I didn't realize so much time had passed since my last entry. Since the last entry I've been to Germany, Rhode Island, Ohio, Homossassa, Tallahassee, and a few other places that I've forgotten about. I flew myself and my golf partner to Myrtle Beach for the first time in August. It was a challenge figuring out how to load two sets of clubs in the cargo area of a Skyhawk, but we managed. Having a travel bag around the clubs makes a huge difference.
Now for the subject of this post...Maureen and I wanted to go to Palm Beach for the weekend to visit her parents, but all of the planes I would consider flying cross-country were booked. I want something with modern avionics, decent airspeed, a reliable engine, and I prefer an autopilot or at least a wing leveler to ensure the smoothest flight possible. Maureen tends to get motion sickness in all but the smoothest air. Sterling recently added a brand new Cessna 172SP to its fleet. This one has the Garmin G1000 glass panel - aka the Cessna NavIII option. To fly this aircraft, an additional 2 hour checkout is mandatory.
I did a little research and discovered a number of articles that discussed the difficulties associated with transitioning from traditional panels to the PFD/MFD (Primary flight display/multi-function display). Not being one to cut corners, I purchased Garmin's G1000 simulator from their website and printed out their entire manual. I then spent my evenings reading through the manual and flying the simulator to ensure that I was comfortable with it before my checkout ride.
I had never flown with the instructor before. He joined Sterling after I completed my instrument training. Chase Rider is a great guy to fly with. He knew a great deal about the panel and showed me several things that I didn't remember from looking over the book including the METAR page that will show the latest METAR for the selected airport. I think there was only one thing that I knew that he didn't. When using the Direct-to option on the GPS, you can specify a course for the destination and the direct-to button will plot a course to intercept the desired approach course. This could be very useful for lining up with a runway that doesn't have an instrument plate.
Anyway, we flew down to Flagler and flew the GPS approach ending in a landing and taxi-back due to the ridiculous rules against touch and goes. Then we tried to request an approach at St. Augustine, but they asked us to break off at 3 miles - - not much of an approach, but it gave me a chance to at least intercept the localizer and fly the glideslope. We then went on to Craig where we requested the ILS 32 approach, but the tower had too much traffic going the opposite direction and due to time constraints, we had to land VFR.
The next post will have details about the equipment, etc. For now, the flight was enjoyable and amounted to 2.0 hours of dual cross-country with 0.2 simulated instrument. The two hours were enough to get me signed off so I could take the plane down to F45 for the weekend.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Monday, August 07, 2006
VFR & the need to practice
I've been very busy for the past few months and have not been able to fly every weekend as I would like. Even skipping only one week, I find that rust tend to accumulate on my skills. The last few times that I've flown, I've missed steps in my preflight check and my landings were not nice stable approaches other than a few full instrument approaches. Therefore, I decided to knock the rust off a bit by practicing some landings and making sure I caught everything on the preflight checklist.
Sunday I flew N51313 a fairly new Skyhawk with just over 1000 hours on the tach. It's the plane that I prefer to fly for cross country flights as it is reasonably roomy, has a nice 180 hp fuel injected engine, a great Bendix-King moving map GPS and autopilot.
I took my time with the preflight and found that the plane had about 30 gallons of fuel on board. The pilot who flew it before me must have been a student who has not been properly trained on securing the aircraft, though. He used slipknots on both wings which are a major pain in the ass to untie. He also did not switch the fuel selector away from the "Both" setting. This is required to prevent fuel from shifting from one tank to the other due to sloping ground or the inbalance caused when the plane is being refueled. It's not a big deal, but I'm pretty particular about flying and it bugs me when things are not done to the letter.
Anyway, the plane had about 30 gallons of fuel on board which was more than enough for the hour or so that I planned to fly. The engine started after a few turns of the prop - a few more than usual, but it ran fine and all gauges checked out. I turned on the avionics stack and the radios came to life. The first thing I checked was the push-to-talk button on the pilot's yoke. The last time I flew this plane, it did not work and it was a real pain to have to switch my headset cord to the far side of the aircraft and use the co-pilot's controls. There's always something going wrong with these planes, it seems. This time, the GPS could not receive any satellites. I've seen notams recently that warned about temporary outages, but I hooked up my portable GPS and it worked fine. The biggest drawback is that the lack of the GPS results in having no DME and DME is required for many of the approaches that I do. It is also critical for situational awareness. Triangulation simply takes too much time and is not all that accurate. DME and a VOR will put your position within a few tenths of a mile. Without DME, you're lucky to get within a half mile.
The winds were favoring runway 14 - the farthest from Sterling. After starting and taxiing to the boundary of the controlled area, I called ground control.
"Good afternoon Craig Ground, Skyhawk 51313", I called.
"Skyhawk 51313, Craig Ground, Good afternoon", she replied.
I responded, "Skyhawk 313 is on Delta holding short of Bravo, VFR southbound, with November."
To which she replied, "Skywawk 313, Taxi to one-four".
Since I had so much distance to cover - that's about 2 miles to get to 14 - the length of runway 5 plus most of the length of 14 - I completed the runup on the roll. Everything was working but the GPS. When I got to the runup area, I fiddled with the GPS - restarted it. Nothing worked, so I turned the brightness down so I wouldn't be tempted to look at it.
I saw a plane approaching for landing on short final, so I pulled up to the hold short and waited until he passed and called the tower for my clearance. I was told to hold short of 14.
The landing plane was doing a touch and go, and as soon as he was airborn again, the tower called back, "Skyhawk 313, cleared for take off on one-four, right turn southbound approved, the aircraft ahead of you is making left traffic."
I turned the transponder to ALT, noted the time, turned on the landing lights and taxiied onto the runway. Full power, feet off the brakes and we were rolling. At 50 knots, I pulled slightly back on the yoke and the plane lifted. I released the pressure and held the plane in ground effect as the speed continued to rise. At 75 knots, I pulled the nose up and she began her climb out. At 700', I made a smooth right turn to 180. I leveled off at 2700' - just 300' below the altitude at which I needed to worry more about direction and altitude and just above the controlled airspace at St. Augustine and JAX NAS. I ran through the cruise checklist and was pleased to see that the EGT gauge had been repaired since the last time I flew - the taxi light had not.
I engaged the autopilot to hold altitude and heading while I pulled out my portable GPS and bolted it to the co-pilot's yoke. This would at least give me DME.
I flew south for a short while, then pulled out a VFR sectional chart to get the ATIS frequency at St. Augustine. I made a 235 degree turn to the right to keep me away from St. Augustine as I flew over World Golf Village. I then shook hands with the St. Augustine Tower who told me to continue NE, then make a teardrop turn to the left to join an 8 mile straight in for runway 13. He also told me I would be following a Navy T-34 which he assumed that I had probably alreay saw. I had not. As it turns out, he was already 1200 feet below me and not a factor. I made my turn and heard the tower talking to a Piper in the pattern. I spotted the T-34 well below me and several miles ahead. The tower had told me the T-34 was flying the VOR-13 approach which should have had him on the 318 radial, but I was lined up with the runway and he was way off to the right.
When the tower cleared me to touch and go, I acknowledged and then told him I would be departing to the north.
I made a beautiful, stable approach and concentrated on landing smoothly. I went just a little long, but touched down softly on the centerline. I retracted the flaps, gave full power and was quickly on my way back to the north.
I then tuned the ILS at Craig and flew along the beach at 2000'. I was making very good groundspeed of around 130 knots and I reached the localizer sooner than I expected. I tuned the ATIS for Craig and had just written down the figures when I noticed the localizer centering. I made a steep turn to the left after checking for traffic and lined up on the localizer. At 8 miles out, I called the tower and was told to enter a right downwind for 14. I reduced speed to 90 knots and flew the localizer until I intercepted the glideslope, then popped the first notch of flaps and flew the ILS to 4 miles out. I then angled over to the left to enter the downwind an halted my descent at 1000'. I announced midfield and as I passed the numbers, I reduced power to 1700 RPM and pushed the nose down for a 500 FPM descent. As the runway passed behind the right window pillar, I made a steady descending turn to the right and dropped the second notch. I turned about 100 degrees because the wind was down the runway and this would give me a fairly square pattern. I then lined up on the runway and dropped the final notch of flaps. I was on the glideslope and descending at about 500 fpm. I started to drop below the slope because of the headwind, so I gave a bit more power. I was maintaining 75 knots on the approach and as I got closer, I reduced power to idle and continued the descent. I flared the plane and it seemed to want to climb, so I reduced the nose and let it drop closer to the runway. I nosed up again with the stall warning in continuous squeel. The mains touched down with a chirp and I concentrated on keeping the nose wheel off the ground. I released the back pressure and the nosewheel made its own chirp.
Back on the power and one more time around the pattern - this time in left traffic. Another smooth landing, but this time I was getting lots of gusts just before I reached the runway. I gave the plane a little extra power to compensate for the gusts. This made me land a little longer, but still in about 1000 feet.
Today, I flew VFR for the first time in a while. I concentrated on a few skills which I long ago mastered. Three landings and 1.1 hours of PIC.
Sunday I flew N51313 a fairly new Skyhawk with just over 1000 hours on the tach. It's the plane that I prefer to fly for cross country flights as it is reasonably roomy, has a nice 180 hp fuel injected engine, a great Bendix-King moving map GPS and autopilot.
I took my time with the preflight and found that the plane had about 30 gallons of fuel on board. The pilot who flew it before me must have been a student who has not been properly trained on securing the aircraft, though. He used slipknots on both wings which are a major pain in the ass to untie. He also did not switch the fuel selector away from the "Both" setting. This is required to prevent fuel from shifting from one tank to the other due to sloping ground or the inbalance caused when the plane is being refueled. It's not a big deal, but I'm pretty particular about flying and it bugs me when things are not done to the letter.
Anyway, the plane had about 30 gallons of fuel on board which was more than enough for the hour or so that I planned to fly. The engine started after a few turns of the prop - a few more than usual, but it ran fine and all gauges checked out. I turned on the avionics stack and the radios came to life. The first thing I checked was the push-to-talk button on the pilot's yoke. The last time I flew this plane, it did not work and it was a real pain to have to switch my headset cord to the far side of the aircraft and use the co-pilot's controls. There's always something going wrong with these planes, it seems. This time, the GPS could not receive any satellites. I've seen notams recently that warned about temporary outages, but I hooked up my portable GPS and it worked fine. The biggest drawback is that the lack of the GPS results in having no DME and DME is required for many of the approaches that I do. It is also critical for situational awareness. Triangulation simply takes too much time and is not all that accurate. DME and a VOR will put your position within a few tenths of a mile. Without DME, you're lucky to get within a half mile.
The winds were favoring runway 14 - the farthest from Sterling. After starting and taxiing to the boundary of the controlled area, I called ground control.
"Good afternoon Craig Ground, Skyhawk 51313", I called.
"Skyhawk 51313, Craig Ground, Good afternoon", she replied.
I responded, "Skyhawk 313 is on Delta holding short of Bravo, VFR southbound, with November."
To which she replied, "Skywawk 313, Taxi to one-four".
Since I had so much distance to cover - that's about 2 miles to get to 14 - the length of runway 5 plus most of the length of 14 - I completed the runup on the roll. Everything was working but the GPS. When I got to the runup area, I fiddled with the GPS - restarted it. Nothing worked, so I turned the brightness down so I wouldn't be tempted to look at it.
I saw a plane approaching for landing on short final, so I pulled up to the hold short and waited until he passed and called the tower for my clearance. I was told to hold short of 14.
The landing plane was doing a touch and go, and as soon as he was airborn again, the tower called back, "Skyhawk 313, cleared for take off on one-four, right turn southbound approved, the aircraft ahead of you is making left traffic."
I turned the transponder to ALT, noted the time, turned on the landing lights and taxiied onto the runway. Full power, feet off the brakes and we were rolling. At 50 knots, I pulled slightly back on the yoke and the plane lifted. I released the pressure and held the plane in ground effect as the speed continued to rise. At 75 knots, I pulled the nose up and she began her climb out. At 700', I made a smooth right turn to 180. I leveled off at 2700' - just 300' below the altitude at which I needed to worry more about direction and altitude and just above the controlled airspace at St. Augustine and JAX NAS. I ran through the cruise checklist and was pleased to see that the EGT gauge had been repaired since the last time I flew - the taxi light had not.
I engaged the autopilot to hold altitude and heading while I pulled out my portable GPS and bolted it to the co-pilot's yoke. This would at least give me DME.
I flew south for a short while, then pulled out a VFR sectional chart to get the ATIS frequency at St. Augustine. I made a 235 degree turn to the right to keep me away from St. Augustine as I flew over World Golf Village. I then shook hands with the St. Augustine Tower who told me to continue NE, then make a teardrop turn to the left to join an 8 mile straight in for runway 13. He also told me I would be following a Navy T-34 which he assumed that I had probably alreay saw. I had not. As it turns out, he was already 1200 feet below me and not a factor. I made my turn and heard the tower talking to a Piper in the pattern. I spotted the T-34 well below me and several miles ahead. The tower had told me the T-34 was flying the VOR-13 approach which should have had him on the 318 radial, but I was lined up with the runway and he was way off to the right.
When the tower cleared me to touch and go, I acknowledged and then told him I would be departing to the north.
I made a beautiful, stable approach and concentrated on landing smoothly. I went just a little long, but touched down softly on the centerline. I retracted the flaps, gave full power and was quickly on my way back to the north.
I then tuned the ILS at Craig and flew along the beach at 2000'. I was making very good groundspeed of around 130 knots and I reached the localizer sooner than I expected. I tuned the ATIS for Craig and had just written down the figures when I noticed the localizer centering. I made a steep turn to the left after checking for traffic and lined up on the localizer. At 8 miles out, I called the tower and was told to enter a right downwind for 14. I reduced speed to 90 knots and flew the localizer until I intercepted the glideslope, then popped the first notch of flaps and flew the ILS to 4 miles out. I then angled over to the left to enter the downwind an halted my descent at 1000'. I announced midfield and as I passed the numbers, I reduced power to 1700 RPM and pushed the nose down for a 500 FPM descent. As the runway passed behind the right window pillar, I made a steady descending turn to the right and dropped the second notch. I turned about 100 degrees because the wind was down the runway and this would give me a fairly square pattern. I then lined up on the runway and dropped the final notch of flaps. I was on the glideslope and descending at about 500 fpm. I started to drop below the slope because of the headwind, so I gave a bit more power. I was maintaining 75 knots on the approach and as I got closer, I reduced power to idle and continued the descent. I flared the plane and it seemed to want to climb, so I reduced the nose and let it drop closer to the runway. I nosed up again with the stall warning in continuous squeel. The mains touched down with a chirp and I concentrated on keeping the nose wheel off the ground. I released the back pressure and the nosewheel made its own chirp.
Back on the power and one more time around the pattern - this time in left traffic. Another smooth landing, but this time I was getting lots of gusts just before I reached the runway. I gave the plane a little extra power to compensate for the gusts. This made me land a little longer, but still in about 1000 feet.
Today, I flew VFR for the first time in a while. I concentrated on a few skills which I long ago mastered. Three landings and 1.1 hours of PIC.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Typical Florida Summer Weather
The weather forecast called for isolated thunderstorms throughout the state with tops exceeding 45,000 feet. Welcome to Florida in July.
I gave the plane a very thorough checkout and I called North County unicom to see what runway was in use. 26 Left came the reply...the same runway I landed on yesterday. I began to taxi towards the runway and saw another Skyhawk coming towards me looking a little lost. I could see that there were planes on both sides of the oncoming plane, so I stopped and turned off my landing lights as a signal to the other aircraft that I was stopping. He made a slight turn to his right and we passed each other without incident. He made some comment on the radio like "That'll work" and I thanked him.
I went through the runup as we taxied to the runway. Reaching the runup area, I called clearance delivery and received my clearance. I was given an amended clearance - to VRB via radar vectors, then as filed. Climb 2000, expect 7000 in 10. Squawks and freqs. Upon entering controlled airspace, fly heading 360. She then asked me to say what runway I would be using and when I would be ready. I readback the clearance and told her I was ready to depart 26 Left. She cleared me and I switch to the CTAF and off we went.
After contacting ATC, I was told to fly a heading of 330, no 340...then 330 and then was told to join V3. After turning to 330, I looked at the GPS display to see where V3 was. I also tuned the VOR to the VRB vortac. It was clear that the airway was to my right, but a course of 330 was not going to intercept it at all. I cheated and turned to 350 which would have me intercept the airway about 20 miles south of Vero.
ATC was busy calling traffic for everyone except me. I was in touch with Miami center when I saw a twin engine pass directly beneath me about 500 feet below. I just caught a glimpse of him to my left when he zipped under me. This traffic should have been called. We were way too close.
I could see some towering cumulous and cumulonimbus clouds ahead and to my left. These would later become the scattered thunderstorms that were forecast. I heard several aircraft request deviations to go around these clouds. ATC actually told one pilot that most planes were flying right through without any problem. I was really hoping that we would get down before these clouds reached the airport.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful although we got a fair amount of weather flying. Nearing Ormond Beach, ATC instructed me to descend to 5000 feet. That would put me directly in the clouds and I should have asked the controller if he could keep me at 7000 a while longer. The clouds weren't too bumpy and Maureen didn't seem to bothered by the ride. South of St. Augustine, I was told to fly 360. This vectored me over the ocean. Daytona approach then handed me off to JAX. We got further and further off shore. I had tuned the ILS and the VOR and I could tell we were getting close to intercepting the localizer, so I called ATC. "Standby" was the reply. Shortly, she called back and asked for my request. I said, "I would like the ILS 32 circle 23 to Craig and I was wondering how long you wanted me to fly 360?"
She replied, "continue flying 360, you are number 3 for the approach". I was flying at 3000 feet now and was probably barely within glide distance of the beach if something went wrong. I then noticed that we had flown past the localizer. Eventually, she turned me to 230 which would be perpindicular to the approach course. I'd be making a steep right turn. She also advised me to maintain 2000 until established on the ILS, "Cleared for the ILS 32 approach to Craig". I turned the plane and descended using the autopilot. As I got closer to the approach course, I canceled the autopilot and began to handfly the plane. I was flying the needles very well and intercepted the localizer, then the glideslope. About 10 miles out, I was told to contact Craig tower.
I called the tower and was asked to report ADERR which is 5.4 miles out from the airport. Reaching ADERR which is also the point at which I started my timer, I called the tower and received clearance to land. I flew the needles to about 300 feet, then looked up and there was the runway straight ahead. Crossing the airport property, I got quite an updraft. I managed to land fairly smoothly and was immediately cleared to taxi to parking.
About 20 minutes after we got home, the skies unleashed a tremendous thunderstorm. If we had left only 30 minutes later, we would have caught this mess. Timing is everything.
Another 2.3 of cross-country and 0.5 of actual instrument plus one instrument approach. Good day.
I gave the plane a very thorough checkout and I called North County unicom to see what runway was in use. 26 Left came the reply...the same runway I landed on yesterday. I began to taxi towards the runway and saw another Skyhawk coming towards me looking a little lost. I could see that there were planes on both sides of the oncoming plane, so I stopped and turned off my landing lights as a signal to the other aircraft that I was stopping. He made a slight turn to his right and we passed each other without incident. He made some comment on the radio like "That'll work" and I thanked him.
I went through the runup as we taxied to the runway. Reaching the runup area, I called clearance delivery and received my clearance. I was given an amended clearance - to VRB via radar vectors, then as filed. Climb 2000, expect 7000 in 10. Squawks and freqs. Upon entering controlled airspace, fly heading 360. She then asked me to say what runway I would be using and when I would be ready. I readback the clearance and told her I was ready to depart 26 Left. She cleared me and I switch to the CTAF and off we went.
