An Educational Runup

Cirrus Vision Jet Receives FAA Certification

ByHank Gibson November 8, 2016

The long anticipated certification of the Cirrus Vision Jet finally happened.  On October 30th, the FAA awarded certification to Cirrus’ single engine jet.  Marketed as the world’s first single engine personal jet, the Cirrus Vision Jet will seat five adults, two children, and cruise around 300 knots.

The Williams FJ33-5A Turbo Fan engine is operated by a FADEC, single handle throttle, similar to the throttle in the piston powered Cirrus family.  In fact, the SR series was taken into consideration when designing the Cirrus Vision Jet in order to simplify the upgrade for pilots.  Many of the buttons and knobs are in the same places in the Cirrus Vision Jet.

The Cirrus Vision Jet is equipped with the Cirrus Perspective Touch by Garmin that is very similar to the Cirrus Perspective by Garmin in the piston powered line.  Equipped also with the Flight Into Known Icing system and the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), both of which are standard.

Unlike the piston powered Cirrus lines, the CAPS system on the Cirrus Vision Jet is actually mounted in the nose.  Also, unlike the piston lines, the jet CAPS is integrated with the aircraft avionics to slow the airplane to between 67 and 160 knots when the system is activated.  In the jet, the CAPS system was designed to withstand higher weights, higher speeds and higher altitudes.

Cirrus hopes to start deliveries of the Vision Jet by the end of the year, with many more rolling off the line in 2017.  All Cirrus Vision Jet pilots will need to be type rated in order to fly the aircraft.  Cirrus is doing all the type rating training in house at their new Vision Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.

To read the full press release, click here.

I Learn To Speak Seaplane

ByHank Gibson February 9, 2019February 19, 2019

From the time I started flying, I have always had the dream to learn how to fly a seaplane.  As I learned in November, it’s actually learning to land a seaplane, and the veterans call them floatplanes.

ProMark Aviation at the Burnet Airport (KBMQ) offers a weekend float plane course that is high on fun and low on stress.  The school has a Piper PA12 Super Cruiser on amphibious floats (amphibs as I was corrected at one point.  I mean, if you’re going to fly a seaplane, er, floatplane, you have to know the lingo) that will land and takeoff on water, but does little else with ease and grace.  At 150 HP with those big floats and all the associated rigging hanging underneath the airplane, you are lucky to get to 500 feet before you get to your destination.

We weren’t working on setting any speed records.  I was learning the lay of the water.  I learned about the step, the keel, pumping the floats, how to read the water, currents, ducks (yes, ducks and birds are important to know about when you are flying low on the water), buoys, docking, and ditching.  Step taxiing was fun as you are basically at 3/4 throttle screaming across the top of the water just below flying speed.  It’s the best way to taxi a seaplane (truly, it is.  You get more air in your engine, you can see better, and you are moving.  Just don’t try and turn sharp).

Floatplanes also don’t have any shock absorbers, so the higher the wave, the more you get knocked around, so wind velocity and, in turn, wave height is very important.

A very important nuance of an amphibious floatplane compared to a straight floatplane (one that doesn’t have wheels that come out of the floats), is at one point, you want to make sure your gear is down for landing (runway landing) and at another, you want to make absolutely sure your gear is up for landing (water landing).  If you land wheels down in the water, you will capsize, 100% of the time.  Thankfully from my good instruction, I did not capsize.

Ken Wittekiend, my instructor, and I spent the majority of the weekend landing and taking off on Lake Buchanan (I was informed by locals it is pronounced “Buk-cannon”, not “Bue-cannon”), which is more open and therefore has more waves.  We did one landing on Inks Lake so my kids could see me land, which they thought was the best thing since cheese sticks.

There is a check ride at the end of the training, but, as Ken reassured me, it’s the most fun check ride you’ll ever have.  I still hate check rides, but that one I think I hated least of all.

I hope someday I can put my floatplane skills to practice, but for now, I can vouch that I now speak seaplane!

IM SAFE: Are You Really?

ByHank Gibson February 16, 2016

As pilots, we are all familiar with the IM SAFE acronym that the FAA puts out.  It comes up as part of the ground training over Human Factors during private pilot ground school.  We all memorize it, spit it out for our check rides, then most of us promptly forget about it.

When I was training for my pilot’s licenses, I was at a Part 141 school that was very standardized (LeTourneau University, who has a fabulous aviation school).  Before each flight, we had to do a self evaluation based on the weather and the IM SAFE checklist.  Based on our answers, we would then determine if the conditions were conducive to flying as well as if I was physically okay to fly.

This was a great tool because not only do pilots have to pre-flight the airplane, they also need to pre-flight themselves.  It’s very easy to fall into one of the “Hazardous Attitudes” if there is a pressing meeting or you haven’t flown in a while and it’s a beautiful day, but maybe you aren’t physically fit to control an airplane.

Let’s break down the IM SAFE checklist to dig a little deeper into the physically fit side of flying.

Illness

This one is pretty easy.  Are you sick?  If so, how sick?  If you can’t hardly talk or your body feels like it was hit by a truck, then flying probably isn’t in your best interest.

The tricky area can become if you are only a little sick.  Maybe you have a cough or a little cold or a headache is starting to form.  You probably could go fly, but is it really a good idea?  It could be something worse, or it may be nothing.  You have to know yourself and put limits on yourself before you wake up on the day of your big meeting two states over.  Set illness personal minimums and stick to them.

Medication

There are a slew of drugs, both prescription and over the counter, that pilots cannot take and fly.  AOPA has a hotline to call for pilots to find out if they can fly with the medication they are taking, or what meds they can take to give them relief and still operate an aircraft.

