My 9/13/2011 email to friends following the World Trade Center Bombing on 9/11

This is an email that I sent out to friends after the tragedy on 9/11/2001. I'm reposting it here for the upcoming 10th anniversary. I'll be in the city on 9/11/2011 for the tenth time joining my friends and former associates Wilson, Pete, Kevin, Tony and Slava  same as we have for the past 9 years. The former Global Information Delivery Department of the now defunct Industrial Bank of Japan.

Hello All;

Where to begin? Numerous friends and associates have called and sent me emails this week inquiring how I was doing in the aftermath of the bombing of the World Trade Center. I started to write a response back and while writing, actually started to feel better as I got my thoughts out. I have been quite confused as to why this tragedy occurred and what I’ll need to do to come to terms with how I feel having witnessed it.

First off, I'm OK, no injuries aside from very sore feet from wearing dress loafers for what turned out to be around a 10-mile walk.

I’ve been working for the past few months at an investment bank downtown. My office/cube is on the 10th floor of 1 State Street Plaza on the corner of State and Whitehall. I got a call @ 9:00am from my wife Judy telling me that the Trade Center was on fire. I looked out the window and sure enough it was ‘smoking up good’. A few moments later she called back and said she saw on the TV in her cafeteria that an airplane crashing into the building caused the fire.

She said they reported it was a small plane. I tried to rally a few of my associates to come outside to check it out. Most were reluctant but I convinced the other consultant Kevin by saying 'hey this is history.... we have to check it out'

Kevin and I walked over to Battery Park (It's behind our building) to get a closer look. He was a bit slow moving trying to recollect how many of his friends and former associates were working in the Trade Center and whether they’d be in this morning.

We walked over and closer, looking up at the opening in the building. From our vantage point (we were 5 blocks south) it didn't look that bad. In retrospect what we were looking at was the exit hole from the 1st plane.

We had no way of knowing it was an airliner that had crashed into the building.

After walking northwest bound for about 5 minutes we heard the other plane which was in full cruise @ about 400 500 feet off the surface. We heard the plane well before we saw it. It was the sound you’d hear at an air show.

We looked up as the noise intensified and saw the second Jet as it flew directly over our heads. The bottom was gray and in the very few second seconds between seeing the plane and the impact my thoughts went from thinking it was a military jet either patrolling after the catastrophe , or a firefighting plane that was going to help put out the fire. The plane was maneuvering. As it passed over I saw the top was blue making me realize that it was a commercial airliner either US Airways or United who have that type of paintjobs on their planes.

Only seconds elapsed between seeing the plane and the impact and I thought that some navigation aid was misconfigured but dismissed this immediately as the day was clear and the visibility was unrestricted. There was just no way I could bring myself to think that the pilot’s intentions were nefarious

The plane rolled right, then to the left as it hit the building in a nose low attitude. It was incredible. I have never seen anything like this in my life. It appeared that it hit with its wing as the fireball and debris appeared to continue through both walls of the building. There was no way I was believing that someone had intentionally just flew what appeared to be a 737 through the World Trade Center

The noise and fireball I can't describe. The sound of the engines at full cruise and accelerating, the impact and resulting explosion, all incredibly loud yet seemingly delayed by what I think was the distance between where I stood and the tragedy.

Turning and looking for Kevin I said something like ‘Holy Shit did you see that?’ Kevin was already gone. The impact from the plane was subsiding and a huge plume of black brown and gray smoke was emanating from the side of the tower. People were crying, screaming and running everywhere. I stood there in disbelief transfixed by the spectacle unfolding around me.

I saw hundreds of people running away most of them heading towards me in the park. At that point I remember wondering ‘why are these people running’ and then ‘hey you should be running too’ so I turned and ran southeastward through the park and out to State Street. I used my cell phone to call my wife and was alternately talking to her and the people around me, people of all walks of life talking in disbelief about what they had just seen.

Walking back to my building I was thinking ‘just go in, get your stuff and split’, while alternately wondering ‘how am I going to get out of here’. All of the people working in the plaza had been evacuated to the sidewalk on the east side (front) of the building. I saw some coworkers and immediately went up to them, wanting to tell them of the horror I just had witnessed. Everyone was facing north, looking up at the towers smoking, standing there in disbelief. They wouldn’t let anyone upstairs so I hung on the sidewalk having to squat down as I was getting dizzy and short of breath.

It was pandemonium on the streets. The corner of State and Whitehall is across from the Staten Island Ferry and the South Ferry subway stations along with a downtown exit from the FDR drive. Traffic was in gridlock on those streets with emergency vehicles driving on the sidewalks on State Street. It was then when I became cognizant of the noise of horns blaring and emergency vehicle sirens. The trade center was emitting strips of what appeared to be aluminum shavings, which I assumed were part of the aircraft. It was similar to the tickertape you’d see during the Yankee’s parades in the Canyon of Hero’s (Lower Broadway) over the past few years.

At this point the towers were just burning and there was a breeze blowing the smoke to the south, but it was way above our heads. At times the smoke obscured the sun making it appear that it was dark out similarly to the way entering fog while diving will make it dark. The air quality was still good aside from the smokers indulging themselves a cigarette.