After contacting ATC, I was told to fly a heading of 330, no 340...then 330 and then was told to join V3. After turning to 330, I looked at the GPS display to see where V3 was. I also tuned the VOR to the VRB vortac. It was clear that the airway was to my right, but a course of 330 was not going to intercept it at all. I cheated and turned to 350 which would have me intercept the airway about 20 miles south of Vero.
ATC was busy calling traffic for everyone except me. I was in touch with Miami center when I saw a twin engine pass directly beneath me about 500 feet below. I just caught a glimpse of him to my left when he zipped under me. This traffic should have been called. We were way too close.
I could see some towering cumulous and cumulonimbus clouds ahead and to my left. These would later become the scattered thunderstorms that were forecast. I heard several aircraft request deviations to go around these clouds. ATC actually told one pilot that most planes were flying right through without any problem. I was really hoping that we would get down before these clouds reached the airport.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful although we got a fair amount of weather flying. Nearing Ormond Beach, ATC instructed me to descend to 5000 feet. That would put me directly in the clouds and I should have asked the controller if he could keep me at 7000 a while longer. The clouds weren't too bumpy and Maureen didn't seem to bothered by the ride. South of St. Augustine, I was told to fly 360. This vectored me over the ocean. Daytona approach then handed me off to JAX. We got further and further off shore. I had tuned the ILS and the VOR and I could tell we were getting close to intercepting the localizer, so I called ATC. "Standby" was the reply. Shortly, she called back and asked for my request. I said, "I would like the ILS 32 circle 23 to Craig and I was wondering how long you wanted me to fly 360?"
She replied, "continue flying 360, you are number 3 for the approach". I was flying at 3000 feet now and was probably barely within glide distance of the beach if something went wrong. I then noticed that we had flown past the localizer. Eventually, she turned me to 230 which would be perpindicular to the approach course. I'd be making a steep right turn. She also advised me to maintain 2000 until established on the ILS, "Cleared for the ILS 32 approach to Craig". I turned the plane and descended using the autopilot. As I got closer to the approach course, I canceled the autopilot and began to handfly the plane. I was flying the needles very well and intercepted the localizer, then the glideslope. About 10 miles out, I was told to contact Craig tower.
I called the tower and was asked to report ADERR which is 5.4 miles out from the airport. Reaching ADERR which is also the point at which I started my timer, I called the tower and received clearance to land. I flew the needles to about 300 feet, then looked up and there was the runway straight ahead. Crossing the airport property, I got quite an updraft. I managed to land fairly smoothly and was immediately cleared to taxi to parking.
About 20 minutes after we got home, the skies unleashed a tremendous thunderstorm. If we had left only 30 minutes later, we would have caught this mess. Timing is everything.
Another 2.3 of cross-country and 0.5 of actual instrument plus one instrument approach. Good day.
Craig to North Palm Beach
We flew from Jacksonville Craig Municipal (KCRG) to North Palm Beach County (F45) for the weekend. As seems to be the norm these days, the plane was not fueled and had more squawks than I prefer when we arrived Saturday morning. The log suggested that about 3 hours of fuel had been burned since it was last refueled and that would not have allowed me the required 45 minutes reserve for an IFR flight. I started the engine and motored over to the fuel depot. I was very happy to see that one of the line crew had shown up for work early. The fuel is not self-service and I have no idea how to turn the pumps on.
I was rushed and went through my preflight a little faster than usual. I found that the taxi light did not work. No big deal. Everything else seemed to work fine. When I checked the ATIS, I clicked the push-to-talk and nothing happened. I had to really push hard on the button to get the mic to transmit. Not good.
Because I had rushed throught the preflight, we were able to depart within a few minutes of our scheduled departure of 9:15. I went through the runup checklist and the engine checked out fine. I taxied to the split between taxiway C and F in case the tower wanted me to hold for release, that way I could get out of the way of waiting aircraft if needed. I heard the tower clear another aircraft for landing and then I called for take-off clearance. The tower cleared me, but didn't give me a departure heading. As I taxied onto the runway, I asked the controller if he had a departure heading for me. He responded as though I had asked the dumbest question ever. He said, "Do you mean a departure frequency?" with lots of attitude in his voice. I calmly replied, "I'm departing IFR, an usually the tower assigned a departure heading". Now he understood and replied, "Position and hold".
He then asked the flight in the pattern to extend his downwind by a half mile.
Momentarily, he re-cleared me to takeoff and fly heading 160, climb 2000. An odd way to do it, but it worked.
Throughout the conversation, I was having fits with the PTT. Half of my calls were broken up because the mic cut in and out. Getting frustrated with the unreliable button, I pulled the cord from my headset and swapped it to the other side of the plane. The PTT on the co-pilot's yoke worked fine, but it meant that I would have to reach across the plane every time I wanted to talk.
As I approached Daytona, the Daytona Approach Controller gave me several traffic alerts. The first one was at 5500', five hundred below me headed in the opposite direction. I saw this aircraft about 15 seconds before he passed beneath me. Next the tower called for another plane behind me that was overtaking me. He was also at 5,500' flying on the V-3 airway, same direction. I looked behind me, but couldn't see the airplane. As he passed beneath just below the right wing, Maureen pointed it out. I couldn't see him until he got way in front of me. He was not in contact with ATC and was flying VFR only about 1000' above the clouds below him. I was just about to call ATC to announce "Tally-ho", but the controller called me first and said the plane was no longer a factor and had begun descending. I watched as this VFR flight descended into the clouds along the airway.
This kind of crap really pisses me off. The regulations are very clear and anyone flying a twin engine plane should have plenty of flying time to be extremely familiar with the regulations. We were on the airway which is Class E airspace. He was not on an instrument flight plan or ATC would have been in contact. Nevertheless he flew into the clouds. This is so friggin' dangerous. So what if you are instrument rated. If you aren't in the system, chances are you will not receive any traffic calls...heck it's just illegal and dangerous.
The rest of the fight was fairly uneventful and we arrived on schedule. I canceled IFR about 8 miles out because ATC was going to have me hold for a student flying the ILS 8R. Winds were favoring 26L and I didn't want to hold. At 2000 feet, we were below the cloud layer at 3000'. I could see the plane flying the ILS as well as one aircraft in the pattern. I opted to overfly the airport at 1500' then make a descending teardrop entry into the midfield downwind for 26L. I was a bit impatient and didn't fly past the airport far enough, so my pattern was very close to the runway. This meant that my descent would be steep and hot. As I turned final, I pulled power to idle, dropped full flaps and executed a forward slip until I was about 40 feet AGL. I kicked out the slip and lined up the runway. I was still a bit hot, but made a smooth touchdown.
I really love flying and days like this give just enough challenges to be interesting without being too dangerous. 2.3 hours of x-country with 0.3 of actual instrument.
I was rushed and went through my preflight a little faster than usual. I found that the taxi light did not work. No big deal. Everything else seemed to work fine. When I checked the ATIS, I clicked the push-to-talk and nothing happened. I had to really push hard on the button to get the mic to transmit. Not good.
Because I had rushed throught the preflight, we were able to depart within a few minutes of our scheduled departure of 9:15. I went through the runup checklist and the engine checked out fine. I taxied to the split between taxiway C and F in case the tower wanted me to hold for release, that way I could get out of the way of waiting aircraft if needed. I heard the tower clear another aircraft for landing and then I called for take-off clearance. The tower cleared me, but didn't give me a departure heading. As I taxied onto the runway, I asked the controller if he had a departure heading for me. He responded as though I had asked the dumbest question ever. He said, "Do you mean a departure frequency?" with lots of attitude in his voice. I calmly replied, "I'm departing IFR, an usually the tower assigned a departure heading". Now he understood and replied, "Position and hold".
He then asked the flight in the pattern to extend his downwind by a half mile.
Momentarily, he re-cleared me to takeoff and fly heading 160, climb 2000. An odd way to do it, but it worked.
Throughout the conversation, I was having fits with the PTT. Half of my calls were broken up because the mic cut in and out. Getting frustrated with the unreliable button, I pulled the cord from my headset and swapped it to the other side of the plane. The PTT on the co-pilot's yoke worked fine, but it meant that I would have to reach across the plane every time I wanted to talk.
As I approached Daytona, the Daytona Approach Controller gave me several traffic alerts. The first one was at 5500', five hundred below me headed in the opposite direction. I saw this aircraft about 15 seconds before he passed beneath me. Next the tower called for another plane behind me that was overtaking me. He was also at 5,500' flying on the V-3 airway, same direction. I looked behind me, but couldn't see the airplane. As he passed beneath just below the right wing, Maureen pointed it out. I couldn't see him until he got way in front of me. He was not in contact with ATC and was flying VFR only about 1000' above the clouds below him. I was just about to call ATC to announce "Tally-ho", but the controller called me first and said the plane was no longer a factor and had begun descending. I watched as this VFR flight descended into the clouds along the airway.
This kind of crap really pisses me off. The regulations are very clear and anyone flying a twin engine plane should have plenty of flying time to be extremely familiar with the regulations. We were on the airway which is Class E airspace. He was not on an instrument flight plan or ATC would have been in contact. Nevertheless he flew into the clouds. This is so friggin' dangerous. So what if you are instrument rated. If you aren't in the system, chances are you will not receive any traffic calls...heck it's just illegal and dangerous.
The rest of the fight was fairly uneventful and we arrived on schedule. I canceled IFR about 8 miles out because ATC was going to have me hold for a student flying the ILS 8R. Winds were favoring 26L and I didn't want to hold. At 2000 feet, we were below the cloud layer at 3000'. I could see the plane flying the ILS as well as one aircraft in the pattern. I opted to overfly the airport at 1500' then make a descending teardrop entry into the midfield downwind for 26L. I was a bit impatient and didn't fly past the airport far enough, so my pattern was very close to the runway. This meant that my descent would be steep and hot. As I turned final, I pulled power to idle, dropped full flaps and executed a forward slip until I was about 40 feet AGL. I kicked out the slip and lined up the runway. I was still a bit hot, but made a smooth touchdown.
I really love flying and days like this give just enough challenges to be interesting without being too dangerous. 2.3 hours of x-country with 0.3 of actual instrument.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Broke Brakes & GetThere-itis
On June 17th, Maureen and I had planned to fly to the Tampa North Aeropark to help celebrate my neice's 3rd birthday. The weather was forecast to be typical Florida summertime weather, but not too many thunderstorms. Unfortunately, someone had the Skyhawk reserved for a short flight in the morning, so I had to opt for the Piper Warrior II that I had done all of my instrument training in.
This particular Warrior is deteriorating and it aggravates me because it could be a very nice aircraft. Part of the problem is that the students don't seem to treat it like it was theirs and Sterling's mechanics seem to focus their attention on their charter aircraft and the newer Archer IIIs. This is the only aircraft that has ever failed me. While flying my final stage check for my instrument rating, the alternator died. The plane seems to have some electrical issues. Several years ago, the tail position light was very dim - there was a short somewhere in the system that was draining some of the power from the light. The radios are full of noise from the alternator. When the strobes are on, one of the radios is extremely noisy with squawks that keep time to the blinking of the lights.
There was once a nice, but old GPS in the plane. Unfortunately, someone broke it. I have no idea how one would break a GPS physically, but they did. The faceplate was busted and hanging and for about a year, the plane was flown with an "INOP" affixed to the GPS. There was no hope that the equipment would be fixed, yet it was never removed from the plane. There's also an INOP lightning detector. Why not take it out??? Save an extra 10 pounds!
Anyway, Maureen and I had are plans made and I wanted to get down to Tampa. Somehow we left the house late (AS USUAL) and I had to wait for Maureen to talk on the phone before we loaded up. Preflight indicated that the plane was airworthy. I managed to get her started and checked out the electronics. Everything was fine.
I called for my IFR clearance and then for taxi instructions. The winds favored runway 5, which was good as it would give me a tailwind once I was headed to Tampa. I eased the throttle forward and made my left turn down the ramp. It seemed that the right brake pedal was a bit mushy, so I tried to press it. It went straight to the floor. I had to use full right rudder to keep the plane straight when I used the pedal brakes. Not good. Not good at all. This should have been enough for me to turn around and go back, but I thought I would try the hand brake. Fortunately for me, the hand brake applies both brakes evenly and the plane stopped nice and straight. I made the executive decision to continue the flight, but kept the brake problem in the back of my mind. I didn't mention any of this to Maureen.
The flight was a bit bumpy as we passed in and out of growing cumulous clouds. That didn't bother me, but it definitely had a negative effect on Maureen. I noticed that she wasn't looking too well, so I dumped the newspaper from its bag and handed her the bag just in case she became ill.
There is no instrument approach for Tampa North. Because it is such a narrow runway and because it is surrounded by development, it is a bit tricky to pick it out from the ground clutter. My handheld GPS had me pointed in the right direction, but I just couldn't pick it out. About 8 miles out, approach control told me to switch to advisory and since I had clear enough skies, I canceled IFR. I didn't spot the runway until I passed the southwest end of it off my left wing. Fortunately there was no one in the pattern. There was no way I could dump the altitude and make as slow and soft a landing as I wanted, so I flew the pattern. At 1000' AGL, the temperature in the airplane increased quite a bit. The heat combined with the bumps really gave Maureen fits. Nevertheless, I was completely focused on landing the plane, not on my passenger.
On final, I slowed the approach to 65 knots and I touched down nice, straight and soft. I knew better than to try the foot brakes, so I tested the handbrake three times. The plane was slowing nicely. It would have been able to coast to a stop by the time I reached the end of the runway, so we were in very good shape. Using the handbrake and the rudder without differential braking, I managed to park the plane. Since I knew I had a left brake, I taxiied to the end of the runway and made a left turn to the parking area. Mom was waiting there next to her car. I told Maureen, "Look at how good Mom looks!" As I looked over at Maureen, I could see that she was in tears. She was so close to being sick and the lack of control that she had over her body turned into a severe emotional event. I felt so bad for her....but I had done everything I could to make the flight as smooth as possible. Next time, I'll bring a cooler with some ice and washcloths so she can cool down if needed. We're going to Palm Beach this weekend, so I'll be able to test that then...but only if the brakes work. I'll have the Skyhawk this time, so this will be a much better trip.
This particular Warrior is deteriorating and it aggravates me because it could be a very nice aircraft. Part of the problem is that the students don't seem to treat it like it was theirs and Sterling's mechanics seem to focus their attention on their charter aircraft and the newer Archer IIIs. This is the only aircraft that has ever failed me. While flying my final stage check for my instrument rating, the alternator died. The plane seems to have some electrical issues. Several years ago, the tail position light was very dim - there was a short somewhere in the system that was draining some of the power from the light. The radios are full of noise from the alternator. When the strobes are on, one of the radios is extremely noisy with squawks that keep time to the blinking of the lights.
There was once a nice, but old GPS in the plane. Unfortunately, someone broke it. I have no idea how one would break a GPS physically, but they did. The faceplate was busted and hanging and for about a year, the plane was flown with an "INOP" affixed to the GPS. There was no hope that the equipment would be fixed, yet it was never removed from the plane. There's also an INOP lightning detector. Why not take it out??? Save an extra 10 pounds!
Anyway, Maureen and I had are plans made and I wanted to get down to Tampa. Somehow we left the house late (AS USUAL) and I had to wait for Maureen to talk on the phone before we loaded up. Preflight indicated that the plane was airworthy. I managed to get her started and checked out the electronics. Everything was fine.
I called for my IFR clearance and then for taxi instructions. The winds favored runway 5, which was good as it would give me a tailwind once I was headed to Tampa. I eased the throttle forward and made my left turn down the ramp. It seemed that the right brake pedal was a bit mushy, so I tried to press it. It went straight to the floor. I had to use full right rudder to keep the plane straight when I used the pedal brakes. Not good. Not good at all. This should have been enough for me to turn around and go back, but I thought I would try the hand brake. Fortunately for me, the hand brake applies both brakes evenly and the plane stopped nice and straight. I made the executive decision to continue the flight, but kept the brake problem in the back of my mind. I didn't mention any of this to Maureen.
The flight was a bit bumpy as we passed in and out of growing cumulous clouds. That didn't bother me, but it definitely had a negative effect on Maureen. I noticed that she wasn't looking too well, so I dumped the newspaper from its bag and handed her the bag just in case she became ill.
There is no instrument approach for Tampa North. Because it is such a narrow runway and because it is surrounded by development, it is a bit tricky to pick it out from the ground clutter. My handheld GPS had me pointed in the right direction, but I just couldn't pick it out. About 8 miles out, approach control told me to switch to advisory and since I had clear enough skies, I canceled IFR. I didn't spot the runway until I passed the southwest end of it off my left wing. Fortunately there was no one in the pattern. There was no way I could dump the altitude and make as slow and soft a landing as I wanted, so I flew the pattern. At 1000' AGL, the temperature in the airplane increased quite a bit. The heat combined with the bumps really gave Maureen fits. Nevertheless, I was completely focused on landing the plane, not on my passenger.
On final, I slowed the approach to 65 knots and I touched down nice, straight and soft. I knew better than to try the foot brakes, so I tested the handbrake three times. The plane was slowing nicely. It would have been able to coast to a stop by the time I reached the end of the runway, so we were in very good shape. Using the handbrake and the rudder without differential braking, I managed to park the plane. Since I knew I had a left brake, I taxiied to the end of the runway and made a left turn to the parking area. Mom was waiting there next to her car. I told Maureen, "Look at how good Mom looks!" As I looked over at Maureen, I could see that she was in tears. She was so close to being sick and the lack of control that she had over her body turned into a severe emotional event. I felt so bad for her....but I had done everything I could to make the flight as smooth as possible. Next time, I'll bring a cooler with some ice and washcloths so she can cool down if needed. We're going to Palm Beach this weekend, so I'll be able to test that then...but only if the brakes work. I'll have the Skyhawk this time, so this will be a much better trip.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Home from Leesburg
Dinner was very nice at the Lakeside Inn. Mom had a wonderful time and it was nice to be together with my sisters and Kathy's new hubby, Kevin. Mom opened her presents and we hung around the hotel until it got rather late.
I asked Kathy if she could take me to the airport before it got too late. On the way to the airport I called for a weather briefing. The conditions were about the same as the flight down although the winds had diminished a bit. I had expected to get pretty strong headwinds, but they weren't too bad. I filed IFR and we arrived at the airport.
The plane had plenty of fuel - about 3 hours worth and the preflight turned up nothing unusual.
The airport was pitch black and abandoned. I listened to the ASOS and to the CTAF. No traffic, good weather. I clicked the mic three times to turn on the runway lights and I taxied to the end of 31. I completed my runup, announced my intentions and started the takeoff roll. As I passed through pattern altitude, I announced my departure and called Orlando Approach Control. I advised that I was at 2000', had just departed Leesburg and requested my IFR clearance to CRG. The controller said, "Standby, I'll see if I can find a clearance for you." That sounded odd to me...should be in the system. After about 30 seconds, the controller called back and cleared me as filed and told me to climb to 4000'. I had filed KLEE direct to OCF direct CRG. Procedures requre that you file for a navaid as the first point and OCF was the closest aid that was somewhat on my route. Just a few minutes later, ATC handed me off to the next controller who immediately cleared me direct to CRG. This put me through the Palatka MOA and the restricted areas within it...since they were all cold, there was no problem. That clearance saved me about 10 minutes of flying time.
South of Platka I encountered some dense clouds for about five or 10 minutes. That's spooky flying - night and in IMC. It's like driving with a blanket over your head. I managed.
As I neared CRG, ATC asked me what approach I wanted. Since there were lots of clouds in the area and I was approaching from the south west, the best approach would be the ILS32. Even though that would take me out over the beach, it would be the best way to find the airport through the clouds. ATC gave me vectors towards the approach. I was cleared for the approach and handed off to advisory. The CRG tower closed at 10 and it was around midnight.
I flew the needles very well and came out of the clouds around 1000' AGL. The wind favored circling to 5, so I did that and announced my intentions on the CTAF. Like Leesburg, I had the airport all to my self.
