Around We Go

Not too long ago, I took a couple of friends for lunch in the San Juan islands - specifically to picturesque Friday Harbor. That town is one of my favorite destinations in the islands because the airport is just a short walk away from waterfront restaurants, shops, the marina, etc. The 3,400 x 75 foot paved runway is more than adequate for safe operations in most piston singles, but, as always, you have to be careful and prepared for immediate corrective action should things not quite go as planned.

And that day things did not quite go as planned on landing. I like to say that I usually make excellent landings, and that doesn't just mean that the pilots and plane both walk away. :-) (During my commercial ticket practice, I learned to put a Piper Arrow exactly on a given spot with very little float). But then again, it's been a while since I've done that, and that day I was flying in a Cessna 172, not an Arrow.

To add to the situation, usually I operate into runways with an ILS, and that means a wide, long runway, and a somewhat shallow descent gradient on a long final. Of course, Friday Harbor has no ILS, and the noise abatement procedure for runway 16 calls for being at or above the PAPI for as long as possible. This for me usually means a steeper approach. And, the 172 doesn't like to lose that much altitude in a hurry (unlike the Arrow, which tends to sink with no power and a dirty configuration). So, there I was, on short final, with a bit of extra airspeed; I think I even ended up doing a slip to lose some altitude.

What was the result? Well, it's been said that a Cessna 172 will quickly put a pilot in his/her place if not flown properly. Too slow? It may stall on arrival. Too fast? It will float. Or, it will result in a bounced landing. Guess which one happened... That's right, the 172 put me exactly where I belonged: in a place for more landing practice. We greeted Friday Harbor with a bounce. Not just one, but two, and the airplane wasn't quite slowing down. What to do now? With two first time passengers?

Instantly the NTSB articles reports bent firewalls, broken landing gear, etc. came to mind, together with the knowledge that recovering from a bounce usually makes the problem worse because you're always behind the airplane. So, in an instant, it was full power, flaps 20, and the words "we're going around" were transmitted on the CTAF.

The next landing was a greaser now that I paid a bit more attention to the airspeed and the flying characteristics. When we landed, I felt really bad about the landing, and I even said so to my friends (this was quite possibly the worst arrival I've made in the entire time I was flying). I kind of expected nods and them being scared. But I didn't get that. Instead, I got complimented on good and quick decision making to prevent the situation from getting worse. (Either that, or my friends were too nice, but at the end of the flight, they wanted to go up again.) :-)

So, the lesson here is the same lesson that we've been taught many times: when something is not going right, don't try to fix it. Go around!!!! You can always try again, and you'll have lower chances of becoming a statistic for the National Transportation Safety Board. And practice, practice, practice. The next day I took a 172 for some touch and goes, and I ended up having a bit of unintended crosswind at the same time. It was good practice, and it helped me regain the confidence level I used to have with the 172 when I flew that type more often.

Here Comes the Garmin 1000

More and more general aviation airplanes are what's known in the industry as Technologically Advanced Aircraft (TAA's). Not too long ago that meant you just had a moving map GPS, like a Garmin 430 or maybe its bigger cousin, the 530. If you flew a new Cessna single, you probably got exposure to the Bendix/King family of GPS navigators, like the KLN89B or the KLN94. Combine either of those units with a multi-function display, and you had yourself a TAA. I logged a number of hours in airplanes with the KLN series units, enough to where I'd be comfortable shooting a GPS approach in the soup.

Oh, how things change, and how quickly. Garmin came out with the G1000 integrated avionics system for general aviation airplanes, and it's a completely different system. The traditional instruments are gone, and they're replaced by two LCD screens that combine yesterday's flight instruments and today's moving maps, GPS navigators, satellite weather/radio, and lots of other goodies. Now, that's a TAA that makes yesterday's TAA's seem pale in comparison. With the two LCD's comes an array of buttons and knobs - sometimes even knobs within knobs - that the pilot has to push in just the right order to get the units to do the right thing. So, of course, additional training is required to fly those aircraft, and even more training is required to fly the aircraft safely under IFR, where there most of the time, there is little margin for error.

The FBO where I fly out of had a G1000 Cessna 182 for about a year now, but the fact that it costs significantly more than the Skyhawks and the Piper Arrow that I usually fly has deterred me from getting a checkout. That, plus the knowledge that a lot of my flying is IFR - and from the literature I read, it seemed like one has to fly the plane pretty often to maintain a suitable level of proficiency.

But, one day, I actually took the right seat on a flight in the G1000 Skylane. It was kind of by accident. A pilot buddy of mine and I were going to split some Cessna 172 time, but it happened that we got to the airport early, and the 172 wasn't back from its previous flight yet. Of course, the Skylane was there, and my friend was checked out in it, so we hopped right in...

First impression in the cockpit: "wow, I'm sold!!" The amount of situational awareness was impressive - with a 10.4" moving map to supplement the paper charts, nobody should be getting lost, at least not with the system fully operational. The number of buttons on the LCD displays and the audio panel was, let's say, more than what I was used to. Plus, the fact that we could listen to XM radio as we were cruising on the West side of the Olympic Peninsula at 7,500 feet... So, after that flight (now about a month ago), I bit the bullet, signed up for the required one day G1000 ground school, and decided to get checked out! Stay tuned for a blog entry (or two, or three...) describing that transition!

Convenience of an Airplane

It's been 5 years or so that I've been flying! ~280 hours later, and I've only had two chances to demonstrate the worth of a small airplane as more than a toy to take people to lunch to San Juan Islands, or to fly around to maintain proficiency so I can actually take people to the San Juans and they don't get scared in the process... :-) Wow! Only two times, so it's amazing how sparingly those opportunities seem to arise.

The second opportunity came just a couple of days ago. A friend of mine was going up to Orcas Island for some camping, and then they were going to take a ferry to Victoria, BC. Trouble was that they left their passport at home. And today, no passport = no crossing the border (or at least no getting back into the States)... So, what's a good friend like me to do? I swing by their apartment, get their passport, fire up the IO-360-L2A in a Cessna Skyhawk, and fly up to Orcas Island Airport (KORS)! Especially on a beautiful weekend day like we've been enjoying lately in the Northwest.

1.5 hours on the Hobbs there and back, passport delivered, and a vacation saved! Plus, I got to spend some time on Orcas Island as well, which was a big bonus, since that's actually a place where before I never set foot outside of the airport. How cool is that?