Hey guys and girls,
Been a while since my last post - I'm sorry about that! I know you are dying to know what I've been up to this past month. Truth is - busy holiday! I've not flown a lot since I moved on to the DA40, just 5 missions! Guess IFR is much slower, and also thanks to a couple of other circumstances (problems with instructors' licenses, accident (sure you heard about it by now), we have been slowed quite a little bit, but hopefully we will pick up after new year.
The Diamond 40 is much easier to fly, landing is peanuts compared to the Archer, and it flies beautifully. Unlike the Piper, it looks like it's meant to fly. It just does not sink, it's like a glider with an engine. Looking forward to flying some approaches with it during the next month.
Positive note is my parents came to visit, so I had a touch of home this Christmas! We toured Sedona, 'some' shops in Phoenix, went up to Fountain Hills and Rio Verde (which I overflew endless times with my small Piper), and spent the last four days in Las Vegas, strolling through the endless casinos, shows and beautiful mockups (they even built a replica of the Eiffel Tower!!!) I am now waiting for my plane back home to Phoenix - I am very tired after this holiday - but at least I have the weekend to get my strength up before my next flight. I am looking forward to fly now, cause it's all downhill to my CPL check and my return back home!!
Till the next one!!
Kris
Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Cloud surfing
Hey guys and girls,
Busy week! Continued my cross countries up till Tuesday! On Wednesday no more flying due to bad weather, till this morning.
Tuesday Capt. Galea came to see us and we had a really good time this week. Always nice to have someone who has a Maltese accent to his English next to you! The other Maltese also came to the States, so now all the Air Malta cadets are in Phoenix (at least for another 3 and a half months :p)
Today was a beautiful flight. There were a couple of fair weather cumulus at 3000 feet (not very common here), so I practiced some cloud avoiding maneouvres and it was simply beautiful, seeing the clouds up close and flying past them at 120 miles per hour alone. Something I will never forget!
Check is coming up next week and hopefully I pass - then it's DA40 - nice upgrade from our old Piper Archer. Though I will kind of miss it!
Cu soon - almost at half of my stay here!
Kris
Busy week! Continued my cross countries up till Tuesday! On Wednesday no more flying due to bad weather, till this morning.
Tuesday Capt. Galea came to see us and we had a really good time this week. Always nice to have someone who has a Maltese accent to his English next to you! The other Maltese also came to the States, so now all the Air Malta cadets are in Phoenix (at least for another 3 and a half months :p)
Today was a beautiful flight. There were a couple of fair weather cumulus at 3000 feet (not very common here), so I practiced some cloud avoiding maneouvres and it was simply beautiful, seeing the clouds up close and flying past them at 120 miles per hour alone. Something I will never forget!
Check is coming up next week and hopefully I pass - then it's DA40 - nice upgrade from our old Piper Archer. Though I will kind of miss it!
Cu soon - almost at half of my stay here!
Kris
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Prison Break!
Hey all!
As I mentioned before I have been doing quite a lot of cross countries. Indeed they take a lot of time and are kind of scary sometimes, but you see all kinds of stuff while doing them.
On Saturday I went to Flagstaff, and Winslow! It was really nice, flying at 10000ft in an unpressurised aircraft (on the limits of hypoxia :p) and looking down on trees, mountains and fog settling down in the vallies! very relaxing! I was feeling truly lucky to be doing what I am doing!
Today I went to Bisbee Douglas international! This was a regional hub in the 1960s, but today it is NOT used. As I was flying overhead I noticed some buildings right next to the terminal. Near these buildings were a lot of orange dots, and they were moving! Yep, they were prisoners, and quite a lot of them! I was thinking, what would they pay to get on the plane right now :p I landed and left really quickly cause I was quite uncomfortable there with a plane! I came back via Benson, where I refuelled, and landed on 22L with the sun directly in my eyes and a stroboscopic effect of the propellor when I put on idle and flared! Interesting flight.
To change a bit the subject, I wanna put ten tracks which I have been listening to this week (they keep me awake when I need, and make me remember the party bit in me!)
Puvertum 0 - Niels van Gogh vs Eniac
Morumbi - Tocadisco
Disco Volante - Ida Engberg
Heater - Samim
Automatic - Ultra Nate
Bucovina - Ian Oliver geat. Shantel
Fun Fun Fun - Dada Life
Together - Axwell & Sebastien Ingrosso
Anthem (Radio edit) - Filo & Peri ft. Eric Lumiere
Always & Forever - Chocolate Puma
Keep the beat ;)
narakom
kris
As I mentioned before I have been doing quite a lot of cross countries. Indeed they take a lot of time and are kind of scary sometimes, but you see all kinds of stuff while doing them.
