Friday, September 28, 2007 - 09:57:36 ET

Book Review: "Secrets From The Tower"

Title: Secrets From The Tower
Author: Bob Richards
ISBN: 097871139
Size: 357 Pages

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

I discovered this book on the LiveATC.net forums and decided to give it a read.

Some people were ordering the book from Amazon.com, while others from the authors site directly at bobrichardsbooks.com. I ordered it at bobrichardsbooks.com and it arrived about a week later.

This autobiography starts off at the authors childhood and it is necessary to talk about it has he references events that happen early on in his life later on in the book. One of the main reasons why I couldn't put the book down was because it was actually funny. I can relate well with the sense of humour the author uses on a day to day basis.

The book actually opened my eyes up to how things used to be... during the hay-days of aviation. He would talk about days where he would bring his kids up into the tower, or play practical jokes on his fellow co-workers. Working at O'Hare was a fun experience and the author portrayed this experience well in print.

Music played an important part in his life and this is also shown in his numerous references to song lyrics peppered throughout the novel. In most cases I just skipped over reading them, only because I was too impatient and wanted to read what was next.

Without giving too much away, the author describes experiences of meeting Bill Clinton, fixing a NHL hockey game, struggling with family life, and pissing off the military. For anyone who is interested in reading about the life of an interesting man or has curiosities about life as an air traffic controller in the US, this book is a definite read.

At the end the author describes at top ten list on ways of improving the current ATC system and make it better. I agree with most of the items on the list, lets hope the FAA does too.

Comments (1) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Sunday, September 23, 2007 - 12:06:14 ET

Solo Night X-Country Planned

I've planned a flight to Muskoka and Lindsay today to get ~2.0 solo night hours I need for my rating. The weather for tonight looks spectacular. NOTAMs at all airports are forecasting variable winds at 5 knots or less and sky clear.

I just finished my planning and decided to try out the NavCanada online flight plan filing. My first impressions about the system are that its pretty easy to use. The problem that I have, is that I don't own an airplane, and I have no idea what plane I'm going to get at the school. I decided to file anyways since there is a good chance that I will get a particular one. After filling out all the necessary form fields I hit submit and got a confirmation that the plan was filed.

Now I just have to remember to call up NavCanada if I get a different plane that I originally filed.

If my planning is accurate, I will have 3.2 of the needed 5 solo hours after tonight. I should be wheels up by 2330Z.

Comments (0) | Permalink | Category: Training

Sunday, September 16, 2007 - 21:53:42 ET

First Night Solo Flight

Tonight just involved a few circuits, 1.0 hours worth in fact. I brought my camera along for the ride, and naturally the photos suck. Low light, plus bouncy airplane means a lot of "artistic" photos.

I did take a video which turned out pretty good actually. It starts with me just about to turn right base for 15. The winds were coming out of 190°, which is why you see the plane crabbing to the right a little bit. I also had to do a slip, I was a little high. Turn down your sound.

Overall everything went well. Flared a little high on the first landing, but fixed that by the second time around. I had to do one overshoot because of medevac traffic who needed to take off to save someones life.

The drive down to the airport was nice as well, I love dusk. You can see a hand full of photos in the gallery.

There will be no flying for the next week or so. I have to head up north for a family function. My next booking isn't until Sept 28th. I might squeeze a solo booking in there someplace.

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Friday, September 14, 2007 - 16:33:06 ET

X-Country Flight Conundrum

I was originally going to go to Timmins for my commercial x-country flight. Turns out, from Buttonville, I am 6nm short of the 300nm requirement.

This prompted me to import all of the Canadian Airports into a database, and find out which airports are outside the 300nm radius from Buttonville:

 ident |     distance
-------+------------------
 CSR8  | 303.607071759577
 CSK4  |  306.64565141515
 CSJ4  | 309.204490321305
 CSJ2  | 313.525788655308
 CYPP  | 314.986245713737
 CSQ3  | 316.588960555555
 CSK9  | 318.249442746549
 CSC3  | 319.735132420575
 CYRQ  | 320.380346522095
 CTE5  | 321.523074436644

(for you nerds out there, my sql query was as follows:

select ident, (point(longitude,latitude) <@> ('-79.37,43.862222')::point)*0.868976242 as distance from portlocation where (point(longitude,latitude) <@> ('-79.37,43.862222')::point)*0.868976242 >= '300' order by distance limit 10;

That funky operator you see calculates the great circle distance between two points in miles. It's a function that is available in PostgreSQL)

So after I excecuted this query, I had an idea. Why don't I just start my flight plan for my x-country 6nm south of Buttonville? Would that satisfy the 300nm requirement from Transport Canada? Here is what the CARs has to say:

(I) 25 hours solo flight time emphasizing the improvement of general flying skills of the applicant which shall include a cross-country flight to a point of a minimum of 300 nautical mile radius from the point of departure and shall include a minimum of 3 landings at points other than that of departure; and

Does the "point of departure" need to be an ICAO ident, or can it be some point in space?

Comments (8) | Permalink | Category: Training

Friday, September 14, 2007 - 00:57:00 ET

Simulated Electrical Failure

Another wicked night for night flying. Calm winds at the surface, however, at 3000', we were grounding over 120KTs.

