D. Patrick Caldwell on The Joys of Flight: Tips and Tricks

Showing posts with label Tips and Tricks. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Aerial Photography

My fiancée and I are a little into photography (our picasa album). I'm a lot into flying and she is a little as well, so I figured we could try our hand at some aerial photography sometime.

We decided to go out and buy ourselves a nice digital SLR so I started researching to find the best bang for our buck. We ended up getting the Canon Rebel XSi and we couldn't be happier.

Now, rest assured, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "but Pat . . . how could I possibly justify spending hard earned flyin' money on a camera when I have a point n' shoot that takes fine pictures."

That's a good question dear reader who was kind enough to be thinking what I said you were thinking. The SLR allows you to buy lenses that suit each need you have. For example, the IS line of Canon lenses supports gyroscopic image stabilization. The gyroscope in the lens uses rigidity in space (just like your directional gyro) to optically dampen the vibration and bounces you get in a small airplane.

So, pop that IS zoom lens onto your SLR body and you've got yourself some great air-to-ground and air-to-air shooting. The best part though, is that when you get to where you're going (say, an airshow or a flight museum), you can put your general purpose lens back on and get all of the great shots you're looking for.

The Canon Rebel XSi will also give you more control over your photo. You can set exposure times, you can change the size of your aperture, you can take rabid fire pictures (as many as 3.5 / second if I remember correctly). The XSi has been a great camera for both my fiancée (the artistic one) and me (the geeky one).

Oh, ancillary benefit! Put an external flash on it and maybe even a battery grip and people will start thinking you work for a newspaper or magazine or something. You'll be surprised how many ropes you can cross when you say, "I'm an event photographer."

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

I really appreciate comments so please feel free to comment on my posts. Whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to hear from you. Also, feel free to link back to your own blog in your comments. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed of the comments on this thread.

© 2008 — , D. Patrick Caldwell, Vice President for Research and Development, Emerald Software Group, LLC

Thursday, July 30, 2009

SkyLinked Airport Data Service

A few months ago, I had the very good fortune to hear from some of the guys over at Flight Schedule Pro about a new product they were introducing. They asked me if I'd be interested in working on the mobile portion of the project (you know, being a pilot and a .net developer). I jumped at the opportunity and the application has since gone live.

The service is an online logbook called SkyLinked. To be sure, I'll be writing about the logbook and its many wonderful features, but for now I'd like to write about the Airport Data service. Earlier this month, a friend of mine and I jumped into the Super Decathlon and cruised up to the lake to do some aerobatics. Just north of the lake, Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (KGVL) was hosting the Cracker Flyin, so we decided to take a quick visit.

The only problem was, we didn't have our charts on us and we needed frequencies and runway data to get in safely. We descended to cellphone range and he pulled SkyLinked Mobile up on his iPhone. Sure enough, using the airport data service, we were able to get all of the airport data we needed including communication frequencies and runway information.

To get to the airport data section, go to the SkyLinked Mobile Homepage and click Airport Search. That'll bring up a page that looks like this one:

Put the ICAO airport code in the search box and hit the Search button. If you search for KPDK, you'll get this screen:

From this menu, you can get to just about any airport data you need. There's an information page for communications and there's an information page for each runway or helipad on the field. Here are a few screenshots of these pages:

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Checklists vs. Do Lists

Yesterday, I read a bunch of blog posts about using in-flight checklists. I found even purported CFIs and airline pilots recommending that you treat a checklist like a checklist as opposed to a "do list." Basically, they were recommending that you configure the airplane with a mnemonic flow and then go through the checklist just to make sure you did it right.

I was starting to feel a little silly ... like maybe I missed the point completely when I wrote my blog post about always using your checklists. I was recommending that you remember as much as you can about the checklist but that you execute every step on the checklist in order and as you go through the list ... a "do list."

I started doing some research. I dug through about 50 aviation accidents from the last 30 years selected at random from the NTSB Accident Database. I found that a few of them were catastrophic failures or maintenance oversights that the pilot simply couldn't avoid; however, about 40 (80%) of the accidents could've been avoided by following the checklist. Some of them were airline accidents where checklists are required. One of which had the audio of the pilot confirming that anti-ice measures were off shortly before they crashed due to icing.

My point is that if you memorize the checklist or you treat it like a confirmation, you're likely to become complacent and quickly find yourself in an emergency situation. During my research, I found a really cool website that has a sample pre-flight checklist. Each item on the checklist links to an NTSB accident report that could've been avoided by checklist use. Some of the links are broken, but many of them still work. I'm planning on taking some of my in-flight checklists and doing the same thing with them.

Another thing I found during my checklist research is that physicians, psychologists, surgeons, and anesthesiologists are using checklists like "do-lists" and it is saving lives.

