Monday, May 5, 2008 - 14:08:59 ET

Spins and Stalls, The CPL way.

Todays lesson involved some more upper air work. Today we headed to the east to the Claremont Training Area.

As previously mentioned, this training area has its own frequency (I'm too lazy to dig up the old blog entry). This frequency is not noted on any charts (VTA or VNC). You have to dig into the special "dangers to aircraft" section of the CFS. You would think in the interest of safety, they would publish this frequency on the VTA at least.

For the record, its 122.9Mhz.

We practiced some slow flight with and without turns. Power on stalls and climbing turning stalls. We also did a descending turning stall. What? How can you stall while you're in a descent? It's possible:

Power to idle, and with no more than 10° of bank, start descending (i was aiming for around 500fpm). Keep pulling back on the yoke to reduce airspeed, while continuing the turn. It took just over 1000' of altitude before I was able to stall the aircraft. In a descending turning stall, which wing would you suspect would stall first? The inner or outer wing (relative to the turn).

We also did a few spins, specifically my FI was teaching me how to enter the spin. This was the first time I was to enter a spin, which is necessary for the CPL test. I was a little nervous, but after the first one, it's a piece of cake. In a nutshell:

Start stalling the aircraft. When the airspeed drops below 60KIAS or so, full back on the yoke and full rudder in the direction of the spin. Hold the inputs past the incipient stage to continue the spin into at least 1 full rotation. The problem both my instructor and I had was that the aircraft would stop spinning after about 1 rotation. Good for safety, bad for trying to spin the aircraft. In our debriefing we decided it was probably because we didn't have enough power in during the spin to keep it going.

The first thing you need to do when recovering from a spin is to bring the power to idle. What would happen if you did the opposite, increased the power?

I'm in the process of getting a new PTR for my CPL. I can include all of the flight time since my PPL test towards the necessary time towards my CPL. The only exception is my multi-rating. X-Country, Night Rating, etc.. can all count. Now to transcribe 10 months of flying from my log book into my PTR (with detailed comments)... fun.

On a scale of one to ten, this flight scored a nine on the fun scale. I'm starting to have a whole new appreciation for spins. Now if only the g forces didn't make me sick :(

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Friday, May 2, 2008 - 11:05:29 ET

Saving Fuel and The Environment

There has been talk in the news recently of commercial aircraft reducing their speeds in order to save on fuel costs. Over the course of a year the savings can be in the million of dollars.

As the costs of fuel rises, everyone from commercial airlines to the GA pilot is looking for ways to save fuel. Toronto Airways is no exception. In a recent email to all students/customers:

We all have been feeling the pinch of the increased fuel costs lately, and aviation fuel is no exception, so anything that can be done to keep your costs down makes sense. We have asked flight line to only fill our aircraft to a maximum of 3/4 tanks. This will help prevent the loss of fuel through the fuel vents as the fuel expands during the warmer weather.

That's a great way of saving fuel. There have been many times I've had to make sure I walk "around" the fuel vents during my walk around to avoid having drips of fuel land on me. However, they are going one step further by mandating we use a specific type of fuel tester:

Next we are instituting a policy where a specific fuel tester is to be used. This tester is called the GATS jar and is large enough that you can accumulate fuel from all the fuel drains during the walk around. The best part is it has a special screen that is capable of separating water and debris from the fuel, and the fuel can be poured back into the aircraft fuel tanks.

This will allow you to recoup the fuel by being able to pour it back in the tanks. At first I thought there is no way that this can provide any significant savings. But then I crunched a few numbers:

Size of Fleet: 40 aircraft
Estimate number of flights per day per aircraft: 8
Estimate average amount of fuel required for testing: 175ml. (two fills of the standard ASA fuel sampler cup, you know, the clear cup with the pin in it).

40 aircraft x 8 flights per day x 175ml = 56 009ml or 56L per day. At a cost of $1.75/L of 100LL (as of April 22nd, 2008), works out to be a savings of $98 per day.

This is a best case scenario since not all 40 aircraft are booked all day.

Previously, fuel that was tested was to be placed in jerry cans that were available on the ramp. Over the past two years, myself (and the school) have noticed that these cans have gone missing. As a result, people were just throwing the fuel on the ground after it was tested. The new system that will be in effect eliminates the need to use these jerry cans. Now anything that will ever be thrown on the ground is the water in the GATS jar, if any.

For comparison sake. Here is the "old" ASA sample cup that I use, and the new GATS jar that I need to pick up.

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Monday, April 28, 2008 - 23:30:15 ET

Navaids!

I went on a flight on Sunday to practice some radio navigation work.

It didn't go so well...

It was bumpy as hell, but I decided to see if I could track the Simcoe (YSO) VOR inbound on the 220° radial. Didn't happen. I got confused with the to/from flag. I was actually thinking that I had the right radial dialed in, but instead I had the reciprocal. Whoops! Flying towards the needle to intercept actually had the opposite effect. Damn that to/from flag!

At least I was able to identify station passage when I entered the cone of confusion (I love that term!).

I did a one eighty and tried to track the 190° radial outbound with a little more success.

To get back to the airport, I dialed in the Buttonville NDB (KZ) and had better success. Again, I was able to identify station passage with the ADF needle swung around.

I brought my GPS along for the ride with the idea of plotting my track on VNC chart to review my flying. I scoured the net and found no such service.

gpsvisualizer.com allows you to overlay your gps data on numerous types of maps (and google earth) but no aeronautical charts. You can't do it at skyvector.com, runwayfinder.com, flyagogo.net, or gearsdown.com. Why do people always re-invent the wheel. All these sites pretty much do the exact same thing (my favorite du jour is runwayfinder.com).

Can someone please allow me to upload my GPS data and overlay it over aeronautical charts?

(Yes, I could do it my self by scanning in a chart, rectifying it, then overlaying the data using some tool - i'm lazy)

Update: I did find a way to overlay the charts in google earth, which sufficed.

Comments (0) | Permalink | Category: Training

Monday, April 21, 2008 - 23:13:31 ET

The Blue Line

I've flown more in the past 21 days, than I have in this past Janurary, February, and March!

This past week especially was a lot of flying. Mainly due to the perfect weather. I'm 1 lesson away from doing my multi-test. Just have to tackle some circuit work, performance take-offs. I packed in three Seminole lessons this week.

I need to spend a few hours on the ground and go through my checklists again, or flows as my FI puts them. It makes perfect sense. The lists are set up to move from one side of the panel to the next. There really is no need to memorize all the items in the list. Just use a flow and move from one side to the next being sure to hit each item in the list.

The multi-rating is pretty unique in that you already know how to fly, you just need to know the specifics about handling an airplane with two (or more) engines. Items like single engine exercises, worrying about Vmc, being more prudent on take-offs (ie, what happens if your engine fails on rotation?), and other items specific to multi-engine aircraft make you a better pilot and you can use some of those ideas in single engine operations as well.

For example. I have been taught to do static take-offs in the Seminole. This means that I apply full power (with the brakes on) and check the engine gauges first before rolling down the runway. If something doesn't look right, I abort right away. It's better to detect something on the ground, than in mid-air, low, slow, and dirty (gear down). You could apply this same idea to single engine aircraft.

Gear.. that bloody gear. I don't have the issue of lowering it, I have an issue raising it. During stall exercises I always forgot to raise the gear during the recovery. The five steps to keep in mind when trying to recover from a stall, or engine failure:

- Control: Fly the airplane, maintain altitude and heading.
- Power: Full power! Mixture rich, props fine, throttle open
- Drag: Raise gear and flaps
- Identify: "Dead foot, dead engine" Identify which engine is the culprit.
- Confirm: Reduce the throttle on the suspected dead engine to confirm its the culprit.

Always, always, always keep the plane above the blue line (Vyse).

In other news...

Even before I can start on the necessary dual work I need for my CPL, the FI I was going to use told me that he's leaving for the "big iron" (not his words). Another casualty at the school. I'm glad it happened now, and not in the middle of my CPL training.

I'm going to need to find someone new.

I learned the other day, that one of my classmates at Seneca is going to be getting his flight instructor rating in the next month or so! He's pretty much where I want to be right now. I'm glad that someone I know made it through fine :)

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 15:11:40 ET

Old King City Airport

Does anyone have any information about the airport that used to be in King City? I heard someone make a position report "over the old king city airport" the other day and did a quick google search.

The only thing that I can find was this wikimapia.org entry.

Does anyone know the identifier, when it closed, or any other details? I've already got Dave to add it to ourairports.com but we would like more information about it.

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - 13:51:10 ET

Getting serious about the CPL

My goal is to get my CPL by the end of the summer. That said, I need to get on the ball and get organized.

I sat down a while ago and figured out how many hours I need before I have the minimum required for the CPL test. It's totally doable in the next 4-5 months provided the weather this summer is co-operative.

I'm not too concerned about the written at all, since that can be done easily given enough study.

I took a look at the Commercial Flight Test Guide and came up with a list of things that are new and/or that I need to practice.

Here are some of the items that are different than the PPL test:

- Flight planning. You are not given the route ahead of time like in the PPL. You must complete your flight planning within 45 minutes on the day of the test. This excludes weight and balance.

- Engine Failure in Circuit. Have to land the aircraft with no power from circuit altitude to a specified point on the ground.

- Diversion. Must use mental dead reckoning (ie, you cant "follow the train tracks") to the destination at 500' AGL. You can not use navaids.

- Instrument Flying. Recovery from unusual attitudes with a partial panel (no attitude and heading indicators). This means timed turns with reference to the compass.

- Radio Navigation. Use an ADF/VOR/GPS Waypoint to navigate to and identify station/waypoint passage.

- Spinning. Enter and recover from a spin. If needed, identify if the spin becomes a spiral dive and recover accordingly.

That's pretty much it for the new exercises in the CPL test. The rest of them are the same as in your PPL with a few modifications. Such as lower tolerances for error, and in the case of steep turns, two 180° turns instead of a 360° turn. The slow flight exercise introduces a 30° turn as well.

So over the next few months I will be practicing these items along with my FI. Concurrently I'm also getting my Multi Rating done. I'm unsure where I'm going to stick my IFR rating in there.

I would like to do my commercial x-country in the new G1000 Cessna. I have to study and get checked out on that plane first.

Comments (3) | Permalink | Category: Training

Sunday, April 13, 2008 - 18:57:12 ET

Firestarter?

What do you use your expired CFSs for?

I think I'm going to use it to start my camp fires this summer..

Comments (5) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things