Julie lands at Mountain Air

Beautiful! That place is on my short list of destinations when my fiance and I get some time to buzz around a bit.

 

Thank you for sharing.

 

Great take-off in the 172!

It must have been a thrill as she headed down that slope, looking at the end of the runway coming at her.
I bet it felt good to hit rotation speed and start to pull the nose up.

That's the kind of airport where a quick double check on day's actual density altitude and re-calculation of one's take-off distance is a good idea.

Interesting that the two wind socks were pointing in opposite directions. Must have been calm wind conditions.

 

Who is Julie?

 

I am Julie I., Coach I's widow. You may remember Coach. He was an avid F-chatter and Ferrari collector. Through another Ferrari friend and F-chatter, Bob Zambelli, I started flying lessons in 2009 and received my pilot's license in October of 2010. Tell me about your experience with aviation.

 

Julie, I knew your husband, Coach I, only through this forum and never had the pleasure of meeting him (or you) in person. I miss him too. He is one of the reasons I ended up buying my tdf blue Ferrari 550. He loved his two Daytona Ferraris but also loved his dark red 550.

Here is an exchange I had with him back in June 2008.

I also am a pilot. I own a 2009 Cessna 182 with the G1000 panel. It took me 3 tries over a 14 year time period to get my PP license, but I finally got it 2 years ago. I love flying and still consider myself somewhat a novice at it.

You have a beautiful 172. And you seem to fly it very well indeed.

Here is a pic of my plane.
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Sure hope she waved as she flew over me or over my house on approach...

 

That's a pretty wild runway....LOL!

Congrats, juliei.....always glad to see your posts here.

 

Thank you, Big Tex. It was an exhilarating experience. I hope to do it again soon.

 

I would have waved had I known you lived down there. Next time I will wave! Lucky you to live in such beautiful country. Took a drive down 19W from near Johnson City to Burnsville through the Pisgah National Forest today and it was just gorgeous. Only problem was I was in my Cayenne instead of my Ferrari!

 

Ron, thanks for posting the photo of your gorgeous, new Cessna. Love the paint job. I think flying with a G1000 would be just incredible. I have an Aspen 1000 and autopilot. It was like stepping ahead 30 years when I left my flight school plane for this. I have about 190 hours now. How about you? I still consider myself a novice, too. I am studying for my instrument rating and am endorsed now to take my written. However, I am taking it slowly. Congratulations to you for persevering and getting your license. It isn't easy when there are so many other responsibilities.

Thank you, also, for letting me know that you were friends with my husband and that he influenced your buying decision. His son, Lee, now has the 550 and is enjoying it immensely. I have the 1971 Daytona and enjoy driving it from time to time. October is a perfect time to drive such a lovely machine. Doesn't need air conditioning, just windows down.

What is your most interesting flying experience? Mine was getting lost the second time I was out solo. Was going out to practice S turns around a point from KAND and ended up at KAGS. Had a perfect landing, though. They said I did everything right--communicated, confessed and complied.

Thanks again for sharing your experience with Coach. I love to hear stories about him.

 

JulieI, thanks. I'm approaching 200 hours of flight experience also.

