http://www.rapp.org All aviation. All the time. Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:56:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en "Riding the range once more, toting my old Pitts S-2B..." Doesn't quite have the same ring, does it? No matter. It was so nice taking the Pitts up today -- I made two practice flights at the Blockhouse, concentrating on the Intermediate Known sequence for the upcoming season. ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2008/03/back-in-the-saddle-again/ Now is this a sweet looking pair of machines or what? A 1993 Pitts S-2B and a 2008 Honda Accord Coupe in matching paint: I had the opportunity to get back into the Pitts yesterday and when I saw the two of them together I had to take a picture. ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2008/03/favorite_things/ Today, a bit of a rant -- for which I will apologize in advance, my friends. Flying is just about the only avocation I can think of where people can be found spending their free time at work by choice. Think about that. In an office environment, folks typically get to ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2008/01/instructing/ It's so rare to get true winter weather here in Southern California. But as Lesley always says, it never fails to rain on opening night, and last night was no exception. Boy did it pour! I nearly broke into a Gene Kelly-esque dance all the way down Avenue of ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2008/01/singin_in_the_rain/ To those of you who said I'd never get a new car -- and I know there are a lot of you out there -- feast your eyes on this: Yeah baby! It's a 2008 Honda Accord LX-S Coupe. I've been waiting for this car to hit the showroom ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2008/01/2008_honda_accord_coupe/ Every time someone asks me why, with all my flight time and qualifications, I haven't gone on to an airline job, I just think about stories like this one. Keep in mind, Sam left behind a city he loved, picked up his whole life and moved across the country ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/12/ninth_circle/ I think there was a mix-up somewhere and I got this guy's fortune by mistake. http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/12/fortune_cookie/ Bob Miller at Over the Airwaves frequently touts the fact that 'nobody' provides spin training anymore. Perhaps my perspective is not typical, but I don't find this to be the case. At Sunrise Aviation (KSNA), we have the largest aerobatic program on the west coast. Not only that, but ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/12/spin_training/ From the "you learn something every day" file comes a fascinating Air Safety Foundation quiz on RNAV approaches. For the non-pilots and/or non-instrument rated among us, RNAV is short for "random area navigation" and for the most part refers to satellite navigation -- in other words, GPS. It's not called ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/12/rnav_approach/ Reason #438 to avoid the iPhone: that smug Applesque feeling of superiority you get from owning one could backfire. We push back from the gate and get advised of a ground stop in MEM due to storms in the area. My Captain informs the passengers over the PA. Not one ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/11/iphone/ I think Harry Callahan said it best: a man's got to know his limitations. Loathe as we may be to admit it, we all have limitations. Our bodies can only go so long without food, water, and sleep. The mind can only process so quickly, the ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/11/limitations/ One of my guilty pleasures lately has been reading a few of the many so-called "housing bubble blogs". These are web sites dedicated to tracking the carnage -- excuse me, I mean "adjustment" -- in the real estate market. Until recently there were only a few of these sites on ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/11/housing_bubble_blogs/ Every time I start to think "hey maybe I'm not such a bad pilot after all", I come across something like this which puts me back in my lowly and humble place. These guys will trim your weeds and put out your fire all at the same time. And they'll ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/11/martin_mars/ I keep meaning to post the Red Bull Air Race broadcast schedule. Better yet, let Red Bull do it. The races are broadcast exclusively on Fox SportsNet in my neighborhood. I believe they're available on other channels elsewhere. I understand they also transmit the races in ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/11/red_bull_air_race/ As large as the aviation industry looks to those on the outside, once you're on the other side of the fence, it doesn't take long to realize that it's a very small world. One of the big challenges facing that world has been from product liability issues. In fact, for ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/11/precision_airmotive/ I received an inspirational email from a reader the other day. I hope he won't mind if I quote a bit of it here, because it brings up a topic which has been on my mind lately. Even though I got a six-year head start on your ticket, and ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/10/getting_back_into_flying/ It never ceases to amaze me how often folks within the aviation industry use "small planes" as a catch-all scapegoat and get by without being challenged. Whether it's FAA funding, airline delays, noise issues, pollution, ATC staffing levels, or the long lines at the McDonald's in the terminal, the finger always ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/10/runway_incursions-2/ I once read that the most powerful supercomputers in the world are used to predict weather. Not cure disease. Not search for aliens. Not out-smart Wall Street. Predict weather. And despite all that computing power, they really don't do a very good job. I'm not sure ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/09/annoying_low/ What on earth is going on at Socal Approach these days? It seems every time I fly, they find a new way to confuse, infuriate, or disappoint me. Sometimes all three. It really pains me to say that, because my cousin was an air traffic controller and I have ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/09/socal_approach_problems/ I first saw this on the wall in a restroom at Cable Airport. No joke. For reasons I can't begin to fathom, someone had taped a photo of this aircraft to the wall: It's called Turbine Toucan, and it's just another ho-hum aerobatic biplane, just like my Pitts. ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/09/turbine_toucan/ http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/09/air/ The odometer on my 1993 Eclipse recently ticked past the 200,000 mile mark while driving back from Las Vegas. Well, I guess "recently" is a subjective term. That was in 2006. Since then, I've piled on another 30,000 miles. Everyone teases me about how long I've had the vehicle (it ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/09/200k/ I just returned from a 48 hour round trip to southern Florida to pick up a refurbished Grumman AA-5B Tiger and ferry it back to California. I'll say this for general aviation, it's always an adventure. I took a few photos, which are available here. My first thought after ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/08/tiger_has_landed/ Damaris B. Sarria is a NASA employee who works on the space shuttle program. After an orbiter is launched, her standard M.O. is to fly from Florida to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to help analyze photographic data and determine what, if any, damage occurred to the spacecraft ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/08/shuttle_tile_repair/ Ah, the minutia of aviation. A fellow CFI and I have been scratching our heads for the past month about the proper type designator for a DiamondStar. I've always thought it was DA40 and hadn't heard anything to the contrary until someone recently said it was actually "DV40". What ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/07/whatchamacallit/ If I had a "frequently asked questions" list for glass panels, the first question on the list would probably be: "is it legal to fly with electronic charts alone (ie. no paper on board)?". Without exception, every person I've flown with in an Entegra or G1000 equipped aircraft has ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/07/are_charts_required/ This brilliant sketch manages to encapsulate my daily life as a CFI in the wilting summer heat. At 8 a.m. I'm Dean Martin. By 8 p.m., I'm Foster Brooks. Yes, it has quite a familiar ring to it, right down to the part about running an an hour and ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/07/foster_brooks_airline_pilot/ Hopefully, the old saying is true, and will make up for my largess in the writing department as of late. Don't worry, I'll be turning out the tripe again soon enough. Until then, enjoy these photos of: Elixir of Love - a very well recieved production of this classic ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/04/photos/ Opera Pacific's production of Donizetti's Elixir of Love opened last night. Or should I say, will open tomorrow. Last night was technically a preview, but to me the preview performance always seems like opening night since it's the first time we run the full show in front of a live ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/04/elixir/ Through pure happenstance, it seems some of the best aviation photographers out there are friends of mine. Dean Siracusa, fellow pilot, photog, and proprietor of Transtock.com was at LAX yesterday and snapped these fine pictures of the superjumbo Airbus A380 making it's first landing in the United States:  Photos (c) ... http://www.rapp.org/archives/2007/03/airbus_a380_lax/