Sun and Fun 2008

Going with Scott in his 2003 Archer III. Planning a Monday Departure and back on Thursday (I think)

Transitioning into different airplanes

As an instructor I've had days where I would have flown say six or seven different airplanes within a day's work. While the majority of these airplanes were similar from a make and model perspective, sometime they were not.

 

One thing that I learned from a few of my instructors is applicable to any type of aircraft you hop into, learning the speeds applicable for the various phases of flight along with the  power settings that derive those speeds and the transition will be less frustrating at worst and much safer at best.

 

For expample when transitioning into a complex aircraft students (myself included) typically have a difficult time with the extra handle in the throttle quadrant that controls the prop. Whenther its retract or not getting the idea that throttle controls manifold pressure and the prop RPM takes a little getting used to after spending most of your piloting in fixed prop airplanes. Add a gear handle and a whole other set of elements come into play.

 

To Sun and Fun or Not to?

Trying to decide if we're going to go this year. It's about a month away. It's been lame lately with a whole lot more drinking than aviation going on during the show.

 

But it is the first big aviation event and it would be nice to fly the trip and wake up with all the airplanes.

 

We'll see

DST returns early

Daylight savings time came at 2:00am this morning. Spring is on its way and the 10 day panel on weather.com says we should have high temperatures squarely in the mid 40's this week. This is significant because we can go FLYING AFTER WORK WITH NO PREHEAT!

 

Clock changes are times for increased vigilence when flying. Considering it will be light later, we'll fly more. Chances are we'll get back after dark and encounter other aircraft flying after dark who's pilots may not be proficient at night flying.

 

There is a period when the clocks change we lose track of the time and sunset and get stuck out when the sun is going down. In Danbury with Runway 26 being the predominant runway in use this means turning final and having the setting sun in your face resulting in moments of near zero visibility. Add in some aged plexiglass and the eyes reduced ability to when the light levels drop and you can have a potential nightmare. Regardless of what you fly everyone should be sitting up looking for traffic.

 

I vividly remember occasions where I've been cut off by traffic who saw lights and a low wing and started following the wrong airplane when they were supposed to be following me. It's easy to do. Flying east into diminishing daylight, heading towards darkness on downwind, losing sight of your traffic ahead and spotting the wrong plane on base or final.  Our Confused Captain turns base to final further changing the visibility dynamic. The next thing you know you've got number 3 in front of number 2  following number 1. 

 

If I'm alone and the sun is setting sometimes I'll hang out in the practice area or slow it down 20 miles out and give the airport a chance to clear out a bit. Practicing slow flight or just slowing it down to 65-70 is something no one wants to do but we all can use the good experience. Letting the sun go down completely is another way you to eliminate glare. 

 

After a few weeks everyone gets used to the sun's new schedule and it gets back to normal. Getting night current is always good experience and if you're uncomfortable with it, take an instructor with you.  Instructors are cheap insurance that keep you and your shiny airplane from becoming part of the Nall Report

Getting an Instrument Rating - My First Solo Instrument Mission

Getting your instrument rating is a difficult but worthwhile thing to do. It's expensive, and takes a long time. The subject matter is confusing to grasp and understand. Gaining mastery of controlling an aircraft solely by reference to the gages/glass without being able to see the ground is challenging for every pilot. Learning to decode the alphabet soup of acronyms, cryptic procedures and myriad regulations when you’re flying once or twice a week is hard work requiring tenacity and dedication. Additionally if you are doing it immediately after you received your Private it's usually not one of the fun thing you anticipated when learning to fly in the first place. If you have a flying budget spending more money training vs going to cool and exciting places might cause some resentment at home.   Maintaining proficiency and staying current once the check ride is passed is a whole other matter deserving of numerous postings.

However once you get your private license and (hopefully) buy an airplane you quickly realize the value of the instrument rating. Without one, your passion in the eyes of friends and family is just a clever novelty. Like the weird guy at the party doing magic tricks, you’ll have plenty to talk about at social functions or when out to dinner with friends and associates. Inevitably the questions turn to weather and if you can fly at night, and fly on instruments. People really want to know whether you will end up like JFK Jr. and they’ll come right out and say it.

