Information Echo

Information Echo Has Moved - PLEASE UPDATE!

2006-05-14T22:38:00.000-04:00

NOTICE: Please update your blogrolls/links/bookmarks - Information Echo has now officially moved to www.oshawapilot.ca

No further posts will be made here at blogger.com.
Please visit the new site to comment, and catch more up to date news!

Thanks for all my faithfull readers. I look forward to seeing you at my new home.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO OSHAWAPILOT.CA NOW!

$100 French Fries

2006-04-05T11:13:00.000-04:00

NOTICE: Please update your blogrolls/links/bookmarks - Information Echo has now officially moved to www.oshawapilot.ca

I am only echoing the occasional post here now - the majority of my blogging now takes place at my new site.

Please visit the new site to comment, and catch more up to date posts!

Contrary to my lack of posting recently, I have been flying. I’ve spent so many frustrating hours dealing with my aforementioned webhosting disaster that blogging has fallen by the wayside unfortunately.

I’m Finally starting to get the cross-country numbers a little healthier in the logbook. Not overly long cross countries by any stretch, but far enough and full-stop so they can be logged as xcountry time.

Although I had originally planned to do this flight on Sunday morning, and go to CNF4 (Lindsay) for breakfast, a schedule conflict with my passenger caused a reschedule for 4PM.

It actually worked out great - we ended up having the last reservation of the day for our aircraft, so it ended being a nice leisurely flight, with an hour to spent at the airport restaurant before turning around and heading home.

All of the pireps upon our arrival at the airport suggested that it was really bumpy, and we should expect constant moderate chop. Thankfully my passenger didn’t take issue with this, so we decided to head out regardless.

The cloud base earlier in the day had been at 3000 feet, and although it was now very close to CAVOK, the bumpyness had apparently persisted through the change in the weather.

My passenger is not new to little aircraft, but he says it’s been about 20 years…and the last “little” plane he says he was in, he jumped out of. (Parachuting). So it wasn’t a commercial jet, but it wasn’t a 152, either. This is definately the first 2-seater aircraft he’s been in, no question. He’s surprised at the size I think - the 152 is definately close quarters.

Our departure is non eventfull, but it seems rather smooth once we climb above 1000. My passenger lets out a healthy “Woo Hoo!” as we hit about 200′ AGL. It’s nice to know that the passenger is enjoying themselves, and the flight has barely begun.

At our cruise altitude of 3500, it’s actually quite smooth - nearly hands off flying on the way to Lindsay airport, our destination for todays flight. Apparently the turbulence is history. I’m not really upset about that.

There’s a nasty headwind on the way north - I’m showing about 95Kts indicated, but the GPS is showing a groundspeed hovering around 70kts. It’s smooth, but strong, and creating a noticable yaw into the wind, which even my passenger picks up on.

But, the slow speed makes for some great sightseeing, which we do plenty of on the way there. We amuse ourselves listening to a C130 Hercules fumbling through a radio call to London FSS..and fumbling some more…and more. Aren’t these air force guys supposed to know their stuff?

As I call up Lindsay unicom and get an answer. Short and sweet - a wind check, and runway 31 is the preferred, at pilots discretion.

Traffic is light - just one other plane doing a touch and go. He announces that he’s joining to the right base, which is kind of curious since 31 is a left hand pattern. Regardless, he’s turning final just as we join the left downwind, and we are shortly on final. My landing is satisfactory, but once again I fail to impress myself. My pax seems impressed, regardless.

Once we are down I call CFA to confirm that nobody has reserved behind us. The answer is exactly what I wanted to hear - nobody has reserved, so the aircraft is ours for the rest of the daylight hours.

We stop at the FBO for a few minutes to chat with the nice lady who provides the Unicom service at CNF4. She jokes that it’s been a slow day, and she has been looking out the window “rating” everyones landings. I ask her where her scorecards are, and how we rated. She says she missed our landing….that’s probably a good thing - Mid 4’s at best, I would guess. :-)

Off to the restaurant we go for an order of $100 French Fries. No $100 hamburgers today, dinner is actually going to be waiting when I get home..but the fries were too tempting to resist.

It seems that the restaurant here is a popular hangout for some of Lindsay’s senior citizen population, as clearly absolutely none of the people eating dinner there tonight are pilots. We seem rather out of place, almost like eating in a retirement residence.

It’s all rather odd, but the food is good. Trying to control myself, I resist trying out the home made butter tarts which by all accounts are to die for, and are frequently mentioned when other pilots talk about the restraurant here at Lindsay.

Anyhow, snack done, we decide to head out.

Thankfully nobody has bothered our plane. The ramp here is surprisingly open - anyone could park their car and pretty much walk up to the aircraft without anyone else batting an eye. I left FOOU with all of our gear (including my GPS) in place - and of course, being rental-aircraft, the door locks don’t work..so it was effectively wide open.

Once again, I brought my GPS along for the ride. There’s absolutely no need whatsoever to have it along for this trip, the nav could not possibly get any easier, but since I’ve gotten my ticket and have actually been allowed to use it (and am flying for periods of time long enough to actually have time to play with it) I’m hooking it up regardless so that I can get accustomed to using it in flight.

My overall impression on using a PDA for a GPS is mixed. The features are unparalleled for the cost, but I still find the screen somewhat difficult to read in varying light conditions. This is more of a fault with my Palm, as opposed to the rest of the hardware, so I can’t really blame it. The jury is still out on whether or not I’ll buy a “proper” Aviation GPS..although all of the flight planning/aviation specific software I can load onto the palm, as well as the fact that Co-Pilot and FlightMaster are *awesome* (and free) GPS utils will make it tough to switch.

Anyhow, we load back in and are shortly on our way. The sun is beginning to set, and the air is now just like glass - now this is nice - I trim out at 3000 feet and the plane flies perfectly on it’s own for about 10 minutes. While keeping an eye out for traffic, I actually get some sightseeing in myself, with the plane now taking care of itself.

Over Scugog island things get interesting. One of the other CFA aircraft (GRPQ) makes a position report and advises that they are heading to the same general location as us, and then back to YOO as well. I reply to give him a heads up, but I can’t see him anywhere.

Some time passes, and neither of us are able to spot RPQ yet. We are conversing to try to spot each other, but we still can’t see him. A third plane chimes in as being northbound, and we spot each other, but I still can’t see my primary concern, RPQ.

I make a 360, still unsure where he is, and feeling paranoid that we are a little too close for comfort. I grab the ATIS at the same time, and then track south again.

We both call into the tower behind each other, and now ATC guy seems equally concerned about our spacing. He asks me to Squawk Ident, but I have to kinly refuse…as FOOU is not transponder equipped. :-)

RPQ reports over a common VFR reporting point - the triple power lines. This doesn’t make me feel any better - we are only 1 mile or so from the lines ourself, and still neither of us can spot him. Grrr.

I ask the tower if they would like me to do a 360 for spacing, but they advise that they have us both in sight, and there is no conflict. Okay then! Whew.

As we join the downwind, we *finally* spot RPQ - just turing base. We follow him in, and I make a perfect full-stall greaser of a landing - barely felt the wheels come down on that one. Whew - I can still do those!

The sun is now touching the horizon, and the winds are dead calm. It’s comfortably warm, and it’s tantalizingly summer-like. Spring is definately (and finally!) in the air.

I help the pilot of RPQ push back into the tiedown, and then my passenger helps me do the same.

When we’re back in dispatch finishing up the paperwork my former instructor is there. He checks out my GPS and has fun with it outside for 5 or 10 minutes, seeming quite impressed with it’s capabilities and versatility. Hmm…perhaps I will keep the Palm based GPS setup afterall - it really is a ton of power for not alot of cost - I’ve under $250 invested in the whole setup.\

So, that’s about it. Another great flight with another enthusiastic passenger.

Hard to say where I’m going from here, at least for the next few weeks. We just finalized the move of our mortgage today (5 year anniversary, yaay!) and the costs to move from our bank to a new mortgage company set us back a good chunk of cash. Add that to the fact that I’m probably going to be laid off from work next week courtesy of a GM truck plant shutdown, and there may not be much spare cash floating around for a while.

…then again, the tax return cash will be due soon. Maybe a week off would be nice afterall.

And last but not least, my new favourite “flying” picture, taken by my pax from this flight. It’s one of the few pictures of myself that I can look at and not publicly exclaim “Crap, I look horrible”..so I guess it’s not that bad. :)

Why Do I Fly?

2006-03-12T09:13:00.000-05:00

NOTICE: Please update your blogrolls/links/bookmarks - Information Echo has now officially moved to www.oshawapilot.ca!

I will continue to echo posts here for a few weeks to allow my readership time to make the move along with me.... Thanks!

Please visit the new site to comment, and catch more up to date posts!

I was reading a post that Clumpinglitter made yesterday where she was musing about exactly why she became a pilot.

Her outcome from having thought about it was that she flies because it’s “Fun”.

A very valid reason.

It made me sit back and think about exactly why I decided to get my own licence.

I decided my reasons were two fold;

First, like C, without a doubt I think it’s fun. My father was a pilot, and I’ve always enjoyed flying. It was only within the last few years that it became financially realistic for me to become a pilot, so I took the dive.

But the’s another half - I enjoy the technical aspects behind flying.

I remember when I was still a student, and an increasing about of the workload of flying was being introduced. It started with radio calls, and progressed to simple things like flap deployment, etc etc. Of course, the workload spiraled upwards from there - but I loved every minute of it.

Everytime a new aspect of a flight became my responsibility instead of my instructors, I just ate it up.

Basically, flying itself is fun, but my favourite parts are departure and arrival. I love being busy on the radio, making adjustments to the aircraft to make it do what I need it to do, and putting all of the aspects of my training together to make the flight successfull.

I remember when I first got my solo clearance to run circuits at Oshawa airport. I was in my glory - it was one takeoff and landing right after another - the things I enjoyed most.

Yes, the novelty quickly wore off simply because I was anxious to proceed to learning another new technical aspect…and running circuit after circuit did start to get a little boring after a while.

But, overall, I’m looking back on circuits now rather fondly again. Actually, it’s about time that I run a few of them again in order to get some extra practice with…you guessed it…the technical aspects of flying.

So, perhaps my flight this weekend may end up with an “Inbound for circuits” radio call instead of a “Inbound for landing, full stop” radio call when returning to CYOO.

It might be time to get back to the technical bits of flying - a single takeoff and single landing on every flight isn’t going to do me any justice when it comes to staying proficient.

And of course, staying proficient is closely related to staying safe….

Warming Up.

2006-03-09T17:42:00.000-05:00

As I was sitting on the apron last Saturday with my passenger, I had to explain to him why we were sitting there doing absolutely nothing for 4 or 5 minutes.

I had already gone through as much of the checklist as I could, I had gotten the ATIS, and we were all situated and ready to depart.

Why were we sitting? I was waiting for the engine to warmup before doing the runup.

Even though the plane was in the hangar overnight, it had been outside for a while before we had gotten there, and it was also rather nippy out, at -10c.

So, in order to go “By the books”, I took the time to properly warm the engine before pushing it beyond idle.

My passenger asked me why this is necessary.

We proceeded to talk about the necessities of warmup in order to minimize engine wear, and avoid nasty things like cracked cylinder heads. I also explained to him the extra precautions that may need to be observed in the winter months when it comes to power-off decents, or other maneuvers which may shock cool the engine.

Regardless, the topic came back to the warmup..and I’ve been thinking about it since.

Yes, I do take the time to do a proper warmup on days where I’m the first pilot to fly the aircraft, or where the aircraft has been sitting for a period of time since the last flight.

Do I enjoy killing the time to accomplish this? No. Do I enjoy paying $1.83 per minute for the process? Hardly.

But, I do it regardless - even though Sundays warmup cost me almost $8 before I even called for a taxi clearnance, I did it right, and paid for it.

Is $8 really that much in the overall perspective of things? Some may say no, but I look at the cumulative effect rather then the per-flight effect. I’ve probably paid over $100 in hobbs time now simply sitting on the apron waiting for that little black needle to bump into the green arc.

It’s frustrating, but I do it.

However, I do see others that don’t follow the rules. I’ve seen pilots jump into a stone cold aircraft, fire it up, and do a full runup shortly thereafter.

Why do they do this? Well, I strongly suspect it’s because they’re not overly excited about paying for the warmup time.

When I was a student at CFA, when the temperature hit a certain point, many lessons would have .1 deducted from the hobbs time in respect of the fact that exceptionally long warmup times were sometimes required. This was fair - I had no problem doing a proper warmup when I was getting an appropriate credit for the time.

However, over the last winter when I was still flying as a solo student, and also since I’ve completed my training and have been renting, I’ve approached dispatch on a few occasions and inquired about receiving a warmup hobbs credit after a fkight.

Of course, I’m legitimate about it, only asking on days where I’ve had to do long warmups as the temperature clearly dictated one.

My requests have been fairly consistently denied. I think I was granted a .1 credit once when the temperature was nearly -18c one day.

The alternatives? Well, others have apparently tried lying about their hobbs times. I don’t agree with this, and apparently those in question were eventually caught.

Option 2 is to simply skip the warmp, and do the runup no matter what the temperature guage says. Again, I don’t agree with this practice - I don’t really want to damage the engine that I’m about to trust to keep me in the sky for the next hour or two.

Option three is to grin and bear it, which is what I’ve been doing.
And I’ll continue to do it simply because it’s the “right thing to do”…but I must wonder if it wouldn’t be cheaper for the FBO’s to be somewhat more liberal with Hobbs credits in order to avoid those who simply don’t follow the rules.

Cracked cylinder heads surely cost money in both labor, parts, and downtime. Wear and tear from an engine runup completed before the oil becomes sufficiently viscous is surely going to shorten the lifespan of the engine as a whole.

There’s so many reason why a proper warmup is essential, yet so many reasons why I’m sure alot of people don’t bother…

Half moved...and a rant.

2006-03-07T22:07:00.000-05:00

I've made the "unofficial" move of the blog to my new www.oshawapilot.ca domain.

I'll continue for the meantime to duplicated my flying related entries here at my trusty old Blogger account (As well as at the new site), but I'll keep my non-aviation related chatter focused over there now, since I can keep it categorized a little better.

My first rant over at the new blog had to do with my new web host, whom after only a week of service had a near complete failure that I tried to inform them of over a three day period, but they didn't take seriously and act upon untill their giant corporate customers started screaming at them come Monday morning.

I was having the issues Saturday, but did they listen to little 'ol me? Noooooo!

Anyhow, I won't rant about it here. Check the details (and this blogs soon to be new permanent home) out at the new Oshawapilot blog location.

For those that link to this blog on their own websites or blogs, I'd appreciate it if you could update your link locations to point to the new site....and thanks for the traffic! :-)

2 Flights, One Day

2006-03-05T22:32:00.000-05:00

(Post duplicated on my still-under-developement Wordpress blog...Check it out HERE for those interested....feedback appreciated...)

Wow, what an aviation-filled day - it just doesn’t get any better then this! A local flight this morning, and then this afternoon an adventure filled cross country from Muskoka.

My morning flight with my enthusiastic passenger Blair went off near perfect. We arrived at the airport shortly after 7AM, and were underway shortly afterwards.

All of my fretting about the W&B was rather moot, as it was fueled perfectly to where I needed it.

The preflight was, as usual, miserable given the cold weather. But, it paid off with an excellent flight in great conditions. We departed southwest initially and circled Blairs workplace so he could take some pictures, and then headed east. Then north. We caught a few of the sights on the way up over Scugog, tracked up towards Lindsay, and then headed west.

Blair has flown gliders before, so he was not new to the world of aviation, although this was his first time in a little (powered) aircraft, so there was some new situations for him. He took the controls for a short while and did quite well, making a 360 orbit within +/- 100 feet - evidence indeed of flying skills. He comments that he’s not able to guage his airspeed by sound alone, as the engine drowns out most of the noise, but he does great.

I took the opportunity to ask Blair if he was interested in doing a little airwork while we were up, since he wasn’t afraid of that sort of thing. He readilly accepted, so I did a HASEL, made an advisory radio call, and got underway. Nothing too big, just a few steep turns and a power off stall.

The steep turns went well - I lost 100′ on my first one (a bit of rust showing) and missed my wake, but rolled out perfectly on my heading. The second one was perfect, and I smacked firmly into my wake on the exit.

The stall was about as gentle as a stall could be, given the wind conditions and the inherent gentle stall characteristics of the ‘52. Blair seemed surprised at exactly how uneventfull the stall really was, so I gather that gliders are a little less forgiving? I’ll probably never know, as I don’t see myself getting into a glider anytime soon. Perhaps next time I’ll do a power on climbing stall, which tend to be a little more eventfull.

Anyhow, we finish up from that, and head home. It was nice to get the opportunity to do some refresher airwork, as staying fresh on the basics is important. Obviously, with a regular passenger, I don’t get the opportunity to do things like steep turns and stalls, so I look forward to flying with Blair more often!
I make a crappy landing thanks to some unexpected wind over the threshhold of 30. Safe landing, yes…gracefull landing, not so much.

Anyhow, that flight complete, I met Richard at the airport at around 10AM, and we piled into our van for the ride up to Muskoka airport.

The weather continues to be amazing, although the winds have picked up a little.

The drive up is uneventfull, and we do alot of chatting enroute. Richard trained at CFA himself, and it was interesting to hear about how similar our training was in some regards, yet different in others. The drive seemed to go incredibly fast - good conversation can make even a boring drive seem like a much shorter event.

When we arrive at the airport, Richards Lake is outside, plugged in, and all ready to go. There’s nobody around at Lake Central (the Lake dealer at the airport) so we get underway.

My wife bids us adieu and advises she will wait around in town for a bit for us to confirm that we are “good to go” before she heads back herself. I’ll text message her to confirm.

The Lake is an interesting creature indeed! This was the first opportunity I had to really get up close and personal with one, so I familiarized myself a little as Richard did the preflight and such. There’s lots of “little things” that are different versus a non-amphibious aircraft - fuel sumps are above the waterline, the door sills are very high..and of course, with the overhead mounted engine, there are no rear windows. The heating system is also unique, involving a 100LL burning combusion-style heater unit which is mounted (externally) to the roof of the cabin, and controlled by a number of switches from inside. Anyone who remembers the old Volkswagen Beetle heater systems can probably draw some associations, but the difference ends there - the one in the Lake actually works, versus the one in the old Beetles, which frequently did not.

The cockpit is interesting as well - some controls are overhead versus the more common placement locations, and the trims are all hydraulically operated, versus old fashioned cable setups.

The trim tabs on the Lake are huge I discover while looking around the exterior. With the engine mounting location, a large amount of trim authority is needed, and there’s no doubt that those monsterous trim tabs provide lots of it.

There is lots of other differences as well, obviously, but I could go on for hours. It’s just a neat aircraft!

Richards wife is unavailable when he calls to file our flight itinerary, so I offer to have my wife provide the service instead. I call her up on the cellphone and relay the necessary information. I provide an ETA for our departure and an ETA for our arrival back at Oshawa, and we pile in.

Unfortunately we then experienced some technical difficulties, and a major screwup on my behalf.

The plane has been sitting for some time, and is less then excited about starting. Despite our best efforts, it just doesn’t want to go.

At one point, we egress the plane to deal with the situation, and I get my foot caught in my headset cable on the way out. I promptly manage to not only faceplant (Surprisingly, gracefully enough that I didn’t get hurt) but I also managed to pull the wires out of the headset - both plugs.

Now I feel like a complete ass - not only have I took a spill, but I screwed up Richards headset which he was so nice as to offer me for the flight.

Anyhow, the long and the short of it is that I owe Richard a new headset. I’ll get the broken one repaired (probably not a huge deal, but repair necessary regardless) and keep it as my own, and supply Richard with a brand new replacement.

I joke that I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy myself a headset sooner then later regardless, and apparently fate is telling me that it’s now time. Unfortunately, this leaves me without a headset for the flight at hand. Oh well, my own fault.
Anyhow, with the problem out of the way and the Lake now up and running, we head down to the opposite end of Muskoka’s seemingly endless 6000 foot runway for the runup. The runway is a mess - probably 95% ice covered at the north end, with better, but still not good, conditions at the south end.

The Lake has no nosewheel steering mechanism, using only differential braking for directional control on the ground - it requires some finesse in order to accomplish this in a gracefull fashion, and it’s obvious that Richard has the “Been there, done that” T-Shirt, as he deftly gets us down the skating rink of a runway and into position for our runup.
The runup produces a miss on one cylinder on the right mag. Uh oh! Nothing in the usual repertoire of plug-clearing methods manages to solve the situation, so wisely we taxi back to the hangar to investigate. I text message my wife to hang around a little longer, just in case…and to let her know that our ETA’s will be changing.

With the helpfull assistance of the “Lake Guy” (I forget his name) we quickly sort out the problem as just an extremely fouled plug. Removed, cleaned, tested, and reinstalled, the engine purrs away quite happilly now.

Underway again! The second runup produces perfect results, and we are set for departure. I text message my wife to let her know we are indeed underway now. They text back that they are shopping. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, but they are apparently having a blast I learn afterwards.

The signifigant horsepower of this plane is immediately evident to me on the takeoff roll, and it quickly pops into the sky and we are away.

The first thing I notice is that the nose-up attitude of the climb seems really low compared to the 152’s. A 1000FPM climb still produces a great view over the nose, and with the wings placed far back on the fueselage (Again, a characteristic of the overhead rear-mounted engine) the view downwards from the cockpit windows is also excellent.

It’s not long, and we are at cruise altitide. I’ve brought along my Palm based GPS system and this flight is giving me the first shot at using it for real-life cross country navigation. It performs excellent.

Richard offers me the controls. Even asking me the question is a little more challenging considering I’m headset-less..no intercom, no radios. Surprisingly, cockpit noise isnt that bad at all, regardless of the fact, but talking still requires a good loud voice.

I accept the opportunity to fly, and actually end up flying a good majority of the cruise. The Lake seems responsive, but heavier on the controls versus what I’m used to…that’s to be expected. The trim controls are between the seats, and are hydraulically operated instead of the wheel style that is more common to me. It’s straightforward, though, and the plane trims into a nice stable cruise.

Richard works the radios as I enjoy the view and fly the course. My GPS shows a groundspeed nearing 130knots at times, so the strong wind from the north is indeed pushing us along at a good clip. Other then for curiosities sake, the GPS is rather redundant - there’s so many easy to pick out landmarks that with todays visibility, VFR nav couldn’t get much easier.

With the tailwind, we make spectacular time, and before it seems like it started, we are on approach to Oshawa.

The different flying characteristics of this plane remain right down the approach, but Richard makes it look easy. I do understand exactly why Lake owners all go through signifigant type rating training, however - these planes are indeed unique machines, and short of straight-and-level, they don’t fly like your average aircraft.

We push back into the parking spot, and tie down. I text message my wife to confirm that we are down, and that she no longer needs to worry about our flight itinerary. They message back, blown away by the time that we made on the return trip.

So, that’s it. I’m now incredibly hyped to make this same trip myself, so I’ll be keeping a close eye out for anyone willing to go halfsies on the cost of a Muskoka cross country.

Any takers? :-)

And last but not least, a big thanks to Richard for graciously offering the opportunity for this experience - I know for a fact that there’s lots of other people that would love to get some time in this sort of plane, and I seem to have jumped the queue. It was fun!

Aaaahh!

2006-03-04T22:39:00.000-05:00

Doing a preliminary W&B for tommorow mornings flight I came to the sudden realization that the plane I was given is a 152 with long range tanks.

I had asked for my plane to be fueled to half tanks for weight consideration, but when I suddenly realised that I was going to be flying a 152 with the long range tanks, that added a sudden moment of concern.

Will it be fueled to "Half long range", or "Half standard"?

If it's fueled to half long range, that means there would be an extra 6 gallons of fuel that I needed to acount for.

That amount of fuel weighs 36 Pounds more....which would put us about 30 Pounds over gross - a no fly situation.

A quick call to CFA revealed that it will be fueled to "Half standard", meaning 12 gallons. Whew!

I will be carefully dipping in the morning to make sure that this is indeed where it is fueled, and that I'll be legally within gross weights, but I don't anticipate any issues.

On the flipside, this change will put me flying one of the 152's that I havn't flown in quite a while, so it will be a refreshing change.

And as of now, the Muskoka flight is sheduled tommorow as well. Richard is meeting me at YOO at 10AM, and my wife is providing the drive north to YQA.

I chatted with Richard a little on the phone this evening and learned a little more about his Aircraft, a Lake LA40. (There a pic posted a few blog entries back). It seems like an extremely interesting aircraft given it's amphibious overhead-pusher configuration.

Anyhow, tommorows blog entry will be a whopper, I'm sure.

Off to bed...6AM comes early, and my reservation is for 7.

The Best Laid Plans...

2006-03-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

...somehow often seem to be blown apart.

At work this afternoon, around 4PM, I suddenly see a bunch of emails arrive on my PDA.

"Reservation Cancelled" ...and shortly after that, another... "Reservation Cancelled".

The emails are coming from the online aircraft reservation system that my FBO uses. They're telling me that both of my reservations (Saturday, and Sunday) have been erased for some reason.

An immediate call to the airport ensues.

Seems one of the 152's has unexpectedly gone down for maintenance, so the schedule is being bandaged based on a "priority" schedule.

Understandably, renters (As opposed to dual student/instructor) flights are pretty low on the priority list, so my flights were cut. Totally understandable yes, but still slightly frustrating, indeed.

Anyhow, it's not their fault, but it does throw all of my plans for the weekend into disarray.

The best I could do to scrape together any remnant of my original plans was to take a 7AM to 9AM booking for Sunday. My intended Sunday passenger passed on getting up that early, but my original Saturday passenger jumped at the opportunity.

There was a 10AM to 12PM slot tommorow that I had originally booked, but I had to pass on it after realising it conflicted with other commitments.

Anyhow, Sunday it shall be.

And shortly after I'm down from that flight, the Muskoka trip (Barring any last minute weather oddities) will be a go.

So, instead of flying three times, I'll be flying twice. No big deal I guess afterall, and I've got a guarenteed passenger for next weekend.

So..I'll stop whining now. :-)

Anyhow, after much frustration, I finally got my blog imported to Wordpress. It was an unbelieveable disaster that should (According to Wordpress) have been a simple process.

The blogger.com import function steadfastly refused to work when executed from my web host... Others (on different web hosts) report the same. It's just...broken.

I was able to import about 50 posts this way, but then it kept hanging. Repeated attempts to restart it would accomplish the import of a few additional posts, but then was also causing duplicates.

It just sucked.

So, as a last ditch effort, I had a thought this evening - I fired up SQL, reinstalled Wordpress on my server box, and tried the import locally using the local copy of Wordpress.

And blammo, it worked perfectly on the first try, and sucked all of my blogger.com posts into the Wordpress database.

So, now what to do... Ideally I'd just copy the SQL database file from my own server to my web host, except they dont allow that without presumably calling into tech support and having some uber-tech do it manually.

Not worth my time, although (based on the one time I actually called, for something minor) my hosts tech support seems excellent. I just picture them all sitting aroung giggling later in the evening after a long day of dealing with "Real" companies and corporate websites, only to be interrupted by little ol' me wanting to fix my blog.

Anyhow, I ended up exporting my local Wordpress installation to a RSS feed. I then took that XML file and went direct for the Import feature again on my "real" Wordpress installation.

It's supposed to take RSS files directly for the import..

Again, easy, right?

Bzzzzt again.

Wordpress continually barfs on the file when I select and upload it.

Multiple attempts, no difference.

Something is telling me that this is a browser problem, so I once again stoop to loading up Internet Explorer, and try it again.

Sure enough, it imports perfectly on the first try.

Mission accomplished!

But why does Wordpress seemingly hate Firefox?

Oh well, at least it's finally done.

As a side-effect, it seems that all of the "republish" attempts (probably about 50 of them) on my blogger account as a result of this import fiasco has resulting in it being flagged as a Splog! (A Spam-Blog).

So, I had to jump through some hoops to request that someone at Blogger manually review it and remove some restrictions now put upon it. Ugh.

So, that aside, my wife is now taking issue with me typing away on the PC at 12:20 in the morning, so it's off to slumberland..

Frustrating.

2006-03-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

Working a little more with my newly registered domain, I've decided to play more seriously with moving the blog from the rather limiting blogger service (Here) to my own Wordpress software.

Wordpress will certainly allow me to do alot more with the blog, and finally leave some of the frustrating aspects of Blogger.com behind.

But, I don't want to loose all of my posts and comments from my 1.5 years here at Blogger. There's simply too much history here to simply brush it off, and start anew.

No problem, right? Wordpress has an import function! Hey - We're all set!

Simply "click click" and all of your Blogger.com posts are supposed to magically import into Wordpress!

Bzzzt! Not so fast.

Turns out the Wordpress import function completely sucks. It doesn't work for the majority of people it seems, based on the plethora of posts on the subject on the Wordpress support forums.

So, now I don't know what to do. It's working...sort of - If you count the successfull import of 1 or 2 posts at a time before it craps out as "Working".

Anyone else out there who has been down this road before have any suggestions?

At 1 or 2 posts per import attempt (Each of which takes about 3 to 5 minutes due to the process that Wordpress goes through) it could take me a long (frustrating) while to successfully complete the process.

I will accomplish it one way or another, but I figure there has to be some sort of easier method.

Doh.

It Arrived

2006-03-01T20:54:00.000-05:00

My official Transport Canada licence arrived yesterday. Asothers have mentioned when they received theirs, it really is a rather nondescript and rather unimpressive piece of paper.

Echoing others, It would be nice if it was some sort of fancy plastic card with a photo - at least it could be used as (rather impressive) personal ID whenever needed. :-)

Oh well, it's the point behind it that counts more so then the presentation, I guess.

The Muskoka flight has not yet happened - Friday is looking like a strong prospect, however.

It's looking as if I might actually end up flying three days in a row - Friday for the Muskoka to Oshawa flight, Saturday with a friend, and Sunday with another friend who wants to give her husband an interesting birthday present.

(To clarify from my original poorly worded version of the above, that's "His wife is paying for his half" of the cost.... Yes, I'm staying within the rules of not being a commercial pilot... :-)

Works for me!

Speaking of Birthdays, mine is tommorow. Flying three days in a row is a good present, no? :-)

Another weekend down the tubes.

2006-02-26T12:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was scratched due to the poor weather. That was expected.

The weather this morning is absolutely perfect for flying, although it's -15 Celsius. Preflight would be chilly, but that's fine. Otherwise, it's crystal clear blue skies, and light winds - the best flying we have seen in some time.

Let's go flying, right? Not so fast.

A call to the airport this morning to check on the runway conditions results in a less then stellar response - 80% ice patches. To add insult to injury, based on the winds today, I would assume that 04 is the active...and 04/22 usually gets the lesser of the runway maintenance versus the more important (for the big iron) 12/30.

The guy on the desk job today says to check back in later, as they will be looking for an updated runway condition report.

At 11:15 I called, and informed that nobody is flying today - the CRFI (The Canadian Runway Friction Index) is below .3, which is where the rental policy dictates that nobody shall fly the little planes today.

What exactly is the Canadian Runway Friction Index?

For simplicities sake, I'll provide a brief explanation.

The CRFI is a method that is used to determine of the runway surface conditions are suitable for use by departing or landing aircraft. It's based on a fairly simple set of calculations.

We start by finding the "recommended minimum" CRFI index, which is calculated as part of the crosswind calculation chart.

The crosswind calculation chart is fairly straightforward - every pilot out there has done one of these at some point, as depicted by the picture to the left.

The crosswind component of a runway is very easy to calculate with this chart. You start by simply taking the difference of the wind direction off the runway heading. So, if the runway heading is 300 degrees, and winds are coming from 280 degrees, you have a 20 degree difference.

Then, you take the wind strength. Say, 10 knots, for example.

Taking those two numbers, you plug it into the chart at the left. The 20 degree wind direction difference is applied to the arc. Once you have found the related arc, you follow it down to where it matches the actual wind component, which is marked on the left side of the scale.

Where the two match, you draw a line straight down to the "Crosswind Component" portion of the chart. My example numbers provides an answer of an approximate 3 knot crosswind.

Where do these numbers come into play? General Aviation aircraft have a "Demonstrated crosswind maximim" for which they are certified to fly in. For the Cessna 152, it's demonstrated crosswind is 12 knots. Other planes may be higher, or lower. This is seperate to the friction index, but important regardless to ensure aircraft control can be maintained.

That doesn't mean that you can't takeoff or land with a stronger crosswind, but it's what the POH (Pilots Operating Handbook) states as the recommended safe area. So, basically, you do so at your own peril.

Now, back to the CRFI.

If you extend that line from the above chart a little lower, it will run into the CRFI index below the crosswind component listing. This will provide a "Recommended minimum" CRFI index to allow for a safe takeoff or landing, based on the crosswind conditions you calculated.

My theoretical calculation above shows a recommended mimimum CRFI of approximately 0.22 - so theoretically, if I so choosed, I could takeoff or land with a CRFI reading this low. However, 0.22 is extremly low, bordering on light to no traction whatsoever...more about this shortly.

Again...theoretically, if the wind was absolutely straight down the runway, you could use said runway with a CRFI this low, but it would be a decision which could have great safety consequences. On takeoff or landing, the slightest change in wind direction could result in a loss of aircraft control due to lack of friction with the runway surface.

For our rental policy, a CRFI reading below .3 dictates that nobody shall fly.

How do all these numbers work together? What do the mean?

Wind conditions aside, the actual runway CRFI index is measured using an actual piece of hardware, which takes the runway conditions into effect. It's little more then a decelerometer mounted to a vehicle, which is then run up and down the runway. When the brakes on the vehicle are applied at various points in the run, it provides a deceleration reading. If the vehicles tires have good traction when the brakes are applied, it provides the decelerometer with a high friction reading, as the vehicle stops quicker.

If the tires slip or skid on brake application, then the resulting stop is longer and more gentle - thereby indicating less friction, and less stopping power....basically, a low friction reading.

The readings are averaged over all the provided tests on a particular runway, and then are interpreted into a CRFI number.

The numbers range from zero (A theoretical situation of absolutely zero friction) to a high of one, which is considered maximum.

The AIP (which has since been replaced by the AIM) indicates that a CRFI of 0.8 and up is equivalent to bare and dry pavement. So, you want this number to be high.

Todays runway conditions were reported as icy and snow patches, and the temperature is (or at least was) below -10. Using the CRFI chart above, you can see that this calculates out to a CRFI of somewhere between .1, and .2.

Not only are these numbers below my FBO's minimums, but they are also below the "acceptable recommended" CRFI index based on todays real life winds and crosswind calcuations, as per the first chart.

So, it all comes down to safety.

Unfortunately, as runway conditions deteriorate, the CRFI drops. Once it reaches the point where safety is effected, planes don't fly.

So, instead of just firing up the engine right about now, I sit at home blogging about it instead.

But, I guess the old adage applies - better safe then sorry.

But it sure is tough none the less looking outside at the bright blue sky, knowing that I can't go enjoy it.

Weekend Update

2006-02-24T22:57:00.000-05:00

Quick update.

1/ I've got a reservation to fly tommorow. Since we're under a snowfall warning, and it's not supposed to taper off untill the afternoon (at which point the runways will likely be a mess) I doubt it will happen.

2/ Backup reservation is made for Sunday!

3/ I tweaked the Blog template a little more. I'm still not sure I like it. I'm playing with Wordpress as I speak (I finally got PHP/SQL to play nice on my home server) and I'm debating the possibilities of moving the blog over to it, on my new domain. The jury is still out on this. I still need reliable (non home based) server space to host it on, and I'm not sure I really want to pay for that. :-)

Anyhow, blue skies, everyone.

Electricity..

2006-02-22T18:27:00.000-05:00

It's something we've all become accustomed to. Our lives revolve around it, even though few of us stop to think about what life would be without it in todays modern times.

I was walking through my favourite guy-store today and came across the line of power Inverters. For those not in the know, a power inverter takes 12 Volts DC and converts it to 120 Volts AC - basically, household current.

The advantages? Places where there is no access to AC current (camping, cottage, in your car) you can now have the luxury of such.

Why was I thinking about this? Well, the upcoming trip to Oshkosh will be pretty much devoid of electricity at our campsite, as I understand it.

Is this a big issue in the broad scheme of things? Not really - I'm used to camping without power, and not being able to bring along all the "Creature comforts" of home isn't a huge deal for the duration of the Oshkosh trip. Besides, getting away from all of the technology of everyday life is what camping is about, no?

As long as I can keep my PDA/Cellphone charged, and have a few sets of extra batteries on hand for my digital camera, it's all good. For me, and for the nature of this trip, those two items are necessities.

But, I'm considering getting a new inverter (or a generator) for use outside of camping.

Inverters are pretty common now, with small inverters being available for the $20 to $30 range. I own a 300 Watt version myself, which is compact enough to not be overly bulky, yet powerfull enough to run some light equipment. It will not, however, power larger household items such as appliances - it simply does not output enough power.

It also requires a 12 Volt power source - be it a car, or a battery bank.

I have another "backup power" device in my garage - a Motomaster Powerbox, which is an 'all-in-one' power solution. It too, however, is too small to power large appliances, although it is convenient for camping and travelling. I suspect this little unit will come along for the trip to Oshkosh to at least provide a few days of (albeit limited) 120 Volt power for us to keep our digital cameras and phones charged up.

During the blackout in 2003 that plunged the entire eastern seaboard of the USA and Canada into darkness for a full day (up to 2 or 3 in some areas), our small inverter came to the rescue, powering some essential equipment at my workplace for many hours, and then running flat-out again in the evening here at home to provide us with at least minimal power. While everyone else was sitting in their pitch black houses trying to make their way from room to room, we had our living room lights on, the TV and satellite box up and running to stay on top of the news, and believe it or not, we were surfing the internet for a short while.

Then, we turned it all off, and went outside to mingle with all of the neighbours who were out socializing in the pitch black dark.

It was really a unique situation, as anyone who experienced it could attest to. The sense of community was amazing as everyone mingled out into their backyards, and up and down the street socializing. I met people on my street that I had never met before. And of course, it was amazing to be able to actually see the night sky in all it's glory in the usually light-polluted city.

Anyhow.. back on topic. The inverter did come in extremely usefull regardless of the fact that for the limited number of hours we were in the dark, we could have done without it.

However, when it came to plugging in our fridge or chest freezer, we were out of luck - 300 watts was simply not enough.

Thankfully it was rather moot - our electricity came back on at about the 17 hour point, so we didn't loose anything in either or fridge or freezer. Others were not so lucky.

So, todays trip through the guy-store had me thinking about the luxury that we have all come to appreciate - electricity. I was thinking that perhaps it was time to invest in a larger inverter, or perhaps a small generator.

If the power goes out again, it's less of a problem - plug the inverter into one of the cars in the driveway, run an extension cord to required electical item, and plug it in. For a few hours of outage, it's not worth bothering with backup power, but for a day or more, the losses start to mount, so a backup power source would quickly pay for itself.

Is something as serious as the 2003 blackout likely to happen again? It's difficult to say - the blackout back then was due to the "perfect storm" of failure througout the grid which resulted in a massive failure and shutdown of generating stations everywhere. I was in Pickering Ontario at the exact moment of the failure here in Ontario. Pickering is home to the Pickering A and Pickering B Nuculear generating station - 8 reactors - a massive facility. I was within sight of it when things went dark.

Shortly after the lights went out, the next thing I heard was massive roars from the nuclear facility as they vented steam to the atmosphere. The clouds were amazing to see, although a little concerning - It was the first minutes of what was clearly a major blackout, and then seeing a sight like that from the nuclear facility was a little disconcerting.

The reactors were Scraming due to the completely uncontrolled nature of the grid collapse. It was a real mess, but at least it was safe.

The following days were an adventure as the grid slowly came back online. A nuclear reactor takes up to 48 hours to restart after shutdown, and with the majority of Ontario relying on these nukes, it meant several days of power shortages.

Anyhow, the long and the short of it was that although we had power, we didn't have much of it. Those who didn't conserve (AKA leaving the air conditioners off) threatened to throw the rest of us who *did* back into darkness.

Additionally - with the way that the government of Ontario has bungled our energy policy and failed to think ahead, it's entirely possible that temporary blackouts may become more common. Anyhow who lives here has become accustomed to hearing frequent "Energy Appeals" during the summer months as the grid strains under the load of humming A/C units. At several points last summer Ontario Hydro warned us that we were bordering on system failure due to the loads, and they resorted to voltage reductions (Brownouts, basically) to keep the system up and running.

Sad...and somewhat scary. Our hydro system here in Ontario is extremely fragile right now, and due to the rapid pace of expansion versus the foot-dragging on the energy policy by our government, a crisis is very near.

Having some sort of standby or backup power beyond my tiny little inverter would be nice.

I've noticed a signifigant increase in people with generators or large inverters in their garage since the blackout. "Be prepared" is the story. Most of us still remember the blackout, and it was a wakeup call for everyone, making us all realize that even something as 'routine' as electricity can dissapear.

I didn't jump on the "Buy a generator" bandwagon then, but I'm thinking about it now.

If the power went out this time of year, we would be in serious trouble within a matter of hours - the house would be getting increasingly cold, we'd have no method of cooking or heating, and the pipes would start freezing solid within 24 hours or so, depending on the outside temperature.

In the summer, the lack of A/C is not a huge deal, but loosing hundreds of dollars worth of food in our Fridge/Freezers is a big deal. Shivering in the cold in the winter is a big deal as well.

So, backup power has a year-round appeal.

And it would also lend itself to trips like Oshkosh (or camping) where power isn't immediately available, but would still be handy.

So, I'm looking very seriously at the possibilities...

Slow weekend..

2006-02-19T23:15:00.000-05:00

Although I had hoped to grab a quick flight this weekend, it wasn't to be.

I had a passenger and a plane booked, but a quick review of the bank balance suggested that I refrain. Instead, I went out for an hour this afternoon for coffee with a friend.

A much less expensive, if not quite as exciting, option.

I emailed Richard earlier to see if the ferry flight of his Lake LA40 from Muskoka back home to Oshawa may be on, but have not yet heard back. The weather is looking decent, so if he decides it's a go, and gets ahold of me in time, tommorow may be the day.

I'm still greatly looking forward to this.

That aside, I spent some time this weekend playing computer-nerd. I found a good deal on .ca domain registrations on Saturday, so I registered oshawapilot.ca

After redirecting the domain to a free DNS server (Thanks zoneedit.com!) to avoid the hassle of running one myself, and then waiting for that all to propogate, my domain works, now pointing to my desktop PC at home.

Yipedy Doo!

So, what to do with it now?

I doubt I'll move the blog there, as my home PC (And ISP) is hardly an ideal web hosting solution. It's reliable and always on, but I doubt my ISP would really like me that much if I went with that plan.

Additionally, I was reminded of my lack of savvness with PHP/SQL today while I was playing around with Wordpress. Without either of those (Working properly and securely, that is) the home server ideal isn't good for much except what I'm using it for - a video/image server.

Yes, I could shell out the few dollars per month and get some real server space. Is it worth it though? I don't use my webserver for a great deal, so I'm not sure. I'm currently hosting the videos I posted a few days ago on it, and that's been working just fine, but otherwise I'm not sure it's worth my effort based on my current needs.

So, basically, the new domain is just for "Decorative Purposes Only" at this point. It points to my Apache server, displays a picture, and then just redirects here.

The picture was taken at the CN Tower Restaurant last summer, for anyone interested. That's CYTZ (Toronto City Center Airport) in the background.

And no, I didn't eat all of that by myself.

And yes, what I did eat of it was extremely good.

And the whole CN Tower restaurant routine was very expensive...but great. :-)

So, yes - that was my weekend. Completely devoid of anything flying related except to pop into the terminal to check on my new vending machine there.

Oh well, there's always next weekend.

Oshkosh, here we come!

2006-02-15T22:45:00.000-05:00

(Dances little jig) :-)

I made an entry here a few days ago musing about the possibility of getting a few local pilots (or aviation enthusiasts) together to share the cost of driving to Oshkosh for the annual EAA Airventure...or "Oshkosh" as it's best known.

I've got a van, I enjoy camping (Which is about all that's left accomodation-wise now, without booking 2 years in advance) and it seemed like my best bet to finally get myself to this iconic aviation expo.

My wife was good with the plan, and I thought I'd start the ball rolling with my post. I've since unpublished said post...why?

Shortly after I published it I received a comment to my post from Paul Tomblin who asked me if I'd be interested in flying there with him.

My immediate response was "Wow, I'd love to, but I just can't afford it".

Yes, I had always dreamed of making the trip to Oshkosh "The way it should be done" - on a set of wings. However, my licence doesn't allow me to fly as PIC in the USA, nor is my experience anywhere close to the level that I would feel comfortable setting out on such a trip myself, even if my ticket allowed me to do so.

And of course, there's the money. With the planes I fly on a rental basis, there's so much to take into consideration that makes it unrealistic - Actual hobbs hours (And alot of them, at 90 Knots), minimum rental hours (3 per day minimum every "full day" the plane is gone, regardless of it it moves or not), and then of course fuel, etc etc etc.

That, and the fact that my FBO wouldn't rent me a plane for this trip even if I had bottomless pockets and the best laid plans.

Again, back to experience.

Driving was the only feasable way I figured I was going to get to Oshkosh, so it's the immediate avenue I steered towards.

However, I exchanged a few emails with Paul over the next hour or two, and it became evident that the chance for me to fly into Oshkosh as his flying companion, instead of driving, was now obtainable.

I was almost speechless - it's a good thing I was typing, otherwise I may have found myself short for words. That never happens to me - anyone who reads my blog or has chatted with me on the phone can attest to the fact that I'm quite verbal.

But.....Wow!

I can't express how excited I am about this. Oshkosh itself is an event I've always wanted to visit. Ironically, as part of my job, I've been to the city of Oshkosh before, but never during AirVenture, so I've always longingly looked at the city in my mirrors as I passed through, hoping to one day be able to actually come during the big show.

Of course, as Paul mentioned in another followup email yesterday, the weather could play havok with our goal, especially when one is flying this sort of distance...but hey, that's OK.. I'll take it as it comes, and my schedule will be wide open for the entire week.

Yes, the actual show was originally my intended centerpiece of the trip - the drive there in a car was simply a stepping stone to make that happen.

However, flying there versus driving opens up an entirely new (and amazing) experience in itself. I'm now looking forward to the trip there and back as much as the destination. What more could one ask for?

The plane that Paul has booked for the trip? A stunning Piper Dakota.

I was checking out the Rochester Flying Club's website tonight to checkout N8323Y, which is the plane that Paul advises he has reserved for the trip. It looks like it's a great aircraft. He mentioned it's due for a new panel mount GPS installation, as well as a new engine over the next few months.

With a 76 Gallon fuel capacity and useful load of 1200 Pounds, weight should not be an issue, even considering all of the gear that will be hitchiking along with us. This will be a refreshing change from the usual W&B challenges I have been having recently flying the 152's around, aside from the fact that it's just exponentially a much nicer aircraft versus anything I've flow in to date.

So, only one problem now.

5 Months, 1 Week, and 2 Days. The time untill the gates swing open in Oshkosh. :-)

BTW, I'm looking for a right-seat passenger for this Sunday at 9AM after a potential passenger (Co-worker) bailed out on me today. Anyone local interested in an hour of sightseeing? If the weather holds, I'm thinking about breakfast in Peterborough? Email me!

Twice in a week!

2006-02-11T13:23:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a long while since I've been up flying twice within a few days.

Today marked my second passenger, and one who was fittingly appropriate - my cousin Steve, who was along for the familiarization flight the very day I got officially hooked on flying in the summer of 2004.

Shortly after this flight, I officially became a student....and here we are!

There's video - click the pic to check it out..

(There's also a video of my approach and landing at the bottom of this entry)

Getting a plane arranged was a bit of an adventure. Thanks to "b" at Canadian Flight Academy for handling my multiple phone calls and requests.

We showed up early to triple-confirm that it was fueled according to what I needed in order to be legal for W&B. The plane was just leaving for another flight when we got there, and I was told it would return with the fuel probably in the range of what we required..

I've came to the conclusion that I really need to get checked out on the 172 - the anemic weight carrying capacity of the 152's meant that todays flight could almost not happen, as we were dancing right on the edges of staying legal.

I had to put the 5# flightbag on the back wall where the W&B Arm was 94 in order to push ourselves back into the envelope. Gross was another concern, hence my obsession with the fuel in the tanks.

But, it all worked. Barely. :-)

We went out and killed some time at Future Shop (Think Best Buy, for my American readers) and returned just as FOOU was cresting the numbers on 04 on it's return. Great timing.

Runway 04 is the active, and I picture ourselves getting stuck in a lineup of planes waiting for the bactrack from Bravo taxiway, but surprisingly when I call the tower when ready to depart, I get a backtrack and takeoff clearance immediately - there's two other planes in the circuit, but they're not in our way.

A cautious backtrack ensues, as the end of 04 is snow covered and slippery. Turned around, it's full power, and we're off.

The conditions were OK, but once again attention to the VFR minima were required. On departure I had filed for 2500 feet, but at 2000 I realized we were about as high as we were going while still maintaining minimums. Visibility was about 15 miles I would guess, depending on what direction you were looking, so that wasn't so much an issue as the clouds were.

I advise the tower of our revised altitude and they check remarks, and clear me enroute at the same time.

I don't really like flying this low - I feel like I'd be pressed to find a forced landing location in the unlikely chance one was necessary. I know that that's probably unwarranted, as the area we are flying over is full of nice open fields, but I still feel like I should be higher regardless. My comfort level begins at around 2500, and I feel better yet in the 3000 range.

As we trekked east the skies opened up and I climbed briefly up to 3000 for a better view. Steve snaps pictures as we pass over his old house, and continue along eastwards.

We turn north, and the clouds are low again ahead of us, so I decend back to around 2300.

I get some good exercise in pilotage as he requests we fly over to a location that we both spent alot of time at as kids. (Long story)

I know where it is, so I plot out our current location using references on the map, and point us in the general direction of where I believe we should head - and blammo - there it appears, right off the right side of the nose.

Funny how that works! :-)

We circle for a few minutes and Steve snaps pictures. Although it's certainly not the first time I've flown over it, it is the first time I've picked it out from the air and actually spent some time sightseeing over it from aloft, so it's kind of cool.

However, I'm discovering that there is one downside to being PIC, versus just being "Along for the ride" - it's that you can't just spend time gawking out the window at the sights - one must actually concentrate on flying the plane.

My training comes back to me, as I'm mentally reminded that spiral dives most often begin with the "Hey, look down there at that!" circling turn routine. The pilot spends too much time looking out a side window, and before long the nose drops and airspeed is heading through the roof.

Don't get me wrong, I look down and catch some views, but I keep my main concentration on flying. I can always look at the pictures later.

We head up over the lake and checkout all the ice huts and snowmobile tracks. For having been such a mild winter, I'm surprised there's as much happening on the ice as there appears to be...especially considering on Wednesday a good portion of the lake on the eastern end was wide open.

This is the same parts of the lake that I used to snowmobile on as a kid in the 70's and 80's. Caution was needed as it never really froze more then a foot or so thick near our cottage area, but to see it wide open for a mile or so in the beginning of February attests to the mild winter we have had.

All the more reason I question the ice huts, although they are quite a ways west on the lake, and presumably the ice is a great deal thicker there. Hmm.

Perhaps a little early, I figure we'll head back. Over Port Perry we call the tower.

The active has changed from 04 to 12 - I'm not exactly dissapointed about this.

Tower reports another 152 climbing out to our exact altitude. I don't see it, nor does Steve, and when I tell them this they ask me to stay on the West side of Simcoe street, and the other plane on the east side. Eventually he reports clear of the zone behind us, although we never did spot him.

The only other traffic is a single 152 just turning base - easy to pick out.

Unlike my last flight, I make a gracefull approach followed by another landing which I'm quite proud of (See video below - my passenger filmed it with his digital camera, and it came out great!)

Landings like this me realize exactly how far I've come since the last time I took video of my landings, which were quite alot.. *ahem*....firmer, back then. :-)

I exit at Charlie and do the post landing checks. Tower passes me off to ground, and I get a clearance to the north apron.

As short as it was, it felt like the (almost) perfect flight - if only it wasn't for those pesky clouds.

And another logbook entry ensues.

Gotta love it.

Streamer Vs. Clippers

2006-02-10T18:34:00.000-05:00

I noticed that Clumpinglitter linked to my blog today after suffering a flight cancellation due to an Alberta Clipper.

She quotes a statement I had made from one of my earlier posts where I had referred to a snow "Streamer" causing problems with one of my intended student solo flights.

Her post this evening about having one of her own flights cancelled as a result of an Alberta Clipper made me curious to look into the differences.

At the time, I posted this radar image.

The radar shot was from the Environment Canada website, and shows a great example of "Streamers" in action.

What exactly is a streamer? I found a good explanation at this website. With credit to the website, here's a quote:

Lake-generated snow squalls form when cold air, passing for long distances over the relatively warm waters of a large lake, picks up moisture and heat and is then forced to drop the moisture in the form of snow upon reaching the downwind shore. Lake-effect snows are common over the Great Lakes region because these large bodies of water can hold their summer heat well into the winter, rarely freeze over and provide the long fetch which allows the air to gain the heat and moisture required to fuel the snow squalls. Lake-effect snows are most pronounced and effective wherever terrain features such as small hills or mountains are oriented along the lee shores.

...

Most often, lake-effect snowfalls take the form of light to moderate flurries spread over a broad but still limited area. However, an individual squall of heavy snow may remain over one small area for several hours and then, with a shift in the wind direction, move to drop its snow on another area. Satellites and radar observations show that lake-effect snow clouds most often occur in bands resembling streamers. These bands usually form over the lake and are swept inland by the winds.

So, the "Streamers" that I frequently refer to are basically lake effect snow.

Those who don't live near large bodies of water like we do here in the southern Ontario region have probably never experienced streamers. However, with the great lakes being part of the weather generators for all that live near them, we get used to the strange weather that can result.

If you compare this Google Maps image of the Great Lakes to the radar image above, you can see that the streamers on the radar shot are coming off of Georgian Bay. Lake Huron, just to the west of the bay, is another formidable generator of lake effect snow for my area.

Lake Ontario, which I live on the shores of, is also a huge lake effect (And streamer) generator, although it effects generally the western and southern side of the lake. Ask anyone who lives in the Niagara region, or Buffalo/Rochester area of New York about lake effect, and you'll get stories about being slammed by it, while surrounding areas see nothing in the way of accumulation.

This is one of the characteristics of streamers - the area directly underneath them get large amounts of snow, with sudden force. As quickly as they appear, they can disperse, or shift direction or location so as to suddenly dissapear from a specific area, but simply move elsewhere.

Just earlier this week I experienced the brunt of a large streamer coming off of Georgian Bay while working in the eastern Toronto area. While we were crawling along the highway in the 6 inches of accumulation that had fallen within an hour, the west side of Toronto was still clear and dry.

So, going back to Clumpinglitters Alberta Clipper, I looked the term up, since although I've heard of them before, I didn't believe they are something we frequently experienced here in Ontario, nor was the science behind the system clear to me.

With credit to The Weather Notebook:

Alberta Clippers are storms born east of the Canadian Rockies on Alberta's high plains. Once formed, Clippers sail southeastward into the Dakotas and Minnesota, and then steer across the Great Lakes toward the Atlantic Coast. This track leaves them hundreds of miles away from the moisture sources of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, so Clippers generally don't deposit huge snowfalls, usually just a few inches of light, powdery flakes. Still, their strong, frigid winds produce true blizzard conditions, due to severe blowing and drifting. A mature Clipper can sport winds of 40 miles per hour, with gusts to 60.

...

Alberta Clippers sail under the push of a northwesterly jet stream. Often they are followed by bitter outbreaks of polar air, known as the Siberian Express, which continue for days after the low has moved off. Strong northerly winds and bitterly cold temperatures leave behind dangerous windchills, ground blizzards, and days of whiteout conditions where surface visibility is nearly zero.

It makes sense that Clumpy is familliar with the term, since Minnesota (Where I believe she is located) is one of the first regions in the US shown as suffering from the effects.

However, a clipper appears to be a different entity versus a streamer. Additionally, after referring to the areas that they tend to cover, and understanding them a little better, I believe that we do suffer from the latter (less nasty) effects of them on the odd occasion.

Overall, which one sounds nastier? The clipper, without doubt.

As I suggested in my other post, a streamer is like a flock of seagulls - they fly in unexpectedly, crap all over everything, and then often dissapear as quickly as they arrived.

So, it can be sunny and clear at Noon. Suddenly at 12:30 a streamer blows in, and over the next 20 to 40 minutes (on average) it's suddenly a blast of winter in the worst way - heavy blowing snow, winds, and accumulation. Then, the winds shift or the streamer blows itself out, and it's all over.

The clipper sounds like once it arrives, it's going to be resident for a few days.

Anyhow, after my curiousity was aroused from C's post, I learned a little something today, and thought I'd share it here.

So, what else is happening? I've got another sightseeing flight scheduled for tommorow, but it's not going off without some amount of difficulty....scheduling issues again with the aircraft.

Good old FOOU came back online today after a few days of being down for propeller issues, but it's got more fuel then I can carry for the intended flight, while remaining legal for weight and balance.

The other 'lighter' planes that I need are in the same boat, or already booked.

So, someone else needs to fly FOOU or GZJS first, and leave the aircraft at half tanks on return. That pushes the plans back a little, and makes the reality of the flight actually happening a little tougher to assure.

Hopefully it still works out, but if not, I can't complain - I flew Wednesday, and will hopefully be up again with Richard (See the last few blog entries) sometime next week, weather permitting.

It's nice finally having my ticket. :-)

First passenger.

2006-02-08T16:06:00.000-05:00

Despite a near last minute collapse of the plans, my official "first passenger" flight went off.

I had the day off work for a doctors appointment in the morning, so I had plenty of time to arrive at the airport ahead of time and finish up some paperwork, and preflight the plane.

Unfortunately, it was not to be quite that easy.

When I arrived, I checked in on what aircraft I had been assigned. "The broken one" was the answer, along with a wry grin.

What?

Apparently GZSU's engine had "hiccuped" on someone earlier, and there was some concern about it's airworthyness as a result. Understandably, it was grounded. The mechanics had not yet looked at it, and would not likely be doing so anytime soon I was told.

"What other 152's are available?" I proceeded to ask. "None, unfortunately" is the answer.

Gaaah! Am I to be foiled once again?

Thankfully, after the exchange, he sets forth on a mission to secure me a plane afterall, knowing that this was an important flight for me. He manages to accomplish a miracle, and somehow jiggles the schedule around in such a fashion that a 152 becomes available for me afterall.

Your the man!

GYYG is not the best plane weight wise (It's one of the heaviest 152's) but it was thankfully fueled to only 1/2 tanks, and my passenger was fairly light.

A weight and balance calculation later, and I confirmed it would work just fine.

Whew!

I finished up the required paperwork, and reviewed and signed the new renters policy that I'm now flying under, as opposed to the student policy.

However, my intention to get the preflight out of the way ahead of time was now rather shot, but I didn't complain - I could just as easilly have been packing my flight bag away and heading home.

When my sister showed up, I escorted her out into the cold towards the plane - it was over at the hanger instead of the apron, so it was a bit of a trek. Preflighting wasn't fun for her, I could tell.

That out of the way, we piled in and I gave her the preflight briefing.

Thankfully the plane had been up recently, and the cowl blankie had kept as much heat as possible in, so after startup we got interior heat fairly quickly. I was glad for the fact, since I had taken off my (extremely bulky) winter jacket and stowed it in the back.

There's a plane doing something strange in the circuit, and despite my attempts to call ground they ignore me in the interest of sorting out the circuit traffic first.

Understandable, but it leaves us hanging for about 3 or 4 minutes while the lady in the tower deals with the other plane on the tower frequency before she gets to me on ground. I wait patiently.

We're cleared to the apron... Checklist done, another taxi clearnace in hand, and we are up shortly thereafter.

Time is short unfortunately, so I decide to make the most of the sightseeing possibilities. I head north in initially, and then once we reach lake Scugog I track northeast towards the end of the lake to overfly our (Now former, unfortunately) cottage.

My sister admits to being completely disoriented and lost, barely able to distinguish the location of our cottage. I point out towns and landmarks, and she continues to seem disoriented.

I remember being this way myself when I first started out, so I completely understand what she's going through.

She's madly snapping pictures, still rather oblivious of where we are, but seemingly happy to be there.

I turn south and pickup the 35/115 highway and track it south. We circle over Mosport International Speedway for a few pictures, and continue south towards Newcastle/Bowmanville.

I cautiously let her take the yoke for a shor period of time, as she expresses interest in trying the whole "flying" thing out for herself. My fingers hover nearby just in case. She does good, but has the typical issues maintaining pitch attitude...that once again, I'm pretty sure I had problems with myself at zero hours. :-)

45 minutes down, and I'm watching the clock - she needs to be back on the road at 2:30.

Westward we head. I spot another plane at our 11 O'clock high and I initially can't distinguish if he is heading towards, or away from us. After a few seconds it's clear he's heading away from us, but at the edge of the control zone he banks hard left and turns around. I keep a close eye on him as he blasts eastward, eventually ending up behind us.

Grab the ATIS. Call the tower.

Onward we trek.

A few miles out and I'm apparently spacing out, as I don't see the airport untill I'm way too close to make a gracefull approach.

I adjust, and make it as gracefull as possible, now somewhat upset at myself for having screwed that up. The rest of the flight had been perfect up untill that point.

The landing is into a stiff crosswind, and a hefty slip is needed, but it's all gracefull in the end and a nice "1, 2, 3 wheel" landing results, right smack on the centerline. My sister comments that she barely felt us touch down.

Actually, she seems surprised that she didn't feel us touchdown. I think she was expecting something much firmer. :-)

And that, for all intents and purposes, was the flight.

The thing I noticed most was that time seems to go much slower when you are not concentrating on a lesson plan, or what exercise you should be doing next. With just "Aviate, Navigate & Communicate" on the schedule, the hour we were up actually seemed like an hour.

A refreshing change!

Next flight? Not sure right now - probably next weeks cross country with Richard and his Lake LA40, as per my last blog entry.

And beyond that, I'm on the lookout for anyone willing to share the cost on a 152.

Co-workers, friends, and familly beware - I have a ticket to fly! :-)

Tommorow, and a Lake.

2006-02-07T19:11:00.000-05:00

Confused?

Tommorow has to do with yet another attempt at logging my first passenger. I've got a reservation from 12:30 untill 2:30, and hopefully the weather plays nice. It's looking, well, just OK. The best prospect for a long while at least, according to the once again dismal forecast.

I actually almost threw my hands up in the air and cancelled again earlier today. While I was sitting and eating lunch, I came across the weather forecast in the paper, and it showed what was sure to be a complete washout for tommorow.

Huh?

I thought that was strange, since the forecast I had read earlier in the day was looking completely different.

It's then that I realized I was reading last
Tuesdays paper, instead of this Tuesdays. Somehow I hadn't read it last week, and it was still sitting in my work vehicle...and I managed to pick it up and treat it as if it was todays paper.

Apparently I need to stop collecting newspapers in my work vehicle, and take them out to bring home and recycle more often. Duh!

Another look at the real forecast on my Blackberry resulted in a more suitable outlook - cloudy with sunny breaks. I'll take it, as long as the winds and ceiling don't become an issue, and there's no wild streamers coming off the lakes.

So, continuing...What's the "Lake" all about?

I was contacted a few days ago through my blog by a fellow pilot (Richard) who flies out of Oshawa. He offered to let me tag along for the trip back from CYQA (Muskoka Airport) to Oshawa, as he was going to be heading up there to retrieve his Lake LA-4 180 (See picture above) after it's annual.

The LA-4 is not only a unique airplane that I'd love to fly in, but the YQA to YOO hop is one I've been looking forward to doing, so I jumped all over the opportunity.

The LA-4 is a standout amongst the usual Cessna and Piper bugsmashers at Oshawa airport, so it's easy to pick out. After Richard sent the above picture earlier today, I can recall seeing this plane overhead Oshawa quite a few times before. To get to actually fly in it would be great!

Thankfully Richards schedule appears flexible, as this week is bad for me (Beyond tommorow, for which plans, albeit cancellable, already exist) and the weather outlook is not great as well for the near future.

Additionally, the dealership that the aircraft is located at is not open weekends, so it's going to have to be a weekday pickup.

So, plans for next week are officially in play, providing the weather clears up and Richard is still willing to let me tag along.

Between the adventure that Richard has offered, and the likelyhood of a get-together and flight in the Piper Lance that Paul has suggested we should aim for, I stand the chance to get a great deal of exposure to aircraft that I would likely otherwise not get a chance to get anywhere near.

..and of course, I look forward to meeting both of them.

On another subject, for any Canadian pilots who may be reading here, Richard actually had an article published in the current issue of the Canadian Owners & Pilots Association (COPA) magazine. The article chronicled his first solo cross country flight - the same flight that I did myself a few weeks ago.

His, however, was quite alot more exciting then mine, to say the least. Actually, it was a downright adventure...due to no fault of his own. :-)

I'd republish the story here, but without the agreement of COPA I may end up in trouble for doing so, but for any other Canadian pilots out there with the current COPA magazine nearby, check out his article.

I read it myself about three weeks ago. I was surprised to see an article from a fellow Oshawa student, so that simple fact made it all the more interesting for me to read. When Richard emailed me earlier today and mentioned that he had recently been published, that little light bulb in my head lit up, and I made the connection between who I had been chatting with in email, and the author of the article!

Blogging is one thing, but getting your story published in the COPA magazine is another - congrats Richard!

So... By this time tommorow night I will hopefully have logged my first passenger, and will have another milestone to blog about.

And one last note - another congratulations goes out to Aaron over at Bad Attitude Pilot - he Solo'd over the past weekend. Check out his story - any former student can always relate to a student suffering from perma-grin after doing their solo. :-)

A rebuttal!

2006-02-05T11:03:00.000-05:00

A reader recently responded to my post from a few days ago about Toronto City Center Airports expansion plans. You can find the thread here, including his response.

