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Georgia Bulldog (Go Dawgs!) inspired red, black and silver color scheme. Hawk really knocked it out of the park. It’s absolutely beautiful.”
Along with the new paint job, Thornton also took advan- tage of the downtime to have Hawk’s technicians install BLR Vortex Generators.
“They lower the stalling speed and VMC and will be a huge improvement in the airplane’s safety and handling,” he said. “Plus, the VGs add another 75 pounds to the max gross weight, which is great when you have a growing family.”
With regard to fuel burn, Thornton said with all his ex- perience in twin Cessnas, he’s not a fan of the speed loss running LOP with the normally aspirated engines, so he stays on the rich side.
“I generally plan for 12.5 gallons-per-hour at around 60-percent power. That gives me between 175 and 182 knots true airspeed. With 163 gallons usable, she will stay in the air a lot longer than we prefer,” he said. “On long trips we typically stop at 1,000 miles or five and a half hours, whichever comes first.”
Flying with 125,000 Friends
As for starting and maintaining his popular YouTube channel 310 Pilot, Thornton explained that it all began as nothing more than the desire to share their family’s love of general aviation.
“It started when Jaime gave me a gift card for Rosen Sun Visors. But, at the time, I didn’t see the STC for our airplane, so I bought a GoPro camera instead and started filming our flights. Since then, we’ve added more cameras to give viewers added views,” he said. “The flight planning and flying parts are easy, but the editing has been a constant work in progress.”
While Jaime is not a licensed pilot, as an experienced controller, she’s the ideal radio-handling right seater, mak- ing her voice and 771 Bravo Charlie instantly recognizable.
“Jaime and I are still getting used to being recognized by controllers and other pilots,” Thornton said. “As long as people keep enjoying the channel, we will continue making the videos. The close-knit general aviation community is an amazing group of people and we are very happy to be able to share our part of it.”
Dale Smith has been a commercial, private and business aviation marketing and media communications specialist for nearly 40 years. He is an award-wining aviation journalist and aviation artist. Dale has been a licensed pilot since 1974 and has flown more than 40 different types of aircraft. Contact Dale at dalesmith206@comcast.net.
8 • TWIN & TURBINE / July 2020
Alpine (Sullivan’s)