Have you looked longingly at the Aspen PFD or Garmin G500, imagining those beautiful glass panels set in your airplane? Think it’s too advanced for your flying skills? Well, think again! Hank Gibson of Texas Top Aviation will be hosting a seminar at the Redbird Skyport FBO at the San Marcos Airport (KHYI) on Thursday, September 25th at 7pm to enlighten everyone on all the different glass panel and modern GPS options out there.
No panel is too complex! No GPS is too complicated! Come hear about how you can upgrade your steam gauge airplane to a modern, glass panel cockpit that will be the envy of all your pilot buddies.
The seminar begins at 7pm in the large conference room at the Redbird Skyport. Come see this beautiful facility which hosted the AOPA Fly In this past April. There will be two drawings for free flight training in your airplane, so make sure you get your entry in once you arrive. WINGS credit will also be given.
Redbird welcomes pilots flying in for the event. If you are flying in, please show your support for Redbird by purchasing fuel!
Signup is required for the event. To sign up, please click here.
In instrument flying, I am all about keeping things simple. There is a ton of detail that an instrument pilot can get bogged down in. When an instrument pilot gets bogged down, he gets distracted from flying the airplane. When he gets distracted from flying the airplane, dangerous circumstances can happen.
I like to keep things simple. When I first started instructing, I developed a very simple instrument approach briefing that captures everything that is necessary on an approach plate, but prevents getting bogged down in the details.
I call it the BBC instrument approach briefing. Here it is:
Brief
First things first. The first step of an instrument approach briefing is to brief the approach plate. There are a bunch of acronyms out there that instructors tell their students to memorize that only cause confusion instead of helping get the plate briefed. To keep it simple, just work your way across the plate and you’ll get all the information you need.
Start in the top left hand corner of the plate, with the approach course, then work your way right and down, as follows:
Approach Course (or Nav frequency if flying a VOR/ILS/LOC)
Runway information
Notes (these are good to brief the night before as a lot are irrelevant to GA pilots
Missed approach
Frequencies
Planview and MSA
Profile View and Minimums
Simple enough, right?
Build
Now that you know what you are planning on doing, you can now take the second step in the instrument approach briefing and build the approach in your GPS. You know your approach type, you know your transition, and you know what your minimums are. Taking all that information, you can now build it in to your system.
Checklists
Once everything else is done, don’t forget the checklists. The descent and before landing checklists still need to be done as part of an approach. The best time to do these is before joining the approach so that you don’t have to worry about flying the approach and looking at a checklist at the same time. Even better, memorize the checklist and you don’t have to look at anything!
Most importantly, you want to be configured properly for the approach by the final approach fix. Gear, flaps set, power set, so all you have to worry about at that point is following the needles and trusting your instruments.
When cleaning airplanes, the majority of people don’t know how to properly maintain their TKS panels. TKS panels provide wing leading edge, horizontal stabilizer leading edge, and, in the case of FIKI airplanes, vertical stabilizer leading edge de-icing protection. For those not familiar with them, they are metal strips that have thousands of holes drilled into them where the TKS fluid seeps out. They have become quite prevalent on Cirrus aircraft, the Cessna TTx, and Mooney aircraft manufactured in the last decade or so. The system is also known as a weeping wing system.
Being on the leading edges, these panels pick up bugs very easily. For the uninitiated, it would make sense to just use normal airplane cleaner to spray the panels and scrub the bugs. Don’t!
Using anything that contains Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) as that can harm the TKS bladders behind the panels. Any aircraft cleaner containing wax could cause the pores to clog, preventing the TKS fluid from properly seeping onto the wing.
What’s the best thing to do? Soap and water with a soft cloth is a good start (again, make sure it doesn’t have wax in it. Dish soap would be suitable). No hose available? Just simply turn the TKS system on, let it run till you start to see fluid drip off the wings onto the ground, and use the fluid to clean the panels.
A soft cloth would work fine, but, if the panels are really buggy, take a green scouring pad to do some scrubbing. Just make sure the scrubbing motion is up and down with the grain, not side to side. You can find the green scouring sponges on the dishwashing aisle in the grocery store. Just leave one in the hangar for when you need it.
The FAA defines personal minimums “as an individual pilot’s set of procedures, rules, criteria, and guidelines for deciding whether and under what conditions to operate (or continue operating) in the National Airspace System.” Have you actually given thought as to why we choose the personal minimums we do? From the beginning of initial pilot training, weather minimums were established for day-to-day training and during solo flight. I didn’t realize it at first, but I later learned these limits were not just an insurance mandate, but these minimums were set at the time to safely operate an aircraft based on my “then” current experience.
