Went Flying!

Not as pilot, but I'll enjoy whatever flying falls into my lap. I went flying with my friend Mike, as safety pilot, while he polished up his instrument skills at Front Range airport (KFTG). He flew the the ILS and Localizer approaches to Runway 26, ILS and Localizer approaches to Runway 35 and NDB approach to Runway 26, and practiced holding patterns and tracking.

I had a blast, just riding along and watching for traffic, which was my primary job. I snapped a couple of pictures on this severe-clear day, with Pike's Peak easily visible off to the south. I also played traffic controller, and gave him vectors (magnetic headings to fly) to each initial approach fix.

Every once in awhile, I would glance down, and check our progress on the Foreflight aviation app's moving map display on my iPhone. Very cool. Except, the regular access to the phone's GPS device, and the frequent screen updates, rapidly drained the battery, until I decided to shut it off at 30%, only halfway into the flight.I was kicking myself, for not bringing K's cool iPad 3 along, since it has a much bigger screen, and a longer battery life.

Even considering the iPhone's nice high resolution color screen, my old trusty Garmin GPSMap196 handheld aviation GPS is probably a more appropriate flying companion. It does a better job of providing aviation situational awareness, with real-time course and vertical guidance for most IFR approaches, and the batteries last far longer, even though they're not rechargeable.

Note to self: Need to either plug the iPhone into the cigarette lighter to keep it charged when flying, or investigate one of those smartphone battery life extenders. Maybe the Mophie Powerstation XL would be the Christmas present I should be getting myself. Or maybe the Hydrogen Reactor I heard about recently. Or maybe even the PowerBag that my friend's wife likes.

Mike did the driving as well as the flying, and that gave me the chance to see his new (to him) 2011 VW Jetta TDI, a turbo diesel with 6-speed manual transmission. It's a very nice car, comfortable, with good safety considerations, a smooth ride, a few fun gadgets, lots of oomph when the turbo kicks in, and awesome fuel mileage the rest of the time.

Just to add to the enjoyment, we stopped and had a delicious lunch at Racines restaurant, on the way home.