The other day I was reviewing the approach plates for CRG and noticed that there are nonstandard arrival procedures - the ILS and Localizer 32 are not available if the tower is closed. Hmmmm....ATC cleared me for the approach, but I requested it. I've got to look in to this.
Single pilot night IFR is an absolute blast.
I asked Kathy if she could take me to the airport before it got too late. On the way to the airport I called for a weather briefing. The conditions were about the same as the flight down although the winds had diminished a bit. I had expected to get pretty strong headwinds, but they weren't too bad. I filed IFR and we arrived at the airport.
The plane had plenty of fuel - about 3 hours worth and the preflight turned up nothing unusual.
The airport was pitch black and abandoned. I listened to the ASOS and to the CTAF. No traffic, good weather. I clicked the mic three times to turn on the runway lights and I taxied to the end of 31. I completed my runup, announced my intentions and started the takeoff roll. As I passed through pattern altitude, I announced my departure and called Orlando Approach Control. I advised that I was at 2000', had just departed Leesburg and requested my IFR clearance to CRG. The controller said, "Standby, I'll see if I can find a clearance for you." That sounded odd to me...should be in the system. After about 30 seconds, the controller called back and cleared me as filed and told me to climb to 4000'. I had filed KLEE direct to OCF direct CRG. Procedures requre that you file for a navaid as the first point and OCF was the closest aid that was somewhat on my route. Just a few minutes later, ATC handed me off to the next controller who immediately cleared me direct to CRG. This put me through the Palatka MOA and the restricted areas within it...since they were all cold, there was no problem. That clearance saved me about 10 minutes of flying time.
South of Platka I encountered some dense clouds for about five or 10 minutes. That's spooky flying - night and in IMC. It's like driving with a blanket over your head. I managed.
As I neared CRG, ATC asked me what approach I wanted. Since there were lots of clouds in the area and I was approaching from the south west, the best approach would be the ILS32. Even though that would take me out over the beach, it would be the best way to find the airport through the clouds. ATC gave me vectors towards the approach. I was cleared for the approach and handed off to advisory. The CRG tower closed at 10 and it was around midnight.
I flew the needles very well and came out of the clouds around 1000' AGL. The wind favored circling to 5, so I did that and announced my intentions on the CTAF. Like Leesburg, I had the airport all to my self.
The other day I was reviewing the approach plates for CRG and noticed that there are nonstandard arrival procedures - the ILS and Localizer 32 are not available if the tower is closed. Hmmmm....ATC cleared me for the approach, but I requested it. I've got to look in to this.
Single pilot night IFR is an absolute blast.
Leesburg and Mt. Dora
I flew to Leesburg Municipal Airport for the first time on the 24th of June. KLEE is on the outskirts of the class bravo airspace around Orlando. My mother was celebrating her 67th birthday with a dinner at the Lakeside Inn in Mt. Dora. This would have been an awful drive from Jacksonville. Only about 2 hours or so, but it would be through lots of small speedtrap towns and I just hate to drive when I can fly. Sure, flying is more expensive, but for pure enjoyment, you can't beat it. Besides, there are no SUVs in the sky.
I departed around 3:30 to ensure that I would be able to arrive by 5pm. My sister, Kathy, was going to pick me up at the airport. As is typical in Florida this time of year, thunderstorms were forecast for the area. I had been watching the radar earlier in the day and it didn't look too bad to me.
When I called for a weather briefing, the briefer in Gainesville immediately asked if I had looked at the radar. She was seeing lots of echoes and warned me to be very careful and to use weather avoidance via ATC. I was concerned about the conditions, but not so much that I was going to cancel the flight.
I called for my instrument clearance once I got the plane started and was given everything I asked for except the initial part. I was cleared via radar vectors to OMN, then as filed. I had filed a route that would take me directly to the IAF for the GPS 31 approach. The weather would be favoring that approach.
Once airborne, I encountered a fair number of clouds. ATC cleared me to the victor airway that I had filed and once established on the airway, it looked like I was in a valley about 50 miles wide. To either side of me running almost parallel to my path were ridges of clouds. Although they were tall, none were thunderstorms. I could see them growing and occasionally flew through them. I encountered rain on takeoff and again about 15 minutes into the flight.
South of St. Augustine, I encountered a large jet overhead. Looked like a Southwest 737 descending into JAX. ATC warned me about the plane and I never noticed any buffeting. He was about 3000 feet above me when we passed. About 10 minutes later, I saw very bright lights directly ahead of me. I was at 5000' and these lights were not far below that. The lights grew brighter and wider apart, when finally ATC announced that I had an MD-80 at 4000' in the opposite direction. I replied, "Tally Ho! Skyhawk 313". It was a beautiful sight to look down as this great jet flew beneath me.
Nearing Leesburg, I could see some thunderstorms to the southwest of the airport. The ASOS at the airport said lightning was "distant". I knew I had to keep an eye on the clouds.
Just a few miles before I would have penetrated the class bravo airspace, ATC advised me to turn right to 230. There was a very strong tailwind - about 20 knots or more, so I thought that wasn't enough. I watched the GPS as the Class-B grew closer and closer. Finally, ATC told me to descend to 2000', and I expedited my descent at about 2000 fpm. If I hadn't I would have gone right into the class B and ATC had not explicitly cleared me. While I descended, ATC turned me about 20 degrees more to the right and told me to expect the NDB 31 approach. He also advised that I could cancel IFR in the air or by calling the FSS on the ground. Since it looked like there were still some rainstorms between me and Leesburg, I advised that I would call on the ground.
I got out the NDB procedure and pulled up the approach on the GPS. I intercepted the course to the airport and was advised by ATC to switch to the advisory freq. Tuning the CTAF, I heard on plane departing from 31, but never saw him as I was still about 6 miles out. The approach took me directly across a large lake. I announced my straight-in intentions, but I was alone in the pattern. I touched down nicely and Kathy and Kevin were waiting for me.
Dinner at the Inn was very nice, but it would have been nice to have a glass of wine. Since I was flying home that night, I didn't dare. I've always maintained at least 12 hours bottle to throttle even though the FARs allow 8 hours...why risk losing a pilot certificate that took me significant amounts of time and money to acquire? Or worse...why risk my life for a glass of wine?
More on the return later...
I departed around 3:30 to ensure that I would be able to arrive by 5pm. My sister, Kathy, was going to pick me up at the airport. As is typical in Florida this time of year, thunderstorms were forecast for the area. I had been watching the radar earlier in the day and it didn't look too bad to me.
When I called for a weather briefing, the briefer in Gainesville immediately asked if I had looked at the radar. She was seeing lots of echoes and warned me to be very careful and to use weather avoidance via ATC. I was concerned about the conditions, but not so much that I was going to cancel the flight.
I called for my instrument clearance once I got the plane started and was given everything I asked for except the initial part. I was cleared via radar vectors to OMN, then as filed. I had filed a route that would take me directly to the IAF for the GPS 31 approach. The weather would be favoring that approach.
Once airborne, I encountered a fair number of clouds. ATC cleared me to the victor airway that I had filed and once established on the airway, it looked like I was in a valley about 50 miles wide. To either side of me running almost parallel to my path were ridges of clouds. Although they were tall, none were thunderstorms. I could see them growing and occasionally flew through them. I encountered rain on takeoff and again about 15 minutes into the flight.
South of St. Augustine, I encountered a large jet overhead. Looked like a Southwest 737 descending into JAX. ATC warned me about the plane and I never noticed any buffeting. He was about 3000 feet above me when we passed. About 10 minutes later, I saw very bright lights directly ahead of me. I was at 5000' and these lights were not far below that. The lights grew brighter and wider apart, when finally ATC announced that I had an MD-80 at 4000' in the opposite direction. I replied, "Tally Ho! Skyhawk 313". It was a beautiful sight to look down as this great jet flew beneath me.
Nearing Leesburg, I could see some thunderstorms to the southwest of the airport. The ASOS at the airport said lightning was "distant". I knew I had to keep an eye on the clouds.
Just a few miles before I would have penetrated the class bravo airspace, ATC advised me to turn right to 230. There was a very strong tailwind - about 20 knots or more, so I thought that wasn't enough. I watched the GPS as the Class-B grew closer and closer. Finally, ATC told me to descend to 2000', and I expedited my descent at about 2000 fpm. If I hadn't I would have gone right into the class B and ATC had not explicitly cleared me. While I descended, ATC turned me about 20 degrees more to the right and told me to expect the NDB 31 approach. He also advised that I could cancel IFR in the air or by calling the FSS on the ground. Since it looked like there were still some rainstorms between me and Leesburg, I advised that I would call on the ground.
I got out the NDB procedure and pulled up the approach on the GPS. I intercepted the course to the airport and was advised by ATC to switch to the advisory freq. Tuning the CTAF, I heard on plane departing from 31, but never saw him as I was still about 6 miles out. The approach took me directly across a large lake. I announced my straight-in intentions, but I was alone in the pattern. I touched down nicely and Kathy and Kevin were waiting for me.
Dinner at the Inn was very nice, but it would have been nice to have a glass of wine. Since I was flying home that night, I didn't dare. I've always maintained at least 12 hours bottle to throttle even though the FARs allow 8 hours...why risk losing a pilot certificate that took me significant amounts of time and money to acquire? Or worse...why risk my life for a glass of wine?
More on the return later...
Monday, May 15, 2006
F45 - North Palm Beach
A few weeks back, I flew my wife down to the North Palm Beach airport - locally referred to as "North County". We've flown down there quite a bit and this was the second time this year that I've been down.
The last time we flew down, there was a NOTAM that announced that the PAHOKEE (PHK) VOR was out of service. This time, there was no such notam. Nevertheless, I could not receive the VOR on the published frequency. There WAS a notam that showed that the ILS for 8R at F45 was OTS. Fortunatlely I was flying on an instrument flight plan in an aircraft coded as slash-Golf. (It had an IFR GPS). The weather was good, but very windy, so navigation was not going to be a problem.
The weird thing about our outbound trip was the route that ATC gave me. My plan was approved with a slight modification - I was cleared from CRG to OMN via radar vectors, then MLB then PBI, then direct F45. I had filed CRG direct OMN, MLB, then an intersection and direct F45. Going all the way to PBI would have taken me way south of my destination.
When I took off, the tower told me to fly heading 100. The on course from CRG to OMN is via an airway that has a heading of about 164. So the tower had me heading out to the ocean well away from my ultimate course. After the handoff to JAX approach, I was eventually turned to a heading of 200 and told to join the airway then cleared on course.
Passing Daytona, I was handed off to Orlando Approach who were very busy. I got an occasional traffic alert, but no call at all for an aircraft that was headed in the exact opposite direction only 500 feet below me. Orlando handed me off to Miami Center just as I approached Melbourne and they were busy, too. I listened for a break in the chatter, but before the break came, Miami Center called me "Cessna 51313 are you with me?"
"Affirmative, Skyhawk 313 level at six-thousand", I replied.
"November 313, cleared direct Pahokee when able."
Heck, I'm flying GPS, I'm able now, so I hit the direct-to button and dialed in PHK. In a few seconds, I got the course and turned right towards PHK. I tried to pick up PHK on the NAV, but neither radio could receive it. About 20 miles from PHK, ATC told me to turn left and pointed me directly at my destination. The controller asked me what approach I wanted and since we had a visual, I told him that I had the airport in sight and I'd take the visual to 8R. I also checked with him about the Class D airspace at Gwinn - and asked if I needed to contact them directly. No, was his reply. He then said I could cancel IFR in the air or make a call from the ground - so I told him to cancel now.
We landed with a strong headwind which made touchdown very slow and smooth.
The next day, we headed back. I called clearance delivery from the ground in the runup area and was pleased to get a reply almost immediately. I was cleared via radar vectors to VRB, then as filed. Climb 2000, expect 5000 in 10, fly heading 360 and contact ATC on such-and-such. They NEVER give me the altitude I request. What's weird is that they always assign an altitude that is different from the altitudes specified in the AIM for uncontrolled IFR.
Upon reaching 2000' I was told to climb to 5000. Most cloud tops were right at 5000, but they climbed to as high as 6000' as I moved north. Around Daytona, I received a traffic call, "November 313, traffic 12 o'clock 1 and a half miles, VFR, opposite direction four thousand five hundred, Beech Sierra".
I immediately responded that I was looking, but cloud tops were at 5000 and it would be hard to pick him out.
ATC then contacted the Sierra who said he was clear of the clouds - "LIAR!" I thought to myself. There was absolutely NO WAY this guy was flying legal VFR at 4500'. At 5,500' he would have been barely legal with the 1000' above requirement. It amazes me how stupid pilots stretch the rules.
I never saw the Sierra - at 1.5 miles we would have had about 20 seconds to spot each other.
I called "No Joy" and ATC told me he was no longer a factor.
The rest of the flight was uneventful although coming through the clouds was bumpier than my wife likes.
The weekend gave me 4.7 hours of cross-country time with .7 hours actual instrument. Gosh, how I love to fly!
The last time we flew down, there was a NOTAM that announced that the PAHOKEE (PHK) VOR was out of service. This time, there was no such notam. Nevertheless, I could not receive the VOR on the published frequency. There WAS a notam that showed that the ILS for 8R at F45 was OTS. Fortunatlely I was flying on an instrument flight plan in an aircraft coded as slash-Golf. (It had an IFR GPS). The weather was good, but very windy, so navigation was not going to be a problem.
The weird thing about our outbound trip was the route that ATC gave me. My plan was approved with a slight modification - I was cleared from CRG to OMN via radar vectors, then MLB then PBI, then direct F45. I had filed CRG direct OMN, MLB, then an intersection and direct F45. Going all the way to PBI would have taken me way south of my destination.
When I took off, the tower told me to fly heading 100. The on course from CRG to OMN is via an airway that has a heading of about 164. So the tower had me heading out to the ocean well away from my ultimate course. After the handoff to JAX approach, I was eventually turned to a heading of 200 and told to join the airway then cleared on course.
Passing Daytona, I was handed off to Orlando Approach who were very busy. I got an occasional traffic alert, but no call at all for an aircraft that was headed in the exact opposite direction only 500 feet below me. Orlando handed me off to Miami Center just as I approached Melbourne and they were busy, too. I listened for a break in the chatter, but before the break came, Miami Center called me "Cessna 51313 are you with me?"
"Affirmative, Skyhawk 313 level at six-thousand", I replied.
"November 313, cleared direct Pahokee when able."
Heck, I'm flying GPS, I'm able now, so I hit the direct-to button and dialed in PHK. In a few seconds, I got the course and turned right towards PHK. I tried to pick up PHK on the NAV, but neither radio could receive it. About 20 miles from PHK, ATC told me to turn left and pointed me directly at my destination. The controller asked me what approach I wanted and since we had a visual, I told him that I had the airport in sight and I'd take the visual to 8R. I also checked with him about the Class D airspace at Gwinn - and asked if I needed to contact them directly. No, was his reply. He then said I could cancel IFR in the air or make a call from the ground - so I told him to cancel now.
We landed with a strong headwind which made touchdown very slow and smooth.
The next day, we headed back. I called clearance delivery from the ground in the runup area and was pleased to get a reply almost immediately. I was cleared via radar vectors to VRB, then as filed. Climb 2000, expect 5000 in 10, fly heading 360 and contact ATC on such-and-such. They NEVER give me the altitude I request. What's weird is that they always assign an altitude that is different from the altitudes specified in the AIM for uncontrolled IFR.
Upon reaching 2000' I was told to climb to 5000. Most cloud tops were right at 5000, but they climbed to as high as 6000' as I moved north. Around Daytona, I received a traffic call, "November 313, traffic 12 o'clock 1 and a half miles, VFR, opposite direction four thousand five hundred, Beech Sierra".
I immediately responded that I was looking, but cloud tops were at 5000 and it would be hard to pick him out.
ATC then contacted the Sierra who said he was clear of the clouds - "LIAR!" I thought to myself. There was absolutely NO WAY this guy was flying legal VFR at 4500'. At 5,500' he would have been barely legal with the 1000' above requirement. It amazes me how stupid pilots stretch the rules.
I never saw the Sierra - at 1.5 miles we would have had about 20 seconds to spot each other.
I called "No Joy" and ATC told me he was no longer a factor.
The rest of the flight was uneventful although coming through the clouds was bumpier than my wife likes.
The weekend gave me 4.7 hours of cross-country time with .7 hours actual instrument. Gosh, how I love to fly!
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Home from Sun-n-Fun
Instrument flight training talks about CRM - Cockpit Resource Management, a.k.a. Crew Resource Management, all the while preparing you to fly single pilot IFR. On this trip, I had a co-pilot who was very helpful at times...and at other times less so.
My co-pilot and I got separated at some point in the afternoon. He went to grab a bite and shop around at the hangers and I stayed on the tarmac watching the airshow. After about an hour of watching Pitts bi-planes, Taylorcraft monoplanes --there was a very graceful demonstration...slow, but graceful -- and several other aircraft, I decided to walk back to our plane to drop off some of my purchases.
Our plane was at the far end of the 8000' runway and there was no direct path to it. The sun was shining and it was very warm. The walk to the plane took me past numerous warbirds, antiques and a wide variety of modern aircraft.
Reaching our plane, I heard jets spooling up. This piqued my interest, so I locked the plane and headed out for a closer look. At the far eastern end of the runway there was a port-o-let and a completely unobstructed view of the runway. There it was, the F-22 Raptor taxiing to the end of the runway behind, of all things, a P-51 Mustang! The Mustang took off first followed by the Raptor and shortly afterwards, an F-15. That Raptor is an incredible plane - maneuverable in the extreme, powerful and very futuristic looking.
While watching the show, I spoke to some of the ground controllers and learned that after sunset, no aircraft were going to be permitted to move on the south side of the airport. Bad news for me because I had planned to depart following the night airshow and I was parked in the General Aviation Parking on the south side! I had my choice of moving my plane to the north side...where there wasn't much to see and there would be a line of planes trying to depart or I cold leave between the day and night shows.
Back to the topic...
Since I had been in the sun all day and was quite dehydrated, tired and sunburned, I decided it would be best if we left before the 8pm show. Ashley and I walked back to the plane and conducted a preflight. I had fueled the plane just to give us a margin of safety. The gas was about $4.00 a gallon, which wasn't that bad. I also got a free t-shirt.
While Ashley walked over the expected departure path over the ground, I got a flight briefing via cell phone and filed an IFR flight plan. I was worried that I would not be able to file IFR because I didn't register for a departure slot, but the briefer told me that the slots were for arrivals only, so no problem. I filed for 25 minutes in the future - 6:45 pm.
The NOTAM said to contact LAL ground for IFR clearance and to do so at least 1 hour before departure...no way! I decided it would be better to take off VFR and get the IFR clearance once airborne.
I ran through the checklist, fired up the engine and we began our taxi to the departure end of the runway. There were orange-vested controllers at every turn guiding us to the runway. I checked to see if there were any planes behind me and finding none, I did my runup on the roll.
I asked Ashley to identify the departure frequency that I could use to get my clearance once we were clear of the LAL airspace and he identified Orlando Approach at 119.4 as the freq. I asked him to double check because we had come in tuned to 119.9, but he was sure it was 119.4. We put that in on stanby on Com 2...since com 1 seemed to be excessively noisy.
They were staging planes two at a time side by side with a slight stagger. We were instructed to pull to the number two slot on the left behind an Arrow. To our right was a T-34 followed by a light twin. First the warbird took off, then the Arrow. The controller gestured as though we were number one, but when the twin pulled up, he cleared him first. That was fine with me, as the twin would have overtaken me in no time.
Now it was my turn and I got the spool up signal. I double checked the instruments, the heading indicator, vacuum and I eased the throttle while holding the brakes to make sure I had full power, then we were on the roll. The airspeed began to climb and at 55 knots, I pulled back on the yoke. We climbed into the air slowly at first and I held the plane down in ground effect. As the airspeed rose to 79knots, I eased the nose up and began a steady climb.