On Saturday I went to Flagstaff, and Winslow! It was really nice, flying at 10000ft in an unpressurised aircraft (on the limits of hypoxia :p) and looking down on trees, mountains and fog settling down in the vallies! very relaxing! I was feeling truly lucky to be doing what I am doing!
Today I went to Bisbee Douglas international! This was a regional hub in the 1960s, but today it is NOT used. As I was flying overhead I noticed some buildings right next to the terminal. Near these buildings were a lot of orange dots, and they were moving! Yep, they were prisoners, and quite a lot of them! I was thinking, what would they pay to get on the plane right now :p I landed and left really quickly cause I was quite uncomfortable there with a plane! I came back via Benson, where I refuelled, and landed on 22L with the sun directly in my eyes and a stroboscopic effect of the propellor when I put on idle and flared! Interesting flight.
To change a bit the subject, I wanna put ten tracks which I have been listening to this week (they keep me awake when I need, and make me remember the party bit in me!)
Puvertum 0 - Niels van Gogh vs Eniac
Morumbi - Tocadisco
Disco Volante - Ida Engberg
Heater - Samim
Automatic - Ultra Nate
Bucovina - Ian Oliver geat. Shantel
Fun Fun Fun - Dada Life
Together - Axwell & Sebastien Ingrosso
Anthem (Radio edit) - Filo & Peri ft. Eric Lumiere
Always & Forever - Chocolate Puma
Keep the beat ;)
narakom
kris
Monday, November 17, 2008
Adrenaline rush
Hey all,
Hope you are all doing fine! Thought I would let you know all about what i'm doing right now! Lots of things have happened this week, and I really don't know where to start!
I only have 10 mission remaining on the Piper Archer - then I get an upgrade to the Diamond 40, which is a much more modern plane!
Yesterday I went to Lake Havasu alone, which, to give you an idea, is the same distance from Malta to Reggio Calabria, or from Malta to Tunis. I really had fun going there, it took me about 1 hour since I had a pretty strong tailwind. The approach was quite nice as you pass over a lake and fly an approach near the riverside. I landed and had 3 cookies a hot chocolate and a diet coke at the FBO there (which is kind of a pilot lounge) This FBO looks really nice and posh - it even had perfume in the toilet and a big screen with sleeping rooms adjacent - very nice. All was relax until I departed. As soon as I departed I looked at the watch and realised I was running late - the sun was already going close to the horizon and I still had to land at another airport (Prescott) and return to Falcon Field before sunset. To make things worse, I had a headwind going back which means that the distance covered on the ground is less - I was really worried I would not make it in time before dark. And believe me, flying in the mountains in the dark with one of these planes is the one of the least things you wanna do in your life.
Full throttle all the way I managed to land in Prescott and get my signature and make it back just as the sun was setting down! I was so relieved to make it - now it goes down in one of the adventures to tell my grandkids. At one time I went between two mountains of 8000 feet each through a 2000 foot gap - phew the adrenaline was rushing!
Talking about pressure, my blood pressure was quite on the high side this week when I tried to cook beef stew. I found a recipe on the internet - ULTIMATE BEEF STEW - it seemed good so I decided to buy the ingredients and try it. It looked good until I did one small tiny mistake. The recipe said add 1 and 1/2 cups of beef broth. I thought that beef broth was actually the powder of beef broth so instead of throwing in the stew 1 and 1/2 cup of diluted watery beef broth, I threw a whole container of beef cube (cube tal-pakket kif jejd il-malti) - let's say the outcome was a bit...salty.
Anyway I posted a few pics of my cross countries on picasa. I am missing all of u friends, family and obviously d-dottoressa.... La nigi is-sajf li gej parties biss gejjin - ( u taf int namel flight lemm u law) :p
Narakom nies,
Kris
Hope you are all doing fine! Thought I would let you know all about what i'm doing right now! Lots of things have happened this week, and I really don't know where to start!
I only have 10 mission remaining on the Piper Archer - then I get an upgrade to the Diamond 40, which is a much more modern plane!
Yesterday I went to Lake Havasu alone, which, to give you an idea, is the same distance from Malta to Reggio Calabria, or from Malta to Tunis. I really had fun going there, it took me about 1 hour since I had a pretty strong tailwind. The approach was quite nice as you pass over a lake and fly an approach near the riverside. I landed and had 3 cookies a hot chocolate and a diet coke at the FBO there (which is kind of a pilot lounge) This FBO looks really nice and posh - it even had perfume in the toilet and a big screen with sleeping rooms adjacent - very nice. All was relax until I departed. As soon as I departed I looked at the watch and realised I was running late - the sun was already going close to the horizon and I still had to land at another airport (Prescott) and return to Falcon Field before sunset. To make things worse, I had a headwind going back which means that the distance covered on the ground is less - I was really worried I would not make it in time before dark. And believe me, flying in the mountains in the dark with one of these planes is the one of the least things you wanna do in your life.
