The New York Mills airport in Minnesota -- a turf strip -- is going to close. The City Council there voted this week to close it down. Lots of pilots went to the council meeting to plead their case over the importance of the airport.
It's the same lesson as always that pilots consistently ignore. The time to talk about the value of your airport, is before someone comes up with the idea to close it.
Plus, if the best argument you have for your airport is that it can be used in the event of a large-scale evacuation, you've got a problem.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Who's killing general aviation?
Apparently there was a godawful story on KTLA in Los Angeles the other day about a plane crash. It seems experimental airplanes were described as "death planes," and the reporter was sitting in an RV. Nice.
I have nothing but contempt for lousy reporting such as that turned in by Jaime Chambers and the editors and producers at KTLA. But I reserve some residual bile for people who then jump on bulletin boards, like Van's Air Force, and make unfounded assertions because of the one story:
"This is what worries me about the media is this is how they report on all issues not just Aviation."
...and..
"The majority of the general aviation news stories that are reported that I have seen are just plain wrong. Facts and terms used to be checked by reporters. Now it just seems that they read from a teleprompter and spew whatever is in front of them or copy things from a computer and it's fact. And stock photo's of an airplane are good enough."
.. and ...
"I have yet to see a single report on general aircraft and especially homebuilts that are reported with no significant errors and/or obvious bias."
Not one? Here's one. Here's another. Here's another. And another. And another (from way back).
As a matter of fact, just tonight I was reading this story, about how students are overcoming disabilities to become pilots. Yet not a single member of a single aviation bulletin board posted a single mention of that story or any of the others. Why? Because there's an old joke in the newsroom, "Don't check your facts, you'll ruin a good story."
Here's my post this evening on Van's Air Force. I realize it's a waste of time.
I don't defend my profession because it's my profession. I defend -- in this case -- my profession because in my profession I have a naked hatred for inaccuracy and overgeneralization.
You're mad at the KTLA story. I get that. So am I. But phrases like "every GA story is written with inaccuracies or a bias" are simply ignorant and, of course, inaccurate.
The idea that reporters are "out" to get general aviation or that journalists are just so stupid that it's a good day when they remember to zip their pants are insulting.
Here's a story I read just tonight. Students are overcoming disabilities through aviation. But you know what? I looked all over Van's Air Force tonight for someone posting this story, and maybe a comment that this reporter did a good job of portraying general aviation in a good light.
At least four or five times a month, I stick general aviation stories in the Hotline that I think are well done, and I rarely find them by reading VAF, or any other aviation bulletin board for that matter.
When we've already reached a conclusion, we tend to be only interested in data that supports it while ignoring data that might -- if considered -- lead us to question our own conclusions. We don't do that in our country anymore and we're the more ignorant because we don't.
Look, I get the extent to which reporting can stink. Believe me, it can. But I also know there's darned good reporting being done and -- more important -- more positive GA stories than negative GA stories being done. (Matthew Wald of the New York Times is not ignorant on the subject of aviation and neither is James Fallows of The Atlantic)
I realize I'm beating a dead horse here and even with my long-standing passion to try to get many of you involved with the media in your community, I have to admit it's a lost cause. People get their heels dug in against the media, and it makes it tougher for people like me to feel welcomed at the local airport.
So who else besides bad reporters are actively participating in the death of general aviation in this country? General aviators.
General aviation right now is the long goodbye.
Predictably, and understandably I guess, the thread (which I've rewritten slightly) got closed after I posted that. It's not really a productive conversation. People are going to believe what they want to believe.
If we truly value the freedom to fly, approaching our relationships with the media shouldn't be such a chore.
Feel free to discuss this below.
The cloud bank
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I inadvertently entered a cloud while flying around flyover country. Here's a great video on what that looks like:
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Lane makes my day
I don't think I've ever made much of a secret of my admiration for Lane Wallace, the editor/columnist for Flying Magazine, who inherited the honor of being the average flyer's favorite aviation columnist from Gordon Baxter some years ago.
She recently founded No Map, No Guide, No Limits, a terrific Web site that broadens the subject areas for her fine writing.
And now she's added a new line -- online columnist for The Atlantic.
Today she dropped me a note to give me a "heads up" that her column today refers substantially to an article I wrote for my day job, as part of a rout of college campuses I made last winter. It's basically a "dear graduates" letter, a few months early.
Flying is a great thrill and building an airplane is a lot of fun, but getting quoted by one of your favorite writers can make a guy's day.
She recently founded No Map, No Guide, No Limits, a terrific Web site that broadens the subject areas for her fine writing.
And now she's added a new line -- online columnist for The Atlantic.
Today she dropped me a note to give me a "heads up" that her column today refers substantially to an article I wrote for my day job, as part of a rout of college campuses I made last winter. It's basically a "dear graduates" letter, a few months early.
