Marathon: the last XC

"Miami Center, N787PE, 7500, shoreline, southbound to Marathon, KMTH."

I've been to Marathon, on the Keys of south Florida.
Hopefully that was my last paid XC... So i introduce you, the keys!




...After a nice dinner by the beach


Heading back home...

Navigating with a Sectional

I miss my old private days, navigating at 500 AGL. Well, i missed it so much that I decided to do the same on my commercial: navigate from Daytona Beach to Lake City at 500 to 1000 AGL. It was quite an adventure, because the sectional chart here is 1:500,000 and not as much detailed as it should be. Too many airspaces, prohibited areas, but not enough information about the terrain contours. Many roads and small rivers are not depicted and the lines of height as well are not shown. For someone that loved to do that low-"contact"-navigation using really amazing maps, 1:250,000 with every road and river, contour height lines, it wasn't an easy task... Yeah, i miss flying in Israel!

But anyways, it was harder to follow the planned route here, at such a low altitude. But the checkpoints were found - you can't miss the big lakes here, and are airports everywhere :) Here people fly higher, and simply use Airports as checkpoints. No one really invest all that time planning the chart, with the minutes along the route and everything. Although the Israeli military and old method is not used here at all in navigation, it is printed in my subconscious instincts - "heading, speed, altitude, clock, map, terrain" - I used it again at the lowest possible altitude and guess what - it always work! My instructor was impressed with my map and dead reckoning, and another instructor said in my stage 1 check ride that he is sending students to have tutoring with me for flight planning :))

Enough talking, check out some pictures!
Daytona Beach - Lake City Municipal - Cecil - Daytona Beach.

Cecil Airport

Don't bother the picture, that's our 737PE, the oldest lady of the Seneca fleet. It still flies exceptionally well, VFR , off-course.

Flying to Naples

Naples, the beautiful city of Florida's west coast. I went there for a short visit on my last cross country, and experienced very good service starting from the airport. The "follow me" guy promptly appeared to help us park the airplane, a crew car waited for us to go eat in the city while they refueled the plane for our flight back at the same night.

The city is so cool, you can spot some old-style buildings and european-like coffee shops everywhere downtown. Not to mention the peaceful beach and the huge fancy houses and cars.

Me and my instructor had dinner at Tommy Bahamas, an expensive cafe in town, great music and atmosphere, but not sure if it was worth my $30 plate of food. Well, who cares, after a flight that cost me more than $1000 who is counting more 30.... sad for the money but happy for the experience, we had a great time!

Piper Seneca on Multi commercial

Who says the Senecas are old, ugly and bad to fly? Well, there might be a little truth on the first adjective, old. But that's all, the old ladies are beautiful and so nice to fly!

I am lately working on improving my flight skills - doing things I've done before, like visual approaches, steep turns, slow flights, VMC demos, Instrument approaches, single engine patterns, diversions, and more. Yes, it looks like a waste of time and money but it's actually good I guess. First of all you improve your skills. Second, you get more experienced with the plane and with VFR flying, as you are applying for a commercial license with just a little more than 120 flight hours. Third, you get confident, so confident! Yes, experience makes you confident, point. I feel lately that I finally "got used to flying", it looks normal and so natural for me now. I don't get nervous anymore during a simple take-off or a controlled stall, or during bumpy conditions. I don't get anxious before the flights and I can sleep well the night before. The cockpit environment, during my private was so full of mixed feelings like tension, pressure, fun, joy and even fear at sometimes, now starts looking more comfortable, like your new office.



Yeah, I am starting to like this idea.... waking up, having your breakfast, taking your flight bag and heading to the airport, checking the weather and W&B at dispatch, going to the plane for another flight, and another and another.... Sounds too good to be true!
Even simulated emergencies are handled almost automatically, you perform the checklist items like a robot. Yeah, it's becoming a profession, I guess...

Have a nice week, and Pessach Sameach!

Instrument movie

I made a new movie about my Instrument Course in Daytona Beach, finished on february 2008. Enjoy it!

Flying commercial

Yeaaaaaahhh, finally after 2 long weeks of waiting, I got my temporary license and started flying the Seneca again, this time for commercial!
Looks pretty much the same, some maneuvers, some VFR navigation and diversions, actually you feel like having a "deja-vu". The difference i think is the approach to flying the plane, the responsibility, the decision-making, the subtle way of flying, having people paying you in the back.

Mostly, pretty much fun flying VFR freely again!!
Hope to post more pictures soon... peace in the skies.

Waiting, waiting, wating....

I read on the newspaper last week that Florida is packed with foreign student pilots. Mostly people from India and China, consequence of the big-aviation-boom in those countries in Southeast Asia, are streaming to the sunshine-state skies to earn their wings and then go back home.
Add that to the fact that the US dollar have never been so low in the whole world.... What a perfect combination for wannabe pilots.

