Commercial Update: In Full Swing

It seems like I'm finally back in "full swing" on my commercial license. I've put myself on the schedule for Saturday and Sunday afternoons for the next month and a half (with the exception of one weekend -- seems like someone has the plane on both days), as well as on Tuesdays and Thursdays after work. The after work commute up to Paine Field will be tough, since I'll have to go up on I-405, which can be at a standstill during rush hour. But, during my days as a private and instrument student, I had to commute during rush hour on the 405 for ground school, so hopefully the knowledge of traffic patterns on the highway will help me out.

On the practical test preparation side, my landings seem to be getting consistently better. During the first after-work lesson, my CFI Kurtis and I went into Whidbey Airpark (locally known as "Langley") in the Arrow to work on short field technique. Langley is a quite difficult paved strip on Whidbey Island just across Puget Sound from Everett; the runway is 2470x25 ft, which on the surface does not sound all that bad. However, access to the airport is difficult because of trees in all four quadrants. In fact, at Langley, you land to the North and take off to the South -- even if the wind conditions would indicate otherwise. And, sometimes, you don't go there at all. Check out the AirNav Photo of the field to see for yourself -- but the photo doesn't really do it too much justice. Langley, by the way, is one of the favorites for Pilot Examiners for real-world short field testing: I had to demonstrate the ability to land there, in a Cessna 172, for my private checkride.

Aerial maneuvers are going OK as well. Historically chandelles have been my strongest maneuver, and I'm doing just fine there. Steep turns turned out most excellent as well -- not sure if that was just luck, or if I really did them quite well. :-) I'm getting better at lazy-eights as well, although these do need some work to stay within the PTS standards. And, during the next lesson, we'll be tackling steep spirals and eights-on-pylons -- the two things that I probably need the most work on (and incidentally have had the least practice on in the past).

Finally Back in the Air

Wow. It's been a long time -- almost six months to be exact -- but I'm officially back in the air. I was going to go on April 7th, but alas there was some confusion over the scheduling system at the FBO. They're in the process of transitioning to a new and much better system, complete with electronic billing, but unknown to me, the old system was still in use. Of course, I made my aircraft and CFI reservation with the new system... The result? A scheduling conflict! I show up at the airport, even 15 minutes early so we could start right at 2pm, and there's someone else waiting for my airplane. And it turns out the CFI I booked had the day off.

Ouch -- what a mess. I go next door, to a different FBO that I fly with, but all of their airplanes are out flying. Plus, they seem to have a shortage of instructors, so even if there was an aircraft, there would not be a CFI to fly with me. Call me too cautious, but I was not about to go into an airplane by myself after a six month hiatus.

But, this past Saturday and Sunday, the Gods of Airplane Scheduling were kind, and I did get a chance to log some flight time! 1.2 hours on Saturday and 2.3 hours on Sunday. I was pleasantly surprised at my first landing in the Arrow on Saturday -- while my airspeed in the pattern was, well, "all over the place", the landing itself was not so bad. I floated a bit down the runway, but I did land the plane rather nicely. The subsequent landings got better, and by Sunday, I was doing just fine.

I'm really going to finish my commercial this time, I promise. :-) I've found a new instructor who is more available than my old one -- so I've scheduled the plane after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, together with some weekends. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be a commercial pilot! (Of course, I've said that before, but this time I'm more determined...)

Back on the Schedule!

Proud to announce - I'm going back up in the air this weekend! I've got NSA's Arrow and a CFI this Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully the weather will hold up! :-)

IFR Charts

While I wasn't flying, my Jeppesen Northwest Airway Manual Express subscription expired back in February. And it seems like there are (at least seemingly) more options for charting than in the past. Both NACO and Jeppesen charts are of course available, but this time Jeppesen is really pushing their JeppView electronic charting product. I'm not going to go into the NACO vs. Jeppesen debate here, but needless to say, I've trained with Jeppesen, so I'm going to stick to that.

