Day in the life of Roundout

[roundout]

My work has taken me to Fort Lauderdale twice in 5 days flying piston singles. Not a bad gig. Here are a few pictures of the second trip, which I took flying a Mooney Ovation 2. Enjoy!

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...140Z/KGKY/KTLH
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N...556Z/KTLH/KFXE

I'm up before the dawn. First order of business:



In the darkness, my Ovation climbs quickly to 11,000 feet.







1 hour in means I have 5 to go.



Mooney is strong on creature comforts and pilot niceties, as demonstrated here by the power setting chart on the sunvisor.



The leather here is nicer than in any car I've ever seen.



My XM subscription has lapsed, but one of my favorite channels somehow is still functioning!



After being given a re-routing, the autopilot eases my Ovation into a gentle left turn.



Always use a checklist!



Riding the barberpole in the descent.



Now I'm going about 50 knots too fast to extend the gear and 70kt too fast for the flaps. Fortunately, Mooneys are equipped standard with speedbrakes!



Lining up.



Yellow brick road to FXE on the second leg. Unfortunately, it got busy quick and I had to put the camera down and get back to business, so there are no more pictures.



The airline trip back was hurried and less than glorious, so there are no more pictures. I had to stuff the bag with my D70 under the seat and couldn't get it back out. I will post a more complete set next time I take a trip like this.

[Bella]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. I love the sunrise pictures (although I did notice either the plane needs to have its windows cleaned, or your sensor does). And the shots of the instrument panel and XM interface are pretty cool.

-Cindy

[roundout]

Both. In the shots out the front, it's bugs on windshield. My sensor needs cleaning but it's in a corner and hard to spot.

[MarcoFromHouston]

very cool! thanks for sharing!

[lfmerrell]

A strategically placed windshield bug is a single point sort of VASI. Not to be trifles with.

[RKEnnis]

Sweet! I really enjoyed looking through this series.

Awesome panel and avionics setup. The Ovation 2 is a real little hotrod too!