A Li'l Ole Film Clip by Harrison Ford

In support of AOPA's ongoing efforts to promote flying and flight training, here are two links that I think are timely and appropriate:

This first one is a pretty cool clip featuring Harrison Ford done by Studio Wings, an awesome group of aerial production specialists.

Here is the AOPA Let's Go Flying! website: www.aopa.org/letsgoflying

In my last post I mentioned that I was traveling to the Indy 500 on assignment. Well now that the piece has been published I am able to freely talk about it. I'll just sum it up by saying it was one of the most incredibly fun and exciting experiences I have ever had!

It was a TOTAL GAS!

Oh, and the race was fun too.

I can now say that PilotMag was the publication for whom we traveled on assignment.

You can read the article Auto Pilots written by my friend Jeff Mattoon, with photos by yours truly and some by Jeff. Subscribe to PilotMag and you'll get a whole lot of adventure flying stories with every issue.

Be sure to also read Jeff's writeup of OUR story, Flying the Acclaim to Indy

I'll tell my side of the story here soon, promise. Things have been cruising along for me in my web and print business but I will make time to write.

I am still working on the Indy photos, which means shrinking them to use on the web. This is a bit more work than you might think: I took nearly 500 shots in the six day trip, so it's been a chore to go through and pick the ones I like best.

Ya'll come back now heah... soon!

Assignment: Indy 500!

OK so I've been hinting and holding back on all my facebook friends what's been in the works just since last Saturday.

Well here's the scoop — I'm going to the Indy 500.

And not just going as a spectator, but flying there on assignment by a national aviation publication along with Jeff and Bruce, two associates from my flight school — TailWind Aviation.

Our assignment: interview several Indy car drivers who also happen to fly/own airplanes with the purpose of exploring the connection between flying and driving race cars. We'll be gathering video, still images, and material for written articles as well as website content.

The way it stands now, Jeff's the interviewer and I'm the camera guy. Media credentials are already in place and interviews are lined up with two drivers at this point, planning to add one or two more once we arrive.

A very cool personal aspect of this is that my cousin John has worked on numerous pit crews over the years, and he will be taking us around and introducing us to his favorite crews, drivers, and owners. He's a personable guy and very well-known on the racing circuit so I'm sure we'll be meeting plenty of folks.

In a most fortuitous convergence of interests, Mooney Aircraft will be providing the plane for the trip. Their national sales director will be accompanying us and of course he's a pilot so I'm eagerly looking forward to logging some valuable flight hours with him.

Bruce's brother owns a Mooney and prior to departing I'll get checked out in it so I can be PIC for at least some portion of the trip.

I am so thankful for such an exciting opportunity to experience an event of this magnitude . . . to meet and interact with some of those immersed in it . . . and get to fly too!

Just doesn't get much better!

Stay tuned for blog posts and facebook updates throughout the trip . . .

Getting To The Point

Just a short little post today.

So I've been studying for two FAA written exams, the Instrument Instructor and Instrument Ground Instructor, and you know how sometimes you work and work to learn or prepare for something and at some point you think, well, I just gotta do this NOW.

I am just about at that point with these writtens

. . . and I won't repeat the crude expression that describes this state of affairs but it's something about . . . or get off the pot. You get the picture.

Passed the first exam in the series a few months back, and I'm sure I'll do just fine because these two cover the exact same material. Finances (or lack thereof) were the reason I chose to put them off, and now that that situation has improved it's time to continue moving forward.

Always moving forward when possible.

Passing these two writtens will give me the credentials to get the Instrument Ground Instructor rating and then I'll be able to start earning some income working with students in our simulator at TailWind Aviation.

Working in the sim is by far the way to go for instrument training because most of what you do in the airplane - instrument procedures - can be done very realistically in the sim, and there is an almost exact knowledge transfer to the airplane.

Sim time is much less costly than the airplane is, and the added advantage is that if there's ever a question or problem you can put the sim on "hold" and work through it.

Can't do that in the airplane.

Anyways, another day or so of review oughta do it.

Till next time . . .