Sunday, February 24, 2008 - 20:37:23 ET

150 Knots

This weekend had beautiful weather. With blue skies comes flying.

I had the pleasure of nt having one, but two flights with my FI in the Seminole. The flights consisted of some circuit practice, slow flight, steep turns, and single engine "stuff".

The multi engine rating is all about procedures and checklists. You already know how to fly an airplane. Slow flight, steep turns, stalls. You've practiced them many times to get your PPL. The only difference now is that you have an aircraft that is much heavier and faster.

We conducted the slow flight exercises at 75 knots. 2 notches of flaps and gear down. Nothing exciting.

I would give myself an 80% mark on my steep turns. I just need to get used to the different handling characteristics of a heavier aircraft. Someone out there knows the answer (and I need to look it up) to this: Is it me, or is the amount of G forces in a 45° turn less in a faster moving aircraft than slower moving one? I did learn this in school, but totally forgot.

The exercise I was most looking forward to was the single engine work, since this is something new to me.

My FI would simulate a dead engine by adjusting the throttles to a "zero thrust" setting. This means that the engine is still running, however it is not generating any thrust. Although the temperature at the surface was -4°C, at 3500' it was -15°C so we didn't leave the engine in "idle" for too long.

I would identify the dead engine using two methods:

1. Looking out the window and seeing which engine is not functioning.
2. Which foot was *not* on the rudder to counteract the yaw. (The dead foot).

Calling out "dead foot, dead engine" and pointing to the faulty engine, I would begin the single engine checklist, simulated of course.

Feather the dead engine and apply full power to the live one. My FI would then give a scneario as to the cause of the dead engine (fire, etc..) and I would have to perform the proper engine securing checklist on the dead engine.

This is one of those exercises that can happen at any time. You know, during your PPL training when you'd be flying back to the airport to land and BOOM, your FI would pull the throttles back and be like "oh no! engine failure, forced approach time". The same thing goes for single engine ops. One of those things you've always have to be prepared for.

Coming back to the airport, we were doing 150 knots ground speed. That, by the way, is the fastest I've ever flown an airplane.

Chock ~2.4 more hours in the Seminole!

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 22:34:33 ET

Flight in the Eclipsed Moonlight

The weather last night was perfect for a flight. I brought along a friend from work and we did a city tour.

I totally forgot about the eclipse that night until I was out on the ramp, and happened to glance up at the moon. After a slow start (due to a snag on the original airplane I wanted to take) we were off for a city tour.

The heater didn't really work and the plane was drafty, but it was still a great ride. As we were orbiting around the CN Tower, a Porter Q400 called in established on the ILS. So we hung around to get a birds eye view of the landing aircraft which was pretty cool.

We also got a glimpse of the aftermath of the devastating Queen Street fire.

I had the best landing EVER. Greased her nicely. There was someone on short final when I landed, so ATC wanted me off as quickly as possible. "Exit on Bravo 1" I hear in my headset. I took a look and said to my passenger "Where the hell is Bravo 1?".

For some reason I couldn't find that magic yellow sign that said "B1" on it. I reply with "Unable Bravo 1" and get asked to exit at the intersection of 33/03. Not a problem.

Normally I don't blog about my "personal" life, however today it was aviation related.

My girlfriend is a nurse at the Mount Sinai NICU. Today she had to escort a patient on a Medevac flight from Buttonville to Timmins. Naturally, I had a bunch of questions for her. "what kind of airplane did you fly in". "How was the flight?" "Was it loud" etc..

Turns out she flew in a Pilatus PC-12 from Air Bravo. She relayed some info to me about Air Bravo that she was able to get out of the Pilots/Flight Medic. So that was useful.

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - 13:32:46 ET

Close Call

I'm sure he knew he had enough runway when he calculated his take-off performance.

Comments (0) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Monday, February 18, 2008 - 11:31:12 ET

English Language

When I got my new license from TC with my night rating on it, there was an additional "rating" as well that I didn't recognize.

It was the English proficiency rating. Here are the details from an email from the CFI at Toronto Airways:

All of the ICAO countries have passed an agreement that the international language of aviation is now English. As a result legislation has been passed in Canada to make this a new requirement for aviation licences.

As of March 05, 2008 all licenced pilots in Canada must have the English language proficiency rating on their licences.

Anyone that is the holder of a Pilots Licence before February 29, 2008 will be grandfathered, as an Expert in the English language. After March 05, 2008 every new pilot will have to take and pass the English Language Proficiency Test as a requirement of licencing. The levels that could appear on a licence are as follows:

EXPERT (Which is good for Life)

OPERATIONAL (This is good for 5 years, at which time the test must be taken again until the person reaches expert level)

Transport Canada is in the process of reprinting all of the ATPL and Commercial licences at this time.

They are not reprinting the Private Licences at this time due to the large number of them. When a change of licencing is done through a new rating etc. they will have the language proficiency entered on them.

The implication to this though is if any Private Pilot licenced person is planning to fly into another ICAO country like the United States after March 05, 2008, and do not have their language proficiency endorsed on their licence they technically are not a licenced pilot in that country. Any Private Pilot Licenced person who is planning to fly in an ICAO country after March 05, 2008 can call Transport Canada Licencing to have a new licence issued to them, to ensure they meet the legal requirements. Toronto Airways and Canadian Flight Academy now have Transport Canada Aviation Language Proficiency appointed examiners on staff, to assist with this new requirement.

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 20:49:06 ET

Special VFR

Special VFR allows a pilot to land or take-off (in daylight only) during weather that is considered to be IFR.

This is especially useful if the weather is crappier than forecast at a destination, you can request SVFR into the zone and land.

Several pilots did just that at Buttonville on Monday afternoon. The visibility dropped to as low a 1 mile in snow.

In the clip you will notice that the pilot calls up tower asking to enter the zone. The controller says that weather is below VFR and gives the visibility and cloud heights. CAR 602.117 spells it out for you, but in summary you can request SVFR if:

- Visibility is not less than 1 mile
- You can maintain visual reference to the ground
- You can establish two way radio communication
- You are clear of cloud

The controller will never offer SVFR clearance into the zone. You must ask for it. And that is exactly what this pilot does. The controller asks the pilot to hold, and then clears another aircraft to land (Seneca 129). The clip has been edited to take out the "blank parts". From the time MKK calls up to when Seneca 129 actually lands is about 10 minutes.

My question (to you controllers out there) is: Can an aircraft only enter a control zone using SVFR if he is the only aircraft in the zone?

As the clip progresses you can hear the pilot make multiple attempts to land the airplane. He eventually gives up and goes for a full IFR approach.

Listen to the clip here.

(UPDATE: Check the comments for answers to my question)
(UPDATE2: I've found a copy of the NavCanada ATC MANOPS from 1999.)

Comments (7) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 14:09:59 ET

Look Out Below

John Lee, a manager with the Transportation Safety Board, confirmed the ice — made up of toilet water, antifreeze, disinfectant and human waste — came from an airplane bathroom.

Yup! Some "toilet debis" from an overflying airplane crashed through a Calgary womans house.

More details at CBC

Comments (0) | Permalink | Category: Interesting Things

Friday, February 1, 2008 - 11:46:57 ET

Welcome Aviation.ca Users!

Hello and welcome to my blog.

You are probably here because of my latest post about my syndication ending at aviation.ca.

I encourage you to check out the rest of the site to see what you've been missing. Use the links at the top of the page.

Feel free to bookmark this page, and use the following RSS feed: http://fly.blakecrosby.com/index.xml

(For those of you who don't know.. I also syndicate my blog over at aviation.ca).

Comments (0) | Permalink | Category: Site News

Friday, February 1, 2008 - 11:24:03 ET

More Questions About The CFS

I got the latest copy of the CFS in the mail last week and took a quick glance at Buttonvilles page to see if they noted the new position of the tower. They did. but they also showed that the airport beacon moved as well.. which it has not. (green arrow)

One thing I didn't notice before were these symbols, indicated by the red arrow. They have appeared on the airport diagram for quite a while (I went back to the August 30, 2007 CFS). The legend on page A49 doesn't indicate what this symbol means. Anyone have any idea? My guess is that they are VASIS.

Click for larger

Comments (2) | Permalink | Category: Training