Captain YS's Flight Log Book |
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As of 1/26/2014, due to the glitch of register.com, the following aliases are still pointing posts from year 2013.
wwwe.ysflight.com I have e-mailed tech support and had no response. I called them, and they assigned a ticket for the request to fix it but did nothing for three days. I am very unhappy with their support. Register.com doesn't care individual customers after all. If you are linking to one of the above URLs, please change them to the following URL until register.com fixes it.
wwwe.ysflight.com ->
http://ysflight.in.coocan.jp/main/e2014.html From what I heard from the tech support, Register.com failed to migrate their URL-forwarding server. Any changes to the aliases need to be done by phone. Sounds ridiculous, but that's what they told me. If they have thousands of customers, they will be overwhelmed. It is impossible to do it over the phone. Their online-maintenance page only updates my settings stored in my local folder, but the settings won't be reflected to the actual server. It is a paid service, and I am urging them to fix the issue.
2013/11/30 Solo Night-Landing Practice Daylight saving time is over. The sun goes down much earlier now than in summer. According to the Federal Aviation Regulation, I need to practice 3 full-stop landings and 3 take offs between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise within 90 preceding days to carry a passenger at night. In other words, that's all I need to do to carry a passenger at night. I flew for the night take off and landing practice this Saturday. I couldn't fly as much as I wanted during November. So, I made it a cross country. I flew Beaver County => Latrobe => Allegheny County => Beaver County. The plan was to take off Beaver County at 4:30pm. I first fly to Latrobe and do one touch and go. Then fly to Allegheny County. After doing a few touch and goes, one hour will pass after sunset. Then do two stop & goes, and fly back to Beaver County to do the last full-stop landing. Then I would satisfy three night full-stop landings and three night take offs.
Night flying is pretty much an instrument flying. I should primarily rely on the instruments rather than my feelings. Or, I can easily get vertigo. But almost as soon as I took off, the attitude indicator started drifting. I realized that the turn indicator was showing right turn. Heading indicator was also turning right. If I level the turn indicator, the heading indicator stopped, and the attitude indicator indicated 10 degree left bank. In fact, the bank was getting deeper. The attitude indicator was obviously wrong. Loss of attitude indicator was called partial panel, and is a part of the instrument-rating training. I was confident in flying with partial panel. Nonetheless, one very important instrument was not functioning. I had to decide to cancel flight and go back to Beaver County, or continue on.
But, the attitude indicator may align by itself. Heading indicator, which also is a suction-gyro driven instrument was functioning properly. Suction gauge was also normal. I decided to continue flying and see if the attitude indicator was going to align by itself. The attitude indicator aligned by itself after several minutes. (Although it drifted off and aligned itself several times during the flight.) Then my iPad mini stopped showing my position. I was using Garmin GLO (Bluetooth GPS unit) with my iPad mini, but apparently GLO broke. My iPad mini became just a chart viewer. I still had my Garmin 96C. Also the airplane had its own dash-mounted GPS. It is important to carry back up systems especially during the night flight. By the way, I also had more than five flash lights in my pocket. An additional light was also mounted on my headset. As I came closer to Latrobe, I was handed off from Johnstown approach to Latrobe tower. I think I heard that Latrobe tower just told me left traffic. Left traffic runway what? I asked back if the ATC wanted me to fly left traffic runway 05. The reply from ATC was it was not possible to make left traffic runway 05 from my position and asked my position again. I replied 4.6 miles north west of the airport. I checked the heading indicator against the magnetic compass, but I was not north, not west, was north west of the airport. I requested right base runway 23 and was granted. The ATC seemed to be trying visually find my airplane. Maybe Latrobe tower doesn't have a radar. Touch and go at Latrobe was eventless. I hadn't practiced night landing for a while, and the flare altitude was not ideal and made a flatter than ideal landing though. Then I headed to Allegheny County. What surprised me was the wind. I could obviously recognize that the airplane was flying sideway even at 1000ft AGL. I had to take 20 degree wind correction on downwind. Even at 300ft, the airplane was pushed sideway and I had to take big wing-low attitude on final.
Despite the strong wind at traffic pattern altitude, the surface wind was reported 160 at 5, not strong at all. Sometimes it happens around this area, maybe due to the terrain. In this kind of wind condition, I always feel strange because the wind is blowing hard, but the air is typically smooth. After three touch & goes at Allegheny County, it passed 5:50pm, one hour after sunset. I requested stop & go and did it twice, then headed back to Beaver. The night view of the downtown to the left was beautiful. It is one of the privilege of being a pilot. I did one touch & go at Beaver County just to be absolutely sure. (To make sure I have three night take offs.) The wind was still blowing hard at traffic pattern altitude. I was like sliding into the final in the last full-stop landing.
I did three night take offs and night full-stop landings. I am night current until the end of February. 2013/10/26 Passed Multi-Engine Check Ride! I finally flew a multi-engine check ride, and passed! What I tried to do was to fly as usual. I flew 14.5 hours in Duchess. I did countless of mental-flying. I knew I was going to pass if I flew just as I was doing. Actually, I had some headache since yesterday. We received a 3D monitor in the university lab. I looked at it with 3D glasses on. Maybe because my eyesight is too good, I often have a problem focusing on those fake 3D images. After looking at it for a while, I had a headache. I was hoping the headache to be gone after a night of sleep, but it was still hanging when I woke up. I can say it because I passed the check ride. If I hadn't, a headache is just an excuse, and I would feel just miserable by saying it. The weather was perfect for the check ride. Wind calm. More than 10 miles visibility. Sky clear below 10,000ft. ILS 28 approach was in use. ILS 28 is the approach that I have practiced the most. I am very confident in shooting ILS 28 to Allegheny County. That's an insurance for me in case of unforecasted bad weather. Only concern was my headache.
