Just as I thought I was getting into a spell of flying I am grounded again – this time by the local wildfires. Numerous fire TFRs and, basically, why would anyone want to get in the way are keeping me on the ground for a while. I’m hoping next week or the week after I can do my night currency and some sight-seeing, maybe fly over the burnt areas and see just how depressing it all is.
2.3 Hours of Sim Time
Went to the airport first thing this morning to catch up on my instrument currency in the club’s Frasca 142. Two point three hours later my currency is extended 6 months:
- Montgomery Field to Brown Field, VOR approach and full missed approach
- LOC approach at Gillispie, usual missed approach (as opposed to the published)
- VOR approach at Oceanside, including extra holds, full missed approach
- ILS approach at Carlsbad
- VOR approach to Brown Field, partial panel to missed approach
- LOC approach to Montgomery Field and full stop landing
Quite a work out but the good news was that my skill and knowledge were still pretty sharp, didn’t make very many mistakes (well, that my CFII caught!). I’m now all caught up except for night currency which will come this week or next depending on the weather.
Airports That Scare Me
There are a few places I want to fly into but so far have not for one fear or another:
- Big Bear – tales of high winds over the mountain pass to get into the Lake Arrowhead area have put me off flying into here. Oh, and in the summer density altitude is scary, and in the winter I worry about ice and snow on the runway.
- Sedona – it’s very busy, it’s uncontrolled, and usually you land in the opposite direction to the take off. I think I have this image of me on final with another guy playing chicken towards me. Oh, and of course it’s a carrier landing, downdrafts and all that.
- Santa Ynez – mostly this is due to tales of crazy antics, mass disregard to the procedures for getting in and out of an uncontrolled field, just sounds crazy dangerous.
I’ll get to them some point, and perhaps Big Bear for my birthday later this year, but they definitely stand out.
McKinley Flightseeing Pictures
Had a great time in Alaska, only one bad weather day in the two weeks that we were there. Only got to do one flight – around and over the Mount McKinley base camp. Unfortunately we were too late in the season to make a glacier landing, the snow had already become too hard. Also unfortunate, we were two days too late taking the flight for perfect weather. Two days before our flight it had been cloudless over the mountain but the day we did it, the clouds were around 16,000 feet so we did not get to see the summit (but had enjoyed great views from the ground earlier in the week).
Hoping to get my flying club annual review taken care of on Thursday. There is a big storm coming down from British Columbia right now which may get in the way, we shall see. But in the meantime, feel free to take a look at my McKinley flightseeing pics or, if you have lots of time on your hands, take a look at the entire Alaska album.
Grounded For a While
In my younger days as a latin dance competitor, being grounded was a great thing, it’s one of things to be striven for, but in flying it’s not such a good thing. Well, it’s not good at all, actually.
My flying club requires an annual flight review to remain current in the scheduling system and my club review expires at the end of this month. No big deal but a couple of week’s ago I had a little tender surgery that has left me very not wanting, or able, to sit in a plane. I had to cancel the flight portion of my review (but did get the groundschool taken care of) and now just as I feel that I might be ready again, I am off to Alaska for two weeks. Then, when I get back, my CFI is in Italy so currently my flight review is scheduled for Sept 20th which seems a long time away. It’s possible that I might find someone else, especially as it seems like a good idea to have someone else criticize my flying for a change.
Looking forward to Alaska. On the advice of my CFI I have a ride booked to fly around Denali and then land on the Ruth Glacier. My CFI says that because you take off downhill, you get to watch the VSI show a descent even while climbing off the ground. Cool.
Decision Was Easy: No Fly
In the end my decision was made easy by the fact that the plane was grounded due to a large oil leak and no other plane was available. It also would have been easy on the day, too: driving last night I was caught in a huge downpour which I clearly would not have flown through and on the other side the clouds were low enough that there was no way I could have flown VFR over the mountains.
Deciding To Fly or Not to Fly
Friday lunchtime my wife needs to be here in San Diego to take me to a minor surgical procedure and then back home to Brawley. Rather than have two cars in town this seems like a perfect reason to use the privilege of being a pilot: I’ll go out Thursday night and pick her up.
I read about people flying to Oshkosh this week, or from here to Texas and the idea of trying to predict the weather on such a long trip boggles my mind. So here I am working out possibilities for the flight from MYF to BWC and I am already struggling.
- The mid-afternoon and desert cumulus are here, last two days there has been towering cumulus at 6000 feet a couple of miles north of the route I would take. I get nervous around cumulus.
- I can probably avoid them by leaving at 7 or 8pm but that means we wouldn’t get back to San Diego until 10pm or so, and that’s discounting dinner.
- The forecast for the next two days is for “isolated thunderstorms” in the desert in the afternoons. 99 times out of 100 they are edging their bets and there will be none but the bulk of the route has no reporting stations
- Finally, the runway lights are NOTAM’d out of service at BWC until further notice. I’ve landed no lights at MYF before and it was ok, never taken off with no lights. It’s probably no big deal but if the desert winds are up that all adds to the mix, and potential for trouble.
So it looks like I’ve already decided it’s a no-go though that won’t be decided until Thursday for sure; we’ll work out an alternate plan tomorrow. I tend to be over-cautious and perhaps all of you reading are shaking your heads wondering what is stopping me. A few long distance cross-countries will help me out but until then I will stay on the side of caution.
My New Headset
Thanks to everyone who gave their advice on my earlier post about what to buy. After much online research I went for the Halo from Quiet Technologies and they arrived yesterday. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.
My decision was based largely on price and comfort, the idea of in-ear phones was appealing but I had read some reports that microphone placement could be tough so the small headband (that can go around the neck) that comes with the Halo seemed like a good compromise.
I have my club-mandated annual flight review on Monday and will hopefully get to try them out then. In the meantime I have to experiment with how best to wear them.
ANR Headsets Worth It?
Got my annual bonus last month, some of it will cover my COM rating (slated to start mid-September when my CFI has space in his schedule) but I was thinking of getting an active noise reducing headset. But I wonder whether it’s worth the extra $ ? I’m not buying the Bose (too expensive and it’s almost a religion for me never to buy anything they make) but is there a unit people think is worth it? Part of me worries that it will be too quiet, there is something reassuring about hearing the engine. But it would be nice to buy myself a present. What do you think? And any recommendations?
Night Currency
Its been an occasional whine of mine that people don’t seem to obey the full stop rule in night currency, instead choosing to do touch and goes and saying that counts. Now I’ll admit that perhaps I am being too sticky but rules is rules and all that. Anyway, tonight I was pleased to be sharing various patterns with many different pilots, all of whom were doing stop and taxi backs.
It was a beautiful evening tonight, light mist sitting in the valleys north of Escondido, the sun setting over the coastline to the west; too bad I didn’t have my camera. Winds were almost calm, a perfect night for flying.