Author Archives: tjflyingadventures

Photo Opps And Dodging Airspace

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Today was one of those traditional $100 hamburger days. An IBM colleague of mine (Richard) was visiting from Spain. He has heard me rave about flying for years and I thought today was the perfect day to show him firsthand.
The plan was either to fly to Key West or Palm Beach, both of which are gr8 $100 Hamburger destinations. When Richard learned that Disney was right on the way to Palm Beach, the decision was clear. He had just bought a new camera and was eager to try it out en route over Disney. However, I warned him that there is a temporary flight restriction (TFR) over Disney, which may hamper the photo opportunities.
Interestingly, the Disney TFR is not so temporary. In fact, it seems to be a permanent restriction that prohibits all aircraft from surface to 3000 FT. (I guess Mickey doesn’t want anybody buzzing Cinderella’s Castle).
But I had a trick up my sleeve that I was hoping would result in a legal way to get into that TFR airspace.
When we were ready for takeoff at Tampa Executive there was a broken cloud layer @ ~ 5000 FT. We climbed through a nice big whole in the clouds @ ~ 1000 FT/min and enjoyed a smooth ride at 5500.

Now it was time to setup for my TFR trick. The Kissimmee Airport has an instrument approach procedure (RNAV GPS 15), which cuts right through Disney’s TFR!  As long you get the appropriate clearances from ATC, you can get low enough to get some gr8 views of Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Downtown Disney.  We got cleared down to 2300 FT, which was comfortably below the clouds and enabled Richard to put his new camera to the test.
After our Disney flyby, we went missed approach on the procedure and continued direct to Flagler County Airport , where we had lunch @ Hijackers.  On the way back, we had more airspace to deal with.  The restricted area just north of Orlando was active and the Orlando approach frequency was too busy for us to pick up flight following or even a clearance into class B.  As a result, we climbed through another  “whole in the clouds” to get on top of the class B @ 10,500 FT.  After clearing the Orlando airspace, we needed to descend and fortunately found another nice big whole in the clouds.  In order to maintain VFR, we needed to do some steep turns and 360s to make it through the whole.
Then moments later, we actually saw a skydiver near Zephyr Hills under a bright red canopy!
So in the end, Richard still needs a lot of practice with his new camera.  But as you can see, overall mission accomplished for today!
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Annual Done! Cleared for Takeoff!!

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As promised, the guys at Leading Edge came through and finished the annual today right on schedule! Reminds me of the old A-Team quote “I love it when a plan comes together” 😉
So now it is time to turn my attention to planning the next journey.  Tomorrow, I am planning to go to the EAA Fly-In in Vero Beach, FL with a couple of friends.  While Fly-Ins are always fun, this one has a special twist.
My friend Anupam, who is a pilot and Cardinal owner, is also going to the same fly-in.  So we have decided to attempt a brief formation flight.  (Not a true formation flight… More of an aerial photo shoot)
My route is shown below:

This is a very short 113 nautical mile trip… (But that does not count the detour for formation work.)
Anupam’s Cardinal is based in Plant City Airport.  So we can’t do a true formation takeoff.  Instead, my plan is to rendezvous with N-29LK in a holding pattern over the Winter Haven Airport.  Why there you ask… First, it is sort of on the way.   Second, it is clearly between Tampa and Orlando’s class B airspaces, which means we won’t need to worry about ATC clearances.  Third, it is in a scenic area with lots of lakes that should make for a good photo opp.
I read up on formation flying and found that there were surprisingly few rules constraining this activity.  The basics are laid out in FAR 91.111.  However, there is a bunch of training material available about how to do it well and do it safely.
Our plan is rather simple.  We will fly at prearranged altitudes (with 500 FT separation) until we can see each other.  Then establish radio contact on the 122.75 frequency.  I used to think that 123.45 was the appropriate air-to-air frequency.  But it is NOT.  While 123.45 is usually quiet, it is definitely NOT designated for this type of conversation. The correct frequency is either 122.75 or 122.85.
After we have established visual and radio contact, then we will proceed “together” to Vero Beach (of course with a few maneuvers for the camera)
Hopefully, I will be able to post some cool photos and/or videos tomorrow.
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Annual Drama

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After last week’s “heavy flying” week, this was a no flying week (except for JetBlue).  I needed to be in New York for some IBM business.  As usual, I felt the urge to multi-task and decided that this was the perfect week to get the annual inspection done on the Cirrus.  The annual is not due till next month … But since I was out of town anyway, I thought it was the perfect timing.  Besides… I would feel much more comfortable going to the WFIF event next month with a fresh annual.