I arrived at the airport about 15 minutes early. I parked my car and took a deep breath. It was such a nice weather. I was going to take an exam, but at the same time, I was going to fly. I should enjoy flying, just like I do all the time. I decided to enjoy flying as usual. I knew I would pass if I fly as usual. I came to the airplane and checked the fuel level and tire pressure. Left tire had 40psi, nose and right tires had 38psi. Tire pressure good. But, the fuel was low. It was lower than 30 gallons each tank. I called Corporate Air to get it topped off. A line person was a guy who took me to the hangar when I came for image-training last time. He wished me a good luck. I appreciated it. Soon the examiner arrived. I thought he was going to watch my pre-flight inspection, but he told me to do it by myself. So I did. During pre-flight inspection, a Cessna 172, N9417L, next to my airplane started an engine and blew a wind at me. I was ok while I was the other side of the airplane from 17L, but when I tried to drain some fuel on the same side, the wind was too strong and fuel coming out of drain was blown away. I gave up and stayed the other side until 17L taxied out, when I spotted the examiner was standing next to the flight-school building and watching me. I guess I was monitored. The check ride had already begun. When 17L taxied out, I finished the rest of the pre-flight inspection. When I came back to the examiner, he commended my determination (because I was pre-flighting in the strong wind from 17L's engine.) We got on board and began engine-start procedure. Left engine started. But, the right engine didn't. I had almost always had some issues on the left engine when something was going bad. I had experienced no problem on the right engine through my training. The examiner quickly pointed that the fuel pressure was zero even when I turn the auxiliary fuel-pump on. I reached the breaker and checked everything was on. The fuel pump didn't seem to be functioning. Unfortunately the left engine was already spinning at 1100RPM, and I could not judge if the pump was working or not from the sound. The examiner suspected water in the system, but I drained fuel from cross-feed, fuel-selector lines and fuel tank and there was no sign of water. Second attempt to start the engine failed, and I was seriously worried that I would have to ditch the check ride in this perfect weather. The engine came to life after the third attempt. Phew. On top of that, the intercom was not in good shape. I could hear the examiner's voice, but the feedback of my own voice was breaking up. Well, it was not so comfortable to me, but the examiner said he could hear my voice. I moved on. The last problem was the radio. The radio switch has switches for each COM and NAV, and each switch has three positions, speaker, auto, and phone. It also has another dial to select which radio (COM1 or COM2) to use for transmission. If I keep the switch to the auto position, I am supposed to hear the voice from the radio selected for the transmission. But, it didn't work. I selected COM1, called Allegheny ground, but I heard no sound. The examiner suggested I should switch to the phone position. I think it is not supposed to be necessary. Well, the examiner tried anyway and I could hear. PFTC maintenance quality it was. Then we taxied to runway 28 and did run-up and before-takeoff check. I called tower as "Allegheny tower, Duchess 6712A, ready to take off 28, southbound departure." The tower cleared us for take off, and I thought we were going to fly to the practice area first and do some maneuvers. Almost as soon as I turned to cross wind, just above 500ft AGL, the examiner pulled the throttle of one engine simulating an engine failure during take-off climb. I was prepared for it, but the timing was surprise. I was glad that I did a similar practice in the last flight. I pushed mixture, propeller, and one of the throttle levers forward, identified and verified the failed engine, and requested landing on runway 28. There was no other traffic in the pattern nor nothing was incoming. The tower cleared us right away. And, I made a single-engine landing. The landing was a little bit crooked, but I made it. Then we taxied to runway 28 and did a short-field take off. This time we headed 210 to the practice area. The attitude indicator was not aligned with the turn indicator again this time. When I keep the wings level by the attitude indicator, the airplane wanted to turn left. I tried not to look at the attitude indicator and tried to keep the turn indicator level to fly straight. After flying several minutes, the examiner asked me to do slow flight. I didn't forget clearing turn and pre-flight check. I set up the airplane for the slow flight. He asked me to make a 10-degree bank turn to the right, and power-off stall. I never practiced power-off stall in 10-degree bank in this airplane, but not a problem. Then we did Vmc demo. I think the examiner was pushing the left rudder. I could not keep the heading before I reached Vmc. So, I recovered anyway. I explained that I recovered because the heading changed more than 15 degrees, and he was ok with it. One glitch was in the power-on stall. The procedure I had practiced over and over again was, (1) power 11, (2) 100kt prop forward, (3) 72kt 20 inch 20 degree pitch, and then (4) recover with first sign of stall. The landing gear was kept up. However, he first asked me to lower the landing gear. I did it, and the airplane slowed down below 100kt, I think I was at 95kt or so. Then he asked me to do take-off stall, which is same as the power-on stall. So, I pulled the power to 11kt. But, since the airspeed was already below 100kt, the event (2) didn't happen. I didn't have a cue to push the prop forward. I followed the rest of the procedure, ended up applying full throttle without pushing the propeller lever forward. I don't know if it was his intention, but it is very difficult for a human to perform out of what's programmed in the brain by training. That is one common place where an accident happen. The examiner might have wanted to show it to me. Anyways, he didn't fail me for this mistake. This mistake was the only mistake I remember in the check ride. By then we were flying south of Washington County airport (KAFJ). We did feathering and unfeathering over Washington County airport, then shot to ILS 27s one with 2-engines running, and the other with one engine off. The forecasted wind was calm. But I had to take 5 degree wind correction to the right (to the north.) I was able to get the wind correction in the first approach. The second approach (simulated single-engine out) was actually easier because I already knew the wind correction angle. The examiner played a role of ATC, so I didn't contact Pittsburgh Approach in the check ride. Two approaches went well. He said I did a good job. Then on the way back to Allegheny county, I did steep turns. It was not as good as I did in the practice, but I managed to stay within plus minus 100ft. It was ok level. When we came close to Allegheny county, I tried to get ATIS, but the control tower was switching the ATIS information, and I heard nothing on the ATIS. I made a left 360 to wait for the ATIS to be updated. Then contacted tower and continued. At about 6nm from the airport, the examiner asked me to show emergency gear extension. That was almost the timing to begin descend to the traffic pattern altitude. The airplane wants to accelerate if I descend. However, to lower landing gear with the emergency gear-extension valve, I needed to keep the airspeed below 100kt, means the airplane didn't want to descend. It was a bit rush. I did it as quickly as possible so that I could begin descend soon and didn't have to dive into the traffic pattern. I quickly took the check list and did it. In fact, I did it quick enough so that the airplane had a mile to cross the class-D airspace border, where I usually lowered the gear. So, I had time to raise it once, and lowered again when we crossed the border. We made a short-field landing. I first was thinking to aim at 500ft marker and touch down at 1000ft marker as I practiced. But, since a jet (I think it was a Challenger) landed before me, I decided to make a higher approach to avoid wake turbulence. I aimed at 1000ft marker and touched down at 1500ft marker. We taxied to runway 28, and did one aborted take off. That was it! Yes, it was a very fun flying. And, most importantly, I passed! What had been difficult for me was finding time for training. I had to squeeze flying time between my work. Typically I flew early morning before going to work. I am so relaxed now because I don't have to wake up early for multi-engine training any more. I wish I don't forget what I learned in the multi-engine training. But, I cannot afford renting a multi-engine airplane often. I go back to Cessna 172. I know I will be rusty on multi-engine skill. However, since I am multi-engine rated, I don't have to get approval from TSA to go up in a twin for training. From now on, any training in a twin is considered a recurrent training, means a training for maintaining flying skill. If I decide to practice again, I can just call a flight school and go up with an instructor. Now I have a permanent training certificate. I will fly a few times a year in a twin to refresh my multi-engine skill.
