Get PilotGEEK for your Blackberry!

Love your Blackberry?

Do you make fun of all your friends who jump into the latest Droid or iPad or iPhone or whatever expensive toy is on the market today?

(Especially since people tend to carry more than one of them – one for email, one as a phone, one for flight charts, etc.?)

Get PilotGEEK for your Blackberry and keep the best of all worlds.  Use the browser on your Blackberry to access weather, flight charts, etc., and get texts or emails of alerts for any airport you set up.

Click the link and follow the instructions below to configure your cell phone for your 30-day free trail.

PilotGEEK My Blackberry! 30 Day Free Trial

Use your PilotGEEK flight briefer to avoid thunderstorms

These pose a huge danger to small aircraft, and I’ve had unpleasant experiences even thirty miles away from them.

When I was on the “long cross country” required for my private pilot rating, I was flying from Salt Lake City to Wendover, Nevada. A very long, easy, no problem flight.  There were indications of thunderstorms far to the west of Wendover, but I was sure that I could get there and back again without a problem.

On the way back, however, I received a text alert of a weather change at the Wendover airport  from the PilotGEEK on my cell phone, and noticed a dreaded green blotch behind me on the weather radar on the G1000.  It was more than 30 miles away, but I noticed mild to moderate turbulence.  At one point, my Skyhawk suddenly dropped about 50 feet!  My headset came off my head and bounced off the ceiling, and my glasses fell off.

Thankfully, that was about it for the storm.  I put the throttle to the firewall and kept the storm as far behind me as possible. (It never got closer.)  And I booked it back to Salt Lake City, and was VERY thankful when the wheels squeaked on runway 17 at KSLC.

I love flying in the morning, especially in summer.  I always check the weather, and even then try not to plan afternoon flights (between about 1 and 4 P.M.)  The weather in your area probably has a different pattern, but the key point is to learn the patterns and check the weather.

A quick refresher:

A thunderstorm is said to have a “life cycle” of three, progressive stages:

• Cumulus Stage
• Mature Stage
• Dissipating Stage

The Cumulus Stage

Not all cumulus clouds become thunderstorms, but every thunderstorm begins as a cumulus cloud. The cumulus stage is characterized by the uplifting of the moist, unstable air . This updraft extends from near the surface to the top of the cloud and varies in strength. Clouds may grow at the phenomenal rate of 3,000 feet per minute, which means they can easily outclimb your aircraft. The time-honored rule of thumb is never to climb to avoid a thunderstorm because you can be overtaken by the updraft.

The size of water droplets is very small in the early part of the cumulus stage, but the size of the droplets grows with the size of the cloud, and they quickly become raindrop size. When the rising air carries the water droplets above the freezing level, the potential for icing conditions is created. Eventually, the cold raindrops grow so heavy they cannot be sustained aloft by the uplifting air, and they fall, dragging air down with them. When the downdraft coexists with the updrafts, the thunderstorm is said to be mature.

The Mature Stage

When the rain begins to fall, it signals the creation of a downdraft and the maturity of the storm. The cold rain now lessens the latent heat created by condensation, making the downdraft cooler than the air surrounding it. Pilots on the ground shiver and jokingly comment on the “air from 50,000 feet” when they feel that first rush of cool air before the rain arrives. Because the air in the downdraft is cooler than the air surrounding it, it accelerates downward-up to 2,500 feet per minute-then spreads outward at the surface. This is characterized by strong and gusty surface winds, a temperature drop that is sometimes sharp, and a quick rise in pressure (cold air is more dense). This surface wind surge is sometimes referred to as a “plow wind” or gust front because it pushes air (and other things) in front of it aside.

Even with all this down-rushing air, updrafts in the mature stage have reached their maximum-possibly now 6,000 feet per minute. When you have updrafts and downdrafts so close to each other, they create strong, vertical shears and extreme turbulence. The mature stage is the time of the thunderstorm’s greatest intensity. Yet, the downdrafts are also the beginning of the end.

The Dissipating Stage

The rain ends, downdrafts cease, and the thunderstorm is over. The cloud forms its characteristic anvil, pointing to where the air mass is headed. The clouds remaining are harmless now, unless they take in more moisture, become unstable again, and encounter another lifting force. The life cycle starts again.

Have fun, and fly safe this summer!

Need a great cell briefer to get you there and back, and alert you about changes TFRs and weather? PilotGEEK is a great pre-flight briefer and in-flight alert system that works with the cell phone you have now. (Don’t need to buy an iPhone or a big expensive iPad – PilotGeek works with any cell phone with a browser.)

Click the link and follow the instructions below to configure your cell phone for your 30-day free trail.

PilotGEEK My Droid! 30 Day Free Trial

EAA Photo created this time-lapse montage of AeroShell Square, as shot from the Wittman Regional Airport Control Tower. Camera courtesy Canon USA. This video appears as a bonus track on the 2009 AirVenture retail DVD. See eaa.org for details.

Need a great cell briefer to get you there and back, and alert you about changes TFRs and weather? PilotGEEK is a great pre-flight briefer and in-flight alert system that works with the cell phone you have now. (Don’t need to buy an iPhone or a big expensive iPad – PilotGeek works with any cell phone with a browser.)

