Private Pilot Resources - Aviation Blog

3 point landings

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:04:00 +0000

Got 1.1 hours in N5032G this afternoon. Once again had a blast. we got in 10 touch and go and my taildragger landings are definitely improving. 32G has toe brakes and I much prefer those to heel brakes. It also flies much tighter. I feel like I'm finally starting to fly by the seat of my pants. When I glance at the turn indicator it see the ball less and less off center. 172s sure were forgiving and flying taildraggers finally forces me to shape up. One vexing problem remains that I think we finally worked out. I tend to work the ailerons in the flare to stay over the center line, which on occasion brings down one of the wings just slighty at the moment of touchdown. Bad idea. It basically pivots the plane on one front and the back wheel and requires quick, strong aileron correction combined with rudder inputs to get me back on centerline. Taildraggers require a perfectly straight ahead touch down, so next time out that's what we'll try. I'll probably accept being slightly off center line for a while in favor of a full three point contact on touchdown. On the upside, we had several landings today that were just sweet. There is nothing like ever so gently kissing the ground, rolling, applying full power, lifting tail and rotating softly again. It's just an awesome feeling.

Pilot My-Cast: Stay Ahead of the Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:21:00 +0000

Pilot My-Cast: Stay Ahead of the Weather Seems like a nice app for my blackberry. It's $10 a month and seems to provide a pretty good range of services.
Another app for the blackberry curve is AirWx Aviation Weather
Amazing that there aren't a ton of really good aps that would bring together all those free resources and leverage the curve's amazingly accurate GPS.
WXsys is a third choice, but it requires a subscription of almost $14/ month.
But, since it's free and I like how fast it loads on my blackberry, I'm going with http://www.duat.com/mobile. Their standard briefing is very easy to set up on a mobile device. Weather graphics load incredibly fast and are visible even on my blackberry 8330 Curve. The site saves the last 5 requests as links so they are very fast to pop up. Say what you will about government agencies. The FAA really does have it's stuff together.

Taildragger Lesson #3 - Demonstration of the spin

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Saturday was taildragger lesson number 3. The usual turns, stalls and a few landings. Dave demonstrated a spin and I'm trying to get my nerves up to fly one myself the next time we go up. Just in case you're wondering what a spin looks like, check out the above video. I just pulled it off YouTube since it's just a couple of rotations and was close to what we flew, although with the ground whirling around, who can count. Now to what it feels like. First it feels like a stall. The plane is dropping and at least to me it's that stomach in your throat kind of feeling. Once the spin stabilizes, it actually feels like you're flying again (well, one wing is). Not to bad, other than the ground in your face rotation ahead of you. Then comes the spin recovery and oddly that's the one I wasn't prepared for. You'll feel the G's pressing you into your seat as the plane recovers from pointing at the ground back to the horizon.