My "interesting" story was also getting lost on my first solo XC during my early training about 10 years ago. The flight was from Leesburg to Charlottesville, VA. I had misread the compass rose around a VOR (CSN) on my sectional chart and done my flight planning using an incorrect outbound heading (off by 10 degrees). So, in the air, I was doing VOR navigation along with dead reckoning and pilotage. I talked myself into each incorrect landmark while doing pilotage, stuff like, that road down there must be the highway I'm looking for, that little creek must be the river, etc. When it came time to be near the destination airport (about 30 minutes later), there was no airport in sight and I was in the middle of a very large green valley. I had over 4 hours of fuel remaining, so I had plenty of time to think about my problem. I picked out distant landmarks and decided to do a large rectangle and not get myself more lost. This was my equivalent of "pulling over on the side of the road" while in the air. Weather was nice that day but I was 1000 feet under a broken cloud layer and had lost my DME signal. I tried to triangulate using my VOR but since my usage of it had gotten me lost I started second-guessing my ability to work it correctly so decided not to use the VOR to get un-lost. I studied my chart and my flight planning for about 10 minutes (while flying my rectangle) and found the compass rose error. I concluded I must be straight east of my destination so I flew west and intercepted the correct VOR heading. I was so happy to see my destination airport as I got close to my radial intercept. I called on the radio, this is Cessna so-and-so, inbound for Charlottesville Airport, I'm 10 miles, no 8, no maybe 7 miles north-east of the airport. The controllers first response was "Cessna so-and-so, are you a student pilot?". Pretty good guess since most pilots know where they are when they make radio contact. I smiled and said "Yes and boy am I happy to find your airport".

That taught me a valuable lesson - make sure you know how to work the equipment on the plane well enough that you can be confident it its use.
.

 

The house and views are gorgeous.

 

You kept a very cool head under pressure and wisely used all your resources to accomplish arriving at your destination safely. I would say if most pilots followed your calm thinking and wise decision making, the skies would be a safer place to fly. That was very good experience for you as well. What did your CFI say about it? I would say he/she said "you have the makings of being a very good pilot." Do you still, on occasion, fly with an instructor?

 

It was very interesting to read about your getting lost on your first X-Country. I had the same thing happen on mine in Florida. My iongest leg was from Ft.Meyers to Plant City and then a turn to drew Field. From Ft.Meyers north took me over a lot of nothing that was filled with swamps and alligators. No radio, No OMNI, and two thunder storms that I had to dodge. That process got me lost until I picked up a road that appeared to head west and I followed it...to what I figured out was Plant City. Then it was on to Drew and back home. In 1949 a buddy and I flew to Miami from Sarasota, straight line course over most of the Everglades and sure enough we were certain that the engine went into automatic rough right in the middle of it. The minute we got to Opa Locka the radio went out. Quiet trip home.

 

Nice thinking! My long X country was from Chesapeake to C'ville, and it was a nice flight. It's so pretty coming in over those old mountains.

 

Thanks.

My instructor said I did several things right in my trying to get un-lost.
He liked that I stayed below the broken cloud layer rather than try to climb through it to re-establish my DME data feed.
He also liked the "flying a rectangle" strategy to stay in an area and not get more lost.
Obviously we worked on my VOR skills, e.g. how to triangulate using two Nav radios and two nearby VORs, how to listen to the Morse code to know for sure which VOR you're listening to, etc.

Yes, I take an instructor with me for a short flight or two whenever it's been more than a few weeks since I've flown and I'm feeling "rusty" in my flight skills.
The instructor doesn't do much on these flights - really just an insurance policy that I don't miss something.
Plus it is fun to do a maneuver or two that I don't practice very often, stuff like stalls, steep turns, s-turns down a straight road, etc.

 

Beautiful place. Where is Mountain Air? Is it private? Is there a hotel or rental property? I'd love to fly up and check it out. I'm out of PDK.

 

what a beautiful place and at 4400 ft elevation and 2900 ft long it has to be a big challenge to get it right, esp in summer!

I just took a lesson to fly into Big Bear (L35) in California, departing from San Diego and it was awesome. What was amazing is to be en route at 10,500 and still have to fly around mountains. With 5800 ft of runway, no real drama and plenty of room to get up & down.
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Wow. Stunning! The US has some very pretty places.

Congrats to Julie! I hope to take up flying one day too.


Onno

 

Mountain Air (2NC0) is a private country club community. There are homes and condos available for lease and, in addition, there is a lodge with seven rooms at the top of Slick Rock Mountain. It is located northeast, about 35 minutes driving time, from Asheville, NC. Here is a link to their website: http://www.mountainaircc.com/

 

Just beautiful! I want to go there, too. What and where are you flying these days?

 

Thank you!