Back in Service

The airplane is back in service after some re-seal work on the propeller hub. Leading up to the repair a pattern of oil started to appear on the propeller extending away from the hub after each flight. After further investigation the o-rings inside the propeller hub had worn flat and were no longer capable of containing the lubricating oil stored inside. With the repair complete, I was able to make a short scenic flight to verify that the oil leak has indeed stopped.

Instrument Currency

Not much flying last month due to some travel, airplane maintenance, and a cold that won't go away. The 182 started leaking oil from the prop hub and after further investigation the seals in the hub had failed so the prop assembly is in the shop for some repair work. At least a complete prop overhaul wasn't required. While the prop was in the shop I needed to do some research in the logbooks to find out airplane total time (TTAF) and the number of hours on the current prop (SMOH). This was a good exercise in learning a little more about the history of the airplane. Also turns out that some of the parts in the propeller hub will be covered by the manufacturer.

Since the airplane is down for another week, I booked some time on the Frasca at ATC to log some instrument approaches as part of the required instrument currency requirements under FAR 61.57. In the sim under the tutelage of my CFII, I logged three approaches and a hold. Overall, the session went well and I was surprised how much of the details of flying an approach came right back to me after being away from an airplane for a month.

AOPA Aviation Summit

Last week I attended the AOPA Aviation Summit in Tampa. Compared to the 2007 AOPA conference in Palm Springs, this years event had many more airplane manufactures represented and there seemed to be more vendors present on the convention floor. I sat in on a couple of the keynotes and some instructional seminars. One of the keynotes was a round table discussion by the leaders of various segments of general aviation and how they were all unified in their fight against the attack on GA and business aviation by the media and Washington D.C. Another take away from the discussion is that 100LL fuel will eventually go away and how the engine manufacturers are working on how other fuels perform with existing GA airplane engines. I attended Max Trescott's seminar on night flight and another seminar on single pilot IFR. Both offered a lot of safety tips and things to pass on to future students.

Lastly, I am in the market to buy new headsets and took the opportunity to try out some of the top ANR headsets out there. I visited the Bose, David Clark and Light Speed booths and got the sales pitch for each model and was able to try out each unit with simulated engine noise in the background. So far I'm leaning toward the Bose headsets, but I kind of like the idea of having built in Blue Tooth in the Zulu model. The DC X11's are by far the lightest of the three, but they don't seem to have enough ear clamping pressure to provide a tight seal around the ear to keep out background noise. My Telex headsets after a while start to move around on my ears during long flights, so I believe that the X11's would have the same problem. I forgot to try out the Clarity headsets, so I'll need to try them locally to see how well they work before I make a decision.

Trip to Bandon, OR

We've always wanted to investigate the Bandon Oregon area to compare it to the other Oregon Coast cities that we've been to, so I left work a little early and we loaded up the airplane and headed south 260 miles to North Bend, OR (KOTH). The crew at Coos Aviation had a car waiting for us and pointed us toward highway 101. I had made a reservation at the Red Lion in advance so that we had accommodations arranged before we left Renton. Turns out there were some nicer places to stay near Bandon as opposed to North Bend. We spent a day and a half exploring the area around Bandon and found some nice beaches, a light house or two and the world famous Bandon Dunes Resort. The area is also know for its sand dune parks and we saw lots of ATV's on trailers heading for the dunes.

Oyster Festival

We flew over to Shelton for the annual "OysterFest". Shelton (KSHN)is about a 20 minute flight from Seattle and the festival provides a shuttle bus from the airport to the festival grounds. If you like oysters this is the place to go. You can get oysters raw, fried, grilled, steamed, etc. My favorite is an oyster grilled on the 1/2 shell.

A Pair of I's

Finally got the CFII rating completed today. The practical started with the examiner asking me about how I would approach teaching a new instrument student. This expanded into things like what I can do as a CFII, teaching evaluating weather for an IFR flight, instruments required for IFR flight and how to detect instrument failure, and a discussion of instrument systems. We then talked about obstacle departure procedures and I was asked to interpret the DP from KEAT. After that we went into approach procedures and we discussed the ILS approach at KAST. The two things the DE was interested in was why do we have to time the ILS approach and what would we do if we lost communications as we neared KAST.

After the oral portion, we departed KBFI and picked up an IFR clearance to KTIW. The DE flew the ILS approach and my role was to treat the DE as my student who was just about to take his checkride. The examiner setup the airplane for the approach like a pro (he's a captain for an airline) and he made some "mistakes" along the way. He purposely let the glide slope deflect 3 dots and started to make large corrections near the DH. Both are mistakes that students would make. Afterwards the DE asked me for my critique and also wanted to know if as a student, I would sign him off for a check ride. My answer was that since his performance was within PTS that I would sign him off. My answer wasn't wrong, but he felt that if a student is in check ride prep mode, that a large needle deflection on an ILS approach isn't acceptable for a student who is about to take a practical. If a student makes such a big mistake during a practice check ride, then they probably aren't quite ready.

Next up, it was my turn to fly a partial panel GPS approach. This was straight forward and while I was flying I was asked to talk about how to navigate by compass, both timed turns and using the compass directly taking into consideration dip errors. At the MDA and about 1.5 miled from the MAP, I was asked if we could legally land. The answer I gave was yes, because we could make a normal approach and landing from our current position.

After that we headed out VFR and did some unusual attitude recovery with me doing the recovery and with me putting the airplane into an unusual attitude and the examiner doing the recovery. The examiner gave me some tips on how to setup unusual attitudes and mentioned that when you do teach them, you really need to put the airplane in an attitude that simulates what may happen to a new instrument pilot if things go awry in the clouds.

CFII Practical Exam Prep

The day is near and I've been reviewing all of the instrument regs and making sure all of my ground briefs are in order. I have one more training flight scheduled before the exam and will use that flight to just tighten up my approaches and get in more practice teaching/talking while flying. Learning to teach while also handling (and flying) all aspects of an instrument approach has made me a better instrument pilot by forcing me to stay ahead of the airplane/approach. A lot of things that weren't clear when I was getting my instrument rating are much clearer now and I wish I had known then what I know now. One example is the primary/supporting method of attitude instrument flying. I remember my CFII telling me which instruments were primary for pitch, bank, etc. But it never really clicked as to what that was all about at the time. In the end my instrument scan worked, but I never really understood the logic behind the primary/supporting method. If someone would have just simplified things by teaching me that the primary/supporting method applies to what you are doing at the time (straight and level, turns, climbing/descending turns, etc.), I would have picked up on flying by reference to instruments a little quicker.

Additionally, at the time I didn't even know about the control and performance method and after studying that as a CFII student, I now believe that that method is a much simpler way to fly on instruments. The control/performance method moves the scan focus back to the attitude indicator (where it should be) and this makes holding heading and altitude much easier.