Flying is a great thrill and building an airplane is a lot of fun, but getting quoted by one of your favorite writers can make a guy's day.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Working man panel
If I were a typical RV builder these days, I'd be plotting out how to space out my two $10,000 Chelton flight instruments, and then sending the panel out to a special place to have it perfectly cut. Or I'd just give Stein Bruch $100,000 (as, believe me, some people have) to build the perfect panel.
But, alas, like my father before me, I have to go to work each day to earn a living and so I'm building a "blue-collar" panel. I'm cutting each hole myself, and then filing it down to the right size. By hand.
I'll know every inch of this panel, because I will have measured, cut, and touched every inch of this panel.
There are days when I read Van's Air Force and see the amazing equipment people are bringing to their project and the amount of money they bring to bear upon it, and think I'm not really much of a builder. Then there are days when I realize I'm doing all of this plane by hand, by myself, while juggling real life for a working person and I think that puts me in the company of the real homebuilders of years gone by like Tony Bingelis, who figured out how to do all of this without writing a big check.
So here's what I've got so far (left to right): Backup altimeter and airspeed indicator on the left, a Dynon D100 EFIS over a Grand Rapids EIS 4000 engine monitor, the Vertical Power VP-50 over the TruTrak single-axis wing leveler, an Air Gizmo dock for a Garmin 296 (without the adaptor to angle it toward me which turned out to be a waste of my $25), over an Icom A210 radio.
And that's where I am. So here's my question. Underneath the A210, will be the Garmin 327 transponder. How big of a gap (for cooling) should I account for when figuring out the height of the cut below the A210 radio? And I assume I'm not leaving a small piece of metal between the two, right?
Also, would it make sense to cut out a "blank" for another radio (you'll note I have no VOR capability) in the event I decide to add one and then put some sort of cover over it?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
It was 48 years ago today
It was 48 years ago today that Alan Shepard -- a good son of New England -- climbed into Freedom 7 and took the first suborbital flight in space.
It's interesting to me that his instrument panel appears to be nowhere close to what now populates most RVs.
Freedom 7 - May 5, 1961 from Mark Gray on Vimeo.
It's interesting to me that his instrument panel appears to be nowhere close to what now populates most RVs.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
The tech counselor visit
Tom Berge, as good an RV builder who has ever walked Planet RV, stopped by today for a tech counselor visit. Next week, Tom is doing an engine-mounting forum at Lake Elmo and I'll be interviewing him afterward for the next edition of the RV Builder's Hotline. But here are a couple of quick notes from his visit as scrawled on one of my workbenches (click for a larger view but I doubt you'll be able to read my writing):
Here's the quick-and-dirty version.
1. Mount headset jacks in the upper canopy channel. This is the piece that goes from the rollbar back to bulkhead 706. If you mount the headset jacks in the panel or nearby, you've got wires in the way. Also run a power cable to the location in the event I want to acquire some ANR headsets.
2. Turn the bolts holding the vertical spar around. I followed Van's plans here which call for the bolt head to be forward. But doing so allows the rudder to bang on the end of the bolts.
3. "There's a lot of threads showing on these bolts for the horizontal stabilizer, are you sure you didn't run out of threads when torquing the nuts?" Well, no, actually. But I checked these and I did find that I used a thin 910-L washer on one of them. So I changed that. The others seem to be OK.
4. Run the tail strobe/nav light wires through the middle of the VS spar and bulkhead, not off to the side as I have it. I'm still noodling on this. It's a good idea. The problem in the 7A is there's a tie-down bracket in that location. Tom also showed me where to cut a slit in the front of the rudder fairing, and to put a plug connection there for easy removal.
5. Put enough washers in the bolts connecting the elevator control horns. I don't have both of the elevators installed yet so this connection hasn't been made yet.
6. Don't torque castlelated nuts. I don't know what I was thinking. Castle nuts and cotter pins are used because the bolt is an axle. Torque the nuts down and it can't work correctly. This was a problem in the top of the flap motor connection...
As well as most of the connections I had at the brake/rudder pedals.
Tom also noticed that I hadn't put cotter pins in the rudder cable connection to the pedals. I'm sure this is one of those times when I said, "I'll just stick the bolt on there and finish it up later while I jump in and play with the pedals and make airplane noises," but I completely forgot about doing this and while a final inspection likely would've caught this, this practice is dumb on my part, especially at my age and ability to forget things.
7. Pull out the canopy release mechanism and throw it away. Just use bolts in that location. This is one thing I intended to do. There's a fair amount of weight in that system and it doesn't work, because I didn't cut the top skin to allow a quick release of the canopy in flight and even if I did, I don't wear a parachute. What am I supposed to do without a canopy? And as far as I know, nobody has ever jettisoned a canopy on an RV-7 in flight.
