A Boring Monday

This past Monday was one of the most beautiful days I've seen around Indianapolis.  The forecast called for "abundant sunshine" and the meteorologists were correct.  I started my Rolls-Royce AE 3007 Line Maintenance course on Monday (I am the technical point of contact between Rolls-Royce and Cessna for the Cessna Citation X, which utilizes this engine).  This fact is only important because we get released from training at about 3:30 in the afternoon and that the customer training center is right next to KIND.  I got to see all of the Southwest B737s take off and land all day.  Of course there was a healthy representation from AA, UAL and DL.  And the inevitable Airtran...  Anyway, this inspired me to find somewhere to fly.  I texted my friend Beef, actually his name is Jeremy, but he got that nickname back in college at Rose-Hulman.  He said he would be waiting for me at the airport upon my arrival.  Beef lived in South Bend, so I got to fly to a new destination, KSNB.

The start of the flight was uneventful.  I flew up there via the OKK VOR and the GSH VOR.  The 172 doesn't have a GPS, but I did have a little handheld one I used for Hiking and Geo-Trecking back in the day.  I bring it along and program my route as a second source of information outside of my directional equipment.  It's a nice piece of equipment to have along.  I flew right by Grissom AFB and I got to see some of the neat planes they have on the ramp and at the museum from 7500'.  I called in to KSNB when I was about 23 miles out.  The vectored me in for a straight in to runway 36.  I made a great landing, and I remembered to enrich the mixture before my decent.

I stopped at Atlantic to find out that I didn't write down the unicom frequency and I had just pitched the Green Book in the back.  I idled out front for about 20 second and then decided to call the tower to ask.  Just as I did that the line guy hopped out from around the corner and parked me.  I had a nice experience at SBN, except that the "facility fee" was $40.  Ouch... Too bad it is the only FBO.

Beef picked me up and we went to the Heston Supper Club for dinner.  I saw something here I have never seen before.  There was a section of "combinations" that you could get for dinner.  The were the usual "surf and turf" type things.  But, under that item, it didn't list what the surf was.  Instead it was in the heading for the section.  It said "All combinations are served with choice of potato or vegetable, a soup or salad and an 8 ounce prime rib".  Now wait a second, are you telling me that this comes with a SIDE of Prime Rib?  I'm in.   I got the barnyard, which is a half slab of ribs, a 8 ounce prime rib and steak fries.  It was delicious, as you can see here:

Beef dropped me back at the airport and I preflighted, called Clearance Delivery and told them I was at the FBO, departing South Bend and heading toward Indianapolis via OKK.  I didn't bother going through GSH because it was only about 7 miles from KSBN. CD gave me a squawk code.  Just as I had they had finished the sentence, I was ready to roll, but remembered I hadn't removed the chalks.  I shut down the engine, hopped out, grabbed the chalks and then got back in and started her back up again.

I got my taxi clearance from tower and headed to runway 8R.  I took off without any issue but at about 500' agl, I looked at my transponder to make sure it was in ALT mode.  It was, but but it was also displaying 1200, which is NOT the squawk code assigned to me.  I called tower to ask what my code was again and then apologized for me being amateur.  He said something like "it happens to all of us".  I didn't really laugh because he just agreed I was being an idiot.

I flew on to OKK and watched  some large carrier type airplane to a couple of laps in the pattern at Grissom AFB.  It was really cool to see.  Granted, I could only see the lights and the call sign was non-descriptive.  But it was still neat to see.  When I was about 4 miles due east of KGUS, the carrier asked for a departure to Shelbyville, about 70 miles south.  I saw the carrier take off, turn north (presumably for the departure procedure) and then about 5 minutes later, I saw the same plane in front of me heading south.  I guess he was faster than my little C172.

I was soon passed off to Indianapolis Approach, and the following transfer took place:
Me - Indy Approach, Skyhawk 146K level at 6500'
ATC - November 146K, turn to heading 210, and uh... expect runway 14
(at this point in time, I became very confused but quickly realized what happened)
Me - Indy Approach,  my destination is Eagle Creek, I must not have been clear enough when talking to CD in South Bend
ATC - No problem, continue on current heading, altitude your discretion, maintain VFR
Me - blah blah blah.

This had not happened to me before, but it serves me right for not being clear to Clearance Delivery.  I was used to the controllers at Evansville (EVV) who just want to know what the direction of flight is because they don't offer flight following very far out.  It was a great trip, and I wish I had the funding to do that more often.  My next trip might be to fly down to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.  It will be me, Annie and Coby.  I'm excited.

My Easter Flight

On Easter Day, my parents and I flew out to St. Louis.  We left Indianapolis Metro (KUMP) at about 0715 Eastern.  The skies were clear and the winds aloft were about 25 kts on the nose.  We were in the Cessna 182, so our ground speed was still around 120 kts.   The first hour and 30 minutes were not very exciting, climbing up to 8500' using the KAP 140.  We used the GPS and followed it in to St. Louis via the STL VOR.  During the decent we passed right in front of the active runways at KSTL.  We got to see a regional jet taking off and then continuing over the top of us.  Neat to see from that perspective.

