Five Year Anniversary

My computer pops up photos each day showing me what I was doing this day in the past.  Today it reminded me that I purchased my Baron exactly 5 years ago today.  Since then I have flown 854.3 Baron hours which averages out to about 172 hours a year.  I bought her 5 years ago but she immediatly went in for maintenace so I did not get to fly her until about 6 weeks later so I have a few more weeks to technically raise the average.

Moving to the Baron was one of my bigger aviation steps.  When I started, I was flying mostly fixed gear training aircraft and my first step up was to a Mooney.  The Mooney was "complex", adding retractable gear and a constant speed propellor.  200 HP seemed like a lot back then but eventually I stepped up to Bonanzas with 300 HP.  The Baron gave me 600 which is a real kick in the pants on a cold day with half gas.

The Baron sure made it easier to finish off our 48 State Quest.  We completed 27 states with the Baron, many of them were the farther and more challenging ones.  

When I bought the Baron, I wondered if I would fly less.  The reality is I am flying more.  The Baron actually fits many of my missions better.  I do miss the nimble F33A and for just flightseeing around town it is a more practical platform.  That said, the Baron does so many things so well, it seems impossible to go back but I know at some point I will have to.

So here is to five years of  adventures, learning, discovery and fun.  Happy Anniversary!!!!  

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

I needed to make a quick run down to Sanford today.  It's just 94 miles each way and it took 1.2 flight hours.  Not too bad as the departure turns you North and then East before heading you on course and the arrival was a visual with a 5 mile final.  I averaged 156 knots which is descent considering much of the flight is down low where I was not really using a lot of power.

So overall pretty efficient in the air but it took me 2.0 total engine hours which means there was a lot of waiting.  First it was cold so I had to let the engines warm.  Then there was a backup for departure at home.  The flight down was smooth and there was a large forest fire that made an impressive smoke cloud.

I was cleared to land 27R which is 11,000'.  I asked to land long as I wa going to the West side but was told to lans and clear by the crossing runway 18.  I did and was given a taxi down Bravo but hold at Lima.  I did but was wondering why, when I arrived I was alone out there.  After waiting over a minute it became clear.  There was an Allegiant jet that was landing 27R and they cleared at Lima so I was holding for them.  

I get that they have lots more people but if I had just been cleared to taxi, I would have been long gone.  This should have foretold the departure.  Heading out they have a really odd system.  The Bravo taxiway is wide and they allow two way traffic.  So I taxied out on Bravo right side.  This was after getting a clearance that was a bit much.  Sanford One departure, radar vectors, WORMS GUANO SHINR Direct.

So the Sanford One is basically runway heading to 2,000'.  They could just say fly runway heading, climb and maintain 2,000', expect 5,000' 10 minutes after but no, they want you to look this up and read their departure.  So before I could even do this I was in line behind a student.  The tower cleared them to go but they got all confused and by the time they figured stuff out, they lost their slot.  The tower was more cautious and thus another long wait to get out.

Good news was that once I was number one, the tower got me going.  And the departure, took off runway heading, as I was climbing, got right to 310 from the tower and then departure.  Departure sent me to 5,000' and quickly direct WORMS.  Only other glitch was that we were on the same path as several other planes and we were going 90 knots faster.  Daytona sent us up to 7,000 which was more headwind but at least we didn't have to cut our speed in half.

The arrival was easy, I was number three and sequenced behind a slow plane doing 56 knots.  At first I thought I had left too much room but in the end they took forever to get off the runway so the spacing was just about perfect.  It was a fun flight in cool but sunny weather.  Just wish I had a bit less waiting to fly.