PPINE -- A pilot's journal

West

2008-10-03T17:50:00.012-05:00

The South Dakota badlands are still tinged with the pink of a lingering sunrise.The Missouri River is behind us, ahead lies Rapid City and a 10-hour wait before it's time to load up with freight and head for home. Next to me is a rare treat; an employee has hopped a ride from FSD to RAP so I have a passenger and somebody to talk to. Except he is asleep so I am, effectively, still alone.� I envy

Radar Love

2008-10-03T15:03:00.009-05:00

�I'm showing heavy to extreme precipitation north, south and east of Anoka. West of the airport I'm just showing heavy precipitation. If you can't get through, what are your intentions?� Decision time. Whenever an air traffic controller asks �what are your intentions?� it's time to sit up and pay close attention. Saint Cloud, just a few miles behind me, was in the clear and likely to stay that

Morning rainbow

2008-09-21T12:52:00.003-05:00

My preflight started in darkness. Between the flood lights on the ramp and the glow of my FAA-required 2D-cell flashlight I was able to determine there were 11 quarts of oil in each engine, both the main and auxiliary fuel tanks were brimming with gas, all the external lights worked and the airplane's paperwork was in order. A good airplane to fly then. And a luxury, being one of a few we

Stealing

2008-09-17T10:57:00.005-05:00

The weather at Iron Mountain is clear with good visibilities. At Oshkosh, from where I departed just 40 minutes ago, the ceilings were 500 feet with 2-miles visibility in mist. Even better the forecast for Anoka, where I will be 90 minutes or so after I land at IMT, load on 400 pounds of freight and add 240

The sound of democracy

2008-09-01T10:41:00.002-05:00

A Minnesota State Patrol helicopter has been hovering more or less over my house for the past 90 minutes. Every now and then it moves off for a bit, only to return. Apparently, 500 feet above my normally quiet home offers a good vantage point from which to observe the demonstrators assembling for their march on

Inheritance

2008-05-31T10:34:00.002-05:00

Taking over a student who has been working with a different instructor presents an additional set of challenges that aren't there when you're lucky enough to start with them from scratch. Each instructor teaches things in their own way and the challenge as the new instructor is to understand that just because a student was taught to do something differently doesn't automatically mean it's a bad

Spring has sprung

2008-05-29T22:06:00.004-05:00

The dog days of winter are over, replaced by the spring flying frenzy and soon to be replaced by the more traditional dog days of summer. After four solid months of truly awful weather it has stopped snowing, the slow moving low pressure systems that hung over Minnesota for what seemed like weeks on end bringing with them days of rain, snow, low clouds and general malaise have, for the most part

Threading the needle

2008-03-18T10:42:00.009-05:00

We have just passed Ft. Wayne, Indiana and the wind is starting to shift to the left and increase in velocity. The temperature has dropped a few degrees and we are eyeing the datalink weather. We are burning $90 worth of 100 octane, low-lead aviation gasoline every 60 minutes as 74% of 310 horsepower pulls us through the air. Outside, it is fine VFR. The ride is smooth and we've enjoyed a brisk

More milestones

2008-03-12T17:02:00.004-05:00

The flying lull continues but there have been some bright spots. One of my students passed his commercial check ride, the other his private. It's a great feeling on both counts to see dreams come true. On a more mundane level, my logbook now reads four figures. Passing 1,000 hours was a surprisingly low-key event. For years I looked at 1,000 hours as an unreachable goal, now it's just

The Dog Days of Winter

2008-02-06T09:42:00.000-06:00

There hasn't been much to write about because there just hasn't been a lot of flying lately. The past six weeks here in Minnesota has been one long string of lousy weather. Ceilings and visibilities have been low and on the rare occasions when it's been clear the temperatures have been below zero, which isn't much fun to fly in. The weather has led to a score of canceled lessons, frantic

Multi-commercial

2008-01-24T17:18:00.000-06:00

The check ride is over and I've added multi-engine privileges to my precious commercial certificate to go along with my single-engine qualifications. That means, technically, I can now get paid to fly a multi-engined airplane. Just like when I first earned my single-engine commercial the reality is that it will probably be a while before anybody hires me to fly a twin. Out of nearly 1,000 hours

Braking action � fair?

2008-01-21T20:21:00.000-06:00

It was snowing lightly with perhaps two-miles visibility. After four days of doing transition training for a new Cirrus SR-22 owner I was exhausted and just wanted to go home, grab a beer and enjoy being inside and warm for a change. The weather necessitated an ILS to get back to the airport and although we could see the ground from 5,000 feet, there wasn't much at all to be seen directly in

Twice the fun

2008-01-11T11:12:00.000-06:00

I'm finally getting the flying done for my multi-engine, commercial, instrument certificate and it's a blast. My time in the simulator with Linda before jumping in the airplane definitely paid off in terms of getting my procedures down. The sim experience meant I was pretty comfortable dealing with two throttles, mixtures, props, fuel selectors, carb heats, starters, alternators and engines.

