Unbelievably, the weather is supposed to be wonderful this weekend. That means it’s time to go flying! I have 9DS reserved for all of Sunday and I’m planning a trip to Sporty’s Pilot Shop at Clermont County Airport (I69) east of Cincinnati.
I’m planning to take V97 from CGT to CVG, but that puts me in the middle of Cincinnati’s bravo. On Saturday, I’m going to call the CVG tower to discuss my flight plan with them and learn if they will clear a VFR flight through the bravo or if they recommend a different path around the bravo.
I also need to pick up a new Chicago TAC—mine just expired. I’ll pick up a Cincinnati TAC, too, to see their VFR corridors. I wish I could find those pictured online, but neither Runway Finder nor Sky Vector has the back side of the TACs available (that I can find, anyway). If anyone knows how I can review the VFR corridors from the backs of TACs online, I’d love to hear from you.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
Practicing for Safe Night VFR
Tonight, I am scheduled with Alex to get some instruction to make me a safer night VFR pilot. It’s getting dark earlier and I expect many of my flights this winter to start or end during night conditions. I left it up to Alex what should be practiced, as he may have some ideas that haven’t occurred to me. To get the ball rolling, I’ve put forward the obvious: instrument procedures (VOR navigation, ILS approach, etc.) and communication with Center. It has a convenient side-effect of dove-tailing into real instrument training.
Alex called me this afternoon and told me that 9DS’s transponder is dead, so the plane is down for most of a week. Thus, my lesson tonight will be on the Elite simulator. More and more like true intro-to-instrument training…
Jumping back to the dead transponder, the approach control at CMI last month mentioned that they only got my signal intermittently, but the transponder was reporting everything as a-okay including regular radar interrogations. When I left CMI, they didn’t report any problems and MDW didn’t either on my return—I asked each of them—so I chalked it up to a fluke, or low flight while I was relatively far from CMI, or something else. I did mention it to the flight school in case other people reported similar incidents, which would indicate that it wasn’t a fluke and was a problem with the transponder.
With 9DS down, the friend who had to bail on me for our flight to Sporty’s tomorrow doesn’t have to feel bad anymore, as we wouldn’t have been able to go anyway. I’ve already rescheduled that trip for the 29th.
Alex called me this afternoon and told me that 9DS’s transponder is dead, so the plane is down for most of a week. Thus, my lesson tonight will be on the Elite simulator. More and more like true intro-to-instrument training…
Jumping back to the dead transponder, the approach control at CMI last month mentioned that they only got my signal intermittently, but the transponder was reporting everything as a-okay including regular radar interrogations. When I left CMI, they didn’t report any problems and MDW didn’t either on my return—I asked each of them—so I chalked it up to a fluke, or low flight while I was relatively far from CMI, or something else. I did mention it to the flight school in case other people reported similar incidents, which would indicate that it wasn’t a fluke and was a problem with the transponder.
With 9DS down, the friend who had to bail on me for our flight to Sporty’s tomorrow doesn’t have to feel bad anymore, as we wouldn’t have been able to go anyway. I’ve already rescheduled that trip for the 29th.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Transition to DA20, Part 1
My DA20 flight on Friday was canceled due to very gusty winds and my Saturday flight was canceled due to Alex’s car mechanic not being able to fix his car as promised. So I flew today (Sunday). I’d forgotten how small the DA20s are. And I’d forgotten how much the DA40 spoiled me! The DA20 has vacuum-driven instruments (ugh), doesn’t slave the heading indicator so you have to constantly re-adjust it, and doesn’t have an HSI! I also felt constrained by having only one NAV/COM on which to queue up frequencies.
All of that said, the DA20 is very sporty and a lot of fun to fly. I started by flying over to Gary (GYY) to fuel up and make sure that I can still land (I’ve only completed two landings in the last 60 days!). Amazingly, at Gary I performed the smoothest landing in recent memory. Must be luck, right? I did land left of the centerline, which I need to work on.
We then flew around many thousands of feet MSL and I practiced slow flight (never been difficult for me—I don’t know why), steep turns (usually very hard for me, but I did them very well this time—again, I don’t know why), and power-off stalls. The power-off stalls were a difference experience than in the DA40. In the DA20, an aggravated stall requires significant rudder work to prevent a wing from dropping. I say “aggravated stall” because the DA20 doesn’t “mush” in its power-off stall as much as the DA40 so the first time through the maneuver I didn’t realize I was really stalled until I was fighting to keep the wings level. Maybe I need to explain myself better. In the DA40, approaching the power-off stalls generates some buffeting, then you feel a “break” when the plane actually enters the stall. In the DA20, the buffeting doesn’t “break”—it just gradually gets more intense until you realize that you’re stalled and dropping a wing. In fact, dropping a wing is a difference in behavior from the DA40.
I felt like an idiot for letting a stall progress that far. Of course, the point of this lesson is to learn the “feel” of the airplane to know things like the different stall characteristics of the DA20 compared to the DA40. Still, getting to the point where I’m fighting against entering a spin is just bad piloting. I did much better on my second power-off stall recovery, although I pushed the nose further than ideal through the horizon to break the stall. We then simulated an engine-out forced landing with attempted restart.
We then did a crosswind landing at Lansing (IGQ) which was remarkably smooth. Left of the centerline again, though. Grumble, grumble. Then we flew back to Midway. Funny thing happened at Midway. I did my first go-around at Midway. The DA20 is just so clean that I didn’t lose my speed fast enough and was well over 100 knots on final. I climbed out, waited for a break in the radio chatter, and called my go-around. I was cleared for left traffic to try it again. I got it right the second time and performed another very smooth landing—this time on the centerline.
Another lesson or two and I’ll be cleared to fly the DA20. I really need to practice the emergency flows before I’ll be comfortable on my own in the DA20. Fun, fun.
All of that said, the DA20 is very sporty and a lot of fun to fly. I started by flying over to Gary (GYY) to fuel up and make sure that I can still land (I’ve only completed two landings in the last 60 days!). Amazingly, at Gary I performed the smoothest landing in recent memory. Must be luck, right? I did land left of the centerline, which I need to work on.
We then flew around many thousands of feet MSL and I practiced slow flight (never been difficult for me—I don’t know why), steep turns (usually very hard for me, but I did them very well this time—again, I don’t know why), and power-off stalls. The power-off stalls were a difference experience than in the DA40. In the DA20, an aggravated stall requires significant rudder work to prevent a wing from dropping. I say “aggravated stall” because the DA20 doesn’t “mush” in its power-off stall as much as the DA40 so the first time through the maneuver I didn’t realize I was really stalled until I was fighting to keep the wings level. Maybe I need to explain myself better. In the DA40, approaching the power-off stalls generates some buffeting, then you feel a “break” when the plane actually enters the stall. In the DA20, the buffeting doesn’t “break”—it just gradually gets more intense until you realize that you’re stalled and dropping a wing. In fact, dropping a wing is a difference in behavior from the DA40.
I felt like an idiot for letting a stall progress that far. Of course, the point of this lesson is to learn the “feel” of the airplane to know things like the different stall characteristics of the DA20 compared to the DA40. Still, getting to the point where I’m fighting against entering a spin is just bad piloting. I did much better on my second power-off stall recovery, although I pushed the nose further than ideal through the horizon to break the stall. We then simulated an engine-out forced landing with attempted restart.
We then did a crosswind landing at Lansing (IGQ) which was remarkably smooth. Left of the centerline again, though. Grumble, grumble. Then we flew back to Midway. Funny thing happened at Midway. I did my first go-around at Midway. The DA20 is just so clean that I didn’t lose my speed fast enough and was well over 100 knots on final. I climbed out, waited for a break in the radio chatter, and called my go-around. I was cleared for left traffic to try it again. I got it right the second time and performed another very smooth landing—this time on the centerline.
Another lesson or two and I’ll be cleared to fly the DA20. I really need to practice the emergency flows before I’ll be comfortable on my own in the DA20. Fun, fun.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Almost No Flying, Interesting Stat from Diamond
I haven’t been posting because I haven’t been flying.