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Tailwheel Landings Trial III

You may have read my blog post a few weeks ago about my tailwheel landing fiasco. I got to do some more tailwheel landings this weekend and boy do I feel relieved.

We didn't get a chance to fly down to Peach State 'cause the weather was pretty bad, but we did fly and at long last, it finally clicked. I made wheel landing after wheel landing and I only had to go around once.

In the last few days, I've spent a lot of time thinking about about my last flight and trying to identify exactly what I did right. So, I have a few pointers for anyone else working on a tailwheel endorsement.

First, don't give up. Landing a tailwheel airplane can be pretty frustrating . . . especially a Super Decathlon . . . especially on a concrete runway . . . especially when it's windy. Eventually, you'll get it and it will be unbelievably satisfying.

Second, stay outside the cockpit. Your approach speed doesn't have to be exactly right. It's easier to bleed off extra airspeed than you think. Focus on the far end of the centerline and fly the plane into ground effect. When you minimize vertical speed, your airspeed will bleed off and you'll be surprised when the gear meets the runway.

Third, if your touchdown isn't as smooth as you may like, chances are your body will bounce a little even if the plane doesn't. I noticed that when I touched down just a little too hard, I didn't actually bounce even though I felt like I did, so instead of pushing the stick forward to pin her on the ground, I pulled back a little and added power. Therefore, even though I didn't bounce aerodynamically, I did bounce . . . err . . . patrickdynamically.

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Always Use Your Checklists

Most of us are pretty good about using our preflight checklists before we take to the air, but what about all of the other checklists? When I was working on my instrument ticket, I got a lot better about using my in-flight checklists. In fact, if I fly a plane that doesn't have manufacturer checklists and I can't find any checklists online, then I make my own.

Why am I so dogmatic about checklist use? Using checklists takes a lot of the mental load off of flying; you can spend more effort executing the steps of the checklist when you don't have to try to remember them.

To be sure, you should try to be very familiar with your checklists (especially emergency checklists), even to the point that you could perform them from memory, but you shouldn't do it unless you just don't have enough time to pull the list out to check it.

Another benefit to using checklists is that you're less likely to lose your place in your checklist when there's a distraction. One time shortly after I got my private, I was flying into a relatively busy controlled airport and I was going through my descent checklist. Everything was going fine until someone behind me declared an emergency.

I started getting vectored all over the airspace for spacing. Things were very hectic for several minutes, but I wasn't worried; I had everything under control. When things settled down a bit, I started back through my mental descent and landing checklist. The problem was, I started back a few steps past where I stopped. I had missed the mixture.

Well everything went fine during the entire approach, but as I slowed down on rollout and with my power at idle, the mixture was just too lean and the engine sputtered out. Tower called and simply asked, "you gonna be able to get that started." I was already in the process of enriching the mixture and starting the engine so I called back embarassed, "Yessir. Sorry about that."

I was mortified by my awshit! Tower called back and said, "don't worry about it; it happens all the time." I talked to my instructor about it and he said, "don't get too down about it Patrick; people make mistakes, but I hope you learned from it." I still didn't feel very good about it and even telling it now is a little embarrassing.

Well, I did learn from it (and I hope you can learn from me); always use your checklists! Even something as simple as the GUMPS check can be confused by very simple interruptions.

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Tail Wheel Landings Trial II

A few days ago, I went up for some tailwheel landings and was really happy with my progress. I couldn't wait to go up the next day and do some more landings to see if I could solidify the muscle memory. So, yesterday, I did go do some more tailwheel landings and boy did it ever suck!

I bounced it around pretty good the first few attempts and got so flustered that I couldn't even read my altimeter (let alone hold pattern altitude). It may have been the worst flying I've ever done.

Now, I know that everybody has bad days, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how it ended up that bad. Well, the fact is that flying a tailwheel airplane is tough to do. Some very good pilots have been groundlooped by a gusty wind. Everybody goes through this with conventional gear.

I also think I'm at a disadvantage because of my tricycle gear experience. Thing is, at this point, a 20 to 30 knot gusting and variable crosswind doesn't really phase me. In fact, it doesn't even make my palms sweat anymore.

So, when I showed up at my tailwheel school, my instructor asked, "are you sure you want to go? 22 knots is pretty fast." Of course, I thought, "yeah, 22 knots mostly down the runway is no big deal! Let's go."

Well, several really tough approaches and landings later, I gave up for the day. Sitting in the flight school, the owner of the plane said, "I can't believe you tried today. I usually don't fly with wind above 4 or 5 knots." My instructor said when he bought his first taildragger, he wouldn't go above 7 or 10 knots. It helped to know that 22 knots is a lot of wind in a taildragger.

So, I have two tips for the conventional gear hopeful. First, don't get discouraged! Flying a taildragger is really hard. Second, a little wind changes things a lot in a taildragger. It is good to get the high wind experience, but count on some rough times and remember how much time you had to get in your tricycle gear trainer before you were comfortable with a heavy crosswind.

