This aircraft had been sitting patiently at Tacoma-Narrows since last month. I decided to take it up today. The weather was iffy, as usual for this neck of the woods, but it looked like it would stay VFR all the way.
Initially I was going to swing directly through SeaTac, but I saw a lonely tower controller at Paine and so I decided to make a detour there. Things got a little bit worrisome north of West Point, when the weather started getting really misty, but I was still above minimums (barely). The tower directed me to a right downwind to 16R, and I finally spotted the airfield about 4 miles out. Landing was without incident. Paine Field has a nice big runway (16R), thanks to Boeing's presence there.
After sitting at Paine for a while, and without topping off the tanks this time, I decided to fly back down to Seattle, per my original plan. It couldn't be a simpler flight, as it's practically a straight line from 16R at Paine to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and it's only 29 miles, and flying there takes you right over downtown Seattle. Simple and easy. I was instructed to make straight in to 16C.
Landing was pretty good, but the wind was gusting terribly near the surface, and I was practically inverted by a few of the gusts. I kept my approach speed high and cautiously made my way down, but it was still a rather bumpy landing. I taxied over to my favorite spot north of the tower and parked. The weather was a little clearer but quite windy, with the clouds zooming to the east overhead.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Gila Bend - Phoenix - Scottsdale / Cessna 182RG II (N7049S) / VFR
Two textbooks flights—I'm starting to get good at this. Nice weather helped (a bad Internet connection did not). I had no passengers on these flights.
The flight out of Gila Bend was by pilotage before dawn. As usually, I followed the cars on Highway 85 up to Interstate 10, and then turned east (when you're eastbound you don't need to follow the Interstate, the brilliant glow of Phoenix is impossible to miss). I made straight in to 7R and taxied over to Cutter Aviation, where I parked and had the tanks topped off (I like full tanks).
Shortly thereafter, as the eastern sky grew bright, I made my way to hoity-toity Scottsdale Municipal Airport. Winds were favorable and I just swooped over Camelback Mountain and made straight in to the airport. Taxied my modest POS Cessna to an isolated spot way behind the Citations and Learjets and self-consciously secured it to the ramp. They pay more on fuel for a flight than my aircraft is worth new. Oh well. My other airplane is a 747! (I mean my other airplanes.)
The flight out of Gila Bend was by pilotage before dawn. As usually, I followed the cars on Highway 85 up to Interstate 10, and then turned east (when you're eastbound you don't need to follow the Interstate, the brilliant glow of Phoenix is impossible to miss). I made straight in to 7R and taxied over to Cutter Aviation, where I parked and had the tanks topped off (I like full tanks).
Shortly thereafter, as the eastern sky grew bright, I made my way to hoity-toity Scottsdale Municipal Airport. Winds were favorable and I just swooped over Camelback Mountain and made straight in to the airport. Taxied my modest POS Cessna to an isolated spot way behind the Citations and Learjets and self-consciously secured it to the ramp. They pay more on fuel for a flight than my aircraft is worth new. Oh well. My other airplane is a 747! (I mean my other airplanes.)
Lake Havasu - Gila Bend / Cessna 182RG II (N7049S) / VFR
I'm happy to say that this was s textbook flight, everything went right, even though it was night VFR.
I filed PKE055031.BXK262042.GBN285039.GBN as my route. This would take me over very low terrain, which was important because the desert is completely dark at night and the moon isn't out. I wanted a big margin between me and terrain, so I filed for 7500 feet, which would keep me thousands of feet above everything on my path.
I worked out my route on SkyVector so that I had headings to fly and fixes to find. I was able to fly almost exactly the runway heading out of Lake Havasu to reach my first fix, PKE055031, then from there I turned towards my second fix, BXK262042, and managed to reach it within a mile or so. Then it was from there on a heading of 142 to the GBN 285 radial, which I met 39 miles out, just as planned. A gradual descent towards the airfield follow, and I made a very nice right base into the airport, with a very gentle touchdown. Everything went just fine.
I filed PKE055031.BXK262042.GBN285039.GBN as my route. This would take me over very low terrain, which was important because the desert is completely dark at night and the moon isn't out. I wanted a big margin between me and terrain, so I filed for 7500 feet, which would keep me thousands of feet above everything on my path.
