Ever since joining Valkaria Flyers, one of my partners has had a nice, used audio panel sitting on a shelf. My partner even had a mounting bracket and harnesses built for it, but yet it sat, uninstalled. We’ve talked about installing it but never had a real need. Lately however, the intercom has been giving me trouble, so we decided to get an installation estimate.
This week, my partner made an appointment with Sebastian Communications at Merritt Island Airport to get an estimate for installation. Today we flew the Cherokee to Merritt Island.
My partner hasn’t flown the Cherokee much. He has a current medical and a current BFR, but he hasn’t done his three take-offs and landings within the past 90 days, so he cannot take passengers. We decided that I would do the flying while he regained familiarity with the process. He did the preflight while I watched. After departure, I let him take the controls for part of the flight to Merritt Island. We flew a westerly route due to clouds at 2,400 feet. I landed the plane, then taxied to one of three buildings that might be Sebastian Communications.
We guessed right and met our contact. My partner showed what he had put together, then we went to the plane to show our contact the current state of the panel. Our contact seemed impressed by what my partner had, and told us that he’d send us an estimate.
For the flight back, the clouds had broken up, so I decided to fly over Patrick SFB and Melbourne’s Class D airspace. I climbed to 2,500 feet, then let my partner fly down the beach at 3,000 feet.
After landing, my partner asked if I was busy. He was interested in getting current again. Given that I am a CFI, it is legal for him to fly with me as a passenger/instructor. I told him that I had time, so we shut down the plane on the ramp and swapped seats.
My partner started the plane and taxied to Runway 10. I knew that he was pretty rusty, so I paid very close attention to everything he did, and made sure that he didn’t miss anything. He did three laps around the pattern.
After the third landing, he asked if I wanted to fly outside the pattern. I told him that I was getting hungry, so we compromised and he flew one more lap around the pattern. My partner is now current to take passengers, and I now have time in the “Dual Given” column of my logbook.
The flight tracks are shown below.
| Valkaria to Merritt Island |
| Merritt Island to Valkaria |
| Around the pattern at Valkaria |
Flight Time: 2.4 hours
CFI Time: 1.0 hours
Total Time: 721 hours
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