8. Make false floors for the forward fuselage. I have to read up a little more on how to do this and I'm interested in hearing how other people have handled this. But the noise and vibration is considerable in this location. So the goal is to use the soundproofing foam here, and then place a "floor" over it. As I envision it, it involves pieces of angle on pieces of aluminum which are then connected to the angles that run from the F-704 bulkhead to the firewall, though it's unclear at the moment how this connection would take place. But this will also considerably lessen the noise and add comfort.
9. You should've split the Delrin blocks that hold the rudder pedals in place. Van's doesn't tell you to do this (although we do split the center block). But once you install the pedals without splitting the end blocks, and then add all the other junk, you're not going to be able to get the pedals out if you had too. Of course, I never thought of that but if you're building and haven't gotten to this part yet, that's a good tip.
10. Weather-proofing the tip-up canopy. Tom uses the soundproofing foam and attaches it on the aft side of the subpanel, below that strip of aluminum we put on there for a rubber channel. It's width is equal to the height of the canopy frame. When it closes, it compresses the foam and makes a much better barrier to incoming water than the rubber guard. He's also installed some deflection channels near the canopy hinges to direct any water that comes in there (you can't put foam in that locations) away from the avionics. He acknowledges it runs, instead, onto his wife's legs and I won't say that he claimed that's better than running into the avionics. You can judge that for yourself.
11. The nose gear issue. So I showed him my nose gear and how difficult it is to move the wheel given the torque value called out and we discussed Alex Peterson's excellent analysis of the nose gear "problem," which may or may not be contributing to a high number of nose-overs and flips in the RV tri-gears. I thought I had a link on the Hotline somewhere to Alex's work but I can't find it at the moment and I don't want to incorrectly repeat what Tom relayed to me but one problem appears to be the two "pucks" in the design where the bolt passes through. Tom says there is a company out there -- somewhere -- that manufacturers a different system and I'm trying to locate that as well as Alex's analysis.
12. Your tires might last through the first flight. Tom says the tires supplied with the kit aren't very good. He's using retreads on his RV-7.
13. Tie wraps - Don't use the cheap plastic ones you get at Home Depot (guilty). Get ones with a metal insert from McMaster Car. Also, I have long stretches of conduit that are probably going to chaffe on the fuselage floor. I need to secure those somehow. I've used the adhesive tabs that you attach the tie wrap to, but those don't work very well, Tom says. Searching.
14. Reinforce the rear cover flange on the flap motor housing. Do you put weight on the crossbar behind the seats when getting in and our of your RV? Yeah, me too. Bad thing. The weight is being supported almost exclusively by that rear piece and eventually it will bend. The best advice is don't put your weight on that crosspiece and even so, I'm going to put some angle on the flange to strengthen the cover channel a bit.
15. Add altitude hold to the autopilot system. I only have the one-axis wing leveler from TruTrak but if I'm going to do any cross country at all -- and I am -- I need to add the second servo. "RVs are sport airplanes but they don't stay where you put them," Tom said. I have to investigate how to implement this. I just bought a wiring harness for the single axis TruTrak from SteinAir and I have to figure out how expensive this change is going to be.
That's one of the things with a technical inspection. It refocused me on how much I still need to do and how much I still need to spend on the RV project. "One thing at a time" is still the RV builder's mantra, but there's no way -- and no reason, I guess -- to avoid the "let's stop and reassess where we are" fallout.
The other thing we talked about is the airport at which I've chosen to complete the RV. South St. Paul is a one-strip airport with houses everywhere. The FAA doesn't want any more first flights off of it, so I'll likely have to truck the plane to Lake Elmo or Airlake and find another hangar as some point.
Big deal? Well, yeah, it is. It means that I have to cut the wires for the various harnesses and lights in order to remove the wings. Yes, I can put connectors for the strobe wires but that risks adding noise into the system. And what do you do about the drain wire when you use plugs or connectors at the wing root anyway?
That was a nice, and expensive, harness I bought from Stein. It's not installed yet and I can't install it if I'm going to need to move the plane. So I can't finish the wiring phase of the project either.
It means that I'm really NOT assembling some of these parts for the final time, and injects a lot of uncertainty into what I should do next.
But Tom's advice was very helpful as was the final "you're doing a good job."
Here's the quick-and-dirty version.
1. Mount headset jacks in the upper canopy channel. This is the piece that goes from the rollbar back to bulkhead 706. If you mount the headset jacks in the panel or nearby, you've got wires in the way. Also run a power cable to the location in the event I want to acquire some ANR headsets.
2. Turn the bolts holding the vertical spar around. I followed Van's plans here which call for the bolt head to be forward. But doing so allows the rudder to bang on the end of the bolts.
3. "There's a lot of threads showing on these bolts for the horizontal stabilizer, are you sure you didn't run out of threads when torquing the nuts?" Well, no, actually. But I checked these and I did find that I used a thin 910-L washer on one of them. So I changed that. The others seem to be OK.
4. Run the tail strobe/nav light wires through the middle of the VS spar and bulkhead, not off to the side as I have it. I'm still noodling on this. It's a good idea. The problem in the 7A is there's a tie-down bracket in that location. Tom also showed me where to cut a slit in the front of the rudder fairing, and to put a plug connection there for easy removal.
5. Put enough washers in the bolts connecting the elevator control horns. I don't have both of the elevators installed yet so this connection hasn't been made yet.
6. Don't torque castlelated nuts. I don't know what I was thinking. Castle nuts and cotter pins are used because the bolt is an axle. Torque the nuts down and it can't work correctly. This was a problem in the top of the flap motor connection...
As well as most of the connections I had at the brake/rudder pedals.
Tom also noticed that I hadn't put cotter pins in the rudder cable connection to the pedals. I'm sure this is one of those times when I said, "I'll just stick the bolt on there and finish it up later while I jump in and play with the pedals and make airplane noises," but I completely forgot about doing this and while a final inspection likely would've caught this, this practice is dumb on my part, especially at my age and ability to forget things.
7. Pull out the canopy release mechanism and throw it away. Just use bolts in that location. This is one thing I intended to do. There's a fair amount of weight in that system and it doesn't work, because I didn't cut the top skin to allow a quick release of the canopy in flight and even if I did, I don't wear a parachute. What am I supposed to do without a canopy? And as far as I know, nobody has ever jettisoned a canopy on an RV-7 in flight.
8. Make false floors for the forward fuselage. I have to read up a little more on how to do this and I'm interested in hearing how other people have handled this. But the noise and vibration is considerable in this location. So the goal is to use the soundproofing foam here, and then place a "floor" over it. As I envision it, it involves pieces of angle on pieces of aluminum which are then connected to the angles that run from the F-704 bulkhead to the firewall, though it's unclear at the moment how this connection would take place. But this will also considerably lessen the noise and add comfort.
9. You should've split the Delrin blocks that hold the rudder pedals in place. Van's doesn't tell you to do this (although we do split the center block). But once you install the pedals without splitting the end blocks, and then add all the other junk, you're not going to be able to get the pedals out if you had too. Of course, I never thought of that but if you're building and haven't gotten to this part yet, that's a good tip.
10. Weather-proofing the tip-up canopy. Tom uses the soundproofing foam and attaches it on the aft side of the subpanel, below that strip of aluminum we put on there for a rubber channel. It's width is equal to the height of the canopy frame. When it closes, it compresses the foam and makes a much better barrier to incoming water than the rubber guard. He's also installed some deflection channels near the canopy hinges to direct any water that comes in there (you can't put foam in that locations) away from the avionics. He acknowledges it runs, instead, onto his wife's legs and I won't say that he claimed that's better than running into the avionics. You can judge that for yourself.
11. The nose gear issue. So I showed him my nose gear and how difficult it is to move the wheel given the torque value called out and we discussed Alex Peterson's excellent analysis of the nose gear "problem," which may or may not be contributing to a high number of nose-overs and flips in the RV tri-gears. I thought I had a link on the Hotline somewhere to Alex's work but I can't find it at the moment and I don't want to incorrectly repeat what Tom relayed to me but one problem appears to be the two "pucks" in the design where the bolt passes through. Tom says there is a company out there -- somewhere -- that manufacturers a different system and I'm trying to locate that as well as Alex's analysis.
12. Your tires might last through the first flight. Tom says the tires supplied with the kit aren't very good. He's using retreads on his RV-7.
13. Tie wraps - Don't use the cheap plastic ones you get at Home Depot (guilty). Get ones with a metal insert from McMaster Car. Also, I have long stretches of conduit that are probably going to chaffe on the fuselage floor. I need to secure those somehow. I've used the adhesive tabs that you attach the tie wrap to, but those don't work very well, Tom says. Searching.
14. Reinforce the rear cover flange on the flap motor housing. Do you put weight on the crossbar behind the seats when getting in and our of your RV? Yeah, me too. Bad thing. The weight is being supported almost exclusively by that rear piece and eventually it will bend. The best advice is don't put your weight on that crosspiece and even so, I'm going to put some angle on the flange to strengthen the cover channel a bit.
15. Add altitude hold to the autopilot system. I only have the one-axis wing leveler from TruTrak but if I'm going to do any cross country at all -- and I am -- I need to add the second servo. "RVs are sport airplanes but they don't stay where you put them," Tom said. I have to investigate how to implement this. I just bought a wiring harness for the single axis TruTrak from SteinAir and I have to figure out how expensive this change is going to be.
