Six Shots in 2.1 hours

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.

One Trip Made All The Training Worth While

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!

10.5 Hours Around Vegas & The Grand Canyon

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

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.

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

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!

ALTITUDE ALERT!!!

"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

RADAR for PDAs, Blackberries and Smartphones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.