Vectors To Final

Test Flight

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:12:00 +0000

With the airplane out of the shop I took it out for a test flight. She was performing strong and did well, so that's good news. I also experimented with my NFlightCam on this flight.

I managed to not mount it rigidly enough, so there's more shake than there should be. I also forgot the adapter cables to patch into the intercom, so that will have to wait for next time (when I have a large memory card too).

Here's the takeoff from today:

Stumble Pop Update

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:01:00 +0000

They found the engine ran really rough on just the right magneto and that EGT#1 went blank. They took it apart a bit to test the leads and the plugs but found no issues. Put it back together again and it ran great.

So the thinking is that taking it apart knocked a bit of lead or other contaminent out that was causing the issue.

We also found that we have fine wire spark plugs and plan to replace them with Tempest massives, due to this. The Platinum Aviation blog has some great spark plug info here too.

Stumble, Pop

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:22:00 +0000

I flew the plane on the 11th and halfway through the flight we started getting what I assume were backfires, about 1/sec. They were very minor "stumbles" with a pop sound. This was after flying LOP at that same altitude for about 10m.

Occasionally there would be a slight stumble with no pop sound. Power settings changes and changing to a richer mixture did not seem to help. After getting around 2000' AGL no more issues occurred for the rest of the flight to landing. Tested the fuel tanks for water again after landing, found no issues.

Flew it again on the 23rd and had no troubles until nearly leveling off at 4,500'. The mag check on the ground showed no issues but as I hit 4,400' I felt the first stumble and as I leveled off and started to go LOP the backfires started up pretty abundantly.

I didn't actually make it all the way to LOP before it started and so I decided to try ROP. Left it there momentarily as I started to turn back to KUZA to land. I swapped fuel tanks, tried the boost pump, and went full rich - none helped. Changing throttle settings didn't seem to help either, so I kept it throttled back. I did not try alt-air or an in-flight mag check (too nervous to do the latter). Again, once getting to 2,000' AGL (full rich) the engine was back to normal.

We have enlisted the help of Savvy MX with managing the airplane and they suspect a bad mag or plug(s). We hope to find out in the next day or two.

Cirrus Model

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:41:00 +0000

I ordered a wooden SR22 model a few months ago, and received it this week.

I'm quite happy with it - seems nicely proportioned and pretty sturdy (as long as I can keep it away from the little ones). I plan to get a wall mount for it since I don't have a good bit of available desk space.

A touch of ice

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 02:38:00 +0000

This morning I got up early and went out to the airport to crank up for a flight to KCFD, about 800nm away.

I ended up taking off right at sunrise, but didn't get to see much of it. I entered the clouds at about 500' and started talking to Charlotte approach. Before long they had me climbing up to my requested altitude of 10,000'. Around 6,000' I noticed the temperature falling off pretty quickly to get near freezing so I turned on the pitot heat and started watching for ice. Still in the clouds once leveling out at 10,000' I started to see a bit of ice just forming on the wings. I immediately turned on the TKS anti-ice fluid and it started working with a few minutes. I reported the conditions to ATC and, after leaning out the engine for cruise, was paying careful attention to the ice.

After a bit the TKS had cleared most of the slight icing that had accumulated and it appeared that before long I would be out of the clouds, so I stayed put. However, within 5 minutes or so I was back into a bit of light rain that had moved in a touch faster than expected. I re-activated the TKS and requested to go down to 8,000', with the expectation that I'd drop down to 6,000 if it wasn't warm enough at 8,000'.

ATC filed a PIREP or two for me as I reported conditions in the area. At 8,000' ice accretion with TKS off was noticeably slower than it had been at 10,000' but I wasn't going to mess around, I asked for 6,000'. Down at 6 the temps were warm enough that the clouds and rain were passing off the wing instead of sticking to it. Around that time I was also coming out of the rainy area and entering much clearer air. I brought up ForeFlight Mobile and decided to take a look at the PIREPs being fed by the Mobile Link and XM receiver. I was happy to see "my" PIREP show up on the map!

Surveillance approach

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:43:00 +0000

This morning I got up early to take a short flight over to KGMU for the Southeast Aviation show. The flight didn't start too well when I couldn't get Charlotte Clearance to respond on the radio. I tried multiple times, on each radio, and got a good radio check from the local UNICOM. After waiting until the hour changed over to 8 AM (thinking maybe someone on break might be back then) I gave up and called flight service on the phone. They were able to get me a clearance after about 8-9 minutes.

Most days I would have taken off without clearance and gotten it airborne. But today had clouds around 500' so I couldn't do that maneuver.

Once I got through the clouds Approach was there usual helpful selves and had me pointed to Greenville in no time. The Greer Approach controller asked if I would do a Surveillance approach into GMU so he could practice it. I said sure, but that I had never done one before. He explained it to me, and it was what I remembered - essentially ATC talks you down along the approach. The idea is that you have minimal-to-no navigation gear working in the airplane due to some electrical problem.