Tonights lesson was entirely under the hood, to finish up the necessary instrument time needed for the night rating. We intercepted a few VOR radials, and made our way over to Lindsay Airport.

About half way there, I said that this was too easy and to "partial panel" me. So my FI pulls out her instrument covers and pastes over the heading indicator and attitude indicator. Awesome... Nothing like flying by compass.

We "cheated" and turned on the GPS (hey, thats an instrument right?) and headed direct to CNF4. I took off the hood and proceeded to enter the circuit (overhead the field, then right downwind for 13). Thats when my FI said:

"Your flaps don't work", to which I replied:
"What else?"
"Oh and your panel/radio lights don't work either" as she reaches over and turns off the switch.
"I suppose my flash lights' batteries no longer work either?"
"Yup".

Yay! A flapless landing, at night, with no landing light, or instruments at an airport that is used to demonstrate the "black hole" effect. I had to overshoot my first approach because I was way too high. I nailed the second one without any issues.

On the way back we were doing 75-80KTs.

Buttonvilles' beacon is so weak that I usually end up seeing the runway lights first. Tonight was no exception, in fact, I never saw the flashing beacon at all. The landing was another one without flaps, lights, or instruments. I flared a little too high, but still landed on the mains, and made it to B1 taxiway (landing 15).

My FI got a nice chuckle when I called up ground for taxi instructions:

"OYR is on Bravo one, requesting taxi instructions to the main apron for tie-down and sleep".

I must be on my second wind, because at almost 1am, I still can't fall asleep.

Tomorrow is my first night solo flight. Just going to do 45-60 mins in the circuit. Sunday night, I have another solo booking... not sure where I'm going to go then. Forecast is calling for rain on Friday night (booo cold front!) so who knows.

One more dual flight under the hood will be needed. That is booked for the 28th (yeah, she's busy with night ratings until then) and is going to be in the Piper Warrior. I'm hoping that I will be able to get all the solo hours in before then so that I can finish this month with my new shiny Night Rating.

The counter at the top left of the site, that outlines the number of hours flown, is now accurate.

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Monday, September 10, 2007 - 12:41:20 ET

Longest Clearance Ever!

I've been busy with other non-aviation stuff this past week. My next flight is slated for Thursday.

With that in mind, have a listen to the longest IFR clearance ever. It's from JFK. The 88 seconds of instructions can be downloaded here.

On another note, I am also reading "Secrets From the Tower" by Bob Richards. I'm about three quarters through the book and will write up a quick review of it shortly. It's been a great read so far.

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Tuesday, September 4, 2007 - 00:07:05 ET

Dual Night X-Country Complete! (Updated!)

I arrived at the airport a little early, in order to make sure that we get everything in together for a on-time departure.

The weather couldn't have been better: clear skies, great visibility, and light winds. Not only would this be my first x-country night flight, it is also the first flight in a fuel injected 172 - good ole GIST. It is Toronto Airways newest plane, a 2001 172S. As such it is $30/hr. more expensive.

I brought some snacks for the ride over, which my FI was overly enthusiastic about (girls and chocolate seem to mix pretty well). I also brought my camera and as predicted in a comment I made earlier, the photos didn't turn out too well. I only snapped two or three and just put it away.

Our flight took us to Kingston via Oshawa and the Campbellford VOR. We had to head north to avoid Trentons military airspace. I asked my FI if we could use flight following on the way there since I've never used it before. She agreed and handled the radios for me on the way over.

She gave me this tip when requesting flight following: End your request with "workload permitting". Since technically the terminal/centre controllers don't have to honour your request, adding the "workload permitting" clause just greases the wheels a bit. It worked.

Honestly though, if they denied our request, it would be a shocker since it was 9pm at night and pretty quiet on the radios (then again, it's Pearsons prime time.... so who knows).

With the super smooth air, and the airplane trimmed, there really was no effort involved at flying the plane. Which was great because it allowed some good star gazing and sight seeing (saw a shooting star!).

We got handed over to Trenton Terminal, then did a quick touch and go at Kingston on runway 25. It would have been awesome (to demonstrate 'black hole effect') if we were able to land runway 07 as the approach path takes us right over water. However, departing from 25 over the water was good practice as you had to rely on your instruments to ensure that you were climbing.

On the way back, we sqwaked 1200 and tuned to 126.7Mhz for a quiet flight. London Radio came on and asked us to confirm our ETA and if we had prior permission to land at Buttonville. My FI and I both looked at each other, smiled and said "affirmative". I guess the FSS guy didn't know that we were flying a school airplane (the school also owns the airport).

This was a great flight, mainly because of the conditions and the company. I didn't find it as difficult at finding Buttonville coming from the east as I did the previous time. My FI reminded me to use the landmarks (I specifically used the intersection of the 404 and 407 as a guide).

After 11pm, the Tower at Buttonville closes and becomes class "E" airspace. There is a guy manning the radios on 124.8. It's a MF, and we were the only ones there, so we did a right base for runway 33.

I have about half the hours I need for the rating now.

Comments (0) | Permalink | Category: Training