ARC Start

We made it to the start of the ARC here in Fredericksburg, VA. We had quite the adventure. We took off from Ionia, MI, did a low pass as the current SMAT class watched and then punched into the clouds. We flew IFR and headed south towards Clark County (Jeffersonville, IN) but decided to divert to Lunkin, OH (just outside of Cincinnati) due to Indianapolis reporting 40kt wind shear and extreme rain/ storms coming in.

SMAT Class along the fence as we did a low pass.

Rainbow in IFR

Parking spot at Fredericksburg

That was a good idea. We quickly got fuel in Lunkin and we were the "little" plane (they called us that on the radio) on the ramp woth a bunch of big citation jets. I quickly checked the weather and filed a flight plan and we got out of there before more storms came in. On our way east to Fredericksburg it was pretty hazy but overall clear. We flew over the Appalachian "hills" and landed about an hour before the sun went down and the rain came in.

Today we worked on getting our airplane inspected, our credentials checked, and the logbooks verified. We had an issue that the ADs (airworthiness directives) were not all signed off and so I spent 2 hours researching and making sure they either didn't apply to our plane or were complied with. I was able to sign them off since I am an A&P mechanic. We finally got approved so now we can enjoy the evening.

That's the update for now. Stay tuned to facebook for more updates and photos. Ps this update is from my phone so if the format comes out weird that's why.

Fly with Christ,
Helen "Girl Friday"

Air Race Classic!

Well it's finally here! We're ready to race!


We're departing tomorrow *weather permitting*... from Ionia (Y70) and heading to Fredericksburg, VA (KMRN). It looks like we may have to depart later in the afternoon and overnight halfway.


Track us live at trackleaders.com/arc15 Team 34!
Also, I will be posting photos and updates on our facebook page throughout the race. www.facebook.com/34arc15


Now off to pack and clean up my house!

Fly with Christ,
Helen

Tailwheel Adventures!

Grand Ledge (GrandAir is the building/ ramp with the circle driveway)

The Bush Pilot Program has been officially put into motion at GrandAir. Several of us are learning tail wheel in our 1946 Taylorcraft and the course consists of finding small airstrips around Lansing, practicing takeoffs and landings at each place, and sometimes enjoying lunch.


These flights are a lot of fun because it is a challenge to find the strip, watch out for other traffic (since we don't have radios), land on short grass runways, and meet people who may be at that airport. One thing Pete and I are trying to get started is using it as a ministry by handing out food and bibles.

Eating lunch in Glowacki

Below you can see some of the airstrips we've been to. Grand Ledge is to the West (left) of Lansing and we're trying to hit all the open circle airports around. Other notable places are Ionia to the West, Eaton Rapids  to the South (where I circled over the town- yellow blob with flag on it, on my first commercial flight all whilst watching out for that big tower). The most Northern airstrip we went to is Glowacki where we had lunch (see pictures below).

Multiple adventures... to be expanded to the north and all around!

Here's an interesting tidbit. The inner circle around Lansing is their protected airspace which goes from the ground to 4900 ft. This means that you can not enter it with out their permission. Since we didn't have radios (ie couldn't get permission) we had to stay north of that circle.

1946 Taylorcraft

Fly with Christ,
Helen "Girl Friday"

AIR RACE CLASSIC 2015

24 days and counting....

Maggie (Pilot) and me (Co-pilot)

So I should have written about this awhile back, but you know how that goes... I have posted on Facebook so if you've been following here you may have seen it.

Back in the fall my friend, Maggie Wint, asked me to be her co-pilot in the 2015 Air Race Classic. Maggie works at the Ionia County Airport and I met her through SMAT and being at the airport.

The Air Race Classic (http://airraceclassic.org/) is an all women's cross country flying race that is held annually and was started by Amelia Earhart. Each year the course is different and goes all over the US covering on average 2400 statute miles. The challenge is win but also  to be faster than your handicapped speed. Handicap speed means the speed at which your test flight averages out to be. The test flight covers a 1 mile square (you fly north then west then south then east to finish up a box). In the race you are trying to be faster than what you started at. The goal is to plan the best cross country (by factoring in weather, wind weight, fuel consumption, etc.) and to beat your time all while flying in day VFR conditions.

