Tag Archives: FL

Angel Flight To Stuart

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It has been a while since my last Angel Flight mission.  In fact, I don’t remember exactly when the last one was.  So today after work, I decided to fix that by transporting a Moffitt patient (Mendis) and her daughter (Carmen) from Tampa to Stuart, which is on the east coast of FL.
The weather in Tampa wasn’t looking very cooperative and I was seriously thinking of scrubbing the mission.  You can see why in the picture below:

But mother nature smiled on us.  The weather cleared about 30 minutes prior to our scheduled departure time and we didn’t even get wet as we boarded.
Approximately half of the flight was in rain and solid IMC.
But Carmen’s preflight prayer really seemed to work.  Despite the rain, we had a totally smooth ride and listened to music the whole way.
As we got closer to Stuart we had some good news and some bad news.

The good news- Stuart was dry so we would be able disembark in comfort.
The bad news-Stuart was surrounded by nasty weather, which made for a windy, bumpy approach.
We flew the RNAV 12 approach with a circle to land on runway 30.  I felt like I was wrestling  with the a 23 knot gusty winds the whole way down!
But as you can we were dry when we landed!

Finally The Storm Has Passed

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Tropical Storm Debby finally passed most of the state of Florida yesterday!

I was very disappointed that I couldn’t continue the seaplane training this past weekend.  Worse yet, the seaplane base is closed next weekend due to the Brown family vacation!  So that will need to wait till sometime in July.
After 3 days of not even seeing the sun, I decided to do a “normal” IFR flight to Ft Lauderdale.  The weather at both the departure and the destination looked reasonable .   But there were a couple of pesky lines of weather in the middle.

Luckily, TS Debby was further north and weakening.  As such, winds aloft were only between 20 and 30 knots.
But I definitely had to work with Miami  ATC on several deviations along the way.  Usually my weather deviations tend to be laterally 10-20 degrees.  But today my track felt like a zig zag laterally and also had to change altitudes multiple times due to the military airspace in the area.
Most of the flight was totally smooth.  But I did have to bounce and weave through the one line, which you can see below:
The weather on screen, was about 6 minutes old.  So the route on the screen looks crazy.  But the real clouds out the window had a nice break at ~ 6000 Ft and looked MUCH nicer!
After getting to the “other side” of the line, it was totally smooth sailing the rest of the way!
Dealing with the weather, and a very busy Miami Center on this trip, turned out to be a good practice flight in advance of next week’s big IFR journey to the Cirrus Migration event!

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Presidential TFR Delay

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I was planning a short joyride to FT Lauderdale for lunch last week.  However, President Obama was in town and the corresponding temporary flight restriction (TFR) made my home airport a “no fly zone” until 3:15pm.
 
Apparently, the president didn’t know (or care) about my plans… So I had to wait till he was gone. So much for the proverbial $100 hamburger 🙁

It was such a nice day, I at least wanted to go for a joyride anyway.  But i knew TFRs can sometimes  get unexpectedly extended.  So, I wanted to ensure that I didn’t violate any airspace rules.

The easiest way I have found to stay legal in situations like this is to simply file IFR.

It felt odd to file an instrument flight plan for a short 160NM trip in beautiful weather… But I did it anyway with a planned departure time of 3:16 PM.

I got to the airport to found a bunch of pilots loitering and waiting for the president to “get out of the way”

After finishing the preflight, I joined the crew loitering in the pilots lounge.  Then ~ 2:55, one of the other pilots heard from Lockheed Flight Service that the TFR was about to be terminated a few minutes early!

Immediately, the lounge cleared out as everyone (myself included) scurried to their aircraft to prepare for departure.  I finished my run-up and called Tampa Approach for my clearance @3:08.  
They immediately cleared me with a void time of 3:16 and I was airborne by 3:12!!
(I know it was only a couple of minutes early… But it felt like a minor consolation)

Apparently others had the same idea as me because the Tampa approach frequency was very crowded.  After I departed from the immediate area, things got back to normal.

The weather near my destination had deteriorated a little which you can see below:

Luckily FXE was perfectly positioned right between all of the precipitation.
 
