Tag: piloting

“Sky King & the Old Apache,” Greg’s Cockpit Adventures from the Flying Carpet Podcast, Flight #4

aviation history, flying adventures, Greg's Podcasts, Well, I'll be!

Ride along with renowned aviator, writer, and photographer Greg Brown in his light airplane, the “Flying Carpet,” as he searches behind clouds for the real America, experiencing countless aerial adventures along the way.

Listen to “Sky King & the Old Apache,” Greg’s Flying Carpet Podcast Flight #4

“The roaring powerplant and squealing tires soon brought my instructor scrambling from the office.”

Rancher-pilot Sky King of the legendary 1950s TV program played a role in the wackiest checkride of Greg’s piloting career.

Cover photo: “Sky King” (Kirby Grant) and “niece, Penny” (Gloria Winters) with Songbird, the TV show’s Cessna 310.

Podcast music by Hannis Brown.

Greg

Find all Greg’s Flying Carpet Podcast episodes here!

Subscribe here to be notified of Greg’s latest posts and podcasts!

Listen and subscribe via your favorite podcast sources:

Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle PodcastsStitcherTuneInPocketCastsCastroPodchaserPodcast AddictDeezerListen NotesRSSiHeartRadioPandoraAmazon Music

About Greg

A former National Flight Instructor of the Year, Greg is author of five books, a former Barnes & Noble Arizona Author of the Month, and recently completed twenty years as aviation adventure columnist for AOPA’s Flight Training magazine. Some reviewers have compared his book, “Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane,” to sixties road-trip classics like “On the Road,” and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”

“Greg thinks with the mind of a pilot, questions with the curiosity of a philosopher, and sees with the eyes of a poet.” — Rod Machado, aviation author and humorist

“You don’t have to be a pilot, or even a frequent flyer, to soar with Greg Brown in [his] Flying Carpet.” — Nina Bell Allen, former Assistant Managing Editor, Readers Digest

So buckle in and join Greg for the ride!

Please support Greg’s Flying Carpet Podcast, Blog, & Student Pilot Pep Talk Facebook Group!

Make a one-time donation, or better yet, subscribe your ongoing support. Thank you! Greg

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!

“Old Pals and N-Numbers,” Greg’s Cockpit Adventures from the Flying Carpet Podcast, Flight #3

flying adventures, Greg's Aviation Books, Greg's Podcasts

Ride along with renowned aviator, writer, and photographer Greg Brown in his light airplane, the “Flying Carpet,” as he searches behind clouds for the real America, experiencing countless aerial adventures along the way.

Listen to “Old Pals and N-Numbers,” Greg’s Flying Carpet Podcast Flight #3

Like fond memories of long-ago lovers, beloved airplanes resurface occasionally from quiet corners of a pilot’s mind. We hear the last three digits of some familiar N-number and are flooded with reminiscences.

But rarely do the abbreviated call signs used in routine communications fully match the numbers of actual steeds we once flew — especially when 1500 miles and thirty years have passed under the wings.

Along the way, you’ll learn how Greg’s airplane, the Flying Carpet, earned her name.

Photo: Greg with college friends at Marsh Harbour International Airport, Great Abaco Island, Bahamas, 1976.

Podcast music by Hannis Brown.

Greg

Find all Greg’s Flying Carpet Podcast episodes here!

Subscribe here to be notified of Greg’s latest posts and podcasts!

Listen and subscribe via your favorite podcast sources:

Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle PodcastsStitcherTuneInPocketCastsCastroPodchaserPodcast AddictDeezerListen NotesRSSiHeartRadioPandoraAmazon Music

About Greg

A former National Flight Instructor of the Year, Greg is author of five books, a former Barnes & Noble Arizona Author of the Month, and recently completed twenty years as aviation adventure columnist for AOPA’s Flight Training magazine. Some reviewers have compared his book, “Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane,” to sixties road-trip classics like “On the Road,” and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”

“Greg thinks with the mind of a pilot, questions with the curiosity of a philosopher, and sees with the eyes of a poet.” — Rod Machado, aviation author and humorist

“You don’t have to be a pilot, or even a frequent flyer, to soar with Greg Brown in [his] Flying Carpet.” — Nina Bell Allen, former Assistant Managing Editor, Readers Digest

So buckle in and join Greg for the ride!

