So winter arrived for real yesterday. We got about 2 inches of snow over the course of yesterday and last night. As the afternoon rolled around my boss came by to tell me the weather looked ok to try some flights. We had a couple trips booked.
When I got out to the airport they had the Cherokee fueled and loaded up and the wing covers off already. I had to take one passenger and a load of the usual freight up to the usual destination. The AWOS was calling 1500 ft ceilings and good visibility before I took off, with the surface temperature just above freezing. I took off into a crisp 13 kt wind directly down the runway. Most of the flight we went through some mist/drizzle, so I stayed at 500 ft, knowing that the temperature up above would probably dip just below freezing, making the drizzle turn into icing conditions. I was sure to be vigilant in checking for carburetor icing. Carburetors have the interesting property of being able to ice up even in atmospheric temperatures well above freezing. Carburetors employ a bernoulli effect to create a lower pressure and draw up the fuel and mix it with the air. A side effect of this air pressure lowering is a cooling effect on the air. So even though outside air temperatures may be above freezing, its quite possible that the air in the carburetor is well below freezing temperatures.
As I left the airport area I passed the local Navajo coming back from where I was going. We gave each other a quick call to make sure we were safely separated, and he also let me know conditions up the coast were about 1500 ft ceilings, good vis underneath, with the winds on a direct crosswind to the runway. The winds weren't too strong, and I touched down lightly on a slushly and soggy gravel runway, with two tiny snow piles plowed alongside the runway.
I dropped off my passenger and unloaded the freight tromping around on the slushy gravel. I bought some winter boots about a week ago when I was down south for the last inspection, and today I was glad I did, my feet stayed warm and dry. They're kind of like a high hiking boot except with a fully rubberized foot section so they're fully waterproof up to about 3 inches, but the lace and toungue section is also fully attached to make them near-waterproof up to the full height of the boot. My summer-weight hiking boots I've been wearing all summer are cracked in the bottom of the rubber sole and no longer waterproof in the least. For the price I paid they didn't hold up to much actually, they started cracking like that 4 months after I bought them, and I haven't really abused them in the least. Don't ever buy Prospector brand boots, waste of $120. Pieces.of.crap. Hopefully my new winter Columbia brand boots hold up better. They were regular $76, but when I took them to the counter to pay for them, surprise! They were on sale for $60. Sweet deal.
Anyways, once again the cops were there to do a quick search. They've really been cracking down. They've been at the airport almost every time I've been there the last few weeks. Its good.
I took off and climbed out to head back south. I knew for the second trip since it was getting late in the day it would cool down a few degrees more, so I decided to do some experimenting and climb up to 1500 hr ft, where it would be cooler, and I could simulate what the misty conditions would do on my second trip back up north in the cooler weather. Sure enough as the temp dropped below 0 the water droplets on the window would start to freeze. That's icing, so I went back down lower where we were still in the positive temps. By the time I had made it back further south and temperature had already dropped a couple of degrees, and even at 500 it was -1. I checked the AWOS and the surface temp was reported as being right on 0.
My windshield had started collecting trace amounts of ice even down at 500 ft. I wasn't going through the drizzle for the entire flight, so the ice would collect on the windshield for a few minutes, and then sublimate off, then collect some more etc, so I never got a build-up any thicker than just a paper-thin layer, but it was icing nonetheless. I landed and my boss pulled up with another passenger with him and asked me how the weather was. I told him about the icing.
"Oh, well thats not too good, I guess we'll try the second trip in the morning."
So that was it for the day, he turned around to take the passengers back while I pushed the airplane back into its parking spot, refueled it and put the engine blanket back on. There was still a thin layer of clear ice covering the leading edges of the wings. It was only maybe the thickness of 2 or 3 pieces of paper - not thick enough to see from the cockpit with no sun to glint off of it, but it was still cool to see it up close. I've picked up a little bit of icing a couple times before in the last month, but its always been above 0 degrees on the ground and so had melted off and disappeared before I had a chance to look at it from outside the cockpit.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Just a Few Terms
I've been asked by a couple of my non-pilot readers a few weeks back now to post some explanations of some of the aviation abbreviations and terms that I use often. So I went back through some of my posts and picked out all my commonly used terms that I don't usually provide explanations for directly in the posts, so here they are:
AWOS - Automated Weather Observing System. This is a radio broadcast that repeats every couple minutes with the current weather report for that particular airport. The pilot usually tunes it in to listen to prior to takeoff and while he's approaching the airport to land. The report includes all the weather items included in a METAR (see below)
GFA - Graphic Forecast Area. This is a regional weather chart that depicts current and forecast weather (up to 12 hrs ahead) in a picture format. It displays weather systems moving through the area and describes the resulting weather.