We were told we would be safer inside and we went back to our desks. We talked
about what had happened. People were of all different moods. Everyone was trying to call their loved ones and get messages out that they were OK.

Watching out the north wall of our floor (all glass) everyone was discussing what we thought was going to happen. It was then the 1st tower collapsed. It was horrific; no special effects in the movies could ever duplicate that sight and sound. I cannot describe the despair I felt at that moment, as it is still incomprehensible to me. I’m not aware whether it was the fear of debris shattering the windows or people not wanting to witness this spectacle anymore as people pulled down the window shades were on that wall.

We were told to go downstairs and instructed to stay in the building lobby as the street outside appeared as if a smoky blizzard was raging.

A short time later another loud noise was followed with more smoke, dust and debris as the second tower collapsed and it became like night outside. We couldn’t see the second tower collapse as the windows of the building lobby face eastward. This kept me from believing that it actually collapsed. Whitehall Street became engulfed in a tidal wave of particulate matter rolling southward towards the harbor.

After several minutes passed the sky lightened a bit and I went outside (all the smokers were out there still) and looked towards the towers where there was nothing but a huge plume of dust rising several stories. I couldn’t see the towers and went inside.

The air quality within the lobby was getting intolerable between the smoke and exhalation of the occupants of a 30-story office building all milling about in the lobby. The Bank security people determined that we would be better off in the Sub-Cellar Data Center two stories underground. Everyone was so frightened as we didn't know if more planes were going come along at any time and fly into ours or the surrounding buildings. We had no link to the outside world and were unaware of any of the other bombing attacks. Once downstairs I hooked up my laptop and sent out an email to my wife letting her know I was alive and to call the rest of my family and let them know that.

After about an hour Kevin and I decided that we'd walk up the east side of Manhattan with several other people to get out of downtown, which we did. I now understand how people in other parts of the world and at other times felt/feel when terror strikes occur during the normal course of their day.

Donning painter’s masks we ventured outside. State/Water Street was completely void of traffic save for the constant movement by rescue and police vehicles. As I recollect I’m amazed at what it must have taken to clear the streets of all traffic. The streets had an apocalyptic appearance covered by a few inches of dust, with blowing smoke paper and debris everywhere. The only sounds were that of emergency vehicles.

Thousands of people were filing away towards any route off Manhattan. It was very orderly as people were in shock. The crush of the crowd reminded me of the organized chaos usually experienced when leaving a football game except with a much grimmer undertone.

As we walked east out of the financial district, relief workers were offering people paper masks as every passing vehicle would kick up clouds of dust or have it trailing off the horizontal surfaces similarly to snow drifting off your car when you don’t brush before driving away. I put my sunglasses on as this material was the consistency of ash/fine sand and was stinging my eyes as the wind blew it as we walked.

Taking up an easterly heading down Water Street and while passing South Street Seaport (where I had eaten lunch the afternoon before), my thoughts turned towards the tourists that typically would be visiting the shops and restaurants there any late summer afternoon at lunchtime. How must they feel, vacationing and sightseeing in downtown New York? I then thought about the tourists that would have been killed visiting the trade towers, the early birds (like my wife), who wouldn’t want the long lines later in the day.

Police officers from organizations I never knew existed made everyone stay on the sidewalks to keep the roads clear. Everyone followed directions and cooperated fully with the authorities. Relief workers were in the streets every few blocks offering rest rooms, water, phones and just someone to talk to if needed.

We walked through Chinatown, into the East Village and then up 1st Avenue. When 1st became too crowded we simply walked to 2nd and then ultimately 3rd where we stopped for a drink at a bar that Kevin was familiar with. I looked at my watch and was amazed that it was close to 3:00pm. We had been walking since 11:30. The owner was seating people and told us they weren’t serving outside, as none of their employees were able to come in. We went into the Bar and tried to order a drink. I was talking with an older guy at the bar who told me to be patient with the bartenders as none of the people who were working there were employee’s, but the barfly’s that drink there every day.

Getting thirsty hot and impatient, we left there and went to the pub across the street. TV’s were on and the place was filled with people staring at NY1, CNN, CNBC, and FOX News drinking. I bought Kevin a Heineken and had a club soda. I went downstairs to piss, spotted a phone and called Judy. When I went upstairs I realized I couldn’t just hang in the bar all afternoon, I was determined to get off Manhattan..

My original plan was to walk to Grand Central to see if the trains were running. If not my next step was to walk to my apartment on E82nd change into sneakers and workout garb and walk until I was in a place that Judy could come and pick me up.

I walked with Kevin until 38th street. He went home and I went on to Grand Central. All the trains were local every stop so I got on the 1st one figuring that once I was clear of the island Judy could pick me up anywhere as she had a car.

The train was packed but I got a seat. I have to confess that I looked down or away when I saw someone coming down the aisle more deserving of my seat (old ladies and the like), but I had just walked about 10 miles in dress shoes and was pretty needy myself.

