Captain YS's Flight Log Book |
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Finally! My medical nightmare is over. I thought I passed my medical exam. But, about two weeks later, I received a letter from FAA stating that FAA hadn't received necessary information and could not approve my medical certificate. The letter was also saying, it was not a denial, but would be denied unless FAA receives all necessary information within 60 days of the letter date. What confused me the most was the list of items that FAA said missing. The list was:
I had sent everything to my Aviation Medical Examiner already except two items in the list. The AME was supposed to have discussed with FAA with those information, and FAA was supposed to have agreed that I was airworthy. Actually my AME charged $250 for this phone consultation with FAA. Was it a lie? Why FAA was saying they don't have those information? It was possible that FAA agreed that I was airworthy, but AME had to send the paperwork to FAA and forgot to do so. But, then why FAA came after me? Shouldn't FAA contact my AME instead? I heard from other pilots that FAA is very strict about the medical recently. FAA had been trying to decimate general aviation. Was FAA trying to take advantage of my kidney-stone history to permanently ground me even though my urologist was positive that I was safe to fly? After all efforts, possibility of having my medical certificate denied deeply depressed me. I was grounded again. It was a nightmare. I made a furious phone call to my AME's office in the following morning. According to the nurse, they had sent the information but hadn't reached FAA yet. (Really?) And she told that as soon as I send two missing items, she would fax them to FAA and would make a phone call to make sure FAA received the informatoin. It would be a tragedy if I sent something to FAA directly and if FAA rejected my medical application because I didn't know the right word. If they contact FAA and I don't have to deal with FAA directly, that's better. I collected two missing items and sent to my AME. The nurse got back to me and told that the information was faxed, and she called FAA and confirmed FAA had received the fax. She also said I should receive an approval within two weeks. That was November 20. I waited for two weeks and had no word from FAA. I was almost complaining my AME again, when finally I received the approval. It took whole four months since I took my KUB X-ray. Finally, I was really re-certified. I flew a solo cross-country in the following weekend. I flew to Connellsville (KVVS). It was so nice to be able to fly as a Pilot In Command. Although it was a small airplane, I was a captain of a Cessna 172. And then I did some IFR approaches and night landing practice from PFTC. I am now instrument current and night current. What's even better is that the new legislation called Pilot Bill Of Right 2, a.k.a., the third-class medical reform was passed by the U.S. senate. Hopefully the third-class medical reform passes the house and signed by the president early next year. This new rule will allow a pilot to fly a small airplane for non-commercial purposes without getting a third-class medical after getting an initial medical certificate once. One of my dreams is to become an instructor in the future, and I will need a medical certificate then, but for the time being, I don't have time to work as an instructor anyway. I will be happy if I can fly for non-commercial purposes. Since I flew late August, I haven't flown as a Pilot-In-Command for two months. I flew with an instructor once. That was it. My previous 3rd-class medical certificate expired end of October, and I had to renew it. Because I had kidney stones in the past, I needed to submit to my aviation medical examiner (AME) a letter from my urologist saying I am safe to fly and an X-ray report. I had an X-ray taken early August, and my urologist told I didn't have a stone. That was going to be easy. I had a clean X-ray, all I needed to get was a letter from my urologist. That's what I thought, and never expected that was the beginning of a 3-months quest to get a new medical certificate. I e-mailed to a nurse at the AME's office and asked what I needed. Her answer was that it would be a special issurance and will be only good for 12 months (a regular issurance is good for 24 months for 40+ years old person). Also the letter must say:
What? My urologist said I didn't have a stone. Why the hell I need a letter talking about remaining kidney-stone fragments? I asked back by E-Mail. The nurse got back to me and explained that my X-ray report said I still had kidney stones. Turned out "Punctate Renal Calculi" in my X-ray report meant very small kidney stones. According to my urologist, punctate stones are too tiny to cause any problems. He meant that I didn't have a kidney stone that can be a problem. But, FAA may or may not buy it. I don't want to be punished for flying with medical condition, regardless of my urologist's opinion. I suspended flying. I needed to get a letter from my urologist that includes the above two points. I asked my urologist if he could say my condition matches what's required. He said he could say that. He also again affirmed that my stones are too tiny to cause any problems. OK. That's great. But, he is very busy. So, I wrote a draft and sent to the nurse to double-check if the letter was good. I waited, waited, and waited with no reply. I finally got a reply, but said I also needed an exam called metabolic work up. What!? Why didn't she tell it to me before I met with my urologist? I could have done that at the same time I took my last X-ray. I logged on to my hospital's portal site and looked through my past exams, and found ones called metabolic battery. I didn't know if it counted as metabolic work up. I e-mailed her again and asked if it counted as the exam she was looking for. As expected, I didn't hear from her for several days. At this point, I was becoming desperate. I took my X-ray on August 4. Unless I get my medical renewed within 90 days from that date, I would need to start over again. I prefer to communicate with e-mail rather than phone because I can keep records and I don't have to constrain someone's time. But, this time it's getting an emergency. I called her. What she said was "We don't know anything about you. We don't know when you had incidents, what treatment you had, no exam records. We cannot issue a certificate without those information." You don't have that information because you didn't ask!!!!!!!!!! (Shout from my soul) I downloaded as many exam records as possible from my hospital's portal site, and sent her. Also she said she was going to contact my urologist directly to get other necessary information. I waited a week again and called her to get the status. According to her, she contacted my urologist's office, and told exactly what additional information need to be included in the letter. Those additioanl information were:
I wish she gave the list earlier. At this point, I had only four weeks to get my medical renewed. My urologist was busy. When I called him last time, he was in a seven-hour surgery and could not take my phone. My medical-certificate was low priority than someone who is suffering. So, again I wrote a draft, and sent him. I wrote it based on what I heard from him about my diagnosis, but asked him to correct if there are some errors. I finally got the letter next Wednesday. Well, he was very kind and the letter was even more strongly stating I have no risks of being incapacitated in flight. Also I don't have a vocabruary of medical terms. His corrected letter looked much more like a letter from a physician. I sent it to the nurse over E-Mail, also called her and checked she received it. And, I made an appointment of medical exam for October 29, only 4 days before the 30th day from my last X-ray. Close shave! Actually, I also had a good news from AOPA. AOPA medical service told me that recent changes in the regulation allowed a pilot with kidney-stone history to obtain a regular medical certificate. My case seemed to match the condition for regular issurance. That's great! I printed out the information to ask my AME to give a regular issurance. It was supposed to be the end of this quest for medical-certificate renewal. I was to attend a seminar about retro-gaming console on Wednesday 21. It was to start at 8pm. My wife was supposed to pick me up, then I drive together to the apartment, drop her, and drive back to CMU. However, my car was rear-ended by a careless driver. There was no injury. My car was rather pushed than hit. But, the trunk door was severely disfigured. The bumper was also substantially damaged. It was an easy case that we were 0% responsible for the accident, and my insurance company quickly arranged things for us, and I was supposed to take my car to the collision center on Monday after next Monday. The car was drivable at that time, and I was going to drive to the AME's office in my car. In the morning of the day of appointment, I tried to start the engine, and nothing happened. Looked like the battery was totally drained. The collision could have made a short circuit somewhere. My car suddenly became undrivable. It didn't have to be this dramatic. I was able to take a taxi to AME's office in time, and had a regular 2nd-class medical certificate. After 12 months, it will automatically be downgraded to 3rd class, but as long as I don't fly for commercial purposes, it is good for another 12 months. So, I have 24 more months to fly! After three months of struggle, finally I have a ticket to go back to the sky! Since I have flown only once during the last two months, I flew with an instructor before flying as a Pilot-In-Command again. In fact, it is common that I cannot fly at all for two months in winter. But, that's different because I schedule and prepare for the flight, but end up cancelling due to weather in winter months. But, I didn't even try to fly except for my biennial flight review during the last two months. So, the last two months were psychologically different. I made sure I didn't forget how to take off and land. Now I am confident again. I am ready to take responsibility of Pilot-In-Command. Below is a screenshot from my forward-looking video. The tree leaves are changing color, and appeared even redder due to the reflection from the setting sun.
