Awesome Week of Aviation Firsts

AdamZ

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Feb 24, 2005
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Adam Zucker
Well the past two weeks have just been great for me aviation wise. First I got to see so many of you at the Wings FlyBQ then in the past week, a week ago friday to be exact a aboutlutly beautiful day here in the North East I get a call around 2PM from Gary Shelby. Who asks if I want to bug out early and fly in his Cherokee. Duh! Sure I do. I love flying with Gary! So we meet up at Wings and by that time the Haze is hot and heavy but the air was smooth. So we head down to the Northern Chesapeak to Massey Aerodrom MD1 in Maryland where his co-worker has a boat nearby. Massey is a grass strip in the middle of maryland farmland. On the way down we overfly my Alma mater the University of Delaware and I clearly see my Fraternity house. Ahh the memories. Gary put the cherokee down on the grass smoothly and we wandered around the small and silent strip. We check out an old DC-3 thats parked there and being restored. His friend never came down so after checking the place out we head back to Wings. I fly home and get my FIRST grass field take off. Thanks Gary. Now Gary due to circumstances beyond his control could not make the FLYBQ this year but still helped out big time. So I saved him some of Andrew's Pulled Pork. I froze it and bought it in the cooler to Wings and stuck it in their freezer until we got back.
We really didn't want to forget the Pork when we got back so intermitently I kept siging to the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm " Don't forget the pork, Don't forget the Pork, Don't be a total dork and don't forget the pork. " I figured If I was that outrageous we wouldn't forget the pork. We did'nt and GAry loved it. What an awesome first. did I mention I love flying with Gary.

Then just yesterday I get a call from a friend from the field. Who asks what I was doing at 6pm. Now This weekend is a friend's son's Bar Mitzvah and it is chocked with events, Services and breakfast thursday morning, Services and dinner friday night Then of course the Bar Mitzvah on Saturday with lunch and dinner later. So I say well I have a dinner tonight for a friend's son. The caller then says Oh I got an invitaion to fly on a Citation Bravo and can bring along one other person. To which I replied "I said I had a diner tonight which I will now be unable to attend:no: .

We meet up and fly to Morgantown WV. It was awesome and climbing to FL200 and threading around the buildups that topped out at perhaps 23-25K. We actually saw lenticular clouds above the build ups and TS. I never knew they would be there just thought they would be on mtn waves. So we get to Morgantown we have to wait 3040 min for our clearance and by the time we are fed and ready to go the enitre Philly area is painted red and yellow on the Doppler. We wait another 20-30 min to see whats going to happen. It was very educational to confer with the professional Pilots of the citation as to how the evaluated the Wx. So they figure we can weave our way through.

We get out to the plane and the chief pilot turns to me and says so you wanna sit right seat on the way home. :D :yes: :D :yes: . My response was " Does Raggedy Ann have Cotton mamaries?" At this point I'm figuring hey its ok if I go down in a TS because I'm FREAKING SITTING RIGHT SEAT IN A CITAION. Perhaps not such a big deal for some but for this Cherokee driver its ALL THAT and more.

Chief Pilot has me read the check list and do all co pilot duites explains everything to me and I'm happier than well you know what I'm happier than. He tells me I can do all the radio calls so we rocket downt the runway and we are light so we are off in a flash. zoom up to 4K in about 2 min if that and AP on. then more check list before you know it were at 9 to 10K and Chief Pilot turns to me and says " How bout I take off the auto pilot and you show me what you can do with this and hand fly us back to Wings. Now I have to tell you POA has no ICON to express how I felt.

MAN WAS THAT AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! I took it up to FL210 and the skys were lighting up around us but we were smooth as silk using onboard Wx radar The MFDs on this thing are NOT TO BE BELIEVED. We were IMC much of the way and it was so easy. Like playing a video game. But boy I'll tell ya these pilots have to learn some awesome systems. And Jet flying is so much more complex than Piston but ya know what the numbers are the numbers and thats what ya fly. So hear I am flying a Citation Bravo making all the radio calls and wondering if I didn't die somewhere earlier that day and go to pilot heaven. The Chief pilot of course did the landing but oh it was such a great day. Now I'm thinking "I gotta get me one of these." Oh funny thing is they used a 430 as their "BACKUP" nav. LOL.

I learned so much the plane is really neat. It has three (3) independent pitot static systems and three seperate glass panel systems. If I can't get one of these I'm gonna have to have shelby install the same avionics package in his Cherokee. Oh My I have been spoiled.

Following are Photos of my grass strip trip with Gary and some of the Citaition flight.
 
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Man, you are livin large!:D

That Citation flight must have been absolutely wonderful! Glad you posted the details for all to see.

Gary
 
Oh yea? well my dad can beat up your dad.
Damn show off !

Glad you had fun Adam. I sure wish i could do that someday :)
 
awesome adam

FWIW, lennies forming on top of cumulus clouds is fairly common. even on some of the summertime afternoon buildups we will see them capped with lenny. Today on my drive home i saw abig haystack buildup, probablyup to 20k orso but no upper level support for TS, and the very top was smooth.

glider guys have dreamed for years of thermalling to cloudbase and then goingto the upwind side of the cloud and riding wave above it Ive never heard any stories of anyone who has actuallypulledit off yet though.
 
Well Adam, as we say here in the south...you're ruint :D
That's ruined for those of you "above the line".:p
Great write up, it sounds like you had a blast!
 
meh, no big deal, Adam. Now, had it been a Citation X? Well, that'd be a whole different story!
;)
 
Cool stuff, Adam. The Citation Bravo is a fun plane to fly (though the stock Cessna radios suck), my dad flew it for about 2 years before he transitioned to the XL/XLS.

I suppose I'm a bit spoiled being able to go to the airport most weekends to play around in the Citation XLS cockpit whenever I want. <g> :yes: Unfortunately, I don't get to fly one.....yet.

Nice write-up!
 
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Cool stuff, Adam. The Citation Bravo is a fun plane to fly (though the stock Cessna radios suck), my dad flew it for about 2 years before he transitioned to the XL/XLS.

I suppose I'm a bit spoiled being able to go to the airport most weekends to play around in the Citation XLS cockpit whenever I want. <g> :yes: Unfortunately, I don't get to fly one.....yet.

Nice write-up!

Ah but Jason you are more likely than most of Us to fly one.
 
Uhh...I gotta start hanging out at Wings more often :D. Awesome opportunity Adam. :yes:

Massey is a nice airport. My CAP squadron uses it a lot for engine out practise.
 
Adam, I'm green with envy! Sounds like you have a jet in your future! (I should get a chance to at least see the D-Jet tomorrow. Does that count?)
 
So we head down to the Northern Chesapeak to Massey Aerodrom MD1 in Maryland where his co-worker has a boat nearby. Massey is a grass strip in the middle of maryland farmland.
Awwwww mannnnn, I was hoping to fly to Massey on my trip, but ran out of time. Color me green with envy too.
 
I am obviously hanging out with the wrong crowd around here. Sounds fantastic.
 
There should be a law against having that much fun. It's just not fair to the rest of us.
 
Friends come and go, but memories of flying a citation...those last forever. What a fantastic weekend.
 
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