I finally got my cell phone to work, and was touched by the scores of people who had left me voice mails, just saying that they were thinking of me and please call as soon as you can. Anyway I can only say that I am very grateful and appreciative of how precious my life is and what a wonderful privilege it is to be as blessed as we are, living and working in a free world.

We’ve probably seen the end of our liberties as we have grown to know them. I’ve included some pictures of the skyline we took before this tragedy so you can remember. I don’t think the government will ever let us fly this close to New York again and I’ve heard that Washington National airport may never reopen. My hope is that this terrible act does not change the way we live too appreciably.



Stay well and out of harms way

Your Friend
Sean

WFC 1&2 Judy took this picture on 9/24/1988 from the right seat of N8229F while flying @ 500’ MSL which is the floor of the New York Class Bravo Airspace. This is about the height the planes were flying at when they struck the tower Financial District &Battery Park Taken by Judy on 9.24/88 moments earlier than the trade center shot I was standing on the north edge of the park when the 2nd plane hit the tower. My building at the time was the square black one next to the shiny one in the lower right corner

Final approach into Washington National Airport 2/19/2001. You'll never get this shot from a GA Airplane again

Oshkosh 2011- Recapping the Ride Out

This year we departed for Oshkosh on Wednesday July 20^th.. We give ourselves a window of four days to travel and hope to arrive by Saturday at the latest. That said, we plan our departure for the best weather day starting the Wednesday prior to the show. This year that day was Wednesday and our only concern was the heat wave that had been gripping the middle of the country and forecasted to move east.

We woke up Wednesday morning and the weather was pristine for a good portion of both of the routes we typically take. I decided on taking the southerly route around the bottom of the lakes as there was a disturbance across the northerly route which was bringing thunderstorms and rain to the Rochester, Buffalo, London, and Saginaw areas.

I prefer not crossing the Great Lakes for all of the normal reasons, single engine, cold water, no ditching experience, poor swimmer.   We planned on a 7 am departure and filed for that. Somehow that got delayed to a more reasonable hour.

 In reviewing Judy’s impeccable flight logs for the first leg, we started the engine at 10:13 AM, ATIS Bravo was current departure runway 26 and the pressure was 29.93. Liftoff was at 10:25 am and our climb was staggered from three to six, seven and finally eight thousand feet approaching Sparta (SAX) VOR. Nine different controllers handled the flight which finished with the localizer 25 approach into Akron Fulton Airport in Akron Ohio. Landing was at 1:23 and shutdown at 1:26 where the outside air temperature was 35 degrees Celsius versus 32 degrees at altitude. Tach time in was 1946.2 which totaled a 3.3 hour leg. We took on fuel at Summit Air where the manager was working the line.   He provided fantastic service and charged $5.57 a gallon for avgas on their Oshkosh special. The special was kind of deceptive though, as they advertised $4.94 a gallon conveniently leaving the three different state and local taxes off the airnav.com website.

We started at AKR at 2:35 and lifted off at 2:47 filed for Rockford Illinois.   Chicago approach controllers are as brusque as their New York associates and they let the smaller city guys deliver their bad news for them. We filed a simple Slant Golf flight plan via READS MFD JOT. I lifted this flight plan from fltplan.com as the last ATC clearance for a piston airplane between these two locations.   But like New York the Chicago controllers won’t allow piston single IFR aircraft inside their Bravo airspace unless they’re specifically filed to a location within that airspace.   As we were filed to Rockford they directed us “around the Horn” (their term).   We were advised of a change to our clearance by Fort Wayne then South Bend approach. There was a 20 knot on the nose headwind and it was hotter than hell in the airplane.   We opened the roof vents which blew 90 degree air on our heads and necks but because it was moving we left it open.

 Approaching Rockford, the temperature increased another degree.   The oil temperature was elevated and the prospect of a hot start on Rockford’s one hundred degree ramp was not too appealing.  Likely we would have to spend more than an hour there.   I checked the XM winds and noticed that when we turned north east we would be the beneficiary of a tailwind for the first time on the trip.  Checking with the FS450 fuel flow computer showed we had 2:30 of fuel left.   I was running rich to keep the oil temperature below 230 (red line is 245) so when we were clear “of the horn” I asked Chicago if it would be too much of a hardship to change our destination to Oshkosh. We received vectors until we were fifteen miles northeast of Rockford and were cleared direct to Oshkosh. As we turned north and east the groundspeed jumped to 175 so I pulled the power back to 55% and opened the cowl flaps as the airspeed decreased. We were blessed with 168 knot ground speed and oil temperatures back at 210. The FS450 showed we would land with 1.5 hours of fuel remaining as we entered the left base for runway 27 and landed.

EAA wasn’t fully staffed when we arrived so we exited the runway to the left into the grass.   A minute or so went by when a lineman arrived on a scooter and led us into the north 40.   He asked me where we wanted to go and I requested row 505 runway side.   He marshaled us up and we counted ourselves as the 6^th plane to tie down in the north 40.   Three days later the entire section would be filled with aircraft tied up tail to tail.   Judy had the tent set up before I got the airplane tied down and squared away.   The heat was oppressive in the mid 90’s and we were blessed that the wind was blowing steady at 17 with gusts to 29.

