Recent content by jhinman

Almost nothing in nature is binary--are there only two possible skin colors? Two eye colors? Two hair colors? Even eye and hair color are not enumerable--you can have blue eyes, blue-green eyes, green eyes, brown eyes, greenish brown eyes, and almost everything in between. Same with hair color...

You've got it backwards. Most airports will sequence you in no problem. The airports that are so busy that you can't get in VFR except maybe late at night--THOSE are the exceptions. I've landed a Cherokee at plenty of class B airports (including KLAS). Good radio skills help. Personally, I do...

I've been based out of SMO for the past 6 years. I've never heard them say "on request" in response to a VFR take-off request...until this past Saturday. I had taxied up to the runway behind another airplane. I heard that airplane be cleared for take-off, and as soon as they started taxiing...

The Archer III that I rent has the carb ice detection plac'd as INOP. I'm told, though I cannot confirm, that it didn't actually break, but was so sensitive that it was deemed useless and the owner just had it disabled permanently.

Good idea. Much safer to only use it in-person at places like Target.

I took both my PPL and IR checkrides with Mr. Carey. Can confirm; he is the real deal.

Talk to my friends at Proteus (http://proteus.aero). I did my private and instrument training with them in '09 and continue to rent with them to this day. They've got a fleet of Piper aircraft including an Arrow that is great for taking on longer trips (trues out at 135-140 knots). Any one of...

And we had to walk uphill in the snow, both ways!

How late are you planning to depart? Curfew at SMO is 11pm local time.

Thanks for the clarification. Certainly So Cal could give someone a 250º heading after take-off and it would keep them clear of the LAX departures, but would they? They don't do that during the day, even when there is a giant line of departures at LAX ready to go. They just make you wait...

I've not tried myself, but I'd be surprised if you could get a clearance after-hours out of SMO, because of its proximity to LAX. Basically in order to give you a void time, departures from the north complex at LAX would have to stop until you were in the air and radar identified. But you...

This was my biggest disappointment moving up from the original Mini to the Retina Mini. I haven't e-mailed them about it because I just assumed it was already on their roadmap, but if e-mails count as votes, I guess I should! Try going to airnav.com in Safari and pull up approach plates. They...

I swore by my iPad Mini Yoke Mount until the FBO where I rent got a new Archer III on the line with a yoke that was too big to fit it. So I flew with the thing in my lap and felt it worked a lot better. The biggest advantage is that the thing doesn't move when I bank the plane! To keep it...

I've never been successful in getting a GPS signal on a commercial flight with my iPhone. Even holding it up to a window doesn't seem to help. :dunno:

Does that mean living so close to the sun that your wings melt?