Click the link and follow the instructions below to configure your cell phone for your 30-day free trail.

PilotGEEK My Droid! 30 Day Free Trial

You can use PilotGEEK on your Blackberry!

You don’t have to have an iPhone to have access to a great pre-flight briefer and in-flight alerts.

Using PilotGEEK on your Blackberry, you’ll get

• Cell phone web access to the PilotGEEK route briefer.   The cell phone route briefer provides you with similar capability as the Free Briefer; providing TFRs, up to 10 METAR and TAF reports along a route, static weather radar centered around each METAR reporting station, FSS and ASOS phone numbers and origination and destination airport NOTAMs.  Cell phone web access requires your cell telephone to be web enabled.
• Text message interface to PilotGEEK cell briefer.  The text message interface allows you to send a text message to one of 6 addresses and receive a METAR, TAF, TFR, Winds Aloft, ASOS or local FSS phone number as a reply.
• Event notification text messages which enable the PilotGEEK system to send you a text message when weather or TFR conditions change at one any of 5 user specified airports.
• Immediate Access You could have your first briefing within 5 minutes!

Click the link and follow the instructions below to configure your Droid for your 30-day free trail.

PilotGEEK My Droid! 30 Day Free Trial

If you're a pilot, and you have a Droid©, check this out!

If you’re a pilot, and you have a Droid©, you should know that PilotGEEK works perfectly – especially since you have a nice big screen. PilotGEEK has always been a browser-based application, and has been around for years – the phones are finally catching up to where the keyboards and screens are big enough to really enjoy the capabilities!

When you sign up for a 30 day free trial, you’ll get a series of tutorials showing you how PilotGEEK on your Droid can do you preflight briefings, find you the lowest fuel prices along your route, and give you airport information. You can set it up to send you alerts for weather changes or pop-up TFRs  during your cross country.

You’ll find that your Droid makes  a pretty darn good co-pilot!

But you won’t get it from the Droid Apps Market, you can only get it from the PilotGEEK site.

Click the link and follow  the instructions below to configure your Droid for your 30-day free trail.

PilotGEEK My Droid! 30 Day Free Trial

A skilled aviator

KILL ‘EM AND EAT ‘EM….A GREAT AVIATION STORY (from email)

This came from a fellow who runs a 2,000 acre corn farm up around Barron, WI, not far from Oshkosh. He used to fly F-4Es and F-16s for the Guard and participated in the first Gulf War.

I submit for your enjoyment, and as a reminder that there are other great, magnificent fliers around besides us.

I went out to plant corn for a bit to finish a field before tomorrow morning and witnessed The Great Battle. A golden eagle, big dude, with about a six foot wingspan, flew right in front of the tractor. It was being chased by three crows that were continually dive bombing it and pecking at it. The crows do this because the eagles rob their nests when they find them.

At any rate, the eagle banked hard right in one evasive maneuver, then landed in the field about 100 feet from the tractor. This eagle stood about 3 feet tall. The crows all landed too, and took up positions around the eagle at 120 degrees apart, but kept their distance at about 20 feet from the big bird. The eagle would take a couple steps towards one of the crows and they’d hop backwards and forward to keep their distance. Then the reinforcement showed up.

I happened to spot the eagle’s mate hurtling down out of the sky at what appeared to be approximately Mach 1.5. Just before impact the eagle on the ground took flight, (obviously a coordinated tactic; probably pre-briefed) and the three crows which were watching the grounded eagle, also took flight thinking they were going to get in some more pecking on the big bird. The first crow being targeted by the
diving eagle never stood a snowball’s chance in hell. There was a midair explosion of black feathers and that crow was done. The diving eagle then banked hard left in what had to be a 9G climbing turn, using the energy it had accumulated in the dive, and hit crow #2 less than two seconds later. Another
crow dead.

The grounded eagle, which was now airborne and had an altitude advantage on the remaining crow, which was streaking eastward in full burner, made a short dive then banked hard right when the escaping crow tried to evade the hit. It didn’t work – crow #3 bit the dust at about 20 feet AGL

This aerial battle was better than any air show I’ve been to, including the war birds show at Oshkosh. The two eagles ripped the crows apart and ate them on the ground, and as I got closer and closer working my way across the field, I passed within 20 feet of one of them as it ate its catch. It stopped and looked at me as I went by and you could see in the look of that bird that it knew who’s Boss Of The Sky. What a beautiful bird!

I loved it. Not only did they kill their enemy, they ate them.

One of the best Fighter Pilot stories I’ve seen in a long time…

There are no noble wars– Only noble warriors.

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Aerial photo taken by CAP crews as the Red River was cresting over the weekend shows flooding in much of downtown Fargo, N.D. Photo by Lt. Col. Troy Krabbenhoft, North Dakota Wing.

The photo was taken by: Lt. Col. Troy Krabbenhoft, North Dakota Wing. Caption should read something like: Aerial photo taken as the Red River was cresting over the weekend shows flooding in much of downtown Fargo, N.D.

