About the BOGO iPhone 8+

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How I got conned into getting a second phone and why I don’t mind.

Back in September, when I was on vacation in Washington, DC, I upgraded my old iPhone 7 to an iPhone Xs. It was just under 2 years since my last upgrade, but the iPhone 7 had a tiny scratch on the camera lens. I was facing either $80 to repair a two-year-old phone or $1000+ to buy a new phone with a much better camera. I went with the upgrade.

While I was there at the Verizon store in Union Station, the salesperson excitedly told me that because I was 55 or older, I qualified for a buy one get one free offer on a second phone. “I don’t need a second phone,” I told her. “I’m one person.”

“But it’s free,” she said.

“What kind of phone?” I asked, figuring I could get it and sell it on Craig’s List. “An old flip phone?”

“Any phone we sell that lists for under $1,000,” was the surprising answer.

“And what about using it?” I asked. “Do I have to pay more every month to have it?”

“No, she told me. “Your monthly service cost will be the same. You just have to keep it for two years.”

Red iPhone 8+
It’s pretty and I am partial to red.

This sounded too good to be true, even though I couldn’t sell it right away. The way I saw it, it would be an insurance policy; if I broke my other phone, I could use this one. I was hooked. I picked out a red iPhone 8+, which is known for having a good camera. That’s the big screen iPhone. Too big for everyday use, in my opinion, but what the hell. It was free.

Except it wasn’t. I had to pay sales tax on it. That was nearly $80.

She activated my iPhone Xs and I tossed the boxes for both phones in a shopping bag. I finished my vacation 2 weeks later, packed them in my luggage, and brought them home. I put the boxes on a shelf in my office, never even bothering to take out the red phone.

Fast forward to the other day. After getting a phone call while I was recording a video, I decided it might be nice to use a different camera for all these YouTube videos I’ve been making. I thought immediately of the red phone still in its box. The big screen would make it easier for my 55+ eyes to see what I was shooting. I retrieved it, plugged it in to charge its dead battery, and called Verizon to make sure I could activate it and use it without paying additional fees.

I was on the phone for over an hour with the customer service person. Turns out that the Union Station salesperson wasn’t exactly truthful. Although my bill was about what I expected every month — higher than the old bill but just enough to cover the cost of the $1200 iPhone Xs I was paying off over 2 years — I was paying extra for that new phone. I didn’t know it because I never bothered looking at my bill. Service was $40 each per phone and I’d been paying $40/month since September for a phone in a box just draining its battery.

Imagine how pissed off I was. Maybe you can’t. I can get pretty pissed off. I could feel my blood pressure rise.

She did more research and we discovered that my old plan had been $85/month for my one phone. That included unlimited talk, text, and data. The new plan with the BOGO phone was $60/month for one phone or $40/month per phone for more than one phone. So, in reality, I was paying slightly less for my plan every month with two phones than I had been paying for one phone.

But I would be paying $20/month less if I had just one phone. Still, $20/month wasn’t going to break me. Hell, I hadn’t even noticed the difference.

I thought about the situation I’d found myself in. In my mind, I was basically getting two phones for the price of one. At the end of my two year period, I could sell both phones and come out fine. (I keep my phones in pristine condition with cases and screen covers.) In the meantime, I could use this new phone for video stuff; it had exactly the same plan as the one I was using every day.

To sweeten the deal, the Verizon customer service rep put a $100 credit on my account, basically covering 5 months of what I’d paid ($80/month paid – $60/month what I would have paid with one phone = $20/month).

Of course, I wound up keeping the phone. It was a hell of a lot easier than fighting with Verizon about taking it back. And I really do like the phone for the video work I’m doing. The big screen rocks and the camera quality is better than I need.

But I did learn a valuable lesson: The next time I upgrade my phone, I’m taking my bill along with me and will compare the current bill with the new bill. I’m not going to pay for equipment I’m not using again.

Super King Air A100 Walk-Thru

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A video on the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Join me and pilot Woody Woodrum for a walk-thru of the Super King Air he used in early July to deliver three dogs and five cats to a ranch in Montana. Woody explains the plane’s capabilities and other details while I show off the exterior, interior, and instrument panel.

Woody is a retired airline pilot who is co-owner of Canyon State Aero, a helicopter/airplane flight school in Mesa, AZ. You can learn more about them at http://www.canyonstateaero.com/

About the Video

  • The video was recorded on an iPhone Xs. I know the sound is less than perfect; I ordered a microphone for the phone and hope it will improve sound quality on future videos. (I’m taking baby steps at this point. Be patient.)
  • The video was edited on a Macintosh using Screenflow software. Learn more about it here: https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm
  • The intro music is by Bob Levitus, famed “Dr. Mac.” You can find him here:
    http://www.boblevitus.com/

About My Channel
I’m trying to drop cockpit POV videos every Sunday morning and usually drop “extras” like this one midweek. I’m also working on putting together occasional livestreams with Q&A chat. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. The more subscribers I have, the more motivated I am to keep producing videos like this one.

