Home > Blog

Into the Sky

Follow along on my flights, adventures, and lessons learned along the way. Enter your email below to get the latest posts and updates straight to your inbox.

We care about your data in our privacy policy.

Blog categories

Flightseeing, Informational

Sometimes Just Fly the Bomber Pattern

A little while ago I read a comment about someone’s favorite day trip flight out of Southern California. They would fly north, overfly Yosemite, stop...

Newsletters

June 2025 Newsletter

I hope you enjoy the twenty-third edition of the newsletter. Please click the links in the newsletter for the articles, (or the link below it)...

Kathy's Corner, Uncategorized

A Memory is a Photo Taken With the Heart

A Memory is a Photo Taken With the Heart As I was driving to the airport to fly home, I came across a beautiful valley....

Long Cross Country

Plan A, B, C, and Maybe D

Kathy stayed behind in St George on Easter to spend the week with her Dad and Step-mom and to travel with them to Vancouver, WA...

Newsletters

May 2025 Newsletter

I hope you enjoy the twenty-second edition of the newsletter. Please click the links in the newsletter for the articles, (or the link below it)...

Kathy's Corner

Right Seat Ready (or not)

In August of 2020 we attended the West Coast Mooney summit in beautiful Sun River, Oregon. There I attended Jolie Lucas’ Right Seat Ready Seminar;...

Long Cross Country

The Perfect Plan, Maybe

It was a perfect plan, until it almost wasn’t. We planned a ski trip to our place in Colorado, but I was in California and...

Book Review

Skunk Works

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed By Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos is the story of the legendary Lockheed Skunk...

Long Cross Country

Winds, Ice, and Oh My!

The winds were strong, there was ice in the clouds, and the “Oh My!” was actually “Oh @*!#” No, it wasn’t bad or dangerous, just...

$100 Burger Runs

You Never Know Who You’ll Meet

For everything that I can list about General Aviation that I love, I can find something about Commercial Aviation that falls somewhere between annoying and...

$100 Burger Runs, Local

Class “G” at Catalina

I needed to get a flight in before the end of the day on Saturday to maintain my once a week for 52 weeks goal....

$100 Burger Runs, Local

El Monte – Annia’s Kitchen

Annia's Kitchen is a great little restaurant located on the field at El Monte Airport where you can watch planes take off and land as...

$100 Burger Runs, Flightseeing

Catalina is always a treat

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, flying to Catalina is always a treat. In just 20 minutes you feel like you have...

$100 Burger Runs

Redlands – Hangar 24 and Chicken Republic

If you are looking for something besides the typical $100 burger runs in the LA area, check out Chicken Republic and Hangar 24 at Redlands....

$100 Burger Runs, Flight Training, Long Cross Country

Three Flights to Wrap Up May

Back to Arizona Through the Clouds Math 17th and 19th, 2024 The day after Mother’s Day mom ended up in the hospital. Nobody was sure...

$100 Burger Runs

Kern Valley Fly-In – Gliders Everywhere

A great time flying to Kern Valley to meet wonderful pilots and eat some delicious food....

$100 Burger Runs, Local

Stepping Back in Time for Lunch

Flabob (KRIR) is like stepping back in time. It’s a small un-towered airport just north of the Riverside airport. My first time there was during...

$100 Burger Runs, Flightseeing

Long Lost Relatives and Close Calls

DNA matching is amazing. A few years back through DNA testing my wife’s extended family learned that there was a cousin nobody knew about. In...

Flightseeing, Informational

Sometimes Just Fly the Bomber Pattern

A little while ago I read a comment about someone’s favorite day trip flight out of Southern California. They would fly north, overfly Yosemite, stop...

Flightseeing, Local

You Can Resume Normal Speed

Have you ever been looking for a reason to fly? I love to fly but will admit that there have been occasions when I had...

Flightseeing

Los Angeles at Sunset

In September I celebrated my 52nd trip around the sun. My wife had the idea that I could try to fly once a week for...

Flightseeing

San Diego Bay Tour

Flying the San Diego Bay is one of the highlights of flying in California, and I finally checked it off the list....