My initial thought after reading his response was that this was obviously someone who was entirely on the other side of the fence on the airport issue. His wording made no secret that he's no fan of City Center, and that he doesn't agree with alot of what I had to say about it.

And hey, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm entirely democratic about this whole situation, and I'm not going to delete the (very valid) response in the interest of pushing my viewpoint, and censoring all others.

But I did offer a rebuttal.

Once again, I think his post is a good weathervane, providing some insight on how the community that lives in the immediate vicinity of the airport feels about the expansion.

But, the concerns still seem to revolve around the 'Feeling' that YTZ is going to become another Pearson international, or that the increased flight traffic will turn the surrounding area into a wasteland, as "nothing good" can happen around a "noisy airport".

The reality is that alot of the fears about the City Center expansion are not really warranted, and are based on fearmongering by the people that run Toronto, and in many aspects, the media as well.

City Center will not become a Pearson Internation, a JFK, an O'Hare, or any other major international "hub" of large jet traffic.

Why? It's just not big enough, plain and simple. It's also limited to a total of 167 movements per day, total. For those not familliar with such, a "movement" is a takeoff or landing - anytime wheels touch ground. So, each landing and subsequent takeoff is 2 movements.

Total that up, and that means that the combination of the new airline, the existing Air Canada Jazz traffic, and any other transient GA traffic (Cessna 152's, other little bugsmashers) will equal about 80 flights per day.

The new airline has publicy said that they will be "Well below" that limit, either way.

Now, even if this limit didn't exist, you're still never going to see huge jetliners or otherwise flying into City Center - the runways simply are not long enough to allow this.

A quick look at the airport diagram reveals that the longest runway (08/26) is only 4000 feet.

The only runway that could be readilly expanded even slighly is 15/33, and the amount of length that could be gained is negligible.

Anyhow, in the interest of not blabbering on for ever and ever about this subject (Which will inevitably come up again) I'll leave everyone with this article by Sue-Ann Levy in todays edition of the Toronto Sun.

It discusses the matter, brings up some usefull information, and dispells some myths that are being perpetuated.

As I said in my response to the other threads comments, I suspect that in a year or two, this will all be completely moot - the flights will be continuing as planned, hopefully the new airline is going strong, and all of the misinformation that has been spread about the whole situaiton will be dispelled.

Yes, people that live around the airport will still be angry about it..in many communities, that's the situation.

But, there are two sides to every story, and more often then not the "Negative" sides are the ones that contain the most misinformation and unwarranted fears.

Touchy subjects

2006-02-03T20:26:00.000-05:00

After my planned "first passenger" flight with my sister fell apart, I started hunting for an alternate, be it familly, a coworker, or friend.

Now, always in the back of my head when it comes to flying Cessna 152's is the issue of weight. It's no secret that I'm not a small guy - at 6'2", and with the frame of a football player, it's amazing to some of my friends that I can even *fit* in a 152.

Although I've no pictures to see for myself, I'm sure I make an interesting sight crammed into a 152 cockpit. With a passenger, it's certainly "shoulder to shoulder" flying.

Now, of course, whenever I've been lining up prospective future passengers, I find myself eyeing up weight issues before I even bother asking if they'd be interested.

Today, after getting a positive response on the initial "Hey, want to go flying with me?" question from a few people I asked, I had to ask the inevitable followup question - "How much do you weight?"

Since it's been all guys I've asked to fly with me so far (I'm not sure how understanding my wife would be about it otherwise! Heh) it's not been a huge issue, as most of them are fairly forthcoming with said information.

Of course, when you have a bunch of guys together and ribbing may ensue, some may "fudge" the number they blurt out somewhat, so it's important to explain that close to real numbers are important.

I was asked why this was an issue a couple of times, and then had to explain to people that with little airplanes, every pound counts, as well as where that pound is located in relation to the C Of G.

Alot of people were blown away to hear that a 152 can only legally weigh up to 1670lbs fully loaded, including fuel, passengers, and "cargo". (We all know how much "Cargo" a 152 can haul. Wheel chocks, anyone?

Anyhow - Expectedly, most of these people have never been anywhere near a small GA aircraft before, and their exposure to the world of aviation has been limited to passenger jets, where all these sorts of questions and calculations are detached from the passengers, and are all done "in the background" by the flight crew.

I can see a day coming where I'm going to have to ask someone of the opposite sex the question that every man out there dreads - "How much do you weigh?"

Of course, I can always guess, and avoid the question all together. If I'm flying a local sightseeing flight where 1/2 or 3/4 tanks are acceptable, and I can make an educated guess that said passenger is "in the range of x lbs" (Where x keeps the airplane legal, with a comfortable buffer in case my guess is off somewhat) it's a non issue.

But for a long cross country where carrying the maximum amount of fuel possible is necessary, I can only suspect it will eventually come up.

Now, I'm not trying to be a male chauvinist in any fashion whatsoever, but it's no secret that some ladies are more touchy then others with the weight question. I've seen women who were slim and trim take offence to someone asking how much they weighed.

It seems as if it's a verboten question for some ladies. Come to think of it, I've seen guys get upset at that question as well, so it's not entirely an issue exclusive to the ladies, all things considered.

I can immagine that this is frequently an issue at flight schools everywhere, and I would guess that staff / instructors have occasionally had to deal with some fallout after having to ask the question themselves, even though the question is necessary, and is directly related to safety.

However, as I experienced recently, some people don't understand why we pilots are asking these sorts of questions, as they may not yet (as laypeople) understand the reasons behind the question.

I guess carefully wording ones self, explaining why the question is being asked in the first place, and then asking tactfully is the best method to avoid misunderstandings.

Perhaps a 172 checkout should be in the near future, and this will be less of an issue.

Typical man, right? Taking the easy way out.... :-)

Anyhow, as a newly minted pilot anxious to stretch my legs, I was greeted with this forecast this evening...

Ugh... Maybe I'll try to put something together for Tuesday, as it's looking like the only hope for the short term.

This entire weekend, however, is looking like a total and complete scratch.

CYTZ

2006-02-02T19:04:00.000-05:00

It seems the topic of the Toronto City Center Airport (CYTZ) comes up over and over again in my blog.

I'm not sure if it's my anxious goal to make it a flight destination for myself sometime soon, or the possibility that a similar fate as Meigs Field seems to hang over it's head, but it's a neverending story it seems.

It's frequently on my rant circuit. :-)

Once again in the last 24 hours, it's hit the news. Why? Good news, one would think - a new airline announced that it was buying 10 new aircraft (Canadian aircraft, at that) and was opening a small regional airline based out of City Center airport. New life will be injected into the airport, and building and service improvements are going to result.

Today, Air Canada's "Jazz" division, jumping on the bandwagon (for which I suspect they've wanted to jump on for a while now) announced they too would be increasing flight traffic in and out of the airport.

Great news, right? New jobs for people who build the aircraft in the Toronto area, a revitalized airport, some new aviation related jobs...and a more sustainable future for the airport.

It's all summed up here in a Reuters news story.

However, I don't know what it is with Toronto's city council (and mayor) but they seem to have a major bug up their collective asses about City Center airport.

For those who have been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that this is a frequent topic for me as well. I've posted about it before.. Here, here, and here, to name a few posts.

The recent news about increased traffic at City Center led to a new round of garbage being spewed by the anti-airport crowd.

Mayor David Miller: I will continue to fight for the revitalization of the waterfront. It's far too important for Toronto's success to allow it to be compromised."

Councillor Olivia Chow: "The deal must be frozen, the noise and congestion will disrupt the community."

I also heard Mayor Miller on the radio today saying that this will mean big noisy planes flying in and out of the airport every few minutes. I don't know what kind of airline running 10 planes can be in and out of the same airport "Every few minutes". Even considering the Jazz traffic, I'd be surprised if the total traffic amounts to more then a few arrivals and departures every hour.

Again, the mayor speaks with one thing on his mind - scare tactics and misinformation.

There's a bunch of other quotes, but it's really just drivel not worth repeating.

The whole gammut of excuses are tired, and mostly without basis. The "Noise" is negligible. The new airlines will consist of turboprop aircraft - these already fly into City Center, and aren't exactly terribly noisy to begin with.

Turboprops already fly into the airport. So does alot of GA traffic, some of which is already noiser then the newly scheduled turboprops.

The repeated stories about the airport being a detriment to the waterfront revitalization is the biggest crock I've ever (and continue) to hear about the airport. The vast majority of the waterfront area of Toronto is a wasteland at this point, and the airport isn't even *on* the waterfront, but rather on Toronto Island.

Before they ever open their mouth about the airport being "in the way" of the waterfront, they need to actually make some sort of progress towards having one to begin with.

And if they do actually manage to put some semblance of a waterfront area together, why is that they feel so negative towards the airport being part of it? These won't exactly be 747's and A300's flying in and out of the airport, blowing people off their feet while they enjoy the "Parklands" planned for the waterfront area.

Personally, I hope it's a cold day in hell before Toronto city council gets their way and manages actually effect the airport. Thankfully at this point it's totally out of their control, which is a good thing, otherwise it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they try to pull a Meigs Field maneuver.

I sure hope that the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association publicly awakens to this issue soon, and speaks out. I'm sure it's on their radar, although at this point it's not a huge priority I'm sure, as there are bigger fish to fry.

Although Toronto's city council appears to think they are god-like on their views of the airport, they do need a reality check from the Aviation community.

Getting back to myself, I'm rescheduled for Sunday for the first passenger routine. Who it will be is sort of up in the air again, but I'm confident I'll find a taker.

Foiled.

2006-02-01T18:49:00.000-05:00

The plans for tommorow fell apart earlier today. The main issue is that there was not a 100% confirmation that my temporary licence will be ready in time.

I guess that the person looking after such at my flightschool didn't get my file untill just recently, and understandably it takes time to process everything before signing off on my temp licence.

So, without a guarentee that I'm going to have a licence to take a passenger tommorow, it really wasn't worth trying to take advantage of the day afterall at the cost of a days work. I've had so many delays up to this point it's not worth getting frustrated by yet another one.

Sundays weather is looking increasinly hopefull. My first passenger isn't likely to be my sister in this situation however, as she apparently has plans for Sunday.

There's lots of others lined up...we'll have to see.

Two posts...

2006-01-31T22:42:00.000-05:00

....in one evening. Yes, I'm bored tonight.

I was playing around this evening and figured it was time to get some more of my flying related images viewable, outside of the blog itself. A few other bloggers I follow use Flickr, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I've never been a huge fan of web-based image aggregators like this due to the simple fact that every one I've ever used in the past has either suddenly disapeared, or went "Pay Only"...and then of course, eventually disapeared.

However, Flickr seems like it'll be around for a while, so I'll give it another shot.

I uploaded a bunch of pics tonight. The main batch is a small selection of pictures I snapped at the Canadian Aviation Expo at CYOO (My home airport) last summer. There's also a few from a sightseeing tour I took last summer, and a handfull of pics from one of my first few solo's away from the airport late last summer.

The main reason I got this setup is so that I can post the pictures of my first passenger flight Thursday (See blog entry below from earlier this evening) which I'll definately want to share online with friends and familly...and any bloggers who should feel so inclined.

So, feel free to browse. You can find my Flickr page by clicking on the little flash image display in the "Links 'N Stuff" frame on the right, or go direct by clicking here.

I will endeavour to bring my camera along much more now that I'm concentrating more on enjoying the flights, and a little less on the instructional / practice aspect.

February 2

2006-01-31T19:38:00.000-05:00

February second will be my first shot at a passenger, finally getting to exercise my new privledges as a pilot.

I was originally reserved for this coming weekend, but after making a doctors appointment for Thursday morning, and having to book a day off work as a result, the opportunity arose to fly Thursday instead.

A quick check with my sister (Who shall be my first official passenger) confirmed that she was available in the afternoon. Another quick call to the airport confirmed an aircraft.

Houston, we're a go!

All in all, it should work out well. This weekends weather was looking less then ideal for flying anyways, so the opportunity to fly Thursday was a bonus. The weather is looking excellent at this point, and my sister is excited about the prospects of flying with her little brother.

My sister makes no secret that someday she would love to get her own licence, but at this time it's not in the cards...but she sure is enthusiastic about flying, and is eager to hear the stories of my training and experiences thus far. She already has a good idea of where she wants to go, and what she would like to get pictures of from the air.

Who else will fly with me? Surprisingly, I've got quite a few people lining up for the opportunity, so I suspect I'll have lots of excuses to fly now that it's official that I can do so with passengers. My wife? Over dinner tonight she expressed some interest in seeing the fall colours....next fall. A frequent flyer, she will not be. :-)

I'm sure I'll get her up sometime soon though - hopefully once she's up and realizes how beautifull flying in a small aircraft can be I'll be able to convince her to join me more often.

My kids are also chomping at the opportunity to get a chance to fly with Daddy, but I'm not sure about the whole thing quite yet. Neither of them have ever (that they remember, anyways) flown in a small plane, and I'm somewhat concerned about their reaction. Although my 8 year old son is likely to be fine, my 6 year old daughter may not be quite so reasonable...and the last place I need a freakout is in the passenger seat while I'm PIC.

A ride in the backseat of a 172 for both of them may be in order first.

So, Thursday it shall be. I'll have lots of pictures.

Canadian TFRs.

2006-01-29T22:23:00.000-05:00

The story about the TFR's that have been put into place around the Detroit / Windsor area for the Superbowl is all over the blogosphere now. Anyone who reads a variety of Aviation blogs has surely heard about it already, and those who don't follow blogs will likely come across the NOTAM if they intend to fly into the area, and preplan as they should be.

For the non-pilots that read my blog, a "TFR" is a "Temporary Flight Restriction" that surrounds a specific area. By it's nature, it's temporary, usually being activated in times of high security requirements.

A TFR is noted as a "NOTAM" (Notice To Airmen) on the Nav Canada website. You can view the actual NOTAM here, if my link works correctly. (The NavCan website is often not direct link friendly)

I was reading Land and Hold Short this evening where the issue was being discussed.

My comment there was pretty straightfoward;

I think it’s rediculous that TFRs are issued for sporting events. GA is the group that suffers the most from these, yet GA aircraft are the ones least likely to be chosen by anyone with nefarious thoughts about using an aircraft for a terrorist/attack purpose.

For Transport Canada to run lockstep in this was simply a matter avoiding being picked out as the “stubborn neighbour to the north” once again by every media outlet in the USA. We all know that if TC had simply snubbed their nose at the TFR on our side of the airspace, it would be all over the US newspapers in one negative fashion or another the next day.

Yes, the superbowl does present a nice number of people all comfortably together in a single confined space, which in the greater reality does provide a reasonable “target”…but is a TFR really going to stop someone from acting out their plans regardless, providing they do so before any defensive aircraft arrive on the scene?

And even if they do, would they shoot down a stray 152 to “protect” the Superbowl?

If the 152 ended up containing a lost pilot who had accidentally stumbled into the airspare, or who didn’t catch the NOTAM due to lack of preflight planning, what would the stories be in the newspapers then?

I think it’s all rather silly, myself. For the Prime Minister, or the President, I can understand. For a sporting event, not so much.

What’s next? Should every Nascar race, Stanley Cup game, etc etc deserve a TFR as well?

My comment on being called the "Stubborn neighbour to the north" wasn't meant to be anti-American in any fashion, but it's no secret that the American media is all over Canada whenever it comes to security related issues. As my comment mentions, if Transport Canada didn't extend the TFR into our airspace, and the TFR only ended up covering American airspace, what would the media think?

I've no doubt they would grab onto the fact, and run with it.

Flight Nest mused about this as well, also expressing the seemingly unnecessary nature of the TFR to begin with, and making note that initially TC did not extend the TFR into our airspace.

Without this extension, the TFR was effectively useless, since aircraft could merilly fly right up to the Detroit Michigan border as long as they remained on the Canadian side of the airspace.

However, the TFR has now been extended into Ontario, running in lockstep with the FAA TFR.

Thankfully Canada has very few TFRs that effect our ability to enjoy our skies. When the Prime Minister flies around, nothing much of note happens airspace-wise, and it seems to take alot to put one into effect on this side of the 49'th parallel.

I frequently read about TFR's in the USA however, with many bloggers expressing displeasure or dissapointment over cancelled flights or delayed training as a result.

I don't want the same situation to become more frequent here.

There's no doubt in my mind that Transport Canada was pressured into putting this TFR into place for what amounts to a game of football. Yes, it's the "Superbowl", but it's not exactly a meeting of world leaders, or some sort of world-changing event of national or international importance.

It's just a game.

Does it really deserve a TFR?

The AOPA has a very interesting article on the whole situation here. Rightfully so, they feel that the Superbowl TFR is a complete waste of time and effort as well.

Smooth sailing...

2006-01-28T15:29:00.000-05:00

I awoke this morning to what could only be described as the best flying weather I've personally had a chance to fly in for several months.

My efforts to preplan as much of the cross country as possible was foiled by several things I won't bother going into here. Suffice to say not much happened.

The result was that, as I somehow expected would happen regardless, I ended up at the airport with quite alot of work left to do.

We started with a long brief in order to get the planning done. As I also suspected would happen, alot of the cross country planning has indeed completely and totally slipped my mind.

Eventually however, we made it through the plan with time to spare. I felt much more reassured after having done it again that I can work my way through it from here on out.

I filed the flight plan, and before long we were getting ready to head out.

I learn that the fuel truck is apparently in the shop, so we have to taxi the plane over to the fuel pumps to fuel manually. Oh, the humanity! :-)

I pile into the plane and start checking my plans against the compass swing card, at which point I realize I've fogotten my PTT switch. Doh.

That solved, we taxi, the flight plan is opened, and we're away.

The air is beautifully smooth, and out climbout to our set heading point of Port Perry is uneventfull.

I set heading over Port, and set out for Lindsay. When I tune the MF, it's humming with other aircraft at the airport, so we keep a close eye. I pick out the airport againt the snowy landscape fairly easilly (surprising even myself) and setup for a flyover to check the windsock. I confirm the active, and start decending on the north side of the field. Another plane comes in and passes to our west, and we follow him into the mid-left downwind for runway 31.

He lands and calls clear, but for the life of us we can't see him as his white aircraft has blended into the snow covered taxiways. The runway is otherwise clear, so we continue the approach, and spot him on short final, a comfortable distance off the runway. Another plane holds short at the end as I make a nice short field landing.

I'm quite happy that I'm not feeling or showing any rust after a month and a half of not flying.

I backtrack right away, but we offer the other planes the opportunity to depart before us - they politely decline, so it's a quick turnaround, and we are up again within a minute.

An overhead climb out of Lindsay back to 3500, and I set heading for Peterborough.

The Peterborough MF is strangely quiet. I forget to call the Unicom first, but it's rather moot since we caught the Peterborough AWOS beforehand. A traffic call results in no answers.

Again I spot the airport a good 4 or 5 miles out, and it's not far off our track.

Our approach puts us on a nice setup to cross over the airport and do another picture perfect mid-left downwind circuit join for runway 27. Still not another soul near the airport, so it's a gentle pressure-free approach.

I get challenged to see if I can make the first taxiway, which is only a couple hundred feet past the threshhold. From the appearance on final, I can't judge the perspective well enough to see if it's a reasonable distance, but I setup for a short field landing regardless, never one to pass up a (safely performed) challenge.

On short final, it's clear that this is a non-challenge - I've landed in much shorter distances. I'm down on the numbers, dump the flaps, and gingerly apply the brakes, but quickly release them for lack of need, and then putter along to the taxiway.

We take a brief break here on the taxiway. There's a 172 doing an runup, and we figure we'll give him the opportunity to depart before us if he's interested, but he seems content to wait for us instead. P points out some of the points of interest at Peterborough airport, including the restaurant...which I hear is pretty good.

I'm sure future $100 hamburgers will ensue. :-)

I call us taking the active, and we're up again shortly thereafter.

Our track back to Oshawa puts us on pretty much a straight out enroute climb to 4500 feet. The haze is being intensified by the sun, and the visibilty suffers quite a great deal as a result, but the air is still as smooth as a babys behind - it's beautifull up here today.

The 152 decides it wants to fight with me a little on altitude once I level out. It's entirely my fault - I kept distracting myself with navigation or something else when I should have just trimmed properly to begin with.

I'm reminded of the "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate" saying, and I toss everything else out the window briefly while I stabilize the cruise and trim properly. No more problems, and I takeup nav and comm again.

There's about 8 or 10 minutes of downtime to do a little sightseeing as we track along. The haze obliterates what would have been a nice view of the Toronto skyline, but there's still the usual sights below to gawk at.

Nearing Oshawa, I begin our decent and grab the ATIS. Tower asks us to call at 4 miles, and clears us right base for 30. Shortly afterwards they ask us to Squawk Ident.

At about 4 miles, tower calls me instead of the other way around....2 other planes in the circuit. I've got visual on both, no problem.

I join the base, and make a nice leisurely approach and landing.

As the flight draws to a close while taxing back, I have that "Hey - that was a great flight!" feeling like I used to get early in my days of being a student.

Everything went smooth, I felt totally collected and ahead of the plane at every turn, and the mission was accomplished.

Gotta love it!

So, a reservation is made next weekend for the first passenger. Who my "victim" will be, I'm not quite sure of yet. :-)

So...

2006-01-27T23:57:00.000-05:00

The weather is looking OK for tommorows cross country. Not spectacular, but probably satisfactory enough (barring any last minute weather oddities) to complete the flight.

Ground brief is at 10AM, Flight at Noon'ish. I'll be up bright and early planning the flight, as best as possible.

I expect to feel like a complete fool tommorow with how little I remember of flight planning. This is going to be painfully clear come the ground brief, and I'm going to need some remedial lessons during such.

A question for the experienced pilots out there - How often, after you finished your training, do you sit down and manually (Paper, pencil & protractor) plan a flight?

Or, as I suspect, do you rely on flight planning software along with the handy-dandy GPS, having let "manual" flight planning go by the wayside after you no longer had to "officially" do it this way?

Anyhow... I'm sure all of the avid bloggers have now read about the story about Flight Attendants figuring they're worth the same pay as pilots.

I could go on about my opinion, but Aviatrix has pretty much expressed exactly what I would have had to say about the issue. Find her entry here.

Anyhow, hopefully by this time tommorow night I will have jumped through the last remaining hoops, the cross country will be done and out of the way, and I'll have another new blog entry about how it went.

Hopefully...

Isn't technology...uh...great?

2006-01-23T20:25:00.000-05:00

Today was one of those days where I was reminded that I need to stop being an early adopter of new technology.

This affliction of mine has caused me, over the years, to spend umpteen thousands of dollars on "Hot New Technology" that ends up crashing in price once it reaches mass market saturation.

A few quick examples would be the following, all of which reside in my theatre rack:

- A $1290 DVD player (One of the first retail models available in North America)
- A $990 Laserdisc player.
- A $700 DAT deck.
- A first generation ($1000) DVD Recorder.

All of the above have been replaced by:

- $29 DVD Players
- $24 CD Players (Or use the $29 DVD Player as double duty to play CD's as well)
- $249 for a DVD Recorder (Saw it at WalMart today).

Let's not even go on about the Laserdisc and DAT player. At least I got a few years use out of the Laserdisc player.

The rest of my house contains other fine examples of technology that I paid a great deal for when it first came out, that is now mass market cheap.

So, keeping with the routine, I subscribed to a new payment service called Dexit a few months ago.

The system is run by Bell Canada, and (I thought) was gaining increased acceptance in the Toronto area. I was a little dissapointed after the fact to discover that acceptance is only common at limited retailers in the Greater Toronto Area, and it doesn't really extend into the area where I live, but does cover some of the areas where I work.

I hope it eventually reaches wide coverage, as it stands to be a good system for "quick and cheap" items like your morning coffee, or a can of pop and a chocolate bar at the local convenience store.

Anyhow.. Dexit is a RFID based system - the Dexit "tag" stays in my wallet, and paying for a purchase at a store that accepts Dexit should be as easy as placing my wallet (and included tag) onto the Dexit terminal untill it beeps. No PIN numbers to enter, unlike the ubiquitous Interac debit system that is almost everywhere here in Canada.

The advantage over Interac (or "Debit", as we all call it) is that it should be instant and quick, versus the somewhat longer "Swipe and enter pin number" process of Debit. It's also practical to use for a small purchase (Again, using the coffee example) versus Debit.

I've had the tag in my wallet for some time now, and had the first opportunity to try it out today. I was in a rush at work, I didn't have much cash on hand, and I was thirsty - no problem, I'll just stop at a local Pizza Pizza store and pickup a drink, and pay using my nifty new Dexit tag. I have $30 loaded on it.

So, I order my drink. After my initial shock at the rediculous $1.70 price for a bottle of pink grapefruit juice (Really - WTH?) I tell the clerk that I want to pay by Dexit.

First problem - where the heck are the Dexit terminals? Eventually, I locate them - jammed behind the napkin dispenser and a desktop display poster near the till.

Then, the guy presses 9000 buttons on his till, and the terminal prompts for my tag.

I wave my tag. Nothing. He pushes more buttons. I wave it again. Nothing.

I take it out of my wallet and smack it alone on the Dexit terminal, thinking perhaps my leather wallet was blocking the RF..although it shouldn't. Still nothing.

He asks me to try the other Dexit terminal. It's equally as burried and impossible to find as the first, but I dig it out regardless. It doesn't work either.

The clerk is confused, and tries to "reset" the system. It doesn't help. He proceeds to punch another 3000 buttons on each of his two touch-screen tills, but still no success.

Thankfully there's nobody lined up behind me, so I don't feel like a complete idiot, but I must admit that the "Easy and Quick" payment system Dexit is supposed to be was anything but.

Eventually, I give up and leave the drink behind. Believe it or not I've run myself so low on cash I don't even have $2 for a drink. There are no bank machines nearby, so I ended up waiting untill later and grabbing a drink somewhere else.

So, where did technology get me today?

It made me realise that I need to stop buying it so early, and wait untill prices crash. It was also supposed to make my life easier by making "small purchases" more convenient, but it ended up taking 5 minutes of my life away instead trying to make the "Easy & Convenient" technology work.

I guess we'll all have to carry cash at least a little bit longer....

Weather... & Accident Reports.

2006-01-21T19:47:00.000-05:00

Why did I know this would happen? I had to scrub my intended flight tommorow for the aforementioned familly function, and as I suspected would happen, the weather forecast for tommorow appears to be offering probably the nicest flying weather we've seen here in Southern Ontario in a very long while.

Aaarrrrghhhhh!

I'm going to fool it though, I think.... If it means an unpaid day off work to get this freaking flight done and out of the way, I'm going to take it. Ol' mother nature will sure be confused when I'm at the airport on a Wednesday! Ha!

Ok, with that out of the way... I was reading the IFR Pilot blog this evening and noticed he had posted an accident report.

This prompted me to check the Canadian Transportation Safety Board website to see if there was any news on a few occurences at my home airport in the last while. I usually check the reports once every month or so to see what there is new.

Sure enough, I came across this report on a Short Brothers SD3-60 over-run that happened last winter.

The remnants of that plane sat on the northern field of the airport for quite some time, presumably untill the TSB and insurance companies were done with it, at which point it was cut up and hauled away.

It was an interesting read - definately pilot error on that one.

I looked once again for a report on the fatal crash during Oshawa's airshow last summer, but there is nothing there as of yet. These reports take a long, long time it seems, even for an ultralight crash.

I also came across another report from 2003 that related to a flight out of Buttonville airport. The flight began normally, and then degraded as the engine began to loose power.

Here's an excerpt:

Trying to regain power, the pilot ensured that full throttle was selected, checked the positions of the primer and magnetos, and switched fuel tanks. When these attempts were unsuccessful, the pilot selected the carburettor heat to the hot position, observed a further decrease in engine power, and reset the carburettor heat to the cold position. The engine was not producing enough power to maintain level flight and return to the airport, so the pilot searched for a suitable location for a forced landing. The aircraft was over a

See anything wrong with the above?

Sure enough, the rest of the report indeed attributes the crash to carb ice.

But why would a commercial pilot with 1200 hours (500 on the 172 type) do this? It was drilled into my head that in a real carb icing scenario, when heat is applied, it *will* result in a further loss of power untill the ice is melted and the engine can regain power. It also seems to be common sense in a rough engine situation to immediately place carb heat in the full on position, and then start the rest of the checklist.

It seems that entire crash was a result of a bad carb heat decision.

I always feel like I'm tempting my own fate when I make posts like this, but I always find it interesting to sit down once and a while and read the accident reports to see what went wrong, why, and what could be done again in the future to avoid it.

Apparently Bon Jovi had a little slippery runway incident himself today. All fine, apparently, but I'm sure there will be another TSB report to read in a year or so. :-)

So...anyone flying into Oshawa early tommorow morning and want to take me up for a half hour or so so I can get a flying fix? :-)

Maybe I need to go to the other flight school at the airport, play stupid, and go for a $50 famflight. ;-)

Depressed...

2006-01-18T22:28:00.000-05:00

It's been well over a month since I've flown as PIC..or flown at all, for that matter.

The weather has been absolutely horrendous, and actual decent flyable days have been far and few between - usually falling on days where my work schedule prevents me from getting anywhere near the airport.

Despite numerous reservations, I've not yet accomplished anything thanks to this absolutely foul winter weather. I remember last winter being bad for flying, but looking back on it now, this winter seems much worse. At least last winter there was periods of sunny calm days, even if it was bitterly cold.

This winter so far this winter has been day after day, week after week of crap. Absolutely terrible - low clouds, rainy one day, snow the next, windy and generally miserable frequently.

I had a booking for this coming Sunday. The weather, ironically, was looking great, based on the forecast as of this evening.

But in my typical Murphy's Law fashion I ended up having to cancel the reservation after I remembered the fact that it conflicted with a familly function Sunday morning.

Saturdays weather looks like a total washout, and my instructor (Who would be along for this flight) is fully booked regardless.

I'm getting half depressed & half frustrated over this whole situation. Unfortunately, I can't control the weather, and this Sundays familly function is more important versus my comparatively unimportant flying habbit.

I guess if there's one positive aspect, it's that a month and a half of not flying has caused the bank account to balloon to proportions not seen in quite some time. :)

Regardless, I'm nearing the point where I'm almost ready to take a day off work on short notice if/when a flight could be all but guarenteed. At this point, the way this winter is going, if I want to fly at all, I'm going to have to start scheduling my flying around the weather, instead of around my schedule.

But this "No flying" thing sure is getting tiring...

Trusting an AWOS?

2006-01-15T10:22:00.000-05:00

Since, ironically, my home airport does not have METARs issued, whenever a flying related weather observation of TAF is needed, us Oshawa guys are forced to rely on the surrounding airports that do offer such. Of course, there's still the "Look out the window" forecast if you are just doing a sightseeing flight, or a bunch of circuits, but there's always the weather trends to consider for even a local flight sometimes.

CYKZ (Buttonville) and CYPQ (Peterborough) are the two common airports that we use, since they are the closest and most relevant to the area.

If further or more in depth info is needed, there is always CYTZ (Toronto City Center) and of course, Toronto Pearson International (CYYZ).

But the most common ones I refer to for local weather is Peterborough and Buttonville.

But there is one thing that has always made me wonder. Peterborough is a non-towered airport, and the METAR and TAF is generated by an AWOS.

Now, I know that part of the responsibility of being a pilot is that we must take all available information into consideration before commencing a flight, and judge accordingly if said flight can be done safely using such information. Obviously, a major aspect of this is the weather - METARS and TAF's.

And although I always take the Peterborough AWOS at face value, I often wonder about how accurate the TAF's themselves are.

The METAR's are pretty straight forward - an observation of the current weather conditions. The only thing with the METAR's that I wonder about when generated by an AWOS is that the reported ceiling often frequently changes. Something as simple as a tiny cloud passing overhead the AWOS results in a SPECI being issued. The new "Ceiling" may be reported rediculously low, when otherwise the conditions are CAVOK.

The cloud passes, and the next issued METAR (or more likely, a SPECI again) reports the accurate conditions.

Of course, one needs to interpolate the AWOS forecasts, and understand that a report of CAVOK one minute, a report of a 1200' overcast 20 minutes later, and then another CAVOK again shortly thereafter is probably due to a small cloud passing overhead the AWOS station. One can safely expect CAVOK on arrival, unless another METAR at another reporting station in a releant direction shows the weather trending downwards, at which point one could consider the "Fluke" forecast at the AWOS as an indication of a leading edge of a cloud bank, perhaps.

Again, interpolation and an understanding of trends is needed, no matter what weather you are looking at - a real "Human Generated" METAR/TAF, or an AWOS version thereof.

But my major issue is with a TAF generated by an AWOS.

Peterborough, again, comes to mind.

PETERBOROUGH/ON

METAR CYPQ 151300Z AUTO 01007KT 9SM CLR M16/M21 A3000 RMK SLP175=
METAR CYPQ 151400Z AUTO 35011KT 9SM CLR M16/M22 A3004 RMK SLP188=
METAR CYPQ 151500Z AUTO 34006G16KT 9SM CLR M16/M25 A3004 RMK SLP188=
TAF CYPQ 151039Z 151123 35010G20KT P6SM FEW030
RMK FCST BASED ON AUTO OBS. NXT FCST BY 17Z=

My question is this - who trusts a TAF generated by an AWOS station?