Finleyville Airport (G05) - General Aviation Airports around Pittsburgh
By the way, you may have seen a bannar-towing airplane over downtown Pittsburgh. The airplane looks to be based at this airport. Greene County and Marshall County Airports - General Aviation Airports around Pittsburgh I have visited Greene County and Marshall County airports.
My mother visited Pittsburgh from Japan mid May. I planned a sight-seeing flight over Niagara falls from Beaver County. I have flown to Niagara Falls only once before. That time, I flew to Niagara-Falls airport, and my friend flew over the falls and the return flight. So, I have never flown over the falls before. I scheduled a dry-run. I took my wife and her boss for the dry-run. The weather was absolutely perfect. Unrestricted visibility with smooth air. Nonetheless, I took off on an IFR flight plan. I like to fly on IFR flight plan whenever I fly a cross-country. I felt very slight engine roughness while taxiing. The engine sounded like coughing every second or so. I wondered if I was overly cautious or the engine was really rough. Nothing was unusual during the run-up. I concluded that I was just overly cautious and took off. I felt that the airplane was not climbing as fast as it should. But, it was climbing at least. I climbed up to 9,000ft. This airplane had a working autopilot, so I turned it on, and the airplane sailed smoothly. When the airplane came close to DKK VOR, the engine RPM jumped by 50 RPM. Until then, the engine never exceeded the red line even though I kept the throttle full forward, and now the RPM was a little bit above the red line, which is normal. Maybe, the engine was not performing 100%. If the power loss is substantial, it can easily be detected during the run up. But, this time the loss should have been a few percent maximum. That's why we need to take some safety margine always.
I was handed off from Pittsburgh to Erie, then to Buffalo approach. When I contacted Niagara tower, I requested a sight seeing flight over the falls before landing. The tower told me to join the pattern over the falls, which is described in the Airport Facility Directory at 3,500ft. The lower altitude are reserved for local sight-seeing helicopters. Other airplanes need to stay higher. Nonetheless, the falls were spectacular from 3,500ft. Then I landed at Niagara-Falls airport. This airport has three large runways and also is a base for KC-135s of Air National Guard. When I land on such a large runway, I need to be careful because the large runway gives an illusion that makes me feel I were closer than actual. I need to be careful not to be too high. I knew that. I knew that, but I ended up making a higher-than-ideal approach. But, the runway was also longer. I could stop with more than enough length remaining.
We had lunch at the restaurant next to the airport terminal, and headed back to Beaver County. The dry-run was successful. I just need to fly the same with my mother comes. Only problem was that the forecast was predicting heavy rain on the scheduled date. I was almost giving up, but as the day came closer, the forecast changed from heavy rain to clear sky. Still the forecast was insisting on strong cross wind. It was saying that 19kt from the north. But, at last the forecast changed to wind from the west 10 to 20kt. It may not be a smooth approach, but the cross wind component would not exceed 15kt. I can deal with it. What turned out even better was that the weather turned IMC before my flight. Probably the previous student who was going to use my airplane would cancel. Then I can take off earlier and get to Niagara Falls airport before the wind picks up. I checked the online scheduling in the night before the flight, and confirmed that the student pilot before me cancelled. That's great! Everything was moving toward the good direction. Nothing else should go wrong. I came to Beaver County airport earlier knowing that nobody was using the airplane before me. When I arrived at the airport, I was told to change an airplane because the airplane that I originally was going to use had a flat tire. I had to re-file my IFR flight plan. And, someone else was using the new airplane, maybe for instrument training. I couldn't take off early. That was fine. I wanted to land before the wind picks up, but even the wind is as fast as forecasted, it would be well within my envelope. I took off, and the airplane climbed with no sign of troubles. It was until 8,500ft. At about 8,500ft, a warning light came on indicating one of the suction gyros malfunctioned. A typical airplane is equipped with attitude indicator and heading indicator, both of which are driven by what's called a suction gyro. An incoming air from the forward spins the gyro and senses the change of attitude and direction. There are two suction pumps so that the instruments work even if one pump fails. I banked left and right, and pitched up and down a little bit to make sure the instruments were still working. To my disappointment, another warning light came on telling both suction pumps failed. My attitude indicator gradually tilted and indicated as if the airplane had been flying an aerobatic.
