The RDD LX7

Brady Texas Fly In (KBBD)

ByHank Gibson February 11, 2016February 11, 2016

6th Annual Armed Forces Weekend Celebration & Fly-In, May 20-21, in Brady, TX and Curtis Field (KBBD)!

Friday Night on the Square – FREE

Fly-In Saturday, 9-4 – FREE

A Night in London with Sentimental Journey Orchestra
Saturday night 7-11 PM
Tickets for Dinner & Dance, $30 available at www.morganmilitaryaviationmuseum.com.

Some fuel is available for warbirds! Please contact the airport if you would like to bring one!

Circle to Land Approaches

ByHank Gibson November 20, 2015November 21, 2015

When I was doing my instrument and multi-engine training, we did a lot of circle to land approaches.  As a student, I could never figure out why these types of approaches would ever be practical when you could an approach straight in to another runway.  But, as a good student, I never asked my instructors the purpose of them, I just did them to the best of my ability.

Now, having been flying in the IFR system for almost a decade, I’m finally beginning to fully understand the practical purpose of a circle to land approach.  I have actually elected to do an approach where I had to circle to land on several occasions in actual IMC conditions.

One important note to remember on circle to land approaches is that the minimum descent altitude (MDA) is always higher than on a straight in approach.  The reason for this is that you are basically joining the pattern for a different runway and you have to be able to visually keep yourself clear of towers and other obstacles.  So, you need a higher visibility and a higher ceiling than if you were just lining up to come straight in.

Here are a couple of practical circumstances where it would make sense to do a circle to land approach.

Airports with only 1 straight in approach

This one is easy.  There are a number of airports scattered around the US that have only 1 straight in instrument approach published for it.  Around my part of Texas, the first one that pops into my mind is the RNAV 31 at T85 in Yoakum, TX.  Most of the year, the prevailing wind is out of the south, so 13 is the favored runway at T85.  During the winter is when most of the IMC weather happens in South Texas, so that is why the approach is for 31.

Of course, especially this year during the summer, there are some IMC days where an approach to T85 would be necessary.  When there is a strong wind out of the south, landing on 31 is impractical, so a pilot would fly the approach to 31, then circle to land on 13.

Approaching from the opposite direction

Take a look at the RNAV 19 at KBMQ, Burnet, TX.  The two initial approach fixes (IAF) are IXANY and JIBAJ.  If a flight is approaching BMQ from the west or north, this is an easy approach to join.  If a flight is coming from Austin (directly the the east and a little south) or San Antonio (almost directly south), it would be a bit of extra flying to get configured properly for the approach.  Especially coming from Austin, because the degree of turn to join at JIBAJ wouldn’t make the approach practical.

Well, how about vectors?  Unfortunately, Houston Center doesn’t have this approach depicted so vectors aren’t a possibility.  Center can give you vectors north to make the angle a little easier to join at JIBAJ, but they can’t vector you onto the approach.

Direct DLORA to join is another option, but again, if you are approaching from the southeast, the angle is wrong.

Insert the RNAV 01 approach with a circle to land.  AMUSE is right on V163, so it’s really easy to join the approach there coming from the south.  Coming from Austin, joining the approach at SUBIE works out great. Fly down to the MDA, join the left downwind for 19, and everyone is happy.

VOR Circle to Land Approaches

Every instrument pilot has had an instructor “force” them to do a VOR A or VOR B approach and no one enjoys them.  I personally think they are good practice.  With the number of RNAV systems and RNAV approaches out there, though, VOR approaches are becoming a bit archaic.

They do have a place in this discussion, though.  A VOR approach is given an A or B designation when the angle of the final approach course is greater than 30 degrees to the runway (VOR A KLZZ), or the final approach course is lined up with the runway, but the MDA is too high to practically descend and land (VOR A KGRK or the VOR/DME C KASE).

So, there are practical uses for a Circle to Land approach.  The next time you do some IMC work with an instructor, ask him/her if you can include one.

Will Fly To Food: Texas Airport Diners

ByHank Gibson September 27, 2019October 14, 2021

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.

A Takeoff Briefing

ByHank Gibson January 22, 2015January 27, 2015

Takeoff briefings are one of those things that most pilots are taught when they first learn how to fly, but once they get into flying themselves around, quickly fall by the wayside.  There is a reason student pilots are instructed to perform a takeoff briefing before departure.  It gets them thinking about what the plan is after they get off the ground and what to do if something goes wrong.