Please support Greg’s Flying Carpet Podcast, Blog, & Student Pilot Pep Talk Facebook Group!

Make a one-time donation, or better yet, subscribe your ongoing support. Thank you! Greg

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!

One-time opportunity – Save on Greg’s “Flying Carpet” Fine Art Prints!

Greg's photographs

SunsetRainshowers_1156-Hance8bitNoTankSmw1200

Save on a Flying Carpet Fine Art Photographic Print!

Over the past 18 months I’ve enjoyed as many as three Views from the Flying Carpet photography exhibits running concurrently. That’s been a thrill, and the work has been enthusiastically received.

Normally, my prints are individually made to order, including exhibit sales. So now, as the exhibit prints come down, I find myself lacking display or inventory space.

SharlotHallMuseumFCexhibit_0029-EditeSmw1200Therefore, I’ve decided to discount the previously-exhibited prints, and cover sales tax or domestic shipping. That amounts to savings of $100-400 per print, depending on size.

All prints are museum-mounted with non-glare lustre finish*, and have been displayed in secure museum or gallery settings.

See DISCOUNT LIST HERE. This is a one-time offer — when sold, they’re gone. (My regular pricing is not changing.)

  • Sale print prices include Arizona sales tax OR regular shipping within the continental US. (Prints may also be picked up in Flagstaff or Phoenix.)
  • Sales are first-come, first-served.
  • This offer applies only to the specific individual prints listed in blue.

Please CONTACT ME DIRECTLY TO ORDER discounted prints.

This is a one-time opportunity, so if your dream print is on the discount list, act on it!

Greg

Top photo: Sunset Rains. Lower photo: Sunset Over Window Rock.

*Frameless, reflection-free “museum mount-lustre” prints are bonded to Dibond aluminum-and-polyolefin sheet with museum-back subframe, with a non-glare UV-protective film laminate over the print surface. (See example.) Greg’s favorite!

Last chance to see Greg’s Phoenix “Views from the Flying Carpet” photography exhibit!

Greg's photographs

Greg-SharlotHallFCopening_JanCollinsphoto_5024eCrSmw1200Only one week remains to see my Phoenix Views from the Flying Carpet Fine Art Aerial Photography Exhibit!

IMG_3355-1024x682See two dozen of my finest photographs, at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Papago Park, through September 14th, 2014.

No further exhibits are currently planned.

Visit the museum at 1300 N. College Ave. Tempe, Arizona. (The exhibit gallery is directly upstairs from the reception desk.)

Gallery Hours
Tues. – Sat. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sun. noon – 4 p.m.
Closed on Mondays and state holidays

Museum admission is $5 for adults, with discounts for young people and seniors. Children under 11 are free.

©2014 Gregory N. Brown

Visit Greg’s first Phoenix-area “Views from the Flying Carpet” photography exhibit!

Greg's photographs

Greg-SharlotHallFCopening_JanCollinsphoto_5024eCrSmw1200Announcing my first Phoenix-area Views from the Flying Carpet Fine Art Aerial Photography Exhibit!

IMG_3355-1024x682See two dozen of my finest photographs, at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Papago Park, through September 14th, 2014.

Visit the museum at 1300 N. College Ave. Tempe, Arizona. (The exhibit is located in the upstairs gallery, directly above the reception desk.)

Gallery Hours
Tues. – Sat. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sun. noon – 4 p.m.
Closed on Mondays and state holidays

Museum admission is $5 for adults, with discounts for young people and seniors. Children under 11 are free.

