Better Beee's

Today was a near-carbon copy of the last flight, except the air was smooth and things went better this time. We started out with a "simulated Zero-Zero" takeoff, which was fun and scary all at the same time. When the mains broke free of the ground, I experienced a vertigo type sensation as I pitched for best angle climbout speed. Why someone would takeoff on instruments is beyond my current comprehension, but we are "allowed" to do it according to the FAR's.

We flew more pattern B today, this time with the autopilot added in for fun. More review of compass turns, my instructor forgot his suction cups so no partial panel for me this lesson. We finished the lesson with a full VOR-A approach back to Willow Run. Here is a picture of my first procedure turn (the fish hook looking part of my GPS track at the top of the image), the white ruler line is showing the "remain within 10miles radius".


Felt alot better today! Altitudes, headings, VOR radials, speeds, seemed to work together. Got fixated a few times, but for the most part my practice with scanning is helping. Started working on the MARTHA memory aid (Missed Approach, Radios, Time, Heading, Altitude) for setting up and flying an approach.

Next up will be more partial panel practice, filing and flying multiple low approaches to airports in the vicinity (Lansing, Jackson, Flint, Pontiac, or Detroit City). Fun stuff!

Time this flight: 1.4
Total Time: 149.9
Simulated Logged: 1.2

Airplane Photo Series (3) Vintage Wings

Going old school. A coworker had old newspapers laying around, so I scrounged through them to look for any aviation content. I have enough images for another 2 blog posts, so I will continue the "Airplane Photo Series" using them in the near future.

The photo is from the Detroit Free Press dated Sunday, May 10, 1931 and the caption reads "General Motors provides luxurious aerial transportation in the product of its affiliated company, Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America. At right is shown a compartment of the Fokker F-32 with accomodations for 30 day passengers or 16 sleeping berths. This giant of the air has baggage rooms, lavatory, kitchenette and pilots' control rooms. Below is an exterior view of this four-motored Fokker ready to take off and cruise at the rate of 120 miles an hour."

Let's go find some wiki-info: It has four engines, on two nacelles! The front engine swings a two bladed prop, and the rear engine (in a pusher configuration) swings a three bladed prop. It had problems with cooling as well as inefficient thrust production from the rear engine. Only ten of these aircraft were made in Teterboro, NJ (maybe there were 7 production + 3 prototypes?). It was the first four engined aircraft designed and built in the US, and completed it's maiden flight in 1929

Here is a more illustrative picture from Wikipedia:

Instrument Lesson #4: Pattern B

"Thanks for getting me frazzled today" I told my instructor. "I'm an instructor, that's what I do" he replied with a grin as he helped me push the Cherokee back into the hangar after today's flight.

Today was a bumpy mess of a flight from where I was sitting. Maybe the continuous turbulence was enhanced by my view limiting devices, it was a challenge enough to keep the wings level with all the available instruments ... and then my CFII starts pulling out these suction cup things to make me "lose my vacuum pump"... yikes!

We flew a short review of the previous lesson, and then we got into Pattern B which is a series of segments flown in series to practice the different components of instrument flight (course reversal, final approach course, missed approach, etc). The big monkey wrench that gets thrown in between Pattern's A and B is the addition of altitude and speed changes.

Next we reviewed the whiskey compass, and its ummm let's call them "quirks". Lag north, lead south, accelerate north, decelerate south. I know all this stuff from book learning. Putting it to good use in the cockpit, is a completely different story. More practice needed here.

Then came the sticky things, my attitude indicator and directional gyro grew suction cups and it was partial panel practice time. This included climbing turns and descending turns and a practice VOR-A approach back to Willow Run.

Basically I feel like I got my ass handed to me. More practice needed in all areas. The one good part was that I pretty much have all my pitch/power combo's memorized. My next goal is to optimize my scan for the different conditions that are asked of me, straight and level I can do no problem, constant speed descending timed turn is not all there yet.

Here is the path of flight, you can pick out the Bravo pattern at the beginning, and the VOR-A approach at the end (crossing Salem VOR).

My instructor wrote something in his notes at the start of the lesson, and told me that everyone says "this" at this point in the training. I ended up not saying "it", so we agreed to save it until the next lesson. If you know what "this" is DON'T TELL ME! I want it to be a surprise :D

I told him I want to practice more, he said "that's not it".

Time this flight: 1.3
Total Time: 148.5
Simulated Logged: 1.1

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