Fly With Blake

What's In Your Flight Bag?

2007-10-19T01:36:47Z

I've been spending the past week looking around on online stores for a decently priced flight bag. The one I have now is too small. It's a small bag that I got as work swag. It has no issues holding all of the items I use (or don't) on a typical flight. I am going to be adding quite a bit more weight to it now that I'm going to be starting my Multi-IFR training soon.

Headset. To talk to people (especially ATC)
CFS. Because it's the law (and it's nice to know stuff about where you're landing)
Maps. See above.
Handheld GPS. I use it mostly for x-country trips for aircraft that don't have a GPS unit. It is pre-loaded with most of the navaids, airports, and reporting points in Ontario.
Calculator. For when my brain fails
Paper towel. Checking oil, wiping things down, cleaning up passengers lunch.
Work Gloves. So my hands don't smell like grease, fuel, etc..
A broken protractor. I have no idea why that's there
E6B. For when my brain and my calculator fail.
Kneeboard. Makes it easy to write things on paper.
Extra pencil. In case my main one breaks (I dont like using pen)
Licenses. Because its the law
Fuel tester. Make sure the right fuel is in the tanks
Flashlight. Because it's the law (especially at night)
POH. Because it's the law (not shown)

I'm curious to know what's in your flight bag! Feel free to blog about what tools you use for your flights and why. As well, does anyone have any recommendations for a particular brand/type and a place to buy one?

Archer, Circuits, and City Tours

2007-10-17T03:52:06Z

My flight on Friday went well. Got checked out in the Piper Archer which involves doing some upper airwork (including my first emergency decent), different landings etc.. We also did some instrument work in order to get the necessary time for my Night Rating. Flew up to Simcoe VOR then to Oshawa and back to Buttonville. All in all, a 1.4 hour flight in a new plane I never flown before. Damn! These things are so much easier to land than the 172s. I really, really, really like the Warrior/Archer better. We had to extend our downwind leg pretty far, I turned base at about 3.5DME from the airport and was number 5. Because I got the needed instrument time on this flight, there was no need to book my instructor on Sunday for a flight. So I decided to ditch her and bring my girlfriend up. The weather was kinda crappy, low overcast ceiling. It was still high enough, however, to do a tour of the city. We departed and headed south. There was another '72 behind me doing the same thing. City centre assigned me 2000' and the other guy 2200'. I asked if they had a preference for right hand or left hand orbits around the CN Tower - they didn't care. Melissa really didn't like me doing right hand turns: "Don't make the wing go down on my side!" she would say. I was impressed at her ability to pick out landmarks from the air. I just told her were University Ave. was and she was able to pick out where she worked, and all the other hospitals near by. This was the first time that I actually noticed the heli-pads on top of the hospitals. We did two turns around the CN Tower and departed to the east to Bluffers Park, then headed north east to scoot around Buttonvilles control zone then entered in from the east over the Markham water tower (a VFR reporting point). On Monday night, I was able to get 1.2 of the needed 2.0 hours for my night rating. It was all done doing circuits, again, because of the weather. Man was it busy! Most of my downwinds were extended. At one point there was 4 to land on 33, and number 5 was a medevac chopper landing on 03. I was able to keep separated from the other traffic in the circuit. I found it a bit tricky to measure distances when all you're looking at is a bunch of flashing lights in front of you. At one point I was caught in the planes wake turbulence (or prop wash, or slipstream - whatever you want to call the turbulence a 172 makes) while on downwind. I at that point I decided to slow down a bit for spacing. It's amazing how easy everything is when the winds are calm. Everyone behaved well in the circuit, and even though it was busy (a few overshoots by other planes), and the controller was stressed, it was still a lot of fun.

What Kind Of Plane You Fly?

2007-10-09T23:00:56Z

I get asked this question quite often. Usually when I reply with "Cessna 172" most people know what I'm talking about. The next question usually is "how many people does it hold", to which I reply "A pilot plus three". That answer is going to change after Friday. I'm getting checked out in a Piper Archer. The exact model is a PA28-181, which is a four seater like the 172. It has fixed gear and a fixed pitch prop, also like the 172. The main difference between the 172 and the warrior is that it is a low wing aircraft, whereas the 172 is a high wing. It pretty much uses the same type of engine and horsepower (however the Archer has 20 more horse power than the Warrior). My FI suggested that I get checked out in the Archer, because you are automatically allowed to fly the Warriors if you're checked out on the Archer. The reason why I'm moving from the 172 to the Warrior is because it's almost impossible to get a 172 without booking almost a month in advance. Plus, most people I've talked to say the Pipers are nicer to fly.

Grounded due to Acute Viral Aasopharyngitis

2007-10-01T14:47:50Z

... Also known as the "common cold". I was supposed to go flying yesterday, but I couldn't go due to my plugged up sinuses. I did learn an interesting fact though: Anti-bacterial soaps have no effect on the cold virus — it is the mechanical action of hand washing that removes the virus particles (thanks Health Canada!)

Book Review: "Secrets From The Tower"

2007-09-28T14:57:36Z

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.

