N951CC flies in formation

Yesterday, N951CC and I flew down to Apple Valley for our first formation flight. We will be flying home again this summer and attending the EAA in addition to visiting family. Instead of flying the Ripon Arrival this time where everybody enters a holding pattern flying around a lake and entering the OSH pattern 1 at a time, we plan on flying the Cessnas 2 Oshkosh mass arrival. The mass arrival involves meeting at Juneau WI on the morning of the flight for a briefing then taking off in groups of 3 flying in formation to Oshkosh. The groups of 3 follow each other roughly 1/2 mile behind the group. You can check out the Cessnas 2 Oshkosh website at www.cessnas2oshkosh.com/default2010.aspx.

We had a training clinic in the morning that was very informative and there were quite a few experienced formation pilots that were available to fly as safety pilots. The lead representative of the Bonanzas to Oshkosh was also there as an additional resource and was my safety pilot. I think it was great to have a very experienced formation flight pilot fly with me and help me learn the ropes.

Since I was busy flying I don't have any pictures or videos. When we actually fly into Oshkosh, Michelle will probably do some filming and pictures since it is pretty cool to see.

Granted flying close to another airplane is more dangerous than not flying close to another airplane, I don't consider it to be dangerous due to all of the communication. You know exactly what you'll be doing so you are never surprised about where the other airplane is or what it is doing. I think flying formation into Oshkosh will be much safer than the Ripon arrival we flew in 2006.

I was amazed at how much I needed to adjust my power in turns. I understand that the inside turn is a smaller radius, but I figured it would be negligible compare to the size of circle an airplane flies in a shallow bank. A fairly large power reduction was required on the inside to prevent passing the lead plane and almost full power was required on the outside turn to avoid falling too far behind. I think that the magnitude of these power changes will go down as I become more proficient and am able to judge relative motion between the aircraft more quickly. Slow response requires large changes than a faster response.

Overall, we don't fly in tight formation as you'd see in a airshow, but we are close enough that you have to continuously be watching your lead airplane to make sure to maintain the proper separation and position. Cruising enroute we are spaced about 150-200 feet apart.

Hopefully I can get some more practice between now and Airventure, the SoCal AOPA fly-ins might be a good opportunity, several pilots that attend these lunches were at the training clinic.

After the training flight we had lunch at the BBQ restaurant on the field. This is my second time there and they have EXCELLENT BBQ. I had the pulled pork sandwich, but others were also raving about their ribs and tri-tip sandwiches. We'll be back there again. You can no longer sign the walls there, but they now have a visitor book you can sign. I just added a second date to my original signature from last time down. Check out some other comments on the restaurant here www.airnav.com/airport/KAPV/SKIDMARKS_CAFE.

Valentine's Day flight to Lone Pine, CA

N951CC, out 1979 Cessna Skylane flew the family from Inyokern up to Lone Pine, CA for a short flight and lunch for Valentine's day. The weather was great and the air was mostly smooth. You could see reflections of mountains and clouds in the water that has filled the dry lakes. Due to the hot China Lake restricted airspace, I had to hug the Sierras for part of the flight. There is no transportation that I know of, but it is a short 1/2 mile walk from the airport to town. It was a great day to go for a walk. Lunch was OK, but the scenery was more worth the flight than lunch was.

N951CC flies to Ontario, CA

Now that Katie is starting to stand and climb all over everything, we wanted to go and look for a mini chair for her. We also picked up a bunch of diapers, a toy chest, and a bunch of other stuff. We had taken the bigger stroller with us for all the walking we did so we had a heck of a time fitting it all into the airplane on the way back. We made it fit and the flight was great.

I had requested and been approved by approach control to circle north of the airport to descend after flying through Cajon pass. The tower however wanted me to fly direct to the runway. I'm not sure why I came back saying I think I could make it, but the controller said I had "miles" when it was right in front of me and I was 3000 AGL (2000 above the pattern altitude). Ontario is a class C airport, which means it's a busy airport with airliners, but not quite Chicago or Los Angeles (class B). I try to cooperate as much as possible in order to not disrupt the flow of other traffic. In this case, I should have said unable and re-requested to circle. I had to fly an extended forward slip to descend in time and I used most of the 2 mile long runway to touchdown.

Katie showing off her oxygen mask

Last year I bought an oxygen system at the EAA Airventure. The vendor gave me a free children's mask when I told him we had a baby. Now that we own a Cessna skylane, we are able to fly high enough to require supplemental oxygen. We are planning on flying from CA to WI this summer to visit family and to be part of the Cessnas 2 Oshkosh formation flight into the 2010 EAA Airventure.

