I made a big step in my learning yesterday. I completed my checkout in the two Cessna 182's my flying club owns. The first is N182SV, A 2000 Cessna 182S. It has traditional steam gauges, but a GPS and KAP140 Autopilot. Autopilots and GPSs are new to be in the aircraft. The first planes I trained with at Mt. Comfort had them, but once I joined Sky-Vu, I only had the standard 6 pack gauges and then 2 VORs and an ADF. Luckily I had a handheld GPS as a back up. Pilotage is fun and all, but terribly inefficient.
The flight in Sierra Victor was about a month ago now, due to weather being terrible. Most of the required 5 hours of flight were done in our other C182, N721ZA. This is a 2004 Cessna 182T with G1000 avionics. Because of the avionics suite, I flew about 3.5 hours in this plane, and only around 2 in Sierra Victor.
So, here is what my 5 hours of required time looked like:
First flight was in SV. We departed from UMP and headed over to Mount Comfort (MQJ) and Shelbyville (GEZ). These are all on the east side of town, and the goal was just to get used to constant speed propeller operations as well as dealing with the different power settings and V speeds. I think I picked it up pretty quickly, and with direction from my instructor, all was well. I ballooned a little on a couple landings, and I bounced one pretty good, but we made it home safe. I ended up putting on 1.8 hours.
The next flight was a couple of weeks later in Zulu Alpha. We did mostly pattern work, but went from Eagle Creek over to Crawfordsville. I did a few turns on the pattern at Crawfordsville and then headed back to EYE. I had a 7 mile run that afternoon, so I didn't get as much time as I wanted to. We ended up with 1.3 on the Hobbs and decided we'd do it again to finish up the time.
Yesterday afternoon we completed that effort. I left work a little bit early and met my instructor at Eagle Creek around 3 pm. We did quite a round about flight and I landed at some airports I've never been to. First we headed off to Frankfurt (FKR) then Kokomo (OKK) then Wabash (IWH) and finally Huntington (HHG). They are all between 15 and 20 nautical miles apart, so we had some time to get settled in the air before entering the pattern at the next airport. I had some really good landings, and on the way back home we punched through a hole in the clouds and flew back at 6500' msl. Total on the Hobbs was 2.6 and after my instructor finished off the paper work, I had my checkout complete.
I think the next thing I going to try to work on is my check out in our C172RG and combine that with some instrument training. I'm not sure who I am going to have instruct, but I'm probably going to do my 10 hours of the RG and then go back and finish out in 146K...if we still have that plane. I wish my pockets were as deep as my dreams are grand...
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Places I've Landed
Until I figure out the best way to embed this over on the right, I'll update this post everyone once in a while.
View Places I've Landed in a larger map
View Places I've Landed in a larger map
Monday, February 22, 2010
In-Flight Electrical Failure
Well, I had an exciting flight on Saturday. Probably the first time I've been a little bit flustered. Here is the story:
Coby and I took of at about 1 pm for Mt. Comfort (MQJ) and landed over there uneventfully. We stopped inside to get a microphone windscreen for the borrowed headsets. They always whistled and were pretty annoying because you could hear the passengers breathing. We said our good byes and headed back out to the plane.
I sat down in the plane and started my checklist for the next stop, which was going to be Post Air, a small runway on the east side of Indy. Turns out it was closed, so we continued on our course and headed down to Greenwood. The first indication that I knew something was wrong was when I transmitted on COM1. The system had trouble singling out my voice and the transmission didn't sound good. I couldn't hear the transmissions from anyone else and I noticed that all the LEDs on COM2 had gone out. This wasn't terrible, because COM2 was pretty old and shotty anyway. The next thing I noticed was the fuel tanks now showed half full. Considering we had flown about 30 minutes, they should not be half full, they should have had about 90% of their fuel in them. So, I was a little worried and immediately turned back to Eagle Creek.
I thought about contacting ATC at Indianapolis International, but I realized my COMs were completely useless now. I stayed below 2000 ft and changed my squawk from 1200 (default for VFR) to 7600 (the code for lost communications). This wasn't necessary since I was staying out of the way of controlled airspace, but because of my proximity to international, I thought it would be a good idea. We did pass right in front of another plane that was towing a banner. Hopefully that guy didn't get mad at us for being too close. He was about 300 ft below us, but I don't like to get that close to other planes.
We were about 10 miles out from Eagle Creek, just passing north of Downtown Indianapolis and I looked at the fuel gauge again. It was down to 8 gallons a side. I did not like to see this, and started thinking about the reasoning for this. Because the fuel gauges are powered (I assume), and the power was running low it seemed to create a false reading of the fuel tanks. However, at the time I was getting nervous that I had a fuel system leak.
