Tag Archives: FL

Back To Normal IFR (Sort Of)

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The past 2 weeks have been quite an unusual flight pattern for me.  No X-Countries, No IFR or VFR flight plans, not even enough altitude to require oxygen!
No the plane was NOT grounded…  In fact, I had numerous flights.  But they were all short “flight-seeing” journeys that gave me the chance to share the experience of flight with several of my friends and colleagues visiting Tampa from around the world.  In a way, it felt like a “warm-up” for the WFIF event next Saturday.  I realized that sharing the experience of flight was as cool for me as it was for the passenger, who got to “see the runway” for the first time.
But yesterday (Sunday’s) journey was supposed to be a bit more “normal” for me.  I was planning an IFR trip from Tampa, FL to Frederick, MD, which is just outside of DC.
When I checked the weather Saturday night, it didn’t look very friendly:

I checked again on Sunday morning and even called Lockheed FSS to get a thorough briefing.  After listening to the ‘laundry list” of AIRMETs, SIGMETs, and PIREPs, my conclusion was that it was a go!  However, I was prepared for a lot of heavy IMC flying with as many diversions as needed along the way.
While this trip is “barely possible” non-stop in my plane… It is a bit too close for my comfort.  So I planned a quick fuel stop in Duplin County, NC.
The first leg was the easier of the two.  Going from Tampa Executive Airport to Duplin County Airport, is almost a comfort flight for me.  I have flown this route a dozen times and even know when to expect ATC quirks along the way.
What I wasn’t really expecting was the impact of the winds aloft.  My route was fairly straightforward, as shown below:
When I was ~ 20 miles south of Gainseville, I was level at 17K FT and first noticed the winds.  As you can see from the picture below, it was a direct 90 degree crosswind @ 62 knots!

While I have flown in strong winds before, this was the first time I flew in that strong a direct cross wind.  Even with a healthy crab angle, I could feel the auto-pilot straining to maintain the ground track.
Luckily, I was following V441 which soon turned to the right and made this X-wind turn into a VERY helpful tailwind that allowed me to reach a ground speed of 241 KTs, which is the highest I have recorded in this plane!

Shortly after takeoff, the radar images looked even uglier!

As I approached Frederick, the weather was simply NOT cooperating and no amount of deviation seemed to help.  The rain was getting heavier and the ATIS declared conditions barely above the minimums for the GPS23 Z approach.

Luckily, this airport has a nice long 5000+ FT runway and a low LPV approach that still made it possible to land.  I have landed in light rain and mist before.  But never anything like this!  In addition, to the heavy rain, there was a strong gusty wind about 20-40 degrees off from runway heading.  After reaching the FAF (final approach fix), I disengaged the autopilot and “fought” the winds all the way down to the runway.

While this was supposed to be a normal IFR flight, the weather (as often happens) made it anything but normal!
Cheers,
== T.J.==

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.==

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.==

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.==

Last Minute Angel Flight

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Normally, my Angel Flights are scheduled well in advance.  Usually, I have to juggle a whole bunch of things (both work and personal).  But late yesterday I got a message from the “Angel Flight Mission Control” about a particularly compelling flight today (Wednesday b4 Thanksgiving) that was in jeopardy of being canceled.  The patient, who lives in Jacksonville, FL, was undergoing treatment in Houston for “Metastatic Adrenocortial Carcinoma to liver, lungs & kidney” … Wow isn’t that a mouthful!
I had to work today + it was last minute and on and on.  There were a dozen reasons to ignore the plea for pilots on this mission.  But something inside me said I should make the effort on this one.  The alternative for the patient was to fly commercial on the busiest travel day of the year right after enduring a grueling cancer treatment.  So late yesterday, I decided to sign up and do this!
Another pilot transported the patient from Houston to Destin, FL.  That’s where I was supposed to pick him up and fly him home to Jacksonville.
In order to do that and still make it to work, I had to get a little creative.  As many of you know, I work for IBM and have the privilege (and burden) of working entirely remote.  I don’t normally go to an office.  Instead, I work from wherever my laptop and I happen to be.  So late last night I made a plan… I would get up as early as I could and fly from Tampa > Destin.  Then I would “go to work” from the pilot’s lounge @ Miracle Strip Aviation in Destin.  Then late in the afternoon, I would meet up with the patient and take him to Jacksonville.  Finally, after dropping the patient off, I would do a night flight home to Tampa.  The flight plan was “almost” a lap of FL.  See for yourself:

When I woke up this morning @ zero dark 30, I was a bit grumpy but dragged myself out of bed anyway.  When I got the airport I had an uneventful pre-flight and takeoff.  I always enjoy taking off before the FBO opens.  (Makes me feel like I am ahead of the day!)
At that hour, the skies were empty and the ATC frequencies were totally silent.  I had a smooth, peaceful ride and really enjoyed the music enroute.  The “Pulse” station on the satellite radio seemed to read my mind about what song I would enjoy next.  During the whole flight, I don’t even recall changing the channel once, which is quite a rarity for me.
About the time I reached my cruise altitude of 16k, I noticed the engine was running a little hotter than normal on cylinder 4.  I monitored it VERY closely and made frequent mixture setting changes to keep it under control.  I took all sorts of notes and was planning to ask the “turbo gurus” on the COPA website about it after I landed.
When I was about 100 miles out, I started to check the weather.  (This is a cool feature on the Avidyne R9 that allows you to “see” the Automated Weather on screen even before you are within radio range to hear it).  Unfortunately, I didn’t like what it said! The visibility was 1/4 mile, rain and mulitiple cloud layers with the lowest one being @ 100 FT.  This was was below the published minimums for the airport.  But I was 100 miles away … Hopefully, it would improve as I got closer (plus I had plenty of fuel/options if it didn’t).
Despite what the automated weather said, I was also comforted by the unofficial “out the window” forecast, which looked great!  See for yourself:

By now I was checking engine temps and weather every couple of minutes.  Luckily the automated weather was improving rapidly.  (From 1/4 mile vis + rain, it eventually got to 3 miles mist and the lowest clouds were a scattered layer @ 100 FT.  Not great… But good enough for me to land!
When I landed in Destin, the FBO crew @ Miracle Strip was very accommodating as always.  I got settled in to the lounge and “went to work”.  Other than the few colleagues that follow this blog, most of my colleagues would never guess where I am when I take their calls/pings 🙂
After an uneventful day of work, the patient (Mark) arrived in the late afternoon.  I chatted a bit with the connecting pilot, whose name was Sherif (pronounced “sha-reef” not “cher-iff”).  He was an interesting guy!  He was a far more seasoned pilot than me and one of the few Cessna 177 pilots I know that does LONG X-Country trips with his plane.  In fact, during this mission, he is “sort of” working his way back to the east coast from California!
Mark was so grateful for being spared the grueling journey home on Southwest.  The original plan was to take Mark to Craig Field, which is a small GA airport outside of Jacksonville.  But then he told me his car was at Jacksonville International Airport.  (He was concerned that a small plane couldn’t take him directly there.)  But I reassured him and wanted to simplify his journey as much as possible.  So we flew to JAX!  I had never landed @ JAX before.  But since I had landed @ ATL, TPA, and MCO, I was pretty comfortable flying directly there and was even excited about the prospect of a new airport for my log.
The trip itself was “smooth as glass”.  The weather was perfect and the engine temps were behaving normally again.  (Believe me I was watching it VERY closely).
When we landed @ JAX, the Sheltair crew immediately greeted our plane and were extremely helpful. Mark and I said our goodbyes and the crew took Mark and his luggage directly to his car on the other side of the airport.  I got a top off and was ready to go right around sunset:

The short “night” flight home was beautiful.  Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to take good pictures @ night.  Hopefully, one of my blog buddies will help me with that soon…
Now as I sit in my home office at the end of the day, I realize how lucky I am, what a great day I had, and most importantly how much I have to be thankful for!
Happy Thanksgiving,
== T.J.==

East Coast Journey (Going Home)

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Seven new states, and 5 IMC hours later, it was time to go home.  The journey home involved a stop in Frederick, MD (state #32).  Here is what the final route flown looked like:

Since I needed to stop in MD, it was only natural to stop @ FDK.  I was hoping to squeeze in visit to the AOPA headquarters and also meet a fellow pilot, whose blog I really enjoy.
But getting to FDK was NOT an ez task.  There was a pesky 40-50 knot headwind the whole way there!

Note the 43 Knot headwind on the PFD

But it was a good excuse to use the the new GPS Z approach to runway 23.  I had read about GPS Z approaches, which are the latest/greatest precision WAAS approaches with LPV.  But I had not seen one in person.

