First flights alone with the 3-year old.

I finally took my 3 year old flying in the front seat yesterday and again today. He's flown before, but always in the back seat on trips with my wife in the front. I put his booster seat in the front, told him "DON'T PUT YOUR FEET ON THE CONTROL WHEEL" and off we went. He had a good time since he could see much better from the front seat.
Yesterday we just flew near Weiser (EYQ). I found some cows for him to look at first. He wanted to open the window to hear them moo! You can open the window in flight of course, but I doubt we could have heard the cows! Still, it was funny. On the way back to the airport at about 1200 feet I spotted some birds down below (Egrets probably). I pointed them out to him and of course he thought it was pretty neat to look DOWN at them flying. We made it back to Weiser, did one touch and go, and came back and landed. He later enjoyed showing everyone how small the cows looked from the air.
Today we tried to go down to Galveston, hoping to see a cruise ship heading out. Unfortunately, from about 15 miles out I started thinking, "Those clouds sure look low and grey." We were using flight following and about a minute later the controller told us she had a helicopter at GLS reporting an 800 foot ceiling and requesting Special VFR and wanted to know what we were seeing. We were at 1800 and getting a little moisture on the glass and quickly confirmed the quickly lowering ceilings. We did a little maneuvering to maintain VFR and loitered around the area to try to fly east along the island but the crud just kept coming in from the gulf. After about 10 minutes I figured that my son would soon get tired of just sitting in the plane so I asked for in IFR clearance back to Hooks (DWH) and was cleared up to 3000 feet. I told him that we were going up into the clouds for a little while. He looked a little concerned and said he didn't want to but I explained that I had done it before and that it was safe. He said "ok" and went back to eating goldfish (yes, the cracker type). Fortunately it was smooth in the clouds and he seemed to enjoy watching the rain run UP on the windshield and collect on various parts of the airframe. Temps were around 60 (Texas winter for you) so we didn't have to worry about ice. After a little bit of vectoring around, we popped out of the north side of the cloud bank and proceeded onward to Hooks. We punched through a couple of small puffy clouds and finally landed back a Hooks. He then helped me refuel the plane and put it back in the hanger.
All in all, he said he had a good time. He's always been an easy little guy to take care of so the workload wasn't too much greater than when I'm solo. It might be a different story on bumpy, hard IFR day though, so I'll try to stick to VFR when I can for now! Later, after we were at home he asked, "Where are we going tomorrow Daddy?" I'll have to come up with something, because it looks like it might be just a dull grey and wet day tomorrow!

Flying clubs

Jumping right in-----Howdy folks. I haven't had time or money to work on the Commercial certificate yet. Also, the flying club's 182RG has been in the shop for most of the year repairing gear-up damage so I've been waiting on that to get finished since I'll need it for the checkride. It should be back on line in a couple more weeks so I'll be looking into starting the training early in 2005. I'll have to get back onto studying for the written too. I've made a few trips using my instrument rating but actual instrument conditions have been hard to come by. If its been a good IMC day, then I've either been busy or sick. It's funny how after you get the instrument ticket that you often look outside during the Fall months and think, "It sure looks like a good day to fly with that nice overcast layer at 1200 feet."

On another flying topic, I've been toying with the idea of starting another flying club. I LOVE the Southwest Flying Club and don't have any plans to leave but I was wondering if there are enough other Houstonians to start another flying club or a small partnership? The only other club near me that I have info on is the Sugar Land Flying Club. Compared to my club, their monthly dues are less ($35 verses $85), but their planes cost more per hour ($79 verses $58 for a 172). After that, the differences are numerous. The Sugar Land club does have more planes which include a two 172s, a 182, an AA5 Grumman, A36 Bonanza, and a C310 which give more aircraft options than the SWFC's 172, 182, and 182RG. I have 2 main requirements in my flying: 1: I want to be able to fly cheaply when I'm just out by myself (which accounts for about 90% of my flying time), and 2. I need to be able to carry my family (me, wife, and 2 boys) along with luggage/supplies when we go on trips. With that being said, I need a 2-seater for me and my charts for most of the time, and access to a 206 or Cherokee Six for the occasional family trips. More to follow later...

Has anybody seen a Flight Design CT or a Remos G-3 in person? I'd like to fly one of those one day. They look look like a fun little toy to have if the Euro to Dollar rate was more favorable. Drop me a line if you have any input.