So after an uneventful, dry landing, I ended up hanging out in Ft Lauderdale and having dinner on the beach instead of lunch. 
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Shaking Off the Rust / Test Flight

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Last week I returned from China and was planning to go a for a joyride with a fellow pilot named Ron, who was visiting town from Atlanta.
This flight was a multi-purpose mission:
First, and most important, I wanted to “shake off the rust” after 2 1/2 weeks of zero hours in the logbook.
Second, it is always fun to go for a joyride over Tampa Bay with a fellow pilot.  I was planning to fly over Clearwater Beach and shoot some approaches @ Sarasota and St Petersburg.
Third, I wanted to test out the new Lopresti “Ice-Skates”.
No … the “Ice-Skates” don’t let me land on ice… However, they allegedly add a “few” knots to your cruise speed and they also provide a cool little door that lets you get access to your tires.  This is such a simple modification, I have always been surprised that Cirrus didn’t make this a standard feature of all SR22s.  You can see the finished product (sans decals) below:

Ron and I got to the airport shortly after lunch.  I called from the car to have the line guys pull the plane out and have it ready right in front of the terminal.  (I know that sounds lazy… But I usually do this when I have passengers)  When we arrived, the first important task was to update the R9 charts/GPS.  While that was running,  I conducted the usual preflight.  Everything looked in order and we climbed in ready to go…
Unfortunately, “Murphy” had other ideas!  The plane simply would not start!!
Ugg… The only good thing was that I was at home base and Jonathan from Leading Edge was able to come over and quickly diagnose that I had a bad Mag 🙁
So my test flight was delayed for a couple of days… 🙁
A few days later, I finally got to take the test flight.  This time I was alone and being even more cautious than usual.  On the ground, I did 2 full mag checks and everything checked out perfectly.  Then after a simple take off, I climbed north of Zephyr Hills and leveled off @ 3500 FT.  Winds were 210@22 and I decided to do an in-flight mag check, which also checked out fine!
Confident that the plane was in good working order, I decided to check out the Ice Skate performance.  I climbed up to ~ 11,500 FT and leveled off at a typical cruise configuration.  Usually, this would yield between 175 – 180 knots.  However, the winds were now 240 @ 34.  Given the winds, I couldn’t figure out if the Ice Skates really helped or not.  So I guess that will need to be another test flight on a calm wind day.
With all tests complete, it was time to practice a little… I did a couple of 360s, slow flight and then did a couple of GPS approaches into Lakeland.  This time I wanted to play with the GPS features of the Contour camera and I think I have finally figured it out!  Haven’t had to time to edit the video yet… But hopefully in the next couple of days.

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Tough Start To A Very EZ Journey

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This week’s mission was to go from Tampa,FL to Danbury, CT, which is a perfect mission for an SR22 with one fuel stop.  
 
Surprisingly, the weather forecast was beautiful everywhere along the route except Florida.  Usually, it is the other way around.  So I was expecting a takeoff in moderate / heavy rain, which is OK.  (I don’t mind rainy takeoffs.)  But I was dreading the preflight in the rain.  
 
I left the plane in the hanger while I did all the usual checks.  At this point, one of the Tampa Exec line guys (Nathan), really went out of his way to help me and made the preflight as good as it could have gotten under the circumstances. 

After fuel and oil, Nathan towed me out of the hanger with me sitting nice and dry in the cockpit! Just when I thought the service couldn’t get any better,  Nathan parked my car in the hanger, closed the hanger door and brought me my keys!!!

As I sat in the cockpit getting ready to startup, I was feeling really spoiled. 

Then a dose of reality struck…

While trying to start up, I must have used a bit too much primer and flooded the engine.  Ugh!!

As I have mentioned before, starting an SR22 is a bit of an art.  Even after a 1000 Cirrus hours, I still feel my starts are less than elegant.  Usually, it is only tricky with hot starts….But for the first time, I screwed up a perfectly normal, cold start.

After waiting ~ 20 mins, I tried again with much better results.  The plane growled and came to life right away!

The takeoff was exactly as advertised on the ATIS, which meant heavy rain, low ceilings and a generally bumpy climb out. 

Since I already posted a very similar YouTube video of a rainy takeoff, I didn’t even bother setting up the video equipment this time.

During the climb-out, the weather onscreen looked awful:

But by the time I leveled off @ 17000 FT, I was above all the rain and clouds.  The rest of the trip to NC was totally smooth with not a single cloud or bump!  In fact, ATC was so quiet, I did a few radio checks just to make sure the radios were working.  I could have really used a flight attendant serving drinks and an in flight movie 😉

As I approached Duplin County, the Wilmington Approach ATC controller also went out of his way to help me.  He asked ” Where was I going after getting fuel @ KDPL? And did I want an onward clearance?”
 
This shocked me! He gave me a full clearance, including a squawk code and a frequency for my second leg.  I thanked him, cancelled my flight plan, and made a very easy landing in NC in calm winds and 10 miles visibility.
 
