First post and Looking for a flying club

Upandout

Upandout

Pre-Flight
Joined
Jul 19, 2007
Messages
46
Location
Raleigh, NC
Display Name
Display name:
Billy
Hey everybody! Now that I've managed to drag myself into financial solvency, I figured what better way to mess it all up than get back into aviation? I'm in Wendell NC and hadn't had much luck getting any information about flying clubs in the area, so please help out if you can!

Looking forward to reading posts and meeting folks,
Billy Janke
 
welcome Billy!. I dont know anything about North Carolina but there are others from that part of the country on board here.
 
don't have any info on NC but some folks here will. I just wanteed to say welcome! Hope you;ll like it here/
 
Welcome to the board, Billy!

I'm not from NC (Wisconsin, here!) but I found this web site with a quick search. http://wingsofcarolina.com

Keep us informed. Glad to hear you're getting back into flying!
 
Thanks Kate - how I wish TTA was a bit closer, but for me it's about an hour and 20 minute drive to Sanford, and I've been looking for ways to make this addiction less expensive ;)

I just found out the other day that the FBO out at RDU has a Cessna 206 available for rent - not something I see too often for a rental so in the meantime I'll at least have something new to try out - the search continues...........
 
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There is a good flight school at JNX (Johnston County Airport) called JNX Flight. They have a variety of 172's, one 182 and a Citabria.

Jeff Watson rents from the FBO at RDU and has flown the 206. He might be able to shed some light on that FBO.

Tom Sisk is a member of a flying club at RDU. I understand they are fairly restrictive (Hmmm... Tom Sisk in a restrictive organizationB) )

TTA is a long haul from Wendell, so that club is probably a little too far away.
 
Thanks. I have yet to go to JNX, so far I've been flying out of LHZ but they're more focused on rotor training. Raleigh-East or Knightdale airport, whatever it is called these days, seems to stay fairly busy but I haven't had a chance to go by and talk to anyone. As long as I can get my hands on something with wings you won't hear me complain too much :D
 
I train with FlightGest at RDU. They have a very modern fleet of well maintained aircraft. The T206H is a great plane, my favorite to fly actually. The majority of their fleet is G1000s, so you can expect to need a G1000 check-out as well as type but they can usually be combined.

The T206H requires an instrument rating and 10hrs dual with a PPL or 5hrs dual with Commercial/IA ratings. It's really set by the insurance company. I think there's a minimum number of hours too. I think that number is 300, but I might be off on that one. The T206H is one of two "round gauge" planes left in the fleet. 310HP is surprising when transitioning from a 172R. I've grown to love the truck-like handling & stability of the beast, but one has to be ready for the turbo boost on top of all those ponies. There's a high altitude portion of the check-out since it's certified to 25,000' that is very interesting. I have a better idea what I'm like when hypoxia sets in.

Good luck !
 
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I didn't know that thing had 310hp - I'm sure it's impressive. So far I have all of 100hrs under my belt so I figured I'd be limited as to what ins. companies would allow - I'm sure the same goes for clubs but I wanted to at least find out what to work toward.

Have you found the G1000 to be pretty intuitive for the user? I'll probably transition over to FlightGest since they at least have airplanes with transparent windows - unlike the well-traveled 172 out at LHZ.

Thanks for the reply
 
Upandout said:
Have you found the G1000 to be pretty intuitive for the user?
Click to expand...

Yes, the G1000 is very easy to use. If you have any Garmin 430/530 time, it helps.

There is a PC-based "trainer" you can buy from Garmin for a nominal fee ($3.99):

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=153&pID=6420#Simulators

The manuals are free to download and study:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/manual.jsp?product=010-G1000-00&cID=153&pID=6420

And there are plenty of good books/DVDs out there. I liked Max Trescott's book:

http://www.g1000book.com
 
The G1000 is different way of flying. Intuitive ? I wouldn't go that far, but it is well-thought out. There are a few things I wish that were different with regards to loading freqs. I would like to fly a G1000 with a GNC700 autopilot.

What I like is the presentation of the information. It's neat to see the wind vector and the little plane on the moving map crabbed into the wind. There's a white vector arrow that display the intended path of the plane, align that on the magenta line and you're perfectly corrected for the wind at that moment. The Traffic display is helpful in the NC haze. Getting the latest METARs is a great time saver. If you're flying IFR, it's nice to 'see' where the VFR conditions are in realtime. I found it a good way to verify my plan and the forecast I got from FSS. All the button pushing can be a pain if ATC throws you a curve. I end up reverting to knob spinning to tune things rather than trying the automated way. I have only about 8hrs in the G1000s, I'll get the correct habits ingrained soon.

Using the resources that Troy mentions above is exactly what I did. Max Trescott's book simplified everything. I bought the Garmin G1000 simulator (Cessna), then walked through everything that Max talked about and compared things to the G1000 Pilot's Guide. Garmin has a great Pilot Training Guide, which can be downloaded here.

FlightGest will require VFR and IFR check-outs if you have an instrument rating. I did my IFR check-out in actual conditions which was a blast.

Good luck !
 
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