The South Central Cirrus Owner’s and Pilot’s Association (COPA) Region is hosting a Fly In dinner at the Austin Executive Airport (KEDC) on Friday, October 8th. The event is from 5-9pm. There will be a cash bar, a catered dinner ($25/person), a special guest speaker, and great mingling amongst the Cirrus owners and pilots in our region!
Fly in or drive to EDC. The dinner will be in the Henrickson Jet Center’s main hangar. You will need to RSVP so event organizers can get a proper head count. The link to RSVP is here.
Cirrus Aircraft will be bringing two new 2016 SR22s that will be available for viewing.
The Cirrus Pilot Proficiency Program is once again returning to Houston, TX the first weekend in November. Henrickson Jet Center at the Houston Executive Airport (KTME) will be the host FBO this year. If you are a Cirrus owner in the South Central US, the Houston CPPP weekend is definitely worth your while.
What is it? The Houston CPPP is a combination ground and flight training weekend. With ground classes ranging from engine management, to loss of control prevention, to avionics best practices, an attendee will not lack a better Cirrus education by the time he or she leaves.
The flight training side of the weekend gives an attendee several options. A Houston CPPP attendee can do 1 or 2 flights with a highly qualified Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilot (CSIP), one on Saturday and one on Sunday (if the 2 flight option is selected). The Cirrus Owner’s and Pilot’s Association (COPA) brings in exceptional instructors for each of the CPPP events, so the training is top notch. Folks who want to take in more ground school, but still want to fly a little bit have the option of just doing 1 flight, either Saturday or Sunday, in order to increase their Cirrus knowledge.
The Houston CPPP event will be November 2nd, 2018-November 4th, 2018, a Friday through a Sunday. The weekend kicks off with a welcome dinner Friday night, then ground sessions and flying on Saturday and Sunday, plus a dinner on Saturday night.
For those who want to challenge themselves, there are simulator sessions available with a challenging instrument approach that doesn’t quite meet up with the normal, ho-hum type of approach.
The Houston CPPP also provides a Partner in Command course for those right seaters out there wanting to learn more about what to do in an emergency situation.
Hank Gibson of Texas Top Aviation will be at the Houston CPPP as a flight instructor. For more information and to sign up, please click here.
Let’s say you’re flying in the mountains of Colorado on a cloudy day. There’s a solid layer from the surface all the way up to 14,000 feet. You’re inbound to Eagle (KEGE) on the RNAV (GPS) D approach. There are mountains next to you and below you, but you aren’t concerned since you can see them all. The base of the last reported overcast layer was 3,000 feet, so you know you’ll break out before the MDA and land no problem.
At 11,100 over AWACC, you clearly see the top of the mountain below you. You are comfortably above it. You already have the runway in sight as well. You pop out of the clouds on the approach at 9,700 feet, spot the airport and follow the tower’s instructions to circle north of the runway for a left base for runway 7.
How could you see the mountains inside the clouds? You have Synthetic Vision installed on your glass panel, that’s how.
Aspen Synthetic Vision
Synthetic Vision, which has actually been around since the ’70s when NASA and the US Military first developed it, was first FAA certified for the Gulfstream PlaneView flight deck in 2009. Garmin, Avidyne, and Aspen are the main general aviation manufacturers of synthetic vision these days. All Garmin PFDs are now equipped with Synthetic Vision while Aspen gives you the option to upgrade to Synthetic Vision when you get one of their PFDs installed. Avidyne gives you Synthetic Vision in their R9 upgrade for the Cirrus.
What is Synthetic Vision? Basically, it’s a 3-D picture on the primary flight display showing terrain, obstacles, traffic, and runways. It greatly enhances situation awareness in areas of terrain or high obstacles during IFR conditions or at night.
The goal behind the development of Synthetic Vision was to decrease the amount of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents. A CFIT accident consists of a perfectly airworthy airplane flown by a pilot (or autopilot) unintentionally into terrain. These accidents can happen in low visibility conditions or at night, but the reason is mainly due to the pilot losing track of his position in relation to obstacles or terrain (or water as was the case with JFK Jr.).
With Synthetic Vision, the goal is to enhance pilot knowledge of what is around the airplane at all times. When you’re at altitude, the terrain below you looks flat. When you start descending down amongst the rocks, the hills or mountains start to rise up on your screen. For those used to the coloration with the 2-D terrain feature on a GPS unit, it translates very easily to the terrain coloration on a Synthetic Vision equipped PFD. Terrain that is between 100 and 500 feet below the aircraft is shown as yellow, while terrain closer than 100 feet is depicted as red.
