Priceless

93 octane for the 30 statute mile ride south to work - $5.00.

100LL for the 35 nautical mile trip north to work - $10.00.

Flying to work on a beautiful fall Friday morning just because you can - priceless.


(Old and tired, I know, but still true. Also, sorry for the crummy blackberry photo. Left both of the good cameras at home. )

Meanwhile, Mike Hotel is parked on the ramp at KBKL near N794AJ, the Zero G Experience B-727. For a mere $5000 (plus tax), you too can have a trip on the only private Vomit Comet in the USA. Sold out while in Cleveland, but look for a visit to your town.

Morning Flying

Real Life has interfered with Flying Life for far too long. When there has been good flying weather, there's been more work than you can imagine. When work has been slack, the weather has been unacceptable. And on at least one occasion, when both items aligned, the IFR Pilot couldn't get the engine started, flooded it, and then ran the battery down. Due in Columbus shortly thereafter, Mike Hotel had to be return to the hangar pronto and the A4 was flown to the meeting.

Translation: Not a lot of hours in the logbook so far.

This morning, however, everything aligned. Weather was just about CAVU with the exception of some morning ground fog/mist in low lying areas. With the boss out of town, work could wait.

I met with CFI DC, and we blasted off for a bit of instrument work. After 1.5 hours, we had knocked out ILS 1 @ CAK twice, LOC 25 @ AKR (runways closed!), and the GPS 2 @ 3G3 (love that LNAV+V on the Garmin 430W) with a procedure turn/hold at DALTS.

Notable deficiencies:

1. Late turn onto the localizer the first time at CAK.

2. Failure to retract gear following low approach at AKR. Which explains why it took forever to get to DALTS for the procedure turn.

3. Neglected to add the last notch of flaps when landing at The Home Base.

Things done well:

1. Kept all altitudes within tolerances.

2. Accurately anticipated parallel entry to the hold.

3. Checked the identifier on the localizers.

With that, the Mrs. and I are off to Connecticut this weekend to visit with mi familia.

Groom's Cake

Have you ever seen a finer piece of aviation cake art?

Crash on Video

From AvWeb:

Trip Report Forthcoming

Here's a recap of what MS and the IFR Pilot did last week:

A trip report is forthcoming. In the meantime, enjoy this hair-raising video delight:

Lazy Web Request

The IFR Pilot will be giving a PowerPoint presentation on Sunday. Anyone have any links to a good general aviation template?

Off-Airport Landing Captured on Video

If you haven't seen this already, here's a video of an off-airport emergency landing -- in the middle of a city street!



Absolutely amazing to see on video.

Night Current

After two ILS 23's at CAK (visual conditions only, left the darn foggles in the back someplace) to a full stop, and one "firm" landing at the Home Base, the IFR Pilot is officially night current. Flew for the first time with CFI DC. Enjoyed that very much, and talked to him about resuming the commercial training. Definite possibilities there.

Off to KNEW next week with ML for the 15 year law school reunion at Galatoire's. Going to New Orleans in one's own aircraft never gets old -- at least not for this pilot.

The Way To Travel

Recently, the IFR Pilot had BSF had occasion to attend a week-long trial in a southern locale. Due to the necessity to be on time, we had to fly commercially even though Mike Hotel would have provided far more expedient travel. Nevertheless, the flight home was about as close to private jet travel as the IFR Pilot is ever likely to experience.

We had flown on full fare tickets because of the need for flexibility. Sometimes trials end early or last longer than expected. With the amount most airlines charge now for change fees, it's often easy to justify the added expense of full fare tickets so that change fees can be avoided.

So, when I sat down at the computer that morning to change our return flight, I was presented with a list of five available flights home. I had expected four of them, but there was one that wasn't on the list that my assistant had sent me. It was a few minutes earlier than the flight I had intended to book us on, and so with BSF and I both desiring to get home sooner rather than later, that's the one I picked.

We waited at a fairly uncrowded gate for the late arriving aircraft. It discharged a whole group of young ladies and their parents, who turned about to be traveling for a sports tournament. Suddenly, the IFR Pilot and BSF were paged to see the gate agent. We were asked a whole bunch of questions about when and how we had made our reservation. All in all, a rather strange experience.

It turns out that the IFR Pilot had managed to book passage on the return leg of a charter flight. The young ladies were actually a sports team whose flight the prior evening had been canceled due to weather. As there was not going to be any easy way to scatter them on other regularly-scheduled flights, the airline had set up a special flight to take them to their destination. The plane was due to return to our neck of the woods empty.

And that, kids, is the story of how the IFR Pilot and BSF were the only two passengers on a 75-seat Embraer 145 from Atlanta to Cleveland. Here are the (crummy cell phone camera) pictures to prove it. The FA, shown in one of the pictures, was also kind enough to give me part of the passenger manifest, showing a final passenger count of "2."




Truly, this is the way to travel!

143 Days...

It's been 143 days since the IFR Pilot last flew in Mike Hotel. Since then, it's been trips via the pressurized aluminum tube of discomfort. At last count, I've logged "back seat time" aboard an E145, CRJ, A320, and a Saab 340, among others. Unfortunately, none of that keeps a passenger current as PIC.

So, last week, when the weather broke and it was possibly to play hookey for an hour, the IFR Pilot attempted to get current. Unfortunately, the evil spirits were still at work and the flight had to be aborted due to an abnormal fuel pressure reading. As it turns out, when it's 10 degrees F outside, things don't always work they way they are supposed to.

However, the weather gods smiled on Northeast Ohio tonight and the IFR Pilot was able to scoot out of work unnoticed. An hour later, the hangar doors were open and Mike Hotel was being readied for flight into the dusky twilight skies. The first takeoff was uneventful, and soon we were level at 2500 feet, making a beeline for KBJJ.

Entering the downwind for Runway 10, everything was copacetic. Three in the green, mixture rich, prop full forward, holding 75 knots on final. Flare, hold it, hold it, hold it, bzzzzzzzzz - the stall horn goes off, chirp go the tires. Now that's a landing for the first time back in nearly 5 months.

Taxi back, takeoff, let's do it again, then we're headed back to the Home Base. The landing there was a bit less perfect, with the stall horn going off a little higher than desired and the resulting smack a bit harder than you might like. But any landing at the Home Base that gets braking action before the yellow line is good! (Just kidding.)

Thirty minutes after takeoff, the IFR Pilot is PIC current again. Just in time for a business meeting in Columbus on Friday that's about 2 miles from KOSU airport....

Tried to Knock the Rust Off. No Joy.

The IFR Pilot tried twice this weekend to return Mike Hotel to the skies. No joy either time, despite clear blue skies and crisp temperatures that would have allowed the IO-360-C1C6 to taste flight for the first time since October!

Saturday, the only accomplishment was to get the A4 stuck in the snow. "All Wheel Drive Quattro" does not make an A4 into a snowmobile. As a result, my visit to the hangar consisted of removing the snow shovel, digging out the A4, and returning the snow shovel. After which, I drove home. Ugh.

Sunday, following a melting spell that extinguished Saturday's snow drifts, and with MS at the wheel, we tried using the Home Base's snow plow to clear the hangar apron. Once again, foiled. The snow was simply too wet and heavy to move. Plus, the tires on the plow seemed to be lacking in traction. We even tried bringing the IFR Pilot's snow blower back to life. Not having run in the several years that it has been stored in the hangar, the outlook wasn't optimistic. It turned out that we could bring it back to life, but the motor just didn't sound right -- it was revving way to high and even when we attacked the snow, we just could make a dent in it. FOILED ONCE AGAIN.

So, the IFR Pilot replaced the GPS chips and the IFR charts, and we went home. Bummer, dude. We'll try again this weekend, if Momma Nature cooperates.

Block Island Photo Blog

Trying something new here...

Thursday through Sunday saw the IFR Pilot and ML depart the strangely-mid-October-warm confines of the Home Base for the warm confines of Block Island, RI and then on to CT to visit with Dadster and other relatives. Rather than write a lengthy recap that mostly only serves to entertain me, presented for your perusal if you happen upon this entry is the first My Flying Blog "photo essay" blog entry.

Check out the slides, read the captions, look for the occasional note embedded in the pictures. (Click on the lower right corner to switch to full screen mode, they are more impressive that way.) Some of them turned out quite good, IMHO. I'm sure those are the ones that ML took, not me.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Tomorrow, the IFR Pilot is off to Rockford, IL for work. Thankfully, having Mike Hotel available allows one to avoid arriving at Hopkins an hour early, taking an hour flight to O'Hare (can you say "DELAYS"), busing over to the rental car facility, waiting for rental car, and driving 1.5 hours from Chicago to Rockford. Instead, 2:40 in Mike Hotel direct to Chicago Rockford International Airport. (Well, really, it's Home Base - JOT - KRFD, but that's close enough....)

Anyone for dinner in Rockford tomorrow night?

Lunch Anyone?

For some strange reason, we couldn't get any lunch delivered to us yesterday...

Feet Wet!

A full report will have to wait until we return home (and have access to the USB cable necessary to offload pictures from the camera). In the meantime, you'll have to settle for the crummy camera phone picture, taken out of the window of our hotel room:


Even after Labor Day, Block Island is wonderful and you need to come visit. My only complaint was that the Narragansett Inn ran out of lobster before we arrived for the $25 all-you-can-eat special. Rumor has it they are doing it again tomorrow night; this time, we'll be EARLY, not late!

Instrument Current

Yes, Mike Hotel and the IFR Pilot return to the skies on Saturday, more than 2 months since ML and I went north. (Report still pending...) The goal was to renew the IFR Pilot's instrument currency in anticipation of a trip to RI and CT this weekend. Currency had completely lapsed, so this necessitated a full renewal, a/k/a 6 approaches, hold, etc., etc., etc.

AW was summoned to be safety pilot since MS was "unavailable." After two months in the hangar, Mike Hotel needed a bit of TLC, including lots of av gas and some air in the tires. With those necessities out of the way, and cool air in abundance, AW and the IFR Pilot rocketed off The Home Base's Runway 3.

First up was the VOR-A at 3G4, which included the IFR Pilot creating his own course reversal just outside the FAF instead of flying another 10 miles to the VOR for the published reversal. Sorta like own nav to the FAF, I suppose.

Then, we did the GPS 10 into BJJ. Done this a million times, so no sweat, except for having to go around early so as to avoid messing with the local traffic pattern much.

From there, it was the ILS 1 at CAK twice. AW observed that the IFR Pilot flew the needles much more accurately the closer we got to the runway threshold -- the opposite of most people, who are accurate further out but then have trouble holding the needles inside the donut near the runway. What can I say, I work best under pressure. The second time around included a touch 'n go.

Fifth approach was the LOC 25 at AKR. This is a bit of a slam dunk, especially if you don't get down early enough. Once again we did, but had to go around early to avoid traffic that we departing runway 7.

We skedaddled over to RITZS, did the required hold thingy, and then popped out the GPS 2 into 3G3.

All that remained was to land the aircraft in one piece. We did, but only after we deftly negotiated with other inbound traffic that was headed to the same place we were at the same time. AW was handling radios at that point and in his best airline pilot voice piped up with "Where are you now and do you see us?!?!?!?" Fortunately, our position reporting was a bit more accurate than theirs, and so we elected to proceed #1 to land.

If it hadn't been for the last bit of unexpected wind gust, the IFR Pilot would have managed a spot landing on the target. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :-)

Currency renewed, vacation awaits. See you on the backside!

(P.S. - signed up for MGMT 317, "Organizational Behavior," in the October session of ERAU Worldwide. We'll see how interesting this one is.)

Still Among the Living

Yes, yes, yes, the IFR Pilot is still with y'all. Been quiet on the aviating front since July, when I went Up North for a bit and still haven't had time to post a Pirep of our Adventures On The Georgian Bay (tm).

However, things are looking up. Nice weather tomorrow evening may allow a return to active flight status with a few night currency takeoffs and landings. And then, next week? "Beautiful" Rockford, Illinois for work. Keep yer fingers crossed.

Oh, yeah, got an "A" in Principles of Management. Starting another class in mid-November, haven't decided which yet.

Check back soon.

Schoolhouse Recap

As previously noted, the IFR Pilot is tackling the challenge of obtaining a Certificate in Management Studies from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University via its Worldwide Online offering. As the name implies, it's a totally on-line experience -- a dramatic change from the last schoolhouse I attended in 1994. (Side note: I was literally laughed at in my first year Torts class in the Fall of 1991 when I broke out a notebook computer to take notes during a lecture; today it's pretty much standard practice for the kids in law school to use laptop computers and most law schools, of course, have wireless internet access. How things have changed in a mere 17 years!)

Anyhow, the current class is MGMT 201, "Principles of Management." Class consists of:

1. Reading two chapters each week in the assigned textbook.
2. Completing a case illustration assignment from each chapter.
3. Posting a response to a discussion question on a classroom bulletin board.

The reading is relatively straightforward and, seeing as how it is a first- or second-year college level class, it's not all that complex. The case illustration questions generally consist of a set of hypothetical facts followed by somewhere between two and five discussion questions. Answering them essentially involves processing key concepts from the chapter and applying those concepts to the hypothetical facts. Each weekly posting is worth 10 points, so 50 available so far.

The bulletin board discussion questions are not complicated to answer, but have on some occasions proven to be fairly provocative. I've done my best to avoid doing what others do, which is just posting a few random thoughts. Instead, I've tried my best to relate the question to something that's been covered in the chapters we've read that week, and to annotate the posting with hyperlinks to relevant third-party materials. Each week, students can earn an additional 10 points if they fully participate in the discussion (post a response, respond to others, be courteous, etc.), so that's another 50 available so far.

This week, we took the mid-term examination. Open book, 40 questions (true/false and multiple choice) and two essays. Total points available: 100.

IFR Pilot's total points to date: 200.

As I commented to ML today, "Everyone should wait until they are 40 to go to college. You really take it seriously then, especially when you are paying for it!"

Six weeks down, six to go.

Captain, We Need More Power!

Interesting times at the Home Base since MS and the IFR Pilot returned from NOLA. Unmentioned in the prior post was the borderline scary takeoff from the Home Base's 2350 foot runway. Picture this: It was about 91 degrees F outside. We had some baggage, fuel to the tabs, and two bigger-than-FAA-standard people on board. In other words, we were right at the edge of the W&B envelope. Then, add in what seemed to be a 60 degree crosswind (instead of a helpful headwind!). The result was a meager, meager, meager climb rate off the Home Base's Runway 3, which has these pesky little TREES just beyond it. We cleared 'em, but I swear I could count the leaves...

So, when the mechanic called the next morning and said, "I saw that takeoff. Your plane's coming into the shop when you get home," MS and I both knew we needed to heed his advice. (Of course, every other takeoff during the trip was absolutely fine, though we did consciously choose to refuel at airports that had generous runway lengths.)

Upon our return, mechanic extraordinaire B fetched Mike Hotel from the hangar and began checking things. Compressions. Exhaust system. Lobe wear on the camshaft. Alternate induction air door. Everything. MS and the IFR Pilot scoured the internets for data about the Arrow IV and the Lycoming IO-360-C1C6 that powers it. We had run all kinds of experiments on the way home to see how Mike Hotel's performance compared to the POH; the results showed that we were in the target range for an that's 1500 hours toward a 2000 hour TBO.

The only thing that B uncovered was an enlarged hole on a plate or some other kind of thingamajiggy on the propeller governor. His theory was that although we had the prop control full forward, we might not actually have been getting the full bite of the prop because it was taking whatever pitch it wanted. So, he pulled the governor and shipped it across the state to our new friends at Tiffin Aire for a rebuild. I'll admit I wasn't sure I understood all the details about how this could explain what we were seeing, but I understood that something was out of spec and needed to be fixed. I also sucked in a deep breath when B delivered the foreboding announcement that the rebuild was going to be expensive.

A couple days later, B installed the new governor and MS and I convened at the Home Base for the test flight. We had already determined that he'd be the guinea pig, I mean, test pilot, so by the time I arrived, he was already doing the run up. I watched with baited breath as he accelerated down the runway, Mike Hotel pitched up, and then soared into the sky. It was a glorious sight, right up until MS landed. Let's just say that it wasn't one of his best -- though the wind was being a bit squirrely.

The IFR Pilot then jumped aboard and we did another takeoff. We paid particular attention to acceleration and where on the runway we were achieving each 10 knots of airspeed. We had sufficient airspeed by the halfway point to perform a short field takeoff in accordance with the POH, and by the time we had cleaned up and hit the end of the runway, we were established in a 500 FPM climb at 70 KIAS. Looking good!

Down to BJJ we went for a few more takeoffs in different configurations. Everything was on the money (well, except for MS allowing us to get blown way past final on the first landing), so we turned tail and headed back to the Home Base. We decided to add fuel to the tabs and go for one more takeoff.

Things went like a charm on the final trip around the pattern, and we concluded that it was acceptable to declare Mike Hotel operational. It's a happy, happy plane now, as it also got an oil change and a new pilot-side vent window while it was in the shop.

Back to normal flight ops here at My Flying Blog. Thanks for reading!

Big Easy, Re-Re-Re-Dux

MS and the IFR Pilot are back from what has become an annual rite of passage: Taking in New Orleans. A quick review of the logbook shows we were there in April of '05 with 78S, and in December of '06, March of '07, and now May of '08, all with Mike Hotel.

Flying down on Sunday, we battled serious headwinds and hot temperatures, stopping twice for fuel. Our first refuel was in KBWG (Bowling Green, Kentucky). We nearly had a heart attacks when the FBO quoted us $6.77 for avgas! Fortunately, we had spotted a self-serve pump. The list price of $5.50 suddenly seemed far more reasonable.

Skipping lunch, we blasted back off and dodged thunderstorms throughout Kentucky and Tennessee. Mississippi wasn't much better, either, but we pulled it off and remained VFR the entire way. Our first fuel stop was aborted when ATC advised that they -- unsolicitedly (is that a word?) -- had called ahead and the FBO had just closed. Of course, we could pay an extra $50 for a call-out. Umm, no thanks, we still had lots of fuel, we'll push on. Ended up stopping at Bobby L. Chain Memorial Airport in Hattiesburg, for a super-quick fill up that wasn't unreasonably priced. After that, it was just 45 minutes direct to the Big Easy, where MS made the nice landing that was the subject of the prior post. Also captured some of those nice images you saw in June 2nd's "Guess The IFR Pilot's Location, Part Deux," so no pictures here of that flight.

We did what most folk visiting New Orleans do: In between MS attending a conference and the IFR Pilot hanging out with former co-workers, we ate unreasonable amounts of food and walked around the French Quarter. List of establishments visited in our Sunday evening to Wednesday-morning whirlwind visit:

• Semolina for pasta. (No Double Cheeseburger Pasta available, doggone it.)
• Palace Cafe for Cochon De Lait Pot Pie. (Mmmmmm!)
• Fire of Brazil for more artery-clogging red meat than you thought possible in a single meal.
• Central Grocery for muffuletta and Zapp's Tabasco-flavored potato chips.
• Gordon Biersch for a beer and "lighter" dinner.

Waddling back to the W for lights-out, I aptly remarked to MS: "Good thing no dessert, or we'd have to redo the weight and balance for sure!"

Wednesday morning, we jetted off, enjoying a fierce tailwind that gave us 150+ KIAS groundspeeds. We made it from Lakefront to our refueling stop in Tullahoma, Tennessee in 2.7 short hours, VFR all the way. The radar picture in Ohio was pretty ugly at the time:


Weighing our options, we elected to grab the crew car and go for lunch. Unfortunately, the culinary talents of Tullahoma, Tennessee do not favorably compare to those of New Orleans. As a result, we ended up at Applebees. Being the world-renowned gastronomes that we are, however, we didn't let this stop us. We'll have two of those "Ultimate Trios," and MS threw in a salad to boot. (He's always pretending to be health-conscious, you know.)

One interesting sight at KTHA was the DC-3 parked on the ramp. While MS fuddled with the weather computer, the IFR Pilot grabbed the camera and attempted some "artistic" photography:




Also, the airport had a wind tetrahedron. It looked to be balanced rather precariously, though I suspect it's actually perfectly balanced so that it can rotate with the wind.



Shortly, MS had a plan. Instead of proceeding northeast direct for the Home Base, we'd fly more to the north, wait for things to move to the east, and sneak in around the back end of things. And that's pretty much how things worked out. If memory serves (and I'll admit I read the USA Today and slept while MS was carrying the laboring oar), our route ended up being something like:


According to the flight planner, this route added maybe twenty minutes to the flight, but it kept us very, very safe. The route also took us over a couple of intersections that reinforced the notion that, despite widespread opinion to the contrary, the FAA really does have a sense of humor:


Let's just hope that no one ever misconstrues ATC's instruction to proceed "Direct Jim Beam, then Bourbon."

As we made our way around Cincinnati's airspace toward Dayton, we could see the ominous remains of the front we had avoided and which was headed further east. The display on the 396 reinforced what we could tell just from looking at this beast -- it wasn't to be taken lightly!



Amazingly, however, we remained dry throughout, and MS recorded only about .2 in IMC after we received a pop-up clearance from Mansfield Approach so we could descend through the clouds to VFR below. Some of it was captured for your viewing pleasure:



Once clear of the clouds, it was a milk run back to the Home Base to test MS's landing skills once again. Once again, you get to judge for yourself:



With that, our latest junket came to a conclusion.

Lest You Think I Lied

Every single guess has been correct: MS and the IFR Pilot have once again descended upon New Orleans. Pictures later, video will have to suffice for now!