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.

Angel Flight Mission #7

I signed up last minute to fly some coolers of blood from Sequim, WA. (W28) to Boeing Field. It was a perfectly clear day, so I invited one of the 182 partners along to act as safety pilot while I got some right seat hood time in preparation for my CFII check ride.

"Whiskey" 10

It had been a few weeks since we made a family flight so we were looking for either a destination that we hadn't been to or some place new to fly to. We thought about going to Roche Harbor, but then remebered that we had just driven to Langley the week before and met one of the residents that flys out of W10. It turns out that there is a local coffee company (Mukilteo Coffee Roasters) that has a cafe and restaurant within walking distance of the airport. The airport comittee has also provided bicycles for use by visiting pilots to commute the two and a half miles into town.

For this trip we were just interested in the Cafe, since the kids aren't quite ready for a bicycle ride into town. I checked the winds at nearby Paine Field and made note of the warm temperatures for density altitude considerations. The winds were out of the North at 10-15 KTS and with the warm temps, I knew that it would be a bumpy ride on final into the airport. Plus the runway is surrounded by 50' trees, so once below the tree tops the transition can be a bit tricky. As predicted the bumps started to increase once in the pattern and then a couple of wing dips as we approached tree top level. All in all an uneventfull approach/landing but not the type of conditions that you would take passengers who are new to small planes.

Finding the cafe is easy, just follow the fancy signs. The coffee and food are worth the trip and on a nice day, there is a nice deck to sit out and enjoy the Pacific NW weather and a fine latte.

Interestingly, I had landed at this airport when I was a student pilot with only 10 hours. Looking at my logbook, my instructor took me here on my ninth flight on August 28, 2003. Almost six years to the day I returned to one of the first airports that I had landed at early in my pilot journey.

A Case of the "Blues"

The Blue Angels were in town this week for their annual appearance at Sea Fair and there are various TFRs in place to cover the official show and practice sessions. I had a colleague in town who had just earned his private pilot certificate a few weeks prior and we had been planning to take a flight at some point during the week, but with the hot temperatures that Seattle was experiencing, it wouldn't have been fun being in an airplane when its 90+ degrees. The temps started to cool by the end of the week so we decided on a flight Friday morning. As luck would have it, the temps got low enough overnight to allow a marine layer to roll in and this forced us to cancel our early morning flight due to low ceilings. As the morning passed on, the clouds began to lift but with the TFRs kicking in later in the day, we'd only have a small window to get airborne and return before the airspace closed. I diligently checked the TFRs on DUATS and called FSS just to make sure there were no surprises.

We got to the airport about 11:30 and were airborne shortly after. We made a quick loop around the Puget Sound area and then landed back at Boeing Field with 30 minutes to spare before the airspace closure. We tied the plane down and hung around until the start of the Blue's practice session.

A Busy Week

This week was quite busy with aviation related activities. I had another CFII ground session and we worked through teaching an instrument procedure to a new instrument student. Secondly, I had two training flights as a CFI with a student and finished off the week with flying at the Challenge Air event. I think I logged about 7 hours this week and it sort of felt like I was really flying for a living. In reality the hours I logged isn't even close to what a full time CFI or pilot for hire would log in a week, but I am starting to get a glimpse of what it would be like to be a full time pilot.

Challenge Air

Today I participated in one of the Challenge Air events in Everett, WA. (KPAE). Challenge air holds these events around the US, and they are held to give kids with special needs an opportunity to fly in an airplane. Along with 20+ other pilots, we were tasked to fly a child and family members on a short 15-20 minute flight. This was the third annual event and was held at the Castle and Cook hangar. There were 135 kids signed up for flights along with 100's of volunteers helping things go smoothly. The challenge Air folks setup all kinds of activities for the children as well as assigning each child to an airplane. The kids got to take a short ground school and then were given a boarding pass and after pilot/ground crew introductions, they and their family got to walk out on the tarmac via a red carpet and through a cheering crowd to their assigned airplane. At the completion of each flight, I got to sign a certificate commemorating their flight and pin a set of wings on each "pilot".

I flew 5 flights for the day and all of my passengers were flying for the first time. I let each one operate the controls at various points of the flight and the looks on their faces were priceless. It was interesting seeing each child's personality come out when they operated the flight controls, where control inputs ranged from hesitant (shy/timid) to almost full control deflection (kids with lots of energy). All of the families were so gracious and appreciative of everyone involved and I could tell that these flights meant so much to them and their children.

I think that just for a short time while the children and parents are flying above the Earth looking at the world go by from 2500', that these flights give the parents and the kids a brief diversion from all of the issues that come along with caring for a special needs child.

Altitude Bust?

I was recently on a United Airlines flight from KSEA to KDEN and discovered that channel 9 of the in flight audio has the cockpit communications between the crew and ATC. The in flight magazine says that the channel will be broadcast at the discretion of the captain. So, I dialed in and started listening prior to push back. After takeoff the flight was handed off to departure and the controller assigned the flight an altitude of 9000' feet. The pilot manning the radio acknowledged 9000'. After a few minutes I felt a sudden nose down motion and that rolling stomach feeling that you get when you suddenly stop climbing and apply heavy nose down pressure. I thought to myself, either there was a traffic conflict or the pilot just blew through his assigned altitude. Sure enough, one of the pilots called ATC and said something like "Approach, United xxx confirm altitude". The controller came back with "United xxx, descend and maintain 9000' ". I'm not going to pass judgement on the pilots seeing that I wasn't in the cockpit, but it's nice to know that even the pros make a mistake occasionally.