I guess it's about time for me to chime in here...

First of all, I did nothing different than anyone else would have done and am capable of no more than anyone else out there. Saab2000 and I worked as a crew as we are all trained to do. If anyone deserves the credit is to Saab2000. From the right seat in a crew environment I am only as good as the leadership I am under. Saab2000's abilities as a PIC are right on and although he is relatively new to the left seat at AWAC his knowledge, wisdom, and experience in airline operations are way beyond his PIC time.

Saab enjoyed the trip with ya... hope we can do it again soon.


Second... to address what this thread has digressed to. There seems to be a lot of discussion about using the flight director or not. I personally never use it when the autopilot is off. It doesn't matter if it is VMC or IMC. If I have chosen to have the autopilot off I am controlling my destiny... not the flight director. Here's why. Several month back I flew with a captain who never used the FD. I was intrigued and decided to try. I was disgusted by how sloppy of a pilot I had become. I decided from that day on I would fly without the flight director. The first few days were pretty sloppy, but like anything else you re-learn pretty quickly. I love to fly. I hate all the airline BS, but i love to fly. There is no reason that any one of us can not fly a raw data approach and although I never really do that in IMC I still want to know that I can! I know a lot of you think that this is irresponsible and dangerous with people's lives in the back, but you people need to get a life. It's an airplane... you're a pilot... cowboy up!


Third... Early in this thread Kansas made a comment about me learning to fly in Kansas, and then another gave the credit to Parks College at Saint Louis University. I started to really think about who I have learned the most from.
Here's the list of a few men who have shaped my abilities in and passion for aviation... all in very different ways and from very different perspectives.

Tim Whitney- HawkerBeechcraft
Dwayne Clemens- Clemens Aircraft www.clemensaircraft.com
Ron Hallaux- HawkerBeechcraft
Randy Cox- Parks College @ SLU

... there are many more.



And just for the record... when we were coming in for that out of trim landing... that was some pucker factor like I've never experienced before!


-groovinaviator-