Garmin Synthetic Vision
One neat feature on Garmin units is the Highway in the Sky. When a pilot puts a course or a flight plan in the GPS, the PFD displays magenta boxes at the altitude selected displaying the route. It’s handy when hand flying to just “fly through the boxes.” They also display descent angles on approaches.
Synthetic Vision is still optional on Garmin and Aspen units, but I highly recommend springing for it. It will give you a higher level of safety and keep you out of the rocks.
Hank Gibson from Texas Top Aviation will be presenting a seminar on flying Garmin instrument approaches with the different Garmin GPS units. Whether you have a Garmin 530/430 unit, a Garmin GTN 750/650 unit, or a Garmin G1000, all will be discussed. You’ll walk away with some tips and tricks, plus a better understanding of your Garmin unit.
WINGs credit will be given for attending. The seminar is hosted by Redbird Skyport at the San Marcos Airport (KHYI) in Redbird’s large conference room. The seminar will begin at 10am on Saturday, June 30th, 2018.
It’s always quicker to fly than drive and Redbird has plenty of ramp space to accommodate seminar attendees.
Registration is required. Please visit the registration page on FAASafety.gov. Space is limited to 20 individuals, so please make sure you register if you want to attend.
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.
11 years ago, in April of 2009, the Avidyne Corporation unveiled the much bally-hooed Release 9, or R9 as it is commonly known, as a hardware replacement for the Avidyne EX5000 Entegra system in Cirrus Aircraft. The Entegra system was way outdated by that point. Even though Avidyne was the first company to put together a glass PFD in a single engine piston airplane, the company had quickly fallen behind Garmin in keeping up with the ever changing technology landscape.
Rewind to 2008. Cirrus had been going strong with the Avidyne Entegra since the SR20 and SR22 went to full glass in 2003 (a PFD and an MFD; prior to that, Cirrus aircraft only had an MFD with steam gauges and a Sandel Electronic HSI). Cessna, on the other hand, vaulted past the Avidyne Entegra and went straight to the Garmin G1000 in it’s aircraft, starting in 2004 with the 182 G1000 and 2005 with the 172 G1000. Beechcraft and Columbia went to the G1000 (Columbia started with the Avidyne as well) in 2005.
Garmin’s technology in 2007 was so much better than Avidyne’s technology that Cirrus decided to switch. I’m sure there were many promises made by Avidyne to Cirrus about what Avidyne was working on (the R9), but the G1000 was out there, available, and being used in a lot of different airplanes with very good results.
So, in 2008, Cirrus made the switch from the Avidyne Entegra to the Garmin G1000, dubbing it the Cirrus Perspective by Garmin avionics package. Avidyne finally got the R9 to market in 2009, but by that time, Piper was the only airplane manufacturer left putting factory Avidyne panels in their airplanes, and they switched to G1000 later that year.
The R9 is a fabulous product. It’s fully integrated, has great graphics, has fully redundant displays, a QWERTY keypad (which, by the way, Garmin didn’t do for another 8 years), and a lot of other neat features. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s a really good product for what it is.
Avidyne, though, was late to the game with their technology. By the time it debuted in 2009, all the GA aircraft manufacturers had long since switched to the Garmin G1000 and weren’t looking back. That left Avidyne with the retrofit market for the many different Avidyne Entegra Cirrus aircraft out there. The only problem was, the retrofit was $80,000 ($95,000 if you wanted to throw in the DFC 100 Autopilot, which is a must have) and not many owners were up for paying that much money, then or now.
To sum up our brief history lesson, Avidyne knew the Entegra needed to go, but couldn’t get the R9 out quickly enough to convince anyone to stick with Avidyne products. The retrofit market didn’t amount to many sales, so Avidyne doesn’t even make the R9 anymore.
As a side note, I really, really like the Avidyne R9 and am sad that it didn’t make it into more airplanes.
So, when the Avidyne Entegra starts to have issues, what’s an owner to do? Keep reading!
There is Hope
There are thousands of Cirrus aircraft out there flying with the Avidyne Entegra instrumentation, which is basically 20 year old technology (I’ve had a computer engineer tell me the programming in an Entegra is Windows 98 tech). These things are going to start having problems at some point (many already have), but what solution do owners have that is cost effective and get’s them new technology?