Takeoff briefings are a good habit to get into.  Airline crews do a takeoff briefing before every departure, even though they have performed a takeoff in that particular airplane thousands of times.  It enhances safety and provides repetition, keeping that knowledge at the forefront of the crew’s minds.

In general aviation, a takeoff briefing should cover what the takeoff procedure is, what the abort plan is, and what the plan after takeoff is.

Takeoff Procedure

Most pilots fly the same airplane all the time, so the familiarity with what goes into a takeoff is there.  But, habits should be formed to brief the takeoff procedure as part of the takeoff briefing.  It doesn’t need to be extensive, just covering the basics of how the airplane is getting off the ground.  Something like this:

• Throttle setting (if turbo charged, will full throttle cause an overboost?)
• Rotate speed
• Expected takeoff roll

That’s it.  Nothing fancy for the takeoff procedure.

Abort Plan

What is the plan if something goes wrong?  It doesn’t have to be an engine failure, maybe the engine coughs when full power is added or maybe the engine doesn’t produce peak RPM.  Maybe the takeoff roll is longer than anticipated and something doesn’t seem right.  Maybe on climb out a door pops open.  Maybe the engine fails at 1,000 feet.  It’s good to keep the plan in the foreground for what to do if an abnormal or emergency situation takes place.

• Brief the aborted takeoff procedure
  • Pick an abort point on the runway based on the expected ground roll
  • What is the procedure if the airplane isn’t off the ground by then?
  • What is the procedure if the engine quits on the runway?
• Brief the engine failure procedure at low altitude
  • If the engine fails over the runway, will you try to land on the runway?
  • What altitude would you elect to turn back as opposed to landing straight ahead?
  • If the plane is too low to turn back, would you land straight ahead or aim left or right?
  • What airspeed will you aim to hold if the engine fails?
• In a Cirrus, what is your minimum parachute deployment altitude?

After Takeoff Plan

After the airplane is off the ground, what’s the plan then?  Are you staying in the pattern or departing the area?  Do you need to adjust your power at a certain altitude?  What altitude are you climbing to?  What heading are you going to fly?  Is your flight plan in your GPS?  This is an excellent time to set up altitude and heading bugs if your airplane is so equipped.

Get in the habit of doing a takeoff briefing before you call the tower or announce your departure.  It get’s your mind focused on the task at hand and then what is going to be happening next.

Garmin GTN 750 Tips & Tricks

ByHank Gibson June 8, 2018June 19, 2018

The Garmin GTN 750 is an awesome piece of equipment.  Garmin tried to make the user interface with the touch screen as simple as possible (though there still is a bit of a learning curve when moving up from a Garmin 530W).  Garmin also integrated several key features that the 530W did not have that makes flying with a Garmin GTN 750 in IFR all that much better.

The two features of the Garmin GTN 750 I want to focus on today are the “Load Airway” feature and the “Hold at Waypoint” feature.  If a pilot isn’t looking for these specifically, they can actually be a bit hard to find.  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.

Load Airway

1. On your flight plan page, insert the waypoint that 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.
2. Tap the waypoint you just inserted.
3. A menu will pop up.  Tap Load Airway.
4. Select the Airway you want from the next menu that pops up.
5. Then, a list of waypoints will display to exit the airway.  Select the waypoint where you will be exiting the airway.
   1. Note:  Garmin defaults to listing these waypoints alphabetically.  If you unselect the “Sort Alpha” option, it will sort the waypoints by direction and distance from the entry waypoint.  This is a little more practical, easier to work with, and how I recommend doing it.  This way you can either scroll up or down depending on the direction of travel on the airway and find your exit waypoint.
6. Tap Load.
7. The Airway and all the waypoints in between your entry and exit waypoints appear in your flight plan.
8. 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.
   1. On the Flight Plan page, tap the waypoint that ends the leg you want to activate.
   2. On the menu that pops up, tap Activate Leg.

Hold At Waypoint

The Garmin GTN 750 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.

1. On the Flight Plan page, tap the Waypoint that you want to hold at.
2. On the menu that pops up, tap Hold At Waypoint
3. 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 tap Load.
4. You will see the hold now as a Waypoint in your flight plan.