Easter was great.  We had Ribs and Chicken Marsala and other delicious foods.  I got to see my cousin Ryan, my step cousin Megan, my Aunt Sara, my Step-Uncle Grant and my Grandparents.  it was a neat little Easter.  I can't remember the last time I've seen the Aunt and Step-Uncle.  They all wanted to go up and fly with me, but it was really really windy on the ground.  In fact, the winds at take-off were 18 kts gusting to 23.  They were about 50 degrees off runway heading which, for those of you playing along at home equates to a 13.7 knot crosswind.  The Max demonstrated in a 182 is 15 kts.

dAnyway, we took off and headed south around KSTL.  We went about 2 miles north of the St. Louis arch and engaged the KAP 140 to take us back to 7500'.  We got a hefty tailwind and our ground speed was nearing 175 kts.  On the decent into Indianapolis, we hit 178 kts, which is quite impressive for a Skylane.  But, ground speed isn't a good measure when you aren't actually attached to the ground.  I made a pretty good landing at KUMP given the 15+kt winds on the ground and made the realization that I had officially been the pilot of an airplane going over 200 mph.  But only ground speed, with a 30 kt tail wind.  Whatever, I'll take it.  Bring it on Mooney Acclaim.

Perfection Isn't Required

Maybe it's just me, but perfection isn't necessary. As pilots, we strive to be perfect, to make the perfect landing, to have textbook communication on the radio and to track the 036 degree radial without fault. I'm here to say, at least to suggest that we are allowed to make mistakes.

Now now now, don't get all upset at me for saying that. I'm not suggesting that are careless.  But obviously, when you make a mistake, it must be recognized, analyzed and corrected. This to me, in short, is what learning how to fly is really about. Even if you have your pilot certificate, from Private to ATP, you are always learning. I would hope that there are things that I know as a pilot that some pilot, with over 10,000 hours wouldn't know. What do you think? Do you have a golden nugget of knowledge that would benefit pilots?  Oh course, we all have stories to share, experiences we've had or wish we hadn't, but everyone of these should be shared. The more awareness of events pilots can glean off of others the better equipped we become.

Some of these things can be from personal experiences, for instance: When landing on runway 26 at Sky King Airport in Terre Haute, Indiana with winds out of the south west, there can be some pretty crazy wind obstruction from the hangers just south of the runway.

Another, more general lesson learned for me happened recently.  We all know that in cruise we should lean the engine to reduce the fuel flow and optimize the mixture.  Of course, before the decent the pilot must advance the mixture to rich.  This prevents the engine from cutting out when the air gets denser and more fuel is required to sustain combustion.  Here is a little tip I learned.  Don't forget to enrichen the mixture.  After a couple thousand feet of decent, the engine will hiccup and your passenger will not be pleased.

In summary, pilots aren't perfect.  We are always learning.  Don't be afraid to make mistake. And finally, if you don't feel you are learning from these mistakes, cut up your pilots license and try a new hobby.

My Girlfriend and My Dog

I went for a really great flight yesterday. Probably the best one I had in a long time. Probably the best one since I flew at night for the first time. While the actual flight was uneventful, the experience was fantastic. Annie, Bo (the dog) and I went up to Muncie (MIE) from Eagle Creek (EYE). Bo and Annie were both kind of nervous at first but the both settled in. Bo took a nap after looking out the windows for a while. He wasn't happy to stay in the plane when Annie and I ate dinner at Kacy J's on the field at Muncie, but he was rewarded with a slice of pizza when we got back to the plane.

The flight back was at night, and Annie was loving it. She took a little nap on the way there like Bo, but played on the iPhone on the way back. It was good for her to be a little bit more relaxed. We landed without any issue, fueled up and taxied back to the hanger. A good flight, 1.5 on the hobbs and a good meal in the stomach.

Now, despite what you may think, this is not what I wanted to post about here. I want to discuss a great organization called Pilots-n-Paws. Any pilots, even just volunteers, can go to their website and sign up on the forums. I've done two rescue flights for PilotsNPaws. One was a rescue flight of 9 little puppies. The photos are at the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pilotsnpaws.lauer.magadanz/101109FirstPilotsNPawsMission

The second rescue was basset hound named Bo. Not the same Bo that I have, that's pictured above and is half Shar-Pei and half Yellow Lab, but another Bo. This Bo was huge. About 85 lbs. He had yeast infections in his ears and smelly smelly farts. None the less, he was being rescued. I flew him from Eagle Creek to Hopkinsville, KY. His new owner/best friend was there to meet us. He was an older guy clearly looking for a good friend. I knew immediately it was a good match.

I really want to do some more rescues this summer, and I'm sure I will. Until them, I urge every reader to check out the website and sign up for the forums. You won't regret it!

The Next Step in My Training - Complete

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...