Still reading? Thanks! Maybe you’ll consider buying a T-shirt, mug, or sticker to help fund my video equipment acquisitions? Check out the Teespring links on my video pages.

Passenger Weights: Do the Math

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Don’t give in to client pressure.

Mr Bleu in Wenatchee Heights
Here’s Mr Bleu parked on hillside in Wenatchee Heights.

Yesterday, I got a call from a potential client for my charter services. He’d seen my Two Winery Tour on the Flying M Air website. The tour starts in Wenatchee and goes to two wineries for wine tasting: Tsillan Cellars in Chelan and Cave B Winery in Quincy (or George?). The flight costs $995 for up to three passengers and includes up to 90 minutes of flight time, as well as pilot wait time.

I’ll admit it here: I’ve never actually done this tour. I’ve taken people to both wineries, but never the same people on the same day. I think it’s just too expensive for most folks. So when this guy — I’ll call him Hal — wanted to do the tour, I was very interested in making it happen.

There was some back and forth about where I’d pick him up. At first, he wanted me to come get him at a friend’s place in Leavenworth. Of course, I had no way of knowing whether the landing zone would be suitable without actually going up there — 40 road miles each way from my home — to check it out. And then there was the fact that it would add to my flight time and I’d have to charge him extra for that. We finally agreed that I’d pick him up at the airport in Cashmere, which was only about 5 minutes out of my way. I’d make up the flight time in the air.

My final step was getting the passenger names and weights for my flight manifest and weight and balance calculation. For some reason, I’d assumed that it was just him and wife or girlfriend. I was wrong. It was going to be three guys: Hal at 225 pounds, Mike at 180 pounds, and Nick at 215 pounds. Of course, he was guessing at Mike and Nick’s weights.

“Wait a second,” I said as I jotted down the numbers. “I think we have a weight issue.”

“Yes,” he replied. “I saw on your website that the maximum passenger weight was 600 pounds.”

I added up the numbers he’d given me and arrived at a total of 620. I was trying to understand how he thought 620 might be lower than 600. And that didn’t even include the fact that he was probably lying about his own weight — everyone does — and had guessed incorrectly about his friends’ weights. I was willing to bet the total weight was at least 40 pounds higher.

“I can’t do it,” I said. “We’d be over max gross weight with the fuel I’d have to carry for the flight.”

He suggested just going to one winery. I could take less fuel.

I didn’t need to do the math or consult my pilot operating manual’s performance charts to know that it wouldn’t be much better. I was thinking about the two landing zones (LZs), both of which are in semi-confined spaces. I didn’t think I’d have a problem landing, but I knew I’d have a problem taking off, especially if I had a tailwind. Both LZs were surrounded by low but considerable obstacles — fences and/or rows of grape vines — that I’d have to clear on my takeoff run. Beyond those obstacles in certain directions were tall trees, making them impractical for departure routes.

As I always did when I considered the situation — flying heavy on a summer day from an off-airport LZ — I thought about the 2007 crash of a Robinson R44 Raven II in Easton, WA. In that crash, the pilot had attempted a takeoff on a hot day with three full-sized passengers on board. I can almost hear the low rotor RPM horn screaming in my ear when I read the description of the helicopter wobbling in flight as it struggled to gain or altitude over rough terrain. She just didn’t have enough power or skill or friendly wind to help her get airborne. I hope it was the crash that killed them and not the fire. I didn’t want to be in an accident report like that one.

Watch My Helicopter Videos on YouTube

Time for a shameless plug…

Flying M Air Logo

If you like helicopters, you’ll love the FlyingMAir YouTube Channel. Check it out for everything from time-lapse annual inspections to cockpit POV autorotation practice to a flight home from a taco dinner at a friend’s house — and more.

So I said no, I couldn’t do the flight.

Hal seemed surprised. He told me he’d talk to his companions to see if he got their weights wrong. I knew he got them wrong, but I also knew that he’d understated them. I knew the only way he’d call back is if one of them decided not to go. But he didn’t call back. And I admit that I’m kind of glad.

A hungry operator who is willing to bend rules and ignore aircraft limitations might have accepted the flight. But I’ll never be hungry enough to risk my life to make a client happy.

No responsible, safety-conscious pilot ever should.

More Helicopter Cherry Drying

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A video on the FlyingMAir YouTube Channel.

COME FLY WITH ME while I dry cherries in three different orchards after a heavy rain.

