Can you believe we’re already halfway into 2025? I’ve been quiet on the blog but busy on my YouTube channel, enjoying my private pilot certificate and instrument rating, flying with the Gig Harbor Flying Club and my new Cessna 182S, N926TC!

Wait - you own a plane?

Six-Tango-Charlie is a 1997 Cessna 182S model that I co-own as part of an LLC and lease to the Gig Harbor Flying Club. Here it is, showing off at the newly-renovated DeLaurentis airport on Whidbey Island:

What a beautiful plane!

Aircraft ownership has been a whirlwind of documentation, number-crunching, inspections, training and familiarization flights, and stress – it’s finances, corporate operations, flying and maintenance all wrapped up in a big messy ball, but good co-owners and an experienced flying club like Gig Harbor make it so much easier for a first-time owner like me, and I’ve been able to put in over 25 hours this year in this incredible plane of mine.

Here’s a video playlist of my C182 travels so far all across Western Washington:

The C182 has been a fascinating upgrade from my previous C172 experience. It’s a high-performance aircraft which requires a special endorsement, and with its beefier engine it can haul more and do it faster. There’s more to manage, from the cowl flaps to the constant-speed prop (the dreaded blue handle!), but it’s feeling like second nature, and the faster speed keeps me diligent about thinking ahead of the plane.

Yeah, yeah, what’s this about a jet though?

Confession: I’ve always wanted to fly a jet. I’ve tried to bum rides on private jets from friends-of-friends but haven’t been able to make it happen yet, and if you’ve seen my videos you know I’ve flight-simmed Phenom 100/300’s, Honda Jets, and my personal favorite, the Cirrus Vision Jet.

What is it about turbines? Something about the sound, the smell of Jet A fuel, the grip-style throttles.

For a while I just had to settle with floating around the pool on this:

Yeah, that's the same.

But then I discovered The Flight Academy’s Vision Jet program. And I thought – why not?

See, I owed myself a present; I spent the last 10 months completing my Bachelor’s Degree, a feat I had attempted three times before, but had to step back each time. This is a journey almost twenty years in the making – what kind of celebration would make sense?

Oh, sure, I turned my tassel while flying my own C182, but anybody can do that. No - the right gift to myself is flying a jet.

Specifically, the Cirrus Vision Jet. Look at this thing.

They only let you fly one at a time, not two.

So what’s the plan, jet man?

You know me - I don’t jump in without a plan.

Build a useful route. I gave myself a “mission” that would fulfill several objectives: go somewhere I haven’t gone before and get a Fly Washington Stamp (my 35th!), go far enough to get above 18,000 feet so I can be up in Class A airspace, and haul something useful. So we’re headed to Walla Walla (KALW) to pick up a case of wine from one of our favorite wineries! The total time on the Hobbs should be under 4 hours, between 45mins to 1hr each way, just under 400nm round-trip.

Learn and sim. Who would I be if I didn’t sim this? I’ve gotten a decent simulacrum of the Vision Jet cockpit together in my home sim, using Honeycomb Bravo custom components off Etsy, an Airbus 320 flight stick from Thrustmaster that I’ve mounted on a RAM mount to be a decent copy of the canted stick on the Vision Jet, and my trusty Octavi IFR-1 for frequently used avionics-twiddling.

There’ll be a few more versions of these flights coming as I get better and better at it but here’s an early attempt!

Get into Cirrus Life a little cheaper first. I got introduced to The Flight Academy’s flight instructors and the Cirrus lifestyle in June by getting a familiarization flight in the SR-20, the ubiquitous piston-engine Cirrus to get some of the avionics and flows under my belt. I flew from Renton (KRNT) up to Friday Harbor (KFHR) in the San Juan Islands in just 35 minutes, and what a comfy ride.

I'm a low-wing convert at this point.

So when are you going to jet? Now? It’s now, right?

Very soon! We are just waiting for a date, hopefully this month, when the plane will be available and we can make our run to Walla Walla!

And of course, when I do, there’ll be video.

Stay tuned!