Flying into a Fly-In

Last Saturday was HOT! It was also the AOPA Fly-In in Frederick, MD, a short hop, skip, and a jump away from JYO. Husband and I have been looking forward to this fly-in for a long time, mostly because we'd be able to "fly in" instead of drive in. (We went last year and the year before that, but we didn't have our certificates yet.

Our departure from JYO was delayed by haze. The air was thick, hot, and steamy, even once it cleared enough to depart VFR. Usually, to fly up to Frederick, we can head out of the ADIZ and then turn to a head of around 350 and we're on the ground less than 30 minutes later. Because of the special procedures for the fly-in, we flew through the ADIZ to northeast of GAI, out through the WOOLY gate, and then joined up with the line of traffic to fly over the EMI VOR, turn right before the tower, up along a highway over a school and another water tower, then descend to land straight in. I flew the plane while Husband tried to figure out the procedures and listened to the temporary tower frequency. Sounds simple, right?

It actually wasn't too bad. Husband is good with maps and charts-- and our G1000 was a big help. I was on edge though-- and I think he was too-- both because of the heat and because the route took us within a very short distance of the ADIZ. Neither of us wanted to be the cause of an ADIZ bust!

We did hear someone bust the ADIZ as we were flying along the posted route-- the on-guard channel was hopping for a while as the controller barked out instructions to the guilty party (TURN RIGHT TO HEADING 360, DEPART THE ADIZ IMMEDIATELY). Later, we learned that the pilot was not going to Frederick, but had managed to stray into the ADIZ. When the guard started barking orders and scrambling whatever it is they scramble, the pilot then fled from the ADIZ, only to run straight into the expanded P-40 (restricted) airspace around Camp David! Poor guy had a BAD day.

We heard some of this on the frequency as we made our way through the AOPA hoops... so I was a bit flustered. As we approached the VOR where we would join the line of planes headed to FDK, we saw blip after blip appear onscreen on our MFD. I was a little nervous about making my way into line. The visibility wasn't great, so it was hard to trust that the other pilots would see and avoid us. Luckily, Husband had a handle on things and was a huge help.

We continually heard pilots announce their position on the tower frequency as they came into the area. This really confused me at first as the instructions clearly said not to talk to tower, but only to waggle your wings in affirmation if tower gave you instructions. For a while I was convinced that we should be communicating with tower, until we finally heard the tower state that all planes should maintain radio silence unless asked for specific information. That made me feel a bit better.

Somewhere over the school, we heard the tower recognize the plane in front of us, us, and the plane behind us (we were separated by about 3/4 mile between each). That was good, but it was strange to not answer on frequency, instead waggling our wings with vigor in response. After this point, things got a little hectic. The runway was looming in the windscreen-- right at my 2'o'clock. The plane in front of us didn't seem to be descending. Up until this point, I had been basically just following that plane, and since I hadn't heard a clearance, I didn't know whether to descend and prepare to land, or to stay high and follow the plane in front of us.

As I debated-- (and inadvertently made altitude and power changes to match my indecision), two things happened, 1) it became clear that the plane in front of us was not landing and was instead turning to parallel the runway; 2) I realized that Husband was telling me what to do. After a few moments, I was finally able to listen to what Husband was saying and I got us stabilized on short final and landed without incident.

Reviewing the approach and landing afterward, I realize a few things:

1. I will know to look ahead of time (and listen) for what point the controllers are "recognizing" planes approaching the fly-in.
2. I'll be more comfortable next time with the non-verbal communication aspect of these approaches.
3. Husband and I need to be even more clear in these situations about what job each of us is filling. We almost always split the flying and navigating/communicating responsibilities. But the pilot flying typically is still able to follow the communications as they occur. In this case, it was very helpful to have a second person in the plane that could devote 100% attention to communicating and figuring out how to follow instructions. In these complex situations, we need to decide what the pilot must hear for him/herself and what (s)he can trust the copilot to hear/understand.
4. This was a great example of needing to fly the plane first. I goofed and made some pretty big altitude and power changes when we were pretty close to the ground. Luckily, I never had the stall horn go off, and we were never in danger of being out of control. However, my pitch and power changes resulted in several wide airspeed swings (65-90) in a short amount of time and distance.
5. Though I hope our next entrance to a fly-in is a little more polished, I can say that we didn't damage ourselves or the plane, we didn't bust any airspace, and the landing (in the end) was pretty respectable with distinct chirps for back and front wheels.

