Archive for January, 2007
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
I get flattered pretty easily. If anyone notices anything I do, I am impressed. Perhaps that is because I bring stuff up so often, I get a lot of eye rolls, but when someone else brings up something I do, my heart nearly gives out. You have to see the reaction I get from poor Kevin and Paul here at work when I show them ugly pictures of some beam in my basement twice a week. Yeah, gotta love that.
I started this blog to write some stuff about my new house. It has served that purpose, along with some other topics. Just check out my category list in the right hand column. I like to write, and think I have done a fair job at expressing my thoughts here. As you may have noticed, sometimes I lose steam towards the end of a post and kind of just end it. I suppose that’s common with a lot of us.
This post really has nothing to do with anything, but I thought I would write some things about this blog. If you are at all interested, the most popular post here is one about “The Satan Caves.” That one was really fun to write. Another popular post is the one about “Installing Our New Harman P38 Pellet Stove.” Those posts are pretty informative and are localized. People probably get nostalgic about the Satan Caves and I think the timing (Autumn) was good for the pellet stove post. One that I always try to push is the “A Car Named Linda” post. I am not sure why. Maybe it’s because that one might describe me the best…a kind of frustrated at society, but victim of it at the same time kind of guy. People who know me probably call me nuts because of my antics (probably?).
One thing I REALLY love is when I find out that someone reads my blog…someone who I would’ve never guessed. I like that. I found out the other night that my best buddy’s fine little lady likes to read this thing. Yeah, that’s right, you know who you are. Remember we secretly met at Dave and Busters? I don’t know why, but I get a thrill out of that. I remember on one of my first posts, “Visiting Block Island, RI,” I got my first comment. Someone probably “Googled” Block Island or something and stumbled across my blog. I am so happy to see that the visitor had a chance to see some good shots of the island.
Whenever someone comes up to me and says anything about my writing, I get real shy. It might be because I portray one side in person and am actually quite normal when I write. That’s a real perk of the blogosphere…you can hide. Of course, I take great care not to provide any real information here…there are some crazy folks out there. I don’t really mention names or addresses or anything like that because I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.
Sooo…back to the title of this post. I know there are some people out there who are bored at work and maybe check this out from time to time…just to waste a few minutes as the clock ticks closer to 5PM. I may have known someone way back when…or whatever. I don’t really know…well, because I don’t really dwell on that stuff. But, if you are one of those people who enjoy reading what I have to say, keep on reading. Maybe you have wanted to leave a comment every once in a while. If so, go for it. Use a fake name or something. No one will ever know who you are and I will have some inspiration for next time.
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Friday, January 26th, 2007
I really wasn’t looking forward to this morning’s flight lesson. It was about 7 degrees outside…the coldest day of the year so far. As I lay there in my warm bed, I could only imagine what my 15 minute pre-flight was going to be like.
There I was, fingertips twanging with pain, checking over the airplane. I had to stop three times to run inside to warm up. Things were not looking good. Yigal was out there with the tractor and airplane preheater. We had things going fine, but when I tried to start the airplane, I must’ve primed it too many times…or something like that. I really blame the arctic air though. We could not get that engine to start. Yigal tried it and the battery wouldn’t give anymore. My lesson was dead.
I sat in the plane and Yigal tried to hand prop the engine. No go. We decided to go over to Rick’s Runway Cafe for some coffee instead. Oh well, next lesson I will get to go to Columbia County (1B1). Â
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Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Well, I finally finished digging out the basement. I found some time under a rock on Saturday and went down to the pit with my shovel and rototiller. This was the last section of dirt…and boy was this tough stuff. I swear it was like rock, not to mention all the real rocks! Take a look at the before shot:
and now take a look at the after:
As you can see, they are not the same angles. The before shot has the center lally columns on the left and the after shot has them on the right. I added some additional columns to stiffen up the floor under the bathroom because I am going to tile that eventually. Also, I added some more columns that you can’t see here for the kitchen tile.
