Back in the nest

I picked the plane up from annual on Tuesday.  It was a good day for a post annual test flight with some wind but clear weather.  Annual had gone smoothly but the first flight after any maintenance is always an event.  No matter how good the shop is, the mechanics are human and maintenance induced failures are a thing.

This means extra careful preflights and checking all systems to make sure everything works as it should.  I am happy to report everything went well and it was a nice, uneventful trip home.  Three weeks of not flying did not seem to have impacted my basic flying skill much.  I did find my power setting was not as precise and my first landing was a bit flat but acceptable.

Friday I got out again to go over things one more time.  There was some weather down by Saint Augustine which I used to check the radar and refresh those skills.  The showers were pretty widely scattered so I could see them easily.  They were also short so the radar had to catch the moisture in a very thin slice of the atmosphere.  This creates problems imaging over urban areas.

The image above is zero degrees tilt and you can see how the coast refelects plenty of energy.  Zero tilt is fine over the ocean but over land you need to tilt the dish up at least 5 degrees when down low.  This next picture is with the radar 5.25 degrees up.

And this is what the XM radar is showing. Pretty close to the real time.  These showers were not moving too fast.  I can tell you that the big green blob in front of the plane on the XM was clear air though so a little bit pessamistic in this case.

The XM did miss that the shower off to my left was more intense than I would have liked.  It was showing just yellow but the the Radar below from a few minutes earlier as I was approaching shows clear areas of red and it looked mean visually.

A good reminder that XM and ADSB are not for penetrating storms.  Here is the case where the ground may be an issue.  Still tilted up to 5.25 degrees and the XM says a light shower. South East of SGJ.

Radar is saying it has moved more West and it's stronger.

That is around downtown Saint Augustine so is the red rain or building?  Simple answer, avoid it but, I think it's more rain.  The coast was painting strongly but at 5.25 degrees up, it is mostly gone, so at such a short range, my beam is not gonna reflect much down low and the coast farther out is not giving any ground returns.  My eyes also saw the heavy rain shower in that location and not where the XM placed it.  

The irony was that these showers were very local to the area.  The picture above is how it looked back home and once I passed the shower it looked like this.

Saturday night I decided I should reset the dates on my night currency so did a nice flight with some full stop landings to reset everything. 

The lights in Saint Augustine were quite nice from the air and Deck the Chairs even represented pretty well.  Overall happy to have the plane back and gearing up for some more adventures in 2024. 

Donuts with David and the year in review

Airplane is still in annual.  I have a tradition of inviting people over to the hangar for coffee and donuts while the plane is gone.  This year I decided to enhance the experience with a safety meeting in addition to the refreshments.  

We had about 18 people, depends if you count the infant guest.  Our topic was Back to Basics and we discussed common causes of accidents such as fuel, capability, performance and lack of planning.  Overall we had a nice talk.  The last few mornings have been cool but today it was pretty warm.  We had less coffee drinkers and I blame the warm weather.

It's been a busy year flying.  I may get a few more hours at the end of the month but so far I flew 212 hours in 2023 including 31 instrument approaches and 19.4 night hours.  We marked 12 states off in our quest for the lower 48 and took 2 big vacations and 4 small ones.  I also worked in 61.7 hours of public interest flying.

Overall it was a good year and I kept current and proficient.  I completed both a flight review and an Instrument Proficiency Check and both were good confirmation that my continuous training is working.  Looking forward to getting the plane back and  having more adventures in 2024.

Plane-less

 

It’s that time of year. Annual inspection is due midnight November 30th so I took the plane down a few days early. The weather Sunday was pretty terrible and Monday morning there were lingering clouds and IFR weather so I was not in a big rush.

I slept in a waited for the weather to improve. New Smyrna (EVB) where I had scheduled my annual was reporting 1300’ but it was clearing around home though we had some lingering low clouds. I departed runway 32 with an initial climb to 3000'. The air was cool and the plane had half gas which meant I was 800 pounds under gross weight.

I had a great climb rate and was soon cleared to 6000’ and on course. I made great time with a 26 knot tailwind and 204 knots ground speed.  The surface winds were 12-18 @ 320 and they were using runway 02. I asked for 29 and the controller said that makes more sense given the winds.

