More Instrument Time

N172DR - C172R - 2.1 hours

As somewhat of a last minute thing, a coworker of mine asked if I wanted to go flying so he could get his night currency back.  I almost declined, having just gone last weekend, but since Eric is a CFI and I need to continue chipping away at the instrument requirements, I figured it was a good opportunity.

Since I didn't get my Grant County (W99) flight in last weekend, I figured I would fly the approach there, stop through Winchester (OKV), and then head back to Leesburg (JYO).  That would give him three takeoffs and landings, and it would get me a decent amount of simulated instrument time.

Departing to the west, I put the blinders on and picked up the Linden (LDN) VOR, which is the initial approach fix for the LDA/DME-B approach to W99.  Since LDN is pretty far away from W99, it gave Eric plenty of time to ask general flying questions before we concentrated on the actual approach.  Unfortunately, in order to keep the localizer in the NAV1 spot, I had to put LDN in the NAV2 spot which was unlit.  You can see the oscillations in the track as I wasn't as on top of it as I should've been (first going southwest towards LDN, and then I turned too early to the west, away from LDN).  In any case, I made it onto the localizer in the end, which put me right on top of the field.

As you can see on the chart, the airport is surrounded by terrain, so much so that a straight-in approach cannot be made with the necessary safety margins required by the FAA.  For this reason, the LOC is offset 25 degrees from the actual runway heading.  Moreover, this is also why it is a localizer-type directional aid (LDA) approach instead of being a localizer (LOC) approach.

For those who aren't pilots, localizers are normally placed at the far end of a runway and provide lateral guidance to it.  In this case, the localizer has been placed to the left of the runway, on the near side, because of terrain.  Being on the near side means that it is more sensitive, and therefore slightly more difficult to track, when compared to a normal LOC approach at similar distances from the field.  Additionally, because of the offset and the terrain, the minimum altitude you can descend to on the approach is 1540 feet above the elevation of the airport.  Because you're so high, so close in, it is designed as a circling approach, where you wouldn't normally immediately line up with the runway to land (note that the chart only lists "circling" at the bottom, with no "S" - or "straight-in" - minimums); rather, you would spot the airport closer in, circle around the airport to lose altitude, and then to land.  You can see this in the CloudAhoy track below (the knot at the far left of the blue line).  While the concepts of the various approaches are similar, approaches like this offer somewhat of a challenge, when compared to those offering straight-in procedures (which is what you experience on 99% of commercial flights if the weather is poor).

I ended up overflying the field, and passing the controls to Eric so that he could make his landing.  After a quick full stop landing with a taxi back, we departed to the north to avoid terrain.  If you look back at the approach chart, you'll see that there is a valley north of the field to follow until you clear the mountains.  Once above the terrain, I took the controls again with the blinders on to log more instrument time towards OKV.  After Eric had OKV in sight, I passed the controls back to him for a lap around the pattern and a full stop landing.  Since the weather was nicer, a few others were taking advantage of it for night currency as well, so I called traffic with the blinders off while we were in the pattern.

One of the pilots who landed before us decided to stop right next to the taxiway for some reason, but we managed to get by.  After the departure, I put the blinders back on and took us back to JYO.  Once again, Eric called the field in sight, I passed him the controls for the landing, and that was that.  By the way, if anyone wants to see the perfect example of a full stall landing, see this guy.

From all of the questions throughout the flight, it seems I need to dig back through the books to brush up on some of the items I've forgotten over the years.  It was a great flight, though.  He has his night currency back, and I have 1.6 more hours of the instrument requirement (not to mention 1.6 more instrument dual).

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.1 - 84.1 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 1.6 - 13.7 (of 40)

Chipping Away at the Instrument Requirement

N96178 - C172P - 2.3 hours

Initially, there was some talk that I would be flying someone around this weekend, but I never heard back about it.  By the time Saturday came and I saw how nice it was outside, the thought that I should have been flying resurfaced.  Not being able to suppress the thought, I called Phil to see if he would want to be a safety pilot for a few hours.