I worked out my route on SkyVector so that I had headings to fly and fixes to find. I was able to fly almost exactly the runway heading out of Lake Havasu to reach my first fix, PKE055031, then from there I turned towards my second fix, BXK262042, and managed to reach it within a mile or so. Then it was from there on a heading of 142 to the GBN 285 radial, which I met 39 miles out, just as planned. A gradual descent towards the airfield follow, and I made a very nice right base into the airport, with a very gentle touchdown. Everything went just fine.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Seligman - Lake Havasu / Cessna 182RG II (N7049S) / VFR
This flight of just over an hour took me from Seligman to Lake Havasu. Neither city has much to recommend it, but the flight was pleasant. I even flew over the speed traps in Kingman.
This was mostly pilotage; I essentially followed Interstate 40 for most of the way, first at 8500 feet, then down to 5500 after I left Kingman. The weather was very clear. My Internet connection was working well enough to let me fly online with real-time weather, for the first time in several days.
The landing was extremely smooth, at almost exactly noon local time. This tiny Cessna is so slow that you can practically read a book during the approach and still land on the numbers.
This was mostly pilotage; I essentially followed Interstate 40 for most of the way, first at 8500 feet, then down to 5500 after I left Kingman. The weather was very clear. My Internet connection was working well enough to let me fly online with real-time weather, for the first time in several days.
The landing was extremely smooth, at almost exactly noon local time. This tiny Cessna is so slow that you can practically read a book during the approach and still land on the numbers.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Los Angeles - Las Vegas / Boeing 767-300ER (DAL7741) / IFR
I piloted the fictional Delta Airlines Flight 7741 from Los Angeles to Las Vegas once I was reasonably confident that I was back in the groove somewhat with the 767. It's easy to see why real-world airline pilots are restricted to flying certain aircraft types at a time: it's easy to forget procedures and mix up procedures if you try to fly twenty different aircraft concurrently.
Anyway, I picked a fictional flight because I couldn't access any Web sites to check for real flights with my malfunctioning Internet connection. I filed on VATSIM with text only because I suspected that my connection wouldn't support voice channels. As it was, I was disconnected no less than five times during the flight, which only lasted ninety minutes from gate to gate (including a long time preparing at the departure gate).
I felt bad about using text with ATC because it was a really busy night, and a lot of the traffic was clueless, not following instructions, doing things wrong, not replying to ATC or replying so slowly that other calls were delayed, and so on. Sometimes there are nights like that, when every incompetent pilot seems to decide to fly on the same date in the same airspace. There were some good pilots, too, but they weren't the ones taking up the controllers' time.
Apart from my need for text and the problem of disconnections, I'm happy to say that my flight went okay. I flew the LOOP4 departure correctly (which already set me apart from part of this evening's crowd, it seems): the departure requires a heading of 250 until SMO160 below 3000, then 235 until vectored to LAX. Some FMC databases just point to LAX, on the assumption that the first part of the departure will be hand-flown, but if the pilot doesn't know how to hand-fly it, and/or doesn't bother to actually read the departure plate, there's a problem. Anyway, I flew the first part of the departure with the MCP alone, then, when I got my vector to LAX, I turned to LAX with the MCP and once I was pointing in that direction I let the FMS take over.
The flight was very smooth, which is not surprising since I was missing current weather. The FMS followed the descent profile perfectly but seemed to have trouble with the speed constraints; I adjusted speed manually on the MCP in consequence. I got the expected “cross CLARR at one tree thousand” and did as I was told, although the FMS didn't reduce my speed, so I had to do that myself (it's sometimes hard to respect a descent constraint and a speed constraint, the laws of physics can get in the way). Then I was instructed to descend via the KEPEC2 arrival (the one I had filed), and later I was cleared for a visual approach, which I could easily accept in the surrealistically clear weather (clear even by KLAS standards). I nevertheless set up the ILS for 25R. I turned north over Hoover Dam (passengers always like to see Hoover Dam, especially lit up at night) and down to 4300 or so, then to 4000 with LOC armed, which was soon captured. With the full approach engaged, I notice some phugoid-style adjustments of the autothrottle—not enough to feel much, but I see and hear the engines changing a lot. But the approach was clean, and I turned off the automatics a few miles out and hand-flew the approach … the 767 is very easy to fly by hand. Touchdown was soft but not perfect (by my standards). I taxied over to and swiped a Southwest gate (C21, I think) for my arrival.
I could only hear snippets of voice communication with my bad connection, but the frustration with some of the traffic in ATC's voice was clear. I'm glad I managed not to cause any trouble beyond the inconvenience of text and five disconnections (neither of which I had any control over).