That's one of the things with a technical inspection. It refocused me on how much I still need to do and how much I still need to spend on the RV project. "One thing at a time" is still the RV builder's mantra, but there's no way -- and no reason, I guess -- to avoid the "let's stop and reassess where we are" fallout.
The other thing we talked about is the airport at which I've chosen to complete the RV. South St. Paul is a one-strip airport with houses everywhere. The FAA doesn't want any more first flights off of it, so I'll likely have to truck the plane to Lake Elmo or Airlake and find another hangar as some point.
Big deal? Well, yeah, it is. It means that I have to cut the wires for the various harnesses and lights in order to remove the wings. Yes, I can put connectors for the strobe wires but that risks adding noise into the system. And what do you do about the drain wire when you use plugs or connectors at the wing root anyway?
That was a nice, and expensive, harness I bought from Stein. It's not installed yet and I can't install it if I'm going to need to move the plane. So I can't finish the wiring phase of the project either.
It means that I'm really NOT assembling some of these parts for the final time, and injects a lot of uncertainty into what I should do next.
But Tom's advice was very helpful as was the final "you're doing a good job."
Friday, May 1, 2009
RV Builder's Hotline for 5/2/09 is posted
The latest issue of the RV Builder's Hotline has been posted. The issue features a conversation with Rick Gray, who won the Grand Champion trophy at Sun 'n Fun. To view it, go here.For those of you who subscribe, I'll start the mailing tonight. A lot of Yahoo customers are finding theirs bounce back. I can't explain Yahoo's decision but they think it's spam and not enough people are complaining. There's little I can do about it.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The best you can do
I still have a few days remaining on my two-week-vacation and now that I'm back from New England, I was able to spend the entire day at the hangar, with a break only to run into work to interview Rick Gray for this weekend's RV Builder's Hotline. Rick won the Grand Champion title at Sun n' Fun for his Rocket.
During the interview, Rick told me that the secret to building a champion RV -- or any other plane for that matter -- is looking at a completed part and asking oneself, "is this the best I can do?"
Great, just what I need: A conscience.
But it was helpful when I went back to the hangar that I decided to doublecheck the continuity on the ELT wiring I've been installing, and then make some minor changes in how I route it to the firewall.
Bottom line? I pushed the first button on something I've wired and it beeped and flashed, just like it's supposed to. OK, the ELT is actually powered by its own battery. All I was installing was a remote switch on the panel and a buzzer that tells me when the ELT is activated.
Still, I didn't expect it to work. "You're doing fine," hangar neighbor Ray Hurdt assured me, apparently aware of my tendency not to trust myself, even after 8 years of building this airplane. A few seconds later, I grounded the buzzer and heard a "beep."
"See?" he said. "You need to trust yourself more."
The fact is: I probably could do better and I probably will rewire the connector at the remote switch. There's too much slack in the wire for one thing and I didn't like the job I did crimping the female Molex connectors. But it works, and that's what counts right now.
Here's a shot of the ELT. See that wiring harness? Yeah, I made that.
I ran the wire forward through the bushings that also hold the elevator trim cable. I installed an Adel clamp to keep it low so as to avoid the pushrod to the yoke.
Then I cross it under the pushrod (and the left wingtip strobe cable) to another Adel clamp.
Through the center section bulkhead, down the center channel, and up the conduit along the firewall...
Then back along a rib, crossing over the Vertical Power power unit (not shown), through a bushing in the subpanel to the switch on the instrument panel.
One thing I don't like about this setup is the lack of strain relief at the connector to the remote switch.
So that's one more thing to check off on my weekly list at the hangar.
Of course, I have to add one more: "Do it again. Do it better."
Sunday, April 26, 2009
RV crickets
In last week's RV Builder's Hotline, I mentioned that I'd be in Massachusetts this week and would love to visit RV airplane projects that are either under construction or flying. I heard from a grand total of 0 people. Bleah.
Perhaps I need to visit Oregon or Texas to get an invite?
Perhaps I need to visit Oregon or Texas to get an invite?
Monday, April 20, 2009
The workout
I'm driving back to Massachusetts from Minnesota starting tomorrow but my currency for renting at Thunderbird Aviation runs out at the end of the month. So today was my last chance to get in the air.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere was extremely unstable, as befits flyover country in the spring. There was rain showers, lows clouds (1400 above ground level --AGL, I'd guess) and wind. Lots of wind. About 19 miles per hour gusting to 30.
In my younger flying days, I'd probably have canceled, but these days I want to be sure I'm up for challenging weather. This isn't a stupid decision, mind you. I remain a conservative pilot. But I also know that flying cross country -- as I hope to do in my RV-7A someday -- means being ready for short bursts of crappy weather, while I head for the safe harbor at a nearby airport.
So I launched from Flying Cloud in a Piper Warrior. They apparently didn't think anyone would be flying today because they were all in the hangar. On climb-out, I realized why. It was a rollercoaster of turbulent air and wind sheer.
With wind out of the northwest at 330, I headed for Airlake in Farmington, around the Minneapolis-St. Paul Class B airspace, with a thought to heading up to Fleming Field, with its runway oriented 340 for some mild crosswind practice on a relatively short field.
Approaching Airlake, I flew a midfield crosswind to check the windsock -- which I couldn't find -- saw a Sundowner in the runup area and considered turning a left downwind to try a more severe crosswind. But a KingAir announcing he was on the ILS approach (note to IFR pilots: This tells the VFR pilot NOTHING. Would it kill you to say how far you are from the airport?), so I decided to continue heading south, gain some altitude and then head northeast to South St. Paul.
As I headed in that direction, however, I saw a raincloud ahead and knew there was no going around it. I'd have to turn. Before I knew it, however, I was in the cloud with no reference outside. I knew what had to be done -- a 180 degree turn while I flew by instruments (no, I'm not instrument rated, but I'm well trained for these sorts of unintentional flights into instrument meteorological conditions). The attitude indicator indicated a right turn of about 30 degrees and when I emerged from the cloud, I was a little steeper than I would've liked. But I was in control, not panicked, and ready for a long straight-in to runway 30 at Airlake.
The problem with the Warrior is their rudders aren't big enough for serious crosswind, and it took all I had to stay lined up with the runway, with all of its lights blazing. The landing wasn't bad at all for someone who hasn't flown since January, so I returned to try another one around the pattern. This time the more stabilized approach yielded a better result. And the gusty conditions abated about a 1/2 mile short of the runway. My airspeed said about 70 knots, the GPS said my groundspeed was around 50. It took me forever to get to the threshold of the runway.
On the second-climb-out, I noticed a bird heading toward my window about 5 seconds before it quickly veered off to my left. He missed me -- or did I miss him -- by about 15 feet. Now I remember why I don't like flying in Minnesota in the spring -- unstable air and lots of birds.
The third takeoff was my mistake. I should've been making sure I was ready for takeoff while I waited for a State Police helicopter to depart. If I had, I would've noticed I hadn't set two notches of flaps for takeoff. And when I bounced off the runway and assumed my normal attitude, the stall horn went off. Again, I knew what to do: push the nose down and then figure out the problem., which made itself apparent pretty quickly.
The subsequent landing had a decent approach, but I bounced back into the air on landing. In gusty winds, getting the airspeed just right is a tricky proposition. Although it wasn't a good landing -- heck, it wasn't any landing at all -- I was proud of what I did next. I firewalled the throttle and retracted a notch of flaps , the tires touched the ground briefly and I was back in the air for a go-around. The decision-making was sound, the execution was good. We pilots tell ourselves we're not supposed to try to save a bounced landing, but we do and there are plenty of accident reports to prove it.
After an uneventful landing, I tried heading up to South St. Paul again. I had to snake between some rainstorms and heavy clouds, and I was right up against the Class B as I made my way to the Mississippi and then a long final for runway 34. I stayed high because there are neighborhoods all around KSGS, and the landing was relatively uneventful. With the headwind I had, flying the glideslope would be a disaster if the engine quit.
I considered stopping in at my hangar to mess with the RV-7A project a bit, but I didn't want to waste a lot of money taxiing around airports, so I headed back and took off for the trip back to Flying Cloud.
The tower said winds were 350 (NNW) for runway 36, but I think it was farther off the nose than that because I again needed quite a bit of rudder. If I hadn't carried extra speed to account for the gusty conditions, I wouldn't have floated quite so far down the runway, perhaps, but since Thunderbird is located off the departure end anyway.
And it's not like there was much traffic around any of theairports I visited today. It's Monday, and some pilots just don't like a good workout that leaves you tired.
Rain, clouds, winds, gusts, birds, stall horns, airspace: $196.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere was extremely unstable, as befits flyover country in the spring. There was rain showers, lows clouds (1400 above ground level --AGL, I'd guess) and wind. Lots of wind. About 19 miles per hour gusting to 30.
In my younger flying days, I'd probably have canceled, but these days I want to be sure I'm up for challenging weather. This isn't a stupid decision, mind you. I remain a conservative pilot. But I also know that flying cross country -- as I hope to do in my RV-7A someday -- means being ready for short bursts of crappy weather, while I head for the safe harbor at a nearby airport.
So I launched from Flying Cloud in a Piper Warrior. They apparently didn't think anyone would be flying today because they were all in the hangar. On climb-out, I realized why. It was a rollercoaster of turbulent air and wind sheer.
With wind out of the northwest at 330, I headed for Airlake in Farmington, around the Minneapolis-St. Paul Class B airspace, with a thought to heading up to Fleming Field, with its runway oriented 340 for some mild crosswind practice on a relatively short field.
