Saturday Fly Day - To Escanaba In Da Daylight

Yesterday the day began with weather that was less than promising, with Low IFR conditions at Pontiac and along and at the intended destination.

I had been invited to fly up to Escanaba for an event. A day in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.



This being a fun idea and getting a calendar clearance from she-who-must-be-obeyed,  I said yes and arrived at Pontiac at 10:30 instead of 9:30 as originally planned due to the weather delay.

I was given an opportunity to fly right-seat in this:

A Piper Seneca.  My first multi-engine flying experience.

Since the Pilot also happened to be a CFII MEI, this would be a good opportunity to learn. We also had a couple passengers on board.

So we completed the checklist, got our IFR clearance and headed off to Escanaba, climbing up to 12,000 feet.



It was very smooth at altitude.

A very nice aircraft, the owner has upgraded the avionics most impressively with all the digital upgrades which made for very easy flight management.

After the event we headed back in VFR condiitons.

I handled the taxi and takeoff, which was a lot of fun, and hand flew it for awhile before George the autopilot took over.

Then we linked up with a fellow aircraft that had gone to the event for some pictures. Both our pilot and the pilot flying the Diamond at the time had prior training in formation flying and this was pre-arranged.

I managed to get some decent pictures and after a bit we broke off (video by Eric Coggin in the DA-40): 

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After that we picked up flight following from Saginaw and returned to Pontiac, landing on 9L.

That was a darn nice couple of flights.

3.9 dual received, 2 landings.

Car Maintenance And Car Browsing

So the car is in the shop again. At 120,000 miles its time for some major maintenance including coolant and brake flush and fill, new spark plugs and wires, and yet another ball joint has decided to become disjointed. Mucho expensivo.

On the upside the car has been reliable and has been paid off for awhile now so this is the price of keeping it in action. It will soon be going to Abby as she will start driving imminently. This will mean a "new" (read used) car for me.

Anyways, due to the expense and time of the repair and ordering parts in, the shop threw in a "free" rental for me today and it was upgraded (as the rental place was out of sedans) to a 2018 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.

Upside is I really like this beast. It's got ridiculously good visibility and it feels like it has no blind spots at all. Good seating height which is more comfortable than my current car, and surprisingly the suspension is very good and you don't feel the bums bumps in our Michigan roads as much. As an unlimited, it has got 4 doors, plenty of room in back and front, and handles like a dream.

Downside to this one model is it clearly had a repair to the driver's side door and requires extra effort to close and has some weird wind noise/pressure feel while driving as a result. Not a detraction from the model overall though.

As a Jeep itself, it has the weirdest placement for the all the window controls - they're all together in the center of the dashboard, so if a rear-seat passenger wants to open a window, they have to ask the driver to do so. Kinda strange placement. The A/C isn't quite as powerful as it could be but that's about all the negatives I've got so far.

However, both the kids and Tash were unanimous in pronouncing it ugly as sin. Apparently the white body with a rear black cap and overall styling is unappealing to them. Just no appreciation for the functional lines of the original SUV, what can I say?

So yep, kinda tempted to make my next purchase a 4-door Wrangler, but the spousal/child veto will be strong, and checking out the price of 3-year old+ Wrangler Unlimited models they don't seems to depreciate too much. Maybe one of the newer Cherokees will meet with their approval. The next car will need 4 wheel drive to handle the Driveway of Doom™.

Still, there's no immediate rush and plenty of time for contemplation and smart shopping before any choices need to be made.

The Discovery Of The Oldest Brewery in The World

An archeological discovery of a most important and historic sort was recently found in Israel.

The Times of Israel: 13,000-year-old brewery discovered in Israel, the oldest in the world

Finding the oldest known brewery in Israel should not come as a surprise.

After all, the Bible itself says: He brews.

L'Shanah Tovah!

Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the first day of the year 5779.

May all my readers be inscribed in the book of life and have a good and sweet year ahead.

At The Renaissance Faire

Many a store would accept not only coins of the realm, but cards of note as well:

As such delicious turkey legs were eaten.

The children sipped upon cider while the adults enjoyed some mead.

Then off to see more sights.

There were birds of prey:

Verily, there were armored beasts:

And a viking settlement and smith demonstration:

The helm, along with the chainmail was made by the smiths.

