The massive storms that rolled through the Austin Bergstrom and San Antonio areas last Friday not only put a dent in the landscape, they put a dent in the skies too.
The Austin Bergstrom (KAUS) control tower suffered significant flood damage Friday. 6 inches of rainfall in an hour caused water to come pouring into the first floor of the tower, flooding the radar room and knocking out the power. This led to transmission outages for the tower, ground control, clearance delivery and the ATIS. Similar to the Chicago Center fire last year (though this was a much smaller section of airspace), the area normally controlled by Austin Approach was replaced by a big, gaping radar hole.
By 8:45am on Friday morning, the Austin Bergstrom airport actually closed. One runway eventually opened back up Friday afternoon, but massive delays and cancellations had already taken place. All the ILS approaches were down and Houston Center had taken over the airspace normally occupied by Austin Approach control.
A temporary, emergency tower vehicle was brought in by the FAA (it’s essentially an RV with communications and a giant window) by the end of the weekend. All arrivals and departures were restricted to 17L and 35R.
Due to the radar outage, I heard there was as much as a 4 hour delay even for planes coming into Austin Bergstrom from Dallas, and that was in VMC conditions on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday brought IMC conditions which only enhanced the delays.
The latest news is that Austin Approach will be opening back up, but in a satellite base in San Antonio. The Austin controllers will be using the SAT radar room and will be receiving their radar picture via satellite. The approach frequencies should be up and running today or tomorrow. The Austin Bergstrom tower is up and running and most of the ILS approaches are operational at this point.
In the meantime, expect delays going in and out of Austin. If you don’t have to get to AUS, EDC, or GTU, you’re better off delaying a day or two until Austin Approach is back up and running.
Recently, I was training a customer who had a brand new instrument panel installed in his TBM 700. The avionics shop that did the work (Abilene Aero, who I highly recommend for any panel installs, located at KABI) told us when we picked the plane up that the new Garmin GTN 750Xi had the most recent software update, which included the Garmin Smart Glide.
I had never used the Garmin Smart Glide before, so I was eager to check it out during our training. When we got to engine failures, we pushed the Emergency button on the Home page of the GTN 750Xi, and then the magic happened.
The plane was also equipped with a Garmin G600TXi PFD and the Garmin GFC 600 Autopilot. In order for Smart Glide to work, there has to be either a GTN 750Xi or GTN 650Xi installed, along with a G500TXi or G600TXi and a Garmin Autopilot. Garmin is working on getting the legacy G500 as well as the GI 275 and G5 to work with the above GPS units for Smart Glide as well.
Here’s what happens. The plane loses it’s engine. The pilot’s workload and stress level suddenly goes way up. Trim the airplane for best glide, find the nearest airport, attempt restart. Do it quickly so you have time to focus on the glide. Oh yeah, squawk 7700 and declare your emergency. All the while plummeting toward the ground in a somewhat controlled crash. Yikes.
Garmin Smart Glide takes over the flying part, allowing the pilot to handle the restart, while making it much easier to squawk, talk and plan the engine out landing. On the home page of the GTN 750Xi/650Xi, the pilot simply taps the Emergency icon on the bottom of the screen. The Autopilot comes on and goes into IAS mode and maintains best glide while descending. The GPS immediately analyzes the Glide Advisor, and turns to the nearest airport in the glide ring (if there is no airport within gliding distance, the GTN 750Xi advises the pilot). Then, the Autopilot flies directly to the Nearest airport, allowing the pilot the ability to take attempt a restart.
Once it is determined that the engine won’t start, the Garmin Smart Glide has excellent situation awareness tools. On all screens, the pilot is constantly being advised of how high AGL the plane is currently, while advising also of how high AGL the plane will be over the airport that the glide is set up for. There is also a short cut on the screen to tap to squawk 7700 as well as runway length information at the airport.
The Garmin Smart Glide Button wasn’t installed yet in the TBM, but that will make things even easier when it is (it will be certified in January). This is amazing technology that all Garmin GTN 750Xi pilots should have their software updated to. Remember, you have to have a Garmin Autopilot and a Garmin PFD for it all to work.
Type Clubs Lead By Example with Standard Operating Practices
This article appeared in the May 2019 edition of EAA’s Sport Aviation Magazine. It is used with permission. For other articles by Charlie Precourt, please visit EAA.org and join for a full subscription.