2013/10/26 Checkride postponed again due to heavy cross wind I was supposed to fly for my multi-engine check ride today but had to postpone again. Last time was due to rain and low cloud. This time heavy closs wind. KAGC METAR is reporting 21015G21 now. 70 degree off from runway 28 at top wind gust 21kt. I have flown Duchess only 15 hours or so. I am not confident to fly into more than 10kt cross wind in Duchess at this moment. I am waiting for a call from the flight school for the schedule of the next attempt. 2013/10/19 One step closer to the multi-engine rating I have taken oral exam toward my multi-engine rating, and it went well. The flying portion of the exam was postponed by a week due to rain. I will take a flying exam next Saturday. I am one step closer to my multi-engine rating. The forecast didn't look promising at all. Ten-day forecast had been predicting rainy weather. It didn't chagne. I was fully expecting that I wouldn't fly, but would be able to do oral-exam part of my check ride. The weather, however, turned better than forecasted. The forecast changed from rainy all day to afternoon rain, and then finally the forecast stations predicted the rain to start around 5pm. Aviationweather.gov agreed with the three weather-forecasting stations. Actually I was feeling slight headache since Friday. I was honestly feeling that it would be nicer if I could do only oral-exam part. Flying an airplane with headache is not fun. I did my commercial check ride this way. I did oral-exam one day, and I flew on another day. Doing oral- and flying-exam in one day is tiring. But, since I did my flying-exam on a different day than my oral-exam, I was able to take off in my best condition in my commercial check ride. So, I was expecting the same for this time. But, because the weather looked better, I scrambled to prepare for the flight, and I mentally flew a complete check ride and reviewed my common mistakes before leaving my apartment As soon as I left my parking garage, the rain drops started hitting my wind shield. I knew it would be just oral exam. It was somewhat a relief for me. I could not answer all the questions. I wanted to know all about regulations, aerodynamics, aircraft mechanisms, but it's impossible. I am working in CMU. I am also working for a start up company. I have limited resource for my flying. It is life. But, I think I was able to answer questions from the examiner more than satisfactory. My pilot friend who is flying in Chicago area gave me a mock oral exam twice to prepare for this one, and it was extremely helpful. In fact the examiner asked me some exact questions that he gave in the mock exam. I remember that he asked how many hydraulic systems in the airplane. The answer was three, engine, landing-gear, and brakes. I was thinking brakes were cable connected before :-P So, my oral-exam part is done, and I am set for my flying part of the check ride for the next Saturday. The forecast looks good. I probably will go to PFTC a few times this week to do mental training in the cockpit to prepare for it. 2013/10/11 Airspeed indication during landing in gusty wind In the last flight, I ended up landing in a moderate gusty-wind condition. According to the Beaver ATIS, wind was 210 at 10 gust 15 at the time of landing. Almost 15kt direct cross wind, which was the maximum cross wind component which I won't fly if the wind is faster than this. When I carry passengers, I wouldn't fly if the cross wind was expected to blow more than 12. But this time, I didn't expect to have this strong wind at the time of take off, but when I came back I had to deal with it. Usually I look at http://www.aviationweather.gov, http://www.weather.com, http://www.accuweather.com, and http://www.intellicast.com. Usually aviationweather.gov gives the least accurate prediction in my impression. The reason why these four sites say different predictions is because each of them is using a different weather-simulation model. Nonetheless, these sites typically agree at the day of flight. But, this time, aviationweather.gov didn't agree with others. Aviationweather.gov was predicting 180 at 10 gust 18, which is beyond my go-no-go decision threshold. However, other three sites were predicting nice wind. The safest option was to take the worst forecast. Or, another option is take a vote. In statistics, typically if one sample is too far away from other samples, the sample will be discarded as an outlier. Considering that aviationweather hasn't been so accurate, I considered it an outlier, and decided to go. So I took off. The air was smooth, and the flight was comfortable. Then I came back to Beaver and found that the wind was blowing 210 at 10 gust 15. Aviationweather was not too off from actual this time. Nonetheless, I have gained confidence in handling cross wind through my years of training. Nothing to panic. I just used partial flaps, I extended only 20 degrees instead of 30 degrees. This technique makes cross-wind landing easy. I landed without raising hair. During round-out to flare, the airplane was blown up by the wind a few times. This phenomena is called ballooning. If the airplane is pushed too high, the best option is to push the throttle full power and go around. If the airplane is lifted slightly, I need to reduce back pressure and try to hug on the ground and land as normal. This balooning also takes place if the approach speed it too fast. A student pilot tends to be scared of slowing down on final, and end up with making a faster approach. In such situation, the airplane bounces back as soon as flare. So, when it happens, from the pilot perspective, it is hard to identify if it was a bad landing or a wind. Of course I knew the wind was gusting, and I guessed it was a wind. But, I couldn't tell for sure. However, I had instrument video. So, I reviewed it, and it showed an interesting indication of the airspeed indicator.
These two videos are synchronized. I started recording at the same time. At around 8 second, the airspeed jumps from 60kt to 63kt, between 10 and 11 second the airspeed dropped 60kt to 53kt almost instantaneous, and from 12 to 13 second the airspeed jumped from 52kt to 58kt. It is an indication that the headwind component increased almost instantaneously due to the wind gust. I think I didn't make a bad landing. Rather I handled it correctly. Only thing was that I missed taxiway C. Usually I can stop before taxiway C, but this time I was using partial flaps, and carrying two passengers, also the wind played on me a bit, and these factors made my landing roll longer than usual. 10/06/2013 Although I'll go for multi-engine check ride soon, I flew for foliage-watching flight and reached 400 hours Pilot-In-Command time. Although my multi-engine check ride is near, I flew a foliage-watching flight. I took two friends as passengers. Actually I planned to fly only 1.5 hours, which was going to bring up my PIC time to 399.5 hours, and when I pass my multi-engine check ride, the flying hour for the check ride will be considered PIC time, and I was going to get my multi-engine certificate and 400-hour PIC time at the same time. But, I spent in the air a bit too long. The yellow and red leaves over the mountain was so beautiful. I spent more than planned time over there. Of course, I made sure I had more than enough fuel. I ended up flying 2.2 hours reaching 400-hour of Pilot-In-Command time. I have 400.2 hour PIC time now.
Although 400-hour PIC time doesn't give me any new privilege, I am happy to pass a new milestone. My multi-engine check ride is postponed to the next week. It can be as early as Saturday, but I doubt it. I will know the examiner's schedule on Friday or Saturday. I went to PFTC and chair-flew Duchess for about an hour. If I had time, I would modify YSFLIGHT so that I can practice maneuvers for multi-engine check-ride. But, I critically don't have time at this moment. Also, my rudder pedal is broken, and cannot anyway practice one-engine failure. I should have repaired my rudder pedal earlier. If you ask me if I am confident in flying Duchess, I would say yes. I am confident in maneuvers. Although there are some additional steps in approaches compared to Cessna 172, I never totally messed up in the approaches in Duchess. My instructor said the last approach was fantastic. After virtually practicing in the cockpit today, I feel more comfortable with feathering and unfeathering. My biggest concern is short-field take offs and landings, which I never practiced in Duchess. Also I really practiced engine-out on take off only once. 10/05/2013 Gearing up for the multi-engine check ride! I uploaded two more videos. The first one is from a normal traffic pattern practice. Only one problem was I forgot GUMPS check in the end. I checked for the landing gear three times though. The second one is from a no-flap landing practice. This time I didn't forget GUMPS check. But, I overshot the runway a bit from base to final. I think I was pushed by cross wind at the traffic pattern altitude.
I finished all the required flight training before the check ride on Thursday. I was thinking that all I had to do was brushing up what I was doing before. What caught me by surprise was that I had to do actual feathering and unfeathering. Also I had to do engine-out on take off (aborted take off.) I think I probably can handle feathering and unfeathering. All I need to do is to follow the check list. I can train for that mentally while I am riding my exercise bike. It is very uncomfortable because I practiced it only once, but I should be able to manage it. What worries me is aborted take off. What I need to do is to pay attention to the directional control during take-off run, and I need to pull the throttle idle when I feel I lost directional control. So, if I need to apply big rudder input, it's a sign of single-engine failure. However, I sometimes need to apply quite good rudder pressure when a gusty cross wind picks up speed. It could last a few seconds. I need to apply rudder and aileron to counter such gusty cross wind. The question will be if I can distinguish such gusty cross wind and simulated engine failure. If the examiner does it abruptly and decisively, I should be able to recognize it as a simulated engine out and will be able to cut the engine and stop. But, if it is not so abrupt and decisive, my instinct may tell me it is just as a gusty cross wind. Then I may just continue take off. And I will fail the exam. All I can hope is the examiner will do it hard enough so that I can obviously feel the rudder pressure greater than the cross wind. And, I had only one practice to prepare for that. How can I be comfortable with it? One hope is that one of my pilot friends, who is a professional pilot who has been flying twins, told that it is prohibited for an instructor and an examiner to simulate single-engine failure on take off after the airplane accelerate roughly about half Vmc. So, the simulated engine-failure won't happen after the airplane accelerates beyond 32kt or so. Anyways, I did last ground lesson to prepare for oral exam today. I tried to read a book called "Multi-Engine Oral Exam Prep". It wasn't so useful though. Also I'm not good at remembering things. I'm good at logics, but not memory. It's not because I'm getting old, but I've been poor at memory. I hated history class because I couldn't remember in what year what happened. I liked math and physics rather. For example, in today's session, one of the questions from my instructor was, what affects Vmc? I had six factors from the Oral Exam Prep. I could recall five of them. But, the instructor said there are 11 things. What's the point to study Oral Exam Prep? I would give zero-star review for this book. You shouldn't buy one. OK. Here came the final blow. I was told that the examiner recently started asking short-field take offs and landings, which I never practiced during my training. So, apparently he never asked to do so before, but he has changed his mind. It came to me out of blue. So, I need to pay attention to the loss of directional control, and at the same time, I need to do a different type of take off. I was feeling pretty confident by Wednesday. I became a bit worried after I was told that I would need to do feathering, unfeathering, and aborted take off in the exam. Now I need to prepare for short-field take off in Duchess without even practicing once!? I said to my self over and over again "30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 72 rotation, 80, 85, positive rate (of climb), landing gear up!, trim for 90". Now, I need a new version "30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 72 rotation, hold 75, trim for 75, positive rate, gear up, 50ft AGL, trim for 90". It's going to be a wild ride. I am already feeling it like a mission impossible. I'll know what it is within a week. 09/26/2013 I think I figured how to land BE-76 Duchess! I have flown 9.4 hours in Beech Duchess so far. I started with maneuver practice, and then approaches, and since the last time, I was practicing traffic pattern. From the beginning, I was feeling this was a very difficult airplane to land. If I control like a Cessna, I was always kicked back into the air when I leveled off for touch down. One reason is the airplane has good amount of energy at the runway threshold because its approach speed is 90 to 100kt, which is 40kt faster than the stall speed. Also it seems to have much greater ground effect because the wing was mounted low. That's the two reasons I can think of. My problem was I needed to be able to land to pass the check ride, no matter how good maneuvers and approaches I can demonstrate. I tried a few different methods, and finally I think I figured what I need to do. I flew this morning, and made five good landings. In Cessna 172, I keep 65kt on final, and I need to reduce only 25kt before the airplane stalls and touches the runway. And, the wings are mounted on the shoulder, which gives less ground effect than a low-wing airplane. What I have been doing was I level off like drawing an arc into slightly above the ground, and keep the altitude, or very slowly going down, until the airplane touches the ground.
Like this. But, if I do it in Duchess, I am always bounced back into the air due to the ground effect. So, the strategy I used today was leveling off higher, much higher than I do in Cessna, and hold the altitude and at the same time gradually reduce the engine. The airplane then wants to descend. So, I descend as the airplane wishes to slightly above the ground. At that moment, the airplane seems to be already in nose-high attitude. The rest is pretty similar to the Cessna, I control the back pressure on the yoke, and make a very slow descend into the runway until the airplane touches the surface.
So, I understand that I should round out and flare in two steps, just like going down stairs. At least it worked this morning. I'm getting comfortable with engine control as well, and I don't take as much time as before to configure engine to the desired manifold pressure and RPM. I'll practice approaches in the next flight, and if it goes well, I will need to start worrying about the check ride! 09/18/2013 Broken headset and repair My old exercise bike broke beyond repair two days ago, and this time, it was my headset. I was strapped in Beech Duchess N6712A, and running through engine-start check list. Before starting the left engine, to prepare for the noise, I took my headset and opened it, when I heard a plastic cracking noise, and my headset fell apart. Poor my headset. The left speaker was hanging from the frame by a electrical wire. I borrowed a headset from PFTC and flew this time.
But, first my old exercise bike, and then my headset. And thou my headset! I have a feeling that I shouldn't touch my camera for a while. Although the left speaker was detached from the frame, it was functioning. I could hear and speak over the headset if I hold the speaker by hand. Actually, the same part of the right headset have cracked a few years ago, and I fixed it. I should be able to use the same method to repair the left speaker. This headset is a cheap one, but I have flown more than 300 hours with this one. It's one of my buddies. I don't easily give up hope. I first took a hard steel wire. I used a rod that used to be a control rod of my radio-controlled glider. I bent it so that it aligned with the original metal frame of the headset.
Then I inserted the rod into the remaining of the broken plastic part and bent the ends of the rod so that it doesn't come out.
In the end I tied the rod to the headset's original steel wire with cable ties. The headset looks to be a pretty bad shape. But, it works again. I can wear it and speak and listen over the headset again. I'm planned to fly early morning tomorrow. I'll test on an actual airplane then.
I have started multi-engine training! I have submitted a flight-training request to Transportation Security Administration before my Japan trip. I was expecting to get an approval in a month or so, that's what PFTC told me. In reality, the approval came within a week. My flight instructor said it was the fastest approval she has ever seen, and she speculated that TSA was thinking I am absolutely not a threat. I was supposed to fly on Saturday, which was cancelled due to low cloud. The forecast for today was predicting thick fog. The sky was clear and the visibility was good in contrary. So, I flew Beechcraft Duchess for the first time. I tried to study check lists and materials as much as possible, before the flight. Engine-start procedure and pre-taxi worked out pretty well. But, after taking off, the airplane was much faster than I was expecting. Also the engine requires frequent mixture adjustment. I used to adjust once I hit 5,000ft, and then 7,000ft in Cessna. And then I looked at engine exhaust temperature gauge, maybe once every 5 minutes or so. This guy, Beech Duchess, required adjustment almost every time I change prop and/or throttle settings. That's something I need to be careful and get used to. Well, at least my steep turn today was good. That's my favorite maneuver. I was expecting to feel this guy much heavier than Cessna, but to me, it felt like lighter. The control seemed to be more sensitive, and the airplane tended to go up during the steep turn, although I managed to stay within +-100ft. I ended up making small pilot-induced oscillation on landing. In fact, I was thinking what I did wrong. I think it is probably because Duchess gives much better forward look-down view since it doesn't have an engine in front of the cockpit. I thought the nose was still down and tried to pull up too much. It explains why I felt the airplane was making a steep descent on final. Also this guy makes much more ground effect than a Cessna because Duchess is a low-wing airplane. I will try to keep the nose a bit lower next time and see if it works. Anyway, I believe I will be a better pilot when I am able to handle this guy. I hope I can complete the training in the next two to three months.
I was in Chicago last weekend to take my wife for a conference. I scheduled to fly with my friend who is working at Waukegan while my wife was attending a conference. Waukegan is about an hour drive to the south of Chicago. He is a professional pilot and also an instructor and has been giving me very good advice for YSFLIGHT development. For example, the landing-analysis which will be added in the next version is based on his advice. Since I was visiting Chicago, I thought it would be nice if he could give me a training for FAA Safety Program called Wings program. But, his main job is to fly an airplane for individual owners as a co-pilot, and he got two duties on the day I was scheduled to fly. So, he didn't have time to give me a flight training. Instead, I had a chance to fly in two airplanes, King Air and Baron. The first airplane, King Air was a large (very large compared to a Cessna 172) twin engine that can carry up to eight persons including a pilot. Its cabin is pressurized and can go up very high. I think he was saying it could go up to more than 24,000ft. The airplane hadn't flown for a while on that day, and that was for a test flight. And we were supposed to fly to Indiana, have lunch, and come back. After taking off, I was impressed by its high pitch angle. Since the climbing angle is pitch minus angle-of-attack, so the climbing angle is less than the pitch angle. Nonetheless, the chord of the main wing was making more than 20 degrees.
But, soon we got a problem. One of the warning light came on. The problem was not critical, and it could have just been a faulty sensor. But it could also have damaged the airframe if it was real and if we continued flying. So, we decided to divert to an airport where the airplane could be fixed. Later it turned out it was a real problem, but not as dangerous as the worst case.
So, my friend called a rescue (?) Cessna 172, and he and the owner of the airplane flew back to Waukegan. Since a Cessna 172 can carry only 3 adults, I stayed and wait for the next rescue airplane. I had all my laptops and everything. I killed some time working on some programming. Then he came back in another twin-engine called Baron. He picked me up, and then flew to Land-Of-Lakes airport to pick up the owner of the airplane. Baron was smaller than King Air, but bigger than Cessna. It can carry six people in total. This time I had a chance to fly in the right seat in the cockpit. On the way, we flew very close to Oshkosh airport, which is famous for Experimental Aircraft Association air show, known as AirVenture. I want to go to that air show once in the future.
Soon the airplane was flying over wetland. I understood why the airport was called Land-Of-Lakes.
Then we picked up the owner of the aircraft, and I flew in the back seat to Waukegan.
