Links Section

I just added a new section titled "Useful Aviation Resources". It is on the sidebar near the top.

Right now, there a just a few links. Over the next week or so, I'll add some more links to places that I find very useful. Some of them take you directly to download sites, which I have verified as safe. The takeoff data calculator is a real time saver. Don't be alarmed that it is an Excel file.

The UND Aerospace site requires registration. Every student should register. This is an extremely useful site, especially the multi engine trainers. It really helps with visualizing drag, Vmc and multi-engine dynamics.

If anyone has any suggestions for links, I'll be glad to consider them.

I hope people find them as useful as I have.

Tracon Field Trip & A Little Humility

Today, a group of instructors and myself embarked on a tour of the Phoenix TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control). The Phoenix TRACON handles all IFR and VFR traffic within 40 nautical miles of Sky Harbor from the surface to FL 210. Basically, if you're within the 30NM mode C veil of Sky Harbor, you're either talking to, or being tracked by the Phoenix TRACON.

The current TRACON was built in the early 60's and still uses the same radar scopes. A new 350' tower and TRACON building has been constructed and was scheduled to open this Wednesday (11/1). A few minor issues have delayed opening of the new facility until January 2007. The new tower is so tall that the Sky Harbor approach minimums have been raised. Good thing there are so many VFR days in Phoenix.

The new facility will bring a lot of changes. The Phoenix Class B airspace is being re-contoured and has many GA pilots, especially glider pilots up in arms. One of the proposed changes is lowering the ceiling from 10,000' to 9,000'. Another big change is lowering the floor in the south and east (where I fly a lot) from 8,000' to 5,000'.

The new TRACON building is huge and, in the near future, will handle all traffic for Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas, kind of like SOCAL and NORCAL. Currently Phoenix TRACON only covers Sky Harbor and the airports in the mode C veil: Chandler, Deer Valley, Falcon Field, Goodyear, Scottsdale and Williams Gateway. It is one of the busiest TRACONS in the nation.

It was an interesting tour. It's always nice to put a face to a familiar voice (Hey, Beth & Woody). It was also interesting to visualize some of the reasons for long delays with IFR releases. A new radar facility under construction should alleviate much of those delays, especially when flying out of Scottsdale and Deer Valley.

The controllers were eager to split their time between the morning crush and teaching us. They are very good at dividing their attention. It definitely takes a special kind of person to be a controller. Two hours flew by and before we knew it, were on our way back to Gateway.

We've been invited back to tour the new facility and tower in January. Count me in.

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I had to go to Wickenburg on business today. The TRACON tour ate up most of the morning so I called my friends at Angel Air looking for an aircraft. They told me that all the 172's were booked. I whined and was put on hold. They came back and said that with a little schedule manipulation, were able to fit me in.

I made my way to Angel Air, got the paperwork done and headed out to my favorite aircraft N20984. It was a beautiful day for flying. 80 degrees, calm winds, 20 miles visibility. Perfect. Since it was so nice and I wasn't sweating, an EXTRA THOROUGH pre-flight was in order. I put all of my flight bag and overnight bag in the back, and buckled in. I neatly folded my TAC chart and flight plan and wrote down all of the en-route frequencies needed for the cross country flight. The engine started easily on the first turn. Very nice.

Reaching for the radio master switch, I noticed one of the schools instructors and a student walking out on the ramp. Both paused and looked at me with puzzled looks on their faces. Hmm. Is the engine on fire? Nope. Is the plane rolling? Nope. Why are they staring at me?

The instructor comes over the the passenger side window and asks me what plane I was assigned. I said N20984. He showed me his folder, marked N20984 and I looked at my folder. It read N2464D. I had just pre-flighted and stared the wrong plane. Two more minutes and I would have been gone. What's funny is that the keys for 2464D worked in 20984. Had the keys not worked, I obviously would have figured it out a little earlier. In my defense, the guy that made the reservation on the phone did tell me 20984 and it stuck in my mind. I was going to fly 20984 come hell or high water.

What comes to mind is this sound bite from an episode of Seinfeld:


So the student is a woman working on her private license. She introduced herself and asked me if I was working on my private license. I sheepishly advised her that I was in the final phase of my commercial license and working on becoming a professional pilot. She laughed and told me that she is a flight attendant at Southwest and said that from what she's seen, could confirm that I definitely have commercial pilot DNA. At least she has that Southwest Airlines sense of humor.

I sheepishly pulled my stuff out of the 20984 and shuffled over to N2464D for another pre-flight.

SCORE

Ego: -7

Humility: 10

I recommend making an ass out of yourself once in a while. It keeps you grounded and gives other people something to laugh about. Believe me, I know.

Currency Schmurrency

Last night, I was looking at my electronic flight log spreadsheet. One of the things that stood out was that I had 66 approaches in the last 60 days. 66 reminded me of 14CFR61.157 which basically states: For instrument flight, you must have in the last 6 months, 6 instrument approaches, holding procedures, intercepting and tracking through the use of navigation equipment.

Today, I sat in the Seneca FTD ready to do some approaches. Basically, I limped through them. The mistakes I did make were corrected, yet shouldn't have been made in the first place. On one approach, I put the main VOR in as the cross radial backup and the secondary as the primary. Even though I caught it quickly, it put me behind the approach and all that does is create stress. Careless mistake.