Ashley and I were busy trying to look out for other planes. I saw a plane take off behind and below me to the left - either from the turf runway or from the ultralight area. The NOTAM said to continue on the runway heading for at least 3 miles before turning. I could see that the slower plane had already turned underneath me...so much for procedures. I decided to continue westward until I was outside of the LAL airspace, then make my turn to OCF. I leveled off at 2500' turned northerly and switched to the approach frequency.
I listened, didn't hear any radio traffic and called, "Tampa Approach, Archer 341 Papa Alpha".
No reply.
I listened again and heard someone say, "Orlando".
Aha! This wasn't Tampa Approach after all. Maybe if I call them by the right name...
"Orlando Approach, Archer 341 Papa-Alpha".
"341 Papa-Alpha, Orlando, go ahead", came the reply.
"Orlando, 1 Papa-Alpha is 8 Northwest of Lakeland at two-thousand five hundred. I'd like to get my IFR clearance to Charlie-Romeo-Golf, please", I announced.
"1 Papa Alpha, standby", the controller responded.
After about 30 seconds, the controller called, "Archer 1 Papa Alpha, you'll need to contact Tampa Approach on 119.9 for your clearance, your in his airspace."
"Roger that. 119.9, Sorry to bother you. Good evening."
Ashley had been listening and quickly entered 119.9 on the radio and switched the freqency for me. It was about this time, that he decided to start fiddling with the radios...
I listened for a break in the chatter, then heard, "Archer 341 Papa Alpha, are you with me?"
Orlando must have alerted Tampa to expect me.
I told the controller that I was listening and he replied "1 Papa Alpha, we're looking for your clearance, what route did you file?"
As I started to reply, Ashley hit the ABSOLUTE WRONG BUTTON on the com. Now my headset was filled with noise. But over the noise, I responded,
"Approach, Direct oscar-charlie-foxtrot, direct charlie-romeo-golf at six-thousand".
Still noisy, but I could hear the controller say, "Roger, we'll have that for you shortly. Maintain VFR below 3000 and fly own navigation."
"Roger, VFR below 3 thousand."
A few minutes later Tampa Approach told me, "Archer 1 Papa Alpha, cleared oscar charlie foxtrot via radar vectors, then direct charlie romeo golf as filed, climb four thousand, squawk 3525" which I repeated back.
"Readback correct, Tampa Altimiter two niner niner niner."
"Copy, 1 Papa Alpha", I replied.
And on we went. Now I could address the radio problem.
Ashley explained that his headset was much too loud. I told him that there is a volume control on each ear and one on the com panel for the copilot. Meanwhile, I found that he had turned the squelch on the intercom all the way down in his attempt to turn down the volume. That's what was causing the noise. I adjusted his squelch and then adjusted his volume control. I also discovered that the volume control on my Bose Aviation Headset X was not turned up all the way, so I adjusted that and this allowed me to turn down my volume and the volume on the com. That seemed to fix the problem for Ashley.
As we flew north, it seemed that every time the controller would make a call, Ashley would start to talk. I know this was not deliberate, just very bad timing. Although there was one situation where I had just been handed off to the next controller and was waiting to check in and he started talking just as I hit the PTT.
This situation became increasingly pronounced - Ashley is a talker...
We were making 137 knots of groundspeed with a nice tailwind and the sun was starting to set off the left wing. Long before we reached OCF, we were cleared direct CRG - gotta love flying slash golf! (Flying an aircraft equiped with a GPS).
About 40 miles out, I tuned the ATIS and got the weather at Craig. They were using runway 23 which meant I would probably be told to enter the left Downwind for 23. The altimiter had dropped to 29.94 - not unusual since the sun was now setting. Winds were at 8 from 210.
We passed almost directly over Palatka and were told to descend to 3000'. We gained quite a bit of speed on the short descent - over 145 knots GS. At this point, I told ashley that we should maintain a sterile cockpit until touchdown - don't say anything unless it is a safety issue.
I eased the throttle back - no sense in getting home too soon and missing an opportunity for a night landing.
Jax approach was busy with some P3 traffic heading in to NAS JAX (NIP) and I was vectored to 090 for traffic. That was a significant turn of about 70 degrees or more to the right. I waited for a while before calling ATC and saying, "Jax Approach, 1 Papa alpha has CRAIG in sight and we have Echo".
The controller cleared me to fly VFR to Craig and to expect runway 23. It wasn't clear if he was handing me off and he didn't tell me to squawk VFR.
I waited until I was about 2 miles outside the Craig airspace and then asked the controller if I could contact the tower. He cleared me for the runway 23 approach and we said good night.
We had previously entered the Craig tower freq in the com on standby. I hit the swap and listened for radio traffic. Hearing nothing I called, "Craig Tower, Archer 341 PaPa Alpha is 6 miles to the south with Mike, full stop."
The tower told me to enter the left downwind for 23 and report midfield. A minute or so later, he asked me to slow it up - I would be following company sierra traffic that was just over the beach at the same distance. This meant that the Beech Sierra that Sterling also operated was coming in and I should look for him. It was now dusk and the aerodrome beacon was lit.
As I dropped down to 1041' - pattern altitude for CRG, I spotted the Sierra a few miles away on its base leg. I though to myself that if I had kept my speed up, I would have reached the runway before him...oh well. No big deal. I told the tower that I had the traffic in sight and I was midfield. Ashley said he didn't see it and didn't realize that I did. I pointed it out, but I'm not sure that he saw it. The plane was just above the horizon and the light was getting dim.
The wind seemed to be a bit more than 8 knots as I turned my base leg behind the Sierra. I watched the Sierra float a bit past the numbers and the touch down. I put out the final notch of flaps on final and stabilized the approach. We were right on the glidepath and at 75 knots. Perfect...except the headwind we now had was causing us to go below the glide path. I gave the throttle a nudge and we got back on slope.
We were cleared to land and I touched down just past the numbers. Not a greaser, but not bad.
The tower cleared us to taxi to the ramp and monitor ground on "point eight".
The flight back took a brief 1.6 hours with .3 of night and not a bit of actual IFR. Our flight down took 2.2...also with no actual IFR. Lots of headwinds kept our ground speed down compared to the return. This was a great flying day. Ashley was a good copilot--he was very helpful with the radio switching. I let him take the controls for a while between Orlando and Palatka. He said he hadn't flown in a while and was not night current. He flew fine although we drifted to the right of our course a bit. Probably due to his lack of familiarity with the aircraft, and the fact that he was in the right seat.
1.6 hours of cross-country and a great, but long day!!!
My co-pilot and I got separated at some point in the afternoon. He went to grab a bite and shop around at the hangers and I stayed on the tarmac watching the airshow. After about an hour of watching Pitts bi-planes, Taylorcraft monoplanes --there was a very graceful demonstration...slow, but graceful -- and several other aircraft, I decided to walk back to our plane to drop off some of my purchases.
Our plane was at the far end of the 8000' runway and there was no direct path to it. The sun was shining and it was very warm. The walk to the plane took me past numerous warbirds, antiques and a wide variety of modern aircraft.
Reaching our plane, I heard jets spooling up. This piqued my interest, so I locked the plane and headed out for a closer look. At the far eastern end of the runway there was a port-o-let and a completely unobstructed view of the runway. There it was, the F-22 Raptor taxiing to the end of the runway behind, of all things, a P-51 Mustang! The Mustang took off first followed by the Raptor and shortly afterwards, an F-15. That Raptor is an incredible plane - maneuverable in the extreme, powerful and very futuristic looking.
While watching the show, I spoke to some of the ground controllers and learned that after sunset, no aircraft were going to be permitted to move on the south side of the airport. Bad news for me because I had planned to depart following the night airshow and I was parked in the General Aviation Parking on the south side! I had my choice of moving my plane to the north side...where there wasn't much to see and there would be a line of planes trying to depart or I cold leave between the day and night shows.
Back to the topic...
Since I had been in the sun all day and was quite dehydrated, tired and sunburned, I decided it would be best if we left before the 8pm show. Ashley and I walked back to the plane and conducted a preflight. I had fueled the plane just to give us a margin of safety. The gas was about $4.00 a gallon, which wasn't that bad. I also got a free t-shirt.
While Ashley walked over the expected departure path over the ground, I got a flight briefing via cell phone and filed an IFR flight plan. I was worried that I would not be able to file IFR because I didn't register for a departure slot, but the briefer told me that the slots were for arrivals only, so no problem. I filed for 25 minutes in the future - 6:45 pm.
The NOTAM said to contact LAL ground for IFR clearance and to do so at least 1 hour before departure...no way! I decided it would be better to take off VFR and get the IFR clearance once airborne.
I ran through the checklist, fired up the engine and we began our taxi to the departure end of the runway. There were orange-vested controllers at every turn guiding us to the runway. I checked to see if there were any planes behind me and finding none, I did my runup on the roll.
I asked Ashley to identify the departure frequency that I could use to get my clearance once we were clear of the LAL airspace and he identified Orlando Approach at 119.4 as the freq. I asked him to double check because we had come in tuned to 119.9, but he was sure it was 119.4. We put that in on stanby on Com 2...since com 1 seemed to be excessively noisy.
They were staging planes two at a time side by side with a slight stagger. We were instructed to pull to the number two slot on the left behind an Arrow. To our right was a T-34 followed by a light twin. First the warbird took off, then the Arrow. The controller gestured as though we were number one, but when the twin pulled up, he cleared him first. That was fine with me, as the twin would have overtaken me in no time.
Now it was my turn and I got the spool up signal. I double checked the instruments, the heading indicator, vacuum and I eased the throttle while holding the brakes to make sure I had full power, then we were on the roll. The airspeed began to climb and at 55 knots, I pulled back on the yoke. We climbed into the air slowly at first and I held the plane down in ground effect. As the airspeed rose to 79knots, I eased the nose up and began a steady climb.
Ashley and I were busy trying to look out for other planes. I saw a plane take off behind and below me to the left - either from the turf runway or from the ultralight area. The NOTAM said to continue on the runway heading for at least 3 miles before turning. I could see that the slower plane had already turned underneath me...so much for procedures. I decided to continue westward until I was outside of the LAL airspace, then make my turn to OCF. I leveled off at 2500' turned northerly and switched to the approach frequency.
I listened, didn't hear any radio traffic and called, "Tampa Approach, Archer 341 Papa Alpha".
No reply.
I listened again and heard someone say, "Orlando".
Aha! This wasn't Tampa Approach after all. Maybe if I call them by the right name...
"Orlando Approach, Archer 341 Papa-Alpha".
"341 Papa-Alpha, Orlando, go ahead", came the reply.
"Orlando, 1 Papa-Alpha is 8 Northwest of Lakeland at two-thousand five hundred. I'd like to get my IFR clearance to Charlie-Romeo-Golf, please", I announced.
"1 Papa Alpha, standby", the controller responded.
After about 30 seconds, the controller called, "Archer 1 Papa Alpha, you'll need to contact Tampa Approach on 119.9 for your clearance, your in his airspace."
"Roger that. 119.9, Sorry to bother you. Good evening."
Ashley had been listening and quickly entered 119.9 on the radio and switched the freqency for me. It was about this time, that he decided to start fiddling with the radios...
I listened for a break in the chatter, then heard, "Archer 341 Papa Alpha, are you with me?"
Orlando must have alerted Tampa to expect me.
I told the controller that I was listening and he replied "1 Papa Alpha, we're looking for your clearance, what route did you file?"
As I started to reply, Ashley hit the ABSOLUTE WRONG BUTTON on the com. Now my headset was filled with noise. But over the noise, I responded,
"Approach, Direct oscar-charlie-foxtrot, direct charlie-romeo-golf at six-thousand".
Still noisy, but I could hear the controller say, "Roger, we'll have that for you shortly. Maintain VFR below 3000 and fly own navigation."
"Roger, VFR below 3 thousand."
A few minutes later Tampa Approach told me, "Archer 1 Papa Alpha, cleared oscar charlie foxtrot via radar vectors, then direct charlie romeo golf as filed, climb four thousand, squawk 3525" which I repeated back.
"Readback correct, Tampa Altimiter two niner niner niner."
"Copy, 1 Papa Alpha", I replied.
And on we went. Now I could address the radio problem.
Ashley explained that his headset was much too loud. I told him that there is a volume control on each ear and one on the com panel for the copilot. Meanwhile, I found that he had turned the squelch on the intercom all the way down in his attempt to turn down the volume. That's what was causing the noise. I adjusted his squelch and then adjusted his volume control. I also discovered that the volume control on my Bose Aviation Headset X was not turned up all the way, so I adjusted that and this allowed me to turn down my volume and the volume on the com. That seemed to fix the problem for Ashley.
As we flew north, it seemed that every time the controller would make a call, Ashley would start to talk. I know this was not deliberate, just very bad timing. Although there was one situation where I had just been handed off to the next controller and was waiting to check in and he started talking just as I hit the PTT.
This situation became increasingly pronounced - Ashley is a talker...
We were making 137 knots of groundspeed with a nice tailwind and the sun was starting to set off the left wing. Long before we reached OCF, we were cleared direct CRG - gotta love flying slash golf! (Flying an aircraft equiped with a GPS).
About 40 miles out, I tuned the ATIS and got the weather at Craig. They were using runway 23 which meant I would probably be told to enter the left Downwind for 23. The altimiter had dropped to 29.94 - not unusual since the sun was now setting. Winds were at 8 from 210.
We passed almost directly over Palatka and were told to descend to 3000'. We gained quite a bit of speed on the short descent - over 145 knots GS. At this point, I told ashley that we should maintain a sterile cockpit until touchdown - don't say anything unless it is a safety issue.
I eased the throttle back - no sense in getting home too soon and missing an opportunity for a night landing.
Jax approach was busy with some P3 traffic heading in to NAS JAX (NIP) and I was vectored to 090 for traffic. That was a significant turn of about 70 degrees or more to the right. I waited for a while before calling ATC and saying, "Jax Approach, 1 Papa alpha has CRAIG in sight and we have Echo".
The controller cleared me to fly VFR to Craig and to expect runway 23. It wasn't clear if he was handing me off and he didn't tell me to squawk VFR.
I waited until I was about 2 miles outside the Craig airspace and then asked the controller if I could contact the tower. He cleared me for the runway 23 approach and we said good night.
We had previously entered the Craig tower freq in the com on standby. I hit the swap and listened for radio traffic. Hearing nothing I called, "Craig Tower, Archer 341 PaPa Alpha is 6 miles to the south with Mike, full stop."
The tower told me to enter the left downwind for 23 and report midfield. A minute or so later, he asked me to slow it up - I would be following company sierra traffic that was just over the beach at the same distance. This meant that the Beech Sierra that Sterling also operated was coming in and I should look for him. It was now dusk and the aerodrome beacon was lit.
As I dropped down to 1041' - pattern altitude for CRG, I spotted the Sierra a few miles away on its base leg. I though to myself that if I had kept my speed up, I would have reached the runway before him...oh well. No big deal. I told the tower that I had the traffic in sight and I was midfield. Ashley said he didn't see it and didn't realize that I did. I pointed it out, but I'm not sure that he saw it. The plane was just above the horizon and the light was getting dim.
The wind seemed to be a bit more than 8 knots as I turned my base leg behind the Sierra. I watched the Sierra float a bit past the numbers and the touch down. I put out the final notch of flaps on final and stabilized the approach. We were right on the glidepath and at 75 knots. Perfect...except the headwind we now had was causing us to go below the glide path. I gave the throttle a nudge and we got back on slope.
We were cleared to land and I touched down just past the numbers. Not a greaser, but not bad.
The tower cleared us to taxi to the ramp and monitor ground on "point eight".
The flight back took a brief 1.6 hours with .3 of night and not a bit of actual IFR. Our flight down took 2.2...also with no actual IFR. Lots of headwinds kept our ground speed down compared to the return. This was a great flying day. Ashley was a good copilot--he was very helpful with the radio switching. I let him take the controls for a while between Orlando and Palatka. He said he hadn't flown in a while and was not night current. He flew fine although we drifted to the right of our course a bit. Probably due to his lack of familiarity with the aircraft, and the fact that he was in the right seat.
1.6 hours of cross-country and a great, but long day!!!
Friday, April 07, 2006
Sun-n-Fun 2006
I just got back from Sun-n-Fun at Lakeland Linder airport in Lakeland, Florida. Like last year, this was quite an experience. The aircraft ranged from raggedy Piper Cubs and cub-clones to the F-22 Raptor. I'm tired and sunburned, but my smile goes from ear to ear.
This year I had reserved a Piper Archer III for the trip. I had wanted to get the Skyhawk that has been spoiling me for the past few months with its Bendix-King GPS stack, its two-axis auto pilot and its smooth running fuel-injected 180 HP engine, but someone beat me to the reservation.
This Archer has just over 2000 hours on the Hobbs and almost 1800 on the tach, so it will be due for an overhaul in the not too distant future. It's got a very nice Garmin GPS setup with dual nav/com radios built in to the GPS, but the number 1 Com was giving us lots of noise and no amount of squelch adjustment would get rid of it. Fortunately Com 2 was fine.
A friend of one of my former flight instructors called me a week ago to see if I had room for the trip. He is a commercially certificated pilot, but had never flown in to Sun-n-Fun. I really wanted another set of eyes and having someone to share the cost of the trip (about $400) made a nice difference.
I had reserved an IFR arrival slot for an 11 AM arrival which meant that we should be wheels up by 9:21 based on the winds and I think we just barely made it. Back before I had my instrument rating, I had so many situations where I had to navigate around clouds, stay on the ground, etc. Now that I have the rating, I seem to get nothing but clear skies. I'd at least like a few clouds. Nothing doing, though. We saw some whispy cirrus, but not even a hint of a cumulus cloud anywhere. Nevertheless, I prefer to fly in the system, so I always file IFR for cross country flights and today was no exception.
I had filed for the T-211 RNAV route from CRG to OCF, but I just don't think that the controllers in NE Florida know that this route has been published. This route takes you around the MOAs and restricted areas south of Jacksonville and puts you on course for Ocala. I didn't want to fly through the very busy Orlando airspace, so I planned to fly to the west of the Orlando Class B. We had to wait a while for our takeoff clearance, and once we were cleared, I was told to head 280. That was 90 degrees right of the course for T-211! It was clear from all the radio traffic that there were lots of flights in the air, so I didn't argue and toughed it out through our climb. As we passed through 4000' the controller cleared me direct to OCF - which took T-211 out of the picture. We were well above the NAS JAX airspace, too. We were getting headwinds at our assigned altitute of 5000', but I had expecte them. Our groundspeed was showing between 107 and 109 knots while our airspeed indicator was showing 120.
A word about the IFR altitudes as they relate to the airplane's course: Lately, ATC seems to be assigning altitudes that are contrary to the AIM. When the course is 0 to 179, the altitude for IFR should be an odd thousand. Otherwise it is an even thousand. Our on course heading was 220 and the AIM says we should fly an even thousand. I was assigned 5000'. I don't know if this is something ATC is doing to help them separate controlled aircraft from non-controlled planes, but I'd sure like to know. Coming back, they did the same thing. Course was about 010, but we were given 4000'.
Anyway, we heard lots of radio traffic and had conflicting traffic called out to us by ATC several times, but we never saw it.
About 30 miles out from LAL, Tampa approach told us to descend to 3000 and reminded me that we would need to cancel IFR for the Lake Parker VFR arrival. He also asked if I was familiar with the special procedures. I explained that I had flown the arrival last year, had the current NOTAM with me and had thoroughly read it and would comply. A little time went by and I could see Lake Parker in the distance. At about 20 miles, ATC vectored me towards Lake Parker and I canceled IFR.
