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Larry Winger's 601XL Project
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Date: 6-22-2012
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Number of Hours: 0.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Resumed flight training for Sport Pilot license
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After a break of 7.5 years from active flying, I got back in the saddle this week. I decided to take a week off work to pour myself into instruction and ground school in prep for my Sport Pilot Practical Test. One motivating factor was that my knowledge test expires on 9/30/2012 and I'd like to get it wrapped up before having to retake that. Torrance Zamperini Airfield (KTOA) is 45 miles from my home, but I decided this was the right place to take my instruction and flight test. It is a Class D airport tucked under the Class B airspace of LAX. It is the home of Robinson Helicopters, so there is plenty of unusual flying activity at all times. I wanted to return to flying in high activity controlled airspace because that's the kind of flying I expect to be doing quite a lot. The training aircraft is a new SLSA from South Africa called the Sling. I must say I really fell in love with this plane, and the added bonus was that it has the same MGL EFIS that I'm putting in my panel (the Voyager). Most of previous experience has been in high-wing, yoke controlled aircraft with analog gauges. This was low-wing, stick controlled and glass panel, so there was plenty to learn. I can honestly say converting to stick and rudder was easy and I now prefer it because of control sensitivity. My instructor is Terry Johnston and my checkride will be with Matt Liknaitzky, U.S. rep for MGL Avionics and a really helpful guy. Due to "June Gloom," I was only able to fly in the afternoons, but I logged 7.6 hours in 5 days of actual flying. In addition, I did plenty of ground school. I won't be able to fly again for about 3 weeks, but if my learning holds, I hope to be ready for my checkride after another 2 to 4 hours of instruction. We'll see. BTW, the field is named after WWII hero Louie Zamperini. If you've not read the book "Unbroken," I highly recommend it. What an amazing man.
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Airplane Factory Sling 2
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Similar equipment to my panel
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Named after WWII hero Louie Zamperini
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