Dinner the first night was at the Hilton Garden Inn and I begged Judy for a reprieve from camping while the hotel was still $99 a night.   Reprieve denied, we ate at the bar and started walking back to our tent around 10pm CDT.   It was still over 80 with the sun down but the breeze was our saving grace. Sleeping with the tent door wide open was remarkably bug free.

Oshkosh and our History, The what when and why

For the past eleven years Judy and I have made AirVenture Oshkosh our big vacation destination during the year. Actually when I say eleven I really mean this past year was my eleventh trip out and back to the show.  Judy wasn’t with me on my first trip out so this was her 10.5^th trip. In 2001 I flew to Oshkosh with Drew and Ann. Drew was my flight instructor at the time and I’ve known Ann for a real long time. Judy and I had reacquainted ourselves with Sun and Fun in April that year after a ten year absence so I began talking to people about making the pilgrimage to Oshkosh whenever I’d find someone who would listen.

We flew out there and because we stopped at Chicago’s Meig’s Field (logbook entry stop) we were late arriving to Oshkosh and had to divert to Fond du Lac.  Upon arrival at KFDL the mixture cable on the Mooney broke stranding us there on the field.   Fond du Lac is an overflow for Oshkosh so we camped there for the show and took the shuttles in. I spent my three days at the show looking for a new cable which ultimately I found but it wouldn’t arrive until the Wednesday after the show ended.

At the time I was working in lower Manhattan for an investment bank who frowned on my aviation hobby, and they were none too pleased about me taking the trip to start with. I couldn’t wait with the airplane unless I wanted to be unemployed so I purchased a round trip plane ticket from Minneapolis to New York. Once home I pitched Judy to take the ride out with me to retrieve the airplane. That Friday we departed New York’s LaGuardia Airport on a US Air flight and arrived in Minneapolis to rent a car and drive it to KFDL. Returning the rental car we paid our tab and departed VFR flying at 2000 below the clouds.   That flight back became the reason I got my instrument rating and is worthy of its own post.

Judy has always liked long cross country trips and we’ve made it part of our lives ever since.

We leave early because we like to pick our camping spot and arriving five days ahead of time usually allows you to choose where you want to camp. My motto is to arrive and leave early. Once the second weekend starts drawing nearer the lines start to form and it’s time to go.

We have stayed till the end of the show once or twice and dislike the way it transforms once the crowd shows up.  Early in the week the attendees are mostly aviators and the conversations usually revolve around “nice airplane”, “where’d you fly in from?”, “Wow, you built that?” or my favorite “How’d you fit all that gear in a Mooney?”  To me the “Air show” is watching the GA arrivals. We usually sit for several hours each day and watch the arrivals and the departures of air show luminaries and their photo chase planes. 

My favorite day is the Sunday before the show starts. It’s the first day you are required to wear a wristband to walk the show grounds, the exhibits are largely complete and you can take a close look at the planes and products without a throng of people getting in your way and in your pictures.

The groceries and camp supplies are procured off airport at the Pick and save supermarket and the local Target.   Judy and I walk to the market twice a day usually carrying around eighty pounds of lightweight materials each trip.  Unlike Connecticut “package goods” liquor, beer and wine are available at the supermarket which adds considerably to the load.  Early on in the week people with vehicles feel sorry for that crazy couple carrying all the ice and supplies and sometimes give you a lift to your campsite or at least the row you’re camped in.

It’s a relaxing week with friends although I must say the weather in east central Wisconsin can be quite variable. Many years we’ve experienced sweltering heat followed by massive thunderstorms leading into bone chilling cold, all occurring within a twelve hour period.

We have friends that we meet on the airport every year. These people have become like our extended family. During the year we exchange emails and keep up with their lives. The ones who live close by we have either visited or they have visited us. Around April the emails start arriving more frequently developing into a frenzy of calls and test messages once the second week of July rolls around.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to attend I would say start planning for next year now. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me as I obviously don’t mind talking about it.

Your Flight Instructor as an additional insured on your aircraft insurance policy.

I  received a call from a customer who wants me to fly with him in his airplane this coming weekend. Typically I like to take Sundays off but knowing this person, I understand his business interests keep him busy 6 days a week as well, and the only time he has to fly is on Sundays. He needs to get a few approaches in and do some crosswind landings. When we spoke I requested that he call his insurance company and have my name added as an additional insured on his aircraft policy. A few hours later I received an inquiry form, from his insurance broker, requesting all of the information they typically collect.

As I was filling out the form I came on the fields looking for the date of my last Biennial Flight Review and instrument Proficiency Check. I’m a dick about details so I pulled out my logbook to look it up. I was confused about both because I thought my session at the FlightSafety this past April would have counted as my IPC and getting my ATP back in November 2010 would have sufficed for my Flight Review obligations.

