google earth and charts

if you're into google earth you might find this link interesting:
http://www.wikihow.com/Overlay-Sectional-Aeronautical-Charts-in-Google-Earth

i like to bring along my gps watch (forerunner 305) during flights to capture my flight. i then use google earth and upload from the watch and show the track on the earth.

xc and a long day (and a flat!)

a couple of us did a longish xc (for us) yesterday. we took the following route:

KJYO -> JASEN -> CSN -> KOMH -> GVE -> KFVX -> MOL -> KSHD -> CEROL -> AANTS -> HOAGE -> KJYO

(KJYO - leesburg airport, JASEN - intersection, CSN - casanova VOR, KOMH - orange county airport, KFVX - farmville airport, MOL - montibelo VOR, KSHD - shenandoah airport, CEROL/AANTS/HOAGE - intersections)

it was a total of 4-hours in the air and we switched PIC at each landing so we each got about 2-hours total. we had one new event for us. at KSHD we had a flat tire on the main gear as we turned off the runway. a truck had to come out and jack up the plane and take the wheel back in to replace the tire and tube. that was a new one for us. luckily, we were clear of the runway so we were only blocking one of the taxiways. i had thought the tire had looked a little low earlier but we didn't check the pressure, it's time to start bringing along a pressure gauge i think.
i was pretty tired at the end of the day. the non-PIC had the responsibilities for watching out for traffic, radio tuning, reading checklists and generally helping out so it wasn't much of a rest. we also had some discussion on visibility due to haze while flying KFVX -> MOL -> KSHD. it wasn't bad but coupled with the mountains was enough to keep us paying pretty close attention.

taking tomorrow off for some xc

i'm taking tomorrow off and flying with another new pilot. we're thinking we might do (including VORs and intersections):

KJYO -> JASEN -> CSN -> KOMH -> GVE -> KFVX -> MOL -> KSHD -> CEROL -> KW45 -> HOAGE -> KJYO

we're also going to enter a flightplan for the entire route (including a few user-defined waypoints) into the KLN-94 GPS which should be interesting too.

night current again

i went out to JYO And did 3 landings to get night current again (have to do at least 3 landings every 90 days at night to be current). it was a prefect evening. i really wanted to "just keep going".

more bad weather

unfortunately, each time we've tried to get out for some xc (or even night currency tonight) weather has stymied us. we just have to give up tonight because the winds are picking up.

hmm, maybe no xc tomorrow

i was going to do some xc tomorrow afternoon but the weather is not looking good:

KIAD 052339Z 060024 05007KT P6SM BKN100 OVC200
    FM0400 02007KT P6SM OVC050
    FM0700 01008KT P6SM VCSH OVC030
    FM0900 02009KT 4SM BR VCSH OVC015 WS020/07035KT
    FM1500 04013KT P6SM OVC015 WS020/07035KT
    FM1900 04010G17KT P6SM OVC025

overcast at 1,500 and 35 kt windshear at 2,000 ft is certainly attention getting, surface is only 13 kts though?