Some select representatives from our Family Business had to attend the 2014 Planning Session in Renton, Washington (just south of Seattle) which is about 190 miles away from the farm or a 3 hour drive without traffic and 4 hours with traffic. This session was schedule to last 6 hours, therefore instead of battling the road ways we decided to hit the sky and fly in our family’s Beechcraft Bonanza V35ATC Turbo Charged Plane, which is conveniently stored in our hanger less than 5 miles from the ranch. I was thrilled to make my workday only 9 hours long vs. 16 hours, so I could enjoy some playtime with my munchkin. My Daddy and Uncle have been IFR Certified Pilots for 30 years or more and love to fly their private plane as a hobby; therefore they keenly flew themselves (company owners), our sales manager and yours truly (sales execution coordinator) to the meeting.
On the way to Renton, we flew above the clouds at 8,000 feet, due to the overcast weather. However, on our way home the clouds had cleared off and we were able to fly below the clouds a few times at 5,000 feet altitude. I love to fly under the clouds and enjoy the scenery.
Our plane’s call sign is “8425N or 8425 November” and you must use this call sign in the aircraft phonetic alphabet for clarity in aviation voice radio every time. These small plane engines are very noisy and it’s recommended to wear noise cancelling headphones, even though they do flatten out your hairstyle. But on the other hand, you can listen to all the air chatter and talk amongst each other inside the plane; without yelling. This air chatter was fascinating to me…there were conversations between the air traffic control tower(ATCT) and pilots, also the pilots talking to other nearby pilots in all different sized planes, both commercial and private. This AvSpeak is a lot of code talk with aviation terms and abbreviations. A couple of my favorite terms:
“Green Light (approval for landing) or Three Greens; meaning the landing gear is down”
“IFR (Instrument Flight Rules)”
“VFR (Visual Flight Rules)”
“Scud (A low, foglike cloud layer)”
“IMC– Instrument Meteorological Conditions (basically you’re in the in clouds)”
You will notice off our left side wing, Mt. Rainier in Washington. Also, a must while flying is your Ray Ban Aviators… a fashion tip from Top Gun!
Savvy Ranch Living 