Approaching Airlake, I flew a midfield crosswind to check the windsock -- which I couldn't find -- saw a Sundowner in the runup area and considered turning a left downwind to try a more severe crosswind. But a KingAir announcing he was on the ILS approach (note to IFR pilots: This tells the VFR pilot NOTHING. Would it kill you to say how far you are from the airport?), so I decided to continue heading south, gain some altitude and then head northeast to South St. Paul.
As I headed in that direction, however, I saw a raincloud ahead and knew there was no going around it. I'd have to turn. Before I knew it, however, I was in the cloud with no reference outside. I knew what had to be done -- a 180 degree turn while I flew by instruments (no, I'm not instrument rated, but I'm well trained for these sorts of unintentional flights into instrument meteorological conditions). The attitude indicator indicated a right turn of about 30 degrees and when I emerged from the cloud, I was a little steeper than I would've liked. But I was in control, not panicked, and ready for a long straight-in to runway 30 at Airlake.
The problem with the Warrior is their rudders aren't big enough for serious crosswind, and it took all I had to stay lined up with the runway, with all of its lights blazing. The landing wasn't bad at all for someone who hasn't flown since January, so I returned to try another one around the pattern. This time the more stabilized approach yielded a better result. And the gusty conditions abated about a 1/2 mile short of the runway. My airspeed said about 70 knots, the GPS said my groundspeed was around 50. It took me forever to get to the threshold of the runway.
On the second-climb-out, I noticed a bird heading toward my window about 5 seconds before it quickly veered off to my left. He missed me -- or did I miss him -- by about 15 feet. Now I remember why I don't like flying in Minnesota in the spring -- unstable air and lots of birds.
The third takeoff was my mistake. I should've been making sure I was ready for takeoff while I waited for a State Police helicopter to depart. If I had, I would've noticed I hadn't set two notches of flaps for takeoff. And when I bounced off the runway and assumed my normal attitude, the stall horn went off. Again, I knew what to do: push the nose down and then figure out the problem., which made itself apparent pretty quickly.
The subsequent landing had a decent approach, but I bounced back into the air on landing. In gusty winds, getting the airspeed just right is a tricky proposition. Although it wasn't a good landing -- heck, it wasn't any landing at all -- I was proud of what I did next. I firewalled the throttle and retracted a notch of flaps , the tires touched the ground briefly and I was back in the air for a go-around. The decision-making was sound, the execution was good. We pilots tell ourselves we're not supposed to try to save a bounced landing, but we do and there are plenty of accident reports to prove it.
After an uneventful landing, I tried heading up to South St. Paul again. I had to snake between some rainstorms and heavy clouds, and I was right up against the Class B as I made my way to the Mississippi and then a long final for runway 34. I stayed high because there are neighborhoods all around KSGS, and the landing was relatively uneventful. With the headwind I had, flying the glideslope would be a disaster if the engine quit.
I considered stopping in at my hangar to mess with the RV-7A project a bit, but I didn't want to waste a lot of money taxiing around airports, so I headed back and took off for the trip back to Flying Cloud.
The tower said winds were 350 (NNW) for runway 36, but I think it was farther off the nose than that because I again needed quite a bit of rudder. If I hadn't carried extra speed to account for the gusty conditions, I wouldn't have floated quite so far down the runway, perhaps, but since Thunderbird is located off the departure end anyway.
And it's not like there was much traffic around any of theairports I visited today. It's Monday, and some pilots just don't like a good workout that leaves you tired.
Rain, clouds, winds, gusts, birds, stall horns, airspace: $196.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Why can't I do that
I'm going out flying tomorrow. With any luck -- and some skill -- I'll make a halfway decent landing or two.ba
I wish I could fly better, or should I say: land better. Take this falling brick, known as the space shuttle, landing at Cape Canaveral recently. Perfect. It's falling a hundred times as fast and probably traveling 7 or 8 times as fast as Piper Warrior. But... perfect.
I wish I could fly better, or should I say: land better. Take this falling brick, known as the space shuttle, landing at Cape Canaveral recently. Perfect. It's falling a hundred times as fast and probably traveling 7 or 8 times as fast as Piper Warrior. But... perfect.
Vertical Power cutout
Since I have a separate Vertical Power category, I thought I should update you that I made the cutout for the VP-50 switch yesterday. I ended up moving it from the original location down near the flap switches. This is because I had moved the Air Gizmo GPS296 dock to the top of the radio stack before I realized that the horizontal adapter does not fit the cutout for the AirGizmo dock, and I'd already installed the support angle.
That left the VP-50 to be installed in the 296's original spot, to the right and slightly above the big Dynon D-100. It is, of course, still workable with the "same hand you use for the throttle control" as the instructions say.