Imagine a year when there are no fatal accidents in general aviation. Does that seem impossible? The airlines achieved that many years ago, and so can we if we focus on the right things in our safety pro- grams. In fact, the overall trend in GA accident rates over the last few years is very encouraging. AOPA’s Air Safety Institute published its annual GA Accident Scorecard recently (see www.EAA.org/ extras), revealing fatal accidents from 2008 to 2017 are down more than 30 percent. Nevertheless, there were 185 fatal accidents in 2017, so we still have a long way to go. But, there are many developments in safety programs across GA that can keep the trend going.
One such development that I’ve advocated through a couple of type clubs is establishing standard operating practices (SOP). When I flew for both the U.S. Air Force and NASA, we had what we called standard operating procedures. They were the law for our flying. That is, we had to follow them procedurally because the folks that paid our salaries said so. The objective was to ensure we all used the same playbook, minimizing the risk that one of us might develop a bad in-flight habit that increased risk to the organization.
One way to think about SOPs is to recognize the difference between procedure and technique. For example, you have to follow the manufacturer’s pilot’s operating handbook (procedure)where it says to lower the landing gear before landing. If you don’t, you are in for a bad day. However, it does not tell you exactly when to lower the gear; that’s left to technique.
In the middle, between procedure and technique, is a best practice. In this example, lowering the gear just before the final approach fix is a “standard practice.” It is the generally accepted “best” place to lower the gear. In GA, however, aircraft owners don’t generally answer to a boss, so I prefer the term practices instead of procedures.
However, whether or not someone is paying us to fly, following best practices just makes sense. If you have a good set of practices, they enable you to do things the same way every time, leaving lots of brain cells to manage the unusual, the things that might go wrong. The safest approach to accomplishing a flight task is one that leverages consistency. On the other hand, if you are inconsistent, doing flight tasks differently each time, you’ll always be struggling to keep up. So, in my involvement with the safety committees for both the Malibu Mirage Owners and Pilots Association and the Citation Jet Pilots Association, there has been broad acceptance of recently developed standard operating practices.
The good news in this development is that a culture of safety is growing broadly across most sectors of GA through these type club initiatives. Perhaps more importantly, there is much to learn from each other about the effectiveness of these various initiatives. EAA has seen a four-year drop of 47 percent in fatal accidents among homebuilts! So, there must be something right going on there — a major focus on appropriate transition training before flying a new homebuilt (as a standard operating practice) is paying off.
So, what is covered in the SOPs these type clubs have developed? The following outlines the kinds of standard practices other type clubs have set up and represent SOPs you could establish for yourself regardless of the type of aircraft you fly. You just have to fill in the blanks for your particular type and commit to sticking to them in your flying. These are notional and are practices (not mandatory procedures). They don’t tell you how to fly your aircraft; they give you things to think about when you do. If you take a bit of time to set your own SOPs and then stick with them, you’ll be a far safer pilot. Here are some ideas:
Duty Day
Set the maximum number of hours of flight time during a calendar day and rest hours off between flying days. One example is a maximum of eight hours in the air and a minimum of 10 hours off until flying again.
Cargo
Establish best practices for what you will carry as cargo. One example is no lithium batteries in the baggage compartment.
Flight Planning and Preparation
What are your limitations for the types of flight you’ll take on? Consider SOPs such as designating a suitable alternate airport for all flights. Another might be for first flights after significant maintenance, such as no flight at night or in IMC until a day-VMC functional check flight has been done.
Runway Field Length Guidelines
Establish an appropriate minimum field length for your aircraft and commit to not going into shorter fields. Consider sea level operations and high-altitude airports as well.
Surface Operations
What should be your maximum wind conditions for taxi, takeoff, or landing? Maximum acceptable crosswinds on landing? Set them in your SOP and stick to them.
En Route
Consider establishing practices like no non-operationally necessary conversation below 10,000 feet MSL, during any segment of an approach procedure, or during the last 1,000 feet before leveloff during climb or descent. Also consider declaring “minimum fuel” when the fuel state becomes less than fuel to destination plus 45 minutes at current burn, even if flying day VFR.
Approach and Landing
Consider establishing personal minimums in your SOPs for things like visual approaches. Perhaps use a 1,500-foot ceiling and 3 miles’ visibility for day and 5 miles for night, even though these exceed the FAA’s requirements.
Pilot Limitations, Training, & Currency
FAR Part 91 rules allow us to fly with pretty marginal levels of currency. Consider setting your own SOP to something more appropriate for the kind of aircraft you fly and the kind of flying you do in it. For example, consider these ideas as SOPs:
If you have less than 100 hours of time-in-type or have not flown at least 15 hours as pilot in command in the last 90 days, use a minimum planned fuel reserve of one hour.
