BruceAir, LLC

Aviation North Expo 2007

My next speaking gig is at the Aviation North Expo 2007 in Fairbanks, AK starting October 18. I’m giving two presentations, "Microsoft Flight Simulator as a Training Aid" and "Stall/Spin Awareness." You can learn more about these talks on the Multimedia Presentations page at my Web site.

End of the Aerobatic Season in the Pacific Northwest

The monsoons have returned to the Seattle area, but fortunately, I took advantage of a break in the weather last Thursday to fly the Extra 300L from its summer quarters at Seattle’s Boeing Field to its winter home at Boulder City, NV (61B), near Las Vegas.

You can download both the planned route* and the GPS track from my Garmin 396 from one of my Skydrive folders. The files in that folder are (small) .kmz files for use with Google Earth.

If Google Earth (a free download) is installed on your system, you can open them in that application and see both the planned route and track superimposed on the Earth.

I use the Voyager Flight Software System to plan my flights. That nifty tool lets me dump routs directly into the Garmin 396 and to Google Earth. Getting the tracks that the GPS records back into Google Earth requires a couple of simple steps, which I’ll write about some other time.

You can zoom in and out, tilt the display, etc. to see my meanderings. You can also change the color and thickness of the lines after loading the data files in Google Earth. For more information about using Google Earth, see the product help page.

The track data was recorded every 10 seconds (if you if zoom in on the airports where I stopped, you’ll notice some zigs–or zags–in the traffic patterns).

The basic route of flight: KBI–KCVO–KOVE–KDLO–61B

(*I planned to stop at KLHM in northern California, but according to a NOTAM, the runway was closed, hence the dogleg to Oroville, which has the virtue of relatively cheap fuel.)

Total flight time: 6.7 hours to fly 1049 nm (for those of you keeping score at home, that’s an average ground speed of 156 knots). The Extra has enough fuel to handle legs of roughly two hours with reserves; the route above shows the fuel stops.

Welcome

I’m just joining the blogosphere, but while I get up to speed here, check out my Web site at www.BruceAir.com.

You’ll find information about:

I’ve also posted several aerobatic videos shot with the on-board video system in my Extra 300L in a public folder on SkyDrive.

For more information about my latest book, Microsoft Flight Simulator as a Training Aid: A Guide for Pilots, Instructors, and Virtual Aviators, visit its home page at www.BruceAir.com.

You can order it from the publisher, ASA, or from most online and bricks-and-mortar booksellers or find a copy at your local pilot shop.