No Fly (See 6/26 Post)

Still waiting for a fuel pump. REALLY, REALLY wish I was flying... Stay tuned... Next scheduled flight: July, 2.

No Fuel Pump = No Fly

Today’s fight was cancelled due to lack of plane… The plane was in for a 100 hour inspection and it was found that the fuel pump was INOP. It was the electric pump – not the engine-driven pump. I’m glad that they fount that problem during the inspection rather than when I was on short final needing to do a go-around.

Scott and I instead spent a couple of hours doing ground instruction and hangar flying. Mostly the latter. He presented a few mnemonics for me to learn. Aviation is full of these and I probably wouldn't have passed the written or oral for my Private Pilot without them…

mne·mon·ic (neh-MAHN-ik)

adj.
Relating to, assisting, or intended to assist the memory.
n.
A device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering.

TTTTT – Crossing a Fix/Approach

T turn to proper heading
T time hold or approach
T twist OBS knob to inbound course
T throttle adjustments, as required
T talk - procedure turn inbound, entering the hold, etc.

WIRETAP – Near Destination

W Weather (AWOS, ATIS, ASOS, etc.)
I instruments set
R radios tuned
E elevation (check final approach fix altitude)
T talk to ATC
A altitudes for decision height or minimum descent altitude
P procedure for missed approach

Another that I shouldn’t publish – it is a family blog.

We talked about the three different entries into a hold: Parallel, Direct, and Teardrop. This is what we were going to fly today – VOR intercepts, holds, and approaches. I am supposed to fly tomorrow so I can practice these procedures without the hood (JeppShades). It was a good lesson in ground. Scott has a good teaching style so that it is easy to understand the information he is presenting. He also does a good job relating the information to material in the book and the FAR/AIM.

All in all, a good day. I just wish I was flying…

IR Lesson and the Garmin

My flight today was great. I have been looking forward to this flight for days since my last flight was cancelled due to aircraft maintenance. Other than being a little on the warm side (90 degrees at 6:30AM), the air was smooth and visibility was 20 plus miles. Not that visibility mattered much it was IFR training…

181547Z VRB05KT 30SM SKC 35/10 A2992

Scott and I spent about ½ hour going over some ground school stuff before heading out to the plane. We took off from runway 22L and headed south. We began with some constant rate climbs, turns to headings and standard rate turns. After that, we began tracing the Williams Gateway or “WILLIE” VOR (IWA). A lot of this was review from my Private Pilot training but there was a very compelling difference – the Garmin GNS 430 is far more complex and capable than I had known.

As a VFR pilot I was used to following a purple line to my destination. When using the GPS and CDI (Course Deviation Indicator) it is a lot more accurate than following the purple line on the moving map! Additionally, when flying VFR, I only used a fraction of the capabilities of the Garmin. Typically I would use the “nearest” function to find nearby airports or I could look up local airport frequencies if I didn’t have them in front of me. Today I learned so much more about functions of the Garmin GPS unit I was nearly overwhelmed. It is a lot to learn and retain. You can track and locate VORs, Airports, NDBs, Intersections, and a lot more. While using a VOR to fly to and using multiple VORs to triangulate position was a lot of review from my Private Pilot training, today was much more in-depth.

After tracking the Stanfield VOR (TFD), we used that to locate Eloy airport (E60). This is a small uncontrolled airport with a lot of jumping activity. We did a touch and go after a nasty exchange with one of the jump pilots. It seemed like this jump pilot had a bit of an attitude. As if we were an imposition to her traffic pattern! Oh well, it won’t be the last time… The jump pilots at Pinal (MZJ) are really great and work with other aircraft when jumping activity is in process.

Upon departing Eloy (thankfully), we flew to the Stanfield VOR and then turned to the Phoenix VOR (PXR). We flew toward PXR and switched to GPS tracking to Chandler. We flew over their Class Delta airspace and flew GPS to Falcon Field for a landing – not a bad one either. Great time!

It was a fun lesson. Also, being able to appreciate a well equipped airplane is something that I am quickly learning to do!

Flight time: 1.5

Total Time: 92.3

No Flying Today...

Today was my first "official" instrument lesson. After acquiring all of the stuff I needed for my Private, I had to do a little additional shopping today. My CFI uses the ASA Syllabus and Book.

To date, as I embark on my IFR training, I have invested:

The Pilot's Manual: Instrument Rating Syllabus: $12.95

The Pilot's Manual: Instrument Flying: $41.95

Low Altitude IFR Chart: $4.90

JeppShades: $24.95

Gleim Instrument Test Prep Audio: $60.00

FAA Instrument Flying Handbook: $21.95

Compared to the initial purchase of nearly $1000.00, this was a little easier to stomach!

The airplane that we were going to fly today had an alternator failure and is in maintenance so it looks like today we will only do some ground work. We are working our of the ASA syllabus and it is nicely planned and will work well for our training. The first section - or stage - is mostly review of some of the principles that were learned in the private pilot lessons. A little more in-depth but still a lot of review.

We began with a review of the instruments (the six pack + engine instruments) and had some discussion about how they work. We did a quick review of the pitot-static system. He described various types of instrument scans and then we moved right into VOR, DME, NDB, GPS, and Loran discussions/training.

For next week, he has given me a boat-load of reading in the text and AIM. It is exciting and interesting reading at least (that's the engineer in me coming out). I am looking forward to getting back up in the air though!

By the way, I am still waiting for the Arrow to come out of maintenance so that I can wrap up my complex aircraft endorsement.

On a better note...

On a positive note, I have my first IFR lesson scheduled on Tuesday morning with a new instructor. I really liked my old instructor for my private but it seemed that he had a lot of outside interests and our schedules were hard to synchronize. We more often flew when he could fly rather than flying when I wanted to fly. I figure that if I’m paying for something, I should get exactly what I want (or close to that). I have no ill will towards RC.

After all, he is a very big reason why enjoy the privileges of PP-ASEL today. I’m looking forward to Tuesday. I already own (and have begun to read) Jeppesen’s, “The Pilot’s Manual: Instrument Flying” and the Gleim CD study guide for Instrument Flying. I’m excited to get rolling towards IFR flying!

Head Case

It’s funny how things work…

I had been itching to fly again since I landed last week. I was supposed to have my final checkout in the Arrow which would give me my complex aircraft endorsement this past Monday. Unfortunately, the A&P guys found something in the 100 hour inspection and they are “waiting on a part.” Oh well, I simply scheduled some time in an Archer for today and was planning a short cross country hop up to Payson (PAN) – I hear they have a really good restaurant up there.

I left home for the office at 06:30 and called Flight Services for a briefing on my way into the office. We had a cold front past through yesterday and last night and the net result would be a high of 90 degrees today. This is relatively cool for Arizona in June and I was hoping to take advantage of the lower than normal temperatures and density altitude.

According to the briefer, there was an AIRMET for moderate turbulence from the surface to FL160. Winds aloft were light and variable up to 6,000 and 290 at 12kts at 9000 feet. No convective activity. No PIREPS for anything. Other than the usual surface heating, I’m thinking that turbulence shouldn’t be an issue for my flight. The briefer agreed.

Got to the office at 07:00 and exchanged a few e-mails, talked to a couple of people, and printed my “trip kit” from the Jeppesen flight planning software. Pulled out of the office at 07:30 and headed out to the airport. As I began the 20 minute drive to the airport, I noticed that I was fairly distracted with some of the things going on at the office. Oh well, not to worry, flying should clear my head.

I arrived at the airport at 07:50 and couldn’t find the plane that I had reserved! A quick check in the office revealed that the plane I reserved, N287HP, was in for an annual inspection. They had kindly moved me to N4182L. No big deal – they’re identical planes. They have the same equipment and differ only in paint color. The electric trim is INOP in 82L and that was the only reason I reserverd 7HP instead of 82L.

I began my pre-flight and realized that the person who had flown before me forgot to order fuel. So now, I had to wait for the fuel truck. It was 08:25 before I yelled, “CLEAR PROP,” and started the engine. By this time, I had a few things from the office, the plane switch, and the irritation of waiting on fuel all swirling around in my head. None of these things are incredibly egregious but combined they are a distraction. Again, I defer to the supposition that the noise in my head will dissipate once I’m airborne.

I taxied to the run-up area. Usually we turn such that your prop wash is blown back into a grassy field next to the run-up area. Today there was a 152 doing a run-up on the taxiway. Fortunately there isn’t a lot of prop wash from a 152 but it is mildly irritating. I was finally cleared for takeoff (behind the 152). My DTK for PAN is 010* and we were leaving runway 04. The Cessna was supposed to turn right while I would essentially fly straight out and slightly to my left. I was catching up to him and he didn’t appear to be turning. I didn’t want to turn to my left because there is traffic off of runway 4L and I didn’t want to turn right because I assumed that the Cessna would eventually turn right. I was running out of options right when the tower instructed the Cessna to, “turn right immediately!” Thank you very much!

As I continue my climb out, I radio Phoenix approach and immediately know that my VFR request will be turned down just from the amount of traffic on the frequency. I ask anyway. They say, “Call back in 10 minutes…” I press on. Now I begin to realize that all of the crap I brought with me on this flight is still swimming around in my head and I am adding to it! I wasn’t enjoying myself at all. I wasn’t flying well and I was distracted. Time to head back.

I thought that flying would have a positive impact on all of the junk going on in my head. Instead all of the junk in my head was having a negative impact on my flying. Since I had all of this activity in my head, my gut jumped in and said, “Time to land.”

I was told to enter a wide right base for runway 4R. I was cleared to land right about the time they decided to switch to runway 22. I had just turned about a ¾ mile final and the controller cleared a Diamond for takeoff – no delay. When the Diamond asked for a repeat, I was already offsetting to the right for a go-around when the controller instructed me to do just that. She asked me to offset wide to the right, do a 360, and enter a mid field left downwind for runway 22L. Got to do a little extra flying anyhow.

I had about a 10kt crosswind on landing and floated a little. Nothing major and came back down right on the centerline. I tied up the plane and headed back to the office. I guess I had better take care of the stuff that was irritating me. I suppose that this is a lesson learned in that I made a good decision not to continue my flight; however, a better decision would have been to wait until I had a clear head before I attempt to enjoy the clear skies.

Flight time: 0.8

Total time: 90.8