First 100 Hours

I reached 100.0 hrs (notice the reading on the screen) on the HOBBS on Sept. 13th, 2014...three days under six months since the first flight! Wow, that is far and away the most flying I have ever done in a six month period and I gotta say I like it. Its been a whole lot of fun and I keep pinching myself, wondering if this new life is real. 

The second half of the year will most likely be something less than 100 hrs. Sandwiched in the first 100 hrs was my 40 hr flyoff period that I cruised through in no time. Although I would fly 500 hrs a year if my budget allowed, I figure 150 hrs/year should be about right for now.

During this particular weekend, Sheryl and I headed south to Pueblo, CO for breakfast at the Spitfire grill and then hopped over to Lamar, CO to say hi to some of my acro friends who were having an IAC contest. From there, we headed home, showered and drove to an Octoberfest hangar party that my acro instructor, Dagmar, was having at Centennial airport. What a great aviation weekend!

I am due for a 100 hr inspection, which I plan to get pretty detailed with since its my first. More details on this when I do it...I find its hard to take the plane down to do inspections these days.

Red Bull Air Races Dallas

We just returned from our trip down to New Braunfels to visit my parents new house and then to the Red Bull Air Races in Dallas. Overall, the plane performed well and I am gaining more and more confidence in it and myself with every flight hour. Amazingly, I am approaching the 100 hr HOBBS threshold as I write this. This was accomplished in roughly 6 months from first flight, although I expect this flying pace to slow the last half of the year. Here are some pics from our journey south, and back.

Leaving Denver in the afternoon (had to work on Thursday) left us dodging thunderstorms on the way out of town. In this pic, you can see rain showers off in the near distance. My newly hooked up XM weather was great on this trip, a lot of information at your fingertips in the cockpit.

As mentioned, Sheryl and I are getting more and more comfortable in Wablosa. It takes a little adapting to get used to a small GA cockpit environment, but its now getting downright comfortable and cross country flights are something I look forward to.

Scattered cloud layer on the way down, we were at a VFR cruising altitude of 9500' most of the way to stay above them, which yielded cool smooth air. When we got near Dallas, we bumped that up to 11,500' for about an hour. I started to feel a little light headed without oxygen, so we dropped back down as we headed further south. Notice my new rearview mirrors I installed...really dig these as they are handy even when not flying formation. Got them at the auto parts store for $6 each...best, cheapest thing on my plane!

Sheryl's first in-flight nap...I guess she is now officially "comfortable" with her pilot. I dig her hat, I should, I bought it for her at OSH this year.

Stopping in Llano, TX for $4.65 avgas, can't hardly beat that (we did later in the trip though)! About a dollar cheaper than what I currently pay in Denver. I met a Sport Air Race League (SARL) racer (Lancair Legacy) named Alan Crawford (if my memory is correct?) at the nice little FBO out in the middle of nowhere. Nice guy, invited me down to Pagosa Springs for the air race later this month. Here in this pic, Sheryl eats a little lunch snack while I fueled up and talked airplanes. I'm constantly amazed at these neat little FBO's in our travels.

Finally arriving in New Braunfels, TX just before the sun sets. It was a nice flight down and my parents were there to meet us. A long day was now complete as I put Wablosa to bed on the ramp.

It was a quick overnight visit in New Braunfels as we had a schedule to meet up with our Colorado contingent in Dallas at 11:30 on Friday. As we got back to the airport, my two nephews wanted to crawl around Uncle's plane a little bit before our departure. The youngest, Ethan, was just plain ol' fascinated with all of the buttons. I love this pic as he does his pre-flight inspection on Wablosa! 

Another shot of Ethan checking things out...these are the times I love sharing my passion for aviation with the kids.

Arriving to the wonderful hospitality of US Aviation at Denton municipal airport (red carpet and cold bottled water upon our arrival), we met up with our CO group and then proceeded to have some BBQ at Rudy's not far away. 

In this pic, Sheryl and her daughter Courtnee get the rundown on how to order. Although not quite as good at Hard Eight, it was tasty nonetheless, Texas knows how to do BBQ. This beer tub stretched for 30 feet out of the picture...everything is BIG in Texas!

Our race side condo...man, was this a sweet gig to watch the race. Our friends Sean and Tracey joined us Sunday afternoon for some beers once the race concluded. 

This isn't my pic, but it shows the condo in the background...we were sitting in air conditioned comfort on the 6th floor on the far left end. You can see how close we were to this high-G half cuban maneuver on the course. It rocked! I seriously doubt I will ever have this good of seats at a RBAR for this price.

