November 23, 2012
Over the last several of weeks I've had a few firsts:
Nov. 2nd - This was a very fun cross country. I took my commercial training instructor with me and our first stop was Rolla Downtown. This was a tiny, deserted airport that was surrounded by trees with a 37ft wide runway. I'm used to landing on 75ft+ wide runways. We practiced an instrument coming in which took us straight to the runway, however because of it's size, we didn't see it until we were basically on top of it. We flew outbound and got established then turned inbound for the landing. If successful, this would be the narrowest runway that I have ever landed on. Flaps down, throttle back, descend. The trees are all around; below me. I slowly lower us down, watching carefully to not hit the trees. I'm lined up perfectly and gently let the plane sink onto the runway. Tricky, but executed beautifully.
We then took off and flew to Bismark, which had a 50ft wide runway, also with surrounding trees, but the runway was 1000ft shorter than Rolla Downtown. The first attempt required a go-around otherwise I would've rolled off the end of the runway. The second time was much better. This runway seemed like a much bigger challenge than Rolla's. We then took off and with a lot of extra time, we decided to make a landing at Creve Coeur... on the grass strip. I have been wanting to try this for over a year and I knew today would be a perfect opportunity. We head into the airport and circle while waiting for a plane on the strip to takeoff. Now it's our turn. My instructor reminds that this landing will require a soft field procedure. Once over the runway, I hold it off until we lose enough speed that the plane naturally wants to touch down. With the wheels now on the grass, I use all my strength to pull the yoke back, keeping the nose wheel off the ground as much as possible. The grass is in good condition, but being nature, it's still quiet bumpy and we don't want to damage the nose wheel. After taxiing back, we takeoff and immediately make a turn to the north to avoid Class B airspace. It was a very exciting trip, one that I remember for a long time.
You can find videos of the landings on my YouTube page. Click the video button on the top of my blog to find the link.
Nov. 4th - Today I took up a friend/ co-worker and her boyfriend to see the Arch. Usually when I do the Arch tour, I'm too afraid of accidentally entering Class B and/or Class D airspace, so I just take a different route. It's normally follow the Mississippi River to the Arch, then turn around and follow it home, avoiding the city entirely. This time I was going to step outside of my comfort zone and use an iPad app called Foreflight to help me navigate the airspace. We fly over St. Peters, head towards Creve Coeur, find Hwy 40 and turn left to follow it downtown. Off to our left side is a St. Louis favorite, Forest Park. Straight ahead we see downtown. I call a local airport tower to get clearance to enter their airspace, then I circle us around the Arch a couple times before heading northbound. My passengers are taking pictures right and left and apparently can't stop smiling... I'm happy. We follow the Mississippi back home and land. I'm so glad they had a good time. I live to put smiles on people's faces, especially when I can provide them with an experience of a lifetime.
Nov. 16th - I finally took the dreaded FAA Instrument knowledge exam... and PASSED!!
Nov. 18th - I met with our Chief CFI and took the Stage 3 Check/ End of Course test. This consisted of an oral exam, followed my a flight exam. By the time this was over, I was exhausted! Thankfully he signed the required documents saying that I could schedule the final checkride if my CFI and I agreed that I am ready. I think I'll fly a couple more times to fine tune some things, then schedule the checkride. I'm so close to finishing!!
Friday, November 23, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Route Names
November 3, 2012
Today I found an article on the St. Louis Post Dispatch online website. I thought it was pretty neat so I had to share. It was written by Bill McClellan.
"The times change in ways that most of us do not notice. Old heroes get pushed aside for new ones.
That is happening now, unseen, in the air above us.
The Federal Aviation Administration is phasing out its ground-based navigational system and replacing it with GPS technology.
In the lingo of the air traffic controllers, routes in and out of airports are called flight procedures. These routes, or procedures, have names.
In the past, if you were flying out of Lambert, you might have been on a Lindy procedure.
Under the new system, Lindbergh has been replaced by Chuck Berry. Actually, the hometown king of rock-and-roll has four procedures — Chuck, Berry, Johnny and B Goode.
Technically, they are CHUUC, BERYY, JAHNY and BGOOD.
Each designation must contain five characters and be unique because the designations get entered into flight computers. So if there is a CHUCK somewhere else in the system, we can’t have it here.
In addition to procedures, there are turn points — locations along the routes at which the planes turn. These turn points also have names.
Most common names are taken. People in the air traffic control system come up with the names, and there is a tendency to name these things after themselves.
So Chuck Berry will have to be content with CHUUC BERYY.
It is not just Chuck Berry who has been honored. TEDDD and DRUSE will ring a bell to any pilot who knows anything about frozen custard.
The idea of honoring local icons came from the controllers at the St. Louis Terminal Radar Approach Control. That facility is located in St. Charles County.
While the air traffic controllers at the airport control a five-mile radius around Lambert up to 3,000 feet, the controllers at TRACON control aircraft within a 40-mile radius up to 15,000 feet. They operate out of a large, dark room, lit mainly by radar consoles. It looks like something out of “Star Wars.”
It’s high-stress work. Mandatory retirement comes at 56, although some controllers join the administrative staff.
I visited Thursday and met with controllers Tom Tierney and Buel Warden, who is also the facility’s union rep, and Tim Shegitz, the district manager. His district includes parts of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and all of Arkansas.
Tierney, Shegitz and the late Phil Harman, a staffer who died of a heart attack this spring, came up with most of the names for the procedures and turn points.
So who’s honored? Harman was a hockey fan, so turning points ALMAC, BAKIS, BERGY, BHULL, FDRKO, KRIYA, OSHIE, SUTRR honor Al MacInnis, David Backes, Patrik Berglund, Brett Hull, Bernie Federko, Paul Kariya, T.J. Oshie and the Sutter brothers.
Football fans will recognize BAKKN, JHART, DOBLR, WHRLI, BIDWL, KURRT, BRUUC, FAULK, HOLLT, VERML, SSAMM and JACSN.
STAAN, YADDI, OZZEE, BGMAC, GIBEE, JBUCK, FLUDD, PUJOL and KARPP will be familiar to pilots who follow the Cardinals, and they will likely hear Mike Shannon’s voice when they approach the turn point GETUP.
It’s not all sports. EEMOS and PROVL will speak to pizza-lovers, while fans of toasted ravioli will appreciate TRAVS. Classic rock gets a nod from turning point KSHE.
Perhaps the most iconic St. Louis approach will be for pilots who hit, in order, turning points BUUDD, WEIZZ and EERRR.
The old system had a little bit of local color itself. In addition to the LINDY procedures, there used to be a navigational point called COORS.
It pre-dated the fellows I met with, but Warden said he heard a story that an executive at the brewery had said something negative about the controllers during their ill-fated strike in 1981, and in response, the controllers had named a navigational point COORS.
Supposedly, that designation used to annoy a certain pilot, August Busch III.
In 2004, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association had its convention in St. Louis. The brewery generously hosted a party at Grant’s Farm.
Shortly thereafter, COORS was changed to AUGIE.
AUGIE still exists, a part of the ground-based navigational system that will be used by older aircraft that do not have GPS technology.
But LINDY is being phased out. Roll over Charles Lindbergh, and tell Tchaikovsky the news."
Click here for the website article.
Today I found an article on the St. Louis Post Dispatch online website. I thought it was pretty neat so I had to share. It was written by Bill McClellan.
"The times change in ways that most of us do not notice. Old heroes get pushed aside for new ones.
That is happening now, unseen, in the air above us.
The Federal Aviation Administration is phasing out its ground-based navigational system and replacing it with GPS technology.
In the lingo of the air traffic controllers, routes in and out of airports are called flight procedures. These routes, or procedures, have names.
In the past, if you were flying out of Lambert, you might have been on a Lindy procedure.
Under the new system, Lindbergh has been replaced by Chuck Berry. Actually, the hometown king of rock-and-roll has four procedures — Chuck, Berry, Johnny and B Goode.
Technically, they are CHUUC, BERYY, JAHNY and BGOOD.
Each designation must contain five characters and be unique because the designations get entered into flight computers. So if there is a CHUCK somewhere else in the system, we can’t have it here.
In addition to procedures, there are turn points — locations along the routes at which the planes turn. These turn points also have names.
Most common names are taken. People in the air traffic control system come up with the names, and there is a tendency to name these things after themselves.
So Chuck Berry will have to be content with CHUUC BERYY.
It is not just Chuck Berry who has been honored. TEDDD and DRUSE will ring a bell to any pilot who knows anything about frozen custard.
The idea of honoring local icons came from the controllers at the St. Louis Terminal Radar Approach Control. That facility is located in St. Charles County.
While the air traffic controllers at the airport control a five-mile radius around Lambert up to 3,000 feet, the controllers at TRACON control aircraft within a 40-mile radius up to 15,000 feet. They operate out of a large, dark room, lit mainly by radar consoles. It looks like something out of “Star Wars.”
It’s high-stress work. Mandatory retirement comes at 56, although some controllers join the administrative staff.
I visited Thursday and met with controllers Tom Tierney and Buel Warden, who is also the facility’s union rep, and Tim Shegitz, the district manager. His district includes parts of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and all of Arkansas.
Tierney, Shegitz and the late Phil Harman, a staffer who died of a heart attack this spring, came up with most of the names for the procedures and turn points.
So who’s honored? Harman was a hockey fan, so turning points ALMAC, BAKIS, BERGY, BHULL, FDRKO, KRIYA, OSHIE, SUTRR honor Al MacInnis, David Backes, Patrik Berglund, Brett Hull, Bernie Federko, Paul Kariya, T.J. Oshie and the Sutter brothers.
Football fans will recognize BAKKN, JHART, DOBLR, WHRLI, BIDWL, KURRT, BRUUC, FAULK, HOLLT, VERML, SSAMM and JACSN.
STAAN, YADDI, OZZEE, BGMAC, GIBEE, JBUCK, FLUDD, PUJOL and KARPP will be familiar to pilots who follow the Cardinals, and they will likely hear Mike Shannon’s voice when they approach the turn point GETUP.
It’s not all sports. EEMOS and PROVL will speak to pizza-lovers, while fans of toasted ravioli will appreciate TRAVS. Classic rock gets a nod from turning point KSHE.
Perhaps the most iconic St. Louis approach will be for pilots who hit, in order, turning points BUUDD, WEIZZ and EERRR.
The old system had a little bit of local color itself. In addition to the LINDY procedures, there used to be a navigational point called COORS.
It pre-dated the fellows I met with, but Warden said he heard a story that an executive at the brewery had said something negative about the controllers during their ill-fated strike in 1981, and in response, the controllers had named a navigational point COORS.
Supposedly, that designation used to annoy a certain pilot, August Busch III.
In 2004, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association had its convention in St. Louis. The brewery generously hosted a party at Grant’s Farm.
Shortly thereafter, COORS was changed to AUGIE.
AUGIE still exists, a part of the ground-based navigational system that will be used by older aircraft that do not have GPS technology.
But LINDY is being phased out. Roll over Charles Lindbergh, and tell Tchaikovsky the news."
Click here for the website article.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Pumpkin Drop
October 27, 2012
Today was a fun day. Not a lesson, not a cross country, not even ground studies. Today was my airport's Annual Open House and Pumpkin Drop Competition. We attract a lot of visitors, some of which are pilots and some are not. It's a day that people from all around the area come to hang out, talk airplanes, eat food, have a little friendly competition. They can also check out the Corvette car show, experimental planes on display and get up and close to the old Air Force Planes.
I don't have to work dispatch today, so I invite a lot of family to come out and visit. I pick up my brother and arrive at the airport at 10am. First thing on the to-do list is to register for the pumpkin drop. The sooner that I sign up, the sooner my bombardier and I can throw pumpkins out of the plane. The rest of my family shows up and we hang out for a bit until it's my turn to fly.
The competition works like this: You pay $20 for one round, and one round consists of 3 trips in the traffic pattern where you will drop one pumpkin on each trip. There is a 100ft diameter circle target on the ground. The goal is to get your pumpkins closest to the center of the target. I will fly about 300ft above the ground and fly at a slower airspeed. After all three drops, you get a score based on the distance that your pumpkin fell from the center. The person will the lowest score (meaning closest to the center) wins!
My brother is going to be my bombardier, but I have a backseat so I ask if any of my family wants to also ride along. My sister-in-law speaks up. It's our turn, so I grab the keys and we all walk out to the plane. I do the preflight inspection, buckle everyone in, then start the engine. I taxi us out to the runway behind a couple other planes. They takeoff one by one, then next up is me. I watch for traffic and listen to pilot's radio calls for positioning reports. The pattern is packed with planes. We sit for 5-10 minutes because there just isn't a place for us yet. Finally we catch a very short break, and I take it. Lift-off.
We follow the traffic pattern around, being vigilant to watch for other traffic. After turning onto final, I start my descent and slow the plane. My brother opens the window and starts giving me directions; a little to the left, little more, perfect. He releases the pumpkin and it falls from his hands, 300 ft above the ground, and plummets to the ground. SMASH!
I add power and climb back up to pattern altitude. My passengers look out the side window and see that the B25 Bomber is making it's way into the pattern. It was directly off our right wing. Wow, how cool is this? Sharing the sky with a sweet old Air Force bomber! We then turn onto downwind, still watching for traffic. It appears that there are at least six other planes up here with me, and all are flying different patterns; some wide, some narrow. I look out the left window and see another plane also on downwind! Well crap. We are literately side by side, and I'm not sure if they know I'm right next to them. Making our turn onto base is going to be interesting. We watch to see what he does, and it looks like I'm going to be able to squeeze onto base first. I make my radio call and then turn. All works out ok but man, I'm getting stressed. We descend and turn onto final. Window open, line up with the target, drop some airspeed, then release. SPLAT!
One more chance now. I climb back up to pattern altitude and watch traffic. Thankfully this time, some of the planes were done with their round and were landing. Less traffic to deal with, and my blood pressure slowly starts coming back down. Breathe... we turn onto downwind, then base, descend, turn onto final, slow down, line up, drop!
That's all we have left, so I fly the pattern around again so that I can set up to land. The wind was breezy and coming from the north, so we land on runway 36. Nice and smooth, just how I like it. We taxi back, turn the plane off and turn in the keys for the next person.
That was fun! Not long after, half of my family leaves and the other half stay so that we can walk to the other side of the airport and check out all the other planes and corvettes. I won't know until after closing who won the competition, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be us.
We walk around for an hour or so before calling it a day. My family goes home and I decide to stay for another hour to hang out with airport friends and watch the B25 drop its pumpkins. The bomber starts up its engines and taxiis out to the runway. He takes off, flies around, lines up with the target then BAAM! He releases about 10 pumpkins, some of which were hollowed out and filled with flour. They shoot towards the target and slam into the ground.
He flies back around for another try. This time he absolutely nails the target. It was incredible, and it made the Channel 5 News! Click here to watch: KSDK.com
After he finished up, I decided that I had enough sun and the cold wind and was ready to head home. It was a lot of fun and probably the most fun I've had since my airport started holding this annual event.
Update: We did not win, but that's ok. Still worth doing!
Today was a fun day. Not a lesson, not a cross country, not even ground studies. Today was my airport's Annual Open House and Pumpkin Drop Competition. We attract a lot of visitors, some of which are pilots and some are not. It's a day that people from all around the area come to hang out, talk airplanes, eat food, have a little friendly competition. They can also check out the Corvette car show, experimental planes on display and get up and close to the old Air Force Planes.
I don't have to work dispatch today, so I invite a lot of family to come out and visit. I pick up my brother and arrive at the airport at 10am. First thing on the to-do list is to register for the pumpkin drop. The sooner that I sign up, the sooner my bombardier and I can throw pumpkins out of the plane. The rest of my family shows up and we hang out for a bit until it's my turn to fly.
The competition works like this: You pay $20 for one round, and one round consists of 3 trips in the traffic pattern where you will drop one pumpkin on each trip. There is a 100ft diameter circle target on the ground. The goal is to get your pumpkins closest to the center of the target. I will fly about 300ft above the ground and fly at a slower airspeed. After all three drops, you get a score based on the distance that your pumpkin fell from the center. The person will the lowest score (meaning closest to the center) wins!
My brother is going to be my bombardier, but I have a backseat so I ask if any of my family wants to also ride along. My sister-in-law speaks up. It's our turn, so I grab the keys and we all walk out to the plane. I do the preflight inspection, buckle everyone in, then start the engine. I taxi us out to the runway behind a couple other planes. They takeoff one by one, then next up is me. I watch for traffic and listen to pilot's radio calls for positioning reports. The pattern is packed with planes. We sit for 5-10 minutes because there just isn't a place for us yet. Finally we catch a very short break, and I take it. Lift-off.
We follow the traffic pattern around, being vigilant to watch for other traffic. After turning onto final, I start my descent and slow the plane. My brother opens the window and starts giving me directions; a little to the left, little more, perfect. He releases the pumpkin and it falls from his hands, 300 ft above the ground, and plummets to the ground. SMASH!
I add power and climb back up to pattern altitude. My passengers look out the side window and see that the B25 Bomber is making it's way into the pattern. It was directly off our right wing. Wow, how cool is this? Sharing the sky with a sweet old Air Force bomber! We then turn onto downwind, still watching for traffic. It appears that there are at least six other planes up here with me, and all are flying different patterns; some wide, some narrow. I look out the left window and see another plane also on downwind! Well crap. We are literately side by side, and I'm not sure if they know I'm right next to them. Making our turn onto base is going to be interesting. We watch to see what he does, and it looks like I'm going to be able to squeeze onto base first. I make my radio call and then turn. All works out ok but man, I'm getting stressed. We descend and turn onto final. Window open, line up with the target, drop some airspeed, then release. SPLAT!
One more chance now. I climb back up to pattern altitude and watch traffic. Thankfully this time, some of the planes were done with their round and were landing. Less traffic to deal with, and my blood pressure slowly starts coming back down. Breathe... we turn onto downwind, then base, descend, turn onto final, slow down, line up, drop!
That's all we have left, so I fly the pattern around again so that I can set up to land. The wind was breezy and coming from the north, so we land on runway 36. Nice and smooth, just how I like it. We taxi back, turn the plane off and turn in the keys for the next person.
That was fun! Not long after, half of my family leaves and the other half stay so that we can walk to the other side of the airport and check out all the other planes and corvettes. I won't know until after closing who won the competition, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be us.
We walk around for an hour or so before calling it a day. My family goes home and I decide to stay for another hour to hang out with airport friends and watch the B25 drop its pumpkins. The bomber starts up its engines and taxiis out to the runway. He takes off, flies around, lines up with the target then BAAM! He releases about 10 pumpkins, some of which were hollowed out and filled with flour. They shoot towards the target and slam into the ground.
He flies back around for another try. This time he absolutely nails the target. It was incredible, and it made the Channel 5 News! Click here to watch: KSDK.com
After he finished up, I decided that I had enough sun and the cold wind and was ready to head home. It was a lot of fun and probably the most fun I've had since my airport started holding this annual event.
Update: We did not win, but that's ok. Still worth doing!
 |
| C 47 |
 |
| C 47 cockpit |
 |
| Me sitting inside Air Force One! |
 |
| B 25 Bomber |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)