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…
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…
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.
Brian posted a comment letting me know his lesson at 2pm today was canceled because it was too hot. I had a plane booked at 6pm to practice some short field take-offs/landings solo. I was hoping the temperature would be cooler by then. No dice. The temperature was 34°C with a dew point of 19°C….
Today’s weather was perfect for flying. Blue skys, light winds, warm weather. The only problem is, everyone else is thinking the same thing: let’s go flying. I have never, ever, ever seen Buttonville this busy before. I had to wait about 10 minutes to take off right from the get-go. This was a normal take…
John who?! JD McCurdy, as he is known, was the first person to fly an airplane in Canada. He was schooled at St. Andrews College in my hometown of Aurora, Ontario. He was also the first Canadian to receive a pilots license. The frame and structure of the Silver Dart (the name of the plane)…
Tonights flight was good. During this time of day the same controller works both ground and tower, so when you’re on either frequency you only get half of the conversation sometimes. Someone on the radio jokingly asked him “so do you get paid double to work both tower and ground?” The first flight I did…
Took me just over 4 hours to finish these up. I think these are going to be the final versions of both my Weight and Balance and Performance worksheets. You can download the 2 page PDF to print and use. Some notes: – The performance sheets has space to work out some calculations. The idea…
“Density altitude is pressure altitude corrected for temperature”. That is how I’ve been taught how to calculate density altitude. Lets take the following scenario: – Field Elevation: 650′ – Temperature: 8°C – Dewpoint: -2°C – Altimeter setting: 30.05″ Hg – ICAO Lapse Rate: 1.98°C / 1000′ I’ve calculated pressure altitude to be 520′. To Calculate…
The weather the past four days have been really crappy for flying. At one point on Sunday it was gusting up to 35KTs! That said, I was still able to get two flights in plus a ground briefing. A solo flight on Friday morning and a dual today. Friday’s flight was great. The weather was…