A Blast From the Past

A Blast From the Past
Here is an Oldie Goldie - Northeast Airlines Conviar 240.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

The fast way home today



Afternoon everyone; I got home pretty quickly today, so I've got some time to jot down a couple of things from my adventure today for my Blog. 

As you may or may not know, I've been working close to home lately. For me, that means that I haven't been flying on a regular basis since October due to teaching an Operational Efficiency class to our pilots. Today in class I had one of my Co-pilots (Chuck Newman) show up, he lives in my town (Petaluma,CA). When I mentioned that he should have asked me to ride with him to class today (to get in the HOV lane), he said that it didn't take him much time at all. Of course I gave him a questioning look.  He said that he flew down and would I like ride back with him after class. 
And I said: Would I, Would I!! 

So here is my flying Chariot home this afternoon, this is N82RV, and she is a real nice RV-8. Chuck built this airplane by himself in his garage. Its always amazing what you'll find in some peoples garage. Anyway, Chuck finished the airplane in 2001, and he's put 2200 hours on her, and I know this because I watched the Hobbs meter turn past 2200 hours during our 20 minute flight. Believe me, Its much longer on the bus, or driving in a car during Rush Hour.
She is decked out with a few pretty nice Flat Screen NAV system, with autopilot, and a few nice GARMIN products for extra measure.
This is my view from the back seat, unfortunately I don't get any of the goodies you saw for the front seat.

On the Takeoff Roll
Here's the radio setup, and this one has a small screen, which shows us on the South end of the Bay after taking off from San Carlos airport. At this point, we are awaiting permission to fly directly over Oakland Airport (the blue spot) to head North up to Petaluma's Airport (069).

Selfie, sorry couldn't resist. I wanted to get that Sun in the background look kind of picture.  

Well, we made it past Oakland Airport and here we are flying over part of the City of Oakland, CA.  

Chuck got a shot of me before I climbed out of this great airplane. Of course for me, any airplane is fine with me. Dang, I think I look pretty good in one of these, I should get one.   Reality Check - That will have to wait till at least my youngest is almost out of college (four years from now - maybe).