Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Pit stop!

Pilots,

Wrenches were flying in the hangars today, with linemen busily reorganizing our stuff which is still all boxed up, and mechanics whipping out the maintenance hits. Here's an update:

Cessna 630's new door has been delayed by UPS Freight. This is the last thing we are waiting on. Expect 630 to return to service on Friday. Since we have new cylinders on her motor, this will be break-in time ONLY for the next 10 hours, and as you know, we do not allow Student Solos in an aircraft with cylinders being broken in -- so we will get her into circulation as soon as we can.

We always put the first 2 hours on a new motor break-in, then 8 more hours on local XC work only, then an oil change, inspection of oil filter, and with a blessing from the wrenches, the plane is released into the wild. It will be the same procedure for the C150.

If you are looking to take a 150 somewhere interesting and local XC, get in touch with the office, we might be able to swing a deal with ya.

==

Cessna 20U has 36 minutes left on her 100hr, and is now maintenanced out. Expect her return either Saturday or the following Tuesday, depending on scheduling.

Cessna 68U is running great. Thanks, 68U!

Cessna 04H is running great. Thanks, 04H!

Cessna 1ES has emerged from a rocking 100hr inspection and is returned to service as of 7pm tonight. Cessna 1ES has a new alternator, new ignition harnesses, new cowling shock mounts, and some smaller tweaks.

Cessna 17J continues to be a cool cat.

Cessna 25R has been taken off-line to begin her Annual. Expected return is tomorrow or Thursday, depending on findings. (the mechanics are working on her as I type this)

Piper 85Y is actually behaving herself. Thanks, 85Y!



Whew!

Some other news from the kids at Cessna! For those of you who might have inquired about Student Loan Financing through Sallie Mae, you may have been shocked at the deal they were offering you -- depending on credit rating, it has been somewhere between a poke in the eye and a punch in the nose!

Cessna has heard our complaints, as well as that of many others I expect, and we are pleased to announce a new funding provider for Pilot Training Financing, Bank of America. BofA's Aviation Branch, not to be confused with the retail banking side (an opinion of which I will keep to myself) does the AOPA funding program, and is very competitive in the flight financing arena.

We are getting our feet wet with their program, but I believe it is similar to what Sallie Mae offered in better times, being Vocational Training loans with the potential for extended terms, payment deferral, and no simultaneous college enrollment requirement, or age limit. It is a good program.

Interest rates start at 8.99% Fixed, and Credit Lines start from $5,000 and up.

If you are interested in hearing what they might be able to do for your training funding, feel free to give them a jingle, at:

Bank of America / AOPA / Cessna Flight Training Financing
(866) 541-7398

For Cessna Preferred Pricing, mention Source Code UAA NV7 4S. Also, the secret handshake is 3 fingers, shake, a stylish fist bump, and you point at your left shoe with your right hand in the shape of a gun.

BofA, they gangsta.



The Airport Manager has declared that nobody is to be let out of the airport when the gates close, even if it is before dusk.

I really don't know why.

The Security folks have asked us to alert everyone, as they are also not going to let anybody out. Please request a Gate Card from us, for $20, if you wish to not be trapped by this odd policy.

There is a walk-thru gate on the East side of the main entrance gate, just in case you need it.

I expect more details about this policy at the monthly airport meeting tomorrow. IF we are on the field, either in the office or in Hangar 1, we will let you out. This is primarily for folks who fly after-hours without a CFI. (our CFIs all have cards, natch..)




"I just wanted to fly, man. I guess now I'll break into an airplane and spend the night."

Sigh.

Gorgeous weather abounds, oh my goodness. It's cool, breezy, clear as can be, and just great for some Air Therapy. Catch a dose!

Blue Skies,

- Mike

Friday, March 27, 2009

Weekend Wings!

Pilots!

Please join me in congratulating the newest Pilot in the world, U.S. Private Pilot Gerd E., who earned his wings with DPE Ken Earl and Cessna 17J



Way to go, Gerd!

Blue Skies,

- Mike

Riverside Air Show..

Pilots,

We're always the last to know about this one, for some reason.

The 17th Annual Riverside Air Show is tomorrow, Saturday, March 28th! All sorts of winged entertainment is to be had, with free admission!

The airport will be effectively closed starting at 9:30am, please steer clear, as there are always aerial demonstrations which you would rather not tangle up in! Plus, you would sound very silly being chided by Riverside Tower with something like "Cessna 17J, didn't you check notams?!" in that schoolteacher voice they love to use. Doh!

More information at Riverside Air Show



Blue Skies,

- Mike

Thursday, March 26, 2009

New wings...

Pilots,

Please join me in congratulating the newest U.S. Private Pilot in the world -- one Pilot John B., who earned his wings in Cessna 17J with DPE Andrea Eldridge.