On further review I checked the yellow card from FlightSafety and noticed the absence of the checkmark on the line that said FAR 61.57(d). Now I know that the Sim we used in Wichita has the same limitations as our FMX in Danbury with regards to conducting an IPC. The FAA doesn’t let allow either of us to count landings from a circling or straight in approach. FlightSafety’ s work around is the same as ours, we do 90% of the things we need to do to satisfy the IPC in the simulator, then we must go out in the airplane and do some landings from approaches.

During the week I spent in Wichita, I did twelve hours of Simulator time as pilot flying, twelve hours as pilot not flying, and two hours in the airplane with three approaches and nine landings. That satisfies the letter of the law for an IPC and I was wondering why Tim (My instructor at FSI) hadn’t checked the box next to it. On reviewing the card I did notice that Tim had checked the box next to Biennial flight review so I put that date into the form for the insurance.

Looking back through my logbook to determine the last time I did a formal IPC it dawned on me. My ATP practical test this past November was done completely under the hood. I called a few folks asking them if I was off base assuming that I could and should use that date as my last IPC. We all agreed that it did, so I put in that date and submitted the information.

In the past I’ve had instructors ask me to put them on our Mooney’s policy when they had flown with me and always viewed it as a nuisance.  Now that I instruct in Other Peoples Aircraft regularly, I understand the wisdom of putting this in place.

In my experience I have found that insurance companies will do their level best to minimize their exposure to your claims.  It’s the part of their business they dislike the most, the paying claims part. Having fallen victim to this with innumerable different insurance products and policies, spanning my entire adult life, I know that not having this all lined up at the moment when the inevitable unforeseen circumstance occurs can have a detrimental impact on your claim.

If you own an airplane and fly with independent flight instructors putting the instructor on the policy as an additional insured protects you as the owner from having the insurance company deny payment. Most people assume that the instructor is covered by the “Open Pilot Warrantee” and need not be added to the policy. This is a poor assumption as most owners’ policies prohibit any commercial use of the airplane. Paying your instructor to fly in your airplane makes your lesson a commercial endeavor and invalidates warrantee, hence the instructor is then not covered by the policy.  If the instructor is an additional insured, the insurance company is unlikely to subrogate to someone who they actually cover on the policy.  A waiver of subrogation keeps the insurance company from attempting to collect damages from your flight instructor should he/she be present in the airplane when God forbid you should have an accident.

This is a better option for both the instructor and you, than just having the instructor carry their own policy. I’ve posted some information on our website that I received from the EAA about all of this http://www.fullmotionflight.com/TrainingPrograms/AircraftTraining.aspx . At the end of the day just to be safe, and name your instructor as an additional insured on your policy.

Utilizing the Automation - The Airplane

Mooney 58V as a TAA or Technically Advanced Aircraft

Our Oshkosh trip was the first real IFR cross country since we updated the panel and cockpit navigation gear this past May. I’ve taken a few moments to highlight our experiences with the upgrades in case any of you reading this has a similar desire to lighten your bank balance.

We recently installed a Garmin GTN 650 navigator and an S-TEC GPSS module in our Mooney. The GTN or Garmin Touch Navigator is the successor to their venerable GNS series of Navigators.  WAAS was the primary reason for the upgrade. Additionally the KLN89B we installed in the airplane back in 2004 was getting increasingly difficult to remember how to use.  Considering the airplane was going to be down for two weeks to install the new GPS unit I thought it would be an ideal time to install GPSS.

The GPSS module is an upgrade the STEC-20 autopilot we installed back in 2007. The System 20 is a turn coordinator based device that will track GPS VOR LOC but has no vertical component. It’s a simple unit and is considered an entry level autopilot. I’ve never been too happy with its ability to track on approaches preferring to hand fly them. Enroute I typically have had to use the heading bug to get it close to or adjust the course if it wanders a dot or so off.

Adding the GPSS steering module changed all of that. Combined with a WAAS enabled GPS navigator it enables the autopilot to take command input directly from the GPS unit. Regardless whether it’s departure procedures, flight plans, approaches with procedure turns or course reversal holds the little GPSS box reads the waypoint information digitally and then commands the autopilot to manipulate the appropriate servo’s flying them exactly, right out to the missed approach. There is no wandering with the autopilot anymore as it is not slaved to the CDI needle. Subsequently the CDI needle stays where it should be, centered all of the time.

The GTN650 has a big touch screen display and uses much of the programming logic that the larger G500/600 G1000 navigators use. The first and in my mind best improvement over the GNS series is the ability to flight plan by Victor Airway. I’ve been doing this in G1000 equipped airplanes and it is a real time saver. Our initial route segment on our Oshkosh trip was from KDXR to KAKR. The routing we filed was DXR CMK V39 SAX V188 LVZ V106  SEG PSB. As we were sitting on the run-up pad off runway 26 Judy started entering the waypoints using this new feature.  One simply enters the waypoint and when it’s an element of the flight plan pressing the menu key will present the load airway button.  Selecting this and the navigator will then present all of the victor airways that are off of the fix. Selecting the applicable airway and you’ll be asked for the exit point where you can do it again.  This greatly simplifies data entry eliminating chances to slip an invalid/misspelled waypoint into the unit. The aforementioned flight plan was entered using six fixes and that a real time saver as V188 and V106 have multiple fixes and bends in the airway.