My initial thought was a quick trip out to Grant County (W99), because it has an interesting approach, and would be an easy flight out and back.  Phil brought up the idea of State College (UNV) again, from the times we've debated doing it in the past, adding that it would be a good spot for dinner.  Unfortunately, the dinner idea didn't work out as well as we had expected, as the restaurant we wanted to go to would have been closed by the time we got there.  Adding to that issue was that the wind at airports to the north and east weren't exactly the best.  While we both noted that I had previously put a plane down on a tiny runway with a gusty crosswind (note that the link refers to plans to go to UNV, as well), I really didn't want to deal with it.  We also looked at a few other airports, but as you've heard several times before, I knew there would be a car and a restaurant in Charlottesville (CHO), and the airport had an instrument approach along with favorable wind.

Phil and I preflighted and set up the equipment while waiting for fuel and oil.  For some reason, it seems that the new FBO, ProJet Aviation, is a little slow with fuel requests.  They were also the reason for our late departure on my last flight down to Raleigh (RDU).  Given that they're new, I'll give them time to adjust, but it's still somewhat irksome when seemingly nothing else is going on.

[Video got lost when Contour closed down for a while.]
Taxiing down to the runway, the bald spot the tire that we noted on the preflight was causing quite a rumble (you can see the camera shake in the takeoff video above). It wasn't bad enough to have to take the plane back, but it was definitely obvious.  After departing, we headed west to get out of the SFRA, and then south towards CHO.  In that process, I was able to throw the blinders on and log some time.  Getting closer to CHO, I called Potomac Approach for flight following and a practice ILS approach to Runway 3.  After being vectored around a bit for spacing from other traffic, I was turned inbound for the approach.

For some reason, I managed to park in front of the wrong hangar, despite having flown there too many times to make that mistake.  After moving the plane, we found the crew car gone (the people using it had kept it over the two hour limit), and the attendant unable to let us borrow the van "just in case he needed it."  The curiosity, however, was that he was also unable to drop us off because he needed to remain at the airport.  So, what exactly would you need to keep the van for when you're unable to leave the airport?  Even more of a curiosity was the fact that he dropped us off at the terminal to get a cab, which is arguably just about the same amount of time as driving us to Timberwood Grill.

The cabbie we got from the terminal partially ignored us and was on his phone most of the time during the ride, to the point where I had to interrupt him a few times to point him in the right direction.  A 1.5 mile journey for his minimum fee of $25.  Luckily the food was good and the cab ride back was much better.  It was cheaper and the cabbie was hilarious.

Heading back, there was a little bit of an issue with the comms that we somehow sorted out by the hold short point for Runway 3.  Shortly after departing the tower closed (as a normal, nightly thing - not because of the impending tower closures) and I picked up flight following back to Leesburg (JYO).  After a handoff to another controller, I isolated my comms (cutting Phil off from hearing me and ATC) and asked if I could get a touch and go at Dulles (IAD).  The controller initially declined the request, saying "they don't do that anymore," but later came back with "expect an operation at Dulles - proceed direct to Dulles."  I was given Runway 1L, which for anyone else flying into IAD is a punishment (because of the absurdly long taxi to the terminal), but was welcomed by myself as it meant I wasn't getting in anyone's way.  Checking in with the tower controller, I was met with "say request," which caught me by surprise, as it should have already been communicated that I would be doing a touch and go.  I responded that I would be doing a touch and go on Runway 1L, which was met with a slightly perturbed "and then what?"  After letting her know I'd be going to JYO, we landed, took off, and headed off in that direction.

[Video got lost when Contour closed down for a while.]
Phil got the landing at JYO.  For not having landed a plane since we last flew together back in January, it wasn't too bad.  In the end, I got 1.6 hours of simulated instrument time towards the 40 that I need for the rating.  Looks like I need to cut down on the joyrides and force myself to work harder at it, but at the same time, all of the joyrides are contributing to the total hours that I'll need later for the commercial rating and beyond.

As long as the weather behaves, the next flight should be at the end of next month down to Roanoke.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 2.3 - 82.0 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 1.6 - 12.1 (of 40)

South: For Warmth and Hockey

N571DS - DA40 - 3.5 hours

This flight has been in the works for a while.  I posted something up on Facebook back in December about wanting to go on a flight, which my friend Melissa responded to with "when???"  For various reasons, we never got around to it for the next few months, until I asked one day if she was serious about going.  Once she found out that Raleigh (RDU) was a possibility, we started to plan a trip to see a Carolina Hurricanes game.

Just like most of my other flights, there were a couple different ideas of what would happen, but in the end we settled on April 6th.  Luckily, by the time she was looking into buying tickets, the extended forecasts were shaping up to give me an idea that the weather would be okay.  At about that time I was also nudged into giving myself an upgrade with a DA40.  Closer to the flight the forecast just kept getting better, and you could definitely tell we were both getting pretty excited about it.  In order to pass the time, I ended up creating an electronic weight and balance form, and studying the DA40 POH and G1000 reference guide.  The result of the latter, and not being used to flying low-wing aircraft, was a quick reference sheet I wrote up the night before the flight.  Note the several semi-threatening reminders to switch the tanks.

The day finally came and I showed up at the airport, typically early and ready to go.  I checked the weather, took a look at the wind at various altitudes, and otherwise killed time until the plane got back.  Melissa showed up with some time to spare, and I'm pretty sure I all but pounced on the person who was bringing the plane back.  Out at the plane, I got everything set and began preflighting.  While everything was in order, the oil was low and I wanted the tanks topped off, which took a lot longer than it normally does for some reason.  As I was waiting for that, I set up two of my cameras.  I brought all three, but I couldn't find a good spot for the third camera without it being right in one of our faces.

Despite the delay, we were off soon enough and on our way south for warmer weather and hockey.  The engine started right up and looked good in the pre-departure checks, so we were off in no time.  After departing, I turned west and then south as soon as I cleared the SFRA.  Staying under the Class B airspace kept us down in some light turbulence, but as soon as I was able to step up it started to lighten up.

After passing the Casanova VOR (CSN), I called Potomac to get flight following all the way down.  I pointed out the few landmarks that we passed, along with most of the airports we flew over.  Melissa got some time at the controls as well, though I think my assistance in keeping the controls where they should be put a damper on the experience (the plane was pulling to the left because I was heavier, and was burning fuel off of the right wing).  Her not being able to see over the glareshield made the whole event pretty difficult, though I was able to point out what the artificial horizon is meant for.

Closer to RDU, I was given a descent and a vector west of the field for a downwind to Runway 5R.  I'm not sure where the controller was from, but if you could imagine Boston combined with North Carolina that's what I would liken it to.  After swinging around the airport, I set it down on Runway 5R.  It wasn't one of my best landings, but I was told that it was better than some commercial landings.  Tower had me roll to A6, which is close to Landmark, and contact ground for instructions to get to the ramp.

[Video got lost when Contour closed down for a while.]

After being marshalled in and shutting down, we were immediately confronted with two questions:
1 - Who was going to win the game.
2 - Whether or not we thought there would be more NY Ranger Jerseys than Carolina jerseys.

Naturally, we both answered in favor of Carolina in both cases while I made sure all of the equipment was okay to sit for the next few hours.


I had called for a cab over the frequency when I was about 15 minutes out, so our ride to the stadium was sitting outside when we walked in.  I'm glad I thought to do that as our fuel and oil delay up at Leesburg (JYO) pushed us pretty close to game time.  When we finally got to the stadium they were in the middle of the National Anthem, so we were a little behind, but not by much.  The seats, though, were pretty awesome.  We were low enough that it felt like we were on the ice, but high enough to see over the players' heads.  The only unfortunate side to the whole deal is that Melissa's favorite player, Alexander Semin, was out for the night, and the team was having an off night in general.  They ended up losing 4 to 1.

After catching a cab back to the airport we were met by the Landmark crew and a fuel receipt with "LET'S GO RANGERS" stapled to it on a sticky note.  Looks like I owe that guy a dollar.  Oh well.

The departure runway was still Runway 5R, so after a relatively long taxi back to the end of the runway, we set back off towards JYO.  Once the departure controller found out where we were headed, he asked us about whether or not the cherry blossoms were in bloom.  He had apparently just visited DC while visiting family and missed the peak bloom.  Just before passing us on to Washington Center, he instructed me to take a few pictures for him.  I think I'll have to surprise him by sending some pictures now.

I pointed out the various airports as we passed over them, to include Lake Anna (7W4) and the story of almost getting hit there last September, which she remembered as I mentioned it to her after that flight when we met up that night.  The route back had more of a tailwind, so our groundspeed was much better, putting us back in the DC area relatively quickly.  Potomac luckily gave me clearance into the Bravo to take more advantage of it.  The crazy thing was that the wind was still showing 30 knots at pattern altitude back at JYO.  It made the approach somewhat awkward, but not too bad in the end.  After landing, I brought the plane back to the spot, shut down, and started packing up.  Once everything was finally back in the flight bag, I had a little difficulty putting the plane back in its spot, but luckily had someone else there to help me out.

