It Was Bound To Finally Happen

The Law of Averages finally ruled in my favor. There was actually a flying Seneca at school today. The window was only 2 hours long and the lesson called for 8 approaches: ILS, VOR, NDB & GPS first normal, then single engine. There's absolutely no possible way that that many approaches can be completed in about 1.6 hours, but it was a chance to fly.

We accomplished 3 multi-engine approaches: VOR, GPS and ILS. I was surprised how much was retained, not having flown a multi-engine aircraft in four weeks. All three approaches went perfectly. Following the approaches, there wasn't enough time to set up for a fourth, so I just made closed traffic for some touch & go's.

It felt good to be back in the aircraft, but my feelings about moving to Part 61 have not changed. Just because the plane started flying today doesn't mean it's going to stay up. Recent history has proven how unreliable these old Seneca I's are. I think the school's biggest dilemma is that 142 training is aircraft specific. If they change to Seminoles, or even Seneca II or III, the have to get an entire syllabus re-approved by the FAA. I'm sure that involves considerable time and money.

I'm scheduled to finish the lesson tomorrow in another two hour flight window. I doubt there will be enough time to complete 4 single engine approaches and an NDB multi-engine approach, which means another incomplete and another flight to schedule before we can progress.

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Two of my friends were just hired by ComAir with a December 7th class date. Congratulations to RJ & Mike.

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Other than another flight being cancelled, yesterday was a great day. My friend Alex and I drove out to Phoenix International Raceway to participate in Bondurant School of High Performance Driving's Lap The Oval. It was a 3 hour event where you get to drive a Formula Ford race car around PIR's 1 mile tri-oval. A Formula Ford is aan SCCA sanctioned open wheel race car with 115 horsepower Cosworth engines and a 4 speed non-synchro racing transmission. 115 HP doesn't sound like much, but we're talking about car that weighs just over 900 pounds. They top out at about 145 miles per hour. Bondurant has rev-limiters installed that limit top end to about 130, which is still quite fast when you're sitting four inches above the track. Here's a picture of me heading into turn 3 , with the tach bouncing off the rev limiter at about 130 at PIR yesterday.

If you're even in Phoenix during the two weekends per year that Bondurant offers Lap The Oval, don't miss out.