In 2006 we flew through WA to fly north around the Rockies. In 2008, I flew through TX south around the Rockies (and weather). This year we plan on flying through the Rockies in Colorado and we will be flying high. Michelle and I have tested the O2 flying to Phoenix when we cruised at 17,500 feet enroute.

I've been gradually trying to get Katie used to the mask so that she wouldn't have a problem wearing it this summer. Up till now she freaked out every time I give it to her. This time she did great. She held it up to her face on her own and wore it for quite awhile without complaints.

N951CC flies to Santa Barbara

The family flew to Santa Barbara to visit with Lisa for lunch and to hang out on State st. This was the first time I landed at a class C airport. Seems weird that I haven't flown into one earlier, but I just haven't.

I heard a lot of reports of steep ramp fees, but those were waived with just 7 gallons of gas. Their rate was a dollar more than my home field so I really only paid $7 for ramp fees. I'd rather not pay anything, but this wasn't the end of the world. I certainly won't avoid Santa Barbara if that is the most suitable airport.

The flight there and back was nice and smooth, but we had to rush out in order to beat the sun. We won, but only by 30 minutes. Hopefully we'll have more time to spend there next time.

Michelle did some camera work to get some new points of view while flying. Here's the video.

Katie is now standing on her own

Katie started standing on her own this past Friday (2/5/10). Before then she would stand for maybe a second, but would sit down right away. Now she stands for quite a bit at a time. She walks if she's holding a hand so now we just have to convince her to take her first real steps.

SPOT messenger and flight plans

This was a post on the Cessna Pilots Association forums that I thought was worth paraphrasing here just in case any pilots read my blog.

"BUT??? Did the pilot have a FLIGHT PLAN??? Isn't that the standard statement whenever there's a (non-News media) accident or incident..."

This comment spawned a question whether flight following or a flight plan was better.

There were a lot of comments saying flight plans were a waste of time unless you would be flying in areas where you are out of communication with ATC. Some people also brought up the SPOT messenger from http://www.findmespot.com/en/.

Here are my responses to these posts that I thought were worth repeating.

I'm really surprised and I guess disappointed by the number of people who say they don't file flight plans? You have to get a brief (if nothing else to check TFRs and NOTAMS) so why not just file a flight plan at the same time. You need to make them work for you so you don't have to put every twist and turn in and if you know it'll take you 30 minutes to close after landing then just add it to your time enroute. It's better than not having anybody come after you.

BTW, it doesn't matter which one is better, what is stopping you from doing both? I file a flight plan when getting my brief, turn on my SPOT and clip my "close flight plan keychain" onto my airplane key during pre-flight, open my flight plan as soon as I leave the vicinity of the airport, then call up approach for flight following. When I'm securing the airplane and take the keys out of the ignition, I'm immediately reminded to close my flight plan by the keychain.

My issue with SPOT is if you were disabled during the wreck or if it launched out of the airplane during the wreck, then you wouldn't be able to hit the 911 button. In my case I'd be relying on people to realize I'm missing and then remember I told them how to track me down using my SPOT track.



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I'm glad I read this message because it got me thinking after I wrote that last post... I was wondering if I can somehow connect my SPOT with the flight plan so that search and rescue would have access to my last known GPS location. I called SPOT and flight service to see what I could do.

First I called SPOT, my questions were related to if no 911 message was sent and the FAA or search and rescue called asking for the info, would they give it to them. The answer was NO unless they were one of my emergency contacts! I'm assuming that is unless you hit the 911 where they contact the emergency services. I asked if I could put "FAA" or "Emergency Services" as an emergency contact and he said yes. My primary emergency contact for my SPOT is now "Search and rescue and emergency services". I guess I do like the privacy considerations, but it seems stupid to let search and rescue have to search when they could be told where I am and to expedite the rescue.

I also called flight service and talked about the best way to get this information onto a flight plan. For VFR they said it was easy since the remarks field is free form type. He can put "Pilot has SPOT messenger on board" or "Contact family for last known GPS location". He said they only had 12 characters for IFR flight plans. I know some mountain search and rescue folks and they all know what the SPOT messenger is so I figure I can put "SPOT MSNGER" for 11 characters on the IFR flight plan and be good enough. I will be highly disappointed if they were to search for me and not google "SPOT MSNGER" if they didn't know what it was. BTW, the first hit on google for "SPOT MSNGER" is the company's website. I think this gives you the best of all worlds and is what I will be doing from now on.

Jayson