A Little Hangar Flying: Hats, Jackets and Landings

This month update will be somewhat short as I am busy with getting honey bees to clients that are as excited as a 6-year-old on their first flight. Tons of questions and so happy and excited you get excited also.

First, I would like to get about 25 orders for hats. They will be embroidered local here in Sequim by one of our members, with maybe an RV and another airplane of some type and the local chapter name on the hat.

Red and blue hats are planned and we will need to get pre-orders to make it work. The hats will be 20.00. The proceeds going to the college fund or what ever the club would like. We could also put the same logo on a Jacket. Sure need a good jacket here in Sequim. It’s seems maybe the summer also, the way this year is going weather wise.

This is the time of year many are getting back into flying on these occasional good days that are becoming more linked up. Take good care to check everything on the airplane and more. Wash the dust off you and the airplane. I just cleaned an airplane that has sat for 12 years.

More to go on that. We are inspecting it really well and doing more than just the yearly annual. I must say it’s really dirty. It’s like a time capsule from 12 years ago. Charts, flight logs, fuel, etc. Just left the airplane like a gold rush town. Everything just as it was parked 12 years ago.

These spring weather fronts move thru the area fast and the winds come up and its never down the runway when you get to the landing area. Think for a minute and if you have to go to another runway and sit out the weather for a few hours, it will change. Then proceed on. Now is the time of year to get out and do lots of landings at several different airports in the area. One thing I always notice is when I come back into my home airport I make better landings. Why? Because all the visual ques are there. Where to turn base, final, get the airplane slowed down where to be on down wind, final over the threshold all make for a better arrival /landing. Please don’t settle for an OK approach to landing. Make a 100% effort to do your best every time you take-off and land. On the way to the new airport or one I haven’t been to in a while I always review frequencies, pattern entry, pattern altitudes, etc. Which is the preferred runway also. I look around for smoke or wind on the water to see which way other pilots might be landing. It doesn’t always work out but it sure helps. Remember because the wind is out of the east at one place close doesn’t mean it out of the east 20 miles away. Remember if you chose to land straight in downwind, as one famous Reeve aviator said: that’s no time to dilly dally around on getting the airplane on the runway at the approach end. Not mid field. It’s easier on the breaks getting it stopped on the remaining runway if the wheels are on the ground at the approach end not the mid field section. If you do miss judge, then its time to go around and start over. It’s OK to do that.

So many pilots are in the LAND the airplane mode they forget they can and should go around. I have done it, on floats and in the 747. Mostly those go arounds involved another airplane on the runway or in the landing zone when on floats. Weather is changing fast these days and its better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground. Pull over before its gets bad.

I again hauled a load of honey bees up to the San Juan islands. Sure was fun to get out and see the beautiful San Juan’s. I went to Decatur Shores Grass Runway, then up to East Sound, Then to Friday Harbor and over to Lopez and back to Sequim. On the way over I climbed to 6000 feet. And the same on the way back. I don’t like landing in the water, unless on floats. Even then I didn’t fly low over the ocean crossings. Saw one guy at Friday Harbor commuting to work on Kenmore. Ha, he was from Alaska and an Alaska Airlines Pilot. We talked about hauling bees and we knew many of the same other pilots. Sure was a fun day. Of course the landings were great because I don’t’ want to mess up with 600,000 bees onboard.

Getting reading to go to McMinnville this morning for some Queen bees that need to be replaced. It’s a good day all around. 25 kts on the nose all the way down, and rain. Oh and I tanked up at Port Townsend. The airplane and myself. 3.2 hours and when I got to Boeing on the way back I tanked up again. Then went to Sequim and later went over to Friday Harbor and over to East Sound. That’s some traveling.

Let’s get the orders for the hats and jackets going this next meeting. I’ll have some prices and ideas of the way it will look. I hope. Fly safe everyone and be careful.

Mike Radford