Valkaria Flyers–Week 1

This blog covers my first week of being part of Valkaria Flyers.

Apple iPad Mini

Although I have strong feelings against Apple, I decided to buy an iPad Mini so that I could run ForeFlight Mobile. ForeFlight is the industry standard Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) software. In the past, pilots had to carry all required charts and documents on every flight. Now, all those charts and documents are in the EFB and are always current. The iPad Mini arrived on Tuesday and I immediately started setting it up. Given my feelings about Apple, it came as no surprise to me that the process was nearly unbearable. Here are some examples of the torture I endured:

• First, it offered to transfer data from my "other" Apple device. Umm, some of us don't have other Apple devices, stop presuming we do.
• Then it wanted an email to use as the Apple ID. Why doesn't it just give me an Apple account? Apparently, I'm not worthy of an authentic Apple account. So I used my Google account to get into my new Apple device. Sure, why not.
• Then there's the fingerprint reader. It told me to touch and raise my finger repeatedly so it could read it and save me lots of time and be oh so secure in the future. Ok, so I started tapping it. After minutes of this, I saw no progress. I was about to give up and go with the "Do it later" option, but it really wanted me to do it right then. I then realized that the gray fingerprint icon had a few red traces in it. Oh, something must be working. I held my finger on the pad longer, and more red!!! Then it told me to raise my finger, so I did. Then it said to press my finger. Oh, I get it now. More red lines in the icon. Then I had it nearly fully red, and it said it couldn't generate a proper fingerprint, so I had to start over again. I finally made it happy on the third try. Then it wanted the sides of my finger!!
• Then I opened the weather widget, since it said Cupertino, California, and I wanted to change it. Rather than a weather app, it took me to a web page. There was no indication of how to get back to the Home screen. I swiped up, down, left, right, loopty loop. I pressed the big button quickly and long pressed it. How does one navigate? The only other buttons are volume up and down.
• Then I pressed something and now I was in camera mode! WTF? How did I get there, and how do I get out?? This is supposed to be easy and obvious??

After playing with it and watching a few videos, I discovered that there is also a power button and a headphone jack. That’s nice.

Insurance

The next milestone to complete before flying was insurance. I needed to get my name on the insurance policy. The seller contacted the insurance company to remove his name and have my name added. The insurance company emailed me a form to document my existing flight hours. I completed the form and emailed it back to the insurance company. On Friday afternoon the insurance company notified me and the partners that I was on the policy.

Building Excitement

During the week, I talked to the president of the Northrop Grumman Flying Club. I wanted to let him know I that I joined the Valkaria Flyers and was looking forward to starting to fly again. We talked about all the advantages of general aviation, like flying to the islands for breakfast and greatly reducing travel time. It reminded me of how I felt when I was more involved in general aviation in Seattle. I look forward to rejoining the aviation community.

Valkaria Ramp Badge

To access the hangar, one must possess a card key for the gate. This week I sent a picture to the FBO to include on my badge. On Friday I picked up my badge after work and tested it.

Preflight Checks

On Saturday I met a partner at the hangar to review preflight checks. I watched and took notes as we went through the checklist. As a new owner, I want to be sure to do things the same way as the other owners.

Valkaria Flyers Bank Account

While at the airport, the partner gave me the bank account information so I can transfer money to the LLC account monthly.

Mechanic Meeting

After reviewing the checklist, we went down to the end of the hangar row and met the mechanic who maintains the plane. He seems like quite a character. He is a former Florida Tech Aviation mechanic and the partners are very satisfied with his work.

Fallon Pilot Shop

On the way home from Valkaria, we stopped at Fallon Pilot Shop at Melbourne Airport. I needed to pick up some current charts and wanted to find foam padding for my headset’s microphone. While there, I saw a cool PA28 keychain that I had to have.

Valkaria Flyers Google Account

When I got home, I logged into the Valkaria Flyers Google Account and jumped through the security hoops. We use this account to store all plane documents and use the calendar for scheduling.

Flight Simulator Test

I read that people use ForeFlight with Flight Simulator so I had to try it. With very little effort, I connected Flight Simulator as a device in ForeFlight. Then I flew a short route and ForeFlight tracked the flight as if I was flying for real. Pretty cool.

EFB Training

ForeFlight isn’t the only EFB on the market, but it is the most popular. Garmin also provides an EFB - Garmin Pilot. I wanted to compare the two so I started watching feature videos from each. Although ForeFlight is the favorite, it tends to charge extra for features that are in included in Garmin Pilot, which is cheaper to begin with. Even so, I think I’m going to stick with ForeFlight.

iPad Accessories

Even though I bought a refurbished iPad Mini 4, I still want to protect it. I ordered a case and screen protectors from Amazon and they arrived the next day. I also wanted a yoke mount for the tablet, but I think I can use the one that I bought for the Commander.

Scheduling

With all other milestones met, the only thing left to do was schedule time with an instructor to get current. Sunday I talked to the partners’ preferred instructor and we scheduled our first flight together for Friday.