Anyway, I picked a fictional flight because I couldn't access any Web sites to check for real flights with my malfunctioning Internet connection. I filed on VATSIM with text only because I suspected that my connection wouldn't support voice channels. As it was, I was disconnected no less than five times during the flight, which only lasted ninety minutes from gate to gate (including a long time preparing at the departure gate).
I felt bad about using text with ATC because it was a really busy night, and a lot of the traffic was clueless, not following instructions, doing things wrong, not replying to ATC or replying so slowly that other calls were delayed, and so on. Sometimes there are nights like that, when every incompetent pilot seems to decide to fly on the same date in the same airspace. There were some good pilots, too, but they weren't the ones taking up the controllers' time.
Apart from my need for text and the problem of disconnections, I'm happy to say that my flight went okay. I flew the LOOP4 departure correctly (which already set me apart from part of this evening's crowd, it seems): the departure requires a heading of 250 until SMO160 below 3000, then 235 until vectored to LAX. Some FMC databases just point to LAX, on the assumption that the first part of the departure will be hand-flown, but if the pilot doesn't know how to hand-fly it, and/or doesn't bother to actually read the departure plate, there's a problem. Anyway, I flew the first part of the departure with the MCP alone, then, when I got my vector to LAX, I turned to LAX with the MCP and once I was pointing in that direction I let the FMS take over.
The flight was very smooth, which is not surprising since I was missing current weather. The FMS followed the descent profile perfectly but seemed to have trouble with the speed constraints; I adjusted speed manually on the MCP in consequence. I got the expected “cross CLARR at one tree thousand” and did as I was told, although the FMS didn't reduce my speed, so I had to do that myself (it's sometimes hard to respect a descent constraint and a speed constraint, the laws of physics can get in the way). Then I was instructed to descend via the KEPEC2 arrival (the one I had filed), and later I was cleared for a visual approach, which I could easily accept in the surrealistically clear weather (clear even by KLAS standards). I nevertheless set up the ILS for 25R. I turned north over Hoover Dam (passengers always like to see Hoover Dam, especially lit up at night) and down to 4300 or so, then to 4000 with LOC armed, which was soon captured. With the full approach engaged, I notice some phugoid-style adjustments of the autothrottle—not enough to feel much, but I see and hear the engines changing a lot. But the approach was clean, and I turned off the automatics a few miles out and hand-flew the approach … the 767 is very easy to fly by hand. Touchdown was soft but not perfect (by my standards). I taxied over to and swiped a Southwest gate (C21, I think) for my arrival.
I could only hear snippets of voice communication with my bad connection, but the frustration with some of the traffic in ATC's voice was clear. I'm glad I managed not to cause any trouble beyond the inconvenience of text and five disconnections (neither of which I had any control over).
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Various flights offline
I flew around a bit in a 737-800 and 767-300ER today, but offline. My Internet connection has been so bad these past few days that I couldn't even sign on to log my flights. I couldn't get any charts or online weather, either, so I flew using existing flight plans that I had, through severely clear skies.
I'm rusty on the big iron again. My simulation of Southwest Flight 950 in a MTOW 737-800 went okay (although I left half an hour late), but I messed up some procedures on my 767 flights, which were charters. I did the same KPHX-KLAX route several times to get it right.
I'm actually posting this quite a bit later than the date shown because I couldn't post anything at all last night, but I like to keep things in chronological order.
I'm rusty on the big iron again. My simulation of Southwest Flight 950 in a MTOW 737-800 went okay (although I left half an hour late), but I messed up some procedures on my 767 flights, which were charters. I did the same KPHX-KLAX route several times to get it right.
I'm actually posting this quite a bit later than the date shown because I couldn't post anything at all last night, but I like to keep things in chronological order.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Santa Monica - Montgomery Field / Beechcraft Bonanza A36 (N6835W) / IFR
After dropping off two passengers and resting a bit, it was time to take my remaining two passengers back to San Diego and Montgomery Field. I filed IFR with a TEC route for this, as it was still crummy weather. The flight was largely without incident, but there was a lot of turbulence, especially coming into Montgomery Field, with gusting winds all the way down to the surface. Landing was a challenge, but it was smooth.
I still had to work without charts and even without voice transmission because of my Internet problems.
I still had to work without charts and even without voice transmission because of my Internet problems.