So, it was a very good experience. I'm now seriously thinking to get multi-engine rating. I hear that I can add multi-engine rating to my certificate within 10 to 15 hours. But, the rental costs more than a single engine, so it would be $3,000 ballpark. Not cheap, but I had to fly more hours for my instrument rating, so the total cost would be the same. Everyone makes a mistake. Every pilot would say he or she had made at least one mistake in the past while flying. Nobody is perfect. That's why the aviation safety is guarded as a system. Pilots make mistakes. Even when a pilot makes a mistake, the system prevents a mistake from becoming a catastrophic accident. As well as pilots make mistakes, a computer can say a strange thing. We all know from Microsoft products. Well, some of you may know from YSFLIGHT as well :-P (But, I want Microsoft to be more responsible because they are charging so much money.) That means no programmer is perfect. If a computer says a strange thing, the pilot covers it. If both the pilot and the computer makes a mistake, the air-traffic controller can help. That is how the aviation safety is maintained. (And, that is why closing control towers and furloughing air traffic controllers are a very bad idea.) Nonetheless, there is no 100% safety. This world is statistical. We cannot completely eliminate probability of getting a disease. But, you can minimize the probability of a disease by regularly working out and eating healthy food. We cannot completely get rid of automobile accident risk. However, you can reduce the risk of an accident by driving safer route rather than the shortest route. Like, I avoid Forward+Murray+Pocusset intersection when I come back from CMU during commuting hours. This particular busy five-way intersection is horrible. I have seen many accidents there in the past because the right-of-way from Forward avenue and Pocusset street is unclear. Looks to me, Pocusset to Forward has the right-of-way over Forward-to-Forward based on the geometry. But, some drivers think differently for the obvious reason; the driver is continuing on the same avenue in Forward-to-Forward. It is unclear if I should be left lane or right lane on Murray avenue when I want to continue toward Homestead. There is no designated right-turn or left-turn lane. I drive Shady avenue instead, which is longer but much safer. It is nearly impossible to fly a perfect flight, and therefore I'm not trying to do that. I am instead trying to maximize the chance to come back alive even if something goes wrong. I also make mistakes while flying. That's why I want to maintain communication with air-traffic controllers even when I fly VFR. I carry my portable aviation GPS so that I don't get lost even when I lose all the on-board navigation equipments in IMC. I am also thinking about getting a portable air-band transceiver so that I am ready for the radio failure as well. In fact, one of my pilot friends experienced a total electrical failure in flight, but he used his hand-held transceiver and came back with no incident. He was not supposed to get a trouble if he was prepared according to Murphy's low, but it didn't apply to him. By going through pre-flight check list, I can minimize the risk of an accident caused by a stupidly-obvious reason. If I make a mistake and experience a mechanical failure at the same time, I have far greater risk of an accident than a mistake alone. By doing pre-flight inspection, I am trying to minimize the risk of an accident. We often call it "breaking the chain" of an accident. That said, I confess that I made a mistake in the last flight. I made a small mis-calculation. Well, I was able to land with 16 knot cross wind after all. But, when I came close to Port Meadville, the automated weather report was telling 120 at 12 peak gust 21. I mentally calculated cross-wind component. "Runway heading is roughly 070, and the wind direction is 120. 50 degrees offset. 21kt times sin(50 degree) is roughly 14 knots? I can handle it." That's what I thought. And, I landed, stopped the airplane, and got out. Oh man! The wind was brutal. Was it really 14knot cross wind? I re-calculated and realized it was 16.1kt cross wind. I guess I will not forget 21 times sin(50 degree) is roughly 16. I think I keep my personal limit to 15kt cross wind for now. 05/05/2013 Took off on the day of Pittsburgh Marathon and flew very close to the Pittsburgh International airport I flew with a student who is graduating this month. He was going to graduate in half a month, so I thought it would be nice to show him the CMU campus from the air. But, it was the day of Pittsburgh Marathon. Many TV helicopters might be flying over the marathon course. I didn't know if we were able to circle over CMU. At least I double checked and triple checked that there is no temporary flight restriction over the course. So, I took off Beaver county to Allegheny county. As soon as I was handed off to Pittsburgh approach, the ATC cleared us for class B airspace, and gave heading 180. 180? Usually I fly heading 120 or so and go around the center core of the class B airspace and approach Allegheny county from the north. Heading 180 would bring us very close to the Pittsburgh International airport. I wondered if it was a mistake. I asked if I should continue this heading. Then, Pittsburgh approach told me that we were going to fly 2 miles west of the airport, and then approach Allegheny county from the west. I have flown close to the Pittsburgh International a few times while I was practicing for my instrument rating. But, this was my first time to fly through the center core part of the Pittsburgh class-B airspace from north to south.
Then I flew south side of the Pittsburgh International toward Allegheny county and did one touch & go. The Cessna 182RG that I used for my commercial training was also flying in the pattern of Allegheny county. Then we headed north for lunch at Meadville. I hoped to fly directly above CMU, but again Pittsburgh approach wanted us to go around the east side of the marathon course. Instead, I was cleared for climbing through class-B airspace. The ATC asked me what altitude I wanted to go up, and I answered 8000. Oops. The ATC immediately asked me back if I were VFR. That's right. I was supposed to request 8500 because I was flying VFR. It was so simple before getting my instrument rating. But, I started mixing up. I need to be careful, but thankfully the ATC caught my mistake. Anyway, this also gave me a rare look of the city of Pittsburgh. I usually don't fly this course.
So, I seem to be able to fly a non-usual course if I fly on the day of Pittsburgh Marathon. Maybe I should try again next year as well. By the way, the weather forecast was predicting a good strong wind. But, the direction was from the east. At Beaver and Allegheny, it was supposed to be almost parallel to the runway. At Meadville, it was going to be 40 degrees off from the right. From my last cross-wind landing practices, I should be able to handle it. But, when I came down to the traffic pattern of Port Meadville, I was taking a big crab angle to counter the cross wind. It looked extreme to me. In fact, after the landing, the video indicated I was flying heading 220. 30 degrees off from the downwind heading! Flying Wild Pennsylvania!
But, still automated weather observation was telling 12012G21. Meadville runway was 07-25. 50 degrees from the right for runway 07. Peak gust would give me 16kt cross wind, but that's what I practiced in the previous training. I tried anyway, fully prepared for going around in case the wind was extreme. I turned base and then final. The wind seemed much weaker on final than at traffic pattern altitude. I didn't have to take much crab angle. I didn't miss the centerline after all.