But when you’re sitting on the ramp on a beautiful summer morning with your wife and friends trying to get to (or home from) Martha’s Vineyard, Ocean City , or Montauk and the visibility is less than 3 you’re stuck. Every plane with an instrument rated pilot is taxiing out  of the FBO and taking off making you feel like  Junior Aviator. The other guys girlfriend is talking to your wife and friends  about all the cool places they've been. They're going to the beach today too, 'maybe we'll see you over there', everyone wondering why you can’t go.  The pilots in the briefing room are filing flight plans, picking up their clearances and getting released.   

I was motivated to get my ticket after flying back from Oshkosh in 2001. We flew VFR at 2000’ from Fond Du Lac Wisconsin around Lake Michigan to spend the night in Eire Pa. The next day we launched into marginal weather and had to do a 180 about 10 miles north of Dunkirk NY at 11000 feet surrounded by canyons of building cumulus. A radical decent thru a 4 mile hole that extended to the surface to make Dunkirk Airport was next and we waited on the ground for 4 or 5 hours before launching to make Buffalo where there were hotels, rental cars and restaurants. We spent the next day banging into the back side of a cold front that we kept catching up to. When we finally got vapor lock on the Signature ramp in Albany I rented a car and we drove the 2 hours home.

That week I took the Amtrack to Albany and and flew home to Danbury in 40 minutes. They say 'Time to spare, go by air' - that trip is a story in itself.

One thing I learned after I got my instrument rating is that you never really solo until after your check ride. Up until that point you are flying with a flight instructor or safety pilot. Even though you may be the sole manipulator of the controls and piloting by reference to instruments when things get tough you can always take off the hood or say ‘your airplane’ to the instructor and be off the hook. Its a whole different ballgame when you are in the clouds, getting thrashed about and the only way you're going to continue living this thing called life is by going within, finding what it takes, suck it up and fly the plane. Wondering if you're going to see the runway at the decision height or minimum decent altitude adds a layer to what I like to call the sedimentary stress level. Stress impacts our ability to function and its really difficult to simulate how it feels and the way you will react when the majority of your training is in benign weather with a senior pilot sitting at your right shoulder. 

The first time I soloed IFR. Judy was attending a SAP training class outside of Philadelphia and I stayed home with the cats.  When we spoke at lunchtime she said ‘I’m lonely, why don’t you fly down, the room’s paid for and I have a car - we can go out on my boss’.

Philly is the type of trip our Mooney really excels at. To go from DXR to PNE is about a 50 minute ride with light winds. I checked the weather and it was good for the departure with 8000 broken and about 7 miles in haze. The weather for the return trip in the morning was a little different story with sky obscured visibility 3 in mist until 10 AM improving to clear and 5 after ten. With my newly inked instrument rating folded in my wallet and nothing to do the next day I said what the hell and headed to the airport.

Once there I did a thorough preflight and called for clearance and taxi. The clearance was a different routing than I had filed and they assigned me eight thousand instead of four.  Holding short I called ready and was cleared for takeoff.  The takeoff and climb out were uneventful the typical Danbury departure direct Carmel direct Sparta clearance maintain 3000.  This was cool. I was going to be in the system by myself, flying through the New York and the Philadelphia Bravo airspace. Shortly after departure I was cleared direct Sparta and to climb and maintain 6000. I started the climb and as I was crossing the Hudson River realized that I was 8000 was going to be right in the middle of the broken layer they were calling for.

At the time 58 Victor was a day sailor. The equipment list was state of the art for 1975 and the panel had a few upgrades in its 20 year history but there was no panel GPS. Airway navigation was what we were limited to and there was no functional autopilot.

I was cleared to 8000 and on reaching that had me in and out of the fair weather cumulus. It was bumpy and wet but being a short trip they started descending me for the airport. 