Tailwheel take-offs and landings

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:56:00 +0000

Saturday morning. Usually I just want to sleep in, yet today I couldn't wait to get out to the airport. Lesson number 2 in flying taildraggers. When I got there at 9:45 Dave was already waiting for me. We briefed our lesson and off we were. As we get in, Dave tells me that he didn't plan on having his hands on the controls. He sounded like he meant it. These were my takeoffs to learn from. Ok, this was going to be odd coming from tricyle gear aircraft. We taxi to runup, complete our checks and off we are. Next thing I know I'm on centerline pushing the throttle full open and we're rolling down the runway. Dave had given me some great advice that I'm sure I heard last weekend, but it just didn't compute until Dave but it into simple terms. Don't hold the rudder down too long, just dance on the rudder peddals, jab jab jab. As I started the roll that began to make sense. Veer right, left pedal jab jab jab right peddal jab, oh boy what a workout, but we're back on center line. Stick forward. Oh boy. Not what I'm used to rolling on the ground. Dave assured me that the prop won't hit the ground and indeed once we get horizontal with the tail having come up, the pressure kind of just keeps it there. Speed builds and we hit 60 (miles per hour that is). Another thing that strikes me as odd as I've always remembered my air speeds in knots. Now I don't hold the pressure on the stick forward any more and the pressure oddly reverses where I have to ever so slightly pull back on the stick as we gracefull lift off. Ahhhhh. Click click, things are starting to make new found sense. Not yet fully, but as Dave encourages me with excitement from the back ever more so with every takeoff. We get to pattern altitude. Abeam the numbers, carb heat on, power off, and we establish a glide at 70. We're flying a much tighter pattern than I'm used to when I was flying the 172 or Archer II. Base, I almost forget to crab into the slight wind up here. We turn to final, short final, it hits me, this is all going to be different. OK, Dave explained 3 point landing, we get down there and we float, float and float. Humbling experience in speed control. We finally touch down and I pull the stick back a bit too fast, we balloon and Dave helps me bring it slowly back down. We finally touch on the mains and I gradually bring the stick back into my lap. This time successfully only to see us veer off to the left. Here we go again with the peddals. Jab, Jab, Jab, back on center line. Aha effect. Now I get this whole jab the peddal thing. Just in time to push both throttle and carb heat forward, push the stick forward again, feel the tail come up, check air speed and gradually apply backward pressure on the stick to rotate again. It takes 3 more tries until I start to feel confident in this sequence. All of a sudden, there it was. That very nice, barley feel the wheels touch down landing that we dream of when we envision it in our minds eye late at night over a nice glass of Cabernet. I hear Dave holler attaboy in the back. Nothing like an instructor that can get excited with you and for you. We do three more rodeos in the pattern and I get a sense that sometimes these planes want a soft touch and sometimes they like a determined hand. Hmmmm, now I get that whole plane naming convention. As we roll off the runway I'm grateful I have ears or I'd be smiling circular. We only clocked 0.9 on the meter, but I couldn't be more excited. These planes require attention, but they are a joy to fly. After all, part of my goal signing up for taildragger lessons was to become a better pilot. I'm definitely focusing on feeling the plane, relying on outside references and flying by the seat of my pants. I'm actually relaxed and enjoying the experience. We should all be so luck to have a guy like Dave introduce us to these fantastic flying machines.

Taming the tail dragger

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:46:00 +0000

So it's been a while since I had taken to the air. 1 1/2 years according to my log book, so I thought it would be a good idea to combine a refresher with learning something completely new. I went down to Aerodynamic Aviation at Reid Hillview and as luck would have it got a flight the same day. Most humbling experience. I hadn't flown a stick before so that took some getting used to. I took to the skies in N53893, a Citabria 7EcA with a 115 HP Lycoming. We went for some airwork that definitely showed some rust on my part. It's hard to stall these birds. No stall horn either. The stick needed to be all the way back and they tip a heck of a lot faster than a Cessna 172 or an Archer. These things require some serious foot work and getting used to different locations for power, trim and instruments took some time. I'm heading back the next two weekends. Today was just air work. I'm looking forward to take offs and landings.

ICON Aircraft: Sport Flying Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:28:00 +0000

ICON Aircraft: Sport Flying Revolution

Ohhh I want one of these. If it will fly half as well as it looks this has to be one of the most fun planes around.

Terrafugia - Transition® the Roadable Light Sport Aircraft : Photo Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Terrafugia - Transition® the Roadable Light Sport Aircraft : Photo Gallery

Interesting concept of a flying car....or is it a driving plane?

Two seaters that would fit my mission profile

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:28:00 +0000

2007 AMERICAN CHAMPION 8-GCBC SCOUT
Once again just browsing the web for different airplanes that would fit my mission profile.

The second plane is the Cubcrafters Sport Cub S2, which meets LSA rules. Flaps are available as an option. The engine sips fuel at 4-5 gph and 391lbs payload with full fuel allow you to pack two grown adults and some bagage. A 250 ft takeoff ground roll is impressive. Last, but not least, the panel on this bird is just the perfect mix between nostalgia and 21st century capabilities. Vso is 36 Mph which reduces landing ground roll to a mere 200ft.

GPSed Track "home"

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:01:00 +0000

I'm experimenting with GPS tracking. A nice feature if you want friends and family to be able to track you. A potentially life saving one if things go wrong. The cheap skate in me is trying to use some of the tools I already have, so I loaded the free download on my backberry and tried it out. I'm still working on getting the kinks out. Right now the track cuts out after a few minutes, but it does deliver the tracks to the GPSed web page. I'll also embed a widget in this web site which just shows the latest reported location of the user.

View my new track "home" started in United States, California, Sunnyvale.

NavMonster - Flight Planning, Aviation Weather and Approach Plates for Pilots

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:15:00 +0000

Flight planning information via the internet is plentyful these days, but every once in a while I run across web sites that sets itself apart in simplicity and usefulness. The below site is one of these. Easy layout and quick navigation to get a very quick overview of the mission.
NavMonster - Flight Planning, Aviation Weather and Approach Plates for Pilots

Garmin G1000

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:45:00 +0000

Ok, so I finally got sick of every aticle in AOPA magazine or Flying spewing with compliments about Gamin's G1000 glass clockpit. Enough already, I get it, it's cool and it does just about everything short of fixing a cup of coffee. So I kept hoping that maybe just one of those articles would start diving into some meat. Give me just one thing, but in detail. Don't sell me something, teach me something. It wasn't to be. Since I live in the Bay Area I was fortunate to be able to attend a G1000 seminar at my home airport taught by the guy that wrote the book (literally). I attended Max's class about a year ago. It was interesting, but I'm the kind of learner that has to take knowledge in chunks, let it simmer, stew, read a bit and then think about it some more. In the end I found that once I learn that way I retain it for just about ever. A seminar doesn't do that for me. Max Trestcott was nominated 2008 flight instructor of the year, which was good enough for me to invest the $34.95 to buy his book. The book is well structured, with ample pictures and illustrations. I'm a visual kind of guy. You give me just text and you might as well be writing chinese. Why buy the book? Well, you figure that every hour with a flight instructor is about $45 now and the plane is around $120. If I fly, I want to maximize my enjoyment. If I fly to learn, I want to maximize that too and learn the finer points rather than the basics. It's for that reason that I found buying Max's book just made plane sense (no pun intended....well maybe).
I'm about 1/3 into the book now and it's working reasonably well for me. If I can find one fault with it, then it would be that it is focused exclusively on each individual operation. It does a fabulous job at that to where I can close my eyes and literally follow along, but it doesn't teach the logic behind it. I find myself trying to figure out what logic Garmin applied in putting the system together. I'm still trying to boil it down to the dozen or so systematic steps that will let me perform 90% of the operations. Why? Well, I realize that there is no way I'll ever remember every single thing that's been written in a 250 page 8x10 book. If however, I could decode the logic that's been applied by Garmin to guide the menu navigation, data entry and value selection I could just look at what's available on the screen and with prior knowledge of the system's capabilities let it guide me there. Less junk to clutter my brain and better intuitive use in flight.
Here is how I'm remembering it.

The FMS knob is to scroll through a menu or list and select things
The enter button is to select things and get to additional detail screens for whatever has been selected
Range knob to zoom and shift the Inset Map
Every knob you can push to perform a function is labeled as such although I find the labeling sometimes in the wrong place (the triangular course knob on the right side of the PFD bezel has the label below which at least in my mind associates it with the range joy stick).
I'll add other revelations as I read the book here

Since Garmin GNS 530 functions very similar I downloaded the free simulator from the Garmin web site.

Garmin also has all the manuals and quick reference guides for download. Make sure you get the right model.

A nice checklist for the Cessna 172SP G1000 is posted on the Dauntless web site.

Salinas IFR Ride Along

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:59:00 +0000

These are some pictures from a flight with my friend Michael who owns this lovely Skylane 182. Michael is working on his IFR license and on Tuesday evening he allowed me to share a ride on a typical IFR lesson. The plan was for a flight from RHV to SNS with a few practice approaches on the VOR 13 approach and a couple of MARNA holds. After that, a ride over to shoot the Localizer 02 approach into Watsonville. I have had my license for 2 years now, but even as a passenger I had never flown in actual IFR conditions in a GA airplane. As luck would have it, the low clouds moved in and we had a solid layer over the Salinas airport. Only about 800 feet thick, but a fantastic experience. Fantastic as in scary, weird and yet serene. The realization that reliance on what the equipment in front of you tells you is truly the only thing that tells you where you are (provided you can interpret it) and where you're going and how you're getting there (hopefully not inverted). First approach was on a partial panel and we got way off course, declared the missed and headed out to MARNA, second approach with a full panel much better, but as we headed into the clouds I could feel the plane turn right... right... right. We exited the clouds still turning heavy right. It was a fantastic learning experience just watching my friend and getting a feeling for the incredible challenge of managing navigation with zero visibility while keeping wings level, maintaining a heading and managing the descend. If anybody thinks that foggles provide a good simulation of flying in actual IMC...think again. A few hours flying under the hood, no comparison...ever notice that occasionally you get some light or glimse something outside the airplane. Not so in real IFR. It's just dull white like everything outside the plane got erased. Now I've flown through this stuff many times on an airliner, looked outside and thought...I know I wouldn't do it, but I probably could. It finally hit me what the difference was. I didn't have instruments in front of me. This flight had a profound experience on me. Observing from the back it was easy to see how anybody behind the airplane could become disoriented and put the plane upside down even in less than 1000 feet of cloud cover.

The second most valuable experience was learning to understand the clearances and radio communications that come along with flying in the clouds.Turns out that I had been far too intimidated about what might be required. Instructions are very straight forward. request the desired approach from Norcal including whether you just plan to fly the missed approach or to a full stop, Norcal comes back and provides vectors to fly a heading, maintain assigned altitude until established and switch frequencies to tower or CTAF. Establish radio contact on the missed and advise intentions.

All in all a very enlightening experience and encouragement to start my own IFR ticket. I probably wouldn't use it much except in thin layers that were high enough above ground, but just for safety sake it's the way to go. For those of you reading this that have your license, but have never been in IFR other than on commercial flights I can only encourage you to ask around, share a ride (with an IFR training flight, student at the controls, because an instructor makes it look simple) and prepare for a most thrilling experience.

Monterey

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:11:00 +0000

Took the family down to Monterey (KMRY). Just a short hop, but a ton of fun. Last weekend we had spectacular weather. Approach advised 28R and handed me off to tower. I didn't call ahead and asked for taxi instructions to the restaurant. On that side of the field are two FBOs. Million Air and Jet Center. Parking was $30, but gets waved if you buy gas. At Jet Center they also have tickets to the Aquarium and can rent you a car. We didn't need either because we were to meet grandpa for ice cream. The FBO crew gave us a ride over to the restaurant. There is free GA parking on the other side of the field, but I was told no services are available, so arrange for a pickup if you go that route.

Jeppesen Weather Help

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 22:21:00 +0000

Great resource to quickly review all the different symbols on avaition weather charts.
Jeppesen Weather Help

Bi-Annual Flight Review (BFR)

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:13:00 +0000

I can hardly believe that it's been two years since I first got my license. Looking back I am confident that I kept learning and that my skills are pretty sharp, but it was time for my BFR and so I hooked up with Tom Navin at Tradewinds a few weeks ago to knock off any rust that might have been building. Last Saturday we again took to the skies on a georgeous afternoon. The weather in San Jose had been crappy and so traffic at Reid Hillview was busy as everyone took to the skies all at once.

