Through Eager Eyes - Chapter 4
Airplanista Aviation
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
Full of Wonder and Innocence, a Young Girl Romances the Sky A Short Story by Dan Pimentel (Note: This is the fourth of six chapters in this story. Check back every Friday at noon when I will present the next chapter, or click here to read all chapters after they are published - dan) Chapter 4: Wheels Up Throughout my young life, I have been waiting for this moment to arrive. The sensation of flying in a small airplane is one I shall feel today, a sense of freedom, of soaring not unlike Eagles. It will be grand. But the path here has been torture. For what seemed like forever today, my Doo ..read more
Visit website
Peace and Quiet at 1,200 MSL
Airplanista Aviation Blog
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
=black>I had one of those airplane ownership moments recently, one of those special times when the joy of being sole owner of your very own flying machine washes over you like a 50-footer chasing down a longboard at Mavericks. On the way home from a meeting, the OAT was unseasonably warm for an early July evening the Pacific Northwest..so much that I had the window of my truck most of the way down. As I eased out of Eugene's downtown towards my home just on the outskirts of town, I began to notice that the sky was crystal clear, not a cloud to be found anywhere on the horizon. I also notic ..read more
Visit website
Idaho Canyon Flying: Serious Aviating With a Huge Fun Factor
Airplanista Aviation Blog
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
We've all know people who love to take their single-engine GA plane into the Idaho backcountry to try and slip into some of the famously difficult dirt and grass strips nestled along pristine streams loaded with trout. We've seen the photos, a little patch of nothing between the trees, with a windsock as the only clue this is an actual air strip. But when you get right down to this type of flying, it is no place for shabby, sloppy airmanship. The pilots who are smart aviators go up there and get the specific training needed to keep from piling your bird into the trees. Recently, a good frien ..read more
Visit website
What we Have Here is Failure to Communicate
Airplanista Aviation Blog
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
Maybe this is just crazy, but you'd THINK the Federal Communications Commission would have "communicating" completely dialed in. But no, this being our Federal government – which is having a hard time doing much right under ANY president – has apparently stabbed us GA pilots in the back with new rules designed to prohibit the use of 121.5 MHz ELTs as early as this August. First, let's have AvWeb bring us up to speed, from their site: The Federal Communications Commission took the general aviation world by surprise when it said in a recent report it will prohibit the sale or use of 121.5 MHz e ..read more
Visit website
Extreme Multitasking: Go Inside the Cab of a Class Delta Tower and Gain New Respect for the People Living in Your Head(set)
Airplanista Aviation
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
I am sitting almost dead-center in the penthouse of the FAA tower at Eugene, Oregon's Mahlon Sweet Field (KEUG). From my perch between the Tower Controller and Ground Control positions, I have a million dollar view of both runways, the GA ramp, and terminal area. Even though this is a sleepy Sunday morning, I am eager to watch my tour host, controller Ethan Abelov, work the traffic, to better understand what it takes to keep air traffic separated. This is not my first FAA Tower tour, but by far, it was my most substantial. Other visits were fine, but Abelov invited me to sit next to him and s ..read more
Visit website
If You Own an Aviation Business, This is the One Post on World of Flying You Need to Read, Bookmark and Forward
Airplanista Aviation Blog
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
I do not mention personal accolades much on this blog, and try not to mention my day job, that being the President and co-founder of an aviation advertising and creative agency. But we are launching a large campaign for the agency this week, and I thought it was finally time to "speak" directly to those readers who work for or own aviation businesses. If you are a random reader who just stumbled upon World of Flying, or a person who is not in the position to make important marketing and/or advertising decisions at a company that sells aviation products or provides aviation services, you may b ..read more
Visit website
It is Rare Moments Like These in a Pilot's LifeThat Need to be Cherished Forever
Airplanista Aviation Blog
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
There are a few important things that happen in every pilot's flying career that you never, ever forget. These are the times when your flying memories are made, when you are able to achieve something important or make an impression on a friend or family member. Of course, you have your first solo flight etched into your brain forever, it was a glorious day full of challenges, suspense, exhilaration and ultimately, reward. And the day you were awarded your private ticket was marked with elation, laughter and gratitude. Some of us remember clearly that very first airplane ride in a small GA pla ..read more
Visit website
When Things Go "Sideways" is When YouShould Thank Your CFI
Airplanista Aviation Blog
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
We all go through primary training, and the curriculum is the same. The test is the same, the check ride the same. But what is vastly different is the instructor. When I got my ASEL ticket back in 1996, my instructor was great. He never yelled, he never badgered me, and he constantly passed along tiny morsels of aviator knowledge that he said I would use one day. He said that when I remembered something and got myself out of a jam, I could thank him later. There were those checklists burned into my head. I still use REMMM to shut down Katy, radios, electrical, mixture, mags, master. But alon ..read more
Visit website
A New Vision Brings New Energyand a Really Fun New Direction
Airplanista Aviation
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
This weekend, I finished the launch of a new website for my aviation ad agency. And while this post will be more about advertising than aviation, please stay with me for a while and see where it goes. We hadn't done much with our old agency website in years, except my constant tweaks to maintain the high SEO results the site has always had. As with any website, a complete makeover can be a time-consuming process, and usually takes months. During our process, we looked inward and discovered some very interesting things about being in the aviation ad game: When we opened our ad agency in 1999 ..read more
Visit website
I Continue to Have Hopes That theToyota TA-1 Will Someday Rise Again!
Airplanista Aviation
by Dan Pimentel
2y ago
Beginning sometime in 1998, Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites secretly worked with 40 aerospace engineers (many hired away from Boeing and Raytheon) to launch what I think was one of general aviation’s most important test flights. The Mojave operation – which looked a little like Lockheed’s Skunk Works – lasted four years, and produced the Toyota TA-1, a four-seat, single-engine piston plane with a carbon fiber/resin composite fuselage. And on May 31, 2001 at California's Mojave Airport, Toyota’s entry into the GA market took flight for what is known to be its only flight, lasting about an hou ..read more
Visit website

Follow Airplanista Aviation on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR