MMOPA will be hosting it’s second Safety Standdown event at many locations across the country for Piper PA46 owners and pilots. The first iteration of MMOPA Safety Standdown in the fall of 2019 was a big hit. Each event was very well attended by MMOPA members.
What is Safety Standdown you ask? Safety Standdown was put together as a mid-year training event as part of the MMOPA Master Aviator program. It’s goal is to allow PA46 owners and pilots to fly in to a location at a reasonable time (the event starts at 10am local time), received some good quality ground training over relevant safety topics by highly experienced PA46 instructors, have a free lunch, then depart mid-afternoon to arrive back home before dark.
The event is free to all attendees. Lunch will be provided at each location. This event is not exclusive to MMOPA members, either. Any PA46 owner or pilot, or just anyone interested in the PA46 world, are invited to attend.
Texas Top Aviation is hosting the South Central Region Spring Safety Standdown at the Henrickson Jet Center at the Austin Executive Airport (KEDC). Hank Gibson and Pedro Vargas-Lebron will be presenting on the following topics:
MMOPA Operational Practices review and importance of stabilized approaches
Crosswind Takeoffs and Landings
High Density Altitude Operations
A discussion of thunderstorms, resources in the cockpit for weather avoidance, and accidents that have occurred involving thunderstorms
The MMOPA Spring Safety Standdown will take place on Saturday, April 18th, 2020. Registration is required for the event. The link for registration can be found here.
Come on out for some high quality training and free BBQ with 50 of your closest PA46 buddies!
Throughout the whole event, I learned quite a few things both about flying and about myself. Here are some of the lessons which I have taken away from the accident:
No flight is routine: When I took off that morning I was about as relaxed as I could have been while going to fly. I was flying an airplane that I knew well, in beautiful weather, to familiar airports and even carrying passengers which I had taken on this exact trip more than a dozen times. The accident brought into startling clarity that anything can happen at any time. I had done everything right that morning (preflight, weather briefing, planning, etc) , and none of that did anything to stop the deer from jumping out onto the runway. All we can do is ensure the items we do have control over are covered and try to be prepared to deal with anything else that arises. This ties directly into my next point:
Making sure everything is correct: When you do go fly, make sure that you have all your paperwork and personal details taken care of. I can think of a few times over the course of my flying career where something wasn’t quite right with the paperwork, or perhaps I had forgotten my wallet and I was tempted to go fly anyway. “It’s 8pm on Sunday, I’m not going to get ramp checked.” Well, I can assure you that the paperwork and questionnaires which were required to be submitted to the FAA, NTSB, and Insurance companies would have uncovered any discrepancies in my logbooks, currency, or legality. It isn’t worth the risk of flying without having everything in place just in case something happens. It isn’t just a random ramp check which can get a pilot into trouble.
Ask for help: The story of my collision with a deer would have had a very different outcome if it weren’t for the help that I received from countless the people on the ground. If you’re ever in a situation where you could use a hand, don’t be afraid to ask for help. If I had simply turned around and landed back at Wings, I wouldn’t even have had any idea that my landing gear was missing! The people in the control tower, the maintenance guys, the approach controllers in Philly, the emergency responders, and many more people all played their part in orchestrating a successful outcome.
Airplane sitting on the runway after the firefighters had checked it out Photo credit: www.lancasteronline.com
Dealing with the Paperwork: I have had dealings with the FAA before, but never for an accident. I was afraid that the investigation would be a witch hunt and I would have to defend myself while someone poured over all my planning and paperwork looking for potential errors. But, my fears were totally unfounded. Although I did have to answer many phone calls, write many reports, and fill out much paperwork, the FAA, NTSB, and Insurance companies were very patient in waiting for my responses and even complimentary in how the situation played out. I really enjoyed working with all of them and appreciated their encouragement and help.
Emotional Response: After the dust had settled and the smoke had cleared, I was left standing on the side of the runway with the passengers and my boss. I offered to fly them back to Philadelphia or continue to Pittsburgh and assured our Chief Pilot that I was feeling fine and ready to fly again. Fortunately, there wasn’t a need. Over the next week or two, I noticed a change in myself. I wasn’t fine. I have never had headaches, but shortly after I landed I developed a headache that didn’t go away for days. I had trouble focusing on anything and I had trouble finding motivation to do much but sit and stare at a wall. I wasn’t sharp and I caught myself making silly mistakes in my normally routine activities. I wasn’t depressed, or sad, it was just an unwanted mental and physiological response to the stress and shock of what happened that morning in the Baron. I didn’t feel like myself for quite some time and I even found myself a little on edge whenever I lined up for takeoff on subsequent charters for while afterward. Eventually I started to feel normal again, but it was a slow process.
Feather the Props: I can’t tell you what a difference it makes when those props go from wind milling to feathered. It became clear to me that feathering a prop could make a huge difference in deciding the outcome of an emergency situation.
Good training and checklists usage: This one is pretty straight forward, but it’s worth mentioning. Good training and proficiency make all the difference when the odds are against you. Make sure that you use all your resources when your back is against the wall, and that includes the checklists. Under the stress of the flight I had forgotten to close the cowl flaps and would likely have landed with them open without the aid of the Emergency Procedures Checklist. This would have resulted in unnecessary damage to the airframe.
No need to rush: There is no denying that I had things stacked in my favor that day. I had nice weather, extra gas, daylight hours, and even the luxury of landing at my home airport. But, regardless of all those variables, there is no need to rush into anything. Ask questions, find answers and come up with a plan. Obviously not all emergencies present the pilot with the luxury of time, but use all time and resources you have to your advantage.
Polish up those procedures: The deer accident really made me want to go out and brush up on all the emergency procedures which I hadn’t performed since my last checkride. The realization that I could need any of them at any time was really hit home after I hit that deer. Additionally, make sure you know who to call if something ever does happen.
Know the systems: Familiarity with the systems on the airplane makes it easier to troubleshoot and solve issues on the fly and makes it easier to spot a problem in the first place. Knowing how systems work and what their normal indications should be helps make decisions regarding when to divert and where to land easier.
The irony isn’t lost on me that the last article that I wrote for this newsletter dealt with how to avoid making gear up landings and the high cost required to repair one. I never would have imagined when I wrote that article last fall that I would be writing one only a few months later detailing my own gear up landing.
The bottom line is that there is nothing a person can do to prepare for every situation which might arise throughout the course of a flight, and it’s also impossible to know which emergency you may have to deal with if a situation arises. All we can do is stack odds in our favor by making sure that we address the things within our control such as aircraft maintenance, careful flight planning, checking weather, and having personal minimums set in place to keep us from flying outside of our skill sets and comfort zones.
Additionally, ensuring that you are knowledgeable and proficient in your aircraft’s procedures will give you the best chance for success. When things start going wrong, keep calm, and ask for help. Work the problem instead of guessing or rushing into a less than desirable solution. No one wants to be caught in an emergency like a deer in a landing light!
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.
We have all been hearing about the HondaJet for quite a while now. It’s been in testing for a number of years, but it sounds like certification and deliveries will commence early in 2015. Honda says they expect FAA certification in the first part of 2015 and deliveries will commence soon thereafter.
For those of you in the San Antonio area, if you’d like to get a glimpse of the first production HondaJet, it will be at Landmark Aviation at KSAT on Wednesday, October 29th. Cutter Aviation is hosting the event, as they will handle the regional sales for Honda. No flights will be conducted, but folks are welcome to walk around the airplane, climb inside, and give it a good once over.
For those planning on attending, RSVP is required. Contact Lisa Harris at Cutter to RSVP either by phone (602-267-4054) or by email (lharris@cutteraviation.com). Drinks and snacks will be served. The event runs from 5:30pm-8:00pm.
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.
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.
Utilize Approach Lights onLanding. 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.
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.
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.
For the most part, flying through rain is a non-event. If the NexRad or Radar is showing light green or dark green, usually there aren’t that many bumps and your plane just gets a wash. Sometimes the visibility drops down a little bit making us IFR pilots have to transition to our instruments.
It get’s a little more exciting when the precipitation on your screen turns to yellow. This means there is a lot more precipitation echoes either in the clouds or coming out of the clouds, meaning harder rain. I usually tend to stay away from yellow unless it’s absolutely necessary to go through it.
I had a situation a few weeks ago where I deemed it necessary to fly through some yellow NexRad returns. I was flying a G1000 Columbia into Monroe, Louisiana, KMLU. The winds were mostly light, but slightly favoring runway 04, which was the runway in use. As I got closer, a decent size rain shower with mostly yellow returns was sitting over the final approach fix for runway 04 and slowly tracking to the northeast.
I didn’t particularly want to spend the entire approach getting beat on with rain, so I decided to fly the RNAV 14 approach at MLU and circle to land on runway 04. The rain hadn’t quite reached the airport yet, so I decided that circling to 04 should be no problem.
I started the RNAV 14 at the FLESH IAF. Since I was approaching from the west, I did not need to do the procedure turn, so I joined the Final Approach Course (FAC) after crossing FLESH.
In the meantime, that rain shower was inching closer to the FAC for the RNAV 14. I wasn’t concerned about my safety if I flew through some of it and I didn’t have passengers on board who would get nervous, so I elected to continue. I wasn’t seeing any lightning coming out of the clouds, so it appeared to only be moderate rain.
Just before I got to JIVEY, the FAF, I entered the clouds and the rain. About 20 seconds later, my altimeter and airspeed started bouncing around a lot. Now, based on all I’ve said so far, what would cause that, and what would you do?
(Jeopardy theme song playing while contestants ponder questions)
The answers? Due to the moderate precipitation, water had gotten into my static port and caused the unusual readings on my altimeter and airspeed indicators on the G1000.
I had experienced this before, so I knew what to do. I reached down and turned the static source from primary to alternate, which starts taking static pressure from inside the cabin in the Columbia. Instantly, everything went normal.
The other time I had experienced this was also in a Columbia, so I’m under the impression that the way the Columbia static ports are designed, they are a little bit more susceptible to water creeping into them than other airplanes.
Moral of the story? If your pitot/static instruments start jumping around, the first thing you do is turn your alternate static source on.
I got a call today from a friend asking me about oxygen requirements. That got my brain pondering about the different items the FAA would like all pilots to know. I did a little refreshing and found several other tidbits directly from the FAA that I thought worth sharing. No matter what you’re flying, I think these apply to all of us.
First off, what are our general oxygen requirements? If you jump on over to the FAR’s and take a look at 91.211 you’ll see:
1. At cabin pressure altitudes above 12,500ft MSL to 14,000ft MSL, pilots
required to use oxygen unless the segment is less than 30 minutes of flight.
2. At cabin pressure altitudes above 14,000ft MSL, the crew is required to use
oxygen.
3. At cabin pressure altitudes above 15,000ft MSL, each occupant must be provided the use of oxygen. This doesn’t necessarily mean they have to use it.
Things get a little more in depth when you get to pressurized aircraft.
These requirements are also listed in 91.211:
1. If you’re flying above Flight Level 250, a 10 minute supply of oxygen is
required for each person onboard.
2. If you’re flying above Flight Level 350-410, and one pilot leaves their seat, the other pilot will be required to wear an oxygen mask, unless both seats are equipped with quick-donning oxygen masks.
There are three basic components to any oxygen system in an aircraft: the storage system, the delivery system, and the mask or cannula. First, there are several types of storage systems.
Gaseous aviators breathing oxygen is the first. This is the standard green tank that everyone is familiar with. There are two types of tanks. Either the high- pressure with 1800-2200 psi or the low pressure tank with 400-450 psi. The major issue with these and General Aviation aircraft is weight. Some of these tanks can get bulky and heavy and therefore don’t work for everyone.
Liquid aviators breathing oxygen or LOX is another form of storage. The major advantage of LOX is that it has a 900 to 1 expansion ratio, meaning that 1 liter of liquid oxygen can be expanded into 900 gaseous liters of Aviators Breathing Oxygen. The disadvantages of LOX are they are extremely volatile and have to be stored at -197F. If it comes in contact with exposed skin, severe frost bite can occur.
Sodium chlorate candles or oxygen generators have a weight advantage like LOX. They’re essentially a canister that when activated mix sodium chloride and iron powder and produce oxygen. They general have a 600 to 1 expansion ratio, which goes back to the weight savings. However, once these are started they are very hard to stop. Another disadvantage is these devices produce a fair amount of heat, so proper precautions need to be taken.
Next are the delivery systems. The main systems are Continuous Flow, Diluter Demand, and Pressure Demand. Continuous Flow, is exactly as it sounds. The oxygen is allowed to flow continuously from the tank to the user. The benefits of continuous flow are you don’t need a complicated mask or regulator. The downside to this system is since it continuously pumps oxygen, you’re wasting oxygen when you exhale. Most of continuous flow systems are used on aircraft that generally fly below 28,000 feet.
Diluter Demand was designed to fix the negative of the Continuous Flow systems. Diluter Demand only sends oxygen to the user when the user inhales. The system also allows cabin air to be introduced in, sending the perfect mixture of oxygen to the user when needed. These systems are very efficient and generally tend to be used up to 40,000 feet.
Pressure Demand is designed to essentially “over inflate” the users lungs. This will basically pressurize the the users lugs and allow the user to fly above 40,000 feet. This is needed at flights above FL400 because 100% oxygen without positive pressure will not suffice.
The final portion of the oxygen system is the mask or cannula. Nasal cannulas generally are more comfortable and are regulated to 18,000 feet service altitude. Masks come in a couple different variants. From re-breathers to quick-donning, most masks accomplish the same task with a few small differences. Quick-donning must be able to be put on within five seconds and are rated up to FL400.
Since that was a lot of information, what does all of it mean to you? Most fair weather flyers will never run into any of this. However, the high performance owner/operator will run into oxygen use situations a fair amount. Taking the family up to Colorado on a ski trip, jumping up to 12,500 feet to get above some weather, or flying above 5,000 feet at night on a long xc are all situations where you may want to have oxygen on board.
If you are planning on doing any of this type of flying or are currently doing these types of flights, training is a must. If you’ve never been in an altitude chamber, I would highly recommend it. In college, I went with a group to Oklahoma City to the FAA’s headquarters where they hold a class on Hypoxia and High Altitude flying. It’s very informative to be in the chamber as it simulates being oxygen deprived. You get to see how you’ll react and what kind of symptoms you’ll have when in a loss of oxygen situation. Each person has different symptoms, so it’s important to see how you will react.
It’s also good to fly with an experienced instructor. Finding an instructor who will allow you to learn in a safe environment is worth its weight in gold.
Ryne Bergren is currently a First Officer with Mesa Airlines in the CRJ 900. Ryne has experience in many different areas of aviation, from corporate to airlines to teaching to ferrying across the Atlantic Ocean. His passion is for all things that travel across the big blue sky.
Texas Top Aviation was at the AOPA Regional Fly-In at the San Marcos Regional Airport (KHYI). If you weren’t there, you certainly missed out spending time with 2,500 other airplane and flying enthusiasts!
The day began somewhat gloomy and windy with the threat of rain. Organizers feared that weather would keep a lot of people from coming. Boy, were they wrong!
There were many classic airplanes, many modern and pretty nicely equipped airplanes, and everything in between. There were aviation celebrities, Rod Machado and the Kings of King Schools fame, to name a few. Not to mention the fabulous BBQ!
Texas Top Aviation had several drawings for free training and 3 lucky winners. We also had a Lancair Super ES for sale, N132BB (which made the San Marcos Record newspaper!). It definitely stood out with it’s unique paint job. The flames on the tail drew many oohs and aahs.
Departing the San Marcos Airport after the fly in was like battling traffic in Austin at rush hour (though, Austin doesn’t have any air traffic controllers). The San Marcos controllers probably hadn’t seen that much traffic since the airport was an Army Air Base back during WWII. It was quite a sight to see all the exhibitor’s airplanes lined up ready to head skyward.
Thanks to all of you who stopped by the Texas Top Aviation booth! It was a pleasure meeting all of you and we look forward to working with you in the future!
Hank Gibson and Russell Moore of Texas Top Aviation