Classic Racer 34 and Maggie

This year it starts in Fredericksburg, VA and ends in Fairhope, AL between June 22-25.
There are 53 teams/airplanes in this year's race and are normally aspirated airplanes (single or multi engine) with engines ranging between 100-600 horse power. The pilots racing range from 17 to 90 years old.  Below is the map of the course. Later this week I'll update the blog with a schedule of where we'll be when so you can come out and see us if you're nearby.






We will be flying a Cessna 177B (Cardinal) and departing from Ionia on June 18th and returning just in time for SMAT days (a fly-in/ drive-in festival) on June 28th. Our team is Classic Racer #34 and we are called the Flying Nomads (because we have lived in many different places and have moved a lot).

Race Course 2015

If you want to follow us during the race stay tuned into Facebook (www.facebook.com/34arc2015) Team 34. Also, I will attach a link later on where you can follow us live as we fly.

Our logo

This race is funded by our own pockets so if you would like to donate that would be wonderful! Also, we are making shirts with our logo on it and if you would like to purchase one we can definitely get one for you (prices TBD) Just shoot me an email with your size and we'll get it to you. (hagg.helen@gmail.com)





Fly with Christ,
Helen "Girl Friday"

And..... We're back from our commercial break...

Well, I'm back to writing my blog... It's been quite awhile.

A lot of exciting things have happened since I posted back in August.

The Piper Apache in which I got my multi engine rating.

Here's some of the highlights:
August- Graduated from SMAT with my A&P license.
September- Started working at GrandAir Aviation full time.
--fast forward to 2015--
January- Earned my Commercial Pilot's License!
May- Earned my Multi Engine rating!
Today: May 23, 2015- Took my first "customer" up for aerial photography. 

I'm excited to be flying a lot lately now that the winter has passed and the weather is brighter, warmer, and bumpier. This summer I hope to earn my tail wheel endorsement, possibly sea plane rating, and get my CFI (Certified Flight Instructor License).
I am getting closer to my goal of reaching 500 hours for missionary flying so I will soon begin to apply to MAF and see where God leads me from here. Right now I have 310 hours.

Freight flying!

This week I got to fly close to 8 hours! Wednesday we flew the Cessna 310 to Mackinac Island to pick up a charter customer and then Thursday we got a freight trip so we flew to Minnesota, picked up a package and then flew it to Grand Rapids. Today I got to fly our Cessna 172 to Ionia for breakfast with Maggie and to meet fellow Air Race Classic Racers (*spoiler alert for the next blog*), then I did some practice landings with Pete where we did a lot of short field take offs and landings, and then I flew my first "commercial pilot" flight (where I actually get paid to fly). We flew over Eaton Rapids (south of Lansing) and took aerial photos for my friend's artwork. It sure has been a busy week!

My first paid flight! Bradley takes aerial photos of towns, enlarges the image and then draws it by hand to make cool personalized artwork.

Stay tuned for more blogs covering topics like:
~ The 2015 Air Race Classic
~ Tail wheel adventures
~ Women in Aviation and networking activities
~ and more!

Fly with Christ,
Helen ("Girl Friday")

The end is near!!!

I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! But hopefully it's not the train- as my instructor says. We officially have 1 month left and I think the last count was 23 school days. Those days are going to be jam packed with studying for the Powerplant test. It's the same type of test as the Airframe but it will certify me to work on the engine part of the aircraft. Right now we are deep in the oil galleys of tearing apart our engines but we're starting to put it back together and hopefully get it running by the end of the year. The engine I have been working on is a Continental IO-520. This engine is used on C310 as well as other engines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_O-520.

IO-520 Engine (beginning of taking it apart)

Crankshaft with connecting rods attached (this was actually taken when were tearing it apart, but now we are at the same stage but putting it back together)

Crankcase halves

Camshaft

 Another really cool and actually applicable project we worked on was balancing a propeller for one of the flight school airplanes. This plane had a lot of vibration and things were breaking/ wearing out earlier than they should have. It turned out to be that the prop was very unbalanced. We used a fancy machine to tell us how much out of balance the prop was and it was almost off the chart! Ideally you want .1 on the scale but our first and subsequent 4-5 readings were around .7- NOT good! We experimented with adding washers/ weight to different places on the spinner and flywheel and finally got it to .05 (under .1)! It only took 3 hours! but it was a good 3 hours of solid learning.

Balancing the prop

The sensor just above the prop with the orange wire going to it tells the machine (below) how much vibration there is at certain revolutions per minute (rpms).