This is the last cherry drying video this season — I promise! It’s very long — despite heavy editing — because I do a lot of talking about my drying work and cherries, including orchards, growing, picking, and those light-colored tarps under the cherry trees. You’ll also hear me talking to the two other pilots on my team as I coordinate our efforts. If you’ve got sharp eyes, you’ll even see them in flight. Along the way, I have a close encounter with two wind machines and deal with a minor in-flight “emergency.” On flight segments from orchard to orchard, you get a glimpse of the amazing scenery in the Wenatchee area of Washington State.

So grab a favorite beverage or bag of popcorn or chips (or bowl of cherries) and settle down beside me in the cockpit to learn some things about cherry farming that you probably didn’t know.

Some questions answered:

About Cherry Drying:

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying for about 20 years. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time is in R44, R22, Bell 206L (Long Ranger), and Bell 47 helicopters.
  • The helicopter is a Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo at the beginning of the video. You can learn more about them here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ I own this helicopter. It is the third helicopter I’ve owned since 2000.
  • My helicopter has ADS-B Out and is picked up by radar facilities. You can see my track for recent flights on Flightradar24:
    https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n7534D
    This is a great site for tracking any almost any flight, including the airlines.

About the Video

  • The video was recorded with a pair of GoPro cameras, one of which is connected to the helicopter’s intercom system. Both cameras record audio, but I dialed down the helicopter sound to about 25% of normal volume so it wouldn’t be annoying. I wouldn’t mind leaving it out altogether, but lots of folks seem to want it, so there it is.
  • The video was edited on a Macintosh using Screenflow software. (Screenflow was the only affordable software I could find that allowed me to do picture-in-picture.) Learn more about it here: https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm
  • The intro music is by Bob Levitus, famed “Dr. Mac.” You can find him here:
    http://www.boblevitus.com/

I’m trying to drop flying videos like this one every Sunday morning and usually drop “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. I’m also working on putting together occasional livestreams with Q&A chat. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. The more subscribers I have, the more motivated I am to keep producing videos like this one.

Still reading? Thanks! Maybe you’ll consider buying a T-shirt, mug, or sticker to help fund my video equipment acquisitions? Check out the Teespring links on the video page.

Fueling a Robinson R44 Helicopter

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A video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

Lots of the folks who watched the video where I flew from home to the airport noticed that I parked right in front of the fuel island at the airport and wanted me to show how the helicopter is fueled. Well, that fuel island is now out-of-order and fuel comes from a truck. The other day, when I was feeling kind of punchy after flying through a hailstorm, I took a moment to video Dana, the FBO fuel guy at Wenatchee, as he refueled my helicopter, Mr Bleu. It was raining pretty hard and I whined about that but I think the results are worth sharing. So here, by popular demand, is how to fuel an R44 helicopter. Enjoy!

Some notes to answer questions I know I’ll get:

  • Robinson R44 helicopters burn AvGas, also known as 100LL. It’s a 100 octane leaded fuel.
  • On the day this video was posted, AvGas at my airport cost $5.52 per gallon.
  • My helicopter burns between 14 and 17 gallons per hour, depending on my flight profile.
  • I don’t do “hot fueling” — in other words, fueling the helicopter while it’s running. That can be dangerous.

When you do the math, you might say, “Wow! Only $80-$90 for an hour of flight time. Operating a helicopter is a lot less than I thought. Why are tours so expensive?” But that’s not taking into consideration are the other costs of owning and operating a helicopter: regular maintenance ($3K to $10K per year) and insurance ($8K to $20K per year) are the two biggest. Robinson Helicopters also need a complete overhaul every 12 years of 2200 hours of flight time; that’ll cost me about $250K or more than $100/hour. Taking all costs into consideration, my cost to operate is well over $400 per hour. It’s one of the reasons why I and so many other pilots are offended when strangers suggest splitting the cost of fuel in exchange for a ride. It’s like “sharing the cost” of a nice meal out by just paying half the tip.

If you’re really curious about R44 operating costs, you might want to download this document from the Robinson Helicopter Company: https://robinsonheli.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/r44_2_eoc.pdf Just keep in mind that Robinson is in business to sell helicopters, so these numbers are optimistic.

And another note to answer a specific question someone asked on another video the other day. When fuel comes from a truck (as opposed to self-serve), I have to request fuel service. I can do this two ways: (1) make a radio call to the FBO (fixed base operator) or fuel provider, which is usually on the common traffic advisory frequency at small airports like Wenatchee Pangborn (KEAT), or (2) land, shut down, get out, and go into the FBO building and ask in person. I’m a regular customer at Pangborn, so I have an account there and they bill me once a month based on what I bought. At other airports, I pay either at the truck or inside with a credit card.

If you have other questions, please don’t hesitate to post them in the comments. And don’t be offended if I’ve answered them here and tell you to read the video description. Thanks!