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Author Archives: tjflyingadventures
Landing at JFK
As some of you know, a couple of weeks ago, I tried to do a “Touch & Go” at JFK. I figured that due to Covid-19, the skies would be pretty empty and ATC would have plenty of time on their hands. That attempt did not work 🙁 The controller told me “Touch & Gos” were not allowed @ JFK without prior permission from the Port Authority.
So this past week, I decided, I would try to get permission. I didn’t really know who to call. So I started my research by looking up the JFK entry in the FAA Airport Facility Directory. The first line of the comments stated that JFK was a “Part 93 High Density airport”, which means it had special rules. But it didn’t state what the rules were. It did have the phone number of the airport manager. So I just called and asked. He told me to talk the manager at the control tower and gave me that number. When I spoke to the Control tower, they explained that “Touch & Gos” must be authorized by the Port Authority and gave me that number. However, the tower told me something interesting. While “Touch & Gos” require Port Authority permission, full stop landings (with a taxi back) does not require any special permission. He suggested that I do that and also suggested filing a flight plan as that would guarantee a clearance. So that would be my back up plan. But I did want to try to get the authorization.
So I called the Port Authority. They were helpful. But not cooperative. They told me that “Tough & Gos” are no longer permitted at JFK AT ALL 🙁 While I had them on the phone, I asked about landing fees. While most US airports have no landing fee, this was JFK. So the basic landing fee was $25. If you land between 3PM and 11PM, there is an additional $100 surcharge. Plus if you go to the FBO ramp, the FBO charges a ramp fee of ~ $50-100. So I decided I would go in the morning (to avoid the $100 surcharge) and just do a full stop taxi back to avoid the FBO fees …. This would make the fee only the flat $25 🙂
You can see how it went in this video:
Overall, I am glad I did it… because it is sort of a bucket list item. But there really are so many other scenic places to fly that are a lot easier to get to.
Cheers,
== T.J.==
Flying A Chandelle
Since most of the northeast is still on lockdown during Covid-19, there is still really nowhere to go. But it’s still a good time to fly and use this time to practice basic flying maneuvers. For this flight I decided to practice chandelles and a few approaches.
The first chandelle, I forgot to turn the screen camera on, so I wasn’t able to save it. However, the 2nd time I did it, I did have the cameras rolling. You can see for yourself in the Youtube video below”
After that, I did an instrument approach at KGBR airport. I flew the approach “OK” … But I made a couple of really rookie mistakes. First mistake was that I transmitted my position report on the wrong frequency. This was really painful for me because I usually laugh at those silly pilots when I hear others do this 🙁 Second mistake, which was worse, is that I bugged the wrong altitude on the autopilot so the VNAV descent didn’t happen as it should have. I was able to easily recover from both mistakes. But it just goes to show you really need to practice as often as possible.
Cheers,
== T.J.==
Practice Flight Over Rhode Island
Another exciting week of Covid-19 life (NOT)! This week was far from exciting. In fact, between working from home and only leaving the house for the occasional grocery run, it was quite boring.
As a result, I was eager to escape to the skies. Unfortunately, the rest of the country is still on lockdown. So there is really no place to go. But it is a perfect time to practice a bunch of flight maneuvers that I don’t normally do. For me, most of my trips are cross-country flying IFR, using autopilot and as much automation as is available in the Cirrus. So on this day, I decided to fly to Rhode Island. But do it entirely VFR and without autopilot and practice some old fashioned stick and rudder flying.
You can see some of the flight in this video:
Hopefully, we will get back to normal soon. I can’t wait to do a good, old fashioned $100 hamburger run 🙂
Cheers,
== T.J.==
Can You Fly During Covid-19?
Can you fly during Covid-19? For me, the answer is YES. But with a few precautions…
First, I realize that I am extremely lucky to even have the ability to make a judgement call on this. Some of my friends in Germany, don’t even have the option. But for me, I was more concerned about ensuring what I did was legal, safe, and moral during these challenging times.
So here is my rationale:
- My plane is a solo use plane. What I mean is that nobody other than me flies it or even has access to the hangar where it is parked.
- I can get from my home to the hangar without interacting with a single human being. (That is social distancing at it’s finest.)
- As far as fuel, I am resorting to self service fuel @ a near by airport (Sky Acres-44N) … Or if I do get full service fuel at KPOU, I ensure that I am more than 6 Feet away from the line guy. I don’t even touch the gas cap after he is done. Instead, I simply watch him closely to ensure that he closes the fuel cap properly.
- For the time being, I am not taking any passengers (other than my wife).
- Since there is nowhere that is truly safe to travel to right now, all of my flights are local flights. So I am practicing stick and rudder skills, instrument approaches and of course fine tuning my aerial photography skills!
In my humble opinion, these precautions make it sufficiently safe for me (and society).
So this weekend, I flew down the Hudson Corridor around New York City and had the idea to try a touch and go @ JFK. It didn’t quite work out the way I wanted…
You can see what happened in the video below:
Cheers,
== T.J.==
Flying a Lap Over Long Island
With all of the Covid-19 madness, Lisa and I have been working from home and literally staying in the house completely. Well… Except walking the dog and occasional grocery runs, while wearing gloves.
But we found a responsible way to go flying while adhering to the social. distancing guidelines. Since our plane is not flown by anyone else and also because it is parked in a private solo hangar, I feel this makes it safe for me to fly. As long I take a few basic precautions:
1. No passengers (other than Lisa and Lily)
2. No stops on the way to/from the airport so that we make no contact with other people
3. Maintain 6 FT distance from the line crew that fuels the airplane.
4. Use disposable, sterile gloves when touching any exterior surface that a line crew may touch, such as the fuel caps.
With these basic precautions, I feel totally safe to fly.
