An evening flight in the Kitfox IV Speedster with Terry Donison

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• published: 11 Sep 2016
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This is a very long video. Fair warning. We departed our home airport, Apex Airpark (8W5) in Silverdale, WA, and first headed out over Sinclair Inlet towards Bremerton National, (KPWT). We flew three landings, each in "informational" mode, which means Jeremy non-stop talking with Terry patiently listening. She's working on her private pilot certificate in a Cessna Skycatcher, and then we're hoping she'll be able to transition to our Kitfox taildragger. The three landings were intentionally different; first was "normal" configuration, with emphasis on basic pattern aircraft configuration and stabilized approach. The second was a lower and slower and tighter pattern, using flaps and a steep angle of approach. The third was similar to the second, but with a normal pattern separation. After we left Bremerton we headed toward Shelton, WA Sanderson Field, (KSHN) but winds reported, though straight down the runway, were mid-teens gusting to mid-twenties, and we decided against that as an "informational" experience. Leaving Shelton we headed toward Olympia (KOLM), spoke briefly to the tower for a radio check and to let him know we were near his airspace doing maneuvers, so that any IFR practise traffic might be aware of us. I wanted to fly over the Lakebay Marina, as a friend plays music there weekend evenings, and I thought they might be out on the deck. But, this late in the season, the deck was already in shadows, so I'm pretty sure they were inside. Pilots need to be aware at all times of where they might land in case of an engine-out emergency, so I was trying to encourage Terry to always be thinking about that, so that during her checkride when the examiner simulated that emergency she will already have chosen her landing spot. We practised a simulated engine out procedure from 3500' in to the Port Orchard Airport, a very narrow but reasonably long private strip between Tacoma Narrows (KTIW) and Bremerton (KPWT). We wound up needing to bleed off extra altitude, but I'm pretty sure we could have managed a successful landing if necessary. In the same vein of "choose your landing spot BEFORE the emergency" we had some fun speculating on what it might be like to land on any one of the three aircraft carriers available to us at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, which is on the way home from Bremerton to Apex. That's a landing that would be accompanied by some high pulse rates and men with weapons at the end of it. Lastly, after we'd landed at home, we are always so pleased to have our own dog Barkley and his cohorts Tucker and Muncie welcome us back to the hangar. Apex is essentially an aircraft and automotive junkyard, populated by colorful characters and storytellers. It's a wonderful place to have our hangar, and it's only a very few miles from home. We love it there. Thanks for watching. We hope you got something out of this. Fly Kitfox!