Luckily, the folks at Leading Edge were able to accommodate my last minute request and said they “hoped” to finish by Friday “depending on what they find”.  Like many aircraft owners, the annual inspection usually strikes fear in my heart.  While the plane has no known squawks, who knows what they will find when they start taking things apart.  Worse yet, who knows how much will it cost!
So when I returned home to Tampa today, I called the folks at Leading Edge to see how it was going…
This is what they showed me:
While the picture was downright painful for me to see, they told me some gr8 news!!  After the complete annual inspection, the only material item that needed attention was the left main tire, which needed to be replaced.  As you can see, they were almost done with that today:

By tomorrow, they tell me that it will be washed and back in my hanger.
That is absolutely perfect timing…. On Saturday, I am planning to go to the EAA fly-in in Vero Beach and on Sunday I am planning to do an Angel Flight from Pensacola to Miami for 2 year old boy that needs to get to Miami Children’s Hospital.
So overall, my anxiety is greatly relieved and I can happily say … “Another year’s annual drama done!!”

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Early Morning Commute

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Normally, I work from home… But today was different.  A number of my IBM colleagues were in Miami today.  Since they were “in the neighborhood”, I felt compelled to go work from Miami for the day.
In typical IBM fashion, I have grown accustomed to collaborating with colleagues from around the world, who I rarely ever meet face to face.  So today was truly a rare treat!
I arrived at the Tampa Executive Airport early (even before the line guys were there) and began to do a pre-flight inspection.

Doing a Preflight in the dark is a bit of a challenge.  I walk around with a small flashlight and try to be extra careful.  After a clean checklist, it was time to taxi out
Since the ATIS reported clear skies and tame wind, I took off VFR.  Takeoffs in the dark are a little like takeoffs in IMC, which is not that difficult.  But you have to be “on the instruments”!  Shortly after takeoff I picked up IFR with Tampa approach and they gave me a fairly direct routing to Kendall-Tamiami Airport @ 7000FT.  While enroute, the sun came up just left of the nose.  I tried hard to capture the sunrise on camera:

I landed a few mins before 730… Just in time for my friend Reinaldo to pick me up and get to the office in time for our first meeting!  Luckily the runway was not lined up directly to the sun.
After a packed day filled with meetings, I now have a major dilemma.  Do I fly home right after work or stay for dinner and do a really late night flight home?  Hmmm…What a tough choice…
Any suggestions?
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Heading Home VFR

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Today the weather in Houston was not bad… But the weather forecast along my route home and in FL was downright ugly.
Fortunately, PIREPS showed a lot of the weather did not have very high tops along my route.  So my plan was to depart VFR, climb up to 17.5k and if needed get an IFR clearance for the descent or along the way.  In addition, I knew the route quite well, including several possible fuel stops if things didn’t look good.  Shortly after takeoff, I climbed to 17.5k as planned.  Then benefited from a very strong tailwind that was even better than forecast.  Thanks to some miserly fuel consumption, I made it all the way to Ocala!  Since there was a solid cloud deck below me, there was not many photo opportunities.  However, the descent was rather interesting.
I wanted to try to maintain VFR, which involved doing a rapid descent (full forward slip) right through a good sized “hole in the clouds”.  After descending to 3500 FT, Jax Center cleared me for the GPS 18 approach.  The ATIS claimed winds “170@11Gusting18”.  I thought to myself “that was pretty good… Should be an EZ landing”.  When I was on final approach, the tower controller called out a wind check of “170@18Gusting24”.  I thought “hmmm… little worse… But no need to abort”… Then I checked my R9 screen when I was on 1 mile final and it read “175 @ 30”!  Clearly this was the strongest headwind I had ever faced on a landing.  I considered aborting the landing…  But I was on minimum fuel and the plane “felt” stable and under control.  So I proceeded in what felt like slow motion.  Even with 19″ inches of manifold pressure, my ground speed was hovering ~ 70 kts.  I landed right on the numbers and felt like I barely used half of the runway.  In fact, I had to add power on the ground just to get up to the E6 taxiway.
I had purposely picked Ocala as a stopping point because it was a good excuse to catch up with Jason Schappert of MZeroA.  I was hoping to grab a quick meal and squeeze in a “brainstorming session”, as often happens when Jason and I start talking.  But I got a pleasant surprise today… I got to meet his charming, new bride Ashley! (Now I have even more reason to stop in Ocala!!)
Onto the final leg home.  The weather was deteriorating and luckily I was able to get out of Ocala ahead of the cold front.

