Eblo: Flying With Drew

June 30, 2005

Flying With Drew - Part 2

I know I'm blowing my wad here with a third audio post in four days, but I've been stashing up this stuff for a while, so now I want to get it out. Today's bit of audio is actually the continuation of Flying With Drew, the first part of which was on the Dawn and Drew Show #103. If you haven't listened to that yet, you might want to check it out first. However, be warned that their servers have been getting hit hard due to new iTunes traffic, so if their links time out, try them again later. Drew's also got pictures and videos of the flight posted up there as well, so it's worth a click or two. As cool as we both thought it was, Drew didn't really get a major response either way on the first flight, so he didn't plan on posting the second part. I recently asked him for permission to post it here, and he graciously and enthusiastically agreed.

A few notes about the recording (external links should open a new window or tab):

What's posted here is the flight from Watertown (KRYV) back to West Bend (KETB), Wisconsin.
The previous show is here.
Drew's photos and videos are here.
Silences as well as some idententifying material have been cut out.
At the end of the first recording, I went back and forth on refueling in Watertown. I did top off before we left, "Just to be safe." My plan was to drop off Drew and then top off at a cheaper local airport, but decided I wanted to head directly home after, not make another stop.
To the unicom operator at KRYV, we kid about your accent because we love. I really do appreciate the friendly greeting and good-bye. Any pilot looking for a friendly pit/lunch stop in south central Wisconsin, check out Wisconsin Aviation in Watertown. Sadly, their fuel price was one of the highest around.
In my focus on flying the plane, I oversimplified and somewhat mis-stated the use of flaps on a shorft-field takeoff (we weren't doing a short-field, but I alluded to one). They help you climb quicker in relation to your forward movement, but there are a lot of tradeoffs to weigh there. And you don't just 'throw them in,' you set them as part of your pre-takeoff checklist.
100 knots = 115.077945 miles per hour.
The automated voice you hear is automated weather (AWOS) from West Bend.
As an example of radio range, Hartford to Galt is about 57 nautical miles, 65 satute miles, and 105 kilometers (never mind us as we look at the map).
Turns out we did NOT see Showbiz Dad from the air.
I squeezed in an Area51 Show plug. I'm not affiliated with them, just dig their show. Check them out. Prepare for strange.
Sorry for referring to visuals that don't work so well on the radio. . . .
Again, we talk about radio range. West Bend to Poplar Grove is about 72nm. I'll leave the conversions up to you.
Loche Ness Monster and submarines - I swear, we weren't smoking anything, just babbling.
I know, I know, I should keep a more sterile cockpit (no talking) while in the pattern. One of the advantages to listening to a recording of yourself is that you can pick out your own mistakes.
So, too, can others. Dear FAA, if I did anything wrong in the course of this flight, this is only a reenactment, not an actual flight recording. . . .
This recording was made by jacking an iriver IFP-899 into a Sigtronics portable intercom with an aux out jack. We were both using LightSPEED headsets, which I love to death.

If you are interested in learning to fly, check out:

AOPA’s Learn to Fly page - http://www.aopa.org/learntofly/
$49 intro-flight coupons - http://www.beapilot.com
The Student Pilot dot Com message board (not just for students!) - http://www.studentpilot.com

If any pilots, pilot-wannabes, or plain ol' folk want to comment on, or ask a question about anything in this post, feel free to leave a comment below, or call the brand spankin' new comment line: