Updates

Those who have read my other blog know that I was in a minor airplane crash on Tuesday. I managed to grab a couple photos from my phone, but have not been able to get them loaded to the computer. As soon as possible though, I'll post those. I expect to fly down to Tennessee in the next few days anyway, so I'll get more photos of the extra-wrinkly airplane in question, but on a standard digital camera. That should speed the posting process. Alas, the only photos showing any of the reasonably large quantities of blood still on the plane, are the ones on the phone. So you may see a cleaned up version of it all.

I'll add more photos soon, which were taken a while ago, but I couldn't access. For now, just one new picture, of the pre-mangled sport aircraft, taken on the day of delivery.

Reasons to avoid in-flight icing

The accretion of ice in these photos was obviously not an in-flight event, but it shows how serious it could be. These shots were taken after a freezing rain at KSHD (Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport). As you can see, the weight of the ice was enough to lift the nose of the plane off the ground.

See the other photos here.

Aircraft That I Will Never Be Able To Buy...

Included, are the Cirrus SR22, Lancair Columbia 400, Beech A34, and the Tiger.

DA20 Diamond Eclipse

Just a few more photos. Two at Harnett County Airport in North Carolina. Rich did the photography while I was taking an impromptu student for a spin. The other, taken from the cockpit during short final approach. I forget now which airport that was.

Random picture of the day

This is a shot I took of Massanutten Resort's ski slopes, around mid-April this year.

Just a few slopes, and obviously no more skiing at that point in the season. There is some reasonably nice hiking to do around the rim of the mountain though.

Massanutten is convenient to pilots flying around here, because it is a very distinct point, forming a bowl around the resort area. The whole mountain perfectly lines up with the runway at Shenandoah also. If that weren't enough, it is almost exactly 10 nautical miles to the threshold of runway 23, making for very easy estimates of distance.

Hearty "thank you" to mr. daley

Anybody involved in aviation knows exactly what i'm talking about here. Anybody from Chicago ought to also. Anyone else can read the basic story here.

Rich and I flew into Meigs Field enroute to Oshkosh, WI, in July, 2002. I feel lucky to have been there before Mayor Daley decided to ignore his promises and bulldoze the place without notifying anybody.

I won't spend this time complaining about why it should have been kept open. Rather, I will just share a couple photos taken as we cruised along the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Meigs