N28067 - 1979 Bellanca Viking 17-30A

Sharon and I purchased N28067, a 1979 Bellanca Viking in 1997.  Since then, we have logged over 700 hours with trips as far as Steamboat Springs, CO (SBS), Santa Fe, NM (SFE), Cape Cod, MA (PVC), Oshkosh (OSH), Tuscon (TUS), and Sunriver, OR (S21).  We also regularly fly to Houston, Midland, Dallas, Baton Rouge and New Orleans (and of course, Plainview).

N28067 is equipped with King digital IFR avionics and CII AP coupled to King equipment and Northstar Loran.  The 1979 model year was the first with the redesigned engine mount allowing the nose gear to fully retract and includes nose gear doors.  N28067 has all the antennae external, but trues at book speeds plus a couple mph.  I generally fly above 10,000 ft and see around 185 mph.  I get 190 mph plus a little at lower altitudes.  We carry O₂ and routinely go as high as 14,000 ft to get over turbulence and still true about 180 mph (great if there are tailwinds, lousy if headwinds).  N28067 was Tom Russ' "Miss February" Viking.

We have recently been flying to the International Viking Owners Group (IVOG) and Bellanc Vikings de Tejas (BVdT) fly-ins and have met many nice people in the group.  Some of the group pictures are here.

I got back into flying in 1996 after a 10 year hiatus.  I find it a tremendous opportunity to exercise my mental skills outside of work.  Flying has become my most important stress relief mechanism.

And besides, Sharon needs her own personal pilot...

Viking Links and Info:  

Tom's Bellanca Super Viking site - the best Viking site around

Max Schuermann's site - Good Viking info from an A&P

Fun with maintenance - stories about maintenance on N28067

Viking performance - discussions about actual performance

What a prospective Viking driver might want to know - ramblings about the qualities of a Viking

Friends and Family:

 SNOWBIRDS in El Paso!

Mother of all runway incursions - almost.

This is an unbelievable audiofile of a near disaster caused by a controller.  The charts below will give you an idea of the airport layout.  The download requires RealPlayer and is a 6.3 meg file, but it is worth the download even if using 56k modem.  It's pretty quick over DSL.

back to Sharon and Craig's page