As an airplane owner, I am often asked if an airplane can be a moneymaker. The question usually arrives as an assumed positive, as in, "Wow, you rent out your...
Here we are in the midst of the new normal "stay-at-home" when I just had to make an "essential" flight and got to checkout the famed San Diego beaches along the way.
I can report that he beaches were empty, the weather was perfect, and the Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen flew wonderfully. Not bad for a quarantine day!
It all started about 3 weeks or so ago when the Vixxen was due for an oil change and related maintenance. A quick flight from KRNM-Ramona (homebase) to KMYF-Montgomery Field was required to visit the great team at Gibbs Maintenance and Avionics. Along with the oil change, I had planned to have the battery system upgraded to include a backup battery thereby ensuring the G3X Garmin glass panel would be that much more safety oriented.
It took more time than any of us had guessed to sort out the setup recommended by Garmin, but in the end, it was working really well with auto-sensing and auto-failover abilities wired just so and displayable on the glass panel. Then the rains, low clouds, and stay-at-home suggestions all rolled into town. Two out of three I couldn't really do anything about but once the rains and clouds cleared, it became essential to fly the Vixxen back home to Ramona.
With very little air traffic out of Montgomery, or really anywhere in San Diego for that matter, taking off from runway 28L and turning north at the coast became a beautiful, if far too short, flight home to Ramona.
Being able to fly and enjoy the Creator's scenery from 1,500 feet off the ground through the Vixxen's huge windows is truly one of the great pleasures one can partake in.
Learning to fly, especially in the Aeroprakt Vixxen is easy and fun. Use this weird, stay-at-home period we're stuck in to read up on flying and then come see us at Fly4Fun at the Ramona airport to grab an introductory flight as soon as our
world returns to normal. We'll be waiting.
PS the grandson was awaiting my arrival at Ramona and was rewarded with some pilot seat time before we headed home.
Read On
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