As you get close to the airport they give you heading changes like "You are right of centerline, correcting slowly, turn 2 degrees left". They also instruct you not to respond to all of those commands to keep the air clear for near real-time corrections.

It worked out well with me being just a touch off center when 2 miles out. I let him know I had the airport in sight and he handed me off to tower.

The show was great and I got to meet plenty of local aviators. I also got to shoot the ILS approach back into Rock Hill a few hours later which was great practice.

Here's a shot I took when starting the GMU approach:

Flying in Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:11:00 +0000

For some ForeFlight work I spent a bit of time in Canada recently. We had the privilege to get some flying in, in a gorgeous C182 with a G1000. This was a tour of the capital area, complete with an overflight of downtown before landing (not something we'll ever do over the U.S. capital).

We even caught a few glimpses of a concert below, with an impressive light show, and a video presentation that was shone on the Parliament central building.

The flight was at sunset, and was one of those perfect flights - light winds, cool temps, perfect sky. I haven't had a flight like that since I used to live in Williamsburg and flew with my buddy John.

It was a pretty interesting experience. The primary differences that popped out to me were:

Instead of talking to the traffic in the area of the airport (CYND, Gatineau) we talked to "radio" (FSS) and told them our intentions. They gave us a heads up on other traffic and advisories on when to enter the runway. My understanding is that they have no real authority, but you tend operate as if they do.
There were french speaking pilots in the pattern, so Radio was translating back-and-forth to keep everyone on the same page. That would drive me nuts. :)
They have a TFR over the Parliament buildings, but it is something like 1000' high.

Simulator time, IPC, BFR

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:03:00 +0000

I just returned from a trip to KRYY where SimTrain has a full-motion Cirrus SR22 simulator. The goal for my visit was to review emergency procedures, like dealing with engine outs or electrical problems, while being able to actually experience them in a realistic, yet safe, fashion.

Since the emergency procedures involved a good bit of instrument and basic fundamentals, we decided to combine it with an IPC, Instrument Proficiency Check, and a BFR, Biannual Flight Review. The former makes sure you are a competent pilot for flying in clouds, the latter is required every two years to keep your license "valid".

I started the day yesterday with a 1.4hr flight to KRYY. I got a bit of instrument time in the first part of the flight, as the fog had only lifted 600 feet or so. By the halfway point the fog was clearing, but the haze kept the visibility down to 5 miles or so.

I was given a straight-in approach to RYY which made for a convenient landing. I taxied over to the south side for Preferred Jet for parking and to meet my instructor.

He gave me a lift for the half-mile or so drive to the simulator location. We started with ground school work in a class room, reviewing systems, emergency procedures, and what we'd do in the simulator. It didn't take long to realize that my orignal plan of doing some flying in the airplane after the sim time before heading home just wasn't going to pan out. There was too much to go over, and the clouds were building outside, making for what looked like it would be a bumpy afternoon flight. So we found a hotel over lunch and I updated the FBO that I'd stay overnight.

The afternoon was filled with hour-long sessions in the sim, followed by debriefs and reviews in the classroom. After an hour or so in the motion-enabled sim, I was ready for a break. I didn't feel any ill effects through normal flight, but when we pulled the CAPs parachute or practiced dealing with microbursts, my eyes weren't getting the same input as the rest of me, causing minor discomfort.

By the end of the day I had performed about 17 approaches, each with some different sort of system failure involved. One failure was a complete electrical failure, which would be a rare thing to happen in real life. That failure leaves you with nothing but your portable devices, the airspeed and altimeter, and the whiskey compass. Getting down through the clouds was tricky but mostly involved being as smooth as possible and letting the stability of the airplane keep you upright.

That night I was exhausted and slept pretty well. We woke up bright and early the next morning and did a flight to complete the BFR. Then I scooted on home before the storms in the area had much of a chance to build up.

I left feeling like I really got a great deal of experience from the sim. It's not a cheap thing to do, especially if you have to fly to get to the location, but it's really something every pilot should try to experience sometime - especially IFR pilots. I learned loads of stuff I could have never learned any other way.

Recent flights

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Mon, 30 May 2011 23:02:00 +0000

Our plane was down for annual for a few weeks, but it was cleared for flight again recently so I made good use of it.

We had some ForeFlight folks in town, so one pair of trips was to act as a shuttle to KGSP and back, about a 30 minute trip.

The first day brought fairly crummy weather. Calm winds and good temperatures, but plenty of rain and low clouds. GSP was clear so that side of the trip was easy, and even though it had been a few months since I worked with a Tower I felt quite at home with it.

Coming back to Rock Hill was a bit more interesting though. As we approached there were red radar returns right over the airport. We had to shoot the GPS 2 instead of the ILS as the ILS was down for maintenance. That meant we could only descend to 500' AGL instead of 200' AGL. ATC had us slow down for an aircraft in front of us. I happily did so as that gave the stronger rain time to move away from the airfield.