It's about time! :)



This was our first checkride with Andrea, and the word is that she has an excellent conversational style, discussing numerous piloting scenarios with you, and learning your operational knowledge, thought processes, and how you see various pilot challenges -- all in a non-confrontational way. The flight was also described as "devoid of deviousness" -- whatever that means!

All accounts suggest that hers is a fair, by the book checkride, which covers all of the necessary PTS criteria, and does not seek to trip you up. It was rated an excellent experience overall.

Many of you have seen Andrea's business cards on the counter, and I have overheard a lot of speculation about what a young DPE's checkride might be like, and now you know. It's a good experience. Andrea is only rated to give Private Pilot rides at the moment, but that is likely to change as she becomes seasoned in the FAA's DPE system.

We look forward to more rides with her -- she flys out of Chino and is very involved in the excellent Planes of Fame museum.



Some maintenance updates:

Cessna 630 continues a monumental Annual inspection. I must remind everyone that this is 630's first California annual, and that we have a different standard of airworthiness than Wisconsin, the plane's former home.

So far we have done the following unusual work to 630:

New Elevator
New Windshield
New Engine Cylinders
New Aileron
New Interior trim
New Copilot Door

Basically as the mechanics roll through the airframe, they just keep finding things they'd rather replace now. The plane will be the better for it, I have no doubt. I appreciate the patience from the C150 set.

Timing for the 150 wrap-up should be the end of this week, however, we may lose another week to paint the door itself when it arrives.

As I had asked before, if you are feeling left in the cold by this 150 downtime, please inquire with the office -- we may have some creative solutions.

==

Cessna 25R will enter annual shortly. We have already given her a "Californization", so this should be brief.

Cessna 1ES enters 100hr just after.



We have had a problem with folks booking large blocks (4+ hours) in popular aircraft and then no-showing. We have chatted privately with the worst offenders, but the situation continues.

We do not mind you booking these times, but please cancel the booking if you're not able to make it. Some of the voids left in the schedule have been gigantic. This affects us most on Thursday through Sunday.

We will implement a new policy soon, whereby if you are late for a booking by more than, say, an hour, we will reserve the right to re-book your plane. I am interested in any comments you might have about this idea.

==

That's it for now. Enjoy the cool weather and clear visibility. We'll be warm and hazy before you know it.

Blue skies,

- Mike

Saturday, March 21, 2009

No flying means more wrenching...

Pilots,

Not much flying going on lately, what with TFRs, weather, and airport closures.. but this has opened an opportunity to run the maintenance playbook. To wit:

Cessna 630 is being reassembled to complete her monster annual. We anticipate her return next week.

Cessna 68U completed her 100hr.

Cessna 20U will go in for 100hr next week.

Cessna 04H will go in for 100hr the week after.

Cessna 1ES will go in for 100hr next week.

Cessna 17J completed her annual this week.

Cessna 25R will go in for annual next week.

Piper 85Y will go in for annual in 2 weeks.

Fun!

==

We are also moving our maintenance hangars from hangars 4 & 5 to hangars 1, 2, 25, and 26. This is 3.5 total hangars, and a big improvement in shop space. We will occupy the space where Paint by George used to be. Things will be chaotic for the next 2 weeks in maintenanceland while we re-assemble things.



our new hangar mockup

==

You may have seen the news that there was a search and rescue operation at the field yesterday. An aircraft was downed in full fog conditions, and the situation is not good. As a frequent IFR pilot, I find this a very unfortunate situation, and about the worst thing I can contemplate happening on an IFR flight -- very bad luck for the pilot. We don't know much about it, and I don't like making guesses out of turn -- so, please direct your thoughts and prayers for the families of those pilots involved.



Instead of dwelling on bad news, I'd like to try and find a positive, and discuss some of those "worst time for a problem" scenarios, and ways to improve your odds if the unthinkable does happen to you. For a VFR pilot, I think that's the "engine failure just after departure". Imagine if you will, you just departed runway 25, it's a nice clear day, and you get past the numbers "7" on upwind when the engine sputters and stops. You were climbing at Vy. You have a very real problem right now, and immediate TRAINED action is the only way to save your bacon. So let's get to it:

The human body is very resilient for forward-crash energy. I have read studies which claim something on the order of 26 Gs in forward kinetic energy is survivable. I have also read, however, that vertical (compression) Gs are only survivable up to about 2 or 3 Gs. This means you must fly a plane to the ground, and NOT stall it in. This is critically important, and it's why we practice a lot of stalls in training. You need to NOT stall the aircraft.




I have grabbed the 25R POH, since it was handy, and let's assume a hypothetical departure in her. I'm going to leave the gear down for this exercise, to simplify things.