After fuel and a quick turn, my next leg was even smoother and in clear, blue skies.
Washington center laughed at my direct routing and gave me  a typical Northeast clearance with 3 victor airways and 6 fixes.  Luckily it was close to a direct routing and the weather was so nice, I didn’t notice the time go by.
As I was getting close to Danbury, I got some great views of the Hudson River and even the IBM office in Somers, NY, which you can see below:

IBM Somers Office

So what started out as a tough journey ended up being extremely easy!
The weather forecast does not look as promising for the trip home … 

Hmmm… Might need to take a creative detour home!
 
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Holding Pattern Without A Shuttle View

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As everyone knows, today was the day for the space shuttle’s last mission.  I didn’t have tickets to see the launch in person.  But I really wanted to see it.
So I came up with what I thought was a clever plan.  I would fly the Cirrus upto 17,000 FT and go into a holding pattern “near” the launch site.  Of course, “near” meant I had to stay clear of the TFR (temporary flight restriction), which was a 30 mile ring around the launch site.  That would still give me a memorable view and hopefully even some pictures/video.
Unfortunately, this plan didn’t quite work as I had hoped…
The weather in FL was lousy today!  Not as bad as a hurricane or a convective sigmet.  But plenty of clouds, rain and lots of dreary overcast.
Ever the optimist, I filed an IFR flight plan and decided to try it anyway.  I was hoping to get above the clouds where I could get a view.
When I filed the IFR flight plan, I wrote “Training flight: practicing holding patterns @ COKES” in the remarks section.  COKES is an intersection just off the FL east coast near Flagler County airport that was just outside of the TFR.
When I arrived at the airport, I did my preflight inspection under some very nasty looking clouds, which you can see below:
As luck would have it, as soon as I finished my preflight and closed the door, it started raining!

As I waited for my IFR clearance, I watched another Cirrus land in the rain.  I checked all of the avionics one more time and then was ready for takeoff.  Taking off in the rain is bit unusual because there is really not much to see out the window and you have totally rely on instruments moments after rotation.
After I was airborne, the next hurdle was ATC.  They were quite busy today due to the weather and several other aircraft maneuvering to do the same thing as me.  Initially, they only cleared me to 5,000 FT, which was right in the middle of a cloud layer.  Aside from the training/practice value, this was rather unsatisfying.  There was absolutely no view and it was so bumpy I couldn’t even play with any camera equipment.  I asked 3 different controllers for a higher altitude.  Each one told me to “standby” then later said “unable” due to traffic or some other excuse.
Finally, I got handed off to the Daytona Approach control, where I encountered a much more cooperative controller.  Despite my “disguised” flight plan, he knew exactly what I was doing and was eager to help.
He gave me a clearance to 10,000 FT and told me to hold over Ormand Beach Airport.  I happily complied and setup my cameras.  Unfortunately, even @ 10,000 FT, there were too many clouds to see anything.  ATC was unable to clear me any higher due to “inbound international arrivals”.
So after all the effort, I didn’t see or even hear the launch!
But the trip was definitely not over.  I still needed to fly home and the weather continued to add drama to the trip.  You can see both the TFR (with the RED ring) and the weather in Tampa on the screen shot below.

The rain was fairly heavy and I flew the GPS23 all the way down to 450 FT before I could even see the runway!  As I got to the runway numbers, I realized I was a little high.  Since the runway was longer than I needed, I just floated a little and landed slightly long…. You can see for yourself in the video below:
After I got home, I finally watched the launch on CNN…  Even though I didn’t see it live, I got some great weather flying experience today!

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Scenic Trip to Cedar Key

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This morning I woke up and  looked outside to find typical weather for FL.  Sunshine as far you could see ; Clear blue sky ; AND a perfect day to go flying!  After my recent CPPP training, I have been sufficiently brainwashed into treating every flight as an opportunity to practice something.

So this morning, I decided to practice short field landings @ Cedar Key Airport, which is a small island airport just west of Ocala.  For a civilian pilot like me, who will likely never get to land on an aircraft carrier, this is as close as I will get.  As you can see in the Google map below, the sole runway  5/23 has water on both ends!

In addition to having a 2300 FT runway, which is short 4 me, they also have NO instrument approaches!  As many of you know, my comfort zone is IFR in Class B airport environments.  So going to Cedar Key was perfect for today!  This gave me a scenic place to fly and gave me some practice outside of my normal comfort zone.