From my perspective, unless the AWOS station is doing something more then I understand, it really doesn't know alot about the weather trends beyond what it can "See" around it. How can it make a reliable and trustworthy forecast? There could be massive TCU 20 miles away rolling in at a good rate and bringing nasty thunderstorms with it, but the computer really has no idea, and may not accurately forecast it?

On the flipside, I've seen the Peterbough AWOS issue a TAF that is way out in left base, and doesn't reflect the real weather forecast whatseover.

So.. Can one really make a "Go / No Go" Decision on a flight based on an AWOS forecast?

Of course, personally, if I was planning to fly into an airport with only an AWOS, and it's TAF indicated that the weather was going to be heading downhill, I'd take it at face value and lean on the side of safety, and not fly.

But for those who have been around alot longer then myself, and have had this experience before, what's your opinion? Possibly combined with a case of "GetThere-itis", how many times have people went "Bah, the computer doesn't have a clue" and have flown anyways, disregarding what the AWOS might think about what the weather is going to do at the destination?

Template fixed.... Videos!

2006-01-14T01:11:00.000-05:00

Ok, thanks to a few of my regulars for letting me know what was wrong with the blog template.

Due to browser differences, and the fact that locally I don't open all of the sites pages often, quite a few errors had slipped through, and I realized exactly how crappy the blog had actually looked for a short while. For those reading through the RSS feed you probably never noticed the horrendous mess, but for those who visit the actual blog page...not so much.

As before, if anyone notices anything wrong yet, please let me know. I think I sorted everything out now though - the text colour clashes are gone, and the glitch that was causing the right-side frame to only show at the bottom of the current months posts (Strangly, only in Internet Explorer) was due to a post I made quite a while ago (but was not yet archived) that was too wide due to a METAR I had quoted.

Anyhow, hopefully I don't get the craving to tweak anytime again soon, providing it is indeed better now. :-)

I stumbled across Google Video this evening after seeing it linked from the official Google blog.

Not only is there an ever increasing selection of commercial television shows that can be purchased, but there's a huge (and again, expanding) archive of private (free) videos that people everywhere have put online.

Sure enough, my first search was for an aviation related term - "Landing".

Sure enough, tons of video! Check out the poor guy who tried to land his float plane (on water) with the wheels down....ouch!

As expected, other aviation related search terms (747, takeoff, flying, landing, A300, etc etc) all reveal countless videos. I spent a half hour or so this evening just checking them out.

Yet another Google service I've already come to love, after only a short exposure.

Anyhow, off to bed. A full day of Geocaching awaits tommorow. :)

A question, and a note.. (Updated)

2006-01-12T18:43:00.000-05:00

First, a question for everyone...

What does the current (graphical) layout look like? Anyone who's been here a while knows that up untill recently I was using a standard Blogger.com template for my blog, but when I made the transformation from "Pilots Licence 101" to Information Echo a few weeks ago, I gave the blog a makeover with a fresh template as well.

I've been tweaking it a little bit here and there, and I'm still undecided if I like it or not. Sometimes I look at it and it seems OK, and other times I look at it and I'm not sure if it just looks....weird.

Can I get some opinions please? Honestly is appreciated - if it looks horrible, tell me, and I'll start over on the template, or tweak it a little. If it looks OK, let me know as well.

If you don't like it, what part don't you like?

Does it load up properly, or do some of the background images and such not load...or load slowly?

I can't really decide if I like it in it's current incarnation, and I'm tempted to continue tweaking more and more....perhaps fixing what isn't broken to begin with.

Opinions appreciated.

(Update 10PM - Based on the initial comments, I revised the template this evening, making it alot less "busy" as Aviadisto and Paul both suggested. Thanks guys, I think your right - it looks less obtrusive now)

Secondly, for any new readers, I thought I'd fill you in on exactly what my blog has been all about.

Although recently it's transformed into more of a personal blog (with the usual spattering of aviation related entries, as it always will have) my archives will always have all of my old posts available for reading by anyone so inclined.

My "Old" (now archived) messages (Starting in the summer of 2004) contain all of my original posts going right back to the beginning of my training, and detailing each and every flight.

For those who may have stumbled upon my blog, and are perhaps a potentional student pilots themselves, or are dreaming about it, you can read about the entire experience of "following the dream" through my experiences here.

All you need to do is click on one of my "Archive" dates in the column to the right of this post. Find the oldest date shown (at the top of the list) to start from the beginning.

And welcome!

NIMBY drives me nuts.

2006-01-09T18:52:00.000-05:00

Once again, it's election time here in Canada.

My opinions on a completely unnecessary election aside, the great debate on the Toronto City Center airport has reared it's ugly head as part of election debate.

The Toronto Star had an article in [todays edition] that caught my eye.

Again, residents living near the Toronto area are calling for the closure of the air port so that it can be turned into Parkland. Completely assine statements such as the following were part of the article, in case you don't visit the link..

Some expressed concerns about potential health and environmental effects of aircraft pollution.

Others worried about the potential for gun smuggling.

...and this...

Sheila Murray, a landscape architect and island resident for the past 19 years, said the terrorist attacks of 9/11 made her fear having an airport in downtown Toronto.

"That's what changed for me, having planes 10 seconds away from the downtown core," she said.

This sort of garbage boils my blood.

To address the first statement health and safety, and gun smuggling.

What planet have these people been living on? In case they weren't aware of it, there are numerous other airports in the vicinity of Toronto, one being Lester B Pearson international airport.

City Center is not a huge international airport. In many regards, it's a fairly quiet GA centered airport with only light commercial traffic. There isn't A300's and 747's (or anything close) flying into City Center.

Gun smuggling? Ummm....again, if City Center isn't there, there's lots of other choices.

To suggest that either of these points are even remotely valid is simply stupid, stupid, stupid.

To address the second statement on the possiblity of airplanes being 10 seconds from the city core being "Dangerous".

Closing the airport won't solve the problem - there are lots of other airports in the area to choose if one has nefarious plans.

Personally, I don't see a "problem" to begin with. Anyone who's going to hijack a plane and fly it into a building isn't going to pick a Cessna 152 from City Center - they're likely going to go the route of the 9/11 hijackings and hijack something out of Pearson International.

This all comes down to special interest groups with a bad case of [NIMBY] syndrome, and the residents of Toronto stand to loose because of the irrational fears and unfounded concerns of a small minority.

Thankfully, some people understand the necessity of an airport near the city core, as was evidenced in the same Toronto Star article when a councellor stated the following:

"You have medical emergencies for the province of Ontario where they fly sick children in that need to get to hospital to save their lives. These are real issues and I don't think there are quick solutions," he said, adding helicopters can land at the Hospital for Sick Children, but airplanes cannot.

This all stinks of Chicago's [Meigs Field] syndrome. I can only hope that our questionable Mayor in Toronto has a more level head, and doesn't do anything stupid, illegal, or (Most likely) costly for the city of Toronto.

Curiously enough, another blogger posted a similar rant recently about NIMBY and his job as a Medivac helicopter pilot. Again, there's those who are most concerned about their personal silence, and then those that understand that aviation isn't all just fun and games, and it frequently serves a purpose that's more noble.

I would bet money that these same people that are calling for the closing of City Center so that their facade of "Parklands" can take place would be the first to scream bloody murder if a family member died because of a delay caused by the lack of said airport.

Similarly, alot of NIMBY whiners are quick to complain about police helicopters in the area and their related noise, but if they were ever the ones in *need* of the police helicopter and it was grounded because of noise concerns, they would quickly perform a 180 and state "Where was the Police helicopter when I neeeded it!".

Yes, airplanes and helicopters can be noisy, but not every one overhead is a GA pilot like me just sightseeing. Many are serving important purposes. The pilot flying that "noisy" little airplane on a training flight might be the same pilot who one day is piloting the Medivac helicopter that picks you up on the highway after a serious accident, and saves your life by getting you to a hospital quickly.

People need to step back from NIMBY and get the broad perspective nowadays.

Unfortunately, in todays society, it seems to be common to speak before one thinks, instead of the other way around.

No go.

2006-01-08T15:27:00.000-05:00

This mornings flight didn't happen. The weather was good, but since we got a dumping of snow again yesterday, there was some concerns about runway conditions at 2 of my destination airports.

For the booking I had, it was doubtfull we could have managed to get ahold of anyone with up to date runway conditions in time to make the aircraft reservation.

I was scheduled to fly with my instructor again. It's a really long story while this is, and I've not really gotten into it here (Nor do I really want to), even though the need has existed since the day of my flight test.

Suffice to say it's a technicality that slipped through the cracks, and I've got to jump through one more hoop.

So, after sitting down last night and actually trying to plan todays flight (the first time in a dogs age I've done so), I realized exactly how much knowledge in this regard has gone fuzzy.

I'm sure I can still get through it given the time, but I was dissapointed in myself to say the least.

I contribute several factors (excuses, more like it) to my situation.

1/ I'm still winding down from the vacation. My head is still travelling at warp speed trying to get back to the home routine, and out of the vacation routine.

2/ I've done pretty much zippo aviation related since my flight test. Last night was the first time I've even opened my flight bag since that day.

3/ Due to (yet more) commitments, we didn't get back to the house untill fairly late last night. When I did finally sit down and get working on the plan, it was clear I wasn't going to have the time I really neeeded. At midnight I was falling asleep at the kitchen table, and my mind was simply not functioning as well as it should have been for the process. It should be no surprise to me that trying to plan a flight in this sort of physical shape wasn't happening effectively.

4/ Last, but not least, it's been a long while since I've done the process. This was my biggest issue, I think, aside from not leaving myself enough time to sit down and work everything out without feeling rushed..or exhausted.

So, when my instructor called at 6:15a, we chatted about the situation, and after agreeing that the lack of runway info for CYPQ and CNF4 was probably a determining factor to scratch, we called the flight.

I had also booked a ground brief that was not likely going to be long enough. I forget why I booked it this way, but I think it was due to aircraft availability. I forget - I booked it some time ago.

Considering the weather was otherwise really nice today, I was half tempted to say we should just go for a flight for some sightseeing. I need a dual checkout anyways, since once again due to not flying in over a month now, my currency is toast.

So, the story of my flying-life - rebooking.

When is it again that the clocks change, and flying in the evening through the week after work is practical? :-)

Above, and beyond the call.

2006-01-07T15:30:00.000-05:00

We're home. We arrived at about 11PM last night, welcomed home by clear skies, -10 temperatures...and an incredibly frigid house. I had setback the thermostat to just high enough to keep the pipes from freezing, and turned *everything* off except the spa on the rear deck, which the neighbour was watching for us.

It made for a chilly arrival, but everything eventually heated up and returned to normal.

We had quite the adventure beginning at around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. As we pulled off I75 in Michigan to get gas and a quick bite to eat for lunch, our Montana suddenly sputtered and died. I thought perhaps we had ran out of fuel, as it was low...but not *that* low.

An effort to get it restarted, with the kind assistance of a passer by who drove me to a gas station, loaned me a jerry can, and drove me back, was unsuccessfull.

After an hour of pissing around, I finally decided it was time to call GM Roadside. There was indeed something seriously wrong, as the engine was clearly starving for fuel.

The nearest payphone was only a half kilometer walk (or so) so it wasn't bad in that regard, but it was winter, and the payphone was outside. Mr. Gas Station Attendant wouldn't let me use his, and instead pointed to the cold, windy, miserable (And rather dirty/crusty) parking lot payphone.

Arranging the service call with GM roadside was an adventure in it's own..it was going really well untill some twit picked up the line I was holding on, decided they had made a mistake by doing so, and then hung up on me.

It took another call, an almost complete repeating of the reporting process, and some more holding, before they found my previous call and advised the tow truck was on the way.

I walked back to the van where the rest of the familly was now quite chilly, but where they had to remain since it wasn't safe for them to walk to civilization just over the overpass.

I was now thoroughly frozen, and my mind flashed back to a mere 48 hours earlier when I was enjoying 27 Degree temps (80F) and wearing shorts and T-shirts in Mississippi.

The towtruck arried about 10 minutes later..now nearing 4PM.

By the time we arrived at the GM dealership he towed us to, it was about 4:30.

Broken van, presumably serious problems (I suspected the fuel pump), and 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. I didn't have high hopes. I was planning in my head to spend the night, at least.

Now, that wouldn't have been bad - our van's warranty has trip interruption insurance. GM would have paid for our hotel, food, and a rental car in the meantime.

But in the overall scheme of things, we really wanted to get home - we were tantalizingly close at this point, only about 5 or so hours away. My daughter was upset that she would miss her soccer game, as well.

And then things started clicking.

The service advisor took pity on our situation. Even though they were closing in an hour and a half, they worked wonders.

After the positive diagnosis (A fuel pump failure, as I suspected) they ordered a replacement right away. They found a great mechanic who was willing to stay late to do the replacement, and they kept my wife and kids as best entertained and as they could in the lounge while we made arrangements, and filled out paperwork.

15 minutes later the arrangements with GMPP (GM warranty) had been made, the fuel pump arrived from their parts supplier, and our repair was underway.

They shuttled us to a local McDonalds for a quick meal, which we ended up getting for free. (Long, long story..but no complaints!)

20 Minutes later the shuttle arrived back at the McD's to pick us up, we drove back to the dealship, and our van was sitting outside waiting for us.

Wow!

We were back on the interstate at 6:30 PM - a mere 4 hours after we broke down on the offramp.

Considering the timing, we could just as easilly have sat untill Saturday before getting back on the road..but the dealership took care of us, and got us back underway.

So, a special thanks from me and my familly to Allen Chevrolet Cadillac in Monroe Michigan, as well as Star Towing who came and rescued us from the side of the road.

I'm a handy car guy, and just a few months ago I replaced the fuel pump on our other car myself, but working on a car in a nice garage with tools, and trying to do the same while sitting on the side of the interestate with 3 other familly members sitting impatiently...well, not very realistic.

Total cost was $100 - our deductible on the insurance.

Definately above and beyond the call - thanks, guys!

Highlights, Lowlights, Observations.. & Tim Hortons.

2006-01-05T22:17:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm officially suffering from flying withdrawl. And Tim Hortons Coffee withdrawl. (More on that later..)

As we made the trek northwards today, my eyes were repeatedly pointed skywards..untill we ran into the clouds somewhere around in the top end of Tennessee, and there was nothing left to see.

That, and since I was driving, I figured I'd better watch the road more then the sky eventually, for fear of running into something more solid then a cloud.

We have all been spoiled by a week of beautifull blue skies, and tempereratures into the range that us Canadians cannot fathom for this time of year.

Instead of making the cannonball run from Mississippi home to Ontario nonstop like we have done in past years (About a 19 to 20 hour nonstop drive), we decided this time to stop for a night. Time and the budget allowed, so we're currently pampering ourselves in a nice suite at the Holiday Inn in Cincinnatti for one more evening before returning home.

The trip to the southern USA is always an interesting experience for me, no matter how often we make it. For that matter, I used to travel to the southern USA fairly often for work, but since my employment no longer entails travel to the US, our only exposure anymore is to visit expatriate familly.

Highlights and lowlights of the trip:

Highlights:

- Visiting familly, of course. We know they go out of their way, give up their beds, and completely screw up their lifestyle for 2 weeks in order to accomodate us, and we appreciate it.

- The weather, a close second. Shorts and T-Shirts for 2 weeks in winter, Woo!

Geocaching my heart out. I set several new personal records over the few days that we spent caching, at least one day of which we were out almost the entire day. If "Geocaching" doesn't mean anything to you, read about it here. It's a great sport, is inexpensive, and it's fun!

- Shopping with the guys. (Guy stores, of course!)

- Did I mention the weather?

- Just driving around and seeing all the "Southern" things that we don't have back home, and experiencing the lifestyle.

- Southern hospitality. We stopped in Meridian MS to visit aquaintances my wife made while she briefly worked in MS herself, and although we planned on paying our own way and staying at the Holiday Inn and such, we were instantly invited to stay the night, complete with meals and a warm bed.

- Oh yes, the weather..almost forgot!

Lowlights:

- Perpetually waiting for meals at restaurants/fast food outlets with absolutely attrocious service. If there's only three people running the entire restaurant at lunch hour rush, one of them doesn't know how to run the cash register, another is busy talking to a friend on the phone to be worried about pesky "Customers", and only one person is actually working, it doesn't equal good customer service.

- Trying to find a clean public bathroom while on the road. I'm a GUY, and even I wouldn't use some of the disgusting facilities I came across on our trip down, and more specifically on our way through Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky today on the trip to Cincinnatti. And it wasn't just gas stations, but restaurants and other food and tourist facilties! Yuck!

- The racism and segregation still evident in Mississippi. Really, it's getting old guys..we can all get along, you know. Admittedly it seems somewhat better then it was when we first started visiting 4 or 5 years ago, but for a good portion of the populace it's still part of everyday life there, apparently. Sad.

Observations:

- House construction is alot different in the south. No basements, to begin with, but what I most like is that developers respect the lands they build on. Back home when a new housing development begins the first thing the crews do is bulldoze in and raze every little bit of nature, trees and all. Then, after the construction is done, they plant new trees and such, but it often leads to new subdivisions of "cookie cutter" homes and areas with absolutely no character. Sterilized, I call it. In Mississippi, when the build a new subdivision, they build *around* the existing trees, and work the houses into the existing landscape. They also leave more then 2 feet between the houses so that instead of fitting 20 houses on a street, they only put 10. (Cheaper property undoubtedly has something to do with that). The result of all this is that the brand new areas end up looking like established neighbourhoods, with mature trees and nice landscaping.

- The water. It's so soft that I almost hate washing in it - it makes me feel like I can't get the soap off my skin! Since our water back home comes from the Great Lakes (lake Ontario) it's much harder. I'm told you get used to it (And my wife actually likes it), but it's a minor pet peeve that I notice each and every time. Even here in Ohio I notice a difference.

- Prices. Things aren't as cheap down there as they were only a few years ago. Some things are cheaper, most are comparable, and surprisingly a great deal is more expensive then home now. It's rather unfortunate since our Canadian dollar carries much more purchasing power now then it has in a great many years, but the prices negate the advantages. Oh well, the point of the trip wasn't to shop, but it was notable.

- Coffee. Really, what IS this stuff you Americans call Coffee? This almost made it to my list of "lowlights"! Me and my wife looked at each other in the van earlier as we approached Nashville and exclaimed that we can not wait to get a good cup of Tim Hortons (Timmies) coffee as soon as we cross from Detroit to Windsor. A taste of home...real coffee! (Grin)

- Chain Gangs. Clean the interestate medians, boys and girls! A good idea that the government of Ontario should look long and hard at.

- What's all the hubbub about a football something or other here in Cincinnati sometime soon? Meh.

- Our VoIP telephone service has been awesome to have on the road. Plug in the VoIP gateway anywhere there's internet access, and bingo - our home telephone line (Including unlimited north american long distance) is live and ready. We used it on the way down, while in Mississippi, and tonight in the hotel on the way back. It's been hard trying to explain to some people we called back home how our home telephone number is coming up on their caller ID when we are calling from the Southern USA, however...but the cost savings were signifigant versus paying long distanace charges. And it was cool, which any guy can understand is a bonus. :-)

- What's with vehicle maintenace (or lack thereof) in some of the States down here? I've never seen so many broken down and seemingly abandoned vehicles on the side of the road in my entire life. I counted 8 in a 30 mile stretch this afternoon in Tennessee. Wow...

And so, it's time to head to bed, with dreams of a large Tim Hortons double double dancing through my head. (No, that's not me..but it is what I'll feel like doing in Windsor tommorow afternoon when we make a dash for our first Timmies in 2 weeks!)

Yes, I am a coffee addict. I admit it. :)

Plans foiled!

2006-01-03T17:36:00.000-05:00

Turns out we won't be going to Columbus AFB after all. One of the friends we were going to visit (the Major) was in the hospital with appendicitis, and it's certainly not fair for us to intrude at a time like this.

He's probably going to be home this evening or tommorow, but I can understand that he's not going to be up for visitors.

So, the plans are a little "up in the air" right now (Bad pun) but I'm pretty sure we'll be making a stop in Meridian MS tommorow and spending a night there to visit yet other friends.

Then, the long 2000 Kilometer trek home starts.

Behind us we will leave good memories, and of course, this absolutely stunning weather that we have received.

My body is going to be terribly confused when I dump it back into winter in the next 72 hours. :-)

Alas, it will be time to pack the shorts away for a few more months once again after a brief reprive for the weather down here.

On the flipside, I've got something to look forward to this coming weekend - I've booked a flight.

Now, if only that pesky weather back home decides to play nice.

The weather, here and there.

2006-01-01T20:56:00.000-05:00

I don't feel so bad about being away from flying while on vacation. Before we left, it was miserable. Not much flying could have been accomplished even if I wanted to.

Since we've left, it hasn't gotten any better, as Clarlietango posted about the weather back home.

On the flipside, the weather down here in MS has been amazing since the day we arrived. We had a bit of unsettled weather this afternoon with some passing sprinkles, but otherwise it's been what I'd call excellent.

It's amusing to hear everyone talking about "Winter" down here. I'm sure that me and my familly look like the proverbial "Sore thumb" walking around in our shorts and T-Shirts this time of year.

But it's in the low 60's, and 70's today. For the metric minded (like myself) that's in the high teens and breaking firmly into the 20's!

That's warm! I don't care if it's winter!

However, everyone you talk to, and everywhere you go, everything is in winter mode.

I'm enjoying it while I can, as I know it will soon be back to the shocking realities of winter in Canada.

Still no flying. I went out and watched a few jets fly in and out of Jackson international airport, but it got boring quickly as traffic is very light, and one may not see a plane for quite a period of time.

I also got the distinct impression that the State Trooper cruising nearby was keeping a carefull eye on me as I was parked near the end of the runways, and was gawking around.

Some things are certainly different down here.

I've seen a few more GA aircraft buzzing about, but strangely enough hardly a fraction of what I'd see over my house on an average day back home.

In the meantime, I've been out Geocaching, shopping, soaking up the sun and heat, shopping..and uh, shopping. (All "Guy Stores" of course...Best Buy, Circuit city, etc etc).

Shopping in the US has certainly changed over the years. It used to be that things were a downright steal here in the southern US compared to our prices back home, even though at the time the exchange rates were very poor.

Now, the deals are far and few between any more. With the exchange rate being less then 20% now (a huge improvement from the 40% of years past) the spending power of Canadian money goes alot further, but the deals are not to be had.

Yes, there are some.. I picked up a new Linksys WRT54G router today for $49, which after exchange amounts to about a $30 or $40 CDN savings for me.

I could have gotten it for $39 if I had wanted to deal with some mail in rebates, but I wasn's sure if they'd work mailing them from home, given the nature of the "US Only" policy on most things down here.

But otherwise, with the exception of the cheap food prices, and cheap (Albeit American watery) beer prices, much of the other products are of no savings at all versus back home.

Quite to the contrary, some things are as expensive, or in a few situations, more expensive, then back home.

Oh well, it saved me some money. I didn't zip into the electronics stores and dump a bunch of cash like I've done on previous visits down here. :-)

Anyhow, off to Columbus AFB Tuesday. I'm looking forward to this, for obvious reasons.

Greetings from Mississippi!

2005-12-29T09:44:00.000-05:00

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone.

Christmas was crazy hectic. Although it's supposed to be a quiet time for familly and relaxation, ours seems to be a a perpetual frantic rush from house to house. Christmas morning at our place, breakfast with my parents at our place, then we rush off to my sisters for her Christmas morning soirie.

After that, yet another rush to my wifes parents place for Christmas there, and eventually dinner there.

By the time we got home on Christmas day, we had only a few hours to put the house back together from the disaster left from 2 kids on Christmas morning, but get ourselves packed and ready for the long drive south to MS to visit familly.

The drive south was fairly uneventfull other then a little bit of snow a few hours west of home, and a 45 minute traffic jam in Chicago over a 35 cent (!!) toll.

The snow I could deal with, but the 45 minute traffic jam thanks to tollbooth construction (and only 2 booths left open!) was rediculous, especially over such a a petty amount of cash.

The actual trip was an interesting opportunity to observe numerous weather systems as we passed into, through, and out of them. When you drive for 3 to 4 hours nonstop at a time, you can really experience interesting things.

After my meteorology education as part of my licence, I have a much better understanding of weather now, and it made things more interesting on the trip down...as interesting as a 20+ hour drive can be.

I'm starting to go through flying withdrawl, I think. We're not far from Jackson international airport, which is somewhat humourous to me, since it's about as "sleepy" as an international airport can be.

Two runways, 16/34 L and R. A few buildings and a terminal..no jetways, no fancy facilities..that's about it.

If my home airport had 8000 foot runways, I think we'd be on par to be as "International" as Jackson international. :-)

Ok, it's not quite that small, but compared to the other "Big City" airports, it is pretty quaint.

So, aside from that, my plane exposure has been pretty limited recently. I didn't see a single GA plane on the entire trip down, but that's due to the fact that most of our trip was under 2000'ish foot ceilings...hardly VFR.

I saw a 152 fly over the house today, and I thought I'd lookup the flying options around here. All I could find was Hawkins Field, which has a few FBO's. Spirit Aviation at Hawkins Field looks like the best possibility, but there's not alot of information about prices (Beyond the standard $49 Fam Flight) listed.

That aside, the airport is in a part of Jackson that I'm not sure is very highly recommended for oblivious touristy Canadians like myself. :)

We'll be heading out to Columbus AFB to visit other friends there in a few days. I've still got my hopes rather high of getting near some serious aviation hardware there, if even just for pictures.

I'm probably going to be dissapointed, but oh well..one can dream. :)

The answers.

2005-12-20T21:34:00.000-05:00

Ok, as a followup to my last post, here's my answers to my list of "Frequently Asked Questions" since I finished my training.

Although I presented the questions in a somewhat joking fashion, I was actually quite serious about the questions - I really have been asked each and every one of them.

Many of the questions come from those not familliar with aviation in general, so although they may seem silly to some, to others they are quite genuine.

So, being serious now, here's my answers, including details behind them.

1/ So, ya gonna go fly airliners now and make millions?

No, as much as that would be fun to do, and would surely pay more then my current job, the road to an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) licence only begins at the Recreational/Private pilots licence level.

One must proceed down the road of training obtaining many countless hours of training, and extra ratings such as a Commercial licence, instrument rating, multi-engine rating, etc etc. And that's only the beginning.

It's a long and winding road to becoming an airline pilot, and I'm definately not headed that way.

2/ Hey, me and my buddies want to fly up to lake moosefart (near the town of chickenscratch) and go hunting at deersplatter lodge. Can you rent a float plane for a week or so and fly me and my 14 buddies up there? We can pay for gas!

Nope, I can't do that. Several reasons - First, I don't have a float rating. "Ratings" are additions to the standard pilots licence that must be added before certain types of equipment can be operated. As mentioned above, some of these ratings include instrument ratings, multi ratings, but others such as "Night" and "Float" ratings are also in the mix.

Unlike many other licences (Such as the one you use to drive your car) the initial class of licence is only for the basics, commonly refered to as ASEL - "Aircraft, Single Engine, Land".

For a drivers licence, the equivalent comparison would be having to get a "Rating" for special situations, such as driving at night, or in the snow..or rain. Since driving a car is a much less complicated situation, this isn't the case, but it could be compared to how different vehicles require different classes of licences to drive.

You're not going to go and drive a tractor trailer with your "Regular" drivers licence, nor is a pilot going to go and fly a multi-engine jet at night with only a standard Recreational or Private licence, without the appropriate training, and therefore, ratings.

Although it sounds restrictive for pilots, it assures that those of us that are flying above your house, or carting your friends and familly around, are actually trained specifically for all situations.

And one last issue: Additionally, in order to fly for renumeration (AKA: Get paid for it) you must be at least a commercial pilot. Doing so with an lesser of a licence is a violation of the aviation regulations, and is a serious offence.

3/ Oooh, I've always wanted to see the city at night - can you take me flying at night?

Nope - As explained above, a rating is required for night flight in Canada. I don't hold this rating, and therefore, can not fly during night hours.

In the USA I understand that there is no night rating, and that any licenced pilot ca exercise the ability to fly at night when he/she wishes, but I think that most untrained pilots wisely choose to avoid this without extra training.

4/ Who cares if it's cloudy - you can fly through clouds!

Again, not without a rating. Flying into clouds is a disorientating situation for the untrained pilot, and is the cause of countless aviation accidents every year.

Flying in clouds requires training to obtain an "Instrument", or IFR rating.

Most licences include at least some arbitrary training in simulated instrument flight in order to ensure that if an untrained pilot was ever to accidentally fly into IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions) that the would be able to successfully navigate themselves out of it back to VFR (Visual Flight Rules) conditions.

This does not count as a rating in any way shape or form, and is simply to aid in an emergency situation. Again, it's illegal for a non instrument rated pilot to fly into cloud, so if it should happen by accident, you have big problems.

It's a lot more difficult then the layperson can understand. Without a "visual" reference to the ground, your mind starts to tell you strange things - like the fact that you are turning or banking, when in reality you are not.

One must learn to fly strictly with reference to their flight instruments, and ignore what their mind may be (overpoweringly, sometimes) be telling them is happening.

Real instrument students spend many hours learning the ins and outs of not only flying by instruments only, but also using them in advanced situations for navigating, maneuvering, and making safe approaches/landings.

If you are interested, clumpinglitter is in the midst of her instrument rating right now, and has lots of interesting reading.

5/ So, your plane has all that high-tech radar stuff so you don't run into things, right?

No, most General Aviation (Small aircraft) do not have the same high-tech avionics you may be familliar seeing in pictures of the big airliner cockpits.

We have a variety of instruments that can tell us what the airplane is doing, and some instruments that can aid us in navigation, as well as radios and such, but that's about it. In most airspace and while in VFR flight, the responsibility of not running into other aircraft is the sole responsibility of the pilot.

There are other things that aid this situation such as the cruising altitude order (Specific cruising altitudes dependant on heading) but suffice to say that things are very safe, and the likelyhood of aircraft hitting each other midair is unlikely.

Also, since most GA aircraft only travel relatively short distances and the pilots examine and judge weather information before departure, onboard weather information is also rare.

6/ Why don't you buy your own plane now?

Because it's prohibitively expensive. Unlike a car, there are many hour-based (operation time) and time-based (Quarterly, Yearly, etc) maintenance and inspection costs that can be overwhelming.

This makes sure that all aircraft are safe, and that's a good thing, but for a "hobby" pilot like myself, it's not practical to own my own plane.

Frequently planes will be purchased by several pilots and "shared" amongst them. The costs are all shared, and the dream of ownership can become a reality.

Of course, there are negatives to this, but it's likely the road I will head down someday myself.

7/ Do you carry parachutes? No..seriously..do you?

No, during regular flight parachutes are not carried, and quite honestly, would be nearly impossible to wear in the tight quarters of a small aircraft.

The aircraft are maintained well (See above) and the pilots are well trained to handle emergency situations (including engine failures and the possibility of landing just about anywhere) so parachutes are unnecessary.

8/ Hey, how far/fast/safe/dangerous/bumpy/hot/cold are those little planes, anyways?

- Available distance involves alot of figures including available fuel (sometimes less then full depending on weight issues) and other factors such as headwind. It can be as little as a few hundred miles for a small 152, to hundreds (or thousands) for more advanced GA aircraft.

- Speed is another wide variable. A small 152 is happy cruising at 90 knots indicated airspeed. There are slower, and much faster small GA aircraft

- Safety is paramount in GA. 'Nuff said.

- Flight in a small aircraft can be bumpy, but the planes are designed to handle it. Frequently a pilot may try to climb above bumpy air, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

- Being hot or cold is frequent. :-) In the summer, untill one actually gets flying and there is airflow, the cockpit of a small plane can be a pressure cooker. Likewise, in the winter, untill the engine heats up and the heating system starts to provide some warmth, it can be very cold, especially considering airports are generally in wide-open areas where the wind can be bitter.

9/ Theres still planes from the 70's flying?!? Holy geez, that sounds unsafe.

Sure, it's very common. Unlike cars, aircraft are held to very high maintenance standards, and are inspected frequently.

The pilots that fly said aircraft are well trained, and bring them back unscathed.

The result is that aircraft last for decades.

A good example is the venerable Cessna 152. This is a primary training aircraft for many pilots getting their initial licences, but has not been produced since 1985.

Next time you hear someone comment about how "old" an aircraft might be, remember there's many reasons it got that old to begin with.

10/ It costs HOW MUCH?

Flying is not cheap..unfortunately. On average, to fly by myself, it costs me about $130 Per hour, including fuel, taxes, and my headset rental.

When you are learning, and flying dual (With an instructor) the cost goes up obviously, as the instructor charges accordingly for ground, and flight time. Par for the course..and hey, those instructor guys (and gals) need to make a paycheque at the end of the week too, right? :-)

11/ So yeah, I need to fly to "Somewhereville" tommorow afternoon, can you fly me there? I'll pay for the plane and all the costs. (Usually followed shortly thereafter by above statement #10, aside from the fact that non-commercial pilots can't do that anyways)

See earlier post about being a commercial pilot. A non commercial pilot can not fly for renumeration, or payment in any fashion.