Vy - Best rate of climb - 84kts
Vglide - Best glide speed (@ max weight) - 73kts

No other speeds matter. Now when climbing out at Vy, next time you take off, take note of the pitch angle. You'll find it's somewhere around 10 degrees of nose-up pitch.

And next time you practice engine-out emergencies, take note of the pitch angle. You'll find it's somewhere around 5 degrees of nose-down pitch.

If I take away your engine, and assuming you had the plane trimmed for 84kts airspeed, you will find that the nose gets heavy, and will pitch itself down for you.... eventually. You will want to pitch down immediately for 73kts, or about 5 degrees nose down, yourself, right now. This is a conscious trained maneuver -- you MUST get that nose down or risk a power-off stall. Don't over-do it, but change pitch 15 degrees NOW. Push in the yoke about 3 or 4 inches. The aircraft will likely have already slowed to Vglide in the time it took you to recognize the problem and react. Any more slowing puts you closer to stall speed and robs you of gliding distance (Vs0 is 54kts in 25R -- not much margin!)

Your choices from 500' AGL are VERY limited, and this is no time to get creative. A lot of pilots have been tricked by a maneuver called the "deadman's turn" -- an attempt to do a gliding 210-degree teardrop U-turn and land back onto the runway you just departed from. Everything I have read suggests that even when using PERFECT technique, a minimum of 700' is required to return to the airport. I know that in an emergency, I won't be using "perfect" technique, and so I will not contemplate this move.

(for those with curiosity about the deadman turn, maximum performance requires a 45-degree banked turn to return to the airport. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS -- the odds of you stalling/spinning the aircraft are just too high to contemplate, and the energy consumed in the maneuver may be more than you have to spend! -- remember the stall speed goes way up in a steep turn, so you will need to accelerate the airplane by nosing far down, turning, and hoping. Again, DO NOT EVEN TRY IT. It's called "deadman turn" for a reason!)

If you depart runway 25, you'll notice there is a very nice clearing to the left of the departure course, where some office buildings are. With your engine out, you have about 5 seconds to get your composure, get the nose down, and glide to a landing. You might choose that spot, you might choose another. Keeping the nose into the wind is the preferred option, which favors a straight-ahead landing.

You can check the fuel selector (although "both" is pretty reliable), throttle and mixture, carb heat, and that's about it. Maybe the engine will restart after you fix a bad configuration. Let's assume not. Time to land.

Remember that the maximum glide distance is at 73kts. Either faster or slower speed will result in a shorter net distance. Pulling or pushing on the yoke will not give you the extra 500 feet you might want. 25R has a glide ratio of ~1.9nm per 1000 feet. So you'll be landing in the next mile or so, and at 73kts and 500', you will have about 50 seconds to get your plane configured, cinch up the seatbelts, and fly the plane. Good aeronautical decision-making never was more important than now! If you have time, run the checklist. Its items are ordered in order of importance. For 25R this looks like:

Engine Failure after departure

Speed - 73kts
Mixture - Idle Cut-off
Fuel Selector - Off
Ignition - Off
Flaps - As required (recommend 30 degrees)
Master - Off

Forced Landing without power adds:

Doors: unlatch
Pitch: slightly tail-low (ie a soft flare, to conserve energy)
Brakes: Apply Heavily

It's a good checklist if you can get through it, which, if you've ever read it before, I believe it will come readily to mind and you'll zip through it in about 10 seconds.



The most survivable forced landings are those which are done with the slowest possible ground speed. This means you will, at some point if possible, want to deploy flaps, and softly flare the aircraft at the last possible moment. Flaps will shorten your glide distance, so judge the timing of the thing. You can leave them up. Don't do a soft-field flare when you land, you won't have the energy to spare to pull that nose into the air. A gentle slight (~3 degree) nose-high flare will suffice. You only get one shot at this, so make it count, begin the flare close to the ground just like any other landing.

With some luck, and if you accomplished the above checklist, you'll be assured of the following things:

You should be very intact, even if you hit something hard on the ground. You may be bruised or banged up if you hit something on landing. I promise you will be humming with adrenaline. You should lift some impossible things -- you're the incredible hulk right now. Throw the plane into the air, show off, smash things. You might also laugh at the grim reaper, because you just cheated him. Feel free to be creative now. Let out a barbaric yawp :)

If the airframe (ie wings/fuel tanks) were damaged, there should be no source of ignition for a post-crash fire. If there is any doubt (smoke, etc), move at least 100 feet away from the plane.

If the cockpit safety structure was deformed, you should still be able to exit the aircraft quickly (this is why you pop your door open) -- if you didn't get that far in the checklist, and the doors are deformed and stuck shut, you may need to squeeze out of the baggage door, or kick out a window. The cabin door windows should be easiest, particularly the ones which open.

