.S. Mark is not poor dressed man he was greeted at the end of his flight with a bucket of water and an over zealous t-shirt cutter...me.

Clear Prop!

The iPhone addict

Dispicable even with airplanes everywhere I find my self locked into
the Matrix. As always great picture Mark

Good Luck Guys

Took this one over the Nimitz today in the VFR coridor pretty awesome
what's in our backyard everyday

Amazing

Pretty cool

From The New York Times:

Pilots Re-enact First Powered Flight Over Channel

By NICOLA CLARK

The pilots were marking the centennial of the historic crossing of the English Channel by the Frenchman Louis Bleriot in 1909....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/world/europe/27plane.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://nytimes.com/iphoneinstaller

Sent from my iPhone

The above is the tail to a pretty cool Cessna 120 that a previous student is now interested in buying. This represents one of the coolest things about being a CFI the ability to change peoples lives. I gave this student his tailwheel endorsement no small feat in this day in age, we did it in a 47 Aeronca Champ that had heal brakes, needed a hand start, and if you pushed the throttle to quick your engine would fail. In two words... Old School. We putted along and had our not so glorious moments but there was no better feeling for him or I on that last wheel landing with one wheel on the ground into the wind and the tail soaring triumphantly 3 feet above the ground. It was his moment, an awesome one and now that he's looking for more, more moments in time with a tailwheel where you feel that you are not only flying but that you are really a pilot. As nearly any pilot will tell you that has flown one go get some tailwheel training it will make you a better and a more appreciative aviator. As always happy flying and see you up there.

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Students Are The Key

Flight instructing can and should be a good thing. More then anything I feel it is a tremendous privlege, today we are taking up some friends from out of town one of whom is a flight instructor. Everyone in attendance has smiles plastered on their faces and the excitement of an upcoming flight. Their is no competition, no better pilots, no anything but flying. And that is what a flight instructor should be, that is what we should bring to the table everyday with our students. We flight instruct because it is fun and something we feel we have the privledge to do, so if you ever need a CFI with a smile on their face just give us a call.

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Instructing

Time for blogggggggging

Wahoo we can blog now. amazing, we are only 4 years behind. Next on the list, find out what GPS means