More next time on the fly-in itself!

T-Storms: See and Avoid

Husband was planning to be gone all day Sunday, and I wanted to do some flying while I still could. Thunderstorms were predicted for later in the day, so we decided to get out early and go for breakfast. This basically required a crow bar to get me out of bed early as I am not a morning person. I used to bounce right out of bed to go flying, but I guess I must be getting jaded as I now have to have a conversation with myself to make it out of bed early. It goes something like:

"Ok. Time to get up."
"Oh, but this Heavenly Bed is soooo soft. I don't wanna get up!"
"But there's an airplane out there waiting for you... and pretty nice weather. Don't you want to go flying?"
"Weeeeell.... Maybe. Though it doesn't sound that fun right this moment, I can sort of remember that when I actually am flying it's awfully fun. Then, there's
always the landing... that's fun."
"So that's it, you're going to get up!"
"In theory, yes. We'll see how it goes."

Luckily, at this point, Husband stepped in with some coffee. I don't drink it often, that way it really does the trick when I need it. Thank goodness for Husband! (Course, don't think he's too chivalrous-- he knows he only gets to go flying if he's able to get me out of bed!)

A little later on, I was glad to have gotten up early. The radar was showing storms-a-comin'. We had originally planned to head up to Lancaster for breakfast and a trip to the pilot shop there... but decided to instead head to York for those most excellent pancakes. Once we got off of JYO, though, we could see the buildups in the distance. A quick check of the Nexrad confirmed that the storms were already moving in. The briefer had said the storms were moving about 50 knots/hr, and it seems he was correct. So, we made a quick decision, did a 360 while we set things up, and then turned back for FDK. After a go-around (maybe we didn't quite get things set up, after all!), we re-entered the pattern and landed in variable and gusty wind.

Breakfast at FDK was pretty good-- though York pancakes still hold the title. Then we headed over to the flight school to pick up some charts for Husband. While in the flight school, we left a message for F, an old college friend recently rediscovered. After a quick preflight, we were back in the air and headed home. An uneventful flight with a nice landing. I always wondered if I really put the correct wing down on crosswind landings-- I'm not really able to think about it while doing it, I just instinctively do it. Sure enough, I do-- because this time, I somehow put the wrong wing down for a second, but realized it instantly and was able to correct in time for a good landing.

After landing, we stuck around to clean off all the dead bugs on the cowling and leading edges. Yuck. I guess it's bug season again. I'll need to keep a close eye on things to make sure birds don't try to nest in the elevator again. (See this AOPA blog about things nesting.) We also warned a couple of fellow pilots headed over to MRB about the buildups we'd seen. I think they changed their plans. I felt bad for being the bearer of bad news-- but who wants to fly into thunderstorms!?

Husband's Fun Day at the Races

I usually only post about my flight experiences-- but this time, I thought I'd share one of Husband's stories. (If I can wrangle any pics out of him, I'll post those, too!)

Husband's catching up to me in terms of hours of PIC and X-Country time! He flew to Canada and back yesterday for the Red Bull Air Races. I opted out of the trip for sanity's sake (life's been moving just a little too fast lately!), though I kind of wish I had joined him. He did take another pilot friend, K, who also went with him last year to the Reno Air Races.

They decided somewhat last minute to fly to Windsor (Canada) instead of DET in Detroit, so we had to scramble a bit to get together the appropriate paperwork. It wasn't as hard as it seems to do-- all the information you need is easy to get on AOPA's website. The only difficult piece was navigating the site to get the Radio Operator's License-- the web site is hard to navigate. (Thanks, Aviatrix, for your posts on crossing the border-- we read those a few times, as well!) We also were confused about the English proficiency requirement. In case anyone's wondering, the FAA has secured an extension through March 2009 for US pilots. I ended up contacting the AOPA pilot helpline to confirm that piece of information. I highly recommend using the helpline if you have a question. It was really easy, quick, and comforting to be able to ask someone so directly!

Now, Good Dog is all set with a custom's decal and the proper paperwork-- and we've learned more about how to file a VFR flight plan. For some reason, our flight school isn't that big on VFR flight plans-- maybe because of the confusion with filing an ADIZ flight plan? We almost always get flight following, but neither of us had ever filed anything other than an ADIZ flight plan.

Husband had a 30 knot headwind on the way over, but was able to cut time off the trip by going more or less direct to Sandusky. Our experience in the Washington area is that you almost never get cleared through the Bravo airspace. I think I've been offered it twice in two years of flying. Apparently, that's not necessarily the norm for other places, as he was cleared through the Bravo airspace around both PIT and CLE. They had an uneventful landing at Windsor, were quickly cleared through customs (in fact, the customs folks had him taxi directly over to the fuel pump and met him there so he wouldn't have to stop the engine and then restart it to fuel up).

The races sounded amazing (and I mean that literally- I could hear them over the phone!). He and K opted for the "box" tickets instead of just general admission. The seats had not been selling well, so the price was cut in half. No big dramas happened on the course-- though because Saturday's races were cancelled, they ran both the prelim and the finals on Sunday. The US customs people were very accommodating in helping him change his arrival time so that he could stay for the end of the races.

After the races, they headed back out and had an equally smooth transition back into the States. For all the fuss that you usually hear about crossing the border, the customs folks that he dealt with-- on both sides-- seemed very helpful and easy to work with. I was actually surprised when he called around 8:30 to say they were back at JYO-- I thought they'd be gone much longer! His total time away was around 13 hours-- 6.9 of which were with the engine running-- and that was with a 30 knot headwind!

Birthday Wings

I finally got my birthday flight... and it was awesome! Last year, I tried to go for a birthday flight with my dad and my instructor, M, but the plane was over-fueled and we were too heavy. This year, though, Husband was in town and we had a great birthday flight!

Since it was my birthday, Husband let me fly both legs. I've been (as usual) hogging all the flight time recently, so he was sweet to think of that. We just did a simple flight out to Frederick. It was nice to be up in the sky in the middle of the week.

After landing at Frederick, we parked at the FBO and walked out the door to the airport restaurant. It's just a little cafe, and was filled with locals having an early Wednesday night dinner. Husband had a soft shell crab sandwich, and I had a cheese steak... yum. When we finished eating, we decided to walk around a bit to work off some of the food we had just consumed. We walked over and looked at the AOPA building. I have a secret fantasy of working for AOPA... working in the aviation field, for an organization that helps others, with other pilots. Oh-- and getting to fly to work if I wanted! What could be better! Hmmm, I wonder if they need management consultants for anything.

After living in the fantasy for a few minutes, we walked back across to gape at the Goodyear Blimp tied down in the grass. While there, one of the blimp's crew (I think he was the guy that drives the 18 wheeler that accompanies the blimp) came over to talk to us. He was really interesting to talk to. The blimp itself is basically buoyant-- and depending on it's load, travels with +/-200 lbs weight. The blimp travels with it's own tie down-- a big post that gets staked to the ground. The blimp has one big wheel that is turned perpendicular to the tie down so that the blimp rotates around the post freely. While we stood talking, it moved back and forth about 10-15 feet. We also learned that the blimp travels at about 35-50 knots in flight, and usually travels about 8 hours a day when on the go.

After our heads were full of blimp trivia, we walked back over to our non-buoyant, but very fun airplane and loaded up to head back home. We had a nice, uneventful flight home. What a great birthday!

Good Day for Crosswind Landings...

Looks like a good day for a few crosswind landings! Husband and I are taking off a little early this evening to fly over to FDK for dinner. A few years ago, when asked what I wanted to do for my birthday, I probably would have voted for the nice dinner out with friends, or something similar. Now, I can think of nothing better than to take an evening flight with Husband to a nearby airport with a diner. And hey-- he may even let me do a few crosswind landings for fun! :)

Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS)Output produced by METARs form (1440 UTC 14 May 2008)found at http://adds.aviationweather.gov/metars/index.php

KIAD 141129Z 141212 24005KT P6SM SCT250
FM1800 21008G15KT P6SM SCT150 BKN250
FM0300 20004KT P6SM OVC100
FM0900 21003KT P6SM OVC050

KMRB 141129Z 141212 18004KT P6SM SCT250
FM1800 18008G15KT P6SM SCT150 BKN250
FM0200 19007KT P6SM OVC100
FM0600 22003KT P6SM OVC050
FM0900 26003KT P6SM OVC025

Making Mom's Day

Sunday was Mother's Day (which you probably already knew unless you're under a rock or you live outside of the US). I can't remember the last time that I spent Mother's Day with my mom... We just usually aren't in the same place at the same time. So a few weeks back, a little idea popped into my head. "Why don't you fly down and see her?"

