Flight Lessons Learned

In the System from Tampa to Craig

2010-10-11T08:15:00.005-04:00

Lately in AOPA Pilot magazine as well as in a couple of email newsletters that I receive, there has been discussion surrounding the pros and cons of flying in and out of towered airports. Non-towered airports do not have a controller to bark at you when you say something wrong, nor do you have to wait for a controller to clear you to taxi and take off. However, when flying in and out of an area where there is a fair amount of traffic and especially if that aircraft flown in that area are piloted primarily by students, having an extra set of eyes and clear communication requirements would be my preference.

Craig airport is a tower-controlled airport most of the time. Only if you fly very early or very late will you find the tower closed. In the past few years, I have not noticed any harshness directed at pilots by any of the controllers. This wasn't always the case, as there was once a controller that had a tendency to yell at almost everyone. The system has a way of weeding out these types and he is no longer found in our tower.

When flying in and out of a non-towered airport, the communication burden is placed squarely on the shoulders of the pilot. Often, pilots take this reporting responsibility with a grain of salt. Likewise, without a tower, there are many options available for approaching and departing the airport - some are encouraged by the AIM and some are not. Towered airports, on the other hand, require communication with the tower prior to entering the controlled airspace. Once communication is established, the tower provides clear instructions to the pilot for his or her approach as well as additional communications requirements. These requirements add an additional margin of safety but they do not eliminate the pilot's responsibility to see and avoid other traffic.

Learning to fly an airplane is pretty easy. Most people fly their first solo between 10 and 20 hours of flying time - and part of that logged time is actually spent taxiing. One of the more challenging lessons in flying is learning how to communicate properly over the radio. I suspect that this is the main reason for many pilots' aversion to towered airports. In a non-towered area, you talk to the thin air announcing your position and intent. You listen to other pilots for their reports, but you rarely have any one-on-one communication with another person. Contrast this with a towered environment where every communication is directed at a specific person and is expected to follow a certain protocol, be concise, and be correct. Communicating with the tower is no time to practice saying "ummmm". Yet even professional pilots have some issues when they communicate. Many begin their communication with "and". Why? To me, that is a waste of breath. "And, Tampa Approach, United 212 checking in at one-two thousand." An otherwise perfect communication marred by an unnecessary transmission. Still others use totally incorrect terminology. Radio communications, with the exception of the proper way to request an instrument clearance, are described fairly precisely in the AIM. 12,000 feet is pronounced one-two-thousand. 7,500 feet is seven-thousand-fife-hundred". Almost every time I fly, I hear an otherwise professional sounding pilot using something like, "Mooney three-bravo-alpha, out of seven point five for nine". That should have been "out of seven-thousand-fife hundred for niner-thousand". We all make mistakes, though. When it comes to communications, mistakes are expected and there is no shame in making a correction. Deliberate and consistent mistakes should always be avoided, though. In spite of mistakes, my preference is to fly in the system as much as possible. I like the added safety and professionalism.

Tampa International Airport is in Class B airspace. From a communications perspective, this is the most tightly controlled airspace. There are numerous commercial flights in and out of KTPA every hour and quick, clear communications are essential to preventing aircraft from bumping in to each other.

After my short visit with my mom, my sister, and my neices, we packed it up for the airport where I paid my bill and made my way on to the tarmac to my waiting Skyhawk. The tanks had been topped off - REALLLY topped off - I couldn't pour the sumped fuel back in to the left tank it was so full. As part of my pre-flight, I have added a check of the computerized fuel management system, so I reset the fuel system to full fuel (53 gallons). I like the precision of knowing how much fuel has been burned down to the tenth of a gallon.

I listened to the ATIS on my handheld radio before starting the plane - this saves me a few minutes of engine time. At current rates, one minute of time costs $2.68 or a tenth of an hour costs $16.05, so minimizing unnecessary idling time can save big bucks! I never used to worry so much about this, but with twins on the way, I'm counting my pennies as I pick them up off the ground!

After getting the ATIS and plugging the altimeter setting into G1000, I called for my instrument clearance, "Tampa Clearance Delivery, Skyhawk 6-2-0-0-quebec, ready to copy IFR to Jacksonville Craig".

A few seconds later, a woman's voice came back with, "Skyhawk 6-2-0-0-quebec, cleared as filed to Craig, after departure fly heading zero-siz-zero. Initial climb out to one-thousand-six-hundred, expect six-thousand in ten minutes. Departure frequency one-one-niner-point-niner, squawk seven-four-one-zero."

I wrote this clearance down as she spoke and then repeated it as, "Cleared as filed, heading zero-six-zero, climb one-thousand-six-hundred, six-thousand in ten, one-one-niner-point-niner for the frequency and seven-four-one-zero for the squawk. Zero-zero-quebec."

This is a shot from my kneeboard of the ATIS and the instrument clearance. The first part shows that I got ATIS information X-Ray, winds 230 at 6, visibility 10, few clouds at 5,500 feet, temperature 29 dewpoint 13, altimeter 30.01. Landing and departing on runway 36L. Clearance delivery on 133.6. The clearance is below that followed by my departure runway - 9 at Echo.

She answered, "Cessna zero-zero-quebec, readback correct. Current information is Xray, say your position".

I replied, "zero-zero-quebec has X-Ray, we are at Signature".

She then told me, "zero-zero-quebec, contact ground on one-two-one point seven when ready."

I acknowledged and then plugged in the frequency for ground followed by the tower frequency and then on the second radio, I entered the departure frequency. I entered my squawk code into the transponder (which is actually built in to the G1000 panel) and then I plugged KCRG as my destination in the GPS flight plan. It was nice to get a direct routing.

I called ground control and advised, "Skyhawk 6-2-0-0-Q with X-ray, ready to taxi for IFR to the northeast."

The ground controller told me that winds were 230 at 6, and asked if I could accept a departure from runway 9 at echo. I was expecting this since I knew that 18L/36R was closed and there was no direct taxiway over to 18R/36L with all of the closures. Before flying down to Tampa I had checked out the runway lengths from various intersections and knew that even with a stiff tailwind, I would be able to depart on runway 9 from the Echo intersection. I told the controller, "niner at echo would be just fine, zero-zero-quebec."

With my taxi clearance, I made my way to my assigned spot and did my runup as I rolled. I requested departure clearance and was quickly given the go signal. It felt odd having such a tailwind on the roll and the plane seemed to cover quite a bit more distance before it wanted to fly, but fly, it did! On climbout, I made my turn to 060 and that heading took me directly over Raymond James Stadium where a ball game was going on. Must not have been much of a game as there were lots of empty seats.

I flew my heading and about the time I was ready to level off at 1,600 feet, ATC handed me off to Tampa Departure who cleared me for 4,000 feet. I leveled off at 4,000 and continued my 060 heading until I was nearly out of the Class B airspace at which point, the controller cleared me for 6,000 feet and turned me to 020 before clearing me direct to Craig, which not coincidentally was on a heading of 020.

Clouds were right at 6,000 feet so I found myself in and out of them quite a bit. There was a fair amount of air traffic around Tampa and since I began this entry with a discussion about radio communications, I am compelled to relate the following interaction.

If you are flying VFR, you must contact the Class B airport's approach controller, establish two-way communication and receive permission to enter his airspace before doing so. It is usually a good idea to have "VFR Flight Following" and fly "in the system" as this will simplify contact with approach and it will provide a greater measure of safety as ATC will warn of traffic workload permitting.

I heard two problematic communications in a span of about 15 minutes. First, a VFR pilot without flight following called Tampa Approach speaking with a very thick, almost unintelligible accent, "Tampa Approach, ??? 1-2-3-6-6".

Approach responded, "V-F-R traffic calling Approach, call back in five minutes".

This elicited another call from 12366 immediately and identical to the first call. This second call was ignored by Tampa Approach. The controller was busy; he didn't have to respond the first time. The VFR pilot should have shut up. When he called back five minutes later, the controller, undoubtedly annoyed by the initial interaction, told him again to wait five minutes. Eventually he was given a squawk code and was permitted to head towards Vandenburg.

The second interaction involved a Mooney. I automatically assume that if a pilot is flying a Mooney, he knows what he is doing. Mooney's are high-performance, complex aircraft, so one would assume that a pilot of such an aircraft would have some experience. This is not a good assumption - it would be like assuming JFK,Jr. was a competent pilot. His inverted landing in Long Island Sound suggests otherwise.

So the Mooney pilot who had a tail number ending in six-zero-quebec, similar to mine, contacted approach control. Approach told him to wait and he would have his code for him shortly.

A few minutes later, the controller called "November six-zero-zero-quebec, squawk 1053".

This was not the tail number of the Mooney, but it was close. It was also close to my tail number. The Mooney pilot responded, "Approach, was that for Mooney six-zero-quebec?, if so, say again, please."

The controller sounding quite annoyed replied, "Standby".

I wasn't sure if the controller had made a mistake, so I hit the playback button on the radio. Yup, the controller screwed up.

The controller never owned up to his mistake - he probably didn't know he made one and the Mooney's subsequent conversations with ATC suggested to me that he was fairly inexperienced, so the controller would probably have assumed the pilot made an error. Eventually, they sorted this out.

The point is that pilots and controllers both make mistakes in communication and the only safe thing to do is to say "Say again" when you aren't sure what either has said.

Flying in and out of the clouds, I made my way back to Craig. About 25 miles out, I was cleared to descend to 4,000 feet at pilot's discretion. The sky was very clear and I spotted Craig field about 15 miles out. I has already listened to the ATIS and had adjusted my altimeter. I called Jacksonville Approach saying, "Approach, Skyhawk 0-0-Q has Craig in sight."

The controller replied, "November-0-0-Q, cleared for the visual to runway 5. Be aware of the tower farm on your left. Contact the tower on 1-3-2-point-1"

I acknowledge and immediately called the tower, "Craig tower, Skyhawk 0-0-Q is 10 to the south with India, full stop."

She responded, "November 0-0-Q, make 2 mile right base for 5".

I began my descent from 4000 to pattern altitude, 1000 feet and leveled off. The tower farm was about a mile to the west of me, nevertheless, the controler's alarm must have sounded as she called me with the alarm blaring in the background warning me of the towers.

I touched down gently on runway 5 and taxied to the ramp.

The flight each way took 1.5 hours with tailwinds in each direction. I encountered more IFR on the return flight, but it was clear at the destination. Another great day of flying.

Jacksonville to Tampa

2010-10-10T10:24:00.005-04:00

I woke up early this morning so I could fly to Tampa to attend a meeting with my mother that was scheduled for 10am. I would need time to pre-flight, fly, and to get from Tampa International to mom's house, so working backwards, I thought that a 7:30 wheels up time would do the trick. Checking the weather for the trip I discovered that the METAR at Craig Airport (KCRG) had recently deterioriated according to three special issue reports. Visibility had decreased from 7 miles down to 1/4 due to fog or mist. As I drove to the airport, the sky was clear, but I could see wispy pockets of ground fog in low lying areas. Driving past runway 5-23, I could see the cloud sitting on the ground - it was only about 10 to 20 feet thick and it wasn't very dense. I took this shot of runway 14/32 as I preflighted. The fog got just a bit thicker before takeoff.

I completed my preflight quickly and found the fuel to be down about 18 or 20 gallons which was confirmed by the onboard computer, but that would still be more than enough fuel for the 1.2 hour flight. Checking the ATIS with my handheld radio, the report showed clear skies and good visibility - which was strange since there was definitely some fog obscuring the runway.

After I started the engine, I called for my instrument clearance to Tampa International. I had requested a direct route, but was cleared via radar vectors to the Ocala VOR, then V581 to the DADES intersection then direct. That would add a few minutes to the flight, but I'd rather fly in the system than VFR especially when flying in to Class B airspace, so I didn't complain.

I was cleared to taxi and I had to rev the engine a bit to clear the moisture from the windshield enough to see where I was going. I taxied to the runup area and did my run-up check using my checklist. With that completed, I taxied to runway 23 and called the tower for my clearance that came as "November 6-2-0-0-Quebec, cleared for take-off on runway 23, fly heading 140." I acknowledged the clearance and off I went. I climbed through nearly 2000 feet before the tower handed me off to JAX Departure control. Since a heading of 140 was not in the direction that I needed to go, I climbed at Vx to minimize the lateral distance traveled while climbing. I would have to make up for that distance once I was turned towards my destination. After the handoff, I was cleared direct Ocala and I eventually leveled off at 5000 feet and flew a heading around 220. Note that this is one more example of ATC assigning an altitude that is different from what the AIM recommends. This is common in Florida and is due to the fact that most travel is North-South rather than East-West. South gets odd altitudes and North gets even whereas the AIM gives even to West and odd to East headings.

About 30 minutes in to the flight, I passed over a portion of the former Cross-Florida Barge Canal - a big ditch that was originally intended to go all the way across Florida to save shipping time. Environmentalists put an end to that about half way from completion. There are locks, dams and canals near the east coast and the west coast, but not much in between. The sunlight and fog on the ground created a surreal picture as I flew over - here's one of the shots I took with my iPhone.

Shortly after taking this picture, ATC cleared me direct DADES and that made my flight just a bit shorter. I was encountering headwinds at about 8 to 10 knots for the duration of the flight and anything to shorten it was appreciated.

At Tampa International, runway 18L/36R is closed along with quite a few taxiways. I suppose that this must make commercial traffic in and out of KTPA a bit slower than usual. It also meant that runway 9/27 is about the only option for GA aircraft regardless of wind direction. Taxiing from a landing on 18R/36L would require passage through the commercial ramp as there is no open taxiway that would take you across to the GA ramp. This would be a very slow process and might create some security concerns.

I was cleared to land on runway 27 and I did so flawlessly. After securing the plane and meeting mom, the clock on the wall in the FBO showed 9:00AM, so I had timed the flight perfectly.

My visit was short, but I got to see my sister and my lovely neices at grandma's house. Here's a shot of them having lunch with one of mom's cats.

Total HOBBS time 1.5 hours, .1 hours of actual instrument time. All in all, a very nice trip.

Williston to Jacksonville: X60-KCRG

2010-08-30T15:19:00.004-04:00

After a delicious lunch at the Ivy House in Williston that included three or four servings of raspberry tea, we headed back to the airport for our flight home. The Williston airport is small; there was no air traffic when we arrived or when we departed. The FBO is nice and clean and provides free Wi-Fi and a computer for pre-flight planning. I asked the FBO guy if I owed him anything for parking and he said, "just a thank you". So I thanked him and headed for the flight planning room.

The weather along our route had deteriorated a bit, but instead of a broad swath of rain-producing clouds, there were denser, stronger storms that filled isolated areas along the way. The weather was moving towards the west-north-west and I reasoned that we should have little trouble navigating around anything that would cause us concern. I filed for IFR for 5000 feet and 45 minutes X60-direct-KCRG. I conducted my pre-flight check and we said our goodbyes. The engine started easily and we were soon taxiing to runway 5. I ran-up the engine as we taxied and all systems were go.

I had been listening for any traffic in the area as we taxied, but heard nothing. In spite of the apparent lack of traffic, I made a careful survey of the air before announcing that I would be departing on runway 5 straight out. When I took the runway, the FBO guy called in a southern drawl typical of North Florida, "Y'all come back!" to which I replied, "Oh, we will!"

I slowly advanced the throttle, then adjusted the mixture for best power. Our density altitude was around 2000 feet, so a full rich mixture was a bit more than what we needed. The RPMs increased from about 2,350 to around 2,420 before I released the brakes and we started our takeoff run.

As we climbed, I announced my upwind position and then my pattern departure as a last call. I then contacted Jacksonville Approach who immediately answered, "Would you like to pick up your instrument clearance to Craig?" Now, that's good service!

The controller gave me my clearance for 6000 feet (again that Florida North/South instead of the usual East/West-Odd/Even altitude assignment). She called my position and cleared me direct Craig.

We encountered some cumulous clouds and a little rain on our climbout as well as along our route after leveling off, but for the most part, the flight was a bit smoother than the flight earlier in the day.

Christy and I had time to talk a bit and I took a couple of quick pictures of us with my new iPhone. She is a wonderful flying partner. She seems to enjoy looking out the window as we pass over neighborhoods sightseeing from the air. It is also nice to break the monotony with a quick kiss or just to see her smile when I look over at her. Although being pregnant with twins (20 weeks) has an effect on her comfort level, overall she seemed to enjoy the trip and even commented later that she was glad that we hadn't driven. I think that the flight was smoother than driving except for a few bumps through the clouds that somehow I don't even notice.

A short time after we were level, ATC cleared me to JEVAG, which happens to be the IAF for the ILS32 at Craig. I started receiving the ATIS from Craig about 50 miles out and was informed that the instrument approach in use was the ILS32-Circle to 5.

As we neared Orange Park, ATC decended me to 3000 feet. Then as we got closer to Jacksonville, ATC cleared me direct to Craig and said, "they are using the ILS32 Circle to 5 approach, but you might be able to get a visual on the airport - advise when you have Craig in site."

I replied, "Wilco, but right now there are clouds blocking my view of Craig."

About the time I was crossing the St. Johns, the controller, cleared me direct to JEVAG again and told me to prepare for the ILS32 Circle to 5 approach.

We were dropped down to 2000 feet and we continued to fly nearly due East towards JEVAG.

About a mile before crossing the localizer for CRG-32, ATC called, "November 62770, turn left heading 350, cleared..." and his transmission abruptly stopped. Since normally, an approach clearance is given as one long blurb, I thought he had a problem so I waited for him to finish.

He then came back with, "November 62770, did you read me?"

I responded, "I heard turn left 350 and then you stopped broadcasting, 770."

He then cleared me to "turn left 350 to intercept the localizer, maintain 2000 until established, cleared for the ILS 32 circle to 5 approach." I repeated the clearance and activated the "Activate Vector-to-Final" button on the GPS. I killed the autopilot and turned the plane to line up with the localizer.

As soon as I lined up, Jax Approach called, "November 770, you are 4 miles from ADERR (pronounced A Dare), contact Craig Tower on 132.1, good day!"

I replied, "Contacting Craig, thanks for your help, 770."

I switched the radio and listened for clear air as I descended along the ILS. I called the tower and announced my position and my intention for a full stop.
The tower told me to circle west to runway 5 and announce my circling.

I followed the ILS down to about 700 feet compensating for the easterly wind as we descended. I then executed a left turn to a heading about 230 to begin my circling approach to runway 5. By now we were through the clouds and Craig was easily visible. I called the tower and was immediately greeted with, "November 7-7-0, cleared to land on 5". I acknowledged and in a few seconds, I made my right turn for the base leg of the approach. Next came the second notch of flaps and a quick flick of the thumb on the trim adjustment to keep the nose down. Another right turn and I lined up with the runway and dropped the final notch of flaps.

Our airspeed was around 75 knots as we crossed the threshold with two red and two white lights on the PAPI. Since North Florida is at the base of the control tower, I reasoned that it would be quicker if I landed further down the runway and used the Bravo-4 taxiway turnoff rather than the Bravo-2, so about 10 feet above the runway, I advanced the throttle slightly and we leveled off above the runway just fast enough to stay aloft. As we neared my landing point, I pulled the throttle and let the speed drop off until we touched down.

I was immediately cleared to taxi to the ramp where I shut down the aircraft and secured everything in the fastest time on record. The raspberry teas were getting to me and I was about to bust!

It is flights like this that make me very glad that I have an instrument rating. Without it, there is no way we could have comfortably made the trip. We would not have been able to penetrate the clouds on our climbout and would have been forced to stay in the rough air below them. I would have been worried about cloud cover closing in on us. As it was, we had nothing to worry about. The weather was within my personal limits, and we made the trip in much less time than it would have taken us to drive. While it was a bit more expensive to travel this way, the convenience and the lack of stress make flying my preferred method of travel.

When I got home, I checked my flight plan to see what had happened with my original filing. I had used the AOPA flight planner (http://www.aopa.org/flightplanning/) and did not notice that my attempt to file the flight plan had failed. Apparently, when inputting the aircraft type and equipment, I had put C172/G and I should have just put C172 and left the G for a separate equipment field. It was my mistake and one that I will not repeat!

This flight including runup, taxi, etc. took 1.0 hours with 0.4 actual instrument time and ended with an instrument approach the ILS32-Circle to 5. This quick trip to celebrate Dad's 70th is the sort of thing that make flying worthwhile.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2010-08-30T11:33:00.002-04:00

My father's birthday is this week - it is hard to believe that he will be 70 years old. To celebrate, Christy and I decided to fly over to his side of the state to meet him and my step-mother for lunch.

Christy hasn't flown since she got pregnant, but since she is well into the second trimester and things have been going smoothly, we decided that it would be ok to fly. The prospect of a quick flight appealed to both of us much more than a 3 hour drive...both ways.

Saturday morning was rainy and wet. The skies had opened up the night before and the winds were from the East pushing humid ocean air our way. I had planned to mow the lawn that morning, but decided against mowing wet grass. So I logged in to the AOPA website to use the flight planner to plan our flight (www.aopa.org). This planner is very thorough and handles all aspects of flight calculations including automatically connecting to DUATS to get weather and file the flight plan. The initial weather radar images showed level 1 and 2 returns in a large blob covering our entire path. I'm not too bothered by that type of weather and the ceilings were above minimums along the route, so unless the weather deteriorated, our flight should go without any problem. I read the NOTAMS - mostly lights out on towers and some taxiway closings at airports along the way. The winds were forecast to be moderate from an easterly direction. I filed my instrument flight plan for KCRG direct X60 at 4000 feet with a flight time of 45 minutes (the calculation was for 37 minutes due to tail winds at altitude, but I always give myself some leeway).

After stopping to buy Dad a card and some water for the flight, we arrived at the airport. The plane was waiting for us and it had been flown 0.8 hours on full tanks that morning. I had already adjusted the fuel assuming that 12 gallons would have been burned and added a gallon to that for good measure, so when I filed, I indicated that we had 4 hours of fuel and used 40 gallons/240 lbs in my weight and balance calculations. I preflighted the plane and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I then called Dad to say we were on our way so he and Nita could meet us at the Williston airport (X60).

I listened to the ATIS and adjusted the altimeter before starting the plane to save a few bucks. Then immediately after starting the engine and checking all the gauges (can we still call them gauges even though the information is presented by a PFD/MFD?) I called for our instrument clearance.

After what seemed like an eternity, the controller responded that he couldn't find our flight plan and asked me what time I had filed it for. I had filed for 16:15Z and we were about 5 minutes after that. I told him the time and advised that I had filed online via DUATS and received a confirmation. No matter, if it wasn't there, it wasn't there. He advised me to refile with flight service at 122.45.

I thought of shutting down the engine, but engines aren't always easy to restart when they are hot, so I left it idling while I called Flight Service.

"Flight Service, Skyhawk 62770 on 122.45", I called...and waited.

About a minute or so later, a voice came back, "Aircraft calling Flight Service on 122.45, say again your call sign and request".

I replied, "FLight Service on 122.45, skyhawk 6-2-7-7-0 would like to file IFR to X60, Williston."

She then proceeded to ask me each of the elements of a flight plan in pairs and I responded with the information. At the end, she said that Craig should have the flight plan immediately.

No sooner had I switched my radio back to 118.35, the clearance delivery frequency, I heard the controller asking for me, "November 62770, Are you on the line with Flight Service?"

I answered, "Negative. I just finished and she told me you would have the flight plan immediately, 7-7-0."

He responded with a laugh, "I thought so, because your flight plan just popped up, are you ready to copy?"

I said that I was and he cleared me by saying "Cleared to Xray 60 as filed, climb three-thousand, expect four-thousand in ten. Contact Jax departure on 124.9. Squawk 4-2-6-5. He then asked me where X60 was located and I told him about 20 miles southwest of Gainesville. He thanked me then advised me to go ahead with the readback which I then did.

He asked if I was ready to taxi and when I said "Affirmative" he told me to follow the Seminole and taxi to runway 5 via Bravo. I repeated the clearance and started rolling.

While we were re-filing our flight plan, another aircraft at North Florida was getting their flight plan for IFR to St. Augustine for a training flight. They had already taxied ahead of the Seminole and I could see the plane heading towards the runup area. The airport was busy with lots of training flights practicing touch and goes and at least one aircraft shooting approaches on 32. I wanted to make up for lost time, so I pulled out my checklist and went through my run-up as we taxied behind the Seminole. The Seminole bypassed the runup area that was occupied by the "company" Cessna and I followed directly behind the Seminole and switched the frequency to 132.1 for the tower. I announced, "Craig Tower, Skyhawk 6-2-7-7-0, ready to go at 5, we're number two." The controller told me to hold short of five.

We waited and waited as an small experimental plane came in hot and took about 2500 feet of runway to land...pretty rude if you ask me when there are three planes ready to depart - he should have landed properly and been able to exit the runway at the first turnoff. Next, a Tiger came in and did a nice job landing and turned off at the first turn. The Seminole was then cleared and off he went. We took our place at the hold short line and waited. We could hear lots of planes approaching the airport as well as at least two in the pattern. When one of the pattern planes announced that they were at midfield, the tower asked them to extend their downwind for a departing aircraft (me!). Next, a small low-wing plane appeared to the right and landed on five and as soon as he was clear of the runway, we were cleared to depart. I advanced the throttles and asked Christy to close her window as I closed mine. At long last, we were airborn. The tower advised me to climb to 3000 (which I had already been cleared to) and fly 280. As we climbed out, she instructed me to turn when able, so I began a standard rate turn to the left when we were through 400 feet...a bit low, but as busy as the place was, I wanted to get out of the line of fire. On climbout, another aircraft was approaching from the North and we were both advised of each other's presence. He couldn't see me, but I had him on the TIS and also got a visual on his bright landing lights. I advised the tower that I had the traffic and he would be passing behind and below me. She thanked me and then handed me off to JAX Departure.

No sooner had I switched to 124.9 and the Departure controller was calling for me - "November 6-2-7-7-0, are you up?"

I responded and he advised me to IDENT and climb to 5000. So, even though I was flying westward and ultimately would be going southwest, I would be flying at an odd altitude. ATC in Florida does this since most of our traffic is north-south, so southbound traffic flys at odd altitudes and northbound traffic flys at even altitudes.

As I climbed through 2000 feet we entered solid and bumpy clouds. We stayed in these clouds until I reached 5000 feet. I hand flew the plane through the bumpies and did my best to keep the wings level and the flight smooth, but I wasn't succeeding enough to suit my pregnant wife's tummy. I leveled off at 5,000 and set the autopilot to follow the heading bug, keep the wings level and maintain our altitude. The controller cleared me for a left turn direct to X-60. After about 10 minutes of flying in the soup, we popped out of the clouds. I was very pleased with how well I had hand-flown the plane through moderately rough instrument conditions...that's a real confidence builder.

We flew straight and level for about 20 minutes at which point we were advised to descend to 3000 and then 2000 feet. After descending through the clouds, Christy and I were both looking for the airport when she spotted it first. I advised the controller that I had the airport in sight and since there were no clouds blocking our way, I canceled our IFR flight plan. I was about 10 miles out and had been listening to the CTAF for the last 10 miles or so. I could hear traffic at Dunellon, Live Oak, Palatka, St. Mary's, and one other airport, but none at Williston. I double checked the frequency and made sure I had the right one. I made my position calls as we approached, entered the left downwind for runway 5, turned base, final, etc. The touchdown was uneventful and we had arrived.

I estimate that we had about .3 hours of actual instrument flight in this 1 hour flight including the extra time spent re-filing our flight plan.

Dad and Nita had just arrived at the airport, so we had timed it perfectly.

More about the flight home later.

Having Fun in Actual IFR Conditions

2010-07-07T11:18:00.004-04:00

It is no secret that I love flying. In spite of this strong affection for a rather expensive hobby, my familial duties and other financial responsibilities have made it challenging to put the wind beneath my wings as often as I would like. Therefore, when I am about to fly, it is always a welcome sight to find numerous clouds in the sky without the presence of cumulonimbus and the lightning that they bring.

Monday was a holiday even though the 4th of July was on Sunday. (Gotta love working for the #1 Best Company to Work for!) When Christy suggested that I should go fly, I quickly agreed with her.

Last week, a hurricane passed through the southern Gulf of Mexico and we were still experiencing some of the farthest outer bands of precipitation and cloud cover along with light easterly winds. I did my usual thorough job of pre-flight preparation online and noticed that there would be more cloud cover inland than along the coast. As a result, I decided to fly to Gainesville rather than up or down the coast line. I filed an IFR flight plan for KCRG-VQQ-GNV-SGJ-KCRG and I intended to make use of the cloud cover to make instrument approaches at each of these airports in actual IFR conditions.

Because I don't fly as often as I used to, I am particularly careful when conducting my preflight checks. I begin by removing the yoke lock, inserting the key, and turning the fuel switch to both. Next, I turn on the auxilliary battery and once the PFD comes alive, I jot down the tach time and check the fuel gauge indications. Then, I turn on the master battery switch, extend the flaps and turn on the lights and pitot heat. I make a quick pass around the left wing, tail, right wing, across the nose then back to the pitot tube where I remove the cover and check to see that the tube is hot. As I walk around the wings and tail, I remove the tie downs and the chocks. Then it is back inside where I turn off the master, lights and pitot heat. I grab the fuel testing cup and test the five sumps on the left wing, the gas collator under the fuselage and before climbing up the wing, I check the air inlet on the side of the fuselage. I climb up the wing and return the clean fuel to the left wing. I then walk along the left wing to the tip, then back along the back side checking the ailerons and the flaps. As I walk to the tail, I check the antennae and look for wrinkles on the fuselage and double check the baggage door. Next comes the empennage where I check the elevator and rudder. I walk to the back of the right wing, check its ailerons and flaps, then out to the end, and back up the leading edge, followed by the five sumps on the right wing and the two remaining sumps beneath the fuselage. Up on top of the right wing, I carefully pour the fuel from the tester back into the tank. Hopping down, I check the oil in the crankcase, then the propeller and the alternator belt. I peek at the air filter to make sure it is clean, check the exhaust for tightness, look at the front strut for cracks and inflation then a step back to make sure the tires are inflated properly. With everything checked, I take one more walk around the entire plane looking for anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied, I open the left door and climb in.

Once inside, I plug in my headset, attach my radio holder to the windshield just behind the dashboard on the left and open the windows. I switch the PFD to report the engine status and reset the fuel available to 53 gallons, then take out two for good measure. I test my handheld radio by tuning the ATIS and copy down the numbers before I start the plane. Since the aircraft costs me $2.68 per minute that the engine is running, it makes sense to do as much as possible with the engine turned off rather than with the engine running.

Finally, with all my checks completed, I double check the checklist to ensure that I didn't miss anything. Satisfied, I run through the startup procedure and get the engine fired up. I called for and obtained my IFR clearance and plugged the squawk code and frequencies into the PFD, then switched to the ground control frequency. Radio calls are the hardest thing to master in my opinion and they are also the easiest thing to get rusty, too.

I called ground, "Craig Ground, skyhawk six-two-zero-zero-quebec with Oscar, ready to taxi for IFR".

There's the rust. I forgot to tell him where I was and at Craig, we usually do a courtesy call to ground rather than the more common request technique.

The controller responded, "Skyhawk six-two-zero-zero-quebec, where are you?"

Even though this aircraft is based at a flight school right below the tower and the controller probably gets 50 taxi calls a week from this particular plane from the same location, he isn't allowed to assume anything.

I replied, "Ground, sorry about that, zero-zero-quebec is at North Florida".

"Skyhawk zero-zero-quebec, taxi to runway five via bravo", came my clearance which I acknowledged.

Runway 5/23 and 14/32 intersect at the easternmost point of both runways and North Florida is situated just inside the vee that is formed. Taxiing to runway 5 requires that I taxi the full length of the runway, therefore I have plenty of time to go through my runup checklist on the roll as long as there isn't another aircraft right behind me. In an effort to minimize my down time, I did my runup while taxiing. Unfortunately, this was all for naught because when I arrived at runway 5, there were three planes waiting to take off and three or four in the pattern. It took about 10 minutes before I finally got my place at the hold-short line...and then I had to wait for release.

The line ahead of me

At long last I got the call, "Skyhawk zero-zero-quebec, cleared for take off on runway five fly heading 100". I repeated the clearance and taxied onto the runway and began my flight.

On climbout, I was instructed to turn to 130 for climbout and to climb to 4,000 feet. This amended my initial clearance which was for only 3,000 feet. ATC then asked me what I wanted to do. I advised that I would like to fly the VOR 9R approach at Cecil field. The controller then wanted to know if I wanted the full approach or vectors, I opted for vectors. He instructed me to go direct to the VQQ VOR then fly 270 for the approach. As I cruised along, I pulled out my IFR plates and loaded the approach into the flight plan. Eventually, I crossed the VOR and turned slightly right to my westbound heading. Straight and level and in and out of clouds for about 10 minutes, I eventually received the call to turn to 360 followed shortly by and instruction to fly 030 and maintain 2000 until established on the VOR 9-right sidestep to 9-Left (9Right is closed). I repeated the clearance and made my turns. Entering the approach in the flight plan automatically tunes the VOR, and I had previously switched the CDI to the VOR indication. The OBS was already set at 109 for me as per the approach plate. I disengaged the auto pilot and flew the intercept and the descent to minimums by hand. I was in and out of clouds as I drew closer to the airport. I had been asked to advise when I was making my sidestep, but the controller cleared me to land before I made my call so I sidestepped (which really meant that I turned from 109 to 90 just a bit early.) I lined up with the runway, dropped the flaps and made one of the smoothest touch and go landings ever. Then back into the air where I was advised by the tower controller to execute my climbout instructions and contact JAX departure.

My climbout instructions were to fly 270, climb to 2000 feet and contact approach on the previous frequency. I flew west and ATC asked me what I wanted to do. This time I advised that I would like to go to Gainesville. There was a line of rain showers between me and Gainesville and the controller asked me to verify my destination. I looked at the NEXRAD display on the MFD and there was clearly a band of rain, but it was only showing light green and dark green and the view out the window didn't look too bad, either, so I said I would like to go to Gainesville. He vectored me to avoid what he thought were the worst part of the showers. I flew right into rain storms, but other than some updrafts and downdrafts that necessitated me making some rapid adjustments to the throttle, there wasn't really any difficult weather.

Enroute to GNV, I passed Keystone

I tuned the ATIS at KGNV on the number 2 COMM and learned that they were using the ILS29 approach. JAX Approach called and informed me of the previous ATIS report that had different runways in use and asked me which approach I would like and how would my approach end. I advised that I had the ATIS at GNV and I would like the ILS-29 and would then go directly back to KCRG. Time was running out and I didn't think I could fit St. Augustine in on this flight by 1PM. The controller got the new numbers and vectored me for the ILS 29. I hand flew the entire approach - no autopilot for me. In and out of bumpy clouds...lined up perfectly on the localizer and glide slope. I did another touch and go and also set this one down very gently. Then back in the air, and a heading of 360 while climbing to 2000 feet through the clouds.

During the short time that it took to do my approach at KGNV, the line of showers between me and KCRG had intensified. ATC advised me to fly 010 to avoid the worst of them. Somehow, I heard 110 and I turned eastbound while climbing. Looking at the NEXRAD, it seemed like the showers were lined up for about 40 miles straight in front of me and I would be taking the line lengthwise. This probably wouldn't give me the best ride home. So I called ATC and asked if he had said 010 or 110 and learned that I was headed the wrong way to avoid the storms. This conversation took place right about the time that I should have been leveling off at 4,000 feet. Since I was busy changing my heading and talking on the radio, I didn't notice that I had busted altitude and this prompted ATC to politely remind me that I should be at 4,000 feet. I said "Oops" and headed back down to 4,000.

I proceded through the clouds, got tossed around a bit, but all was well. This is what instrument flying is all about!

VFR pilots are advised to avoid holes like this

Heading due east, the skies got clearer and clearer. My vectors took me on a heading of 010 directly pointed at Glen St. Mary along highway 301, then east just south of Cecil Field where I had previously landed. I took this shot from 3,000 feet. That long runway is 12,500 feet long.

KVQQ from 3,000 feet

Eventually, I was vectored to the East and direct to one of the fixes on the ILS-32 approach at Craig that I had previously requested. I was in the clouds for most of the way home until I got close to the St. Johns River. ATC dropped me down to 3,000 feet and I found myself below the cloud layer with clearing skies ahead of me - meaning no chance of an actual instrument approach. Rather than go through the motions in clear skies, I requested a straight-in for runway 5. ATC complied and I was turned to the north as I passed over the Buckman Bridge.

Passing over Hooters San Jose

I was just about to tell ATC that I had Craig in sight when she asked. I told her that I had the airport and she cleared me for the visual to 5 and warned me about the antenna farm. I advised that I had both the antennae and the airport in sight.

Descending from 3000 feet from only about 6 miles away requires a significant reduction in power and a relatively rapid descent. I pulled power, slowed the aircraft and dropped the first notch of flaps. With 2 miles to go, I was still above the glideslope. I dropped my last two notches of flaps and lined up with the runway. My speed drained off and my altitude dropped. The tower cleared N512MA to depart - that brought back memories as that is the plane I used for my instrument training and check ride. I saw another plane pull to the hold short line and I thought I would demonstrate a perfect landing on the numbers. I crossed the threshold at 65 knots indicated while pointing the nose at the numbers. I then pulled power to idle and slowed further. Just as I touched down, the stall warning sounded and the numbers slipped behind the aircraft. I held the nose off the runway for a few seconds, then applied the brakes slowing for the first taxiway, B-2.

This was a very satisfying flight. I logged two approaches in instrument conditions and made three landings total. Total flying time was 2.0 hours with about .7 or .8 in actual instrument conditions. Since KGNV is far enough from KCRG, I get to log this as cross-country time, too. All in all, a great day of flying!

Six Shots in 2.1 hours

2010-05-03T19:34:00.003-04:00

Desparately in need of instrument approaches, I arranged for some practice time yesterday. While most people would be happy for severe clear conditions, I wanted instrument conditions to make my practice as real as possible. The only challenge the weather produced was wind that gusted to 20 knots but was only 20 or 30 degrees off of the runway. In spite of the brilliant weather, we filed an IFR flight plan for a round trip to KCRG with an interim stop at VQQ - Cecil Field.

Cecil Field is a former Naval Air Station and alternate landing site for the space shuttle. There are eight runways...or four runways depending on how you count them. 18L/36R, 18R/36L, 9R/27L and 9L/27R. 18R/36L is 12,500 feet long, so one could probably perform 4 or 5 touch and goes without ever entering the pattern!

I picked up the local ATIS at CRG on my handheld before I started the engine in order to save a few minutes. After all, at $150 per hour, two minutes spent listening to the ATIS with the engine running costs $5.00 plus tax, so every minute counts. Time really IS money when it comes to flying.

With my flight plan plugged in to the GPS, I started the engine and ran through my checklists. I requested and received my clearance, and was told to taxi to 14 via Alpha when I was ready. I acknowledged by saying I was taxing to 14 via Alpha.

Since parking at North Florida is at the southern end of 14, I had almost a mile of taxi distance before I was ready to depart. I used this time to run through my run-up checklist and was ready to go by the time I arrived at the hold short line...or so I thought. There was one little detail that I forgot along the way.

At the hold short, I asked for takeoff clearance and it was quickly given with a "fly runway heading" instruction. I acknowledged, turned on my landing lights and with a quick peek for landing traffic, I headed down the runway. Climb out was uneventful until the tower controller reminded me that I was IFR and I was supposed to be squawking 4340. That's what I forgot. I apologized and quickly plugged in the correct transponder code. Apparently, my mistake also caused the controller to forget to hand me off to JAX Departure Control, so as I neared my clearance altitude of 2000 feet, I contacted the tower to request a frequency changed. This time it was the tower controller who apologized.

I contacted JAX and requested the GPS 18L approach at Cecil. I was cleared direct to ESLAC which sounded like AFLAC when the controller said it. Fortunately, I already had my approach plate in hand for GPS 18L and found ESLAC on the chart. I pulled up the approach on the GPS and indicated that I was receiving vectors to ESLAC. That made it easy to tell the autopilot to take me direct to ESLAC. I was level at 3000 feet and it was getting hectic. I was letting the plane and the approach get ahead of me as I briefed the plate. But I quickly settled in to my routine and was up to speed long before I reached ESLAC. I tuned the ATIS for Cecil on my other radio and put the tower frequency in standby. I listened to the ATIS and adjusted my altimeter while slowing the plane to 100knots indicated to allow me some time to prepare. The tower told me to cross ESLAC at 3000 which was 1000 feet above the minimum altitude for the next fix, COTAP, that was only five mile beyond ESLAC. Crossing ESLAC, I reduced the throttle to 1,900 rpm and began a steady descent to 2000 feet. I leveled off, then began a steady turn just before COTAP. After COTAP, I descended to 1,700 feet for the trip to the Final Approach Fix (FAF), MAUGA. JAX handed me off to Cecil tower and the controller there instructed me to advise her when I was crossing MAUGA. Crossing MAUGA, I started to descend to the 500 foot minimum for this approach and called the tower. She cleared me for the option and I continued with my eyes on the controls right until the "bitchin' Betty" announced, "Minimums! Minimums!" I leveled off at 500 feet and looked up. The runway was right in line with me about a mile ahead. I waited until I crossed the threshold before punching the throttle, taking out the flaps and executing a climbing turn to 270. I then told the tower I was going missed and she handed me off to JAX departure.

I had arranged for my next approach to be the ILS 36R and the controller advised me to ammend my climbout instructions and fly a heading of 220. That would save me some time for the ILS approach. I leveled off at 2,000 feet as instructed and plugged in the ILS approach in the GPS. ATC vectored me to the southeast and then turned me to the northeast before clearing me for the approach, "November 6-2-7-7-0, fly heading 030 vectors for the localizer. Maintain 2000 until established. Cleared for the ILS 36 Right." I made the turn and lined up on the localizer at which point the controller handed me back to the tower. I called and was cleared for the option. Since there was now an 18 knot tailwind, I had no intention of attempting to land and I had to push the nose down severely to remain on the glideslope. Nevertheless, I followed the flight director's guidance and flew the ILS flawlessly to the MAP.

This was my routine for the next hour or so. GPS18L followed by ILS36R. Each time the climbout was to the West. On my second approach on 18L, I decided to touch down and enjoyed an incredibly soft landing thanks to the wind blowing straight down the runway.

For my final two approaches, I chose the ILS36R back to back. I reasoned that with the winds from the south, I would pick up the VOR14 into my home base at CRG and would probably get a shorter route if I was departing to the North. I made my intentions known to the controller and for the last approach at Cecil, I tested out the G1000's integrated autopilot using the APR key to have the autopilot fly the beam while I monitored the equipment. I was surprised to note that the autopilot did not fly the glideslope as tightly as I had expected. It deviated by more than on ball on the display which caused me to take over. It did an outstanding job of lining up with the localizer, but the glideslope gave it some trouble.

After my low approach, ATC instructed me, "...turn left heading 180 vectors for the approach." Thinking that the controller had made a mistake, I asked him if he really wanted me to go to 180 when I was planning on the VOR14 at Craig. He said he had to keep me out of another controller's airspace, so I should fly 180. Silly me.

I slowed the plane after leveling off at 3000 feet so I wouldn't fly too far to the south and out of my way. ATC soon vectored me to 090 and shortly after sent me to 020. I flew across Jacksonville with my head in the cockpit as I listened to the ATIS and plugged in the VOR 14 approach. The minimum for this approach was 800 feet. I was vectored for the final approach and instructed to maintain 3000 until established. I lined up on the radial and since I was already inside the DIXYN intersection, I descended to 1800 feet. ATC handed me off to the tower who instructed me to advise him when I was 2 miles out. Crossing ALVAS at 1800, I began a steady descent to 800 feet. At around 900 feet, the tower controller announced that he had a low altitude warning. I acknowledged and verified my altitude. That made no sense to me since I was allowed to be as low as 800 feet. I continued my approach until I was 2 miles out. I announced my position as requested and was cleared to land. The wind was showing about 12 knots from about 170 as I continued my course to the runway. I noticed a twin engine plane holding short for the runway as I came in, so I decided to get out of his way as quickly as possible. I pulled power and held my attitude as the plane approached the numbers. Then, about 10 feet above the runway and traveling about 60 knots, I pulled the nose up and let the rest of the speed drop off. The wheels touched down almost imperceptibly as the stall warning whined in the background. That was one outstanding landing!

The rest was routine. Taxi off the runway; call for ramp clearance; park and the we shut 'er down.

This was a great day of flying. Too bad the instrument time was only simulated. Nevertheless, it was a good refresher and a confidence builder. The trip took 2.1 hours with 1.5 of simulated instrument and logged 3xILS36R@VQQ, 2xGPS18L@VQQ, 1xVOR14@CRG with two landings.

Any Safety Pilots Out There?

2010-04-11T19:55:00.002-04:00

A few months ago, my hard drive crashed causing me to lose among other things, my entire address book. I know, I know, where was my back up? I've taken care of that now...but.

So, I don't have the emails of any of my fellow pilots who have shot instrument approaches with me. So, Hank, anyone....I could use some approach time soon. Care to go up with me? Post a comment on here if you don't have my contact info. I'm also in the book and live in Deercreek.

Spring in the Air

2010-04-11T19:14:00.002-04:00

It has been far too long since I took to the skies. My current absence has been the longest since I soloed many years ago. While my lack of flying has caused me some distress, I have been spending my time with my family and that has been worthwhile.

About a month ago, I saw something on the AOPA website about the fly-in brunch at Jumbolair (FL17), the airport where John Travolta and Kelly Preston live. The brunch, like me, has been absent for a while. I registered on the Jumbolair website and was pleased to receive an invitation for today's fly-in. The brunch was priced at $40 per person and after stuffing myself on filet mignon, numerous casseroles, delicious desserts, I'd say it was worth it. The food was terrific and abundant. We wound up arriving at the same time as a 67 member party from "The Villages Convertible Club", so the table service was initially lacking, but there was plenty of room and plenty of food. The atmosphere was friendly and the room was brightly lit with beautiful chandeliers. The building was a part of the Vanderbilt estate (geez, how many houses did these people have?!) although it was nothing like the Biltmore. We were in horse country, so there were plenty of them wandering the fields. They also arranged for free horse-drawn carriage rides from "Country Carriage Rides". After dining, Christy and I took advantage of the ride and we were ferried on a nice loop around the property. The location is shaded by ancient oak trees and is quite beautiful. After our ride, we found a swing hung beneath one of those old oaks where we sat and enjoyed the lovely spring day for a while.

About the flying...Ocala is only about a 40 minute flight from Jacksonville (at a C-172's 120 knot cruising speed). The weather was expected to be VFR, so for the first time since I got my IFR rating, I decided to fly a VFR cross-country flight. The winds at Craig (KCRG) were 060 at 15 gusting to 22, which wasn't bad. We would depart runway 5 and expect somewhat of a tailwind down to Ocala. The clouds were listed as scattered at 5,500 feet, but that's not where they turned out to be. After a very careful pre-flight and run-up, I was cleared for takeoff on 5 and we began our trip. Due to the gusts, I held the plane on the runway a bit longer, then we lept into the air and began a relatively rapid ascent. We turned right and proceeded direct to Jumbolair (aka Greystone). I leveled off at 4,500 feet and within 5 minutes, it became clear that we had plenty of company of the cumulous sort. I descended to 2,500 feet where the air was a bit bumpier, but not bad. There weren't any clouds, but there was quite a bit of VFR traffic. I quietly thanked God that we had the TIS to help us spot traffic. I made a slight deviation to the South to avoid the Camp Blanding restricted area. I suppose I could have called ATC to find out if it was active, but the diversion let us get a peek at a different part of Florida...and maybe spot a property that we might want to investigate. Soon we were entering the Jumbolair area. Since I was so low, I was unable to get the AWOS at Ocala, so I used the NEXRAD on the MFD to get the altimiter and winds. I zoomed the MFD's map to the 1.5 mile range to make traffic separation easiset as I descended to pattern altitude which I assumed would be 1,100 feet (1,000 AGL). There were no fewer than five aircraft in various stages of landing and taking off on runway 36. I began listening to the local frequency (122.7) about 15 miles out and started making position reports about 10 miles out. While I approached, a Mooney departed, something else taxied back to the parking area at the south end, and I followed a Duchess and a Diamond DA40 on landing. Both the Duchess and the Diamond made extremely long downwind legs...more than 2 miles out, something that I just couldn't understand. No traffic departed between the Duchess and the Diamond, so I don't understand why the Diamond made such a long downwind. It seemed that every call I made on the radio had the last part blocked by the Diamond. Of course, when he made his first call, he asked "is there anyone in the pattern" when he was 10 miles out. I thought he was rather stupid as if he had simply listened for 60 seconds, he could have had a good picture of what was going on. Also, since the Diamond is equiped with a TIS, he could have seen the airborn traffic just as I did. As I approached, it became apparent that the best entry would be to the left crosswind for 36 since the Diamond was approaching from the south and was making a turn into the downwind. By using a crosswind and avoiding the traffic that had already departed and was now to the North of me, I would avoid a conflict with the Diamond. I radioed that I was on final for 36 behind the Diamond. In fact, every call I made in the pattern included "behind the Diamond". Yet inexplicably, when the Diamond touched down, he announced that he would now be taxiing back on 36 in spite of the presence of the Duchess waiting patiently on the West side of the runway. Before I could say "wait a minute, Buster", the Duchess pilot reminded him that there was traffic on short final. So the Diamond took his place in line behind the Duchess and I was able to avoid a go-around. The rest of the flight was uneventful. I landed with a bit of a drop on to the numbers and could have turned my plane around in front of the Duchess and the Diamond, but I took my place and the Duchess led our procession to parking.

Since there were quite a few more clouds and I simply had having to go around them, I decided to file IFR for the return trip. In spite of a head wind, we made the trip quickly and even had a chance to chat with a controller who was interested in the brunch.

This was a great first day back in the air after much too long of an absence. Christy and I enjoyed a beautiful day, with good food, nice scenery and good flying.

1.7 hours total with about .3 in the clouds on the return.

FAA Wings Program

2009-12-21T07:17:00.002-05:00

Max Trescott wrote a comment in response to my recent entry about my flight review that pointed out some of the benefits of the FAA Wings program. He wrote, "I'm glad the instructor didn't spin your plane! That would be a violation of the FARs unless:
1) You were both wearing parachutes or
2) You were receiving flight instruction for a certificate or rating which requires a spin demonstrate (which would be only the CFI rating).
An alternative to a Flight Review is the FAA Wings program, which eliminates the 1 hour of ground, saving you time and money. Details are at www.faasafety.gov".

As I pointed out in the prior entry, I used the FAA Wings program two years ago in lieu of a BFR. The program has changed slightly since then, but it still requires three flight instruction "credits". In the past, it required three hours of dual instruction. Now it requires three flight instruction "credits". It also requires three knowledge credits of instruction which the AOPA says can be fulfilled by using their online ASF Safety courses (yet another benefit of AOPA membership!)

The FAA believes that "the most significant incentive to participating pilots is the added level of safety and professionalism that is obtained through adoption of a consistent recurrent training program." (Quoted from the www.faasafety.gov website.

I agree with the FAA. Although Max suggests that another benefit is that FAA Wings is that it saves you time and money. I don't see it that way. While there is no charge for the online courses from the AOPA, there is certainly a time requirement. Furthermore, the three flight instruction credits will undoubtedly take more than the minimum one hour of flight time required for a flight review. Therefore, I do not think the benefits of FAA Wings are financial.

The FAA encourages pilots to use the Wings program to maintain an ongoing personal proficiency program rather than simply conducting a flight review every 24 calendar months. In the past, I flew every week, but these days, it is more like every month - and maintaining my instrument currency is a challenge, but I manage to do it. Engaging in a one hour flight instruction every three or four months would be a good way to earn my next level of FAA Wings while maintaining my flying skill.

Thanks for your comment, Max.

Is it Flight Review Time Again?

2009-12-20T09:16:00.002-05:00

As a skilled and knowledgeable pilot, I really shouldn't worry about getting a biennial flight review, but I do. The last actual BFR that I had was four years ago as I used the FAA Wings Program two years ago in lieu of a BFR. Four years ago, I was finishing up my instrument rating, but I couldn't get the practical completed in time, so I had to do a BFR only two weeks before my instrument practical. Consequently, I couldn't take advantage of the F.A.R.'s provision for using a rating in place of a BFR. As I recall, during that BFR, my instructor asked me all sorts of questions about the regulations, airspace, etc. He focused on the typical things that would have been in the oral portion of a private pilot examination.

With that distant event in my mind, I prepared for this BFR by reviewing my private pilot exam preparation manual. As it turned out, I didn't need to.

The instructor that I flew with was a fairly young CFII with the usual aspirations of flying for the airlines. Before we flew, he explained that the BFR required one hour of ground instruction plus one hour in the air. He told me that for the ground, he would go over some changes to the FARs. He then sent me out to preflight.

The ground portion was exactly as he described. He talked about some changes including changes to VFR sectional charts in the colors that are used to describe certain types of airspace. He also explained that some of the charity flight requirements had also changed. Lastly, he explained that the medical certification time frames had changed for some people, but since I'm 47, the changes don't benefit me - my 2nd class medical must be redone every twenty-four calendar months. That was about it for the ground school other than a few hanger stories.

Like everyone else at North Florida, he was aware of my jackass maneuver back in July when I allowed the wingtip to encounter the corner of a hanger while taxiing causing minor damage. He had heard an incorrect rumor that the FAA had wanted to reexamine me and wanted to know the details of that. I explained that it wasn't me although the owner of the flight school had expressed interest in checking out my flying, but we had not been able to connect.

Then it was time to fly. We started out by going over a very detailed emergency procedure. If we lost power before 500 feet, we would try to land on the nearest flat place straight ahead such as highway 9-A or St. Johns Bluff Road. If we had passed 700 feet MSL (which is close to 700 feet AGL), then we would attempt to turn around and land, we would also attempt to restart the aircraft if time permitted. He was very concerned about safety and it was refreshing to go over the exact details of what we would do in an emergency.

It was a beautiful VFR day with light winds. We departed to the southeast and made a left turn to the south. There were four or five other aircraft nearby according to the TIS and we maneuvered to avoid them. After leaving Craig's class D airspace, we turned east towards the beach. He instructed me to make a couple of clearing turns, we picked out an emergency landing area and he asked me to make a steep turn to the right and one to the left. I haven't practiced this maneuver in about five or six months, but I used to be very good at it. This time, though, I had a bit of trouble maintaining altitude. He then took the controls and showed me that I should immediately add some nose up trim and a little power as I roll in to the 45 degree bank. So we did that a few more times with acceptable results.

Next he had me do a power off stall and that worked out fine although I didn't give the plane full power in the recovery. We did another and that, too, was fine. He asked me if I had ever had spins demonstrated to me. I knew that in this Cessna 172SP, spins were only permitted when operating in utility weight and balance category. With full fuel, there was no way we would be in utility category. So I explained to him that during my private pilot training years ago, a seasoned instructor had demonstrated spins. I also told him that there was an incident at Sterling within the past year where an instructor was teaching a CFI candidate and they had entered a spin and almost could not break the spin. Both the instructor and student were terrified. I believe that it is likely that the plane was either overweight for utility category or had a rearward center of gravity, or both. Although Cessna's are extremely stable aircraft, a cg that is too far back will make a spin difficult to break. I suspect that the instructor wanted to demonstrate a spin, but I probably spoiled his fun.

Next, he had me demonstrate a power on stall, which I did. He then told me that the FAA had been telling instructors that the problem with power on stalls is that they usually occur in a turn rather than in a straight climb. So he described what he was doing as he took the controls and showed a power on stall in a turn. I was required to demonstrate this when I got my private pilot certificate, although it was something that I had never received training on prior to that time. One critical aspect of all stalls is that you MUST maintain coordinated flight. No skids or slips should be indicated. If flight is not coordinated, there is a good possibility that the plane will spin when one wing stalls before the other. I noticed as he demonstrated that the turn coordinator was not at all centered and I commented on it. I almost added the proper rudder control when he finally centered the ball (or the triangle that takes the place of the ball in the G1000 panel). We made it through that stall without incident and he decided it was time for pattern work.

I got the ATIS report and made the appropriate adjustments to the altimeter setting and we headed back to Craig. We began by making a standard landing, but we were tangled up with three or four other aircraft at various stages of landing. I was instructed to enter a left downwind for runway 14 as we approached from the southeast. About 3 miles out, the tower controller advised me to make a right 360 right were I was so he could get the aircraft spaced out. I did my turn and then entered the left downwind for 14. We were cleared for the option behind two other aircraft. I touched down softly, held the nose off until the speed dropped a bit, lowered the nose, retracted the flaps, adjusted the trim and gave full power and we were airborn for our next try.

On subsequent trips around the pattern, we executed four additional landings and one go-around. We did a dead stick landing from pattern altitude that required me to turn to the numbers, then execute a forward slip to lose altitude until we were close enough to the ground.

My instructor was watching the clock closely and once we had the minimum time requirement satisfied, we landed and taxied to the ramp.

The end result is that I'm good for another twenty-four calendar months.

One hour of ground one hour of air instruction. Good flying!

Thanksgiving and Fog

2009-12-07T15:45:00.008-05:00

Downtown Jacksonville around 8:30am on 11/26/2009

Every year since I got my private pilot certificate, I have found myself at the airport on Thanksgiving morning preparing to fly somewhere to celebrate the holiday with family. I cannot remember a Thanksgiving morning that did not begin with fog and this year, things were no different.

Our plan was to leave as early as possible and fly from my home base at Jacksonville's Craig Municipal airport (KCRG) to Tallahassee Regional (KTLH) to pick up my mother-in-law, then the four of us would continue our journey to Tampa International (KTPA). We had a rental car waiting for us in Tampa and dinner was supposed to start at 1pm. I had warned the family ahead of time, that weather might delay us in spite of my instrument rating, but we all crossed our fingers.

The weather at my house South of Jacksonville was fairly clear as I loaded up the car. It wasn't until we neared the airport on highway 9-A that we started to see the lazy clouds still resting on the ground. We arrived at the airport around 7:45 am and the beacon was still lit indicating instrument conditions. As I pre-flighted the plane, I tried to determine how far down the runway I could see. I estimated that I could see nearly the full 4000', so visibility was around 3/4 of a mile. Looking up, I could see blue sky, so it was probably a thin layer of fog covering the airport. I listened to the weather on my handheld radio and the report said visibility was 1/4 mile with a ceiling at 300 feet. Since I could see much more than 1/4 mile and estimated the visibility as being much closer to 1 mile and the ceiling was 300 feet - more than 100 feet above minimums, I decided that we could safely depart. The weather was updated repeatedly during that time period - here are the METARS around that time period:

SPECI KCRG 261215Z 26003KT 3SM BR FEW005 10/09 A2999 RMK AO2
SPECI KCRG 261227Z 26003KT 2 1/2SM BR BKN005 10/09 A2999 RMK AO2
SPECI KCRG 261231Z 27003KT 1 3/4SM BR BKN003 10/09 A2999 RMK AO2
SPECI KCRG 261236Z 27003KT 1/2SM FG BKN003 10/09 A2999 RMK AO2 CIG 001V005
SPECI KCRG 261248Z 28003KT 1/4SM FG OVC003 10/10 A2999 RMK AO2
METAR KCRG 261253Z 27004KT 1/4SM FG OVC003 10/10 A2999 RMK AO2 SLP156 T01000100
SPECI KCRG 261300Z 28003KT 1/2SM FG VV001 11/11 A3000 RMK AO2
SPECI KCRG 261314Z 28004KT 1/4SM FG VV001 11/11 A3000 RMK AO2
SPECI KCRG 261327Z 29005KT 3/4SM BR VV001 11/11 A3000 RMK AO2
SPECI KCRG 261335Z 30006KT 1SM BR OVC001 11/11 A3000 RMK AO2
METAR KCRG 261353Z 31004KT 3SM BR OVC001 11/11 A3000 RMK AO2 SLP156 T01110111
SPECI KCRG 261403Z 30004KT 5SM BR OVC003 12/11 A3000 RMK

My plans for the trip required that we have no more than 33 gallons of fuel on board when we took off from Tallahassee in order not to exceed the maximum weight capacity of the Cessna 172. I was careful to reset the onboard computer to indicate a full load of 53 gallons prior to engine start. When I preflighted, I noted that the tanks were not quite filled to the top - perhaps one gallon was missing from each tank. That would give us a slight margin of safety. I would have to burn 20 gallons of fuel between engine start and our takeoff in Tallahassee.

There was one other aircraft operating at the airport and I heard it receive its clearance before I got mine. Nevertheless, my instrument clearance was given almost immediately. "November 62770, cleared as filed to Tallahassee Regional, climb to two thousand, expect six thousand in ten. Jax Departure frequency 124 point niner, squawk 4273.", came the clearance.

I repeated the clearance, received confirmation and then tuned ground control. I also plugged in the squawk code and tuned the second radio to 124.9.

I called ground announcing that I had information Quebec and wanted to taxi for westbound IFR.

Winds were from the west-north-west, so it was no surprise that we were departing on runway 32. North Florida Aviation is situated very close to the runup area for 32/23, so in no time we were completing our runup checklist. I took my time to carefully check every aspect of the airplane and was pleased that everything was working perfectly. I entered my flight plan in the GPS and also entered the frequency for the ILS-32 in case we needed to make a hasty return to the airport. With a 300 foot ceiling, the ILS would be the only approach available to us. I've landed closer to minimums before, but never in an emergency...as usual, I said a little prayer to myself before I requested takeoff clearance.

We were cleared to take off on runway 32 at intersection echo. I announced our clearance to Christy and Melissa and pulled on the the runway. I could see straight down the runway as I advanced the throttle. I called out "airspeed is alive" as the tape on the left of my primary function display began to roll numbers. As our speed came up past 55 knots, I began to gently pull back on the yoke and our nosewheel left the ground. Almost immediately, the entire plane climbed into the air. I stabilized the climb at 74 knots by adjusting the trim using the buttons under my left thumb. I glanced up and noticed that we were already in the clouds although we were only about 200 feet off of the ground. Our climb continued and soon we found ourselves above the clouds.

The tower called, "November 770 on heading 280, contact approach".

This meant that as I climbed to my assigned altitude of 2,000 feet and flew heading 280, I should contact Jacksonville departure.

I flew my heading, switched radios and listened for other radio traffic before calling, "JAX Departure, Skyhawk 62770 out of one thousand one hundred for two thousand."

The controller came back with, "November 62770, radar contact three miles west of Craig, climb six thousand".

I replied, "Six thousand for 7-7-0", and I turned the altitude bug to 6000 feet.

We were climbing above a white sea with no discernable features until we got closer to downtown Jacksonville. Puncturing the cloud layer was the very tall radio tower that is adjacent to the Jaguars Stadium. Then further west, we could see the tops of a few of our taller buildings jutting above the white.

Modis and Bank of America buildings in downtown Jacksonville 11/26/2009.

We eventually leveled out at 6000 feet and had a smooth flight to Tallahassee. I monitored fuel consumption closely as I needed to be sure to burn 20 gallons for the trip. When we landed, the fuel computer on the multifunction display indicated that we had 34 gallons on board. With taxi fuel burn at 1.1 gallons we would have no problems. I also built about 20 pounds of fudge factor into my weight and balance calculations to ensure that we would not be overweight.

The landing in Tallahassee was smooth and without worry on runway 27.

Runway 27 at TLH on Final Approach

Runway 27 at TLH from about 6 miles out.

This leg of our trip accounted for 1.7 hours of time on the HOBBS meter. Over the next day and a half, we would add another 5 hours some of which was spent fighting headwinds over the Gulf of Mexico. Any weekend that I get to fly is a good weekend. I haven't been doing enough of that lately. I'm looking forward to spending more time in 2010 finding new places to fly to with my wife, Christy. Even in the short time that we've been together, I've taken four of her family members up in the air. I'm sure there will be many more opportunities to have our family fly "Air Dave".

The Hundred Dollar Hamburger Revisited

2009-10-26T12:03:00.005-04:00

Ever since my father's birthday at the end of August, my weekends have been filled with chores, football games and other responsibilities that have kept me on the ground. When Christy pointed out that the Gator game this past Saturday was at night and the Jaguars had a bye week, it started to look like we might have some time to get airborn! Nevertheless, I spent much of Saturday pressure washing our house in Glen St. Mary (anyone want to buy a beautiful home on 2 acres of rural waterfront?) But Sunday came and I found myself filing a flight plan. Since I haven't flown in about 6 weeks (the longest absence from the air since I got my private pilot certificate in 2003), I needed to shoot some instrument approaches in order to keep my currency. Since Christy is not a pilot, I couldn't use her as a safety pilot, therefore, to log the approaches, I would have to find someplace with instrument conditions. The weather looked beautiful, though. I planned my flight down to Flagler County KXFL. I calculated that the entire flight should take about 30 minutes.

We preflighted N13312 and found that the tanks were not full, but each had about 17 gallons, so we had better than 3 hours of fuel - more than enough. Once on board, I got out my checklist and ran through the pre-flight and startup procedures. The auxilliary battery was just a bit low, registering 23.8 volts (it should be above 24 volts), but everything else seemed ok.

I yelled out the window, "Clear!", toggled the master power switch and turned the key. The propeller spun and the engine groaned, but it did not start.

Christy commented, "Isn't this the plane that had this same problem last time?"

She was correct, we had had some difficulty starting this plane that night that I executed my jackass maneuver. So for the next attempt, I twisted the key and then slowly increased the misture from idle cutoff to full and the engine roared to life.

I checked the engine systems, turned on the electronics buss and tuned the radio to 125.4 to listen to the ATIS. The recording indicated that the winds were light and runway 32 was in use. I called clearance delivery and was told that nothing came up for me. I didn't understand why nothing appeared - I filed for an 11:15 am departure. Since the weather was clear, the controller told me that if I wanted to depart VFR, the frequency for JAX Departure was 124.9 and I could request clearance once in the air. Since he was pulling double duty, he cleared me to taxi to runway 23 at Foxtrot via Bravo.

We pulled up to the runup area and I ran through the checklist. When I switched to the right magneto, the engine ran rough although the RPM drop was within tolerances. I switched back to both mags and leaned out the engine until it ran rough, then advanced the throttle to generate 2000 RPM. I then enriched the mixture and the RPM came up. I left it lean for about 30 seconds to burn off the carbon on the plugs then tested the mags again and found no roughness.

I started to pull up to the hold short for runway 23 at Foxtrot and the controller told me to take 32 at Echo instead. I had to make a hard left turn, but we made it ok. He had other traffic that was landing on runway 5. I lined up the plane on 32, advanced the throttle, leaned for best power (just a little) and we were on the roll. The plane climbed quickly in the cool air.

As we climbed out, I noticed that there were three or four other planes in various stages of approach, so I delayed my left turn until I was about 800 feet and then delayed my turn to the south until I was outside of the usual traffic pattern. I didn't want to take a chance on bumping in to one of the other planes coming in.

Once I reached 3,500 feet, I leveled off and set the autopilot to follow the heading bug while maintaining altitude. We flew past our neighborhood and spotted the trail that our cat took when he ran away a while ago (Pookey was returned to us).

I then began reviewing the brand new instrument plates that I had picked up on my way out of the FBO. I started by looking for Flagler. Nothing.

Then I looked for Bunnell, since the Flagler Airport used to be listed under Bunnell. Still nothing.

I couldn't imagine that this airport had eliminated all instrument approaches, so I looked in the table of contents. It seems like the nouveau riche folks living in Palm Coast decided to claim the Flagler Airport as their own - it was renamed Palm Coast!

I then listened to the AWOS at the airport and it sounded like the winds were favoring runway 6. I contacted Jax Departure and requested instrument clearance.

"Jax Departure, Skyhawk 13312", I announced.

"November 13312, Jax Departure", the controller replied.

"Skyhawk 312 is over the UDUZO intersection at 3,500 feet, would like clearance to shoot the GPS 6 approach at Flagler", I requested.

After clarifying the intersection, the controller was silent for a minute or two. He then called, "Novermber 312, squawk 4246".

I repeated the squawk code and plugged it in. After a minute, the controller announced, "Skyhawk 312, radar contact 5 miles west of St. Augustine, climb to 4,000 feet, cleared direct Flagler."

I repeated the instruction and gave the plane full power for the short climb from 3,500. I proceded to select the approach in the GPS. The controller then told me that runway 29 was in use, so I requested the GPS 29 approach. I advised that the approach would be missed followed by another one.

ATC said, "November 312, fly heading 140 vectors for the approach."

Shortly aftwards, I was handed off to Daytona approach control who I contacted by saying, "Daytona Approach, Skyhawk 13312, level at 4,000".

The controller acknowledged by saying, "Roger 312, Daytona altimiter 3-0-0-0, say your heading".

I told him we were heading 1-4-0 and we continued. We were above a solid layer of clouds and couldn't see the ground. I heard the controllers talking with VFR pilots who were trying to find holes to drop through so they could land at Flagler. The layer of clouds was about 1,500 feet thick starting about 1,500 to 1,600 feet. When the controller descended us, I hand flew the plane through the clouds until we leveled off at 1,600 feet. We could see the ocean below us peeking in and out of the clouds. The controller turned us to 160, then a hard turn to 270.

"November 312, you are 4 miles from HAGAV, maintain 1,600 until established, cleared for the GPS 29 approach." said the controller.

I acknowledged by repeating the call, then activated the vector-to-final in the GPS. I disengaged the autopilot and lined up on the approach line. Crossing HAGAV, I began my descent to 560 feet as I slowed the plane. Daytona approach then handed me off saying, "November 312, contact Ormond Tower on 118.95."

This instruction surprised me in two ways. First, I was not landing at Ormond, so contacting Ormond tower made no sense. Second, in all of my prior flights to Flagler, I never saw a tower, the instrument approach plate didn't show a tower, and I didn't see any notam advising that a tower was now in operation. I questioned the controller saying, "Did you mean Flagler tower, 3-1-2".

The controller said "Correction, November 312, contact Flagler tower on 118.95". I repeated the call and contacted Flagler.

The tower controller instructed me to report passing the final approach fix, but I was already about a mile past it. I guess Daytona was a little late handing me off, but that was probably due to traffic in the area. She amended her instructions and asked me what my DME was from the runway and then told me to report 2 miles.

I continued the approach and leveled off at 560 feet. When the GPS said that I had reached the runway, I applied full power and turned right to 360 while climbing to 1,500 feet as instructed by the Daytona approach controller. As I turned, I advised the tower that I was going missed. She handed me off to Daytona Approach and told me there was no traffic in the area. I thanked her and advised that I was showing two aircraft behind me on my scope.

Daytona Approach turned me from 360 to 090 and advised me to climb to 1,600 feet. I continued out over the ocean and was turned to 140, 160 and finally to 270 at which point I was given a clearance that was similar to the prior clearance. Approach handed me off almost immediately to Flagler tower.

This time, I was able to contact the tower about 3 miles before the FAF. I called, "Flagler Tower, Skyhawk 13312 is 7 miles out on the GPS 29 approach, full stop." She again advised me to report 2 miles. At 2 miles, I contacted the tower and was cleared to land. I slowed the plane by pulling power to 1,700 RPM checked that my lights were on and mixture was full rich. As the speed dropped below 105, I added the first notch of flaps and pushed the nose down to counteract the motion induced by the dropping of the flaps. The wind buffeted the plane and it tried to blow me to the left. I adjusted my approach for this by tipping my right wing into the wind and applying just enough rudder to stay lined up with the runway. I began my flare a bit high and made a few adjustments as we got closer to the ground. The wind continued to gust and our approach was not as stable as I would have liked. I pulled the nose up and the plane dropped to the runway a bit more firmly than usual landing on the right main gear, but I held it steady and the nose dropped as our speed dropped.

We taxied off the runway and I asked the tower if there was a ground control frequency. She replied that there was and gave me the freq, but advised, "Taxi to the ramp, remain on this frequency."

We had a very nice lunch at HighJackers - mine was a mushroom and swiss burger and Christy had a beef tip sandwich. Fully stuffed, we headed back to the plane with barely enough time to make it home by 2pm.

I listened to the AWOS and adjusted the altimeter setting noting that it had dropped slightly since the last report. I then tuned the tower and asked for the ground frequency again. I thought I had written it down, but I couldn't find it. I requested taxi clearance for northbound VFR and was advised to taxi to runway 29 via Alpha.

We taxied from our parking space and made a right turn towards the departure end of runway 29. Once I was past the parking area, conducted my runup check on the roll. Arriving at the hold short line, I switched to the tower frequency and called, "Flagler tower, Skyhawk 13312 ready to go 2-9 at Alpha." and the tower cleared me for take off.

I climbed out and leveled off at 1,200 feet to remain below the clouds. Noting inbound traffic on the TCAS, I adjusted my path to avoid them and then advised the tower when I was clear of the class delta airspace.

Once I was outside class Delta, I found a hole in the clouds and I climbed up to 3,500 and headed towards the beach. As we cruised along the beach, I gave the controls to Christy after demonstrating how to turn left and right and climb or dive. She was doing great although we were climbing a bit. After passing St. Augustine, I asked her to descend and I gave some nose down trim - this surprised Christy and she decided that I should fly the plane.

I listened to the ATIS at Craig and then contacted approach to request a straight in on the ILS 32. ATC granted my request and we leveled off at 1,900 as instructed. We got the hand off to Craig about 8 miles out and I contacted the tower announcing my intention for a full stop. There was one plane in the pattern ahead of us and one coming up behind. I adjusted my speed to give the plane ahead enough time to clear the runway. I pulled the power about 100 feet before crossing the threshold and the plane descended smoothly to the runway. Pulling back on the yoke, I flared the plane and it floated just a bit. I pushed the nose down slightly and the wheels gently touched down on the runway with an almost imperceptable squeak.

It was a great day to fly and we encountered a good mix of VFR and IFR conditions. The flight South took 1.2 hours, but the flight home took only half that. I logged about 40 minutes of actual IFR on the approaches. It was so good to be back in the air again spending $300 to have a good hamburger!

Lenox, Georgia and Why it Sucks! I-75 Hazard

2009-10-13T08:56:00.004-04:00

Sorry folks, but this entry is not about flying. It is about the abuses that an unjust government commits against people passing through its jurisdiction.

Lenox, Georgia is a small town of about 900 people in rural southern Georgia. It isn't a particularly attractive town and it contrasts sharply with the beautiful homes and central town areas of Adel and Hahira just a few miles to the South. It appears that the bulk of the town's business centers on the production of cotton or watermelons although there is a BASF factory just south of town. This is a very poor town.

Just to the west of Lenox is the town's moneymaker, I-75. In December 2005, the town annexed just enough land to include the I-75 overpass at Exit 49. From about 10 miles north of Lenox to 5 miles south, construction barriers have been set up for the apparent widening of I-75. Throughout the construction area, the speed limit is reduced to 60 miles per hour. As I learned in court yesterday, the construction company that is performing the work sets the speed limit. For the entire duration of the construction zone, the speed limit is 60 mph...EXCEPT for Lenox. For the small little bit of I-75 that passes through Lenox, the construction company changes to a Lenox-based company. It seems that the workers for the SCRUGGS CONSTRUCTION COMPANY are just a bit dumber than the rest of the I-75 concrete contractors because they need the speed limit reduced to an absurd 50 MPH.

In court yesterday, I witnessed numerous people, many of whom were unemployed and most of whom were obviously poor testifying before a redneck judge all with the same outcome. All of the speeders were caught using laser. The speeding tickets were for between 74/50 and 84/50. In each case, the judge reduced the speed to 64/50 which prevents points from being assessed against the offender's license. However, the speeding fine is still double the usual amount. In every case, the fine was $550. Yesterday amounted to at least a $10,000 take for the small town, and that doesn't include the people who simply sent in their checks. Unlike Florida where a plea of no lo contendere will generally result in the waiving of the fine and an assessment of court costs, this judge gives no quarter. He assesses the full and excessive fine.

The only good thing about the town is that the police officers are very polite.

Scruggs Construction set the speed limit at 50 MPH. I suppose that once Lenox collects enough tickets, they might actually build a proper courthouse. When that happens, I bet that Scruggs is chosen to build it.

Even though these people were speeding, the punishment does not fit the crime, and furthermore, the creation of a blatant speed trap with very little warning is damn close to entrapment.

Coming from the north, the speed limit drops from 60 to 50 in less than half a mile. The city limit only extends 2/3 of a mile north of the Exit 49 bridge and about a tenth of a mile before the actual off ramp. In my case, I never saw a 50 mph sign until after I was pulled over. Sure I was speeding. But I was driving a reasonable and prudent speed going with the flow of traffic on the interstate. There was no construction going on in the area. Unlike Florida where speeding fines are doubled When Workers are Present, the fines are doubled through the entire 15 mile long construction zone.

The bottom line, Lenox, Georgia is a terrible speed trap. It should be examined by the Justice department for abuse of power and entrapment. Avoid it like the plague that it is. Lenox, Georgia simply sucks!

Another one bites the dust

2009-09-06T09:46:00.003-04:00

It is often said that doctors have a god complex. There are those who believe or at least act as though they are more powerful than God. Put such a person behind the yoke of an aircraft and people will get hurt.

Yesterday, another doctor-pilot died unnecessarily and he took four innocent people with him. Even though the news is sketchy, a few details are clear. First, the weather was not VFR...or even close. Here are the METARs for the morning of the accident.

KTUL 051753Z 36006KT 10SM BKN016 26/20 A3009 RMK AO2 SLP181 T02560200 10256 20194 58004
KTUL 051730Z VRB04KT 10SM BKN016 26/19 A3009 RMK AO2
KTUL 051653Z 35005KT 6SM HZ OVC010 23/19 A3010 RMK AO2 SLP185 T02330189
KTUL 051639Z 02004KT 6SM HZ OVC010 23/19 A3011 RMK AO2 CIG 008V014
KTUL 051553Z 02004KT 4SM HZ OVC006 22/19 A3011 RMK AO2 SLP190 T02170189
KTUL 051526Z 06005KT 4SM BR OVC005 21/18 A3011 RMK AO2
KTUL 051453Z 05005KT 2 1/2SM BR OVC004 21/18 A3010 RMK AO2 SLP186 T02060183 51021
KTUL 051353Z 05007KT 2 1/2SM BR OVC003 20/18 A3008 RMK AO2 SLP180 T02000183
KTUL 051321Z 06003KT 2SM BR OVC003 20/19 A3007 RMK AO2
KTUL 051253Z 01004KT 1SM BR OVC003 20/19 A3006 RMK AO2 SLP172 T02000189
KTUL 051233Z 02004KT 1 1/2SM BR OVC003 20/19 A3005 RMK AO2
KTUL 051216Z 02004KT 2SM BR OVC003 20/18 A3004 RMK AO2
KTUL 051153Z 01004KT 3SM BR OVC003 19/18 A3004 RMK AO2 SLP164 60002 70026 T01940183 10217 20194 53006
KTUL 051125Z 34004KT 5SM BR BKN003 BKN050 19/18 A3002 RMK AO2

The crash occured when the aircraft collided with the guy wires supporting a tower that stood approximately 200 feet tall. The article described the weather as foggy which is supported by the METARs for the Tulsa airport that was nearby.

Note that the tower was ONLY 200 feet tall. The aircraft had to be flying dangerously and illegally low to the ground in order to strike a tower 200 feet tall. The FARs require us to fly at least 1000' above obstacles that are within 2000' horizontally if we are flying in a congested area. The plane crashed near a ball park and one can argue that this was a congested area.

So why was the pilot flying so low? Looking at the METARs, one might conclude that he wanted to avoid flying in to low clouds. He was flying in conditions that were below VFR minimums...and not very good for IFR, either. So why wouldn't this pilot whose pilot certificate was issued in 1987 simply penetrate the clouds and fly IFR? Simple, he did not have an instrument rating and had absolutely no business flying in the conditions that he found himself in.

Looking at the METARs, this isn't a case of VFR flight into instrument conditions. It appears that he departed in IFR or at best marginal VFR conditions. He was flying in fog and flying too low when he should have kept his plane in the hanger. To make matters worse, his actions resulted in four additional deaths.

So, if you are not instrument rated, stay out of the clouds. If you are not in the system flying on an instrument flight plan, STAY OUT OF THE CLOUDS. If you happen to stray, watch your instruments. Keep the wings level. Maintain your altitude. Communicate with ATC - they can't keep you from hitting other planes if you aren't talking with them. Better yet, GET YOUR INSTRUMENT RATING!

This reminds me of something that happened last Saturday. There was a nice overcast that was reported to be around 1500 feet all over the Jacksonville area. I had decided to do some basic flight work to keep my skills up. I stayed in the pattern doing touch-and-goes on runway 23 for a while before departing the pattern to the South. I flew along highway 9a at 1100 feet noting the broken ceiling above me. It appeared to be about 500 to 800 feet above my altitude. This were good conditions for single pilot IFR practice, so I called ATC and asked for a clearance to fly the ILS 32 at Craig. I climbed into the clouds to 1900 feet as instructed and was vectored to the East to intercept the localizer. Once established on the approach, I followed the pink diamond down lower and lower. I also kept an eye on the eastbound aircraft that was flying at about 1500 feet - just beneath the clouds. This plane was not in contact with ATC and he was flying much too close to the clouds to be in compliance with the FARs. I don't know if he had a TIS on board, but I'm glad that I did. He was operating just outside the CRG airspace and the controllers didn't have contact. What would have happened if I popped out of the clouds on my LEGAL IFR flight into the path of his illegal VFR flight? Or what if he had appeared directly in front of me when I popped out of the clouds? I continued my descent on the glideslope and was cleared for a straight in to 32. The other plane passed above me and behind me.

The lesson here is just because you aren't entering the clouds doesn't mean you are flying VFR. 500 feet below, 1000 feet above, 2000 feet laterally - those are the requirements. We weren't operating in Class B where clear of clouds is the rule. The FARs were generally written in response to some unfortunate incident - they make good sense. If you aren't flying on an IFR flight plane, please follow the Visual Flight Rules. The life you save could be mine.

Jackasses are contagious.

2009-08-01T09:04:00.002-04:00

I have always been harshly critical of pilots who make stupid mistakes. Perhaps a bit too critical. I've made mistakes in the past and I have always caught them, and learned from them. Now I've made a jackass style mistake and am very grateful that I added the non-owned aircraft coverage to my renter's policy.

Last Monday, Christy and I thought it would be a nice idea to take Melissa and a friend of her choosing to dinner someplace by plane. I booked an aircraft that I knew would have been flying that day so it would not have full fuel and we planned a flight up to Savannah. When we arrived at the airport, I had to switch aircraft from the one that I had filed our IFR flight plan with, so I called for an updated briefing. The current weather showed thunderstorms and rain all along the route to Savannah...after about 10 minutes of getting lots of detail from the briefer and wandering over to the radar display to see the uckumpucky in the sky, I changed the plan to go to Daytona instead. This proved to be both a good choice and a bad choice for reasons that will become evident.

For my preflight inspection, I added a dipping of the fuel to determine more precisely how much weight we had as flying with four souls aboard a Skyhawk can never be done with full fuel. I had calculated my weight and balance based on 40 gallons of fuel - which would be enough to almost reach the bottom of the filler neck in each tank. Of course the tanks weren't filled to the same level, so the fuel dipper showed us how many gallons were in each tank. Fortunately we were at 40 gallons on the dot, and that would give me a whopping 5 pounds of additional capacity.

After preflighting and loading everyone on board, I ran through the checklists and tried to start the plane. The damn thing just wouldn't start. After trying five or six times, I got out to see if there was fuel dripping as an indication that I had flooded the engine. Nope, no drips. I got back in and re-primed the engine. Two more tries and nothing. The last time, I advanced the throttle to about half and then slowly advanced the mixture from idle cutoff to full rich and the engine finally started. I immediately reduced the throttle and leaned the mixture as I suspected there might be a fouled plug or two. Looking to the North, we could see a nasty storm headed our way and I wanted to be out of there ASAP.

I dialed the ATIS, then called for my IFR clearance. The controller advised me to contact the TOWER for taxi clearance, so I tuned 132.1 as the active frequency and called for clearance. I was cleared to runway 14 via Alpha. I flipped on the taxi light, released the brakes and we were rolling. When my back seat passengers had boarded, the nose tilted high eliciting a "Whoa!" from my wife. The nose was still high, so I tested the brakes and the nose came back down where it belonged. Because of the threatening storm and the nearly 1 mile distance to the departure end of runway 14, I completed the runup on the roll. I also entered the departure frequency in the standby, plugged in the transponder code and entered OMN as the first point on the flight plan in the GPS. I was relieved to find no problem with the sparkplugs and everything checked out ok although I noted an intermittent fault in the fuel reading from the right tank. An occasional red X appeared where the fuel reading should have been, but it was only intermittent and the fuel display showed most of the time. Also, our flight was expected to be about 45 minutes and we had about 4 hours of fuel on board.

As I approached the runway 14 hold short line, I called for take off clearance which came very shortly. Bobby was my copilot (his first flight) and I told him to close the window as I closed mine. We were cleared to take off on 14 and turn left to 090 while climbing to 3000 feet. and that's exactly what we did. The reason for the turn away from our destination was that there were several planes trying to get in to KCRG on the ILS-32 and this heading would put us clear of them.

Eventually we were cleared to turn direct to OMN and off we went. Our final altitude was 4000' which made for nice viewing of the beaches below without the bumps of the air close to the ground. Once I had the plane leveled off and trimmed, I offered the controls to Bobby with some minimal instruction. This was his first flight in a small aircraft and he did an outstanding job. He was prone to a little instrument fixation and I tried to get him to focus outside the plane and use the instruments as a check on his altitude and heading. He's a natural - may be a pilot's certificate in his future.

We arrived in Daytona and were cleared to land straight in on 16. I have flown practice approaches here but never actually landed so this was an unfamiliar airport to say the least. After landing, we made a turn to the right on taxiway W-3 and that's were the fun begins.

I contacted ground and asked for clearance to taxi to the general aviation ramp. The tower advised me that there were three FBOs, but Sheltair was directly in front of me. I told her that would be fine and she told me to taxi "straight ahead to Sheltair". I taxied past the hold short in to the ramp area between two long rows of aircraft which were full. After slowly taxiing past about 3/4 of the planes, the follow-me cart appeared. He pulled from between the aircraft parked on my right, across my path and then stopped abeam my left wing. The handler walked up to my plane and I opened the window. He yelled, "You can park on the front line next to the LearJet." I said that would be great. This was three rows to the north of me and I was taxiing roughly to the West into the sun. He got back in to his cart and disappeared behind me. (Jackass maneuver number one). I taxied to the end of the parked planes which were parked even beyond the tiedowns on my right. Once I was past the last plane, I began my right turn slowly, but not carefully enough. About the time I completed the turn and was safely beyond the parked plane on my right, the sun was removed from my eyes just in time for me to hear CRUNCH!!! My left wingtip had just barely contacted the corner of the hanger. "SHIT!" I muttered into the mic. (Jackass Maneuver #2) Well, we were past the hanger now and I could see where I was going. I pulled up next to the jet and shut down the plane. The handler finally arrived and asked if I had hit the hanger.

"Yeah, I suppose so." I answered dejectedly. I was angry. I was angry with myself as this was a bonehead move. I was angry with the handler for not doing his damn job. I was angry with myself for not insisting that the handler do his job properly...but I didn't do my job properly, either. I have reached the conclusion that Jackasses are bad for flying.

I examined the wingtip and fortunately only the plexiglass cover over the left position light was cracked and the metal flash shroud on the strobe was damaged. I saw no damage to the wingtip and both lights were still functioning.

I went inside the FBO after taking a picture of the damage to the hanger - which was very minor. I completed paperwork and explained what had happened to the boss. Amazingly, the FBO was kind enough to offer me the use of their crew car - a newish PT Cruiser with a fake surfboard bolted to the roof as advertising.

The four of us piled in the car and headed to Ponce Inlet for a very nice dinner on the water. I was a bit upset, but we still had fun.

We flew back that evening after a thorough re-examination of the wingtip. Satisfied that there were no problems that would adversely impact the airworthiness of the plane, we departed. The night flight home was beautiful and uneventful. I let Bobby take the controls again and he did an even better job this time. We were arriving at KCRG just at closing time. I was handed off to the tower who advised me to enter a left base on 23. I kept my speed up on the approach as the controller also said they were closing in 2 minutes. I acknowledged the instructions and realizing that I would probably require more than the 2 minutes left, I told the controller to have a nice night. About a mile out, the controller told me that the winds were 280 at 4 and I could have 32 if I wanted. That would put me straight in and I advised him that's what I would do. On final, I heard a twin advising that he would be departing on 32. I called my position and advised that I was on short final for 32. I landed and cleared the runway quickly. Announcing that I was clear of the runway, I taxied to North Florida.

I called North Florida (www.fly-us.com) that night and left a message and called them again the next morning. They were able to repair the plane the same day by swapping a wingtip from a plane that was down for its annual inspection. According to Erik, only one flight was missed that day, and I was happy to hear that. I also called the AOPA Insurance Agency and filed my claim. The adjuster contacted me later that same day and they seem to be handling the claim effectively.

So, that's the tale of my first plane crash...as stupid as it was. I was embarassed and my ego was severely bruised. All told, 1.8 hours with about .3 actual instrument and 0.9 night. The flying was exciting, fun and overall the trip was a blast. I'm still coming to grips with my stupid mistake and I am fortunate that the damage wasn't any worse than it was.

42 Years In Florida, But Never A Trip To Key West...UNTIL NOW!

2009-06-29T13:15:00.002-04:00

The weak economy caused me to reconsider the long-term prospects of working for a firm that is supported by venture capital with the end result being a job change in April. Consequently, when I married the love of my life on June 14th, I didn't have much vacation time to take to enjoy a real honeymoon. My new boss is an incredibly understanding person and an all-round great guy and he allowed me to take a couple of days off (off the record). So the day after Christy and I got married, we loaded up a nice new Cessna 172 from North Florida Flight Training (www.fly-us.com) and headed for Key West.

We had some last minute details to take care of before leaving, so we didn't go wheels up until around 1 pm. That time of day in June in Florida generally results in towering cumulous and the occasional cumulonimbus throughout the sky and June 15th was no different. I filed IFR and we flew down at 7000 feet. (As I have noted before in prior blog entries, ATC in Florida handles altitudes a bit differently than the AIM specifies. Flying southward generally results in an odd altitude assignment, so even though my heading was towards the western hemisphere, I filed for and got 7,000 feet. This put us above most of the clouds, but an occasional fluffy one towered above us.

Our route took us from Craig to the Ocala VOR, then Lakeland, then down the west coast until we went off shore somewhere south of Naples. We avoided the class B airspace at Tampa, Orlando and Miami and every so often, ATC changed our course to avoid more severe weather. Nevertheless, we found ourselves popping in and out of clouds, bouncing around and getting rained on. It made the flying that much more interesting and I was never worried.

Christy slept as we got further south and didn't wake up until we were about 20 miles away from land. All that we could see in the hazy conditions was bluegreen ocean and a few clouds in the sky. No land was evident. I used the GPS's NRST function to constantly point us at the closest airport in the unlikely event that our engine would conk out. (Or should that be CONCH out - since we would be in the keys?) At one point, we were 39 nm from the nearest airport...and that was behind us. Eventually the NRST position was Key West NAS, and then the Key West International. About 35 nm out, ATC started us down. It would have been fine with me if they kept me at 7ooo until I reached the airport with no experience over large spans of water other than Lake Okeechobe, I liked having more glide range. Nevertheless, I was able to descend at 700 fpm and enjoyed the increased airspeed that the steady descent gave me.

About 15 miles out, ATC asked if I had the airport in sight. I told him that I could see the NAS, but had never been to Key West and couldn't pick it out just yet. About 10 miles out, I spotted the runway running perpendicular to our path and I told ATC that I saw it. I had previously listened to the ATIS and had set my kollsman to the local barometer setting. ATC handed me off to the tower and I was advised to enter a left base for 9. We dropped down lower and lower and the colors in the water became more apparent. I was amazed at how much development had gone on and how little undeveloped land was there. I lined up with the runway and was cleared to land. We touched down nicely, but I think I have developed a nasty habbit in the G1000 - I tend to look at the TAS rather than IAS. AS a result, my speed was too high and the plane did not want to settle down right away. No matter, the landing was smooth and we landed without a problem. The controller asked me where I wanted to park and I told him the local FBO would be fine. He directed me to turn on Alpha 6 and look for the ground handler.

This was a pretty straight-forward flight. I was excited about going to the Keys and since my AME had recommened the trip, I can't wait to tell him all about it. The flight down was 3.2 hours with about a full hour in the soup. The return was more eventful - we had to return suddenly due to a family situation and our arrival happened to coincide with the arrival of thunderstorms just as we were lining up on final...nothing like a disappearing runway to justify a diversion! More on that later.

More from Class Bravo

2009-05-03T12:58:00.002-04:00

While Christy and I approached runway 18L, the traffic information system (TIS) constantly announced, "traffic! traffic!". But we knew that. We could see the steady stream of jets lined up for 18R and the other stream of jets lined up for 23. Although the tower had asked me to keep my speed up on approach because of jet traffic behind me, the TIS showed no on lined up on 18L who was within 3 miles of me. As we sat waiting to be cleared to cross runway 23, Christy started to worry about traffic landing on top of us. I wasn't worried, though. The jet that landed on 23 startled her, but we were perfectly safe. Shortly after the jet passed, the tower cleared me to cross the runway.

The controller asked, "Cessna 7-7-0, are you familiar with the Charlotte airport".

I replied, "Only as a passenger, 7-7-0".

He then told me to taxi straight ahead on 18L and turn left on Delta-4 and that would take me straight to WilsonAir. He also told me to contact ground on "point 9", meaning contact ground control on 121.9.

Flying home was equally as exciting. After loading and preflighting, I called for clearance. I'm used to receiving clearances that are different from what I filed; usually I'll be assigned "radar vectors to XYZ" - when I file direct to XYZ. That's no big deal. This time it was different. I was cleared to depart via the HUGO-8 departure, then as filed. He did not assign a transition route, which made it difficult to plug in to the GPS as it expects a transition. That didn't matter though because as soon as I departed, the tower had me turn to a heading of 270 - completely off course for the HUGO-8 departure from 18L. I'm sure that they just wanted me out of the way of the jets that were departing from 18C.

Before all that happened, though, we had to taxi. After being cleared to taxi to 18L intersection Alpha, I was told there would be a three minute delay after the DeHavilland Dash-8 departed before me. I completed the run-up on the roll and stopped at the hold short line. When I announced that I was ready to go, the tower reiterated the 3 minute wait, to which I replied, "Understood, 7-7-0". We were cleared for take off and I responded, "Skyhawk 7-7-0, cleared for takeoff on 1-8-Left" and we began to roll.

Once we were airborn, the controllers had a field day vectoring me left and right. Finally I was told to resume own navigation and I flew direct to Columbia. We had awful headwinds for this trip. The briefing showed that we would encounter 20 to 24 knot winds almost directly in our face no matter what altitude we flew at.

The rest of the trip was uneventful although we began to encounter clouds the further south we went. We bounced through them without shaking any vital parts loose. Christy slept for much of the trip.

For the landing we were cleared for the visual to 14 and the winds were reported to be 100 at 12. The were a bit gusty and the plane just didn't want to stay on the ground. After initial contact, the plane became airborne again and I held the nose up and she dropped to the ground again. I still managed to make the first turnoff.

The flying this weekend was great. Flying in and out of Class B airspace without any miscues is particularly satisfying. I logged 2.9 hours CRG-CLT with about 0.2 instrument and 3.1 CLT-CRG with .4 instrument.

Safety at Flight Schools

2009-05-02T21:03:00.004-04:00

Recently, someone who read this blog wanted more details about what I apparently described as unsafe practices at a local flight school. The purpose of this blog is not to bash any particular business. Therefore, I won't mention the name of the company at this point. A few examples of the operational practices that I think should be eliminated or improved on are the following:

1. During a lesson, immediately after take off - when I was still less than 200 feet above the ground, my instructor pulled the aircraft's throttle to idle and said "you just lost power, now what do you do?" I immediately pushed the throttle back in (PA-28/161) and said, "Don't ever do that on take off." He wanted to teach me to keep my hand on the throttle until the plane was 1000 feet above the ground. I had removed my hand from the throttle to adjust the manual trim.

2. A friend who was taking a lesson flew to the Palatka airport with his instructor. While in the pattern, he pulled the power to idle and asked the student if he knew what a windmilling propeller looked like. When the student said no, the instructor pulled the mixture to idle cut off and killed the engine. He then attempted to restart the engine by diving to accelerate and adding mixture. Although the attempt to restart was successful, the fact that they did this in the patter of an airport that is usually busy with student traffic and the fact that killing the engine was totally unnecessary suggest to me that this was an unsafe risk.

3. On numerous occasions I have witnessed instructors from this school violate Visual Flight Rules by either flying directly through or too close to clouds while operating under VFR. The practice area for this and other flight schools in the area overlaps the approach for the ILS 32 at Craig as well as several approaches at NAS-Jacksonville. Flying through clouds could result in a collision with similar training flights or with legitimate aircraft on instrument approaches. It is simply foolish.

4. Also on numerous occasions I have witnessed (and confirmed via handheld radio) instructors taking students much too low over congested areas such as my own neighborhood. 700+ homes in my neighborhood, the golf course and the nearby mall would seem to make the a congested area and flying lower than 1000' AGL is simply foolish.

5. Frequently the aircraft used by this company have squawks that take weeks to repair. Often these are minor such as a burned out bulb on the anti-collision lights or a landing light. But other problems include aircraft that sit for days with their fuel tanks in need of fuel. Leaving empty tanks invites water into the fuel and although this is not mandatory, it is a good practice.

6. Instructors do not enforce the use of proper check lists. For example, the Cessnas never have their fuel valve set to one or the other tank as prescribed in the POH. During runup, instructors do not test the trim controls as the tests that are shown in the POH are not shown on the checklist. Instructors do not check behind their students after tie down. Aircraft are left unlocked. Pitot covers are often lost or left in the plane. Control locks are not installed. Tiedown ropes are generally in a state of disrepair.

7. When renting aircraft, frequently, the aircraft were not refueled and ready even though they had been parked overnight.

8. The aircraft are generally not very clean. Oil streaks are found on the fuselages and a peek under the hood shows dirt an oil. The cowlings rarely are reinstalled after their 100 hour inspections in a proper way. They are generally misaligned.

Any one of these issues by itself would be minor and correctable. However, taken holistically, they suggest a pattern of operation that is in dire need of improvement. This doesn't even begin to touch on the customer service problems that I have experienced. For the most part, the people who work at this place are very kind and easy to deal with. However, when they think it is OK to call me the morning of an evening trip and tell me that I cannot take the plane that I had reserved weeks in advance simply because they wanted to use it for training flights, that is not acceptable. I understand that their primary goal is to be a flight school. Fine. But that doesn't allow canceling a flight and forcing a seven year customer to do a check ride in a more expensive plane at his expense. That is unconscionable. And trying to make up for that by giving me a free chart is not adequate. If I had been given adequate notice, I might think a bit differently, but that act was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was that incident that caused me to look elsewhere. And what I found was a selection of top notch aircraft for the same price. The competitor's aircraft were clean and have always been ready for me each time I have needed them.

So that's all I'll say on this topic. It saddens me each time I think about it and I don't care to hash it out again.

Class Bravo - B is for BUSY!

2009-04-28T14:31:00.002-04:00

Last Friday, Christy and I flew to Charlotte Douglas Airport from Craig so that we could go to my 25th Davidson College reunion. The flight up was fairly uneventful. We planned to leave at 2pm, but didn't depart until 4:15 - that's one of the advantages of flying private planes - no schedule to adhere to.

I've flown through the Class B at CLT before, but this was the first time that I have landed there. It was quite an experience.

About 40 miles south of CLT, ATC began to give me vectors for my approach. They turned me to the northeast and then every few minutes turned me 10 degrees more and more easterly. We were dropped down to 4000 feet before entering the class B. Initially, I was told to expect runway 23, but after being vectored for the downwind to 23 and pushed further and further northeast of the airport, I was subsequently told that I was being switched to 18 Left. A steady stream of heavy jets were lined up for 23 and for 18 Right. The were being brought in below me and I was eventually vectored for a base leg to 18 that took me across the path for 23 above the stream of jets. The controller gave me rapid and frequent instructions - turn to 360, then 340 then back to 360 then decend ... bang bang bang... one right after the other. Finally I was handed off to the tower and was cleared to land on 18L but I was asked to keep my speed up as much as possible. I dropped in at 140 knots and pulled power at 2 miles out, leveled until the speed dropped below flap extension speed. I progressively added flaps to full and brought her down on the numbers. As I rolled out, the tower asked if I could stop before runway 23. I said that I could and I stopped the plane. Christy was wide-eyed with all the activity around us. She wondered if a plane would be coming in behind us, but the TIS showed nothing lined up for our runway. After sitting for about 30 seconds, a large jet landed from left to right on runway 23.

It was very exciting for both of us.

More details to follow...

Diamond Check Out

2009-03-24T16:49:00.002-04:00

Since North Florida Aviation's aircraft were booked for the weekend, I was left with a choice between taking Sterling's Diamond DA-40 or driving to/from Tampa. I hate driving long distances, so I had to go for a check ride in the Diamond.

Christy wanted to go with me and was not dissuaded by my warnings about stalls and steep turns, so we arrived together at the airport. I met the instructor, Mike, and we discussed the plane. I grabbed a checklist and discovered that it was somewhat similar to the Cessna G1000 checklist although the Diamond had a controllable pitch propeller. I had never flown a controllable pitch prop before.

We loaded up in the plane and I started the engine. First the prop is set to max RPM and the mixture to idle cutoff. The throttle is set to about half. The master power switch is turned on then the fuel pump is turned on while the mixture is advanced to full rich for a few seconds then back to lean. Then the key is turned to start and the engine fired up while I advanced the mixture to full rich.

After listening to the ATIS, we taxied to runway 5 and did the runup. About the only difference between the DA40 runup and the Cessna was the prop. The throttle was advanced to make the engine turn 2000 RPM, then the prop lever is pulled back until the RPM and oil pressure drop, then it is put back to max rpm. This is done three times. After that, a check of the magnetos is done and the idle is verified.

With everything ok, I taxied to runway 5 and called, "Craig Tower, Cess--, uh, Ddd-diamond star 7-5-6-Delta Sierra ready to go at 5". To which the tower replied "Are you sure?"

We all got a kick out of the smarty pants, and I quipped, "Sorry, this is my first time flying this plane. I'm ready."

We were cleared for takeoff and I taxied onto the runway. The plane tended to fishtail a bit as I accelerated. The nosewheel is not steerable, so at low speeds, the brakes do the steering and at higher speeds, it is done by the rudder. I managed to keep the nose reasonably straight and pulled her up at around 55 knots.

The best rate of climb is achieved at only 70 knots, but at that low a speed and high angle of attack, the stall warning is constantly blaring, so a slightly higher speed is recommended. With three adults in the plane, we were climbing around 900 feet per minute.

We leveled off at 3800 feet and began our maneuvers. First it was a few turns at 30 degrees, then a couple of back to back steep turns at 45 degrees to get the feel of the plane. We followed that with some slow flight and a couple of stalls. The plane really won't stall. It just sits in the buffet but no actual stall occurs. I peeked in back at Christy and she had a huge smile on her face.

By this time, the cloud layer below us had thickened and the instructor got us an instrument clearance and I flew the ILS 32 at Craig with a circle to 5. There are only three flap settings, up, first and second notch. As I pass the threshold, we had slowed to below 108 and the first notch of flaps extended. I pitched nose down to generate a 500 fpm descent and adjusted the throttle to slow us a bit. Turning base, I extended the next notch. Then on final, I pushed the prop to max rpm and pulled the throttle back further. The instructor said to keep the speed to more than 70 knots to ensure a smooth landing. He explained that the plane has a tendency to drop hard below 70. I managed to set the plane down reasonably well and the set her up for climbout - Flaps to the first notch for take off, full power and out we went. Left turns around the pattern were met with a similar landing and takeoff. We made one final landing - this time a soft field landing. I glided long with a bit of power and finally set her down smoothly. We then taxied back and parked.

Christy loved the touch-and-go landings, she later told me. It was a blast flying the new plane, but I'm still not happy with the situation that brought about its use. This flight was wonderful though and I was particularly pleased that Christy liked it.

1.0 hours of dual with .2 Actual instrument and one instrument landing.

End of a Flying Relationship

2009-03-20T12:32:00.004-04:00

Since 2001 I have been renting aircraft from Sterling Flight Training. I fly nearly every week and spend thousands of dollars each year with this flight school at Craig Municipal Airport. That relationship is about to end and this makes me sad.

For several weeks I have had a Skyhawk reserved so I could fly to Tampa to take my new fiancee and her daughter to meet my family. This morning, I received a call from Sterling's chief instructor telling me that I couldn't have the plane because they wanted to use it for training. I would have to take their Diamond DA40, an aircraft that I have never flown. To do this, I would have to get a check ride at some point in the next 24 hours. Because of their last minute change, I did not have an option to rent an aircraft from North Florida Flight Training which is also at the same airport - their planes were already booked.

I called Irene Malone, a very nice lady and the wife of the school's owner to discuss the situation. She took my number and said Jay Lawrence, the new Chief Instructor would call. I told her that actions like this were going to lose her a customer. Jay and I discussed the situation and he finally agreed to let me take the plane for this weekend, but I would have to make alternative arrangements for the following weekend. This was acceptable because I had already arranged with North Florida to have a plane for the weekend.

About an hour later, Jay called me back and advised me that I couldn't have the plane because Scott Malone, Irene's dimwitted son, told him that he could not allow the plane to be gone this weekend regardless of reservations. Scott is a former US Airways Express pilot who quit the airline to fly charters at Malone Air. Although I have been flying with his family for 7 years, I seriously doubt that he has the faintest clue about who I am. He probably has no idea that I spend between $7,000 and $8,000 per year with Sterling Flight Training on aircraft rental. Heck, he's never even greeted me when I walked in the place. It is bonehead maneuvers like Scott's that will cost Sterling Flight Training their business. This weekend will be the last time I rent a plane from them.

The Diamond has a G1000 panel like the Skyhawk, but it lacks the autopilot and cargo capacity. It takes much longer to take off and to land. It is faster, but not fast enough to justify the $180 per hour (versus $150 - an increase from the $120 that had been the rate for the 'Hawk.)

I'm sure that the Diamond is a great plane, but the problem is that they let me reserve the plane for weeks and then dropped me from the schedule with less than 24 hours notice. That's a poor business practice. Combine that business practice with the stunts that some of their instructors have pulled (see prior entries) as well as the accident rate for their aircraft and I think this place is a recipe for disaster. So maybe I'm better off with a better aircraft provider. Perhaps North Florida will value my business more than Sterling does. I have referred numerous students and renters to Sterling over the years. It is unfortunate that I can no longer do so.

Back in the Air!

2009-03-08T09:50:00.002-04:00

When I went for my medical in January, I indicated that I had had a kidney stone in March of 2008. Consequently, the doctor rejected my application. I followed the instructions on the AOPA website for kidney stones, but they missed a few things. I had to go to a urologist, have an ultrasound and x-rays of my kidneys, ureters and bladder, then two different blood tests. My doctor then had to write a letter stating that I was had no stones present and was not likely to have another. This documentation was sent to the FAA and several weeks later, I received my second class medical with no restrictions.

So, yesterday, Christy and I flew in N512MA, an old, tired Piper Warrior II. This plane is a far cry from the G1000 Skyhawks that have spoiled me lately. Due to some last minute problems at home, we were late arriving at the airport and we didn't get the engine started until shortly before 2pm. The weather was perfect for VFR flight with a 7 knot breeze, few clouds and lots of blue sky.

We departed Craig to the west and I tuned the 290 radial from the CRG VORTAC so I could have an indication that would keep me out of the JAX class C airspace. I climbed to 4,500 feet and we followed interstate 10 westward towards Glen St. Mary. Christy appeared to be thrilled by the view and was pointing out landmarks that she knew. We eventually flew over her small town and circled her house a few times after dropping down to 1,200 feet. Then I tuned the VOR for Cecil Field and we climbed to 3,500 feet and overflew Cecil. From Cecil it was eastbound to my neighborhood and we circled my house at about 1,500 feet. I noticed that my Dad had arrived at my house, so we headed back to the airport.

I listened to information Charlie at Craig then called the tower. I was instructed to enter a right downwind for 14 and report midfield. We descended to 1000 feet and I pointed at the airport. When I reached midfield, the tower cleared me to land. I reduced power to 1,700 RPM and put in the first notch of flaps. I trimmed for a nose down attitude and began a 500 fpm descent. I turned base and dropped the second notch. Then a turn to final and the final notch of flaps. I dropped a little below the glideslope and pulled the nose up. The plane slowed nicely. Low wing planes tend to float a bit especially if you come in hot, but I came in just right. As the speed dropped, I held the nose high and the wheels touched down gently on the numbers. I was particularly pleased with the landing especially considering that I had not flown since Christmas and it had been quite some time since I had flown a Warrior.

We had a beautiful flight and a wonderful time. 1.1 hours of VFR flight.

Grounded. Dammit!

2009-01-19T19:38:00.002-05:00

Once again the Libertarian in me is screaming for the government to get the hell out of my life. But, my wails fall on deaf ears. Here's the situation: Almost a year ago, I was awakened by a pain in my back. The pain was getting stronger and stronger and I recognized it as being caused by a kidney stone. I had one about 9 years earlier and it is hard to forget that intense pain.

I got out of bed, drank a bottle of water and hoped that it would pass. When it became apparent that the pain was getting worse, I asked my wife to drive me to the hospital. (I'm not married any longer, but it has nothing to do with a kidney stone). The first time I had a kidney stone, I drove myself to the hospital after experiencing pain for 4 days.

The E.R. doctor gave me some saline and a flomax injection. Flomax is usually for urinary trouble resulting from an enlarged prostate, however, it also helps people pass kidney stones. I was x-rayed and they confirmed that I had a stone and that it had already moved down the ureter. I asked the doctor for some coffee and orange juice because I still didn't seem to have an ability to urinate. Finally, the beverages had the expected effect. I passed the stone - it sounded like a b-b hitting the urinal, but it was actually very small.

I left the hospital, went to the airport and caught a flight to Boston - I had missed my earlier flight.

The point of all this detail is that although kidney stones can cause debilitating pain, in every situation, I have managed to deal with it and I am certain that if I had one in flight, I would have no trouble landing the plane.

The FAA doesn't see it that way. Apparently, I was supposed to tell them as soon as I had the stone. I didn't realize that. When I went for my bi-annual medical review, the doctor told me that I would have to obtain the records from my hospital event, visit a urologist and then send the results of this to the FAA. According to the doctor, I should be able to fly by March.

I haven't gone a month without flying since I took my first lesson. I was told that I could go up with an instructor, so that would be ok, but more expensive. Oh well. I just have to jump through the bureaucratic hoops if I want to fly.

Staying Current

2009-01-19T19:22:00.003-05:00

Staying instrument current can be a challenge in a place like Florida where we have so much sunshine. I would much rather fly in actual IFR than in simulated and arranging for a safety pilot can be a hassle at times.

This time of year, we tend to have a few days of low ceilings and fog and a few Saturdays ago, the sky was cooperating. The ceiling had risen to 300' overcast by the time I got to the airport. I would be flying the Archer again and that would give me good steam gauge practice...and I wouldn't be spoiled by any autopilot.

I wondered how thick the cloud layer would be when I took off and my question was answered suprisingly quickly. I was out of the clouds by 1000'. This was perfect IFR weather. It wasn't too windy or stormy - just a layer of fog that had risen to slightly above minimums.

I filed for a round-trip to CRG and departed on runway 5. ATC turned me to a heading of 080 at first and then progressively gave me 160 in 20 degree increments it seemed. There was a decent wind above the clouds and I think the controller wanted to get a feel for the amount of drift I would experience. I advised the controller that I would like the ILS32 approach at CRG and would follow that with more of the same. He gave me a 100 heading for my climbout on missed and assigned 2000 as my clearance altitude. I flew along above the solid layer of clouds until I moved off shore where the clouds nearly disappeared. ATC turned me for my base leg about 5 miles southeast of the ADERR intersection. Then about half a mile east of the localizer, I was turned to 300 and told to maintain 2000 until established on the approach. I had previously obtained the ATIS weather information for CRG and the plane was set up for the approach. As the needle began to close in , started my turn to line up on the localizer. Just south of ADERR the glideslope needle reached one dot above center and I pulled the first notch of flaps. I was maintaining 90 knots in my steady descent now and the clouds were solid in front of me. Focused on the needles, I made small adjustments to the trim and to my heading in order to keep the needles centered. I entered the clouds and it was solid white around me. Nothing to do but maintain my instrument scan and pay close attention to the altitude. I called out 500 feet to myself and still couldn't see the runway. The tower cleared me for the low approach and I continued lower. About 300 feet, I popped out of the clouds and there was the runway right ahead of me. I felt ver proud that I had executed this instrument approach so flawlessly.

As I crossed the threshold, I pushed the throttle, began to climb and retracted the flaps. I then told the tower that I was going missed and he handed me off to Jax Approach. I turned the plane to 100, continued my climb and called Jax. Two more approaches followed similar paths, however, by the last approach, it was clear that the clouds were burning off quickly and I decided against flying a fourth approach.

That was such a fun flight due to the moderate challenge of the cloud layer. Single pilot IFR is a great confidence builder provided that you don't crash.

I logged .6 hours of IFR with three approaches and a total of 1.1 hours.

Renter Beware

2008-11-11T13:29:00.002-05:00

The economic woes that afflict our country do not discriminate between wealthy or poor. The political rhetoric of late would have one believing that the rich are always getting richer, but nothing could be further from the truth.

As evidence of this, take a gander at the following story. A newly minted private pilot reserved a plane so that he could fly to Atlanta for the weekend. This was to be his first long cross-country after getting his certificate and I'm sure he was very excited. Unfortunately, a few days before the planned flight, he received a call from the flight school telling him that the plane was no longer available for rental because the owner had taken it off of lease-back. That wasn't quite true.

What has now been revealed to me is that another renter took the plane to South Florida. While tied down at the out-of-town airport, Cessna Finance repossessed the plane. Apparently, the owner had not been keeping up his payments. This left the renter stranded and my friend without a plane for the weekend.

What I find amazing about this is that the owner made no attempt to sell the plane and Cessna Finance hasn't attempted to put the plane on lease-back to the flight school that was using the plane on a daily basis. Seems like both Cessna Finance and the owner are not the most brilliant businessmen.

So renters, beware. I don't know what the answer to this problem would be. At least with a Skyhawk like N2469U, you could lock the cabin and the ignition requires a key. But what about all those Warriors and Archers that don't need a key to start. A repo-man could easily fly off with the plane. Should you take a length of chain to lock the plane to a tiedown? And perhaps a set of bolt cutters would be in order to free your plane from a lock installed by a repossessor.

It is too bad that Cessna Finance chose to behave in this manner. They could have easily repossessed the aircraft at its home base. It seems rather vindictive for them to repo the plane far from its home. Unfortunately for the renter, he became the victim of the finance company's vindication. I'll bet this even sticks in his mind should he ever decide to purchase an aircraft in the future.

If I learn more details, I'll be sure to post them here.

One Trip Made All The Training Worth While

2008-10-27T16:18:00.004-04:00

Growing up in Florida in the '60s and '70s, there was only one baseball team nearby (sort of) to root for. As a result, I was raised on Hank Aaron and the Atlanta Braves. Several times as a kid, Dad drove the family up to Atlanta to watch the Braves play in Fulton County Stadium. These were great times and the trips were always fun.

Fast forward to today...Dad and I are quite a bit older and Floridians have two teams to choose from. Dad now lives on the Gulf coast of Florida and I'm still in Jacksonville. This year the Tampa Bay Rays made it to the World Series! I used StubHub.com to find a couple of tickets to game 2 in St. Petersburg and asked Dad if he wanted to go. It isn't every day that you get to take your dad to the World Series.

The plane that I've been flying for the past year, N2469U, a Skyhawk with the Garmin G1000 panel was not available. The only plane that had enough open time was N341PA, a Piper Archer III that is showing some wear. This meant that I was back to flying on steam gauges and with no autopilot. The forecast was not good. Definitely not a VFR opportunity, so I'd be hand flying single pilot IFR in low conditions.

I got my briefing and filed two Instrument flight plans, one for CRG-CGC to pick up Dad and one for CGC-PIE to get to the game. The winds were fierce and gusty on the ground, but I would have a tailwind on the way down. Craig's beacon was lit signifying IFR conditions. After fueling the plane, I picked up clearance and departed Craig on schedule. Almost immediately after takeoff, I found myself in the clouds bouncing all over the place. Since I hadn't flown an Archer in over a year, I paid very careful attention to my checklist. ATC vectored me around the restricted area that was established over NAS Jacksonville for the airshow. As soon as I was past the restricted area, I was cleared direct to Crystal River. Most of the flight was conducted in instrument conditions, but the clouds thinned out a bit as I neared Crystal River. ATC was giving me vectors for the GPS approach to CGC and I entered that in the GPS. About 4 miles out, I started to pick out the airport through the clouds. ATC dropped me down to 2000 feet and I was able to cancel IFR and landed VFR. The skies were scattered at 1,300 feet with an OVC ceiling around 2,500 feet. The winds were light and variable, and there was no traffic in the pattern, so I entered a left downwind for runway 9 and landed.

Dad and I loaded up and I took off again this time headed for KPIE. I attempted to raise JAX approach on 118.6 several times and they never acknowledged me. As I flew closer to the Class B airspace around Tampa, I began to get aggravated. I could hear ATC, and I could hear other aircraft, but ATC never responded to me. Another pilot tried to relay for me, but the controller was ignoring me for some reason. Frustrated, I had to circle outside the Class B at 3000 feet waiting for clearance. I called Tampa Approach and was told that they couldn't get my clearance and was instructed to contact JAX on 118.6 - but that was the frequency that was not responding to me. The Tampa controller then told me to contact St. Pete. the St. Pete controller was able to pull up my clearance and told me it was on request - thinking I was on the ground. It advised the controller that I was over a particular intersection (I forgot which one) at 3000 feet and he then gave me my clearance and squawk. I was then instructed to intercept the localizer for 17L at PIE and I flew the ILS in.

The game was great and we had fun time. The next day, dad and I flew back to CGC and I flew on to CRG. This time the weather was also pretty cruddy. After getting my clearance at KPIE, ground control instructed me to taxi to 17L via taxiway Alpha. I taxied on alpha and crossed 9/27 and then found myself at the end of 35L. Thinking that I had missed a turn, I called ground control and asked if I had made a mistake. The controller told me that 35L was the continuation of alpha and it was not used as a runway currently. I was fine. I completed my runup as I taxied and was ready to go when I reached the end of 17L. The tower cleared me and told me to fly heading 270 on climbout. Passing through 700 feet, I turned right and was cleared to 4000 feet. Eventually we were turned to the north and we proceded to Crystal River. About 15 miles south of the airport, I was about to request a lower altitude and ATC handed me off to Jax approach. Approach told me to expect the GPS approach and said that they had no weather information at CGC. I advised that I had the numbers for CGC and that they were reporting 1300 feet scattered. ATC gave me vectors for the approach and I spotted the airport off my left wing. When I advised ATC that I had the airport in sight, ATC cleared me for the visual approach and I made a left turn to base - but I was still way to high to land. I advised ATC that I would be back in the air in about 10 minutes after I dropped off my passenger. The controller advised me to contact him on 118.6 when I was airborn and gave me a new squawk code for the next flight. This was a far cry better than the previous day's situation. I canceled IFR and I began a steep turn and a descent to lose altitude until I was low enough for a safe approach. There was no other traffic in the area and I flew straight in on runway 27. I dropped dad off and was back in the air shortly.

Once I was away from the pattern, I contacted ATC and was cleared to 6000 feet and direct Craig. I entered cloud layers around 2000 feet, passed through one layer and entered another layer around 5,500 and flew in clouds almost the entire way home. Craig was IFR and landing using either the VOR14 or the GPS14 approach. Winds were at 18 knots gusting to 26 from a heading of 130. Nearing the Jacksonville area, ATC advised that she could save me some time if I could fly the ILS32-Circle to 14 which I eagerly accepted. She vectored me around the airshow's restricted area - although I seriously doubt that there was any airshow practice going on in this weather. ATC brought me down to 3000 feet and then dropped me to 2000, turned me to 350 and told me to maintain 2000 until established on the localizer. I passed through some cloud layers and found myself in the clouds until about 1000 feet. Craig tower advised me to circle to the west, so I made a slight left turn off of the localizer about 2 miles from the departure end of 32 and flew a tight pattern at 600 feet. At this altitude, I was bounced up and down quite a bit and I was thankful I didn't have a passenger with a weak stomach. I landed and parked the plane just as the rain began again.

There is no way that I could have made this flight without an instrument rating. To borrow from the MasterCard commercials - flight lessons $12,000; World Series tickets $700; Taking Dad to the World Series in style, PRICELESS!

Lots of instrument time on these flights. 3.9 hours total time. Two instrument approaches. An absolutely terrific trip!

A Good Pilot Is Always Learning

2008-10-22T22:37:00.003-04:00

Recently I had the pleasure of flying with a student pilot shortly before he earned his wings. I had never met the pilot in person - we had corresponded when he was researching flight schools and came across this blog.

We made arrangements to get a $300 hamburger (inflation took its toll) at HighJackers at the Flagler Airport (KXFL). I've flown down there many times and like the food and the atmosphere, so I thought it would be a good place to take him. The weather was fine for an instrument rated pilot, but marginal VFR conditions prevailed. I filed an instrument flight plan and we jointly preflighted the plane. This was also the first time that Hank had flown in a G1000 cockpit. I took the left seat - I'm not an instructor and I have very rarely flown in the right seat. With a student in the plane, I didn't want to take any chances.

I got the clearance, taxied and after a short wait, we were cleared to depart on runway 5 and were told to fly heading 100. We encountered a few clouds on the climbout and during cruise. I demonstrated the autopilot, the GPS and explained the basics of the G1000 PFD and MFD. I also hit the reversionary mode button so my copilot would have the exact same display that I had.

During the flight we talked about Hank's training. He described a situation where his instructor had him flying in what he described as instrument conditions without an IFR flight plan. Further discussion revealed that these were not actual instrument conditions but hazy conditions that obscured the horizon. He also explained that he had an actual engine out condition that his instructor deliberately caused. They were over a non-towered airport and pulled power to idle. The instructor apparently had him pull back on the throttle until the prop stopped windmilling. Once it stopped, he pushed the nose over but the engine did not restart. They went through the emergency procedures and were able to restart. I found the situation quite disturbing and unnecessarily risky. It is a potential violation of FAR 91.113 and I told Hank as much.

Nearing the airport, ATC instructed me to descend to 2,600 feet - but I heard it as 2,000 feet and I repeated the same. ATC did not correct me and neither did my co-pilot who later said he heard it correctly. In level flight at 2,000, ATC told me, "fly 2,600 as assigned". Oops. Busted altitude. I replied that I was climbing back to 2,600.

As we approached Flagler, we could see a few aircraft on the Traffic Information System and I heard several talking to ATC. One was a Cirrus on instruments that was going to cause us a bit of a delay. ATC told me I could cancel IFR in the air and avoid the delay. Unfortunately, the airport was obscured by clouds and we were in and out of clouds at our altitude. I explained the situation to ATC who vectored me to the East where there were fewer clouds and he dropped me down. Clear of the clouds and low enough to stay below them, I canceled IFR and entered the pattern to make a landing to the East.

After a nice meal served by an attractive waitress who bore a striking resemblance to Sarah Palin...maybe hotter, I filed IFR for the return.

We taxied to runway 6 and were number 3 behind a Warrior and a Cirrus. The Warrior departed and the Cirrus taxied to the hold short. An aircraft in the pattern announced he was turning base and the Cirrus decided to wait. I don't know why. The Cessna that was on base was flying a very wide pattern and took a full five minutes to land. The Cirrus waited quite a while after the Cessna landed and executed a touch-and-go. As soon as I saw the Cessna airborne, I called on the radio, "Be advised that touch-and-gos are prohibited at Flagler". I felt like telling the pilot to read his A/FD, but my co-pilot had confided that he had done the same thing a few weeks earlier without noting the A/FD's warning, so I cut him some slack.

After the Cirrus' inexplicable delay that caused quite a back up of traffic behind me, I taxied onto the runway and watched as the Cirrus aborted his take off. He turned off of the runway quite a way down and as soon as he was clear, I departed. As I passed through pattern altitude, I leveled off below the clouds and contacted Daytona Approach to pick up my instrument clearance. We were cleared Direct to Craig as filed but we were assigned 6,000 feet as our cruising altitude. On climbout, I turned over the controls to hank. We encountered clouds on climbout and he did a pretty good job of handling the plane in spite of the unfamiliar display and right seat. He leveled off ok, but had a little difficulty trimming it. Encountering clouds, he busted altitude a few times and when focused on altitude, he drifted off of his heading, however he did an overall good job of handling the plane.

During the flight, we encountered some VFR traffic that was reported at 500 feet below us in the opposite direction. ATC announced the traffic and we spotted it on our scope. Since we were barely above the broken cloud layer, I advised ATC that we did not have traffic in sight and it was probably in and out of clouds. I then heard ATC instruct the traffic to remain VFR - so I suspect that someone was violating VFR. I see that quite a bit especially with the students flying planes with tail numbers that end in Echo-Romeo - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. This is dangerous and unacceptable behavior. What happens when two ERAU pilots encounter each other in a cloud and neither is talking to ATC? Not a good situation at all. The FARs were mostly created in response to some tragedy and are intended to protect all of us. Follow the damn rules guys!

The conditions at Craig required that we fly the ILS-32 Circle to 5 approach . I took the controls when ATC told us to descend and I flew the approach.

Hank had to postpone his check ride that was scheduled for Tuesday because the aircraft was down for maintenance. I got an email last Friday announcing that he got his ticket punched. I think he'll make a great pilot. Congratulations Hank!

Far Reaching Effects of Tropical Storm Fay

2008-09-30T17:03:00.002-04:00

Get-there-itis is an affliction normally reserved for the impatient or foolish, but I think I may have had just a touch of it last month when I flew to Tampa for the Jaguars-Bucs game. Tropical storm Fay had just crossed the state bringing huge volumes of rain, wind damage and general inconvenience. But the outer bands of the storm were still hundreds of miles from its center.

The plan was to fly from Jacksonville to Tampa international on Saturday morning, go to the game then fly home the next day. The flight usually takes about 1.5 hours from startup to shutdown. I got a briefing and checked the weather forecast and it looked a little ugly, but not so bad that I couldn't make the trip and I really didn't want to drive the 4 hours. I filed IFR and headed took off about an hour behind schedule because I was waiting for the local weather to clear up a little. The problem was the winds were pretty severe at 18 knots with gusts at 26 knots as I recall. I held the plane on the ground a little longer than normal so I would have plenty of speed for the climbout should the wind suddenly shift on me. I reached my cruising altitude without covering much distance at all.

After leveling off, I activated the auto pilot and set it to NAV and ALT. This would make the plane follow the flightplan that I entered in the GPS and it would maintain a steady altitude. About 30 seconds after activating the auto pilot, I noticed that the altitude had not stabilized and the aircraft was climbing. I checked the breakers, made sure everything was set properly, but the darn thing would not hold altitude. Then I noticed the red "P" on the face of the auto pilot. This meant that the pitch control was inoperable. Great. Flying into crappy weather without an auto pilot - not the best thing to do. But heck, pilots have done that for years.

I trimmed the plane and hand flew it monitoring the HSI, GPS and altimeter to make sure I was always on course and at my assigned altitude. As I got closer to Ocala, ATC advised me that there was a squall line extending from south of Tampa to Ocala and she suggested that I deviate to the south or maybe land at Ocala and wait it out. I opted for the deviation. About 5 minutes later, the controller told me that the deviation wouldn't work and I should deviate to the west. She gave me a westward heading and with her help, I began to navigate around the worst of the storms. The real problem was the wind. The winds aloft in my briefing were expected to be in the low 30knot range at 6000' and less at 9000'. I was cruising at 7000' but the winds varied from 36 to 41 knots according to the G1000. Groundspeed was pretty dismal as a result. I trudged along accepting course changes from ATC to vector me around the storms. I was getting tossed around quite a bit and flew in clouds for about an hour straight. At one point I started climbing rapidly and I had to reduce power and push the nose down. I had gained 500 feet and was pointing 20 degrees nose down with the engine idling...and I was still climbing. That was some serious updraft. ATC kept giving me instructions like 10 degrees left, 20 degrees right as she steered me clear of the worst of the storms. Eventually, I passed through the clouds, but I could see a solid line of towering cumulous off my left wing in the direction that I needed to go. The coast appeared ahead of me. I was near Cross City north of Cedar Key when I crossed the coastline. Finally, ATC turned me to the south.

I was cleared direct to TPA and I loaded the ILS 18L into the computer. I started receiving the localizer about 30 miles out and although ATC hadn't pointed me to it, I adjusted my course a few degrees to the left to intercept. Meanwhile, I tuned the ATIS and got the numbers on the second radio. Jax Center handed me off to TPA who started bringing me down. I entered clouds around 3000 feet and was eventually cleared for the ILS 18L approach. With the strong headwinds, I kept my speed at 120 knots so I wouldn't slow down the commercial traffic any more than was necessary. I popped out of the clouds about 900 feet above the ground and I saw the runway ahead of me. I reduced the throttle to idle and progressively extended the flaps. I landed a little long on purpose so I would be closer to the first taxiway and could clear the runway as quickly as possible.

Ground control cleared me across 9-27 to the ramp. I looked for a "follow-me" cart, but nothing appeared. I taxied to parking and the ground handler appeared. No sooner had he chocked my left wheel then the sky began to fall. Man, that was some strong rain pouring down on me. I had made it just in time. I sat in the plane feeling the wind rocking it while it sat on the ground. Eventually, the FBO drove the rental car up to my wing and I managed to stay dry as I loaded up.

The combination of the weather vectors and the strong headwinds turned a 1.5 hour trip into a 2.5 hour run with over an hour of actual instrument time. Quite an adventure!

Congested Area - Definition

2008-09-10T11:32:00.003-04:00

I just published a comment from a reader that suggested that a congested area is any yellow colored portion of a VFR sectional chart. Neither the FAR nor the AIM define congested area and the key on the sectional does not state that yellow areas define congested. There have been recent enforcement actions described on the AOPA website where the FAA has punished pilots for flying too low over congested areas that would not have been identified in yellow on the chart.

I live in a neighborhood that has about 200 homes. There are about 3 to 4 homes per acre plus lots of streets. Adjacent to our neighborhood are several condominium complexes. There are thousands of cars and thousands of people. Any reasonable person flying over the area would think of this as a congested area. The Jacksonville sectional does not identify my area in yellow.

The key point is that the FAA does not clearly define "congested area" and the VFR charts cannot be used to reliably identify congested areas. Furthermore, the FAA's enforcement actions have lacked the consistency necessary to draw any conclusions about their definition of "congested". Consequently, common sense is the order of the day for defining congested areas.

The AOPA's member website has several discussions about minimum safe altitudes, FAR 91.13 and 91.119. "The FAA does not define congested area in the FARs or in the Aeronautical Information Manual. And, FAA interpretations and decisions issued by the National Transportation Safety Board in low-flight enforcement cases are not consistent for purposes of drafting a precise definition. Such a determination is usually decided on a case-by-case basis, and in the cases that we've seen, "congested" has been interpreted rather broadly. For example, a highway with moderate traffic was found to be "congested," as was a seaside area where 200 to 300 persons were sitting on the beach or bathing in the water. "

The bottom line is good judgement should be used in determining minimum safe altitudes and the only sure way to avoid an enforcement action is to err on the side of caution. Whether you think it is a congested area or not, that girl floating in her pool below you probably doesn't want you buzzing her only 500 feet above.

10.5 Hours Around Vegas & The Grand Canyon

2008-06-17T18:46:00.008-04:00

In mid-May, I had a conference to attend in Las Vegas and decided to go out early so I could get some flying in around the Grand Canyon. Last November, I had flown to the Grand Canyon West airport and I wanted to fly to the airport at the Grand Canyon National Park this time (KGCN).

I rented a Skyhawk with steam gauges and no auto pilot from Westair Aviation. I've rented from this flight school in the past and have found their planes to be well maintained and the staff to be very friendly. My scheduled instructor for the check-out ride was a no-show, though. One of the instructors reviewed my log book and saw that I was current, instrument rated and had plenty of time in type plus rentals from this school in November, so he waived their 90 rental rule and signed off on my rental.

I departed the North Vegas airport around noon VFR and followed ATC's instructions through the Class B airspace. They vectored me over Nellis Air Force Base and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The weather was windy, but there were few clouds. I flew to the Peach Springs VOR, then headed to GCN. The flying time was almost 2 hours due to winds.

The wind passing over the mountains and canyons created very bumpy conditions and the lack of an autopilot forced me to rely on my stick and rudder skills to remain straight and level. I've been spoiled by the two-axis auto pilot in the Skyhawk that I fly at home...and I have been flying G1000 equiped aircraft almost exclusively, so going back to steam gauges was quite a change. Nevertheless, I flew over incredibly beautiful scenery and made it to GCN without incident.

Along the way, I managed to take a few shots looking North to the Canyon. There are numerous canyons that feed into the Grand Canyon and I was able to fly directly above them as I traveled eastward at 9,500 feet.The FAA regulations don't permit general aviation aircraft to fly directly over the canyon except in four narrow corridors that are 4 miles wide and that cross the canyon or nearly cross it North and South, but these are fairly far to the east or they only come down from the North rim making it very time consuming to get to them from Las Vegas. Nevertheless, I was able to get a good view of the canyon as I flew South of it. Once at GCN, I caught a cab from the airport to the national park. For $16, I received transportation and admission to the park which I thought was very reasonable. I spent the afternoon hiking and taking pictures. I hiked down the Bright Angel trail for about an hour wondering why the rangers thought it was so difficult to hike down and back in a single day. After hiking down for an hour, I turned back and it was quickly apparent why the rangers issued their warnings. It took me two hours to get back up and I only went a fraction of the way down the trail.

The winds in the area of the Canyon are notorious and challenging to pilots of small planes. I paid particular attention to wind direction as I taxied for my departure. The ride was bumpy and required my full attention because the wind direction would frequently change causing my airspeed, engine speed and altitude to change every few minutes.

As I approached the Las Vegas Class B airspace, I was asked if I was familiar with the area, and I told the controller I had flown there twice before. He asked if I knew the Cortez arrival route and I responded that it was on the TAC but I had not flown it before. The controller then dropped me down to 6,500 feet and cleared me for the Cortez Arrival and cleared me into the Class B airspace. I was bouncing around in the plane quite a bit as I attempted to fly the route. At one point, the controller asked if I was flying the route, and I told him that I thought that I was. After about 10 minutes, the controller informed me that the route was supposed to be flown at 3,500 feet. The trouble was that the route only mentioned 3,500 once in small print that I never noticed as the chart bounced in front of me. I apologized and the controller said it wasn't a problem and gave me vectors for North Vegas.

The next day, an old friend of mine arrived and I flew the same route all over again, just a bit later in the day. The wind was fierce and we bounced all over, but this time I had a Skyhawk with an autopilot. When we departed Grand Canyon, the wind was nearly straight down the runway at 19 knots with gusts to 28 knots...pretty fierce, but the direction was steady. The climbout was easy and quick and the flight was bumpy but uneventful.

The next day, I took another friend up. I had met Lynn through work and had encouraged her to come sightseeing with me. The weather was overcast and windy, but the clouds were high and this would not prevent us from flying. We received vectors from ATC to fly directly to Hoover Dam and even had a controller say, "Enjoy your dam tour!"

I handed my camera to Lynn and she demonstrated her skill as a photographer by taking these shots of the dam.

And another shot by Lynn:
After passing the dam, we flew around a mountain ridge that extended to the southeast then flew north back towards Lake Mead. We followed the lake to the North then ultimately flew along the North rim of the canyon remaining outside the restricted areas. The chart showed an airstrip in a canyon, but I couldn't spot it. After turning around, I spotted this very narrow runway situated deep in a valley near the north rim. I can only imagine the challenges that landing in a windy valley like this would present.

We followed lake Mead back and I called ATC for clearance back through the Class B. They vectored me towards Nellis where we were finding challenges trying to remain clear of clouds. Ultimately, we were caught in some virga followed by severe turbulence that made me just a bit nervous. I slowed the plane down to minimize the stress on the airframe and we made it through the mess. As we were getting tossed around, Lynn asked, "Are you going to get us down from here?" and I responded, "One way or another, we'll get down". Her nuckles were white as she gripped the door handle and she grabbed my shoulder each time we hit a bump. I felt so bad for her, but I was never really in danger. We landed without further incident with 2.5 hours on the Hobbs meter. I was amazed that we had flown that long. It felt like only an hour.

The first two days took up about 4 hours of flying time each and this one generated 2.5 for a total of 10.5 hours of flying over three days. What a great trip!

What Not To Do

2008-06-02T20:10:00.002-04:00

I had flown to Tampa for the weekend and was prepared to head back IFR flying through the towering cumulous clouds that are typical for this time of year in Florida. It was early evening and I had received my IFR clearance to DADES-V581-OCF-direct-CRG. The controller gave me a squawk code, frequencies told me to fly 060 on climb out to 1600 feet expect 8000 in 10 minutes. I ran through the runup checklist as I taxied to 36-Right as instructed. There was no traffic on the tarmac behind me or anywhere near the taxiway, so I felt safe in doing the runup on the roll.

Part of a runup is the run the engine at 1800 RPM, then turn off one magneto, then turn it back on, then the other magneto and turn it back on, then reduce the throttle to idle and verify that the engine would not die. I executed this procedure, or so I thought.

I had to wait for traffic to depart including a Boeing 737 which the controller referred to as an Airbus. I knew it was a 737 from the non-circular shape of the turbine intakes, but I didn't think it would be good to correct a controller for this minor detail.

I was eventually cleared for takeoff and I taxied onto the runway and gave the engine full throttle. The plane seemed to accelerate normally but as I climbed, I noted that I was barely getting 500 fpm for the rate of climb. I attributed this to the very hot day and high density altitude due to the heat and humidity.

I eventually leveled off at 8000 feet but was concerned when my speed was barely 107 TAS. I normally get about 124 knots and the engine was maxed out at 2400 RPM. I thought that maybe I had fouled a plug with the long wait on the tarmac, so I leaned the engine considerably until it ran rough. That didn't work.

I kept a close eye on the gauges and nothing was abnormal. What could be causing the problem?

Finally, I decided to run through my mental cruise checklist. This involves looking at each piece of equipment from top to bottom and left to right verifying that everything is as it should be. I started with the top left of the panel - all normal. Then moved downward. All circuit breakers were fine. But wait! There it was! Somehow, the start switch had flipped to the right magneto only position. It could have been because I had my whole keychain attached to the key or maybe I just didn't switch it far enough when I did the run up. I turned the switch to the both position and the engine instantly gained 300 rpm! Problem solved.

1.6 hours of cross-country flying with about .5 in actual IFR conditions.

More Fun With The Weather

2008-01-27T15:36:00.000-05:00

I looked at my calendar and it came as a shock that I hadn't taken the controls of an aircraft in two whole weeks. No wonder I was drooling as I looked from my first row seat of the Airbus A320 into the open cockpit door. I pulled out my blackberry and reserved a plane for the next day.

I was awakened by the sound of rain beating on my roof Saturday morning. Checking the forecast, conditions did not look good for the day. Mostly IFR conditions throughout the day but with fairly calm winds at the surface. So with my coffee in my hand, I got a briefing for an 11am departure flying over to Cecil Field. The ceiling at Cecil was showing much better than Craig - Overcast at 900 feet while Craig was overcast at 400. Visibility was reported at 3 miles, but it was diminishing with light rain and mist. These are the METAR strips for the time that I was up yesterday:
KCRG 261653Z 00000KT 2 1/2SM BR OVC004 09/08 A3025 RMK AO2 RAB02E50 SLP242 P0000 T00940083 $
KCRG 261641Z 15006KT 1 1/2SM -RA BR OVC004 09/08 A3024 RMK AO2 RAB02 P0000 $
KCRG 261618Z 14007KT 2SM -RA BR OVC004 08/07 A3027 RMK AO2 RAB02 PRESFR P0000 $
KCRG 261553Z 00000KT 3SM BR OVC004 08/07 A3032 RMK AO2 RAE38 PRESFR SLP267 P0001 T00780072 $

KVQQ 261750Z VRB03KT 2 1/2SM BR BKN004 OVC010 A3022
KVQQ 261650Z VRB04KT 2 1/2SM BR BKN005 OVC010 A3026
KVQQ 261550Z 00000KT 2SM BR OVC009 A3034

The interesting thing to note is that the barometer was dropping pretty rapidly during this time period and that doesn't spell good weather.

Arriving at the airport I learned that a new VFR pilot had taken the plane that I reserved to St. Simons Island the night before and due to obvious reasons, he could not make it back. I think the chief instructor needs to take another look at this fellow's credentials. The weather on Friday Night was exactly as forecast, so there was no reason for him to expect that he could make it back VFR.

Fortunately, a new Skyhawk was on the line - fueled and ready for me. With the weather conditions looking miserable, I verified if the plane was reserved for later just in case I needed to land at an alternate. Sure enough, it was reserved at 2, but I expected to return by 1, so no problem.

I called a briefer and entered a new flight plan since my tail number had changed and then preflighted the plane. Since I hadn't flown it several weeks, I was very careful about the preflight - didn't want to miss anything.

Taxi, runup and departure were uneventful and I was cleared to depart on runway 5 and instructed to turn to 280 on climbout. The plane accelerated down the runway and I was airborne. The cold air's effects on the engine's performance and the wing's lift were quite noticeable as I was climbing more than 1000 feet per minute with full fuel. In no time I was in the clouds. I made my turn to 280 and was handed off to JAX Approach.

Approach assigned me 4000 feet as my final altitude. I leveled off and set the autopilot to follow the heading bug. I then loaded the approach into the GPS and clipped the approach plate to my yoke. I read the plate and then tuned the ATIS for Cecil.

I was flying between layers of clouds above and below me. ATC turned me to 190 for the downwind leg for the ILS 36-R approach to Cecil. Just prior to turning me for the base leg, the controller dropped me to 2000 feet and I found myself in the clouds once again. ATC turned me to 270 followed shortly by a turn to 320 and an approach clearance, "November- 2-4-6-niner-uniform, fly heading 320, maintain 2000 until established, cleared for the ILS 36-right approach to Cecil." I repeated the clearance as I adjusted my course and activated the vector-to-final. On the downwind, I had identified the localizer at Cecil, and the green bar and the diamond were showing on my G1000 PFD. ATC handed me off to the tower who I contacted and I was given clearance for the option on 36R. I hit the APR button on the autopilot and it subsequently lined me up perfectly with the localizer. Prior to reaching the fix, I slowed my speed to 95 knots. As the glideslope neared my current altitude, I dropped the first notch of flaps and waited as the autopilot stabilized the aircraft with the warning, "Trim In Motion". I was maintaining a descent of about 450 fpm when I disconnected the autopilot so I could hand fly the rest of the approach.

I was in solid IMC when the tower controller asked me to give him a base report once I broke through and I said that I would.

The ground finally appeared when I passed through 400 feet. The runway was dead ahead. Since I had the option, I touched the wheels to the runway and then took off all over again.

My climbout instructions were fore 270 and 2000 feet on the same ATC frequency. My touch and go had used less than a quarter of the very long runway (12,500 feet). The tower handed me back to ATC and I was quickly turned to 190 again for a left downwind for the same approach.

I was flying at on ly 90 knots when I heard ATC talking to a Seminole advising them that he might have to turn them for spacing. Recognizing that I might be the cause of the potential delay, I called ATC and offered to fly faster. ATC thanked me for that and I pushed the throttle for more speed. I accelerated to 125 knots IAS and set up the plane for the next approach.

I maintained my speed until 1 mile from the FAF receiving turning instructions from ATC as I lined up for the next approach. ATC asked my intentions and I said following this approach, I would return to Craig for a full stop. He ammended my climbout instructions to 360 and 3000.

I wanted to practice an emergency procedure - nothing in the book, though. Since I carry a spare radio that can tune and indicate the localizer, I decided to use this for navigation simulating an emergency where I lost the nav radios. This time, I hand flew the entire approach. I found myself wandering across the beam a bit more than usual and the handheld radio had a bit more variability than the regular equipment. I emerged from the clouds at 400 feet and about 20 feet from the center line pointed about 10 degrees to the right of the center. But the fact is that I was pretty close to being lined up and had no difficulty reaching the runway.

Following this, I headed back to Craig where I flew the ILS 32 approach. The weather had grown worse - lower ceilings and less visibility. The ceiling was reported at 400 feet and that is lower than every approach requires except for the ILS. I did the usual - ATIS, Radios, Approach Plate, GPS, etc. I entered clouds at about 2800 feet and was solidly in IMC as I was handed off to the tower. I made my call and was told that I could expect to emerge at 300 feet...wow - that's damn close to minimums - 241'. A circling approach would not be possible. Fortunately the wind was light so I should have no trouble landing on 32.

I popped out of the clouds at 300 feet as expected, but I couldn't see the far end of the runway. Visibility was only about 1.5 miles, if that.

The runway was precisely where it was supposed to be as I emerged from the clouds.

Flying in such poor conditions and being able to make three successful landings without crashing was a very satisfying experience.

1.4 hours, 3 TO, 3 Landings, 3 Instrument Approaches, 0.9 hours in actual IMC.

Inexperienced? Maybe...but a damned fool? Absolutely not.

2008-01-27T15:20:00.000-05:00

A while back I wrote an entry where I described getting a clearance for an IFR departure from a non-towered airport and explained that I was given a very short window to take off. I had called Tampa Departure Control - the controlling agency for the clearance. The airport that I was departing is beneath the Class-B airspace for Tampa International and is fairly close to the approach patterns for this busy airport. An anonymous writer was harshly critical of my comments and said that my acceptance of a 6 minute clearance was indicative of my inexperience. The anonymous pilot explained that he has been a corporate pilot for 20 years and frequently gets clearances for 20 minutes for zero-zero departures from non-towered airports. Bully for him.

First, I'm flying a Skyhawk and will not depart an airport that I cannot immediately return to should I have a problem on departure, therefore a zero-zero for me translates to zero airspeed, zero RPM. Second, his experience may tell him to demand longer clearances, but I won't be flying with him if he opts to depart in such conditions. He won't get a 20 minute clearance window departing from the Tampa North Aeropark in his corporate jet...oh, yeah, that big lump of aluminum can't land or take off from there anyway.

Third, I never claimed to be a 20 year corporate pilot. However, I have more experience than many of the instructors who are teaching new pilots...and most of my instrument experience is in IMC, not under the hood. Still, I recognize that I do not have the experience of many pilots and I am constantly learning.

It is extremely unlikely that Tampa Departure would give anyone a 20 minute window that would cause them to block a section of busy class B airspace. Perhaps they do things differently in the Great Lakes.

So, if anyone cares to comment on my entries - please feel free. Just keep the chest pounding to yourself. It serves no useful purpose. And if you've never flown from the place I described, try not to use irrelavent experience as the basis for criticism. Lastly, if you expect me to post critical notes that lack signatures, forget it. Anonymous notes will garner nothing more than my own response...if that.

Christmas Night IFR

2007-12-30T17:57:00.000-05:00

Before heading to my sister's house for Christmas dinner, I checked the forecast for the flight home that I was planning to make later that evening. The weather along the route provided no obstacles, but the ceiling at Craig was forecast to drop from its current 1200 feet overcast to 400 feet overcast with layers later that night. 400 feet is just a little more than the minimum 241 feet for the ILS approach and was below minimums for all of the non-precision approaches. I wasn't worried, but this would be as big a challenge as the prior day's approach to Tampa North with no instrument approaches and 1,600 foot ceilings.

After a wonderful meal and lots of time with my neices and nephews, I called 1-800-WX-BRIEF and got a standard briefing for the flight home. The weather in the Tampa area had cleared somewhat from the morning's broken skies and it now appeared that I could depart VFR and pick up my clearance once airborne. The alternative was to try to raise ATC on the ground or call the Lockheed-Martin 800 number for clearance. This could result in having to wait on the ground for a while until ATC had cleared the sky around me and with a busy Tampa International nearby, the big jets always get priority.

Arriving at the airport, we had calm winds and few clouds. I completed my preflight and set the altimeter to the airport elevation of 68 feet. I set the local CTAF on the radio and tuned 119.9 in the standby frequency for Tampa Approach. I then entered my route in the GPS: X39 direct OCF direct Craig. Runup showed no problems, so I announced my intentions on the CTAF and departed on runway 32 just as the sun was setting.

Climbing through 1000 feet, I completed the climb checklist, announced a departure to the north and turned the plane direct to Ocala. Then switching the radio to the ATC frequency, I listened for traffic and called, "Tampa Approach, Skyhawk 7-2-1 Victor Alpha".

The controller instructed an airliner to slow to 170, waited for his response, then acknowledged me by saying, "Skyhawk 7-2-1 Victor Alpha, Tampa Approach".

I requested my instrument clearance, "Approach, 1-Victor Alpha has just departed Xray three niner. IFR on file for Charlie Romeo Golf. I'd like to pick up my clearance, please."

The controller gave me a squawk code for the transponder which I acknowledged and entered into the device.

A minute later, the controller radioed, "November 1-Victor-Alpha, radar contact three miles north of the Tampa North Aeropark. Cleared to Craig as filed, climb to 6000 feet." I repeated the clearance and altitude then set 6000 as the warning in the autopilot and as the bug on the altimeter.

I leveled off at 6000 feet and before I reached Ocala, the controller cleared me direct to Craig.

Just past Ocala, I could see a cloud layer building ahead of us. It looked like a thin layer that covered a wide area ahead. Eventually, the horizon disappeared and I was completely on instruments.

There weren't many aircraft flying this evening so the radio was quiet except for the occasional frequency change to accommodate handoffs to different controllers.

I could see the lights of towns and cities below causing bright spots in the cloud layer, but the ground was otherwise completely obscured.

I listened to the ATIS for Craig and learned that CRG was landing on runway 32 and was IFR with a ceiling of 009 broken. I pulled up the plate for the ILS 32 approach, briefed it, loaded it into the GPS and followed ATC's instructions for descent to 2000 feet into the clouds.

I slowed the plane to 90 knots for the approach and was vectored by ATC to the final course.

The controller cleared me for the ILS 32 approach which I repeated. I activated the vector-to-final in the GPS and set up the auto pilot to line me up which it did wonderfully. Once established inbound, ATC handed me off to the tower.

I called, "Craig Tower, Skyhawk 7-2-1- Victor Alpha, 4.9 miles from runway 32 on the ILS with whiskey, full stop. The tower immediately cleared me to land and I continued to hand fly the approach. We popped out of the clouds at 800 feet with the approach lighting directly ahead of us. I greased the landing - a very smooth landing especially considering it was at night.

I made the turnoff and was advised by the tower to taxi to the ramp and monitor ground on point-8. I thanked the tower and then advised him that the ceiling was now down to 800 feet.

Flying in IMC is a pleasure for me. I get a great sense of satisfaction from flying an approach through the clouds and navigating directly to the runway. Popping out of the clouds to see the runway right where I expect it makes me just a bit proud.

1.6 hours of Night cross-country with 0.7 in actual IMC and one instrument approach...a good day of flying by any measure!

Down through the clouds - without an instrument approach

2007-12-25T22:51:00.000-05:00

My trip from Craig Airport (KCRG) to the Tampa North Aeropark (X39) on Christmas Eve, started with a hitch and got more complicated as the flight neared completion. The aircraft was far from ready when I arrived at the airport. It had been flown two days earlier for 3.5 hours and was left without refueling. When I arrived at the airport, only a skeleton crew was available and they were focused on repairing both of the air charter jets that were down for unscheduled maintenance.

The engine gave me fits trying to start, which is surprising for a fuel injected aircraft. Finally, I got it started and taxied over to the fuel depot for refueling. The end result was a departure that was about 40 minutes behind schedule.

The weather at Craig was clear with few clouds. But prior to departure, I checked the METARs for Brooksville, Vandenburg and Tampa International to get some idea what the weather was like at Tampa North. Nothing looked promising. Brooksville was reporting 900 feet and overcast, Tampa was 1400 and Vandenburg was about the same. The past few hours of METARs showed increases in the ceiling and that was promising and the TAFs suggested there would be some clearing later in the day, so I expected that we'd eventually be able to land.

I picked up my IFR clearance and ran through the runup. The winds favored runway 32 for departure and I picked up my clearance and a departure heading of 280. The tower handed me off to JAX approach who cleared me to 5000 feet and cleared me direct to OCF once I had passed 2000 feet.

Headwinds slowed our progress somewhat, but it wasn't too bad. About 20 minutes into the flight, I came upon a solid white layer of clouds below me that reached up to envelope the aircraft from time to time. Using the NEXRAD capabilities of the G1000, I kept tabs on the nearby airports as I flew along. The situation had not improved much.

Closer to the destination, the clouds near our altitude thinned out only to reveal a solid layer further below. South of Ocala, ATC dropped me down to 2000 feet and that put me in and out of clouds. Tampa Approach asked me for my flight conditions and I had to tell him that I was in and out of IMC.

ATC then said, "November one-victor-alpha, cleared direct Xray-three-niner, if you aren't already direct". A few minutes later, I received clearance to descend to 1600, then minimum altitude that the controller could give me. Unfortunately, I was still in the clouds and there was no instrument approach into this airport.

The controller asked me for the conditions, and this time I told him that I was getting glimpses of the ground, but I had zero forward visibility. He asked me what I would like to do if I can't see the airport when I arrive and I replied, "I'll divert to Crystal River, Charlie-Golf-Charlie". There is a single, non-precision approach to Crystal River, but more importantly, that's just a few miles from my Dad's house and if he handn't already left for my sister's house, I could catch a ride with him.

A few minutes later, the controller asked me if he could make a suggestion. I told him that I would love to hear any suggestion that he might have. His idea he had really surprised me - it was a great idea and definitely not something that was ever taught in flight training.

The controller suggested that I fly the ILS to Vandenburg, but once I was safely below the cloud layer, I could go missed, cancel IFR and fly VFR back to Tampa North. He could not legally give me an altitude below 1600 feet on and IFR plan, and I couldn't cancel IFR when I was still in the clouds, so the key was to find a legal way to get below the clouds. With the ceiling at 1600 feet and 1600 feet being the minimum altitude, we had a challenge that the controller found a very creative way of overcoming.

I could legally decend below the clouds on the Vandenburg approach and since the ceiling was at 1600 feet, I could legally fly at 1100 feet - still 500 feet below the clouds and over 1000 feet above obstacles on the ground.

As I flew along, I reduced speed to 85 knots to give myself lots of time to spot the airport. ATC called me to say that they were showing me at 1700 feet - but my altimeter showed 1640. I dropped down to 1560 to take advantage of the apparent fudge factor. But, the greatest advantage I had was the GPS.

The GPS took me directly over the airport and just as I passed the airport, ATC told me that I was passing it and asked me what I wanted to do. I had just spotted the airport's new hangers as I flew over, so I immediately told ATC that I had the airport in sight, was dropping lower and canceled IFR.

I dropped the 500 feet to pattern altitude very quickly made a quick pass to see if I could spot a wind sock, then lined up for the downwind for 32. I never spotted the sock, but the winds at Brooksville would have favored runway 32, so I assumed that this was the case. Crossing the fence, my engine was pulled to idle, but there was about an 8 to 10 knot tailwind, so I sailed along wasting runway as I finally greased the landing.

This was a unique flight in that I learned a new trick from the air traffic controller. The flight took about 1.6 hours with .6 of that in solid and challenging IMC...all cross country.

HARD IFR!

2007-12-22T13:34:00.000-05:00

It is now 1:35pm and I still have not seen the sun today.

Craig field was reporting a ceiling of 600 feet overcast with mist. Visibility was ranging from 1 3/4 miles to 2 1/2 miles. The minimums for the ILS32-CRG are 241 feet MSL. So a 600 foot ceiling would make for some fun flying.

I filed IFR for CRG-VQQ-CRG with PLA in the notes section (Practice Low Approaches). After getting my clearance and performing a quick runup, I pulled up to runway 5 and announced that I was ready to go. After about 60 seconds, the tower cleared me and told me to make a left turn to 280.

Just as the METAR indicated, I entered clouds at 600 feet and executed my climbing left turn to 2000 feet. The tower handed me off to Jax Approach who gave me 3000 feet as my final altitude and asked for my intentions. I asked for the ILS 36 Right at VQQ and was vectored to the southwest. Level at 3000 feet, I tuned the ATIS for Cecil on my second radio. Once I had it I told Jax Approach that I had information Sierra.

The winds at 2000 and 3000 feet were varying between 29 and 36 knots from 070 according to my GPS. At the surface they shifted to 020. At no time did I break out of the clouds.

I loaded the approach on the GPS and clipped the plate to the yoke. Reading through it I noted the minimum altitudes, headings, etc.

Shortly, ATC dropped me to 2000 feet and vectored my base leg.

I turned off the autopilot and hand flew the approach. The winds required wind correction angles of as much as 25 degrees as I lined up on the localizer. I flew the plane lower and lower...still deep in the clouds. Finally, the ground began to appear beneath me...and then later ahead of me. At about 500 feet, I could see the rabbit directly ahead of me followed shortly by the rest of the runway environment. I leveled off about 50 feet above the runway, pushed full power, retracted flaps, then pitched nose up for my climb out.

I announced to the tower that I was executing my missed approach and turned the plane to 270 as instructed. Almost immediately I was in the clouds again.

Once the tower handed me back to JAX, I requested the VOR9R approach and was told to continue on 270 at 2000 feet. I loaded the approach in the GPS, tuned NAV1 to the VQQ VOR and read over the approach plate that I had clipped to the yoke.

In this case, the approach vector is 109 degrees for a runway that is 90 degrees. At some point, the controller asked how this approach would terminate and I told him perhaps a bit too verbosely that on the last approach I broke out at 600 feet, and that the minimums for this approach were 640 feet, so I expected to have to go missed.

I was cleared for the approach and lined up on the VOR with help from the GPS. Heading steadily towards the airport I descended to just above the MDA of 640 feet. I was in and out of clouds bouncing along for 4 miles at this altitude. I held the plane steady as I flew peering out of the window to spot the runway. The tower asked me to tell him when I could see the runway...but I didn't see it yet. Just then, the controller told me to advise when going missed - a silly instruction since that is the normal procedure. As soon as he called me, I spotted the runway below me. I could drop right down to the runway. I then executed the missed and headed back to the west...and immediately found myself back in the clouds.

ATC asked my intentions this time and I asked for the ILS 32 at Craig.

The controller turned me to a heading of 105 (first time I didn't have an even heading like 100 or 110). I leveled off at 3000 feet and headed 105. Because the wind was so stiff in my face - 36 knots, I pushed the power to 2600 RPM and fought the wind a bit. Still in the clouds, I pressed on towards CRG and loaded the approach. I checked the ATIS, but it was still Quebec.

Several minutes later, I heard ATC tell another aircraft that Romeo would be current soon at CRG, so I tuned COM2 to the ATIS and got the latest weather. The barometer had dropped to 30.14, and the wind was stronger with gusts, but the ceiling was still 600 feet.

As I approached the ADERR fix, I could see another aircraft approaching from my right. ATC called the traffic for me and said that he was bringing me in behind a Cirrus what was twice as fast as me - a bit of an exaggeration, but fine.

I told the controller that I had the Cirrus on my scope showing 900 feet above my altitude to my right, but I was in IMC and could not see it.

He held the Cirrus at 3000 feet and brought him onto the ILS above me. I slowed the plane down considerably to ensure adequate distance between us.

It looked like I was going to overshoot the localizer when ATC turned me to a heading of 300 to intercept. I executed the turn, but because of the wind, I never crossed the localizer and would not have intercepted it on that heading, so I made my own adjustments. Again I was having to keep about 25 degrees of wind correction to stay lined up. The wind on the ground favored runway 5 - the only one without an instrument approach. Consequently, the instructions were to fly 32 with a circle to 5.

ATC advised that it appeared that I was lined up with the localizer (I was) and cleared me for the approach. I repeated the clearance and added that the GPS was showing winds around 30 knots from 070 and he thanked me for the info.

I continued the approach down to 500 feet, breaking out of the clouds at 600 feet. There was the runway out the left side of the windshield - all that wind correction had me crabbing severely.

I made my circling turn and greased the landing - well before the first turnoff, as usual.

An OUTSTANDING FLIGHT! 1.4 hours total with nearly all of that in solid IFR. Three excellent approaches, too. There are few things that can build confidence like flying an approach to near minimums as a single pilot!

Jacksonville Craig Municipal Airport

2007-12-22T13:20:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, someone who read this blog commented to me about the controllers at Craig saying that they were the meanest controllers. He also said he flew every day at Craig.

While I have encountered some less then congenial controllers here and at other airports, I think for the most part, the controllers at Craig are professional and very easy to deal with.

A few weeks ago, I was completing my FAA wings program and had been getting some recurring instrument training with an instructor from Sterling Flight Training. We had flown approaches at Cecil Field (VQQ) and were coming in on the ILS32 at CRG. The winds were from the east, so this would be a good time to practice crosswind technique. There were several planes in the pattern including helicopters doing flight training exercises and a banner tow pick-up getting ready to go. When I was handed off from Jax Approach to Craig Tower, I was on the ILS32 with a circle to 5. I asked the tower if I could continue and execute a touch and go on 32 to practice cross winds, then cancel IFR and remain in the pattern.

Considering that by the time I was on short final, there were five aircraft in the pattern for runway 5, I fully expected to be told to circle, but the controller was very kind and allowed me to land on 32. His hands were full with student pilots in both fixed and rotary aircraft, yet he was nice enough to accommodate me.

We made 7 landings that day since the Wings training requires a total of 3 hours of instruction. We practiced every imaginable type of landing - short, soft, no flap, partial flap. I managed to stop the plane inside of 500 feet on one landing and most were excellent landings.

In one instance, I had to side step the runway and go around because a student had landed way long and could not get off the runway in the first 2500 feet! In this case, we were told to make right traffic for that lap around the pattern.

In another instance, the banner tow plane cut across the pattern while climbing beneath me. I climbed to 1400 feet to give myself ample margin as he flew beneath me across my path. In this case, the controller didn't warn me about the banner tow, so I advised him that I had the tow plane in sight.

It was a great afternoon of flying with 2.0 hours total time with a good portion of that under simulated IMC. This gave me my FAA Wings qualifications in lieu of a BFR, so I'm good for two more years!

Response to Vegas & Grand Canyon West Question

2007-12-22T13:13:00.000-05:00

The round trip time was 2.0 hours. It could be done much faster as the straight line distance is only around 75 nm. But, this was a sightseeing tour, so I followed the river once I got out of the Class B around McCarran. I also flew at 55% power so I could see everything.

As for the altitude, I flew at 9,500 feet based on the recommendation of the check ride instructor from WestAir Aviation. There are many sightseeing aircraft flying lower. Lots of helicopters and twin engine tour planes. Most of the tour planes are flown by low time commercial pilots - translation: 20 somethings who take too many chances. To provide a margin of safety, I flew well above them until I had to land at the Grand Canyon West airport.

When I departed, I flew west over the canyon on climbout up to 8,500 feet and got an excellent view of the features.

If you are going to rent a plane, plan on about 2 hours for a check out beforehand. I've done checkouts in .6 hours and this one took about 1.0 hours, but there is paperwork and preflight work that must be done.

The Perfect Landing

2007-11-22T16:45:00.000-05:00

According to some pilots, a good landing is any one that you can walk away from. But, what is a perfect landing? Is it one that your passengers don't feel the transition from the air to the ground? Is it one that greases in smoothly with just slight chirps from each wheel? Or, maybe it's one that enables you to stop the aircraft in less distance than the distance shown in the POH. Most pilots recognize that the POH figures are based on optimal conditions and are produced by well-trained, highly experienced test pilots in very new aircraft. Meeting the POH figures for take-offs and landings can be quite a challenge. Meeting them in adverse conditions is almost unheard of.

Of course I wouldn't be writing this unless I had a particularly noteworthy experience. So, today, my destination was the North Palm Beach County airport (F45). I departed CRG just ahead of a nasty front after getting one last pre-flight briefing. The weather along the route was not terrible...a few bumps and quite a bit of cloud cover for the first hour or so. Conditions cleared south of Melbourne. I flew hot at maximum power for the altitude to overcome the 26 to 35 knot winds that were blowing from about a 60 degree angle off the right side. This knocked my TAS of 131 down to a groundspeed around 119 knots. Still, the trip only took 2.3 hours including runup.

There wasn't too much activity at the airport on arrival. Just an Arrow departing to the South who I heard on the Palm Beach Approach frequency, a helo coming in from the East, and a twin waiting to depart runway 13. He must have been waiting for instrument clearance since he held on the ground until long after I landed.

With so little traffic and wind from 180 at 12, I chose to land straight in on runway 13. I kept it hot on the approach until 4 miles out at which point I leveled off at 1000 feet MSL, reduced power to 1700 RPM and waited for the airspeed to drop below 105 knots. I dropped the first notch of flaps as I lined up on the VASI and began a steady descent. Flaps were deployed progressively and my speed dropped off steadily until I crossed the fence at 65 knots. I reduce power further and held the approach slope ultimately pulling power to idle when I knew I had the runway made. The wheels touched down smoothly right on the numbers and I immediately retracted the flaps, pulled hard on the elevators and began steady braking.

The plane was stopped in time to make the turnoff indicated in the attached photo - At the temperature and standard pressure, the POH calls for stopping in 585 feet. I managed to stop short of that! I was pretty proud of myself. This was one of the best landings I've made - nice and smooth, right on the numbers and as good or better than the POH!

As a pilot, I continually challenge myself to do things better. Landings are one area that I continue to work on. Who knows maybe I've got bush pilot in my future.

Total hours for the flight 2.3 with .4 actual instrument, all cross-country.

Vegas & Grand Canyon West

2007-10-07T20:27:00.000-04:00

It makes no sense to me why Chicago is called the windy city with Las Vegas on the map. The wind here has been terrible. Yesterday, I had to cancel my flight because the wind was 20 knots with 30 knot gusts. Today, it wasn't nearly as bad. Still, it was bumpy and gusts made smooth landings a challenge.

For the past year, I've been flying amost nothing but glass panel G1000 aircraft. Since West Air Aviation requires a 4 hour ground school in order to fly their G1000, and their plane is much more expensive to rent than a plane with traditional instrumentation, I opted to fly the cheaper plane. My check ride went well. The instructor, John Romero, was very thorough putting me through power-on and power-off stalls, slow flight and three landings with varying degrees of flap deployment. After the flight, I took the plane to the Grand Canyon West (1G4) airport.

The flight over from North Las Vegas (KVGT) was great, but the destination was a bit of a disappointment. After I was clear of the Class B airspace, I was free to fly as I saw fit. On John's advice, I climbed to 9,500 to stay above the canyon tour traffic. I followed the river into Lake Mead, then up the Colorado into the Canyon from the west, then over to 1G4.

Looking at Google Earth, the airport appears to be situated right next to the Grand Canyon and is only 2 miles South of the glass walkway that the local native American tribe has built. My plan was to land a the airport, then hike up to the lookout point and take lots of neat pictures. The trouble with this plan is that the local tribe won't let you off of the airport parking lot unless you are in one of their tour buses. The tours start at $49.95. However, the glass walkway takes an additional $25. And to make matters worse, you can't take cameras or binoculars on the walkway.

According to the folks in Vegas, the landing fee was a steep $100. After I landed, I found out that if you take a tour, there is no fee. I told the guy at the desk that I wanted to hike around and take some photos, so he said there would be no landing fee. That was a relief. I had expected to hike to a place to grab some food, but there was no place nearby - and they wouldn't let me off the property anyway.

I managed to wander to the southern end of the runway and took some shots of the canyon as well as the runway, but a security guard caught up with me and told me I wasn't supposed to be walking where I was. He was nice and offered me a ride back, but I declined saying I'd walk back and take more pictures.

There are tons of helicopter and tour plane operations at this airport. There is no taxiway, so you have to use the runway to taxi. After I started my engine, I patiently waited on one private plane and one tour plane both of which had departed on runway 35. The wind was favoring 35 and judging by the wind sock, it was gusting to 15 knots from about 320 degrees. After the tour plane took off, I took runway 35, and that upset another tour plane that was lining up on runway 17 for some unknown reason. The wind didn't favor this runway and the last three operations were on 35. The pilot said something unintelligible and then said he couldn't land with me on the end of the runway. I continued to taxi to the end of the runway - no place else for me to go. I noticed the windsock was showing some strong activity that would make anyone with any sense want to use runway 35 rather than 17, so I advised the tour pilot that he'd have a strong tailwind if he landed on 17. I took off and saw the tour plane in an extended base leg for 17. I turned crosswind and got the heck out of there.

The flight back to North Vegas was nice, too. I was eventually told to overfly the airport at no lower than 3500 and to make right traffic for 12 Right. The wind was from 070 at 6 with some gusts that I felt on short final. I managed to get her down safely and had a great time doing it.

I only recommend going to 1G4 for the experience of landing at an interesting airport, no so much for the tours. All told, this was a great day of VFR flying in severe clear weather. 2.0 hours of cross country with two take offs and two landings other than the three that I did for the check ride.

Pictures will be posted once I get back...didn't bring the camera's cable with me.

Early Childhood Memories

2007-09-15T08:54:00.000-04:00

Young children don't think the way adults do. Sometimes it's easy to forget that. Talking to kids in terms that adults understand - especially when it comes to numbers - can have unfortunate outcomes.

When I was about three or four years old, I had made a mess in our basement. All of my cars, trucks and tractors were scattered all over the basement floor. My father was upset about the mess and wanted me to clean it up. I had a very nice toybox that my great-grandfather had made. (I still have it in my office.) It would have been a simple matter of picking up the toys and putting them in the toybox and probably would have taken no more than ten minutes.

My father was angry and yelled, "David, you have one hour to clean up this mess! When I come back down here, I will stomp on any toys that are left on the floor!" And he turned and walked up the stairs.

I was mortified! At this young age, I could barely count to ten and I had no idea what an hour was. I thought that it was impossible to pick up all my toys in only one of those hour things. So like most children frustrated by an impossible task, I sat on the stairs and cried.

My father came back downstairs an hour later and saw that I had not picked up any of my toys. He lectured me briefly as I cried. Then, as promised, he walked around the room stomping on every one of my toys, breaking each one, one at a time. These were toys that he bought with his hard earned money. Money was tight and I am sure it pained him to keep his promise both from a financial perspective and because of the pain it would cause me. One by one, my toys disappeared in to rubble.

The most difficult toy for dad to dispose of was my John Deere tractor. My father and grandfather worked at Deere at the time and our blood was green and yellow. The family was proud to be associated with Deere & Co. and grandpa even had a gold-plated tractor hanging on the wall in his basement. I wish we still had that.

Several years later, my father gave me a nice new toy tractor and told me that he thought I was old enough to take care of it. We both remembered that horrible day when all my toys were crushed.

The lesson to be learned from this is to be careful in how you speak to your children. They don't have a full grasp of the language and abstract concepts like time and numbers can be baffling. At my young age, I knew that "one" was singular - there wasn't much to one of anything. I didn't understand the concept of an hour or how much could be done in an hour.

I believe that if my father had told me that I would have sixty minutes to complete the task, things might have turned out very differently. Although I couldn't count to sixty at the time, I remember thinking that kids who were ten were much, much older and my twenty-seven year old mother was quite old. Sixty minutes would have sounded like quite a bit of time to me. I probably would have played for a while before picking up my toys and this story would never have been remembered. So, be careful how you talk to your kids.

As a side note, I still have the John Deere toys that my parents gave me after this house cleaning.

A little more weather flying - NEXRAD isn't all it is cracked up to be.

2007-09-02T22:05:00.000-04:00

Craig field was IFR when we departed this morning bound for Crystal River (KCGC) on a 1 hour IFR flight plan. I was cleared to depart runway 32 and instructed to fly heading 280 on climbout. I entered the clouds at 500 feet and didn't break through them until about 2500 feet. Craig tower quickly handed me off to Jacksonville Departure Control who offered to give me a direct clearance to Crystal River which I eagerly accepted. The controller cleared me direct upon reaching 2,100 feet, but when I was only through 1800, he gave me direct. I found myself turning and climbing through the clouds - a great experience and most IFR training is simulated and most of my actual IFR experience has been either in stable descents, climbs or level flight - not much turning. Since I had never done any instrument training on the Garmin G1000, this instrument time enhanced my experience and increased my confidence. We periodically found ourselves popping in and out of clouds throughout the flight which we made at 5000 feet MSL.

Nearing Crystal River, I was instructed to descend to 2000' which put me solidly in IMC for a while. Even when I was level at 2000 feet, the overcast layer had a bottom that ranged from about 2100' to 1800', so I was in and out of the soup until I was only about 5 miles from our destination.

The conditions at Crystal River were reasonably clear and I found four other aircraft on the Traffic Information System in the vicinity of the airport. I reported to ATC that I had the airport in sight and I closed my IFR flight plan while still in the air. I overflew the airport while descending to pattern altitude and entered the left base for 270. The landing was smooth and we were quickly parked and unloaded. The flight took only 55 minutes wheels up to shut down.

I had hoped to leave Crystal River around 4pm, but the weather had other plans. I checked the RADAR images on my blackberry and saw developing storms all along our path back to Craig. I did not want to subject my passenger to the turbulence that the radar suggested as I knew that her stomach couldn't take it, so I endured nasty looks and an "I told you so" attitude for several hours until I was convinced that we could safely fly home to Craig.

After my usual thorough preflight, I started the engine and set up the radios. I tried to raise Jacksonville Departure so I could get my clearance before I took off, but I could not hear their replies, if there were any. I departed VFR on runway 9 and tried to contact departure twice on the climbout without success. The second try produced a garbled response, so I waited until I had passed through 2000 feet before trying again. This time I was successful and I informed the controller that I had left Crystal River five minutes earlier and asked for my IFR clearance to CRG. The controller cleared me direct to CRG and assigned 4000 feet as my altitude.

I continued my climb and passed through a few clouds, but nothing significant. The NEXRAD showed a band of moderate rain across our path near Ocala that was about 10 miles thick and 50 miles wide. I constantly watched the skies and the NEXRAD display, but we never found rain. We were right in the middle of what NEXRAD was calling moderate rain, but we were below the overcast ceiling and in clear air. This was remarkably smooth flying compared to what I had expected. I finally entered clouds about 30 minutes in to the flight. The sun was setting behind us and we found the clouds all around us before we even saw them in front of us. I held the plane steady as we trudged along. It is precisely this sort of IMC that causes problems for VFR-only pilots. I could not see the clouds in my path and I was deep in them before I could do much of anything. Fortunately, I'm instrument rated, was on an instrument flight plan and simply kept my eyes on the instruments making sure I stuck to my course, altitude and kept the wings level. We were making good speed along the ground - about 127 knots ground speed and over 140 knots when ATC descended me to 2,100 feet.

I used the auto pilot to maintain altitude and heading while I set up for the approach to Craig. I pressed the OBS button on the G1000 and specified a 050 heading in to Craig. This would plot a straight line from the CRG VOR at a 050 heading and that would line me right up with runway 050. ATC handed me off to the tower and I was instructed to fly straight in to runway 050.

By now the sun had set and picking CRG out of the field of lights was a challenge, however, I quickly spotted the runway dead ahead. As I crossed the tower farm with its 1100 feet towers only 5 miles from the end of runway 050, I slowed the engine to 2100 RPM and began a steady descent. I was still carrying a little too much altitude when the tower cleared me to land, so I pulled power to idle and progressively extended flaps while descending at a fairly steep rate - about 1300 fpm. Once the PAPI lights showed I was on the glideslope, I steadied my descent by pulling up the nose and stabilized the engine at 1700 RPM. I kept the plane lined up with the runway and pointed the nose at the numbers. I flared the plane as I crossed the threshold and made an incredibly smooth landing touching down on both mains then lowering the nose gently. This was one of my best night landings ever.

The NEXRAD was showing weather that was much worse than it turned out to be. We hardly encountered a single bump and never got any rain. As we left the airport, I could tell that there would soon be some ground fog developing, so we timed our arrival pretty well.

Except for my passenger's discontent, this was a very enjoyable day of flying and a great day with my dad and step-mom. I logged a total of 2.4 hours of cross country flight, 30 minutes of night, an hour of actual instrument and had two very smooth landings.

Weather Flying

2007-08-28T17:51:00.000-04:00

How any pilot can fly without a current instrument rating is beyond my comprehension. Prior to getting my rating, there were so many instances where I had to stay on the ground due to weather. I've had it for two years now and many of my cross-country flights would have been canceled without it. This weekend was one of those times.

Every year for the past seven or eight years, I have traveled to Myrtle Beach for a weekend golf tournament with a bunch of guys who are loosely associated with my former employer. A drive from Jacksonville to Myrtle Beach can take as much as six or seven hours depending on traffic and weather. In optimal weather (no wind) the trip should take 2 hours 15 minutes in the Skyhawk. This weekend, we did not have optimal weather.

The trip up produced about 30 minutes of actual instrument time with most of that coming as we approached Myrtle Beach. We flew to the Grand Strand airport since it was closer to our first and last rounds for the weekend. Last year we flew to KMYR and it was so far south of our final round that it took us about an hour just to get to the plane.

The FBO at Grand Strand is a model for all FBOs. My golf partner told me that they made him feel like a rich man with the way we were treated. After landing, the tower cleared us to the ramp and told us to monitor ground. We were greeted by a follow-me cart that showed us exactly where to park. We were then greeted by a helpful gentleman who brought our rental car up to the plane and all we had to do was get in. Great treatment!

Sunday morning took us to the Thistle Golf Course north of Myrtle Beach. Throughout the morning's round, we saw towering cumulous and at one point, we heard lots of thunder, but never saw lightning. After the round, we drove straight to the airport and loaded up. I got my briefing from a weatherman in St. Pete who seemed intent on talking me out of the flight. I had a radar display in front of me and I could see a front that had recently passed the Appalachians and was heading our way. If I waited too long, we could be on the ground for quite a while. The sky was clear at the airport and there were no storms showing until Savannah. I figured if I had to, I could request a direct heading before I reached Savannah to avoid the storms. There were also storms around Brunswick and a group of storms in Central Florida that appeared to be heading towards my destination. I figured I could always put the plane down someplace on the way if necessary.

I filed an IFR flight plan with the FSS and completed my preflight. In the FBO, I asked the locals for the local procedure for getting an instrument clearance since there is no clearance delivery frequency. They told me they call for clearance on the ground frequency and we determined that courtesy calls were the order of the day. The AOPA website has some horror stories about one tower controller who I have now learned is the supervisor for the tower and is named Steve. The locals warned me about him and how he chews up pilots who make errors. I made absolutely certain that my ducks were in a row when I made my initial calls.

"Grand Strand Ground, Skyhawk 1-4-6-3-Foxtrot", I called on 121.8.

"Skyhawk 1463Foxtrot, cleared to Craig as filed, climb 2000 expect 6000 in ten minutes, approach control on 119.2; squawk 4220".

That was quick...no asking me what I want.

I repeated the clearance.

"Skyhawk 6-3-Foxtrot, readback correct, advise when ready to taxi and when you have the numbers." Came his acknowledgement.

"63Foxtrot, has Oscar and is ready to taxi." I replied.

"Taxi to 23" was his immediate response.

We were off. I taxied down the long taxiway to the end and was cleared for departure. There were no problems with this controller at all...must not have been the bad guy.

The Nexrad display was a wonderful aid to this flight. I constantly monitored conditions along the route and frequently checked METARs for airports in my path. The climbout was slow due to the weight of my passenger and all of our luggage as well as the very hot, humid temperatures. We finally reached our cruising altitude of 6000 feet and I slaved the autopilot to the GPS. Near Charleston, I was handed off from Beaufort Marine approach to Jacksonville Center and I immediately requested Direct to Brunswick (SSI). This would enable me to avoid the building storms over Savannah that I could see through the windshield as well as on the NEXRAD. The controller cooperated and I revised my course in the GPS.

As we neared Brunswick, it was clear that we would have to deviate. There were some big red blotches on the NEXRAD, the SAV HIWAS was describing an area of thunderstorms with little movement ahead, and I could see some big, dark clouds that did not look like they wanted me to fly through them. ATC advised me that commercial flights were deviating 20 or 30 miles to the west and then headed direct to JAX. I told the controller that sounded good to me, but he didn't vector me.

I was almost on SSI when I decided it was time for me to tell the controller what I was going to do rather than wait for him to tell me what to do. I called JAX Center and requested a heading of 270 to avoid storms and my request was immediately granted. I flew along confidently for a while noting the very large black cloud ahead and to the left of my path. My course seemed to be taking me too close to a strong return on the NEXRAD, so I altered my course to 280. I slowed the plane to maneuvering speed - 105 knots and shortly afterwards, we entered a large, dark, towering cumulous cloud. It wasn't very bumpy at first, but the calm didn't last long. We started to get moderate rain and then came the turbulence. I was glad that I had used a seatbelt to secure the luggage in the back seat, because anthing that wasn't tied down got jostled around quite a bit. At one point, I lost about 300 feet in about 10 seconds and the engine went from 2300 rpm to nearly redline. I gained about 30 knots of airspeed almost instantly. I reduced the throttle until the rpms came back to something manageable and relied on the autopilot to keep the wings level. We quickly returned to our assigned altitude and things stabilized a bit. After about 10 or 15 minutes of this, we emerged from the cloud and found a huge valley in the sky - no clouds in front of us for quite a while. I chose this opportunity to make my left turn towards Jacksonville and on we went. Craig was reporting calm winds and visual approaches to 32. Since I was coming from the north northwest, I plugged in the VOR14 approach in case the weather turned. At 13 miles out, I reported the airport in sight and ATC handed me over to the tower. The tower controller advised that the winds were calm and I could have runway 23 if I wanted. I accepted the offer and I flew the VOR14 approach with a circle to 23.

On approach, I noticed that the GPS was indicating a 6 knot tailwind when I had turned final for 23. I flew the approach right on the numbers and set the plane down for one of the most gentle landings I've ever had. This one was one heck of a flight. There's no way we would have made it without an instrument rating. The rating gave me the confidence to fly into challenging conditions, but to only do it with as much information as possible - prepared for the worst. Because of headwinds the entire way and our deviation due to weather, this flight took 3.1 hours with .8 of actual instrument.

My First Casualty...of sorts

2007-07-30T13:50:00.000-04:00

Saturday started out as a beautiful day in North Florida. There were blue skies with few clouds light breezes and enough heat to cook an egg on the sidewalk. Typical July weather for us.

When I arrived at the airport, the jet was on the tarmac ready to load up. There was a group of teenage girls taking a charter to the Bahamas and their parents were there to give them a nice send off. After the jet departed, they towed the KingAir B200 into position. Mike Smithers, the chief instructor and KingAir pilot offered to give me a quick tour of the plane. There was also a young boy about 9 or 10 hanging around, so I told him to come on up, too. It's a very nice piece of equipment. The dash is so high and loaded with gauges, it would be difficult to see out the front window to land, I think.

The boy was there because he was dropping off his sister for the Bahamas trip. I'm sure he felt a little left out if his big sister gets to go on a private jet to the islands and he has to stay behind.

I caught up with his parents who were talking with the air charter's owner, Hayden. I offered to take the family up for a sightseeing tour and after asking their son if he was interested, they quickly accepted the offer.

I introduced myself as I preflighted the plane and learned that my passengers would be Brian (dad), Alissa (mom) and Gage (son). Since mom and dad were in good shape and weren't very tall, I did some quick calculations and found that I could have Gage sit in front and not have a problem with weight and balance. As we boarded, Alissa asked if she should get a bag in case Gage got sick. "No need." I responded. "I've got two right her in my flight bag." And I handed one to her and put one in the pouch where Gage would be sitting. I mentioned that the wind was calm, so we shouldn't have too much trouble.

I listened to the ATIS and got taxi clearance for 23 at foxtrot. I did the runup while explaining everything that I did. I then called for takeoff clearance and we were airborn in no time.

The climbout was smooth and I made a southerly turn that followed highway 9A. The family told me that they lived on the river in Fleming Island, so I pointed the plane in that general direction. Dad could see our location on the moving map display and pointed out Julington Creek to his son and told him to look for Clark's fishcamp. We circled Clark's and then headed across the river to circle their house.

I asked Gage if he wanted to take the controls and he immediately shook his head no. I then explained that it was like a video game - pull back to go up, push forward to go down, etc. That was enough and he took the controls and did a nice job of handling the plane. He had a tendency to pull on the yoke and we climbed a bit, but he was able to point us a black creek with no trouble.

There was quite a bit of traffic flying very low - two or three planes that were clearly below 1000' AGL. I stayed at 2000' to avoid them and kept one eye on the traffic monitor and one outside. We found their house and I circled it to the right several times so they could get a good look.

When I asked Gage where he went to school, I learned that he was at my alma mater, St. Johns Country Day School. Ok, next stop SJCDS. I pointed the plane across Doctor's Lake and headed for the school. They are very close to the NAS JAX and Cecil Field class D airspace, so I made a tight turn to avoid it.

As we left the area of the school, I decided it was time for some negative G maneuvers, so I warned my passengers and said we would try this one time. If they wanted to do it again, we could. I then pulled back on the yoke to put us in climb, then pushed the nose over rapidly in order to generate a weightless feeling. No problem so far...but no calls for "Do it again!"

Next, we headed across the river and flew over the World Golf Village with Gage at the controls. He seemed to be doing fine. Then we arrived at the ocean and flew North for a short distance. Gage then asked what time it was and I should have taken that as a subtle hint that he wasn't feeling well.

Since it was about time to head back, I demonstrated the GPS direct function and we pointed the nose directly at Craig field. I was instructed by ATC to enter a left base for runway 5 - the controller must have recognized my call sign. They were landing other planes on 32, but runway 5 would give me the shortest taxi distance. I really appreciate it when the controllers watch out for us like that.

As we descended, it became much warmer in the plane. There were a few bumps on final, but the landing was nice and smooth - Alissa even commented on it. I braked hard to make the first turnoff. We were cleared to taxi to Sterling and off I went. As we taxied, I saw Gage grab the barf bag and opened it up. Just as I said, "you won't be needing that, will you?" he answered my question with a yaaaak. Poor fellow.

So, that was my first casualty. In 400 hours of flying, I never had a passenger get ill. And technically, we were already on the ground, so I don't count that.

In spite of the passenger difficulty, this was a fun flight and my passengers were very appreciative. This one was just 1.0 hours in pure VFR.

David West

Danger on the Ground

2007-07-30T13:41:00.000-04:00

Saw this snake at lunch today. It is a young water moccasin. About 2 1/2 feet long.

My Hairiest Landing Ever!

2007-07-23T09:58:00.000-04:00

I had spent the weekend in Palm Beach Gardens and was a little concerned about the weather for the return flight. I planned a 10 am departure and that would put me at my home field around noon. The TAFs along the way were calling for thunderstorms after 1pm local, so any delay would put me in the middle of the mess. Departing at 10 would also put me in the developing cumulous clouds which would make for a bumpy ride.

The prior day, I flew down on an IFR flight plan at 6000 feet and stayed above the tops of most of the clouds only rarely passing through a growing cumulous cloud.

I don't think I'll ever understand why controllers do what they do. Based on my past experience, I filed for direct OMN then the airway to MLB, then PHK. This seems to be the routing I always get. But, my clearance was to OMN via radar vectors, then V3 to v492 to PBI then direct. V492 takes me off the coast, then back to PBI which is further south of my destination, then I would have to backtrack to F45. So much for anticipating ATC.

Our descent into the airport put me in the middle of a cloud layer near Lake Okeechobee, but it wasn't too bumpy and I was able to fly south of the airport and entered a left downwind for runway 26. There were three aircraft in the vicinity as I flew the pattern. One was coming from the North, one from the South and another had just departed. I turned my base leg and announced my intentions and position. While on base, I heard the pilot from the North state that he was going to enter the left downwind for 27. There is no runway 27 at F45, so I knew he was not familiar with the airport.

As I turned final, another aircraft took the runway. No call.

I announced that I was on short final for 26 left and told myself - "get off the runway, idiot!"

He began his takeoff roll. No call.

He began to climb on his upwind. Still no call.

I landed and turned off at the first taxiway since I knew there was another plane coming in behind me. I announced that I was clear of 26 Left and then called, "Aircraft on upwind for 26 Left, is your radio working?"

I was more concerned for other aircraft since I knew there were several others in the area who he would potentially conflict with.

He lied, "Yeah, we called our departure. We're departing the pattern to the south."

Bull hockey. He never called when he took the runway and he never announced his position.

Nevertheless, I replied, "OK then. I never heard any of your calls. Sorry."

So, fast forward to Sunday. I was concerned about the weather and filed IFR at 7000 feet. I planned to pick up clearance once airborne so as to avoid waiting for ATC to clear the area overhead. Doing this would also give me more direct routing home. I filed that I would pick up V3 at the MORGA intersection...not technically proper, but with GPS all things are possible.

I had plugged in my flight plan into the GPS, completed the runup and we were on the roll. I climbed out and made a right turn to the North and plotted my course directly for MORGA.

As I left the airport area, I called Palm Beach Approach and requested my clearance. I was cleared direct to VRB then as filed.

At 7000 feet we were above most of the clouds although there was an intermittent overcast layer well above us. This would have been inconsequential except that it interfered with the satellite reception for the NEXRAD weather downlink. I periodically checked the weather along our route and it looked like we were very safe until we neared St. Augustine.

Around OMN, the controller advised that I could fly straight through the rain or he could give me a vector that would take me around most of the weather. I told him I'd take the vector. He pointed me to the ROYES intersection and then cleared my via V267 to CRG. A few miles before ROYES, he called back to tell me that the weather was building and I should fly due North. That took us right into the rainstorms and we got tossed around a bit. I slowed the plane to maneuvering speed to ensure that we didn't have a problem with strong up and down drafts. This would hurt our time, but we'd be safer.

We encountered some heavy rain from time to time, but we were ok. Then ATC dropped me down to 5000 feet and I should have requested that we stay high, but I didn't. I flew right through the heart of the clouds and rain. Throughout this process, ATC periodically asked me how I was doing. This was a nice touch. We were fine. No problems.

We passed out of the clouds near St. Augustine and ATC handed me off to JAX approach. JAX dropped me to 3000, but the controller didn't receive my acknowldegement - three times.

After he repeated his instruction three times and I responded three times, it was clear that he didn't hear my response, so I hit the IDENT button to let him know I was there. He acknowledged that he saw my IDENT and repeated his instructions. I then switched to the second radio and called again. He heard me that time. The strange thing is that I heard him perfectly while he couldn't hear me. I think the problem was with the PTT button as even when you push it, the TX indicator doesn't always show.

The METAR at CRAIG showed wind at 060 and 16 knots. Landing on runway 5. When I descended to 1000', the GPS showed wind at 27 knots from the East. On final for 5, the controller advised that wind was 100 at 16, then 110 at 16. That would make for a killer crosswind. I was following another Skyhawk and was cleared to land.

I watched the aircraft ahead of me and it was clear that he was having trouble with the approach. He aborted the landing and climbed. For some unknown reason, he asked ATC if he could make a right 360 to gain altitude. This makes no sense to me. ATC was sending him over to runway 14. All he needed to do was to turn 90 degrees left and climb into the left downwind for 14 and fly a normal pattern.

The final was bumpy, but I maintained a steady approach. I crossed the threshold and the plane started to drop rapidly. I was getting considerable windshear going from 27 knot winds from 090 to 16 knot winds at 110. When the plane dropped so rapidly, I made the decision that runway 14 was the place to be, so I gave the plane full power and retracted the flaps to 20 degrees. I called the tower and advised that I was going around. He did not acknowledge. I then started climbing out and retracted the flaps fully. I asked the controller, "How do your read" and he replied somewhat snottily that he had heard me announce my go around." I then explained that I had encountered some difficulty with my radios earlier and just wanted to make sure he heard me.

At 350 feet, the controller told me to begin my crosswind turn, so I turned left and continued to climb. The wind was fierce and kept me close to the runway. I stopped my climb at only 700 feet as I was in position to make my base turn followed by by final. All the while the student and instructor in the plane that was doing circles at the end of the runway were saying they were going to do another circle for spacing and were bitching about me being in front of them.

"Well genius, if you had just flown a normal pattern instead of looping around in silly circles, you would have been ahead of me.", I thought to myself.

This approach was still hairy - the wind was gusty and about 30 to 40 degrees off of the runway. Nevertheless, I was able to set the plane down relatively smoothly and quickly exited the runway.

This was a challenge and it was the first time in nearly 500 hours that I have felt obligated to execute a go-around.

I mentioned that to Hayden in the office later and he said that he wished other folks would do that rather than breaking his airplanes...guess I did the right thing.

Good weekend of IFR flying. 4.6 hours total time with about .8 hours of actual instrument.

David West

Charlotte IFR through Class B Airspace

2007-07-23T09:38:00.000-04:00

To assist my old friend Jim in celebrating the purchase of his first house, I flew to Charlotte for a long weekend with my other friend of the same first name. We loaded our golf clubs and luggage in to the back of the Skyhawk and headed North for our three hour flight.

We flew North past Brunswick, Savannah and Columbia before reaching Charlotte. Along the way, ATC shaved some time off of the flight by clearing me direct to Columbia rather than forcing me to follow the victor airways from VOR to VOR. GPS is a wonderful thing.

It was nearly sunset as we arrived and the low overcast and haze made spotting the Concord Regional Airport a bit difficult. ATC vectored me for the ILS approach, but offered to give me a visual approach. Since I had never flown in to this airport, and visibility was less than ideal, I opted to fly the precision approach. The approach and landing were uneventful and the ground controller directed me to park at the base of the control tower.

After a nice weekend of golf and a great party, we headed out first thing on Sunday - Father's day. Jim had to get home because his kids had something planned for his day.

I filed IFR as usual and called for my clearance. The controller gave me a DP - departure procedure and unfortunately I did not have a complete set of instrument plates for this region. Consequently, I had to rely on the DP that was stored in the GPS...but which version should I choose? I hacked around with the GPS until I found something that seemed to take me towards Columbia. As it turned out, this was completely unnecessary. The clearance was issued to ensure that if I had a communication problem, I would go to an expected location. In this case, it was the Charlotte VORTAC.

We taxied to the departure runway. I positioned myself at the hold short line and called for takeoff clearance. We waited much longer than I had ever waited before, so I called the tower to remind the controller, "Concord tower, Skyhawk 1463Foxtrot holding short of runway two-zero."

The controller didn't care for this and with a little venom in his voice, he replied, "November 6-3-Foxtrot, you are on an IFR flight plane and are being held for release."

About five minutes later, I was finally cleared for departure and was told to fly a heading of 180. Then as I climbed to 3000 feet, I was turned to 140. I was given many headings and it seemed that every time I leveled off and trimmed up the plane, I was cleared another one or two thousand feet higher. We had filed for 6000 feet as our final, but ATC asked me if I could accept 8000. I advised that I could and we were cleared to 8000. I think the optimal performance from this particular aircraft is around 7000 feet, so we weren't getting the best airspeed, but we were moving pretty quickly around 123 knots TAS. We were eventually given a southwesterly vector and told to join the airway between Charlotte and Columbia - I forget which one. Throughout this time, I was hand flying the airplane. This was good practice and while it would have been easier to simply use the auto pilot and steer by turning a knob, I don't want to become too dependent on an auto pilot.

The rest of the flight was uneventful and we arrived home about 3 hours after takeoff. The total logged time for the weekend was 6.3 hours with over an hour of IFR and one approach. It was a great weekend for flying.

Florida on fire - the return

2007-05-16T20:41:00.000-04:00

I checked the weather for CRG and noted that my destination was currently IFR. The temperature and dewpoint were close and wind was light and variable, signalling little change. The ceiling was reported a 800 and broken and the METARs showed several special issues in the prior hour showing different RVRs. The TAF called for scattered thunderstorms and rain. This was going to be interesting. On the way down the GDL69A - the NEXRAD weather radio had malfunctioned. I had hoped that it would magically fix itself.

There was haze at North Palm Beach County airport as we loaded the plane, but the ceiling was high and I probably could have departed VFR. My preference is to fly in the system, though, so VFR was out of the question. This proved to be the right decision as I would later discover.

"Good Morning, Palm Beach clearance delivery, Skyhawk 1-4-6-3-foxtrot is at foxtrot 4-5, ready to copy IFR to Charlie-Romeo-Golf", I called.

A reply came quickly, Skyhawk 1-4-6-3-foxtrot, cleared to Vero via radar vectors, then as filed, climb 2000 expect 7000 in 10 minutes, contact palm beach departure on 123.8 before entering controlled airspace, squawk 4415, How soon before you are ready to depart?"

I responded, "Clearance, Skyhawk 6-3-foxtrot is number one at 2-6-Left and ready to go" and I repeated the clearance.

The controller cleared my departure and instructed me to head 340 on departure and switch to advisory. I eased the throttle and taxied on to the runway. The plane accelerated down the runway and lifted off smoothly. I announced, "north county traffic, skyhawk 6-3 foxtrot upwind on 2-6-left departing IFR turning to 340, last call, north county".

I turned to 340 and switched the radio to palm beach departure's frequency. I was progressively cleared to 3000', then 5000 and finally 7000. I encountered solid IMC about the time I passed through 1500'. We flew in smooth, but obscured conditions until somewhere around Daytona.

Passing Ormond, the air took on a distinct smoky smell.

I noted several bogeys on the traffic information system and ATC advized me to head 360. About five minutes later, he advised me to descend to 5000'. I was nearing 6000' when the controller called back and advised me to climb back to 7000 and said he thought I was landing at St. Augustine. He also cleared me direct CRG.

Throughout the flight, I checked the METAR for CRG using the weather data interface - the GDL69A had miraculously repaired itself. The weather was still reporting an 800' ceiling with 3sm visibility. I pulled out the plate for the ILS32 and briefed it as I've done many times before. ATC authorized a descent to 2000' and gave me vectors for the ILS. We found ourselves in and out of clouds with a broken layer below us. I was cleared for the approach and handed off to Craig tower. I announced that I was 10 miles out on the ILS32 with Hotel, full stop. The controller asked me to report 2 mile final. I flew the beam and we broke out of the clouds at 1200'. Not quite minimums, but it was still fun. There was another plane in the pattern - flying VFR, illegally in my opinion as he was flying the pattern at 1000' and the ceiling was clearly less than 500 ' above him. The tower advised me that I was number two following a skyhawk turning final and asked if I had him in sight. I replied that I had him, but he looked rather high - he was turning final, but was still at pattern altitude through his base leg. I continued my approach and watched as the other pilot dove down and eventually touched down about halfway down the 4000' runway. He completed his touch and go and I continued down, slowing the aircraft gradually touching down near the numbers and turned off on the A4 taxiway.

The flight took a bit longer for the return due to headwinds and my more conservative use of power. I logged 2.2 hours with one full hour in actual instrument. Another Great Weekend for Flying!

Florida on Fire - Mother's Day Weekend 2007

2007-05-16T20:26:00.000-04:00

Friday was my last day at SAS. I spent most of the day tieing up loose ends and packing up my office. I bolted for home at 3:30 in the hope that we could leave immediately for the airport and make the 4:00 IFR slot that I had filed.

We almost made it, but the plane wasn't ready. A photog from the Times-Union had hired one of the Sterling pilots to take him up for shots of the fires that are plaguing North Florida these days. Unfortunately, the pilot paid no attention to the time and returned the plane 30 minutes late. I was not pleased and probably was a bit harsher to the nice people at Sterling than I should have been...but this was the second time in a row that the plane was returned late by an inconsiderate pilot who blamed his tardiness on ATC.

We finally took off and headed south. Almost immediately, we found ourselves enveloped in haze as the ground disappeared beneath us. I departed runway 5 and was given a heading of 100 for departure. The plane's climb performance was miserable - I was only getting about 600 fpm. The air was hot, hazy and smoky, so I think there must have been lower O2 content. ATC turned me to a southeast heading, but shortly after, he asked me to expedite my climb. I replied that I was givin' it all she had. The controller turned me back to the east - probably to avoid the blimp that was orbiting the TPC Sawgrass for the big golf tournament. Once I had reached 5000', I was cleared direct to Ormond then on course.

We found ourselves in and out of IMC throughout the flight. Passing Melbourne, I was handed off to Miami Center who changed my clearance to Pahokee, as I had expected. I punched in PHK in the flight plan and turned to the southwest. I could see some large dark clouds ahead and I warned Maureen that it might get bumpy. I even dug out my plastic garbage bags just in case her Bonine didn't do the trick. The ceiling was barely VFR, so when I was asked if I wanted the ILS 8R, I replied in the affirmative.

There was no traffic in the pattern when ATC handed me over to advisory. I called, "North County traffic, Skyhawk 6-3-foxtrot, 4 mile final for 8 right, north county." Another voice asked if I was flying straight in, so I replied, "I'm straight in on the ILS 8 right, full stop."

Coming in, I slowed the plane to 65 knots and made a very nice touch down on the runway. I braked and turned off to the left at the first taxiway, then proceded to the ramp. The flight had taken a scant 2.0 hours and I logged .5 hours of actual instrument.

Sun-n-fun 2007...or Read the Friggin' NOTAM First!

2007-04-23T23:45:00.000-04:00

I made the trek to Lakeland for the EAA's annual fly-in for the third time this year. Each year, this event brings thousands of aircraft from all over the US to a single place for a week or so of air shows, parts swaps, sunshine and good clean fun. (It has to be clean fun if you expect to meet the 8 hours bottle to throttle requirements of the FAA!)

Here's a nice shot of one of the P-51 Mustangs that flew in the show.

This year, I brought a fellow pilot from Sterling with me and we flew a G1000 equipped Skyhawk. I'm really falling in love with this aircraft. The glass panel instrumentation provides much clearer information and the combination of an outstanding GPS with a highly effective autopilot make this an excellent plane for instrument conditions.

I reserved an instrument arrival slot several days before the flight and scheduled a 10:30 arrival. We expected a wheels-up time of 9:00. I arrived at the airport around 8:15 and Matt was already there making sure the aircraft was completely fueled.

With our pre-flight completed, I started the engine and called for my instrument clearance. Although I had filed for CRG-ORL-LAL, a route that would take us through the Orlando Class B airspace, ATC wasn't cooperative. They cleared me to OCF (Ocala) via radar vectors, then direct LAL. This was the route that I've flown many times before and the leg to Ocala is the same that I fly when going to either Tampa or to Crystal River.

There were a few low clouds on climbout, but nothing that warranted logging instrument time. Our cruising altitude was 5000' as assigned by ATC. Above the clouds we found considerable haze from the forest fires in north Florida and south Georgia. There was plenty of air traffic around us, too and this made me appreciate the Traffic Avoidance System that is integrated with the moving map GPS. We usually found traffic before ATC announced it to us...but not always.

As we neared Lakeland, ATC descended us to 3000 directly in front of another aircraft that was flying the same basic route, but who was flying VFR without flight following and was not in contact with ATC. I saw the plane flying along our path about the same speed, so I increased power a bit to give us a little distance. When ATC finally called the traffic, I could see them behind my left wing about a quarter mile away at most. I could tell that it was a v-tail Bonanza and he was now at my altitude and approximate airspeed. He finally pushed his throttle and passed us on the left while ATC advised us to follow.

Throughout the flight so far it was clear that ATC was getting very frustrated with many of the pilots. We heard so many blunders from pilots who clearly don't fly very often. It was almost comical to hear the Tampa approach controller tell one of the pilots that he "didn't need his life story - just tell me who you are and what you want".

ATC asked us if we were familiar with the Lake Parker arrival procedure and he was pleased when I advised him that I had done it before. The controller asked me to advise when I had the lake in sight. I had to wait quite a while for a break in the calls to announce that I had the lake in sight and as soon as I did, ATC asked if I would like to cancel IFR, which I quickly did. We headed to lake from the northwest and expected to make a right turn then back to the west over the power plant. As I headed closer to the lake, I saw another Skyhawk moving eastward almost directly over the powerplant and that gave me pause. Thinking that I might have missed something in the ATIS about a change in the pattern direction around the lake, I opted to remain a few miles out while listening to the ATIS a second time. This gave the other plane time to straighten himself out - he was much too close to the lake to be heading east.

I found a gap in the pattern and joined the flow behind a yellow Piper Cub.

The NOTAM states that the pattern altitude is 1200 feet around lake Parker and the airspeed in the pattern should be 100 knots. After flying over the power plant we were to proceed westward until reaching I-4, then follow I-4 to the two unique water towers. Then, proceed due south between the water towers towards the terminal building at which point we would turn east or west depending on which way we were landing. This is a pretty simple procedure and it really aggravates me when pilots cannot follow simple instructions.

The first problem came with the five or six aircraft in front of me who decided that 1200 feet was too high and decided to fly around 1000'. The second problem came from the pilot of the Cub who must have thought that 100 knots was just too fast for a Cub. I slowed to 75 knots and made S-turns to avoid overtaking him without any luck. There I was at 1200 feet making dangerous S-turns only slightly above stall speed to avoid overtaking this yahoo in his wannabe airplane going much too slowly. To further compound the problem, this dummy was not following I-4 - he was about a quarter mile south of the highway. His last mistake actually helped me as I finally gave up on the S-turns and passed him on the right - but never had to fly outside of the proper pattern since he was so far off course.

By now, the four aircraft ahead of the Cub were about a mile away and I could see them in the distance...but they were beyond the turning point. Like lemmings, the were following each other - duplicating each other's errors. I slowed the plane and dropped a notch of flaps while the over shooting planes finally made their turns back to towards the terminal building. ATC called our turns to base and to final one after the other. As I approached my turn to final, my co-pilot urgently pointed out a bi-plane that was heading straight for us. I wasn't worried since I knew the grass runway on which he would be landing was parallel to the taxiway on which we would land and he would be turning his final soon - but I still kept a close eye on him. Sure enough, he turned and dropped in on the grass while we were told to fly long to the orange dot that was painted on the taxiway cum runway. I kept the speed up and flew straight along the taxiway finally pulling power in time to touchdown across the big dot.

The day was filled with aircraft and airshow. At the end of the airshow, there was a mad dash for the runway as hundreds of aircraft rushed to depart. It was madness - like a regular traffic jam, but with spinning propellers instead of bumpers.

The walk to the plane was long across what seemed like miles of grass. But, this worked in our favor as we walked past numerous aircraft with engines running and I'm certain that we took off long before most of them did. We preflighted and fired up the mill. Taxiing required that we make a hard right turn in the grass and this was made more difficult by the weak dampers in the nose gear - there was no way to make the plane turn without using differential braking and that's a no-no in soft field situations. I had no choice. When I hit the taxiway, there were only five or six planes in the line ahead of me - but there were hundreds waiting in other lines.

The weather was looking a bit cloudy and I wondered if I would make it to the HYZER intersection in VFR conditions. We took off and flew according to the NOTAM - due west until at least 3 miles beyond the airport before turning. At this point, I took the transponder off of standby and keyed direct HYZER into the GPS.

About 20 miles south of HYZER, we began to receive pilots calling ATC trying to pick up their instrument clearances. We were at 3,500 feet headed towards some clouds when we finally started to hear ATC responding to these calls. The controller said he had about 16 pilots waiting on clearances and he would get to us one at a time. He then asked us to give our full call signs and nothing more. After listing to five or six planes who announced their call signs, I heard a short gap, so I announced mine as well. Even though I had not previously called, I figured this was just as good a time as any. A few minutes later, ATC started giving clearances or asking for clarifications. When it came to me, the controller asked for my position which I initially reported as 10 miles north of HYZER...upon reflection, I corrected myself and annouced that I was 10 miles south of HYZER. The controller told me to call back when I was at HYZER as he could not see me on radar.

I figured it would be easier for him to see me if I climbed, so I changed my altitude to 5,500. Before reaching HYZER, ATC gave me a squawk code and told me to ident. He then advised me to climb to 6000' and cleared me direct to CRG once I reached 6000.

We were above a solid layer of clouds and smoke and I looked forward to getting some actual instrument time. As we neared Palatka, ATC descended me to 4000 through the clouds. We were in and out of clouds for much of the rest of the flight and were advised to expect the ILS32 circling to 5 approach at CRG as other pilots had had some difficulty. Fine with me.

I was then descended to 3000', but could go no further due to another plane below that appeared to be maneuvering. We couldn't see the actual plane, but we could see him on the TAS. He appeared to be maneuvering because he really was. It turns out that he was the other Skyhawk pilot from Sterling who was trying hard to remain VFR. He was not an instrument rated pilot and he later told me they had to fly below 2000 feet in windy, bumpy conditions the entire way home. He also described the problems he had landing with the wind gusts - wind was reported at 14 knots with gusts to 24 knots, but it was fairly close to blowing straight down the runway. I asked him if he was able to make the Bravo 2 taxiway and he said he used the entire runway. (This actually made me feel great since I was able to land the plane softly before Bravo 2...much less than 1000').

We flew the approach and circled to land on runway 5. I noted the windsock sticking straight out and brought the plane in straight over the numbers.

What a great day! 3.9 hours of cross-country time with .5 actual instrument.

Lastly, today I learned that someone besides me actually reads these entries - so Hi to Felissa! The next time you're in Jacksonville or you find yourself at the same conference, let me know and we'll go flying!

Future of Democracy in America

2007-04-04T15:43:00.000-04:00

Sir Alex Fraser Tytler theorized that "a democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."

He lived between 1742 and 1813. The U.S. has existed as a sovereign nation for a little over 200 years, so should we be happy that our government has outlived its life expectancy? That would make us complacent.

I agree with Sir Alex's hypothesis, however, I do not believe that society as a whole progresses smoothly from each of his nine steps. In the case of the U.S., Canada, and much of twenty first century western civilization, I think that certain segments of the population reach the various stages differently and therefore the overall population my have elements of some if not all of the phases simultaneously.

It is quite clear from the voting patterns in the U.S. that a significant portion of the population is either complacent or apathetic since such a large portion of the population fails to vote. Of those who do vote, their re-election of pork-barrell politicians for decades suggests that they are adhering to Sir Alex's initial hypothesis - they are voting themselves largess of the public treasury.

Early in our nation's history, we were a devout, god-fearing society with strong spiritual faith. Indeed, one of the major principals of our government is the freedom to worship whichever god we choose in the manner we desire. With our belief in God and the help of the French, we fought the tyranny of George III and created a nation of liberty.

Over the decades, our liberty brought prosperity that was marred only briefly by our Civil War. That which does not kill us makes us stronger, and we emerged from the war as a strong nation. The industrial revolution brought abundance which we enjoyed even as most of Europe was embroiled in a horrible war. The selfishness of isolationists in our government blocked our entry into World War I until very late. We continue to show signs of this selfishness unless our economic interests are threatened. Somalia, Serbia-Croatia, Palestine/Israel, and Taiwan are all examples where we failed to take a visible and active role in serving the common good until very late. Yet we deposed the dictators of Panama and Iraq quickly and with great force due to their impact on our economy.

The government is a reflection of the ugliest parts of the society that it governs. Our people have grown complacent in their selection of elected officials and we sit idly by while our leaders lie, cheat and steal...and possibly worse. We remained largely apathetic when our President molested a 21 year old office worker - in the White House, then lied about it. Whether one believes that two adults have the right to do what they want behind closed doors is immaterial. By engaging in these activities, Bill Clinton put himself in a position where he could easily have been blackmailed. This lapse in judgement and more importantly his bold-faced lies about it and his feeble attempt to mince words should have resulted in his immediate dismissal. Imagine if ANY of our corporate leaders had been caught getting a blow job from a 21 year old secretary in their office...how long do you think they would keep their jobs? The same standard should have been applied to Clinton. The apathy and complacency of the governed allowed him to remain in office.

A significant portion of our population is completely dependent on the government - and the taxes I pay - for their very survival. Their dependence knows no bounds. The flooding from Hurricane Katrina nearly destroyed New Orleans. Yet the locals resorted to thievery and murder while holding out their hands DEMANDING that the rest of the nation help them. These people have been dependent on the government for so long that they were incapable of escaping a storm that everyone knew was headed their way. The flooding took three days to destroy New Orleans. It was neither sudden nor unexpected. Yet these people sat by waiting for the government to help them instead of helping themselves and each other. Even worse, their local government proved their incompetence by also showing their dependence on the Federal Government. There are those who would say that the response to the problem in New Orleans was a result of the race of the people most affected by the disaster. Hogwash! If the majority of the population had been some other race that sat idly by - demanding help, the response would have been no different. Self-reliance is key and the people of New Orleans who stayed behind had absolutely no self-reliance whatsoever. They have placed their entire existence in the hands of the government. It is precisely this type of dependence that will return us to bondage and dictatorship. Some of us are already there.

David West

Which slows a flight more? ATC or Headwinds???

2007-02-19T15:51:00.000-05:00

...or what happens when you experience both?!

This weekend I flew to F45 (North Palm Beach County, aka North County) from Craig (CRG). With a cruise speed of 120 knots TAS, the no-wind time for such a flight should be 1.75 hours. The forecast for Saturday called for a slight tailwind component that should add 5 knots to our cruise speed. But, as anyone who has ever flown can tell you, the winds never obey predictions. Once I climbed to my crusing altitude of 6000 feet for the flight down, the GPS was clearly showing some strong winds off of the right wing with about a 3 or 4 knot reduction in ground speed.

Nevertheless, the sky was clear and the flight was smooth. I had a great view of the Cape as we flew past the shuttle landing area, the assembly building and all of the rocket launchers.

I was a bit disappointed in ATC because they did not clear me as filed, instead, once I reached MLB I was to depart the V3 airway and join the V492 airway which would take me a few miles off shore before turning back towards PBI - which was farther south than I needed to go.

Before passing MLB, I had plugged in the ANGEE intersection which would define the V492 route. As we passed the VOR, the plane made its turn towards the southeast and we continued merrily along for about 10 miles when ATC called, "November 6-3-Foxtrot, cleared to Pahokee, then direct Foxtrot 45". That provided marginal relief as Pahokee was not farther south than our destination - just quite a bit farther west. I quickly punched in the modification and the plane headed in the right direction. About 25 miles from PHK, I was cleared direct to F45, so that shaved a little time off of the clock.

The end result for this trip was a total time of 2.1 hours. Figure .2 for ground work and the net result of the wind and routing was about a .4 hour increase in flying time.

The trip home was much worse.

First, the winds a 3000, 6000, and 9000 were not conducive to a northerly flight path. At 9000, the forecast called for winds in the 45 to 50 knot range. At 6000, they were in the 28 knot range, but at 3000, they were in the 35 knot range and would be dead in my face. I opted to file for 5000 feet and planned the flight based on interpolated winds at that altitude. This would cause our planned time to require 2h30m wheels up to wheels down at 120 knots. Not good.

The winds at PBI were reported at 300 at 20 with gusts to 30. Challenging conditions - to say the least. I flew in some tough winds a few weeks ago when I went to X39, so I was somewhat comfortable. Still, I spent some time reviewing crosswind procedures, high wind landing procedures, etc. before heading out to the airport. The local, unofficial, weather radio was reporting diminishing winds - first call had them at 300 at 18 and they dropped to 13 by the time I stopped listening. As we walked to the plane, I watched as another 172 climbed and it didn't appear to be tossed around at all, so that made me a bit more relieved.

I had filed IFR, but figured that it would be better to take off VFR and pick up my clearance once airborne. This would prevent the ATC from having to keep the airspace over F45 clear while they waited for me to take off. It would also avoid my having to sit on the ground waiting for release.

So, I departed on Runway 31 and made left turns in the pattern as I climbed steadily. I had plugged in the MORGA intersection as my first waypoint as this would keep me out of the Gwinn airspace. I flew over the airport and headed for MORGA as I leveled off at 2,500 feet. I contacted Palm Beach Approach and requested my clearance. The controller gave me a squawk and handed me to a different controller for the clearance. I was cleared via vectors to VRB, then as filed - That's a surprise! ATC advised me to climb to 5000 feet and procede direct VRB, which I did.

Leveling off at 5000 feet, the GPS clearly showed that the wind was greater than forecast - about 34 knots and directly in our face. As I passed Ft. Pierce, I called Miami Flightwatch on 122.0 and filed a pirep noting the clear skies, higher than forecast wind and smoother than forecast conditions.

Shortly after passing Vero, Orlando approach advised me that due to the procedures in effect for the Daytona 500, I could expect to be routed over Orlando International, then Ocala, then Gainesville. That should add some time to the trip, but I replied to the controller that this sounded like fun.

I plugged MCO, OCF and GNV into the flightplan in place of MLB and OMN. This would add about 15 minutes to the flying time if we flew the entire route.

As expected, ATC advised me to descend to 4000 feet and turn to a heading of 290. I made the necessary adjustments by switching the autopilot from Nav to Heading mode and dialed the heading on the HSI. I made a 1000 FPM descent to 4000 and was pleased to note a 5 knot increase in our groundspeed once I leveled off - we were no longer flying directly into the wind.

As we neared the Orlando Class B airspace, the controller gave me more and more heading changes. Usually no more than 10 degrees right or left, but I made sure that I flew these headings precisely. I was surprised by how many different course changes he gave me. Ultimately, I flew just past the Orlando International Airport over the southern end of the multiple runways. Of course, I took some photos.

On the west side of Orlando, ATC vectored me to OCF and cleared me direct to OCF. He then asked if I was landing at OCF, which worried me - OCF was not even on my flight plan, so landing there was not my intention at all. I responded, "Negative, Our destination is Craig - Charlie-Romeo-Golf, 6-3-Foxtrot."

Passing out of the Class B, we flew directly over Leesburg. I double checked my map and saw that a direct line from Leesburg to Craig would put us well outside of the Daytona airspace. Orlando Approach handed me off to Jacksonville Approach. I called, "Jax Approach, Skyhawk 1463Foxtrot level at 4000, with request." The controller asked me for my request and I asked for Direct Craig. He told me that once I was clear of the Orlando airspace, he would give me direct. (I was already outside of the technical Class B airspace.) A few minutes later, I was cleared direct and I headed home.

I got a great view of the sunset from the air and took quite a few photos. As I neared Jacksonville, another plane joined me 500 feet above - a VFR flight in an Aztec a Piper twin engine plane. I was surprised that he was not catching up to me very quickly, but I may have been pushing it a bit, too. I was told to descend to 3000, then was handed off to Jax Approach on 118.0. Unfortunately, at 3000 southwest of the river and 30 miles from CRG, I could not hear the controller, but I could hear other pilots calling him. I waited five or six miles and called in again and asked how he heard me. All was OK, we could hear each other now. The Aztec was only about 2 miles behind me and was still at 4500 feet. He radioed that he had Craig in sight and ATC advised that he had another aircraft in front. (that was me!) He said he no longer had me in sight, but had me on his TCAS. I seriously doubt that he has a TCAS - probably just a TIS, big difference as a TCAS will actually issue instructions for avoiding other aircraft and a TIS is just traffic information based on radar downlink data. Nevertheless, he had me on his scope and I had him on mine.

I announced that I also had Craig in sight and that I had the Aztec on my display as well.

ATC cleared me for the visual 32 and then shortly handed me off to the tower. The Aztec joined the tower shortly afterwards and was immediately told to turn 10 degrees to the right as he was getting too close to me. The piper pilot had a choice to make. He could slow up and land behind me - which was the smart thing to do, or he could fly fast and try to get around me - a bit more dangerous and obnoxious, but if I was in a faster twin-engine plane, I probably would have done the same.

I was told to follow a Citation jet in the pattern and the Aztec was told to follow me by the tower controller. I advised the controller, that I would be happy to slow down and let the Aztec pass since he was a faster aircraft. The controller thanked me and vectored me to 090 as I slowed down. He then asked if I saw the other aircraft and of course I did. I followed behind the Aztec and made an awful landing. The approach lights were out and I bounced the plane as I tried to land. There was a fair amount of wind, but a bad landing is still the pilot's fault. It wasn't a bad bounce, but it wasn't my usual smooth flare.

Anyway all of this flying around did not add appreciably to the calculated time of 2.5 hours. All told this flight required 2.8 hours and none of the time was spent in cloud.

I've recalculated the no-wind times for the original flight plan, the expected modification and the actual course and found that my original plan would have been 1h52 minutes without wind. The rerouting over Orlando to OCF to GNV to CRG would have increased the flying time to 2:17 - an increase of 25 minutes. The actual route flown (an approximation due to the numerous heading changes) is estimated at 2:04. It still took us 2:30 wheels up to wheels down - so the combination of wind and ATC resulted in an additional 38 minutes of flying time. ATC only accounted for 12 minutes of that, so the severe headwinds produced a whopping 26 minutes of delay.

David West

To Go Around or Not Go Around

2007-02-01T19:52:00.000-05:00

Christmas was over a month ago and I still had presents for my sister's family and my mother sitting at home in Jacksonville. Since I had a free Sunday, I made plans to fly over to Tampa to play Santa.

The forecast called for a front to push through bringing gusty conditions during the mid-day period. The worst part would be during the afternoon after I had already landed in Tampa, so I wasn't too worried. The winds aloft were forecast from the west-northwest at anywhere from 35 to 49 knots. This would give me a bit of a headwind for the first part of my flight with a slight tailwind after I passed Ocala.

During preflight, I discovered that some yahoo had removed the checklist from the aircraft, so I had to go back to the hanger to get another. I think this is the third time in just a few months that the checklist has gone missing. It's a bit aggravating, but I know I made the mistake once when I was a student.

During the preflight, the plane was shaking quite a bit in the wind. I made a mental note to pay close attention to the wind direction and yoke position lest the wind flip the plane. When taxiing to the controlled ground area, the plane kept trying to weathervane into the wind. There was a very steady 15 knot wind from my right rear quarter.

I called for my IFR clearance and went through the runup without incident. The wind was from 280 at 14 knots according to the ATIS and I would be departing runway 32. This would give me a fair amount of crosswind to contend with. The weather was chilly, too, so the engine performance should be good.

On climbout, I saw around 1100 fpm climb rate, which is much better than the POH calls for at STP at sea level. With only me in the plane, I was well below max weight. This fact combined with the favorable temperature and pressure accounted for the excellent performance.

The flight to X39 was fairly uneventful. I flew over at 5000' as instructed by ATC - even though I was flying southwest and the AIM calls for even altitudes. ATC does things differently in Florida since most traffic runs north and south rather than east-west. There was a cloud layer at 4000' that I flew through, but the air was surprisingly smooth. For much of the flight, the GPS showed a 45 knot wind blowing from my right. Fortunately, it was such that my ground speed matched my TAS, so the wind wasn't really slowing me down. I was showing 128 knots TAS.

About 20 miles out, ATC called, "November 6-3-Foxtrot, traffic 11 o'clock 7 miles, two-thousand-three-hundred-feet, maneuvering, type unknown."

I replied, "6-3-Foxtrot, negative contact, and I don't see it on my display yet either. I'm looking".

ATC then descended me to 1600 feet. This struck me as kind of odd since the MEA for the airway I was on was 2000 feet. It was a relatively clear day, so 1600 did not pose any problems.

A few minutes later, ATC announced, "November 6-3-foxtrot, traffic now at your 10 o'clock, seven miles".

I answered, "Approach, 6-3-foxtrot, I do not have the traffic in sight, but I have three bogeys on my scope. I'll keep my eyes out."

The traffic display showed that the traffic was now only two aircraft and it was now heading straight for me 500 feet higher and only a few miles away. ATC called the traffic again at 1 mile and I told the controller that I had the traffic in sight. Meanwhile, I was monitoring the frequency for X39 and heard no one announcing any positions. We were close enought to that airport that I had expected to hear this other pilot on the air, but I had no such luck.

I kept my eye on the other aircraft as he flew directly over head - I never knew if he actually saw me or not.

As I got closer to the airport, I listened to the weather at Vandenberg and Brooksville and a few other airports along the way. My destination airport does not have an ATIS or AWOS. The wind was generally from the Northwest at around 10 or 12 knots and I expected this airport to show the same. With the airport in sight, I canceled my IFR clearance and thanked the controller.

I announced my intentions and flew directly over the field noting that the windsock next to the runway was fully extended and pointing roughly straight down runway 32. The sock on top of the hanger, though was pointing about 30 degrees off indicating that the wind may either be swirling or I would be getting some cross wind from the left as I landed on 32. Crossing over the runway, I descended to 1000' and made a right teardrop turn to enter the left downwind for 32. There was no traffic around at all.

Since the wind was so stiff - the GPS was now showing 23 knots at pattern altitude, I expected some shear and possibly gusts, so I decided that I would only use 2 notches of flaps and would keep my speed up a bit to compensate for any sudden changes in the wind. What happened next was not what I had expected.

I lined up on final and as I reached the runway, I pulled the power and let the plane settle before flaring. The mains touched down and I traveled about 100 feet down the center of the runway when a gust of wind lifted the plane about 10 or 15 feet into the air. I immediately gave the plane a little bit of throttle and let it stabilize. The plane started to drift right, so I banked slightly to the left and realigned with the center of the narrow runway. Back in the center, I reduced power and let the plane settle to the runway and immediately retracted the flaps. I stopped and announced my intention to taxi back on the runway. I carefully taxied with full nose down elevators and found a parking spot.

I've never had a plane lifted into the air in the past, but maybe I've never had such gusts. I once had a Cessna 152 fall out of the sky due to a sudden windshift when I was still a student, but even that didn't bounce...it just caused my instructor to say something about charging me for her chiropractor bills.

Maybe next time, I would use only one notch of flaps in such gusty conditions, but the problem is that I just didn't know there were gusts - the two closest airports were not reporting gusts. I could have opted to give the plane full power and execute a go-around, but I didn't feel like I had let the situation deteriorate to the point that I couldn't land the plane safely. I still had the plane under control, I had 15 feet of altitude and enough speed to maintain the altitude - and several thousand feet of runway remaining. All in all, I think I made a good decision. I'm just glad I didn't have any passengers or witnesses on the ground to comment on the poor first attempt.

Anyway, I got 1.6 hours of cross-country with about 0.2 of actual instrument time. Another fun flight. I returned that night - that flight will be the subject of my next post.

David West

ALTITUDE ALERT!!!

2007-01-15T14:17:00.000-05:00

"November 363 Bravo Lima! Altitude Alert! St. Augustine altimeter 30.23. Watch your altitude!", called the tower controller at St. Augustine municipal airport.

I was on final approach to runway 13 using the VOR 13 instrument approach. The ceiling over the airport was around 1800 feet, but to the West, the ceiling was around 1000'. I had been in IMC almost from my departure from Craig Municipal in Jacksonville. So what did I do to generate an altitude alert from ATC?

The weather was forecast to have scattered ceilings around 4000 to 5000 feet, but a quick glance at the sky before I jumped in the shower suggested that the forecasters had made a mistake. The sky was overcast at my house 8 miles south of the airport. I couldn't reliably estimate the height of the ceiling, but it sure looked to me to be much lower than 4000. I had originally planned to make this a VFR flight since there wouldn't be much actual instrument time to be accumulated, but when I saw the sky, I filed an IFR plan for CRG-SGJ-CRG with PLA in the notes. (PLA is "practice low approaches").

The ATIS report for CRG did not match the conditions that I saw. I also overheard the controller telling another pilot that they didn't have weather info in the tower that weekend.

When I departed runway 5, I encountered clouds around 900 feet as I was turning towards my assigned heading of 100. The controller didn't hand me off as early as he usually did and I was through 1500 feet before I was given to JAX departure. On my initial contact, Departure asked me for my intentions and I requested vectors for the VOR 13 approach at St. Augustine, since the forecast called for winds that would favor this runway. ATC turned me to 180 and asked me to advise when I had the ATIS at St. Augustine. Meanwhile, I was encountering rain and clouds and when I was out of the clouds, I could see lots of low clouds and rain to the south and west of me. Meanwhile, I heard a Piper pilot (PA32) call JAX and requested an instrument clearance so he could fly VFR on top. His request was improperly made and it confused the controller. He had stated that he would be entering IMC shortly and asked for clearance. The controller took his info and advised him to remain VFR and he would have his clearance shortly. The pilot had departed SGJ and was Westbound. There was no way he could have remained VFR and flown a safe distance above the ground...not with the clouds that I saw. Nevertheless, he called back and canceled his request saying that it was just a rain squall and he would be able to fly VFR all the way to Pensacola. A few minutes later, he requested a touch-and-go at Cecil (VQQ).

Some pilots really irritate me...especially those who do not do a proper job of planning and don't make use of the tools available to them. This pilot in particular was bad news. With the weather that was apparent, why would anyone try to fly VFR? Why not file IFR and get in the system? It's safer, better organized and it only requires a little bit of planning (and an instrument rating). Clearly this pilot did not plan his flight and had no flight plan on file for a cross-country flight that would take a couple of hours. Frankly, I think he is an accident waiting to happen.

Anyway, I was in solid IMC at 2000' and I had briefed the approach which was clipped to my yoke. ATC had asked me for my intentions and gave me a missed procedure of 360, 2000' and their current frequency. I was now cleared for the approach and told to fly a heading of 160 until established on the approach. The approach vector for final was 128 degrees, so this was about a 30 degree intercept, the problem was I was already fairly close to the fix. A glance at the GPS told me that I would be well past the FAF before I intercepted the radial. I was advised to remain at 2000' until established. Now that I was within 10 miles and the needle was coming alive, I descended to 1600'. My next descent would be to the MDA - 460'. I was now about 3.4 miles out and had been handed off to the tower who had requested that I report 2 miles. I was still at 1600 and had just intercepted the radial, so now I could descend to 460, but I didn't have much time to do it. So much for a stabilized approach. I reduced power and dropped the flaps. As the speed bled off, I executed a forward slip that resulted in a rate of descent between 1500 and 2000 feet per minute. I broke out of the clouds somewhere around 1000 feet. At 2 miles out I advised the tower of my position. At about 700 feet, I pointed the nose where it belonged and gave the throttle a push until I had 1700 rpm. I leveled off at 500' and a few seconds later, the tower controller contacted me with the ALTITUDE ALERT.

I responded, "I'm level at 500 feet and have the runway in sight...what generated the alert?" The controller responded by explaining that my descent path according to their computers was going to put me below the proper descent path and alarms go off in the JAX center and in the tower. They have to alert me and to alert the center.

I replied, "Thanks for the alert, I had to drop down pretty quickly, so I didn't make a nice smooth descent. Sorry to wake everybody up!"

The controller chuckled and said it was not a problem.

So that's how you generate an altitude alert!

I lined the plane up with the runway and made a very nice smooth landing...not technically a low approach, but since I was cleared for the option, I opted for a touch and go.

The return to Craig was interesting and in IMC the entire time. I'll write more about that later.

David West

Florida Winter Weather

2006-12-17T16:38:00.000-05:00

Having lived in Florida for around 40 years, I think I've seen about every type of weather in December. I've seen the city shut down on Christmas Eve (1987) due to snow - a inch was enough to close every bridge in town. I've been water skiing or golfing throughout the winter. You never know what it will be like.

Today, I checked DUAT for the local TAF and METAR information and saw IFR or marginal VFR conditions throughout most of Northeast Florida. The current information showed 6 miles visibility and mist at Craig, but JAX and St. Augustine were much worse. At 9am, JAX was reporting 1/2 mile in mist, but at 10:10, they were at 3 miles with a scattered cover. At 9am, it was 3 miles and mist at St. Augustine. I had planned a 10 am departure, so with iffy weather, I opted to file IFR.

The drive to the airport was covered by blue skies with an increasing cloud cover as I neared the airport - but nothing as bad as the earlier METARs had indicated. I grabbed the flight bag and prepped the plane. Today, I would be flying a Cessna 172SP with the NAVII package. I've been flying one with a glass cockpit lately, so this would be different flying with the traditional six-pack of gauges.

The plane checked out although it's tanks were only half full and the previous pilot had not secured the controls. Since my flight was only going to take about an hour, 2.5 hours of fuel would be more than enough.

The engine started easily and I ran through the usual checklists. Clearance delivery cleared me as filed and told me to climb to 2000 expect 3000 in 10 minutes and she gave me my squawk and the ATC frequency. While in the runup, I double checked the VORs against each other and they were perfect.

With the wind running down runway 5, I would have just a short taxi before takeoff. I taxied out of the parking area at Sterling and stopped on taxiway Golf short of the controlled space before contacting ground control and requesting taxi to runway 5.

There was a single, older 172 in the runup area and he was turned 90 degrees to the wind for his runup - a bizarre way of doing things. I passed him and parked myself into the wind as close to the hold short as possible. The engine ran just fine in the runup. I plugged in the frequencies and the transponder code, then pulled forward and requested takeoff clearance. Although I pulled out of my parking space, I remained clear of the taxiway thinking that ATC would make me hold for clearance - I was right. The wait wasn't long, though and I was cleared for take off quickly. I was given 100 as my departure heading. I put 100 on the heading bug on the heading indicator, turned the transponder to ALT, turned on my lights and noted the time.

On thing that the glass panel aircraft does that the traditional gauges won't do is to compensate for precession on the heading indicator - you simply never have to make an adjustment, whereas with the traditional gauges, you have to stay on top of things. Therefore, once I lined up on the runway, I double checked the heading on the HI and started my takeoff roll.

I noted that I was airborne before I passed the B2 intersection - that's less than 1000' for a takeoff - and I didn't even start my roll at the very end of the runway.

Reaching 700' I turned to 100 and ATC handed me off to Departure. The departure controller had asked me what I wanted at St. Augustine, so I requested vectors for the VOR31 approach. The NOTAMS said that the ILS glideslope was still out of commission, so a VOR approach would be fine. I've been flying ILS and localizer approaches lately anyway, so a VOR approach would be a good thing to do.

On the downwind leg at 3000', I took a few shots of the St. Augustine airport with my new lens. The shots at least show some of the haze that we had, but conditions were definitely VFR.

I made a very nice touch-and-go at SGJ then headed back to Craig. Due to the good weather, I decided to cancel IFR and putter around a bit. I took a few more shots of my house, the beach, other aircraft, etc.

I then headed back to Craig flying straight up highway 9A. I listened to the ATIS that reported winds at 4 knots at 070 - light and only 20 degrees off of the runway. Craig tower advised me to enter a right base to runway 5 and report 2 miles. I followed the highway for a while, then adjusted my course to enter the assigned pattern while descending to 1000'. I slowed the plane and maintained 65 knots of airspeed for the approach. I wanted to be able to exit the runway at taxiway B2. There was a seminole holding short and I hate to make people wait for me almost as much as I hate to wait for people. B2 was the quickest way off the runway provided that I could stop the plane in time.

This time, the plane was much lighter than usual due to the reduced fuel load. I had about 20 gallons of fuel versus a full load of 56 gallons - so I was over 200 pounds lighter with no passengers or cargo. Although my approach speed was steady at 65 knots, the plane floated and just did not want to stay on the ground. The tires chirped a few times too many - I hoped that no one was watching. Nevertheless, I stopped right at the B2 turnoff and was able to clear the runway quickly for the seminole.

It was fun day to fly, but I logged no actual instrument time...passing through a few whispy clouds just doesn't count in my book. I did log an instrument approach, though. I flew 0.7 on an instrument flight plan and the remaining 0.3 hours was pure VFR. Total time for the day was 1.0 with two landings.

David West

RADAR for PDAs, Blackberries and Smartphones

2006-12-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

When I was preparing to fly home from North Palm Beach after Thanksgiving, I thought it really would have been nice to have one last glance at the radar before hopping in the plane. Wouldn't it be nice to have been able to view current radar images on my Blackberry's display?!

When I got home, I created a website that is designed to provide a menu on the blackberry's browser that will provide quick connections to the latest National Weather Service radar and satellite images.

The link is: http://home.comcast.net/~davidwest007/radar.html.

Currently, there are three menu items in a table - the first two provide links in order of the ICAO radar station name for long range base reflectivity and the long range base reflectivity loop. The third link provides a listing by State and City of all of the ICAO radar stations and will connect the user to the current long range base reflectivity snapshot.

I'll be adding the visible, infrared and watervapor satellite images soon. I will probably rewrite the page in cHTML (compact-html) so that it will work on most handheld browsers. This means that I cannot use any jpegs or tables.

In the event that anyone sees this post and actually tries my radar site, I would really like feedback. There is no charge for the website other than what your cell provider charges for the connection.

I hope folks find this site useful. I think I'll add a METARs and TAF site soon.

David West

Low Clouds Aren't Always All That Low

2006-12-03T15:37:00.000-05:00

This entry will probably be a bit long. It covers approaches and landings at three airports in the Jacksonville area when the TAFs predicted IFR conditions and METARs showed marginal VFR conditions. Overall the conditions would have been nice for a sightseeing flight - the ceiling was higher than forecast and the IFR conditions really didn't materialize. Because of the forecast, I didn't bring my camera - which I now regret.

With TAFs predicting IFR conditions for much of the local area, I thought today would be a good day to get some actual instrument time and shoot a few approaches. However, from a flying perspective, the weather was better than forecast - from a not flying viewpoint, it was just a blustery, ugly, overcast day...at least for those on the ground.

I filed IFR for CRG-VQQ-SGJ-CRG. All three airports forecast either IFR or marginal VFR conditions. My plan remarks included "PLA" for practice low approaches. I don't like low approoaches. I would much rather drag the wheels across the runway and log an actual landing. Today, I was going to focus on landing in as little distance as possible.

After listening to the ATIS, I tuned clearance delivery and heard the controller pulling double duty. He was giving clearances and filling ground control duties simultaneously. I waited for the airwaves to clear and requested my clearance.

The controller said, "November 1463Foxtrot, cleared to Craig as filed, climb 2000, expect 4000 in ten minutes, departure on 118.0, squawk 5515."

I correctly repeated my clearance and taxied on Golf until I was on the boundary of the controlled taxiway and contacted the ground controller with a courtesy call.

After his response, I radioed, "63 Foxtrot is on Golf short of Bravo request taxi for IFR departure to the west."

Since I neglected to tell the tower that I had information echo, he cleared me to taxi to runway 5 and asked if I had information echo.

During the runup, I programmed VQQ, Cecil Field, as a direct-to in the GPS and made sure that the CRG VOR was programmed in the NAV radio. I had previously entered my squawk code and entered the approach control frequency in the standby on COM1.

Following a thorough runup, I switched to the tower frequency and requested takeoff clearance.

After being held for release, the tower announced, "November 63-Foxtrot, cleared for takeoff runway 5, left turn 280."

I acknowledged and taxied on to the runway, lined up in the center and gave it the gas.

At 55 knots, I pulled back on the yoke and the plane bounced a few times and then began a steady climb out. With only one person in the plane, I think that the trim should be set a bit higher than the takeoff position. This would cause me to use less backpressure on initial takeoff and I would be less likely to exceed the optimal climbout speed. I'll keep that in mind for future flights.

I adjusted the pitch for a steady 74 knots on the climb and after passing 700', I began my turn back to 280. During the turn, the tower handed me off to approach who cleared me to 4000'.

During my climb, I pulled the instrument approach plates for VQQ and tuned the ATIS on the second COM. The ATIS announced that winds were light and variable and runway 31R was in use.

Jax approach asked my intentions at Cecil and since 31 was in use, I requested the ILS31 approach followed by vectors to St. Augustine.

The controller gave me my climbout instructions, "November 63foxtrot, following your low approach or touch-and-go, fly heading 270, climb to 2000 feet, departure on this frequency."

I double checked the frequency and replied, "climbout on 270 to 2000 and 123.8, six-three-foxtrot."

He then gave me a heading of 230 which took me directly over JAX NAS. I leveled off and adjusted my speed for 110 knots TAS since this is what I had filed. This required a throttle setting around 2340 RPM. With the headwinds coming from the southeast, I was only making around 90 knots of ground speed.

I double checked the ATIS, adjusted the altimeter and briefed the plate for 36R. I set the autopilot to heading mode, and activated the approach in the GPS.

The controller vectored me for my downwind, then descended me to 2000'. He then gave me my base leg heading of 270, and I was starting to wonder if he had forgotten me because the localizer was starting to come alive - the needle was starting to move away from full deflection on the HSI. Just as the needle moved to 4 dots, the controller gave me a heading of 330 and advised me to maintain 2000 until established on the ILS. I immediately turned the heading bug to 330, reduced power to 2100 RPM to drop my speed down to 90 knots, and then switched the autopilot to NAV mode. This would make the autopilot intercept the localizer and get me nicely established on a proper approach course.

I watched the glideslope diamond start to descend and when it was one dot above the middle, I dropped the first notch of flaps, disengaged the autopilot and trimmed a little nose down to maintain a 500 fpm rate of descent. I had to reduce the throttle to about 1800 RPM to keep the airspeed at 90 and the descent at 500fpm. I was pleased with the way that I was maintaining my track and glideslope, but noticed that it was much easier to stay on the localizer if I used the GPS display on the multi-function display zoomed in to just a few miles. The track indicator clearly showed where I would be heading and if it ventured too far to the left or right, then I knew I would soon be off course. This was a much more responsive indicator than the localizer needle shown on the HSI.

I kept my head in the cockpit - with the traffic display, I wasn't too worried about other aircraft in the area. If decided to look up at 500' and saw the runway dead ahead. The rest of the aproach, I completed visually. I reduced speed to 65 knots - with a fully loaded plane, the approach speed for a short field landing would be 68 knots - with just me on board, I reasoned that 65 knots would be just fine. When it was clear that I would reach the runway, I reduced power to idle and kept my hand on the throttle just in case I needed a push. I flared the plane just before the numbers and then dragged rubber right across the big 36. I probably could have had the plane stopped completely within 700'. I was very pleased with this landing.

Ok, time to retract the flaps, push the throttle to full and give it some rudder to maintain the centerline. Nose up at 55, then climb out at 74. With somewhere around 11,000 feet of runway left, I had lots of room to climb. I reached 700 feet and made my left turn to 270 - I still had not reached the crossing runway! The tower controller handed me back to departure and I called, "Jax Departure, Skyhawk 1463Foxtrot out of 1,100 for 2000."

"November 1463Foxtrot, radar contact 1 mile west of Cecil, climb to 3000, after passing 2000, left turn to 130", the controller advised.

I leveled off and entered SGJ as the direct-to in the GPS. My current heading of 130 was perfect. I would go straight to St. Augustine. I set the autopilot to follow my heading bug and maintain 3000'.

When I was almost south of NAS JAX, I heard the controller talking to a Navy pilot - couldn't hear the pilot, just the controller. The controller advised the pilot that he should maintain 4000' due to skyhawk traffic four miles south of the airport heading southeast. That had to be me. ATC then told me to alter my course to 090 - there was a navy jet inbound from the south on an attack pattern. I looked all over to the south for this plane, but he must have been above the cloud layer that was right around 4000'. As I passed the river, ATC vectored me to 130 again and I never saw the Navy fighter.

I tuned the ATIS for St. Augustine and heard that they were landing on runway 31 - and also that the ILS was unmonitored and the glideslope was out of service. Visibility was 5 miles in mist and the sky was 5500 scattered with 8000 overcast. This was much higher than Craig or Cecil. The problem with the ILs has been that way for quite a while. I don't get it. The St. Augustine VOR was out of service for over a year without any explanation. Now the glideslope is OTS. With Florida weather, a fully functioning ILS is a very good thing for an airport to have.

ATC then asked for my intentions following St. Augustine and I replied that I would like to go back to Craig and get the ILS 32 approach. The controller advised me to fly 360 and climb to 2000, approach on 120.75, which I acknowledged.

Like before, I received vectors for my downwind leg. I heard ATC talking to another aircraft that reported 10 miles out on the ILS 31, but I never saw it...never even saw it on my traffic indicator. Although I was only 5 miles from the airport, he gave the other aircraft priority - he must have been much faster. He canceled his IFR clearance at 10 miles saying that the airport was in sight - I guess the 5 miles of visibility wasn't really 5 miles after all. Since it was clear to me that I was being sequenced, I reduced my speed to 85 knots - no sense in flying miles out of the way if I didn't have to.

Finally, I was given vectors to intercept - "...Fly heading 270, maintain 2000 until established on the localizer, glideslope is out of service, cleared for the ILS 31 approach."

I acknowledged saying, "63Foxtrot, 270 and 2000 until established, I understand that the glideslope is out of service and will make this a localizer approach, cleared for the ILS31."

As I turned to intercept the localizer, ATC handed me off to the tower who told me to report reaching the coastline. I began descending to 1600 as this was the minimum altitude at the FAF. Crossing the FAF at 1600, I established a 500 fpm descent at 90 knots with one notch of flaps. I reported the coastline and was cleared for the option. When I was down to 1000', I looked up and noted that even though the localizer said I was dead on and my heading was exactly what was prescribed in the plate, the runway was slightly off to the right. It was at this point that I payed more attention to the GPS display on my right and noted any deviations. At 500', I slowed the plane to 65 knots and pointed the nose at the bottom of the numbers. There are a few hundred feet of runway overrun area before the threshold, so I've got a nice concrete buffer if I land short. I progressively added the rest of the flaps and pulled power to idle. I nailed the landing on the numbers and could easily have made a very short landing. Flaps up, trim to T/O, full power and I was cruising down the runway again.

I payed careful attention to the GPS display on climb out and made sure I was perfectly lined up with the runway - the localizer was showing full deflection - which clearly told me that it is not a straight-in localizer otherwise the back course would have showed me dead on as well.

I was paying so much attention to my heading that I almost forgot to make my turn to 360. At 1000' I made my turn and the tower handed me back to departure control.

Since St. Augustine is only about 25 miles from Craig and I would be flying the ILS32 approach, I would not have much time to brief the plate and get my stuff together. ATC told me to climb to 2000and kept me on my 360 heading. I entered and identified the ILS on 111.7, punched up KCRG and selected the approach on the GPS, and then listened to ATIS information Foxtrot on COM2. Wind was 040 at 5 with 5 miles visibility, skies OVC at 060. I was told to expect the ILS32-circle to 5. So I clipped that plate to the yoke and read it over.

In no time I was very near the approach course, so I activated the approach on the GPS and set the autopilot to NAV mode. ATC cleared me for the approach when I was about 4 miles from ADERR and told me to turn left to 350 and maintain 2000 until established on the ILS. Once I was established, he handed me off to Craig tower who advised me to circle to runway 5 and turn southwest for a right base - report circling.

I followed the ILS down to 600 feet, leveled off and at 1 mile, I made my left turn. I reported my circle to the tower who cleared me to land. I slowed the plane to 75 knots and turned my base and began descending again. On the base, I dropped the second notch of flaps and then turned final. This happened pretty quickly because I had made my circle fairly close to the runway - I was making a very tight pattern. On my downwind, the GPS had indicated 17 knots of wind, but this had dropped to a 4 knot indication when I was on final. I reduced the throttle to get the speed down to 65 while dropping the last notch of flaps. I pointed the nose at the numbers and as I got closer, I reduced power to idle while pointing the nose short of the numbers. Crossing the threshold about 10 feet above the tarmac, I started pulling the nose up and the wheels made their black marks across the big 5. I kept backpressure on the yoke and then slowly dropped the nose to the ground while applying brakes. I could have stopped this very short - probably in less than 600 feet. I actually gave the plane a little gas to get me to the Bravo-2 turnoff which is right about 1000' from the end of the runway. I coasted through the turnoff and the tower told me to hold short of bravo - contact ground on point 8.

I stopped the plane on the far side of the hold short line and tuned the ground control frequency. This plane automatically turns the transponder on and off, so I didn't have to worry about that. I called ground and requested taxi clearance to Sterling which was given to me right away.

For some this might seem pretty boring or even run of the mill, but I love this stuff. Writing this, I feel like I'm right back in the cockpit - my favorite place to be. Nothing conveys a greater sense of freedom than flying thousands of feet above the earth with complete control over your destination. And nothing builds confidence like being able to stick three short field landings at three different airports in a single session.

I had hoped to encounter a great deal more weather en route than I did. On my initial climb out, I quickly entered the clouds before reaching 2000 feet even though the METAR only reported a few clouds at 600' with an overcast ceiling at 6000'. Heading towards Cecil, there were occasional patches of clouds, and I encountered IMC on my climb to the west. When I was flying Southwest over NAS JAX, I could see a band of clouds that began around Cecil and extended quite a ways to the North. On my climb out from Cecil, I encountered these clouds and hit just a few more bewteen Cecil and St. Augustine. I'm estimating that I was actually in IMC for about half an our out of a total of 1.6 hours of flying time. I flew three instrument approaches and made three short field landings. I had a great time. Single pilot IFR is not all that difficult when the low clouds aren't really that low.

David West

Night Flight Home

2006-11-28T18:29:00.000-05:00

After enjoying a very nice dinner at McCarthy's in Tequesta, it was time for us to fly home. I signed on to the computer, got a weather briefing and filed my instrument flight plan for an 8:30pm departure from F45 to CRG at 7000'. Knowing that my heading would be slightly West of North, the normal procedure would be to file for an even altitude as per the AIM, but having flown this route many times, I knew that ATC would assign odd altitudes to northerly flowing traffic. I didn't want to get stuck down at 5000', so rather than filing for 6000', I filed for 7000.

We loaded up and were ready to go very close to our departure time. I taxied to the runup area and contacted Palm Beach Clearance Delivery.

"Palm Beach Clearance Delivery, Skyhawk 1-4-6-3-Foxtrot, ready to copy IFR to Charlie-Romeo-Golf, holding short of runway 3-1.", I announced.

Nothing.

Oops, wrong frequency. I corrected the frequency and called again.

This time, the response came, "Who's calling clearance delivery?"

I repeated myself and was told that he didn't have anything for me. It seemed strange that he didn't have to spend too much time looking for my plan, so I told him I had filed about 45 minutes ago on line.

"Well, I can give you VFR flight following and you can contact the Miami Flight Service Station at 122.4 or 122.2 and refile with them."

I was sitting with my engine running and I'd have to file over the radio...lovely.

I changed the radio frequency to 122.4 and called, "Miami Radio, Skyhawk 1-4-6-3-Foxtrot."

A garbled crackle was my only response, so I called again. A near perfect duplicate of the original garbled crackle came through my headset.

"Great.", I thought to myself, "I've got an overcast ceiling and I can't file an IFR plan on the ground without shutting down and getting on the phone."

I tuned Palm Beach clearance again and called them up. The controller said he would call when my clearance comes up. This posed a dilemna for me since the only way it would come up would be if my original clearance magically appeared. I decided to avoid clearance delivery and file in the air with the FSS.

I verified that the Vero Beach VOR was my direct to in my GPS and I announced my departure on runway 31. At 500', I began my turn towards VRB and continued my climb towards 2000'. As I climbed, I heard a multi-engine aircraft announce their position to the north of F45 southbound descending for a full stop. I could see his lights in the distance.

I announced my departure to the north on the CTAF and the twin pilot called me, "Traffic departing North County, what's your position? Do you have your landing lights on?".

I responded, "I'm direct Vero out of 1,500 for 2,000. I think I've got your lights in sight. I'll flash mine for you." And I flashed the landing lights.

"Ok, I've got you in sight. I'll turn a little eastward and I'll pass you to the East.", the twin advised.

"Thanks. I see you passing. Have a nice evening", I said.

After this encounter, I called the Miami FSS saying "Miami Center, Skyhawk 1-4-6-3-Foxtrot".

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew I called the target by the wrong name.

"This is the Miami Flight Service Station, can I help you?", announced the FSS contact.

"Sorry. That's what I meant to say. I filed an IFR plan that seems to have been lost. Can I file with you?", I humbly begged.

"Sure. What's your type of aircraft and equipment?", he asked.

We then went back and forth through the full flight plan procedure ultimately culminating with a "You're on file. If you feel like giving a PIREP, please call Flight Watch at 122.0".

I thanked the very patient controller and contacted Palm Beach Approach, "Palm Beach Approach, Skyhawk 1-4-6-3-Foxtrot, with request".

Immediately a very nice sounding lady told me that I was cleared to CRG, squawk 3734 and to climb to 7000'.

I began my climb through the overcast layer. It got a bit bumpy on the climb, but I maintained level flight throughout the climb. We broke out of the clouds around 6600' and there was a very stable layer of clouds only 400' beneath us.

A few minutes later, I was handed off to Miami Center. The center controller told me he had my clearance and I should advise when ready to copy. This seemed odd since I had received clearance from the PB controller, but considering the problems so far, I was not about to argue.

"Cleared direct MLB then Victor 3 to OMN, then V51 to CRG", he announced.

I was already direct VRB, so getting cleared beyond that made life a bit simpler. I repeated my clearance and settled in for a smooth flight.

There was almost no moon to illuminate the cloud layer that undulated below me. At times, towering cumulous clouds jutted into our path tossing the plane with surprising force. At other times, the cloud layer slowly rose in unison above our cruising altitude ever so briefly before retreating to a stable distance about 500' below us. The traffic system was alive now pointing out all traffic within 3500 feet vertically and about 10 miles horizontally. It is always fun when a controller points out traffic and I can reply, I've got him on my scope and in sight.

I tried to take a few pictures of the clouds below, but low light made them very grainy. I'll post one just to show the view...

We cruised along making about 110 knots of groundspeed with a decent headwind. True Airspeed was around 118 knots. The traffic system showed a plane 2000' below us heading in roughly the same direction at close to the same speed. He was actually several miles to the West of the airway and weaved left and right quite a bit. At one point, his altitude reported within 1500' of us. Thinking that another aircraft flying at our altitude towards the same destination might cause me some delay getting down, I decided to up the power a bit. I pushed the throttle until the engine was making 2600 RPM and readjusted the mixture. We trimmed out at 122 knots TAS and started making about 116 knots of groundspeed - give or take a knot. Through periodic gaps in the clouds I could see the aircraft below me just to the left of my course. Slowly we passed him until he disappeared from the scope altogether.

During this time, I managed to snap a photo of the lights of Orlando. There's really not much to see. The lights kind of look like lava flows to me.

With a solid layer of overcast below us, we passed over OMN. Shortly afterwards, the Daytona Approach Controller called, "November 6-3-Foxtrot, it is now clear down to 5000, you'll need to be down in about 40 miles, would you like to descend?"

I responded, "6-3-foxtrot, If it isn't a problem, I'd prefer to remain at 7000. We are in smooth air above the clouds and we still have about 65 miles to go."

"November 6-3-Foxtrot, remain at 7000 as requested", he replied.

So on we cruised in smooth air as the cloud layer below us diminished. We were almost clear of clouds when we approached St. Augustine.

Lights of St. Augustine descending from 7000' northbound.

I called Jacksonville Approach and requested lower. The controller cleared me down to 3000' and I began my descent. During the descent, I shot a few photos of St. Augustine - It's amazing what you have time to do when you establish a nice, stable descent. Most of the shots are a bit blurry. The shutter speed had to be fairly slow to get the light, so even the slightest motion resulted in blurred images. Nevertheless, I managed to get one that wasn't totally blurry.

As we approached CRG, I also shot the following picture. You can see the Blount Island lights in the center of the shot as they reflect off of the St. Johns River. The curving line that comes from the bottom left then curls back again to the left is highway 9A. The line with the hump is the Dames Point Bridge.

Craig was landing VFR on runway 5 and when we were about 12 miles out, I advised ATC that I had CRG in sight. I had listened to the ATIS on the second radio and contacted the tower when Jax Approach handed me off. I was advised to make a right base for runway 5 and I set up a steady, slow descent.

Runway 5 is the closest runway to Sterling and if I could stop by the Bravo-2 taxiway, I would cut off a significant part of my taxi time. Therefore, I set up for a short field landing. Winds were calm, so I maintained 65 knots on approach with my hand on the throttle so I could gas it should a gust cause my airspeed to drop. I aimed at the numbers and pulled the power to idle. I flared above the numbers and landed just beyond them. I maintained full backpressure on the yoke and retracted the flaps as soon as I touched down. Confident that we weren't going to bounce, I applied the brakes and we slowed to a crawl in time to make the Bravo-2 cutoff.

Upon seeing me turn off, the tower advised me to taxi to the ramp and monitor ground on "point 8", which means monitor the ground control frequency on 121.8.

I acknowledged and said good night as we taxied to our parking spot. Just before shutting down, the radio announced that the tower was closed and would reopen in the morning....It was now 11PM. Our flight had taken a little over 2 hours due to the extra time on the ground monkeying around with the flight plan. I got a fair amount of instrument time in at the beginning as most of our climbout was spent in the clouds and we popped in and out for the first hour of the ride. Overall the flight was very smooth and enjoyable.

Seven years ago, we made the same trip by car...maybe for Christmas, I don't recall exactly. We had a nearly 4 hour ride to Tampa followed by a similar ride to Palm Beach Gardens and capped off by a nearly 4 hour ride from PBG to Jacksonville. At the end of that trip I remember saying I would never spend that much time on a holiday weekend fighting traffic. Having a pilot's certificate makes a huge difference. We spent much less time in transit. Our time was spent free of traffic relaxing in the air thanks to a terrific autopilot and a wonderful aircraft. Maureen even watched TV on my IPOD during the flight - something she would never dream of doing in a car.

Life is Good!

David West

Tampa North to North Palm Beach County

2006-11-28T17:31:00.000-05:00

I had never flown this route before although I had flown out of both Tampa North and North Palm Beach County many times in the past. I have also flown to Lakeland Linder for Sun-n-Fun twice before and this airport is along the route. There is a large MOA and Lake Okeechobee to contend with, otherwise, there are many small airports on the route in case of an emergency.

I had filed an instrument flight plan the night before. After making a quick check of the weather on the route and the updated forecast, we were ready to head out. As expected, the engine started easily. I set the altimeter so that the airport's elevation appeared. With a traditional altimeter, the barometer setting is dialed in the "Kohlsman" window. I wonder what they would call the window on this new glass panel aircraft...it's just a box on a computer screen.

Anyway, the winds were light but favored runway 32, so I didn't have far to taxi. There was a skyhawk just ahead of me who announced on the CTAF that he would taxi across the runway for runup. I taxied short of the runway on the near side and angled the prop wash away from the parked aircraft. I set the radios and entered the Lakeland VOR in the GPS as a direct-to. This was my first point on my flight plan and I did not expect any problem getting a clearance once I was airborn. I quickly ran through the checklist and satisfied that all was well, I announced that I would be taking runway 32. The other Skyhawk was still completing his runup while a third airplane had just pulled from his parking spot. Looked like the morning was going to be busy.

Holding the brakes, I ran the engine to full power noting that the RPM had reached 2,400. I released the brakes and we were rolling. The speed came up quickly and I nosed her into the air adjusting my attitude to maintain 74 knots. Since there is a neighborhood in the flight path, I maintained a straight-ahead path until I reached 1000' then I made my left turns which put me on an almost direct path to LAL. I leveled off at 2000' and established a heading of 130 - direct to LAL. After engaging the autopilot and setting it to follow the NAV and maintain altitude, I contacted Tampa Approach and requested my instrument clearance to F45. Approach was busy, so he gave me a transponder code and told me to stand by while he retrieved my clearance.

The controller told me that he had my clearance and asked that I tell him when I was ready to copy. I immediately replied that I was ready.

"Cleared via radar vectors to HALLR, Hotel, alpha, lima, lima, romeo; then direct ULLMN, uniform-lima-lima-mike-november; then direct Palm Beach; then direct Foxtrot-4-5." came the clearance.

I repeated the clearance and was told to fly heading 130 and climb to 5000. I switched the autopilot to heading mode and began my climb to 5000. I also entered HALLR as a direct-to in the GPS and began to enter the rest of the plan.

We passed by the Lakeland Linder airport where I shot these photos out the window.

Prior to reaching HALLR, the controller handed me off to Miami and told me I would receive my on course clearance from the Miami controller. About 10 minutes after contacting Miami center, I asked the controller if I could get my on course clearance. The controller said that he thought the prior controller cleared me and apologized. He cleared me direct to ULLMN. I tried hard to find ULLMN on my instrument chart, but it simply wasn't there. It turns out that it REALLY isn't on the L19 chart. I don't know why. Fortunately, the GPS showed me exactly where it was - in the middle of lake Okeechobee.

I updated the GPS and adjusted my course slightly to head straight for ULLMN. I was a bit nervous about flying over the big lake. If the engine died, we would be stretching our glide distance to the limit in order to make it to shore. A forced landing in the middle of the lake would satisfy a few alligators' hunger, and surviving would be a challenge if the water was deep enough for the plane to sink. Therefore, I monitored every instrument very carefully to ensure that nothing was about to go wrong. We had clear skies ahead, so weather would not be a problem. I kept a close eye on the GPS which provided an indication of the relative wind. We were getting between 9 and 11 knots of wind from our front left quarter. Knowing this, I reasoned if we were less than 2/3rds of the way across the lake, an engine problem would result in my banking to the right immediately while pitching for 69 knots to make a 120 degree turn to put the wind behind me. This would maximize our distance covered while in best glide configuration. Fortunately, we didn't need to make use of these plans as we made it across the lake safely. I took a couple of shots of the lake, but it just looks like a bunch of blue from the middle. The shots I took as we crossed the west boundary are much more interesting - here's one:

The dark spot near the bottom of the shot is a mote on my camera lens.

Near the eastern end of the lake, ATC instructed me to descend to 3000' and cleared me direct F45. With the airport in sight, I canceled IFR and made a VFR approach to runway 31 which was being used by several other planes. I came in a bit hot and landed longer than I like to, but there would have been little point in landing short as there were no turnoffs near by.

This was a great day for flying and for seeing parts of Florida that I had not seen from the air in the past. I even got a shot of the Sebring airport where they have the 12 hour endurance race every year. Here it is:

So, that gives me another 1.6 hours of cross-country flying with a measly 0.2 hours of actual instrument time. All in all, an outstanding flight.

David West

Thanksgiving Flying with my Nephew

2006-11-26T12:06:00.000-05:00

Tony is my 16 year old nephew who lives in Odessa, Florida. He's an intelligent and artistic young man with great potential. He is an outstanding guitarist and a wonderful big brother to his three younger siblings.

He's flown with me before and has shown himself to be a very calm flyer.

This would be his first flight in a plane with the G1000 cockpit, so I was interested in seeing how he would interface with the new instrumentation. We started the engine and I explained a few things to him. As we were completing our pre-taxi checklist, another aircraft landed and they wanted our parking spot - it was the last one with tiedowns.

"Cessna 63-Foxtrot, are you listening?" came the call from the plane that had taxied up to the small parking area.

"Affirmative. What can I do for you?", I replied.

"If you're getting ready to leave, we'll just park back in that spot", said the local.

Apparently, I had taken his spot. I replied, "We'll get out of your way. Any advice as to where we should park when we return?"

Since the FBO was closed, parking was a free-for-all. The parking areas on the grass were all taken and all of the paved areas appeared to be taken, too. The airport is building numerous new hangars, but they had to tear down some to make room for the new - consequently, parking is at a premium, especially on Thanksgiving.

The other pilot said there was a spot beyond the fuel depot or I could park on the grass anywhere.

Tony and I took off down runway 32 and headed north out from under the Class B airspace at Tampa. I handed over the controls to Tony after explaining the HSI and the altitude read outs. I had toyed with using the reversion mode on the PFD/MFD so he would have the full instrumentation directly in front of him, but this would precluded the traffic display. There were many aircraft in the area and TPA is a busy airport, so I didn't want to take unnecessary chances.

Tony did a remarkable job of flying the plane. He maintained altitude very close to the PTS standard. He was able to turn to specific headings and to maintain level flight very well once I explained the attitude indicator.

I had him turn left to 270 and we flew until we crossed the Veteran's expressway. We were at 2300 feet, well below the Class B shelf which begins at 3000 feet. Crossing the Veteran's, we flew South until we spotted landmarks that identified his neighborhood. We then circled his home and then flew straight back to Tampa North.

As we approached Tampa North, a Comanche radioed his position and intentions and I did the same. I had him on our traffic scope and I was closer to the airport. I descended to pattern altitude and advised that I was entering the left downwind for 32, full stop. The Comanche advised that he would take position behind me...but he was coming from the southeast and I was coming from the west. I could see him coming straight at me as I was on downwind. I called out to him, "Comanche, I've got you in sight. You'll pass directly overhead." It's a good thing that I had already descended below pattern altitude or we would have been on a collision course. I'm not sure why he chose this entry - he could have made a straight-in approach and we would have been safer. Instead, he entered by flying the opposite direction in the downwind - which would have been the Right Downwind for 14, but he was landing on 32.

I suppose that I could have declared that I was going to fly a straight-in for 14 which would have saved taxi time, but with other planes in the pattern, I figured standard approaches would be best. Also, other planes had been using 32 earlier and although there was little wind, what wind there was favored 32.

After touching down, I advised the Comanche that I would taxi to the end of the runway to make room for him to land - he was right behind me in the pattern and taxiing back while he was on final would have forced him to go around. He landed and then taxiied all the way to the end, too. He could have turned around mid way down the runway, but maybe his plane couldn't turn so tightly.

With collisions and crashes averted, we taxiied very rapidly to the other end of the airport and parked in the grass beyond the gas pumps.

Tony did a great job flying - maybe one day, he'll get his certificate.

0.8 hours of sightseeing with my nephew.

David West

Thanksgiving Flying

2006-11-26T11:23:00.000-05:00

The second flight of the long weekend took me from Jacksonville's Craig Municipal Airport (KCRG) to the Tampa North Aeropark (X39). Mom was picking us up in Tampa and I had offered flights to my neices and nephews. I told her the night before that we would be there by 10:30 am, so a 9AM wheels up time would be the order of the day.

There were three or four other planes who were leaving on instrument plans at 9AM, so clearance delivery told me that my clearance was on request and he'd give it to me in the run-up area at runway 23. He also cleared me to taxi to 23.

I ran through the checklist as I taxied. Reaching the run-up area, I found another skyhawk already there, another single coming up behind me and a Mooney coming from the opposite side of the airport. I parked as close as I could to the Cessna. The controller advised me to tell him when I was ready to copy - I immediately told him I was ready.

I was cleared via radar vectors to OCF then direct DADES then X39--Climb 2000, expect 5000 in 10 given a squawk and the departure frequency. It might come as a surprise that I had filed 5000 as my altitude since this flight was to the West, but in Florida, ATC does things a little differently when dealing with altitudes. If you are in the system - whether flying IFR or using flight following on a VFR flight, ATC looks at things from a NORTH/SOUTH perspective rather than an EAST/WEST perspective in the Florida peninsula. Since we have a long, narrow state, more flying is done north/south than east/west. Traffic separation is more easily accomplished when adjustments are made with this in mind. I've seen this quite a bit on flights down the East coast - When I flew home from North Palm Beach County, I was given 7000' and oncoming Southbound traffic was generally at 6000' or 8000' - even though my heading was North by northwest which according to the AIM should receive an even altitude.

Anyway, my takeoff clearance had me turning to 280 and I was immediately handed off to Jacksonville departure control. The controller advised me to climb to 4000' and to expect on course after 3000'. Usually, I get an on course vector after 2600 - just high enough to clear the NAS JAX airspace. This time, however, the controller was very busy and I received an on course vector when I was passing 3400'. At the same time, I was told to climb to 5000'.

Shortly after that, I was cleared direct to DADES - which was great. This shortened the distance to X39 by taking the bend out of the flight that would have taken me over OCF. It also gave me some practice with the GPS making it skip entries in the flight plan.

It was a beautiful day for flying with only occasional clouds in the distance. Every once in a while, the traffic display reported another aircraft in the vicinity, but we never had a problem. Tailwinds were in abundance with the GPS showing as high as 34 knots of a right rear quartering wind. This was giving us a ground speed in excess of 140 knots and nearly 165 knots on our descent. I was babying the plane to save fuel so I was only getting 114 knots of true airspeed and burning only 7.5 gallons per hour!

There was other traffic in the pattern at Tampa North that I discovered by monitoring the CTAF on the second radio. About 25 miles out, ATC descended me to 2000'. At 12 miles, the told me the airport was 12 o'clock, which I already knew thanks to the incredible technology I had on board...as well as the numerous prior flights I had made to this airport. ATC said I could cancel with them or with the FSS on the ground, so seeing no clouds in the area, I canceled IFR and completed the flight VFR. I overflew the airport at 1,500' and heard other aircraft landing on runway 31. This meant that I would have to land and taxi back. I made a teardrop entry and flew a tight pattern. We touched down near the numbers and I turned the plane around in the width of the narrow runway.

Parking was going to be another story. There must have been quite a few visitors in town for the holiday as I only saw one parking spot available. I pulled in front of it and then pushed back. Mom wasn't there yet, so I called and learned that she was 20 minutes away. She was bringing my 16 year old nephew, Tony, with her so he could take a flight with me.

This flight was 1.5 hours of cross-country, a very small amount of instrument time, and was about as uneventful as they come.

Tony's flight is next.

David West

Around Florida in Under 6 Hours

2006-11-26T11:00:00.000-05:00

or...How I spent my Thanksgiving Vacation

Between Wednesday evening and Friday night, I accumulated 7.3 hours of flying time - 5.5 of that was cross-country. I encountered at least one situation that I had not encountered before and I flew in areas that I had not flown in before.

It all began Wednesday evening when I took N1463F up for a little night flying. I had previously reserved the plane from 5pm Wed through midnight Friday to give me plenty of flexibility to go to my sister's for Thanksgiving. Our plans had changed, so we decided to leave on Thursday morning. I felt bad that someone else wouldn't be using the plane, but I didn't want to take a chance on there not being adequate fuel for my flights from CRG to X39 and then to F45. Refueling would be an issue on Thanksgiving day as most places are closed and we were planning to fly from X39 to F45 first thing on Friday morning.

I filed an instrument plan for a round trip to CRG with a SGJ (St. Augustine) as a stop. The plane was not quite full of fuel, but there would be someone at Sterling to refuel until 7pm, so I should have no problems.

The weather all day at CRG was overcast with a very close temp/dewpoint spread. The engine started easily and I taxied to the departure runway after getting the ATIS and my clearance. The climb out was uneventful. I requested vectors for the ILS31 approach at St. Augustine. I listened to the ATIS at SGJ and learned that the glideslope was out of service and the ILS was unmonitored. The NOTAMs mentioned the unmonitored situation, but not the glideslope - this would have to be a localizer approach. ATC gave me vectors and cleared me for the approach - and told me about the glideslope.

I was handed off to St. Augustine tower and a very nice lady controller cleared me for the option. I had initially planned to make a low approach, but there was no traffic around and since this was night, I opted to make this one a stop and go. I flew the localizer and descended to decision height. When I was a mile out I looked up and saw the runway looming ahead of me. I touched down smoothly and braked to a halt. I then pulled the flaps, pushed the power and I was rolling again.

ATC had previously told me to fly 360 and climb to 2000 following my approach, so at 700 feet I started to make my right turn. The tower handed me back to ATC who asked my intentions at CRG. I requested the ILS32 and was told to expect the ILS 32 circle to 23.

I briefed the approach and tuned the appropriate radios, listened to the ATIS, adjusted the barometer. Since this is a G1000 panel plane, there is no turning the heading indicator to the magnetic compass which is nice - although I suspect it will create some bad habits when I fly aircraft with steam gauges.

I was cleared and handed off to Craig tower. The tower advised me to circle northeast to runway 23 and to advise of the circle. MDA for a circling is 500', so I decided that I would begin my circle at 500. I would imagine that the homes in the area don't care for that so much...but they bought houses next to a very old airport, didn't they!?

I touched down a little long and the controller told me to go all the way to Bravo-2 then taxi to the ramp - this actually saved me a bit of time as I could make an almost straight in taxi to Sterling.

This flight took exactly 1.0 hours with just a little actual instrument time at the beginning of the flight...the skies had cleared pretty quickly.

Flight #2 comes in the next post.

Alltel Stadium

2006-11-04T21:10:00.000-05:00

From time to time I bring my camera with me to snap aerial photos. I took this shot of Alltel Stadium on September 2, 2006. The Hart bridge is in the left foreground with Alltel Stadium in the center. Downtown Jacksonville's northbank is in the upper left. We are looking west north west from about 2000'. That's the St. Johns River.

Vegas at Night

2006-10-30T21:57:00.000-05:00

I took this shot as we flew from the East towards the Stratosphere. Kind of hard to fly the plane AND take pictures, so the blurriness is to be expected. You can see the Wynn on the far right and the single bright light on the far left is on top of the Luxor pyramid. In between you've got Caesars, The Venetian, Bally's, Bellagio, Monte Carlo, Paris, New York New York, Excalibur and many others. What a great city!

Night flight over Las Vegas

2006-10-30T20:41:00.000-05:00

Daylight faded quickly into neon as the sun fell behind the mountains to the west of Las Vegas. Having completed my checkout with the local instructor, I ran through a quick pre-flight of N975TA, a four year old Cessna Skyhawk with about 1400 hours on the clock.

Cessna outfitted this aircraft with the NAVII option - dual nav/coms with a glideslope on the nav 1 and the Garmin 430/530 moving map GPS system. A two axis autopilot rounded out the equipment.

Remembering the instructor's words about flooding this particular plane, I tried unsuccessfully to start the engine without using the priming procedure. Mixture at ICO, throttle at 1/2 (which seems a bit aggressive to me), I turned the key to start. After about two blades, the engine caught and I pushed the mixture, but the engine didn't start. I tried several more times with a variety of throttle and mixture positions. Finally, I pushed the throttle to full, mixture at ICO and tried again. This time the engine caught, revved quickly and I increased the mixture. With RPMs ridiculously high, I pulled the throttle back to idle and things came back to some semblance of order.

I asked Matt to be my flight crew - navigator and handed him the Las Vegas sectional. I tuned the ATIS and got the numbers.

Contacting North Vegas ground, I called, "North Vegas ground, Skyhawk niner seven five tango alpha at west air with uniform, VFR to Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon at five thousand five hundred feet."

The controller replied, "Skyhawk niner seven five tango alpha, squawk 4251, taxi to and hold short of runway 7."

I read back the instructions and the controller told me the readback was correct.

As we started our taxi, ground advised that there was a Baron that would be passing on my right and I should keep an eye out. I asked if he would like me to stay put - but he said I should see the baron momentarily off to my right.

The Baron approache the runup area ahead of me, but he parked right in the middle and did not angle his propwash away from the rest of the area...brilliant. I pulled up to his right and ran through the runup checklist. I then flipped on my strobes, nav lights and taxi lights and after checking to see that the Baron was staying put, I pulled forward to the hold short on taxiway golf short of 7.

I switched the radio to the tower frequency and called, "North Vegas Tower, skyhawk niner seven five tango alpha, on golf holding short of 7."

Immediately, the tower called, "five tango alpha, cross runway seven and hold short of runway one two. Number three for departure."

I repeated the call and did as I was told.

The plane on the runway departed and the number two plane was cleared to position and hold. Shortly, he was cleared, but we had to wait for an arriving aircraft who landed long. This plane was told to taxi back on runway 12 - "Hey, we're waiting here!" I thought to myself. Finally, I was cleared for departure and assigned a heading of 220 on the climbout.

Lights, Camera, Action, Showtime - Landing lights on, transponder to ALT, off we go - time 6pm.

The sun set about 5 minutes before our departure, but Las Vegas was lit! We climbed out and I made my turn to 220. The tower quickly handed me off to Las Vegas departure. As soon as I switched to the new frequency, I heard, "Skyhawk niner seven five tango alpha, Las Vegas Departure, you up?"

Wow! that was quick. Usually, I have to switch, then wait for a break and then make my call. These guys are good.

I replied, "Approach, five tango alpha is through three thousand two hundred for five thousand five hundred".

The controller then told me to identify and I complied.

ATC then announced contact and asked me what route I wanted to the dam and the canyon. I replied that I had never flown in this area and would be happy with whatever he chose to assign to me.

He immediately told me to turn left to 080 and expedite a climb to five thousand six hundred. He cleared me through the Bravo airspace. I repeated the instructions and said I would give her everything she's got. I pitched for Vy (74 knots) and made my turn.

Our course put us right along the Las Vegas strip. I was busy flying the plane, but I'm sure that Matt had a great view of the sights below.

We leveled off at 5,600. As we traversed the bravo airspace, we received quite a few traffic calls and could see the planes loaded with gamblers. As we headed east, it became clear that we wouldn't be able to see much of the canyon in the dark.

Just prior to clearing the class bravo airspace, the tower told us we were clear, squawk VFR and fly a normal VFR altitude. I repeated the instruction, advised that I would descend to 5,500 feet and thanked the controller for the nice tour.

I plugged in the CROWE intersection into the GPS. This was the second point on my plan -we were already nearing the MEADS intersection and were high enough that the peaks below would not be a concern. As we got closer to CROWE, we really couldn't see much of anything. There was a small airport below according to the chart, but we could only see a few lights. Ahead in the distance I could see a few other lights in the area where the Grand Canyon West airport was situated - but I saw no beacon. I could make out the shapes of the mountains below and ahead of us, but they were only shadows.

I got the feeling that Matt was becoming nervous and since it was clear that we wouldn't be able to see a thing, I started thinking about turning back. I started to think about landing at an unfamiliar airport at night in the mountains - when I've never flown in the mountains. I had a choice to make - would I like to do my gambling in the air, or on the ground? Being a conservative pilot, I told Matt that we would turn around, but I wanted to check the chart to determine the height of the mountains near us, just in case a mountain would be too close to our turning path. With our flashlights and the overhead light glowing, we determined that we could turn above the nearby airport without any trouble and I made a leisurely right turn.

I turned back to the CROWE intersection and listened to the ATIS. I then called Las Vegas approach and advised that we were over CROWE at 5,500 with victor at north vegas and would like vectors for a full stop at north vegas. The controller gave me a squawk and advised me to ident when I tuned the squawk. Before I could punch in the squawk, the transponder reset to 1200...don't know why that happened. Finally I had the code input and I idented. ATC announced my position as 4 miles west of CROWE - cleared through the class bravo, fly heading 270.

We received several other vectors to avoid traffic and the lights of Las Vegas grew closer. We were advised to descend to 4,200 feet - and I double checked the mountain tops on the chart. As we passed our last mountain, Matt told me to look back if I could - I'm sure the mountain looked closer than it really was, but the vegas lights sure made it look imposing - good thing we were already past it. ATC vectored me directly to the Stratosphere tower, but it was impossible to make it out from the clutter below. The controller asked me if I could see the tower and I reluctantly admitted that I could not see it amoungst all the other lights. He told me to continue my course.

As we got closer to the strip, I finally could determine which building was the stratosphere - and I told the tower I had it in sight. He told me to fly directly to it and to descend to 3,500. There was the famous Las Vegas Strip out our left window. What a great sight. I managed to snap a few shots as we got closer - only one is usable - too much shaking with a slow shutter speed.

As we passed directly over the tower, ATC told me to turn right to 320 and advise when the north vegas airport was in sight. About 7 miles out, I spotted the airport and was about to tell ATC, when the controller asked me if I had North Vegas in sight. When I said that I did, he told me to contact the North Vegas tower and the handoff was complete.

North Vegas told us to enter a right downwind for runway seven. We were number two behind another aircraft who appeared to be wandering west of the airport. The tower questioned the other plane and made him verify that he was lining up on seven and not one-two. We saw the other plane and made our turns, but by following him, we were not exactly lined up properly - good thing we extended our downwind. We were cleared to land and touched down smoothly. I followed the other aircraft on the ground as he requested a progressive taxi to the terminal. Since I remembered that our hangar was right below the control tower, I looked for the fuel depot, found it, and with ground's permission, taxied to the hanger.

This was an exciting flight for me and Matt seemed to enjoy himself, too. It was good having a co-pilot, even if he isn't technically a pilot. Having some help with the charts takes some of the burden away from the pilot. I love flying at night, but usually my flights are in Florida where the world is flat and the coastline makes a nice line to follow. Flying in the mountains was a new experience for me. I'm looking forward to going back to 'Vegas and repeating the journey in daylight hours. Most of my tower flying is done in class C and D airspace. In fact, it is a rare situation that causes me to enter the Tampa or Orlando Class B airspace. Flying in the Las Vegas bravo was a real treat. The controllers are extremely professional and always polite. Even though I heard some other pilots blunder, the controllers never reacted in any way other than with strict professionalism. The controllers at CRG could learn a few things here. So there it was, new city, 'Vegas, night, class B - truly a special flight.

1.3 hours of night flight with 1 night landing. David West

Vegas Baby!

2006-10-28T13:52:00.000-04:00

I had to go to Las Vegas this week for a company-sponsored convention, Better Management Live. Since I knew I'd be arriving in town around 1pm, I made arrangements with West Air Aviation at the North Las Vegas Airport for a check ride and a rental of a 2002 Cessna 172SP.

The earliest that I could get the check out was at 4pm and they told me I would need to do a 2 hour checkout. Nevertheless, I planned to fly to the West Grand Canyon airport (1G4).

Don Ford was assigned as my instructor. He's a young guy from upstate New York. He took a quick look at my logbook and I told him about the planes that I've been flying. Since I fly nearly every weekend, he wasn't too concerned about my skills and he didn't ask me any questions about the FARs and such.

I had invited my colleague, Matt Flynn, to come along. Matt's dad flies gliders in Michigan and Matt was looking forward to the flight.

We preflighted and discussed the radio calls that we would need to make. North Vegas (KVGT) is a class D airport that is situated under the Las Vegas Class B airspace. There are special VFR transition routes that are documented on the TAC and the airspace is very busy.

Don warned me about flooding the plane as apparently this plane has a tendency to do just that. The plane was still warm from the prior flight although it had been refueled. It took a few tries for the starter to engage the flywheel, but once it grabbed, the engine started ok.

At North Vegas, the ATIS said clearance was delivered by ground control. The local controllers do not want a courtesy call and I was warned that they would be annoyed if I gave them one. Just the facts - who you are, where you are and what do you want. I called the ground controller and said, "North Vegas Ground, Skyhawk niner-seven-five-tango-alpha, at West Air with tango, taxi for northwest VFR." The controller immediately gave me a squawk and cleared me to taxi to and hold short of runway 7. Don then explained that North Vegas with its crossing runways had one of the highest incidents of runway incursions in the US last year...not good.

The runup area was to the left of the Golf taxiway, so we pulled over and went through the runup. Finding no problems, I taxiied to Golf, then advised the tower that we were holding short of 7. The tower then advised me to taxi across 7 and hold short of runway 12. He said we were number 3 for departure. I read back the instructions as we began to roll. There was a light twin waiting to depart ahead of us and another plane that had been told to position and hold. Don then explained that at North Vegas, we do not need to call the tower to say we are ready to go.

Once the twin departed, we were cleared for takeoff and told to make a right downwind departure. Departing from a density altitude of around 3400' is something I've never done in Florida. I had expected some decreased performance, but with three people in the plane, I got much more than I expected. The plane began the take off roll and as the airspeed indicator showed 55 knots, I pulled back on the yoke slightly. The nose came up, but the plane kept rolling on the runway. At about 60 knots, the plane lifted off and we began our climbout at about 600 fpm. At home in Florida, when you pull the nose up, the plane jumps into the air. This was a very different experience.

Don told me I could begin my crosswind turn at 2500' - which was only 300' AGL - a bit low by my standards, but that's the local procedure, so I didn't argue. I concentrated on making a nice smooth climbing right turn at standard rate. He instructed me to level off at 4000'. ATC called traffic for us which we both had spotted off to our left. Once we cleared the airspace, Don switched frequencies to a local practice area frequency and we spotted two other planes coming at us at our altitude. I asked him if he would like to monitor 121.5 on the COM2, but he said no. He had me make a few turns, and a climb. He seemed convinced that I could fly the plane, so he asked me to descend and fly back to the airport by following the localizer that he had just tuned for us. We were heading around 090 and the localizer was for the 12 left approach, so I waited for about 2 to 3 dots of deviation before beginning my turn to 120 - lined it up nicely.

Prior to entering the class D, we listened to the ATIS - same as when we departed. I then called the ATCT for North Vegas and requested touch-and-go. The tower advised me that they could not comply and that I was to remain outside of the class D as well - That's a first for me. I've never had a class D tower tell me not to enter his airspace...technically, two way radio com is all that is required. We made a turn back to the right and circled in the area. We were finally permitted to enter the airspace, but could not get the option. I would have once chance to show the instructor that I could land the plane.

As we approached, ATCT told me to make some S turns to maintain separation or slow it up - I was already going pretty slowly - about 80 knots. I could see another Cessna in front of me on final, but he had wandered way off to the left of the runway. His landing was very abrupt - from my vantage point, it looked like he had just dropped onto the runway and had stopped very short. I even asked Don if he thought they were ok. It looked like an impossibly short landing and I thought they had landed short - but I was apparently wrong.

I maintained 65 knots on the approach with about a 500 fpm descent rate. Before crossing the threshold, I pulled the power and let the speed bleed off. My roundout and flare were just above the numbers, but I could tell that I made Don nervous because he started to reach for the yoke. Nevertheless, the touchdown was smooth and we were never in any danger of a prop strike or anything like that. It was a good landing.

We taxied back to the hanger and chocked the wheels. Don signed me off with only 0.7 hours of flying time. His record was 0.6 which we might have beaten if we had received clearance sooner.

While we flew, we had a good view of the mountains nearby and of the desert below. Looks like a bunch of sand and cactus to me.

After filling out a little paperwork, Matt and I went back to the plane for our flight to the Grand Canyon...more on that in the next post.

Night IFR, or METARs don't always tell the story

2006-10-19T22:32:00.000-04:00

Last night I flew night IFR in real IFR conditions. I wanted to maintain night currency which requires three night landings to a full stop in order to take passengers at night. I'm going to Las Vegas next week and want to fly over the Grand Canyon. Since I'll be arriving late in the afternoon, I'll want the freedom to come back after dark, so currency is important.

My plan was to depart around 1900 local (2300 zulu) and fly a few approaches at St. Augustine with stop and go landings. Unfortunately, the NOTAMs showed that the ILS was out of service at St. Augustine and at Craig the glideslope was out. At least there was the localizer. Consequently, I opted to plan my flight to make two approaches at Jacksonville International and request stop and goes. The short runway at JAX is 7000 feet, so there would be no problem assuming that traffic was not too intense.

Several hours before the flight, the weather had deteriorated significantly. Visibility was only 2 miles at both CRG and JAX. The Navy Jax tower was reporting even worse - 1/2 mile. Ceilings weren't too bad with Craig reporting a few clouds at 600 feet and a broken ceiling at 1,200 feet. JAX was better with layers at 1500, 4500 and a ceiling at 8000. The winds were fairly light from the southeast around 7 or 8 knots, but they had shifted from the southwest.

Arriving at the airport I noticed that my new favorite plane was still tied down - maybe I could switch from the old Warrior II with its poor lighting and no autopilot to the brand new Skyhawk SP with its G1000 glass panel instrumentation. Sure enough, the fellow who had reserved this plane canceled it. He had switched to the Diamond DA40.

After calling the FSS to switch the flight plan to the new plane, I pre-flighted and was ready to go. ATC was being staffed by one person. I knew this since there was the same voice on the clearance delivery, ground and tower frequencies.

My clearance came as "November 1463 Foxtrot, cleared to Craig as filed; climb 2000 expect 3000 in 10 minutes; departure frequency is 118.0; squawk 4222; Taxi to 14; What is you intention at JAX?"

What a mouthful! I responded, "six three Foxtrot would like to get an instrument approach to the active runway at JAX with a stop and go, if possible".

The controller responded, "Roger. I'll let 'em know."

Knowing that I hadn't yet read back my clearance, I read it back and the controller responded with a "Read back correct".

I flipped on my taxi light, eased the throttle and started my taxi run all the way around the airport to runway 14. On the roll, I ran through the preflight checklist and completed my runup. I tuned the tower on the standby frequency, and entered the approach frequency on my COM2 radio. I also punched 4222 on the transponder.

While taxiing, I heard the controller tell another departing aircraft that departure was now on 127.5, so I wrote that down expecting to get the same change.

Reaching the runup area, I parked just so I could go over my departure, pick up the METAR on the NEXRAD weather display and took a good guess as to the active approach that was in use at JAX. I pulled out the approach plate for the ILS25 approach and noticed that the clip on the yoke was busted. Good thing I have a lapboard.

I then pulled up to the hold short and announced that I was ready to go at 14.

After telling me to "standby for release" (odd because we "HOLD" for release, not standby), I was issued the following instruction:
"Six-Three-Foxtrot, cleared for takeoff on 14, left turn to 010, new departure frequency is 127.5"

This meant I needed to change the departure frequency on my radio - and this is best done before you get busy on climbout - so I immediately made the switch. I also adjusted the heading bug to 010 as a reminder. I then repeated my takeoff clearance and taxied onto the runway. Lights on, strobes on, nav lights on, note the time - 7:20 PM, the transponder is automatic in this plane, so no worries. Off I went down the dark runway lined with bright lights.

Between 300' and 400' I encountered an unreported layer of clouds that lit up like daylight when my landing lights hit them. So much glare in my eyes!

At 700', I began my turn to the left. As I made my turn, the tower handed me off to the approach controller who found me on radar as I passed through 1400 feet. He cleared me to 3000' and gave me a new vector. I leveled off and decided it would be best to use the autopilot while I briefed the approach. The autopilot makes flying so much more precise. I've reviewed my GPS track from last night and it is amazing how precise all of my turns were - even those that I flew by hand.

My first approach was great until I got down to around 1500', at which point the radios were so filled with static that I could not hear anything. The indicator showed that I was transmitting - but I knew that wasn't true. I could hear the tower sporadically. Thinking that I was having a problem with a single radio, I tuned the other radio to what I thought was the same frequency and I switched radios. The problem was that I had tuned the new radio to the approach frequency, but I had already been handed off to the tower. I was still getting static anyway. I realized my mistake when I heard someone call JAX approach on the frequency. I immediately double checked the frequency on my approach plate - 118.3! And I switched back to the proper frequency. As soon as I did, I heard the tower controller calling my sign with a radio check! I responded that I heard him loud and clear, but I had been experiencing quite a bit of static - which was true. He cleared me for my stop and go and then asked me what my intentions - I told him I wanted to do the same approach all over again, if possible, with another stop and go.

The landing was uneventful, but once on the ground, the tower asked me if I could make my climbout turn before crossing runway 13. That would give me about 9000 feet to climb and turn - so no problem. I responded that I would comply. He told me I had 757 traffic approaching 13, and I told him I had the traffic in sight. I climbed out smoothly, but I was a bit nervous making my right turn to 360 so early over pitch black pine forest. I glanced at the approach plate and didn't see anything to worry about, though.

ATC vectored me for the new approach and I heard them talking with a learjet that had some sort of emergency. The controller told me to expect to get waived off at one mile as they might not have time to clear the runway before I got there. Knowing that, I slowed down to about 90 knots hoping to buy some time for a stop and go landing. Once again, I started to get static while on final approach. I was cleared for the approach, and told to execute a low approach prior to crossing runway 13 - the missed approach point. I heard the tower talking with the emergency personnel and it sounded to me like the runway was clear. I was expecting to be cleared for a stop and go, but the static started to drown out all transmissions. Through the noise, I heard the tower call "Radio Check" and I keyed the mic saying, "JAX tower, 63Foxtrot is experiencing considerable static. I cannot clearly receive your transmission. Executing missed approach." And I began my right turn to a heading of 130 as instructed. As soon as I hit the throttle and started climbing, the static went away! The tower handed me off to departure and I got vectors for the localizer approach at Craig. I thanked the tower controller - he was very patient with my radio problems.

I'm sure the radio was being affected by the weather. Most of the flight I was in the clouds or in very hazy, foggy cloud-like conditions. Perhaps the slower moving prop and extended flaps were causing an excessive static charge on the plane and as this constantly bled off, the radio signal was completely blocked.

I proceded back to Craig via radar vectors and punched in the ILS32 approach on the GPS. I also retrieved the plate from my book of approaches. I know this one by heart, but I briefed it anyway.

The controller vectored me quite a few times - turn 130, 140, 150, then 220 then 270. Finally, I was told I was x miles from ADERR, cleared for the approach and handed off to the tower. I had pulled the METAR prior to getting to this point, so I called the tower saying, "CRAIG tower, Skyhawk 1463Foxtrot, 8 miles out on the Localizer 32 Circle to 14 approach with Sierra; Stop and Go". He told me to continue and circle to the south entering a left downwind for 14.

I flew the localizer down to 1000' then leveled off. At 3 miles out, I made a course adjustment to the right and announced that I was 3 miles out and entering the downwind. As there was no other traffic at that point, I was cleared for stop and go.

I slowed the plane, progressive extended the flaps and made my base turn. Dropped another notch of flaps and contined my descent. Then the turn to final and the final notch. Wind was reported at 150 @ 7 knots - almost straight down the runway. I maintained a steady approach speed of about 65 knots on short final and touched down at around 50 knots. It was a smooth landing, but a little long. I could have made the first taxiway - A5, I believe. I stopped, retracted the flaps and was told to stay put while another aircraft landed on runway 5. I had canceled IFR when I entered the pattern, so I double checked the transponder for 1200. Yup - I had remembered. About this point, I noticed that the altimeter was reading -40 feet. Hmmm...that's just outside of the parameters which mandate a reading within 75 feet. I checked the standby (traditional) altimeter and it reported correct altitude, so I made a mental note of the problem.

CLeared for takeoff and instructed to make left traffic, I climbed out and leveled off at 1000 feet. I concentrated on maintaining a stabilized approach and using the proper airspeed. Although I knew I could use the entire runway to save some taxi time, I wanted to prove to myself I could land this plane in minimal space. This time, I set it down quite smoothly right on the numbers, pulled the flaps, held the nose up as long as possible while applying the brakes - this was one seriously short landing! I made the first turnoff and called for taxi clearance.

Although I never went over 3000 feet on this flight, I was in the clouds amost the entire time. Where the METARs said I should have few or broken, I had solid. The METAR did not report the clouds that I encountered around 300 feet on my first take off from CRAIG, nor did the report the clouds that were solid at 500 feet on my first climb out from JAX. Checking my log, I saw that I had not flown for almost three weeks - the last time being when I took Jim, Jimmy and Paige up on a nice VFR flight. This was a real challenging flight - single pilot IFR in the soup with weather-related radio issues. I probably could have done some things differently - like making sure I had the first approach on the GPS as part of my checklist...there's an idea - Change the AMICEATM so that I plug the approach in the GPS properly.

This flight involved three full stop landings, three IFR approaches, one VFR approache, with 1 hour of NIGHT IFR and 1.6 hours total. I sure love this stuff!

VFR Around Manhattan

2006-10-15T16:31:00.000-04:00

The news has been full of talk about Cory Lidle's crash earlier this week into a Manhattan appartment building. I've examined the VFR sectional charts for New York and I am now convinced that it is technically impossible to conduct a VFR flight without entering the Class B airspace. Therefore, Lidle's flight, for the most part was an illegal operation.

The FARs state that the minimum safe altitude for any aircraft... (b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.

Although the FARs do not define the term, "congested area", I think the metropolitan area of New York City would certainly qualify. The VFR corridor that exists over the East River has a Ceiling of 1100'. It is approximately 2000' wide. There are numerouse buildings along the east coast of Manhattan that are well over 600' tall. So, in order to comply with the FARs, I must remain 1000' above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2000'. This means that I must remain at least 1000' above all of the buildings in Manhattan that dot the banks of the East River. If the tallest building was 100' tall, I would have to fly higher than 1,100' MSL, which puts me squarely in the Class B airspace. If I fly in the VFR corridor, then I'm flying too close to the buildings as per the FARs.

I just don't see how one could fly VFR over the East River legally without entering class B airspace. Lidle never received clearance to enter the Class B space.