Learning (1): How to hotstart a fuel injected engine with vapor lock. Full power, mixture lean, as she starts, immediately pull power back and and enrich mixture in one fluid motion of the two levers.

Tom and I did our upper air maneuvers and then headed towards the central valley and diverted to New Jerusalem 1Q4. Basically a strip of asphalt in the middle of nowhere. The real bonus being that NOBODY is there. The runway is 3,500 ft. 12/30. Tom gave me some great coaching on short field takeoff and landing. We practiced a near touchdown slow flight down the entire length of the runway to get a feel for slow flight close to the ground. Then we set up for the actual shortfield and I finally got the picture of a nose high attitude and power control of descend to put her down right on the numbers. Another reason 1Q4 is such a great little strip is that it doesn't have a VASI and the approach is over fields with no obstructions. Thus, the FAA rule of no flight below VASI glideslope doesn't apply and you can actually play around some with altitude to get the right feel for it. We then practiced power failure during takeoff. If your instructor hasn't yet played a trick like that on you, do ask. Highly valuable to experience engine loss at 50 feet or so and to land her on the remaining runway. From what I had read before I always got the impression that it required a heavy push on the joke to bring the nose down and pick up speed. Not so in my experience. At 50 feet you're quickly back in ground effect and I experience it as just a slight relaxing of the controls to keep the speed above stall, followed almost immediately by a transition to a roundout. With precious little runway left you don't want to build up excessive speed, so Tom showed me how to ease her back down with the nose up higher than I thought. All in all a great BFR and as always some learning experiences from a truly gifted teacher.

What does a stall & spin look like

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 23:54:00 +0000

I always wondered what the view out the window would look like in an inadvertent stall spin. After all, enter a stall during uncoordinated flight and you'll soon find out. The weather is crappy today so I'm doing a little armchair flying and ran across some great video clips on YouTube. Somehow it was important for me to actually see how fast the plane appears to point at the ground.

Cessna stall spin
...and another one
........and another one
...and just because it's so much fun

spinning in a Citabria
and spinning in a Decathlon
and in a Vans RV-12 where you can actually see the aileron inputs nicely. This one also has a great demonstration of airflow separation during the stall.

Stall horn testing - Preflight

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:34:00 +0000

Ok, so I finally got tired of not testing my stall horn during pre-flight. On tab-actuated stall horns such as the one I encountered when I was flying the Piper Archer it sure was an easy task. Turn on master, lift the tab, and hear the horn. Try being thorough though on a Cessna 172 and it's an entirely different story. Theoretically, you're supposed to suck on the opening of a dirty airplane with the wing a head or two higher than you. Sure, that's going to happen...NOT. So as a result it seems to be an accepted practice to just visually inspect the opening for any obstructions. After all, you're not going to fall out of the sky just because the stall horn doesn't work. Or will you. Last week we went out and practiced slow flight. Sure was easy with the stall horn buzzing. Oooops...what if it hadn't worked. It was at this point that it occurred to me that maybe I ought to find a way to check that stall horn on the next pre-flight. A few months earlier I had seen another pilot on my field pull out a strange little home made device. One of the instructors had created it for some of his students, so I decided to have a go at it. Quick run to the hardware store for some flexible plastic tubing (mine is a little too rigid, so select one that is flexible enough). I also picked up a little piece of thick and compact foam that's flexible enough to mold to a surface. I squeezed the tubing into the foam twisting it and cut out a nice little hole with the tubing. A little super glue to attach the foam to the tubing and about 90 cents later you have the perfect stall horn tester. Press the foam to the aircraft leading edge right over the stall horn opening and suck on the tube. Voila! Sure I could have picked up a little pump that the aviation catalogs are selling, but I'm certain those wear out eventually and I, like most pilots, just like things that can't break. No more excuses for not testing the stall horn.