This machine acts like a seismograph- it measures the vibration of the propeller and draws it out.

Lately, I am seeing more an more of God's abundant blessing and provision. He has provided me with a job both now and after school ends. I am working at Grand Ledge airport (just outside of Lansing, MI) as a line guy gal. Which basically means I fuel airplanes that come in and also do office work- helping people pay bills, etc. I will be working there full time after school and will most likely be in charge of the flight school (business side, not teaching) to relieve the other guys of some of the duties so they can fly.

Pete and I in the C310

Another blessing is that I have had the opportunity to fly and get some multi-engine hours in a C310 with my friend/ boss, Pete. Once school is over I will finish up the requirements for my Commercial license, get my multi-engine and then I can get paid to fly as co-pilot in a multi-engine. I may do CFI training (CFI= instructor) as well later in the year.

I know I have complete dropped the ball on the Catechism study and even updating my blog, but I hope you kept going with it! I haven't had much time and honestly haven't used my time all too well either. But here's a quick update/ prayer list-
- The adoption process is almost complete. It could be any week now that my parents go to pick up my little brother and sister. :) So pray for that to come soon and for traveling mercies.
- It's the end of the year and we are all starting to get our rear's in gear to finish. So pray for diligence and studiousness.

I'll try and update more. This week I'm going to Oshkosh, WI for the EAA Airventure! You will hear all about that in the next blog.

Fly with Christ,
Helen

I'm back!

Well it's has been way too long! A lot has been going on over the last couple of weeks- mostly studying though. This past week I took my General and Airframe Written, Oral, and Practical tests and I passed them all!! This means that I am now a certified Airframe mechanic and can fix and inspect the airplane. What I can't do is anything on the engine (Powerplant). At the end of August I will take my tests for the Powerplant portion and then be rated as an A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) mechanic. This might help.. The A&P is like M.D. for a doctor after their name. And the test(s) I take are like board exams.
I had been studying for quite some time and it all paid off, except for one section. Each section (General, Airframe, and Powerplant) have 3 sections- the written, oral (Os) and practical (Ps). I took the General written back in the Fall and last week I took the Airframe written (multiple choice test). Then on Tuesday was both the general and airframe Os and Ps. I started with the Oral part- where my instructor/ examiner asked me questions and I answered them. I had to get at least 70% on all the sections and unfortunately I failed 1 section (Painting). But that's alright, I just moved on with the rest of the test. Next I did the Ps- this included finding information in the logbooks and maintenance manual, filling out paperwork correctly, making hydraulic fluid lines, finding corrosion, troubleshooting electrical problems, safety wiring, inspecting parts for airworthiness, riveting, and much more. The whole test took about 7 hours. For the oral section I had failed I just had to see an instructor/ someone who is Airframe certified and have them go over the questions and subject material with me. Then they wrote a letter to the FAA saying I was good to retake that section and then I retook it and passed it with flying colors! 
God definitely provided for me in giving me the knowledge to do well with the whole test and the comfort to not be anxious but take it one thing at a time. Praise God!

Pete and me flying the C310

Another awesome praise this week was that I got to fly again! And not just in some tiny C172... but in a Twin Engine Cessna 310! WOW! It was so cool to fly a multiengine. My friend flies charter flights and asked if I wanted to come and be co-pilot because on the way back there would be no passengers so I could be instructed then. We flew about an hour north to Harbor Springs, dropped off 2 passengers and then on the way back I flew left seat. I got to start up, taxi, take off, climb to 10,000ft, talk to the tower/ ATC, plow through some clouds, descend, and land (with the help of Pete- my friend), and shut down the airplane! It was one of the coolest planes I've gotten to fly so far!
I praise God for putting opportunities in my life like this.

The alternator I rebuilt! With a yellow tag= GOOD... At first it had a red tag (Bad) but I fixed it.

Andrew with the Continental IO-520 engine

 

that we will work on.

So, that's most of the stuff that's been going on in my life right now. I'll try and do some short updates here and there this week and the following.

Here's a short list of things we've been doing in school:
We took apart/ put together and have/ are testing alternators, carburetors, magnetos, and we get to run up engines and check different things.


We are now into the Powerplant curriculum so we get to tear apart and engine and put it back together in the next 4 months in our groups of 4. (More on that subject later)

Getting ready to run and C-85 engine on the stand.

Fly with Christ,
Helen Hagg, A