Texas Flyer 2010-05-29

I am on Southwest 461, Houston Hobby to LAX. Later I will board EVA Air BR015 to Taipei, and later again on to Hong Kong.

I completed my Seminole Multi-Engine Review Checkout last Monday at Anson Air, Sugarland (KSGR).

Over the week I gained some very useful IFR experience. The Seminole N2094C is equipped with a KLN 89B. A quite capable GPS system. The countdown display to the next point makes it very easy to work out when to descend to reach crossing altitudes. I backed up the routes with my GPS296 for situational awareness and a sanity check, and any appropriate VORs. I received some instruction on using the KLN 89B for approaches. I'd used the KLN 89B before but only for the en-route flight phase.

• Tuesday.
  • VFR (with flight following) to Fort Worth Spinks solo.
  • IFR back to Sugarland via the Fort Worth SID to CLL and the Blubell arrival and a visual solo.
  • Night Review with an Instructor.
    • Night departure from Sugarland.
    • 2 x Landings and departures at Wharton (KARM).
    • Landing and Departure at Houston Hobby (KHOU).
    • 2 x Landings and departures at Sugarland.
• Wednesday (with my Sister as pax.).
  • IFR from Sugarland to Brenham (11R), RNAV rwy 16 to the FAF where I cancelled IFR. We flew around Lake Summerville then landed at Brenham for Lunch in the 50's themed restaurant. Good food, well worth a visit.
  • IFR from Brenham to Georgetown (KGTU), Visual approach.
  • IFR from Georgetown to Sugarland. A very interesting visual approach: held at 3,000 by Approach until 2.5 NM final on runway 17 due to the Citation ahead of me orbiting ahead and a departure below us at 2,000 ft. The circuit was busy so to save more disruption to the pattern I continued with a straight in. No problem! The Seminole descends well with the Gear down and throttled back at full fine. I needed to land long in any case to avoid the wake of the Citation that preceded me. I picked up the power again on short final to stabilize at a normal descent rate before landing after the touchdown point of the Citation.

• Thursday (with my Sister as pax.).

  • IFR from Sugarland to Valley International, (KHRL). I flew the ILS 17R to get down through the scattered cloud with a visual break to 17L.
  • IFR from Valley International to Laredo, (KLRD) with a visual approach.
  • IFR from Laredo to Sugarland. ATC gave me a totally different but shorter route from filed which was good experience for me. I'd filed via SAT but went via CRP.

• Friday, I took the day off.

Twelve Years On

It has been a long time since my last post: and I have been busy.

I still work as an Air Traffic Controller at Hong Kong. It has been twelve years since I arrived in Hong Kong on 4 July, 1997.

I was out last night for a dinner and reunion of controllers. We started together in Hong Kong ATC at the same time. Only three of us still work in Hong Kong. The table was for five people: two significant others joined us.

I now fly a Seneca out of "Clark, Philippines":http://omniaviation.com/ as PIC. I hold a Philippine Validation on my Canadian CPL/MEP/IR.

I fly a Commander 114A out of "Bang Phra, Thailand":http://thaiflyingclub.com. I hold a Thailand Validation on my Canadian License.

I have completed the Canadian TC to FAA conversion process so I hold an FAA CPL/MEP/IR. In the USA I flew C172 and PA44 Seminole PIC. I was able to arrange insurance specifically for the PA44 through AOPA.

I still fiddle with programming and computers when I have the time between work, flying trips, etc.

I have used VMWare Fusion to bring BeOS to life again in the form or BeOS Max5 on my Macbook Pro and on my Mac Pro. BeOS seems quite stable and I have been playing Call To Power again in both installations. As I still have an interest in Linux I have just got Tinycore running in VirtualBox 3.0. All very pleasing.