"Sharing" the cost of a flight (AKA, your neighbour offers to chip $25 or something towards an hours worth of sightseeing) is generally considered acceptable, but it is a fine line.

12/ So, you going to take the familly to Florida or somewhere warm on the weekends now? It's really only a short little flight..right?

Nope. Most GA aircraft are very slow compared to what people may be used to with airline flight. It would be a mult-day flight for me to fly to Florida, versus an hour or three on an airliner.

Just not practical.

Anyways, with that done, perhaps this will provide some insight for my non-pilot readers to what seems like common questions.

No, I can't do that.

2005-12-17T18:44:00.000-05:00

Alot of familly, friends, coworkers, and even occasional acquantinces have been following my pilots-licence efforts over the last year.

When I accomplished that recently, I got the expected round of congratulations, handshakes, and from coworkers, ribbing.

And now the onslaught has begun - everybody wants to go flying with me.

Now, that's not a bad thing - the more people I can fly with on a cost-sharing basis, the more hours I can log. The fact that I likely won't be able to do so untill sometime in January is frustrating, but that aside, I'm surprised at how many people are interested none the less.

But, I now find myself in a seemingly constant loop explaining all the quirks of the pilots-licence privledge.

So, without further adieu, and with some (only a little) exageration...

The most common questions and comments I now receive, in the order of frequency:

1/ So, ya gonna go fly airliners now and make millions?

2/ Hey, me and my buddies want to fly up to lake moosefart (near the town of chickenscratch) and go hunting at deersplatter lodge. Can you rent a float plane for a week or so and fly me and my 14 buddies up there? We can pay for gas!

3/ Oooh, I've always wanted to see the city at night - can you take me flying at night?

4/ Who cares if it's cloudy - you can fly through clouds!

5/ So, your plane has all that high-tech radar stuff so you don't run into things, right?

6/ Why don't you buy your own plane now?

7/ Do you carry parachutes? No..seriously..do you?

8/ Hey, how far/fast/safe/dangerous/bumpy/hot/cold are those little planes, anyways?

9/ Theres still planes from the 70's flying?!? Holy geez, that sounds unsafe.

10/ It costs HOW MUCH?

11/ So yeah, I need to fly to "Somewhereville" tommorow afternoon, can you fly me there? I'll pay for the plane and all the costs. (Usually followed shortly thereafter by above statement #10, aside from the fact that non-commercial pilots can't do that anyways)

12/ So, you going to take the familly to Florida or somewhere warm on the weekends now? It's really only a short little flight..right?

Any students/pilots reading my blog have probably heard and answered the same, or similar questions many countless times already.

For the "Non" aviation people who should happen to follow my blog, I will provide my answers to all of the questions above in my next entry.

Some may seem obvious, and others will (since I honestly do get asked of these questions now) informative. :-)

Filler/Plans/News

2005-12-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

Wow, I think that this is the longest I've ever went without making an entry here. It seems strange to not be blabbing about my latest aviation tidbit, or flight.

What to say... Well, first, I'd like to say thanks to all of those who sent me congratulations via comments, emails, and blog entries. It's been nice to once again see that there are indeed real people out there reading my drivel. (grin)

News? Well, not much. As anticipated, I have not flown. I've not even been to the airport, nor have I done as much as open my flight bag since the big day came and went.

It feels wrong. Something is missing that has been part of my life for the last year and a half.

I've got about a week and a half untill we leave for vacation (On boxing day (December 26'th for my American readers, since Boxing Day is probably a foreign term?), and there is certainly no time or ability to fly between now and then, given Christmas considerations and commitments.

I'm glad to have finally came to the end of the road, and accomplished my goal, but the timing was less then perfect.

In the broad perspective of life it's not a huge deal, but it's sort of half frustrating and half depressing that it will likely be at least 3, if not 4 weeks before I set foot in a plane again.

So, that takes care of the "Filler" and "Plans" portion of the blog entry.

"News"?

It's with some sadness that I must say that my involvement at Aviation.ca (At least in an administrative/contributory perspective) will be coming to an end soon with my last blog entry, which will likely be by the end of this week.

I've enjoyed my time there as a contributor, and I can honestly say that my writing would not have reached the thousands is has without their help.

I will certainly continue my blog right here at Blogger.com, so nothing will change in this perspective. However, since I'm no longer technically a student pilot any longer, and the Aviation.ca portion I was part of was specific to the "Student Experience", I no longer have anything to contribute. It's time to pass the torch, one could say.

I do however know who will be taking over, and my vacancy will be well filled with an equally capable Canadian student pilot blogger.

So, more news?

You may have noticed I changed the title of the blog from "Pilots Licence 101" (What I've called the blog since I started last summer) to "Information Echo".

Why? Well, "Pilots Licence 101" no longer relates to where my blog is now headed. Although being a pilot is always going to be a learning experience, the blog will no longer (obviously) focus on such.

Where did I get the new name?

Well, while I was sitting in the cockpit getting ready to roll on my flight test, the ATIS was calling "Information Echo" at the time.

A phrase from the milestone flight that completed my training seemed like a nice tie-in for a new blog name.

And besides, I like it.

......and couldn't think of anything better.

(grin)

I also changed the templace to something a bit more visually refreshing versus what my readers have been used to..since the beginning.

So, all that aside, here I remain, still stuck for another few weeks in the holding pattern...waiting yet again, to fly.

Now, If only I could get that new James Blunt song (You're Beautiful) out of my head, perhaps I could get some sleep tonight.

Now, with that out of the way...

2005-12-06T13:51:00.000-05:00

No suspense here..I passed the flight test this morning.

It wasn't entirely without drama, however.

I got to the airport shortly after 7AM, as planned. The weather was OK - not stellar, but OK. The ceiling was high enough that we would be able to get to my favoured north training area for everything, including the upper airwork.

I sat down and started the paperwork...everything went well up untill I got to my takeoff calculations. Curiously enough, whenever I have done these before the temperature has always been above zero - this morning, it was signifigantly below zero.

Now, the issue I had with this is that the Cessna 152 charts do not list figures for temperatures below 0 degrees. I was (Admittedly feeling stupid about it) stumped.

I spoke to the instructor on the desk, and he proceeded to check with my own instructor about this. I was told to use the 0 Degree portion of the chart, as there was no way to interpolate below such like you would do when the temps are on the positive side. (The charts do go up to 40 Degrees celcius on the positive side).

Ok, that makes life really easy.

I setup stickies on the Journey Log to indicate all of the relevant maintenance and hour information.

My POH has been laden with stickies for quite a while now, so there was no need to bother with it.

I sat back, with about a half hour to spare, and did some last minute studying. I also spoke to the ramp guy who confirmed where my aircraft was, that it was fueled according to my requests, and that it was basically ready to go.

It was outside, though...no cushy warm-hangar preflight for me. :-)

A quick look outside revealed that the clouds were rolling out, and there was beautifull blue sky over the airport - just what I wanted to see. Winds were coming up though, and that concerned me.

The examiner arrived at around 9AM, as scheduled, and we met in dispatch.

So, off for the ground brief...the main classroom was empty, so we used it instead of one of the small briefing rooms.

Not much to say about that - the preparation and studying paid off, as we whizzed through this and I found out after the fact that I scored perfectly on such.

The flight test examiner is, as I was told, a really nice guy. His calm down-to-earth attitude has without doubt helped many a freaked-out student pilot remain calm under pressure.

Me included. :-)

Before long, it was time to head out to the plane. I had to run back to dispatch to get the plane signed out, and grab my headset. This gave me about 20 minutes to collect myself.

We met at the plane, and I started preflighting while the examiner looked on.

Problem 1 - the clounds have come in again, and it's not looking good. Ugh - the ATIS is calling 2300 broken. Not enough altitude for the airwork.

I hope for a break, and continue.

There is another student who is on the verge of his own checkride who is out preflighting his own plane for a solo. He takes a few seconds to come over and introduce himself to the DFTE, since he'll be booked with him as well in a short time.

The preflight went smooth, and after I was done he asked me a few questions, all of which I was expecting, and were easy to answer.

We climbed in to get out of the cold, and I did the passenger briefing. Done. Easy.

First quirk of the day is that the engine is cranky. I don't want to flood it, so I feed only two primes. It starts, and promptly stalls.

A third prime, and it still refuses to start after an extended crank.

A fourth prime, and it begrudgingly comes to life.

Whew...that would have been embarassing to not even be able to get the plane started right at the beginning of the flight test.

I get a taxi clearance to the north apron from the hangar, and then sit to allow the engine to warmup. I look around at the clouds, and pick the DFTE's brain on his opinion. As I suspected, he doesn't provide any guidance, but just listens to what I have to say.

I cautiously suggest that the current conditions "Aren't going to work" for much except circuits, dissapointed in such. I'm worried that we're about to come to a grinding halt.

He suggests we run the circuits anyways, and make a decision once we have a better view from circuit altitude.

The takeoff and circuit goes well - as we are on downwind, we spot a little sliver of blue sky off to the east, and agree that we'll see if it works.

I turn base, and setup for the requested normal landing.

On short final I advise the tower of our plans to head east. I'm not happy about having to go this way versus my more "comfy" area to the north, but I much prefer it to the west. I shouldn't complain - if it wasn't for that sliver of blue sky to the east, I would have been screwed.

I continue the aproach. The landing is awesome, probably one of the better "normal" landings I've ever done, even considering the now gusty variable winds.

We touch and go, climb out of the circuit and start heading east.

The hole is still there, and once we clear the bank above us, I climb into it.

I dislike doing this, since the hole is only about 3 or 4 miles in diameter. I've got the words "Minimums, minimums!" flashing through my head as we dodge around in the hole, staying away from the clouds surrounding us on all sides.

We get to 3500 feet, and I do the HASEL check and then setup for slow flight as requested.

That's a non event, I maintain my alititude and airspeed perfectly, and the instructor calls the return to cruise.

Another 180 and he requests my stalls. Again, a non event.

I catch a glance at the scoresheet and see I've scored perfectly on both.

The examiner takes the controls and induces the spiral dive. On request, I recover, but be damned if I don't make the mistake of pulling out slightly before the wings are level.

A minor mistake, but it costs me a point.

As we recover our altitude, the examiner pulls the throttle. Forced approach.

It goes mostly OK, but I executed a 360 degree turn over my base keypoint in order to bleed altitude, and then still had to slip on my base to bleed more.

I easilly made my field and it would have been fine, but I found out after the fact that I lost signigant points for having made the 360 turn. Apparently, proceeding to the alternate base keypoint and then backtracking would have been the preferable option, but it never came to mind at the time...even though I have been trained to do exactly that.

Since missing the intended field on the forced approach is the most common reason for flight test failure, I had my heart set on making the field. I get concerned about proceeding to base keypoints on the other side of my chosen field, since I'm always worried I'll misjudge, and then not be able to make the backtrack.

Obviously, undershooting the field is an instant failure.

Anyhow, I passed, but got my lowest score on my flight exam on this exercise. This is very commonly the lowest scoring item on most peoples flight tests I understand, and I know why.

The precautionary landing exercise went mostly well. On my low pass, I accidentally used 30 degrees of flaps instead of 20, although my airspeed was correct. My mistake, although I have a theory (irrelevant) of why this may have happened. The rest was inconsequential.

We climb back to 2000ASL and the instructor asks for the diversion.

I plan well, remember to reset the HI (a nemesis before) and start out. Within a minute I realize that I mistook my initial city reference, since I'm verbally calling out landmarks, and when I pass over a major north/south highway that should have been long behind of us by now, I realize something isn't right.

The DFTE gently prods me to ensure I know what town I'm over. I catch my mistake, and further reference us to several other landmarks in the area. He seems satisfied, but it costs me, mark wise.

The headwind is unbelieveable as we trek back towards the airport. I get a straight in clearance for runway 30, as I suspected I would.

We kludge along at what I'm only guessing couldn't have been more then 50 knots of groundspeed. It seems to take forever. We make smalltalk, and once again the examiners easy-going positive and friendly attitude makes things more comfortable.

I call established 3 mile final, but the tower is busy (Some other plane is to the north of the airport, apparently lost, asking for DF steers) so I only get a quick response and a request to call a 1 mile final.

I get established well on the approach, contrary to some other flights where straight-ins have threw me off somewhat. As I'm about to call our 1 mile final the tower calls us in sight, and clears me to land. The DFTE asks for a soft field landing.

As I setup for the 54Kt soft field approach speed, I get amused at how slow we are indeed now flying - the winds have increased since we took off, and we're just creeping along. It reminds me of the days when I used to fly model aircraft, and with a strong enough wind I could fly some of my planes backwards across the field.

The landing goes about as good as could be expected - it's indeed nice and soft, with a nice nosewheel hold-off untill it would do so no more.

We taxi back and shut down. The DFTE mentions that it was a nice well flown flight, but doesn't say anything obvious like "You've passed" so I'm sort of in limbo.

I ask him to stay with the plane for a few minutes while I run to get the wheel chocks, since I've left them near the hangar.

That done, he heads inside and asks me to join him in a briefing room shortly thereafter.

I packup the plane and check in with dispatch. The usual questions ensue - "How'd ya do?"... "Did you pass?".

I don't have a definitive answer for them yet, although I have no reason to beleive I've botched anything seriously enough to have failed. Besides, if that happens, the flight test examiner apparently informs you in midflight, and gives you the option to terminate the flight.

I never heard anything of the like, so I've no reason to think there's a problem.

I head over to the classroom and get handshakes from the DFTE, and my instructor - that's a good thing, I guess?!

We sit down and go over things. Surprisingly (to myself at least), I'm told I've apparently done exceptionally well on the whole test, with the exception of a few lost points.

I surpassed tolerances (Altitude issue) on one item, as mentioned I scored rather low on my forced approach (thanks to my frowned-upon 360 turn), and I lost a few other points here and there.

Otherwise, there was a long string of perfects, which resulted in a very high overall score. A pass is 42, and If I remember correctly I scored 80 or 81, which isn't far off the top.

We discuss my forced approach in depth, and I'm informed of exactly why I scored so low - this cost me most of my lost points on my overall score. The DFTE says the important part was that I would have made the field and landed satisfactorilly, but he strongly disliked my 360 turn.

He tells stories of how he's failed people who did the exact same thing, and then proceeded to loose sight of their chosen field.

My mind flashes back to my instructor telling me never to put my back to the field, but I did it anyways. My own damn fault. I blame the stress. :-)

But, overall, I passed the exercise.

The only other comments were strongly positive, both for me, and for my instructor. The DFTE says that his impression on my training was that it was obviously excellent, and my instructor will receive Kudos for such on the report. :-)

And that's about it. We went back to dispatch to do some paperwork, and I grabbed lunch at the airport Canteen.

Done.

There are plans on where I'm going from here, but the sad truth is that the likelyhood of me flying again between now and the middle of January isn't very high. Money for Christmas trumps money for flying right now, and we are leaving on the 26'th for a trip south for a few weeks, which is an additional money concern.

So, unless an extra two or three hundred dollars magically appears in my bank account anytime soon I'm pretty much in the proverbial holding pattern for the time being.

Its a go!

2005-12-06T07:05:00.000-05:00

Looks like everything is finally a go for the flight test this morning,
barring any unexpected last second changes in the weather!

Panic Time!

Could it be?

2005-12-05T07:38:00.000-05:00

Is it possible? Is the weather actually going to cooperate tommorow?

As of yesterday, winds were forecast way out of my limitations.

A brief check of the forecast this morning reveals this - 15K forecast.

Now, this isn't the aviation forecast, but it's the closest thing to a reasonble weather day I've seen in weeks, and my flight test is scheduled on it.

The end could be near!

I'm back.

2005-12-03T16:02:00.000-05:00

A few tidbits of news.

First, I've republished the blog, so everything is sort of back to normal.

I chatted with my instructor at the airport this morning and got a better idea on what the issues may have been. After learning a little more, I may have been a little overreactive pulling everything down in it'e entirety, but I thought it was probably the best option at the time.

I will take more care in my choice of words and phraseology in the future.

If you are one of the people involved that had issues with my blog, please contact me personally via email (oshawapilot at gmail dot com) and I'll be happy to edit accordingly to resolve any issues still outstanding.

Again, as I expressed in my temporary posts over the last week, you have my appologies - nothing personal was meant in anything that I posted that may have seemed negative at the time. If it came across that way regardless, or legitimately *was* undeservedly negative or personally troublesome, please let me know and I'll repent. :-)

It's been my effort all along with my blog to give a "first hand" view from the student pilots perspective, and there have been highs and lows along the way.

I've nothing but the highest regard for everyone involved in my training at Oshawa Airport to date, both CFA employees, the ATC guys (And gals), and other airport staff.

So, hopefully I can move on with things now.

Getting back on track, I flew a brief currency flight with my instructor this morning. I was originally going to do so solo, but the weather was not within my imposed student limits.

Honestly, I had some concern about doing the flight solo regardless, since there were some nasty snow streamers coming through the area. Anyone who lives in an area where they routinely deal with snow streamers knows that they're like a flock of seagulls - they fly in unexpectedly, crap all over everything, and then often dissapear as quickly as they arrived.

Living in the geographical area I live in, I'm used to driving in them (especially when we venture north to visit family and such), but I really have no intention of intentionally flying through one at this point.

Anyhow, although there were some passingly flurries while we were up, there was nothing serious. We never left the circuit anyways.

Albeit short, it was a productive flight.

I was not terribly pleased with my flying today on a personal note, but my instructor still assures me that I'm ready for the flight test.

I think that the stress of the actual flight test will keep me on my toes however, and help me avoid some of the silly little issues I had today.

My flight test has been rebooked for this coming Tuesday morning.

At this point, the weather is not looking very hopefull, however.

Craptastic!

2005-11-29T07:38:00.000-05:00

That's what the weather is.

No worries about my flight test having gone off today, so off to work shortly. I'll call CFA and confirm the inevitable (once again) in an few hours.

Who knows when my next rebooking will be. Tommorow originally looked hopefull for weather conditions, but less so now. Ditto for Saturday, for which I booked a plane regardless in order to try to stay current.

Ugh. Will this weather ever turn nice for a few days?

Anyhow, on a side note, Kris made an interesting entry on his blog a few days ago titled "Anyone can land a Cessna". It's an interesting story that really irked him, and irked me as well...

If you don't follow his blog, Checkout the post here and add your thoughts.

Off for breakfast, and work. Fun.

Winter...

2005-11-26T14:40:00.000-05:00

Bringer of windchills, red cheeks, fogged glasses, grey skies, snow, little childrens dreams of a soon to arrive Christmas...and cancelled flight tests.

Overnight the weather gods saw fit to bring more snow, as the picture to the right will attest to. They also gifted upon the Toronto area 1000' ceilings. The only customary item they also usually serve up to me (But forgot today) was high winds. :-)

SPECI CYPQ 261912Z AUTO 17005KT 2 1/2SM -SN BKN001 OVC010 M02/M04
A3013=

After our kids let us sleep in (It's great when they finally get old enough to play quietly in the morning) I got up around 8AM. Having gone to bed only half anticipating that the flight test would even happen today, I actually slept not half bad.

When I did get up, the skies looked grey through the blinds, but when I looked outside to see exactly what was going on I was met with yet another winter wonderland scene.

After downing several cups of Java, a great pancake breakfast, and reading the newspaper, I called CFA around 10'ish or so to confirm the inevitable. Apparently while I was on the phone the DFTE (Designated Flight Test Examiner) was on the other line doing the same thing.

So, I went outside and half shoveled the driveway. Since it's supposed to be 14 Degrees by Tuesday (Welcome to early winter in Southern Ontario...winter one day, spring the next) I didn't bother doing a very good job. I figure by Wednesday most of the snow will have melted anyways.

CFA called back and I'm tentatively booked once again for Tuesday at 2PM. I requested to be put ona cancellation standby for Wednesday if possible, since according to the forecast it's supposed to be the best day of the upcoming week.

Tuesday looks like it could work, but with the afternoon booking I'll be forced to take the entire day off work. If the flight test happens after the fact, then great - no problem, but if not, it's a lost days pay for nothing.

Is this ever going to end?

One more thing to add to my list of "Things I would do differently the second time around"..

- Don't finish your training in the November/December period.

Oh well...keeping it positive, at least that gives me more time to study. Or stress out.

Perhaps both. :-)

Blogging yourself? Let everyone know!

2005-11-25T19:22:00.000-05:00

Lots of blog entries recently...so much going on.

As I mentioned in my earlier entry from this morning, todays Checkride didn't happen. See the other entry for details.

If all goes well, I'll be a licenced pilot by this time tommorow evening, though. May the weather gods smile upon me.

Anyhow, I was briefly visiting My Flight Blog this evening when I noticed that the author has started a "Blog Listing" service on the 'Frappr' website.

It's hard to explain exactly how it works, but check it out here.

Basically, it uses the Google Maps API to "Plot" blog sites on a world map. Once you go and register your own flight related blog, you get listed - it's as simple as that!

It's really a cool idea, and it's rather neat to see it slowly growing.

There is without a doubt alot more flight related blogs out there versus a year and a half ago when I started my own. At the time, there were only a few student pilots blogging about their experiences, but now there are hundreds..if not thousands.

I suspect I will run across (And begin to follow) many new and interesting blogs via the new Frappr service that will further eat into productive work time. I visited a few prospects this evening - there is already good material listed.

That aside, I'd once again like to say "Hi!" to all of those stealth visitors that I know frequent my blog. According to my tracking service, I'm approaching 5000 hits, and by my best guestimate (using IP, ISP, and Cookie statistics) I have about 100'ish regular readers.

With only a handfull of visitors that comment, there's obviously alot of people that "Hit and run".

Thanks for visiting!

So, I'll now get back to crossing my fingers and checking the weather forecasts. :)

Cancelled

2005-11-25T13:26:00.000-05:00

Well, ironically, it was light winds and CAVOK when I got to the airport slightly after 7AM.

However, the forecast was for 20+ Knot gusts by the time we would be up, and more seriously the runway was a mess. 40% dry and 60% ice patches.

This brought the CRFI down to the 1.5 to 2.0 range, which is below the 3 needed for student PIC.

That amount of ice would also have made short field landings downright dangerous to attempt, and since they are part of the flight test, that pretty much precluded proceeding right there.

The instructor working the desk called the examiner, and informed him of my choice. He agreed about the runway conditions, although he suggested that he may have been able to come in early if it was only the winds being a concern. Since they were light at 7AM, that may have worked, but they are certainly going to be strong later on.

I found out shortly after arriving at work that I've been rescheduled for noon tommorow, but the weather is looking iffy. Apparently work is ongoing to clear the runways, at least.

So, we'll have to see.....

To checkride, Or not to checkride,,,

2005-11-24T18:30:00.000-05:00

That is the question.

14.5 hours to my flight test, and what I was hoping wouldn't happen, has indeed happened - the weather is forcasted "Borderline" flyable for tommorow.

I had hoped that it would go one of two ways - either ideal weather with CAVOK skies (I live in a dreamland), or (As sad as it is to say) a complete and total washout.

The winds look like they will be stiff, over 15 knots, and perhaps the occasional passing flurry. This is of course based on the "Weather Network" forcast, as the TAF's aren't forecasting for the required period as of yet, but either way it's a safe assumption that it's not going to be CAVOK with light breezes.

So, my dilemma is this - I'll be at the airport at the crack of 7AM tommorow morning looking anxiously aloft. I need to make a go or no-go decison by 7:30, as that's the latest I can call into work to let them know about what is effectively going to be an unscheduled day off.

I had hoped to avoid this, since that only leaves 30 minutes to get the decision sorted out, and presumably let the examiner know.

If we're a go, then I call work, and then get started with my paperwork and all that other good prep.

If it's a no go, I pack everything up and head to work as if nothing had happened - I really don't want to miss a full days pay if the checkride isn't going to happen after the fact.

To add insult to injury, I had a really crappy stressfull day at work today, which has left me in a less then ideal mood to study, relax, or probably sleep much either.

Ugh.

So, here's hoping for nicer weather. The next week as a whole beyond tommorow is looking like a total scratch for any flying possibilities, so if tommorow doesn't happen I suspect I'll be stuck in the rescheduling vortex again.

I'm sure going to be glad to have that little piece of paper... :-)

Freakout factor 5, Captain!

2005-11-22T18:48:00.000-05:00

Ok, If Einstein can remember the numbers, I can too!

Actually, with the exception of the two additional V speeds I had failed to remember (see last blog entry), I knew them all already. :-)

I can now honestly say that I know each and every airspeed for a C152 by heart, including the ones I don't even need to state for the verbal portion of the checkride.

The last two remaining VA speeds (For 1500 and 1350 pounds respectively) were straightforward enough to remember. To ensure I had them well remembered by Friday, I took perhaps a bit of an unorthodox method - I just wrote then on my hand and then referenced them from memory all day and then double checked that I was correct.

I got some curious looks from coworkers and customers for having "1500 98 1350 93" wrote on my hand all day. Someone asked me if they were the numbers from the TV series Lost that they had been hearing so much about recently....others just looked at me sideways when I told them that they were Cessna 152 airspeeds that I was trying to remember.

Regardless, it worked....numbers ingrained.

So, I've been studying more and going through procedure in my head getting ready for Friday. The weather is still hit and miss, it's hard to say what will happen at this point - Environment Canada is having a collective nerdgasm today letting us know about an impending "Winter Storm" that will hit us tommorow evening and through Thursday.

Although everyone is freaking out about this impending snowfall-o-doom, I must think that in snowier climes people are laughing uncontrollably at the 5 to 10 centimeters they are calling for.

In typical Toronto fashion, we will be deluged with traffic nightmares and thousands of fender benders.

My concern is less about the bit of snow we are scheduled to get, and more about what it may do to the runways if they don't get it cleared in time and it gets packed and icy. Although the system is supposed to mostly pass between now and my scheduled checkride on Friday, the remnants (What little we likely will get) may still be stuck to the runways. That, and the winds a calling for 15KPH (8 knots) and a 60% chance of flurries.

We'll have to see. I'd hate to get delayed again, as I would expect about a week or so for a rebooking. I guess I could fly a solo practice if all else fails, but I'd really like to be done. At the same time, I don't really want to fly a checkride in crappy weather, either.

Ahhhhh!

All that aside, Congratulations to Aviadisto, Kris Johnson, and Lex, all of whom passed their Checkrides recently. Way to go, guys!

T-Minus 3 Days to my own.

Mock Flight Test = Tense Moments!

2005-11-20T17:05:00.000-05:00

I didn't sleep worth a crap last night - my mind was going through todays mock flight test, and everything I needed to remember for such. I think it was nearly 2AM when I finally got to sleep, and my alarm went off at 7.

My reservation was for 9AM, and I was aiming to be at the airport to get paperwork and such out of the way by 8AM.

I got there shortly after 8, and My instructor was already there.

I said hi, grabbed the journey logbook for FOOU as well as a weather package, and went off to find a quiet spot out in the terminal building to complete everything. The Cafeteria/Canteen is closed on Sundays now, so the tables were all empty, and it's a quiet area to work.

I put stickies on all of the important pages that I would need to refer to for the verbal portion of the exam, and then did my takeoff calculations and a full longhand weight and balance.

Around 9'ish my instructor popped over just as I was about to go and get him. I was ready to go.

The verbal portion went fairly well, but there was a few surprises. One of them was that although I had remembered the required airspeeds, I had only remembered a single VA speed - not the three required according to gross weight. I know 104 is VA at maximum gross of 1670#. The other two speeds I had failed to memorize, not realising I needed to do so.

A few more numbers to remember. Yaaay.

Otherwise, it was fairly smooth. I had trouble remembering a few of the "invalidating" situations for the COA, such as outstanding airworthyness directives, any situation where VNE was ever exceeded, etc etc. I will study these.

I also needed a gentle prodding to remind me that I don't need to remember everything off by heart, and certain questions can be answered with reference to the POH. When my instructor quizzed me on the "Minimum engine oil capacity" I instinctively responded "5 Quarts"...because that's the lowest level that the flight school allows the engines to get to. I knew 6 quarts was full, but didn't know the lower allowable level (Which was less then 5) without reference to the POH.

Anyhow, the rest went OK.

As we were signing out the aircraft I made some little remark about not having eaten much this morning and not sleeping terribly well.

My instructor jokingly suggests that's not very high on the list of "Things you want to hear your students say preflight". Heh..

I ask what the most negative thing would be.

He suggests he really wouldn't want to ever hear "Ooooohhh man, that big giant bowl of Chili I ate last night for dinner was soooo good!!!".

We all get a good laugh over that one.

A few minutes later as we are about to head out to the plane my instructor says he's going to run to the bathroom first.

I suggest "That's not very high on the list of things a student wants to hear his instructor say preflight".

Another instructor chimes in that it's even more worrysome if the words "I might be in there a while!" is added.

Again, laughing ensues. :-)

The preflight was interesting - FOOU was covered in deicing fluid, so it was a rather sticky situation completing the task. When I operated the ailerons to do the visual some pooled fluid spilled out onto my hands, my arm, my jacket, etc. Some even got on the ground. ;-)

Preflight was otherwise fine. My instructor asks a few questions and I'm able to answer all of them with no concerns.

He points out something I had not known before about the aileron/flap ball joint connection - there is a small "pinhole" in the threaded shaft of the ball-joint that will normally be dark. If one sees light through the pinhole it indicates that the connector rod is not threaded into the joint far enough, and that is an out of service issue, obviously.

An interesting little tidbit of knowledge.

We piled in and got underway. As I was about to start the passenger brief, My instructor prompted me for it by asking "Is there anything you'd like to tell me about?".

The flight test standards do indicate that the instructor/examiner may request such, and I'm cool with that - one less thing that could accidentically be forgotten.

I run though the preflight briefing. I've remembered it all now, no big deal.

First order of the day is a soft field takeoff with one circuit, and then a departure to the north at 4000. I run everything off with ground and get the appropriate clearances.

The soft takeoff goes well, as well as the circuit and normal landing. Actually, I was a little low on my final for the first approach, but I fed power as required.

We touch and go, and head north.

As we climb out it becomes more evident that it's not great flying weather. Although sunny at the surface, it's very hazy at altitude, with perhaps 3 miles of visibility. There is no discerable horizon whatsoever, so this will add a bit of a challenge to some maneuvers.

Clear of the control zone we switch to the new frequency that covers the training area. It's humming with lots of other aircraft in the area, as an earlier PIREP had reported.

We start the exercises. Slow flight and all of the stalls goes very routinely, so I'm not going to bother writing much about them. I scored very high on both of these, with only slight errors on one of the stalls...which we both attributed to the fact that the lack of a horizon makes judging a post-stall aircraft attitude somewhat more of an issue.

Certainly no major problems though - these are easy.

On to the forced approach. My instructor reaches over and pulls the throttle.

I remember everything satisfactorilly, but botch my approach a little by once again crowding my circuit. As I turn final I'm clearly *waaaay* high (thanks to my crowding) so I dump all the flaps and enter a long forward slip.

My mind momentarilly flashes back to the "Common failures" section of the flight test book I purchased, with one of the most common and major ones being failure of the forced approach - more specifically, overshooting the chosen field.

Doing this is an instant failure.

The altitude quickly comes off and I would have made the field, however. I was really worried I had just botched things, however. Without the forward slip I would definately have overshot my selected field.

My instructor prompts the overshoot and we climb away. I'm not pleased with myself.

We climb back to 3500 and My instructor nonchalantly suggests (simulated, of course) that the weather has closed in on all sides, and it's beginning to snow increasingly heavilly... Oh my, what should we do?

Precautionary landing time.

The first field I find I have to abandon since I notice there's a big cellular tower off to it's east - too close to the vicinity of my fly-over area.

The second field I chooes looks great from a distance, but the litle white dots that were all one one side of the field (seemingly out of the way) turns out to be cows. Cows can magically go from "out of the way" to "Hamburger", so I abandon that field as well.

9000 fields below me and my first two suck. Sheesh.

I find another field and start setting up. Again, I crowd the circuit a little so that messes me up slightly, but the first pass goes OK and the field is satisfactory on the high pass.

I run the circuit and come in for the low and slow pass. Looks fine.

As I start to recover from the low and slow pass I spot another aircaft buzzing about at our 12 o'clock high. I point it out, as it's turning left, right, here, there, and everywhere.

As I'm climbing, all of a sudden he flops over onto his back and does a spin.

Ok, he's obviously doing aerobatics, but why on why must he be doing it here in the training area...while I'm doing my flight test prep, none the less...and without a radio call to let everyone else in the area know?

Grrrr.

At one point he looks like he's turning in our direction, and he clearly has no idea we are out here sharing the same general area. We momentarilly abandon our heading and bank hard east, but as quick as he turns towards us, he turns away.

A quick radio advisory radio call finally gets his attention, and he says he will head east and clear our area.

Frig. I'm frazzled now, just what I need.

I turn west, hoping I can pick out my field again - thankfully it's there, although I'm way east and considerably further downwind of where I should be now. I track west, turn downwind, and as I approach the field again I find I'm crowding my circuit again.

This is a theme.