The touch screen feature is better suited to the GTN 750 and it is my belief that the 650 was not designed to be a primary radio rather the bottom of the stack radio in a 750/650 combo. When I mentioned this to Steve from Garmin at Oshkosh he got a little offended and gave Judy and I a quick tutorial of how to make use the radio.  Guess what Steve was doing that we weren’t? Steve was using the knobs and buttons instead of the touchscreen. If you use it like a 430 it’s very cool.

Utilizing the Automation - Electronic Flight Bag

Foreflight, Bad Elf and iPad

Judy bought me an iPad for my 50^th birthday last September and I immediately put Foreflight on it based on the advice of several customers who had raved about it. The Foreflight/iPad combination has been a winner for me with flight instruction both in the Redbird as well as in customer airplanes. I’ve gotten quite adept at using it and have taken it on trips in and around the local area as well as a couple thousand mile plus GA airplane journeys. For the past eleven months whether I show up in the office or at the airplane all I need to bring is the iPad and a pair of headsets and I’m ready to go from a chart and weather perspective. I’ve been so pleased with the service I actually cancelled my paper Jeppesen subscription in October of last year after only a month on the iPad.

If I had a complaint about this gear it was the onboard GPS would lose position occasionally which would wipe out the geo-location features of the software.  I mentioned this to a pilot I fly with occasionally in the Sim as well as in his Cessna Skylane. He had bought a few external GPS modules for his iPad and offered to lend me one for the trip. I had heard good things about the Bad Elf GPS so I asked if I could try that one. The Bad Elf appealed to be because it makes a hard wire connection into the iPad. One of my long standing concerns with using generic non-aviation specific consumer electronics in the airplane is battery life. If the battery goes shingot you’re flying without charts.  The iPad with Foreflight running and 3G data enabled really drinks up the battery power. I can usually get about six hours out of it before I have to put it on the charger. Turning Bluetooth on would likely drain more from the tablet. The Bad Elf comes with USB cable allowing you to charge both the GPS and the iPad from a cigarette lighter outlet. Well “charge” is a bad word. It allows you to utilize the iPad and Bad Elf and not drain the battery. I flew for seven hours with the unit on and plugged into the lighter and when I shut down in Oshkosh the battery was charged to the level it had been prior to using it. Disconnecting the elf and using the cigarette lighter charger actually charges the battery.

Anyway I was nervous about making such a drastic change vis-à-vis going paperless so I called Sporty’s and ordered approach planes enroute charts and facility directories for the trip for $80.  The morning of our departure I sat at the kitchen table and marked up my charts/plates with post it flags. Once we were in the plane it was a different story, I looked at the first enroute chart and put it behind my seat for takeoff.  Once we were in the climb and talking to departure I picked up the iPad and put it on my lap. The Bad Elf had captured and displayed our position on the chart. Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve used this gear for a while but I’ve always been sitting right seat instructing or monitoring the pilot flying. This was the first trip where it was all me relying on the technology.

It worked flawlessly, and if you don’t have one go buy one. If you do any sort of flying aside from saving you a ton of money on charts, the weather functions will eliminate the need to talk to flight service unless you really like speaking with them.  Going forward I will print the approach plates (from fltplan.com) for my destination and alternate and just use the iPad and Foreflight for my charts. I could rave about the weather products as well but I’ll likely need something to write about next month.

Airventure 2011- Recapping the trip home.

Our departure from Oshkosh was originally slated for Thursday. We had family coming on Saturday that we absolutely positively needed to be home for. We also desired a full day to unpack, rewind and pick up our house prior to their arrival, meaning ideally we would need to be home on Thursday. After looking at the weather on Tuesday morning, the charts prognosticated that by leaving Thursday, we would encounter significant areas of convection across most of the conventional routes home.  This made it seem unlikely that we would arrive home in a single day, unless we wanted to venture into areas where thunderstorms and heavy rain were likely to be prolific.

Tim and Craig saw the same information and decided that they best get out of Oshkosh before the airshow to avoid all the potential bad weather. Judy and I arrived back at camp for lunch to find that they and Pete’s 172 had already departed

I waited until the 2pm forecasts were out before making our decision, and on seeing those decided that the below the lakes routing would likely be the best considering the placement of the fronts and forecasted precipitation.

We told the remaining crew of our plan to depart on Wednesday. Pete after losing half of his posse as well as his airplane already,  decided that loading up the camping gear with four people helping was a better prospect than having to do it with two. He suggested that we downsize the kitchen and I agreed, so during the airshow, we cajoled security into letting us pull the BMW out to our row and we loaded it up and headed out to our storage container.

Once we were back on the show grounds with no cooking equipment or food everyone took the shuttle and walked to a Pizza restaurant. During dinner, a check of the 8PM forecasts showed - if they held,  a mid-morning departure would be in the cards. We got back to camp about 10pm said our good nights and went to sleep. I brought my iPad into the tent so I could plan the flight when I woke up in the morning and with a belly full of Pizza fell asleep quickly.  I woke up at 5am to the sound of people talking and moving around outside the tent.

