My good friend, Corey, is a fellow student-aviator. He is currently working on his Instrument Rating, and asked me to serve as his safety-pilot yesterday. I was honored to be asked, as so many of my pilot friends did this for me as I flew towards my IFR rating. Corey trains with OnCore Aviation (https://www.facebook.com/oncoreaviation/?fref=ts), also based @ KROC. They offer a Diamond DA-40 aircraft as their training platform. It's a VERY cool airplane, and I even got some stick time in her yesterday.
The Diamond DA-40
We flew to Cortland Airport (N03) for the Cortland Airfest, to check out the cool planes and visit our museum's birds as well, as they sold rides. Our good buddy Robert tagged along, as well! We picked him up in Canandaigua (D38.) The clouds were a bit "iffy" in the AM, when Corey and I met @ KROC. So, we waited about an hour for them to rise a bit. Luckily, we had some non-in-flight entertainment to hold us over, the MiG-17PF that flew in our show. She's hanging out @ KROC until Oshkosh Airshow, next week, where she will go to be "judged," and hopefully win "Best in Show" for Classic Jets. She sure deserves it...
Once the clouds lifted, Corey and I were on our way to D38 to pick up Rob. The DA-40 is such a smooth, fast plane. I immediately fell in love...
Corey & I in the DA-40
We were doing 120-130 KTS en route to Cortland, and arrived within 25 mins of departing D38 (wow!) The show in Cortland was a great time, good food, cool planes. The museum folks seemed to be having a good day as well. We stayed for about an hour, and then departed to come back to D38 to drop Rob back off.
Robert J. flying the Diamond
After we dropped Robert off in Canandaigua, I hopped back up into the front seat. I taxied, took-off, and flew the DA-40 all the way back to KROC, and let Corey handle to approach/landing. What a nice piece of aircraft. The stick is located between your knees. This is my favorite feature, as it feels as though you're flying a WWII warbird. ;-) I loved flying the Diamond, and plan to do so again soon. Thanks again, Corey, for inviting me along! To loosely-quote Top Gun, "I'll be you're (safety pilot) anytime."
Before I end this post, I'd like to also thank my dear friends Al & Anne Fields'. Your continued support of both the "Lucy Gal" project and my flight training has meant more to me than I can relay. Thank you all for reading and following my pilot journey! As always, "Keep 'Em Flying," and "Never, Never, Never Give Up."
7/16 Flight Time Logged = 2.0 Hrs
Total Flight Time = 237.1
Total Flight Time to Commercial License = 12.9 Hrs
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