We then tuned and listened to the arrival ATIS and then tuned to the approach freq. They were holding planes at Lake Parker. This means that planes must circle the lake in single file around and around until the controller on the ground starts pulling them off for the final approach. I descended to the published pattern altitude of 1200 feet as this would make the other traffic that was presumably at the correct pattern altitude easier to see. I turned the plane so I would arrive East of the power plant and adjusted my speed down to the 100 knots specified in the notam. As we closed on Lake Parker, I could see many planes in the holding pattern. What a mess! I saw the line of planes all nose to tail and picked my spot at the end of the line. ATC called for a yellow high wing to continue westward and follow the procedure. He then pulled a Mooney out of the hold. This was the plane directly in front of me. ATC then said, "Blue, low-wing following the Mooney, rock your wings. I rocked them with gusto and was pleased to hear, "Continue westward behind the Mooney. You're number three to land!" Timing is everything!
I followed the Mooney who was following the Cub. Neither aircraft was following the publishe procedure that called for following I-4 after crossing Lake Parker. They were going due west until they saw the towers, turned left and headed to the airport. The Cub was lost. Not only could he not maintain the specified 100 knots, he didn't even make his downwind turn when ATC told him to. The Mooney started out about 300 feet above pattern altitude and then descended well below patter. We were both having a hard time following the Cub. He was too slow and I had to put out two notches of flaps to be slow enough not to overtake him. Even so, I needed to make S turns to keep from overtaking the Mooney.
This time they were landing planes to the west - the opposite of last years pattern. I followed the Mooney who turned downwind when instructed. The cub continued to the runway. I was told to follow the Mooney.
As I made my base turn, ATC had managed to route the CUB into my path again, but this time he was behind the Mooney. The Cub was instructed to land on the Green dot, but this yahoo clearly had not read the NOTAM. He was going to land well before, but ATC caught him and he managed to make a decent landing. I was told to land on the Orange dot - about 1000' closer than the Green dot. No problem, greased another landing!
The departure was another interesting situation. More about that in my next post.
This year I had reserved a Piper Archer III for the trip. I had wanted to get the Skyhawk that has been spoiling me for the past few months with its Bendix-King GPS stack, its two-axis auto pilot and its smooth running fuel-injected 180 HP engine, but someone beat me to the reservation.
This Archer has just over 2000 hours on the Hobbs and almost 1800 on the tach, so it will be due for an overhaul in the not too distant future. It's got a very nice Garmin GPS setup with dual nav/com radios built in to the GPS, but the number 1 Com was giving us lots of noise and no amount of squelch adjustment would get rid of it. Fortunately Com 2 was fine.
A friend of one of my former flight instructors called me a week ago to see if I had room for the trip. He is a commercially certificated pilot, but had never flown in to Sun-n-Fun. I really wanted another set of eyes and having someone to share the cost of the trip (about $400) made a nice difference.
I had reserved an IFR arrival slot for an 11 AM arrival which meant that we should be wheels up by 9:21 based on the winds and I think we just barely made it. Back before I had my instrument rating, I had so many situations where I had to navigate around clouds, stay on the ground, etc. Now that I have the rating, I seem to get nothing but clear skies. I'd at least like a few clouds. Nothing doing, though. We saw some whispy cirrus, but not even a hint of a cumulus cloud anywhere. Nevertheless, I prefer to fly in the system, so I always file IFR for cross country flights and today was no exception.
I had filed for the T-211 RNAV route from CRG to OCF, but I just don't think that the controllers in NE Florida know that this route has been published. This route takes you around the MOAs and restricted areas south of Jacksonville and puts you on course for Ocala. I didn't want to fly through the very busy Orlando airspace, so I planned to fly to the west of the Orlando Class B. We had to wait a while for our takeoff clearance, and once we were cleared, I was told to head 280. That was 90 degrees right of the course for T-211! It was clear from all the radio traffic that there were lots of flights in the air, so I didn't argue and toughed it out through our climb. As we passed through 4000' the controller cleared me direct to OCF - which took T-211 out of the picture. We were well above the NAS JAX airspace, too. We were getting headwinds at our assigned altitute of 5000', but I had expecte them. Our groundspeed was showing between 107 and 109 knots while our airspeed indicator was showing 120.
A word about the IFR altitudes as they relate to the airplane's course: Lately, ATC seems to be assigning altitudes that are contrary to the AIM. When the course is 0 to 179, the altitude for IFR should be an odd thousand. Otherwise it is an even thousand. Our on course heading was 220 and the AIM says we should fly an even thousand. I was assigned 5000'. I don't know if this is something ATC is doing to help them separate controlled aircraft from non-controlled planes, but I'd sure like to know. Coming back, they did the same thing. Course was about 010, but we were given 4000'.
Anyway, we heard lots of radio traffic and had conflicting traffic called out to us by ATC several times, but we never saw it.
About 30 miles out from LAL, Tampa approach told us to descend to 3000 and reminded me that we would need to cancel IFR for the Lake Parker VFR arrival. He also asked if I was familiar with the special procedures. I explained that I had flown the arrival last year, had the current NOTAM with me and had thoroughly read it and would comply. A little time went by and I could see Lake Parker in the distance. At about 20 miles, ATC vectored me towards Lake Parker and I canceled IFR.
We then tuned and listened to the arrival ATIS and then tuned to the approach freq. They were holding planes at Lake Parker. This means that planes must circle the lake in single file around and around until the controller on the ground starts pulling them off for the final approach. I descended to the published pattern altitude of 1200 feet as this would make the other traffic that was presumably at the correct pattern altitude easier to see. I turned the plane so I would arrive East of the power plant and adjusted my speed down to the 100 knots specified in the notam. As we closed on Lake Parker, I could see many planes in the holding pattern. What a mess! I saw the line of planes all nose to tail and picked my spot at the end of the line. ATC called for a yellow high wing to continue westward and follow the procedure. He then pulled a Mooney out of the hold. This was the plane directly in front of me. ATC then said, "Blue, low-wing following the Mooney, rock your wings. I rocked them with gusto and was pleased to hear, "Continue westward behind the Mooney. You're number three to land!" Timing is everything!
I followed the Mooney who was following the Cub. Neither aircraft was following the publishe procedure that called for following I-4 after crossing Lake Parker. They were going due west until they saw the towers, turned left and headed to the airport. The Cub was lost. Not only could he not maintain the specified 100 knots, he didn't even make his downwind turn when ATC told him to. The Mooney started out about 300 feet above pattern altitude and then descended well below patter. We were both having a hard time following the Cub. He was too slow and I had to put out two notches of flaps to be slow enough not to overtake him. Even so, I needed to make S turns to keep from overtaking the Mooney.
This time they were landing planes to the west - the opposite of last years pattern. I followed the Mooney who turned downwind when instructed. The cub continued to the runway. I was told to follow the Mooney.
As I made my base turn, ATC had managed to route the CUB into my path again, but this time he was behind the Mooney. The Cub was instructed to land on the Green dot, but this yahoo clearly had not read the NOTAM. He was going to land well before, but ATC caught him and he managed to make a decent landing. I was told to land on the Orange dot - about 1000' closer than the Green dot. No problem, greased another landing!
The departure was another interesting situation. More about that in my next post.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
VFR On Top
Today my friend Ken and his son Max were visiting from North Carolina, so I took them up for a flight around town. This was the third time I've taken Max up. I've let him take the controls in the past and today was no different.
The weather was not conducive for a sightseeing flight. The TAF called for broken cover at 1500, so I filed and IFR flight plan that would take us over St. Augustine and back to Craig. I had reserved one of the older Warriors since the Archers were both reserved. I did most of my instrument training in this plane, N512MA, so I'm quite familiar with its idiosyncracies, like the DME that doesn't work right and the NAV/COM#1 that always has alternator noise.
I called clearance delivery and was told that my clearance was "on request" and I should taxi to 5. Wind was 040 at 9 knots - almost right down the runway. Taxiing down Bravo, I saw two aircraft ahead of me and one coming in behind me. No rush, though.
As I started my runup, ATC announced that he had my clearance on the ground frequency and to respond when I was ready to copy. I stopped the runup and asked for the clearance. I would be cleared for 2000', expect 5000 in 10 minutes, approach on 124.9 and was given a squawk code.
Finishing the runup, I took position behind a Skyhawk from ATP that was waiting to depart and I called the tower, "Craig Tower, Warrior 512 Mike Alpha, ready to go at 5, Number two."
After the Skyhawk departed, the tower told me to position and hold, so I took my place on the runway and waited for my clearance. The clearance didn't take long and I was told to fly heading 100, cleared for takeoff. The plane began its takeoff roll and soon we were climbing into the cloudcover. At about 400', the tower advised me to turn to 080 and contact approach. That was a bit lower than I would have liked, but I could hear him dealing with lots of other traffic. I figured he was just looking out for my safety, so I complied and began my turn.
I wasn't much higher than 1000' when we entered the clouds. The tops were between 3000 and 4000 feet by my estimation. ATC called and wanted to know what my intentions were. I explained that we were just doing some sightseeing and I would appreciate vectors that would take us over St. Augustine (which is what I filed). The controller then asked if I would be canceling my IFR. I told him I would wait and see what it was like once we got above the clouds. He cleared me for 4000' and we broke out of the clouds just before reaching that altitude. Presently, he vectored me 090. We flew out over the ocean for a while. I could hear the controller dealing with quite a bit of traffic and figured I could always pick up a shorthand clearance to get us back down, therefore, I asked ATC to cancel my IFR.
Immediately, I began a climbing right turn back towards the shoreline. Once I rolled wings level, I let Max take over. For a kid who has never had flight lessons and who has only flown three times in a small plane, he does a remarkable job of controlling the aircraft. I had him level off at 5500 and make a turn to 170. We flew around making a few turns here and there. At one point, I explained the graduations on the attitude indicator and asked him to make a left turn, but to bank 30 degrees. We made a circle and rolled wings level. I had him feel how the nose wants to drop when making a turn and explained how to counteract this by pulling back on the yoke. He did a great job of maintaining altitude while turning.
Next, I had him do a steep turn using a 45 degree bank. Altitude control wavered a bit, but he never let it get ahead of him.
A check of my watch determined that it was time to come home. I tuned the ATIS and got information Delta. No change in the winds, but the ceiling was a little lower and the altimeter setting had dropped to 30.20 from 30.22. I then switched over to the Jax Approach frequency and it was clear that ATC was very busy. I called, "Jax Approach, Warrior 512Mike Alpha, with request." I got no response until my third call. I then announced, "Warrior 2 Mike Alpha, 3 miles East of St. Augustine, 5,500 feet, I'd like to get the ILS 32 into Craig." The controller asked if I wanted that VFR to which I responded negative. The controller assigned a squawk, advised me to remain VFR and ident. The controller then vectored me 010.
After a few minutes, the controller asked if I could descend to 5000' while remaining VFR. I told him I could and he said he would give my IFR clearance when I reached that altitude. While I descended, I tuned and identified the CRG ILS 32 frequency and briefed the approach. I also plugged in the time from the approach plate into my timer. Shortly after reaching 5000', the controller issued my clearance and had me descend to 3000. He also vectored me to 360 and asked me to contact approach on 124.9. I responded "Two Mike Alpha, 3000 and 360 and I'm already on 124.9." Around 4500 feet, we entered the clouds.
After just a few more minutes he advised me, "descend 2000 feet, remain at 2000 until established on the localizer, contact Craig tower 132.1". I read back the instruction and thanked the controller.
Contacting the tower, I announced, "Craig Tower, Warrior 512 Mike Alpha, 12 miles southeast on the ILS 32 with Delta to land." The tower cleared me for the appoach with circle southwest for right base for runway 5 instructions.
I did a decent job of intercepting and tracking the localizer and intercepted the glideslope about 6 miles out. When the glideslope was one dot above, I dropped the first notch of flaps and stabilized my speed at 90 knots and my descent at 500 fpm.
We broke out of the clouds at about 1200 feet, but the bases were uneven, so there was a danger of going back in. I flew the glideslope down to 700 feet and leveled off. I then began my left turn for the circling approach to 5. Turning base I could detect a bit of wind pushing me off course a bit, so I turned a bit to the right to compensate. I dropped the second notch of flaps and trimmed to compensate for the nose up tendency this would create. Turning final, I dropped the final notch and stabilized the approach right on the PAPI. With power set at 1700 rpm, maintaining the glideslope caused the speed to steadily drop from 85 knots down to 65 as I neared the runway. When it was clear that we would make the runway, I pulled power to idle and the plane increased its rate of descent. Just before touchdown, I pulled back on the yoke to flare the plane and our speed began to drop and the plane settled gently onto the runway.
Max and Ken both seemed to have a good time. We didn't get to see many sights due to the cloud cover, but the view from above the clouds was beautiful.
I logged 1.2 hours PIC and 0.5 actual instrument. Three days of flying in a row...I love it!
The weather was not conducive for a sightseeing flight. The TAF called for broken cover at 1500, so I filed and IFR flight plan that would take us over St. Augustine and back to Craig. I had reserved one of the older Warriors since the Archers were both reserved. I did most of my instrument training in this plane, N512MA, so I'm quite familiar with its idiosyncracies, like the DME that doesn't work right and the NAV/COM#1 that always has alternator noise.
I called clearance delivery and was told that my clearance was "on request" and I should taxi to 5. Wind was 040 at 9 knots - almost right down the runway. Taxiing down Bravo, I saw two aircraft ahead of me and one coming in behind me. No rush, though.
As I started my runup, ATC announced that he had my clearance on the ground frequency and to respond when I was ready to copy. I stopped the runup and asked for the clearance. I would be cleared for 2000', expect 5000 in 10 minutes, approach on 124.9 and was given a squawk code.
Finishing the runup, I took position behind a Skyhawk from ATP that was waiting to depart and I called the tower, "Craig Tower, Warrior 512 Mike Alpha, ready to go at 5, Number two."
After the Skyhawk departed, the tower told me to position and hold, so I took my place on the runway and waited for my clearance. The clearance didn't take long and I was told to fly heading 100, cleared for takeoff. The plane began its takeoff roll and soon we were climbing into the cloudcover. At about 400', the tower advised me to turn to 080 and contact approach. That was a bit lower than I would have liked, but I could hear him dealing with lots of other traffic. I figured he was just looking out for my safety, so I complied and began my turn.
I wasn't much higher than 1000' when we entered the clouds. The tops were between 3000 and 4000 feet by my estimation. ATC called and wanted to know what my intentions were. I explained that we were just doing some sightseeing and I would appreciate vectors that would take us over St. Augustine (which is what I filed). The controller then asked if I would be canceling my IFR. I told him I would wait and see what it was like once we got above the clouds. He cleared me for 4000' and we broke out of the clouds just before reaching that altitude. Presently, he vectored me 090. We flew out over the ocean for a while. I could hear the controller dealing with quite a bit of traffic and figured I could always pick up a shorthand clearance to get us back down, therefore, I asked ATC to cancel my IFR.
Immediately, I began a climbing right turn back towards the shoreline. Once I rolled wings level, I let Max take over. For a kid who has never had flight lessons and who has only flown three times in a small plane, he does a remarkable job of controlling the aircraft. I had him level off at 5500 and make a turn to 170. We flew around making a few turns here and there. At one point, I explained the graduations on the attitude indicator and asked him to make a left turn, but to bank 30 degrees. We made a circle and rolled wings level. I had him feel how the nose wants to drop when making a turn and explained how to counteract this by pulling back on the yoke. He did a great job of maintaining altitude while turning.
Next, I had him do a steep turn using a 45 degree bank. Altitude control wavered a bit, but he never let it get ahead of him.
A check of my watch determined that it was time to come home. I tuned the ATIS and got information Delta. No change in the winds, but the ceiling was a little lower and the altimeter setting had dropped to 30.20 from 30.22. I then switched over to the Jax Approach frequency and it was clear that ATC was very busy. I called, "Jax Approach, Warrior 512Mike Alpha, with request." I got no response until my third call. I then announced, "Warrior 2 Mike Alpha, 3 miles East of St. Augustine, 5,500 feet, I'd like to get the ILS 32 into Craig." The controller asked if I wanted that VFR to which I responded negative. The controller assigned a squawk, advised me to remain VFR and ident. The controller then vectored me 010.
After a few minutes, the controller asked if I could descend to 5000' while remaining VFR. I told him I could and he said he would give my IFR clearance when I reached that altitude. While I descended, I tuned and identified the CRG ILS 32 frequency and briefed the approach. I also plugged in the time from the approach plate into my timer. Shortly after reaching 5000', the controller issued my clearance and had me descend to 3000. He also vectored me to 360 and asked me to contact approach on 124.9. I responded "Two Mike Alpha, 3000 and 360 and I'm already on 124.9." Around 4500 feet, we entered the clouds.
After just a few more minutes he advised me, "descend 2000 feet, remain at 2000 until established on the localizer, contact Craig tower 132.1". I read back the instruction and thanked the controller.
Contacting the tower, I announced, "Craig Tower, Warrior 512 Mike Alpha, 12 miles southeast on the ILS 32 with Delta to land." The tower cleared me for the appoach with circle southwest for right base for runway 5 instructions.
I did a decent job of intercepting and tracking the localizer and intercepted the glideslope about 6 miles out. When the glideslope was one dot above, I dropped the first notch of flaps and stabilized my speed at 90 knots and my descent at 500 fpm.
We broke out of the clouds at about 1200 feet, but the bases were uneven, so there was a danger of going back in. I flew the glideslope down to 700 feet and leveled off. I then began my left turn for the circling approach to 5. Turning base I could detect a bit of wind pushing me off course a bit, so I turned a bit to the right to compensate. I dropped the second notch of flaps and trimmed to compensate for the nose up tendency this would create. Turning final, I dropped the final notch and stabilized the approach right on the PAPI. With power set at 1700 rpm, maintaining the glideslope caused the speed to steadily drop from 85 knots down to 65 as I neared the runway. When it was clear that we would make the runway, I pulled power to idle and the plane increased its rate of descent. Just before touchdown, I pulled back on the yoke to flare the plane and our speed began to drop and the plane settled gently onto the runway.
Max and Ken both seemed to have a good time. We didn't get to see many sights due to the cloud cover, but the view from above the clouds was beautiful.
I logged 1.2 hours PIC and 0.5 actual instrument. Three days of flying in a row...I love it!
Friday, November 25, 2005
IFR Clearance From a Non-towered Airport
Even though today was a beautiful day for a VFR flight, I took the advice of the AIM and filed IFR. The A/FD did not list a clearance or approach frequency for X39 - Tampa North Aeropark. The KTPA entry lists several frequencies depending on which direction you were relative to the airport and I could have departed VFR and requested a clearance once airborne, but the AIM says to ask the local FSS for the procedure for your specific airport. Therefore, when I filed my flight plan, I asked the briefer for the recommended procedure for X39. He gave me the phone number for clearance delivery at St. Petersburg airport (PIE) and said they might just give me a frequency to call after departing VFR.
Bob and family picked us up at my mom's house in his Ford Expedition stretch limo. Mom had to work, so she couldn't drop us at the airport. I guess it must be nice having a limo company - no need to buy an SUV for the family...just use one of the limos.
The sun was shining bright on the tarmac as we drove out to the plane. It sure is nice being able to park the car right next to the airplane! I can only imagine what the folks who were standing out on the deck of the FBO might have thought about these people and their huge limo.
After pre-flighting, I walked into the FBO to see if I owed anything for the overnight stay. Amazingly, they said "no". I think if I saw some guy park a stretch limo in front of a nice new Archer III, I would have asked for twenty bucks just for good measure. Nice folks. I made a point of saying, "Just so you don't think I'm too ostentatious, that's my brother-in-law's limo. He owns a limo company." "Yeah, sure!" the lady from the FBO said.
After checking almost everything and saying our goodbyes, I called the number for clearance delivery. The controller who answered asked me if I wanted clearance now, or if I wanted to depart VFR and get it once airborne. I told her that I had never departed IFR from this airport, so whatever she recommended would be fine with me.
