The Early Days of Flight

I'm in D.C. this week and had a free day to see the sights so my first destination was the National Air and Space Museum. This place is packed with all kinds of goodies, but my objective was to see the Wright Flyer. With the exception of new skins put on in 1985, the craft is the original. Another interesting artifact I saw was an early AI and this thing is about the size of the entire Cessna six-pack.

There is also another part of the museum located near KIAD which houses a space shuttle and the Enola Gay. I'm hoping to find a few free hours to take a trip out there. Being able to see an airplane that dropped an A-bomb is an opportunity not to be missed.

More 182 Woes

As I've written in previous posts, the alternator belt on the 182 has been periodically coming off during various phases of flight and we have been seeing traces of metal in the oil filter after oil changes. First the belt issue; we've recently tried a few more attempts at getting the pulleys in perfect alignment by making an alignment tool as recommended by a tech person at TCM so now the two pulleys are nearly perfectly aligned. So with everything lined up, the engine was run with the cowling off and the observation is that the belt is bowing up and down at around 2300 RPM (see video below). So even if the pulleys are aligned, the belt will eventually jump since its not remaining taught. There appears to be a vibration coming from the engine or propeller and after making some queries of the Cessna Owners Assoc., some others have seen this problem when there were bad crankshaft weights. Another owner had some missing pins for the alternator bracket, but these pins were airframe specific and our particular model of 182 doesn't require the pins.

Issue number two is the metal particles showing up in the oil filter. The first thought is that the metal is a remnant from the last cylinder failure that we had. But after changing the oil every 10 hours for the last few times, that metal should have worked its way out of the engine.

The question on everyone's mind is: are the belt/vibration issues and the metal in the oil related? No one knows for sure, but we don't have confidence in the airplane anymore and have decided to pull the engine and send it to the engine shop to be torn down and inspected. The shop is going to do something called an "IRAN" inspection. This inspection isn't cheap, but they will be able to get to the bottom of why the engine is producing metal and let us know if the crankshaft or something else is causing the vibration.

The engine was pulled on Wednesday and the engine shop will pick up the engine next week. Keep your fingers crossed.

A New $100 Hamburger Spot at KBVS

I had a student call me up and ask if I would fly with him up to the new restaurant (Kitty Hawk Cafe) that recently opened at KBVS. The Puget Sound skies had been nothing but rain and overcast the last few weeks, but today was an exception with clear skies. So we launched from KRNT and headed up to Skagit. I had recently attended a mountain flying seminar and the instructor mentioned that you should always bring your camera along because you never know what you will see. As we departed I noticed a perfect specimen of a lenticular cloud hovering over Mount Rainier. And wouldn't you know it, I went to snap the picture and the camera battery was dead. Ah! In any case, the food was was good and the portions quite large at the Kitty Hawk Cafe.

Weekend In Portland

We didn't have any plans to fly this past weekend, but one of the 182 partners cancelled his trip so the airplane became available. On a whim we packed the overnight bags and launched for KHIO on Friday after work. We ended up staying a couple of nights and visited the Oregon Zoo and did some exploring in downtown portland. The flight back was mostly IMC in an out of the clouds at 6000'.

Another Trip to the Spruce Goose Cafe

Flew a friend up to 0S9 for breakfast this morning. The Seattle temperatures were forecast to be in the 90's so we wanted to get an early start before the temps got too hot. Turns out things weren't that cool in the morning with the OAT pegged at 85F at 9:30 am and temps aloft weren't much cooler. We were in trail of a Beaver Amphib in the pattern at 0S9 and on the ground I talked to the pilot and he had come from Seattle where his plane is docked outside his house on Lake Washington. The Spruce Goose Cafe was packed and we waited 20 minutes for a table, but completely worth the wait for a huge plate of breakfast food. We made a leisurely trip back with a flight over Snoqualmie Falls and Rattlesnake Lake.

The Joys of Airplane Ownership?

The airplane is finally back from the mechanic after waiting six weeks for a new starter drive assembly from TCM. We opted to buy a genuine factory part vs an overhauled part just for the peace of mind that we weren't buying someone else's broken part restored to 'factory' standards. If an overhauled alternator for your car fails its no big deal, but a failure with an overhauled airplane part might end up being a big deal. We've also purchased overhauled parts in the past and ended up buying new ones due to the eventual failure of the non-factory part. The negative aspect of buying factory parts is the cost. A factory part may cost 2-3 times more than an overhauled part. For a $100 part it's not that significant of a difference, but in the case of a starter drive assembly an overhauled version was $1000 and a new one $3300.

Luckily, having airplane partners helps bring the repair costs down but with each big repair bill my average hourly cost goes up. In the last couple of years, we've had to overhaul all of the cylinders of the O-470 (at 600 hours), replace the DG, overhaul the propellor hub, and replace the starter drive.

Its Been A While

I'm usually pretty good about blogging my flying adventures, but I just realized that I haven't writtten anything since April. It's not that I haven't flown in two months, it's just that I haven't flown myself or family/friends anywhere. Looking at my logbook, I've logged around 20 hours from the right seat as an instructor. So come to think of it, I have done a lot of flying in the last 60 days, including an IFR cross country, numerous instrument approaches, and a couple of flight reviews.

Another Airplane in the Logbook

Today I had the opportunity to give a flight review in a Commander 114. How I ended up flying in the Commander is an interesting story. We had just recently obtained a hangar for our 182 and pushing the plane into the hangar is a bit of a chore. I remembered that one of my friends who is a partner in a Commander had an electric tug sitting in their hangar. I inquired as to the status of the tug and the owners ended up giving me the tug. I think the functionality of the tug was intermitent and they just wanted to recover the hangar space. During that conversation, one of the partners of the Commander was up for a flight review and during our discussion I disclosed that I was a CFI. One thing led to another and a review was scheduled.

The interesting thing is that I had been a passenger in the right seat of this Commander a year or so prior before obtaining my CFI. Now, I was in the right seat again, but this time as a CFI and evaluating another pilot for a flight review. It's wierd how things in life come full circle. The review went well and I even got to fly from the right seat for bit and land the airplane.

Black Berry Milk Shake

Gone are the days of the $100 hamburger, so from this day forward I'm using the phrase "$100 milkshake". The last three or four flights that I've made involving a food stop of some sort have included the consumption of a milkshake. The most recent being the black berry shake at the Spruce Goose Cafe at 0S9.

Today we boarded the family airplane and headed up to the Jefferson County Airport for some lunch (and a milkshake). The place was crowded as usual but it was warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. While sitting there eating, I watched a blue and yellow Beaver taxi up and spin around into the parking spot next to our 182. The only problem was that the parking spots aren't big enough for a Beaver. But as it turned out the Beaver's wings are higher than the 182 so no problem, the wings just overlapped above the 182's. I've parked the 182 with some overlap on low winged airplanes before, but this was the first time that a bigger airplane over shadowed the 182!

Poker Run

Last weekend one of the local flying clubs hosted a hop/skip/jump and poker run. The objective was to get some short field experience and visit a few airports that aren't in the typical Puget Sound $100 hamburger rotation. After each landing every pilot got a playing card and at the end of the day the pilot with the best poker hand won a one hour rental in a C172. The route for the day was as follows: KBFI, 2S1, Port Orchard (private), 8W5, W10, Diamond Point, (private), 0S9, KOKH, 13W, W16, KBFI.

Another State, Another Week of Flight Training

I decided to knock out the MEI since I was fresh off of the multi add-on a few weeks ago. I once again went with ATP and was impressed by the training standardization between the Phoenix and Tampa locations. Other than a couple of minor procedural differences (and a 2000 Seminole vs 1979 model), instructors from both locations taught using the same flows, etc.