©2014 Gregory N. Brown

“Secret Mountain Sunset,” Greg’s Aerial Fine Art Photographic Print

Greg's photographs

Although I’ve often photographed the area of “Secret Mountain Sunset” in daylight, never before have I experienced such an opportunity to capture the hulking rock towers of Arizona’s Red Rock / Secret Mountain Wilderness as they slip into night.

“Secret Mountain Sunset” debuts in Limited Edition 27″x40″ and 24″x36″ prints, and Open Editions of 16″x24″ and 10″x14″. Print prices start at $175. See detailed pricing and ordering information.

Like all my Views from the Flying Carpet, this photograph was collaboratively tuned for print with Master Photographic Printer Richard Jackson, who prints for the world’s finest photographers. Each individual print is meticulously crafted, mounted as appropriate, and packaged for shipping under Mr. Jackson’s supervision.

Learn more about my Views from the Flying Carpet Fine Art Photographic Prints, including available images, and our process for creating these marvelous prints.

View a video about my aerial photography, and subscribe for email updates.

Hope you enjoy this view from my cockpit!

Greg

PS: Visit my first Phoenix-area Views from the Flying Carpet Arts Fine Art Aerial Photography exhibit at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Papago Park, Tempe, AZ, mid-July through September, 2014.

©2014 Gregory N. Brown

“Death Valley Salt Flats II,” Greg’s Aerial Fine Art Photographic Print

Greg's photographs

I photographed “Death Valley Salt Flats II,” near Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, at 282 ft (86 m) below sea level.

Death Valley is the most other-worldly place Jean and I have ever encountered, both on the ground and from aloft. Swirling “salt devils” arise from bone-white salt flats to pierce a cobalt sky, contrasting against shockingly vibrant mineral deposits tinting the surrounding cliffs and mountains with unnatural color.

Read my Flying Carpet column, “Birthday Flowers,” describing this particular trip. (This column first appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine, June, 2005.)

“Death Valley Salt Flats II” debuts in Limited Edition 27″x40″ and 24″x36″ prints, and Open Editions of 16″x24″ and 10″x14″. Print prices start at $175. See detailed pricing and ordering information.

Like all my Views from the Flying Carpet, this photograph was collaboratively tuned for print with Master Photographic Printer Richard Jackson, who prints for the world’s finest photographers. Each individual print is meticulously crafted, mounted as appropriate, and packaged for shipping under Mr. Jackson’s supervision.

Learn more about my Views from the Flying Carpet Fine Art Photographic Prints, including available images, and our process for creating these marvelous prints.

View a video about my aerial photography, and subscribe for email updates.

Hope you enjoy this view from my cockpit!

Greg

PS: Visit my Coconino Center for the Arts Fine Art Aerial Photography exhibit in Flagstaff, Arizona, through May 31, 2014.

©2014 Gregory N. Brown

“Lake Mead Shoreline,” Greg’s Aerial Fine Art Photographic Print

Greg's photographs

Cobalt waters contrast against golden rock along the Lake Mead Shoreline, east of Las Vegas, Nevada.

I made this photograph one beautiful morning flying from Flagstaff to Las Vegas. The trip home, however, was far more harrowing. Read the story in my Flying Carpet column, “Good Roads to Land On.”

“Lake Mead Shoreline” debuts in Limited Edition 27″x40″ and 24″x36″ prints, and Open Editions of 16″x24″ and 10″x14″. Print prices start at $175. See detailed pricing and ordering information.

Like all my Views from the Flying Carpet, this photograph was collaboratively tuned for print with Master Photographic Printer Richard Jackson, who prints for the world’s finest photographers. Each individual print is meticulously crafted, mounted as appropriate, and packaged for shipping under Mr. Jackson’s supervision.

Learn more about my Views from the Flying Carpet Fine Art Photographic Prints, including available images, and our process for creating these marvelous prints.

View a video about my aerial photography, and subscribe for email updates.

Hope you enjoy this view from my cockpit!