Full throttle all the way I managed to land in Prescott and get my signature and make it back just as the sun was setting down! I was so relieved to make it - now it goes down in one of the adventures to tell my grandkids. At one time I went between two mountains of 8000 feet each through a 2000 foot gap - phew the adrenaline was rushing!
Talking about pressure, my blood pressure was quite on the high side this week when I tried to cook beef stew. I found a recipe on the internet - ULTIMATE BEEF STEW - it seemed good so I decided to buy the ingredients and try it. It looked good until I did one small tiny mistake. The recipe said add 1 and 1/2 cups of beef broth. I thought that beef broth was actually the powder of beef broth so instead of throwing in the stew 1 and 1/2 cup of diluted watery beef broth, I threw a whole container of beef cube (cube tal-pakket kif jejd il-malti) - let's say the outcome was a bit...salty.
Anyway I posted a few pics of my cross countries on picasa. I am missing all of u friends, family and obviously d-dottoressa.... La nigi is-sajf li gej parties biss gejjin - ( u taf int namel flight lemm u law) :p
Narakom nies,
Kris
Friday, November 7, 2008
I can officially fly a Piper 28-181 :p
Hey all
Been a week since my last post. Again, busy week. I had my crosscountry check and I passed! yeeeee... this was quite an achievement for me because it means I can now go to another airport which is quite far away alone with the plane.
We are always getting closer to the real thing! Today I went to Sedona and it was really cool... mountains and an elevation of 5000 feet! wow
Tomorrow I plan to go to Cottonwood and an airport called Love... quite romantic no?
things are going great for the moment and I hope to see ya all soon!
Kris
Been a week since my last post. Again, busy week. I had my crosscountry check and I passed! yeeeee... this was quite an achievement for me because it means I can now go to another airport which is quite far away alone with the plane.
We are always getting closer to the real thing! Today I went to Sedona and it was really cool... mountains and an elevation of 5000 feet! wow
Tomorrow I plan to go to Cottonwood and an airport called Love... quite romantic no?
things are going great for the moment and I hope to see ya all soon!
Kris
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
I survived the Apache Trail... and the SE Practice Area
Hi all
Another week has passed... This week I've been very busy, and right now I'm feeling quite exhausted. I have flown 10 missions in 1 week which believe me, is a lot!
On Sunday we went to the APACHE TRAIL. I will not describe this in words. I will just paste a paragraph from Wikipedia which I think best describes what we went through on Sunday - you can also see a couple of pictures on my picasa link shown below!
Also admire my culinary skills :p
http://picasaweb.google.com/kristian2305
Cu
Kris
Another week has passed... This week I've been very busy, and right now I'm feeling quite exhausted. I have flown 10 missions in 1 week which believe me, is a lot!
On Sunday we went to the APACHE TRAIL. I will not describe this in words. I will just paste a paragraph from Wikipedia which I think best describes what we went through on Sunday - you can also see a couple of pictures on my picasa link shown below!
Also admire my culinary skills :p
http://picasaweb.google.com/kristian2305
Cu
Kris
Friday, October 24, 2008
If your engine fails...
Hey all
Today was a busy day! I'm not getting enough sleep right now - as most of you know I need to sleep quite a lot :) This morning was again an early wakeup, to go and watch a couple of solos of my friends! I was supposed to fly at 3pm, but my instructor wanted to fly at 10.30, as today was a dual (not alone with my instructor), so I came home quickly, freshened up and went for my flight to the NE Practice Area.
My instructor was quite a help in seeing other traffic (other planes). Tomorrow I go alone to the NE Practice Area - and seeing other planes will not be that easy! hehe It is quite an adventure cause it's the first time I go 'away' from our home base alone!
Today I really had fun - simulated engine failure, gliding with no engine to the ground, choosing where you are gonna crash land (I chose a dirt road) and I was so close to the ground before I climbed again! I had so much fun!
Tomorrow I have to wake up at 4 o clock in the morning - so....
Good night!!!
Kris
Today was a busy day! I'm not getting enough sleep right now - as most of you know I need to sleep quite a lot :) This morning was again an early wakeup, to go and watch a couple of solos of my friends! I was supposed to fly at 3pm, but my instructor wanted to fly at 10.30, as today was a dual (not alone with my instructor), so I came home quickly, freshened up and went for my flight to the NE Practice Area.
My instructor was quite a help in seeing other traffic (other planes). Tomorrow I go alone to the NE Practice Area - and seeing other planes will not be that easy! hehe It is quite an adventure cause it's the first time I go 'away' from our home base alone!
Today I really had fun - simulated engine failure, gliding with no engine to the ground, choosing where you are gonna crash land (I chose a dirt road) and I was so close to the ground before I climbed again! I had so much fun!
Tomorrow I have to wake up at 4 o clock in the morning - so....
Good night!!!
Kris
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