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.

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.