Greg

PS: Visit my Coconino Center for the Arts exhibit in Flagstaff, Arizona, from April 15-May 31, 2014, and my Sharlot Hall Museum exhibit in Prescott, Arizona through April 27th, 2014.

©2014 Gregory N. Brown

“Crimson Clouds,” Greg’s Aerial Fine Art Photographic Print

Greg's photographs
Crimson Clouds_1165-PSeH_CorrectedSmw1200

I captured these “Crimson Clouds” and rain showers tinting the western sky over Arizona’s Verde Valley. (Read the story behind this photograph in my Flying Carpet column, “Enchanted Journey.”)

“Crimson Clouds” debuts in Limited Edition  27″x40″ and 24″x36″ prints, and Open Editions of 16″x24″ and 10″x14″. Print prices start at $175. See detailed pricing and ordering information.

Like all my Views from the Flying Carpet, this photograph was collaboratively tuned for print with Master Photographic Printer Richard Jackson, who prints for the world’s finest photographers. Each individual print is meticulously crafted, mounted as appropriate, and packaged for shipping under Mr. Jackson’s supervision.

Learn more about my Views from the Flying Carpet Fine Art Photographic Prints, including available images, and our process for creating these marvelous prints.

View a video about my aerial photography, and subscribe for email updates.

Hope you enjoy this view from my cockpit!

Greg

PS: Visit my Sharlot Hall Museum exhibit in Prescott, Arizona through April 27th, 2014.

©2014 Gregory N. Brown

shoot better ILS and LPV precision approaches

Greg's piloting tips, Greg’s flight instructor tips

Pilots often have difficulty maintaining the localizer on ILS (or GPS-LPV) approaches:

“I’m always chasing the localizer needle and get so frustrated that I forget to maintain the glideslope needle; then I have to miss the approach.”

In my experience, this common problem most often occurs when pilots make excessive heading changes, rather than because the wind has changed. These pointers should help:

1. Join the final approach course far enough out to allow time to nail down your wind-corrected heading before joining the glideslope. Ask ATC to put you on the final approach course a mile or two outside the final approach fix. That will reduce your workload.

2. Commit to memory the heading you’ve identified to fly, and return to that heading whenever you drift off. Say you’ve determined that, with wind correction, you need 360 degrees inbound heading to stay on the localizer. Now MEMORIZE that 360 heading, AND RETURN TO IT EVERY TIME YOU DRIFT OFF HEADING. If you look away for a moment, your heading has likely changed. If your heading is not exactly 360 when you look back, turn immediately back to 360, level wings, and THEN check the localizer needle to see what it’s doing. This will stabilize your heading on the approach.

3. Limit final approach course heading corrections to  5º at a time. (You’re probably used to using 10° corrections or more to track VOR or enroute GPS.) If you do need to correct the heading, MEMORIZE the new one. So if you’re inbound on that 360° heading and notice the localizer needle drifting to the left, make a CONSCIOUS HEADING ADJUSTMENT of five degrees left (355º), turn to it, and memorize it. Again, if you drift off that heading turn immediately back to 355° before making any other corrections.

4. Make all localizer or LPV heading corrections using ½ standard rate turn. (That’ll reduce the “chasing.”)

5. Throughout the approach, continually reset the heading bug on your heading indicator to mark the heading you want to fly. If you have no heading bug, consider installing an add-on bug, or an indicator that has one. A heading bug helps tremendously in keeping you pointed where you want to go using minimal brainpower.

All this may sound elementary, but it’s not. Most pilots are busy enough on precision approaches that they chase the needle rather than consciously selecting, remembering, and holding a heading. But stabilizing your heading anywhere near the correct one prevents the needle from drifting much, so it’s easier to correct. That’s why it’s more effective to hold a heading (and return immediately to it if you drift off) than to chase the needle without a specific heading in mind.

Obviously, it’s hard to absorb this sort of thing from reading. But try these tips when you next practice precision approaches, and I think you’ll be pleased with the improvement. (See also my post, “IFR made easier…“)

©2009, 2014 Gregory N. Brown