A Christmas story

2007-12-24T18:00:00.000-06:00

I woke up this morning not wanting to fly. The weather last week had been miserable, with low ceilings and truly lousy visibilities to match. I'd wound up scrubbing a bunch of flights, which meant I wound up making hardly any money for the week. I had managed to find a slight break in the weather on Wednesday to go fly with two students, both of whom are taking their check rides next week.

ATP written

2007-12-07T16:55:00.000-06:00

The dreaded ATP written is done and it was about as brutal as I'd expected it to be. I wish I had some deep insight into the test, but it's just not particularly relevant to the real-world and takes knowledge of the arcane to a new level. I'd taken probably 10 practice tests using the faatest.com software and studied the ASA test prep book from cover to cover a few times over the past month.

More sim, the ATP written

2007-11-19T13:10:00.000-06:00

Linda and I got together for one last sim session going through multi-engine procedures before moving on to the airplane. I'm finally starting to get my head around the procedures and don't have to think quite so much about every movement I make, which translates into good fun. Linda ran me through a simulated check ride and it went reasonably well, I suppose. My ATP stalls (technically they're

The Multi

2007-11-10T11:27:00.000-06:00

I'm generally an optimist by nature. Starting work on the commercial multi-engine rating has turned me into a brooding, suspicious pessimist. Turns out this is actually a healthy attitude for a multi-engine pilot. The basic problem is that while a twin is just fine to fly with both engines running it turns into a real hairball when one engine decides to stop working. And in training one engine

Ferry Flight

2007-10-29T18:15:00.000-05:00

My cell phone rang at noon on Friday. On the other end was an airplane broker I'd done some work for in the past. He: �Hey, how'd you like to ferry a 182 to British Columbia?� Me: �Um, ok. When?� He: �Tomorrow.� The next 10 hours were a whirlwind of phone calls, preparations, more phone calls, more preparation and finally a bit of sleep. The deal with simple enough: A broker in Victoria, BC,

How to brief an instrument approach

2007-10-06T08:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, I'm behind in posting. Too much flying lately. I'll cheat a bit and post something I've written for my instrument students on briefing instrument approaches. It's a distillation from several different sources, including my own experience. Amazingly, approaches seem to go better when they've been briefed ahead of time. Not always, but most of the time. The goal of a good approach briefing

A quick update

2007-09-04T17:01:00.000-05:00

Yikes, it's been awhile since I've posted so here's a quick update just to keep things rolling. My instrument student who pinked his first check ride aced his retest and is now an official instrument-rated pilot.Another instrument student passed his check ride without much difficulty the first time out, which is outstanding.I've started working with another instrument student who has a bunch of

Solos, checkrides, sleep deprivation

2007-08-10T12:14:00.000-05:00

It was a beautiful morning for flying so one of my primary students and I hopped in a 172 to work on some takeoffs and landings. We hadn't flown together in nearly two weeks but you wouldn't have known it. His patterns were perfect and his landings were decent. After the third trip around the patch without having to say a word I asked him if he'd brought his medical with him. Turns out he had.

Missing man

2007-08-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

I don't get to do much flying on my own, but the opportunity presented itself Tuesday and I jumped at the chance. It wasn't the happiest of occasions as I headed up to the Fargo Air Museum to attend the memorial service for Gerry Beck, who was killed when his Mustang collided with another P-51 while landing at Oshkosh. I'm sad to say I never got to know Beck very well. I'd met him a few times

Numbers

2007-07-13T11:33:00.000-05:00

It's been about two months since I've totalled the columns in my logbook and I'm down to one open page left, so I figured it was a good excuse to whip out the calculator and get everything into shape. The milestone, of sorts, was my total time, which is just a hair north of 700 hours. That's not a lot, nor is it a little I guess. Dual given is also approaching a bit of a mini-milestone and is

A lesson

2007-06-18T22:34:00.000-05:00

The great thing about being an instructor is you learn a lot about flying. Most days, the lessons learned are painless and fun. Some days, they sting a bit. I was doing a flight review today in the Cirrus with a good, experienced pilot. Things were going well so I asked him to do a soft-field takeoff. The soft-field drill is a great exercise in touch and finesse, which is why I like to have

A special day

2007-06-09T15:45:00.000-05:00

So, I gotta admit, despite the hours and tough work, being a flight instructor has plenty of good points. This week has been hell, flights every morning at 7, hot, bumpy weather, thunderstorms, flights in the afternoon and again into the evening. Yesterday I flew at noon then again at 3, didn't get done flying until 8:30, home by 9:30, passed out in bed at 10, then up at 5:30 again for another