Flight To Wake Forest
05/04/10 14:18
A beautiful flight to Wake Forest University with incoming freshmen from Portsmouth High, daughter Katie and baseball player Nate Jones. Stopped in Easton, MD and then flew over to Wake and did a couple of loops above the campus before landing in Greensboro and staying with a friend for a couple of days. Great tour of the campus. Equally nice flight home, but had to drop the kids at BWI for a Southwest flight home due to icing in New England. Spent the night and flew home the next day.
We've Been Sim'd!
03/08/10 11:38
Now you can fly N777ZV any time you want on Microsoft Flight Simulator. She has been recreated in all of her glory for you to enjoy at home as well.
To get the Diamond for Microsoft Flight Simulator X, visit:
Read the Sim review HERE
Want The Skin? Download it HERE
Let The Fun Begin
10/22/09 08:17
Diamond Flyers, LLC Is Formed!
Josh Howard, Joe Pratt, and Jim Siverts have formed Diamond Flyers, LLC. Still looking for one more member, so please join us. Josh is a dentist with about 200 hours of time. Joe is a Delta Captain with more hours than I can type. Jim has about 1,200 hours, all in Diamonds. Let the fun begin.
Kitty Hawk Trip
07/06/09 08:05
My friend Peter arrived on Wednesday June 24th. With ceilings at 350 feet I flew over to Manchester and picked him up from his Southwest flight. We flew back to Portsmouth and did a few practice approaches to minimums. Great way to start the trip. The next morning we left for Kitty Hawk, NC and landed at First Flight field. The next morning we flew to Roanoke, Louisville, and then on to St. Louis. On Sunday I flew with my son Collin and Nephew Nick to Omaha to go to watch my cousin and his kids race stock cars. Did some more flying with Peter during the week and then flew back to Portsmouth with Collin. A great flight with a good 4 hours of it in IMC. About 30 hours of flying total in less than two weeks.
Norfolk and the USS Carl Vinson
06/20/09 12:08
My friend Charlie called me and mentioned that he was invited to speak aboard the USS Carl Vinson in Norfolk. Charlie is an elite runner who ran across the Sahara desert and had a movie made about the experience. The captain of the ship was in Boston running the marathon and heard Charlie speak there. He was invited to come down to visit and speak to the crew and do a run with the members of the ship’s running club. When he told me about it, I said not too seriously, ‘wow, can I go along?’ His reply: “Don’t see why not, let me check.” In short order my youngest son and I were off to Norfolk by Diamond. Flew into Norfolk and had dinner the night before with a group of Carl Vinson runners along with the Captain. The next day we got the full tour of the ship and a lunch with the Captain’s quarters and then a 5 mile run with a big group from the ship. Amazing trip and a great time for my son Kyle who had never been on a long flight. Also his first trip in the clouds.
Over JFK on the flight home
Trip to St. Louis
05/26/09 12:33
This without question was one of my favorite flights ever. Went to St. Louis for business and decided to fly the Diamond. The flight home was great. Left St. Louis for home and flew first to Frankfurt Kentucky because storms were blocking my path. Then went to Latrobe PA for the night. Got home this morning. Hours and hours of surreal clouds - between layers, rain, dodging cells, deviating right and left and exploring the tunnels and valleys of cumulous clouds with a GPS approach to minimums with a circle to land at KFFT. Beat a big storm out of Latrobe this morning and had some more fun on the way home. Unfortunately all I had was my cell phone for photos. From now on I keep a video camera in the plane.
Exchange Students
05/15/09 09:48
The Russians Go Flying
05/14/09 12:36
Our first exchange student from 2002 got married in Portsmouth last week and her family was in town from Russia. Her father has flown with me before (all the way to Arizona!), but her mom, brother and a family friend were also in town and had never been in a small plane. Good times had by all.
Liza, the new bride, with my Dad, 91.
Liza’s mom and dad from Samara Russia
Brother Ilya and friend Oleg
Liza, the new bride, with my Dad, 91.
Liza’s mom and dad from Samara Russia
Brother Ilya and friend Oleg
NC College Tour
05/01/09 14:21
Katie went college shopping. We flew down to NC and stayed with my friend and Running The Sahara athlete, Charlie Engle. We visited Davidson, UNC, Duke, Elon, and Wake Forest. Pretty much perfect weather the whole time except for the 500 foot ceiling the day we left. Tops were only 3,000 feet and it was clear sailing home.
Is there anyplace a kid won’t text?
Wow, those college tours are tiring!
Is there anyplace a kid won’t text?
Wow, those college tours are tiring!
Tour de Nantucket
04/18/09 17:29
On Friday, my good friend Jay and I decided to fly down to Nantucket and do a bike ride. We left around 8 or so and it was a smooth, beautiful flight down. It can be pretty windy on the islands, but there was only about a 12kt wind out of the west and the skies were clear.
We loaded up the bikes - I removed my front tire and Jay took off both of his. Snug, but no problem. We flew over Boston on the way down and then out to Martha’s Vineyard first. We flew around to the west of the island at about 2,000 feet for a little sightseeing and then headed back east across to Nantucket. We unloaded the bikes and rode all the way to the eastern edge of the island, came back to town for coffee and then road all the way to the western side. We did about 38 miles total on an amazing day. Flew back just east of Logan and back into NH along the coast.
We flew over Martha’s Vineyard and then out to Nantucket
Some other pics of the trip:
Departing Nantucket
Jay.
Logan on the way back:
Coast of NH. Almost home.
Appalachian Trail
10/14/05 14:40
OK, so this is an old adventure from 2005, but a fun one. I was at an ice cream store one day with my kids near Crawford Notch in NH when out of the woods come a couple of hikers. A young couple hiking the Appalachian Trail for their honeymoon. I asked them how they were getting back to their home in Norfolk, Virginia. They said they didn’t know, and..... well..... I suspect you know where this is going! I told them to contact me and I would be happy to deliver them home by Diamond, no charge. At the completion of their journey about a month later, they called me. The weather was perfect and I flew up to Millinocket, ME and picked them up. I plotted a course on the GPS along the spine of the Appalachian Trail and away we went. Landed in Norfolk, had dinner with the parents and flew home the next day. Another ‘find any reason to fly the Diamond’ successfully executed.
Landing Norfolk
Landing Norfolk