She put me on hold for a few minutes and then told me she had my clearance. Just like a normal clearance, she cleared me as filed to CRG, climb to 2000 expect 5000 in 10 and fly heading 090, squawk 3535 and contact departure on 119.9. She then added clearance void after 17 Zulu. It is now 16:54 zulu. Omigosh! I have 6 minutes to get in the plane, start, runup and depart. This is not exactly what I was expecting. Ok. Let's roll.
One last hug of the kids, goodbyes for Bob and Chrissy and we jumped in the plane. This is where a skyhawk has a tremendous advantage having two doors rather than the single door on the right side. I strapped myself in, helped Maureen with the door latches and grabbed the checklist. The engine started after just a few blades. I checked the guages and all systems were go. It took a minute for the Garming GNS430s to complete their selftest. As soon as they were ready, I checked the area and advanced the throttle to begin our taxi. For some reason, the plane wasn't moving too well. Hmmm. A little more gas. Aha! I had forgotten to remove the wheel chocks from the nose gear! Ok, full up elevator...more power...not too much and there! I'm over the small chocks and we're rolling. Announce my intentions on the CTAF. One plane announced her position 5 miles west and intended to enter the downwind for 32. Sitting at the end of the runway, I did a runup checking the mags, carb heat, alternator, controls, annunciators, etc. Okey doke, off we go. I made my radio call and noted the slight breeze from the left. Throttle to the firewall and we're moving. Climbing out through 500' the incoming plane announced her position and said she had the departing traffic in sight. I couldn't make out what her position was and I couldn't see her. At about 700', I announced that I was making my left crosswind turn and just as I started my bank, I spotted the incoming aircraft! She was already below pattern altitude and had entered the pattern straight into the downwind! Not only was she coming in lower than pattern altitude, but she was making an improper entry into the pattern. Good thing that I saw her, otherwise I would have turned directly into her path! I continued my climb and made my crosswind turn as soon as she passed. I was above and behind her on downwind and continued to climb. I announced that I would be departing the pattern to the east and switched my radio to the departure frequency.
I called departure saying, "Tampa departure, Archer 341 Papa Alpha, out of one thousand five hundred for two thousand departing Xray three niner." Approach responded, "Good afternoon Archer one papa alpha, squawk 3535 and ident" OOPS. Another thing I forgot - turn the transponder to ALT! LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION, SHOWTIME! Stupid!!!
Here's what I learned from this departure: If you are departing from a non-towered airport on an IFR flight plan, don't call for clearance until your engine is started and your are truly ready to depart. There's nothing to be gained by rushing through the runup. I probably didn't make the 17 zulu cutoff, but I may have. Considering that it would have taken me about three minutes to reach 1800 feet, and it probably took me more than that in the start and runup, I think Tampa Approach was probably being generous to me.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful. I was eventually cleared direct to the Ocala VOR, and before I reach Ocala, I was cleared direct Craig. I got a few traffic alerts, but only saw one passing aircraft. It was such a nice smooth flight. It was so smooth, that I think Maureen fell asleep for a bit.
Earlier in the morning, we saw a story on TV about the book that Architectural Digest was releasing about celebrity homes. They showed photos of John Travolta's house at Greystone. We passed just east of Greystone, so I pointed out the house to my celebrity watching wife. I even side slipped the plane so she could have a better look. I didn't see his 707 on the ground, though.
As we began to cross the St. Johns River, ATC told me to fly 360 for sequencing. They had already descended me from my cruising altitude of 5000' down to 3000' and my course, if unchanged, would take me directly over NAS Jax. Before we reached NAS, though, the controller instructed me to turn to 060, descend to 2,100 and advise when Craig was in sight. I repeated the instructions and told the controller that Craig was already in sight. He handed me off to Craig tower with a "good day". The Craig tower controller advised me to enter a 2 mile left base for 32, but about the time I was about 3 miles out, she advised me to enter a right base for 5 and announce my entry. I told her I was making the base turn right now and she immediately cleared me to land.
On the ground, I requested taxi clearance and heard nothing. I saw a King Air taxiing to Sky Harbor on Alpha and Bravo 4 (I was on Bravo 4, but had no crossed Alpha). I then heard her clear Archer four niner zulu to the ramp. I didn't hear a response from the aircraft and I didn't see any other planes on taxiways, so I repeated my request. I suspect that the controller called the wrong sign - we used to have an Archer by that sign at Sterling. She quickly cleared me to the ramp.
Apart from the rushed start to the flight, it proceded smoothly. I've learned my lesson about rushing to meet a clearance limit. This flight only took 1.4 hours (compared to 1.7 for the outbound leg. It might have been less if the controller had not vectored me for traffic in the Jacksonville area. Unfortunately, I can't log any actual instrument time as I didn't even see a single cloud, much less fly through one!
Total 1.4 hours of lovely cross-country time!
Bob and family picked us up at my mom's house in his Ford Expedition stretch limo. Mom had to work, so she couldn't drop us at the airport. I guess it must be nice having a limo company - no need to buy an SUV for the family...just use one of the limos.
The sun was shining bright on the tarmac as we drove out to the plane. It sure is nice being able to park the car right next to the airplane! I can only imagine what the folks who were standing out on the deck of the FBO might have thought about these people and their huge limo.
After pre-flighting, I walked into the FBO to see if I owed anything for the overnight stay. Amazingly, they said "no". I think if I saw some guy park a stretch limo in front of a nice new Archer III, I would have asked for twenty bucks just for good measure. Nice folks. I made a point of saying, "Just so you don't think I'm too ostentatious, that's my brother-in-law's limo. He owns a limo company." "Yeah, sure!" the lady from the FBO said.
After checking almost everything and saying our goodbyes, I called the number for clearance delivery. The controller who answered asked me if I wanted clearance now, or if I wanted to depart VFR and get it once airborne. I told her that I had never departed IFR from this airport, so whatever she recommended would be fine with me.
She put me on hold for a few minutes and then told me she had my clearance. Just like a normal clearance, she cleared me as filed to CRG, climb to 2000 expect 5000 in 10 and fly heading 090, squawk 3535 and contact departure on 119.9. She then added clearance void after 17 Zulu. It is now 16:54 zulu. Omigosh! I have 6 minutes to get in the plane, start, runup and depart. This is not exactly what I was expecting. Ok. Let's roll.
One last hug of the kids, goodbyes for Bob and Chrissy and we jumped in the plane. This is where a skyhawk has a tremendous advantage having two doors rather than the single door on the right side. I strapped myself in, helped Maureen with the door latches and grabbed the checklist. The engine started after just a few blades. I checked the guages and all systems were go. It took a minute for the Garming GNS430s to complete their selftest. As soon as they were ready, I checked the area and advanced the throttle to begin our taxi. For some reason, the plane wasn't moving too well. Hmmm. A little more gas. Aha! I had forgotten to remove the wheel chocks from the nose gear! Ok, full up elevator...more power...not too much and there! I'm over the small chocks and we're rolling. Announce my intentions on the CTAF. One plane announced her position 5 miles west and intended to enter the downwind for 32. Sitting at the end of the runway, I did a runup checking the mags, carb heat, alternator, controls, annunciators, etc. Okey doke, off we go. I made my radio call and noted the slight breeze from the left. Throttle to the firewall and we're moving. Climbing out through 500' the incoming plane announced her position and said she had the departing traffic in sight. I couldn't make out what her position was and I couldn't see her. At about 700', I announced that I was making my left crosswind turn and just as I started my bank, I spotted the incoming aircraft! She was already below pattern altitude and had entered the pattern straight into the downwind! Not only was she coming in lower than pattern altitude, but she was making an improper entry into the pattern. Good thing that I saw her, otherwise I would have turned directly into her path! I continued my climb and made my crosswind turn as soon as she passed. I was above and behind her on downwind and continued to climb. I announced that I would be departing the pattern to the east and switched my radio to the departure frequency.
I called departure saying, "Tampa departure, Archer 341 Papa Alpha, out of one thousand five hundred for two thousand departing Xray three niner." Approach responded, "Good afternoon Archer one papa alpha, squawk 3535 and ident" OOPS. Another thing I forgot - turn the transponder to ALT! LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION, SHOWTIME! Stupid!!!
Here's what I learned from this departure: If you are departing from a non-towered airport on an IFR flight plan, don't call for clearance until your engine is started and your are truly ready to depart. There's nothing to be gained by rushing through the runup. I probably didn't make the 17 zulu cutoff, but I may have. Considering that it would have taken me about three minutes to reach 1800 feet, and it probably took me more than that in the start and runup, I think Tampa Approach was probably being generous to me.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful. I was eventually cleared direct to the Ocala VOR, and before I reach Ocala, I was cleared direct Craig. I got a few traffic alerts, but only saw one passing aircraft. It was such a nice smooth flight. It was so smooth, that I think Maureen fell asleep for a bit.
Earlier in the morning, we saw a story on TV about the book that Architectural Digest was releasing about celebrity homes. They showed photos of John Travolta's house at Greystone. We passed just east of Greystone, so I pointed out the house to my celebrity watching wife. I even side slipped the plane so she could have a better look. I didn't see his 707 on the ground, though.
As we began to cross the St. Johns River, ATC told me to fly 360 for sequencing. They had already descended me from my cruising altitude of 5000' down to 3000' and my course, if unchanged, would take me directly over NAS Jax. Before we reached NAS, though, the controller instructed me to turn to 060, descend to 2,100 and advise when Craig was in sight. I repeated the instructions and told the controller that Craig was already in sight. He handed me off to Craig tower with a "good day". The Craig tower controller advised me to enter a 2 mile left base for 32, but about the time I was about 3 miles out, she advised me to enter a right base for 5 and announce my entry. I told her I was making the base turn right now and she immediately cleared me to land.
On the ground, I requested taxi clearance and heard nothing. I saw a King Air taxiing to Sky Harbor on Alpha and Bravo 4 (I was on Bravo 4, but had no crossed Alpha). I then heard her clear Archer four niner zulu to the ramp. I didn't hear a response from the aircraft and I didn't see any other planes on taxiways, so I repeated my request. I suspect that the controller called the wrong sign - we used to have an Archer by that sign at Sterling. She quickly cleared me to the ramp.
Apart from the rushed start to the flight, it proceded smoothly. I've learned my lesson about rushing to meet a clearance limit. This flight only took 1.4 hours (compared to 1.7 for the outbound leg. It might have been less if the controller had not vectored me for traffic in the Jacksonville area. Unfortunately, I can't log any actual instrument time as I didn't even see a single cloud, much less fly through one!
Total 1.4 hours of lovely cross-country time!
The Instrument Advantage
Thanksgiving always seems to be an interesting time for me and my family. Two years ago, Maureen, my sister's now ex-husband and I waited on the tarmac for the fog to lift before flying to Tampa to spend the day with my other sister. I didn't tell anyone that I had just received word that a plane had crashed about an hour earlier while trying to land at Craig airport. That would have made both of them much too nervous - I had earned my private pilot certificate only six weeks earlier.
Last year, we flew to Tampa again, but this time, while there, my sister called to announce that she and her husband were divorcing after almost seven years. Everyone loved her husband and we thought they were such a fun couple, so this was quite a shock. It is now a year later and she has met a very nice gentleman who she will be marrying in February, so alls well that ends well.
This year, the excitement was much more enjoyable. This was my first opportunity to fly with my wife on an instrument flight plan. I'm glad that I'm done with training and can focus on flying places once again. I missed visiting my family over the past year, so now, I expect that I will be making more trips to West Palm, Tampa and Crystal River. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to convince Maureen that we should fly to Atlanta or Asheville or someplace like that.
Today, the winds aloft were forecast to be quite intense. At 3000' they were forecast 280 at 41 knots and at 6000, the speed dropped to 31 knots. The speed was forecast to diminish about 10 knots the closer we got to Tampa. Direction remained unchanged, so even though I was flying a nice, fast Archer III, the headwind component would make the flight take a bit longer than normal. I was a bit concerned about the landing, too. The surface winds in the area (no ATIS, AWOS or ASOS at X39- Tampa North) were forecast to be 240 at 14 with gusts to 22 knots. Tampa north has a single runway 14-32 and it is only 50 feet wide. This would give me about an 80 degree crosswind that was slightly below the demonstrated 17 knot capability of the Archer. I was ready for the challenge and had practiced cross-wind landings often. Nevertheless, I warned mom and Maureen that there was a possibility that I would have to abort and land at Tampa International.
The surface winds at Craig were about the same as the forecast for Tampa. There was also a windshear indication due to the 41 knot winds at 3000 with about a 40 or 50 degree direction shift. Well, no one said this was going to be easy.
The preflight showed no problems and all systems were go when I called for my clearance. Instead of clearing me as filed, I was cleared via radar vectors to OCF, then via Victor-581 to DADES then X39. I had filed CRG direct OCF DADES omitting the airway. I had already programmed the plan into the GPS...which was not as simple as I had expected. It is quite different from my GPS III Pilot handheld. For climbout, I was told to fly heading 280 and climb to 2000 and expect 4000 in 10. I had filed for 6000, but 4000 should be ok, I thought.
The climb performance of the Archer was much better than usual due to the cool morning temperatures. Even though the atmospheric pressure was lower than normal for our area, the cold air made for a better running engine. Usually, our pressure is somewhere around 30.14 in the mornings. Rarely have I seen a day where it drops to the standard 29.92. But today, that's about where it was. The plane was climbing at close to 900 fpm once I stabilized the climb. This was a very bumpy climbout, though. I had some swirling crosswind as I rolled down runway 23 and that made for an interesting trip down the runway. Maureen later said that she thought I was going to have to abort - but I don't think it was ever anywhere close to that.
On the climb, I was handed off to Jax approach who cleared me to climb to 5000 and upon passing 2100, "Cleared direct Ocala VOR". I plugged the direct-to into the GPS and made a left turn towards the VOR. It occured to me that 5000 is an altitude normally reserved for flights on headings in the eastern directions, but because I am in controlled airspace, any altitude is fine as long as it is fine with ATC. As I climbed, I was getting tossed about quite a bit and I was worried about Maureen's stomach. She didn't have a problem, though. I had prepared by putting two plastic garbage bags folded neatly in the side pouches of my flight bag for easy access in the event of a regurgitation. I never needed them, and that was quite a relief.
As we neared 5000', the ride smoothed out considerably. This was a beautiful day with just some cumulous puffies building ahead of us. The GPS showed a ground speed of about 98 knots, while the indicated airspeed was just under 120 knots. About 20 miles before I reached OCF, ATC cleared me direct to DADES. GPS is a wonderful thing! I made the adjustment to the GPS and altered the course about 10 degrees to the right.
Soon, we started to encounter the cumulous clouds that had bases around 4000 and in some cases, tops as high as 6000. If I had been flying VFR, I would have been forced to alter my course to avoid these suckers --1000 feet above, 500 feet below and 2000 feed side to side. I would have had to make some significant course alterations to avoid them. I was very pleased with myself when I heard a VFR pilot on flight following announce a course deviation to avoid some weather. No deviations for me, thank you very much.
I don't think Maureen was quite as pleased, though. The cumulous clouds were building and as we entered each one, we were bounced around a little bit. It wasn't anything by my standards, but I don't have a weak stomach like Maureen does. I thought of requesting a higher altitude to get over them, but thought that I 'd just have to come down through them and we wouldn't get much benefit from a few minutes less tossing.
Pretty soon we were in range of the airport and ATC advised me to descend. This put me into a one-thousand foot thick layer that I had been flying above and it was exciting for me to pass through the layer. This was not unlike diving into a pool of milk and trying to open your eyes while swimming to the bottom of the pool.
Under the cloud layer, we were getting bounced around a bit, but the GPS showed we only had about 10 minutes to go. I had the airport in sight, so I canceled my IFR plan. X39 has no instrument approaches and no tower...and today, no traffic. What they did have was quite a bit of wind.
I switched to the advisory frequency and announced my position, intentions and requested advisories. No one was home. Overflying the airport, I searched in vain for the windsock. Since I expected the wind to be 240 at some velocity, I planned to enter the left downwind for 32 after descending to pattern altitude. It was clear that there was no one in the pattern and I confirmed the wind direction by noting the ripples on a nearby lake.
I entered the downwind at midfield, announced and reduced the throttle to 1700 RPM. I extended the first notch of flaps as I passed the threshold. I turned my base earlier than usual so I would not have as much time to get blown off course. Now the second notch and time for the turn to final. There is no VASI, PAPI or any glide slope indicator of any sort. The descent was as stable as possible considering the crosswind and gusts. As I descended to about 200 feet agl, a gust hit the plane and the stall warning went off. I held the nose down and increased power a bit. I was coming in hot by about 10 to 15 knots to account for the gusts, so I was a bit surprised to hear the stall warning. Now I finally saw the windsock. Nothing unexpected there. The sock was pointing straight out from left to right almost directly across the runway. Slight headwind - strong crosswind.
The runway continued to rise to meet me at about 400 fpm. I had my touchdown point identified and had a pretty descent side slip established to account for the crosswind. I thought about stalls that occur due to cross-control and double checked my airspeed. Ok, no danger of a stall. Crossing the fence, I reduced power to idle, maintained my side slip and waited for the speed to drop. I had the plane lined up on the center line and set the left main down gently, then the right and the nose wheel shortly thereafter. This was a pretty smooth landing especially in view of the wind.
I made my U-turn on the runway (no taxiways here except the ones that lead to private homes.) Taxiing back down the runway, I was careful to keep full nose down elevator and turned the ailerons away from the wind. It wouldn't do to have the tail lifted in the wind. Nearing the parking area, I searched for anyone to show me where I should park - the only person there was my mom waving at us from the porch of the FBO. There aren't many actual tie-downs at X39. In the past, I've parked in the grass in front of the old dilapidated hangers. This time, though, it looks like they've torn down the old hangers and that parking area is no available. New hangers are being built on the other side of the runway, but no parking there, yet. I'm always happy to see new construction at an airport! I pulled in front of the FBO and parked the plane next to a Mooney that was sitting on the tarmac just out of the way of the taxi area in front of the FBO.
I started out writing this about the "Instrument Advantage" and I don't think I've explained myself. Although the weather today was excellent for VFR, if I had been on a VFR flight plan, I would have had to dodge quite a few clouds and may have had trouble remaining VFR when the time came to descend into Tampa North Aeropark. Because I was flying IFR, the clouds were a non-issue. There were no thunderstorms in the area to worry about and the freezing levels were far to the north of Florida or much higher than I could possibly fly, so there was no danger of being torn apart by convective activity or of being iced over. I didn't have to make any deviations and flew an almost direct path to my destination. This is what I mean by the instrument advantage.
The flight took a bit longer than normal due to the strong winds and the fact that I kept the speed relatively low due to the turbulence. 1.7 hours total and about .2 hours of actual instrument time. Another adventure for the logbook!
Last year, we flew to Tampa again, but this time, while there, my sister called to announce that she and her husband were divorcing after almost seven years. Everyone loved her husband and we thought they were such a fun couple, so this was quite a shock. It is now a year later and she has met a very nice gentleman who she will be marrying in February, so alls well that ends well.
This year, the excitement was much more enjoyable. This was my first opportunity to fly with my wife on an instrument flight plan. I'm glad that I'm done with training and can focus on flying places once again. I missed visiting my family over the past year, so now, I expect that I will be making more trips to West Palm, Tampa and Crystal River. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to convince Maureen that we should fly to Atlanta or Asheville or someplace like that.
Today, the winds aloft were forecast to be quite intense. At 3000' they were forecast 280 at 41 knots and at 6000, the speed dropped to 31 knots. The speed was forecast to diminish about 10 knots the closer we got to Tampa. Direction remained unchanged, so even though I was flying a nice, fast Archer III, the headwind component would make the flight take a bit longer than normal. I was a bit concerned about the landing, too. The surface winds in the area (no ATIS, AWOS or ASOS at X39- Tampa North) were forecast to be 240 at 14 with gusts to 22 knots. Tampa north has a single runway 14-32 and it is only 50 feet wide. This would give me about an 80 degree crosswind that was slightly below the demonstrated 17 knot capability of the Archer. I was ready for the challenge and had practiced cross-wind landings often. Nevertheless, I warned mom and Maureen that there was a possibility that I would have to abort and land at Tampa International.
