Air America 4

Ocean City!
Flying by the Beach, then into 24 for Ocean City Municipal. Great veiw over the wing and low enough to look inside the beach front mansions :).




In this one James swears at me. Don't know why...

Air America 3

September 2006, had enough of work so went back to Pennsylvannia for more mucking about air side.

Now flying in a Socata Tampico TB9. Much roomier than a PA-28 and has a cup holder...what more you want?

Landing the TB9 at Reading PA


Here we see the TB9 modelled by instructor James. At this point James is unaware that i temporarily lost the keys to his new plane...











James and myself before soloing the TB9. I was somewhat nervous about it because james had only just bought this one and i'd already broken the flap lever the previous day (oops). A snip at $800 to fix (ouch).

Air America 2

Now back in the UK and finally got round to adding some more vids....

Landing the PA-28 at Pottstown Municipal early evening. Knew i was being filmed so had to make sure i didn't fluff it up! (14mb)









Landing on a golf course! This was Butter Valley Golf Port.
Extremely short/tight runway between the trees. (15mb)










Cockpit view whilst bringing the PA-28 into Pottstown Muni. (16mb)









Taking Cessna into Lancaster. (25mb)











Flypast at Pottstown Muni. (10mb)









Quick vid of shooting a sig 9mm. Great way to de-stress after work! ;¬) (4mb)








Shooting a .22 (2mb)

Night landing/Philadelphia International

Saturday landed at the GA runway of Philadelphia international. Approached during the evening so got a pretty cool view over the docks (was a little low over the cranes though).

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/PA28_landing_philadelphia_evening_45mb.avi

Took off and went back to pottstown to complete a night landing which is tougher than it looks because your perception is affected. Was pretty chuffed with that one because we didn't end up upside down.

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/PA28_landing_pottstown_night_20mb.avi

Also started snowing here. Got near 7 inches dumped in one night. Cleaning up the car will probably become a regular chore in the mornings.

Streaming Video

captainbeard now supports streaming video (right click to download instead). Set this up for flight fans wanting to know how bad i am at landing...















http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/cessna_into_lancaster_25mb.avi
Landing the brand new Cessna Skylane at Lancaster, PA.

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/cessna_into_pottstown_80mb.avi
Landing the Cessna at Pottstown (Home airfield). This was a far shorter runway and a little bumpy (wasn't me, was windy).

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/cessna_into_clouds_35mb.avi
Now this is what it's all about, flying the Skylane through clouds with steep turns. Good for waking you up from that hangover...

The PA28, as modeled by flatmate :)

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/PA28_touchandgo_reading_120mb.avi
My favorite plane, the PA28 Cherokee. This beauty was built in 1975 so she's older than me. Won't start in the morning on a cold day which is hilarious when you see the faces of your passengers when it cranks. Took it into Reading, PA. This is a Radar controlled commerical airport with 7000ft runways (nice).

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/PA28_touchandgo_reading2_42mb.avi Smaller download (42mb) of another Reading Landing.

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/PA28_takeoff_lancaster_55mb.avi Good views of Lancaster.

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/PA28_steepturn_25mb.avi Steep turn in the PA28, feels like you're falling out (nah).


Shooting Vids
If you prefer guns, here's some more shooters...

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/smithnwesson4shot_3mb.avi Trying out the Smith & Wesson 9mm Semi-auto.

http://www.captainbeard.com/blog/smithnwesson_casing_hit_shoulder_3mb.avi Same gun but managed to catch a bullet casing on my shoulder this time.

NYC

Still busy here. Been to NYC several times now taking friends on sight seeing trips. Managed to find time for some partying though (see 80's Halloween Night pics - I went as a mad scientist to this Halloween gig in Hoboken, NJ. Another bloke went as Magnum PI and lent me his moustache, I think it worked pretty well so gonna grow my own now).




Atop the Empire State Building affords spectacular views of Manahatten in the evening...













The Staten Island ferry also provides great views of Lady Liberty (free ferry too so good if you're on a budget)







So err, which one's the Empire State?

Air America

Sunday I booked a lesson in a brand new Cessna Skylane fitted with the Garmin G1000 glass display avionics system. This is quite an honour since the avionics in this plane are actually more sophisticated than many 747's (don't believe me? ask your friendly neighborhood aviator). Features include streaming met data (satellite based weather 'radar'), mode s transponder (provides on screen display of airbourne traffic, and their movements without the need for aircraft fitted radar because it's relayed from ground stations) back-up systems, autopilot, auto xpdr, 2 glass (computer generated) displays for all Nav, enhanced (and i mean enhanced) GPS, ADF,DME,VOR,NDB, airspace & fuel range displays including the ability to automatically select correct radio frequencies for nearby airports. Basically it was incredible. I didn't know how to turn it on though.

Spent the day buzzing overhead Pottstown Nuclear Power station (checkout the yahoo pics) went up to 9,500ft (British reg's state flight at 10,000ft+ should be conducted with an on board oxygen supply).

We manouvered through scattered stratocumulous ;¬) (or cloud hopping) & Gareth was in the back videoing because the pics don't do the experience justice.

Landed at Lancaster airport where we spotted a Challenger (Learjet contender) decided I'd try that one out next week.




Ahh, twin turbofans. Plane $6 million. Capt Beard £4.95 plus benefits.

I'm working on getting web hosting sorted so I can put up the videos (300mb worth!) for now here are the pics:-
Air America flight Pics

Once hosting is running you can download the cockpit view of captain beard landing at Lancaster Airport, PA (bet you can't wait flight fans!)

Caption competition time again:-
Matt says: "I never touched it!"

Debugging

Yep we're finding a few bugs round here, (not all software related). Found this one in CMM's 16 & 81. This is a Preying Mantis. Apparently she will attack and kill the male during mating....hmmm.















We called this one Melissa the Malvern Mantis. She's the integration team’s new mascot. We keep her in the coffee cupboard.