Come out to Redbird Skyport at the San Marcos Municipal Airport on Saturday, May 30th for the Bluebonnet Fly-In. Hank Gibson from Texas Top Aviation will be giving a safety presentation at 2pm in the large conference room entitled “Is The Approach Activate? Flying Garmin Approaches.”
Join Texas Top Aviation and Redbird Skyport as we open the summer together at the Bluebonnet Fly-In.
To Register for the Safety Seminar, please click here.
As far as I knew when I woke up, October 26, 2016 would be an ordinary day for me. It was a Wednesday, and I was scheduled to fly our Company’s BE58 Baron on a charter from Wings Field (KLOM), a non-towered airport just north of Philadelphia, to Pittsburgh International Airport (KPIT) and spend the day there waiting for my 3 passengers to finish up their meetings. The plan was to fly them back to Wings that evening and then make the short hop back to home base at Lancaster, PA. (KLNS).
It was a flight that I had done countless times, and I was comfortable with the airports, the passengers, and the airplane. Everything went smoothly that morning and my short flight from Lancaster to Wings was uneventful. I even made it there in time to spill coffee all down the front of my pants before my passengers arrived. The weather was clear, calm and beautiful as we loaded into the Baron and the sun was just starting to come up as I taxied toward runway 24 for departure. I was departing VFR and had an IFR plan on file which I intended to pick up with Harrisburg Approach once we were airborne. According to my calculations, I was on schedule to be drinking my coffee at the Pittsburgh FBO right around 8:30.
At 7:05, I advanced the throttles for departure. A few moments later, I received a very unpleasant surprise. I was quickly approaching rotation speed when 2 deer ran onto the runway directly in front of the aircraft. It was still dark enough that I was relying on my landing/ taxi lights to illuminate the runway for take-off. As a result, I was unable to see the animals before it was too late. I don’t remember making a conscious decision to pull back on the yoke, but it was that or plow directly into them at about 85 knots. I pulled up as quickly as I could and the airplane rotated immediately. A fraction of a second later I heard and felt a sickening THUD.
There was no doubt that I had hit one of them, but, somewhat unbelievably, the airplane was climbing as though nothing had happened. I put the nose down to get the airspeed back up and began to try and piece together what damage the airplane had sustained. Based on the noise and the feeling of the impact, my suspicion was that I had hit the deer with the left main landing gear. A review of the instrumentation showed no abnormalities and the airplane was behaving normally, so I didn’t suspect any damage to the airframe/ flight controls. I couldn’t see anything out the windows that looked unusual, and somewhat unbelievably I still had 3 green lights.
After gaining a safe amount of speed and altitude, I turned around and told the passengers that we had hit a deer. It was obvious that we had hit something and I was sure that they wanted to know what was going on. Then, I checked all my indications again and satisfied with what I was seeing, tried to bring up the landing gear. No dice. When I pulled the gear lever to the up position, the master “GEAR UP” warning light came on and I got a horn. There was never any change in the 3-green indication and the gear motor never came to life at all.
At this point it was obvious that, minimally I was going to have to divert to Lancaster and have the maintenance guys look at the airplane to see if anything was broken. I figured that they would either give me the green light to continue or I would just jump into one of our PC12s and complete the trip while they worked on the Baron.
The landing gear’s refusal to come up was my first indication that there was substantial damage. I set course for Lancaster and called our Chief Pilot. After explaining the situation to him, we agreed that KLNS was the best option and that he would let the maintenance guys know that I was coming.
The logic was that proceeding to Lancaster would allow a visual check of the landing gear by maintenance people as well as the tower and result in the safest outcome if an emergency landing were required. Lancaster would likely have better services available in terms of emergency responders and, not to mention, I was fairly certain that there was a dead deer on the only runway at Wings that I didn’t feel like hitting for a second time. In addition, the relatively long runway at Lancaster combined with light traffic at that time of day made it the ideal option to divert to.
