WHAT'S NEW

28th May 2002

The Pinckneyville 2002 photographs are in! See them by clicking here.

Added the link to Save SPX, the effort to save Houston Gulf airport from the ravenous developers of cookie-cutter houses. Also added the Big Trip Part One: the trip report from flying to the Pacific Coast in my Cessna 140 (and most of the south west, for that matter.) This link will take you there.

30th January 2002

Two updates in two days :-) My Isle of Man writeup is now online, complete with photographs.

29th January 2002

First update in a long time. There's good news and bad news. The bad news is that Houston Gulf Airport is closing. See the Bay Area Aero Club site for more details. There are moves afoot to try and save the airport, but it's an outside chance. However, we won't give up till the housing developer finally, definitely takes the airport. If you have serious cash and want to help buy SPX, please contact Cindy Mahler as soon as possible who is running the effort to save the airport.
On a brighter note, I have written up my trip to the unveiling of the XCOR Aerospace Rocket-Ez. Photographs and video are included - see it here. The unveiling was last November in Mojave, CA. and was my first long trip as a multiengine/instrument pilot.
I have another update to finish within the next week - check back...

24th June 2001

I've added the fly-in report for our second 'Judged Landings Contest' at Houston Gulf. Find it on my BAAC Activities Page. We had a lot of fun at this one!

2nd June 2001

New trip report: my first taste of mountain flying. I did a very long cross country, from SPX to Salt Lake City, and of course you have to cross mountains to do that ;-) Find it here or in the Logbook section of the index page.

17th May 2001

New feature! I just updated (actually, totally rewrote) the Links Directory for another site of mine. I decided to add it to my flying site too. It allows you to add links to my site without having to email me - just fill out the form. It also allows you to narrow down your selection when looking for a new place on the web to go to. Scroll down the main page and you'll find it. Not many links at the moment, but this will change as time goes on. Also, check back soon since I'm about 3/4 done with my first mountain flying trip writeup. I have also got my glider tow signoff and I'm now towing gliders, so expect some sort of purple prose about that too.

20th Feb 2001

I'm now mirroring whittsflying. Gene Whitt, the venerable and highly respected flight instructor who's a regular on rec.aviation.*, has written literally megabytes of information and wisdom that he's collected over the years. His site is http://www.whittsflying.com, and it's now also mirrored here at http://whitts.alioth.net.

30th January 2001

First update in a while - I've been very busy recently. Again! Fortunatley, usually because I've been flying ;-) I got to file my first ASRS form after my arrival in Austin became sub-optimal. Read the story here in the IFR section.

10th September 2000

First update in a while - I've been very busy recently. I just passed my IFR checkride, so I updated my IFR page. Sadly, a microburst or tornado (not sure which - everyone was understandably hiding when it happened) flattened the soaring club's hangar, totaling the entire fleet, so not much gliding's going to happen...

27th June 2000

More soaring sessions! I actually got some soaring flight in - over an hour aloft, and thousands of feet gained. I also discovered how much better the Grob is at "penetrating" than the old 2-33. Go to my soaring page and see sessions 11 and 12.

11th June 2000

The biggest news is the move. I've got a little tired of my ISP being down all the time, so I'm moving the site. This is my own domain, so the address should now not change even if my ISP does!

Also added my last two glider sessions (at last). I'm now checked out in the club's plastic ship!

23rd May 2000

Another rec.aviation flyin has just happened up at Pinckneyville, Illinois. It was an enormous amount of fun as usual, as everyone got together. The gallery has been updated, charting P'ville 2K events.

2nd May 2000

Lots of updates! My soaring journal has been updated. I have made my first glider solo, and experienced the Grob in sessions 7 and 8. Also, my instrument training has resumed. I've got through my IR written, and I'm getting the flying done to get to the checkride. I'm just going to document interesting experiences from now on (time constraints, sorry!) My first one is last night's first encounter with actual IMC, and also a judgement call we had to make on the way home when we encountered stuff we didn't like very much!

9th April 2000

New gallery section! On Saturday morning (1 am) there was a good night time storm, so I went to SPX to get some pictures. I have created a "Weather" section for these photos and others like them.

2nd April 2000

Finally, I have done a write up of our club's Beechcraft Bonanza. It's a very nice ship to fly!

22nd March 2000

More soaring! Unfortunately, I haven't soloed yet. Firstly, I hadn't got the pre-solo test out the way, and when I had, the winds were far too strong! But I did get to do several spins in the Blanik - now that was fun! Go to the soaring journal and see Sessions 5 and 6.