Surprisingly, the missed approach goes into the DCADIZ

So that approach led to another soggy landing (and the 4th landing in the rain during this trip!)
But the stop was definitely worth it!  I did get to meet up with a fellow pilot blogger, Toriaflys  If you haven’t checked out her blog yet, I suggest you take a peek (it’s really quite good).
While at Frederick, I also took a tour of the AOPA headquarters.  I already knew what a great organization AOPA was.  However, Silvana Cannon, one of the AOPA staffers, showed me some of the behind the scenes “machinery” that makes this organization tick.  Now I am even more impressed!
After FDK, the trip home should have been rather uneventful.  The weather forecast was very good and hopefully all that IMC was behind me.  I donned the cannula and was cleared up to 16k (where the really good views are)… See for yourself:
The plan was a quick fuel stop @ Homerville, GA and a short final leg back to Tampa.  Unfortunately, the city of Homerville (and it’s mayor) has truly ignored it’s airport.  When I arrived it was an absolute ghost town.  There was not a single person or plane there and they didn’t even have fuel!!  Apparently, the fuel pumps were out of order.  Even the runway was in shabby condition.  But being the eternal optimist that I am, I made “lemonade” out of this lemon stop.  Even though it was deserted and locked, their wireless worked from my Iphone on their front porch.  As a result, I was at least able to catch up on calls/emails in relative comfort.  Then I took a quick 20 mile flight to Valdosta, where I was able to satisfy both the plane’s thirst and my hunger.  Then finally a quick VFR trip home to Tampa:

Mission Accomplished! Just in time for a sunset landing!!

Overall, the journey has really put my piloting skills to the test (both in the air and even on the ground).  Can’t wait to start planning the next batch of states!!!

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Sunrise Flight to Miami

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While I am not a huge fan of night flying, I do love departing in the dark and being airborne for sunrise.  The ride is usually smooth, clear and best of all, so “empty” that ATC will usually grant any “crazy” routing I come up with.
Today was no exception.  After an uneventful pre-flight (in the dark with a flashlight), I departed my home base @ Tampa Executive Airport (KVDF) and flew mostly direct to Opa-Locka Executive Airport (KOPF).  (Yeah I know it is a funny name for an airport… But this airport is just 8 miles away from Miami International and MUCH easier to get in and out for a little plane like mine.)
When flying alone, I typically fly most flights IFR @ 16k or 17k.  But today just felt like a VFR,  “no oxygen” day.  So after reaching my cruising altitude of 9,500, I witnessed an amazing sunrise! Unfortunately, I don’t have a good enough camera to capture it.  (Or maybe I am not a good enough photographer to capture it)… But here is my attempt:

The picture doesn’t do it justice!  I tried a dozen times to get a good picture without much success.
Between the view and the music on the sat radio, I really didn’t want the flight to end.  But before I knew it, I was getting close and had to begin my descent.  By that time (~ 7AM), the Miami airspace is starting to get busy and I had to really concentrate on the rapid fire heading/altitude changes from ATC.  I was so proud of myself for two reasons.  First, I “nailed” every instruction just right.  Second (and more satisfying), I was the only “little GA” airplane on the frequency.  Every other aircraft on the frequency was some airline or another.
So after a simple, visual landing, I followed the line guy to a parking spot and “went to work”.  After a full day of back to back meetings, it was time to go home.  I decided to take a slightly scenic route and flew up the east coast of FL to Ft Peirce, then Vero Beach before turning west.  The weather was beautiful and the sights were downright artistic.  Here are couple of shots along the way home:

Ft Pierce (along the coast) just north of Miami

Aside from the view, one of the great things about flying on the east coast of FL is that the air traffic controllers are “world class”.  After Vero Beach I was planning to dodge and weave around the military airspace in the middle of the state, when a VERY friendly ATC controller helped me out.  Here is the scenario:

The photo above was my planned route of flight.  The Blue lines represent the edge of Orlando Class B airspace.  The thin red lines are a military restricted airspace and the thin yellow lines are a military operations area (MOA).
Then a Miami Center controller noticed what I was doing and offered a direct clearance through a restricted area.  I quickly thanked him and accepted the clearance.  Here is what my amended route looked like:

While the amended route only shaved a couple of minutes off of my trip, I was more impressed than appreciative.  This controller was already handling 6 planes (that I heard on the frequency), THEN anticipated what I was doing, and THEN proactively tried to help.  That type of behavior just reinforces my belief in how well trained and professional these ATC controllers are!
Last picture I wanted to share from this trip was near Lakeland:

Now you see why it is called Lakeland 🙂

Cheers,
== T.J.==

Trip To Meridian, MS

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Like most of my flights that head NW bound, this flight was up to Cross City then direct destination.
The Crystal River Nuclear Power plant… (Rather cool site in an otherwise empty part of the state)
Aerial view of the Crystal River airport. (Did lots of landing practice there as a student pilot years ago)
Found a gr8 parking spot @ MEI next to some military trainers. (Notice the Navy and Marines use the same training fleet) 
Close up of Capt Keith Taylor’s NAVY trainer (Thanks Keith!!)
Capt Taylor graciously allowed me to climb Up to the cockpit of his bird. 

(Wow! Do I appreciate my Cirrus cockpit with A/C and R9 even more after seeing that!!)
Thanks for following along…
Cheers,
== T.J.==