Aerial photo taken by CAP crews as the Red River was cresting over the weekend shows flooding in much of downtown Fargo, N.D. Photo by Lt. Col. Troy Krabbenhoft, North Dakota Wing.

As the floodwaters start to recede along major rivers in the upper Midwest, Civil Air Patrol continues to assist both state and federal authorities in their assessment of flood damage to local communities.

Aircrews from CAP’s North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota wings are flying a wide variety of missions in support of state emergency management authorities as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These include digital imaging missions as well as equipment and personnel transport.

Read More at General Aviation News Post  by Janice Wood→

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Wager with the Wind is a book I picked up in the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska. If you have never heard of Talkeetna, Alaska, don’t worry, this is normal unless you have been there or you live there. Chances are if you have heard of the small town, you saw it on a Discovery Channel special about Mt. McKinley and the Denali Park. Talkeetna is the starting point for most explorers and climbers going to Mt. McKinley and the other peaks in the Denali range. The local airport is home to many aviation outfits that do scenic tours around the mountains. During the summer the town of Talkeetna is home to many little shops and is a big tourist attraction (big in terms of Alaska).

My visit to Talkeetna was during the end of the summer in 2008. The journey started in the spring of 2008. Two of my best friends and I were finishing our third (for two of us) and fourth (for one) years of college and we decided we needed to do something fun before we were done with college. It also happened to be the spring that all three of us were working on becoming flight instructors. Our goal was to finish our CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) training and pass our checkrides with the FAA and then go to Alaska for a vacation. We planned to stay for a week in Talkeetna and learn how to fly float planes. What else would a couple of aviation students do besides fly? So on one March afternoon I called Don Lee at Alaska Floats and Skies and paid a reservation fee for the three of us to spend the last week of August with them. We then booked our airline tickets. From Boston, Massachusetts we booked a flight to Anchorage, Alaska, with a connection in Houston, Texas (And people wonder why the airlines are always in financial troubles…)

The summer wore on and due to a series of events out of our control all three of us had our checkrides pushed back. Everything from the Piper Arrow (two of us were flying) getting a new engine, to the FAA local office forgetting our appointments, to a local small crash delayed our appointments. Finally on August 22nd, 2008 I was able to take and pass my CFI checkride. Unfortunately, my friends Brett and Sean were not able to take there checkrides before our trip. Thus, I got to spend the week in Alaska relaxing while I did my float flying, while they studied for float flying at the same time as studying for CFI checkrides.

When we weren’t flying the float plane (a Piper Tripacer) we were exploring Alaska as much as we could. At the local store I happened to pick up the book called Wager with the Wind. The book is a collection of stories of Don Sheldon. Don was considered the most knowledgeable pilot when it came to flying Denali and was based in Talkeetna. He was the person people went to with questions, and for help when it came to flying Denali. The stories of Don flying his Cub up the mountain to help and rescue people as well as to perform scientific experiments are amazing. One thing that really stuck with me after reading this book was how Don would land on the glacier and mountain in the snow on skies. With the snow being plain white he had no visual reference for the ground. He would over fly the landing area and drop pine brush to give himself a reference while he came in to land. Another story had Don landing in a river and being pushed backwards by the current while rescuing people stranded on an island the river!

The book has many great stories from his adventures all over Alaska and for an aviation enthusiast this book is a must read. I will rate the book as 4 out of 5 stars. I bought the book to have something to read on the long flights home, and the stories of Don Sheldon kept me flipping the pages though out the flight. I highly recommend trying to find a copy of this book; it really is a collection of amazing stories.

This picture is one I snapped flying the Piper Tripacer the day after passing my Commercial Pilot – Airplane Single Engine Sea add-on checkride. The mountains are the peaks of Denali. The closest is Denali itself, also known as Mt. McKinley, which happens to be the tallest peak in all of North America. If you are looking for a new aviation adventure I highly recommend checking out: www.alaskafloats.com. My two friends and I had a great time with them. The lodging cabin is awesome (literally, awesome), the training is top-notch, and the location is perfect! Within a week we each had more than 5 hours of float time and had earned our add-ons. Not to mention all of the fishing and hiking we did, plus a very cool rafting trip down the Talkeetna River! Also the caribou nachos from West Rib Deli & Pub (the red building), in “down-town” Talkeetna, are the best nachos I have ever had!

Matthew Elia is a certified flight and ground instructor. Currently he works for SOLIDFX as a technical support associate for the company which provides electronic chart options for pilots who use Jeppesen terminal charts. On the weekends Matt is an active flight instructor for King Aviation Mansfield at the Mansfield Airport in Massachusetts. Mr. Elia’s writing can also be seen from time to time in Mentor magazine by the National Association of Flight Instructors.

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He was told a twin-engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.

Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane warming up outside a hanger.

He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, ‘Let’s go’.

The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off.

Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, ‘Fly over the valley and make low passes so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.’

‘Why?’ asked the pilot.

‘Because I’m a photographer for CNN’ , he responded, ‘and I need to get some close up shots.’

The pilot was strangely silent for a moment, finally he stammered, ‘So, what you’re telling me, is . ..

You’re NOT My Flight Instructor?

(Another Anonymous – but fabulous – email!)

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