I could have switched to VFR and continue. I would have done so if I didn't see any cloud ahead of us and no cloud in the forecast. But, in front of us was a overcast layer. According to the forecast, it should be at 4,000ft. I still am trained to maintain the attitude in case of gyro failure. But, in that case I need to rely on the turn indicator which is electric driven. What if I encounter electrical failure while flying in cloud? It probably wouldn't happen, but it increased the overall probability of an accident. I still could switch to VFR, descend early, and fly below the cloud. But, in case of engine power loss, altititude is the friend. I need altitude to be able to glide down to a nearby airport with less or no engine output. Engine wouldn't fail. But, again, it would increase the overall probabiltiy of an accident. It was a tough decision. My mother must have been looking forward to seeing the falls from the airplane. I called Youngstown approach and reported suction failure. I requested to fly back to Beaver County airport. Failed attitude indicator and heading indicator were actually distracting because my instinct tells me to keep the attitude indicator horizontal. My wife in the back seat had a post-it note. I put it on the attitude indicator and hid it. I was in VMC that time and there was no cloud or fog all the way to Beaver county. But, just in case. Airplanes I rent from Moore Aviation are much better maintained than PFTC. I never had such a trouble before. I still wonder if I should have continued on to Niagara Falls airport. Most likely I could fly all the way and come back with more than 99% chance. But, be sorry than be dead. At least I can say my decision was a safer decision. I have flown practice instrument approaches and a holding from Pittsburgh Flight Training Center today. The airplane was of PFTC maintenance quality as usual. The attitude indicator was lagging, and I had to force myself not to look at the attitude indicator when rolling out from turns. I rather had to look at the turn indicator. The heading indicator was precessing like crazy. I had to re-adjust the turn indicator almost every time I rolled out of a turn. Although the saction gauge indication was normal, this airplane definitely have a problem with suction-gyro based instruments. By the way, if you are a student pilot working on the instrument rating from PFTC and using N596CS for training, do not look at the attitude indicator to roll out from a turn. Look at the turn indicator. The attitude indiator lags, which means that when the attitude indicator is level, the airplane is already turning to the other way. I noticed this issue when I flew 6CS last year. I felt I could not maintain heading until I noticed that the attitude indicator was lagging. (Maybe it is interesting to add this kind of poor maintenance in YSFLIGHT. You will see how difficult it is to maintain heading in the instrument condition.) I'm wondering if anyone can pass an instrument check ride in this airplane. Hopefully this issue is fixed in the next 100-hour inspection. But from what I have been seeing, I am not very hopeful.
The positive side is that I am able to practice in a difficult condition when I am flying with an instructor. If I am able to fly this airplane, airplanes I rent from Moore Aviation is so much easier. The maintenance level of Moore Aviation is way much better than PFTC. Also, I am glad I no longer have to fly an instrument check ride in this airplane. If I were training for the instrument rating in this airplane now, I would be having a grave feeling. The small airplanes like Cessna 172 does not have a so-called a flight data recorder aka the Black Box. I don't need the recording very often, but sometimes it is nice to have one. When I was not able to fly as I wanted, I want to review how I was flying and want to improve the next flight. For this purpose, recently I am capturing videos with a forward-looking camera and an instrument-looking camera whenever I fly. I typically review the videos when my landing was not as smooth as I wanted. Mostly those landings are from gusty wind, and I just want to confirm that it was the wind that played on me. However, the camera mount for the instrument-looking camera broke and fell on my lap while I was flying today. I first thought it was just a weak suction. But, it turned out that the rubber part of the suction cup cracked and was torn off. I had been using this mount for long time. Maybe it was about time.