I thought about it for a few days, and then asked Husband. We've been trying to get a bunch done on our house lately, so I didn't think it would be a good time to go for the whole weekend... but he was up for a quick trip. I thought about trying to surprise her, but Mom isn't big on surprises. She likes to anticipate and to plan... and sometimes, to anticipate the planning. (Sometimes, I'm very aware of how much I'm like my mom!) So I decided to mention the idea to her about a week out... once I had seen the 7 day forecast and thought we had a small chance of actually making it happen. She seemed interested-- and by a few days later was definitely excited. In the meantime, I'd also mentioned to Dad that he could hitch a ride if he wanted. He wasn't planning to go home that weekend as he had commitments here in DC, but immediately accepted the offer.

So, we spent the end of last week carefully watching the weather. We only had the plane reserved for Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. The plan was to fly down late Sat afternoon, meet Mom, have dinner, spend the night, have breakfast (or brunch, if we were lucky), and fly back. We got lucky, and the skies cleared just in time for us to launch.

With the three of us in the plane (Flyer got an overnight at daycare), we were a little heavy, and I could feel it in the controls as we slowly lifted off the runway. But, the flight down went relatively smoothly. We flew into Horace Williams, a little airport owned by UNC. Apparently, the state is trying to get rid of the airport to make room for more campus buildings, but it's still there for now. Our landing was a little more exciting than I like. The winds were gusting across the runway as we landed, and didn't die down at all as we came below the tree line. I was surprised by this, and had to use all my focus to fight the gusts to get us on the ground. I was embarrassed by the two big bounces (and I think Dad was a little worried), but all of us were pleased to be safely on the ground given the strength of the wind. In hind sight, I have to wonder if we encountered a bit of tailwind, too. The wind measurement on the ASOS was knocked out of service by a storm the night before, so we relied on information from RDU and the airport advisory given by someone on the ground at IGX.

We had a great evening- Mom seemed to really enjoy us being there, and we had dinner out on her deck. The next morning, Husband and I both slept longer than intended. As soon as we were up, we checked the weather. Uh oh. The front coming across the state was arriving a bit faster than expected. So we nixed the idea of breakfast, and headed out to the airport. The first drops started falling as we drove up. We tried to preflight and get loaded up as quickly as possible-- debating our go-no-go the entire time, but by the time we taxied up to the runway, the visibility had dropped to 2.5 miles and the ceiling to about 2000', and there was no longer a decision to make. We were no longer in VFR conditions.

After a minutes of looking at the Nexrad, we taxied back to the FBO and fueled up. We went inside to get warm and dry, and were able to take a look at the radar as we waited. We saw a break looming, and started discussing the possibility of getting out then. We could tell that after that break, another wave was coming, and the airport would be IFR for the remainder of the day. Around that time, a crew came in who had just flown down from Philly. They confirmed our hunch that if we could get up and out about 10-15 miles, we would be in the clear and able to get home. So, once we saw the visibility go up to around 4-5, and the ceilings up to around 2500, we ran for the plane. We taxied out, did a quick runup to make sure all was good, and went over our procedures. In addition to our normal departure briefing (anything happens on the runway, pull to idle and brake; in the air below traffic pattern, ...), we added what we would do if we encountered low clouds or low vis, Husband would engage the autopilot, I would stay focused on the instruments, and we would use the head indicator to do a 180 and return to the airport.

It was pretty hazy when we first took off-- and there were a few low wisps of clouds, but we had both seen similar conditions at one time or another, so we stayed calm. After a few minutes of visibility around 5 miles, the sky suddenly opened up and we realized we could see at least 15 miles. From there on home, we had a nice, smooth flight. We slowly climbed to about 3500'-- leveling out every 500 feet to make sure we didn't inadvertently enter clouds. We used flight following-- and heard lots of other pilots asking questions about the weather. And we again had deep appreciation for the G1000!

We reviewed our decision making when we got home, and were pretty pleased with it. On the one hand, we were prepared to postpone, cancel, or divert if we needed, but on the other hand, we were able to safely complete the trip. It ended up being very nice flying weather, once we left the initial haze. If we had been a few minutes earlier to the airport, we might have made it out before the visibility dropped the first time, but studying the weather maps and resources for a few extra minutes gave us more confidence on what we would find. Dad must have been relaxed-- he sat in the back and worked the whole flight home!

In the end, I don't know if we made Mom's day, but I think it made our day to expand our flying horizons!

Flight in a Trike

Husband and I did an ultralight flight a few years on the the east coast of South Africa. That was back before I had any interest in learning to fly-- though Husband was already crazy for anything aviation. Some friends that we were staying with knew about the ultralights-- and so a big group of us went out to the coast to check them out. All the men were going up-- but none of the women. Husband had to talk me into to going... and I finally relented with the promise that if I freaked out, the pilot would just circle around and land again (I remember the comfort that gave me whenever I take someone up in our plane who's never been up before). Of course, as soon as we were airborne, I loved it!

So when I discovered the option to take an ultralight tour in Kauai, I immediately penciled it into our schedule! The day of our flight was beautiful. A few clouds at around 4500-5500 feet, but otherwise blue skies. While waiting for the two trikes to return from the previous flight, we suited up in flight suits provided by Birds of Paradise, our flight school for the day. After waiting a few minutes (remember my post on Aviation Time?), the woman helping us told us to look up. It took a minute, but then we saw and finally heard the trikes approaching the field. They seemed to drop effortlessly onto the runway, and then screeched onto the pads laid out on the grass as a sort of makeshift "ramp".

I got buckled in behind Dan and Nathan behind Tim, and then we quickly rolled out to the runway for the takeoff roll. I heard both pilots make the appropriate calls, and then we were airborne. The runway is right on the tip of Kauai-- running crosswise on a piece of land jutting out into the ocean, so that both ends of the runway are out over the ocean. We immediately flew out over the ocean and stayed just off the beach, flying over the water. The pilots flew us in and out of a few quick turns. I'm not sure what it would look like from below, but I imagined us dancing through the air on our large kites. Luckily there are no strings to get tangled! Dan started to show me how to maneuver the little craft-- and explained the basic principles of a weight-shift airplane. He let me take the controls after a few minutes. Though I was seated directly behind him-- his arm resting against my knees if not on the controls-- I could reach up to the giant bar that ran across in front of him and bent upward on either side of him. With that bar, I could control our pitch and roll movements. Unlike in conventional aircraft, pulling the bar back toward us made the nose pitch down, and pushing it away made it pitch up. It took me most of the flight to get used to the sensation as it is the exact opposite of our airplane. To turn, you moved the whole bar to the left or right. Of course, Dan had rudders and much of the usual flight controls in front of him.


I flew four or five times during the flight, each time for a few minutes. Most of the 90 minutes, though, I just enjoyed the sights and feeling of the wind whipping around us. In such a small craft, we could maneuver easily around and get very close to the cliff faces. We flew down to the water-- and leveled off only about 10-20 feet above to see some sea life (dolphins, sea turtles, etc.). Husband said that he and Tim flew down to about 5 feet off the water! They were definitely much more daring in their flight!





Once we made it around to the west side of the island, we turned inland and flew across part of Waimea Canyon. Spectacular! Then we flew along the Na Pali Coast, zigging and zagging along the valleys that open out to the sea. Most of this coastline is not accessible except from the sea, so it was beautiful and untouched. We watched kayakers cut through the water below, and saw a few sea caves where the water rushed in and out. Then we came up to Hanalei and Princeville, and we flew over our hotel, the Princeville Resort. I waved to the people on the beach, but I doubt anyone saw me as we were quite high at that point! We flew over Queen's Bath and I saw the water rush in and splash high over the edge. After a bit, we turned inland and flew over the saddle of the mountains, coming across the middle of the island.





We flew along side each other and a few helicopters, in and out of the craters and canyons. Everyone seems to fly clockwise around the island-- nice to know for safety! Once we came close to Lihue (where the big airport is), we turned south, and headed back out to sea, flying over the Sheraton, where we stayed for the first four nights. All too soon, we were flying over the coffee fields on the south side of the island, and we knew this amazing flight was coming to an end. Both Tim and Dan did dead-stick landings, cutting the power on downwind, just abeam the end of the field. Two other ultralights came in just as we did, all of us taxiing back across to the makeshift ramp. We learned later that one of the others was flown by the guy that edited/authored the guidebook we used while on the island. If only we'd known, we would have thanked him for all his suggestions!