***Watch in HIGH DEFINITION***

A dear friend of mine with a PA32, also known as the Piper 6X, lends me his airplane whenever I’m in need of a little flying fix. This flight was from Danville, VA (KDAN) to Lewisburg, WV (KLWB) for the obligatory $100 hamburger run, which coincidentally cost more like $212 in avgas and food, but I digress…

This particular flight was a couple of “firsts” – 1. It was my special lady friends first small plane ride, and 2. It was my first time playing around with video equipment in the cockpit.

You’ll notice I made a few amateur video mistakes. First being I forgot to clean the windscreen and you can see two huge bug splats during the whole video. Sorry in advance! Second, I was using a camcorder with a digital shutter instead of a higher quality video camera. That’s why you’ll see the prop arcing across the screen. Third, I forgot to turn off the camera’s built in image stabilization which is why you’ll sometimes note the image rolling on the screen. Live and learn!

Before taking my girl up for a ride that day I had to go out and get single engine day current first. After my 3 landings, I picked her up, and off we went. Since it was my lady’s first flight, and I’m a Flight Instructor, you’ll hear me talking her through everything that I’m doing. Which is why I’m actually publishing this video. Maybe someone will find it helpful.

The weather was nice, calm winds in both departure and destination airports, clouds about 6,000 ft MSL. I decided to file IFR for the flight back and forth which was a good decision with the cloud heights and flying over the mountains.

Upon arrival into the local LWB area the tower controller asked me to extend downwind so he could depart a jet off Runway 22 before our arrival. Naturally, I complied before turning about a 6 mile final.

Once we arrived in LWB we had lunch at the Dutch Haus restaurant on field and then flew back to DAN to put Tango Charlie back to bed.

Let me know what you think of this video. Sound off in the comments below!

OH and one more thing… If you enjoyed this video, do me a favor and click the “Like” button on the top or bottom of this post. Thanks!

The second video in this series is available here: PA32 Departure from KLWB 22May2011