Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Best Day of Flying - DIA
I just could not stand it any longer. I have been planning to add some of my flying experiences to my blog. I have planning to start the fun of sharing cool flying experiences for a while. I am going to start by giving you my favorite or best days of flying. I have many and I think I can narrow it down to about five. I can not guarantee that I will stop at five, but I will save the best one for last. It will be titled "Best Day of Flying Ever". Today I will share my first experience that took place in 1994 just two days before I was awarded my Private Pilot's License.
I mentioned my ramp side tour of DIA (Denver International Airport) when writing about my family's recent trip to the New Bridge in Charleston, SC and that just got me all stirred up about flying stuff. I got even more excited about my flying when I won a prize from the drawing at the Charleston Air Force Base Aero Club earlier this evening during the monthly safety meeting. My prize was a $100 credit towards airplane rental or merchandise.
I decided to dig out an old photo yesterday from my early flying days. Well, I did take my first flying lesson when in high school over 20 years ago. Considering that I guess a ten year old picture is not my early flying days after all. Yes this picture was taken over ten years ago and it was well over ten pounds ago. The photo was taken in front of what I believe is Gate B42 of the Denver International Airport. This picture was pinned to a bulletin board in my garage. I have not been able to put my hands on the other pictures that were taken that day. I will share more as an amendment to this story when I find them.
The airport construction was complete at DIA but the baggage system was not functioning properly. One of the pictures I am hunting is a very cute photo of a lady pulling a wagon across the tarmac with a sign tapped to the side that said, "Alternate Baggage System". I am pretty sure they eventually got things working without the use of her wagon. The city of Denver was trying to find some creative ways to use the airport while waiting on the baggage system problems to be corrected. This fly-in that I attended was arranged for GA (General Aviation) pilots to bring their small planes into DIA on September 25, 1994. I flew in from Cheyenne, WY with two of my best friends one of which became my friend after first becoming my flight instructor. Kevin is now flying Apache helicopters as a maintenance test pilot in the US Army. He stopped by my house to visit a couple of years ago. He was at my side that morning with my other friend Jim in the back seat. We joined the hundreds of other people and their small planes as we arrived and departed DIA within a matter of just a few hours on that Sunday morning. I never heard the official count, but rumors were that over 500 propeller driven airplanes arrived and departed DIA that day within approximately six hours. I was required to bring my instructor due to the fly-in being restricted to those with a minimum of a Private Pilot's License. As I said earlier I was just two days from my private pilot check ride. Kevin was planning on going anyway. I was scheduled to take my check ride the prior week but had to cancel it due to weather. I was actually planning for DIA to be the first place I landed as a licensed private pilot. Instead DIA ended up being one of the last airports I landed at as a student pilot.
It was such a cool experience. The air traffic controllers had us landing two on each runway simultaneously. I landed hot (fast) that morning mid field of runway 17R. I had a faster airplane breathing down my neck and the controller had asked me to keep my speed up to keep things in order. I must have been doing 90 knots when I completed my decent down to the runway. It was not a big deal since I had about a mile of runway left over to bleed off airspeed before touching down. The runways at DIA stretch out to more than two miles each in length. You read more about the airport at www.flydenver.com.
This was by far one of the most memorable flying experiences for me as a pilot not to mention a once in a lifetime experience. It is not very often that you get to land a Cessna 172 and taxi right up to the commercial terminal of one of the world's largest airports. There will be more "Best Flying Day" stories coming soon.
I mentioned my ramp side tour of DIA (Denver International Airport) when writing about my family's recent trip to the New Bridge in Charleston, SC and that just got me all stirred up about flying stuff. I got even more excited about my flying when I won a prize from the drawing at the Charleston Air Force Base Aero Club earlier this evening during the monthly safety meeting. My prize was a $100 credit towards airplane rental or merchandise. I decided to dig out an old photo yesterday from my early flying days. Well, I did take my first flying lesson when in high school over 20 years ago. Considering that I guess a ten year old picture is not my early flying days after all. Yes this picture was taken over ten years ago and it was well over ten pounds ago. The photo was taken in front of what I believe is Gate B42 of the Denver International Airport. This picture was pinned to a bulletin board in my garage. I have not been able to put my hands on the other pictures that were taken that day. I will share more as an amendment to this story when I find them.
The airport construction was complete at DIA but the baggage system was not functioning properly. One of the pictures I am hunting is a very cute photo of a lady pulling a wagon across the tarmac with a sign tapped to the side that said, "Alternate Baggage System". I am pretty sure they eventually got things working without the use of her wagon. The city of Denver was trying to find some creative ways to use the airport while waiting on the baggage system problems to be corrected. This fly-in that I attended was arranged for GA (General Aviation) pilots to bring their small planes into DIA on September 25, 1994. I flew in from Cheyenne, WY with two of my best friends one of which became my friend after first becoming my flight instructor. Kevin is now flying Apache helicopters as a maintenance test pilot in the US Army. He stopped by my house to visit a couple of years ago. He was at my side that morning with my other friend Jim in the back seat. We joined the hundreds of other people and their small planes as we arrived and departed DIA within a matter of just a few hours on that Sunday morning. I never heard the official count, but rumors were that over 500 propeller driven airplanes arrived and departed DIA that day within approximately six hours. I was required to bring my instructor due to the fly-in being restricted to those with a minimum of a Private Pilot's License. As I said earlier I was just two days from my private pilot check ride. Kevin was planning on going anyway. I was scheduled to take my check ride the prior week but had to cancel it due to weather. I was actually planning for DIA to be the first place I landed as a licensed private pilot. Instead DIA ended up being one of the last airports I landed at as a student pilot.
It was such a cool experience. The air traffic controllers had us landing two on each runway simultaneously. I landed hot (fast) that morning mid field of runway 17R. I had a faster airplane breathing down my neck and the controller had asked me to keep my speed up to keep things in order. I must have been doing 90 knots when I completed my decent down to the runway. It was not a big deal since I had about a mile of runway left over to bleed off airspeed before touching down. The runways at DIA stretch out to more than two miles each in length. You read more about the airport at www.flydenver.com.
This was by far one of the most memorable flying experiences for me as a pilot not to mention a once in a lifetime experience. It is not very often that you get to land a Cessna 172 and taxi right up to the commercial terminal of one of the world's largest airports. There will be more "Best Flying Day" stories coming soon.