I continued onward, hoping that because I had squawked 7600, that any in coming jet traffic would be aware of my condition. I hoped that Indianapolis ATC had communicated that detail with anyone that they were talking to near the Eagle Creek area. There wasn't anyone else in the pattern when we arrived luckily and I entered an extended base for 21. I didn't fly a normal pattern because I was nervous about the fuel gauges. I got the plane on the ground, taxied up to the FBO and told them about my predicament. We checked the fuel in the tanks and it was where it should have been. There was at least 20 gallons in each side. I tinkered with the switches a little bit and called the maintenance officer to see what I should do. He told me to put the plane back in the hanger.
I went to start the airplane and it just whined and turned the propeller about 45 degrees around. Clearly I didn't have electrical power. The line guys at Eagle Creek gave me a jump and I headed back to the hanger. In retrospect, there had been some squawks about the ammeter not showing a positive charge. We all assumed it was because the gauge wasn't calibrated, but it may have been something else. A "low volts" indicator would have been nice, but I don't know when it would have clicked on. I had enough power to start the engine at Mount Comfort, but not enough to use the radios 10 minutes later.
In other news, I did see the Pipersport aircraft at MQJ. It's the LSA that Piper is competing with the Cessna Sky Catcher. It has a pretty crazy looking non-steerable nose wheel, but other than that looks pretty sleek. We'll see what happens between those two (and all the others!).
Anyway, that's enough excitement for me. I'm not going to be flying for a while due to crappy weather in town, but I'll be getting back with John Oot to finish off my check out in the C182s pretty soon.
Coby and I took of at about 1 pm for Mt. Comfort (MQJ) and landed over there uneventfully. We stopped inside to get a microphone windscreen for the borrowed headsets. They always whistled and were pretty annoying because you could hear the passengers breathing. We said our good byes and headed back out to the plane.
I sat down in the plane and started my checklist for the next stop, which was going to be Post Air, a small runway on the east side of Indy. Turns out it was closed, so we continued on our course and headed down to Greenwood. The first indication that I knew something was wrong was when I transmitted on COM1. The system had trouble singling out my voice and the transmission didn't sound good. I couldn't hear the transmissions from anyone else and I noticed that all the LEDs on COM2 had gone out. This wasn't terrible, because COM2 was pretty old and shotty anyway. The next thing I noticed was the fuel tanks now showed half full. Considering we had flown about 30 minutes, they should not be half full, they should have had about 90% of their fuel in them. So, I was a little worried and immediately turned back to Eagle Creek.
I thought about contacting ATC at Indianapolis International, but I realized my COMs were completely useless now. I stayed below 2000 ft and changed my squawk from 1200 (default for VFR) to 7600 (the code for lost communications). This wasn't necessary since I was staying out of the way of controlled airspace, but because of my proximity to international, I thought it would be a good idea. We did pass right in front of another plane that was towing a banner. Hopefully that guy didn't get mad at us for being too close. He was about 300 ft below us, but I don't like to get that close to other planes.
We were about 10 miles out from Eagle Creek, just passing north of Downtown Indianapolis and I looked at the fuel gauge again. It was down to 8 gallons a side. I did not like to see this, and started thinking about the reasoning for this. Because the fuel gauges are powered (I assume), and the power was running low it seemed to create a false reading of the fuel tanks. However, at the time I was getting nervous that I had a fuel system leak.
I continued onward, hoping that because I had squawked 7600, that any in coming jet traffic would be aware of my condition. I hoped that Indianapolis ATC had communicated that detail with anyone that they were talking to near the Eagle Creek area. There wasn't anyone else in the pattern when we arrived luckily and I entered an extended base for 21. I didn't fly a normal pattern because I was nervous about the fuel gauges. I got the plane on the ground, taxied up to the FBO and told them about my predicament. We checked the fuel in the tanks and it was where it should have been. There was at least 20 gallons in each side. I tinkered with the switches a little bit and called the maintenance officer to see what I should do. He told me to put the plane back in the hanger.
I went to start the airplane and it just whined and turned the propeller about 45 degrees around. Clearly I didn't have electrical power. The line guys at Eagle Creek gave me a jump and I headed back to the hanger. In retrospect, there had been some squawks about the ammeter not showing a positive charge. We all assumed it was because the gauge wasn't calibrated, but it may have been something else. A "low volts" indicator would have been nice, but I don't know when it would have clicked on. I had enough power to start the engine at Mount Comfort, but not enough to use the radios 10 minutes later.
In other news, I did see the Pipersport aircraft at MQJ. It's the LSA that Piper is competing with the Cessna Sky Catcher. It has a pretty crazy looking non-steerable nose wheel, but other than that looks pretty sleek. We'll see what happens between those two (and all the others!).
