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If you are sticking with a standard localizer glideslope approach, then you're only assessing the contribution that breaking technique has on stopping distance. That's a very small subset of factors that affect short field landing performance. A steeper approach at lower than standard landing...

There are degrees of back country, but most of the good stuff is out west. I bought a Maule in the Seattle area and flew it back to Virginia where I was living at the time. Not much airplane camping in the Mid-Atlantic area. Hot and humid summers stuffed full of mosquitos. It only took me a...

In my previous post, I mentioned the need to practice very short, precise landings at your normal airfield before heading into the backcountry. When I lived in Virginia, I was invited to display my Maule at the Udvar-Hazy location of the National Air and Space Museum. The Udvar-Hazy facility...

I regularly land on the back side of the lift/drag curve. I fly a Maule and I do a fair amount of airplane camping in the backcountry. To be good at very precise and short landings in the backcountry, you have to practice it when you're flying at more conventional airports. One of the best...

In flights from Virginia to Sun-N-Fun I used to stop at Lake Norman Airpark, but that's a paved strip. Your home on Long Island Airport looks much nicer. I sure like flying off of grass when its available. My tires last so much longer. I finally moved from Virginia to Washington State where...

Our dog was confused by a snow dog and tried to get acquainted the usual way

I hope this wasn't a hydroplaning jaunt gone bad...

I use the Aviation Weather Center. They have shifted to a graphical depiction of the weather forecast. To add value, there is a time slider so you can see predicted weather in your area of interest (or all across the country) by hour. There are depictions that show VFR versus IFR weather, cloud...

I worked in Albuquerque from 1995 until 2003 and I loved my time there. My home was in Cedar Crest (on the east side of Sandia Mountain) at 7,000' elevation. My property backed up to the National Forest. There were lots of hikes right from my back door. My commute to the city was pleasant and I...

And I flew over Snoqualmie Falls on the west side of the Cascades. Not very sunny, and not much water going over the falls. The snow in the mountains hasn't started melting yet.

Was flying over Saratoga passage in Puget Sound and saw a gray whale feeding near the beach. That was pretty cool.

I got 149 hours last year, all pleasure flying. I'm a bit behind the pace so far this year, but a trip to Alaska and some other airplane camping trips this summer get me back on track. If I don't fly at least 10 hours a month it becomes harder to justify owning a plane.

You get plenty of flying Rich, why not immerse yourself in some of the treats Gaston's has, like a float down the river? The reservoir to the north and west is pretty impressive, but that's the direction the weather is in. I'm not a local, but I have landed my Maule there while flying from...

I started building my own hang gliders in 1968. First with bamboo poles and later with aluminum. The sail was 6 mil polyethylene with duct tape reinforcements and grommets for tying the sail to the frame. I finally graduated to store bought gliders. I flew them for about 30 years, but getting...

Pretty low for still being a quarter mile away from touchdown.

FATPNW has become the Clearinghouse for the social connection of all styles of flying in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The Northwest Aviation Convention and Tradeshow was this weekend at the State Fairgrounds in Puyallup. Hope you learned about it from other sources in time to attend. FATPNW...

Spectacular. I've done the corridor doing the day, but these night shots make it look like a totally different experience. Well done.

I'm a big fan of Droid EFB. It will work with the internal GPS in my Android tablet without WiFi or Bluetooth. I have ADS-B in through a Dual XGPS 170 receiver and that requires the tablet to have Bluetooth to get weather, traffic and position data from the ADS-B receiver.

In 2013 I bought a plane near Seattle and flew it back to Manassas, VA where I lived at the time. I did not have to pay any sales tax in Washington State. I did pay sales tax in Virginia when i registered the plane there. In 2014, I decided there was better back country flying in Washington...

I went with the 1090 solution by swapping my Garmin GTX 327 Mode C transponder for a Garmin GTX 335 Mode S transponder with extended squitter. I'm very weight conscious and try to keep my plane light to maximize it's utility for backcountry flying. Going with the Mode S transponder was weight...