I didn't see a specific mounting plan but there's a bracket attached to the back of the switch, so it appears I need to install two pieces of angle above and below the cutout. (Update: Marc Ausman says the bracket sits on the back of the unit and -- because the rectangle for the unit is snug, the thumbwheel screw just keeps the whole deal tight.)
In any event, it looks slick.
I'm cutting the panel myself. As I've noted before: This is a blue-collar airplane that's pay-as-you-go. I can think of a hundred things I'd like to do with this plane if I had more money. But one of the interesting challenges now is doing more myself and learning to live with a more realistically-constructed plane.
At this point in our economy, I consider it a metaphor for life and an unseen challenge that probably should get its own award at Oshkosh -- a "people who aren't rich" category.
That left the VP-50 to be installed in the 296's original spot, to the right and slightly above the big Dynon D-100. It is, of course, still workable with the "same hand you use for the throttle control" as the instructions say.
I didn't see a specific mounting plan but there's a bracket attached to the back of the switch, so it appears I need to install two pieces of angle above and below the cutout. (Update: Marc Ausman says the bracket sits on the back of the unit and -- because the rectangle for the unit is snug, the thumbwheel screw just keeps the whole deal tight.)
In any event, it looks slick.
I'm cutting the panel myself. As I've noted before: This is a blue-collar airplane that's pay-as-you-go. I can think of a hundred things I'd like to do with this plane if I had more money. But one of the interesting challenges now is doing more myself and learning to live with a more realistically-constructed plane.
At this point in our economy, I consider it a metaphor for life and an unseen challenge that probably should get its own award at Oshkosh -- a "people who aren't rich" category.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Cold water on the Hotline?
I try to provide at least one new piece of original content when I publish the RV Builder's Hotline every other Saturday, but it's getting harder and harder to do. One is due out this week and I haven't started on yet.
Some weeks it's hard to get motivated.
I'd hoped to write something this week on RV airplane owners' experiences when doing their annual inspection. It seems to me that people who are building can learn a few things from people who are flying and this is one very important area.
There are 6,000 RVs flying, there are 2,000 subscribers to the Hotline, and another 2,000 read it online.
My solicitation for annual inspection experiences garnered all of two responses.
Guess I'll come up with a Plan B.
Some weeks it's hard to get motivated.
I'd hoped to write something this week on RV airplane owners' experiences when doing their annual inspection. It seems to me that people who are building can learn a few things from people who are flying and this is one very important area.
There are 6,000 RVs flying, there are 2,000 subscribers to the Hotline, and another 2,000 read it online.
My solicitation for annual inspection experiences garnered all of two responses.
Guess I'll come up with a Plan B.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
2008 accident statistics
The 2008 aviation accident statistics are out and things are, well, so-so. General aviation is still killing people at about the same rate. I think late last year I put up statistics about RVs which showed no significant change in the accident rate. Here's the NTSB news release:
Washington, DC - The National Transportation Safety Board
today released preliminary aviation accident statistics for
the 2008 calendar year, showing improvements in some
industry sectors but increased accident rates in others."While the overall aviation safety record in the United
States is among the best in the world, the 2008 accident
statistics reveal a mixed picture," said NTSB Acting
Chairman Mark V. Rosenker. "We are particularly concerned
with the spike in fatalities in on-demand air charter
operations. There's a lot of room for improvement in this
area, and as evidenced by our recent forum on emergency
medical service helicopter accidents, we continue to do
everything we can to identify the safety issues involved,
and to advocate for the adoption of our recommendations that
will make the skies safer."On-demand flight operations (classified by regulators as
operating under the federal code 14 CFR Part 135), which
include air medical, air taxi and air tour flights, logged
over 3.6 million flight hours and had 56 accidents, killing
66 people - the highest number of fatalities since 2000;
there were 43 fatalities in 2007. The accident rate per
100,000 flight hours (1.52) remained virtually unchanged
from 2007 (1.54).The number of accidents involving large commercial carriers
(Part 121) was 28 in both 2008 and 2007. In both scheduled
and non-scheduled services, the airlines carried 753 million
passengers on over 10.8 million flights without a passenger
fatality.In 2008, commuter airlines (also operating under Part 135 in
the federal code) that typically fly smaller turboprop
aircraft made 581,000 flights, logging over 290,000 hours.
These operators had seven accidents, none of which resulted
in fatalities. This is an increase from three accidents in
2007.In general aviation, there were 1,559 accidents, 275 of
which involved fatalities, killing a total of 495 - one
fewer than the previous year. The GA accident rate per
100,000 flight hours was 7.11, up from 6.92 in 2007. In the
last 20 years, the highest accident rate was 9.08 in 1994;
the lowest rate was 6.33 in 2006.Federal legislation defines an aircraft accident as an
occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft
which takes place between the time any person boards the
aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons
have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or
serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives
substantial damage.
Here are the statistical tables.
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