Jugglers with wands of fire

There were feats of skill on the tourney fields:

Rings Speared from posts:

Rings caught after being thrown in the air:

And There Was Jousting:

The winner and tourney champion was Sir Edward:

Then it began to rain and having seen all there was to see, we headed for the car and home.

It 'twas a grand time indeed.

Flying - A Nice Little Practice Flight

So yesterday afternoon, after a very long week it was time to leave the surly bonds of earth.

Peter had just joined the same flying club and since he had never flown a Piper before I had arranged to take him up again before his checkout with the club's CFI.

We did a comprehensive preflight as usual and I had home do it and showed him the differences between the Archer and the Cessna. Pretty easy stuf with minor differences only.

I flew the left seat as I was not comfortable in the right, am not an instructor and no point pushing thing.

The wind was light out of the north eastand we did the run up and I showed him each step and we took off from Runway 9L and headed northeast.

Once at a reasonable altitude I let him fly it around and he had no problems, but remarked flying from the right seat felt weird.

I then went through the procedures and demonstrated slow flight, power off, and power on stalls and steep turns. As usual, my steep turns sucked -- I need to practice those more and haven't been doing these maneuvers much lately. We then did turns around a point. I also showed how the Garmin 430 has a message reminder to change fuel tanks and showed how that works.

Then we headed back to Pontiac.

We initially received instructions to enter the downwind for 9L and I was setting up for that and ready to show him each phase of the pattern for landing in an Archer.

Then another controller came on and said "28S, I've got no one in the pattern right now and winds are straight out of the north, would you like to land on 27R?"

Why not? I said sure, and she said that would be more efficient as I was closer to the approach for 27R and no point having to fly along the runway to go to 9L at that moment. Very kind of her, and she's always a cheerful and helpful controller.

So a slight angle and then a straight in approach for 27R it was.

Not by best landing in the world, but still reasonably smooth.

We then headed back to the hangar and we then got some fuel to get the tanks filled back to tabs and then I showed him how we put the plane away and we used the winch, which is happy making and best hauling the plane uphill into the hangar. We then washed all the bugs off the leading edges and were done. I figure his checkout will go a fair bit smoother now that he's more familiar with the plane.

A nice relaxing .9 and 1 landing.

TOM2018: The B17s

The Yankee Air Museum's Yankee Lady took to the skies as soon as the weather was decent to give rides, and then took a beak from giving rides and made some passes just for the airshow.

In addition to the Yankee Lady, The Commemorative Air Force had brought their own B17 to the show - Texas Raiders.

Both B-17s Did a simulated bombing run on the World War 2 reenactment that was taking place.

Some nice close shots as they both came in for landings. Yankee Lady then kept flying the rest of the day giving rides:

The Michigan State Fair

The Michigan State Fair is this weekend.

We headed there Friday afternoon, taking one of Leah's friends along with us.

There were prize-winning crops on display:

There were many cute animals.

Lots of judging and showing of the animals was going on. You could tell the exhibitors all cared for their animals and had a lot of pride in them.

Leah, her friend, and Abby all participated in a hat decorating contest. Leah won first prze in her age division with eah's fiend taking third and Abby winning third in her division.

After hat decorating there was much more to see and do.

There was a statue of a cow made out of butter. A lot of butter.

We sampled various samples of food and bought some meat sticks. I got venison and elk and they were quite good indeed.

The Shriner Circus, going on at the fair for over a hundred years now, really stepped up its game this year.

From an aerobatic horse rider who leapt off a horse, through a ring of fire, to land back on the horse:

To an amazing juggler:

To elephants:

A death-defying act over a rotating contraption high in the air, including skipping rope while walking it, sans safety net.

Of course, the kids were there for the rides and the unlimited chocolate milk:

Magic Carpet

The hang glider ride, which is a family favorite:

The swing:

The orbiter - rotating around in multiple directions at once.

Getting off of the Orbiter, they were actually staggering around, it messed with their inner ear very nicely.

However, there was one ride they abjectly refused to go on, and I can't say I blame them.

It was a grand time indeed and the kids had a fantastic time.

Pretty amazing how Leah is an absolute no-quit, nothing scares her ride-goer now.   Of course she didn't want to back out in front of her friend who is also an adrenaline junkie so they kind of pushed each other beyond their normal ride comfort zones. It was all good. We then went out to dinner and came back home. After all that they were completely exhausted.

The Fair is well worth checking out this Labor Day weekend.