Non-Standard Alternate Minimums

The Piper Saratoga Turbo

ByHank Gibson June 20, 2014June 20, 2014

Recently, I assisted with the delivery of a 2007 Piper Saratoga Turbo from San Antonio to New York City.  It was a very nicely equipped airplane, complete with a Garmin G1000 panel, an STEC 55x autopilot, and air conditioning.  The owner joined me on the flight back to get trained in the airplane, getting him comfortable in it over our 2 day excursion back to NYC.  Total flight time was 12 hours, though that did include several stops along the way and landing practice at the airports we stopped at.

The 6 seat Turbo Saratoga is a very comfortable, very capable flying machine.  It is made for hauling, with a gross weight of 3,600 pounds, but that’s not to say it isn’t lacking in comfort, either.  The rear cabin has 4 seats, 2 facing forward and 2 facing rear.  It would be a little tight for 4 full size adults in the back seat.  To avoid knee knocking, the plane is an excellent 4 person and bags aircraft (or 4 adults and 2 kids).

The really nice part about the Piper Saratoga is the baggage door.  Unlike the Bonanza, the Piper Saratoga has a baggage door that opens to the baggage compartment, creating a much easier way to load and unload baggage.  The nose baggage compartment, which holds an additional 100 pounds, is a very nice feature, allowing the bag load to be spread out.

We typically saw cruise speeds of 155-165 KTAS depending on altitude.  The highest we went was only about 9,000 feet, so we didn’t get up real high to see what the single turbo could do.  Even though the Lycoming TIO-540 engine burns about 20 gallons an hour, with 102 gallons of gas on board, the fuel consistently outlasted our desire to continue flying.

Being equipped with the G1000 was a very nice feature of this particular Piper Saratoga.  The screens are nice and big, larger than the displays on a high wing Cessna or a Corvalis.  That allows for easier viewing of approach plates, NEXRAD, and the engine gauges.

There are always downsides to an airplane, and the Saratoga is no exception.  The STEC Autopilot leaves some to be desired as I felt it hampered the capability of the G1000 when shooting approaches because the 12 knot crosswind limitation on the autopilot. You can still use the autopilot on an approach with higher than 12 knot crosswinds, but the autopilot tends to search around for the final approach course.

The air conditioning works very nicely, though it did have a tendency to freeze up at altitude.  We discovered that quickly and just decided to turn it off and leave the blower on, since it was cool enough up high anyway.

Overall, the Turbo Saratoga is a very nice airplane.  The speed leaves a little to be desired (you can get 10 KTAS more out of a Bonanza with a Continental engine, about 20 knots more if it is a Turbo Bonanza), but it is very high on comfort.  The Piper Saratoga makes for a good family airplane or as a hauler.  I liked the airplane a lot and thoroughly enjoyed my time in it.

Textron Aviation’s New Single Engine Turboprop

ByHank Gibson May 29, 2016

An 8 seat, cabin class, single engine turboprop is set to come to market in 2018 from the new aviation conglomerate Textron Aviation (Textron owns Cessna, Hawker, and Beechcraft).  Details were announced last week at the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition.  The as yet unnamed aircraft will be equipped with Garmin’s G3000 avionics and will be outfitted with a GE 1,240 Shaft Horsepower engine.

The GE engine will be equipped with a FADEC (Fully Automated Digital Engine Control) computer that will allow the pilot to make all necessary power adjustments using just one lever.

Range will be about 1,600 miles at 285 knots, giving the airplane the same legs as a PC12 at slightly faster speeds, but a smaller cabin.  The cabin will be equipped with a belted lav if desired.

To read more, check out the AOPA Article here.

Cirrus CAPS Saves Lives Again

ByHank Gibson September 9, 2015

In July, a Cirrus SR22 suffered an engine failure in Houston after departing KIAH.  The CAPS system was deployed and the airplane came to rest in a neighborhood on the north side of Houston.  This makes CAPS save number 53 for Cirrus and no fatalities.  The initial NTSB report is below.

14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Tuesday, July 07, 2015 in Houston, TX
Aircraft: CIRRUS DESIGN CORP SR22, registration: N422PB
Injuries: 2 Minor.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.

On July 7, 2015, about 1137 central daylight time, a Cirrus SR-22 single-engine airplane, N422PB, descended under the canopy of the cirrus airframe parachute system (CAPS) and landed in a residential neighborhood at Houston, Texas. The pilot and passenger sustained minor injuries, and the airplane was substantially damaged. The airplane was registered to and operated by AIRCCS, LLC; Humble, Texas, as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 business flight. Day visual meteorological conditions (VMC) prevailed and a flight plan had not been filed. The airplane departed George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport (IAH), Houston, Texas, at 1133 and was destined for Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), Austin, Texas.