After an uneventful preflight, I departed VFR @ ~ 9AM.  With the music on, I stayed under Tampa’s class B airspace and flew westbound first till I got to the coast.  Then, miraculously without GPS,  I followed the coastline northbound and didn’t get lost!  During the entire journey, I didn’t even talk to ATC!!  

Before attempting Cedar Key, I wanted to practice a landing first on a longer runway.  So I did a “stop and go” @ Crystal River Airport.  The runway there was about double the length of Cedar Key.  Since I handled that with no problem, I felt ready for Cedar Key.

I easily found Cedar Key Airport but felt almost distracted as I approached for landing.  I was trying to concentrate on airspeed and attitude, while I kept getting distracted by sights out the window.  But other than the distractions, the landing was quite easy with calm winds and no surprises. You can see the landing for yourself in the video below:

After I landed and found a place to park, I realized how small the place was.  There is no fuel, no services and only about half a dozen parking spots on the tarmac and a another half dozen in the grass.  I didn’t even see an FBO terminal.  Instead of an FBO, I was greeted on the radio when I was about 5 miles out by a very friendly cab driver/ tour guide named Judy.  She drove her car right up the taxiway and picked me up next to my plane.  

She showed me around the island a bit, which only takes a few minutes because it is so small.  Then suggested a quaint little place for brunch.  After a quick bite, I took off again and circled around the island to get some more pictures before going home.

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Off To Training In Atlanta

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It’s that time of year again.  Like most pilots, my insurance company “requires” (or should I say “financially encourages”) me to take annual recurrent training.  The first few years of plane ownership, I would simply follow the basic FAA Wings program and do some 1-1 training with a local flight instructor.  This was enough to satisfy the insurance company and the FAA.  However, I rarely found it to be very significant.
Last year, I found a much better approach.  The Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) sponsors a 2 day program called the Cirrus Pilot Proficiency Program (CPPP).  I attended one in Lakeland, FL last year and found it to be very worthwhile.  The program entails about 10 hours of ground school and 6 hours of flight school.  This weekend there is a CPPP in Atlanta.
So this morning I flew from Tampa to Cobb County McCollum Airport on the north side of Atlanta. The flight was uneventful until I got close to Atlanta Hartsfield’s Class B airspace.  Then it got interesting!
The ATL Approach controller was busy orchestrating ~ 8 different aircraft and seemed a bit grumpy.  Every plane on the frequency seemed to be in the wrong position.  For about 10 minutes, there was not a single break on the radio with every transmission being rapid-fire instructions for heading and altitude changes.  When he finally got around to me, he seemed in a hurry to get rid of me.  He gave me a heading change, an altitude change, the Turbo 2 Arrival Procedure and a frequency change!  I repeated the whole thing back and was happy to change frequencies.  Thankfully, the next controller and frequency seemed to be much calmer.
I then tried to pull up the Turbo 2 procedure chart only to realize that it didn’t exist!  However, there was a TRBOW 8 procedure.   I confirmed with the controller, who laughed and told me (in his southern drawl) “there’s only one Turbo procedure ’round here and it’s Turbo 8”  As you can probably tell, not only was this frequency calmer, the controller was much friendlier.  In fact, when he gave frequency changes, it was often accompanied with “Good Day Y’All”
After he vectored me to a straight in RNAV GPS 27 approach, I flew a rather good approach but the landing wasn’t great.  It was smooth but a little left of centerline.  Luckily, the long, wide runway was quite forgiving.  The line crew @ Preferred Jet Center towed me into a parking space next to 4 other Cirrus planes.  Made for a cool picture today:

By the time “school” starts tomorrow, there should be 2 dozen more Cirrus planes on the ramp.  Hopefully, I can get an even cooler picture and some videos sometime this weekend.
Cheers,
== T.J.==

Learning New Tricks In Hilton Head

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After 300+ hours flying behind the R9 screens, I thought I knew everything there was to know about R9.  But at the risk of sounding like an “old dog”, yesterday at the R9 User Group Meeting in Hilton Head, I learned a couple of cool new tricks!

The weather was excellent and Hilton Head is only 270 miles away… So the plan was for an early morning journey, which would get me there in time for the 08:30 planned start.  The trip there was a rather uneventful flight.  A direct climb to 17k FT using the IAS climb feature of DFC100, followed by a totally peaceful IFR flight.  In fact, the skies were so empty at that hour, that I was making “excuses” to talk to ATC just to ensure that my radio was working properly!

When I got closer to Hilton Head Airport, I checked out the charts and found something unusual.  Instead of the typical cadre of precision approaches,  they had something called the “Broad Creek Visual Approach” procedure.

