The 2020 Texas Top Aviation Santa Fe Golf Fly In has been re-scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. The new date is September 3rd-5th at the Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder Resort and Towa Golf Club.
For more information on the event and to register, please click here.
I’ve noticed that a lot of general aviation pilots tend to ignore the flight director on the attitude indicator. A lot of pilots don’t even know what it’s there for or how to use it. Talk to any airline pilot, though, and he or she will tell you how important the flight director actually is.
In most high performance airplanes, the flight director comes on when the autopilot comes on. Essentially, the autopilot is following the flight director, which tells the autopilot where to go. The flight director can also be used with the autopilot off, when hand flying an approach, for example. By turning the flight director on, it will show you where you need to fly to stay on course and on glide slope.
The flight director is most often controlled by the autopilot controller. The same buttons you use to put the autopilot in heading mode also tells the flight director to follow the heading bug when the autopilot is off. When you move the heading bug (or change course on the GPS, depending on which mode you have selected), the flight director will show you when you need to turn and when you need to stop turning. It directs your flight attitude, hence the name.
I recently discovered it’s a great backup when you have some instruments on the fritz. I went on a long flight in a steam gauge Piper Malibu and the attitude indicator started reading erratically. While flying straight and level, it would randomly indicate that I was in a 10 degree bank to the right, swing back and show wings level, then show a 3 degree turn left. This went on for a while. We were in VMC conditions, so legality wasn’t a problem, but it was kind of disorienting.
After a little while of this, the autopilot started acting up. It would start oscillating the pitch up and down, making it seem like we were going through a moguls course in the air. I ended up turning the autopilot off and hand flying the airplane.
This led to a conundrum, since my attitude indicator was unreliable. I could definitely look outside, since it was VMC, seeing when I was level and when I wasn’t. That would create a higher workload for me, which on a long flight like I was on, would lead to an increase in fatigue. The solution? The flight director!
I turned the autopilot off, but I left the flight director up. It wasn’t referencing the bank angle that the attitude indicator was showing since the KFC 150 goes off of the turn coordinator. So, if I just followed the attitude indicator, I could just keep scanning the instruments and relieve a little bit of my workload.
It actually worked really well. By just following the flight director, I was able to stay on course and on altitude with only minor attitude adjustments whenever we hit turbulence.
So, if you’re attitude indicator and autopilot decide to stop working on you, then bring up the flight director, push the same buttons you would if you were using the autopilot, and it works as a great backup.
I’ve noticed that a lot of general aviation pilots tend to ignore the flight director on the attitude indicator. A lot of pilots don’t even know what it’s there for or how to use it. Talk to any airline pilot, though, and he or she will tell you how important the flight director actually is….
A brand-new event for Lancair owners, the 2018 Great American Lancair Rally will be a multi-stage “grand tour” of the Western US. Starting and ending in Central Texas, the Rally will take place September 24th through October 5th 2018.
The Rally will begin in Uvalde, TX (KUVA) on September 24th at the Lancair headquarters. There will be 6 legs, with stops at:
At each stop, there will be food, drinks, and fun for everyone.
Lancair plans on making instructors available to pilots who would like any kind of training along the way. Hank Gibson from Texas Top Aviation will be one of the instructors available.
Lancair plan to make the Great American Lancair Rally an annual event, with the 2019 Rally spanning the eastern half of the country.
The Great American Lancair Rally is open to all Lancair owners, potential owners and interested aviators. Fly a different airplane? All makes and models are welcome!
For more information & to register, check out the 2018 Great American Lancair Rally’s website.
A brand-new event for Lancair owners, the 2018 Great American Lancair Rally will be a multi-stage “grand tour” of the Western US. Starting and ending in Central Texas, the Rally will take place September 24th through October 5th 2018. The Rally will begin in Uvalde, TX (KUVA) on September 24th at the Lancair headquarters. There…
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!).
Photo Credit: www.lancasteronline.com
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…
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.
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…
The debate about which headset is the better product will never cease. We do know this for sure, though, Lightspeed and Bose make the best noise canceling headsets out there. David Clark’s offering doesn’t match up with these two. Newcomer AKG has a light (weight-wise that is, as the headset is equipped with a pair of LED lights as well) ANR headset that the jury is still out on. For now, Lightspeed and Bose sit atop the ANR kingdom.
The comparison for this article will be between the Lightspeed Zulu 2 and the Bose A20 headsets, both of which I have used quite extensively in my flying career. I am officially in the Lighspeed camp at this point and after reading my comparison below, you’ll see why.
Between the two, the Bose A20 cancels out more noise, no argument there. This isn’t to say that the Lightspeed Zulu 2 doesn’t. Quite the opposite, actually. The Lightspeed Zulu 2 does a great job of canceling the noise. But with the A20 on in a C172, you can barely hear the engine running. The difference before you press the power button and after is extremely noticeable. I had one client turn to me after turning on the noise canceling function of his new A20 headset and state, “These things are awesome!”
The other advantage Bose has is a continuation of the noise canceling. About the only thing I don’t like about the Lightspeed is if you don’t have the headset sized just right on your head, each time you turn your head to look at something, then the suction gets broken around the ear cup and you get some ambient noise. My glasses probably don’t help with this. It’s not that big of a deal, you just have to readjust the size of the headset, but, since I’m a little OCD, it bugs me. Once I get the set sized right, it’s smooth sailing.