I got the visual to PNE and vectors to join final and my landing was uneventful.

The next day however was a totally different story. I woke up at the Courtyard and we had to rush to the airport so Judy could be back on time to make it to her class. Out west of Philly it was foggy but the sun was shining when we stopped at Starbucks for a cup of coffee for the ride to PNE. We followed the Mapquest directions we printed out and were amazed at the traffic heading into the city. Judy dropped me at the FBO, told me to be careful and took off.

I walked into the FBO called Flight Service and checked the weather along what I thought my route would be.  One of the strangest things about getting instrument rated is the flight service briefer doesn’t stop telling you the weather after they say ‘VFR is not recommended’.  The forecast was for the mist and fog to burn off after 10 and it was 9 so I did a long preflight, checked the weather again, and dispensed my physiological excess. Ten rolls around and it doesn’t improve. I’m walking around like a madman out to the plane and back, check the weather again, calling flight service from my cell phone and all of a sudden I realized that the rest of the two hour old Venti coffee isn’t helping my nerves any and throw it away. When it became time to amend my departure time or head out I finally decided to get in the airplane.

Out in the airplane things started getting hectic and I hadn’t even started the engine yet. ATC had thrown away my requested flight plan instead having me fly out to Allentown then Huguenot then over to Kingston NY to join the Nobbi Two Arrival into Danbury.  I pulled together the charts and marked the fixes with post it flags and briefed myself of what the routing was. I called ready to taxi and headed out to the runway. The plane kept shimmying to the right and I realized that my leg was shaking and I was riding that brake.

The checklist served as a mantra though and I found myself comforted by reading it off and verifying that everything checked ok. As I made it to the end and set up the radio’s I was wondering did I slip thru the cracks? Did I really pass the check ride or did the examiner give me a pass? I couldn’t think that way so I told myself forcefully that this is what I had trained for and to get a grip. Cleared for takeoff I motored down the runway and lifted off into the fog and the mist.

 There was no doubt when I was handed off to departure that it was IMC. You could see the ground directly under the airplane but the forward visibility kept you from seeing anything out front. I received Vectors towards Allentown then a heading to intercept the victor airway between Allentown and Huguenot. Those stations are pretty far apart so we had to track outbound of Allentown until receiving HUO. Being off airway was something I wasn't used to as neither of the needles were centered. I was real nervous and wanted it to be over and kept looking out the window and hoping it was clear, the way it was forecast, but of course, no such luck.

ATC climbed me to 7000 and I was afraid I would lose sight of the ground and wanted to cancel but the vis' was still less than 3 miles. I thought I should put on my foggles so I wouldn’t be afraid of the weather as I wouldn’t be able to see it.

The nice thing about the stable air, low visibility flying that day was it was smooth as glass. With no autopilot flying the airplane, visualizing where I was, managing charts, talking on the radio, looking up arrival procedures, writing down frequencies and changing tanks every half hour was exhausting.  I couldn’t imagine doing it with nasty turbulence and rain.

I was flying into the sun and as I got north and east the visibility started to improve. Finally I was handed to New York approach, which made me feel better. Hearing the rapid fire transmissions, the familiar accent, the impatient rude exchanges I knew I was close to home and the area I trained in.

The white plains controller cleared me direct to Brezy intersection. I asked him how it was defined and he told me the fixes and quipped, 58Victor you're based in Danbury and how come you don't know Brezy?

I picked up the ATIS in Danbury and asked for the Localizer 8 approach for the airport. I remember thinking Wow, I’m buzzing around in the clouds, in the system, in New York.  They gave me vectors to a few miles short of AMORE and switched me to the tower. Once inside the fix with the needle lined up I looked up and had the field.

I called in and reported inside AMORE. 'Mooney 58Victor cleared to land' the controller said. I read back the clearance and landed uneventfully.

When rolling out the tower controller asked ‘Mooney 58Victor could you give us a pilot report on the bases and inflight visibility?’  What a rush, Junior Aviator no more, I had joined the club.