Anyway, that's enough excitement for me. I'm not going to be flying for a while due to crappy weather in town, but I'll be getting back with John Oot to finish off my check out in the C182s pretty soon.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
My Recent Flying Opportunities - Why I Network
I've recently been introduced to a fellow pilot who is very fortunate to fly for business and pleasure and be afluent enough to fly very often. The first time I flew with him was in December to go out to Pennsylvania to pick up his son. The best part was that we got to fly in his Piper Malibu Turbo prop. I had a great time on that trip, and told him if he had any other trips to let me know.
Last Wednesday evening, at about 8:00 pm, the pilot called me. He would be flying out to Seattle and wanted to know if I would like to join as a co-pilot. He also invited Annie’s Dad who had introduced us. We both agreed and we were going to stay with Annie’s Uncle on Bainbridge island. We met the pilot at the Shelbyville airport at the hanger with the CitationJet1 and departed for Torrington, WY at about 6:30. We landed in Torrington, re-fueled and headed to Boeing Field in Seattle. It was dark when we landed, and I couldn’t see the 787, but I was looking for it.
We ended up staying in the hotel on Thursday night instead of heading to Bainbridge island via ferry because it would have been at 2:00 am local time before we arrived at the place we were staying. On Friday morning I sent Lindsay a bunch of text messages about how awesome it was and asked about work. She still wants to punch me in the face. I had a Mocha Latte at the first Starbucks, shopped at the pike street market and saw the fish throwers. After that we headed to the space needle and had lunch at the rotating restaurant. We took the Bainbridge ferry to the island in the evening for dinner and I hung out with Annie’s Family. (note, she was not there).
We left the following morning after lunch with the pilot’s son, daughter and future son-in-law. We arrived back home in Shelbyville at around 7:30 pm after a non-stop flight back.
Here are some details about the actual flights:
GEZ -> TOR: 3 hours and 10 minutes. 844.5 nautical miles
Not much to talk about here. I sat up front with the pilot in the co-pilot seat. We chatted about the airplane, turbine engines and such. He is a very interested individual and asked about N1 vs. N2 and which was fan and which was compressor and how limits for the rotating parts are determined and why the N1 limit is 101.5, but the N2 limit is only 100%.
TOR -> BFI: 2 hours and 50 minutes. 836.9 nautical miles
I actually sat in the back for this flight and let Bob Alonso sit up front. I took a sweet nap and work up during the approach over Seattle. It was unusually clear and the city lights were very bright.
BFI -> GEZ: 5 hours and 30 minutes. 1641 Nautical Miles
This flight was awesome. It was day time for most of the fight and the pilot hopped in the back from time to time and let me montitor the flight. I didn’t have to do a lot, but I did help with: Optimizing the %N1 for best fuel burn and range; monitoring ITT, Oil Temp/Pressure and do an RVSM Log (see below); answering radio calls and talking with ATC at Minneapolis, Denver Chicago, and Salt Lake City; watching for traffic and looking at the rocky mountains. It was pretty amazing.
An RVSM log is something that pilots have to do when the go into the Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum airspace above 29,000 ft. The previous separation between aircraft was 2000ft, and now it is 1000ft. A number of things need to be logged every hour to make sure that the instruments are behaving properly and you are truly at the correct altitude. Because the air is so thin, a minor change in the pressure outside that accounts for maybe 20 ft on the ground could make hundreds of feet of difference. Here is what is required to be logged:
- Altimeter settings
- Airspeed (True, ground and indicated)
- Fuel on board, fuel burn per hour and reserve fuel at landing
- location (nearest airport and altitude)
- Temperature outside
Last Wednesday evening, at about 8:00 pm, the pilot called me. He would be flying out to Seattle and wanted to know if I would like to join as a co-pilot. He also invited Annie’s Dad who had introduced us. We both agreed and we were going to stay with Annie’s Uncle on Bainbridge island. We met the pilot at the Shelbyville airport at the hanger with the CitationJet1 and departed for Torrington, WY at about 6:30. We landed in Torrington, re-fueled and headed to Boeing Field in Seattle. It was dark when we landed, and I couldn’t see the 787, but I was looking for it.
We ended up staying in the hotel on Thursday night instead of heading to Bainbridge island via ferry because it would have been at 2:00 am local time before we arrived at the place we were staying. On Friday morning I sent Lindsay a bunch of text messages about how awesome it was and asked about work. She still wants to punch me in the face. I had a Mocha Latte at the first Starbucks, shopped at the pike street market and saw the fish throwers. After that we headed to the space needle and had lunch at the rotating restaurant. We took the Bainbridge ferry to the island in the evening for dinner and I hung out with Annie’s Family. (note, she was not there).
We left the following morning after lunch with the pilot’s son, daughter and future son-in-law. We arrived back home in Shelbyville at around 7:30 pm after a non-stop flight back.