I grabbed the iPad and flipped it to foreflight. I keep mine in landscape mode, and as such,  can see your list of ‘favorite’ airport’s current conditions from the Foreflight opening screen. I usually set my Favorites to the cities that span the trip I’m on. This gives me an executive dashboard of the conditions across my route.

Looking at that I could see the hourly METARS were all green or VFR. Drilling into some of the locations I checked the TAFS and saw that the 2AM forecasts closely mirrored their predecessors from 8PM the evening before. Judy stirred and mumbled something similar to what’s it look like and I told her it was fine and go back to sleep. I fell asleep as well and woke at 5:45 to the sound of not so distant thunder. Picking up the iPad I saw that Madison and Janesville Wisconsin had change from green to blue and drilling into the NEXRAD screen witnessed a Connecticut sized blob of purple, red and yellow returns encroaching on Oshkosh from the west. We jumped out of our sleeping bags and pulled the plug on the air mattress standing on it to expedite its deflation.

We struck the balance of our camp in near record time pulling the final zipper on the tent as it was thrown into the back of the Mooney. Precisely when the baggage door was locked the rain started in earnest. We huddled under the still standing Easy Up as the deluge commenced.  I tried accessing E-STMP from my iPad to see if I could get an IFR departure slot to depart Wittman Regional but the web site does not support Safari. I pulled my Windows 7 laptop from my flight bag and tried again to get a slot but there were only two available the first in 10 minutes or one after the airshow. In the meantime people were departing into the storm, mostly VFR. The airport was open and pilots were firing up their airplanes and trying to get out before the worst of it hit.

EAA didn’t have any flag people on the turf taxiways and we watched as a conga line of airplanes started taxiing up the north 40 looking for a hole in the fencing to taxi out to the runways through.  Two of them passed us in row 505 with the first turning right down row 501 away from the runway. Judy ran out and opened up a hole in the fence for them to exit the north 40 while Pete and Pat approached the planes and told them to turn around. We contemplated going but when we witnessed the lightning in the near west decided against it. Plus we had to pay for our fuel and say our good byes to friends inside the show.

Putting on Wednesday’s wristbands we went into the convention riding trams to stay out of the rain. We got soaked walking in the grass and once in the show went to the FAA pavilion to get a weather briefing from the Lockheed Martin FSS people. From my observations there were two waves of precipitation in the storm. The first we were experiencing now and it looked like this would last some time. There was another wave that was 150 miles northwest of Oshkosh and moving southeasterly. Between the two was an area of lighter green to no returns. Getting a briefing was dicey. We couldn’t go IFR without a departure slot those were known to be filled and VFR was not recommended due to the rain, low ceilings, and visibility. Posing a hypothetical scenario to our briefer I presented my observations and asked for his opinion. He hypothetically agreed with my assessment adding the time to depart was between 1130 and 130pm.

Judy and I walked back to the North 40 stopping in the War Bird Café for a horrible breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and brown water they claimed was coffee. We didn’t want to eat but the rain was coming down in sheets so we viewed our breakfasts as tickets to use their tent and tables to get out of the rain. We sat there for about two hours having a lively conversation with a pair of brothers who brought their Yaks to fly in the big military airshow and tribute to naval aviation that was to occur that afternoon.  One of the brothers fed my worry about the trip by saying that the grass taxiways were already under water. We had witnessed this in 2010 when the entire field was flooded. Then the grass taxiways along runway 9/27, specifically the easterly one, had enough running water in it that the ducks from Lake Winnebago were landing there splashing and quacking.

When the rain let up we walked back to our camp enlisted the aid of a neighbor to push our plane out of the ruts it had sunk into. We surveyed the taxiways and similarly to last year the exit taxiway had a few inches of water in it. The one closer to the runway was dry having a greater slope so our plan was to taxi across the outbound and taxi to the runway on the inbound route. There were numerous water filled ruts and skid marks from planes with higher prop clearances than ours powering out and sliding around.

 We started up and headed out behind a Cessna 210 that’s belly and tail section was dripping mud. Crossing over to the inbound side the Cessna pilot saw us from his periphery and decided that ours was an appropriate plan so he changed sides ahead of us, legitimizing our ignoring of the sanctioned procedure. We annoyed a few CAP linemen who were trying to marshal us through the mud eventually shutting down traffic that was inbound to the North 40.  Judy and I were holding tight and full aft on the elevator and once reaching the hard surface we conducted our run up while rolling out to the departure runway   

The weather was 700 few 1300 broken 2300 broken and 3000 overcast with visibility 4 miles in light rain and mist. The dew point and the temperature were nearly the same and the air was definitely saturated.     We were cleared to line up and wait on the left side of runway 27 while the 210 and a Commanche 400 were cleared to depart the left and right sides respectively.  The traffic holding on the right side was a v35 Bonanza and was followed by a 172. This relieved me somewhat as I didn’t have to worry about the airplanes departing prior to me as they were all as fast, or faster, than the Mooney. Behind us was an airplane we were clearly faster than so they wouldn’t run into us from behind. Departing Oshkosh VFR is always scary even when the visibility is unrestricted but leaving when the weather is marginal, without the security blanket of an IFR clearance had me on edge.