Another great resource is your medical examiner.  Just give him/her a call and they will be more than happy to let you know what you can and can’t take.  They’ve been educated in the area of aviation so they are very knowledgeable.

Stress

This is a huge one that pilots ignore a lot.  Maybe it was a stressful day at work, maybe you are running late to the airport, your meeting got moved up, whatever.  Stress can jump on you and mess up a pilot’s thinking very quickly.  If you have a lot of other things on your mind and you aren’t able to focus just on flying, it might be a good idea to stay on the ground.

Alcohol

Out of the whole IM SAFE list, the alcohol limitations are very clearly defined.  8 hours bottle to throttle, no more than 0.04% BAC, no operating an airplane while under the influence, and no carrying passengers who are visibly intoxicated.  For your personal minimums, it’s a good idea to increase that time to 12, 18 or even 24 hours bottle to throttle.

Fatigue

Learning to fly while a college student led to a fair share of canceled flights due to fatigue.  I operate best on 8 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours.  I can function on 6, but anything less than 6 hours, my performance drastically drops off, sometimes to a point where I wouldn’t be safe.  I discovered this while with my flight instructor attempting to do a holding pattern and completely botching it up.

I observed this as a CFI quite often.  If I was doing ground with a student and they were struggling, my first question would be, how much sleep did you get last night?  More often than not, if I had to ask that question, I would get an average answer of 3 to 4 hours (I even had one guy show up for a flight block on 2 hours sleep.  I sent him back to the dorm).

Fatigue is very easily overlooked because it’s not measurable.  Needing to get a flight lesson done or needing to get somewhere when you are obviously fatigued is not a good idea.  Make sure you get a good night’s sleep before a flight and don’t be afraid to cancel if you didn’t.  Set some sleep personal minimums and make them hard and fast.

Eating

Don’t skip meals and fly.  Performance greatly decreases when a pilot is hungry.  At the very least, stick a couple of food bars in your flight bag to give you some nourishment.

Also, stay hydrated, especially in the summer time.  I carry a huge bottle of water with me on all my flights because I get headaches if I don’t drink enough.  Getting dehydrated on a long flight can lead to all sorts of performance problems (over hydration is also a problem in the air, but that’s what Gatorade bottles are for, right?).

All this to say, have some personal minimums when it comes to you and your body.  Check the plane, check the weather and check yourself.  If anything falls in the “red” area in any one of those three categories, stay on the ground and don’t press your luck.

Garmin 530/430 Missed Approaches

ByHank Gibson May 25, 2016May 29, 2016

Flying a missed approach can be stressful enough.  When you haven’t done one in a while and your GPS isn’t showing you how to get to the missed approach point and you can’t remember which button to press, that adds a lot more stress.  Recipe for disaster?  Quite possibly!

No need to fear, we are here to help.  The procedure for getting a Garmin 530 or 430 to give you missed approach guidance is actually simple and straightforward, if you know what to do!

Note: Because of the variety of different autopilot configurations in different airplanes, this article will focus solely on the GPS.

What the GPS is Thinking

The way Garmin designed the Garmin 530 and Garmin 430 is to be as helpful to pilots as possible.  Their thinking was, 95% of the time, a pilot will make a landing on an instrument approach.  This is pretty accurate as most of the time, this is what happens.  Most general aviation pilots don’t fly approaches to minimums all that often, thus negating the need for a missed approach.

Garmin designed their software with this in mind.  When an airplane crosses the missed approach point, the GPS will go into what’s called suspend mode (a SUSP annunciation appears above the OBS key).  It will keep the missed approach point as the active waypoint because it assumes the pilot is going to land.

This can be confusing to pilots.  This is what happens when software engineers and pilots come together. Engineers often believe they are smarter than pilots! (See the Airbus fly by wire roll out)

The Procedure

In the case of a missed approach, the button pushing on the GPS is actually relatively simple.  There is no SUSP key to take the GPS out of SUSP mode (thanks Garmin!).  Instead, you press the OBS key.  This will take the GPS out of SUSP mode, making the first waypoint on the missed approach procedure the active waypoint.  Your GPS will now give you guidance on the missed approach procedure.

If you are going missed off an ILS, LOC, or VOR approach, then there is one more key you’ll have to press. Your CDI needle (whether it is digital or analog, an HSI or just a CDI gauge) will be reading off the NAV radio and your CDI indication on the GPS will be VLOC.  After you press the OBS key, press the CDI key on the GPS so you will start getting course guidance from the GPS again.

That’s it.  Button pressing on the different autopilots will vary, but if you are familiar with yours, you’ll be able to tell it to follow the GPS and climb to the proper altitude.

PopSocket iPad Yoke Mount

ByHank Gibson October 24, 2017October 29, 2017

I was recently clued in to a really cool (and very cost efficient) iPad yoke mount.

It’s called a PopSocket and you won’t find it on any aviation website (I have to credit Joe Casey of Casey Aviation with this nifty find).

It’s very simple.  You take the mount (see right) and stick it to your yoke.  Then you pick one of a ton of designs from PopSocket and stick it to the back of your iPad (you can even create your own design!  B2 Bomber anyone?).

It’s low profile, doesn’t get in the way of anything, and is easily removable.  The PopSocket mounts are $10 apiece (depending on the size of your iPad, you may want to get 2).  The PopSocket is $10, so at the most, you’ll be in $40 plus tax and shipping.  Most mounts on Sporty’s are upwards of $50 and require a lot of installation, are big and bulky, and usually require lots of juggling to get the iPad in and out of the mount.

Give the PopSocket a try.