So here’s the question: what are your personal minimums and WHY do YOU have them? Do you ever lower or raise your minimums? Are your minimums based solely on your overall experience level or do they take into account other variables such as advanced avionics? For pilots that fly multiple aircraft like I do, can and do your minimums change in regard to category or type of aircraft you are flying? It’s a judgment decision on how you chose your minimums. However, it’s important that time is taken before you strap into the cockpit for each flight to critically think about the different risk factors and variables which may affect your decision for the minimums you choose.
To guide us, let’s try briefly apply the FAA’s Personal Minimums Checklist to see how risk factors might shape what personal minimums or decisions we make for the day. Remember, just because you have been flying with a certain set of minimums one day, doesn’t mean you can’t adjust your minimums to a higher value given an ever-changing situation.
The acronym most pilots have heard is PAVE:
Pilot– We all should be familiar with the acronym IMSAFE associated with this. It addresses variables such as Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, and Emotion. But how do you adjust your personal minimums using this guideline? Have you ever thought about raising your minimums for a training flight if you only got 4-6 hours of sleep, instead of 8? Or if you anticipate a hard IFR flight with a long day, maybe taking a safety pilot to mitigate the chance of a mistake if you’re forecasting having to shoot an approach to your weather planning minimums.
Aircraft– Personally, this is a really important factor for me when deciding what minimums to apply. I often spend a large majority of my time asking myself; is this aircraft properly equipped for the flight? This question goes beyond just looking at the logbook for a properly equipped and legal aircraft. A professional pilot should think further. Am I flying a traditional 6-pack “steam gauge” layout, non-slaved compass card, with a separate OBS gauge for course guidance? What if the aircraft doesn’t have an auto-pilot? What if I’m flying an aircraft equipped with a dual auto-pilot, dual GPS with an integrated glass cockpit? I can comfortably say my personal minimums change depending on the equipment I have available.
A pilot should also look at his/her recency with the aircraft. For example, if you are qualified to fly both airplanes and helicopters, maybe you should choose to have higher personal minimums in one particular airframe or if you haven’t flown that airframe within 30, 60 or 90 days. This is a very important factor for the owner/pilot.
EnVironment– Most of the time, when we think of environment, we ask ourselves, is the weather legal for me to take off and, more importantly, can I conduct this flight safely? Basic flight planning should have taught us to take into consideration crosswind limits, day versus night, and the type of airspace the flight is conducted in. Thought should also be given to how you set your personal minimums in regards to the particular type of environment you might rarely encounter. Flying an approach to your minimums in the flat plains of Texas during the day is one thing, but how would you adjust your weather minimums flying to a new airport, at night, with no moon illumination, in the mountains of Colorado? Could you reduce the risk and adjust your minimums in this scenario with two pilots?
External Pressures – What external pressures are affecting your flight? Passengers, the owner, “get-there-it is”, the desire to impress someone? Although external pressures should never be a factor when conducting a flight, they almost always play a role in your decision whether to conduct the flight or not. For example, a professional pilot gets hired to do a flight and the weather is below their personal minimums. The pilot could be tempted to lower their minimums by 100 feet to take the flight for a paying customer. This scenario plays out every day across the country whether it’s a professional pilot or owner/pilot. It would be foolish not to consider this type of pressure. Always make sure you have a plan if and when you encounter this situation. Planning your flight and having a plan to deal with these potential scenarios ahead of time ensures you stick to your minimums. It can be as simple as telling your passengers, or the owner, well ahead of your flight what your personal minimums are to accept the flight, and to ensure they, or you, have a back-up plan!
Most pilots will never break a hard limitation such as an airframe cross wind limitation, or engine limit, but the chances of breaking a personal minimum are realistic. Think about the last time you went on a diet and broke your plan because you were tempted by your friends or family during an outing. Self-imposed personal minimums can be hard to enforce and we need to acknowledge this as humans. Here are a few techniques that you can use to assist in making a decision using personal minimums and help reduce the influence of external pressures.
Step 1: Sit down with your CFI/CFII and fill out a personal minimums worksheet. Filling one out by yourself is a good start but having an outside objective view will help in making sure your personal minimums are realistic. Remember, it is easy to convince ourselves that we can do something even though we have set personal minimums. Talk with other pilots to see if you have set realistic expectations.
Step 2: Preflight planning must start a few days in advanced. It can be as easy as checking what the forecast might be and looking at the projected route, near-by alternate airports, and various approaches. This can be done quickly and will give you a heads up on whether the flight can be safely conducted or not. By alerting the passengers or owner early enough, alternate plans can be developed. An extra pilot can be added, the passengers can fly commercial, bring along a CFI, or cancel the trip altogether and seek alternate transportation. The main point is the decision was made well ahead of the flight when conditions didn’t look favorable. This helps in removing external pressures and ensures you don’t go below your personal minimums.