I climbed per the procedure to 1200 and when the Garmin 396 showed we were 5 miles from the field turned toward Madison with the hopes of landing there, picking up an IFR clearance and departing south/south west until clear of the Chicago Bravo then head east. Enroute to Madison the XM display showed the airport being engulfed in the next round of heavy precipitation with the METAR icon changing from marginal VFR to Low IFR. Looking towards Janesville we watched them change from VFR to IFR so when we saw a decent sized hole in the broken layer climbed to a VFR on top cruising altitude of 4500 feet.

Between layers Judy panned out the XM to see the weather in Rockford IL. RFD was overcast at 8000 with light winds and visibilities greater than five miles. Twenty miles out we called their approach control with the ATIS and were told to expect the Visual to Runway 7 left base entry.

We arrived at RFD at 2PM where clean and dry clothes were unpacked and changed into. The tanks were topped and an IFR plan filed for Akron Fulton Airport for some more of their $4.88 100 Low Lead. With an uneventful departure and a tailwind behind us the leg lasted about 2:45 with us arriving at 6:45 EDT. Tired and wrung out a rental car was procured and the kind folks at Summit Air made hotel reservations in the nearby Quality Inn. Dinner at Applebee’s and a few well-earned adult beverages followed and we started feeling somewhat human again. A quick check of the TAFS for the balance of the ride predicted benign weather from Akron through Danbury if we left before noon Thursday morning.

Waking at 6AM we found that the forecast again was off. Similarly the forecast still predicted good weather but a look at the NEXRAD showed all manner of precipitation across three quarters of the available routes home. Querying the LMFSS briefer on the phone she was skeptical of what she called my “hi-resolution radar product” stating that it was likely showing precip that wasn’t reaching the ground.

A northeasterly departure was filed towards Youngstown OH, Franklin, Lake Henry then Wilkes Barre PA into Danbury.   Akron Fulton is uncontrolled so we picked up our clearance on the ground from their RCO and once released we were cleared as filed at 5000 runway heading assigned. We took off on Runway 25 which is real interesting as it slopes significantly downhill in the middle and turns up at the ends.

 Calling Akron once airborne we were cleared direct to Youngstown (YNG). Turning left to the northeast the XM display highlighting our route showed purple and red returns with tops to fifty thousand emblazoned with lightning bolts on the magenta (active) route segment. I queried the controller who nonchalantly informed reported the center weather advisory and convective SIGMET for the entire two thirds of our route ending with a nonplussed “say intentions”

I replied that we didn’t want to go anywhere near that and while waiting for his reply Judy was already panning around the screen for the easiest way through the mess without having to backtrack. That effort paid off and we saw that Beaver Falls PA was IFR but the radar in their area was relatively clear of primary color returns. The controllers supervisor came on and told us to descend 4000 and started vectoring away from the heaviest precip. When she asked what routing we wanted I told her we wanted to head towards Beaver Falls later deciding that we should land there and formulate a plan.    They vectored us for the Localizer Runway 10 approach and we broke out while on a three mile final.

Beavers Falls is a sleepy little controlled field north of Pittsburg PA. Availing ourselves of their WIFI we pulled all of our planning gear out. Looking at all of the available information the routing direct Tyrone (TYR) then Milton (MIP) then Wilkes Barre would put us in an area of substantial rain but keep the majority of the thunderstorm cells north and west of our course. Departing off KBVI we flew through about 125 miles of light to moderate rain with an area or two where it was heavy.

North East of MIP and half way to Wilkes Barre we cleared the weather and being fat on fuel we changed our destination to Danbury when we called Wilkes Approach. Boston Center dicked around with our arrival clearing us direct RAGER v58 IGN v157 HAARP direct. Judy wanted to cancel the IFR and go direct but the we were making good time, the air was smooth and after all the crappy weather we had flown the past two days I didn’t want our AirVenture to end so quickly. We landed long on runway 8 and turned left off at the end and entered Reliant. Colin was moving aircraft around the ramp with the Lectro Cart and when we shut down he came over to greet us while pushing the Mooney into her spot with the tug.

We were gone a week and a day departing the twentieth and arriving home on the twenty-eighth. The total trip was 1723 nautical miles and 13 hours of flying. We consumed 156 gallons of AvGas which at $6.00 per gallon comes to $936 definitely more pricy than in years past. The camping and show admission was $458 for the two of us of which $110 was refunded for us leaving the show early so the EAA portion was $348. We spent on average $100 per day on food and drink for an additional $800.

So all told the trip cost us roughly $2100 for ease of math. Naturally this does not include the cost of the plane, insurance and maintenance. However when you consider an eight day and seven night vacation for two adults in Aviation’s garden spot, surrounded by 541,000 likeminded individuals, of which ten thousand brought their airplanes with them,  we considered it money well spent. And now a week after I’m already planning next year’s trip and looking forward to the last full week of July.