IFR training and Harriers

First I wanted to note that in the podcast I said this flight was done in September that is not true it was November 2009. 



I flew a plane from Chandler (CHD) to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway (IWA) to pick up my instructor then we flew south to Coolidge (P08) did a DME arc on the way out then shot an approach in to Coolidge and one in at Gateway coming back.

Here are some photo of the cool planes on the ground at Gateway.

The red line is CHD to IWA blue is the IFR training and pink is IWA to CHD.

Click here to see a 3D map of the flight using Google Earth

Commercial Pilot Land & Sea

I did it. Today I passed my checkride and am now one of the newest Land and Sea Commercial Pilot. I'm up at Sheble Aviation in Fort Mohave where I spent the last 3 days going up and down the Colorado River and Lake Havasu learning to land a plane on the water. It takes a spacial rating to do that. I also received my land rating. The flight school up here is really great at being very practical about what you need to know to be a competent pilot and pass the check ride with no fluff which is what I like.

Being a Commercial pilot and an Airline Pilot is a distinction that a lot of people don't make. I'm a commercial pilot meaning I can fly people or goods for hire. That doesn't mean I can start advertising for that though I have to be a charter to do that. What I can do with a commercial license are things like crop dusting, banner/glider towing, areal photography/site seeing flights, things like that.

I didn't fly this Beech 18 but I got to ride in the back on the first day

fueling the Beech

inside the Beech 18

docking

This is day two and the plane I learned in is behind me called the Lake Buccaneer

 

inside

My instructor and I

Lake Havasu

Colorado River we followed it all the way down to Blythe

I flew up here because the drive here is 5 1/2 hrs and the flight is 2. But I should have just drove I was planning to be home on Friday night but because of high winds on Thursday we didn't have time to finish on Friday and had to be push for today. I got done this after noon and was prepping the plane to leave and one of the mags were bad (one of the 2 pieces that supply spark to the spark plugs) and since I was going to be flying into the night I decided not to go. so one more night here then back to Mesa after the mechanic fixes it tomorrow.