Far and away, the Lightspeed Zulu 2 is much more comfortable than the Bose A20. I flew for 5 hours in the right seat with my Lightspeed set on the other day. I switched to the left seat for the last leg and used the owner’s A20 headset since it was plugged in on that side already and I noticed quite a bit of difference. The ear cups seemed to press against my head more. The pad on top of my head didn’t seem to be as cushiony. It just wasn’t overall as comfortable as the Lightspeed Zulu 2.
Bose has made a lot of progress from their original noise canceling headsets. Those didn’t have much of a cushion on top at all. After about 2.5 hours, the slim ear cushions began to dig in to the side of your head. So, the A20 has made some progress, but the Lightspeed Zulu 2 takes the cake in comfort.
“Wait!” You Bose boys scream (no pun intended). “The A20 is lighter than the Zulu 2!” While this is true (the Zulu 2 weighs in at 15.7 oz while the A20 is only 12 oz), the way that weight is distributed makes a massive amount of difference. The Lightspeed Zulu 2 feels lighter on top of your noggin than the A20 because the weight of the A20 is firmly planted on the top of your head in a single point. With the Zulu 2, the weight is distributed evenly across the top of your scalp, so even though the set is heavier, it feels lighter on your head because the weight is not all concentrated on one point.
All this adds up to why I like the Lightspeed Zulu 2 more than the Bose A20. As for a practical example, I wore my Lightspeed Zulu 2 set for 9.1 hours one day two weeks ago. Needless to say, it was a long day. But, once I climbed out of the airplane, I had no pain on the top of my head and only a very little where my glasses ran along the side of my head. Now I call that a winner.
The debate about which headset is the better product will never cease. We do know this for sure, though, Lightspeed and Bose make the best noise canceling headsets out there. David Clark’s offering doesn’t match up with these two. Newcomer AKG has a light (weight-wise that is, as the headset is equipped with a pair…
Many people ask, which set of charts is better? Should I use the FAA Aeroservices charts on Foreflight or pay extra for the Jeppesen charts? Since you have to pay for Jeppesen, they are probably better, right?
I am not here to say which one is better as a chart preference is just that, a preference for one over the other or for certain features. After a while, muscle memory and routine take over and you probably wont even notice the difference.
History
In 1934, Elroy Jeppesen began making his own charts and sold them to other pilots. His little company grew into the giant Boeing chart company we know today. Jeppesen charts are used internationally and therefore include information that might otherwise seem common knowledge, like transition altitudes. The key is, you cannot get FAA Aeroservices charts for international destinations. Jeppesen is the only option for outside the US.
National Aerospace Charting Office (NACO), or the new(er) name “Aeroservices” or FAA chart, whatever you decide to call them, are United States government issued charts. In addition to civilian use, Aeroservices charts are used by the military so there will be some terminology that does not apply to civilians. The best part about FAA Aeroservices charts are… they’re free!
If you are in the middle of a transition or trying to decide which charts to use, you have come to the right place. Here are a few key differences.
Obstacle Departure Procedure Chart
KAXX (Angel Fire, New Mexico) ODP
Approach Charts
One thing pilots love about Jeppesen approach charts is the clear set up for an approach brief. The top section is created as a “briefing strip” starting with the frequencies, then navigation frequencies, minimums, airport elevation and the missed approach. It’s very natural and user friendly.
FAA charts have a slightly bigger picture of the approach planview, but the profile view and minimums section can get a bit cluttered. It can feel a little discontinuous when briefing the approach to bounce all over the page. However, some pilots really like the small airport diagram in the corner, which I find really helpful for situational awareness (particularly for students learning circle approaches). Non- standard alternate and takeoff minimums are also clearly noted, but unfortunately we must hunt elsewhere to find them. The Jeppesen alternate minimums and takeoff minimums will both be on the airport diagram
Arrival/ Departure Charts: Sewzy 5 Arrival KAUS
The Jeppesen lay out is very attractive and draws the pilots eye in a clear way to all the important information. The colors pop out, so the required altitudes and speeds are easy to read and remember. The chart, which is the proper scale, shows MORAs , easy to find airports (and runway layouts) and is over all easy to follow. However, the texts, while very clearly laid out, are small and difficult to read and pushed to the very edges of the chart. FAA charts are simple and fairly easy to read, but the airports are not as obvious and the flow to the airport requires a good look. The table on the Jeppesen chart is a really nice format, but the text and Notes for arrivals on the FAA chart are easy to find and much easier to read quickly.
Airport Diagram
The Jeppesen Airport Diagram page has it all: frequencies, airport diagram, runway info, take-off minimums, departure procedures and alternate minimums. It’s a one-stop shop. It makes preflight planning easy when its all at your fingertips.
The FAA charts usually require a little more searching for different pieces of airport information. The Airport Diagram itself is just the airport layout. Above, you will see a simple FAA Airport diagram. It’s clean and simple, perfect for a knee board print out.
In the flight planning process, as you look at what approaches you will be using for the airport, you might see an A or T inside a triangle. Those indicate that you will need to look in the Alternate Minimum or Take off minimum documents for more information. The Takeoff Minimums document (see below) is also where you will find any obstacle departure procedures for that airport. Apps like Foreflight help you out by posting the take off minimums under the departure tab. Even though it’s a little more difficult to read, I didn’t crop out the airport information so you can see what it looks like in context.
Many people ask, which set of charts is better? Should I use the FAA Aeroservices charts on Foreflight or pay extra for the Jeppesen charts? Since you have to pay for Jeppesen, they are probably better, right? I am not here to say which one is better as a chart preference is just that, a…
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!
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…