$100 Burger Runs, Flightseeing

Catalina is always a treat

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, flying to Catalina is always a treat. In just 20 minutes you feel like you have...

Flightseeing, Local

New Engine Break-In Flights 1-5

Engine completed and break-in flights begun....

Flightseeing, Local

Squeeze Play – From #5 to #1 for Landing

After an aerial tour of Los Angeles the tower put me into a squeeze play that took me from #5 in the landing sequence to...

Flightseeing, Local

Flight Canceled and Sunday Afternoon Therapy

Sometimes you just can't fly because the chance of icing is too great....

Flightseeing, Local

Date Night Sunset Flight

Last Saturday when I spent all day working on the house and yard I told myself that it was okay to skip flying because we...

Flight Training

That’s Why We Set Goals

We set goals, not because we will always reach them, but because they give us something to strive for....

$100 Burger Runs, Flight Training, Long Cross Country

Three Flights to Wrap Up May

Back to Arizona Through the Clouds Math 17th and 19th, 2024 The day after Mother’s Day mom ended up in the hospital. Nobody was sure...

Flight Training, Local

Time to Shoot Some Approaches

I needed one approach for IFR Currency, but if you're going to go fly, why not get a few extra?...

Flight Training

IFR Currency Flight

The end of November was on the horizon and I needed two more approaches to stay IFR current. To act as Pilot in Command (PIC)...

Flight Training

Flight Review

I can get in my plane anytime I want and fly over everyone, I guess it's good that every two years someone makes sure I...

Flight Training, Local

EPIC flight: 13 Airports in Under 2 Hours

13 Airports in under two hours. 232 miles flown, 12 touch-n-go's with a full stop back at FUL. A lot of work and a ton...

$100 Burger Runs, Flight Training

We’re Awake, Might As Well Go Fly

Wide awake, there was no point trying to go back to sleep, so we decided to head to the airport for the short hop over...

Flight Training

We Can Cancel Flight Following If It Helps

You would think that with all the rain and clouds we have had this winter in Southern California that I wouldn’t need to go up...

Flight Training

IFR Checkride!!!!

September 29, 2021 More than a year in the making, the day was finally here. I began studying for the written portion of the IFR...

Flightseeing, Informational

Sometimes Just Fly the Bomber Pattern

A little while ago I read a comment about someone’s favorite day trip flight out of Southern California. They would fly north, overfly Yosemite, stop...

Informational

Running a Fuel Tank Dry

Every pilot should have personal minimums. Mine for fuel is to be on the ground with 10 gallons in one tank. That requires running a...

Informational

Cost of an Engine Overhaul

“What is the cost of an engine overhaul?” Before jumping into that, break-in flights have been taking place. As quick summary, the first flight was...

Informational, Series

Oh, The Places You’ll Go – Part II

**Note that this was an article published in the January 2021 Mooney Flyer Magazine and as such many of the prices are not current.** Ok,...

Informational

Engine Replacement On Your Terms, Not Life’s Terms

“It’s always better to do it on your terms instead of life’s terms” is a favorite saying I learned from my wife....

Informational, Series

Oh The Places You’ll Go – Part I

Oh The Places You'll Go! It is a great Dr Suess book, and possibly the impetus for buying a Mooney....

Informational

Adding Headrests to a Vintage Mooney

How to add headrests to a Vintage Mooney...

Informational

Get Your Exhaust Checked aka “A Colonoscopy”

If you're over 45 you need a colonoscopy. I hope this humorous take on mine might help coax you along....

Informational

What is Your Line in the Sand

We returned from a trip to Colorado on a Thursday with plans to fly to St. George, UT on Saturday morning. My youngest son had...

Flightseeing, Local

You Can Resume Normal Speed

Have you ever been looking for a reason to fly? I love to fly but will admit that there have been occasions when I had...

$100 Burger Runs, Local

Class “G” at Catalina

I needed to get a flight in before the end of the day on Saturday to maintain my once a week for 52 weeks goal....