I was cleared direct to the 29 IAF and was soon descending when the next controller said that the tower had cancelled my 29 approach and wanted me back on 02. Though not my preferred runway but, it was well within capabilities of the plane and pilot so off we went on vectors for 02.

I soon descended into a thin layer and after a quick approach, broke out around 1400’ with the runway straight ahead. After that it was a nice arrival even if the winds had swung around and were a slight gusty quartering tailwind.

I went over the list of extra stuff I wanted the shop to look at while the plane was apart like replacing a tire near the end of its life and re webbing the front belts that started to show some wear.

I could have headed home from there but we had decided to take a mini beach vacation and we had reservations in Daytona Beach. Before we headed for the beach we did some sightseeing in New Smyrna. I have flown in a bunch but never really seen the town.

We started at the airport.  Epic aviation, a local flight school has the remnants of a DC-7 Aircraft.  Not sure how it got there but I would be in no rush to try and take it for a spin.  Looking in the wheel wells you can see the control cables askew and rusted and the fabric tail is looking a bit ratty.  One prop is missing a blade and about 10,000 other things are wrong but it's an amazing piece of history.

We drove around a bit and saw some of the historical sights like an old sugar plantation which was destroyed by the Seminoles and the enslaved workers.  After that we went to Old Fort Park which seemed to be misnamed as it was the site of an old hotel until was burned down during the civil war.

We had seen an old time Dairy Queen on the way and stopped by for a snack. They only have ice cream and hot dogs. The dogs were all beef and $1.29, a super bargain. CC had one but I forced myself to have two.

After the dogs we indulged in blizzards. The weather was really nice, cool but not cold. Our room was waiting and my Marriott rewards had come through with a free upgrade to an oceanfront suite. We enjoyed the view for a bit and then took a long walk on the beach. I thought one sign was a bit confusing.

You can drive on Daytona Beach and at the end of the drivable part they want you to turn around to the left but the sign pretty much sends you into the ocean. Dinner was from Senor Taco, our favorite local Mexican place.

Though sunset brought colder temperatures, we had a great full moon rising over the ocean. Tuesday we slept in and then visited a local historical site which we believe had the old sugar making equipment from the other sugar plantation.  They moved it up after the previously discussed "fire".  We also went back to the Ponce Inlet lighthouse. we had gone on a previous visit.  It's a bit over 200 steps up but the view is well worth the climb.  

We then ate way too much for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon walking the beach.  I have few weeks of flying withdrawal until I get the bird back but hopefully she will soon be ready for another year of intensive flying.  

Thanksgiving

Long time readers know that Thanksgiving means flying.  Yes it will also involves turkey and as a side note, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly". We headed out this morning to the airport with glorious weather.  My hangar door is still broken but the Jet Center was open until 3PM and they had the plane on the line waiting.  

My daughter Samantha and her friend Tyler were my passengers and we headed out to sightsee and let Tyler get a feel for the plane.  We cruised around South of the airport for a while practicing turns and generally enjoying the weather.

We stayed out for an hour and it flew by.  Heading in we called the tower 13 South East.  There was another plane inbound 10 miles out but a quick look showed they were moving around 80 knots and we were closer to 170.   We soon had them in sight and by 4 miles we had zoomed past them.  

We landed, turned off and taxied in before they touched down.  Nothing like speed.  The rest of the day will be devoted to eating.  The non flying turkey is slowly roasting and we have all the fixings.  Wishing one and all a happy, healthy and joyous holiday.

Stuck

 Last week, when I put the hangar door down, the motor did not stop when it touched the ground.  I was standing there so I manually hit stop. This was bad and potentially dangerous.  I mentioned it to management so when I went out 8 days later, I had assumed someone had looked at it.  Well that was a pretty dumb assumption.

I have a routine when I get to the hangar.  I unlock the door, hit up on the door,  put my flying bag on the wing and check the oil because if it's low I want to start adding it.  So bag is on the wing and door is slowly rising and then, it stops.  It is open about 3 feet.  No way the plane is sliding under that thing.  

