Havin' Fun

November 23, 2013

Here's some pictures from recent flights:

1. Halloween night 2013. I co-piloted a charter to Pittsburgh. The auto-pilot was inoperative, we dealt with storms, severe turbulence, had a 100kt tailwind going to Pittsburgh, and I landed the C310 on my own for the first time :-)

Top left: Jets in Pittsburg. Top right: Storm damage and high wind
reports from the night (right along our route). Bottom: The FBO in PIT

2. I took my mother-in-law flying for the first time on November 3rd. We did a city tour and flew by the Arch. It was peak Fall colors, which made for a beautiful flight.

3. I co-piloted a charter to Raleigh, NC. We had crystal clear skies and no turbulence. It was just an uneventful, dark, cold night.

Top: Coming into land at Lambert. Bottom left: St. Louis skyline.
Bottom right: The FBO at Raleigh

4. I was given the opportunity to fly an Embraer 145 jet simulator at Flight Safety on November 21st. The cockpit is an actual ERJ 145 cockpit, and the simulator was built around it. This is how airline pilots train to fly their planes. The simulator is built up on hydraulic legs, and you literately feel everything... even the cracks on the runway! I did stalls, steep turns, had an engine failure on takeoff, flew through the Arch, made four landings, shot an approach where I broke out of the clouds at 300ft, and taxied the plane back to the terminal. This was an amazing experience!

Right side: Top- The $18M simulator, Middle- The simulated scenery

I am now up to 286.7 total flight hours logged!