Another good perspective...shot by Sean

This was the pool at the Condo...the water was as warm as a bath...we enjoyed this amenity on Saturday afternoon. 

The view from the Condo as we arrived Friday afternoon to watch them practice...all told, we saw three days of racing.

This is a RBAR photo showing the gate that was right in front of our Condo.

Race action of a pilot slicing through a pylon, captured by Sean's camera. There was a record amount of pylon hits on Saturday as the winds played havoc with the racers. The swirling winds coupled with the younger Challenger pilots (the big boys are Masters pilots) added up to a lot of action for the ground crews replacing pylons.

Canadian pilot Scott McLeod doing his thing.

Tasty Texas style vodka...cucumber and serrano pepper infused.

We got golf cart shuttles to take us over to the main concourse on Sunday morning. The service really was great! The Texas motor speedway employees treated us very well.

An excursion to visit famous Billy Bob's at the Stockyards...Sheryl and I brought our boots for just such an occasion. We watched the Broncos-Colts game here as the Broncos pulled out a nail biter.

Sean, Tracey, Courtnee and Sheryl pose for a group photo...

Sean and Tracey checking out the Oculus virtual reality goggles to simulate what its like to fly the track...the graphics weren't that great, but this was still pretty fricken cool. 

This was our race setup: Air conditioned comfort if you wanted it, two flat panel tv's broadcasting the announcers live, and a hand held radio tuned into the race directors frequency. If you wanted to hear the engines and see it without glass in front of you, we also had a balcony to use for a different perspective. It was just about perfect as we drank from ice packed coolers of beer and munched snacks and buffet style food provide by our awesome hosts...Bob and Shawn Kinney. Pinch me, I've gone to heaven!

We must be in the front row!!

Wandering down to the hangars (pits) on the last day...these planes are cool to see up close. This is Nigel Lamb's plane, who finished second.

The Red 'Canadian' Racer as I call him, Pete McLeod. I think he may be my new favorite pilot...red plane, Canadian like my Mother, and the youngest of the Masters class. He took third and flew well. I'll be rooting for the "Red Racer" in Vegas. 

The Aussie Matt Hall's plane...it always looks good on the course.

Heading home among cotton ball clouds...I really dig this life. The pictures never really do justice to how big these clouds are from the cockpit...they looked like massive giants from our vantage point. Autopilot engaged, music playing, smooth cool air. We meandered through these babies heading to the northwest, the Rocky Mountains, and home. We stopped and grabbed some more cheap fuel ($4.60/gal...the aux tanks come in handy for this as I filled all four tanks) at Elk City airport in OK before once again dodging T-storms coming back into Denver. We got the airplane in the hangar none too soon as the weather closed in, just as the TAF (aviation weather forecast) had predicted (go figure...a TAF that was correct).

All in all, a wonderful trip...we really had a blast and are grateful to our hosts for their hospitality and the invite to join them. We will be doing the RBAR again next month in Vegas for a little different flavor...life is most definitely good! All because of an airplane I built.

Smokin' in Colorado!

Finally got around to getting my last hose on the smoke system hooked up. It was the hose from the tank to the feed line. Not too big a deal, but I had to navigate around some side panels on my interior. I've been messing with higher priority items, so this had taken a back burner, until now. 

Anyway, if you aren't aware, I was one of the first 'beta' customers for Smoke System Helper's new behind-the-seat tank. I painted it black and it really is hardly noticeable behind my seat. If you don't want to remove your tank...this is the way to go. More information on this system can be found on the right side of my page under the label "smoke system".

Here is a snipit video of me doing the first test of the system, no leaks. It took a little while for the system to prime...maybe 20 seconds...but then it was off and running. The smoke flow you see is about halfway open, for comparison. Not sure how this will look in the air, but its a good starting point.

In other news, I just did my second oil change at 85 hrs on the HOBBS. The first one was at 32.8, so I went a little over my 50 hrs threshold. But, other than making a little bit of a mess, nothing to it. Did a quick test flight to make sure all was good. 

This was in preparation for flying down to Denton (DTO) this weekend to watch the Red Bull Air Races with some friends from the Colorado Pilots Association. This will be my second RBAR, the first being over San Diego Bay before they went on haitus a few years ago. Before  heading to Denton, we are going to drop into BAZ, south of Dallas, in New Braunfels, TX for a quick visit to my parents new home.

Loving this flying life! KPR...its all worth it.

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