This time however I didn't want to have to cram all the training in on consecutive days so I was able spread out my flights and have a day or two off during the week. We had some weather issues and one flight was cut short due to visibility and another was cancelled due to weather. Looking back I believe the optimal training duration for my style of learning is to complete the 4 or 5 day rating over a period of 7-10 days. ATP was very accomodating with the training schedule that I proposed.

The checkride was one of the harder practicals that I've had and this DE was very thorough on flushing out my knowledge on multi-engine aerodynamics and MEI limitations.

Oral 2.5 hrs
------------
Started talking about what blue line means and why after takeoff we reduce pitch at 500' and reduce power at 1000'. Dave was looking for "critical phase" of flight and why just after takeoff should an engine fail, things can get out of hand in a twin. He was trying to drive home that we as CFI's need to drive home this aspect of multi engine flight while giving training. Also he wanted to know what is happening aerodynamically when we are at blue line vs 100 kts. Dave was looking for increased/decreased performance due to changes in induced drag and parasite drag (LD max graph). This would come up again later during the drag demo.

Next was FAR's and what I could do as an MEI in regards to giving someone a flight review. His scenario was as follows:

A guy comes to me with a helicopter, private airplane/instrument, private multi rating. The guy wants to get a flight review in a friends twin (Binford 2000). I had to work through 61.56, 61.57, and 61.195 for the answer. Dave was also looking for how I would tailor training to this individual since he had airplane and helo experience. Next scenario was a private single engine pilot who wanted to get his multi add on. After we talked about the required training, also had to mention 61.195 (f) in that it requires me to have 5 hours PIC in make/model of the Binford 2000.

Last up was presenting the Vmc ground brief

Flight 1.3 hrs
---------------
- Slow flight, steep turns.
- Then power off stalls, power on stalls
- Next he gave me a scenario where right engine was leaking oil/oil pressure was dropping/CHT increasing. Had to shutdown the right engine, secure, then restart.
- Vmc demo
- Drag demo, wanted to know what we are demonstrating when pitching to 82 and pitching to 100. Answer is showing the effects of induced drag (higher at 82) and higher parasite drag at 100 kts.
- Emergency descent
- Landings (normal/short field)
- Failed engine after takeoff at 400'
- Failed engine in pattern with normal single engine landing

Four Days In Phoenix

I’ve just spent the last four days earning my multi-engine add-on at ATP in Phoenix. I took advantage of the 4-day multi-engine special that they offered and in the end I now have 9.5 hours in a Seminole. Over those three days I got four flights (5 counting the check ride) and about five hours in the Frasca. The instructor assigned to me had a lot of multi-engine experience and really knew his stuff. I’ve heard both good and bad things about ATP but in my case it was an enjoyable experience and would highly recommend for someone wanting to earn an advanced rating in a short amount of time. One caveat though, you’ll need to be capable of learning to fly all of the PTS maneuvers in three days and potentially the operation of an unfamiliar airplane. As an example there were a lot of airline fo’s here for their two-day ATP rating. For these guys it would be analogous to a private pilot moving from a Cessna to a Piper.

The rating doesn’t come easy as I spent many hours preparing for the intense 4-days of training by reading the provided Seminole supplement from ATP and reading several texts on multi-engine operations. One of my favorite texts was “Transitioning to Twins”, which has excellent diagrams explaining multi-engine aerodynamics.

The first day we spent the morning in the Frasca going over flows and PTS maneuvers. This sim time made my first actual flight in the Seminole that much easier, and for someone who has never flown a multi engine airplane I needed all the help that I could get. After that I flew a single flight the first two days and two flights on the third day. The time in between was spent covering Seminole systems and multi engine aerodynamics. When my instructor wasn’t around I had time for self study and unlimited access to the Frasca’s.

The check ride went smoothly and the examiner understood that I only had eight hours in the airplane and wasn’t that familiar with all the position reporting for the practice area South of Gateway airport (KIWA), so he helped out with position calls and some of the local operations in the interest of safety.