Well so far it looks like good news right? The local economy enjoys this grow as well: student pilots fill restaurants, go to clubs, buy laptops, rent apartments, even buy cars. Needless to say about flight school owners, popping their champagnes after every new aircraft that joins the expanding fleet. However, that's bad news to us pilots! We wait between flights, more planes are grounded, all instructors are busy as hell, lack of airplanes, lots of cancellations and the list goes on. Not to mention the mess in the skies, the sharp watch out for traffic, the endless waiting on the hold short line before take-off, the numbers in the hobbs rolling in the ground while your heart burns as you feel your money burning too...

Yeah it's been a pain. Also for all part 141 students, we have a lot of stage checks - those are mini-checkrides inside the school, after every stage of your course. And what happens is that the average waiting time between your last training flight and a stage check is about a week, so imagine what happens when you do your instrument rating where you have 3 stage checks and one final checkride. That's about 4 weeks of waiting, doing nothing. Students are getting bored and desperated.

I didn't mention the paperwork between courses... It's also about a week of waiting after you finish one course/rating and want to start a new one. You need to get your temporary license, and it passes trough about 7 different people to check it and sign it, so in average one person a day can check it because "everyone is so busy in school" and then.... hell!

Until when??

A lesson on Multi-Engine

Hopefully this week will be the last on Multi-Engine, I've been studying a lot for my End-of-Course. I can start to feel the anxiety to start flying commercial!

Because I had nothing very interesting to post here this week, I thought useful to share here a bit of my studies. Anyone interested in a multi-lesson? Well if you are here reading this and have the odds for the nerdy-flying stuff or has nothing better to do right now, you might wanna take a shot:


VMC
"Vmc is the calibrated airspeed at which, when one engine is made inoperative, it is possible to maintain control of the airplane with that engine still inoperative, and thereafter maintain straight flight at the same speed with an angle of bank no more than 5°."

The method used to define or simulate the critical engine failure (Vmc) must represent the most
critical mode of failure with respect to controllability according to FAR 23.149.

Conditions by which Vmc is determined by the manufacturer for certification:
I. Standard Atmospheric conditions exist
II. Most unfavorable CG and Weight
III. Airborne and out of ground effect
IV. Critical engine inop.
V. Bank no more than 5° in the good engine
VI. Max takeoff power
VII. Trimmed for takeoff
VIII. Flaps in takeoff position
IX. Cowl flaps in takeoff position
X. Landing gear retracted
XI. Inop engine windmilling
XII. Rudder force to maintain control must not exceed 150 pounds
XIII. Must be possible to maintain a heading +/‐ 20°

The Critical Engine:
"Critical Engine is the engine that will produce the most undesirable effects on the airplane when suddenly made inoperative."

• Four factors that determine critical engine
1. P – P‐factor
2. A – Accelerated airflow
3. S – Spiraling slip stream
4. T‐ Torque effect

A view from the pilot's seat

For those who still were not there, I introduce you the view from the pilot's seat of a Piper Seneca, over the beautiful Florida shoreline. One picture worth one thousand words.

If you were getting used to my pictures on the C172 with the G1000, well things have changed a little bit... Now we have 2 engines, but back to the old 6-pack gauges, and believe me when I say old, that's because it's really old :)

Take a quick look in the cockpit, see any differences? "Yeah, some LCD screens appear to be missing..."



This week I also had a happy visit: Chen, old mate from Private Pilot home base back in Israel, came from Washington on a long cross-country and stopped at KDAB to say hi! And here is the picture, posted for the posterity. From Meggido to Florida, slowly climbing the stairs of the long aviation career...

Flying the Multi

I present you the Piper Seneca, an old warrior. More than 30 years in service, most of its instruments inoperative. Some bolts in the cowling fairing missing here and there, but nothing to worry too much about. I'll quote here my instructor comment about the exterior preflight inspection of the engines: "You shake it a litte bit, if the engine doesn't fall, it's good to fly"
:)

I have another interesting quote from one of the MEI students: "To fly the Seneca, you just have to lower your standards".

Well, wether it's old or part-functioning, it's certainly much fun! Today we've been practicing some engine failures, and single-engine approach and landing - a lot of work, but a lot of fun!

Instrument Rated, finally!

Yeahhhhh it finished today, after almost 3 months of approaches, holdings, interceptions and trackings. We started already Commercial Pilot ground school, and we hopefully will start flying some VFR finally.

Hope Ill have more time to post here more often... Have a good week everyone!

Getting some actual!

My last XC: KDAB - KTLH - KCRG - KDAB, totalling 5.2 hours!
Well, Tallahasse is really far from Daytona, it's a little more than a 2 hour flight in a C-172. You get there and start streching yourself, not mentioning the huge urge to pee. Yeah, I learned that Gatorade it's not a good idea in flight. Living and learning...

First time of Actual IFR, it's so amazing to fly over the top, and then break the clouds to approach the runway! Certainly a privilege not every Instrument student gets... See some pics, they talk for themselves.

Cumulus formation embedded in the middle of a stratus overcast layer.

How it feels in the G1000 at 7000 MSL...


And seeing the sunset over a overcast layer at 7000 ft... there is no price for that!


...finally at the Fancy FBO in Tallahassee. They have internet with MSN, 5-star-hotel restrooms, a pool table, and even delicious free cookies over there, you should try some!