Life isn't all about flying...redux

Sulako over on Sulako's Blog had a recent yummy post about his foodie interests that might be considered even more dangerous than aviation.

In that spirit, I will share some pictures from a "hobby" of mine that is both exciting and not without risk. This is a shot of me on my (almost classic/vintage) 1995 CBR 600F3 navigating turn 8 aka "Madness" at Mid-Ohio raceway at a track day in June. This was my third track day (2nd at Mid-Ohio) and I have two more planned for this summer. It is absolutely, without any doubt whatsoever, the most fun you can have on two wheels.
Even though there are not many instruments to scan, I find it a bit like my IR training... set the condition, verify the desired performance. Brake to corner entry speed, get the knee out, establish the turn, make adjustments with throttle (not too much!, scrape your knee puck a bit, look for your exit point, and roll out on your new heading :D
Knee pucks after a good day at Mid-Ohio

In the pit area between sessions.

Keeping night currency

This past weekend I scheduled the Warrior from 9pm until 11pm with the intention of getting my required 3 takeoff and landings 1 hour after sunset to remain night current. I ended up flying to Mettetal to pick up my mom-in-law for some nightseeing. She had a hunch about the sky reflecting on the lakes after the sun set, and so we launched into the air at the end of "civil twilight" to test her theory. A Cessna 172 taxied out in front of us and announced "remaining in the pattern". After the Cessna performed a go-around on her first approach we departed to the west. A waxing moon joined us as we chased the fading light, and sure enough the lakes west of Detroit could be picked out easily amongst the rest of the terrain. People were shooting off fireworks, at one location in particular the flashes looked like the strobes on an aircraft, and so I made a heading adjustment for an airplane that wasn't there. We circled around Whitmore Lake and made note of the car traffic on US-23 and more post-July 4th fireworks.

As we returned to Mettetal we could hear the Cessna still in the pattern, the huge expanse of lights that is the Metro Detroit "lightscape" helping to make a task of picking out the rotating beacon at our destination. As I manuevered to join the pattern, and locate the Cessna it got me thinking about how the night currency "thing" works. The pilot in the Cessna was doing it correct according to the rules, and so was I. Hopping in your plane and taking three trips around the pattern may satisfy the FAR requirement, but I gotta believe it won't help you stay a good night time pilot. Actually watching the horizon go away as the sun's last rays were extinguished, was a good reminder about how important your instruments are. Picking out the beacon among city lights was a good challenge, trying to spot traffic at the airport was another. There are more challenges to night flight than just runway illusions right?

It may sound kind of crass, but I'd like to think I got more out of my night time currency practice than the other pilot. Maybe the FAR's should require more from us than just buzzing around the patch a few times? How do you stay night current?

Total time: 147.2
Total night time: 14.8
Total night landings: 35

Instrument Lesson #3: Timing turns and bit of Alpha

The picture below is my GPS track from tonight's lesson. My direction of flight along the loop is "up" on the track starting in the middle of the picture, and we are headed "down" the part of the track to the right of center. Most of the early part of the flight was trying to test how accurate the turn coordinator is in my aircraft. We would do timed turns using the clock and turn coordinator then check it against how much turn we actually achieved on the directional gyro. From all this we arrived at the bank angles necessary for standard and half standard rate turns.

Once the bank angles were known, we flew elements of the "Alpha" pattern. The alpha pattern is flown at one altitude, and is meant as a practice of the different types of turns a pilot might be asked to perform in the IFR environment: holding patterns, course reversal, and procedure turns for example. Next time, my instructor wants to do the Bravo pattern, which is the same type of thing except with altitude changes to simulate approach type maneuvers.

I recently purchased a set of yoke and rudders by CH Products, to be used for flight sim practice. It is my hope that I can practice on my off days, so that my lessons can be as productive as possible.

I took a friend from work up flying this past week, I am working on getting the HD video he shot during the flight uploaded into a future post.

Time this flight: 1.4
Total Time: 145.7
Simulated Logged: 1.1

EAA pancake breakfast and airplanes

Went to the annual Father's day fly-in / EAA pancake breakfast at my old stomping grounds. Belly full my wife and I walked the ramp snapping pics of cool planes. My wife commented that the Piper Aerostar pictured below looked like it could "get you where you need to go fast"... indeed.

This particular example is a 1982 Aerostar 602P (fun fact: it is sometimes called the Sequoya). It has two Lycoming 540's, is one of 124 built, and is a mid-wing cantilever monoplane.


Couldn't find too much info about this plane except that it is a kit plane, called the "Express 2000", and it has a Continental 550 out front. Coupled with the sleek shape and composite construction, it's not hard to imagine that this puppy scoots!

My old cell phone is gone, it has been replaced by the new 3GS iPhone. The latest flying related app I picked up is called "Airports" by AOPA (in cooperation with the folks at ForeFlight).