Once the hold is entered, the GPS will go into Suspend mode, suspending the Flight Plan Waypoint Sequencing.  Once you are ready to depart the hold, you will have to tap Unsuspend before crossing the holding point on the inbound leg, then the GPS will resume normal waypoint sequencing.

These are 2 of the really cool, gee-wiz features of the Garmin GTN 750.  Following the above steps will make IFR flying much easier for the pilot, as well as much more enjoyable!

Night Flying

ByHank Gibson October 16, 2018October 16, 2018

Ah, fall is finally here.  In Texas, it arrived about a month late, but showed up with a vengeance.  A strong cold front caused a 40 degree temperature drop in 12 hours earlier this week, bringing rain, lower freezing levels, and lots of wind.

Fall means cooler temps, but fall also means less light.  The sun begins to set sooner, plus the fall back time change in November cause darkness to spring upon an unaware pilot.

Before getting in to too many night landings tips, just a friendly reminder, passengers can only be carried at night if the PIC has completed 3 takeoffs and landings to a full stop in the last 90 days during the time period of 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise.

Lots of us have been landing long before sunset for most of the past couple of months, so those night flying skills might be a little rusty.  The best way to remedy night flying rustiness?  Call an instructor and go get some practice.

In the meantime, here are some tips as to what to expect for your next night flying experience.

1. Your Eyes Are Very Important.  This may seem like an obvious statement, but night vision can be affected by many things.  Before you takeoff, you want to make sure you can see in the dark.  The FAA recommends no bright lights 30 minutes prior to takeoff.  They also recommend using oxygen at night as this greatly improves night vision, even at low altitudes.  Use off center viewing to help spot traffic or other objects in the air.  Finally, when preflighting, use a red flashlight as much as possible, but if you do have to use a white light, close one eye to keep one eye from being blinded.
2. Utilize Approach Lights on Landing.  Night landings are very different then day landings.  It is very difficult to get the proper depth perception, not too mention see obstacles below you on your final approach to a runway.  PAPI’s, VASI’s, and instrument approach glide slope’s become very important.  If you are VFR only pilot, if your airport has a PAPI or a VASI, keep 2 white and 2 red (or 1 white and 1 red) lights.  If you see 3 red (or 2 red), climb.  If you see 4 red, definitely climb.  If you are an IFR pilot, I highly recommend always flying an approach at night.  What if your airport doesn’t have a PAPI, VASI, or approach with a glide slope?  You might not want to utilize it at night.  One side note on VFR flight: Clouds are nearly invisible at night.  If you do fly into a cloud (a clue is your strobe lights start reflecting back at you), don’t panic.  If you have an autopilot, turn it on and execute a 180 degree level turn.  If you don’t have an autopilot, start scanning your instruments, keep your attitude indicator blue side up, and make a shallow 180 degree while maintaining altitude.  Then call ATC, advise them what happened, and ask for help.  One more note:  I highly recommend that if a pilot finds that he/she will fly at night at lot, get an instrument rating and fly IFR at night.  It’s much safer.
3. Practice Landings Before Carrying Passengers.  The tendency when landing at night is to level off too high before flaring, causing the airplane to bleed off speed and energy too high above the runway.  This can lead to a stall, a hard landing, and/or too high of a pitch attitude at touch down causing a tail strike. A good tip is start your level off when you can see the tire marks on the runway.  Make sure you practice night landings, preferably with an experienced instructor who is night current and proficient, before carrying any passengers on board, even if you are night current, but haven’t landed at night in a while.
4. Night Emergencies.  For engine failures at night, you are very limited on options.  Unless you have a Cirrus equipped with a CAPS parachute system, you really have two options if an airport isn’t within gliding distance.  Find a wide, lighted road that appears to be lightly trafficked.  A word of caution, though:  be careful of light poles, fences, concrete medians, cars, and buildings.  The LA freeway would not be a good option (though there are exceptions to this rule as is evidenced by the picture below).  The second option is find a dark spot and pray it’s a field (or the Hudson River).  As you get closer, you can turn your landing light on to see what the ground looks like.  If it looks good, keep the light on and continue.  If you don’t like what you see, turn your landing light off and continue….

Flying at night can be the best time of day to fly.  It’s usually smoother, cooler, and you get to see all the city lights.  It is a very different environment, however, so make sure to get some training before darkness settles in on your next trip.