The surface winds at Craig were about the same as the forecast for Tampa. There was also a windshear indication due to the 41 knot winds at 3000 with about a 40 or 50 degree direction shift. Well, no one said this was going to be easy.
The preflight showed no problems and all systems were go when I called for my clearance. Instead of clearing me as filed, I was cleared via radar vectors to OCF, then via Victor-581 to DADES then X39. I had filed CRG direct OCF DADES omitting the airway. I had already programmed the plan into the GPS...which was not as simple as I had expected. It is quite different from my GPS III Pilot handheld. For climbout, I was told to fly heading 280 and climb to 2000 and expect 4000 in 10. I had filed for 6000, but 4000 should be ok, I thought.
The climb performance of the Archer was much better than usual due to the cool morning temperatures. Even though the atmospheric pressure was lower than normal for our area, the cold air made for a better running engine. Usually, our pressure is somewhere around 30.14 in the mornings. Rarely have I seen a day where it drops to the standard 29.92. But today, that's about where it was. The plane was climbing at close to 900 fpm once I stabilized the climb. This was a very bumpy climbout, though. I had some swirling crosswind as I rolled down runway 23 and that made for an interesting trip down the runway. Maureen later said that she thought I was going to have to abort - but I don't think it was ever anywhere close to that.
On the climb, I was handed off to Jax approach who cleared me to climb to 5000 and upon passing 2100, "Cleared direct Ocala VOR". I plugged the direct-to into the GPS and made a left turn towards the VOR. It occured to me that 5000 is an altitude normally reserved for flights on headings in the eastern directions, but because I am in controlled airspace, any altitude is fine as long as it is fine with ATC. As I climbed, I was getting tossed about quite a bit and I was worried about Maureen's stomach. She didn't have a problem, though. I had prepared by putting two plastic garbage bags folded neatly in the side pouches of my flight bag for easy access in the event of a regurgitation. I never needed them, and that was quite a relief.
As we neared 5000', the ride smoothed out considerably. This was a beautiful day with just some cumulous puffies building ahead of us. The GPS showed a ground speed of about 98 knots, while the indicated airspeed was just under 120 knots. About 20 miles before I reached OCF, ATC cleared me direct to DADES. GPS is a wonderful thing! I made the adjustment to the GPS and altered the course about 10 degrees to the right.
Soon, we started to encounter the cumulous clouds that had bases around 4000 and in some cases, tops as high as 6000. If I had been flying VFR, I would have been forced to alter my course to avoid these suckers --1000 feet above, 500 feet below and 2000 feed side to side. I would have had to make some significant course alterations to avoid them. I was very pleased with myself when I heard a VFR pilot on flight following announce a course deviation to avoid some weather. No deviations for me, thank you very much.
I don't think Maureen was quite as pleased, though. The cumulous clouds were building and as we entered each one, we were bounced around a little bit. It wasn't anything by my standards, but I don't have a weak stomach like Maureen does. I thought of requesting a higher altitude to get over them, but thought that I 'd just have to come down through them and we wouldn't get much benefit from a few minutes less tossing.
Pretty soon we were in range of the airport and ATC advised me to descend. This put me into a one-thousand foot thick layer that I had been flying above and it was exciting for me to pass through the layer. This was not unlike diving into a pool of milk and trying to open your eyes while swimming to the bottom of the pool.
Under the cloud layer, we were getting bounced around a bit, but the GPS showed we only had about 10 minutes to go. I had the airport in sight, so I canceled my IFR plan. X39 has no instrument approaches and no tower...and today, no traffic. What they did have was quite a bit of wind.
I switched to the advisory frequency and announced my position, intentions and requested advisories. No one was home. Overflying the airport, I searched in vain for the windsock. Since I expected the wind to be 240 at some velocity, I planned to enter the left downwind for 32 after descending to pattern altitude. It was clear that there was no one in the pattern and I confirmed the wind direction by noting the ripples on a nearby lake.
I entered the downwind at midfield, announced and reduced the throttle to 1700 RPM. I extended the first notch of flaps as I passed the threshold. I turned my base earlier than usual so I would not have as much time to get blown off course. Now the second notch and time for the turn to final. There is no VASI, PAPI or any glide slope indicator of any sort. The descent was as stable as possible considering the crosswind and gusts. As I descended to about 200 feet agl, a gust hit the plane and the stall warning went off. I held the nose down and increased power a bit. I was coming in hot by about 10 to 15 knots to account for the gusts, so I was a bit surprised to hear the stall warning. Now I finally saw the windsock. Nothing unexpected there. The sock was pointing straight out from left to right almost directly across the runway. Slight headwind - strong crosswind.
The runway continued to rise to meet me at about 400 fpm. I had my touchdown point identified and had a pretty descent side slip established to account for the crosswind. I thought about stalls that occur due to cross-control and double checked my airspeed. Ok, no danger of a stall. Crossing the fence, I reduced power to idle, maintained my side slip and waited for the speed to drop. I had the plane lined up on the center line and set the left main down gently, then the right and the nose wheel shortly thereafter. This was a pretty smooth landing especially in view of the wind.
I made my U-turn on the runway (no taxiways here except the ones that lead to private homes.) Taxiing back down the runway, I was careful to keep full nose down elevator and turned the ailerons away from the wind. It wouldn't do to have the tail lifted in the wind. Nearing the parking area, I searched for anyone to show me where I should park - the only person there was my mom waving at us from the porch of the FBO. There aren't many actual tie-downs at X39. In the past, I've parked in the grass in front of the old dilapidated hangers. This time, though, it looks like they've torn down the old hangers and that parking area is no available. New hangers are being built on the other side of the runway, but no parking there, yet. I'm always happy to see new construction at an airport! I pulled in front of the FBO and parked the plane next to a Mooney that was sitting on the tarmac just out of the way of the taxi area in front of the FBO.
I started out writing this about the "Instrument Advantage" and I don't think I've explained myself. Although the weather today was excellent for VFR, if I had been on a VFR flight plan, I would have had to dodge quite a few clouds and may have had trouble remaining VFR when the time came to descend into Tampa North Aeropark. Because I was flying IFR, the clouds were a non-issue. There were no thunderstorms in the area to worry about and the freezing levels were far to the north of Florida or much higher than I could possibly fly, so there was no danger of being torn apart by convective activity or of being iced over. I didn't have to make any deviations and flew an almost direct path to my destination. This is what I mean by the instrument advantage.
The flight took a bit longer than normal due to the strong winds and the fact that I kept the speed relatively low due to the turbulence. 1.7 hours total and about .2 hours of actual instrument time. Another adventure for the logbook!
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Single Pilot IFR
Now that I've completed my training and have my instrument rating, it's time to start flying places again. I've got a nice Archer III reserved for Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd take it up today to refamiliarize myself with the Garmin 430 GPS.
My instrument training was done in a Warrior II with no GPS...or at least no working GPS. Consequently, none of my training was on use of the GPS. I prepared myself with Garmin's free 430 simulator. Nevertheless, it still didn't seem to work the way I expected. Half the battle is learning how to control the cursor and select routes and approaches. I've mastered direct to, but I still need to understand how to activate an approach properly so that it cycles through the waypoints.
The weather today is overcast and windy - perfect for honing IFR skills. I planned a flight to X45 - Flagler which is just over 50 nm away from CRG. After checking the weather and reviewing approaches to X45, I filed a round-trip IFR flight to CRG with the ROYES intersection and X45 as waypoints.
ATC was very cooperative today and gave me exactly what I filed. I was cleared as filed, climb 2000, expect 5000 in 10 minutes. After holding for traffic, the tower cleared me for takeoff on runway 5, right turn to 100 and off I went. I was following a C172 that was remaining in the pattern, but he wasn't maintaining the runway centerline. I was gaining on him until I made my right turn to 100 as I passed 500'. The ceiling was reported at 1800, but I was in clouds before I reached 1200'.
ATC told me that I he would not be able to give me 5000 and direct ROYES because that would be in improper altitude (In controlled airspace, this shouldn't matter, but he's the boss). My original plan had me flying a heading of 178 which would have been proper for 5000, but after several minutes at 2000' heading eastward, my heading direct to ROYES was 186. I told the controller 4000' would be fine. This put me squarely in the clouds and that's what I wanted to practice - it wasn't the smoothest flight, but it was the best practice I could get.
I was then cleared to climb to 4000 and upon passing 3000 I was cleared direct ROYES. He then asked me what my intentions were and I responded that I would like the GPS6 at Flagler.
As I crossed 3000', I hit the Direct To button on the GPS and turned to follow the course. The wind was swirling and I spent most of the time in clouds bouncing up, down and side to side. Maintaining an even heading was a challenge and trimming out the plane was also difficult, but I eventually managed.
ATC handed me off to different controllers as I approached ROYES. Just before I reached ROYES, ATC handed me off again. I made the call after listening for clear air saying "Daytona Approach, Archer 341Papa-Alpha, Level at 4000, passing ROYES." The controller rogered and advised me to turn to 160 and descend to 2500. The controller asked me what my intentions were and I advised that I would like to do a touch and go. She then gave me 360, 1500' and the same frequency as my missed approach procedure.
I had already pulled out the plates for the GPS 6 approach and had briefed the approach to myself. A little while later, she gave me another heading and told me to descend to 2300. An just a little while later, she turned me to 090 and cleared me for the approach while advising me to maintain 2300 until established on the approach. I was west of JABKU by about 5 miles. I was in some thick clouds and it started to pour down rain. No problem . . . the plane was stable and I was maintaining speed and altitude. OAT was about 55 degrees, so no danger of icing.
The approach course is 060 and as I lined myself up for this course across JABKU, I descended to 1600. MDA for this approach was 540. JABKU is 4.7 miles from the airport and I started to descend from 1600 as I passed the waypoint. I broke out of the clouds at about 1400' and requested a frequency change. ATC advised that there were 4 planes in the pattern flying VFR...hmmm...sounds like some folks are not exacly staying 500' below the clouds if they are flying at pattern altitude.
I switched frequencies and listened for traffic...nothing. That was suprising since ATC said there were four planes in the pattern. I announced my position and asked if there were other aircraft in the pattern. One plane then announced he was positioning and holding...why he would hold is beyond me...probably training. I was about 2 miles out and still coming in at 90 knots. With the winds gusting to 26 knots, I was going to maintain my speed on approach. I then announced that I was on 2 mile final, straight in for 6, touch and go. There were three planes waiting to depart runway 6 and one of the pilots said something like "no, no, no...touch and goes aren't allowed at Flagler." Oops. I had pulled notams but didn't bother to check the AFD. I changed my intententions to taxi-back. I came in hot and floated for quite a while down the runway. I had to taxi off at the end. As soon as I taxied off, I announced that I was clear and the next guy had already taken the active runway.
I made a fast taxi back to runway 6 and by the time I reached the hold short, there was nobody left waiting. The plane that had departed during my approach was now on final, so I announced that I was holding short for landing traffic...not a required call, but it let the guy on final know I saw and heard him.
He cleared the runway and off I went. I turned crosswind at 500 feet, climbing through 1000, I announced I was departing to the north and continued my climb to 1500. I changed the frequency back to ATC and announced out of 1200 for 1500. ATC cleared me to 2000, expect 5000 in 10, cleared direct CRG. She also gave me a new squawk for the transponder.
Shortly ATC handed me off to JAX approach who advised me to fly heading 360. Again, I was in the clouds, but no rain this time. The controller advised me that the ILS32-circle to 5 was in use. He eventually advised me to descend to 2000. Later, he vectored me to intercept the localizer and then cleared me for the approach telling me to maintain 2000 until established. It seemed like forever before the glideslope came alive...but eventually it did. ATC also advised me to keep my speed up because there was traffic behind me. Lovely....fly in hot again.
At about 11 miles out, I was told to countact Craig Tower. I had already pulled the ATIS, so I called up, "Craig Tower, Archer 341Papa-Alpha, 11 Miles, ILS32 Circle to 5 with Kilo, full stop".
The tower replied, "Roger Archer 1Papa Alpha, report circling southwest for runway 5.
I was still in the clouds when the localizer started to register. I was focusing on the needles and did a pretty good job of keeping them centered. I broke out of the clouds at around 1000 feet and there was the runway, right where it should be. Just a little later, I made the left turn to the southwest and called my position to the tower.
Again, I kept my speed up on the descent to account for the gusty winds. I bounced around quite a bit as I turned my base. I gave myself an extra 30 degrees to adjust for the wind and make a squared base leg. Turning final, I pulled the second notch of flaps, checked my speed and headed for the numbers. I was right on the glideslope and pulled power crossing the threshold. The plane floated a bit and my landing was not as smooth as I normally do, but nothing fell off.
I was cleared to taxi to the ramp and I parked and secured the plane.
Single pilot IFR is a challenge, but having done it, I feel much better about my flying skills. This flight was spent mostly in unstable clouds in a plane that I've only flown a few times. While it is similar to the Warrior II, the equipment is newer, there's more power and the plane weighs a bit more. This was an ugly day for GA flying, but I enjoyed every minute of it. 1.7 hours cross-country. 1.2 Actual Instrument. 2 Approaches. Gotta love it!
My instrument training was done in a Warrior II with no GPS...or at least no working GPS. Consequently, none of my training was on use of the GPS. I prepared myself with Garmin's free 430 simulator. Nevertheless, it still didn't seem to work the way I expected. Half the battle is learning how to control the cursor and select routes and approaches. I've mastered direct to, but I still need to understand how to activate an approach properly so that it cycles through the waypoints.
The weather today is overcast and windy - perfect for honing IFR skills. I planned a flight to X45 - Flagler which is just over 50 nm away from CRG. After checking the weather and reviewing approaches to X45, I filed a round-trip IFR flight to CRG with the ROYES intersection and X45 as waypoints.
ATC was very cooperative today and gave me exactly what I filed. I was cleared as filed, climb 2000, expect 5000 in 10 minutes. After holding for traffic, the tower cleared me for takeoff on runway 5, right turn to 100 and off I went. I was following a C172 that was remaining in the pattern, but he wasn't maintaining the runway centerline. I was gaining on him until I made my right turn to 100 as I passed 500'. The ceiling was reported at 1800, but I was in clouds before I reached 1200'.
ATC told me that I he would not be able to give me 5000 and direct ROYES because that would be in improper altitude (In controlled airspace, this shouldn't matter, but he's the boss). My original plan had me flying a heading of 178 which would have been proper for 5000, but after several minutes at 2000' heading eastward, my heading direct to ROYES was 186. I told the controller 4000' would be fine. This put me squarely in the clouds and that's what I wanted to practice - it wasn't the smoothest flight, but it was the best practice I could get.
I was then cleared to climb to 4000 and upon passing 3000 I was cleared direct ROYES. He then asked me what my intentions were and I responded that I would like the GPS6 at Flagler.
As I crossed 3000', I hit the Direct To button on the GPS and turned to follow the course. The wind was swirling and I spent most of the time in clouds bouncing up, down and side to side. Maintaining an even heading was a challenge and trimming out the plane was also difficult, but I eventually managed.
ATC handed me off to different controllers as I approached ROYES. Just before I reached ROYES, ATC handed me off again. I made the call after listening for clear air saying "Daytona Approach, Archer 341Papa-Alpha, Level at 4000, passing ROYES." The controller rogered and advised me to turn to 160 and descend to 2500. The controller asked me what my intentions were and I advised that I would like to do a touch and go. She then gave me 360, 1500' and the same frequency as my missed approach procedure.
I had already pulled out the plates for the GPS 6 approach and had briefed the approach to myself. A little while later, she gave me another heading and told me to descend to 2300. An just a little while later, she turned me to 090 and cleared me for the approach while advising me to maintain 2300 until established on the approach. I was west of JABKU by about 5 miles. I was in some thick clouds and it started to pour down rain. No problem . . . the plane was stable and I was maintaining speed and altitude. OAT was about 55 degrees, so no danger of icing.
The approach course is 060 and as I lined myself up for this course across JABKU, I descended to 1600. MDA for this approach was 540. JABKU is 4.7 miles from the airport and I started to descend from 1600 as I passed the waypoint. I broke out of the clouds at about 1400' and requested a frequency change. ATC advised that there were 4 planes in the pattern flying VFR...hmmm...sounds like some folks are not exacly staying 500' below the clouds if they are flying at pattern altitude.
I switched frequencies and listened for traffic...nothing. That was suprising since ATC said there were four planes in the pattern. I announced my position and asked if there were other aircraft in the pattern. One plane then announced he was positioning and holding...why he would hold is beyond me...probably training. I was about 2 miles out and still coming in at 90 knots. With the winds gusting to 26 knots, I was going to maintain my speed on approach. I then announced that I was on 2 mile final, straight in for 6, touch and go. There were three planes waiting to depart runway 6 and one of the pilots said something like "no, no, no...touch and goes aren't allowed at Flagler." Oops. I had pulled notams but didn't bother to check the AFD. I changed my intententions to taxi-back. I came in hot and floated for quite a while down the runway. I had to taxi off at the end. As soon as I taxied off, I announced that I was clear and the next guy had already taken the active runway.
I made a fast taxi back to runway 6 and by the time I reached the hold short, there was nobody left waiting. The plane that had departed during my approach was now on final, so I announced that I was holding short for landing traffic...not a required call, but it let the guy on final know I saw and heard him.
He cleared the runway and off I went. I turned crosswind at 500 feet, climbing through 1000, I announced I was departing to the north and continued my climb to 1500. I changed the frequency back to ATC and announced out of 1200 for 1500. ATC cleared me to 2000, expect 5000 in 10, cleared direct CRG. She also gave me a new squawk for the transponder.
Shortly ATC handed me off to JAX approach who advised me to fly heading 360. Again, I was in the clouds, but no rain this time. The controller advised me that the ILS32-circle to 5 was in use. He eventually advised me to descend to 2000. Later, he vectored me to intercept the localizer and then cleared me for the approach telling me to maintain 2000 until established. It seemed like forever before the glideslope came alive...but eventually it did. ATC also advised me to keep my speed up because there was traffic behind me. Lovely....fly in hot again.
At about 11 miles out, I was told to countact Craig Tower. I had already pulled the ATIS, so I called up, "Craig Tower, Archer 341Papa-Alpha, 11 Miles, ILS32 Circle to 5 with Kilo, full stop".
The tower replied, "Roger Archer 1Papa Alpha, report circling southwest for runway 5.
I was still in the clouds when the localizer started to register. I was focusing on the needles and did a pretty good job of keeping them centered. I broke out of the clouds at around 1000 feet and there was the runway, right where it should be. Just a little later, I made the left turn to the southwest and called my position to the tower.
Again, I kept my speed up on the descent to account for the gusty winds. I bounced around quite a bit as I turned my base. I gave myself an extra 30 degrees to adjust for the wind and make a squared base leg. Turning final, I pulled the second notch of flaps, checked my speed and headed for the numbers. I was right on the glideslope and pulled power crossing the threshold. The plane floated a bit and my landing was not as smooth as I normally do, but nothing fell off.
I was cleared to taxi to the ramp and I parked and secured the plane.
Single pilot IFR is a challenge, but having done it, I feel much better about my flying skills. This flight was spent mostly in unstable clouds in a plane that I've only flown a few times. While it is similar to the Warrior II, the equipment is newer, there's more power and the plane weighs a bit more. This was an ugly day for GA flying, but I enjoyed every minute of it. 1.7 hours cross-country. 1.2 Actual Instrument. 2 Approaches. Gotta love it!
Monday, November 07, 2005
Hoorah! I passed!!!
Saturday was the big day - the FAA instrument check ride. I studied very hard for the oral exam and was confident in my flying skills and procedural knowledge. Nevertheless, I was nervous. My private checkride was over two years ago, but that ride was a nightmare. I had met the DPE a few times before in the waiting room at Sterling, and he seemed like a nice guy, but you never know.