Beautiful Flying Weather Today

Clear and forever with temps in the high 40's with winds out of the south at 6kts.

 

Did I fly? No! I got to the airport and the parking lot was a mud bog. I was dressed from work and couldn't see fouling my shined shoes walking 20 yards in deep mud.

 

$110 a month for all that! What a bargain!

The Reliant Fire - I forgot about this video

Where I got a cameo on the TV. Judy's always getting into the papers and video and I was starting to feel a little slighted so I had to remember when I made it into the news without her.

 

http://video.wnbc.com/player/?id=156287

 

Thats from the Reliant Fire when Kenda Farn from NBC in New York felt sorry for me and interviewed me on camera. Kendra's HOT in person so I could have chatted with her for hours.

 

I was shitting briquettes thinking our airplane had been destroyed and just when I was assured we made it out alright Scott called and reminded me that our logbooks were in Steve's (Head Mechanic) office.

 

I hadn't showered yet as I was on the treadmill thinking about flying when I got the word about the fire. It was a beautiful day. The clothes that were the closest to me went on and I drove down and stood outside the ramp for a few hours.

 

So needless to sayI was one scared monkey, about to head over to Chucks for a touch of the grape when she started talking to me.

 

I was going to embed it on the site but NBC New York's page didnt give up the code and I wasn't going to research it further. Click on the link and see the tragedy.

Oshkosh Trip 2007 Part One - Getting There

I  posted the pictures from our annual pilgramage to Airventure Oshkosh. As I was weeding out the late night self portraits and other shots Judy would not approve of, I started thinking about what a great trip this past year was. 

 

For starters it was the longest cross country I have done to date as we continued on from Oshkosh to Grand Island Nebraska then on into Rocky Mountain Municipal (Jeffco) Colorado. Our return trip had us stopping in Sioux Falls SD quick turning there and continuing on into Chicago Midway for the night. MDW to BUF where we were on the ground for 30 minutes and off to DXR via V2 and whatever arrival. 

 

It was our first trip out of annual and out of the radio shop where we had a STEC System 20 autopilot installed and my Garmin 396 GPS mounted on the panel and piped into the ships power with an external antenna.

 

We picked up the plane Monday afternoon and I flew it back from VIP in Hartford Brainard to Danbury and tested the autopilot. Those guys do great work but I had some questions so I called Rob Tuesday morning and he said bring it on over.

 

We flew it around for an hour or so and he adjusted it up and after dropping him off. I shot the GPS 8 back into Danbury and watched how it did with the needle while I looked out the window.

 

Deeming we were good to go from an equipment standpoint I loaded the Mooney and we started planning the route.

 

As is typical flying west, we had a front to cross and the decision of how and when to take it on influenced our departure and route planning.

 

The question is always whether to take the northern route (Buffalo,London Ontario,Peck Mi, Lake Huron, Saginaw, White Cloud crossing Lake Michigan at the Little Sable Pt.) or South via Cleveland, Toledo, Goshen, SouthBend and around the bottom of Lake Michigan to Janesville Wisconsin on into Oshkosh.

 

Judy likes the north as it is shorter and quicker. I prefer non over water routes.

 

Our preference in the summer is to fly early to beat the heat of the day but not so early that we have low ceilings and reduced visibilities due to mist and fog. If we can't get out then its better to wait until the early evening when the sun is going down and stop and spend the night somewhere.

 

We were planning on launching on Thursday prior to the show and flying towards the weather, setting down prior to the convection, letting the front cross over us (hopefully while sleeping) and then take off into drier air behind it.

 

The forecast was for the front to stall over new england and eastern new york and typically this results in the system shifting from a normal northeast to southwest direction to more of a east-west  orientation. These can extend from off the atlantic coastline through Eastern NY New Jersey Pennsylvania and into Ohio. 

 

Well the long and short is it usually makes for low ceilings and fog in the morning, bad visibility during the day and usually a good chance of thunderstorms along the frontal boundry at any time.