Here are some details about the actual flights:
GEZ -> TOR: 3 hours and 10 minutes. 844.5 nautical miles
Not much to talk about here. I sat up front with the pilot in the co-pilot seat. We chatted about the airplane, turbine engines and such. He is a very interested individual and asked about N1 vs. N2 and which was fan and which was compressor and how limits for the rotating parts are determined and why the N1 limit is 101.5, but the N2 limit is only 100%.
TOR -> BFI: 2 hours and 50 minutes. 836.9 nautical miles
I actually sat in the back for this flight and let Bob Alonso sit up front. I took a sweet nap and work up during the approach over Seattle. It was unusually clear and the city lights were very bright.
BFI -> GEZ: 5 hours and 30 minutes. 1641 Nautical Miles
This flight was awesome. It was day time for most of the fight and the pilot hopped in the back from time to time and let me montitor the flight. I didn’t have to do a lot, but I did help with: Optimizing the %N1 for best fuel burn and range; monitoring ITT, Oil Temp/Pressure and do an RVSM Log (see below); answering radio calls and talking with ATC at Minneapolis, Denver Chicago, and Salt Lake City; watching for traffic and looking at the rocky mountains. It was pretty amazing.
An RVSM log is something that pilots have to do when the go into the Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum airspace above 29,000 ft. The previous separation between aircraft was 2000ft, and now it is 1000ft. A number of things need to be logged every hour to make sure that the instruments are behaving properly and you are truly at the correct altitude. Because the air is so thin, a minor change in the pressure outside that accounts for maybe 20 ft on the ground could make hundreds of feet of difference. Here is what is required to be logged:
- Altimeter settings
- Airspeed (True, ground and indicated)
- Fuel on board, fuel burn per hour and reserve fuel at landing
- location (nearest airport and altitude)
- Temperature outside
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
October Wrap Up and November Plans
Guess who hasn’t updated in a while? ME!
I got the physical license about 5 weeks ago. Yeah, it had my last name printed incorrectly. Horray. I called the FAA and they sent me a new one in about a week. Efficient for Government work!
I haven’t been flying a lot, here is the list of flights I’ve made in the last month:
- I flew over to Muncie to pick up Erika Haskins and we went up to Rochester, IN for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. That was a fun flight. The way back was almost all at night and it was beautiful.
- I did the pilotnpaws flight mentioned below and saved 9 cute little puppies.
- I flew from EYE to SKY (Sandusky, OH) with 3 passengers to go to Cedar Point. Jonathan, Christine, Ann and I went up for a day riding roller coasters. It was really fun. On the way back we kept turning on the lights of airports with the pilot controlled lighting. Ahhh…tax payer dollars at work. In all reality, it is really nice to be able to do that and confirm where you are.
- After the Cedar Point trip on the 19th, I have only flown one other time. That was to take Kevin McCluskey and Jim Grady up for a ride. We flew over to Mt. Comfort, had them switch seats and then fly back. It was a good time. It was only about .7 hours on the Tach, but they both got a big kick out of it.
I have a couple of big flights planned for this month too. On Annie’s birthday I think I am going to fly up to the Muncie airport for dinner. There is a nice restaurant on the field there so it should be fun.
I got the physical license about 5 weeks ago. Yeah, it had my last name printed incorrectly. Horray. I called the FAA and they sent me a new one in about a week. Efficient for Government work!
I haven’t been flying a lot, here is the list of flights I’ve made in the last month:
- I flew over to Muncie to pick up Erika Haskins and we went up to Rochester, IN for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. That was a fun flight. The way back was almost all at night and it was beautiful.
- I did the pilotnpaws flight mentioned below and saved 9 cute little puppies.
- I flew from EYE to SKY (Sandusky, OH) with 3 passengers to go to Cedar Point. Jonathan, Christine, Ann and I went up for a day riding roller coasters. It was really fun. On the way back we kept turning on the lights of airports with the pilot controlled lighting. Ahhh…tax payer dollars at work. In all reality, it is really nice to be able to do that and confirm where you are.
- After the Cedar Point trip on the 19th, I have only flown one other time. That was to take Kevin McCluskey and Jim Grady up for a ride. We flew over to Mt. Comfort, had them switch seats and then fly back. It was a good time. It was only about .7 hours on the Tach, but they both got a big kick out of it.
I have a couple of big flights planned for this month too. On Annie’s birthday I think I am going to fly up to the Muncie airport for dinner. There is a nice restaurant on the field there so it should be fun.
I’m flying down to Evansville during Thanksgiving week in order to hang out with my grandparents and take my grandpa up flying over his land and such. I think he will love it. At least, I hope he loves it. He was my main motivation for getting in to flying again. I wanted to be able to fly down for thanksgiving and go up with them. Maybe we will fly over to Henderson, KY or something. We’ll see…
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