Space Shuttle Discovery Landing

We had another opportunity to watch a space shuttle landing! This time it was the Discovery at Edwards AFB on September 11th, 2009. Kevin and Sarah Ford were heading down their with their girls to watch the landing so I was going to go down there with Katie as well since I was watching her while Michelle went out with the "ladies from school" for her birthday.

Michelle decided to come down and watch the landing thinking she'd be back in time to go out, but she ended up being too late so they cancelled. We went to the Golden Catina restaurant at Rosamond airport after the landing, this was the first time the Ford's were there. The food was good as usual, but there was a ton of people and a huge wait (why Michelle was late), but all places were packed from everybody coming off Edwards from the landing. It was pretty late and we needed to eat before heading back home.

Here is the video of the landing.

Visualizing IFR approaches

I haven't been IFR legal for 3 years now, but I want to start getting back into the swing of things. On the way back from getting the pitot-static and transponder check, I decided to do some VFR practice approaches. I didn't have a safety pilot so I was unable to go "under the hood" and log the approaches and I had to keep an eye out for traffic, so I didn't get any simulated practice, but it is a great way to start knocking the rust of the procedures part of flying IFR.

I found a great website with instructions on how to overlay GPS tracks and maps and import them into Google Earth. I scanned the approach plates of the approaches I flew and calibrated them per the instructions so I can overlay my GPS track and the intended approach. Here is the site with the instructions. http://lets-go-fly.com/GPS-training-aid.pdf

Here are some pictures I captured. I only spent a little time adjusting the opacity of the maps so that you can see the Google Earth satellite view underneath so the map is pretty faded, but I think you can see all the pertinent information.

Here is the 2D VOR-B approach into Fox Field near Lancaster, CA (KWJF). I like this view because you can easily see the effect of the wind on my hold entries and holding pattern. I actually wasn't going to practice any holding, but the controller got busy and issued a hold so I got some practice anyways. I'd like to think I would have done a better job of compensating for the wind on successive holds had I done them.

Here is the 3D approach for VOR-B at WJF.

Here is the 2D ILS-25 approach into Palmdale, CA (KPMD) just south-east of WJF. I received vectors to the final approach course and was limited to a 3000 ft DH by the tower instead of the published 2703 ft.

Here is the 3D ILS-25 approach at PMD. My DH was limited on this approach, that's why it doesn't look like I get very low to the ground.

After the ILS, I had enough fun for the day so I decided to head back home to Inyokern. Now I just have to do some more reviewing, finish my checklists, and then start flying with a safety pilot on my way back to regaining my IFR currency.

Catching up on posting flight videos

I've really been getting behind on editing videos; I have hundreds of videos of Katie I still have to go through. I put together some of our recent flights and posted them below. Enjoy.

Flight to Watsonville, CA to visit Aunts and Uncles in Santa Cruz. This was the first time Katie met them.

Flight to Tehachapi, CA for the EAA Pancake Breakfast. If you listen, you can hear the controller tell me to switch over to advisory frequency since an airplane ran off the runway and spilt fuel. The airplane actually didn't run off the runway, but instead lost control in ground affect and crashed into the airport boundary fence. The pilot was not injured, but the airplane is probably totaled.

Flight to San Diego. We tried flying down there many times, but it seems to be too foggy every time. The real issue is that it gets windy and turbulent in the afternoon desert so we need to head to San Diego late enough for the fog to burn off, but early enough to get back before the wind picks up. We flew into Montgomery field and at breakfast at Casa Machado. The food and service was excellent and the view of the ramp/runway was great.

N951CC flies to Flabob (Riverside)

I've got so many videos to catch up on; we've been too busy doing things and not catching up on posting them. Here is a flight that we took to Flabob (KRIR) near Riverside CA. The weather was excellent, visibility forever and smooth winds out of the north.

I've heard many people talk about the turbulence in Cajon Pass, but I was naive thinking it would be fine since the air was so smooth. Since Flabob is just south of the pass, I started my descent early and flew down into the pass so I wouldn't have to circle to lose altitude over the airport. That is when it hit. I immediately slowed the airplane down since I like my wings intact and we were climbing 1500 - 2000 ft/min at the min cruise power setting and 10 degrees of flap. Michelle says this was about the worse turbulence she has ever flown in, but wasn't as bad since it was real short (only 5-10 minutes until we cleared the pass) and it was plenty cool. The heat is what really makes the turbulence bad.

We flew well over the Ontario class C airspace and I circled to descend just east of the airport. After I finally made it down to pattern altitude, I entered flying an upwind entry to westbound runway. It became interesting when we turned downwind to notice that there was a mountain right in the way for my base turn. It decided we'd cut inside the mountain for a short base/final instead of flying all the long way around. Surprisingly, I made the approach just fine, there were plenty of opportunities to instigate a go-around; I would have gone around the mountain the second time.

The airport is really small and seems like a throw back in time. There are airplanes tied down that look like they are waiting to disintegrate in place. Michelle thought it looked like a "honke airport you'd see in the Midwest." The restaurant had a great atmosphere with historic photos of the airport all over the walls and models hanging from the ceiling. The food was good and it seemed like most people's service was really good, but it seemed like the waitress kept forgetting about our table in the corner.

On the way back, we had a stiff crosswind for takeoff and I climbed above the pass before crossing the mountains and the turbulence wasn't nearly as bad.

American Engineering

Listening to people complain over and over about poor American Engineering and how Americans cannot compete with foreign engineering in context of the auto industry is really annoying, especially being an engineer myself (although I'm not in the auto industry). I'm not going to get into cars now since that debate will never end. It did get me wondering how many miles my American Cessna skylane has on it. Considering American airplane companies dominate the aircraft market, that at least says something positive about American engineers.