 

After checking the weather on Wednesday we found that the aforementioned pattern was to set in early Thursday morning so at 2 in the afternoon on Wednesday we decided to blast off or face the possibility of having to wait until Sunday when the system was to move through.

 

Flying along Victor 2 east of Syracuse at 3000 feet we started to encounter clouds and considering it was starting to get dark we asked Griffis Approach to change us from Flight Following to an IFR clearance into Buffalo.

 

The XM weather was showing buffalo was 2000 overcast and visibility 10 in light rain and we were seeing green returns starting about Rochester back through BUF with some yellow and red around Eire PA, Dunkirk NY and  out over the lake.

 

We got to BUF with the heavy rain and did vectors to the ILS 23 approach. The runway was in sight at about 3 miles and we landed and pulled into Prior where the line guys met us with an Umbrella at the plane.

 

Next Morning we launched into 1600 Over and 3 bound for Toledo's Express Airport. We were fine until about 20 miles east of Toledo when the XM on the garmin zoomed in on our courseline and showed some big honking red returns right in our way. Almost at the same time the controller called and said the last guy to go through there reported that it was a wicked ride with heavy rain and turbulence.

 

We caught the edge of it and it sounded like when you are burning a wood stove at full tilt. Judy and I looked at each other and then the windshield and said RAIN.

 

We were cleared for the ILS into Express and even though there was much daylight left the radar showed heavy rain and thunderstorms ahead. Another front was due to move thru that night so we called it a day and got a hotel a couple of miles from the field. It rained all night and through the morning so we camped at the hotel watching the weather channel until checkout time.

 

After all that the weather was still crappy so we went into downtown Toledo saw the sights and had lunch.

 

Arriving back at the airport, we returned our rental car and got ready to leave. When doing our runup out by the runway we found we weren't firing on the right mag- cylinders 1 and 2 so we taxied back shut down and went in to find a mechanic. Turns out they left at 4pm and being a weekend wanted $$$$ to come back to the airport to troubleshoot the problem.

 

Judy was pissed and impatient wanting to get out of Toledo at any cost. (EXTERNAL PRESSURE/Impulsivity) We tried starting again and ran it up on the ramp and this time it was fine.

 

We blasted off of Toledo and because of convective activity over Lake Michigan decided to go along south of the lakes and up the western side around Chicago. Just like at home in New York our clearance was meanigless to the Chicago Controllers with South Bend calling with a full route amended clearance that had us fo 30 miles south of Gary and 30 miles west of the southwest edge the Chicago Bravo's Mode C veil.

 

We flew most of it and with each hand off I kept asking for direct Janesville. Finally the rockford approach controllers cleared us direct and when we were north east of Chicago I asked and received GPS direct to Oshkosh. The camping area closes at 7PM and it was 530 when we got the clearance. We were held for a NORDO Canadian plane we couldnt see on final for the visual RWY 36, so cause we couldnt see them we couldn't follow so we cancelled the IFR and landed 5 minutes late for the campground.

 

We called the Hilton from our cell and taxied to their ramp where we tied down for the night.

 

The next morning we taxiied to the north 40 and picked the runway end of row 523 to set up our camp.

Flew 58Victor to BAF

Scott's Archer had a flat battery so we hopped into Vicky and continued his complex education. Winds were gusty bu only 20 degrees off centerline and Scott handled the Mooney like a pro.

Five Star at Westfield Barnes has the cheapest 100LL in the north east. You'd have to fly to Virginia or Western PA to get it cheaper. Service is good but it can be slow because everyone heads there for Gas/Jet and its an airport of entry so alot of our Canadian friends stop in for the Gas and the Customs ordeal

We killed two birds with one stone as he needed to fly and I needed to run the Mooney

Judy Made the Oshkosh Video

Were both in it at 2: and change, Judy at 4: and change

 http://www.eaa.org/spiritmovie/

for a bigger copy