I had never heard of a “Visual Approach Procedure”.  But it looked rather simple and I was eager to try it.  I asked ATC for a descent and a clearance for this funky approach.  They cleared me “as requested” and told me to “Report when I had the lighthouse in sight”.  Moments later, I saw the infamous lighthouse and proceeded to follow the approach course at 1500 FT along the water.   It was quite a sight following a river at such a low altitude.

I found it quite ironic that in order to get to a user group for a very high tech product, I flew a very old fashioned (and low tech) flight along a river using a lighthouse as a landmark!

After the meeting, I was so excited about the tips, tricks and “gems” that were discussed and was eager to try them myself in flight.

The one “gem” that intrigued me the most, was the idea of a “Pseudo Approach”.  The basic idea is that when flying to any runway (regardless airport ground equipment), you can use R9 altitudes constraints / course offsets in conjunction with the DFC100 Vertical Navigation features to create a simulated GPS approach with a glideslope.  Obviously, this is not a legal FAA sanctioned procedure.  Nor is it as accurate as a real published instrument procedure.  However, when the real thing is not available, it is certainly much better and safer than having nothing. Here is a short video clip that shows my first attempt doing this:

Now after learning a few R9 tricks, I can’t wait till next months’ CPPP training course in Atlanta so I can hopefully learn some cool Cirrus tricks!

Cheers,

== T.J.==

Bahamas Practice Flight

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My international radio license arrived yesterday in the mail. Earlier in the week, I saw online that it had been approved. But didn’t get the official paper in the mail till yesterday.
That meant that today was the day for the long overdue Bahamas flight!!
It was really perfect timing because the plane is going down for a “good type of maintenance” tomorrow. (Will tell you more about that in a separate post later this week.)
Back to today’s plans…
Before doing this flight with family or friends, I wanted to try it solo first.  So the plan was simply to fly there, maybe grab a bite, and fly back.  Not a terribly interesting trip… I just wanted to practice the legal/aviation parts without alarming or inconveniencing any passengers.  Once I felt comfortable doing this type of flight (without getting arrested, fined or meeting F-16s enroute), then I would be ready to do it again with passengers.
While I could have easily flown direct from Tampa Executive (KVDF) to Grand Bahama (MYGF), I chose not to.  Instead, I decided to stop @ Fort Peirce (KFPR) to make sure I had everything in order (paperwork, fuel, lifejacket,etc). On the return trip, I would have had to stop somewhere for customs clearance anyway, and I have heard through the grapevine that the FBO and customs office in KFPR is excellent.  So I thought it would be a good idea to stop there and check out whatever local procedures they may have.
In hindsight, it was totally not needed!  After I landed in Ft Peirce, the staff at the FBO confirmed that I indeed had everything in order.  After a top off and a rather easy “hot start”, I took off and pointed the nose straight to the water.  After climbing to 7000 FT, the next ~ 100 miles was directly over water and the view was consistently like this:
This was the first time I was over water for this long.  As you can see, I had my lifejacket handy (just in case)

Thankfully, I didn’t even need to open the packaging.
After about 80 miles over the water, I finally caught my first glimpse of land and it was spectacular:

As I got closer to Freeport, Bahamas, the Bahamas ATC controllers cleared me for the VOR DME 24 procedure!  This took me quite by surprise.  Other than initial instrument training, I had NOT flown a real DME arc in a VERY long time.
I keyed it into the R9, which happily complied, and I saw the following screen:

The screen looked odd to me and I felt like I was operating slightly out of my comfort zone.  I flew halfway through the 12 DME Arc at 4000 FT.  Then the ATC controller broke off my approach and cleared me to land with an “expedited” descent.  I am not sure why… But suddenly, he seemed to be in a hurry.  I did my best to comply and did a 1000 FT/min descent and fought a 15 KT crosswind on final.  When I was finally on the ground, I breathed a sigh of relief and really felt like I “earned” that landing!
I wasn’t sure what kind of ground operations to expect.  At this point, I must admit, I was a little nervous.  But it turned out to be quick and painless.  One of the line crew marshaled me into a parking spot and I was immediately greeted at the plane. They escorted me to a small building where they checked my passport and my paperwork.  The whole process took no more than 5 minutes!!  I was so impressed at how professional and efficient they were.
With similar ease, I filed my flight plan for the return trip and waited an hour to depart as required.  I landed back at Ft Peirce and cleared customs, which was totally painless and also took less than 5 minutes!
Overall, it was so easy, I really didn’t need a practice run.  But now I am even more excited to go back there with passengers and stay for awhile!!
Cheers,
== T.J.==