5th March 2000

A belated update to my soaring pages. During the last session we remained airborne for over an hour with no engine! Also, I've added photographs to all of the pages. Go to the soaring journal.

21st Feburary 2000

Another glider session. This time we did more advanced airwork (such as getting the 2-33 to spin!) Session 3 can be found in my soaring journal.

19th Feburary 2000

New photographs! I flew the club's S-35 Bonanza for a photo trip. The photo ship was the Cessna 140, so I got an hour's practise at slow flight. See the Gallery for the pictures. Also updated the links to the Bay Area Club - it has a new home: http://www.bayareaaeroclub.org

7th Feburary 2000

Another glider session! My second session had me doing all the flying. Three flights in all, and a lot of fun.

5th Feburary 2000

I recently joined the Soaring Club of Houston and have started working on my glider rating. See my journal here.

5th December 1999

New inflight photos in the gallery! Eight new shots, four of the Cessna 140, four of the Cessna 170.

2nd December 1999

Added a new photograph of the C140 to my Cessna 140 page. Paul took the photograph at dawn, with the plane silhouetted by the early morning light.

30th November 1999

w00h00! I've become a (part) aircraft owner! I now have a share in an absolutely beautiful 1946 Cessna 140. I've already flown her over 6 hours, even though she's only been flying with us since the 25th! I've therefore written about the experience.

27th November 1999

BAAC Activities page updated with the poker run results and details of the Christmas pizza party. My instrument training is still on hold. Aircraft availability is better now the Arrow is back, but I've had other distractions...like buying a 1946 Cessna 140! (this will of course get a write up once I have the photos scanned).

21st October 1999

Only a minor update - fixed a broken link on my P'ville "Aircraft" page.. The link to the trip page wasn't working!
Why no updates to my site (particularly Instrument Training) for so long? Well, I went on vacation and when I got back, my instrument training was stalled due to the fact that the club is short of planes at the moment, and you have to book the 172 two months in advance. Once the Arrow is back on the line, I will finish up in that instead.

22nd August 1999

I've managed to get myself on the schedule again for some IFR training, so I've updated my IFR training diary.. The latest entry is Week 22. I got to fly an approach I hadn't done before - Beaumont's ASR. Also, the Bay Area Aero Club is having another poker run flyin to celebrate its 20th anniversary! Details are on my BAAC Activites page. Also updated - my Flying in the UK page. I got a note from the AFISO of Kemble airfield updating me on a few details, so I included it in my radio work page.

8th August 1999

New link added on under my 'Places to Fly' section on the top page. Nick Ryan's WWII aircraft page containing photos and information about WWII aircraft of the Allies/Axis powers. Unfortunately, no new additions to the IFR training diary; both the Arrow and the Cessna 172 were found to have bad cylinders. The Arrow is getting a new engine because it's near TBO and two cylinders were bad; the 172 is just getting a new cylinder. The club's Cessna 150 is also down because it suffered a prop strike a couple of weeks ago. The only available instrument equipped airplane remaining is the Warrior and it's booked solid. So I'm just having fun in the Cessna 170 in the meantime!

25th July 1999

Another entry in the IFR training diary. Unfortunately, due to the Cessna 150 receiving a prop strike (and therefore all the students using the 172) and me not scheduling quick enough, I'm not going to get any in next week. But on the bright side, the Cessna 170 is back on the line after its engine rebuild, so I can have some fun at least ;-)

17th July 1999

Once again, my IFR diary has been updated. I got two sessions in during the week, giving me another 2.7 hours of hood time.

10th July 1999

My IFR diary has been updated. There's been not much activity on this front for a while due to weather followed by too much work! A trip to Beaumont was in order to correct this.

5th July 1999

I've flown the Nangchang CJ6A from the front seat a couple of times and have got to do some landings in the big Chinese lady! I've added a Front Seat section to my CJ6A page, plus some new photographs taken from the front.

29th June 1999

Added a new Student Pilot Journal link: Jim Merullo. Find it on the Learning to Fly index on my main flying page.

20th June 1999

New Section! I've started a picture gallery. The first photos are a selection of five very nice pictures I got when we were out doing some formation work. If you've got a gallery, please let me know at dyls@alioth.net and I'll link it in.

13th June 1999

Added a new airplane to my General Aviation aircraft section, discussing the Grumman Cheetah I flew on a 1200 NM round trip to Pinckneyville and back.

Also, I updated my Instrument Flying diary to reflect my last couple of IFR lessons. Unfortunately it's going slowly due to weather and a couple of weeks of hell at work.