METAR - I have no idea what the letters stand for, I think its a french derivative. This is the hourly weather observations that are given at certain airports equipped with weather stations. It reports winds, visibility, type and intensity of precipitation, cloud layers, temperature, dewpoint, and altimeter setting (atmopsheric pressure).
PAPI/APAPI - Precision Approach Path Indicator/Abbreviated PAPI. These are at set of 4 lights (or two lights in the case of APAPI) that some runways have set up beside a runway which can indicate to an aircraft on approach whether he is on the correct glideslope or not. If 2 of the 4 lights are white and 2 are red, the approach path is on the correct angle, if they're are more red than white - too low. More white than red - too high.
PIC - Pilot in Command. Self Explanatory.
PIREP - Pilot Report. This just what it sounds like, but is usually in regards to weather conditions. Pilots can report weather conditions (to flight service) they experience during their flight. This PIREP is then logged in the system and can be used to advise other pilots of the conditions.
Radio Service - Sort of like Air Traffic Control with the difference that ATC issues instructions and clearances to the pilot, whereas a Radio Service is advisory in nature. A pilot will report his/her intentions, and the Radio Service will then relay that information to other pilots as well as any other information that might be useful to the pilots.
STOL - Short Takeoff and Landing. Generally in reference to aircraft specifically designed for operating out of short runways, or kits that can be installed on aircraft to improve the landing and take-off distances.
TAF - Terminal Aerodrome Forecast. Similiar in format to a METAR giving the same information, except that a TAF gives forecasted weather (up to 6 hrs in advance), not observed weather.
AWOS - Automated Weather Observing System. This is a radio broadcast that repeats every couple minutes with the current weather report for that particular airport. The pilot usually tunes it in to listen to prior to takeoff and while he's approaching the airport to land. The report includes all the weather items included in a METAR (see below)
GFA - Graphic Forecast Area. This is a regional weather chart that depicts current and forecast weather (up to 12 hrs ahead) in a picture format. It displays weather systems moving through the area and describes the resulting weather.
METAR - I have no idea what the letters stand for, I think its a french derivative. This is the hourly weather observations that are given at certain airports equipped with weather stations. It reports winds, visibility, type and intensity of precipitation, cloud layers, temperature, dewpoint, and altimeter setting (atmopsheric pressure).
PAPI/APAPI - Precision Approach Path Indicator/Abbreviated PAPI. These are at set of 4 lights (or two lights in the case of APAPI) that some runways have set up beside a runway which can indicate to an aircraft on approach whether he is on the correct glideslope or not. If 2 of the 4 lights are white and 2 are red, the approach path is on the correct angle, if they're are more red than white - too low. More white than red - too high.
PIC - Pilot in Command. Self Explanatory.
PIREP - Pilot Report. This just what it sounds like, but is usually in regards to weather conditions. Pilots can report weather conditions (to flight service) they experience during their flight. This PIREP is then logged in the system and can be used to advise other pilots of the conditions.
Radio Service - Sort of like Air Traffic Control with the difference that ATC issues instructions and clearances to the pilot, whereas a Radio Service is advisory in nature. A pilot will report his/her intentions, and the Radio Service will then relay that information to other pilots as well as any other information that might be useful to the pilots.
STOL - Short Takeoff and Landing. Generally in reference to aircraft specifically designed for operating out of short runways, or kits that can be installed on aircraft to improve the landing and take-off distances.
TAF - Terminal Aerodrome Forecast. Similiar in format to a METAR giving the same information, except that a TAF gives forecasted weather (up to 6 hrs in advance), not observed weather.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Random Ramblings
So no exciting stories to tell in this post, sorry folks, but I do feel the need to write something. So far October has been one of my busiest months yet for flying, which means lots of money for me, as I partly get paid by the mile. I figure by the 28th I'll have blown by July's record number of trips. Not that its actually busier for the company now than it was in July, but our summer temp pilot went home at the end of September, so now I don't have to share.
I got the latest Aviation Safety Letter, which I always enjoy reading. I got the publication on the way to the airport for my first flight of the morning, so I tucked it into my flight bag for a little in-flight reading if I got a chance. I wonder what would happen if I got in an accident while reading the newsletter... I can imagine the accident report: Cherokee 6 loss of control and subsequent flight into terrain. Aircraft destroyed and pilot, sole occupant, received serious injuries. Findings as to cause: Pilot's attention was diverted while attempting to remain a safe pilot by reading about safety issues in the Aviation Safety Newsletter, which contributed to loss of control of aircraft. Wouldn't that be ironic, if not unlikely.
This quarter's issue was actually quite interesting, there were some good stories, as well as a number of interesting accident synopses. There was the usual student in a Cessna 150 accident, there seems to be one in every report. This time it was a first-time solo student ending up off the runway and dinging the prop. Pretty standard stuff. Some other ones make you shake your head and ask "what was he thinking?", like a Cessna 310 pilot who was demonstrating a single engine approach and landing, who actually shut the engine down. During the approach, he found out too late that the remaining engine operating at full power wasn't enough to reach the airfield, and he crashed in a field 1 mile short of the runway. What was he thinking? Who actually shuts an engine down like that so close to the ground just for the heck of it? The report doesn't seem to indicate that the pilot was an instructor and the passenger a student... so was he just showing off? Real smooth...
There was also a private Beech Bonanza that had a gear up landing due to being distracted by chatting away on the radio all the way down to touchdown. Thats why the "sterile cockpit" rule was invented (aka don't talk while you're landing/taking off). I can understand how sometimes there can be distractions and it would be easy to forget to extend the landing gear, but at the same time I can't understand how it still happens, especially to people who own the airplane they fly, and know they have to pay for stuff they break. Personally for me when I fly the Twin Comanche, I consciously maintain a healthy state of paranoia during my approach, and verify the landing gear is down probably 4 or 5 times before I cross the runway threshold.
Then there's the accidents that are just plain bad luck, or just cases where the pilot accepted the calculated risk and the cards weren't in his favour, like the private Maule who tried landing on a grass strip. He did a low level pass to inspect the field first, and it looked good, but then he flipped over after touchdown. Bummer. Sorry about your luck.
I also feel sorry for the helicopter pilot whose rotor wash blew a sign loose off of a building and sucked it into the tail rotor. He managed to land safely however.
There was also a accident that seemed to ring familiar with an experience I had back when I flew my old C-150. A Piper Super Cub on skiis tried to take off in too deep of snow, and couldn't get enough speed, so he aborted the takeoff, and kicked the passenger out to try again. Not only did he not get off the ground the second time, but he also crashed into a crevasse and overturned. My experience wasn't nearly as extreme, but I can relate to how the pilot must have felt. I landed at a grass strip (on wheels) just north of London to pick up my cousin and take him for a flight. The runway was plenty long enough, 3000 ft, but after I landed I realized that the grass was very thick, probably 6 inches high, it hadn't been mowed in a couple weeks I guess. You get that feeling like, "oh crap hopefully I can get off the ground". We decided to give the takeoff a try with the both of us, but I had set a spot on the runway that was my go/no-go spot, if I wasn't off the ground by then I'd abort. It ended up being no problem at all, it took a longer take-off than normal, but we still got off the ground before my no-go spot, so it all worked out in the end. Unfortunately the ski pilot in the accident report wasn't so lucky. Such is aviation I guess.
In other news, its cold enough now that we're back to putting the engine blanket and wing covers onto the airplane every night so we don't have to scrape frost off in the morning. Its not really a big deal, but for some reason I just hate doing it. When I come in from my last flight of the day I just don't feel like tucking the airplane into bed, I just want to go home and eat dinner. I know, I'm a whiner. At least its a low wing airplane and they're easy to put on.
I got the latest Aviation Safety Letter, which I always enjoy reading. I got the publication on the way to the airport for my first flight of the morning, so I tucked it into my flight bag for a little in-flight reading if I got a chance. I wonder what would happen if I got in an accident while reading the newsletter... I can imagine the accident report: Cherokee 6 loss of control and subsequent flight into terrain. Aircraft destroyed and pilot, sole occupant, received serious injuries. Findings as to cause: Pilot's attention was diverted while attempting to remain a safe pilot by reading about safety issues in the Aviation Safety Newsletter, which contributed to loss of control of aircraft. Wouldn't that be ironic, if not unlikely.
This quarter's issue was actually quite interesting, there were some good stories, as well as a number of interesting accident synopses. There was the usual student in a Cessna 150 accident, there seems to be one in every report. This time it was a first-time solo student ending up off the runway and dinging the prop. Pretty standard stuff. Some other ones make you shake your head and ask "what was he thinking?", like a Cessna 310 pilot who was demonstrating a single engine approach and landing, who actually shut the engine down. During the approach, he found out too late that the remaining engine operating at full power wasn't enough to reach the airfield, and he crashed in a field 1 mile short of the runway. What was he thinking? Who actually shuts an engine down like that so close to the ground just for the heck of it? The report doesn't seem to indicate that the pilot was an instructor and the passenger a student... so was he just showing off? Real smooth...
There was also a private Beech Bonanza that had a gear up landing due to being distracted by chatting away on the radio all the way down to touchdown. Thats why the "sterile cockpit" rule was invented (aka don't talk while you're landing/taking off). I can understand how sometimes there can be distractions and it would be easy to forget to extend the landing gear, but at the same time I can't understand how it still happens, especially to people who own the airplane they fly, and know they have to pay for stuff they break. Personally for me when I fly the Twin Comanche, I consciously maintain a healthy state of paranoia during my approach, and verify the landing gear is down probably 4 or 5 times before I cross the runway threshold.
Then there's the accidents that are just plain bad luck, or just cases where the pilot accepted the calculated risk and the cards weren't in his favour, like the private Maule who tried landing on a grass strip. He did a low level pass to inspect the field first, and it looked good, but then he flipped over after touchdown. Bummer. Sorry about your luck.
I also feel sorry for the helicopter pilot whose rotor wash blew a sign loose off of a building and sucked it into the tail rotor. He managed to land safely however.
There was also a accident that seemed to ring familiar with an experience I had back when I flew my old C-150. A Piper Super Cub on skiis tried to take off in too deep of snow, and couldn't get enough speed, so he aborted the takeoff, and kicked the passenger out to try again. Not only did he not get off the ground the second time, but he also crashed into a crevasse and overturned. My experience wasn't nearly as extreme, but I can relate to how the pilot must have felt. I landed at a grass strip (on wheels) just north of London to pick up my cousin and take him for a flight. The runway was plenty long enough, 3000 ft, but after I landed I realized that the grass was very thick, probably 6 inches high, it hadn't been mowed in a couple weeks I guess. You get that feeling like, "oh crap hopefully I can get off the ground". We decided to give the takeoff a try with the both of us, but I had set a spot on the runway that was my go/no-go spot, if I wasn't off the ground by then I'd abort. It ended up being no problem at all, it took a longer take-off than normal, but we still got off the ground before my no-go spot, so it all worked out in the end. Unfortunately the ski pilot in the accident report wasn't so lucky. Such is aviation I guess.
In other news, its cold enough now that we're back to putting the engine blanket and wing covers onto the airplane every night so we don't have to scrape frost off in the morning. Its not really a big deal, but for some reason I just hate doing it. When I come in from my last flight of the day I just don't feel like tucking the airplane into bed, I just want to go home and eat dinner. I know, I'm a whiner. At least its a low wing airplane and they're easy to put on.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thanksgiving Shakedown
Fall air is definitely here. I can smell that crispness in the air, and I'm starting to have to bundle up as well. I always bring more sweaters/coats then I have to because you never know how cold it might be 150 miles north, and it wouldn't hurt to have an extra layer of clothes handy if I end up on an unplanned night of camping in the middle of nowhere.
A few days ago I took the Twin Comanche up for some circuits. Its been a few weeks now since the engines have been fired up, and I had a bit of a craving for some twin flying. I just went up for 3 circuits, about a half hour flight which satisfied my fix and gave the engines a good workout. At one point there was a Dash-8 inbound and the radio service advised them that there was a "Cherokee 6" in the circuit. I almost felt like correcting them, but it was my last circuit, and in the big picture my airplane type didn't matter a whole lot in that situation. In the past they've also advised other traffic of a "Twin Comanche" when I've been flying the Cherokee. Its obvious they've made the connection that its the same pilot that flies the two different airplanes, and they key on the sound of my voice I suppose.
Today is the Thanksgiving Monday, and I had a couple flights today, so I didn't get a turkey dinner. Not that I would have if I didn't fly. To be honest its getting a little tiresome living up here being away from friends and family, and not having much to do other than rotate between watching TV, reading, and playing on the computer in my days off. I'm still really enjoying the flying, and I'm going to miss it over the winter, but despite that I'm counting the days on when I'll be home for the winter. I will get my fix of flying over the winter though in the form of IFR training. This winter I REALLY have to finish up my Instrument Rating. If I don't, my INRAT exam will expire and I'll be back to square one with that. I also want to have a shot at a twin-ifr job as well. I have almost 1200 hrs total time now, most of that being PIC time, with almost 200 of that being multi-PIC time as well, so I think I've got a pretty good shot at finding something half decent - hopefully. I'm sure how much good another year of single-engine VFR flying will do career-wise for me. I guess we'll see how it all plays out. Hopefully the industry gets a bit more momentum that it got this last spring.
My first flight today was a couple passengers to the usual destination up the coast. The weather was pretty good with only a broken-scattered layer at around 3500 ft, so enroute it was smooth sailing. When we were loading the airplane my boss mentioned with a bit of a wink in his eye that they didn't seem to have much stuff. Usually passengers load the airplane up stuffed to gross weight to get the most out of what they're paying for the charter. If they don't stuff the airplane, its sometimes a hint that the cargo they do have onboard MIGHT just be helping to pay for the trip in the form of contraband liquor. A couple weeks ago I took one passenger up the coast to the community across the river from the one I was going to today, and this one passenger only took with him 4 boxes and 1 50 lb bag of potatoes. Unfortunately for him, his daughter who was supposed to meet him at the airport didn't show up, so he took off to go hunt her down, and in the meantime, the local police showed up and searched the airplane. Turned out ALL of his boxes were nothing bud bottles of hard liquor. By the time they were finished all he had left that wasn't confiscated was his sack of potatoes. It was hilarious. In that case it was ridiculously obvious that he was trying to smuggle liquor. No one legitimately chartering an airplane only brings 5 small pieces of luggage and themselves with them, it just doesn't make financial sense. One of the officers there mentioned that catching that load before it got distributed meant avoiding lots of headaches. He said that 70% of the violence and trouble they have to deal with up there is a direct result of alchohol.
In the case today, there were two people going up, and they didn't have a ton of stuff, but they did have more than a few pieces, so I didn't think anything of it. Apparently my boss picked up on it though, since he made that comment. When we pulled into the ramp after landing sure enough there was a whole convey of vehicles waiting for us. There was a local police truck, an OPP SUV, and my passengers ride waiting for them. This was only the third time since I've been up here that the police in this town have shown up to search a suspected bootlegger flight, usually the local police don't seem to be that hardcore about searches, not in this community at least. The OPP are pretty hardcore though, you know that if they show up something is going down.
So we unloaded the airplane while all the vehicles surrounded the airplane and they all went to work at opening up the bins and boxes and rustling through the stuff. They also searched the passengers themselves, and I looked over laughed and shook my head when I saw one of the passengers with their foot up on the horizontal stab with her pantlegs pulled up and a bottle of vodka taped to her shins. Where am I. Actually they found quite a bit. By the end of it I counted around 14 bottles of vodka, and another 25 or so bottles of some sort of low-alchohol content cooler-type beverage. Quite the load. I figured the street value of all of that would probably be around $2000. So much for the profits they were hoping for, haha. Usually the cops just confiscate the alchohol and drive away, but this time in addition to the liquor, they also apparently found baggies of weed. Now they were in trouble. Long story short in addition to having the contraband confiscated, they also both got arrested. Well, sucks to be them, lol. Good thing this time we got paid for the flight before we took off. Once all the commotion had finished and the vehicles and people were safely away from the airplane, I started up and I was off heading back home for my next flight.
A few days ago I took the Twin Comanche up for some circuits. Its been a few weeks now since the engines have been fired up, and I had a bit of a craving for some twin flying. I just went up for 3 circuits, about a half hour flight which satisfied my fix and gave the engines a good workout. At one point there was a Dash-8 inbound and the radio service advised them that there was a "Cherokee 6" in the circuit. I almost felt like correcting them, but it was my last circuit, and in the big picture my airplane type didn't matter a whole lot in that situation. In the past they've also advised other traffic of a "Twin Comanche" when I've been flying the Cherokee. Its obvious they've made the connection that its the same pilot that flies the two different airplanes, and they key on the sound of my voice I suppose.
Today is the Thanksgiving Monday, and I had a couple flights today, so I didn't get a turkey dinner. Not that I would have if I didn't fly. To be honest its getting a little tiresome living up here being away from friends and family, and not having much to do other than rotate between watching TV, reading, and playing on the computer in my days off. I'm still really enjoying the flying, and I'm going to miss it over the winter, but despite that I'm counting the days on when I'll be home for the winter. I will get my fix of flying over the winter though in the form of IFR training. This winter I REALLY have to finish up my Instrument Rating. If I don't, my INRAT exam will expire and I'll be back to square one with that. I also want to have a shot at a twin-ifr job as well. I have almost 1200 hrs total time now, most of that being PIC time, with almost 200 of that being multi-PIC time as well, so I think I've got a pretty good shot at finding something half decent - hopefully. I'm sure how much good another year of single-engine VFR flying will do career-wise for me. I guess we'll see how it all plays out. Hopefully the industry gets a bit more momentum that it got this last spring.
My first flight today was a couple passengers to the usual destination up the coast. The weather was pretty good with only a broken-scattered layer at around 3500 ft, so enroute it was smooth sailing. When we were loading the airplane my boss mentioned with a bit of a wink in his eye that they didn't seem to have much stuff. Usually passengers load the airplane up stuffed to gross weight to get the most out of what they're paying for the charter. If they don't stuff the airplane, its sometimes a hint that the cargo they do have onboard MIGHT just be helping to pay for the trip in the form of contraband liquor. A couple weeks ago I took one passenger up the coast to the community across the river from the one I was going to today, and this one passenger only took with him 4 boxes and 1 50 lb bag of potatoes. Unfortunately for him, his daughter who was supposed to meet him at the airport didn't show up, so he took off to go hunt her down, and in the meantime, the local police showed up and searched the airplane. Turned out ALL of his boxes were nothing bud bottles of hard liquor. By the time they were finished all he had left that wasn't confiscated was his sack of potatoes. It was hilarious. In that case it was ridiculously obvious that he was trying to smuggle liquor. No one legitimately chartering an airplane only brings 5 small pieces of luggage and themselves with them, it just doesn't make financial sense. One of the officers there mentioned that catching that load before it got distributed meant avoiding lots of headaches. He said that 70% of the violence and trouble they have to deal with up there is a direct result of alchohol.
In the case today, there were two people going up, and they didn't have a ton of stuff, but they did have more than a few pieces, so I didn't think anything of it. Apparently my boss picked up on it though, since he made that comment. When we pulled into the ramp after landing sure enough there was a whole convey of vehicles waiting for us. There was a local police truck, an OPP SUV, and my passengers ride waiting for them. This was only the third time since I've been up here that the police in this town have shown up to search a suspected bootlegger flight, usually the local police don't seem to be that hardcore about searches, not in this community at least. The OPP are pretty hardcore though, you know that if they show up something is going down.
So we unloaded the airplane while all the vehicles surrounded the airplane and they all went to work at opening up the bins and boxes and rustling through the stuff. They also searched the passengers themselves, and I looked over laughed and shook my head when I saw one of the passengers with their foot up on the horizontal stab with her pantlegs pulled up and a bottle of vodka taped to her shins. Where am I. Actually they found quite a bit. By the end of it I counted around 14 bottles of vodka, and another 25 or so bottles of some sort of low-alchohol content cooler-type beverage. Quite the load. I figured the street value of all of that would probably be around $2000. So much for the profits they were hoping for, haha. Usually the cops just confiscate the alchohol and drive away, but this time in addition to the liquor, they also apparently found baggies of weed. Now they were in trouble. Long story short in addition to having the contraband confiscated, they also both got arrested. Well, sucks to be them, lol. Good thing this time we got paid for the flight before we took off. Once all the commotion had finished and the vehicles and people were safely away from the airplane, I started up and I was off heading back home for my next flight.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Fall Weather Flying
We've had really crappy weather lately. Monday I flew most of the day but we called it quits by late afternoon because the winds were getting too strong. Tues and Wed I sat around and did nothing because we had two full days of high winds and rain. Thursday morning was also not much good for flying due to poor vis and low cloud, so I only got 3 flights in the afternoon done, and most of those were spent bombing along through 3 miles vis at 400 ft.
Today, which is Friday, seemed like it might be pretty good, so we decided to get at it a little earlier to get as many fights as we could in. On the weekend they're also closing the airport where I do 80% of my flying into for runway resurfacing, so there's also the push from that to get as much as we can in today.
So I hauled myself out of bed this morning and did my morning routine: Sit around a for a couple minutes and wait for my brain to start functioning, check my email, check the weather, take a shower, have breakfast. There weren't any Low pressure systems or fronts moving in at all on the map, even though there might be a little bit of low vis, and the METAR was reporting just over 1000 ft overcast and 8 sm visibility. Not a great day for a joyride but enough to get 'er done.
Our first flight was a pax flight, so we got out to the airport and loaded the airplane and I got the preflight done. There was another company van coming after us with my load of passengers, but by the time I was ready they weren't here yet, so I hopped into the Cherokee to get to start it up and get it warmed up. Just as I was shutting down my pax load showed up so it ended up being pretty good timing. They had more luggage with them than what we had pre-loaded, so we had to take some stuff out and rearrange it so it was loaded properly.
As we taxied out for takeoff the AWOS was now reporting 8 sm vis and 600 ft overcast clouds. Worse then when I had checked it when I got up. Conditions were pretty much the same all the way up the coast. I dropped my passengers off, and headed back south with an empty airplane. As soon as I got within range to check the AWOS broadcast I tuned it in to see how the weather was doing. Sure enough it it had dropped even further down, now calling 500 ft overcast and 2 1/2 sm miles visibility. I'd have to get special VFR to get in to land, which is kind of like an IFR clearance to fly in lower weather conditions in the sense that in the type of control zone I was flying into, only one IFR/Special VFR aircraft would be allowed in the zone at one time.
I called up the radio service, advised my intentions and requested my Special VFR clearance. There was going to be a delay, since there was an IFR aircraft landing, and then another one waiting to take off. I had been listenning in on the frequency for a couple minutes beforehand, and was aware of the traffic, so I was expecting a delay, and let them know I'd orbit out of the way to the west of the field for the time being (orbit: basically a "hold" for VFR aircraft, just flying circles around a particular landmark).