Aircraft are amazingly capable of taking forward-collision forces, just like you are. If you are hurt, particularly if you have a headache or sharp pain when you move, get out of immediate harm's way, and wait. Your ELT is going off automatically, and bringing a very impressive array of help to your location. If you have a cell phone, you might call and offer them your location. I would recommend sitting and waiting for the cavalry if there is any suspicion that you might be injured.



"we're okay, bring us 2 Venti Mocha Chip Frappuccinos please!"

Having been involved in a scenario such as this personally, I found that the training kicks in automatically, and your brain is excellent at saving your bacon. And the adrenaline thing? yeah, it's real. But your brain needs to understand the mechanics behind gliding 2500 lbs of aluminum to safety. And now you know a little more.

I hope you never experience it (and we've never had this happen at the school, touch wood) -- but I hope that if you do, you'll remember the few key things that make the incident into a cool story over drinks, and not tragic reading in the newspaper.

If you haven't done slow flight/stall recovery in a while, or wish to explore some of these concepts in greater detail, grab a CFI. There is a very good reason why we do stalls and slow flight in every training regimen, and every Flight Review.

...sorry to talk about a difficult subject on a Saturday, but knowledge is what keeps us alive when we fly, even in the worst situations. Stay sharp!

$0.02

Blue (and Safe) Skies,

- Mike

Monday, March 16, 2009

TFR Time... Wed & Thu

Pilots,

We get to host a VIP for two days this week, Wednesday and Thursday -- while sitting on the ground. We certainly won't be flying during this flight restriction, unless you'd like a visit from one of our very fine F-16 Fighters... some details:



A. All aircraft operations within the 11 NMR area(s) listed above, known as the inner core(s), are prohibited except for: Approved law enforcement, military aircraft directly supporting the United States Secret Service (USSS) and the office of the President of the United States, approved air ambulance flights, and regularly scheduled commercial passenger and all-cargo carriers operating under one of the following TSA-Approved standard security programs/procedures: aircraft operator standard security program (AOSSP), full all-cargo aircraft operator standard security program (FACAOSSP), model security program (MSP), twelve five standard security program (TFSSP) all cargo, or all-cargo international security procedure (ACISP) and are arriving into and/or departing from 14 cfr part 139 airports.

B. For operations within the airspace between the 11 nmr and 30 nmr area(s) listed above, known as the outer ring(s): All aircraft operating within the outer ring(s) listed above are limited to aircraft arriving or departing local airfields, and workload permitting, ATC may authorize transit operations. Aircraft may not loiter. All aircraft must be on an active IFR or VFR flight plan with a discrete code assigned by an air traffic control (ATC) facility. Aircraft must be squawking the discrete code prior to departure and at all times while in the TFR and must remain in two-way radio communications with ATC.

C. For operations within this TFR, all USSS vetted aircraft operators based in the area and all emergency/life saving flight (medical/law enforcement/firefighting) operations must coordinate with ATC prior to their departure at 858-537-5900 to avoid potential delays.

D. The following operations are not authorized within this TFR: flight training, practice instrument approaches, aerobatic flight, glider operations, parachute operations, ultralight, hang gliding, balloon operations, agriculture/crop dusting, animal population control flight operations, banner towing operations, model aircraft operations, model rocketry, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).



...if you don't check NOTAMs, the Air Force will cheerfully deliver them to you in person!

I wonder if the model rocketeers know to check NOTAMs... heh!

Fly Safe -- get a briefing!

Blue Skies,

- Mike

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Maintenance Update

Hello gang,

Our maintenance crew (and I) are in Las Vegas for the Aviation Maintenance Technician exposition. We return this afternoon to continue throwing wrenches and new ideas at the planes.



Some updates:

Cessna 630's annual continues. She will be batted out likely early next week.

Cessna 68U's 100hr is winding down, however, we were delayed by a crack we found in the rear glass. It should arrive today, and we will kick 68U back to work. 68U will beat 630 back to service.

Cessna 04H is chugging along great -- thanks, 04H!

Cessna 1ES is flying fine, thanks 1ES! 1ES will be in for 100hr next week or the following.

Cessna 17J is cruising nice, thanks 17J! Her 100hr is likely to be around the same as 1ES'.

Cessna 25R will be embarking on her annual next month.

Piper 85Y has had a tach sender cable reworked.

==

More as I know it. Spring is closing in, but the temps are still cool for that perfect flying. Grab some sky!

Cheers,

- Mike

Sunday, March 01, 2009

A new pilot...

All,

Please join me in congratulating the newest pilot in the world -- one U.S. Private Pilot Carlos Cuin, who owned his checkride in Cessna 1ES with DPE Tom Hamm.



It's about @#$% time, Carlos! :D Way to go!

Blue Skies,

- Mike