Preflighting a Cessna 172 revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 01:40:00 +0000

I must have preflighted the 172 over a hundred times now. Every now and so often I take an hour with a CFI for some recurrent training and I usually ask to be observed as I step through my pre-flight. Over the years I've learned that every CFI contributes yet another piece of wisdom that lets me know and understand that machine, which is about to take me aloft, just a little better. Last year it was a mechanic that lubricated a flap push rod that explained how the left flap is tied to the right via cables. By pushing up on the left flap one can test for excessive play in that connection and at the same time observe whether the rollers are actually moving in the tracks. If they don't it leads to excessive wear. Thanks to that same mechanic I now also check for chafing on the top surface of the flaps.

Today's pre-flight was no exception. Tom pointed out three new items that were either new or just not clear to me before.

1) Ever wondered how many static wicks your airplane can be missing and still be flown safely? The Cessna 172 should have 8 of those wicks, 2 on each wing, 2 on the rudder and 2 on the stabilator. They are there to disperse static charge that builds up all around the aircraft and that could interfere with radios. It is safe to fly with a maximum of 3 missing.

2) Tom asked me to explain what I am looking for on the safety wire and what the safety wire is there for. With safety wires you are looking for broken wire, which would indicate that a stop screw has moved or a connection has come loose. On the tail of a 172 one would check for the safety wire to be intact on both sides of the rudder cable connection (that one I knew). You also check for safety wire to be unbroken for the 2 rudder stop screws and the elevator stop screw. A broken wire indicates that the screws have moved and that would allow the rudder or elevator excessive travel.

3) How would you know that the break hydraulic lines are leaking? My answer, look for break fluid next to the tire, missed the point. I had forgotten to set the plane's parking break. The way to get pressure on the hydraulic line so that fluid would be forced out would be to either apply the breaks or in this case just simply set the parking break and then look for leaking. A plane that has set there without a break applied might not show lots of leakage, especially in a training airplane that was just parked. Apparently the hydraulic lines like to fail in the corners where they are bent or where they are rubbing up against the landing gear. Especially when wheel pants are not attached these lines vibrate in the wind against the gear and start chafing over time.

4) I always visually inspect the openings in the plane's cowling to make sure no birds have started nesting. Especially in the fall when nests can appear from on day to the next. What never occurred to me is that the best place for a nest is in between the cylinders where a visual inspection won't find them. If the engine isn't hot, run your hand through that space to make sure no critter built a home there.

Sometimes it takes another pilot or CFI to ask provocative questions to make you think about what to check during pre-flight. Most importantly, always ask yourself "why am I checking this" and "what would this look like had it failed or become damaged".

Off it was to another fun flight. 7 rounds in the pattern. The ceiling lifted to 4000 feet and we headed South for slow flight and stall practice. In March I'm coming up on my first Bi-Annual Flight Review (BFR). I'll be going the Wings route, so look here soon for the next entry on completing the Basic Wings phase in lieu of a BFR.

Salinas Airshow 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:49:00 +0000

Halfmoon Bay KHAF and Bay Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:57:00 +0000

This past weekend we did a wonderful Bay Tour. The weather was perfect, visibility endless and the coast clear of fog. I worked the radios while my fellow Tradewinds pilot John Stratakos took us across San Jose International and up the Bay out to the coast. We passed over Golden Gate bridge and dropped into the San Francisco bay. We cuised around for a while and then I took the plane down to Halfmoon Bay where we stopped for lunch. The airport was busy and folks were out in droves to enjoy the great weather. After a great lunch we headed back along the coast down to Watsonville and back over the hill to Reid Hillview. Total flight time 2.5 hours.

Bay Area Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:46:00 +0000

On the 29th we're planning a quick hop up to Half Moon Bay. It's real close so one would think no problem. Weather is nice here, so it will be the same over there. Not so fast. Half Moon Bay is at the coast and during summer you can bet that it's fogged in at some time during the day. The Bay Area in fact is an accumulation of many different micro climates with huge temperature wind and visibility changes with a 70 mile radius. Lucky for pilots, web cams have sprung up like wildfire. Just search the Internet for keywords webcam. One reason I blog this site below is because I like to have it available to check from the FBO just prior to my flight.