Step 3: Never be afraid to ask for a second opinion. Part 135 operators have set procedures for conducting flights which assist the pilots in making decisions. These set procedures help remove external pressures by allowing the pilot to say, “The rules don’t allow for this, or this is how we will conduct the flight!” However, under Part 91, the pilot has to take ownership for all phases of the flight. This is where talking it out with another pilot helps with mitigating external factors and the environment. Ideally, this person should have more experience and be able to talk through the situation. For instance, if I’m flying to a new destination, I often seek the advice from another pilot who’s familiar with the area. They may have key insights into weather patterns, preferred approaches, or hazards to avoid. In certain situations, asking for another pilot’s opinion might be what influences your go/no-go decision! You’ll be amazed how much you can learn just from talking to other pilots.
Step 4: Continue to build your experience and knowledge base. Building experience requires us to push our abilities, and sometimes this may be to the limit. However, this can be done in a controlled training environment or just going out and experiencing it. Get a new license, fly regularly with a CFI/CFII, and always try and take advantage of training opportunities. For example on your next flight from point A to point B, practice hand flying an approach, do a short field landing, a quick steep turn, etc. Quality flight time is always better than quantity. Continue to challenge yourself and try not to become complacent.
Personal minimums are a tool to assist in every pilot’s aeronautical decision making process. Use your personal minimums to guide your final go/no-go decision and remember to stick to the plan. I encourage you to review the FAA’s Risk Management Handbook (FAA-H-8083-2). Appendix B has Sample Risk Management Scenarios and reviewing them will give a better understanding how to apply the techniques discussed to your everyday flying.
Pedro Vargas-Lebron is a King Air 200 and uH-60 Blackhawk Instructor pilot with the Texas Army National Guard. Pedro is a CFI/CFII/MEI both in airplanes and helicopters with over 4000 hours of flight time, half as an instructor pilot.
Has it come time to buy your first airplane? Have the skies been calling your name? Or are you just tired of standing in the airport security line then getting shoved in a long metal tube with no leg room? Or, maybe you are a businessman who does business in remote areas that have local airports but are hard to get to commercially.
Wherever your need is, you have decided it’s time to make a purchase. If you are familiar with aviation, you may have an airplane in mind that you would like to have, but is that the right airplane for your mission? If you are new to aviation, you may have no idea what airplane to go for. Here are some helpful hints in narrowing down the different airplane options out there to fit your specific mission.
Flying For Enjoyment, but Not Going Far Fast
If you’re just a weekend flyer who is tired of dealing with flight school rentals, but you don’t need to carry a lot of people or go very far, your options are pretty numerous. Anything from a Cessna 152 to a Piper Cherokee, maybe a Beech Sundowner, or a Bellanca Viking, or anything in between. If you are content with taking a weekend hop for a hamburger at 100-110 knots, you have limitless options for airplanes. Tailwheels (Cubs, Citabrias, Huskies) are excellent birds for you well.
Getting Places Fast With Only You and Maybe One Passenger
Need to go 200-300 miles fast and not worried about weight? A Cirrus SR22T, a Columbia 400, or Cessna Corvalis might be just what you need. Cruise speeds on those are all around 180-190 knots at 10,000 feet. All are oxygen equipped if you want more speed higher up, as the service ceilings are 25,000 feet. Payloads run in the range of 400-500 pounds with full fuel. All these have air conditioning options, too.
Hauling More Weight, but Still Need the Speed?
A little slower (150-170 knots) but a little bit more payload options are A36 & B36 Bonanzas, Piper Saratogas, Cessna 206s, or Cessna 210s might suit your fancy. All come in turbo models if you are a high elevation dweller. The Cessna 206 has been used for many years as cargo and people haulers in remote regions like Alaska, South America, and Africa. I’ve even seen pictures of snowmobiles being carried in a 206.
Tired of Oxygen Cannulas?
The next step up from a Cirrus, Corvalis, or Saratoga is the Piper Malibu. A bigger brother to the Saratoga, the different PA-46 models offer one of the best options for a single engine piston out there. All except the Matrix (PA-46-350T) are pressurized, all the pistons cruise about 200 knots, and all are configured with club seating with plenty of leg room. Useful loads range around 1200-1400 pounds (they hold 120 gallons of fuel, so payloads range from 480-680 pounds). The original Malibu (PA-46-310P) only burns 16.5 GPH so that allows partial fuel to be carried to allow more people and bags. All have 6 seats.