"Roger, give me a call when you're 5 miles out."
Before I even made it to 5 miles out the aircraft that was waiting to depart called to cancel their flight and they needed to taxi back to the gate. Not sure why, could have been mechanical problems, or some sort of passenger issue, or maybe one of the pilots decided that had to go to the bathroom, and no they couldn't hold it. Anyways with the landing aircraft down and clear that left me free and clear. So before I even had to start my orbits, I got my clearance to enter the zone and land via Special VFR. Generally once a clearance is issued, any subsequent aircraft aircraft wishing also to obtain a clearance to take-off/enter the zone has to wait their turn... unless they're a medevac flight - they get priority over everybody. So sure enough, 4 miles out and a King Air 100 medevac called for their IFR departure clearance.
So my clearance got cancelled, and I had to orbit afterall. Okie dokie. This was actually a first for me, I've gone into a few different airports using Special VFR lots of times, but I've never yet had to wait. There's no real landmarks up here to orbit around, so I just flew circles between 4 and 5 miles NW of the field via my GPS, and I'll tell you, after 6 or 7 minutes of circling in poor visibility and close to the ground, I was thoroughly disoriented! I had lost all sense of which direction I had been heading, which direction I came from, and I no longer had that mental awareness of where I was relative to the field. It took a deliberate gaze at my GPS screen to "re-aquire" my mental position fix.
Soon enough the radio service was back calling me on the radio to re-issue me my Special VFR clearance. I had chose the NW of the field to orbit because the usual routes out of the the airport are to the North-North-East to head up the coast, or South to head to the usual southerly stop. The runway I intended to land on was also runway 06, which mean I needed to approach the airport from the west to land. The approach to that runway runs right alongside the river, which our little town runs along. In order to set up for my final approach for runway 06 I'd have to overfly the town. Now as you remember the ceilings were quite low. When I made my initial check of the AWOS, it was calling 500 ft, but now 15-20 minutes later after flying closer to the airport and then orbiting for 5-10 minutes it had dropped even lower, down to 300 ft overcast. In reality, at least about 3 miles to the SW of the field, the weather was more like 250 ft overcast and probably 1 1/2 miles visibility.
In that town area there's both an NDB radio tower, and a cellphone tower. I made sure I flew my base leg much further to SW to avoid overflying the town, both so I didn't smack into a radio tower, and because we're not really allowed to buzz town areas at heights lower then 1000 ft, except for the purpose of taking off and landing. I guess technically I was landing, so it would be ok. But 250 ft just seemed a little to low to me. Mainly I didn't want to cause people the inconvenience of no cellphone service. That would be tragic. So would fishing a dead pilot and busted airplane down from a cellphone tower.
Anyways I made sure not to overfly the town, and even though 4 miles away I couldn't see the airport yet, I knew I could just follow the riverbank right in to the runway threshold. So that's what I did. I got a nice tour of the town waterfront as I safely flew by over the water. I also saw my house, and my bosses house on the way by, as they are situated right on the riverbank. I wondered if they saw me as I buzzed by at 200 ft. Finally a little more than a mile out I could make out the runway APAPI lights (a set of two lights that turn red or white and give you and indication of glideslope). They were both red, meaning I was too low. Huh, no kidding. At what I figure to be just about a mile final the runway started to come into view. The winds were light and I managed to put it down just as soft as ever, if I do say so myself.
I taxied in, called the radio service advising "Down and clear", and shut down. The Ops Manager, my trusty dispatcher/boss rolled up with the fuel truck. "How's the weather?"
"Uhh, ya I think we're done for a bit."
Today, which is Friday, seemed like it might be pretty good, so we decided to get at it a little earlier to get as many fights as we could in. On the weekend they're also closing the airport where I do 80% of my flying into for runway resurfacing, so there's also the push from that to get as much as we can in today.
So I hauled myself out of bed this morning and did my morning routine: Sit around a for a couple minutes and wait for my brain to start functioning, check my email, check the weather, take a shower, have breakfast. There weren't any Low pressure systems or fronts moving in at all on the map, even though there might be a little bit of low vis, and the METAR was reporting just over 1000 ft overcast and 8 sm visibility. Not a great day for a joyride but enough to get 'er done.
Our first flight was a pax flight, so we got out to the airport and loaded the airplane and I got the preflight done. There was another company van coming after us with my load of passengers, but by the time I was ready they weren't here yet, so I hopped into the Cherokee to get to start it up and get it warmed up. Just as I was shutting down my pax load showed up so it ended up being pretty good timing. They had more luggage with them than what we had pre-loaded, so we had to take some stuff out and rearrange it so it was loaded properly.