Remember that little company named Garmin? Well, they have come through again. Announced this summer, the Garmin G500 TXi is now certified as a replacement in the Cirrus Avidyne Entegra equipped aircraft. This means pulling out both the PFD and MFD and replacing them with the G500 TXi on both sides. Engine data is also displayed on the G500TXi MFD, including the percent power and TIT indications, if equipped.
Cirrus SR22 Equipped with Dual G500 TXi Screens and Dual Garmin GTN 650Xi GPS Units
The cost for the panel? Two 10.6″ G500 TXi’s run about $16,000 apiece for the units, not including labor. $32,000 for a brand new panel isn’t terrible. Plus, the G500 TXi’s work with the DFC90 autopilot if the Cirrus is already equipped with it. If not, the Garmin GFC 500 autopilot is now approved for the Cirrus at a relatively low price of $7,000, including the servos.
Still have the original Garmin 430s in your Cirrus? Upgraded to the Avidyne IFD 540/440 stack? Put in dual GTN 650Xi’s? Put in a GTN 750Xi? All are compatible with the G500 TXi panel.
Want to upgrade everything? It does get kind of pricey at that point, but for just equipment, the cost for a complete panel conversion is somewhere in the area of $65,000 plus labor, still below what the R9 cost, but not cheap either. That would include 2 G500 TXi’s, 2 GTN 650Xi’s, a GFC 500 Autopilot, and all the engine monitoring equipment that the G500 TXi would need.
Cirrus SR22 Equipped with Dual G500 TXi Screens, a GTN 750Xi, and a GTN 650Xi
Thankfully, some new technology has finally come to the Generation 1-3 Cirrus. Oh, and by the way, your steam gauge Cirrus is fully upgradable as well.
There is great news coming for all IFR pilots who utilize the multitude of uncontrolled airports across the US.
From the beginning of aviation time, the process of getting an IFR clearance at an uncontrolled airport has been arduous. For airports under Center controlled airspace, you had to dial the Clearance Delivery line, which ported you to Flight Service. Then you sat on hold till someone picked up, gave them your information, then sat on hold again while they called the Center. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the briefer came back with your clearance and departure instructions.
On a busy day, this could take ten to fifteen minutes, which can be really annoying when a pilot is trying to take off and get somewhere.
In my opinion, this also led to a lot of unsafe (and probably illegal) VFR departures when conditions were either clearly IFR or unsafe if buzzing around at low altitudes and high speeds in Class G airspace.
RCO’s (Remote Communications Outlet, 2nd column, halfway down) and Clearance Delivery Frequencies are in place at some airports, but by and large, the above process was how you got your clearance.
Departing from a TRACON controlled airport usually was easier and quicker. The TRACON has a direct line that is available for pilots to call to speak directly with a controller, but not all these phone numbers are published.
As of June 20th, the FAA is implementing this at all uncontrolled airports. On the chart supplement for all IFR charts across the US (not including Alaska), the FAA will publish the Center phone numbers and remaining TRACON phone numbers for pilots to call directly to receive their IFR clearances and departure instructions, and to cancel their IFR flight plans (A lot of TRACONs already have their phone number published).
Flight Service will no longer be taking IFR flight plan cancellations. Pilots will still be able to cancel with Center or TRACON in the air, but will now need to call the number on the chart supplement on the ground for cancellation.
Now that the FAA is modernizing this process, hopefully more pilots will decide to call on the ground for their clearance on a MVFR or IFR day instead of taking off and trying to pick it up in the air.
Finding the Chart Supplement on Foreflight
Where is the Chart Supplement? I’m so glad you asked.
Before iPads, everyone carried around the green book, officially known as the Airport/Facilities Directory, or A/FD. With the advent of Foreflight & Garmin Pilot & others, all the information in the A/FD is now easily accessible in each of the Apps.
Foreflight may integrate the clearance delivery phone number for each airport into their airport information page, but in the meantime, here is how to find the Chart Supplement.
On Foreflight, go to Documents along the bottom of the App. In the Catalog on the left, tap FAA. Chart Supplement will be about 1/3 of the way down the page. Tap that, then tap the region you need and it will download into your Documents Library.
Once it is downloaded, check the Table of Contents for FAA Telephone Numbers and NWS. Go to that page and scroll through to find the Center or TRACON you are needing, then dial the number.