Anyhow, in all the festivities I forget to make my PAN PAN PAN calls and complete the passenger briefing, but I do get lined up with the field in the correct configuration in such a fashion that I would have made the landing satisfactory.

I'm rather dissapointed I forgot these, since I had the entire exercise lined up in my head and it was going rather well - Untill spin-o-rama guy decided to invade my little slice of airspace, and proceeded to cause the exercise to take second seat to safety.

Up up and away, we overshoot.

Back to altitude My instructor asks for a diversion. I plan it, get all of my times, remember to reset the HI and do everything necessary, but navigation turns out to be really tough in the pea soup.

I took wind direction and strength into consideration for my planned headings and applied reasonable course correction.

Theoretically once all of this is done, it's simply a matter of flying the heading and watching landmarks to confirm the course is correct, right?

Since we are "diverting" back to the airport, some added workload comes in the form of getting the ATIS and contacting the tower before we enter the zone.

Done.

As I fly my heading, the landmarks prove tough to pick out with such crappy visibility, and apparently the winds aloft were signifigantly different from the surface winds at takeoff, since we were drifting signifigantly west of my intended track. Unfortunately with the poor visibility I didn't have the required number of visible landmarks to notice this untill I saw the airport about 3 miles out, but it was to our immediate south instead of where I expected it to be, to our south west.

I look behind us and can barely see Port Perry. We're also near Raglan.

Yep, definately west of intended track.

I adjust course accordingly, and having done so I effectively correct the uncontrollable error, and accomplish the exercise. Winds aloft had indeed changed signifigantly, as there was no other reason that I would have gotten blown west like this.

FWIW, Sure enough shortly after landing the tower was changing to runway 22 from 30, indicating the winds were indeed now swinging around at the surface as well...that did explain things a little after the fact.

Our approach was for right downwind with an obstacle clearance shoft field landings. It goes well.

We taxi back to the apron and shut down.

I briefly run through the flight in my head. As expected, I think I did well on everything except the forced and precautionary. Based on everything I've read this is the two most common problem areas, so I'm obviously no exception to the rule.

My instructor chirps up and says that I can relax, as I got the recommendation for the flight test - I passed!

Woo!

I stow the plane and head inside. We chat about the weak areas and how to improve, and I make note of study points for the next few days.

T-Minus 5 days to flight test. :-)

A million miles?

2005-11-18T22:00:00.000-05:00

So, things are looking good. I was finally able to unwind and relax for a few days now that the whole written experience is out of the way.

Again, going back to the "If I could do something different the second time" routine I would definately add "Don't wait untill the last week or two before your checkride to do your written tests and then stress out about it".

Yeah, my own fault.

So, sitting here this evening I thought I'd Google myself. The results are always interesting, and reminds one of how much of an "Electronic trail" one leaves on the internet.

A regular Google search for my name expectedly hits with my Aviation.ca homepage. Of course, since I share a last name with Alanis Morissette, I inevitably get hits on her when I search for my own name.

A Google Image Search has the first two hits being my two commonly used blog pictures - the one of me standing in front of GWCZ, and my cockpit picture. There's also some pictures of my snowmobile lower down the page. :-)

Anyhow, in the process of the regular Google search and ran across another blog that I found my name mentioned in, again leading back to my alternate Aviation.ca homepage. The blog entry was mentioning the drawbacks of waiting untill you are older to get your pilots licence, versus doing so early on. He mentions my blog as "proof" that it can be done, however.

Cool. :-)

From that blog, I found this blog.

Seems that Air Canada is currently offering a $7000 Unlimited Flight Pass, and this guy is taking them up on the offer, aiming to log over a million miles in a two month period that it is valid.

The resulting blog is a very intersting read! Check it out...

Anyhow... Upon the recommendation of my flight instructor I purchased a study manual titled "Flight Test Notes" by Andrew Fason from CFA's pilot shop at the airport. At $25 plus taxes, it wasn't cheap, but certainly not expensive by most aviation related material standards.

It was a very worthy recommendation - I dived into it tonight with great interest and found it to be exactly what I was looking for when it came to practical flight test preperation material.

Each and every portion of the practical flight test is laid out in step-by-step fashion. Every expected ground-quiz question and related information (Such as common errors) are laid out in a self-quiz style format. Answers are provided after each section to reinforce the material and aid in learning it.

The actual flight test items are also laid out with expectations, procedures, and again, common mistakes. I've found the "mistakes" portion a great aid, as it lists small things that are commonly forgotten, or procedures gone wrong...such as pulling up before/while leveling the wings during the spiral dive, for example.

Sure enough, while learning most of these exercises early on, I myself have done quite a few of the "common mistakes" for each flight test item. It's nice to be able to read about them again and refresh ones mind on procedures to avoid the mistakes in the first place. Avoiding these common mistakes during the all important checkride is essential to scoring high, and obviously passing the ride.

For any student within Canada who is in the last stages of their training and is fretting about remembering each and every required item for the flight test, I would definately recommend this guide. I can see it's going to be a great aid for myself, and I must thank my instructor Phil for recommending it.

Back to reality, Sunday is looking hopefull weather wise for the mock flight test. I've got my fingers crossed. For the record, we got our first signifigant snowfall today, enough this afternoon/evening to whiten the ground. It won't hang around, but was enough to remind everyone that this is Canada, and winter is nearly upon us.

It also resulted in hundreds of idiots sliding and smashing into each other on the highways, as was evidenced by several accidents I noticed on my short drive home from work this evening. As usual, everyone forgets that snow and ice is slippery, and tries to drive in it as if it's dry asphalt.

Sheesh. It's not like this is Florida, people - this weather comes each and every year, generally around the same time. Every year the snow and ice are slippery, there is no change there.

Yet people apparently insist on ignoring the road conditions and continuing to drive like nothing is happening.

I often compare the utter simplicity and complete lack of in-depth training that a "Regular" drivers licence entails, versus what a student pilot goes though.

Thankfully obtaining a pilots licence actually involves training and proven competency, not just the absolute minimum of ability and "monkey see monkey do" actions that can seemingly pass for a satisfactory drivers licence test anymore.

Anyhow, rant over. Back to your regularly schedule blog surfing. :)

Almost a pilot, written (finally) done.

2005-11-16T16:05:00.000-05:00

I finally got into Toronto this morning for my written exam.

There was some frustrating moments in the last few days leading up to this, however. I had intended to go into CFA over the weekend and do the "mock" exam, but things didn't go as planned and the weekend ended up completely hectic and disorganized.

I never got in to do the mock test over the weekend as a result, so I then planned on doing so Monday evening instead.

I could go on and on about what happened next, but lets suffice to say that there was some issues with me getting my letter of recommendation in order for me to write the "Real" writtens this morning.

It wasn't because I failed the mock, or anything of the sort, but I discovered Monday evening (about 30 minutes before I planned on writing it) that there was no mock RPP exam for me to write.

For simplicities sake and to keep a very long story short, I ended up getting my letter of recommendation after discussing the matter further with my instructor.

Lets leave it at that.

There was a brief period of frustration mixed with great concern on Monday evening over this whole situation, but it worked out in the end.

So I dragged myself out of bed at 6AM this morning. I had actually woke up at 5AM, and despite my best effort, slept poorly untill 6 when my alarm went off. I had some issues getting to sleep last night as well, which didn't help much.

I'm glad I got underway early, as the rotten weather meant that the highway was totally screwed. It took me just over an hour and a half to go the 45 freakin' Kilometers into the City to get to the Transport Canada office.

Once parked (An adventure in its own) I made my way inside to the 4th floor. The ladies at the desk were quite pleasant and started my paperwork. I was the first student of the day, it seems.

They sent me down a floor to pay for my test after providing me with the papers I needed to take to the cashiers office.

The "cashier" lady I had to see was the stereotypical government employee:

1/ Mildly grumpy.
2/ Apparently unable to speak beyond groans and the occasional 1 syllable word.
3/ Seemingly inconvenienced that I was there taking up her precious time.
4/ Physically unable to smile and be cheery.

That aside, I paid up, and it was back upstairs to the other much more pleasant ladies in the flight examiners office.

I first had to sign a 1 page document effectively stating that if I cheated at all, I was disqualified from rewriting for a period of one year. Ouch, that would suck!

They went through all of my stuff sorting out what I could and couldn't bring into the exam room. I had forgotten that my E6B manual was in the little vinyl holder with my E6B itself, and the manual was expectedly not allowed.

Other things that surprised me as not being allowed were my baseball cap (?) and my clipboard.

I asked why the clipboard was an issue and the lady told me a story about how they had once caught someone cheating in a curious fashion using a vinyl style clipboard like I had. Apparently he/she had somehow managed to write answers onto their clipboard in such a fashion that it wasn't immediately evident anything was there.

However, when the student held the LCD screen of his/her calculator in such a fashion that it reflected the view of the clipboard, the words were readable.

I guess they saw the student "maneuvering" his calculator repeatedly over the clipboard, and thought something was up. He was busted.

Ingeniously stupid, if you ask me. :-)

I had also brought along a reem of note paper, but they said that was disallowed as well since others had apparently "imprinted" answers into the blank pages.

Hmm...never thought of that, but makes sense.

So I set that aside as well. I jokingly asked if I should leave my checkbook behind as well, and the ladies jokingly suggested that if I was so desperate to have scribbled cheat sheets onto blank cheques that I shouldn't be at their office.

Wow, government workers with a sense of humour! There's a first time for everything!

Anyhow, I ended up with "Version 1" of the exam, for whatever that's worth. My provided VNC was of my home area, which was kind of cool since I'm obviously familliar with it.

I had 5 minutes to prep and get my stuff together and sorted before the exam started. I was ready previous to the 5 minutes, so I clicked the button to start early.

The entire exam was done on a PC using an intuitive software package that I'm sure, in typical government fashion, cost about $9.8 Billion dollars to have custom written.

It gave you the option of changing your answer after the fact (Untill you end the exam), "bookmarking" questions you weren't sure on, and passing any you wanted to come back to later. Expectedly, it kept track of questions answered, questions left, and time elapsed/remaining.

Some reference material was on paper, such as the GFA's, simulated TAF's and METARS, sample W&B information, and a few other things. The computer referred to the related papers when necessary.

The room was comfortable with a big desk at each workstation that was large enough to stretch almost the entire VNC out on. The room was obviously well supervised, with two out of the 4 sides being glassed in so that it was easy to monitor the students inside.

Unfortunately this worked two ways - I got to listen to a few office ladies having a long (and rather loud) conversation about their shopping experience the previous night through the one glass wall I was sitting up against. It was somewhat distracting at times.

6 or 7 other students dwindled in over the period of time I was there, so it got a little noisier in the exam room as everyone flipped their VNC's about and changed pages on their reference material.

One guy had an electronic E6B which made very annoying "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" noises with every keypress. It would have been nice if he had turned the sound off.

Overall, slight annoyances aside, it was very straight forward, and I was finished in about 2.5 of the 3 hours allotted.

I made a few stupid mistakes by falling for one or two of the "trick answers", and I just completely brainfarted on a few things.

Overall I didn't "ace" the test, but I ended with a healthy pass well on the positive side of the requirements.

Although I expected to score lowest on Meteorology, surprisingly my lowest score was on Air Law and I did better on Met then I had expected. Huh?

I will continue to study on my problem areas, since I'm sure the examiner will grill me on a few of these at flight test time.

Anyhow, I'm glad that's out of the way. It was a massive relief to finally walk out of there with my magic piece of paper.

So, I'm booked dual with my instructor again this coming Sunday for my "official" mock flight test. Barring any problems there, the real thing remains booked for next Friday.

Thankfully, a cancellation!

2005-11-12T22:35:00.000-05:00

Ahh, another day winding down. It was a hectic one, and sitting here in front of the PC blogging while listening to some tunes is finally adding some relaxation to a day that went from one urgent moment to another.

Thankfully my great wife was understanding about my urgency to fly today, as I ended up missing a few familly events today as a result.

Thanks sweetie. :-)

The title of todays entry is a little misleading. It was someone else's cancellation that led to me actually flying today.

This mornings weather was obviously marginal VFR at best when I got to the airport, and was effectively useless for training in. The ATIS was calling 3 miles visibility, but the early morning fog was quickly getting worse.

The flight was scrubbed. To not make it a total loss, my instructor looked over my hand calculated takeoff numbers, as well as my weight and balance, just to see that I'm ready to do this in front of the examiner when the big day finally arrives.

All well there. The hand-calculated takeoff calculations are pretty easy now - it took me only about 6 or 8 minutes last night to do them.

With little sense in waiting around, I head back home. Before going, my instructor gives me a heads up that there may be a cancellation at 1:30PM. His student at that time is flying his own plane, but it may not be back from another airport. (Long story)

I said "I'll take it!" if it comes up.

I drove out to Bowmanville to catch the latter part of my Daughters soccer game, and the fog was so thick by this point that traffic slowed to about 40Kph. A few times I found myself crawling along all by myself, wondering where the end of my hood went.

Anyhow, shortly after 1PM my instructor was on the phone - the flight was on. As expected, the other student won't have his plane back in time.

I wolf down lunch, which was on the BBQ when he called. I eat the rest of it in the car on the way to the airport, and manage not to wear half of it in the process.

We get underway quickly once I arrive. My instructor is waiting for his lunch to arrive so he too can wolf it down before flying (A theme, apparently), so I preflight and we are airborne shortly thereafter.

Surprisingly, he says we'll depart to the northwest today...rather unfamilliar territory for me, but an interesting change.

He asks me to navigate to a few towns using pilotage. No big deal there, easy stuff. Over our eventual destination, the expected happens - my instructor reaches over and chops the throttle.

OK, I screwed the forced approach up serioulsy last time, but the armchair flying really worked out well, and I pretty much nail the whole thing.

His only comment was that since we ended up cutting the power over a town, my resulting first choice of fields was a little too close to the built up area.

In a "Real" forced approach, this is a positive thing (Land close to civilization if possible) but for training we don't need to break the CAR's by decending too low over a built up area.

Hint taken, I find another field sufficiently to the south. It works really well, so much so that I end up on a real long final on a nice stabilized glide path.

I remember every step, and I'm quite pleased. A complete and total turnaround from the dismal failure of last flight. Armchair flying works!

We overshoot and climb back to 2500.

Simulated diversion time. I orbit Brougham, and plan. I have to unfold my VNC to properly see the portion of the compass rose around the Simcoe VOR that I need to get my heading information.

We are diverting to Greenbank airport this time, which is where I did my soft field landings in a previous blog entries. It's a neat little turf airfield that I can NEVER seem to find - today will be no exception.

Otherwise, the diversion so far is easy stuff. My halfway checkpoint is rather ambigious due to a complete and total lack of anything on the ground worth referencing in the area. I explain to my instructor later that there were enough "neaby" references (A tower and the southern tip of Lake Scugog) that I could sufficiently triangulate my postion to confirm I was in the vicinity of my checkpoint.

Oh, I remembered everything except resetting the HI before hand. My instructor chimes in about this about half way through the diversion, and I have a brief "duh" moment. This has stung me before, I should know better. A minor error, but an error regardless.

We continue and we are pretty much on track according to my ETA's. Things start to get interesting, here, however. My instructor says that we will use Greenbank airport (our diversion destination) as our precautionary landing location.

Now, this *totally* makes sense. If one was in the need of performing a precautionary landing for some reason, landing at an airport would be the ideal situation, right?

Why land in a farmers field when there's a nifty airport nearby...right?

Sure, except the uncontrolled field procedures still frazzle me a little. I'm more comfortable flying in controlled airspace then I am in uncontrolled airspace, curiously.

We enter the mid right downwind, and my issues with actually keeping the airport in sight makes my life difficult.

I don't know what the hell my problem is with turf fields, but I continualy loose sight of the airport over and over again. They just don't stick out like a airport with asphalt runways.

I fly downwind, and loose it. I turn base, and loose it. Just about the only time I continually have the airport in sight is when we are on final, or overhead.

My altitudes are far too creative, another plane enters the circuit with us to further divide my attention, and the whole experience just doesn't go anything close to what I would have liked.

Precautionaries aren't anything I've had a problem with in the past, but the whole "Doing them at an airport" where many extra things come into play, versus a field of ones choosing, seems to have frazzled me.

If we had done the exercise using a field as our landing destination, I'm sure I would have done better....even though Greenbank "technically" makes more sense in our situation.

If there was one shining point, I nailed the soft field landing.

As we climb out, my instructor surprisingly (to me) says that although rough, it was probably passable.

If that was passable, I should have no problem on the flight test when we will be using a field for our precautionary landing destination, instead of a uncontrolled airfield.

On a side note, I will indeed need to recap my uncontrolled field procedures, although I've flown into Greenbank before with no issues, the added bit of stress of doing the precautionary exercise at the same time seemed to throw me for the bit of a loop that I experiened today.

But I guess the important part was that it all remained "technically" passable.

As we depart Greenbanks airspace I start with our clearance back to Oshawa.

On my first call, the Tower asks us to standby - it's crazy busy. Me and my instructor have a brief discussion about being technically cleared into Oshawa's Class D airspace once "Two way communication has been established" (Which we achieved) but we circle outside the zone regardless untill the tower gets back to us.

We get a clearance with an altitude restriction, and a reporting point.

As we fly abeam our reporting point the radio is still humming with the tower sequencing planes, and yet more calling in - I can't squeeze in. Eventually we do, but we're pretty much turning base by this point...and our altitude restriction wasn't cancelled yet, so I'm still 500' over circuit altitude.

The tower quickly gets back to us, sequences us #3, cancels our restriction, and asks us to keep up the speed. Bleh!

My short field landing isn't spectacular as I ended up with a bit of yaw and that throws the nosewheel into a bit of a shimmy on touchdown.

Anyhow, a debrief follows, with what I expected issue-wise. My instructor suggests another solo to practice the precautionaries, and I will try to fit this in, but a surprise phone call later in the evening informs me that my flight test has been rebooked for the 27'th of the month. A little quicker then I had hoped, but I suppose sooner is better then later.

The only mandatory flight before the flight test itself is one last dual with my instructor for a mock flight test.

Perhaps I'll spend the week "Armchair Flying" the precautionary as well, since it worked so well for my problems with the forced landing.

If I'm confident that I'm prepared, he says we can skip the solo, and proceed right to the mock flight test.

Given the fact that time is going to be at a premium between now, and then, this may have to be the case.

So, the countdown is on again!

FWIW, I updated my last post with the Blogroll. I must appologise for a few blatant errors, and some bad grammar - blogging while half asleep late at night is apparently a bad idea!

Sorry Aviadisto, I apparently had a major brainfart with your entry. Not sure what I was thinking with the old Gender-Chango I pulled on you. Accept my appologies. :)

The Blogroll.

2005-11-10T22:22:00.000-05:00

I thought it was time tonight to make a list of the blogs I frequent. I get alot of readers here as a result of my exposure at Aviation.ca, but my own blog aside, there is alot of other great blogs out there as well!

So, I thought perhaps I could share the word on my own favourites.

So, here we go, in the order that I've been following them the longest.

Clumpinglitter: C's blog was the first I ever started reading, short of my own. Her blog entries have always been interesting and frequently humorous. She's completed her PPL and is now working on her instrument rating.

Aviadisto: On the verge of his checkride, like myself. An interesting view from another student experiencing many of the ups and downs that I've hit myself along the road of being a student pilot.

Cockpit Conversation: A commercial pilot working her way up the ladder towards an ATP job. Especially interesting for me since she is a fellow Canadian, and although her comments on fellow student pilot blogs can be testy at times, she does write interesting and often informative technical blog entries.

Undefined Values: Kris is also in the end stages of his PPL. Lots of interesting student pilot related entries, as well as alot of programmer related goodies that are interesting, irrelevant of the fact that they often don't make much sense to me as a non-programmer. :-)

Newtons Law Of Motion: Chris's blog has been very interesting reading to get the view from a UK perspective. He blasted from his first flights to his advanced stage in what seemed like weeks due to his frequently flying lessons. He unfortunately seems to have dropped off the map now for almost a month and a half. Not sure what happened, but I'm sure he'll be back.

CharlieTango: A fellow Canadian student training at an airport only a short drive from myself. Also on the verge of her checkride.

Rants and Revelations: Paul is an experienced pilot who has been a regular visitor and frequent commenter here at my blog. He lives across the lake from me, and has flown into my home airport on numerous occasions, so he can relate. Lots of interesting goodies on his blog from frequent cross-country flights.

Flying around in circles: Roberts blog is an interesting view from the instructors perspective.

Controllers Corner: Michael is a fellow blogger at my other Aviation.ca home. He's a air traffic controller on the east coast of Canada and has tons of interesting entries on an almost daily basis. A great read for anyone who wonders about what goes on behind the scenes at all those towers we chat with on the radio.

Another student pilot: David is a pre-solo student flying a plane that I'm quite envious of. :-)

Making a Kiwi fly: The view from the New Zealand perspective. I've followed Euan's blog since he started, and we recently chatted on the phone for an hour or so. (VoIP overseas long distance is cheap!). Euan has been doing exceptionally well at several club competitions recently, which is interesting since I don't often hear about competitions like this on this side of the pond.

Flight Instructor Journal: A relatively new blog from an instructor who has ties to a student with her own blog near the top of this list. :-) Although there is only a few entries at this point, they have been another interesting bit of reading on what instructors think while teaching us students.

You are now free to move about the country: A commercial pilot flying the big boys. Interesting tidbits, although I just joined this one recently so I'm still catching up.

The sky is not the limit: Ahhh...flying a Learjet, and getting paid for it. She likes horses as well, which is cool, since I do too. The difference - she actually spends time around them more then the occasional few times per year my wife and I get out riding anymore. (Sigh)

Flight Level 390: The first line says it all - "America from the flight deck". An awesome blog, with tons of interesting entries, pictures, and viewpoints from the perspective of an ATP flying the big birds. Although I just jumped on this one recently, it's quickly rose to one of my favourites.

Fly With Blake: Blake is just starting his own journey towards his eventual commercial/ATP career goal. He lives in the Toronto area and is potentially training out of Buttonville airport which is not far from myself. He is also contemplating training at the same airport I do, Oshawa CYOO. Blake's site is well laid out and will certainly be a great read as he progresses beyond his early steps. Depending on his decision, you may also be reading alot more of Blakes entries elsewhere.... I'll leave it at that. :)

Robs flying blog: I just posted about Robs new blog a few days ago - he was one of my frequent readers who decided to start his own training recently, and is now blogging about his own experiences. A fellow Canadian student in the very early steps. Lots of interesting reading to come - Go Rob!

Student pilot Tomes and Rants: Another student in the end stages who is also training here in Canada. I just picked up this blog a few days ago and am still catching up, but I gather that Dan used to live in the UK and is either living here now, or is resident for the duration of his training. Like I said, still catching up. :) He's in the final stages of his PPL, and is proceeding towards his commercial right afterwards.

I'm sure there's a few I've missed, but that's the list best as I can muster together at what is approaching 11PM now.

Getting back to myself, I've still got my dual flight test prep booked for this coming Saturday. The weather is looking hopefull, as long as ceiling doesn't come an issue.

Please, oh weather gods, take pity upon thy poor student pilot. ;-)

Sigh...

2005-11-08T20:42:00.000-05:00

My instructor obviously held out hope that I would be able to fly some midweek lessons over the next while in order to prep for my flight test, since he hadn't approached me yet to suggest rescheduling.

Unfortunately due to (*ahem*) employment requirements that's not possible.

I'll still be taking the 16'th off regardless for another familly commitment. I will probably try to get a doctors appointment on the same day, and will likely go into Toronto and do my writtens. Might as well kill as many birds as possible with one stone, while taking an unpaid day off work.

But there will be no flight test on the 16'th like originally scheduled.

I called CFA this evening and spoke to Phil about the reality of getting in sufficient prep between now and then, and we agreed that it's unlikely...actually, impossible, unless I take time off work to do so.

Since that's not realistic, the judgement call was made to push the flight test back.

I kind of feel guilty doing this, since the DFTE has already catered to my rescheduling once already (From the 15'th to the 16'th) so I hope he doesn't hold a grudge when the day actually arrives. :-)

Anyhow, at this point, things are pushed back for a few weeks..putting my flight test sometime around the beginning of December. I told Phil to ask the DTFE to work around his own convenience on a reschedule, since he's worked around my own once.

I'm still within my goal of finishing before the end of the year, but alas, with my luck (or lack thereof) recently with weather and such there are more crowbars that can be thrown into my plans yet.

We agreed this evening to toss my intended solo that was washed out last weekend out the window. I said I was confident that I "Armchaired" the forced approach procedure enough that I should have no issues with it on our real test, so I suggested we just make this coming weekend a dual instead for more (continued) prep.

It's another 7AM booking that I made (Why do I keep doing this to myself...and my instuctor? Heh...), but since the end of Daylight Savings Time it's actually bright enough at that time of the morning to fly, unlike my last dual booking where we were sitting in the dark at 7AM, waiting for daybreak.

Anyhow, that's the bad news.

On another note, I've been reading quite a few new blogs recently. I must put a blogroll on my site, as there are some really good ones that I've subscribed to after seeing them advertised on other...blogs. :)

Of course, I'm still reading all my regulars..you all know who you are.

Anyhow, I made an entry in my blog a few months back about one of my readers that decided to stop dreaming, and start flying after reading about my experiences chasing my own dreams.

He's now got A blog of his own!

Cool, and congratulations on your first steps, Rob!

No fair!

2005-11-07T07:43:00.000-05:00

One of the more frustrating things about being a student is spending a weekend sitting at home watching the weather remain below flyable limits, then waking up on Monday morning to sunny blue skies, and winds that are within limits.

Yep, I could probably fly this morning...winds are still a little on the high side, but probably would have worked.

Oh well, no sense complaining now - off to work in 15 minutes.

I had fun yesterday at my parents new appartment. Due to their age, they recently sold their house and moved to an apartment.

As anyone who has ever moved knows that the process usually brings out all of the "stuff" that you had forgotten you had.

For my father, one of the things he came across was his folder of pilot related stuff.

One interesting curiosity was that they were all 1960's/1970's vintage - his own heydays of flying.

Everything was there like the last day he flew as a PIC, right down to sectionals for the Toronto to Quebec City corridor, his 1950 medical, actual pilots licence and radio licence, and even a vintage copy of "From the ground up". I studied with the same textbook, although a much more updated version of such. :-)

It was kind of cool to spend a few minutes browsing a little bit of aviation history. I will have to spend more time doing so once they get settled and I can check it all out in more detail.

The story of my life...

2005-11-05T18:45:00.000-05:00

Yep, you guessed it - weather cancellation again.

This morning held hope. Last night, I called CFA and moved my original Saturday afternoon reservation to Saturday morning instead, since the weather was supposed to deteriorate as the day went on.

I got up at 6, and on the way to the airport it was clear I didn't have the 8 miles of visibility I need for solo flights away from the airport. The ceiling was not an issue, but the morning fog was.

I continued to the airport regardless and was greeted with the ATIS playing in dispatch, calling 3 miles of visibility. I looked outside at the otherwise decent weather, and it was all kind of depressing. Winds were calm, ceiling was way up there, and the sun was making a beautifull appearance over the horizon.

Damn fog.

The ATIS updated to Bravo, and still only 3 miles.

In my usual optimist view, I thought I'd hang around for a bit anyways. Since the rest of my household was likely still dead asleep, there was no sense in rushing home.

I went out and untied/preflighted GRPQ simply for something to do...again, maintaining my optimist (insane?) thoughts that the fog may suddenly and magically dissapear.

After that was done, I climbed into one of the 72's and oogled all the extra avionics that they are equipped with. Dual comm and nav, GPS, DME.....drool.

(It doesn't take much to impress me after flying crusty old 52's for so long..)

Between the two activities, I managed to kill about 15 minutes. Yaay.

I came back into dispatch and my instructor was there with another student. We chatted for a bit. As I had suspected, our conversation did touch on the fact that we may have to delay my flight test if I can't get in the required flights between now and then.

This really kind of stinks if it ends up happening, since I had the 16'th of November booked off for two reasons - not only my flight test, but another commitment in the afternoon.

If the flight test doesn't happen on the same day as this other meeting, I'll need to take yet another (unpaid) day off work.

(Sigh)

Oh well, if it happens, it happens. I need to make sure I'm prepared, as the last thing I need to do is flunk the flight test for the sake of lack of preparation - they're far too expensive of an experience to have to do it more then once. :-)

The studying for my writtens are going well. I've been playing with the idea of taking the PPL written instead of the RPL. The PPL written is applicable towards the requirements of the RPP written, and if I do decide to upgrade my licence some day it will save me the hassle of having to go back and write again as the test remains valid.

The two tests are remarkably alike, based on what I've been experiencing after several mock exams using the software I purchased, with the PPL written having only 20 more questions versus the RPL.

However, the majority of those extra 20 questions relate to more advanced nav, some of which I havn't studied/experienced due to the fact that my syllabus in the RPL didn't require it.

I'd like to do the PPL test instead, but unless I can self-study enough to ensure I can answer the additional questions correctly, I may choose against it.

The jury is still out on this, like so many other things right now.

Anyhow, I hung around for another half an hour or so, watched a few planes on the ramp, and the headed home.

I made another reservation for an afternoon timeslot with little to no hope that it would actually happen, as the TAF's were pretty clear in the fact that the weather was going to degrade...not improve.

As expected, the ceilings were down to 2500 by the afternoon with -ra.

Oh well.

I'm half tempted to ask my instructor if he's willing to let me forego the solo I had originally aimed to do today, and go back to the flight test prep.

After my absolutely horrible experience with the forced approach last weekend, which was entirely my own fault, I spent a lot of time "Armchair Flying" the exercise. Todays solo was to further practice the real thing.

However, I'm pretty confident that given the real opportunity once again, I would ace it.

I was so pissed off at myself last flight for completely botching it so badly that I made a concious effort to master it. I've drilled the entire sequence of events into my head so vividly that I can't immagine I'd screw it up again.

I sat in bed a few nights ago after studying and my mind was still going through the sequence, so much so that it kept me awake for a bit. I found myself doing the same thing today at my sons soccer game.

And at work this past week, and here, and there. You get the point - I think that the abysmal failure I managed last time made me clue in.

Anyhow, I will talk to my instructor about it and see what he thinks. As much as I don't want to rush things, I really don't want to have to put off my flight test at the same time, so perhaps we can find a happy medium.

Here's hoping for better weather.. :)

Silly exam questions.

2005-11-02T23:14:00.000-05:00

Studying for my written this evening I came across this question on one of the mock exams:

"The earth will revolve _____ every ______ hours"

There was the usual batch of 4 answers. The correct one is obvious, but I lauged at "Once / 48" and "Twice / 12".

One may feel safe in assuming that if you can't answer this question correctly, you shouldn't be allowed to use scissors, nevermind be training for a pilots licence.

:-)

So, that aside, I had a few curiosities today... I called Transport Canada to confirm if my local exam office required appointments. The good answer was that no, it's a "Come on in anytime you want, as long as you start before noon" type thing.

Works for me.

I was also browsing the Transport Canada website during one of my frequent periods of downtime while at work. One of the requirements that I noticed was required for admittance to the written was a "Letter of recommendation" for such.

Hmmmm... I hadn't heard anthing about that, so I called CFA.

Seems I must write (and pass) a mock written there before they will provide me with the recommendation in order to go do the real thing.

Looking back on it, it does make sense, but that doesn't change the fact that I had absolutely no idea. I'm sure glad I checked out the website, as I would have booked a day off work, drove into Toronto, and then be somewhat flaberghasted when I found out I couldn't actually write the exams.

So, yet another thing to try to stuff into an increasingly short period of time before my flight test. Ugh.

I'll probably get this out of the way this coming weekend. I'm going to run through a few more Mock exams using the Dauntless software I posted about a few entries ago, and then go into CFA one evening (Probably Sat/Sun) and do the mock there.

Hopefully by then I'm prepped enough to pass that on the first try. My weakness in meteorology seems to be narrowing, as I'm finding that the studying is actually causing me to learn stuff and remember it. Wow, who woulda' thunk it?! :-)

I'm still worried about Nav, however. Since it wasn't part of my Syllabus up till now, I've been left to my own means in many respects on this. Regardless, I'm catching on fairly quickly thanks to the mocks I'm doing here at home.

I hope that with the recommendation test out of the way at CFA I can get into Toronto next week (Perhaps Thursday - I'll make it a 4 day weekend since I'm off next Friday for rememberance day anyways) and do the real thing.

With that out of the way I'll only have two things left to worry about - the weather for the next few weekends (For prep), and the actual flight test.

I guess it's a good thing that I strive on stress...?

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

2005-10-30T07:59:00.000-05:00

I flew a dual with my instructor Saturday for some flight test prep.

The first thing I did was screwup my booking when I made it a few weeks ago. I was somehow sure it was Friday night that the clocks changed, and that this would made it daylight at 7AM. By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late to change the booking (As my instructor had a pretty busy schedule all day Saturday, and was booked off Sunday) so I had to leave it as it was.

This caused us to be meeting at the airport at 7AM (as per my booking), but in the dark.

I guess it worked out after the fact, since we had to sit down and go through some paperwork anyways. We went over a bunch of flight-test related items such as confirming that the aircraft was indeed within servicable hour limitations, that all the required paperwork was present, that required work had been done or was within defered work time limitations, and that generally all the ducks were in a row.