Need to Carry Even More Weight?
It’s time to get into the piston twin market, then. A Cessna 414, a Cessna 421, a Cessna 340, a Beech Duke or a Beech Baron are all pretty good options here. The 421 and the 414 have the largest cabins, while the Duke has the highest useful load. Cruise speeds range from 200-220 knots, but the cabin is roomier and you get a few more pounds useful load than a piston single. If you do get into a 421, get good training as they are equipped with Continental geared engines, which can be tricky to operate if you don’t know what you are doing.
Need to Carry a Lot of People and Go Fast?
Turboprops are the way to go for you. King Airs have the most utility while the Pilatus PC-12 is the cream of the single engine turboprop crop as you can put almost anything you want in it. If you have 4-5 passengers, stay away from a Piper Meridian as you can’t carry a lot of weight. Those are better for 2-3 passengers at the most (plus a pilot). The TBM 900 is pricey, but fast (300-325 knots). The original TBM 700 can be had for under a million bucks, you get 280 knots, and a very usable useful load. You still can’t fill all 6 seats with full fuel, but you can do more with it then a Meridian.
Have a Boatload of Money Sitting Around?
A jet might be for you then. Fuel, insurance, maintenance, and hangar costs are high, but jets will get you places real fast with room for all your friends and family.
When it comes to turboprop engines, a hot start is a really bad thing. For you piston drivers out there thinking, “What’s the big deal, you are just starting a hot engine,” then here’s a little education for you.
In a PT6 turboprop engine, there is a very important temperature gauge that a pilot monitors very closely during each and every start. It is called the Inter-Turbine Temperature gauge, or ITT. This temperature is a measurement of the exhaust gases between the compressor turbine and the power turbine (s). In the picture below, the probe is located where the blue and red colors meet.
In a turboprop engine, specifically the Pratt & Whitney PT-6 in all it’s different sizes and variations, there will always be a specific temperature that the pilot will want to keep the ITT below. This article will deal specifically with a Piper Meridian.
A Piper Meridian starts hotter than almost any other PT6 engine because of the way it’s air intake is designed. Unlike other turboprops, the Meridian has a permanently open inertial separator. This means that not all the intake air makes it to the engine during start because some of it goes out the inertial separator opening. So, coming to a Meridian from operating other turboprop engines can lead to a little bit of a surprise on the ITT temperature being higher than what a pilot is used to when starting.
As a rule of thumb, when starting a Meridian, never let a start continue when the ITT hits 875 degrees. Based on the chart below, you are still in the safe zone at 875 and have about a 50 degree buffer before you have to start getting worried.
On cold starts with a good battery or a GPU, 875 is typically not an issue. Most starts when cold are going to be in the high 700s or low 800s. On a cold start, if you are seeing starts in the mid to upper 800s, try starting with a GPU and see if that lowers the start temperature. If it does, then that means your battery is weak and needs to be replaced. Another tell-tale sign of a weak batter is the Ng doesn’t spool up properly (meaning it settles around 12-13%) or takes a really long time to spool up. Also, never start on the battery with less than 24 volts.
When there are multiple flights in one day, the pilot has to take into consideration the warm engine prior to starting. If the ITT, prior to the start sequence, is above 150 degrees, it is time to do some motoring of the engine.
What is motoring? It is simply using the starter to turn the engine, which leads to air being sucked into the engine allowing the engine to cool off prior to start. The theory is, the cooler your engine prior to start, the cooler the ITT peaks at during start.
Here’s the steps on how to dry motor a Piper Meridian:
Battery on
Strobes on
Fuel Pumps and Ignition off
Throttle idle
Condition Lever feather/cutoff
Push the start button
Monitor the ITT temperature
Reaching 150 degrees, if less than 30 seconds have elapsed:
Fuel Pumps on
Ignition On
Condition Lever run
Reaching 150 degrees, if 30 seconds have elapsed:
Push Manual/Stop button to stop the start
Let starter rest for 30 seconds
The starter has a 30 second limit on the Meridian, followed by a 30 second rest period. You can do the sequence twice, then, after the 3rd start, there is a 30 minute rest period. Typically, if the ITT won’t cool down to 150 after the 3rd time, there is probably something wrong.
The most important thing a pilot can remember is never, ever push the condition lever forward if the ITT is above 150 degrees. You’ll be well on your way to avoiding hot starts that way.
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.
First things first. The first step of an instrument approach briefing is to brief the approach plate. There are a bunch of acronyms out there that instructors tell their students to memorize that only cause confusion instead of helping get the plate briefed. To keep it simple, just work your way across the plate and you’ll get all the information you need.