The winds had not provided any mercy… I had 30kt headwind from 170.  This meant that I should land on the “short” 3200′ runway 18 at Tampa Executive.  This was entirely unusual for me.  I am much more accustomed to landing at big airports with 5,6 or even 10000 FT runways. Tampa Executive airport has 2 runways.  Runway 5-23 is a 5000 FT runway, which I use 95% of the time and runway 18-36 is a 3200 FT runway.  Given the choice of a massive X-wind on the long runway or a strong headwind on the short runway, I chose the “short” 3200 FT runway 18.
The landing was uneventful… But I am glad I arrived when I did… Because after landing, putting the plane in the hanger, and returning some calls, this is what I saw on the drive home:

Just goes to show, timing and weather are way more important than any flight planning!
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Trip To TX

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The trip to Houston this past Sunday happened “almost” as planned.  On the one hand, it reaffirmed my flight planning/route selection process.  But on the other hand, it reinforced the need for flexible plans enroute.   when I was getting ready to depart, I thought the weather was “perfect”.  Shortly after takeoff the visibility (and views) were great:
While there was not a cloud in the sky, something just didn’t feel right…  After reaching a cruising altitude of 16k, I noticed what it was.  There was a nasty 50+ knot headwind.  See what I mean:
Despite a true airspeed of 186 @ 75% power, my groundspeed was hovering ~ 140 knots!  At this rate, the 2hr planned leg would surely be much longer.  But what can you do?  “Nothing!” I concluded other than “Plan B”, which is just find some good music and relax…  Unfortunately, the satellite radio had its own plans.  After about 10 mins of flipping channels and not finding anything, I resorted to Plan C: Iphone4 plugged into Aux input of the Zulu headset:
It was at this point, I discovered a really cool feature of the Zulus… When ATC speaks on the frequency, the Zulus do NOT mute the music.  Instead, it reduces the volume by 80%.  This may not sound all that significant.  But I found it to be such much more pleasant than the typical hard mute!  After a much longer than planned flight, I landed in Bay Minette, AL for lunch and a break and then went on to Houston.  Thankfully, the headwinds were  quite tame for the 2nd leg!  But since I was running, I ended up skipping Galveston.  Maybe I will stop there on the way home…  (Even better maybe I can ride a massive tailwind home!)

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Night Currency

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The FAA has a bunch of currency requirements for all US pilots.  

The basics are as follows:

  • For VFR Private Pilots: 3 takeoffs/landings every 90 days
  • For Instrument rating: 6 instrument approaches (+ intercepting/tracking/holding) every 6 months 
There are more detailed nuances… But, I won’t bore you with the details.
Since I am a very active pilot, I usually don’t even think about the currency requirements listed above.
However,”night currency” is a different story.  While I have plenty of daytime hours, I have rather little night experience.  To stay night legal/current to carry passengers, the FAA requires 3 takeoffs and full stop landings at night, which is defined as sunset + 1 hour within the prior 90 days.  I go out of my way to ensure that I stay current @ night. Candidly, it is the only currency requirement that I need to actively go out of my way to maintain.
Tonight was a beautiful, clear night with sunset being @ 5:43 PM.  This made for perfect timing for a night currency flight.
Here I am preparing for takeoff (all by myself  ~5:30 PM waiting for the “right” time to takeoff):

Notice that both my landing light and my flashlight are on!

While I was waiting for the “right” time to take off,  I went to check out the Met Life Blimp, which is probably in town for the Outback Bowl on Saturday.

With so many blimps coming to Tampa lately, I feel like a connoisseur.  This one was MUCH smaller than last week’s DirecTV blimp and (even seemed to have half the support staff). One of these days, I am going to find a way to get a ride on one!

Finally, it was time for departure (6:43PM that is).  The plan was simple… First fly to Lakeland, which is the home of Sun N Fun, and a perfect place for routine training/practice.  They have a control tower, a giant 9000 FT runway and a variety of instrument approaches that would keep any instructor entertained.  Best of all, other than the 2 weeks around Sun N Fun, this a sleepy, little airport the rest of the year.  The tower controllers are usually bored and seem downright excited when there is traffic in the area.  While I didn’t need to do any approaches tonight, I decided to shoot the GPS 27 anyway on the first landing.  You can never fly enough approaches.  I find that it hones your piloting skills to have the little triangles on the screen act as almost a scorecard.  First landing was decent …

After a full stop and taxi back, I planned to head VFR northbound ; Do the second landing @ Zephyr Hills, then the final landing back home @ Tampa Exec.)

