Flying Cessna 172 around Tenerife

Posted on 11 March, 2015 by Stan | 6 Comments

In the past I used to fly more Piper, but in the last time I am starting to like to fly more and more the Cessna 172. Why? It’s because I like to take pictures (actually my GoPro’s are doing this job for me), and I like how the images look like. I try to use the suction mount on different places of the fuselage to ensure that I am definitely the first one in taking an image of Tenerife from this angle from an airplane… And I like to edit them. Even in such a short one hour flight around the island it is always a different story, a new experience, new views… And the Cessna is pretty photogenic :-). What do you think? Let me share with you some of images from my last flight with Cessna… Safe landings!

Peek a boo… During the outside check

Starting a new adventure: Ready for departure

Descending towards Puerto de la Cruz

Over Puerto de la Cruz

Let us shoot some images

Pico del Teide & Costa Los Gigantes

Obligatory cloudsurfing. This is heaven!!!

Over Playa de las Américas

On final RYW 30 at Los Rodeos Airport

About to land…

And a short video is a must! 😉

Short flight around Tenerife

Posted on 24 February, 2015 by Stan | 2 Comments

Short flight around Tenerife.

I´ll just share with you some images taken during my short flight around Tenerife last week… Tried to mount the gopro on a different place of the plane (horizontal stabilizer) and I simply love the images!!!

At the end you can find a short video of the flight with my friend Dirk as co-pilot as well! He did a great job and we had a great time up in the air!

Come and enjoy the views with me!

Preflight selfie

The Vulcano at Güimar valley

Somewhere over the mountains between Güimar and Arico

Flying along the coast

Chasing the shadow…

Playa de las Américas

Costa los Gigantes from the air

Punta Teno

Punta de Teno & Pico del Teide

Sunshine above the clouds…

Enjoying the views.

Flying along the north coast of Tenerife

Moments before the landing at Tenerife North (TFN)

Seconds before touchdown

Flight to La Palma

Posted on 14 February, 2015 by Stan | 4 Comments

Recently I’ve made a flight with 2 friends spotters on the Piper from Tenerife North to La Palma and back.

As this was the first time for them on a small plane like this one, they were really enjoying the views from the cockpit and also from the co-pilot seat.

The weather was actually pretty good, almost no wind, no turbulence. Only some cloud layers between 3.000 – 8.000 feet. We were able to climb to get about them and wnjoy the views of the sea of clouds. It feels like to fly a big airliner…

The basic instrument training I´ve done was a great help to maintain the plane on the desired track when descending through the cloud layer. The basic thing is to look inside the cockpit on the instruments and trust your instruments and don’t look outside.

We did one touch and go at La Palma Mazo Airport (GCLA) and returned back to Tenerife North (GCXO). It was a great trip with great views in a great company!

Here I share with you some of the views and of course a short video as well.

Safe landings!

Above the sea of clouds cockpit view

Above the sea of clouds

North of La Palma

Los Llanos

About to touch and go at La Palma airport (GCLA)

Over the sea of clouds at 8.500 feet

About to land at my home airport GCXO (Tenerife North)

Flying in low visibility conditions

Posted on 13 January, 2015 by Stan | 4 Comments

Yesterday I’ve made with some friends my first flight in 2015.

On the Canary islands, sometimes we have sand laden and dusty winds blowing from Sahara, also called “calima”. The visibility decreases, the temperature increases and the air is normaly very dry.

So we were flying in these “low visibility conditions”. I was hoping to climb a little bit to get over it, so we could see at least the highest peak with it’s almost 14.000 feet.

Our final cruise level was 9.000 feet and we started to see the blue sky a bit, but I have decided do decend, because it was not clear until which altitude the calima would persist.

So actually we were not able see almost nothing during our 50 minutes long flight. Even to spot the airport before landing was a bit challenge.

A very good help was my ipad with the Airnav Pro application, and also some skills learned during my basic instrument flight module course. It was the day to practice it, but today without the instructor.

I have to admit, that a further training will be good and have ordered a hood to keep practice. You will see in the video, that actually during this flight it was not necessary to wear it 😉

Cruising at 9000 feet

Approaching GCXO

See the video here:

Happy landings in 2015!

Posted on 31 December, 2014 by Stan | 2 Comments

I wish you all happy landings in 2015 and at least as much fun flying around as this year!

Safe flights and happy landings!

Stan

Happy landings in 2015

Some shots made with the Gopro 4 Silver

Posted on 23 December, 2014 by Stan | 1 Comment

In this post you can see some of the pictures taken from during todays flight.

Cleared to land RWY 03L at GCLP

Reaching Gran Canaria’s coast

On departure.

Line up and wait…

Over Gando.

As it is close to Christmas, we were flying with Christmas Heads on. Like the song: Santa Claus is comming to town… I’ll share with you some other pictures from this flight as well.

Santa Claus is coming to town on a DA20 Katana 😉

A flying egg lol

On final for RWY 03L at GCLP

Mt. Teide from bird’s eye view

Posted on 17 December, 2014 by Stan | 8 Comments

Pico del Teide, or Mt. Teide is Spain’s highest Mountain. It is 3.718 mtrs high (= 12.198 feet). It was always my dream to climb with a plane to this altitude to see it from above. As the most dreams come truth ;-), we have decided on the way home from the island El Hierro to climb to 12.500 feet to see some snow left on Teide. With 3 people on board it took almost 50 minutes to climb so high, but it was worth it.

12.500 feet

It was for the first time in my life to fly at FL125 on board of a general aviation plane (Piper Archer2) and to be the pilot in command. We took some awesome pictures, hope you will like them as well! I’ll get definitely back to take some more pics in the future ;-). Enjoy Mt. Teide from bird’s eye view and safe flights!

Great views at Mt. Teide

Mt. Teide 3.718 mtrs.

Over the clouds

Beautiful Tenerife not only from the air

Posted on 13 November, 2014 by Stan | 2 Comments

I have decided to make a short selection of images I’ve made here in Tenerife, and not only during my flights…. Put them all together, edit and publish as a 2 minute long video. Hope you’ll enjoy it: “Beautiful Tenerife not only from the air”…

Views that I am missing during hood flying

Posted on 22 October, 2014 by Stan | 6 Comments

As I have already mentioned in my previous posts, I have started with a basic instrument traning. This means, that I am flying with no visual references.
I’m doing my course on the neigbour island Gran Canaria, and I’ve realized that after 6,5 hours in the air I haven’t seen anything from the island but the airport… 🙂

Luckily I am recording my flights on a camera, so after each flight I can review how I flew, what can be improved and also see, what I could have seen if I would have been flying without the hood… 🙂 I enjoy the training a lot and here is a short time lapsed video of one of my training flight with a Diamond DA20 Katana.

So these are the views that I am missing during hood flying:

What are your experiences with hood flying?

Fly safe!

Fly with Stan – Sharing (not only my) flying experiences…

Sharing (not only) my flying advetures