Local

1,000 Mooney Hours

General Jimmy Doolittle’s autobiography is titled “I Could Never Be So Lucky Again.” I often feel like I could steal that title for my own...

Local

An Adventure to Compton

General aviation has so many great benefits that it is hard to nail down the top one. I believe that somewhere in the top five...

$100 Burger Runs, Local

El Monte – Annia’s Kitchen

Annia's Kitchen is a great little restaurant located on the field at El Monte Airport where you can watch planes take off and land as...

Local

Three More Flights Before Going Up High

Before taking her up high I wanted to be sure the engine was broken in, so made three more low level flights....

Flightseeing, Local

New Engine Break-In Flights 1-5

Engine completed and break-in flights begun....

$100 Burger Runs, Local

Stepping Back in Time for Lunch

Flabob (KRIR) is like stepping back in time. It’s a small un-towered airport just north of the Riverside airport. My first time there was during...

Flightseeing, Local

Squeeze Play – From #5 to #1 for Landing

After an aerial tour of Los Angeles the tower put me into a squeeze play that took me from #5 in the landing sequence to...

Long Cross Country

Plan A, B, C, and Maybe D

Kathy stayed behind in St George on Easter to spend the week with her Dad and Step-mom and to travel with them to Vancouver, WA...

Long Cross Country

The Perfect Plan, Maybe

It was a perfect plan, until it almost wasn’t. We planned a ski trip to our place in Colorado, but I was in California and...

Long Cross Country

Winds, Ice, and Oh My!

The winds were strong, there was ice in the clouds, and the “Oh My!” was actually “Oh @*!#” No, it wasn’t bad or dangerous, just...

Long Cross Country

Turbulence is Where You Find It

Measuring Turbulence My wife has developed her tolerance for the bumps over the years that we have flown. In the first few hundred hours of...

Long Cross Country

Mooney Time Machine

Why do we own a Mooney? Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, the same number of days in a week, the...

Long Cross Country

Idaho or Bust

This one has been sitting in the draft folder for about 18 months. At the time I couldn’t remember the last time I flew commercial....

Long Cross Country

Sometimes the Delay is a Blessing

I don’t like delays, for anything. There are so many great things about flying private, and one of those is setting your own schedule. You...

Long Cross Country

Diverting from Idaho to Arizona

I was planning to meet up with my wife in Idaho for Spud Days, but instead found myself filing an IFR flight plan to Arizona....

Long Cross Country

Vegas for the Day, Baby!

When Vegas is only about a 1 1/2 hour flight away you can easily make a day trip out of it....

Long Cross Country, Series

Oh, The Places You’ll Go – Part III

Preparation and Flexibility are the keys to a successful multi-day cross country trip....

Informational, Series

Oh, The Places You’ll Go – Part II

**Note that this was an article published in the January 2021 Mooney Flyer Magazine and as such many of the prices are not current.** Ok,...

Informational, Series

Oh The Places You’ll Go – Part I

Oh The Places You'll Go! It is a great Dr Suess book, and possibly the impetus for buying a Mooney....

Series

Oshkosh 2023 – In the Books with an Award

Oshkosh 2023 is now in the History Books. It was an awesome time with my wife coming along this year! It is difficult to nail...

Series

Part III – Oshkosh Rookie – Getting out of Dodge

“All good things must come to an end,” or so they say. Our plan was to stay for the Wednesday evening airshow and depart Thursday...

Series

Part II – Oshkosh Rookie – The Show

“Welcome to the show!” You hear it multiple times on the radio as you are arriving at Oshkosh. I wonder, do the controllers mumble that...

Series

Part I – Oshkosh Rookie – Getting There

The uncertainty, the expectations, the anticipation, and a myriad of other thoughts and emotions combine to make the “First Time” different than all the rest,...

Series

Coast to Coast Mission Tour – Complete

Today at 10:15am we touched down in Fullerton (KFUL) completing our coast to coast tour. It was the trip of a lifetime. Over 5,000 miles...

Series

Coast to Coast Mission Tour – Day (Minus) 1

June 11, 2019 It had only been 16.95 hours since the last oil change and I typically change it around 40 hours, but we were...

