I’m quickly becoming a wiz on the E6B thanks to my Navigation classes.

Yesterday’s class was fun, dry, but fun. We spent the past two classes planning a cross country trip:

CYKZ->YEE->CYQA->CNF4->CYKZ

Without going into too much detail, we planned one leg (YKZ->YEE) in class. Worked out how much fuel we’d need, headings to fly, ETAs and such.

By the time this semester is done, my map is going to be a mess of tracks

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At the end of the class last night I was thinking of a whole bunch of …

Everything went good with my lesson yesterday. I’m now cleared to practice on my own in the local training areas. My FI says im going to need about 5 hours of solo practice.

My steep turns are horrible, atrocious in fact. So on Thursday (if the weather holds up) I”m going to dedicate most of the lesson to getting that in order. I’m also going to refine some of my short/soft field take-offs and landings.

We did a “mini diversion” again, this time from Keswick to Goodwood.

FI: Which heading do we need …

Now this is cool.

I’ve been looking for a tool to display Canadian airspace in real time. Some of the google earth kml files that users have produced have been of poor quality.

Not anymore.

Using a free database of aeronautical information, Global Imaging have created a kml file that accesses this DB in real time (as you turn individual items on and off).

I was able to turn on only select control zones and terminal control areas for the toronto area that I fly in.

You can download the kmz file for Google Earth …

My lesson on Sunday went well. Except for the take off.

Me: What kind of take off today?

FI: Lets to a short field take off

*taxi into position, start the take off roll and rotate*

FI: what happened to the ground effect part

Me: whoops! I forgot

Yeah, so I did a “short field takeoff” without using ground effect. My FI was not impressed!

In any case, we continued and I practiced a precautionary landing and did a “mini diversion”. This is a preview of what the “real” diversion lesson is all about.

Lets take this scenario: …

Yesterday’s lesson went well. I was more prepared with the forced landings. Armchair flying really does help!

Today we are going to be doing precautionary landings. Right now (at 9am) the visibility is already at 9SM. The TAF is forecasting 5SM by the time I’m supposed to fly. If my flight is canceled, this will be the first time due to visibility.

There was a pretty strong cross wind yesterday (290° 10KT gusting 15KT). Quick calculation for runway 33 (which was the active) puts the x-wind component at 11.5KTs. My FI wanted …

The past two lessons have all been about forced approaches. I’m starting to feel challenged again!

To answer my own question in my previous post, we don’t learn the 360° landing forced approach until the CPL phase of training.

The hardest thing I’ve found is judging your touchdown point on a grass field. There really isn’t anything to use as a reference point. My FI then pointed out the idea of using objects in your peripheral (ie, trees on the side of the field) to use as your reference point.

In a nutshell, …

I read in the paper the other day that a popular landmark for both nautical and aeronautical navigation will be no more on Monday.

“The Four Sisters” is an old electricity generating plant that has four big smoke stacks. The Toronto VTA shows the “four stacks” as a valid VFR reporting point. It’s been used for the past 40 years as such.

Here is the NOTAM restricting the airspace above the four stacks during the blasting period:

060427 CZYZ TORONTO FIR

CZYZ PURSUANT TO SECTION 5.1 OF THE AERONAUTICS ACT, AIRSPACE WITHIN

1 NM RADIUS …

I found out today that a fellow co-worker (well a Manager) at work got his private pilot license 20 years ago – he hasn’t flown in quite a while though.

I reviewed precautionary landings and forced landings tonight for my lesson on Saturday. For a forced landing the Flight Training Manual suggests two ways of landing the aircraft.

1. Using a modified circuit pattern

2. Using a 360° landing pattern

One thing that isn’t clear to me is when you should use each method. I’m assuming I will learn how to do both. I’m …

Nothing really new to report..

Went flying on Monday, practiced some soft field / short field take-offs and landings. My next lesson is going to cover emergency and precautionary landings.

The Toronto Star has a good special called Collision Course running this week, all about air safety. Check it out.