It was a long day of flying, and while the game itself was somewhat disappointing, the entire event was worth it.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 3.5 - 79.7 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 10.5 (of 40)

Make Yourself an "App" Without Learning Code

As somewhat of a side project, I've taught myself some programming for iOS.  I've learned a lot, but your average person isn't going to want to learn all of that just to develop for his or her own purposes.  As such, a lot of us are at an impasse:

-Develop your own app for your own uses; or

-Buy an app

Option one means you'll have to learn some code (mainly Objective C) and have a Mac computer of some sort for Xcode (their development tool).  If you want to sell it in the App Store, you'll also need to pay to be a developer, which is currently $99 as an individual.

Option two often means you're only getting generic values for the aircraft type, and not your specific aircraft. Even if they allow editing of the basic operating weight, several apps require you to pay for each additional aircraft type.  I'll spare you my rant on what I think of that type of practice, however.

Developing your own "app" - the term loosely used in this case - isn't as tough as it needs to be.  If you have a Google account, simple Excel skills, and an iPad, you have all you'll need.  Having a Google account, such as a Gmail account, means that you also have Google Drive and its related Google Docs feature.  This means  that you can create Excel-type spreadsheets that live in the cloud, and can be stored offline on your iPad, using the free Google Drive app.  While it isn't going to be as elegant as a fully-developed application, it's better than not doing your weight and balance because you hate math, don't have a calculator, or don't want to go digging through the POH for the numbers.

Here's how to do it:

Grab your iPad, open up the App Store, search for Google Drive, and let that download.  Once it's ready, sign in using your Google Account.  Unless you've used your Drive before, you probably won't see much in there, which is just fine.  Set the iPad aside and move to a computer.  While you could probably do this next step on your iPad, it wouldn't be fun.

Once you're at your computer, open up an internet browser and go to drive.google.com.  If this is the first time you've been there, you'll have to sign in.  Once you're in, click the Create button near the top left of the screen.  The fourth option down should be one for a spreadsheet.  When the spreadsheet opens up, you can use this to create your own weight and balance form.  Use the values right out of the weight and balance section of your POH, and go from there.  If you've used Excel before, you can use many of the same functions here (SUM, IF, and simple math functions using +, -, *, / ).

After you've finished your file, open the Google Drive app on your iPad, find the file, and click the arrow on the right side.  In the pane that opens, change the Available Offline slider from OFF to ON.  You now have a cached version of the file on your iPad to use offline, which is important if you have a wireless-only iPad, or are away from a data connection in general.

Some hints for you:

• If you have the POH around, use the values in your POH.  If you rent, whoever you rent from will often be able to fax something to you, or email the numbers.
• My images have flagged checks (green Yes boxes that change to a red No when over limits), which are based on the CG envelope and max weights.  Many CG envelopes are non-linear, which means they're more complicated functions.  Don't feel like you have to add them in.
• If you are using gallons of fuel, don't forget to have the function change volume to weight (many quote 100LL at 6.01lb/gal).
• Checking to make sure you're within limits for the whole flight is important.  You can easily do this by setting aside cells for fuel burn per hour, and the trip length in hours.  Subtract the fuel used over the trip from the total weight for your landing weight.

Please do not use the numbers from my images in your spreadsheets, as each aircraft has a different basic empty weight at a minimum.  This value changes for different avionics, engine types, prop types, and various other equipment options.

It is very important that you use the values for the aircraft you will be flying.

Video: Dizzy Yet?

I normally embed my flight videos right into my posts, but that's because I upload the raw video to Contour or YouTube as I'm writing.  Since I edited video from three cameras together into one for the Dizzy Yet? flight, I uploaded it well after publishing the flight narrative.  For now, I'll probably post the flight narrative with a couple videos, and then follow that up with the edited video in another post, as with the case here.

I know some of you probably saw the Facebook or Twitter links to it, but for those of you who haven't seen the finished product, here it is (make sure to switch it up to 720p HD):

I learned a lot making this video, so the videos in the future should be better.