I had spent the time the previous night to do the longhand takeoff roll and distance to clear a 50' obstacle calculations, as well as a longhand manual weight and balance calculation, as these are required flight test items. The weight and balance is easy and quick now as I've done it many times. The takeoff roll/clearance calculations requires some more thought as the 152 POH provides charts, but in such a fashion that a great deal of interpolation is required to actually get the real numbers. I did them based on Friday evenings ATIS numbers which I was able to grab with my handheld scanner from the back deck.

Altimeter was 30.34 and temperature was 3 degrees. The temperature ended up being fairly close the next morning, but the altimeter was 30.12.

Anyhow, I was glad I sat down and did this, as it got it fresh in my head again, and was something that I had issues with in the past. My instructor seemed happy that I had taken the time to do these, complete with chicken scratch and my longhand calculations to prove that I hadn't just done the calcs on my Palm and then just copied them to a piece of paper. :-)

We went through the rest of the requirements for the flight test, and it all seemed pretty straightforward.

By this time it was brigtening up outside, so we got going. Although it was supposed to be a nice clear day, at 7:45 it was still overcast and we were concerned about being able to get enough altitude for the upper airwork.

It was also clear that by the time we got going that it was going to have to be a fairly short flight, as I had cut us short on the time....going back to my earlier comments on this. I kind of screwed myself here, but alas, it's too late to do anything about it now, as there is another reservation at 9AM on FOOU that we need to be back in time for.

Foo was outside all night so it was a little chilly preflighting.

I stupidly didn't clear the windscreen of the mist/condensation, so taxiing required both of our eyes peeking through small clear spots. The apron was pretty devoid of aircraft this morning anyways, so it was OK, but I must remember to add this to my preflight to ensure I'm not playing the same game on my flight test. I think that the examiner may have had issues with that.

I grab the Atis as I wait for the engine to warmup. Winds are calm, as the windsocks had also indicated.

It seems to take forever for the engine to blip the temperature neeedle to an acceptable limit for the runup, further compounding our time constraint problems.

Eventually it moves, and I do the runup...all fine.

As I click my PTT to call ground for our taxi clearnace, it just doesn't "Sound" right on the radio. Most A/C I've flown has a slightly "different" sound on the headsets when the PTT is depressed and you are actually transmitting.

I didn't get this difference, and although I caught onto the fact that I don't think I actually transmitted anything (compounded by the lack of a response from ground) I don't initially clue into why this is the case.

My instructor suggests I check my PTT cable. Duh - I failed to actually plug it in.

Duh indeed!

Once it's plugged in, low and behold the radio actually *transmits* on the second try! Go figure!

"Taxi via Alpha Bravo, Cross 22, Hold short 30, contact tower 120.1 when ready" is our clearnance. Same old, same old.

My instructor requests a short field takeoff, and says he will be making notes of our actual distance travelled by watching runway lights. Since my takeoff calculations last night were done with similar numbers to this mornings, it should be somewhere in the same ballpark.

I lineup with as much runway as I can manage, drop 10 degrees of flaps, runup, release the brakes and we are underway.

As I climbout my instructor mentions that they have instituted a new frequency just for the training area, as 126.7 was getting so congested in the area that it was causing problems with some aircraft trying to call London FSS.

Makes sense, but it's another frequency to remember. I will update my custom flight sheets to include it on the printout, no biggie I guess.

Just as we clear the CZ my instructor requests slow flight right away. I dutifully do a hazel check, and then get going. I pretty much ace this, and really kind of enjoy it. We lag around the sky with 30 degrees of flaps crusing at 40 knots maintaining the altimeter nailed at 4000ft...the skies had cleared somewhat to the north, so altitude wasn't an issue afterall.

My instructor requests a few turns, no problems, but an occasional bleet from the stall horn reminds me that we are indeed just barely hanging in the sky, and that my airspeed had crept a tiny bit below 40Kts a few times.

Satisfied, I recover to cruise. My instructor requests some power off stalls.

Again, no big deal at all. The lack of much wind makes for a nice clean stall break with no discerable wing drop, and my recovery was good.

Shortly after my recovery, my instructor chops my throttle, and things start going downhill.

I don't know why, but I just wasn't up to snuff on my forced approach today. I got the best glide quickly and trimmed, and then almost immediately found a perfect field directly below me. Since I was still near 4000', I had alot of altitude to loose, so once I noted my base and final keypoints I started working on the altitude issue.

I tracked west and did about a 380 degree decending turn to burn altitude. However, knowing that I neeeded to be at 1000AGL over my base keypoint, I was aiming for what I thought needed to be 1800' over my base keypoint. Only one problem - elevation where we were was 1100', making my required altitude 2100 over my base keypoint.

My instructor catches this and reminds me that I really need to know my elevations for the areas where we could be for the flight test. I still have no frickin' idea where I got 800' as the elevation in my head - I think that this is probably the Bowmanville area. We are over Blackstock, which is above the ridges, which brings the elevation up signifigantly.

So, thinking I was very high I had been bleeding altitude, and ended up low over my base keypoint. I realized this and turned direct for the field, abandoning my final keypoint.

I also forget to warm the engine every 500', which is another major issue. My instructor has to prompt me many times.

In the end I would have made my field and landed safely, but I then realise as we overshoot that I screwed up even more seriously - I had completely forgotten my cause check / restart procedure, mayday calls, passenger briefing, and finally, shutdown.

WHY (!!) do I forget this stuff? That would have been an instant fail on my flight test.

I'm obviously not up to snuff on this, and I'm ready to admit that I majorly screwed that up. I'm not sure why my mind just goes into "Crap" mode and blows everything out the window during forced landing exercises.

More solo practice definately required. I need to make some sort of checklist to stick to my kneeboard for this. I don't know if I will be allowed to carry said checklist on my flight test (probably not) but at least I can study it intently between now and then and hopefully burn all this into my mind.

I'm not very happy with myself.

Anyhow, we climb back up to 2500' and head back - time is running out, unfortunately.

I get a strange response on my first call to the tower - I usually call in over or just to the south of Port Perry, which although technically outside of the zone by a few miles, is a common reporting point. Tower acknowledges my call, but asks me to report again when entering the zone. Hmm, first time that's happened.

Anyhow, I dutifully call again as I enter the CZ and get a clearance for right downwind for 30.

My instructor requests a soft field landing, and it goes pretty well and is actually soft. Whew, I can still do these. :)

Anyhow, the debreif is as I expected it would be - some deservedly negative comments on my whole forced approach thing. On the positive side he says that there is obviously no need for me further recap stalls or slow flight, as they are both non issues for me, so we can skip that on further prep flights.

We agreed that I need to do another solo practice of forced approaches. Indeed, a definate requirement.

I expressed my concern about the lack of weekends remaining between now and my flight test, and the possibility that some of those may suffer weather cancellations.

If absolutely need be, he says we can delay my flight test as required, but I hope to be able to avoid this. This is worst-case-scenario type discussion...but necessary, just in case.

So, I've got my fingers crossed that mother nature plays nice for the next while.

Ironic?

2005-10-27T20:05:00.000-04:00

I wonder how many FAR infractions occured on this story!

I just came across an aviation related story on of my favourite websites, Fark.com

It just got posted to the main page, so it will now proceed to get hundreds of assinine comments from armchair "pilots" who know nothing about planes whatsoever, but are sure they are professionals regardless. You come to expect that from Fark, and it's part of what makes the site humerous, the stories aside.

Anyhow, the story consists of a pilot who ran out of fuel shortly before arrival at his destination airport due to poorly calculated or misjudged headwind calculations.

Surprisingly he landed completely unscathed on a 4 lane highway.

Since they couldn't manage to get the plane to the airport after the fact, the police cleared the highway and the pilot then attempted to takeoff from the highway again.

It didn't quite workout as he had planned.

Thankfully he walked away from the second "Crash", but I think that some fines will ensue. :-)

There's video of the attempted takeoff here, but it probably won't play right for a while due to the load imposed by tens of thousands of hits from Fark readers.

It's clear now having viewed the video that this guy needs to have his licence stripped. How many issues do my readers (those who are pilots or students themselves) see with that takeoff attempt?

Rain rain, go away..

2005-10-24T07:38:00.000-04:00

I didn't end up flying yesterday. I dutifully awoke shortly after 6AM to consider my 7AM aircraft reservation. I really didn't feel like climbing out of the nice warm bed.

I checked the Metars and it was a mix between Buttonville and Peterborough. One thing was consistent though - it was or had been -RA recently, and according to the TAF's it was going to again. The ceilings were in the 2000 range with light winds that were supposed to trend downwards.

Now, I was only going to fly circuits to work on bringing my landing proficiency up again, but it was less then spectacular weather for even that.

It was one of those crappy judgement calls that I hate making at 6:30 in the morning. Why do I continue to make these early morning bookings, anyways?

If I went to the airport and the weather was unflyable after the fact, I would only end up turning around and coming home.

If I just went back to bed and dispatch considered the weather flyable after the fact, I would without doubt get a phone call shortly after 7AM asking exactly where I was.

I ended up calling at about 6:40 and got the ramp guy who had apparently came in a little early. I asked him what his opinion was on the weather, and he said "It's rather dark to tell!".

I asked him to make a judgement call for me based on the situation of me either coming in, or crawling back into a nice warm bed.

He then suggested that based on what he sees, I should consider going back to bed.

I asked him to let the desk employee know accordingly when he came in, and then did indeed crawl back into bed.

I can only hope tha the weather does indeed improve between now and checkride time, as I need to get at least my two checkride prep flights in before then. Unfortunately the weather recently has been typical fall weather, with day after day of clouds, wind, and rain.

The forecast for next weekend is looking better, but we all know how accurate that can be, especially when you looking at next weekends forecast 6 or 7 days in advance. I sometimes wonder why they bother trying.

Anyhow, I started studying for my written over the weekend by running through some mock tests thanks to a nifty software package by Dauntless Software that I purchased recently.

I would certainly recommend this package to anyone here in Canada as a study aid for not only your written tests, but the PSTAR as well. It's a good deal, and is a good program. A demo is free.

Anyhow, It's clear I need more studying based on my first round through. The advantage with myself though is that I tend to learn well from getting something wrong, and then seeing the answer. If I have one good thing, memory wise, it's that I can come back to that same question months later and I still have the correct answer pop into my head.

The software package not only informs you of an incorrect answer, but also explains the reason why.

Works for me.

Anyhow, the saga continues.

A reasonable facsimile of a blog entry.

2005-10-20T22:32:00.000-04:00

A quick post this evening before I head off to bed. I've actually signed to work overtime this coming weekend, which will amount to only the second time in the last 5 years I've worked a weekend.

The things that people will do to...ummm...pay for upcoming very expensive flight test prep and checkrides. :-)

Ok, foolishness aside, Aviadisto asked a few days in a comment to my last post why I had not done any cross countries yet, but was prepping for my flight test regardless.

The answer: I decided to stick with my original plan to pursue the recreational class licence. I failed to find any major issues that this licence will present me with for my needs after I'm licenced.

So, effectively, as per the licence requirements for the Rec class, I don't need any logged cross country time in order to proceed directly to my flight test.

That's the short answer...

The longer answer: I'll be doing some cross country time regardless. Me and my instructor have chatted about this, and I agree with him that it's probably foolhardy for me to set off, all freshly licenced, on a cross country with no previous experience of such.

At least initially the majority of my flights will be local, so cross country is not going to be a major time builder for me anyways. With the lack of intersted friends/familly to fly with, building cross-country time affordably is going to be challenging anyways.

But, like I said, I'm not planning to fly a cross country solo before I have done one dual, even though "technically" once I'm licenced I would be fully within my rights to legally do so.

So, the plan is to prep me for my flight test in a few weeks. I'm concentrating on getting everything out of the way.

Once I get my ticket, I'm sure I'll take a period of time off from the training routine and fly a bunch of local sightseeing flights with the few friends/familly members that *are* interested in flying...and can afford to chip in. ;-)

I'm going to sit back and enjoy flying for a bit and not have to worry about a lesson plan.

With that urge out of the way, I'll book another dual and do the cross country thing when the time is right.

The advantage of doing it this way is that it will keep my costs down for the next few weeks while I lead up to my checkride. Additionally, with a vacation planned for Christmas/New years, I'm not only looking at a 1K investment over the next 3 weeks for flight test prep and the actual checkride, but I'm also trying to save a little for the vacation.

Since the "Vacation" is the direct result of an upcoming 2 week layoff in the new year (The first two weeks of January) I'm also in the process of putting away the cash to offset the upcoming missing paycheque in addition to the vacation cash.

It's all doable, but will require some creative banking, and a bit of optional (but available) overtime on my behalf at work to pad things a little.

Doing the somewhat costly cross country routine in the new year just works out better financially wise, given all of the above. It works out better time-wise as well.

So, that's the long and the short of it.

I think it's reasonable.

The weather this coming weekend, however, is not looking great, so my planned solo may not happen unless the forcast changes signifigantly over the next 36 hours.

A very important date!

2005-10-15T16:16:00.000-04:00

The image above is a screenshot of the online booking system that Canadian Flight Academy uses for aircraft and instructor reservations.

You'll probably need to click it to view the fullscreen version to actually make any sense out of it.

That aside, It reveals a few things for November 15'th...

1/ One of the 172's (QFW) is down for maintenance.
2/ Nobody else has booked any aircraft that far ahead
3/ Some guy has a flight test booked in FOOU from 9 till Noon.

Oh..

4/ I'm the "Some guy".

Yep, it's official!

My actual booking stands a good chance to be moved to the 16'th instead of the 15'th. Curiously enough we already had commitments for the 16'th anyways, and I was to take a day off work regardless. Hopefully the change works out, and I can kill two birds with one stone.

Second, and more importantly, my wifes birthday is on the 15'th, and we are looking at taking another horseback adventure somewhere.

So, I begin counting the days!

Quick update

2005-10-13T21:50:00.000-04:00

I spoke to my flight instructor Phil earlier this evening about continuing plans.

I didn't plan on flying this coming weekend for familly reasons. The following weekend Phil has familly flying in for a visit, so he will be unavailable.

So, I've booked the following: Nothing this weekend, a short bout of circuits next weekend (My landings are not up to my personal level of satisfaction, so I will do some recap), and then on the following weekend it's official - a genuine Flight test prep...which is basically a simulated flight test.

We spoke this evening about what that entails. Phil seems pretty secure in my ability to do the flight test satisfactory, so he stated that unless I have any major issues during our "simulated" test in a few weeks that he sees no reason to make it more then a single prep flight. I'll earn my recommendation for the flight test, and it will be booked immediately afterwards.

Presumably it will take a few weeks from the time it's booked untill it actually happens, so I'm likely to perhaps do another recap solo in that time. Perhaps I'll just do another "simulated" flight test on my own, short of the exercises I'm not cleared to do solo...which is basically only spiral dives as best as I can remember?

This timeline is alot faster then I had anticipated, but that's just fine with me!

I also asked what the cost of the flight test is today, and was surprised to hear that the examiner charges $325...and of course, the cost of the aircraft rental.

Ouch..that's going to be an expensive flight..but worth every penny provided I walk away with the magic piece of paper afterwards. :-)

Todays silly little thought..

2005-10-11T22:16:00.000-04:00

I was catching up on blogs this evening and when I was at Kris's Undefined Values blog I noticed he had made an entry quoting another new student pilot blog he had stumbled across - "My Flight Blog".

I'll definately follow it. Well writen, and only a few flights in.

Anyhow, more to the point, in the second entry there he mentioned that his instructor was introducing him to the preflight - a great step that early on I'm sure everyone will agree.

He mentions something about fuel testing:

While you’re at the wings, now would be a good time to take out the fuel tester and using the drain-hole on the bottom of the wing, make sure there’s no water in the fuel. The type of aviation gas used in these single-engine planes has a slight blue tint. Water is clear, so it should be a straight-forward test.

I thought the exact same thing untill one day very early on in my own training I had an interesting experience. A new pair of sunglasses that I had bought specifically for flying played tricks with my eyes during my preflight. I was drawing my fuel samples, and each and every sample I took appeared to be perfectly clear in my tester, and not blue.

I didn't clue in initially, and questioned my instructor, baffled by the impossibility of getting what "appeared" to be several full draws of nothing but water in my fuel tester. It appeared all clear, not blue 100LL whatsoever. Although this seemed impossible, I remember thinking to myself "I'm not really sure what I'm looking at - how DOES water in the fuel manifest itself in the tester, anyways?"

A straightforward test? Sure, only if you know what to look for to begin with.

Have any other students actually had the real-experience of finding water in their fuel? Do you know what it actually looks like in the fuel tester in real life?

After my instructor keenly suggested that it was probably my sunglasses screwing up the colour (it was, I felt silly afterwards) he made the effort to actually make it a practical lesson for me. He removed his gloves (on a very cold day), scooped up some snow and melted it using his hands into my fuel tester, still half full of blue 100LL.

It was an enlightening experience as the water pooled into a distinct "bubble" at the bottom of the tester. Up untill then I really had only a vague idea what to expect.

Now, I know exactly what to look for thanks to the real life lesson.

My instructor then jokingly complained about his poor frostbitten hands, but I appreciated the experience and practical lesson. :-)

It was one of those "little things" that I can reflect on now, even more-so when I read others blogs and come across situations similar to mine in the past.

Smooth as glass, Choppy as hell.

2005-10-10T11:36:00.000-04:00

I was up flying yesterday. It was a mixed bag all in all.

I had reserved GZSU as I had not flown it for quite some time. Again, I'm trying to keep with the variety thing.

Another pilot is preflighting FOOU as I head out. I consider jokingly telling the pilot to look after the old girl, as I solo'd in that plane and it holds a special place in my heart. I reserve myself instead in order to not sound like a retard. :)

I'd hate to see the same thing happen to it that happened to Clumpinglitter's solo aircraft, though.

Anyhow, looking around, quite a few people are on the apron with me shortly after 8AM preflighting as well. The weather was surprisingly nice, although winds are from the north so the dreaded runway 04 is the active. Oh well, no circuits today, so no big deal I guess.

Someone has gone a little overzealous with the tiedowns, and there are three or four knots in each rope. I undo them all with fingers that are getting increasingly cold, and then push the plane onto the apron from the grass.

I nitpick myself on my preflight today, making sure everything is perfectly "by the book" as I don't want to get complacent this close to flight-test time. My fingers are even colder by the time I'm done, so I pile in.

Continuing the preflight checklist, I mentally note to fully run the trim wheel from end to end - I had spoke to my instructor about this on my last flight so see what's "Technically" required for this, as the checklist simply says "Trim - Run".

Apparently a full test from one stop to the other is the accepted flight-test standard. I often just "confirm" that it's actually activating the trim by raising the elevator and looking over my shoulder while I run the wheel a few turns in each direction to confirm the trim tab is actually working, and then reset it for takeoff.

Anyhow, preflight is fine. On startup the engine stalls on me after about 15 seconds, even after two primes. Yeah, winter is coming, and it's cold, so I should start getting used to starting cranky engines again.

Another prime and it starts fine again, and continues running.

I taxi away from my parking spot and find an open spot on the increasingly busy apron to do my runups.

After having gotten stung on the Hobbs meter in the past rolling over .1 within a minute or so of running, I keep a close eye on it as I'm waiting for the engine to warmup. Sure enough, it rolls over within the first 2 minutes. I will mention this later when it comes time to pay, as I'm tired of paying for 6 minutes of idling for what sometimes amounts to a minute or so.

Warmup seems to take forever. I'm the first person in the plane today, so I'm rather obligated to do a proper warmup before the runup, but I must admit that it is frustrating paying ~$2.00 a minute for the privledge. After the first few minutes I lean the engine a little and bring the RPM up slightly to try to speed up the process just a little. I know this is acceptable, since we had done it before when I was dual in the past last winter.

Mental note - make reservations from here on out after the first flight of the day so that the engine is already warm. Bonus plan is that the cabin heat will be effective much quicker as well.

Anyhow, the temperature needle finally awakens, and I do the runup.

My taxi clearance takes me as expected Alpha-Bravo, hold short of 04. This actually puts me north of the intersection about halfway down the runway. One must then wait there for the tower to clear the backtrack. This is why I kind of dislike 04, as if the circuit is busy, one can get stuck waiting for the backtrack for some time.

I call ready for departure. The tower checks with (thankfully) the only other plane in the circuit, and he's just turning base. Tower clears me for the backtrack and immediate departure. I expedite, turn around, and depart right away.

In the cool dry air the 152 is climbing like a rocketship again today, and I'm pegged at 1000FPM on my climbout. It's a little bumpy down low, but it smoothes out quickly with altitude.

Before long I'm at 3000 and clear of the zone. It's smooth as glass, and beautifull flying weather.

I head towards Blackstock to start the first order of the day - my recap diversion.

My advisory radio call reveals nobody in the training area at all except for another plane crossing to my north, but obvioulsy far below me. Strangely, he doesn't answer the advisory call, but he's soon long gone.

Over Blackstock I start my orbit, and plan to divert to Newcastle. My VNC is getting a little beat up and I have a little bit of a challenge making out the heading marks on the nearby compass rose. Mental note #2 - Must buy new VNC.

The diversion ends up being 15 miles almost exact. That makes the calculations simple - a good and a bad thing, I suppose, but it's not like they are difficult regardless.

The winds were light at takeoff and from a reciprocal heading to which I'm flying for the diversion, so I don't adjust anything on my calculations to take either into regard as it seems unnecessary.

I remember to reset the HI and mark the time, two things I had issues with previously. A final turn directly over Blackstock, and I set my heading.

It's so glassy up at 3000 feet that it's almost hands-off flying. I'm trimmed perfectly, and the tip of one finger is all that's needed to maintain my heading.

Sure enough, my halfway landmark arrives as planned and pretty much on time.

The rest of the diversion is routine and I arrive at my destination pretty much as planned, albeit a half mile or so west, but certainly within tolerances that I could have found my destination if the diversion was real.

Just then I realize I forgot to make my simulated diversion call to London FSS. Oops. Must remember radio calls for all exercises requiring them. Ugh.

Anyhow, I'm otherwise pleased with that, so I begin a decent to do a precautionary landing.

As I decend through 2500 the chop starts again, and gets worse and worse.

I make an advisory radio call just for good measure, since I'm working along the Lake Ontario shorline now and alot of planes track along such. No answer...good.

On my 1000 AGL field inspection pass I'm getting tossed about quite feverishly. I run the circuit and come back around for my 500AGL field inspection.

As I get setup for the low and slow second pass I get whacked violently with a blast of turbulence from the east which throws me into a hefty left bank. I correct quickly and add power since I'm not exactly at a suitable speed or configuration to deal with that. I make the pass and accomplish the inspection regardless, but after getting a little frazzled I decide to call the lesson off and put a little additional space between me and the ground. It's just too turbulent out here at the lower altitudes to justify continuing that with the amount of safety I'd like to have while solo.

Wanting to keep todays flight around 1.0, I decide to head back. Once I climb clear of the turbulence I relax my deathgrip on the yoke, and relize that my hand is physically sore from grasping it so tightly in the excitement of the tossing and turning.

I usually try to maintain a very light grip, using trim to relieve control pressures so that one doesn't need to manhandle the controls. This was definately an exception today.

I circle outside the control zone while I get the ATIS. 04 is still the active, and I suspect that will put my clearance for right base.

Sure enough, I'm right. "Cleared right base for 04, report established".

As I decend to circuit altitude the turbulence picks up again, but not half as bad as it was earlier, which I'm thankfull for.

I'm perhaps a little late setting up for my base, which I find myself frequently doing on base pattern entries, where there is no downwind.

As a result I'm a little high on final, so I slip to bleed the altitude, and I'm on the glidepath again before long. There is no PAPI on 04, so it's good practice to visualize the glidepath in my head.

I'm not overly pleased with the last portion of my final (The winds and bumps were causing havok with my airspeeds), and my landing is acceptable but not perfect by any means.

Sure enough, there is a lineup of planes on Bravo waiting for their backtracks as I taxi past them towards the end of 04 for taxiway Alpha.

Everybody hates 04.

Back in dispatch I bring up my issue with the hobbs and get an agreement to subtract the .1 from my time. That brings me to 1.0 even for the flight, and keeps the bill a little more affordable.

So, as I understand, it's officially onto "flight test prep" now.

I chatted briefly with my wife about this today, and suggested that it's probably prudent for me to try to keep the prep flights close together leading up to the actual flight test. Spacing them apart will likely lead to more flights required due to possible regression.

I have nothing booked yet, but am hoping to fly next weekend again for another Dual based on my instructors suggestions. Phil, if you catch this, call me will you please? :-)

So, I enter the final stretch.

Instrument Flight 101

2005-10-02T21:06:00.000-04:00

Todays instrument flight went off with little fanfare, and I found it to be an enlightening experience.

I had been reading my textbooks trying to remember scanning techniques, and I managed to get most of them down pretty well.

In typical "me" fashion however, during the ground brief I still managed to draw blanks on a few things. After I got my brain out of neutral and back into gear, it all came together relatively well though. It all seemed straightforward, so I went into the actual flight fairly confident.

There was some joking around when it came to our plane reservation. I was reserved for GYYG, but would have preferred FOOU. The other instructor who had FOOU reserved for a few familiarization flights didn't want to give it up, as he had been flying it all day and had all his gear in it.

With some carefull W&B calculations (And half tanks) we made it work out, and we were legal. Sheesh, GYYG is a heavy 152, almost up there with the heaviest of the 152 fleet, GRPQ. I leave the wheel chocks and extras behind.

I preflight as Phil meanders around the plane. He jokes that I need to take "large" fuel samples in order to get the weight down. :-)

I finish up the preflight, and Phil had to run back inside for something. I proceed to make my first major screwup of the day, which I was not yet aware of - and it could have been a big one.

I climb in and start running through checklists. As Phil arrives back, he asks me if I'm ready. I say yes, but he alludes to the fact that I've forgotten something - I immediately realise I've left the fuel can (that we use to dump the fuel samples into) at the front of the plane.

MAJOR screwup. Phil asks me if I know how much a new prop costs. And the engine teardown.

Oh geez.. Bad student. Bad, bad student. Lesson learned. I honestly hope I never make this mistake ever again.

The problems just continue from there. As I call ground to get our taxi clearance, they report that our radio is readability 1 and full of static. Basically almost useless.

We check out headset connections, but no improvement.

Curiously, the tower asks us to move away from the fuel truck behind us and try again. We do so, wondering what that will accomplish, but amazingly it solves the problem. WTF?

Phil asks the controller what made him suggest that - he reports that they've been having alot of radio problems from aircraft on that portion of the apron recently, and just moving a little solves it.

Hmm. The controller seems to be quite personable this evening so Phil jokingly suggests that perhaps we have a "North Apron Triangle" now. The controller jokes back at us, and asks if we want to buy a car.

Long story on the car thing, but apparently GM has an over abundance of one model and has stored a TON of them on the airport grounds. This is totally bizzare, but GM often gets their way around Oshawa. (See earlier blog entry regarding the strike).

So, it's been a strange start to the flight.

We takeoff and head north. We are only a few miles from the airport and Phil pulls out the foggles - time to get started!

I trim for our climb, and put them on. So far so good, maintaining our heading in a trimmed climb is easy.

Anyhow, it gets progressively more advanced from there. Right off the bat Phil starts out with some unusual attitudes to show me what the mind can do to ones sense of attitude. He settles out the maneuvers after about 30 seconds of yanking and banking, and asks me what I feel like I'm doing, all the while still under the foggles. I feel like we are banking left, but we are actually straight and level.

Lesson 1 accomplished - I learn that the mind can play tricks on me.

We recover and track north some more, and I fly.

Right off the bat, I have issues with my scan, fixating on one instrument for too long (As Phil said often happens initially) and I quickly learn the result - I'm 30 degrees off my target heading within seconds, and banking further into it.

That lesson learned, I pickup the pace on my instrument scan, and it starts to become more routine.

We start with climbs and decents, and then work on turning climbs and decents. We simulate flying into IMC by accident after flying straight and level for 2 minutes, and then using a rate 1 turn to do a 180 and then fly straight and level for another two minutes.

That's easy enough. No problem at all based on what I experienced. Honestly, I find the entire instrument experience a great deal easier then I had anticipated.

Yes, I noticed my senses playing tricks on me, as I had hoped I would.

However, I had no problem overriding what my mind was telling me versus what the instruments were telling me. Even if I felt like I was banking when the instruments told me I was straight and level, I didn't let my senses lead me into a turn to correct a situation that didn't exist.

I noticed the sensory issues the most on decents - with the AI showing a gentle nose-down attitude, my mind was telling me that we were in a steep nose down attitude. But the ASI, AI and tachometer didn't agree with my mind, so I resisted the temptation to bring up the nose.

Overall, no biggie. Fly by the instruments, not by ones sensory perceptions, and scan those instruments!

We do some more climbs, decents, and climbing/decending turns in both directions. I find it all pretty easy, with the expected minor errors. Climbs go fine, and I hit my target altitudes with little fanfare. Decents, not so much. Some practice improves them - I just needed to be a little more agressive with my decent recovery to avoid undershooting.

I've been under the foggles for about 45 minutes now, and the sun is playing havok with them everytime we head west. Since they are "real" foggles (instead of a hood) I find that the frosted portion of the glasses focus the sun in my eyes everytime we head west.

I hold my hand up in midair to block the sun when we are on westerly headings. As I turn and the sun is no longer an issue, I find that I've been concentrating on my scan enough to have forgotten to lower my hand on several occasions. Duh.

Now, unusual attitudes again, but my turn to recover from them. Phil tells me to close my eyes and put my head down. He pitches, banks, and yaws the plane all over the place, trying to mess me up. I keep track of what I'm feeling the plane doing, and with few exceptions it's indeed what I expect when I open my eyes and restart my scan.

My unusual attitude recoveries are OK, but some technical issues on the first few. When recovering from a spiral dive, after chopping the throttle, I tended to level the wings while pulling out at the same time. Wrong - level wings first, then pull out.

I do this automatically when VFR, but the added workload of flying instruments causes me to screw this up for some reason.

I'm probably just being tough on myself, as a few more of them and I'm doing it as I should be.

Recoveries from unusual nose up attitudes is fine, no big issues there.

Overall, I'm pretty comfortable with the whole instrument flight situation. Not overly confident, but comfortable.

To my chagrin, I haven't the foggiest (no pun intended) where we are a good portion of the time. If it weren't for the frequent position reports from other planes in the area (And my instructors responses indicating our position) I would have been seriously turned around for a few seconds if I had taken the foggles off.

Anyhow, Phil seems satisfied with what we have done so far, so he grabs the ATIS and gets our clearance back into the zone while I continue to concentrate on the instruments. He feeds me changing headings and target altitudes, and it's obvious we are heading home now.

I kind of wondered why he did the radio calls for me, but it becomes clear a few minutes later when he informs me it's time to do my downwind checks. The break in my concentration (and inattentiveness to the instruments) for the few seconds it takes is enough to throw me into a slight bank, and towards 10 degrees off my heading. Interesting!

He continues to feed me headings and instructions. He tells me to setup for my usual base approach configuration, but I still haven't a clue where we are. Are we actually on base, or is this another exercise?

Trimmed for 70 knots now, and decending, he gives me another target heading.

I turn to it, and Phil says to take the foggles off - low and behold, the first thing outside the airplane that I see in an hour is runway 12 ahead of me.

It feels kind of strange to have all of the usual visual cues outside the cockpit available once again.

I perform a mediocre short field landing, and once again experience GYYG's notorious nosewheel shimmy.

Anyhow, the rest is all formality from there.

Overall, I'm glad I did at least this one instrument lesson. Although it far from makes me a pro, we agreed that it would probably be enough for me to at least successfully exit IMC if I ever got into it by accident - and that was my goal.

It was all very intriguing though, and I'm glad I did it even though it's not mandatory for the rec licence.

All in all, today added 1.3 hobbs, and 1.0 simulated instrument time to my logbook.

Next flight will be a solo again - I've decided I want to do at least one more solo recap of diversiona and precautionary landings before heading into the flight test prep.

The cross-country is on indefinate hold. More about that later.

After my solo, it's officially time for flight test prep. There's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Change-O-Plans

2005-09-30T21:33:00.000-04:00

My instructor called me here at home yesterday evening, and after some discussion on this weekends planned cross country, we decided to put it off for a while.

It's a long story, but I think it was a good decision for various reasons I won't bother explaining here. Suffice to say that I think we can do it much more productively a few weeks from now.

That said, I also confirmed that we are basically at the point where "Flight Test Prep" is going to become the order of business very soon.

This is in one fashion exciting, and in another, worrysome for me. My instructor has said on many occasions that the flight test will be a non-issue for me and that I'll breeze through it, but I think I've finally succumbed to yet another wave of self-doubt, and this one is a biggie.

I have not yet written my Transport Canada exams, and by all rights I should have done this long ago. Again, I keep doubting myself, and putting it off. I really just need to sit down for a weekend and study my brains out, and then take a Monday off and go into Toronto to get them out of the way.

I kind of feel like I'm hitting a rut. Actually, I felt like I'm firmly *in* the rut, and 3 out of 4 wheels are spinning.