Also, if flying IFR in this situation, use a minimum visibility for takeoff of 1 mile.
On instrument approaches, increase the published minimums by one- half mile visibility and add 200 feet to the decision altitude or minimum descent altitude.
Perform landings at a weight that allows a full stop in 60 percent of available runway length.
Consider an SOP that establishes you will fly with a CFI on a refresher flight before flying as pilot in command if you have not logged at least an hour of flight time and one takeoff and landing in an aircraft of the same type within the preceding 45 days.
Maneuver Standards
Wherever there are “techniques” associated with things like takeoffs and climbs, cruise, use of autopilot, power settings, and approaches and landings, you can write down your preferred technique as your own SOP. Describe each maneuver in enough detail (speeds, altitudes, power settings, configurations, etc.) to define a routine you will use each time. This ensures you fly consistently each flight and leverage the power of the standard operating practice, that is, to give you the bandwidth you need should you encounter an unexpected event or an emergency.
SOPs are among the exciting concepts underway to make safety programs work for us. Hats off to type clubs like MMOPA and CJP and many others that are taking the initiative. But even if you’re not in this kind of group, you can still set up your own SOPs. Let’s all look forward to our first year in GA without a fatal accident — and let’s make it soon! Fly safe!
Charlie Precourt is a former NASA chief astronaut, space shuttle commander, and Air Force test pilot. He built a VariEze, owns a Piper JetPROP, and is a member of the EAA board of directors.
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.
The long anticipated certification of the Cirrus Vision Jet finally happened. On October 30th, the FAA awarded certification to Cirrus’ single engine jet. Marketed as the world’s first single engine personal jet, the Cirrus Vision Jet will seat five adults, two children, and cruise around 300 knots.
The Williams FJ33-5A Turbo Fan engine is operated by a FADEC, single handle throttle, similar to the throttle in the piston powered Cirrus family. In fact, the SR series was taken into consideration when designing the Cirrus Vision Jet in order to simplify the upgrade for pilots. Many of the buttons and knobs are in the same places in the Cirrus Vision Jet.
The Cirrus Vision Jet is equipped with the Cirrus Perspective Touch by Garmin that is very similar to the Cirrus Perspective by Garmin in the piston powered line. Equipped also with the Flight Into Known Icing system and the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), both of which are standard.
Unlike the piston powered Cirrus lines, the CAPS system on the Cirrus Vision Jet is actually mounted in the nose. Also, unlike the piston lines, the jet CAPS is integrated with the aircraft avionics to slow the airplane to between 67 and 160 knots when the system is activated. In the jet, the CAPS system was designed to withstand higher weights, higher speeds and higher altitudes.
Cirrus hopes to start deliveries of the Vision Jet by the end of the year, with many more rolling off the line in 2017. All Cirrus Vision Jet pilots will need to be type rated in order to fly the aircraft. Cirrus is doing all the type rating training in house at their new Vision Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.
We’ve all heard it said…”reduce the throttle by no more than 1-inch every minutes to ensure you don’t shock-cool your engine”. Does this advice apply to a PA46 engine? Can a PA46 engine (Lycoming 540 or Continental 520/550) really be shock-cooled? How should the engine temperature be managed?
Metals expand and contract with temperature, and the various metals in an air-cooled aviation engine expand and contract at a different rates. Shock-cooling supposedly occurs when the engine changes temperature quickly and the different metals in the engine cool (and therefore change shape) at different rates. When the change occurs dramatically supposed scoring, rubbing, and marking of the metal can occur, which can cause catastrophic results.
So, let’s back to the original question…can a PA46 engine suffer shock-cooling and should a pilot operate the engine so as to avoid shock cooling? Simply put, I’ve never seen nor heard of any piston PA46 engine suffer shock-cooling. In 5000+ hours flying the piston PA46 and 16 years of flying/managing/training in the Malibu/Mirage/Matrix, it simply has not happened to me nor anyone I know. Does it mean that it cannot happen or has never happened? No. But, it is certainly not a prolific threat to our fleet.
Should the owner/pilot operate the engine with a cautious eye cast toward the potential of shock cooling? Well, sort of…but, let’s flesh this out. My suggestion is that a pilot should operate the engine with conservatism in movement of temperature, but only because this is a good operating practice with any machine, and any flying machine is (by definition) not “overbuilt”. And, there are many ways to change the temperature of the engine…not just by reducing power. Here’s a partial list of ways to cool your PA46 engine:
Reduce power: Obvious…yes. When the engine produces less power, less heat is generated. Reducing power in a piston engine will almost always result in less temperature.