Bay Area Weather
San Carlos Pilots Web site

What are your wings of choice

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:18:00 +0000

Lately I have been doing a lot of armchair flying and browsing the web for "my" perfect plane. Turns out I really have two mission profiles. On one hand I need 4 seats and lots of useful load, short field capabilities and decend speed, on the other hand I am fine with a two seater for the bulk of my missions that burns minimum gas and goes slow, but extremely safe. For either mission I'm on the low end of the price range. I like to fly, but I don't like to feel like the bank is riding shotgun.

So here they are, my two choices for my perfect planes. The first is a Maule MXT7-180. I checked the accident records and there are surprisingly few. It's a safe reliable plane with an incredible useful load and a sensible panel. I actually appreciate that Maule's panels at least to now have the old gauges, but make good use of Garmin GPS. It's a clean and effective layout. The Maule treats passengers right. It comes with a right back passenger door that together with the baggage door makes for a huge opening.

The two seater is an ErCoupe. What a cute little plane. It sips gas and has a reputation of being downlight simple to fly. I just love the trainling link gear.

VFR chart legend - explained

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:52:00 +0000

Say what you will about governmental agencies in general, when it comes to the FAA I'm impressed. Not only is the FAA putting out a ton of free information and tools for its constituency, but the quality of the materials is fantastic. Here is a VFR chart legend I just ran across. This document doesn't just provide the legend itself (which is printed on every chart anyway), but goes into some detailed explanations of the legend elements.

Click here to view the PDF document or visit the FAA Charting Office web site.

VFR Garmin 403/530 Minicourse

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:12:00 +0000

I wasn't quite ready to shell out quite a bit of money to buy a full blown Garmin GPS training CD so I was quite happy to find that AOPA put out a nice little training piece that refreshes the very basic functions like direct to, nearest, dialing COM and NAV frequencies and how to look up some of the most common information. All for free.

AOPA Online - VFR GPS Guide: Garmin 403/530 Minicourse

A helpful quick reference is posted here

Garmin made a GNS430 simulator available which can be installed for practice on any PC.

My club's 172SP has a KLN94 installed. A reference manual (User Guide) for it is linked here.

While I'm at it I'm also linking to the manual for the KAP 140 autopilot.

Top 10 Rules of Thumb

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Hammer) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:21:00 +0000

Every once in a while I run across an article that I print out and actually put in my flight bag. This is one of them. Rules of thumb I have found are critical to aeronautical decision making in flight. That being said, use sound judgement when to use a rule of thumb and when it pays to use the a more precise instrument.

Plane & Pilot Magazine Top 10 Rules of Thumb

Amy Hoover's article on Rules of Thumb

My favorites:

Rule of thumb; DA: To determine Density Altitude at a given Pressure Altitude, add 60 feet to the existing PA for every 1° F above standard temperature for that altitude. (Remember: Standard temperature at sea level 15° C / 59°F and decreasing at 2°C/3.5°F per 1000 feet of altitude above sea level). If altimeter setting is above29.92 inches mercury, add another 100 feet of density altitude for each 10th of an inch below29.92 or subtract 100 feet for each 10th of an inch above 29.92. Because the precise effect of humidity involves complex calculations one can compensate by raising DA by 1000 feet on hot humid days and assuming a performance hit by a fudge factor 10%.

Rule of thumb; Abort:An aircraft should achieve 70% of its flying speed by the time it has consumed 50% of the runway or an abort is in order.

Descend rule of three: Number of miles out times three gives you your AGL height (in hundreds of feet) above the airport for a 3 degree descent path

Estimate chart distance: Bend the fingers on your right hand into a U Shape. One of the middle segments will represent 10 miles on a sectional chart (check which one comes closest), or five miles on a terminal chart. Use it to measure approximate distances.