I was thinking to give up Meadville and fly straight back to Beaver if I had to take too much crab on final. But, it was good. We had foot-long hot dogs and flew back to Beaver. 03/30/2013 Flying to Johnstown with iPad mini One of my friends invited me to a bowling tournament last Saturday, and I was supposed to bowl in there. But, I had a call a night before from him telling that he was mistaking the date of the tournament. So, I became free. The forecast was predicting a clear sky with calm wind. I haven't been able to fly for three weeks due to bad weather. It was my first opportunity in three weeks to go up. As I looked at the schedule of Moore Aviation, I saw an opening in the afternoon. I reserved an airplane for three hours. I made a reservation but had to find a destination. I wanted to go to somewhere I've never landed and picked Johnstown. Johnstown airport has two nice runways, but I didn't have any other reason to visit there. I decided this might be a good chance to get there. This time, I flew by looking at iPad mini. There is an app called "ForeFlight". With this app, if I pay $75/year subscription, I can download all of the current U.S. charts including VFR sectional, IFR high/low level, and approach plates. If I buy a Bluetoogh-connected GPS unit, it even does navigation. But, I haven't invested on a Bluetooth GPS, yet. One of my friends have been using ForeFlight on his iPad2, and that looked very useful. But, full-size iPad was too big for my flight bag. iPad mini was perfect size for a small Cessna 172 cockpit. I guess this is even more true in Mooney and Piper. Apple makes many good products, but they have a bad habit of neglecting practicality. In this sense, iPad mini is a very practical design. Whenever I have chance, I file an IFR flight plan and practice flying under IFR. This time I filed an IFR flight plan before leaving my apartment. But, when I got to Beaver, I had to switch an airplane due to maintenance. The one I was assigned unfortunately had 2nd VOR inoperable, and I couldn't fly IFR. Having only one VOR doesn't un-certify an airplane for IFR, but not being able to test VOR makes it not for IFR. To fly IFR, VORs need to be tested within 30 days prior to the flight. Only one certified way of testing at Beaver was VOR cross check, in which I tune two VOR receivers for a VOR station and see the OBS difference when the needles get center. The OBS difference must be within 4 degrees. Obviously, I cannot cross check unless I have two VOR receivers, and I am not allowed to fly IFR. So, I had to fly VFR. It was OK. The sky was clear and was a perfect VFR condition. I pre-flighted, strapped in, and started the engine of N986BT. But, apparently I used a wrong call sign when I called the ground. Beaver ground tried to give me an IFR clearance, but I had to decline it because I was in a wrong airplane, and the airplane was not IFR ready. "Beaver ground, sorry that was my mistake. My airplane is N986BT." I got a squawk for VFR flight following, and took off. Actually, when I came back, Beaver ground asked me if I filed an IFR flight plan for the return flight, and if it was ok to cancel the flight plan. I didn't even open that flight plan and was assuming the plan was going to be cancelled after an hour or so. I hope I didn't confuse them. I would feel bad if I did, but I couldn't use the original airplane. That was something I couldn't control.
I requested 7,500ft on the way. I had to cross the Pittsburgh class-B airspace to go up to 7,500ft eastbound. Pittsburgh departure gave me class-B clearance almost as soon as I contacted them. I like to be high. Well, not just preference, but I had to go over a mountain. So, it was better to stay high.
After one touch & go, I headed back Beaver. I was thinking to go up to 6,500ft, but changed my mind and went up to 8,500ft. It's nice be high. It was just a touch chilly though. ForeFlight worked as good as advertised. When I was using a paper chart, I had to fold it in a way that I can track the flight path which was sometimes tricky. But, with ForeFlight, I just could scroll the chart by fingers. I could get all the airport frequencies within the same app. Another nice thing about ForeFlight is that I no longer have to get panic if I notice I don't have a current sectional chart the night before a long cross-country flight. Honestly, paper sectional is obsolete. I do all the flight planning on a computer, and print out essential information before the flight. I believe it is safer to get essential information handy than searching the information on a bulky paper sectional chart in flight. Maybe if I am cornered to do that, that's too late. However, FAA will penalize whenever they find a pilot who was flying without a current sectional chart. Although federal aviation regulation does not explicitly require a pilot to carry a current sectional chart, they cite a regulation requiring a pilot to familiarize the airspace before flying. Someone in FAA probably has a connection with someone who has stake with selling charts. But, FAA now allow to carry electronic charts instead of paper charts. I can carry iPad mini, which makes me legal. Although it costs more than paper chart, it's pays off. Only one thing missing with iPad mini might be multi window. I prepare ARTCC frequency map before flying a long cross country. Also I have a cheating sheet to come back to Beaver just in case I get lost and onboard GPS and my portable GPS fails and the radio fails all together. I wish I could show those memos on top of ForeFlight. Not being able to use multi-window is one of the weakness of iOS. And, Microsoft ended up with copying this weakness and designed Windows 8's Modern UI :-P The Modern UI has a good reason to fail. I would go for it if I can open multi-window on top of the Modern UI. 03/10/2013 Reaching 450 flying hours, but my legs were so tired after cross-wind landings. The first game of the last night's bowling league was horrible. In a league game, I need to throw on two adjacent lanes. If I throw on the right lane in the first frame, the second frame is on the left lane. If the lane conditions on the two lanes are different, it becomes very difficult. For me, especially if one of the lanes is dry (with little oil) my ball hooks too much and doesn't give me strikes. Good bowlers compensate for dry lanes by throwing a ball faster, but that's one of the things I cannot figure how. Last night, the right-hand side lane was very dry. I wasted four frames to find the right shot for that lane condition, while I was getting strike after strike on the left-hand side lane. I had 165 in the first game. But, in the end, I was able to figure, and made 235 and 225 in the second and the third game. So far, I have been able to keep 200+ average. Which is an off topic. I flew today and did some cross-wind landing practice. I was supposed to bowl with a friend today, but he cancelled. As of Friday, the forecast was predicting bad weather, but it turned out nicer than forecasted. The predicted wind was moderate from the south, which seemed to be a good condition for cross-wind landing practice. I haven't been able to fly as often as I wanted in January and February due to weather. It was a good opportunity for me to get rust off of my landing skill. When I parked my car and got out at Beaver County airport, the wind was nicely from the south as forecasted. In fact, I felt it to be a little windier than forecasted, but didn't seem to be unmanageable. My airplane reservation was from 2:30 to 4pm, but I arrived a little early because the traffic was smooth. It is always unpredictable how long it takes to drive through Pittsburgh downtown. The dispatcher at Moore Aviation re-assigned me to an airplane that was already back. I used N986AV. This one had a faulty radio panel, but they replaced it with a new one, which was nice. I thought about doing some touch & goes and then fly to the practice area to practice maneuvers, but as soon as I took off, I realized it was the best condition for cross-wind landing practice. I decided to stay in pattern. In fact, I haven't flown in such a strong cross wind for a while. The first a few landings were not as good as I wanted to make. Touch down was not too bad, but I overshot big, and I didn't like my speed control. The wind was fluctuating and the control tower often gave updates. It was just cross wind at the beginning, but it started gusting. At one time, tower reported, 170 at 9 gust 18. Runway 10 was in use. So, the wind was 70 degrees off. 70degrees off and 18kt makes more than 15kt cross-wind component. Surprisingly it was challenging, but I was able to manage it. I was using full flaps at the beginning, but as soon as I realized of the gusty wind, I started using partial flaps.