Luckily the clouds at the airport were barely above 500' AGL so we were able to see the runway and land safely. Our backup plan was to simply orbit a bit south of the field until conditions improved (or divert to a one of few different pre-planned locations), but that ended up not being required.

It was a great feeling to make use of my IFR rating like that. I think my instructor Charles, from KJGG, would have liked it. Coincidentally, years ago Charles gave me my first ride in a glass-panel SR22 and let me fly the entire flight (a memory that has stuck with me).

We made a flight to OH in the middle of the week. That was a trip up to Sporty's where we were exhibiting and giving a talk about the ForeFlight Mobile application. We had a great time and the weather was basically perfect. The A/C came in handy as the temperatures are finally starting to get pretty warm around here. I think the A/C was on continuously except when landing/taking off and when in cruise flight at 9000' or 10,000'.

The second flight to GSP was easy by comparison as the weather was great. I was asked to provide max forward airspeed while getting setup to land at KGSP (as there was a jet behind me) but I managed to give them 185 kts or so while still getting slowed down enough on final for a good short landing and early turn off of the runway. I dropped off my passenger and spun the airplane around for the return flight.

I'm at about 540 total hours now and starting to feel pretty comfortable in the SR22. It's just been the perfect airplane for the "missions" I tend to fly. Summer time is when I like to review the airplane systems by re-reading the POH and various bits of Cirrus training material I've acquired over the years. I'd also like to step it up a bit this year by getting some simulator training on emergencies - hopefully I can fit that into my schedule at some point. I think it will require a long weekend.

Sun N Fun 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 11:31:00 +0000

I flew down to Sun N Fun at Lakeland, FL this week to help man the ForeFlight booth and take in the sights.

The trip down there was easier than I expected. I briefed the VFR arrival procedures numerous times, but when I finally got there it was light IFR. That meant they were just bringing us in on the GPS 9 approach which made things very simple.

The line crew gave me a good parking spot on 4 inches of soil over an old runway and, after a good walk across the airport, I was soon helping out in the booth.

With the threat of high winds Thursday we went out to the airplane again to see what we could do to further secure it. Turns out there was a PilotMall retail shop on field and they had "the Claw". A set cost ~$85 so we got one and headed out to the airplane. We hitched a ride from some friends that had a golf cart so that saved us from some of the hike. After installing the claw (leaving my other tie downs in place as well) we went back to work in the booth.

A few hours later, the claw was put to the test. We were in Hangar E when a tornado came through the area. There is some debate as to whether the tornado was actually on the airport, but the noise of the weather was intense.

The security guards closed up the hangar doors and people were getting really nervous. The sound of the storm was such that you could barely talk, and some folks were yelling at the other end of the hangar. I had thought they were watching a tornado go through, but after hearing more I now think they were concerned about one of the hangar doors blowing in.

We lost power for the remainder of the day, but since we had a sort-of-working internet connection on our Verizon iPads we were showing folks the latest radar returns.

We ended up closing the show a few hours early that day. Most vendors had left once it was obvious that the power wouldn't come back on soon, and most of the attendees had left when the rains let up enough. So around 3pm we left the booth and headed out to the airplane.

From the reports I'd heard in the booth, I was convinced that every airplane at the show had been destroyed. Thankfully that turned out to be a gross over-estimate.

We found the airplane to be in really good shape. In fact, it had only moved a small amount trying to weathervane into the wind. The Claw did its job well - it's now the only portable tie downs for me.

You can see by the cones the direction of the storm in this area. We did see a few airplanes that were flipped and a few others that had slid into a new parking spot, but the destruction was much less than initially reported, thankfully. We checked the plane closely to look for "shrapnel" damage or any other issues, but somehow our bird was unscathed.

Yesterday I went to the Colombia FBO to pay for the fuel I had called in. Apparently I was supposed to either give them credit card info over the phone or have waited at the airplane for them to arrive. Since I didn't know that, they didn't fuel me up.

However, they took great care of me and had the plane topped off before I even got over to it. They gave me a van ride 90% of the way to the plane and then I walked the last bit of taxiway since they weren't sure the van was allowed in that area.

I did a thorough preflight and blasted off to return home. Except for encountering some good turbulence in the descent and in the traffic pattern the flight was perfect. I had to file my IFR flight plan as if I was leaving from X61 instead of KLAL. Once I got near X61 Orlando Approach let me get a clearance and finish up the flight IFR.

Trip to KJZI

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:38:00 +0000

After my autopilot testing Friday I flew down to KJZI in Charleston, SC. I had a few business meetings to attend but also got the chance to take up a new friend in the Cirrus.

We introduced him to general aviation in style with a lazy tour of the coast. He grew up (and still lives) in the area so he knew all the sights. My business partner sat back seat and filmed the landing for me.

New autopilot - DFC90

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:20:00 +0000

We recently installed a new autopilot in the Cirrus. This one, a DFC90, is a drop-in replacement for the STEC 55X we used to have and adds a few great features:

Much more precise as it uses the digital sensors in the airplane instead of fewer, analog-only sensors as before
It can climb at a constant airspeed, which is great for maximizing climb rate without risking the airplane getting too slow
It will automatically correct a too-slow or too-fast condition when the autopilot is running
It has a "straight and level" button that can be pressed anytime you need a quick way to get the airplane into a good attitude/state.

SkyTech in Rock Hill did a great job with the install and everything worked well except we still have a bit of an overshooting of heading when turning right. It's better than it was with the old autopilot, but we are working with Avidyne to sort it out.

We also think the turn coordinator may be going bad, so we plan to get that checked. Additionally the MFD locks up occasionally for a few seconds at a time. We have been told that upgrading to the new software, v8.1 should fix that up.

I made a video of my test flight today just before I flew down to KJZI.

Redline Sidewinder

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 15:40:00 +0000

I went out to the airport today hoping to get some flying in, but with a heavy fog settled in and not going anywhere fast, I decided to just test out a battery powered tug, the Redline Sidewinder.

I've always had a hard time pushing the airplane back into the shadeport, especially after a long tiring flight. The plane weighs nearly 3,000 lbs so even though the slope into the parking spot is only 1-2 degrees, it's quite a tough bird to push.

Add in slipping feet, no great place to push against, bad angles for applying force, and a squirrelly castering nose wheel (doesn't like to go backwards) and it's a great recipe to hurt my back.

Thankfully the Redline did a great job with the task.

It's designed to have minimal weight, yet still be strong. It is powered by a heavy duty drill that drives gears and chains to apply rolling force to the nose wheel, moving the airplane at a nice slow pace.

Hooking it up to the airplane is not much harder than hooking up the basic towbar. It's obviously much heavy that the towbar, but still a manageable weight.

Each side has a pin that is retracted while you line up the U bar to the connectors on the nose wheel. It fit snuggly without scraping anything on the plane. Once the pins are lined up you release them and they spring into the nose wheel connectors. The weight of the sidewinder, plus a touch of downforce from the operator, holds the drive wheel to the nose wheel rubber.

When moving the airplane forward I found that I had to apply a fair amount of downforce to keep the chain from lightly touching the inner edge of the nosewheel. That hits on the only thing I'd change about the sidewinder, I wish there were a guard to prevent that issue. However, it was easy to avoid any rubbing by pushing down when operating the drill.

I should rarely use the sidewinder to move the airplane forward though, as we are able to crank up in the shadeport and pull right out under engine power.

What I really need the powered tug for is pushing the airplane backwards into the shadeport. And on that task the Sidewinder worked perfectly. It even greatly reduced the squirrely-ness of the nosewheel, maybe because of the extra weight compared to the normal towbar. There was no issue with the chain hitting as the torque in that direction forces the chain away from the fairing on the nose.

I had to stoop down fairly far to operate the tug as the bar doesn't come up real high (to keep the device compact), but never once had to provide any pushing power. I just needed to steer and watch out for obstacles. It's about 100 times better than the manual method I've been using so far.

Here's a short video of me removing the sidewinder from the airplane after pushing it back. It folds up quickly into a medium sized carrying bag.

Longest flight yet gets me over 500 hours

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:15:00 +0000

This weekend I made my longest airplane trip to date - from KUZA in SC out to KCFD in TX - about 850 miles. The trip was for our quarterly ForeFlight strategy meeting, where the company gets together to plan out the next 3 months of work.

Leaving KUZA I took off and picked up my IFR clearance in the air. Sometimes, like this time, the Charlotte controller knows what I wanted before I can even ask. After I called in with my tail number he just automatically gave me a transponder code and told me to standby for the clearance. Very nice, makes you feel almost welcomed. :)

I made a fuel stop at KMEI in Meridian, MS. It's a great little towered airport with plenty of young navy pilots stopping in for a break from various practice missions in the area. My stop was a short one - I got the tanks topped off, grabbed a free hot dog and drink, filed my next leg on the iPad via ForeFlight Mobile, and went out to the airplane to blast off again.

The next leg was also uneventful, and after a couple of hours I landed at KCFD. I spent most of the time in the air listening to the radio or the iPhone, talking with controllers, and religiously monitoring the flight plan, fuel situation, and engine health.

I was met by my co-workers at KCFD (GREAT airport) and we started a fun and productive long weekend to hash out company plans.

Friday included some flying in the local area. I got to take up one of our developers while my co-founder got in a quick flight with our CFI support lead. We landed at sunset, coded a bit out on the ramp in the dark, and saw two of our staff off as they departed in a C152 for the night flight home.

The flight home Monday was nice as well. I picked up only a little tailwind for the first leg to KJFX in AL. Found some good turbulence around that airport once I was under 4000' but the airport was easy to get in and out of. It was self-serve fuel, and was easy to work with, even with a 15-20 knot very cold wind trying to freeze me while I worked the pump.

I was cranking up again within 15 minutes of shutting down, and soon I was talking to ATC again on my final, shorter leg home. Had a nice 20 kt tailwind for this leg. There were lots of reports of turbulence in the area near home, and ATC asked me for a few reports on the ride (all smooth at 9000), but the flight was easy and straightforward.

I had gorgeous weather for both flights, and managed to hit 510 total hours of flight time after the trek.

Anniversary date over the mountains

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:55:00 +0000

K and I had our 11th anniversary this weekend so we celebrated with a flight over the Appalachian mountains. The goal was the see the Fall colors and just have some fun.

For this flight I tried out a new iPad knee strap - the MyClip Thigh. It worked really well - I used the iPad in both landscape and portrait orientations and the clip worked perfectly. I like how minimalist it is - doesn't get in your way at all and is easy to transport to the plane and home again. It is designed for an iPad without a case, so it won't work with the Apple case, but would likely work with less-bulky cases and certainly with a simple screen protector setup (as in my case).

Here's the MyClip helping us use ForeFlight Mobile to navigate to Mountain Air airport:

On the way to the mountains I tried something I have never done before: an in-flight magneto check. I learned details about this from an article by Mike Busch - a source of great knowledge when it comes to piston aircraft.

We leveled off at our cruise altitude of 8,500' and leaned the mixture back to around 45 degrees leak of peak. Then you let the EGTs (Exhaust Gas Temps) stabilize. Then you run on just one mag for a 25-30 seconds to see how the EGTs do. You are looking to see them all rise up (though they may rise in different amounts) and re-stabilize after 20 seconds or so. You are also looking to see if the engine runs OK on one mag in flight.

For our test both mags did just fine, though the left mag alone caused a couple of small, random backfires. All the EGTs reacted as expected and the engine was reasonably smooth when running on just one of either of the mag systems.

Here's a view of the colors we were hunting:

These are some of the many tree farms we saw, no doubt getting ready for Christmas:

And these are the slopes of Sugar Mountain, snow-less at the moment:

Meeting Scott Dennstaedt

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:45:00 +0000

Today I met up with another local aviation, Scott Dennstaedt, for lunch.

Not only is he an accomplished CFI, he's an aviation weather expert. His company, AvWx Workshops provides all sorts of education on aviation weather topics.

It was obvious just a few minutes into our conversation that's he's a bright, experienced guy that also has the ability to teach clearly - quite a combo. I plan to get his help on flights in the future when I need an expert's knowledge for better preflight planning.

Weather has always felt like a grey area in the flight training I've received, so working with Scott will no doubt help me become a better, and safer, pilot.

Flight to Williamsburg

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:23:00 +0000

We took a long weekend to visit my co-workers and our friends up in Williamsburg. My flying buddy John not only loaned us a vehicle for the weekend, but also room & board!

We fought a slight headwind heading up to VA, but like the typical October weather in the south east the skies were gorgeous and clear. We brought along our younger son Grady for this trip, equipped with orange ear plugs for noise reduction.

For my ears I tried out a brand new Lightspeed Zulu headset. At first I thought it was going to be uncomfortable after the 1.7 hours of flying, but it turned out not to be. They are not as easy on the head as the Bose X's are, but they reduce the noise levels a good bit better. The bluetooth audio input was also handy when the XM radio stopped working on the return flight (my airplane partner had to give XM a series of frustrating phone calls to get that sorted out).

The only other hit I have against the Zulu's is that they are wider than the Bose (which is part of why they are quieter). That was only a problem when I wanted the sunshield to my left to block the morning sun on the return flight. It was pretty much impossible with the Zulus because they kept tapping the shield and buzzing from the vibration. Granted, the smaller Bose have similar issues just not quite as bad.

Grady did terrific on the flight. Here's a shot at cruise when Mommy let him sit up front for a spell:

We landed at KJGG with a decently gusty wind, so I brought us in with an extra bit of airspeed. We parked near John's hangar and had to enlist the help of Bill from the FBO to find longer ropes for the tie downs (the wing tie downs are the Cirrus are fairly close to the fuselage).

We had a great time in Williamsburg. It was great to see our friends again and to visit some of our old haunts from our previous 7 years living there. All too soon it was time to go home again, but we were getting homesick to see Evan again so we weren't upset to leave.

Here's Grady helping Mommy and Daddy with the preflight for the return trip:

The flight back was very straight forward. Perfect flying weather and the CLT controller even let me cut the corner on his airspace to save a minute or two.

$200 hamburger run

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:42:00 +0000

Today my Dad and I took a mid-day flight to grab lunch at 57 Alpha, the cafe at Rutherford Co airport, KFQD.

We made a detour on the way there to overfly KCEU, Clemson, SC. We both went to school there so it was nice to take a quick peek.

After landing at KFQD we found the place fairly deserted, no doubt due to some cloudiness in the area. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the cafe: I had a chicken burrito with banana pudding (their specialty - very good) and my dad had a hamburger. After that we just walked around the airport a bit to enjoy the scenery. It's in the foothills of the mountains, so the skyline was nice to look at.

For the crank up to leave FQD, I was a little worried the engine might be tough to start. It had been turned off for about 45 minutes, and I wasn't sure if priming the engine a bit would be bad or good. Normally if I've shut down for just 15-30 minutes I don't prime, so that's what I did this time. It actually started quite quickly with no priming at all, so that worked nicely!

During the flight I tested a new electronic CO detector I bought, the CO Experts Model 2010. It was quite back-ordered, so took a while to get to me. It's very sensitive and worked well for the flight. Only went off once, for just a moment, right before we did the take off from FQD. I think it must have just detected a minute about of CO from the engine. Other than that time, it was reading zero ppm for the flight.

I've been told to never use one of these as they have been shown to give false readings (not change color in the presence of CO) and expire quickly, so I decided that the CO Experts one was the way to go, especially since I take my young boys on trips in the airplane.

Flying home from OSH

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:47:00 +0000

Today I grabbed a ride from my co-worker to get back down to KFLD for the trip home.

When we arrived my airplane was tied up right in front of the FBO. Most of the hundreds of other planes were already gone. A pair of guys cranked up a DA-20 while I preflighted, and what I think was a C-210 took off just before I did.

I filed IFR from KFLD to the Chicago VOR (ORD) to KUZA. When I called up approach they told me I couldn't pick up IFR within 100nm of OSH. That surprised me a bit because I had read that Sunday was the last day of unusual rules, but I guess I missed that one.

After thinking a second I realized that going VFR for a while would actually be really great. So I pointed my nose at Chicago and climbed out to 11,500' to get over their airspace.

I used the autopilot to follow the shoreline of Lake Michigan and worked my way south. Plugging in the iPhone to the intercom gave me a good soundtrack for the trip.

Once I cleared Chicago's airspace I was plenty far away from OSH to get a clearance. I called up Chicago and they worked me in quickly with a clearance to head direct home (yet more music to my ears).

The remainder of the trip was quite uneventful. I enjoyed a few knots of tailwind for the flight so I was able to avoid a fuel stop. I made a rule for myself that if the flight computer told me I'd only have 20 gallons upon landing (or if the gas needles showed values that didn't make sense with the computer) then I'd make a stop.

With the tailwind I was able to just keep the music cranked and simply monitor the aircraft systems (and other traffic) while taking in the sights.

Charlotte gave me the typical vectors around their airspace and set me up for a ILS approach into my home base (the clouds had built up a bit during the flight). Not many folks were flying since the clouds were a little low, so the radio was fairly quiet.

I ended with a landing to be proud of for the finale of my longest aircraft trip to date!

At Oshkosh 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:31:00 +0000

My week actually in Oshkosh was pretty amazing. I saw very little of the airshow, but spent the majority of my time manning the ForeFlight booth in Hangar D.

We setup Sunday afternoon after I arrived at KFLD. ForeFlight rented a house and borrowed a car from the home owner. We used that and another rental car to drive to the airport/show and park by Hangar D.

A colleague went ahead to grab up our credentials so, with that all set, we brought our literature, posters, and other materials into Hangar D. The booth was there waiting on us (I had shipped it UPS to the show) so within an hour or so my Dad, co-worker, and I had the booth setup and ready to go. It really went about as well as it could have.

The next day, Monday, was the first day of the show. We were swamped from the beginning of the day until the end, 9-5.

It was really great getting to talk to everyone - existing customers, well wishers, people that had never seen an iPad before, the whole gamut. My co-worker and I manned the booth all day without a single break. Needless to say, we were exhausted, thirsty, and hungry at quitting time.

My dad and I went to our car and made a run for pizza and supplies from Wal-Mart (snacks, drinks, etc.).

The rest of the week went just like Monday, completely swamped. However we were able to enlist help in manning the booth from some our our advisors and beta testers that were attending the show. They sacrificed their valuable Oshkosh-time to help meet and greet folks at our booth. We were so happy they helped out - even with their help we had a very hard time taking a break.

The last day, Sunday, was a bit slower as most of the pilots were either leaving or had left Saturday. My co-worker was able to man the booth solo (he's a machine) so I took the chance to go back to the house and stay off my feet (they were killing me - I'm just a desk jockey after all).

That night I used ForeFlight Mobile (what else?!) to brief my flight home on Monday.

Oshkosh in the Cirrus

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:21:00 +0000

I got the chance to attend AirVenture (Oshkosh) this year as an exhibitor - we ForeFlight-ers had our first booth ever at the biggest general aviation airshow there is!