I again turned around to brief the passengers. I told them that we were going to have to make precautionary landing before continuing to our intended destination and that I would be performing a few low passes for the tower.
Due to the drag from the landing gear, the flight to Lancaster seemed to take forever. The long cruise home, however, gave me time to try and reach someone on the ground at Wings in hope of having the runway inspected and cleaned off before other traffic tried to use it. After several attempts to raise anyone on the Unicom/ CTAF frequency, I called Philadelphia Approach for help instead. Philly answered right away and I explained to them what had happened. I requested that they call over to Wings on the phone or send someone out to check the runway. They told me that they would get it done and asked if there was any other way that they could assist me. I told them I was headed to Lancaster and that I appreciated their offer, but didn’t require any further assistance. I then switched over to Lancaster Tower and let them know that I was about 15-20 minutes out, but I would need to perform a couple of passes to have them check my gear. The tower cleared me for a low approach over runway 26.
I arrived at LNS at about 7:30. I performed my first low pass by the tower, not really expecting anything to appear out of place. I figured I had bent something or damaged the squat switch, but not much more. I climbed to pattern altitude and awaited the good word. Shortly after the fly-by, Tower reported that the left main gear didn’t appear to be down and locked. They suggested that I make another pass. The airport maintenance personnel chimed in, reporting the same. We had just started discussing whether cranking the gear a little by hand might help when Philly approach called the Lancaster tower on the phone.
Philly informed Lancaster that someone had inspected the runway at Wings and found the left main strut and wheel in the grass. I quickly concluded that cranking the gear down probably wouldn’t help!
To Be Continued…
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.
As far as I knew when I woke up, October 26, 2016 would be an ordinary day for me. It was a Wednesday, and I was scheduled to fly our Company’s BE58 Baron on a charter from Wings Field (KLOM), a non-towered airport just north of Philadelphia, to Pittsburgh International Airport (KPIT) and spend the…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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…
The debate about which headset is the better product will never cease. We do know this for sure, though, Lightspeed and Bose make the best noise canceling headsets out there. David Clark’s offering doesn’t match up with these two. Newcomer AKG has a light (weight-wise that is, as the headset is equipped with a pair of LED lights as well) ANR headset that the jury is still out on. For now, Lightspeed and Bose sit atop the ANR kingdom.
The comparison for this article will be between the Lightspeed Zulu 2 and the Bose A20 headsets, both of which I have used quite extensively in my flying career. I am officially in the Lighspeed camp at this point and after reading my comparison below, you’ll see why.
Between the two, the Bose A20 cancels out more noise, no argument there. This isn’t to say that the Lightspeed Zulu 2 doesn’t. Quite the opposite, actually. The Lightspeed Zulu 2 does a great job of canceling the noise. But with the A20 on in a C172, you can barely hear the engine running. The difference before you press the power button and after is extremely noticeable. I had one client turn to me after turning on the noise canceling function of his new A20 headset and state, “These things are awesome!”
The other advantage Bose has is a continuation of the noise canceling. About the only thing I don’t like about the Lightspeed is if you don’t have the headset sized just right on your head, each time you turn your head to look at something, then the suction gets broken around the ear cup and you get some ambient noise. My glasses probably don’t help with this. It’s not that big of a deal, you just have to readjust the size of the headset, but, since I’m a little OCD, it bugs me. Once I get the set sized right, it’s smooth sailing.
Far and away, the Lightspeed Zulu 2 is much more comfortable than the Bose A20. I flew for 5 hours in the right seat with my Lightspeed set on the other day. I switched to the left seat for the last leg and used the owner’s A20 headset since it was plugged in on that side already and I noticed quite a bit of difference. The ear cups seemed to press against my head more. The pad on top of my head didn’t seem to be as cushiony. It just wasn’t overall as comfortable as the Lightspeed Zulu 2.
Bose has made a lot of progress from their original noise canceling headsets. Those didn’t have much of a cushion on top at all. After about 2.5 hours, the slim ear cushions began to dig in to the side of your head. So, the A20 has made some progress, but the Lightspeed Zulu 2 takes the cake in comfort.