YouTube Video - My last two landings of the day. I flew 1.3 hours just doing touch & goes. I did 15 landings in total including the last full-stop landing. I was shaken by the wind in a landing flare. Once I suddenly lost 10kt on short final. I felt airplane sank. You can see in the video (the first landing in the video). Another unusual thing was that I felt that the airplane didn't sink well when I reduced throttle. The air temperature was high like early summer. Maybe there was good thermal. It was a very good cross-wind landing practice for me. But, one problem was that my legs were so tired after pushing rudder left and right very often to counter the wind. One thing I don't do now a days is flying before a bowling league. I sometimes did fly in the morning and played in a bowling league, but that didn't work well because my legs were often exhausted after landing, Today's flight marked my 450th flying hour. 50 more hours to get 500-hour mark. 02/10/2013 Flying over Fallingwater Dark winter clouds over Pittsburgh gave way to the sun this Sunday. It was truely the best condition for flying. We had an exchange student visiting Carnegie Mellon University from Japan, and I took him for a sightseeing flight. The aircraft I reserved was N30181, 1974 Cessna 172M. Despite its age, it was very well maintained. I had a problem with COM2 before, but Moore aviation seemed to have fixed it. Last time I had to come to within 5nm to receive ATIS with COM2. This time I could pick up ATIS with COM2 from 20 miles away. Moore Aviation replaced its engine recently, and they were looking for someone to fly a cross country. So, I volunteered. I planned to fly to Latrobe and have lunch there. I took off on an IFR flight plan. The air was unrealistically smooth, as if I were not flying in an airplane. I felt absolutely zero turbulence. The visibility was also superb. Almost as soon as I took off Beaver, I could see Appalachian mountains. Just some patchy fog was still hanging here and there.
After lunch, we decided to fly over Fallingwater before heading back to Beaver. Fallingwater was a summer house for the department-store tycoon Kaufmann family. It was designed by a famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I sometimes see some Japanese people coming to Pittsburgh just to visit this place. It is one of few tourist destinations of Pittsburgh. Actually, it's quite far from Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is just the nearest big city of this place. My passenger said he wanted to visit Fallingwater but he couldn't because the place was closed in winter. House tour of Fallingwater is available only from spring to fall. You can still go close to the house but cannot go in and look around. I don't think it's worth going there and just look at the house from outside. But, I could show it to him from the air. I recorded the location in my portable GPS last time I drove there. I followed my GPS to Fallingwater. We arrived at the location where my GPS said was Fallingwater within 20 minutes. But, we couldn't spot it first. Fallingwater was built on a small waterfall. I thought I should look at a river to find it. But, I didn't see anything like the building on the river. After making a few 360s, I gave up finding it from the river. I recorded the position in my GPS when I parked my car at the Fallingwater parking. I must be directly above the parking lot when I come to the point where my GPS indicated. Instead of looking at the river, I looked for a parking lot. It worked. I spotted the parking lot. From there I could find Fallingwater. Actually, the river I was looking at was a big river. The river on which Fallingwater is built was a small branch flowing into the main stream. And, Fallingwater itself was small. I descended to 4,000ft (probably about 1,000ft above ground), but it was hard to spot. It will be even less visible in summer because tree leaves will hide the building. After coming back, I checked with the chart, and maybe I could have descend to 3,000ft still maintaining 1,000ft ground clearance. But, there was a mountain top east side of Fallingwater, which is 2,900ft high. Probably I would feel uncomfortable if I really came down to 3,000ft. Maybe I'll take in the middle and try 3,500ft if I go there next time. The place is about 238 degree from Indian Head VOR 6nm. I took the following shot with my Olympus E-5 and 54mm lens, which is equivalent to 108mm of a film camera.
But, if I cut out the center part, I could clearly see the building on a waterfall. E-5 is a good camera.
If you click this picture you can see two persons standing on the bridge. Then I flew through Allegheny county class D, circled over Carnegie Mellon, and headed back to Beaver. The air was still smooth, but the wind was picking up just a little bit when I arrived Beaver. My fifth landing of the year was not as soft as I wanted it to be. I wish to be able to handle wind better. My quest for perfect landings will continue. 01/18/2013 First flight of the year. My first flight of 2013 was on 1/18. The sky was clear and wind was almost nothing. The weather in Pittsburgh in winter is depressing. We have only few flyable days. I took a morning off to seize a precious flyable moment. But, I could only reserve a 2-hour window. So, I just flew a round trip from Beaver to Allegheny County. I did three landings in total, all of which were very smooth. I felt almost no shock. Only the noise from the rotating tire told me that the airplane kissed the ground. I made a good start of the year.
By the way, I'm writing this on February 8. I couldn't fly since then mainly due to weather. I'm scheduled to fly this coming Sunday. When I called Moore Aviation, I was told that the Cessna 172M that I am going to fly just received a new engine, and they welcome a cross-country flight. When this type of an airplane gets a new engine, it should run in constant-speed for the first several hours, and maneuvers like touch & goes should be avoided. I probably will fly to Latrobe, have lunch there and come back.
I am going to take an exchange student from Japan who is visiting Carnegie Mellon for 40 days for a sight-seeing flight. I hope the weather turns out good as forecasted.
[Click here for posts from 2012]
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