On an ILS approach, I failed to change the button from a previous GPS approach to CDI. I caught it after noticing the glide slope flag was on. I wondered if the instructor disabled the glide slope. Did he want me to change to a non-precision localizer only approach? NOPE. Press the damn CDI button on the Garmin, doofus. All the distraction caused me to blow through the localizer, so I had to turn back to intercept. All was good well before the final approach fix, but again, it shouldn't have happened.

I also made a few careless mistakes with holds, too. I basically had my *ss handed to me. It's amazing how quickly instrument proficiency dissipates. The scary part is that, technically, I'm instrument current. Would I embark on a trip into IMC right now? Not a chance. Over the next few weeks, I will regain my instrument proficiency...and confidence.

Are the requirements of 91.157 really enough for a casual private pilot with instrument rating to be safe? I'm not asking a rhetorical question. I really do wonder. Would or should a private pilot with just 91.157 minimums forge into IMC?

Is there anyone out there with an opinion? (Now that's a rhetorical question)

Commercial Stage Two

Commercial Multi-Engine is going well. There has been a lot of time spent in the FTD. The school I go to has two Level 6 Seneca FTD's. They are basically Seneca cockpits that have been converted to a computerized simulator with 3 LCD projectors and 3 screens. Having spent some time in an AST HAWK FTD, I can say that the Seneca FTD's are much more realistic. Although I'd always rather be in the plane, I can actually see the value in the Seneca FTD. There are many emergency procedures that are just too dangerous to perform in an actual aircraft. Single engine go-arounds are one that particularly come to mind.

Although FTD's have their gremlins and quirks, they are a decent tool for multi engine flight training. The time I've spent in the FTD has definitely improved memorization of the emergency procedures such as loss of engine during takeoff, engine loss in flight, engine out procedure flows, engine and electrical fires, precautionary engine shut downs, single engine approaches etc.

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Yesterday was my Commercial Stage 2 check. Most stage checks are 2 part, but commercial stage 2 is 3 part. The first part was a 2 hour oral exam that emphasized aerodynamics, especially Vmc. Other areas were prop and landing gear systems, FAA special emphasis areas and scenario based questions.

Next was 2 hours in the FTD. It was basically 2 hours of the check instructor throwing every type of emergency possible at me.

The final part was 2 hours in a Seneca. It was demonstration of basic maneuvers: slow flight & stalls-clean & dirty, steep turns, emergency descent, Vmc demo, regular and short field takeoffs & landings, complete engine shutdown & restart and single engine instrument approach. It was all pretty smooth, other than the fact that the rudder trim became INOP during the flight. The elevator trim barely worked and took all of my strength to turn the wheel.

The only rough spot was the single engine instrument approach. He failed the left engine 1 mile from the final approach fix and right when Phoenix approach was giving me clearance for the approach and handing me off to Gateway Tower. It took me a little past the final approach fix to get directional control and feather the prop and get stabilized on the glide slope. Vyse is 105 mph and I was having difficulty slowing down, due to the stiff elevator trim. Also, I got a terrible leg cramp due to the rudder trim being out. Holding that kind of rudder pressure for an entire single engine approach is pretty hard! It all worked out. I finally got down to 105 just above DH and landed on the 1000' markers. My right leg was numb from the pain. The first thing I did was squawk the trim.

A few guys have busted stage 2 recently and I was a little nervous. It felt good to pass. On to stage 3 which takes me to the end of commercial multi engine. Stage 3 consists of a ton of instrument approaches and about 20 hours of day and night long distance cross country flying. I'm looking forward to that.

The remainder of Commercial consists of: Stage 3, end of course, part 142 multi engine FAA check ride and then single engine add-on check ride. I hope to be done with commercial before the 15th of December...depending on aircraft down time and availability.

Congratulations Big Cheese!

It seems like many of the guys that I like the best are going to Express Jet, which flies exclusively under Continental Express. My friend Rex was just hired by Express Jet. He has an early November class date and will be leaving for Houston next Wednesday. Rex is one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. He will by flying the Embraer 135, 145 & 145XR. Good luck and enjoy, Rex (Big Cheese).

Word is that Embraer will be shutting down 145 production and trying to move 145 customers into 170's at the same cost as the 145. There seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding the Embraer 170 series aircraft, due to the increased size and pay scales, not to mention the increased cost for maintenance and parts of adding another type to the fleet. The Embraer 195, a stretched version of the 170, can have up to 118 seats. That puts it smack dab in Airbus A318 and Boeing 737-600 territory. I'm sure a lot of senior pilots at the major airlines don't like it at all. I can certainly understand their feelings.

Onandowaga Ska:t Ji:yäh

Translation from Seneca language: Seneca One Dog

I knew going in to this that Seneca's are not training aircraft. They just aren't as hearty as a Seminole. Two flights in a row had to be cancelled. One for a bad o-ring in the left landing gear, which caused the complete loss of oleo pressure. The second cancellation was due to screws missing from the landing light cover assembly. I think the common thread with Seneca troubles is LANDING GEAR. At this rate, it will take until January to complete all of the lessons for commercial multi engine.


/RANT OFF

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Last week, after the unpleasant experience in the beater 182 I was looking forward to taking my father and aunt on a flight to Payson. Last time my father was in Payson, a friend took him to Crosswinds Restaurant at Payson Airport (KPAN). He had been talking about the biscuits and gravy there ever since.



The only issue with taking my father and my aunt to Payson, elevation 5,150 feet, is weight. Now I beat anorexia hands down a few years back and have no trouble making the scale tip north of 225. My father is 6'3" and enjoys fine dining on occasion. My aunt is 5'11". Three of us and full tanks = overweight for a 172. Angel Air has a brand new 182 G1000 but, at $180 an hour, is destined to be their newest hangar queen. I figure the owner will go down to $160 within a month, but I digress. Fuel to tabs on a 172 would put us within weight and balance. Weather was forecast to be nice and cool, so density altitude wouldn't be an issue.



My aunt was so excited that she arrived an hour early. We made our way to Stellar and stuffed ourselves into N20984, a nice 2004 G1000 equipped 172.



The flight up was nice, albeit slow. We flew the West VFR Transition over Sky Harbor and then direct to Payson. The climb rate wasn't too hot. It took quite a while to reach 9,500'. I picked up AWOS for Payson and then tuned in the CTAF for a heads up. The winds were favoring runway 6 and I heard people using both 6 & 24. Hmm. The people that were landing on Rwy. 6 were calling right traffic. Hmm. The AFD says right for 24, but not 6. About 15 miles out, I inquired "Isn't runway 6 left traffic?" Apparently, somebody was frustrated by it more than I was. I got a very enthusiastic "YES IT IS THANK YOU!" About 30 seconds later, someone else came on and said they were changing to left traffic. I'm glad that was out of the way before I hit the pattern. We landed smoothly and found a great tie down next to a Cardinal and a twin Cessna (402B, I think).

We made our way to Crosswinds for a great breakfast. The view is incredible. Not only is there the requisite runway view, but also the Mogollon Rim to enjoy. While we killed a few thousand calories, some very nice planes came in. There was a beautifully restored T-6 Texan, a Trinidad GT and my first sighting of a Diamond DA-42 Twin Star. Can an aircraft be hideous and beautiful at the same time? I think so. If I had a spare $400K, it would go for a Diamond DA-42. (In my best Raymond Babbit voice) Yeah definitely the Diamond. Definitely the Diamond.


The trip back was smooth. Everybody played nice on the comms and a nice tailwind took us back with a 136 knot ground speed. My father wanted to see where I was going to school, so we made a quick stop at Williams Gateway. When we departed, there were several T-38's leaving and we all enjoyed seeing that. The trip from Gateway to Stellar takes all of 5 minutes and we were back on the ground. Overall, it was a very nice trip. My father, who spent hundreds of hours in Cessnas doing traffic reports in San Francisco, complimented me on my flying and that he thinks I'm a safe pilot. It is nice to hear that from your father. My aunt said it was the best time she's had all year. I'm glad they both had such a good time. I did too.



Saturday was also my youngest son's 4th birthday. As soon as I got home, my son asked if I was taking him flying in an "aiwpowt for his birfday". How could I say no? I called around and found an airplane available at Falcon Field. After a brief stop at Arby's for some brain food, we were all at Falcon and ready to go.

My youngest heading for 1st airplane ride

Excited boys!

Are we there yet?

We loaded up and flew Northeast towards Saguaro and Canyon Lakes, then South over The Superstition Mountains. My wife and daughter think touch and go's are fun, so we did a few at Gateway and then headed back to Falcon. Other than my middle son getting a little freaked out when I banked over Canyon Lake, everyone had a really good time. Now that my youngest has actually flown in a small plane, he will understand the difference between and airplane and an airport. He confuses the two. Hopefully I'll be able to afford a larger plane one of these days. Pretty soon, they'll be too small to squeeze into a Cherokee.

Busy Week

The last few weeks have been pretty busy. Between work, school and family - there's been very little time to breathe, much less write.

Last weekend was my daughter's 8th birthday, which we celebrated nearly all day Saturday. Sunday, it was almost an entire day of ground briefs, sim time and Seneca time. Monday, I flew to Wickenburg and worked with the plan being to return Tuesday in the early afternoon. Mother nature decided that I should stay in Wickenburg longer. A cold front was pushing through Arizona and the winds were pretty wicked. At one time, Chandler was reporting winds of 260 @ 26 gusts to 35 knots. Max demonstrated crosswinds on the very nice 172SP G1000 I was flying are 15 knots and 260 is a direct crosswind for runway 17/35 at Stellar. Now I've accumulated a lot of hours in 172's and am confident in about any situation, but not that extreme.

The TAF for Sky Harbor said the winds would calm to 12 knots by 7pm, so I stayed in Wickenburg until about 6. This was my first night flight in a G1000 equipped plane and man is it sweet. I'm used to flying ancient crap with flickering, intermittent dash lighting. I have to say the combination of back lighting, LCD lights and the MFD really make for a pleasant night flying experience. Also, the Xenon HID landing lights are incredible. The landing light illuminates the runway from 1500' out. Nice. Since I was enjoying myself, I went to Chandler for a few stop and goes before returning to Stellar to keep my night currency. The winds were still stiff and a direct crosswind when I returned to Stellar, but it was manageable.

Wednesday, I finally got around to taking my FAA Commercial Pilot written exam. I have been so busy lately that complacency was taking over. FAA regs require 141/142 students to sit for the written exam within 14 days after completing ground school and I was right there. Although I didn't feel ready, it worked out fine. 90. As long as I get 90 or above on my FAA exams, I'm satisfied. I think 90 or above makes the oral portion of the practical exam a little quicker. If you squeak by, I hear that DE's spend a little more time on the oral exam.

After the test, I drove to Falcon for a check out in a 1976 182. I was excited about the horsepower, but the plane that I flew was a fright pig. When I say this, I say it not as a snob who flies aircraft with glass cockpits and other niceties. I say it as a guy who also flies ancient, rode hard and put away wet trainers on a very regular basis. The avionics were lousy. The seats wobbled. The comm radio antenna wasn't shielded properly or something. A country radio station bled through the entire flight on any channel on either comm radio. The GPS was...yeah right. The winds weren't too bad and a 182 really doesn't handle that much differently than a 172. Due to the increased engine weight, it does sink a little faster. When it came time to demonstrate some landings, it wouldn't happen. The first one was awful. A bounce and waaay off center line. The second was a little better, but not really acceptable. The instructor (who has over 300 hours in 182's) says, "let me take the next one". I enthusiastically say "YOUR CONTROLS". He bounced the thing three times and nearly took us off the runway as he pushed the throttle full forward. I said, "MY CONTROLS" and "this concludes my checkout in this 182". The full stop was on the wider runway and miraculously, very smooth.

Once we were safely on the ground, he said that he personally hated this particular plane. After parking, we checked the rudder trim, tires and a few other things and couldn't see anything obviously wrong. At that point, I chose never to fly this particular 182 ever again. No thanks.

This is getting long winded. More later.

Serendipitious Stormy Saturday

Thuderstorms rattled the Phoenix area throughout the night. We had fairly heavy rain, lightning and thunder at our house from Midnight to about 4 a.m. This is unusual weather for October in Arizona. Like I said in an earlier post, this is going to be an El Nino winter, which will bring greater than average rain to Arizona.

When I woke up this morning, I went straight to the computer to check the weather for this morning's flight in the Piper Seneca. First, a quick glance out the window. Doesn't look too good. Second, http://www.aviationweather.gov/ . Not much better. The TAF read something like this:

15012G20 1SM BKN025 OVC050 CB TSRA
TEMPO 1500-1900 24018G25 OVC050CB TSRA+

The pessimist in me went back to bed. The optimist in me thought, weather does change. Might as well get dressed and head to KIWA. Already awake anyway, right?

On the way to the airport, it starts to clear to the East. To the West and North, it still looks pretty nasty. When I get there, I check the weather again. The TAF still has a TEMPO, but I can see that it is clearing rapidly. A quick check of the radar confirms that the weather is trending towards clearing towards the East & West. My instructor isn't here yet, but I decide to go ahead and pre-flight the aircraft. Since I don't have my multi-engine endorsement yet, I'm not PIC yet. Go/no go isn't my call.

My instructor gets to school and I hand him the TAF. He immediately says "no go". Usually, I defer. I would always rather err on the side of caution, but today was shaping up for good flying. Cool, smooth and overcast at about 120.

I say, let me call FSS and get a brief. He agrees and I do. The briefer is in Albuquerque and has the same computer info that we do, so he says it looks bad. I ask my instructor specifically what worries him. He says convective activity. I argue for a call to the tower and he relents. The tower says, no heavy rain or lightning strikes within 30 miles. All convective activity is to the north and west, moving north.

Finally, my instructor agrees to go flying. This is one of those situations where my character flaws work to my advantage. I think I annoyed him to the point that saying yes was better than being sold on it any more. When I want something, I can be as annoying as a yapping Chihuahua...a natural salesman. Again, I usually agree 100% with TAF's, but today was one day that I didn't. The weather was great the entire flight. We encountered some light rain here and there and some steady rain moved in as we did our last touch and go. Cool air, no heating, just as smooth as could be.

Today, we worked on Vmc demonstration, engine out procedures and emergency descents. Vmc is the minimum controllable airspeed in a multi-engine aircraft. A Vmc demo is basically configuring the plane in the most unfavorable way, cutting one engine, props full forward and full power with the operating engine and putting the aircraft right at Vmc by climbing. The signs of reaching Vmc are which ever occurs first: stall warning, stall buffet, full rudder deflection or loss of directional control. Senecas are so stable that Vmc is usually reached by stall, still having directional control. To recover, you then cut the throttle of the good engine, pitch down until you're coordinated and above stall speeds then at Vyse (105MPH in a Seneca) you recover with 15" of manifold pressure on both engines. There's a little more to it, but that's a basic Vmc demo. You're basically showing an examiner that you can maintain directional control of the aircraft at the minimum controllable airspeed in single engine operation.

Then we did a few engine out exercises. When an engine fails, you do two things first. Maintain directional control and pitch for Vyse. Everything else comes second. Then the memory checklist comes in: mixture rich, props forward, throttles forward, flaps 0, gear retract, identify failed engine. Dead foot=dead engine. Whatever foot isn't being used to keep the aircraft coordinated corresponds with the engine that has failed. Trim for directional control. If you're over 1,500' AGL, go to the restart procedure. If you're below 1,500', go to feathering procedure.

For restart: Fuel to cross feed, alternate air on, electric fuel pumps on and magnetos both on.

For feather: Prop to full feather and mixture to cut-off.

These are the memory items. Each procedure has a checklist of non-memory items that follow. I thought I'd never have the checklists memorized. It takes a lot of time for my simple little brain to memorize these check lists. I've seen the memory checklists for the CRJ, and the Seneca is infinitesimal in comparison, so I better stop complaining now and improve my memorization skills.

I did an emergency descent which is simple: close cowl flaps, mixture/prop forward, cut throttles, gear down below 150MPH. Then bank 45 degrees and pitch for 140 miles per hour. Once you get over 30 degrees, the aircraft wants to accelerate rapidly. I had to redo this one to avoid hitting 150MPH and over stressing the landing gear. The second try was just right. Boy it looks steep. All you see is ground. Recover 2,500' AGL.

It was time to return to KIWA for some touch and gos to finish up the lesson. I did 3 touch and go's and 4 landings. Yeah. Four. One short field sucked and I bounced. Now that I know what the problem was, it won't happen again. It takes a little bit to get used to flying a much heavier aircraft. The last two landings were short field too and they were excellent.

Another 1.6 multi. A little bit closer...

Clear Left Prop...Clear Right Prop

Cue: Theme from "The High And The Mighty"

Oh what the heck, here...just listen to it. It will set the mood.



Okay...now that you're in the mood let's get started. Today, I finally began flying multi-engine aircraft. After all of the ground training on complex systems, emergency procedures and all that is multi-engine flying, it finally happened.

I remember watching other students doing pre-flight on one of the Senecas with a smile on their face every time I made my way out to a Cadet on the flight line. They had oil and hydraulic fluid stains on their shirts, their hands were black and a grin like a five year old on Christmas morning.

After today's flight, I understand the smiles. Even though the plane is OLD, dirty and all of the creature comforts are missing or INOP, it's a lot of fun to fly. It was over 90 degrees outside, yet the plane hit Vr in under 1,000 feet. Before I knew it, it was gear up and 25" of manifold pressure and 2500 RPM as we headed out for the intro flight. All I needed to feel like The Duke aka Dan Roman were some puffy white cumulus clouds and an iPod with the theme from The High and the Mighty.

The flight itself was really benign. First, I had to don the foggles to do some basic instrument maneuvers (constant speed climbs and descents, turns etc.) Then some steep turns and slow flight and back to Gateway for some landing practice. The weather was definitely in my favor today and that helped my confidence. My first landing was about 8 feet left of the center line, but smooth. The second was a smooth short field stop and go, followed by a short field take off. Third and fourth were just smooth, normal landings.

The Seneca is definitely a heavy plane. Drop the power and the nose just sinks. A few turns of back pressure on the elevator trim helps make flaring a less of an orthopedic torture session. All in all, the stability feels great. The extra weight really makes the plane handle. The plane is really easy to trim, making it easier to pay attention to things like gear and prop settings. Overall, I would have to say it was a much better first flight than I expected. No glaring problems or stupid mistakes. It just felt natural.

I'm sure there are people reading this with hundreds or thousands of multi-engine time. Was your first time as amazing as mine? Flying a multi-engine aircraft really makes you feel like a pilot.

After the flight, my instructor issued my complex aircraft endorsement. That makes me very happy. Now I can get checked out in an Arrow, 182 or the new Turbo 182 G1000 that Angel Air is getting. Decisions...decisions. As I've said before, "Life is good".

Now I have two FTD lessons before the next actual multi flight on Saturday morning. I can't wait.

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It will be interesting to see the NTSB report on the crash today in Manhattan that claimed the life of New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle while at the controls of his Cirrus SR-20. Of course, no reports can be considered accurate so anything said is pure speculation. What could the cause be? CFIT, disorientation from flying in IMC, incorrect altimeter setting?

He was just quoted a few weeks ago when asked about his flying saying, "I'm not worried about it. I'm safe up there. I feel very comfortable with my abilities flying an airplane." Sad.

I was home working with CNN on in the background when the story came across. The way they presented it, you would have thought that World War III had just begun. The stock market started to drop and all hell broke loose. Granted, it was a big news story, but does the media have to try and scare the crap out of everyone? Fools.

A Quick California Trip - Multi-Engine Kick-Off & G1000

The first part of this post is about our trip to see Roger Waters in LA. For the aviation portion of the post, scroll down.

Roger Waters
Well, we did the 30 hour turnaround to LA to see Roger Waters. We made great time on the drive. Excluding a stop for lunch and a little shopping in Cabazon, we made it to I-10 and downtown Los Angeles in just under 5 hours. Unfortunately, there was a protest march Downtown which clogged traffic so much that the final 2 miles to our hotel took more than an hour. We got checked in to the hotel with 20 minutes to spare before leaving for the show.

The drive to the Hollywood Bowl was easy. About 20 minutes and we were there. Coronary number one took place when the parking lot vendor asked me for $18. Is this valet parking? NO. Well then, it must include a wash. NO. Just park the damn car said the look on her face. OK, we're going to see Roger Waters at The Hollywood Bowl. Get over it.

We met the person with our tickets and found our seats. We were amazed by the scale. Although seating capacity is about 18,000, the place seems immense. The show was amazing. Other than a little too much political rambling, we enjoyed every minute. Why rock stars have to be political commentators is beyond me. Whether you agree or disagree with them, what's the point? Just shut up and play the music.


Stage

They played two sets. The first was a collection of Pink Floyd songs from every Roger Waters Pink Floyd album except for Dark Side Of The Moon. The second set was The Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety, and Nick Mason the original drummer for Pink Floyd made a rare appearance and played for the entire second half and the encore. They used quadrophonic sound and this show was probably the most technically accurate and highest quality sounding concert I've ever seen...and I've been to well over 400 concerts.


Prism above the stage. Very cool.

Since this blog is about flying and not Roger Waters, I have to work some angle related to flying. During the song "Sheep" before the intermission, they brought out the Pink Floyd Pig. It was tethered and lead through the audience like a Macy's aerial float. At the end of the song, they let it go. This has been done at all of the other outdoor shows and wasn't unexpected, but all I could think about was the airports near the Hollywood Bowl. Of course I had been watching air traffic all night...planes from Burbank and Van Nuys to the north as well has multiple helicopters going every which way. I wondered if a light aircraft might hit the pig. All was well, but I still wonder what could happen.


Here piggy piggy

Heart attack number two came after the concert ended, again parking related. We hurried our way to the lot and found that the lot was "stacked". My car was buried and we had to wait a half and hour to get out. All this for just $18! That's what I call "value added"

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I finally started multi-engine training Saturday. The first four lessons are in the schools level 6 Piper Seneca FTD. It's more advanced than the AST/Hawk FTD, but still a benign and utterly joyless thing to use. The lessons are really to familiarize pilots with the Seneca layout and procedures without burning up Hobbs time. Needless to say, it was unremarkable and dull. One last quick FTD lesson for VMC demo Wednesday and then I get to actually fly the real thing .

The school's Senecas are series I. No turbo and anything not essential for flight is either removed or INOP. Even the electric trim is disabled. The Seneca is a pretty heavy plane and not as well suited for training as a Seminole. I'll report Wednesday on first multi-engine thoughts.

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I finally got checked out in the G1000 equipped 172. The more time I spend behind the controls of the G1000, the more I become enamored with it. For every counter-intuitive button or process, there are 3 features that I like a lot. Since I had several hours in the G1000 and had suffered through the King G1000 video already, the check ride was short and uneventful.

After the checkout, I took the plane to Wickenburg.

The G1000 planes at Angel Air also have a nice feature, HID taxi and landing lights. Both of my cars have HID/Xenon headlights and the difference in light output from halogen is substantial. They also make a huge difference in aircraft. HID lights are like having your own little bit of sunshine. If only people would stop putting fake blue halogen headlights in their cars. Those are the lights that give real xenons a bad rap.

I am discovering several weaknesses the G1000 brings out in me. Looking at the pretty lights makes fixation and over-emphasis a problem that I need to be very aware of. The digital tach makes me obsess over exact RPM instead of just flying the plane. Remembering to set the backup altimeter when making changes during flight is challenging me. For the most part, the G1000 enhances every aspect of flight, as long as I remember to fly the plane and not play the video game.

Last Ride In The Flying Dumptruck

I have a new name for the Archer that I've been flying recently. "The Flying Dump Truck". I had to go to Wickenburg today and took Dana with me. We were well under max gross weight, but the thing just doesn't like to climb at all. More on "TFDT" in a few paragraphs.

This morning, there was a TFR because President Bush was in Phoenix. General aviation traffic was nearly non-existent. The TFR was really not that big of a deal. Simply put, all non 121 traffic had to be on a VFR/IFR flight plan, receive a discrete squawk code and be in constant radio contact while within the 30nm TFR ring.

On the way to pick up Dana, I filed a quick VFR flight plan to Wickenburg and got a brief. When we picked up the airplane, they tried to tell us the plane couldn't be flown until the TFR was lifted. I explained to them that I had a flight plan and wouldn't depart without clearance and would accept full responsibility for the tail#. Good enough. After start up, I called up Falcon ground and requested clearance. It really wasn't any different than contacting clearance delivery for an IFR flight. They gave us clearance to taxi and when we called tower, we waited about 30 seconds for them to receive takeoff clearance from Phoenix approach. We took off right on time and even though we were vectored somewhat out of the way, favorable winds put us on the ground in Wickenburg in less than 40 minutes. Air Force One took off while we were north of Sky Harbor, but it was too hazy to see. Bummer.

After Wickenburg, we decided to head towards Sedona before coming home. There was an active Airmet for Northern Arizona with wind gusts in excess of 35 knots. Approaching Prescott on the way to Sedona, we encountered some light turbulence and decided to file a PIREP and get a weather report. He didn't have specific winds for Sedona, but Flagstaff was reporting 160 at 18, gusting to 25. We got ATIS for Prescott and it was pretty much the same. Sedona just isn't a good airport to head to with strong winds, so we decided to full-stop in Prescott.

After stretching our legs in Prescott, it was time to head back to Falcon and Dana's turn to fly. The winds had picked up even more, but it was a direct headwind. At run up, we leaned for density altitude and I warned her about how heavy this plane recommending we rotate higher and make use of the entire runway. We rotated at 65 and the plane didn't want to climb out of ground effect. Dana held it in ground effect for Vy (73 kias) and it finally started a painfully slow climb. If it was a hot day, I think this plane would have been dangerous.

We crossed a strong pressure gradient on the way back to Falcon. Our ground speed went from 72 knots to 118 knots! Other than Snottsdale not clearing us through their precious airspace, the flight back to Falcon was uneventful. Winds back in Phoenix were light and variable, a huge difference from Northern Arizona.

So I did the math and figured that the Archer at $119/hour costs more than a 172SP at $120/hour. The Cessna climbs MUCH better, reaching cruising altitude and a higher cruise speed which translates to less Hobbs time. I also squawked something last time I flew it and it hadn't been fixed. It wasn't a MEL item or 91.213, but it still irritated me that it wasn't corrected. Let's just say any idiot could have fixed it.

The aircraft is just too heavy. With A/C, extra sound insulation and fairly worthless options like a carb ice detector, EGT gauge and more this plane flies like a dump truck with wings, hence "The Flying Dump Truck". I was going to fly it to Burbank tomorrow, but it climbs so poorly that I wouldn't trust flying it on an IFR flight. I really doubt it could climb to the MEA and am sure it wouldn't meet climb performance minimums.

It's a nice aircraft, a pimped out ride, but I would rather be safe in a well maintained beater that performs within reason than die in style.

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I mentioned in my last post that we were going to see Roger Waters in Phoenix for my wife's birthday. Monday afternoon, I got a line on a great pair of seats for Thursday at The Hollywood Bowl. Hmmm. Seeing a concert at some faceless ,vanilla, run of the mill, corporate named concert pavilion in Phoenix -OR- experiencing life at it's fullest at the world famous Hollywood Bowl. Tough decision. I couldn't get a 172 on short notice and well, you know, TFDT is no longer a consideration. It'll be a nice drive anyway. 200HP direct injection turbo engine with the amazing DSG transmission, 4 gigs of MP3, Sirius radio, GPS Nav and my best friend at my side.

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I still haven't started multi engine! Scheduling has been a hassle and my instructor and I just haven't been able to coordinate. Saturday and Sunday, I'll get the first four sim lessons out of the way so I can start flying the Seneca next week. FINALLY.

With ground school out of the way and the FAA written to be taken next week too, I'm finally starting to feel like a commercial pilot. Maybe someday, there will actually be a sucker out there willing to pay me to fly. Imagine that?!?

Hail to the TFR, Dark Side of the Moon & Ear Splitting Audio

The President is coming to Phoenix Tuesday through Wednesday to fund raise for Rick Renzi, a congressman for Northern Arizona. I have respect for The Office of The President of The United States, but does the TFR have to be so extreme? 30nm? His flight will be coming in from the Northeast over Scottsdale (KSDL) on the 005 radial of the PXR VOR. Almost all of our training flights depart south or east of KIWA, and would be well outside the 30nm TFR ring, however all flights in and out of any airport must be under a VFR or IFR flight plan. No training flights. Period.

Oh well, better book the sim now before everyone else.

It won't be that big of a deal for me anyway. Today is my Commercial Stage 3 written exam and tomorrow is my Commercial End of Course exam. Then ground school will be over for the next 6-8 weeks while I finish up my commercial multi engine and single add on.

Also, tomorrow is my wife's birthday. I'm going to take her out to dinner and the we're going to see Roger Waters (an influential member of Pink Floyd) in concert. We're both huge Pink Floyd fans and this is likely to be the last time he tours. He will be performing the Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety. It will be a very nice evening. Happy Birthday, K. I love you.

Has anyone else seen the current Roger Waters show?

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This morning, I walked my kids to the bus stop for school. Now, a diesel engined school bus is not a quiet vehicle, but it was drowned out by thumping bass. As the school bus drove away, we expected to see a car with the windows down right behind the bus. The car was a brand new Acura RSX Type S and it was at least a quarter mile away with the windows UP! When the 16-17 year old kid drove by, the vibration from the bass actually hurt. What an ass this kid is, and what bigger asses his parents are. If it's enough to make me hurt on the outside, I can't imagine what it's doing to his hearing.

I mention this because I am grateful the be able to hear well enough to copy ATC instructions in an aircraft. I just sat there shaking my head as he drove away, thinking of all the things he could be prohibited or restricted from doing due to hearing loss. Aviation, communications, public safety, military service, athletics and much more. You can't always blame a teenager for being stupid, but with a car like that, he obviously has parents. Cash must be the substitute for parenting.

1+1>2

The last step in commercial single engine are a couple of long cross country flights, one day the other night. With my busy schedule, it's better to just combine them in to one trip and that's just what my instructor and I did yesterday.

I planned to Laughlin/Bullhead City (KIFP). Laughlin is a casino town located in the bottom point of Nevada, right across the Colorado River from Bullhead City, AZ and a few miles from the California border. The departure was planned so we could get there just before sunset and depart a few hours later for a night flight back.

VFR flight planning is so tedious that I always try to make the route as efficient as possible. Instead of routing around Phoenix airspace, I routed us straight through it. When my instructor looked over the flight plan, he said that I should have planned around Phoenix airspace. I said that it was planned directly through on purpose and that obtaining the clearance wouldn't be an issue. He politely disagreed and in the spirit of traveling to Nevada, I offered a wager. If I'm wrong, I'll buy dinner. If you're wrong, vice versa. He sensed and easy win and immediately agreed.

I got a northwest departure clearance from Gateway tower. Immediately after the take off roll, I asked for a frequency change, which Gateway tower granted. I already had the Prescott FSS in backup and switched over to open the flight plan. Flight plan opened in 30 seconds. Sweet. Com 2 had Phoenix approach dialed in and a quick call to them with request resulted in: "Squawk **** and remain clear of the the bravo airspace". My instructor started to get that evil, "I was right, you were wrong...totally wrong...so wrong that I'll remind you of it daily for the rest of your natural life look." Inside my head I'm quietly saying, "Wait for it...wait for it..." Just as he was opening his mouth to say something dry and sarcastic like "Well that was fun", Phoenix approach came back and told us we were cleared through the bravo, climb to 4,000 and fly the East Transition direct Deer Valley (KDVT). HA! Flight plan accurate. Suddenly, I started getting hungry for steak and lobster.

After Phoenix, the plan was to fly to Wickenburg, and then follow US93 and I-40 to Kingman, then Laughlin. Part of the cross country was to include a diversion, which he gave me over Wickenburg and had me change the route to direct Lake Havasu. A diversion is basically changing the route and/or destination of flight while in-flight. You must plot the new course, measure the distance and calculate ground speed. That allows you to figure the new time en route and fuel required so that your flight plan can be amended. There are a few methods to calculate ground speed in-flight (GPS cheating excluded) and I chose calculating the time between two known points on the chart. You should hit your destination in plus or minus 3 minutes, which we did.

Coming in to Laughlin is interesting. The elevation is nearly sea level and the area is in a valley with mountains to the East and West and Lake Mojave and Davis Dam to the north. Although I've been to Laughlin countless times, it's always unreal seeing skyscrapers rising out of the desert, in the middle of nowhere. Seeing it from the air proved to be no-exception. It was dusk and the lights of the casino were beginning to overpower the remaining sunlight. I forgot my camera. Bummer.

Just as we were entering the airspace, the tower announced that it was closing. I asked them for a quick weather brief and we were good to go. The only other traffic was a King Air that was departing to the East. We landed, and got the very last transient parking space. After topping off, the FBO (Sun Western Flyers) called a complimentary shuttle to take us to The Riverside Hotel & Casino.

My father has an interesting friend that lives in Laughlin. He is known as "The Watch Man". He's a tireless promoter and a real character. He's made and lost fortunes more than any person I've ever known. Anyway, he's currently in the money and owns several stores located at the Riverside. I told my instructor about the store and he said he wanted to see it. When we got there, we spent a few minutes looking at a few of the over 100,000 watches he has for under $20. You can find anything from Rolex "like" watches to NFL team logo and Betty Boop watches. Needless to say, it's an interesting place.

The point is, they were having one of their hourly drawings and I grabbed two tickets. The first drawing was for a free pair of sunglasses from "The Sunglass Man" store located elsewhere in the casino and the second was for a free watch. The girl drew the first ticket and it was my instructors. Then she said his ticket could go back in for a chance at the second one. Believe it or not, he won the second drawing too. There was at least 150 tickets in the bucket, so it was pretty amazing. Anyway, he got to spin "The Wheel of Watches" to see which watch he won. It was a digital watch that will serve nicely as a knee board clock. We went to "The Sunglass Man" and he picked out a pretty nice pair of Ray Ban knock offs. Not bad for free and it put him in a better mood about having to buy dinner.

Since he's a CFI, lobster and steak isn't in his budget. The charitable side of me told him the cheap dinner buffet would be just fine. Dinner was decent and then we decided to play around for a little while before leaving. I think they were having a convention for chain smoking, tattooed, foul mouthed alcoholics in trucker hats and wife=beater shirts (not that there's anything wrong with that) this weekend. Needless to say, the casino wasn't too much fun and an hour was all we could stand. We took the shuttle back to the airport for the flight home.

The Riverside Flight Service Station's computers were down and we couldn't reach the Prescott FSS, so we returned without a filed flight plan. We flew back at 9,500 to ensure radar coverage the whole way and just used flight following. On the return trip, we flew via Needles, Lake Havasu, Parker and then joined I-10 straight to Phoenix.

It was getting close to midnight and Phoenix approach sounded like most of the red-eyes had come in. A touch and go at Sky Harbor would be fun. When I asked the approach controller, I expected an immediate "negative". She said "stand by". Ask and ye shall receive! 30 seconds later, she told us to follow a Pilates straight in for 25L. Tower gave us landing instructions that included immediate vectors out. The touchdown was a lot of fun. I graciously thanked them and we were back on our way to Gateway. Ten minutes later, we were on the ground in the same parking spot we left eight hours earlier.

I'm really enjoying flying with my current instructor. Not only is he like Rain Man when it comes to aviation knowledge, we think alike and get along well. He said this trip was the most enjoyable long cross country he's had and I agreed.

5.2 Hours PIC cross country, 2.7 night. 1 landing at PHX. Good sights, good food, smooth air and good company. 1 day cross country, plus 1 night cross country = more than 2.