“Wait!” You Bose boys scream (no pun intended). “The A20 is lighter than the Zulu 2!” While this is true (the Zulu 2 weighs in at 15.7 oz while the A20 is only 12 oz), the way that weight is distributed makes a massive amount of difference. The Lightspeed Zulu 2 feels lighter on top of your noggin than the A20 because the weight of the A20 is firmly planted on the top of your head in a single point. With the Zulu 2, the weight is distributed evenly across the top of your scalp, so even though the set is heavier, it feels lighter on your head because the weight is not all concentrated on one point.
All this adds up to why I like the Lightspeed Zulu 2 more than the Bose A20. As for a practical example, I wore my Lightspeed Zulu 2 set for 9.1 hours one day two weeks ago. Needless to say, it was a long day. But, once I climbed out of the airplane, I had no pain on the top of my head and only a very little where my glasses ran along the side of my head. Now I call that a winner.
The debate about which headset is the better product will never cease. We do know this for sure, though, Lightspeed and Bose make the best noise canceling headsets out there. David Clark’s offering doesn’t match up with these two. Newcomer AKG has a light (weight-wise that is, as the headset is equipped with a pair…
When the Epic E1000 was finally certified in the spring of 2020, there was much celebrating across the aviation world. Epic Aircraft expended a lot of time and energy getting the E1000 certified and into production (more information on that journey here and in Flying Magazine here).
The airplane is amazing. In the single engine, 6 seat turboprop market, it easily blows away the competition. With it’s 1,200 SHP PT6-67A, it has double the horsepower of the M600 (600 SHP), and 350 more horsepower than the TBM 940 (850 SHP). It’s 60 KTAS faster than the M600 and, even though the TBM can keep up (both airplanes have equal top cruise speeds of 330 KTAS), the Epic E1000 can carry a payload of 1,024 pounds with full fuel, while the 940 can only carry 584 pounds with full fuel. The TBM carries about 15 minutes more of fuel, but to me, that’s pretty negligible.
Did I mention climb rates? The E1000 climbs at an average of 1500 FPM at Vy (it’s capable of 4,000 FPM), making it to 25,000 feet in 10 minutes. The TBM climbs at 1000 FPM, taking 13 minutes to climb to the same altitude, while the M600 settles in at about 800 FPM, reaching FL250 in 21 minutes.
If you expand the comparison to include the Pilatus PC-12, the two airplanes have 1,200 SHP, but the Epic is 50 KTAS faster and they both have about the same weight carrying ability.
In the most important arena, price, the E1000 is around a million dollars cheaper than the TBM 940.
The one drawback to the Epic E1000 that immediately was noticeable was the autopilot. Epic originally installed the STEC 2100 autopilot to pair with the G1000 (and later the G1000 NXi). Epic decided to stick with the STEC 2100 through certification for the plane since that autopilot was on all of the E1000s paperwork going through all the levels of FAA approval. To change to the GFC 700 during the certification process would have been a massive undertaking that probably would have delayed certification.
The STEC 2100 is a good autopilot, but, as any G1000 pilot can tell you, the lack of integration between any STEC autopilot and Garmin panel leaves some to be desired. Not all the bugs talk, which often requires dual data entry, which can lead to forgetting to do both the bug and the autopilot when things get busy. Hello, altitude deviation.
The goal for Epic was never to leave the STEC autopilot in the airplane. The first E1000s were rolled off the line with the STEC, but Epic didn’t take long to change the autopilot to the much more integrated Garmin GFC 700. That took place this winter (2020), and the E1000 received it’s first upgrade, with Epic dubbing the airplane the Epic E1000 GX.
