The Piper Saratoga Turbo

Texas Air Travelers Mandated to Self-Quarantine

ByHank Gibson April 2, 2020April 2, 2020

Texas Air Travelers From Designated Areas Only

On March 30th, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an Executive Order mandating that all travelers (including Texas air travelers operating or traveling in private aircraft) from the following designated areas were to self-quarantine for 14 days (or the extent of their stay in Texas, whichever was shorter) upon entering the State:

• California
• Louisiana
• Washington State
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Chicago, Illinois
• Detroit, Michigan
• Miami, Florida

If you traveled to Texas by air from any of the above designated areas, you are required to fill out the Arrivals from Areas Designated for Mandatory Self-Quarantine Form. Failure to do so could lead to a $1,000 fine or 180 days in jail, or both. For private aircraft owners/operators, put your Tail Number in for Flight Number and “Private” for Airline.

Aircraft owners, stay away from the designated areas listed above and you won’t have any worries. A lot of you reading this are from Texas, so make Louisiana a fly over state for now and don’t make any landings in Cajun country.

Determining Pattern Altitude

ByHank Gibson October 23, 2015October 23, 2015

Figuring out the pattern altitude at an airport should be pretty simple, right?  But, in this day of helpful technology, most pilots actually get it wrong.  How can you always get it right?  Well, it just takes about an extra 15 seconds.  Here’s how.

As outlined in the Aeronautical Information Manual, section 4-3-3, “traffic pattern altitudes for propeller-driven aircraft generally extend from 600 feet to as high as 1,500 feet above the ground.”  Further, in the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge on page 13-10, it states:  “1,000 AGL is recommended pattern altitude unless established otherwise.”

Okay, so for piston driver’s, we’ve got it narrowed down to 1,000 AGL (Above Ground Level for those who don’t like acronyms).  But wait!  There’s that very important phrase at the end of the last quote:  “unless established otherwise.”  That means not all airports have traffic pattern altitudes of 1,000 AGL, or else they wouldn’t put that line in there!

How do you find out what the TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude) is for a certain airport if it’s not 1,000 AGL?  Great question!  Your first guess is probably to look on Foreflight.  Though this is a good start, it is not the full answer.

Let’s use an example.  Look up KAQO, the Llano Airport on Foreflight.  At the top of the page, the airport elevation is stated as 1,101′ MSL and the pattern altitude is stated as 1,902′ MSL.  From what we just learned, 1,902′ MSL is not 1,000 AGL, so is 1,902′ MSL otherwise established?

On the Airports page with KAQO pulled up, tap the A/FD tab, second to last on the left.  Scroll down to Llano Muni.  Read the whole entry.  Does it state in the entry that pattern altitude is different than 1,000 AGL?  It sure doesn’t.  So, because it is not otherwise established, pattern altitude at KAQO is 2,102′ MSL not 1,902′ MSL.

Where did Foreflight get that?  I have no idea.  Too often, though, pilots look at the Foreflight pattern altitude and don’t actually check the Airport Facilities Directory (A/FD).  Then, they get the pattern altitude wrong.

What does it look like when pattern altitude is otherwise established?  Look up KSGR, Sugar Land Regional, on your Foreflight app.  Foreflight states the elevation as 82′ MSL and the Pattern Altitude as 1,000′ MSL.  Is this correct?  Well, tap that A/FD button again and let’s find out.

On the second line of the A/FD entry, it says TPA-See Remarks.  Down in the remarks section, we find the following:

TPA-1000 (918) single engine piston acft, TPA-1500 (1418) for twin and turbojet acft, TPA-500 (418) for helicopters within 2NM.

Foreflight got it right this time for single engine pistons, but if you are in a twin, the pattern altitude is different.  What’s the lesson here?  Always check the A/FD and don’t always go by what Foreflight says.  The A/FD is always right and usually has a little more detail to help set you straight.

One last thing.  Both the AIM and the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, when talking about pattern altitude, state, “When operating at an airport, traffic pattern altitudes should be maintained unless otherwise required by the applicable distance from cloud criteria in…section 91.155.”  91.155 defines basic VFR weather minimums.  So, to fully interpret what the AIM is saying, we have to take into account the type of airspace we are in to determine if we can safely and legally operate at pattern altitude at a particular airport.

For example, let’s say we are at KCVB, the Castroville Airport.  Pattern altitude there is 1,602 feet, which is 829 AGL.  CVB is Class G airspace up to 700 AGL, then Class E above that.  Let’s say there is a 700 AGL broken cloud layer.  Pattern altitude is 829 AGL, so you won’t be able to get up that high with a broken ceiling.  What altitude can you do pattern work at to stay legal?

Class G VFR weather minimums during the day below 1,200 AGL is 1 SM visibility and clear of clouds.  So, legally, you could fly at 699 AGL (which at CVB would be 1,472 MSL) while in the pattern and be legal.  Safe?  Maybe, but probably not if you are skimming the base of the clouds.  Is 1300 MSL a safer pattern altitude in this example?  Well, that is 527 AGL, so probably not, since towers tend to stick up that high sometimes.

Let’s go back to KSGR and put a 1,000 AGL overcast ceiling there.  SGR is Class D airspace and we already determined pattern altitude there was 1,000 MSL for piston singles.  VFR visibility and cloud clearance requirements in Class D airspace are 1,000 feet above clouds, 500 feet below clouds, and 2,000 feet horizontally from the clouds with 3 SM visibility.  In order to stay 500 feet below the clouds, you would be flying a 582 MSL pattern.  Safe?  Probably not, though it is legal.

To summarize, don’t take Foreflight’s word for pattern altitude.  Cross reference the A/FD (it only takes 15 seconds at the most) to verify.  If it’s cloudy, it’s really best to stay on the ground, but if you want to find out your legal pattern altitude with a cloud deck, cross reference 91.155.  I don’t recommend flying below pattern altitude because it is there for a reason.

Skyvector Has a New Look

ByHank Gibson July 26, 2015August 20, 2015

Skyvector has changed it’s look.  The aeronautical chart website is now offering flight plan filing capability. In order to gain the ability to file flight plans, the user has to form an account first.

Personally, I really liked how Skyvector had a simple interface before they changed.  As an instructor, a lot of times, I go to multiple airports on one flight.  It was really nice to just plug in airport IDs to check distances and heading information on Skyvector.  The new format is a little clunky as the website has made it a little more difficult to do what it did best before.

Did the aviation community need another venue to file flight plans?  Not with Foreflight, Garmin Pilot, and WingXPro leading the way in the app market.  Skyvector was smart in not trying to develop another app to compete with the big boys.

Will the new Skyvector last?  We’ll see.  I’m hoping they’ll go back to the way they used to be, but we’ll see. I may use it enough to come around to liking it.

Oh, Deer (Part 2)

ByAndrew Robinson March 14, 2017April 13, 2017

Read Part 1 Here

Only now did I begin to realize the severity of the situation. The deer had completely broken the left main gear off of the airplane. Obviously, landing in this condition would not be ideal. Landing without a nose wheel is one thing, but landing without one of the mains would be a very dangerous and undesirable proposition.

The company’s maintenance guys arrived on the scene while I executed a few more low passes so that they could take a look. We all came to the same conclusion that the best situation for landing would be to retract the other two wheels so I could land on the belly. Unfortunately, the landing gear wouldn’t retract. Cranking the emergency gear handle didn’t work either as it is not designed to bring the wheels up, only to put them down.

I flew circles around the airport for a while as different options were all discussed. I owe a lot to the guys on the ground who were digging through the manuals coming up with solutions. Eventually, it was decided that I would try cranking the gear up by hand, even though the checklist in the airplane said that it could only be used to lower the gear. Even if we damaged the hand cranking mechanism, it would be worthwhile…plus, I’d already torn off the left main entirely, surely a little damage to the retraction mechanism wouldn’t be the end of the world!

Following the checklist, I pulled the CB for the gear motor and started cranking. To my great relief, the “in transit” light illuminated and the three green indication went away. It was difficult work to crank the gear up manually. The handle is in a very poor location in Barons and Bonanzas, plus I was working against gravity. It is also possible that there was some debris from the missing wheel causing friction or binding. While I was cranking, the rescue crews were being coordinated while extra vehicles and people had been called in from the city for support.

After some time had passed, enough to get a slightly sore arm from cranking, the lights indicated that the gear was up and locked. I lined up for one more pass hoping to verify that the landing gear was up and the landing gear doors were closed. After the final go ahead from everyone on the ground, all that was left was the landing.

I had been doing my best to keep the passengers informed of what was happening throughout the whole flight, but I felt bad for them as the news changed from the beginning of the flight: “precautionary landing” was quite different than the briefing I ended up giving them before we landed. I informed them that I was going to be “… killing the engines and landing with the gear up….” They did an impressive job of staying calm and being responsive. Before we landed, I made sure that they were all briefed on what to expect, how to unbuckle, and how to evacuate from the airplane. It is difficult to convince someone that everything is going to be fine when there are hordes of emergency vehicles (including ambulances) waiting next to the runway in anticipation of your landing.

Shortly before landing, I went through my flows and callouts, then verified by use of the checklist to ensure I hadn’t missed anything. I distinctly remember sitting in the airplane preparing for the landing, all the while being in complete disbelief that this was a real situation. I never imagined that I could be flying an airplane that was missing a wheel strut. Previously, my assumption had been that if there was an event serious enough to shear off one of my mains, the airplane wouldn’t continue flying. It all seemed like a bad dream.

I elected to use runway 26 since it was the longest. I wanted to be able to carry extra speed in order to give myself extra time between pulling the mixtures and landing so that I could feather the props and turn the fuel shut off valves to the off position (never thought I’d have to do that!) without being rushed. As I made my final approach with the engines shut off, I went through my final memory items and couldn’t help but laugh about just how backwards everything was from normal arrival procedure. GUMPS: Gas- Off (normally on the fullest tank), Under carriage- Up (Definitely not normal), Mixtures- Idle cut off (I normally save this for when I’m parked on the ramp), Props- Feathered (Again, never thought I’d have to do that in real life), Seatbelts- On (the only one that stayed the same!).

I’ve had several remarks about how quiet the airplane must have been during the final un-powered glide to the runway, and while that is absolutely true, I must confess that I never noticed. I was so focused on the task at hand that the silence in the airplane simply wasn’t something that stuck out to me. What did make an impression on me, however, was the acceleration the airplane experienced when the props were feathered. I’ve heard it preached many times the importance of feathering the propeller on a dead engine, but never truly appreciated the importance of it until I did it myself. I remember the airplane accelerating noticeably as though I had hit a boost button which was hidden somewhere in the cockpit for just such an occasion.

Although I didn’t notice the lack of noise upon killing the engines, the sickening, deafening noise which was produced during the touchdown and deceleration is something which I will never forget. Another thing that surprised me was the smoke which filled the cockpit and cabin as we slowed down. This was produced by the friction between the belly and the runway, although nothing was burning.

I don’t know how long the airplane actually slid for after touching down, but it felt like an eternity. However, when the noise subsided and the motion stopped everything returned to real time. I unfastened my seat belt, opened the door and climbed out onto the wing. I helped the passengers evacuate and we retreated to a safe distance on the side of the runway while the firefighters rushed in to do their job.

It was 8:35 am. So, from the time we took off to the time we landed was almost exactly an hour and a half. Not surprisingly, the passengers elected not to continue on to Pittsburgh and instead accepted a ride home in a car. The rest of my day was a blur of paperwork, reports, and phone calls.

To Be Continued…

Read Part 3 Here

Andrew Robinson is an airline pilot for Piedmont Airlines.  He is a former 135 Charter Pilot and flight instructor who lives with his wife and 2 daughters in Pennsylvania.  He instructs in Beechcraft Bonanzas.

Weather Avoidance

ByHank Gibson October 31, 2014

I began flying a Piper Malibu earlier this year.  For those of you not familiar with the original PA-46, a Malibu has a Continental TSIO-320 engine, with 310 HP.  It’s pressurized and cruises at about 185-200 KTAS.

A few things are introduced to the equation when pilots start flying higher, faster, and farther.  When you start flying over longer distances, weather becomes more of an issue.  On a quick hop from, say, Austin to Dallas, you can be pretty sure of what the weather will be since it’s a short trip.  When you fly from Austin to LA, leave in the morning, land once along the way, and arrive in the afternoon after spending six and a half hours in the air, weather can change a lot in that amount of time.

A must for any pilot flying high and over long distances is some kind of Nexrad system, whether it be a Garmin 696, or it shows up on your GPS or MFD.  Having this situation awareness is very helpful when planning ahead as to what to do about weather.  A stormscope is also a handy tool, since you can see where the lightning is with it.

Cold fronts can be pretty nasty, depending on how strong and how fast they are moving.  A strong, fast moving cold front usually has a lot of convective activity associated with it.  The tricky thing with storms associated with fronts is that storms form in lines, most of the time.  If you’re trying to cross a front in the morning, you can usually get high enough over the clouds with a pressurized airplane since the temperature is still relatively low to get clear of the cumulonimbus clouds.  The cloud tops will only be around ten or twelve thousand feet.

Crossing fronts in the afternoon when daytime heating is pushing the tops of the CBs up to the 20-40 thousand foot range, it’s best to land, have a meal, stretch your legs, and wait till the sun starts to go down before pushing on.  Do not, under any circumstances, try and go through the cumulonimbus clouds associated with a cold front in a small airplane.  Not only is it uncomfortable (the turbulence bounces you around pretty good), but you’ll get ice, scare the passengers, and, if you’re in the heart of a storm, the plane could come apart.

When crossing mountains, the weather is always highly unpredictable.  If it’s a clear day, no matter your altitude, you’ll probably pick up some turbulence from all the rising air off the peaks.  If there is moisture in the air, there are going to be isolated to scattered thunderstorms in the summer time.  The advantage of flying high when there are isolated or scattered storms is you can utilize the see and avoid method.

See and avoid is simple.  When the storms aren’t embedded in other clouds, it’s actually rather easy to spot the big, rising clouds and go around them.  The same concept holds true when avoiding those pesky pop up thunderstorms in humid areas like Houston and Florida.

One thing that I learned this summer was this.  Sometimes, with an area of closely grouped storms, the cloud base is actually quite high (some storms I went underneath in New Mexico had cloud bases of 15,000 MSL).  The thing to do here is just stay below the bases of the clouds and go around the areas of rain.  These will be visible and you’ll be able to navigate around them.  With bases even as low 9-10 thousand feet, it’s a much better idea to stay below the clouds, sacrifice some speed, and dodge the rain shafts.

The most important concept to take away is don’t fly into a thunderstorm.  If there are a bunch of really high clouds in front of you and you don’t see a safe way around them, descend down and land, wait it out, and then continue on your way.