Tag Archives: training

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.==

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.==

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.==