Pilot Mike’s Weblog

A blog about my aviation and other life experiences in the midwest.

Entries for the ‘airplanes’ Category

Real Pilot Stories: Snake in the Airplane

The March 2008 issue of Flying (p39) had a story which caught my eye. It was an article by Jay Hopkins, who was describing the resources available to pilots to do home based study when life gets in the way of getting in the cockpit. While Mr. Hopkins was describing resources the AOPA Air Safety [...]

Boeing 777 accident; FADEC friend or foe?

Last Thursday, a Boeing 777 crashed while on final approach at London’s Heathrow Airport. The initial report from the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), indicates the plane did not respond after the pilots pushed the throttles forward for more power. The aircraft landed about 1000 feet short of Runway 27L. 152 people were on [...]

Thanksgiving in the DA40XL

The family and I took a trip up to Omaha on Thanksgiving Day in the Diamond DA40XL. Weather was forecasted to be good, however, there was some warmer air aloft and I had some concerns of visibility due to the recent snow fall to our north (colder ground temperatures). The issue was that the Blair [...]

DA40XL Cross Country Flight Summary

This past weekend I had the chance to use my shiny new VFR/IFR checkout in the new Diamond DA40XL on an overnight cross country flight to Iowa with my family (minus the dogs). Get the details of the flight including lessons learned after the jump.

First Flight — Diamond DA40XL

Today I had my first flight and VFR portion of my checkout in N793US, a 2007 Diamond DA40 XL. I plan to post an in-depth review of the airplane after I complete my IFR checkout and do a XC flight back to Iowa next weekend. In advance of a more detailed write-up, I want to [...]

Composite Aircraft Return to KC Rental Market

Was so excited yesterday when I was looking around on the Diamond Aircraft site and discovered a local FBO (KCAC) had recently been selected as a Diamond distributor — Okay, so I was only moderately intrigued at this point; give me a second I’ll get to the good part…the rest of the story after the [...]