You know, that same rut that alot of students seem to hit at some point, when they sit back and wonder if they are going to really succeed at this?

It's no secret to anyone here that I follow alot of other blogs, and I'm continually reading about everyone else making leaps and bounds through their training, while I feel like I'm puttering along in the slow lane in a Yugo...and my left signal light has been on for 30 Kilometers.

I don't know what to think...hopefully this weekends flight will put the glint back in my eye, but at this point I feel like I'm totally lacking the magic that I had early on. I still love the experience of flying, but I wish I could go back to the days where every flight was a "Wow!" experience. The "Goofy Grin" was a frequent visitor, and I was looking forward to my next flight even before I left the airport and sat in my car for the drive home.

Now I feel like I'm filled with questions and self doubt, rather then enthusiasm. I'm concentrating more on what I feel I may not accomplish, and the ongoing cost of doing it all, rather then the eventual outcome.

Bleh...

So, whiny self-absorbed crybaby rant aside, this weekends goal has changed to instrument work. I'm actually quite looking forward to this, and I hope to experience the "leans" while under the foggles for the first time to see exactly how susceptible I am to it.

I've heard varying stories of this from it being a non-issue (I just trusted my instruments and ignored what my head was telling me and it was easy) to those who seemingly get overpowered (Before long we were headed for the ground) by what their senses are telling them, regardless of the fact that it's wrong.

Although not a mandatory part of my intended licence class, at least a few hours of instrument work is something that I told myself I would not do without, and I plan on sticking to that plan. I don't want to become a statistic simply because I've never experienced the real thing, should I somehow ever find myself unexpectedly in IMC as a VFR pilot.

Yes, a few hours isn't going to make me a pro, but I'd like to beleive that an an accidental IMC situation it would be enough to at least keep the plane from making a smoking airplane-shaped hole in the ground, and hopefully make my way out of the IMC instead.

The whole idea as a VFR pilot is obviously to never fly into IMC to begin with, but we've all heard the tales.

As a side, it will make me current again and I can do that second solo recap I had missed out on last weekend.

So, Sunday it is.

Tentative settlement - Flight on!

2005-09-28T08:13:00.000-04:00

Edit 6:50PM - Sorry, I made the entry below this morning and apparently there was a publishing error, as my blog appeared as a blank page all day. Thanks for letting me know, Euan.

My appologies everyone.

Well, with negotiations running right down to the wire yesterday evening (there was still no agreement when I went to bed at 11:20p) GM apparently reached a tentative settlement before the midnight strike deadline. It was a relief to wakeup this morning and read such, as otherwise I would have been greeted at work today with a temporary layoff notice, effective upon the completion of my shift.

So, unless the workers turn down the contract at a ratification vote Sunday, which I find highly unlikely, this is all history.

It really makes people sit back and realize exactly how much a good portion of Southern Ontario revolves around this Autoplex when situations like this occur.

Alot of people think of a vehicle manufacturing facility as a single "plant". This is what most facilities consist of.

GM's Oshawa Autoplex has 7 plants.

In detail, two car plants, a truck plant, a battery plant, a metal processing and stamping plant, a chasis plant, a paint plant, and numerous other support and maintenance facilities.

It's so large that it has it's own power generating facility and a sewage treatment plant all it's own.

Not only do we build a ton of cars and trucks here, but the Autoplex is also a source of parts for alot of other plants in in the USA. We go down, they go down.

The long and the short of it is that here in Southern Ontario (And especially the Oshawa area) we have alot of our eggs in one basket, so when GM coughs, the rest of us get pneumonia.

When times are good, prosperity is *very* good around here...but everybody is keenly aware that GM is the big kahuna of employers in the area, so this sort of thing can put a scare into alot of people.

I am looking forward to my seniority at my employer building to the point where GM no longer effects me, and I can float through interruptions in our GM division by just bumping elsewhere. I would not have been so lucky this time around, as there was a layoff notice already typed up with my name on it - I saw it last night. :-)

Anyhow!

Barring anything strange happening between now and then, Sundays flight should be a go, and the weather is looking great. I'm looking forward to getting things back in gear after an unforunate 3 week absense of flying.

Wind chokes the currency.

2005-09-24T19:45:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm still on the face of the planet. It was a hectic week at work, and there wasn't much time to blog.

I've had bigger things on my mind - GM's Oshawa Autoplex may strike this coming Tuesday if they don't settle on a contract with the union. As the company I work for is a tier-1 supplier to the Autoplex, this could directly effect me.

In other words, I may end up on layoff...at least as long as any potential strike lasts. Hopefully, it doesn't happen.

Barring that, hopefully if it *does* happen, it's short lived.

So, that aside, I mentally tackled with a few things, flying wise. First, should I even have kept my scheduled reservation this weekend and flown?

If I end up on layoff, I would probably have kicked myself for spending the cash on flying.

But, since it was to be a solo, and I had planned on keeping it short (an hour or so) I decided to stick with the plan.

But it's all rather moot - I didn't end up flying today, nor can I tommorow even if I wanted to.

As of today, my student currency (14 days) has expired due to me not flying last weekend. My instructor is booked off tommorow, and going back to the GM strike issue, I couldn't justify the added cost of a dual flight tommorow regardless - especially since my next scheduled flight is a cross country...AKA, long and costly.

So, I'm stuck in a rather vicious circle, it seems.

I did have intentions of flying solo for an hour or so today, everything aside. I had wanted to get another solo diversion exercise, and probably a precautionary landing exercise in.

I was originally booked for noon today..unfortunately things started going downhill yesterday.

We went out last night to watch a movie (The 40 year old virgin, absolutely *hillarious*!) and foolishly I guzzled two super-duper-ultra-gulp pails of Coke at the theatre.

Now, normally caffiene doesn't bother me in the evening, but as I laid in bed this morning at 2:30AM still wired for sound, I rather regretted my stupidity.

I finally got to sleep at 3. But to add insult to injury, I had to get up at 5 to help a familly member with something at 6AM.

The long and the short of it was that I was exhausted this morning by the time I got back home at 9AM. I then proceeded to think long and hard about whether I should even fly in that sort of condition.

I decided that I was not fit for flying unless I got some rest and felt better. I contemplated how I would explain that to CFA on the phone.

"Uhhh, I have to cancel my reservation today. The reason? Uhh.. insomnia?"

I laid down at about 9:30, still rather fried. However, quite to my chagrin, I still couldn't sleep.

But the rest helped, and I got a second wind. I crawled out of bed after an hour and a half of tossing and turning, and I felt surprisingly revived. A second wind.

Then the phone call came, as I really kind of expected anyways - The winds were gusting 25+ knots - beyond my solo limitations.

Scratched.

I rebooked for 5PM, as there was an opening.

At 4:15, another call - winds still too high.

I confirmed that the plane was available untill after dark, so I thought I'd head to the airport anyways at about 5:30 and see what happened.

When I got there the ATIS was still calling 18G20..but it seemed to be getting better, so I kept my hopes up. My student max is 15kts, with 8kts max crosswind.

Hedging my bets, I went out to the apron and preflighted my plane. I didn't bother undoing the tiedowns however, as I had a sneaky suspicion I was wasting my time.

With sunset now arriving much earlier in the evening, I would have to be back at the airport for 7:15PM, so unless I was up by 6:15 it wasn't even worth my time to depart.

After I preflighted, I put the pitot cover back up, brought the flaps back up, and put the control locks back in place. I wasn't holding out much hope.

I returned to dispatch, and desk-guy was nice enough to call the tower and ask for a wind check, as the ATIS was rather stale. 6:10PM now, and the winds were still gusting 20'ish the tower reports.

Scratched.

So, in hindsight...

On a positive note, if GM does strike I'll have an extra $125 or so in the bank that wouldn't have otherwise been there.

On a negative note, I lost my currency.

On a related positive note, having lost my solo currency my next flight will obviously be a dual. As per previous discussion with my instructor, we won't waste it on a currency flight - we'll just skip ahead to the cross country.

I'll regain my currency, and then after the cross country I can proceed with my original plan for today - to do some additional diversions/precautionaries.

On a negative note, if the GM strike does happen, and drags on, I may have to put off flying indefinately.

On a positive note, I'll know about that by Wednesday morning, so I can scratch my next booking if that ends up being the case.

On a negative note....oh, what the hell... See a theme with this? :-)

Like I said - a vicious circle.

So, here's to hoping that GM settles their differences and everything continues as normal.

And next weekend, I'll have a cross country to blog about. :-)

In the meantime, I've done alot of armchair flying in lieu of the real thing. I've gone through alot of procedure in my head, especially the diversion routine.

I even airchaired stalls, slow flight, comm and nav. Well, as best as you can armchair those sort of things. :-)

I'm pretty confident that next time I'll do much better on my solo diversion, as I was surprised how much clearer the routine became by just going through it in my head.

So, I'll post an update on the GM situation come Wednesday.

An aviation buffs dream!

2005-09-16T22:27:00.000-04:00

First off, a small preface. Stick with me here, there's a neat outcome to this.

I use Firefox as my web browser. You can find it here for free download.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last year, you've probably heard of it. A good portion of my readers already use it, based on my stat counter.

For those that don't use it, seriously consider giving it a try. It's more secure then IE, and may quite possibly solve all of those "mysterious" spyware and virus attacks that Internet Explorer is so vulnerable to.

It's also just a neato browser with lots of great features, aside from the fact that it's very secure.

That aside, part of Firefox is that "Extensions" that add functionality can be added to it. It's an amazing feature that, based on your needs, adds tons of neat and new capabilities to the standard browser experience. There are litterally hundreds (thousands?) of extensions available for every immaginable use...well, except for aviation...yet. Well, there are weather extensions, they count! :-)

Today, prompted by the fact that it was one of the most popular extensions listed on the Mozilla website, I installed StumbleUpon, an extension that automatically surfs websites based on topic, ratings, and other users popularity clicks.

So, naturally, I set it up to strictly show me Aviation related websites. There are many other topics you can set it up for based on your interests.

The result was amazing, and it's kept me busy all evening surfing a multitude of great aviation sites - not only the big-boys such as Airliners.net and such, but countless smaller sites with everything from amusing aviation related pictures, to videos.

Here's some intersting links I ran across:

Airplane Homes!
Comm Humour
General Aviation Humour
How to build the best paper airplanes
The Red Bull air race. (Would YOU drink that pre-flight?)
More ATC Humour. (It never gets old..)
Neato Pulse-Jet Engine Info
Cabin Crew Humour
Airport Identifier Codes Explained
A silly little flash helicopter game

I "Stumbled" upon all of these simply by clicking on the "Stumble!" button now part of my Firefox browser. Every click provides another website based on your "Stumble Preferences". It's a really neat idea to find websites that relate to your interests.

I can see me burning away lots of time with this neato little button.

Consider giving it a try for yourself - Aviation websites is only a fraction of what it can surf.

The cure for boring "Been there, done that" websurfing!

A few things.

2005-09-15T22:10:00.000-04:00

I received another email from a reader of my blog's alternate home at Aviation.ca. It seems that my blog has compelled yet another aviation-dreamer to actually stop dreaming, and start his own path down the student pilot road. He starts ground school in a few days.

This is the second time this has happened, and never fails to make me feel that all of my verbal-diarrhea blog entries have accomplished something, other then occupying a tiny bit of hard-drive space on a Google server somewhere. :-)

So, other tidbits.

I ran into the new Google Blogsearch yesterday after reading about it in news article...which, curiously enough, I found via Google News.

Is there anything Google doesn't do anymore?

Heh.. Anyways, I ran a Google Blogsearch for "Student Pilot", and I had mixed results. It seems that Aviadisto's blog (Which I'm a regular visitor of) has been indexed.

My own blog, well, posts show with the correct keyword searches, but it doesn't show in the "Related Blogs" section yet.

Perhaps I havn't been fully indexed.

And yes, I must remember that it's still "Beta", so I can't expect miracles.

Performing the above search also found Another Student Pilot blog. I think I'll subscribe, it looks good, and the student is not far from the beginning of his training.

Yes, there's lots of blog search engines out there, but I think that Google has something good happening here.

I don't know what it is I really love about Google. Perhaps it's that they just do so many things so well, for free. Perhaps it's the simple fact that they're not Microsoft. Actually, they are the anti-Microsoft.

I think it's the former. And a little bit of the latter. :-)

But anyways....

No flying this weekend. But, A little change in plans after discussing things on the phone with my instructor. It's clear I need more solo practice with the diversions and precautionary landings, so I'm going to run one more solo before the cross country in order to concentrate on these.

I'm kinda anxious to do the cross country, as I'm rather hyped about visiting Lindsay and Peterborough airports, but at the same point in time I do recognize that I really need to get more proficient at the current lessons at hand.

I totaled up my logbook when I was last at the airport, and I think I was at 38 or 39 hours.

I figure that this puts me at my Checkride in the mid to upper 40's.

That's certainly a great deal more then I had anticipated when I started, but I'm still going with the flow.

Speaking of such, I'm only 10 days away from my one year anniversary of my first official training flight on September 25'th of last year.

And that makes my training having taken longer then I anticipated when I started.. But you know, I'm still going with the flow.

(Grin).

And the cost goes up...

2005-09-10T10:21:00.000-04:00

Well, as was expected, the costs of flying have increased thanks to the cost of fuel.

The 152 fleet is now renting for $110/Hr Hobbs.

100LL AvGas is $1.50-something per litre.

(Sigh)

On a bright note, the cost of Mogas crashed back down to something remotely resembling reasonable levels this past week. I guess $1.06/L is the "New" reasonable. It seems like only a few weeks ago I was paying 0.89, and lots of people were complaining about that at the time.

I presume that the price of AvGas has (or will) drop accordingly over the next week or so, and here's to hoping that the rates get adjusted accordingly, as this will squeeze more and more people out of GA. Todays 1.3 was $160+ after taxes, insurance, and my headset rental.

On a side note, I'm still irked about the headset rental. These things have been getting "rented" for over a year to students. The deal when the school upgraded to a full complement of new David Clarks last summer was that the rental charges (for students) was supposed to be only untill they were paid off, or so the word was.

I can understand still charging rental to licenced pilots who are just renting aircraft and don't own their own.... But still charging students too? Boooooo!

I bet if I added up all of the rental I've paid (at $5/Hr) I've probably paid for a good portion of a set on my own. :-)

End Rant.

So anyways, this mornings solo went pretty well. I awoke to a beautifull bright sunrise this morning at 6:15AM. The winds were at about 5Kts from the east as well Hardly a cloud in the sky except for some high cirrus.

See a problem with that combination?

I ensure the sunglasses are in my flightbag. :-)

Guzzling a pail of coffee, I head out to the airport. It's obvious it's going to be a great morning for flying, so I'm hyped.

I checkout GRPQ, the 152 I rarely fly since it's heavilly laden with extra avionics and isn't much use for dual (without skinny students and instructors) as it's easilly put overgross.

I will be departing towards the east today. Tower gives me a left-turn-out clearance when I had hoped for a straight out departure for simplicity's sake. I make a soft field takeoff. The right turn out clearnace works out good in the end, as the sun is blinding me pretty badly as I climb away from runway 12. I turn north and stabilize my climb, with the sun now out of my eyes.

As I roll back east again I get blinded, but I'm trimmed for the climb now so it's not as bad.

I climb up to 3500 and continue to head east. I fly east and pass over our house at the edge of the CZ.

I decide to head out to the Orono area again, where I was last week. It seems to take alot longer to get to highway 35/115 then it did last week. I keep referencing my VNC keeping tabs on where I am. I get there eventually, and spot Orono.

I decide to do a precautionary landing first, which makes my decision to climb to 3500 seem pretty stupid now.

That goes well, all in all. I probably wouldn't have actually landed in the field I choose, as upon the 500AGL pass it looked less then ideal after the fact, but for simulation purposes it worked - I didn't have time to abort and start all over again at another field.

I make a long spiraling climb back up to 2500' to start the diversion. I gawk out the window and realize that the Orono fair is on this weekend, and there's lots of activity at the fairgrounds.

I snap a quick picture of a friends house on the eastern edge of Bowmanville.

At altitude, I start planning the diversion. I didn't want to pick Blackstock again as my diversion destination, since that would kind of defeat the purpose of doing something new, versus last week. I decide to head to Jannetville instead - northeast of Blackstock.

I start orbiting Orono, and plan. I find it a little bit of a challenge doing three things at once - actually flying, watching intently for traffic, and planning the diversion.

That done, I remember to reset the HI before striking out. I make one more quick orbit of Orono before setting my heading, almost straight north.

A few minutes into the diversion I look ahead for my halfway checkpoint, to see if I'll be there on my ETA.

Oh yeah, an ETA. Crap, I forgot to note the time when I actually started the diversion. Sheesh.

I estimate I've been flying the diversion for 2 minutes now, and make my ETA's with that understanding. That should put me over my first halfway checkpoint (The powerlines, again) at about 6 minutes.

I initially think I've reached my halfway checkpoint about 1.5 minutes early untill I realize that I've referenced the wrong set of powerlines - there are two sets, a few miles apart. Sure enough, pretty much on my ETA, I cross the correct set of powerlines.

I look at lake Scugug ahead and visualize where Janetville is based on sight, and my VNC. It's clear I didn't add in enough of a heading adjustment to take the wind into consideration, as I'm somewhat west of where I should really be.

Looking down at my watch I realize I'll be in the general vicinity pretty close to my ETA regadless. I also realize that it's now 8:35, and my reservation ends at 9AM, with another pilot awaiting the plane.

I chock the diversion up as "Mostly Successfull", although I clearly need to do another few of these solo to get really proficient. I turn west towards Port Perry.

I seem to be crawling along again, so I take the opportunity to have a few minutes of downtime and sightsee a little, while still keeping an eye out for traffic. I'm heading into the training area over the lake, so I quit sightseeing and watch for traffic more intently now. Nobody is on the Unicom except one other plane doing IFR holds near the Simcoe VOR....a long ways from myself. A second plane calls in from the Uxbridge area, and it's clearly a student on the radio.

I laugh when he announces himself at 35,000 Feet. He keys up and says a few words each time, and then lets go of the mic before finishing his announcement. This happens about 5 times.

I kind of feel bad for laughing now, since I know how hard it is for some students to get comfortable on the radio, and this guy is definately having problems.

The IFR plane calls up the plane in question and advises that they will be at the same general altitude, but they are quite aways from each other so there should be no conflict. The other plane responds, but it's clearly an instructor speaking now and not the student.

Anyhow, I turn south from Port Perry now and start my track back towards the airport. The ATIS has changed to bravo, so I update accordingly.

Tower clears me left base for 12, report abeam the university.

Unlike the rest of the flight where it was perfectly smooth with nary a bump of turbulence, I'm getting thrown around pretty good on final. It screws with my airspeeds.

I do a soft field landing for good measure, since I havn't done one of those in a while either. I touch the mains with a small bleat from the stall warning and the nosewheel stays up untill I'm long past the taxiway.

ATC guy comes on the radio as I'm touching the mains, and begins to instruct me to take taxiway Charlie if possible. As I blow past it, still rolling out, in mid sentence he directs me to exit left at the intersection instead. Heh.

Anyhow, that's pretty much it.

It was all pretty routine except the cost. 1.3 on the Hobbs today cost me $160-something. A noticable increase, indeed.

So, next flight is a dual cross country.

Since my wife has commitments next weekend, I likely won't be flying, so it'll need to wait.

I'll save up some cash for the ever-increasing cost, as well. :-)

The future of General Aviation - In doubt?

2005-09-06T22:12:00.000-04:00

For anyone who lives in the USA or Canada, you are already keenly aware of what has happened with the price of fuel recently.

Here in the Toronto area, fuel went from $0.89'ish per Litre, to $1.40/Litre overnight last week. The oil companies blame hurricane Katrina.

Still, even with some price fallback over the last day or so, regular 87 octane is $1.30'ish still in most places. Take pity on me - my car, thanks to a supercharged engine, requires minimum 91 Octane fuel. It is not cheap nowadays. :-)

Our van holds nearly 100 Litres when empty. My car, 60 Litres.

Do the math. Not cheap.

Curiously, when I was at the airport last weekend for my last dual, 100LL Avgas was still $1.20/L. I'm sure that when the boss arrived back from the long weekend this morning, the price rapidly changed.

I would not be surprised (nor would anyone else at CFA that I spoke to) to see that the rental rates on all the planes have increased as well as a direct result.

Certainly, it's no secret that increases in the cost of fuel this large do not take long to trickle down to the consumer level. It's simply unavoidable - nobody can absorb a 30 to 50 percent increase in the cost of fuel overnight.

And it's a vicious circle - when one spends that much extra putting gas in the tank, there is that much less to spend somewhere else.

Many people on fixed incomes, or low incomes, are really feeling the pinch now. Vehicle maintenace is starting to become a lower priority, as was evident during a weekend blitz by the Ontario Provincial Police this weekend where hundreds of unsafe vehicles were pulled off the road.

Vacations go out the window. Discretionary spending is tightened.

I hate to use the "R" word, but I'm really sure that by this time next year if this trend continues, our economy will be in the throes of a major recession.

Thankfully our household has an income level where the price of fuel certainly does not go unnoticed, but is not a major concern when it comes to discretionary spending. We don't have to curtail dinners out, vacations, or my flying habbit in order to ensure that there is gas in the tank simply to get to work.

However, I had a thought today. Getting a pilots licence is something that alot of people dream about. Sadly, many people can simply not afford it, and as such, it's a dream that will never be realized.

With skyrocketing costs, pursuing the dream of being a pilot is going to only get more and more expensive, and I fear that within the next 5 to 10 years it's going to be a hobby that only the financially privledged will ever be able to experience.

I hope I can look back upon my post years down the road and say that I was wrong, but I think that the days of cheap oil are sadly behind us, and society will pay. Life experiences will suffer.

Expensive recreational activities, such as flying strictly for pleasure, will fall by the wayside. People will put food on the table and roofs over their head before they will get a pilots licence for the fun of it.

I guess if there's one positive aspect, it's that I'm doing this now, and not a few more years down the road when it may not have been affordable for even me.

It's all kind of sad. If my own kids want to get their pilots licence 10 years down the road, will it be even remotely affordable, or realistic?

(Sigh...)

Conflict? What conflict?

2005-09-05T21:16:00.000-04:00

Another contributing editor at my alternate Aviation.ca home posted this to his section tonight. The controller vectored said aircraft for traffic seperation, but the pilot was sure he knew better.

An amusing exchange. :-)

Pilot: "Are we able to go direct Deer Lake yet?"
ATC: "No, you're on vectors around traffic."
Pilot: "Well... We don't see any traffic."
ATC: "Fly heading 060 and you'll probably get a pretty good look at him."

Heh..

Diversions, Precautionary, + More!

2005-09-04T12:47:00.000-04:00

I'm posting this a day late, as I actually flew yesterday afternoon..but pretty much right afterwards we headed up north for an evening of camping, so there was no time.

I think I've discovered a new theme about my flight training, at least now that the basics are out of the way and we are working on more advanced and procedural lessons.

I'm finding that I'm now getting paranoid about new lessons for some reason. Perhaps it's because I'm not feeling as confident anymore about what I'm learning, versus my earlier experiences. Early on, I went into a lesson with an already good understanding of what we were doing, and very little aprehension about any of it.

Now, I tend to find myself concerned about what is to come. I doubt myself.

And time after time, after the lesson in question has came and went, I find that my worry was generally unfounded.

Let's take yesterdays lesson for example - Diversions.

I went into this lesson with a lacklustre feeling about what was to come. The theory sounded easy enough, but there are so many variables that it's definately something that makes your mind work while you are doing it. At the same time, one still needs to fly the plane.

So, we started out with about a 40 minute ground brief. We did it all in theory first on the whiteboard in the classroom, discussed the exact procedures, and then discussed our flight to come.

We also briefed precautionary landings as well, even though we were not sure if we would have the time to actually accomplish two lessons in one flight today.

That accomplished, off we went. Preflight was fine, although once again we were right at maximum gross. I left the wheel-chocks behind. Yep, that close. :-)

Phil suggests we head east today, instead of towards the normal north training area. I'm rather enthused about this option, as it's territory I've only ever flown over a few times previous, which will be a refreshing change.

On the flipside, that also means that I'm not going to be overly familliar with the area, which will make navigation and the diversion planning more difficult. I think that's exactly what Phil had in mind!

Phil requests a short field takeoff. That's easy...done.

As we climb out and start our turn towards the east, we fly through some rain which briefly splatters on the windscreen, making nice pinging noises. Before long we are out of it. A little chop ensues, but nothing major.

My first concern as we level off at 2500 is to figure out exactly where we are. Now travelling east instead of North, I no longer have my well-known northerly landmarks to indicate the edge of the control zone, and since we are not climbing above the CZ (@ 3000') I actually have to figure out where we are. That's no big deal, I use some quickly spotted landmarks along the lake shore, compare them to my VNC, and figure we are on the eastern tip of the CZ, about to clear it by the time I pinpoint us. I suggest to Phil that we appear to be clear of the CZ, and get a reassuring "Yep". I call us clear to the tower, and we are cleared enroute.

So far so good.

The ceiling is fairly low, but strangely Phil asks for a climb to 3000. I cautiously suggest that's going to put us fairly close to the ceiling, but begin climbing regardless, watching intently above. As I do so, Phil reaches over and pulls the throttle - Engine failure.

I blissfully fail to pull on the carb heat immediately, as Phil will soon nail me on when I proceed through my restart/cause checks.

I find a suitable field, and all of my keypoints just fine, and begin my approach.

I make my simulated mayday calls and then proceed through the cause checks, at which point I put my hand on the carb heat, and realise that it's off. Phil is quick to remind me that I forgot that, aware of the fact long before I was. Doh.

I didn't take the wind into consideration quite enough, and find that I need to abandon my final keypoint and head straight for my chosen field, as the wind pushing hard.

We would have made it though, so we overshoot and climb back up. Exercise complete.

So, diversion time. We head east again, climb back to 2500, and Phil suddenly starts the exercise with an announcement - simulated of course. Uh oh, ceiling is dropping, we can't make our destiation... Oh my, what can we do?

Out comes my VNC, and I start orbiting our current area. I immediately recognize a restaurant below that my parents used to drag me to every weekend as a kid - it has a giant red roof - easy to see from the sky. The highway landmarks are also easy picking from here.

That helps, since I immediately know precisely where I am. I pinpoint our current position on the VNC.

The most straightforward place to divert would realistically be Peterborough, but we are simulating having come from there, and the weather has closed in behind us so a reverse track is not an option. I suggest Oshawa?

"Sorry, clouds closed in that way too - looks like it's clear to the north, though..." is the suggestion.

"How about Blackstock airport?" Phil jokingly suggests?

Ok, there is no airport in Blackstock, but I get the hint.

So, I start the diversion flight plan. I surprise myself and remember everything I need to do, except resetting the HI against the magnetic compass. This will come back to bite me soon.

I get the heading and distance, our ETA, mark a landmark at the halfway point, and also calculate an ETA to it. I figure a 10 degree west wind correction heading, and about an extra 1 minute for the headwind.

I start the diversion, and mark the time.

As we transit to the northwest, we pass near Mosport International Raceway to the east. There is a big event there this weekend, and some helicopters are buzzing around the area. The tower did advise us of these earlier, but when we actually saw then up we made an advisory radio call anyways just in case. No answer.

Phil is watching the racing action, as I concentrate on the diversion.

It seems like I'm heading more west then I should be, which when I mention the fact, Phil nonchalantly suggests I check the magnetic compass against the HI - Doh! Sure enough, it's off by about 15 degrees. I briefly have a "WTF?" moment, then realize my mistake - Crap - I forgot to reset the HI before I started the diversion.

I reset it, and correct my heading. Lesson learned.

Perfectly on my ETA, I pass over my halfway landmark - a triple set of powerlines. I further reference a train track shortly afterwards - still on course.

And right on our ETA, I'm right overtop of Blackstock. Cool!

Phil says the diversion is complete. I did it - why was I so worried about this exercise to begin with again?

Ok, that done, we are ahead of schedule. Lets go for the precautionary landing.

Easy stuff, certainly a routine exercise. My only goof was being slightly close on my downwind on my first pass. I corrected for the second 500 AGL slow and low field inspection.

Another circuit, I'm satisfied that the field is satisfactory, so I setup for a soft field landing. No problem, exercise done, I was established on a nice final and had made all of my radio calls and such...we overshoot and climb out.

Phil and myself are both happy with the progress today, and we are surprisingly still ahead of schedule. We have accomplished some navigation, a simulated engine failure, a diversion, and a precautionary landing exercise, all within an hour. Wow - a very productive flight!

Now over Blackstock, Phil asks me to navigate to another small town to the south. I reference my VNC, and head south. The main road out of Blackstock leads directly towards said town, but it's hard to find as it's not only small, but surrounded by trees.

I suggest I'm going to fly "IFR" (I Follow Roads) to the town. Har Har, more lame student pilot humour. :-)

I find the town, and Phil is satisfied. Lets head home.

Tower clears us back into the Oshawa CZ. The approach is routine, right base for three zero. As I'm about to setup base, the tower asks us to proceed straight to the threshhold, as there is other traffic coming in from the southwest.

I comply, and adjust my approach. Phil asks for a short field landing with an obstacle.

As I'm setting up, what appears to be a coyote runs across the end of three zero, and I point it out. Phil calls up the tower to let them know, even though it's now clear of the runway. The excitement causes me to forget that we are simulating an obstacle, so I kind of end up a little low.

I suggest to Phil that if there was a "real" obstacle I wouldn't have forgotten to clear it. :-)

The landing is fine, but I clear the active fast so as not to impede the traffic behind.

The end result? 1.2 dual, and a TON of productive learning. Wow! I couldn't be more pleased.

More importantly, I have finallly realized that perhaps I need to stop getting all paranoid about new lessons, and just go with the flow. Everytime I seem to get all worked up, it's generally all about nothing after the fact.

Me and Phil debreif, and make plans for a dual cross country for our next flight.

With that out of the way in a few weeks, I'm onto flight test prep. The end is approaching...!

In the meantime, Phil clears me for local east, which is cool. I'll probably head out there for my next solo, as I can see the advantage of flying somewhere new for a change, versus north where I am perhaps overly comfortable now.

I'll concentrate on a diversion or two, and a precautionary landing exercise again.

And I'm looking forward to it! :-)

Prepping.

2005-08-31T22:21:00.000-04:00

The weather looks promising for this weekend. We got the remnants of Hurricane Katrina here last night, and today. It was really nothing by the time it got up here to Canada, although some areas of the Niagara escarpment did receive enough rain in such a short period to cause some flooding.

Here, east of Toronto, it was just a nice soaking rain throughout the night. To be honest, we needed the rain.

In the broad perspective of things, compared to it's initial fury to our south, we should not complain. Our weather here in Canada is frequently boring, once you get used to the 60 to 70 degree celcius temperature swings between winter and summer (grin)..but I guess boring is good.

We have familly in Jackson Mississippi. Although they fared well compared to the New Orleans area, they didn't get away unscathed. Their power is out, the tapwater is undrinkable, and their phones are not working properly, although strangely enough they are able to get calls from our VoIP line reliably, while any calls from their immediate area get refused. Outgoing calls have not worked at all since the storm.

They don't expect to get power back for a week or two...the water, who knows. The phone, well, we are playing relay service for alot of calls to friends and familly here in Canada. That's just fine with us, our VoIp service plan includes free unlimited Canada and US long distance.

So anyways, back on topic.

I sat down tonight with my Southern Ontario sectional, my ICAO ruler, and my trusty E6B. I spent some time refamiliarizing myself with things, as it's been a while since I did anything remotely related to flight planning.

I noticed a small triangular section of "Class E" crosshatched airspace on the VNC to the north of us, and I can't make sense of why it's specially noted. I referred to the AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication, a Transport Canada bible-like book) to see if there was anything special about portions of Class E that would explain it, but I couldn't narrow anything down.

I will have to ask Phil exactly what's so special about that sliver of airspace. It's piqued my curiosity now.

I gazed at the Toronto airspace, checking out boundaries and such. I won't venture there for some time, although it looks alot more straightforward then it did initially, providing you stay below the class C.

I spent some time refamiliarizing myself with the E6B as well, since I presume I may wish to use it on this weekends upcoming Diversions lesson. Mental math is not my forte', as I've mentioned in previous blog entries, so this is where the E6B comes in handy. It's been a while since I have bothered to use it, so I need to make it my friend again.

I also did some textbook work this evening, looking back on lessons past and future. I prepped some more for this weekends diversions lesson, reading that lesson plan as well. It seems pretty straightforward.

A good "reality check" for any student is when they can look at a chart or procedure that appeared cryptic at one time, and now easilly make sense of it.

I've been having these for quite a while, obviously, but it was kind of nice being able to fluently read the sectional tonight, discerning navaids, airspace boundaries, etc etc etc. Something as simple as being able to pickout a VOR versus a VORTAC solely on the diagram of the station...those sorts of things.

I remember looking at my new and crisp sectional when I first started ground school and thinking "WTF?!" to myself more then once.

Anyhow, barring any other unexpected weather, I will be up dual at noon on Saturday.