Lower the nose: By descending (and leaving power in a cruise setting) the airspeed will increase and cool the engine.
Enrichen the mixture: Fuel has a cooling effect on the engine, so the richer the mixture the cooler the engine.
Lower the landing gear: Yes…you read that right…engine cooling will occur when you lower the landing gear because more air will flow over the cylinders. Notice the landing gear doors on the PA46 have air louvers. Air flows into the engine nacelle on the front, passes down through the cylinders (along with the oil cooler, intercoolers, and other components) and then out the louvers of the closed gear doors. When the landing gear is lowered the “back door is opened” and a LOT more airflows over the cylinders.
My suggestion is that a pilot only perform ONE of these actions at a time when beginning a descent. This suggestion was presented to me by Chad Menne (Owner, Malibu Aerospace) some time ago and I’ve operated engines this way ever since. If you are at a higher altitude and simultaneously reduced the power, lowered the landing gear, started a big descent, and enrichened the mixture in one flail swoop, I think there’s a chance that your engine would suffer some negative effects that could be called “shock cooling”. So, when you do start a descent, pick one “cooling action” to accomplish at a time. I’m sure you’ll not hurt your engine.
Simply put, shock cooling is not a huge factor in the PA46 community, and a PA46 pilot does not need to be overly cautious. The “one inch per minute” rule may apply in some other airframes, but in the PA46 world it is not applicable.
Joe Casey’s aviation story began in 1990 with his first flight near Nacogdoches, TX in a Cessna 172. From lift-off, Joe knew he would have a lifetime passion flying just about anything that will leave the ground…He was completely hooked.
Along with being an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE), Joe is an ATP/CFI-AHMG and Commercial Rotorcraft/Glider Pilot in the civilian world and also a UH-60/AH-64 Pilot-in-Command/Instructor/Examiner Pilot in the US Army Reserves. His passion for the last 19 years, however, has been the PA-46 Malibu/Mirage/Matrix/Jetprop/Meridian. Has has amassed over 6,500 hours in various PA-46 airframes and believe it to be one of the finest flying machines available for the serious cross-country pilot with an eye for efficiency.
Now, Joe has flown more than 12,200 hours in just about every imaginable environment. Whether providing initial/recurrent training in the PA-46’s, TBM’s, instructing in NVG’s in a UH-60 Blackhawk, flying the King Air series of airplanes, giving tailwheel endorsements, or taking kids flying for the first time, he simply loves flying machines and the people who fly them.
I took a Piper Malibu to Cabo San Lucas a few weeks back. This was my second trip flying to Mexico, but the first where I arranged everything. Cabo is a beautiful place and the MMSL airport is a fabulous facility. For those who haven’t been fying to Mexico before, MMSL is the place to go. The folks there are extremely helpful and do most of the paperwork for you. You just have to pass along your information to them.
Flying to Mexico and back out is different than flying in the US. First of all, don’t forget your passport. The authorities on both sides frown upon that. You’ll probably get sent back to the US (or sent back to Mexico if you are on your return trip). Your aircraft also needs, Mexican insurance (talk to your US insurance agent) a radio license, and a customs decal.
Second, you’ll have to file an ICAO specific flight plan for flying to Mexico. This is available on Foreflight now, but I really like Fltplan.com’s way of doing it. I don’t fly internationally enough to remember what everything means, but Fltplan.com does a great job of walking pilots through the the different classifications. It’s almost impossible to get confused.
Third, you have to fill out an eAPIS form. This has to be done at least 24 hours prior to departure from the US, but it can be done as far in advance as you’d like. If your departure time changes or your passengers change, you can edit the eAPIS form to bring it current.
Flying to Mexico IFR is a lot simpler than flying VFR. I have only flown IFR and it is very easy. I’m already on a flight plan, already squawking a discreet code, and already on radar, so there really isn’t any way I can mess up the ADIZ penetration. I really recommend going in and out of Mexico IFR instead of VFR.
Once you land in Mexico, you have to close your IFR flight plan. The tower doesn’t do this for you. After clearing customs, you’ll have to pay a landing fee and sign your flight plan confirming you have arrived and closing it out.
When departing, you have to file another eAPIS 24 hours in advance. Wherever you plan on clearing Customs in the US, you’ll need to call the Customs office no less than 1 hour, but not more than 23 hours before arrival. It’s called an Advanced Notice of Arrival.
You’ll need to fill out a paper flight plan before departing, clear customs again to leave, then away you go.
There are a lot of really fun getaways in Mexico and flying there doesn’t have to be difficult. When you have the right information, flying to Mexico can be a breeze!
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.
