Thursday, June 28, 2012

Diamond Star Safety Pilot

I swapped a few text messages with Mike B, he was looking for a safety pilot.  Mike wanted to shoot a few approaches in the DA40 with the glass panel Garmin.  I was on my way home from Cape May and still needed to get home and check on Mary then grab my headset bag along with a quick turn and burn for the airport.

Mike  completed the pre-flight and we hung around chatting about twin engine aircraft and  flight training.  Eventually we saddled up and went through the systems.  I have a long way to go but I think I could work my way through the screens enough to flight plan the garmin systems. 

We  launched off runway three two with a left turn out on course south east.  We headed to Millville for a few rounds. First up was the ILS RWY 10  that terminated in a low pass with an early break to the north for inbound traffic on two eight that we were talking to.  Next up was the GPS 28 approach. This approach went smooth right down to a five mile final when the cessna we had been talking to decided to cut this one short and turned base to final instead of extending. Mike tuned north for a 360* while under foggles and reentered the approach.  The garmin WAAS picked right up and was back tracking us down to minimums.

This one was a touch and go followed by a climb out to the north.  Mike and I crossed the Delaware river and headed towards WENDS for a procedure turn on the GPS RWY 35 at Summit, KEVY.  Mike did a real nice job with another T&G and then pointed us to home.  I got to do some flying and worked on some slow flight, the Diamond Star handles very nice.

It was a fun night flying followed up with our ritual debrief at Eats. Mike and I will try and catch up next week so I can get night current again.

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