We started the oral around 8:45 after a little chit-chat. The night before I pulled the DPEs credentials from the FAA website and saw the different type ratings he had, so that gave me something to ask him about. I'm always interested in hearing flying stories from experienced pilots, and I was sure he had a few. Things started smoothly and after about 2 hours of questions and discussion, he said, "Let's fly".
We discussed the flight and what we would actually do. We were going to depart VFR, do some stick and rudder work under the hood and then try to get the required three approaches. Because there was a Blue Angels airshow nearby, a TFR was issued that would prevent us from using any of the approaches at my home base. We opted to fly to St. Augustine and ask for a shorthand clearance from ATC after our stick and rudder work was done.
There were cumulous clouds covering about half the sky from around 1500 to 5000 feet, and until we were flying under an IFR plan, we would have to dodge them. Winds were 070 at 10 knots and we were cleared to depart on runway 5 with a downwind leg departure due to the TFR. Everything was in order and the climbout was smooth. As we crossed back over Atlantic Blvd heading southwest, we were finally cleared to make our southbound turn. I donned my foggles and Bob started giving me vectors to dodge the clouds. He was playing the role of ATC and cleared me direct to SGJ (St. Augustine). I tuned the OBS on VOR 1 and followed the nearest radial directly towards the airport. He then told me to intercept the 315 radial and follow that in, so I adjusted the OBS and made a right turn to intercept. I had to maintain about 10 degrees of left correction due to the wind from the ENE. The DME was not working very well - it would only tune very specific stations and at times, it would change the freq by itself. He was not at all pleased with it.
Since I had a handheld GPS, I offered to remove it from the yoke and let Bob use it to better avoid the TFR and the other controlled airspace around us. He initially declined, but after a few minutes of unsuccessful fiddling with the DME, he said he would use it.
We were level at 7500 feet heading direct to the St. Augustine VOR when he threw me a curve. He wanted me to execute a DME arc to the west at 5 DME - we were about 7 DME at that time, so I didn't have much time to figure out what I should do. At 5.2 DME, I started a 90 turn to the right and then turned the OBS to 235. OOPS! I should have turned 90 degrees to the right, then turned the OBS to 305...10 degrees off my original radial. Since I was heading the right direction, I kept an eye on my DME and although the needle had not yet started to move, I began a turn to the left to prevent drifting too far out. I must have been very flustered to botch the OBS like this. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I tuned the NAV2 to the same VOR and identified the radial that I was on. AHA! that what I did wrong! Fortunately, he didn't bust me. After I had followed the arc (sort of) for about 10 minutes, he cleared me direct to the SGJ VOR and told me to Hold North of SGJ on the 360 radial, Left Turns. Ok, think! How do I enter this? What will the pattern look like? Where is the wind? I drew the pattern out on my clipboard. I was hoping I had written this right...NO! wait a minute...my holding course is the 360 radial...I had written it upside down. Ok, now I've got it. I'm heading about 080 to the station, so that gives me somewhat of a direct entry. I must be getting close, the needle is moving way off and I can't seem to get it back, so I must be just off to the right of the station...THERE! There's the flip. Ok, I just passed the station. Now I'm going to turn to 360...Start my Timer, TIME, TURN THROTTLE, TWIST, TALK. Twist the OBS to my inbound course - 180 so I get a TO indication on my inbound. Call the imaginary ATC and tell him I'm in the hold at StAugustine at 7500. Keep an eye on the timer...there's 60 seconds, now turn left and intercept the 360 radial. Wow! T-T-T-T-T. Wings level and start my timer. The course is way over to the left. Winds are pretty stiff up here from the East. I turned to 150...great, the needle is starting to center. Ok, 7 degrees left correction seems to hold the course. A glance at my chart and I see that the SGJ VOR is also published with a CRG DME setting - and the CRG 114.5 is one of the few settings the DME will accept, so that should help me identify the location. There's 60 seconds on the inbound and look at that, there's the flip, too. The winds are pretty much from the side. Ok, now turn to 015 - rather than 360 - I needed 7 degrees of left correction on the inbound, so outbound, I'm doubling it to the opposite direction. Good. Wings level and start the time. One more lap around...last turn inbound...Wings level and look at that, I'm right on the course.
As I crossed the VOR for the last time, Bob told me to contact ATC and explain that I need one precision and two non-precision approaches and see what they could do for me. I made the call and also interjected that this was a check ride - maybe he'd have some sympathy for me. ATC gave me a squawk code, vectored me to 090 and told me to descend to 3000 feet. He also gave me a 360 heading, 2000 feet and the same frequency for my Missed Approach.
So then I executed a descending right turn to 090. As the descent stabilized, I grabbed my approach plate for the SGJ ILS 31 approach and briefed it with Bob. I also tuned the NAV to the ILS freq, tuned NAV2 to the OMN VOR, tuned the ATIS on COM1 (the noisy radio) and tuned the tower on the standby for COM2. Next, I turned the OBS to the approach course. As I leveled off at 3000, ATC vectored me to the right a bit. Now I verified the current plate, set the HI to the mag compass, Identified both NAVs, verified the course, called out the altitudes, noted that there were no times noted and restated the alternate missed approach plan that ATC gave me. AMICEATM, done!
I listened to the ATIS and adjusted the setting in the Kollsman window on the altimeter. I'm all set. All I have to do now is shoot the approach.
ATC gave me final vectors and cleared me for the ILS - remain at 2000 until established, contact the tower. I switched the frequency and announced "St. Augustine Tower, Warrior 512MA inbound on the ILS31 with Zulu". They responded, "2Mike-Alpha, report HAMGO". "Roger, report HAMGO, 2Mike Alpha". Just as I started to say, my DME is out, the DPE said, I'll tell you when you are at HAMGO. Handheld GPS to the rescue AGAIN!
Then as I looked at the chart, I realized I could ID HAMGO based on my altitude assuming I was on the glideslope! HAMGO is 1,600'. I had those needles lined up perfectly and we made a beautiful approach.
Bob was doing a great job of role playing. He's playing the part of a passenger who wants to go to a meeting in St. Augustine. He's asking me where to look for the runway and telling me I don't see it. As I reached the DH, I gave the throttle a nudge to full power and started my missed approach. He then announces, OH! there it is right below us. I told him, too late, we'll have to catch it on the next pass. I think he was testing me to see if I would abort the missed and I didn't take the bait.
I announced to St. Augustine that I was going missed and the told me to contact Approach. I turned to 360 and tried to call approach. No luck. Not until after we had passed through 1500 feet could approach hear me.
I requested the full approach for the VOR 13 at SGJ and was told that I was cleared for the VOR 13 approach at SGJ. Upon reaching 2000 feet, cleared direct to the SGJ VOR. "Contact approach after the procedure turn." About that time, Bob put some paper over my attitude indicator and my heading indicator. Lovely. I faked a call to ATC to announce "No Gyro", completed my turn towards the VOR and got out the plate for the VOR 13.
I briefed the approach as I had done for the ILS 31 and lined up on the correct radial outbound. Passing the IAF, I started my timer and at 60 seconds, I executed the procedure turn and announced the turn to ATC. I easily lined up on the inbound course and was cleared for the approach. ATC handed me off to the tower who told me to announce 5 miles. Since the DME was out, I asked Bob to tell me when I was 5 miles.
He was still doing the role play as we got closer. I managed to keep the CDI within 1 dot of the center and descended to MDA. I also pointed out to Bob that I could have descended to 1600 during my turn, but he said, that's fine--no need to. He called five miles and I contacted the tower and requested the option. The tower cleared me for the option and I was steady as she goes. Bob, in his role as a passenger said, "Where should I look for the runway?" I said it should be straight ahead of us and angling off to the right just a bit. He replied, "I think I see it right there...you can look up." Yup, that was it. He said, let's do a touch and go. I love doing touch and goes so I did one. Straight down the middle but just a touch firmer than I usually do - not bad though. Bob took the paper off the instruments and off I went.
Up with the flaps, then to 500 feet and a left turn to 500. The tower called, "Execute climbout and contact approach." I called approach...no reply, so I waited until we got to 1500 feet and tried again. Finally, a response. I then requested vectors for the VOR31 at SGJ. Nothing too eventful happened during this. I pulled the plates, briefed the approach and followed the vectors that I needed.
As we headed eastward, I told Bob, "I probably shouldn't ask you this until you've signed my ticket, but I'd like to know your thoughts. Justin taught me to request my IFR clearance from Clearance Delivery by saying 'Craig Clearance Delivery, Warrior 512MA - ready to copy.', and I did this for about 6 months. However, a few weeks ago, the controller at Craig chewed my but by saying, 'there's a right way and a wrong way to request a clearance, and that ain't it!'" I explained that I had searched the AIM for instructions on clearance requests and couldn't find anything specific. Bob asked if I had the AIM, so I reached behind me and grabbed it. He couldn't find anything either. After he searched, he explained that the best way is to say "Warrior 512MA, ready to copy IFR to Orlando, or wherever I filed". That way, the controller doesn't have to look too hard to find the clearance. We then discussed the lack of professionalism shown by a few of the controllers in the Craig tower and how nice the folks at St. Augustine seem to be.
As we flew along, Bob told me I can tell the controller that we'd like to get vectors back to Craig when we complete this approach. We've done everything we need to and you've done an excellent job! What a relief!
The ground and the flight took longer than I had anticipated, but I really enjoyed the experience. The flight itself took 2.2 hours, we did three instrument approaches, one visual approach, landed twice, flew a DME arc, executed a hold and intercepted numerous radials. And it was fun!
Bob Link is an excellent examiner. If I had known he was retired FAA, I probably would have been much more nervous. He has a great style that put me at ease. He also has a nice sense of humor. We didn't cut any corners and he seems to expect that everything must be done properly, which is the way it should be. However, he was very professional about everything. The bottom line is that I really enjoyed flying with him.
So now I have the Airplane Single Engine Land - Instrument Pilot rating!!! I can't wait for our trip to Tampa for Thanksgiving!
We started the oral around 8:45 after a little chit-chat. The night before I pulled the DPEs credentials from the FAA website and saw the different type ratings he had, so that gave me something to ask him about. I'm always interested in hearing flying stories from experienced pilots, and I was sure he had a few. Things started smoothly and after about 2 hours of questions and discussion, he said, "Let's fly".
We discussed the flight and what we would actually do. We were going to depart VFR, do some stick and rudder work under the hood and then try to get the required three approaches. Because there was a Blue Angels airshow nearby, a TFR was issued that would prevent us from using any of the approaches at my home base. We opted to fly to St. Augustine and ask for a shorthand clearance from ATC after our stick and rudder work was done.
There were cumulous clouds covering about half the sky from around 1500 to 5000 feet, and until we were flying under an IFR plan, we would have to dodge them. Winds were 070 at 10 knots and we were cleared to depart on runway 5 with a downwind leg departure due to the TFR. Everything was in order and the climbout was smooth. As we crossed back over Atlantic Blvd heading southwest, we were finally cleared to make our southbound turn. I donned my foggles and Bob started giving me vectors to dodge the clouds. He was playing the role of ATC and cleared me direct to SGJ (St. Augustine). I tuned the OBS on VOR 1 and followed the nearest radial directly towards the airport. He then told me to intercept the 315 radial and follow that in, so I adjusted the OBS and made a right turn to intercept. I had to maintain about 10 degrees of left correction due to the wind from the ENE. The DME was not working very well - it would only tune very specific stations and at times, it would change the freq by itself. He was not at all pleased with it.
Since I had a handheld GPS, I offered to remove it from the yoke and let Bob use it to better avoid the TFR and the other controlled airspace around us. He initially declined, but after a few minutes of unsuccessful fiddling with the DME, he said he would use it.
We were level at 7500 feet heading direct to the St. Augustine VOR when he threw me a curve. He wanted me to execute a DME arc to the west at 5 DME - we were about 7 DME at that time, so I didn't have much time to figure out what I should do. At 5.2 DME, I started a 90 turn to the right and then turned the OBS to 235. OOPS! I should have turned 90 degrees to the right, then turned the OBS to 305...10 degrees off my original radial. Since I was heading the right direction, I kept an eye on my DME and although the needle had not yet started to move, I began a turn to the left to prevent drifting too far out. I must have been very flustered to botch the OBS like this. I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I tuned the NAV2 to the same VOR and identified the radial that I was on. AHA! that what I did wrong! Fortunately, he didn't bust me. After I had followed the arc (sort of) for about 10 minutes, he cleared me direct to the SGJ VOR and told me to Hold North of SGJ on the 360 radial, Left Turns. Ok, think! How do I enter this? What will the pattern look like? Where is the wind? I drew the pattern out on my clipboard. I was hoping I had written this right...NO! wait a minute...my holding course is the 360 radial...I had written it upside down. Ok, now I've got it. I'm heading about 080 to the station, so that gives me somewhat of a direct entry. I must be getting close, the needle is moving way off and I can't seem to get it back, so I must be just off to the right of the station...THERE! There's the flip. Ok, I just passed the station. Now I'm going to turn to 360...Start my Timer, TIME, TURN THROTTLE, TWIST, TALK. Twist the OBS to my inbound course - 180 so I get a TO indication on my inbound. Call the imaginary ATC and tell him I'm in the hold at StAugustine at 7500. Keep an eye on the timer...there's 60 seconds, now turn left and intercept the 360 radial. Wow! T-T-T-T-T. Wings level and start my timer. The course is way over to the left. Winds are pretty stiff up here from the East. I turned to 150...great, the needle is starting to center. Ok, 7 degrees left correction seems to hold the course. A glance at my chart and I see that the SGJ VOR is also published with a CRG DME setting - and the CRG 114.5 is one of the few settings the DME will accept, so that should help me identify the location. There's 60 seconds on the inbound and look at that, there's the flip, too. The winds are pretty much from the side. Ok, now turn to 015 - rather than 360 - I needed 7 degrees of left correction on the inbound, so outbound, I'm doubling it to the opposite direction. Good. Wings level and start the time. One more lap around...last turn inbound...Wings level and look at that, I'm right on the course.
As I crossed the VOR for the last time, Bob told me to contact ATC and explain that I need one precision and two non-precision approaches and see what they could do for me. I made the call and also interjected that this was a check ride - maybe he'd have some sympathy for me. ATC gave me a squawk code, vectored me to 090 and told me to descend to 3000 feet. He also gave me a 360 heading, 2000 feet and the same frequency for my Missed Approach.
So then I executed a descending right turn to 090. As the descent stabilized, I grabbed my approach plate for the SGJ ILS 31 approach and briefed it with Bob. I also tuned the NAV to the ILS freq, tuned NAV2 to the OMN VOR, tuned the ATIS on COM1 (the noisy radio) and tuned the tower on the standby for COM2. Next, I turned the OBS to the approach course. As I leveled off at 3000, ATC vectored me to the right a bit. Now I verified the current plate, set the HI to the mag compass, Identified both NAVs, verified the course, called out the altitudes, noted that there were no times noted and restated the alternate missed approach plan that ATC gave me. AMICEATM, done!
I listened to the ATIS and adjusted the setting in the Kollsman window on the altimeter. I'm all set. All I have to do now is shoot the approach.
ATC gave me final vectors and cleared me for the ILS - remain at 2000 until established, contact the tower. I switched the frequency and announced "St. Augustine Tower, Warrior 512MA inbound on the ILS31 with Zulu". They responded, "2Mike-Alpha, report HAMGO". "Roger, report HAMGO, 2Mike Alpha". Just as I started to say, my DME is out, the DPE said, I'll tell you when you are at HAMGO. Handheld GPS to the rescue AGAIN!
Then as I looked at the chart, I realized I could ID HAMGO based on my altitude assuming I was on the glideslope! HAMGO is 1,600'. I had those needles lined up perfectly and we made a beautiful approach.
Bob was doing a great job of role playing. He's playing the part of a passenger who wants to go to a meeting in St. Augustine. He's asking me where to look for the runway and telling me I don't see it. As I reached the DH, I gave the throttle a nudge to full power and started my missed approach. He then announces, OH! there it is right below us. I told him, too late, we'll have to catch it on the next pass. I think he was testing me to see if I would abort the missed and I didn't take the bait.
I announced to St. Augustine that I was going missed and the told me to contact Approach. I turned to 360 and tried to call approach. No luck. Not until after we had passed through 1500 feet could approach hear me.
I requested the full approach for the VOR 13 at SGJ and was told that I was cleared for the VOR 13 approach at SGJ. Upon reaching 2000 feet, cleared direct to the SGJ VOR. "Contact approach after the procedure turn." About that time, Bob put some paper over my attitude indicator and my heading indicator. Lovely. I faked a call to ATC to announce "No Gyro", completed my turn towards the VOR and got out the plate for the VOR 13.
I briefed the approach as I had done for the ILS 31 and lined up on the correct radial outbound. Passing the IAF, I started my timer and at 60 seconds, I executed the procedure turn and announced the turn to ATC. I easily lined up on the inbound course and was cleared for the approach. ATC handed me off to the tower who told me to announce 5 miles. Since the DME was out, I asked Bob to tell me when I was 5 miles.
He was still doing the role play as we got closer. I managed to keep the CDI within 1 dot of the center and descended to MDA. I also pointed out to Bob that I could have descended to 1600 during my turn, but he said, that's fine--no need to. He called five miles and I contacted the tower and requested the option. The tower cleared me for the option and I was steady as she goes. Bob, in his role as a passenger said, "Where should I look for the runway?" I said it should be straight ahead of us and angling off to the right just a bit. He replied, "I think I see it right there...you can look up." Yup, that was it. He said, let's do a touch and go. I love doing touch and goes so I did one. Straight down the middle but just a touch firmer than I usually do - not bad though. Bob took the paper off the instruments and off I went.
Up with the flaps, then to 500 feet and a left turn to 500. The tower called, "Execute climbout and contact approach." I called approach...no reply, so I waited until we got to 1500 feet and tried again. Finally, a response. I then requested vectors for the VOR31 at SGJ. Nothing too eventful happened during this. I pulled the plates, briefed the approach and followed the vectors that I needed.
As we headed eastward, I told Bob, "I probably shouldn't ask you this until you've signed my ticket, but I'd like to know your thoughts. Justin taught me to request my IFR clearance from Clearance Delivery by saying 'Craig Clearance Delivery, Warrior 512MA - ready to copy.', and I did this for about 6 months. However, a few weeks ago, the controller at Craig chewed my but by saying, 'there's a right way and a wrong way to request a clearance, and that ain't it!'" I explained that I had searched the AIM for instructions on clearance requests and couldn't find anything specific. Bob asked if I had the AIM, so I reached behind me and grabbed it. He couldn't find anything either. After he searched, he explained that the best way is to say "Warrior 512MA, ready to copy IFR to Orlando, or wherever I filed". That way, the controller doesn't have to look too hard to find the clearance. We then discussed the lack of professionalism shown by a few of the controllers in the Craig tower and how nice the folks at St. Augustine seem to be.
As we flew along, Bob told me I can tell the controller that we'd like to get vectors back to Craig when we complete this approach. We've done everything we need to and you've done an excellent job! What a relief!
The ground and the flight took longer than I had anticipated, but I really enjoyed the experience. The flight itself took 2.2 hours, we did three instrument approaches, one visual approach, landed twice, flew a DME arc, executed a hold and intercepted numerous radials. And it was fun!
Bob Link is an excellent examiner. If I had known he was retired FAA, I probably would have been much more nervous. He has a great style that put me at ease. He also has a nice sense of humor. We didn't cut any corners and he seems to expect that everything must be done properly, which is the way it should be. However, he was very professional about everything. The bottom line is that I really enjoyed flying with him.
So now I have the Airplane Single Engine Land - Instrument Pilot rating!!! I can't wait for our trip to Tampa for Thanksgiving!
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