Harbor Flight, an RV, Mini-Bikes and 2 Citation Captains.

Nothing excites me more then getting to share my passion for aviation with my kids!  Today I had the opportunity to take 3 of my 4 children flying over long beach harbor. (I have yet to take my youngest Elizabeth flying, but I plan to in the near future.)  This would be my first flight with more than 2 kids in the aircraft at one time.

The Citation III my company manages and I occasionally fly Second In Command for, was arriving on Sunday with passengers.  They would need assistance moving their cars from the hangar and exiting the airport.  This gave me the perfect reason (excuse) to take the kids to the airport. Ben and Lily are always excited about going flying! The moment I told them the plans for the day, they started jumping up and down.   Matthew, my teenager, is a little more reserved, wasn’t jumping for joy about flying, but he did seem interested to meet the Captain of the Citation III.  He had an upcoming school project and that required him interview a business owner and this would fulfill that requirement perfectly.

After church on Sunday, (when flying it’s always good to keep up the faith) we hopped in the car and headed for the airport.  Just as avgas is required to keep an airplane happy and flying, food is required to keep kids happy and running.  We stopped at Taco Bell for a quick bite.  Why Taco Bell?  Because it’s a much more cost effective way to feed 3 children than the $100 hamburger at the airport cafe’.  Especially when one of them is a bottomless pit teenager.  With full bellies, we were back on the road making great time arriving at the airport in only 30 minutes.

As I pulled into our little parking lot, the doors of the vehicle sprang open and like the air escaping a balloon, the children left the car and dashed for the door.  I opened the front doors and we walked quickly through the office and into the hangar.  Filled with an assortment of aircraft, a Piaggio, a Baron, a pair of Citations and the little Diamond DA-40. All three of the children looked around in awe. But not in Awe of the Aircraft, in utter amazement at the RV nestled in the corner of the hangar. They scrambled to it and climbed up the two steps to explore it.  Ben and Lily sat in all the seats and opened the fridge and examined every cabinet.  A little disappointed the two were so excited about the motor-coach and not the aircraft, Matthew and I headed to the Diamond for a preflight.  I knew my copilot was ready to fly, until he passed the mini-bikes.

Now Matthew was off racing up and down the easement between Gulfstream and our hangar.  With 100 yards to drive on he was scooting along the pavement at 15mph.  The excitement on his face was apparent with a grin that reached from ear to ear.  I let him enjoy his time, and I went to work thoroughly preflighting the little white piston aircraft.

There sat the DA-40, bubble canopy, 3 blade prop and sharp looking T-tail. Sunlight began glistened off the white paint as I rolled open heavy hangar doors.   The sporty little aircraft looked like it wanted to take flight right there.  Running my hand along the leading edge of the wing I knew this solid little bird would safely carry my family and I into the clouds.  To be sure of that, I carefully checked and doubled checked items on my walk around check list.  The VIP passengers I was entrusted to carry by my wife, were too valuable to have any mishaps.   When all looked good, fuel full, oil topped off and headphones plugged in, I called my copilot and two navigators over to their aircraft.

The two “littles” climbed into the back seat and fastened their seat belts.  Matthew popped the canopy open and jumped into the right seat.  Moving the stick back and forth he got a feel for how smooth the control inputs felt.  I reminded him a little movement goes a long way when flying an airplane.  The clam shell canopy closed gently and all sound from the outside world disappeared. The two LCD displays lit up like a giant video game as we turned on the master switch ready to fire up the 180 horse power Lycoming engine. 

Matthew opened the copilot side storm window and with a loud cry yelled “CLEAR PROP”  looking around there was no one in site.  I rotated the key to the start position and the engine instantly roared to life. I pushed the mixture control full forward so the engine would not stall out once it was up and running.  Aircraft engines can be finicky, but this well maintained machine was fairly easy to start and only when it was hot did it ever cause any issues.

The avionics came to life and we listened to the ATIS (automated weather and useful information about the airport), called clearance delivery, then ground and taxied out to runway 1-2.  Taxing to runway 1-2 was unique in that, the winds are almost always out of the West at Long Beach.  I had only ever taken off to the east a handful of times.  Not that this would cause any difficulties, it was just a new and different experience.  The run up went flawlessly and there was not single indication of any abnormalities to be found.  We called up ground and were once again cleared to taxi to the run way.

Holding short of the runway, I called up Long Beach tower and requested a south bound departure.  “Clear for takeoff runway 1-2, southbound departure approved.” The Controller Boomed over the radio.  With excitement , I moved the throttle forward and the aircraft began to roll onto the runway.  As we took the runway, flaps were set for take off, landing light on, fuel pump on throttle full forward.  The lycoming engine pulled the aircraft along quickly accelerating to 65 knots.  The control forces came to life and the ground slowly fell beneath us.