My airplane has over 14,000 hours on it, the engine has over 2,000 hours on it, and it cruises at 133 kts true airspeed. The rough estimates say that my engine has about 350,000 miles on it and the airplane has flown well over 2 million miles! I know that comparing cars and airplanes is a poor example since much more maintenance is put into an airplane over it's lifetime, but I thought that 2 million miles was pretty impressive.

I do have all the original logbooks and the previous owners did log the segments for each flight so there is a possibility that I might actually be able to calculate a much more accurate estimate (I'll never know how many miles were travelled in holding patterns or out of the way sight seeing). I doubt I'll go through that effort since there are 60 or 70 logbooks of flights and that entering each flight would take forever.

Now I better get back to work before someone says American engineers don't work very hard...

Feed Reader Issues

So Google reader hasn't been receiving updates from my blog for awhile. I've dealt with this several times before so I didn't bother fixing it. I figured I'd make a post since others have been having with their reader as well. To fix the problem, I changed the feed to this blog to be http://n951cc.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I think Google bought out feedburner or something and screwed up this feed. Hopefully this works for you, let me know if it doesn't.

N951CC finally flies to Catalina

Last weekend we finally flew to Catalina. Originally we were just going to fly there over the summer for some camping, but that fell apart due to a lack of reservation. Since then the anticipation has grown more and more due to cancelling the trip several times. Then I found some cheap inflatable life preservers on Ebay so I picked those up for me and Michelle, but then felt bad that we had life vests and Katie didn't so I had to buy her one.

The smoke from the LA fires was terrible on Saturday, there were no airmets for reduced visibility, but there were 2 fire fighting TFRs to avoid. By the time we got to Mojave, it was getting to be IMC conditions and getting worse quickly. I asked the controller to verify visibility ahead of me and they stated that it was 0 visibility by Palmdale only a few minutes ahead, but clear above 10,500 ft. I started my climb and saw a little blue to the west when I reached 10,500, but I was still in some pretty thick smoke so I climbed to 12,500 and were were above it. You could see the thick smoke billowing up like a volcanic eruption. Since I was now too high for the Shoreline Route through the LAX airspace, I diverted west towards Pt. Mugu so I could fly around the class B airspace and descend down to Catalina Island. If LA approach wouldn't have cleared me to descend through the class B, then I would have had to circle for ever to lose 10,000 ft of altitude before landing.

Catalina is an interesting place to land, I didn't find it very difficult, but I did perceive the "illusions". The airport is on the top of of a mountain on a mountain. It is sloped the whole, but it is less sloped on the south-west end of the runway so that you cannot see the end of the runway when you are on the ground. It's like a big crown in the runway. When the runway ends, it really ends with a huge drop-off on the back side. I found it difficult to pick out the runway until I was only a few miles out. I used the altimeter as my primary altitude reference (vs looking at the ground) since the runway is 1600 feet above the surrounding ocean. When on right base to 22, I swear I was flying the flattest approach of my life, but then by the time I got to final it looked as if I was way too high. I just added my last notch of flaps and had a nice approach.

I can easily see how students could easily over work the approach due to the illusions and get themselves into trouble. You land uphill and can't see the drop-off at the end of the runway, but you know it's there so you always feel that the runway is only as far as you can see. I just didn't worry since I know I didn't land long and don't have a long roll out that I wouldn't go off the end. We took off runway 22 uphill and watched the ground fall away from us then circled a little of the island before turning northbound.

Lunch was ok, but not what it has been raved up to be by other pilots. The buffalo burger was good, but not that big and the fries were ok. It was more of a "bus stop cafeteria" than an "island airport restaurant".

After lunch, we flew over to Camarillo and met up with Michelle's sister Lisa. We spent the day at the beach (it was hot out) then headed back to Ojai and had dinner at Papa Lennon's. The had great pizza and gelato.

Sunday we packed up, ate breakfast, then headed to breakfast. We were running a little slow and I was getting concerned since the winds pick up in Inyokern in the afternoon and there was already an airmet out for moderate turbulence. We needed to pick up some gas at the self serve since the FBO waived our tie-down with a fuel purchase, but the pump was broke. That took another half hour or so and I don't think were were airborne until noon. I flew up north towards Bakersfield to avoid the smoke and flew the ILS 30R approach to verify the VOR, ILS, and Marker beacon receivers in them airplane. The VOR antennas had been removed during maintenance and I've never used the ILS or marker beacons since I bought the airplane - all worked just fine.

From Bakersfield we headed eastward back home, but started to hit the bumps over the Sierras on the way. We really started picking up moderate chop on our descent through Walker's Pass and the AWOS was reporting winds variable 25 gusting to 30 knots. This would be a good chance for cross wind practice. I set up for runway 28 since the winds were ~250 degrees, but I couldn't line the airplane up on approach and the sock had switched to favor 20, so I did a go around. A left 270 put me on right downwind for 20 and I was able to land uneventfully.

I was nervous about the hanger door since it is extremely weak and is a huge sail in the wind. The latches that lock it open also don't work that great. I managed to get the door open and the wind caught it and slammed it up into the locks. I managed to get the airplane back in the hanger with no damage (twice in a row is a record!) and close the door without too much issue. Check out the video below of the trip. As long as I can start feeling a little better (feels like I've got a cold), we'll be heading to Watsonville next weekend to visit Michelle's aunt's and uncle's in Santa Cruz.