The pilot reported that during initial climb, he noticed the engine temperatures began increasing and he reduced power in an attempt to lower the engine temperatures. When the airplane was about 900 feet above ground level (agl) the engine began detonating, and soon after there was a complete loss of engine power. With no suitable forced landing areas the pilot deployed the CAPS ballistic parachute system and the airplane impacted terrain and came to rest upright next to a residence.

An initial on-scene wreckage examination showed there was adequate fuel on-board. At the facility where the airplane had most recently been refueled, refueling unit records and a review of security camera video showed that the airplane had been refueled with aviation gasoline and not with jet fuel. Postaccident fuel quality checks of that fuel facility were satisfactory.

The wreckage was moved to a different location and will be further examined. Several avionics components containing non-volatile memory (NVM), including engine performance data, will then be removed from the wreckage for examination and an extraction of useful data is expected.

At 1053 the Automated Surface Observation System at IAH reported wind from 160 degrees at 15 knots gusting to 20 knots, visibility 10 miles, scattered clouds at 3,000 feet agl, broken clouds at 25,000 feet agl, temperature 31 degrees Celsius (C), dew point 24 degrees C, and an altimeter setting of 30.03 inches of Mercury.

VFR Flight Plans in the Modern Age

ByHank Gibson May 9, 2016May 15, 2016

Raise your hand if, after you have officially become a pilot by passing your private pilot check ride, you consistently file VFR flight plans with Flight Service.

Anybody?

Okay, let’s revise the question.  Raise your hand if you have filed VFR flight plans at least 5 times in the last year.

Okay, one or two hands go up.

That’s it?

To be perfectly honest, I have filed VFR Flight Plans twice (I think) in the last year.  The only reason I did was because I was flying in an area that had poor radar/radio communications and I wanted someone to know where I was (I was ferrying an airplane through southern Oregon and northern Nevada which is mountainous and is hard to get coverage into at lower altitudes).  I was so unaccustomed to doing it that I nearly forgot to call and close my flight plan.

This is a common complaint amongst pilots concerning VFR flight plans.  It’s extremely easy to get to your destination, hop in the car and completely forget to close your VFR flight plans.  Thankfully, now a days, the Flight Service Station will typically call the number you put in your VFR flight plans (your cell phone number most of the time) to make sure you are on the ground before initiating search and rescue services.

Another complaint is that it is cumbersome to call the Flight Service Station after departing to open the VFR flight plans.  This is especially true in a busy airspace area or if the pilot is getting a VFR Flight Following and talking to ATC on a different frequency.

I still think it is a great idea to file and utilize VFR flight plans.  If you don’t show up at your destination, someone will come looking for you which could mean the difference between getting stranded after an off airport landing and getting a warm cup of coffee at the end of the day.  Even if the you get flight following from ATC, it’s still good to file a flight plan.

Lockheed Martin, who runs all the Flight Service Stations across the US, heard these complaints from pilots and decided to come into the modern age and make it easier to open and close flight plans.  They developed EasyActivate and EasyClose.

These services are very simple.  Just go to Lockheed Martin’s Flight Service Station website, set up a new account, then file VFR flight plans to see the services in action.

File your VFR flight plans first, through calling the FSS or on your favorite iPad app.  Then, for EasyActivate, you’ll receive an email 30 minutes prior to your ETD with a link in it.  Simply click/tap on the link and your flight plan is activated.  No having to call FSS in the air, no having to try to get them on the ground.  Just tap the link and you’re good to go.

For EasyClose, you’ll receive an email 30 minutes prior to your ETA at your destination.  When you get on the ground, you’ll see the email in your phone or iPad and you just tap the link and your flight plan is closed.  Since we all have our phones and iPads with us constantly, there will be no more forgetting to close the flight plan and getting that angry call from the FSS.

Sign up is quick and easy.  All Lockheed Martin needs is your email address, last name and phone number. They’ll send you the password to set up your account.  Log in (they will have you change your password immediately), then just click on EasyActivate/EasyClose up at the top.  You have to register the email address you want (you can also put in a phone number to receive a text message, and you can put multiple email addresses and phone numbers if you’d like), then you are all set to go.

Maintaining TKS Panels

ByHank Gibson June 14, 2016June 14, 2016

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.