I expect the innovators in Bend, OR, where Epic is based and where tons of innovation in aviation happens (Lancair/Columbia started in Bend while RDD is based there as well), to quickly come out with more avionics upgrades for the airplane. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a G3000 version at some point, complete with auto throttles and the new Garmin Autoland. Epic would be smart to follow in the steps of Daher and offer two models, one with the G1000 and one with the G3000 (the TBM 910 has the G1000 NXi while the TBM 940 has the G3000).
I have yet to fly in an Epic E1000, but I would certainly jump at the chance to do so. Someone asked me yesterday what airplane I would buy if I had a blank check. With the GFC 700 now in the Epic, it would absolutely be the E1000 GX.
When the Epic E1000 was finally certified in the spring of 2020, there was much celebrating across the aviation world. Epic Aircraft expended a lot of time and energy getting the E1000 certified and into production (more information on that journey here and in Flying Magazine here). The airplane is amazing. In the single engine,…
There are a multitude of weather products out there today to assist pilots in preparing for a flight. Aviationweather.gov is the best source for getting all the information a pilot needs for planning a flight. Aviationweather.gov is the National Weather Service’s source for all aviation related weather products. When I teach about weather and weather briefings, I recommend to my students to utilize Aviationweather.gov in the planning stages, but still call the Flight Service Station to get a full fledged weather briefing before takeoff.
When preflight weather planning, one of the best ways to get a picture of what is happening over a broad area is utilizing the Low Level Significant Weather Prog charts. The Prog chart gives a forecasted 12 and 24 hour picture of what type of weather to expect over the US. The Prog chart gives the expected flight rules, areas of turbulence, and where the freezing level is located. If you’re looking at the 4 panel view, the Surface Prog chart shows fronts, pressure areas, and areas of expected precipitation. That covers just about everything, doesn’t it?
I believe the Prog charts are underutilized in planning. Foreflight and Garmin Pilot have given easy access to radar pictures, satellite pictures, METARs, TAFs, and several other sources of weather information. But, a lot of the easy access data you can get from those apps is current data (with the exception of the TAF) while a lot of the forecast data takes some hunting around. So, products like Prog charts aren’t often utilized.
The other problem arises when pilots know about Prog charts, but don’t know how to read them, then don’t know how to find the legend to decipher the chart, the chart is often set aside and quickly forgotten about just because of a lack of knowledge. Have no fear, though, as now we will use an example 4 panel Prog chart to decipher the lines and colorations.
Just looking at the Low Level Significant Weather Prog Chart above, it can be a little confusing. That’s why they make a legend!
Coupling the legend with the chart above, we can determine some things. First, California, parts of the Pacific Northwest, a small part of southern Arizona, and a good portion of the Midwest and East coast are going to have marginal VFR conditions in the next 12 hours. Wisconsin, Illinois, a good portion of the Northeast, and a small portion of the Pacific Northwest will suffer IFR from IFR conditions. There are going to be a good amount of low level turbulence in the northern and eastern parts of the country. Finally, the freezing level starts at the surface running in a jagged line across the midwest states and curling up into the Northeast.
That’s a good bit of information, isn’t it? If a pilot is planning a VFR flight into the Northeast tonight, it would probably be best to wait for another day, according to this chart.
Now, to see what is causing the conditions above, we need to look at the Surface Prog Chart.
The green circular areas above show that some form of precipitation is in that area. The circular dots with the triangle located in Mexico and Baja California are depicting moderate rain showers. If the triangle was gone, it would just be moderate rain. In the northeast, all those symbols are showing moderate to heavy snow showers. Across the plains, we see a lot of high pressure, meaning visibility and nice flying weather.
These charts are invaluable when it comes to flight planning, especially over long distances when the weather could be changing a lot over the period of your flight. Put them to use the next time you are planning a trip and you’ll learn you have a much better picture of what the weather is doing.
There are a multitude of weather products out there today to assist pilots in preparing for a flight. Aviationweather.gov is the best source for getting all the information a pilot needs for planning a flight. Aviationweather.gov is the National Weather Service’s source for all aviation related weather products. When I teach about weather and weather…