I flew once, a month ago, from MDW to CMI (University of Illinois) for a $100 hamburger with my wife. Most of the flight down and all of the flight back was at night. During my flight planning, I picked a couple of VORs to track that would take me parallel to I-57 the entire trip. (You’ve heard the joke that night flying tests your “IFR” skills: I Follow Roads.) I had my preflight plan, I entered my flight into the Garmin GNS 530 GPS, and I dialed in the VORs on the radio. I made sure that the autopilot was operational as well. There was no way I was risking getting lost or disoriented. Being on the paranoid side as a VFR-only pilot, I won’t fly at night without a functioning autopilot and prior familiarity with the route. As it happens, I spent 3 years at UIUC in Champaign, so I’ve driven the route many times and can pick out each little town along the interstate. The flight went very smoothly and my wife enjoyed the restaurant we visited in Champaign. FlightStar, the FBO at CMI, was amazing—the best I’ve visited (and that includes Atlantic Aviation at MDW which caters to corporate clients). I highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.
I’m scheduled to fly tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) in the DA20 to get signed-off in that aircraft so that I’m not wholy dependent on 9DS being available. I’m holding off on the glass panel transition until I’ve read my IFR book and the G1000 book, which I expect to get for Christmas (hint, hint, mom and dad). Ideally, I’d like to make my G1000 transition as I get my instrument rating. I think that a glass panel cockpit is a compelling feature for IFR flights and I may restrict myself to IFR in glass panels the way I restrict myself to night flight with VORs and autopilots.
I keep mulling over the practicing of engine-out on take-off at 700AGL in a DA40. This nugget in Diamond’s latest email news letter affirms my belief that I did not put myself in undue danger practicing the maneuver: Diamond has designed its aircraft to maintain controllability in the stall and into and out of a spin. The fact that in over 2 million flight hours there has never been a stall – spin accident supports our approach. However, Colin’s passionate responses have been persuasive enough that I will be confining my future practicing of the maneuver to flight simulators.
I flew once, a month ago, from MDW to CMI (University of Illinois) for a $100 hamburger with my wife. Most of the flight down and all of the flight back was at night. During my flight planning, I picked a couple of VORs to track that would take me parallel to I-57 the entire trip. (You’ve heard the joke that night flying tests your “IFR” skills: I Follow Roads.) I had my preflight plan, I entered my flight into the Garmin GNS 530 GPS, and I dialed in the VORs on the radio. I made sure that the autopilot was operational as well. There was no way I was risking getting lost or disoriented. Being on the paranoid side as a VFR-only pilot, I won’t fly at night without a functioning autopilot and prior familiarity with the route. As it happens, I spent 3 years at UIUC in Champaign, so I’ve driven the route many times and can pick out each little town along the interstate. The flight went very smoothly and my wife enjoyed the restaurant we visited in Champaign. FlightStar, the FBO at CMI, was amazing—the best I’ve visited (and that includes Atlantic Aviation at MDW which caters to corporate clients). I highly recommend a visit if you’re in the area.
I’m scheduled to fly tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) in the DA20 to get signed-off in that aircraft so that I’m not wholy dependent on 9DS being available. I’m holding off on the glass panel transition until I’ve read my IFR book and the G1000 book, which I expect to get for Christmas (hint, hint, mom and dad). Ideally, I’d like to make my G1000 transition as I get my instrument rating. I think that a glass panel cockpit is a compelling feature for IFR flights and I may restrict myself to IFR in glass panels the way I restrict myself to night flight with VORs and autopilots.
I keep mulling over the practicing of engine-out on take-off at 700AGL in a DA40. This nugget in Diamond’s latest email news letter affirms my belief that I did not put myself in undue danger practicing the maneuver: Diamond has designed its aircraft to maintain controllability in the stall and into and out of a spin. The fact that in over 2 million flight hours there has never been a stall – spin accident supports our approach. However, Colin’s passionate responses have been persuasive enough that I will be confining my future practicing of the maneuver to flight simulators.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
