Fiona on the customs ramp at Freeport Grand Bahamas airport with the jet-fuel-powered Cessna 172SP we flew around the Bahamas, rented from Epic Aviation in New Smyrna Beach Airport, Florida. The Thielert Centurion engine is an aluminum four cylinder, dual overhead cam turbocharged diesel driving a 3-blade variable-pitch propellor, all controlled by two redundant FADEC systems, it's great because it's so much quieter and smoother than a normal 172, and with about half the fuel consumption!
The first tailwheel airplane I flew, a 1957 Champ 7EC, N781DD, at Winter Haven airfield in July 2006, still in as-new condition nearly 50 years after manufacture!
An older but even more fun taildragger, a 1946 Taylorcraft BC12D, N96723, with no electrical system, no comms/navs/gyros just real raw flying and great performance!
From 60 years old to 6 months old! Brand new Symphony SA-160 2-seater aircraft which I flew for an hour acting as safety pilot for Rafael, pictured, practising instrument work, though I did a take off and landing from the right seat to try it out, and it flew very nicely but best of all smelt like a new car inside instead of an antiques store!
The largest private jet they'd seen in a while at Winter Haven airfield, an Embraer 135, N101PM, and I wanted to fly a few circuits in it but ironically its crew said they'd rather be flying the Champ as we seemed to have been having more fun than them!
I did get to go for a flight in this charter aircraft though, a Piper Navajo, with turbocharged 360HP engines, winglets, luxury interior for 5 passengers, and a great ride. I watched from behind as my tailwheel instructor conducted an instrument proficiency check flight for one of the Navajo's pilots, we did some airwork and precision & non-precision instrument approaches.
The Piper PA-28R Arrow II, complex aircraft with retractable landing gear and variable-pitch propellor, in which I got my complex aircraft endorsement. N15250 on the Sheltair ramp at Daytona Beach, Florida.
Cockpit of a Piper PA-28R Arrow, probably not much updated from when it was built in 1967! The flaps are controlled manually by a car-handbrake-like device but it works nicely as does everything else, and these aircraft have a great aircraft-museum-style smell inside.
The aircraft I have the most time in, the Cessna 172SP Super Skyhawk,
much more fun to fly than the heavy PA-28s...
this is me standing atop N137ME on stopover at Mojave Airport, in the Mojave Desert
(near Edwards Air Force Base, 150 miles north-east of LA), where they store retired and mothballed airliners.
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The Skyhawk SP kicks ass; it's an improved Cessna 172 with extra horsepower in particular.
I can take 3 passengers and it'll still climb well, cruise with a groundspeed of 150mph,
the avionics are superb and it has great take-off and landing performance. Also, it's much
more stable in rough air than the small Cessna 152.
Panel of the Cessna 172SP with Garmin 89b GPS. Newer Skyhawks have larger, colour GPS units or even a completely glass cockpit (the Garmin 1000) but even this average-equipped 172SP has much more cool avionics than the older Cessnas and Pipers built in the 1960s/70s!
Another Cessna 172S model, N298SP, in which I took Fiona for her first flight and also flew IFR - inside the clouds - from New Symrna to Tampa and back at night.
This nice old 172N Skyhawk (N440RJ) is the first Cessna 172 I flew solo, in April 2003, for a few touch & goes
to start building up a little experience of landing the 172. The max demonstrated
crosswind landing figure is allegedly 15kts but with 'only' 12 knots of straight
crosswind I was stamping on the rudder using full authority and it was
barely enough to keep the aircraft straight during the flare... I did have 20 degrees of flaps though.
N440RJ is also memorable because whilst departing the next day, the radio transmit
failed just after I got frequency change from Long Beach Tower, and I was stuck circling over the
ocean outwith controlled airspace for half an hour trying to diagnose the fault and figure
out where I could divert to without a radio and that wasn't obscured by cloud. Luckily
after shutting off electrical power a couple times and fiddling with hundreds of things the comms
suddenly started behaving again. I must buy a handheld backup sometime!
My first ever training aircraft, Cessna 152, registration N48271, in which I logged 3 hours
and flew 6 landings in February 2002, at Long Beach [KLGB] and nearby Hawthorne [KHHR] in south California. Seen
here on the Million Air North ramp at KLGB, awaiting push-back into it's parking spot.
Another Cessna 152, N94504, built 1982, a very nice little aircraft which took me safely from Long Beach to Palm Springs to French Valley and
back for my PPL qualifying solo cross-country flight, and in which I undertook the
JAA PPL skilltest/checkride with CAA examiner Ajay Sinha.
The first PA-28 low-wing 4-seater aircraft I flew, N444HA, a 1974 Piper Warrier PA-28-151; on a BFR (bi-annual flight review)
checkride at Winter Haven, Florida [KGIF] to get my FAA PPL validated aswell as getting checked out on the PA-28.
Seen here some days later, on the ramp at Freeport's Grand Bahama Intl Airport [MYGF], Bahamas, following some over-water
international flying!
Why is it painted in mock 1980s British Airways livery? I don't know... they just give us the planes and we fly 'em.
Piper Warrier, PA-28-151, tail number N32990, in which I took the IMC checkride late one stormy
summer night in Florida, finishing up with the VOR Rwy 11R instrument approach into Vero Beach Municipal [KVRB]
with CAA examiner Paul Thompson. Pictured here on the floodlit ramp at KVRB.
Another Warrier PA-28-151, N44206, built in 1974, which I took from Florida to Louisiana. N44206
hadn't flown for 9 months, the engine having been melted down by a student pilot who allegedly overheated it
during the pre-take-off run-up then ran off before shutting down the fuel flow. But with so many brand new parts,
the engine ran great and the airframe was nicely in trim aswell. Pictured here at Mobile Downtown [KBFM],
Alabama, being towed to shelter pending the imminent arrival of a severe tropical storm.
G-BNON, a Piper PA-28-161 Warrier II (built 1987), fully IFR-equipped with slaved DI, backup vacuum pump, etc.
First aircraft I flew in the UK, for a
thorough check-out flight to familiarise with British procedures,
and the cold, wet, windy, cloudy, Scottish weather. Seen here on the ramp at the Tayside
Flying Club, Dundee Airport, after returning intact from some touch-and-goes on runway
28 with surface wind 240 at 25kts.
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I hold a Commercial Pilot license, Single & Multi-Engine Land, with tailwheel and spins endorsements, and am a certified flight instructor for single engine airplanes and instrument airplane (CFI/CFII). I'm also currently serving as an FAA-designated Aviation Safety Counselor (ASC) here in the Orlando FSDO district; aiming to ensure safety education reaches as many pilots as regularly as possible.