Flying with “co-pilot” Matt!
On a hot and sunny July 14th, 2012, Matt and I went up in a Piper Warrior on a sight seeing mission over Lake Simcoe. After numerous pictures and a couple of steep turns, Matt took the controls and was a natural aviator! He was able to, with a little bit of help, fly us part way back to Buttonville. In addition to the high quality photos taken, a video of our takeoff has been added to the video section so go on over and have a look.
Check out this awesome slideshow of Dan & Matt’s adventure
-> Matt – July 14th, 2012
Be sure to take a look at more awesome aviation photos/videos from Fly Dan Air
-> Photos
-> Videos
We now have video!
On June 3rd, 2012 on the way back from a City Tour, Ryan pulled out his camera and took a great video of our landing on runway 15 at Buttonville CYKZ. I have done a little bit of site reorganization. You will now find all photos and videos under the media section in the navigation bar.
As a side note: Fly Dan Air had its 1,000th visitor this week. Woo hoo!
June 3rd, 2012 – Landing at CYKZ with Ryan
$100 Hamburger with Julie and Scott
I can now cross off another item from my 2012 ambitions list as I went flying so I could eat a $100 hamburger with Julie and Scott on April 28th, 2012. Well, sort of. It was really a delicious pizza for Scott and I, while Julie dined on a chicken caesar wrap, BUT IT STILL COUNTS! This also contributed to my ambition of flying to three new airports this year as I had never flown into Lake Simcoe Regional Airport before. Two more to go!
Check out the photos taken from our adventure. Near the end of the slide show there is a a fairly lengthy landing sequence so feel free to scroll faster through those ones. If you scroll between photos fast enough during the landing sequence it has a cool flip book effect, even though I cut out half of the photos there.
-> Julie & Scott – Lake Simcoe Regional $100 Hamburger – April 28th, 2012.
Be sure to take a look at more awesome aviation photos from Fly Dan Air
-> Photos
City Tour with Eric & Adam
On March 31st, 2012, Eric, Adam and I departed Buttonville Airport on a cloudy afternoon and headed downtown armed with two cameras. We ended up being quite lucky as the clouds seemed to clear away resulting in beautiful blue skies while we circled around Toronto.
This happened to be one of the busiest afternoons flying in quite some time. It seems that pilots are coming out of their winter hibernation!
These are some of the clearest photos taken while I have been flying so be sure to check them out!
-> Eric & Adam – Toronto City Tour – March 31st, 2012.
Be sure to take a look at more awesome aviation photos from Fly Dan Air
-> Photos
My First Solo
Flying solo was something I dreamed about constantly, right from the day I started my ground school lessons. On January 27th, 2006, I had a checkout flight with a senior instructor to see if I was ready for my first solo. Boy, was I nervous to be flying with someone other than my trusted instructor! After a few landings the senior pilot said that I needed to have straighter circuits before he would let me go solo. For those of you who do not know what a circuit is, I will give you a brief explanation. It is a strict airway pattern used to separate aircraft that are landing. It allows you to have stable replicable landings and gives pilots ample time to do appropriate safety checks. This landing pattern is used by all single engine piston planes as well as the big jets landing at major city airports. It is important to get it right. Being told I was not quite ready to go solo was very disappointing news, but I was so determined to move forward and achieve this milestone. I kept my head held high and kept going.
March 29, 2006, after two months of sporadic lessons thanks to winter, I went up to do a few practice circuits with my instructor. After we were done, my instructor told me to park the plane near the terminal instead of tying it down on the apron. This was an odd request that I had never received before. As we arrived, I shut the engine off assuming that I was bringing the plane to the terminal for another student to jump in and go up with my instructor. To my surprise my instructor, Adam Baxter, quickly unhooked his seatbelt, opened the door and jumped out. The senior instructor I had flown with 2 months prior jumped in and off we went to complete a couple more circuits. Again, I parked the plane just in front of the terminal and the senior instructor departed the aircraft. Before I had time to think, Adam was back and said “Take the plane up, go do one circuit and have some fun”. He then quickly closed the door and walked away. My mother got her wish: she would not know ahead of time that I was about to fly my first solo that day.
As I taxied the plane the length of Runway 33 (approximately 4000 feet) I remember singing and feeling on top of the world. Oddly, I was not nervous at all. It felt right. I took off at 11:20 am and completed my first solo circuit. I was 200ft high in the pattern, but it was straight (200ft high was probably due to the fact that I was flying a Piper Archer instead of a Warrior which has another 20 HP and I only had a couple of hours in that type of plane)! The landing was smooth. Just after touchdown the air traffic controller (ATC) came on and said “Congratulations on your first solo”. I taxied the plane back to the tie-downs sporting the largest grin of my life. Adam came running with a camera and took a few photos (featured above). After it was all done, I had the pleasure of driving to my parents house and reciting the days exciting events.
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