I made this suction mount by drilling a hole on a automobile windshield mount for Garmin GPS units, and tying a tripod head on a L-bracket with cable ties. I have tried a few suction mounts and concluded that the Garmin-original suction mount is the best. The cheap alternatives sticks on flat and clean surfaces, but the car and airplane windows are curved. Also it is not clean. The cheap alternatives I have tested could stay on my apartment window if I wipe the window with alchole but did not stick on car windshield and windshield of Cessna 172. If you go to Amazon.com, you can find cheap offers like less than $10 for a Garmin suction mount. Many of them are claiming that they are selling a Garmin-original custion mount. THEY ARE LIARS! You can find a lot of reviews complaining that the seller didn't send an authentic Garmin product. In fact, I purchased one and received a fake before. I wasted like $5 or so. The suction mount looked the same unless you look at the sticky surface of the suction cup. The sticky surface of a Garmin original suction mount is glossy and shiny. The fake lesser copy's sticky surface is matte and not shiny. The fake lesser copy only sticks on flat and clean surfaces.
Probably some sellers are honest and really selling an authentic Garmin suction mount. The problem is I cannot distinguish liars and honest sellers. Until Amazon.com comes up with a filter that kicks out all liars, you are better off buying a Garmin suction mount from a reliable retail store in the original packaging. My quick search found that a neaby Target store had some in stock. I drove up there and bought two of them. The second one is to prepare for my forward-looking camera. The forward-looking camera mount is almost as old as the instrument-looking camera mount. It can break any time. If you insist on buying online, probably you want to buy directly from Garmin. You can use the link below. But, I paid like $15 to buy from Target. It probably is more expensive to buy online if you add shipping. https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/shop-by-accessories/mounts/suction-cup/prod1368.html I wouldn't add an Amazon affiliate link in this case :-P
General Aviation Airports around Pittsburgh - McVille (6P7) I was bitterly defeated in a bowling league last night, and my team failed to move up to the play off tournament. Flying a Cessna was the perfect way of getting out of the feeling of defeat. The weather was absolutely the best condition. Calm wind, clear sky, and 20+ miles visibility. I took off Beaver County airport, flew over North Park Lake, where a group of Japanese living in Pittsburgh have been planting cherry trees, then visited an airport called McVille (6P7). This McVille airport has a 2800ft-long runway, which I am not allowed to land due to my rental agreement. I shot a low approach instead. This McVille airport is only printed on the Pittsburgh TAC chart, but not on the Detroit sectional chart. A TAC chart is a aeronautical map showing details around a class-B airport. A sectional chart is an aeronautical map that covers wider area. I mainly look at sectional charts, and I didn't even notice that an airport was there until recently. This kind of small airports are not utilized typically. Sadly, I typically don't see an activity when I visit. But, this McVille was very active. I heard some incoming traffic over the radio. Also when I was shooting a low-approach, a twin-engine airplane was about to take off. I ended up making him wait until I went around.
Since I was taking a CMU student with me, I flew over CMU campus, did one touch & go at Allegheny County, and flew back to Beaver County. General Aviation Airports around Pittsburgh - Monroeville (4G0), Greensburg (5G8) For my personal project - visiting all small public general-aviation airports around Pittsburgh - I have flown to Monroeville (4G0) and Greensburg Jeannette Regional (5G8). Both airports have a runway shorter than 3,000ft, and I am not allowed to land due to the rental agreement. I just did low approach without landing. Monroeville airport has a runway 2280ft x 28ft. I once felt there is no way to land on such a narrow runway. But, this time, I was confident to land on the airport if necessary (like if the engine stopped on final), but I didn't land. I flew a regular traffic pattern until short final and then went around. By the way, the runway of Monroeville airport was partially snow-covered when I flew there on February 16. Then, the runway was completely snow-covered when I flew there next time on March 8. Finally, the runway was dry and clear on March 23.