I must admit that I was more or less oblivious to the whole IFR charting business back when I was an instrument student (which actually was not that long ago!) Life then was simple. The pilot store next to the FBO where I trained carried the "Jeppesen NW Express Pack", and for around $30 + tax, I got a fresh set of plates every 56 days. Convenient, but expensive. A little later on, I found out you can get a "subscription service" for the said "NW Express Pack" for much cheaper - and they still send you a fresh set of terminal procedures every 56 days: for the price of being more careful with enroute charts, I got a much cheaper charting story.

In the meantime, I started to discover the limitations of the Express Pack: it only covers Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. That's enough for most of the time, but... I remember once going to Montana -- I had to print out the NACO charts from the web. For one the big trip down to Oakland, Milen and I split the cost of the Jeppesen Express Pack for California. For trips to Canada -- just a short hop across the border -- I ended up buying Jepp Trip Kits. But, they're expensive: I had to get the whole Western Canada edition for around $100 for each trip. And, they take a while to order: there's no spontaneous "let's go to Victoria for the day". On top of that, there were many times when I did not feel like spending $100 for a Trip Kit, so flying to Canada just didn't happen as often as it could have.

So what to do? I considered getting a greater coverage area for paper Jepps, but that comes with a price: the pain of revisions seems to increase exponentially with the increase in geographical area covered. Plus, the price is, uh, a lot. I really need charts for Western USA and Western Canada, so that would be $731/year payable to Captain Jeppesen. And let's face it: most of the airports that are included in the paper subscription I'll never fly to -- so I don't really care that a procedure changed in, say, Lovelock, NV (no offense to people there). Unless, of course, I end up diverting there for some reason, which means I still need to apply the updates "just in case".

Given all this, it seems like JeppView could be the answer. Electronic versions of the low enroute and terminal procedure charts for Western USA and Western Canada are available for slightly cheaper than with regular paper charts -- $524 (plus the initial $100 fee for the software). Updating with JeppView is a breeze, since you can just download the updates from the Internet every 14 days. And, you still get paper enroute charts, so the only truly electronic portion is the terminal procedures. So far, it seems like a win-win from the money perspective and the updates perspective.

I am, however, taking a big gamble on electronic charts: I don't have a dedicated flight bag laptop yet (although I do have a Tablet PC through work). So, the way I'm going to use the JeppView electronic charts is mostly on the ground: I'll buy the special paper for chart printing (already hole-punched, and according to the representative, it's of similar thickness as the paper for regular Jeppesen charts) at $15.95 per 1,000 sheets, and I'll print out the charts I need for any particular route of flight. Of course, I'll likely have to print out charts for airports along alternate routes, and for maximum safety, I'll carry my work-issued Tablet PC just in case I need to make an approach into that Middle of Nowhere Airport. Long term, I'll probably buy a Tablet PC with a special bright screen -- I doubt the Toshiba Portege I have now will be readable in bright sunlight.

Of course, all of the above is theory. The software is scheduled to arrive this Friday, so look for a "first impressions" post soon.

Capt. Al Haynes Speaks at Boeing Field

Yesterday, Milen and I went to see Captain Al Haynes, the captain of United Flight 232, speak at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle. The museum theatre was filled to capacity, and I actually ended up in an "overflow room" where the presentation was televised. Not great, but as a pilot, I was just happy to get a chance to be there and listen to Capt. Haynes.

Imagine an aircraft with 3 independent hydraulic systems -- any one of which enabled the cockpit crew to fully control the flight surfaces of the airplane. The odds of all three failing at the same time were calculated as one billion to one. Yet, on July 19, 1989, all three failed, rendering the DC-10-10 unflyable... Somehow, and against all odds, the crew managed to "control" the airplane with differential power alone and put the crippled aircraft at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa.

There were 185 survivors out of 296 on board. Capt. Haynes spoke about the survival aspects of the incident, and why so many survived. Luck had a lot to do with it, but preparedness and adherence to Standard Operating Procedures played a major role as well. For example, Sioux City just completed an airplane crash disaster drill. In the cockpit, Capt. Haynes made the use of all available resources, including an off-duty DC-10 check airman, and the crew exhibited excellent CRM. They were prepared.

I learned about Capt. Haynes coming to town from faasafety.gov (well, actually Milen did, and he forwarded me the info -- thanks!) If you hear about Capt. Haynes coming to where you live, make sure to go and see him - it's well worth your time!