My dad joined me for the flight up to Osh. We flew on an IFR flight plan from KUZA up to KCEV first, for a cheap fuel and bathroom stop. A CFI was manning the small FBO there and gave me great instructions on parking by the self-serve pumps - he went so far as to pump the gas for us before he started a lesson with a student. He wouldn't accept the tip I tried to give him, instead he set me up in his office so I could check the weather. They're giving southern hospitality a run for its money up there!

The airport was gorgeous, surrounding by lush farmland, but we didn't have time to soak it in - soon we were blasting off for KFLD (Fond du lac) and talking to Dayton approach to pick up our clearance.

As we neared Chicago they routed us well west of the airport, adding 10-15 minutes of flight time to the trip and throwing a quick "figure out this new route" problem my way. ForeFlight Mobile made it easy to sort out what waypoints to add to the 430 GPS, and after a few traffic vectors we eventually were cut loose to go direct to KFLD. When I say "cut loose" I mean it - I was told that if I didn't cancel by the time I was near Madison they'd cancel IFR for me - I didn't have a IFR reservation slot.

However, when I did cancel the nice controller offered to keep giving me traffic advisories so I stayed with him another 10 minutes or so before getting ready to land at KFLD.

Once we canceled services with ATC we dialed in the ATIS at KFLD. Since traffic was heavy there (soggy grass had lots of people going to KFLD instead of KOSH) they had standard patterns to enter for landing on runway 36. In our case we went east over the city and entered a downwind leg. You don't talk back to the tower controller when it's that busy - instead you rock your wings. So as we entered the pattern he called out "white cirrus, number 4 for landing, if you hear this rock your wings" and so we rocked.

We followed the line of aircraft in the pattern until we were just over the numbers. We were much closer to the airplane in front of us than I would normally allow - but when it's that busy you just have to be up on your "game". I was starting to flare when the tower asked me to land long, so I put a decent bit of power in and we kept flying for another 1500' feet or so. After that I decided I wanted to get my wheels on the ground (the end of the runway was fast approaching) so I landed and got on the brakes just enough to make the taxiway.

Ground had us taxi over to the east-west runway to park off the taxiway with the others. We slowly taxied by all the aircraft, nervous that a wing tip might tap another planes prop, and then shutdown. The folks working the parking pushed us back into the grass but it was quickly obvious that the SR22 was too heavy for wet grass parking. We were stuck with the nose still out in the taxiway a bit. Time to call the tug.

It took the better part of an hour for the tug to arrive so we just had to wait it out in the sun. I hovered over the prop to guard it from other aircraft taxiing by. One guy in particular taxied by so fast I actually yelled at him - he was doing 15-20MPH in an area with inches of clearance and people walking all around. Luckily he didn't hit anything. It sure did make me think that some folks don't have enough sense to fly an aircraft though.

In that same vein the guys parked next to us decided it would be a good idea to crawl into the back of their small RV aircraft - an aircraft that was parked on an incline. When the the guy plopped himself in the backseat to get his luggage - BAMMM - the tail smacked into the grass. They just picked up the tail and shrugged it off - I stood there wondering if they had managed to break something structurally important.

Eventually the tug arrived and took us to hard surface parking. Again I tried to tip the tug operator but he'd have none of it - instead he promised to find a tie down spot for me as soon as he could.

The gentleman whose house ForeFlight rented came down from OSH to pick up us in his car. He even helped us unload the airplane and put the cover on.

We had finally arrived - happy but tired and ready for a late lunch!

...More on my OSH trip in the next post!

Grady's first flight

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:15:00 +0000

Just like his older brother, Grady's first flight was in a Cirrus SR22 - in style! I flew the family over to Anderson to drop them off for a visit with the grandparents.

I got a bit of IFR practice in, which I enjoyed, and the kids got to see their grandparents a few days earlier than if they waited to drive! I posted a couple of pictures on Facebook.

When shooting the approach into KAND I had to get some radio relay help to talk to Greer Approach - I guess they don't have a repeater near Lake Hartwell. That added a bit of spice to the approach as I worked with a guy in a Piper to relay my IFR cancelation request. Glad that Piper flying gentleman came to my rescue. ;)

The return trip home was good practice as well - the clouds had built even more then and I was right in the thick of them. When I hopped off of KAND and called up Greer they immediately knew I was looking for a clearance and just started rattling it off to me - that made it nice and easy as I was climbing toward the clouds quickly.

Going to Cirrus Migration 8 in Dayton

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:46:00 +0000

I just recently returned from Dayton, having attended the annual Cirrus Migration get-together. This was my first time at Migration, and Migration's first time not being held in Duluth. I attended partly to see if ForeFlight should exhibit there next year, partly to make new acquaintances, and partly to learn more about Cirrus. I managed to tackle all three goals quite nicely.

I flew up to OH on Thursday with great weather. I had a 10-15 kt headwind for the trip so it took a bit over 2 hours to get there. Charlotte approach gave me a few vector headings around their airspace but shortly cleared me to point directly to my destination - very cool. As I crossed the mountains they sent me up to 10,000' (I was at 8,000' before, just below ATC's minimal altitudes for that area).

I used ForeFlight Mobile HD on my iPad to follow my progress along the IFR low altitude charts. It was also handy for frequency lookups - I like to guess at the next frequency ATC will give me so I can pre-load it.

I landed at KDAY after a bit of time in the clouds near Dayton. The FBO parked me along taxiway H, along with a few dozen other Cirrus aircraft (my bird is the close one on the left, with the cover).

I spent the next few days attending the various events at Migration. I had the privilege to meet a large number of current and soon-to-be ForeFlight customers as well, which was the highlight of the trip. We went to the Air Force museum at Wright-Patterson, which easily rivals or beats the Air and Space museum at the Smithsonian. I plan to take my sons there in a few years, when they are a bit older and able to appreciate it all.

During the first night we had a dinner, all 500 or so of us, at a park in town. Just before we went into the tent to eat, I was walking around taking in a few of the sites (and giving the occasional demo of the iPad). After a bit I saw a older gentleman sitting by himself on a circular bench around a tree, off to the side. Sitting down sounded like a good idea, so I went his way and sat opposite him. After a bit I heard him talking on a radio, and using the words "air boss". That perked my ears so I started to pay attention.

I soon realized he was coordinating the fly-bys for a few different aircraft. First he cleared in a P51 (red tail!) and we watch him pass. He was a bit off to the side, not directly overhead, so the Air Boss said "do that again, but more East this time". Again the Mustang flew overhead, this time giving a better view - gorgeous airplane!

Next was the Wright flyer, I believe it was the 3rd model

the Wrights created. It was a bit slower, but was very impressive to see. I couldn't help but marvel how far we've come: I flew in that morning at 200 MPH with massive amounts of situational awareness the entire time - the pilot of the Wright flyer was working his rear end off the just keep the airplane flying properly. Only 1 century between the Cirrus and the Wright flyer, yet their capabilities, safety, comfort, and design are worlds apart.

After the flyer came a pair of Cirrus SR22s: one was like mine, the other was Cirrus' new turbo engine model.

And last but not least was the Cirrus Jet. It came overhead once, after getting lots of directional help from the Air Boss, but was so quiet few people even looked up to see it. The Boss said to me "That was kind of quiet wasn't it"? I said "yeah, I don't think anyone knew it was there, maybe they have the power way back". Then the Boss got on the radio again and said "Jet, nice pass, cleared for another, this time can you make some more noise"? Almost immediately we heard the pilot respond and the jet engine build up volume in the distance. When he passed over the next time everyone took notice - it was a really great pass in a steep turn.

For my return trip on Sunday I ended up with near-perfect conditions for the flight: clear skies and a great tailwind. I averaged around 200 kts of groundspeed for the trip and was back home in well less than 2 hours.

The fog in the valleys looked like glaciers in Alaska - I could almost swear I could see them flowing down from the peaks:

Here's a video of part of the return trip:

Returning home from Dayton - Cirrus SR22 from Jason Miller on Vimeo.

Actual approaches

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:46:00 +0000

Today I took my brother in law, Zack, up for a flight in a bit of weather. We had clouds from around 1,000' - 2,500' in the area so it was great IFR practice.

We shot an approach at Rutherford CO, KFQD, then pointed south to Spartanburg for an ILS approach. After Spartanburg we were directed straight back to Rock Hill, with a few vectors to get around traffic and the heaviest of the precip. XM WX was quite handy to have on hand.

I also made great use of ForeFlight Mobile HD, mainly to view approach plates, but also to keep track of our progress on the sectional display. Some of the recent changes I made (based on what I learned during my last flight with FFM) definitely helped me out. The big one was not letting the iPad sleep while FFM is running. That keeps me from worrying about the screen blanking out and having to wake it up again. As always, I picked up a few new ideas to add as well.

We ended the flight with an ILS into Rock Hill. We hit some heavy precip on the last bit of the flight but at around 1500' AGL we broke out from the clouds and the rain calmed down. We descended a little more and did a circle-to-land for runway 20. A very soft touchdown was the icing on the cake!

IFR radio practice

noreply@blogger.com (Millz) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:07:00 +0000

Today I made an early flight over to KCEU and back. For the leg to Clemson I went IFR to get some practice on the radio.

Just before takeoff I found out that both GPSs were not getting a good signal. I took off anyway since it was severe clear and expected they would get fixed up on there own. However, they never really did start working again until I was almost back to Rock Hill 1.5 hours later.

Turns out that the antenna is mounted under the glaresheild using velcro of all things. It had come loose and so was no longer seeing the entire sky.

That's where ForeFlight Mobile helped out a great deal. I was able to watch my GPS-derived position on the VFR sectional charts as I motored along. Helped out a great deal - I was surprised how tough it can be to determine your exact location in a Cirrus when the GPSs are inoperative. You go from massive amounts of positional info to very little.

Always a good idea to have an independent backup!