Book Review

Skunk Works

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed By Ben R. Rich and Leo Janos is the story of the legendary Lockheed Skunk...

Book Review, Uncategorized

Vulcan 607

The Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bomber was a beast of a plane. With its giant delta wing and 4 engines generating a combined 88,000...

Book Review

Fly Girls

The true story of Florence Klingensmith, Ruth Elder, Amelia Earhart, Ruth Nichols, and Louise Thaden and how they shaped aviation....

Book Review

Top Gun: An American Story

Top Gun: An American Story is more than just the story of how the Navy Fighter Weapons School, commonly known as “Top Gun” was formed....

Book Review

Flying the SR-71 Blackbird: In the Cockpit on a Secret Operational Mission

There are many books with stories and tales of SR-71 Blackbird flights. The stories are amazing, and if you are looking for stories and history,...

Book Review

Masters of the Air

Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany by Donald L Miller is a masterpiece of WWII Aviation...

Book Review

The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh

The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight by Winston Groom presents the intertwined stories of these three legendary...

Book Review

The German Aces Speak: World War II Through the Eyes of Four of the Luftwaffe’s Most Important Commanders

Author and historian Colin D. Heaton personally interviewed Walter Krupinski, Adolf Galland, Eduard Neumann, and Wolfgang Falck to bring this story to life....

Book Review

SOG: The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos in Vietnam

SOG, by John L. Plaster is the incredible account of the covert activities of the "Studies and Observations Group" (SOG) before and during the Vietnam...

Window Tinting

*** Updated 06/12/2020 with pictures of the windshield brow, scroll down for those pics. Here we are in the middle of the “Dog Days of...

Homemade A/C

**Update 2017-08-20: I changed it from the 360GPH Bilge pump to the 63 GPH pump and it works very well. The outlets on the pump...

Popular Categories

Flight Training

That’s Why We Set Goals

Three Flights to Wrap Up May

Time to Shoot Some Approaches

Local Flights

You Can Resume Normal Speed

Class “G” at Catalina

1,000 Mooney Hours

Latest Posts

Sometimes Just Fly the Bomber Pattern

June 2025 Newsletter

A Memory is a Photo Taken With the Heart

Plan A, B, C, and Maybe D

May 2025 Newsletter

Right Seat Ready (or not)

The Perfect Plan, Maybe

Skunk Works

Winds, Ice, and Oh My!

Latest Posts

Sometimes Just Fly the Bomber Pattern

June 2025 Newsletter

A Memory is a Photo Taken With the Heart

Plan A, B, C, and Maybe D

May 2025 Newsletter

Right Seat Ready (or not)

The Perfect Plan, Maybe

Skunk Works

Into the Sky

Blog categories

Sometimes Just Fly the Bomber Pattern

Richard Brown

June 2025 Newsletter

Richard Brown

A Memory is a Photo Taken With the Heart

Richard Brown

Plan A, B, C, and Maybe D

Richard Brown

May 2025 Newsletter

Richard Brown

Right Seat Ready (or not)

Richard Brown

The Perfect Plan, Maybe

Richard Brown

Skunk Works

Richard Brown

Winds, Ice, and Oh My!

Richard Brown

You Never Know Who You’ll Meet

Richard Brown

Class “G” at Catalina

Richard Brown

El Monte – Annia’s Kitchen

Richard Brown

Catalina is always a treat

Richard Brown

Redlands – Hangar 24 and Chicken Republic

Richard Brown

Three Flights to Wrap Up May

Richard Brown

Kern Valley Fly-In – Gliders Everywhere

Richard Brown

Stepping Back in Time for Lunch

Richard Brown

Long Lost Relatives and Close Calls

Richard Brown

Sometimes Just Fly the Bomber Pattern

Richard Brown

You Can Resume Normal Speed

Richard Brown

Los Angeles at Sunset

Richard Brown

San Diego Bay Tour

Richard Brown

Catalina is always a treat

Richard Brown

New Engine Break-In Flights 1-5

Richard Brown

Squeeze Play – From #5 to #1 for Landing

Richard Brown