Vectors To Final

I found this link containing high quality videos of aircraft (written in french; you can translate with this ) from a posting on the House of Rapp . Those videos are even worth downloading and installing the Real player , in my opinion (especially since Real has removed some of the naggy parts of their software).

Today my wife and I made a 1.8 hour cross-country flight that we have been thinking about for over a year: we went the 50 NM to Tangier Island in the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay. This island is an isolated place, home to about 600 souls, and is only accessible via a few (2?) boat ferries and the small airport. The people on the island live a life focused on crabbing and commercial fishing, both of which are demanding professions. It was first settled in the early 1600's by John Smith. Shortly thereafter, supposedly, John Crockett and his 8 sons came to the island to setup permanent residence. I have read that almost 1/3 of the modern day residents have that last name, but I didn't check. :) The 3 most popular modes of transportation on the island are, in order: golf cart, moped, and bicycle. But Krista and I didn't use any of those; we had other means at our disposal today. Preflight I had been watching the weather since yesterday, as any pilot with an airpla...

My Dad forwarded me this picture recently; I am glad to say I was not the photographer:

Spent the morning at the air show today. I wanted to see Jim Varden's routine so we got there early (he made a great performance). As we walked into the gate Sean Tucker was doing a practice routine which was very impressive. We only spent a few hours there (since we needed to go car shopping) so we used most of that time to visit the static displays. We didn't stick around for the Thunderbirds or the F-22 flight, so I know we missed some good stuff. As we were leaving we were getting "buzzed" by a B-2 - it looked unreal.

I stumbled on this set of testimonials for Softie Parachutes today. They are probably worth a read in your spare time - amazing stories.

The family was in town this weekend so my Dad and I went up for 1.0 hours. We flew out of Newport News and decided to just head out to the southwest for a bit to do a few maneuvers. We needed to meet back up with the rest of the family after a bit so we kept it short. We did some slow flight, a power-off and power-on stall, some steep turns and then flew over my house for some sightseeing. From there we headed back to PHF. We were cleared for a left-hand downwind to runway 2. Abeam the numbers I pulled power to idle to practice a simulated engine-out landing. My dad videoed that as well: This was my first flight in more than a month. I was happy to find that I got in "the groove" of aviating fairly quickly. We ended the day by getting some more film of a few jets taxiing in and a nice chopper that was parked on the ramp: