Some of a pilot’s favorite words are heard on the ATIS: “Winds, Calm.” These words set off all sorts of happy bells and hallelujah choruses. Most pilots spend their lives fighting the winds. On those rare days when the winds are calm, great happiness ensues.
But, are calm wind landings more complicated then everyone thinks? Well, they can be if the proper planning doesn’t go into them.
Let’s think about wind. We have surface wind and we have winds aloft. Sometimes the surface winds are calm. When this happens, certain airports have preferred calm wind runways which are supposed to be used in these conditions. Winds aloft are almost never calm. 95% of the time, there is some kind of wind even 100-200 feet above the surface.
Here is the question pilot’s face when coming into an airport with calm winds: which runway do I use? Do I use the calm wind runway? Do I use the runway that is easiest to enter the pattern for? Do I use the one with the shortest taxi?
A lot of technologically advanced aircraft have a wind indicator on the PFD. This tool is often forgotten in calm surface wind conditions. On the contrary, this is probably the most important tool a pilot can have when figuring out which runway to use when the winds are reported calm.
Here’s why. That wind indicator is showing the pilot what the winds aloft are. The winds aloft should determine what runway is going to be used. If the wind indicator is depicting a south wind, then a south runway should be used. Even if it is a 5 knot wind at pattern altitude, it’ll still be a headwind coming in on final approach. If the north facing runway is used, that same 5 knot headwind can blow an airplane halfway down the runway before the ground speed drops off enough for it to land.
So, the next time you are coming into an airport and the winds are reported calm, take a look at your wind indicator on your PFD when deciding which runway to use. It’ll probably save a few go arounds!
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.
Looking for some good $100 Hamburger options in the state of Texas? Here are some other good fly-in eateries around Texas. These are ranked in no particular order because they are all just really good! Most of these are located on the airport property, but a few are in town and worth the drive!
Lockhart BBQ (50R): With 4 BBQ options in Lockhart (and City Market BBQ 10 minutes away in Luling), you can’t go wrong with a stop in Lockhart. Just grab the keys for the giant suburban, and away you go. Most folks who stop off in Lockhart will give it a legitimate claim over Hard 8 in Stephenville.
Angelina County Airport Restaurant (KLFK): This is pure East Texas eating here in Lufkin. With greasy, tasty burgers and sandwiches, breakfast, and ladies who call you “Sugar” when taking your order, this is down home if I ever tasted it. Lufkin and Brenham are currently neck and neck for the best Texas burger.
Black Walnut Cafe (KCXO): This airport diner, located at the Galaxy FBO in Conroe on the north side of Houston, is top notch. The food is excellent (I have eaten several different sandwiches and have not been disappointed) and you can’t beat the 3rd floor runway view from the patio. Not a bad place to spend the lunch hour, though make sure you get there before the lunch hour. It fills up quick.
Airport Diner (T82): Right next to the Hangar Hotel, the Airport Diner in Fredericksburg brings back memories of the old soda fountains of the ’40s and ’50s. With plates like the Warthog (their sausage sandwich with Fredericksburg made sausage) and the Whirly Bird (their chicken tenders wrap), the Airport Diner fully embraces the airport theme. Better to stop for lunch on a weekday rather than a weekend as their isn’t a whole ton of seating. Check your NOTAMs as the restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Radial Engine Cafe (KGPM): A good little stop in the Dallas area for a simple burger, fries, and a Coke. Don’t get the smaller 17/35 runway at GPM confused with the much larger 16/34 runway at GKY just to the west. Approaching from the south, this can be easily done.
Clear Springs Restaurant (KBAZ): Come for the onion rings, stay for the fish. Clear Springs is just a 5 minute drive from the airport and there are always plenty of crew cars available. You could probably make a whole meal out of the onion rings themselves, but the fish is top notch too.
Gate 12 (KCLL): The College Station Airport now has the 12th Man! Aggie Fans will appreciate the Gate 12 experience with all the Texas A&M decorations scattered throughout the restaurant. Bring an appetite if you want to tackle the burgers. They are huge! Parking is only at the FBO. Only military planes get to park in front of the restaurant.
Cooper’s BBQ (KAQO): Llano, TX is known for BBQ. Just fly in to the airport, get a car, and after a 10 minute drive, you can take your pick of any kind of BBQ under the sun. Careful, as it’s easy to over order!
Hangar 6 Restaurant (KUVA): The newest restaurant on the list, located on the ramp at the Uvalde Airport, Hangar 6 tips it’s hat to the military history of the Uvalde airport while serving really good food. Taxi in and walk up to the quaint little joint. They even have a playground for the kids!
Sky Restaurant (KVCT): Not quite within walking distance, but just a short drive from the FBO, Sky Restaurant specializes on the seafood, but they also have good burgers and steaks. VCT is popular amongst the Air Force and Navy trainers in the area, especially around lunch!
Runway Cafe (KLBX): The best place I have found for seafood along the Texas Gulf Coast. With a huge runway to land on and a beautiful FBO next door, this is my go to for Fried Shrimp when I’m in the Houston area.
Delta Charlie’s (KRBD): With quite an extensive menu (and a full bar for those overnight trips), I will definitely make RBD one of my routine stops. Dallas Jet Center recently opened in the terminal, so fueling your stomach and your plane can all be done in one spot.
The Red Baron Restaurant (KDHT): The Panhandle of Texas hides many surprises and the Red Baron restaurant in Dalhart, TX is no exception. For those early morning flights, The Red Baron makes a solid breakfast and a mean cup of coffee. Lunch satisfies even the hungriest pilot. Dalhart has a very spiffy modern FBO to sleep away that burger and fries until your passengers show back up too.
Hogg’s BBQ (KDUX): I came hungry and I left very happy. Hogg’s makes some good West Texas BBQ. Huge helpings and an aviation themed dining room makes for a good choice. Restaurant is located just behind the terminal building. I was there for dinner and it wasn’t too crowded, but I bet lunch is hoppin’!
Aviator’s Grill (KDWH): Located in the Gill Aviation, FBO, Aviator’s Grill has a great selection of creative sandwiches. Hooks can be a little tricky to navigate while taxiing, but just tell ground you are going to Gill, and they will direct you to lunch.
Bill’s Burgers (KBMQ): A short drive from the airport in the Burnet FBO’s new courtesy van deposits you at Bill’s Burgers, the largest burger this side of the Mississippi. Always a popular lunch spot, especially on weekends, hitting lunch early or late is a good plan. Don’t get a full order of fries unless you want to share. It’s huge! Closed on Mondays.
In my book, these are the other great places to stop on a flight in Texas. Always make sure to come hungry! I probably missed a few along the way, so please feel free to add others to the list!
Note: Some of the above restaurants are either closed for COVID, or are only doing takeout. Make sure you call before hand. Google doesn’t always have updated information.
The Garmin Perspective and Perspective + are awesome pieces of equipment. There is so much a pilot can do with this system that it can sometimes get overwhelming. There are two very important features of the Garmin Perspective that all IFR pilots need to know, but are tricky to do if the correct buttons aren’t pushed.
The two features of the Garmin Perspective I want to focus on today are the “Load Airway” feature and the “Hold at Waypoint” feature. The “Load Airway” feature is especially handy when flying IFR long distances with several airways as part of the clearance. Here’s how to utilize both on the Garmin Perspective.
Load Airway
On your flight plan page, insert the waypoint where you will be joining the airway, or, if your clearance was radar vectors to join an airway, then insert the waypoint on the airway that begins the leg you will be joining on
Press the Menu key on the keypad
A menu will pop up. Scroll down to highlight Load Airway
Highlight the Airway you want from the next menu that pops up then press Enter
Then, a list of waypoints will display to exit the airway. Highlight the waypoint where you will be exiting the airway and Press Enter
The cursor will then move down to Load at the bottom of the menu. Press Enter to load the airway
The Airway and all the waypoints in between your entry and exit waypoints appear in your flight plan
If you are getting vectors to join the airway, you’ll need to use the Activate Leg function to activate the leg you will be joining the airway on
On the Flight Plan page, highlight the waypoint that ends the leg you want to activate
Look for the ACT LEG soft key on the lower right hand side of the MFD and press
This Activates the leg on the airway. Then, just simply fly the heading assigned by ATC until the CDI needle centers showing you are on the airway
Hold At Waypoint
The Garmin Perspective allows pilots to place a holding pattern at any waypoint that is in the Nav Database (or any user created waypoint). Here’s how to do it.
On the Flight Plan page, highlight the Waypoint that you want to hold over and press Menu on the keypad
On the menu that pops up, highlight Hold At Waypoint and press Enter
On the next menu that pops up, input either the inbound or outbound course, right or left turns, leg time or distance, and the EFC time, then highlight Load and press Enter
You will see the hold now as a Waypoint in your flight plan
Transition training deals mainly with piston engine aircraft, regardless of whether the airplane is a single or twin. The FAA doesn’t have any special requirements for changing from one piston engine airplane to another, as long as the pilot has the appropriate endorsements (high performance, complex, high altitude, etc.) and is rated in that category and class.
Transition training is promoted mostly by insurance companies. An insurance company looks at a pilots experience when deciding to insure him or her in a new airplane. If the pilot has only flown Cherokees and Comanches and is now upgrading to a Malibu, then the insurance company is going to require some transition training with a knowledgable instructor.
What is transition training? It is when an appropriate rated pilot needs to learn how to fly a different airplane. These are referred to commonly as checkouts, but with more complicated airplanes, the training is actually very in depth.
Using the example above, Pilot A just sold his Comanche 260 and bought a 1987 Malibu. Pilot A says, “A Malibu is a complex, high performance, single engine piston, which is what I had in my Comanche. I can fly that, no problem.” In reality, a Malibu has a lot of differences.
First, there are more systems in a Malibu. You have pressurization, air conditioning, emergency oxygen, turbo charging, and possibly radar. Not to mention you are dealing with a Continental engine instead of a Lycoming. And, is it a factory TSIO 520 or a converted 550? 2, 3, or 4 blade prop? Glass panel or steam gauges? What kind of autopilot? Plus, it’s a much heavier airplane so it’s going to fly different, have different rotation and landing speeds and handle differently in stalls. What’s the sight picture supposed to be on final approach? What are the emergency procedures?
Overwhelmed yet?
An experienced, insurance approved instructor and training program is a necessity when getting into new airplanes. It makes for safe pilots and safer skies.
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.
John Wayne Airport Traffic Patterns
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.
When filing an IFR flight plan, part of the process is determining whether or not an alternate airport is required. An alternate airport is required when the following conditions exist(as is outlined by the FAA in 91.169 (b)):
The weather conditions at the destination airport
From 1 hour before your arrival time to 1 hour after your estimated time of arrival, the weather conditions are forecast to be below
2,000 Feet AGL and/or
3 statute miles visibility
Let’s paint a scenario. You are traveling from KSAT (San Antonio International Airport) to KHBV (Jim Hogg County Airport in Hebbronville, TX). You start to file your flight plan and get down to the space where you put your alternate in. Since Laredo (KLRD) is the closest airport with a TAF, you check Laredo’s TAF and see that the forecast conditions there at your ETA are ceilings 1,500 and visibility of 2sm.
Based on this information, you need an alternate airport. Now, the process of finding one. In Part 91.169 (c), the forecast conditions at the alternate airport must be at or above:
600 Feet AGL and 2sm visibility for a precision approach, or
800 Feet AGL and 2sm visibility for a non-precision approach
Alright, now we have some guidance. Laredo is the nearest airport to KHBV, and we know the forecast from the above TAF showing the conditions are forecast to be above the alternate minimums outlined in Part 91, so let’s pick Laredo. All done?
Not quite. A lot of airports have Non-Standard Alternate Minimums. How do you figure out if they do? The easiest way is to look at any approach plate for the airport. In the notes section of the government plates, there will be a black triangle with an A in it. That means there are non-standard alternate minimums published for that airport (in layman’s terms, different than the ones stated above in Part 91).
Now the question is, where do you find those non-standard alternate minimums? On Foreflight:
Go to the Airports page
Tap the Procedures button
Tap the Arrival button
Tap the Alternate Minimums option
This brings up the IFR Alternate Minimums document for all the airports with non-standard alternate minimums in that area. Scroll through to find Laredo.
As you can see, there are several notes there concerning the different approaches into Laredo. For our example, we’ll say the winds are out of the south and we are planning on flying the ILS 17R if we cannot get into KHBV and have to come to Laredo. The note there is that the Alternate Minimums for the ILS 17R are actually 700 AGL ceilings and 2sm instead of the above state 600 AGL ceilings and 2sm, the procedure is NA if the tower is closed, and NA if the local weather isn’t received.
What does this tell us? If the forecasted ceilings at Laredo were below 600 AGL instead of 700 AGL, we would not be able to use LRD as an alternate airport if we were planning on flying the ILS 17R. The RNAV approaches are all fair game, so a GPS equipped aircraft would have no problem.
On top of that, some approaches at a certain airport are not authorized to be used in the case of the airport being used as an alternate. At the Galveston airport (KGLS), the ILS 14 is NA as an alternate procedure, but all the RNAV approaches are available.
Picking an alternate seems simple at first, but there are actually a lot of things to consider in the process.
Need help remember all this stuff? AOPA has put out a kneeboard sheet that helps all IFR pilots remember those important things when it comes to IFR flying. Check it out here.
One Comment
I remember this one well! 5 go arounds!
Lesson well learned, no harm just a little ego bruising
I remember this one well! 5 go arounds!
Lesson well learned, no harm just a little ego bruising