Solo Night X-Country Planned

2007-09-23T17:06:14Z

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.

First Night Solo Flight

2007-09-17T02:53:42Z

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.

X-Country Flight Conundrum

2007-09-14T21:33:06Z

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?

Simulated Electrical Failure

2007-09-14T05:57:00Z

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.

Longest Clearance Ever!

2007-09-10T17:41:20Z

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.

Dual Night X-Country Complete! (Updated!)

2007-09-04T05:07:05Z

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.

Surry, BC Balloon Crash Details

2007-08-29T20:58:39Z

He said hot air balloon accidents are so rare that investigators looking at the crash are learning the basics of hot air ballooning before the investigation can really begin.

- CBC News Thats right! The TSB has to start from square one, by learning how hot air balloons operate before they can continue their investigation. This is the first hot air balloon accident that I've ever heard of. It's a shame that two people died in this incident. I'm confident that the TSB will find a cause and prevent this from ever happening again. Photo Gallery: www.cbc.ca/photogallery/canada/669/ Survivor Story: www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/08/25/balloon-survivor.html

Night Flight Take Two

2007-08-27T21:38:42Z

Last nights flight was the most fun I've had doing circuits in a long time. I arrived at the airport at around 2030 to a mostly clear sky with a full moon. The temperature was in the mid 20s, and the windsock looked like a limp noodle. Perfect flying weather. After figuring out which is the best plane to take up (GDQG, by the way) my FI and I climbed in and headed to local north. This is the first time I've flown out of Buttonvilles control zone at night.Our destination was Simcoe Regional Airport (CNB9). The purpose of this trip was to: - Learn how the ARCAL system works - Learn how to find an airport at night - Learn how to do circuits at an unfamiliar airport at night I was able to spot the flashing airport beacon from pretty far away. This airport is easy to find at night as there are not a lot of city lights in the area (a contrast to where Buttonville is). I clicked the microphone PTT 5 times in a row and *ding* the runway lights came on. By clicking the PTT again, you can adjust the brightness of the lights. We were doing circuits on runway 10, which called for a right hand pattern (boo!). This runway did have a PAPI, which helps quite a bit at night. After a while of touch and gos, we headed back to Buttonville via Barrie. The challenge now was to navigate and identify the airport at night. During the day you use landmarks to determine where you are and where things are. At night, its much harder to see those landmarks. Thankfully some of the landmarks that I use during the day to determine my position also works at night. For example, coming from the north heading south to the airport, highway 404 has a bend in it, just north of Preston Lake. This was easy to spot at night. The Cathedral/Victoria Square (which is about 3-4 miles north of the airport) shows up as a huge black spot as the property is not lit like everything else. The airport beacon is weak (thanks to complaints from the residents) and is drowning in all the other city lights. It's sometimes easier to see the lack of light, than to look for a particular flashing light. I found it very helpful to use the voids of light (in a city environment) to match up with my map than the actual shape of the city. My FI was impressed with my downwind check, I have Jenn to thank for that. Final was a little high, but we landed safely. I'm still starting the flare a little too high. In some cases I have to add power to prevent the plane from stalling. I think by next lesson, I'll have it down pat. I've been tasked to plan a cross country. One that is not too easy (Ie, flying over the city) and not too hard (have some navaids around to use). I suspect we wont be able to use GPS on this x-country, but only the standard VOR/NDB type navaids. This will be the first time I will actually use it. Because I also need to get at least 5 hours of instrument time, my FI suggested that I plan a longer x-country and we can do the return trip under the hood. My wallet suggested that I do 2 hours in the Sim. It was a great flight, what everyone has been saying is true: getting your night rating is fun!

(Update) It's Official...

2007-08-25T03:15:06Z

If you happen to be one of the eager people to grab the new VTA that was made available this week you may have to return it. After being delayed 3 months (the original release date was supposed to be May 2007) the VTA contains an error and has been rescinded according to Nav Canada:

070923 CZYZ TORONTO FIR CZYZ TORONTO VFR TML AREA CHART AIR 1900, 34TH EDITION, JUNE 2007 RESCINDED. CURRENT AUTH TORONTO VFR TML AREA CHART AIR 1900 IS 33RD EDITION, MARCH 2006

Although the charts never technically expire and you can fly with an old one, there have been some changes to Toronto's Airspace that I know will be reflected on the new maps. Thanks to David and Mark (see comments) for clearing things up for me.

Flight to Burlington a Partial Success

2007-08-22T02:21:27Z

The whole idea of flying to Burlington last weekend was to experience flying in Class C airspace with flight following. ATC no diced me. I ended up going under YYZs class C shelf at 1600' both ways. Aww well. The good news is that I was able to take my dad up during the flight. The weather was great with good visibility, light winds, and no bumps for the majority of the flight. My dad was able to spot the airport before me, about 4 miles away, so we entered the straight in downwind for runway 14. Quick bathroom break, then back into the airplane for the trip back. I didn't bring my logbook, so it didn't get stamped. I have a flight on Thursday booked.. just a short one. No particular destination in mind, just going to go sight seeing.