Unfortunately, the camera was running low on battery after the first landing… So I decided to conserve battery to capture the final landing @ Tampa Exec, which you can see here:

Overall, with my new Mac, I am learning how to edit video better… But obviously I have not learned how to keep the camera charged! 😉

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Skywriting Results

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The weather was slightly better today.  But still not good enough for regular VFR flying.  The ATIS showed Winds 310 @ 8, Overcast layer @ 300 FT.  The only good news was that the fog and low clouds were expected to burn off later in the day.  We reviewed the plan and waited for some weather improvement. Our improvised flight plan was as follows:

We had every turn mapped out and by the time we were ready to go, the weather had improved to 500 Overcast.  Since that was still not that great, I filed IFR and we took off northbound.  After breaking out on top of the clouds between 5000 and 6000FT we canceled IFR and began to get in position, which was ~ 10 miles west of Crystal River @ 6500 FT on a heading of 090.
My copilot Joe did a great job of calling out headings and distances.  I was trying to focus on making steep coordinated turns with the R9 Vector mode.  My R9/STEC ‘s configuration tends to make roughly standard rate turns.  However, for this exercise, we needed much sharper turns.  So I made the turns by hand at ~ 45 degrees of bank and then used the R9 vector mode to hold my heading in order to get straight lines.  This was particular challenging due to the 23 knot winds from the west.

Soooo…. Here is the resulting GPS track:

As you can see, we made a couple of mistakes (the top of the “T” and the bottom of the “J”).  In hindsight, we realized that these were errors in planning rather than errors in flying.  In addition, I am still learning how to import/embed Google Maps, which is is why the last period is shown in a different format on the map.  But overall, we were satisfied and it was time to head home.
Unfortunately, mother nature would not give us a break.  The cloud deck below us was absolutely solid.  We had to get an IFR clearance and fly the GPS 23 Approach @ Tampa Executive Airport down to within 100 FT of minimums!  This was the first time Joe got to experience a real approach in IMC and he seemed quite relieved when we landed.
So while it was not exactly as intended, we still declared “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”!
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Ugly Weather (Perfect Day to Fly!)

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Today was expected to be a dreary weather day in the whole state of Florida due to a large “cold front” that was passing through.  Today was definitely NOT a skywriting day.  But what a great day for some recurrent flight training in actual IMC!
I had planned a training day with Jason Schappert of MzeroA and was seriously considering cancelling it yesterday and also this morning ~ 730 AM.  While there was absolutely NO sun to be found in the sunshine state, the ceilings weren’t that low and winds were tame.  I felt confident I could make the IFR journey to Dunellon, FL to meet Jason.  Then with comfort and security of a CFII in the right seat, I thought I could get some real IMC experience/training.
So off I went to the airport.  As I watched the pouring rain from the car (and looming clouds in the distance), I was getting cold feet.  Here is what I saw out the car window:
I was trying to recall the dozen or so takeoffs/landings I have had in the rain and tried hard to convince myself of the merit’s of getting more actual IMC time.  While I was on the ground @ Tampa Executive airport, the weather looked as ugly on the screen as it did out the window:

I checked the weather (again) and verified that I had the legal takeoff minimums.  Then I finally made the decision to GO.
As expected, the first leg of the journey was filled with clouds/rain and a whole lot of staring at screens.  But surprisingly, it was rather smooth.  There was hardly any turbulence!  After landing in Dunellon to pickup Jason, I checked my actual route on Flightaware and this is what it showed:

Jason and I did a bit of ground prep and planned to do the following:
1. Go IFR to Daytona Beach (doing instrument work and practice approaches on the way)
2. Continue IFR to Orlando-Sanford (some more approach work)
3. Continue IFR to Winter Haven (for a lunch stop and debrief)
4. Work our way back to Dunellon while doing a bunch of stick and rudder/commercial maneuvers.
Shortly after we launched, not only did we encounter lots of rain/clouds, but we also experienced some rather weak ATC performance.  This was very surprising to me.  I have the utmost respect for the ATC controllers in FL.  But today, they seemed “off their game”.  In fact, the Daytona approach controllers, called us by the wrong tail # on 4 separate occasions.  In addition, we had multiple approach clearance changes along the way (with no apparent reason).  Eventually, they seemed bored with us and even broke off our approach before the final approach fix to GPS 16 @KDAB.  We managed to take it in stride and just moved on to Orlando.  Here too, the ATC controller wasn’t very cooperative.  After several attempts, we eventually managed to “negotiate” a clearance to the RNAV/GPS 9L.  We did a “squeaky clean” touch and go and were off to Winter Haven.
The arrival into Winter Haven was quite cool!  The weather was near minimums and on the first attempt, we got down to 500 FT MSL with NO runway in sight.  This was the first time I truly “needed” to abort a landing!  Sooo…. It was flaps up, full power, heading 210, climb to 2000 FT and back to Tampa Approach.  We asked to try the same approach again and had better results the second time.  According to FlightAware, this was our actual track on this journey:

After a quick lunch at Cafe 92, we are off again.  The weather had improved slightly.  We were able to take off VFR and begun all the stick and rudder work.  No more “luxury, laptop flying”… Now it was ALL by hand!  Jason did a great job teaching me some commercial maneuvers like chandelles, lazy 8s, 8s on Pylons, etc.  After dropping off Jason to his home base in Dunellon, I was able to fly home VFR in the improved weather conditions.  As I got close to home, I had one last encounter with weather as you can see below:

Luckily, I managed to land and put the plane in the hanger with ~ 15 mins to spare before that giant red cell arrived at the airport with a huge downpour!
Now with today’s new found skill/confidence (and a total of ~ 5 hours on the hobbs), I think I am ready for skywriting tomorrow morning.  Stay Tuned…
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Planning For A First Attempt At Skywriting

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After reading several of Steve Dilullo’s posts, I feel inspired to try something a bit different this weekend.  His post about ribbon cutting has quite cool.  But I fly a Cirrus and I can’t “just open the window” to try ribbon cutting.  However, his post about skywriting really got me thinking.  I wanted to give skywriting a try and see just how hard it really was.
First, I had to figure out the equipment needed to log the GPS track.  This part should be EZ.  But there were several ways I could think of to do it:
Plan A was to use the basic features of the Avidyne R9 that allow you to download flight details (including GPS data) to a USB stick.  This data (in KML format) can then be pulled into Google Earth.
Plan B was to use the free “GPS Tracker” app on the iPhone.  I have never tried this before.  But it sounds promising.  Allegedly, this app monitors your GPS track, including altitude, at user defined intervals (10 seconds, 20 seconds, etc) and creates a regular interactive Google map of the track.
Plan C was to have my buddy Joe bring along an external hand held GPS tracker.  This would also result in a KML file that can be pulled into Google Earth.
I will probably try all three plans and check out the results.  However, Plan B seems the most appealing to me.  With an interactive Google map, you can easily embed that anywhere.  Unfortunately, Google Earth doesn’t let you do that…  Or at least I don’t know how 😉
Next, on to planning the route itself.  Unlike the Merry Christmas track in Steve’s post, for my first attempt, I wanted to try a much simpler version.  Instead of big words in cursive, I was planning to try just a couple of letters in capital, bubble letters.  The planning was harder than I thought.  I needed to find an airspace that was not crowded, had no Class B,C,Ds, or MOAs, of which there are many in FL.  I decided to go just north of the Tampa Class B, around Crystal River, FL. Since I didn’t know how well the iPhone GPS would work at higher altitudes, I decided to stay relatively low 3500 FT, where the reception should be pretty good.
Here is what I came up with:

The picture shows straight lines and edges instead of bubble letters… Obviously, the real thing will be rounded edges on the actual GPS track and the result should be real bubble letters.
As far as “how” to fly the route, I needed to get creative.  If I simply flew it by hand, I suspect the finished product would be a bit sloppy.  My Excel planning file, shows me just how precise I need to fly this to have a successful finished product.  So I decided to use the “Vector” Mode of the R9 combined with my STEC autopilot to help me out.
As some of you know, Avidyne’s new digital autopilot the DFC100 is now available and I am planning to have it installed next month (Can’t wait).  The DFC100 would be even better for this exercise.  For kicks, I may try to repeat this exact exercise next month with the new autopilot and post a side by side comparison.
But for this weekend, I will try it with the STEC first.  “Vector” Mode is the key (I think)…
So that’s the plan … This weekend, I will try it for real and see how close I come to the plans.  Regardless of how it turns out (good, bad or ugly), I plan to post the resulting GPS track on Sunday night!
Stay tuned…
== T.J.==