I gave a call to line service and they said they will come look.  I tried cycling the door down and up and same thing.  Doesn't stop going down and does on the way up.  This is bad as I haven't got to fly in a week due to that really crummy weather we've had and now with one week left to annual, the plane is stuck in the hangar.

Line service comes, looks and says, the door isn't opening.  While that is correct, it wasn't too helpful.  They do call management which gets the ball rolling.  As a child I learned that "RIF", reading is fundamental.  I surmise the issue is not the door or the motor but rather the limit switches.  Theses were set decades ago and have worked perfectly but now the indexing is off.  I pop the cover and luckily the instructions are in the box.  The shaft looks like its rotating correctly so it must be an internal fault.  I think it's the worm gear drive slipping as it's impacting both indexes but that gear is hidden.  

Luckily we hatch a plan, re-index the up limit wheel.  This works and the door rises, and the plane is free.  There was much rejoicing.  Once the plane is out we try to put the door down and now, it's stuck up.  This is better than stuck down but still a problem.  They pull out the lift as the limit switch box is now 15 feet in the air.  They re-index the down and then  the door comes back down.  The plane is now enjoying other hangars while they get a replacement switch.

I did get out flying and knocked the rust off.  It was a great day and  I even got a bit of radar practice in with the storms offshore.  XM weather says it's raining 90 miles away and my radar sees the same thing.  Note the 0 degree tilt to keep from shooting over the storm.  At 90 miles each degree brings the beam up about 9900 feet.  I also have little clutter as I am over the water.

Sunday, I took my brother and nephew for a ride.  Today I worked on instrument approaches to freshen my currency.  It was a mostly VFR days with patches of IFR so I filed and shot 3 approaches at Saint Augustine heading back.  The controller really slam dunked me on the GPS 14, approach to home. 

I passed the FAF on glideslope but still too fast for gear.  Luckily the Baron is a champ and reducing power and going slightly high got me under gear speed.  From there is was an easy ride to an acceptable arrival.  Being stuck was no fun but glad we got it all sorted and hopefully I will have a new switch soon.  Cramming the last bit of flying in with this great weather.

Cloudy with a chance of BBQ

There seem to have been less fly-ins this year.  I went to one in September but I think that was the only other one this year.  Wings over Suwanee is usually a pretty big event and in years past we have gone, I have flown young eagles and it has been pretty fun.

This year I did not see it advertised and then this week I saw a flyer for a scaled back event at Suwanee with Young Eagle rides and BBQ.  Apparently the planning committee did not do its thing and thus the smaller event.  The local EAA chapter is really strong though and made the most of what they had.  Scaled back or not, it's only 76 miles and the weather was forecast to be mild and sunny.  When I awoke there was a high overcast at home but sunny in North Central Florida.

The flight was quick, I pulled the power way back and it's still just a bit less than 30 minutes with a few knots on the tail.  I was concerned that I would be mixing with lots of slow traffic with the Eagle flights but our arrival was timed well with no one in the pattern.

When I landed I looked for a place to park where I could pull in but the only available space would require pushing back.  After shutting down, some volunteers came over to help us push.  It's much appreciated with 5000 pound of airplane and gas.  The aviation community is almost always good this way helping each other out.

Once the plane was secured we started the walking and talking.  I had an extra mission for the flight as well.  We had too much leftover Halloween candy so we bagged it up and threw it in the back.  My first stop was to find the check in for the Eagles.  I took the bag and dumped all the candy on the table.  

At the end of the event I walked by and all of our candy was gone except for the Snickers bars.  So much for all those Super Bowl advertisements.   The planes that came in were quite varied.  We saw some classic production planes and a variety of home builts.

I liked the Airspeed indicator on this Pietenpol.  The plane did have a standard one as well but apparently this version works too. I think anything over mach .10 (76 mph) is sort of aspirational.  I saw a friend from home that had flown in to do the rides.  He has one of my favorite tail numbers, the plane is still registered in Canada.  He makes the round trip up there at least annually.

In the end we decided to skip the BBQ, it was pulled pork, I'm more of a ribs and brisket type and it was still early for lunch.  We had a smooth flight home and had a nice view of downtown on our arrival.  Overall the visibility was 50 miles or better.  This is a great time of year to fly.