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Dealing with Directional Gyro Failure

When you start working on earning your private ticket, you're under the fortunate circumstance that you don't know anything. You're a clean slate. Every time you go fly, you learn something new and exciting while you build your piloting skills.

When you start working on your multi-engine, however, you focus almost exclusively on engine failures. In fact, you pretty much focus solely on the failure of the left engine (for most twin airframes . . . you'll know what I mean). When you start working on your instrument ticket, it's about 50-50.

You spend the first 20 hours learning to read new charts and approach plates. You get better at your communication and you get to talk a lot more. The next 20 hours you spend shooting approach after approach under various circumstances. Your instructor will pull breakers on you left and right. What if your GPS doesn't work? Your DME? Your AI or DG? Etc.

One of the exercises I did with my instrument instructor was to try to fly enroute and shoot an approach with a failed DG. He taught me a trick that really helped me and could help all pilots instrument rated or not.

Compass errors (oscillation, acceleration, and northerly-turning) make navigating by magnetic compass a royal P.I.T.A. Even if you fully understand compass errors and you remember your catch phrases ("overshoots north / undershoots south" and "accelerate north / decelerate south"), it still feels like navigating by trial and error.

Fortunately, there is in my opinion, a vastly better alternative. If you are making a heading change, take a look at your current magnetic bearing. Calculate the number of degrees between your current and target bearings. Divide that number by 3 and that's the number of seconds it'll take you to turn to your desired heading at standard rate.

I glazed over that so I'll go through a specific example. You're at straight and level flight heading 090. You want to turn to heading 180. That's 90 degrees to the right. A standard rate turn is 3 degrees per second so it'll take 30 seconds to make the turn.

To be sure, you'll still have to make a few course corrections here and there, but that will get you much closer than guessing what the magnetic compass should read at roll out. Also, there's a really easy way to calculate the time it takes to perform the turn. Take a look at your DG or OBS. Find your current heading on the card. If your OBS not in use, you can even turn it to indicate your current heading. Then, count the number of major divisions (30 degrees).

In the above example, there would be 3 major divisions between 90 and 180 (90-120, 120-150, 150-180). That's 30 seconds. Then, add a little more than 3 seconds for each minor division (10 degrees).

For example, if you're flying 065 degrees ENE and you want to turn to 340 degrees NNW, count 2 major divisions (060-030 and 030-360) for 20 seconds. Add to that 2 minor divisions (360-350 and 350-340) for another ~7 seconds (we can ignore the 5 degree half tick between 060 and 065 but if you're really concerned about it you can tack on another second for good measure).

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Switching Squawk Codes on Analog Transponders

I've spent a little time in some older airplanes. Sure, I really like all the fancy avionics in newer airplanes, but sometimes if I'm just hopping over to KAHN for one of those awesome burgers at Clocked, I don't need to spend 150 bucks on a DA-40 when I can rent an old warrior for 95. In fact, that trusty old airplane has taken me on several 100+ mile cross countries. VFR or IFR, it's a great plane and it's fun to fly.

In fact, I don't really notice much of a difference insofar as functionality is concerned. On a long IFR trip, I'm still just keeping the needle centered whether I have a Garmin 480 or an old analog radio. There is, however, one major difference that's worth mentioning. A little extra care must be taken when working with analog transponders.

As you probably recall, general aviation aircraft use the transponder codes 7500, 7600, and 7700 to indicate various emergencies. When we tune these in and the Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System issues a Mode A interrogation, our transponder shoots the signal over and any scope that is covering your area will issue an alarm. As I'm sure you can imagine, controllers don't really care much for false alarms.

That's why on the newer fancier digital models, your new transponder code doesn't take effect until you enter all four digits; however, on the older analog models, if you receive an interrogation half way through setting your transponder code, you could wind up inadvertently squawking an emergency code for several minutes depending on frequency congestion.

Keeping in mind that 7500, 7600, 7700, and 7777 are reserved for emergency uses, we should do our best to avoid inadvertently squawking these codes. For example, if you're currently assigned 6777 and are told to squawk 0325, you should tune the 325 in before tuning the 0. Why? Well, if you're spinning that knob just as fast as you can from 6 to 0 and the Mode A interrogation comes in during that split second when your first digit is at 7, then you'll have a lot of explaining to do when they ask why you're involved with a military interception. Another alternative is to turn the first knob away from 7 (i.e., 6-5-4-3-2-1-0 rather than 7-0).

Tuning the last 3 digits to get out of emergency range before rotating the first knob will keep you from making some embarrassing mistakes. If, for some reason, you have to go from say 5500 to 0700, you might just consider turning the knob the long way just to avoid transitioning through the 7000 range.

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

D. Patrick Caldwell on The Joys of Flight