It is one of the biggest privileges of a pilot to be able to see four seasons changing from the air. We were enjoying warm winter in December, and now we are trapped in frigid air temperature for the last a few weeks in Pittsburgh. The weather is also pretty bad. No matter how calm wind, a Cessna 172 cannot fly into cloud because of the icing danger. My instrument rating doesn't help. I was grounded for a while. But, finally the weather gave a break last Monday. I took half-day off and went flying. Pittsburgh area was hit hard by a heavy snow storm two days before. I saw several wrecked cars left unattended on the shoulder on the way to Beaver. Towing company could not keep up with the accidents apparently. I was looking forward to flying over the snow-covered field. Also I planned to fly low approaches at Monroeville (4G0) and Greensburg (5G8). My reservation was from 9:30 to 11:00, and someone else was supposed to take the airplane before my turn. I arrived at 8:45 or so, and saw nobody flying. Turned out the flight school cancelled 8:00 slot. I didn't have to wait. I was able to pre-flight in the hangar and took off right away. I had the airplane full 2 hours. Due to the frigid temperature, the air density was incredibly high. Cessna 172 climbed up like an aerobatic airplane. The pitch angle was almost 20 degrees to keep 75kt on take-off climb. However, in this temperature, I need to be cautious about pitot icing. If the pitot-tube is partially clogged by ice, it acts like an altimeter. Accidents have happened in history when the pilot mistook the pitot-tube icing as increased performance due to high air-density. I lowered the nose, and the airspeed indicator increased to 85kt, and raised the nose and the airspeed indicator came back to 75kt. Good. The pitot tube is open.
First, I flew a low approach at Monroeville. Although WX briefing gave no information about the airport closure, the runway was pretty much snow covered. Part of the runway was clear, but maybe the helicopter landed before me blew some snow away.
Then flew to Greensburg. Greensburg airport seemed to be more actively-used than Moroeville, so I was expecting the runway to be clearer there. But, the runway was pretty much snow covered. In fact, it was even difficult to spot an airport when my GPS was telling that I was directly above the airport.
I briefly looked on my left to see some houses directly underneath the final. Then I made right descending turn to join the downwind leg and made a low-approach. In fact, finding an airport is also a fun part of flying a Cessna. A small airport is sometimes in the middle of corn field, sometimes surrounded by residential area. When I come back to Beaver county, I see several patches on the ground one of which is the airport. I look hard to spot and identify hangars and control tower. I want to add this element in YSFLIGHT eventually. Then I did one touch & go at Allegheny county, then flew a few circles over Carnegie Mellon University. When I have a passenger, I make a right turn so that the right seat gets the better view. This time I was flying solo. So I made left turn, and enjoyed the view by myself.
The low-hanging clouds were gone when I came back to Beaver. Shippingport power plant was still producing enormous water vapor. Last year, (or maybe two years back), this power plant ended up creating a snow-cloud and gave a burst of snow shower over Cranberry area. It was nonetheless spectacular.
General Aviation Airports around Pittsburgh I am renting and flying a Cessna 172 twice a month basis. In most time, I don't have any particular purpose. I fly because it is so much a fun, and I need to keep flying not to forget how to fly. But, I thought it may be even more fun if I have some kind of theme. So, I decided to visit as many small general-aviation airports around Pittsburgh as possible. The rental agreement does not allow me to land on a grass strip and a runway shorter than 3,000ft. But, I need to practice emergency landings. I am allowed to do low-approach over such grass strip or short runways. So, I fly a low-approach over the airports where I am not allowed to land, and touch & go at the airport where I am allowed to land. I have bunch of videos from those visits, and upload them when I have time to cut out from my forward-looking camera. (Links to the YouTube videos) 2013/06/15 Columbiana County Airport (02G) 2013/06/15 Jefferson County Airpark (2G2) 2014/04/06 Salem Airpark (38D) So far, I haven't been able to fly this year mainly due to weather. I'll update when I fly next time!
[Click here for posts from 2014]
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