IFR training lesson #2

The only thing that I can compare the mental game being played while scanning a panel in simulated instrument flight, is to my early days of riding a motorcycle on the street... what is about to happen next?! I can remember then, being mentally exhausted from playing the game "who is trying to kill me now?". I know now that not every person I am sharing the road with is actively trying to kill me, and my mental games are much more tuned to the point that I can enjoy riding. So I think it will be with instrument flying, right now it feels like overload... but with practice I am confident I can relax and "love the scan".

Yesterday's flight was performed entirely hidden from view by "JeppShades" (review forthcoming) from 5 minutes into the flight until on a 1 mile final for landing. My instructor had me perform straight and level, constant rate climbs and descents, constant speed climbs and descents, and permutations of those with turns thrown in for fun. We would stabilize every 15 minutes or so, and he would have me peak at the wet compass to reset the directional gyro (whose accuracy degrades over time, and with turning). We performed standard rate and half standard rate turns. To prove the point about why turns are done at standard rate, he had me do two steep turns ( a left 360, followed by a right 360) to demonstrate that your inner ear sets up a confusing dialogue with your brain after cranking and banking. We also flew slow flight into a power off stall and recovery.

The sensations of flying while wearing a view limiting device can be really weird, but apart from not being able to keep track of where we were (by looking out the window, or on a GPS display) I felt pretty good about how the entire flight went. I will be striving to improve my scan in climbing and descending turns, as these proved to be the most tricky manuever of the day.

On the return to the airport, my instructor set up the radios and had me make the calls while he gave me altitude and heading assignments to simulate ATC calls. "Okay flip your foggles up" and it was reassuring to see the runway straight out in front of the nose.

Time this flight: 1.1
Total Time: 142.8
Simulated Logged: 0.9

Product Review: Piloti Spyder SV "Flying" shoes

Ok ok, these are not really flying shoes. What they are, is a pair of Spyder SV driving shoes by Piloti, which I have bought to use while flying. I have a soft spot in my heart for this brand of shoe because the company founder is a product designer (like myself) and so I have always wanted to "reward" him for his entreprenuerial spirit. Although he may not have meant this shoe to be used in this particular context, I hope he appreciates the purchase nonetheless.

This model comes in different color schemes, I chose stylistic black. The shoe seems very well put together in terms of stitching and materials, only time will tell about its ultimate durability inside and out of the airplane.

One of the reasons I like this shoe is the rounded heel shape, which helps keep your feet comfortable when resting on the floor, or pressed against the rudder pedals, and the grippy tread (which has a vaguely 1960's Formula 1 race tire tread feel to them) works great when your feet are active on the pedals working a crosswind correction.
A unique feature specifically meant for driving is a patch of the bottom tread than runs up the outside edge of the right shoe (but not the left) which is meant for better "heel & toe" shifting. No telling if this helps making better yaw adjustments to the right!

The shoes have one big stretchy lace than is pulled up through this spring loaded tension device. They slip on very easy with the help of a large heel pull tab. I suspect it might be bad to use these shoes as everyday footwear because of the minimal arch support, but I cannot complain as they are marketed as driving shoes.

Summary: I am glad to now have these shoes in my "flight bag", they work as well in the cockpit as they do in the pre-flight walk around. They are lightweight (every bit of useful load counts right?) as well as stylish, and have plenty of functionality to justify using them over a regular set of tennis shoes. $59.94 shipped from Amazon to your front door.

Foggles optional = logging actual

Well I got my wish! The cowl latches stayed latched, and the forecast storms stayed well off to the southwest of Fort Wayne (KFWA) which was the destination for my first instrument lesson. I had previously indicated to my CFII that I wanted to do a non-standard first lesson, and actually fly an IFR flight. We did a pre-flight briefing of the clearance, what to expect on the radios, the concept of the instrument scan, and a summary of the syllabus for my instrument training.

After a standard aircraft pre-flight, we taxied out and I prepared to copy my first IFR clearance. Surprise! the route we received was not the route filed, so I took extra care to make sure my readback was correct. I got to hear new things through my headset like "position and hold, awaiting IFR release"... cool!

Soon after switching to Detroit departure on climbout, my CFII had me don the famous "Foggles" view limiting device and I got down to the business of setting up my radial scan. It quickly became evident that the attitude indicator (which goes mostly unused for VFR flight) was going to be unreliable in communicating bank information, so I ended up getting a good intro to instrument cross check and partial panel flying.

Not long after switching over to Toledo approach, my instructor says "why don't you take the foggles off" lo and behold we were in the clouds and I was able to log actual instrument time. Fort Wayne was IFR when we arrived and we were vectored for the ILS runway 5 approach. One touch-and-go later, we were winging our way back to Willow Run with a new clearance and a new cruise altitude. Back into the clouds for some more actual, and it was night by the time we landed back at KYIP.

So ended a truly memorable first instrument flight! Flying in clouds, was both exhilarating and humbling at the same time. So much to learn, new skills to acquire, knowledge to retain. I got home and couldn't sleep for awhile I was so excited.

Time this flight: 2.7
Total Time: 141.7
Actual Logged: 0.8
Simulated Logged: 0.8

My new flying shoes worked very well, pics and a review forthcoming.