As we taxied out for takeoff the AWOS was now reporting 8 sm vis and 600 ft overcast clouds. Worse then when I had checked it when I got up. Conditions were pretty much the same all the way up the coast. I dropped my passengers off, and headed back south with an empty airplane. As soon as I got within range to check the AWOS broadcast I tuned it in to see how the weather was doing. Sure enough it it had dropped even further down, now calling 500 ft overcast and 2 1/2 sm miles visibility. I'd have to get special VFR to get in to land, which is kind of like an IFR clearance to fly in lower weather conditions in the sense that in the type of control zone I was flying into, only one IFR/Special VFR aircraft would be allowed in the zone at one time.
I called up the radio service, advised my intentions and requested my Special VFR clearance. There was going to be a delay, since there was an IFR aircraft landing, and then another one waiting to take off. I had been listenning in on the frequency for a couple minutes beforehand, and was aware of the traffic, so I was expecting a delay, and let them know I'd orbit out of the way to the west of the field for the time being (orbit: basically a "hold" for VFR aircraft, just flying circles around a particular landmark).
"Roger, give me a call when you're 5 miles out."
Before I even made it to 5 miles out the aircraft that was waiting to depart called to cancel their flight and they needed to taxi back to the gate. Not sure why, could have been mechanical problems, or some sort of passenger issue, or maybe one of the pilots decided that had to go to the bathroom, and no they couldn't hold it. Anyways with the landing aircraft down and clear that left me free and clear. So before I even had to start my orbits, I got my clearance to enter the zone and land via Special VFR. Generally once a clearance is issued, any subsequent aircraft aircraft wishing also to obtain a clearance to take-off/enter the zone has to wait their turn... unless they're a medevac flight - they get priority over everybody. So sure enough, 4 miles out and a King Air 100 medevac called for their IFR departure clearance.
So my clearance got cancelled, and I had to orbit afterall. Okie dokie. This was actually a first for me, I've gone into a few different airports using Special VFR lots of times, but I've never yet had to wait. There's no real landmarks up here to orbit around, so I just flew circles between 4 and 5 miles NW of the field via my GPS, and I'll tell you, after 6 or 7 minutes of circling in poor visibility and close to the ground, I was thoroughly disoriented! I had lost all sense of which direction I had been heading, which direction I came from, and I no longer had that mental awareness of where I was relative to the field. It took a deliberate gaze at my GPS screen to "re-aquire" my mental position fix.
Soon enough the radio service was back calling me on the radio to re-issue me my Special VFR clearance. I had chose the NW of the field to orbit because the usual routes out of the the airport are to the North-North-East to head up the coast, or South to head to the usual southerly stop. The runway I intended to land on was also runway 06, which mean I needed to approach the airport from the west to land. The approach to that runway runs right alongside the river, which our little town runs along. In order to set up for my final approach for runway 06 I'd have to overfly the town. Now as you remember the ceilings were quite low. When I made my initial check of the AWOS, it was calling 500 ft, but now 15-20 minutes later after flying closer to the airport and then orbiting for 5-10 minutes it had dropped even lower, down to 300 ft overcast. In reality, at least about 3 miles to the SW of the field, the weather was more like 250 ft overcast and probably 1 1/2 miles visibility.
In that town area there's both an NDB radio tower, and a cellphone tower. I made sure I flew my base leg much further to SW to avoid overflying the town, both so I didn't smack into a radio tower, and because we're not really allowed to buzz town areas at heights lower then 1000 ft, except for the purpose of taking off and landing. I guess technically I was landing, so it would be ok. But 250 ft just seemed a little to low to me. Mainly I didn't want to cause people the inconvenience of no cellphone service. That would be tragic. So would fishing a dead pilot and busted airplane down from a cellphone tower.
Anyways I made sure not to overfly the town, and even though 4 miles away I couldn't see the airport yet, I knew I could just follow the riverbank right in to the runway threshold. So that's what I did. I got a nice tour of the town waterfront as I safely flew by over the water. I also saw my house, and my bosses house on the way by, as they are situated right on the riverbank. I wondered if they saw me as I buzzed by at 200 ft. Finally a little more than a mile out I could make out the runway APAPI lights (a set of two lights that turn red or white and give you and indication of glideslope). They were both red, meaning I was too low. Huh, no kidding. At what I figure to be just about a mile final the runway started to come into view. The winds were light and I managed to put it down just as soft as ever, if I do say so myself.
I taxied in, called the radio service advising "Down and clear", and shut down. The Ops Manager, my trusty dispatcher/boss rolled up with the fuel truck. "How's the weather?"
"Uhh, ya I think we're done for a bit."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