So today I want to share is a recap of my “Lap of Long Island” flight. Yes we flew a lap around Long Island. The entire flight was planned out in ForeFlight with more than a dozen different user defined waypoints. Then this flight plan was sent via bluetooth to the Garmin Perspective Plus avionics. The flight was mostly flown by autopilot plus a little manual intervention now and then ;-). Check out the Youtube video below to see for yourself.
Cheers,
== T.J.==
Flying The Hudson River Corridor
This weekend, I took a friend (Claire) on her first flight. The weather was perfect and I decided to take her on one my favorite sightseeing destinations, which is NYC Skyline as seen from the Hudson River.
The best way I have found to do this is the following the rules laid out by the FAA for the Hudson River Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA).
You can download a cool kneeboard cheat sheet that shows all of the frequencies and procedures from the FAA site here
You can see the video recap of the flight here:
Cheers,
== T.J.==
Landing in a Snowstorm
This week I had a really unusual flight. It started out as a simple VFR takeoff in clear blue skies. I was bringing the plane home to Poughkeepsie from maintenance in Danbury. Simple, short flight… Or so I thought… This was me in the hanger just before takeoff:
But the weather forecast looked a little sketchy. There was a squall line filled with snow and high winds west of Poughkeepsie. My weather briefing led me to think I could easily land in advance of that squall line reaching the airport.
Wow… Was I ever wrong. When I was ~ 15 miles out from Poughkeepsie, the tower controller told me conditions were deteriorating fast and the airport was going IFR. From there, things continued to get harder and harder.
First, while on ~8 miles out on the RNAV GPS 24 approach to runway 24, I had to get a “popup IFR clearance” from NY approach. Then, I had to declare a missed approach. This was my first REAL missed approach because I could not see the runway when I reached minimums on the RNAV 24.
But the squall line was moving fast, and I thought I could just hold at the missed approach point and then try it again. The second time worked … But it was quite possibly the toughest landing I have ever done! In fact, after I landed, I just stopped on the runway for a few minutes because I couldn’t see the taxiways. During the whole experience, I had cameras rolling … So you can see and hear for yourself in the video below:
After reviewing the footage, I realized how important it is to always be ready to go missed and the practicing proper IFR procedures. I didn’t do this one perfectly… (You might see a couple of my mistakes in the video… including flying the missed by hand instead of autopilot). But I sure learned on this flight!!
Cheers,
== T.J.==
My Puppy’s First Flight
Today was a historic day… It was my puppy’s first flight!
We tried last weekend for the first time… But she was terrified by the sound of the engine and so we just shut down and “called it a day”. During the week we bought “Mutt Muffs” for her, which you can see below (notice that Lisa insisted on them being Pink):
So after practicing at home we headed to the airport on Sunday morning. You can see how she did in the short Youtube video below:
Now that she has had her first flight, we need to find somewhere to go with a dog friendly hotel!
Cheers,
== T.J.==
Tail Number Changed & Grounded
I am grounded this weekend for a bunch of reasons (weather, good maintenance and bad maintenance) 🙁
First we are having a snowstorm in the Northeast and Lisa doesn’t want to go flying anywhere. She is very much a fair weather flyer.
Second, the FAA finally approved my request to change tail numbers! … I know it is little vain… But for each plane I have owned, I changed the tail number so that it ends in “Tango Juliet” … The first was N514TJ, the SR20 that I got my instrument rating on and really learned to fly in. N346TJ, which I spent ~ 900 hours in and explored the entire US and some of the Caribbean.
Having done this 3 times, I have figured out the process pretty well:
- You need to find a tail # you want that has not been assigned to anyone else at this site: FAA N Number Inquiry database
- You must reserve your desired N Number at this site FAA N Number Registry site
- After you have received written confirmation that your number has been reserved for you, then you have to submit a written request that your reserved N Number be assigned to a specific aircraft and specify the current tail number and aircrafts’ Make/Model/Serial #.
- Then you wait and wait and wait for the FAA to review your request and respond.
- After you have received the written authorization for assignment, then you can go to your favorite local A&P mechanic who can make the change.
- The change itself is more than just decals. The ELT has to be reprogrammed. The avionics have to be reprogrammed. The subscriptions to Garmin, Jeppessen and SiriusXM all have to be changed to the new tail number for everything to work.
- And of course you have to let your insurance company know…
But now, my latest plane has finally been christened as N547TJ !!
Unfortunately, I have not taken my first flight yet because I ran into an unusual maintenance problem. Last weekend, when I started the plane, I heard a loud pop and then smoke came out of the front of the hood. Naturally, I was a little panicked. While I was fumbling around looking for Engine fire emergency checklist, the smoke stopped and the engine gauges were all in the green. The only indication of anything wrong was a warning annunciator that said “Check Alt 2” …
I decided to to scrub the flight, shut down to be safe and call my mechanic. After describing the problem and showing him a couple of pics, he told me I had a dead Alt 2 and the plane was safe and legal to fly in VFR day conditions only as per the Pilots Operating Handbook (POH) as long as everything else was working properly. So I brought it to him to repair and do the tail number change at the same time. When the cowling was removed, here is what we saw:
A piece of the alternator somehow broke off and then shredded the belt! (In my Cirrus, Alt 1 is gear driven and Alt 2 is belt driven.) After experiencing this first hand, I got to thinking “what if this happened while I was in flight?” Luckily due to the brilliant redundant design, it would have been a safe outcome (of course other than the panic and terror of thinking you have an engine fire in flight) !!
So in the end, between maintenance and the snowstorm this weekend, I have been grounded. Hopefully, I will get the bird back in time for first flight next weekend.
Cheers,
== T.J.==