I am still raking out the rocks, but things are going smoothly. I purchased 2000 square feet of 6 mil plastic yesterday to lay on the floor. From what I hear, it is important to stop the moisture from coming up through the dirt. After I cover the entire floor with plastic and paint the concrete block, I am going to maybe get some gravel to cover the plastic with. That will make it a lot easier to walk around down there. Also, it will prep the area if anyone ever wants to cement the basement. All they will have to do is pour…
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Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
In my previous post, I mentioned that I made a cross country flight. Well, one of the things that I learned on that trip was that organization is extremely important. I needed my sectional chart, a sharp pencil, a backup pencil as well as note paper. There are tons of radio calls and things you need to write down. ATC is constantly telling you frequencies and squawk codes. Everything needs to be neatly written down, because you need to repeat these things back to ATC as well as program your equipment. You will also need to refer back to them later in your flight.
Let’s just say that I learned a valuable lesson during this flight. I wasn’t prepared. I actually dropped my pencil on the floor once and couldn’t find it. During my last landing, my sectional chart slipped off my lap onto the floor. I think Yigal had a good time watching as I learned what was important during this flight. Experience has much more of an impact on a person than someone just telling you what to do.
So, with that experience behind me, I purchased a pilot kneeboard.
This is going to help tremendously during my next flight. Check out the description from the link above so you can get a feel for what this thing is worth.
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Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Hours – 22
This Sunday, I decided that it would be nice to take a cruise to Waterbury/Oxford Airport (OXC) in Connecticut. We would depart from MGJ, fly to the Kingston VOR station in Poughkeepsie and from there, head straight to OXC. The round trip would take about 1 1/2 hours.
We took off and everything was great. I set up everything for VOR navigation and pilotage and headed towards the VOR station. I finished my navigation log earlier that morning. I made a few radio calls to the tower at Stewart (SWF) (my first checkpoint) and transitioned through their class D airspace. I found the VOR station just fine, changed my heading and continued to my next checkpoint, which was Rt.22/Pawling. This flight was really fun. I love VOR navigation and am actually getting pretty good at it. We crossed over Candlelight Airport in Sherman, CT at 5500FT. I looked to the right and saw the Long Island Sound as well as the island itself. You can really see a lot from that altitude. I also saw my destination airport 17 nautical miles ahead.
Things started getting a little tricky as I approached the airport. There was a bit of turbulence and I started my descent late. We had to descend faster than my ears would’ve liked. Also, I kind of screwed up my radio calls to the tower. My landing was even worse. For such a nice day, it was quite gusty at this airport. It must be in some valley or something. I came in sideways and had to correct by giving the airplane some throttle to re-land. We got down on the runway and taxied to stay ahead of a pretty good sized commercial jet. We took off before them and I screwed up my last call to the tower on my way out. Oh well…practice will make perfect.
The trip home was pretty uneventful. Made some pretty good calls to New York ATC and flew over Stewart’s airspace. I screwed up a radio call to MGJ, but came in and entered the pattern nicely for a good landing.
There really was a lot to handle on this trip and I was exposed to a lot. I am confident that my radio calls will get better in the future as I practice more. Yigal says that it is common to kind of shut down when things get hairy for students on their first cross countries. I guess so, but I am going to do better next time. This Friday, if we fly, we are going to PA. Till then!
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Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
This is pretty cool. If you remember a while back, I mentioned that we have several data feeds that a variety of websites draw from…mostly the new “Classified Search Engines” like Oodle and Vast. Both of these websites give us a bit of traffic, with Vast picking up pretty quickly. I think this idea is great. I have a good time checking out their sites and watching them grow. I have a knack for seeing behind the scenes at what they are talking about and watching what works and what doesn’t.
I have had this email tucked away for a few months and kept meaning to put it up…it consists of a few links that list our classified listing on Oodle. Right now, there are not too many because the person placing the ad must place a photo with it. They also need to list their city as one picked up by Oodle. So here they are:
Pet Classifieds
Free Classifieds
Motorcycle Classifieds
Boat Classifieds
Auto Classifieds
Over time (especially this Spring) these numbers should really pick up…
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Saturday, January 13th, 2007
My father finally received his Christmas gift yesterday. I got him a Charlotte sectional map, which includes his area of Wilmington, NC. The reason I got him the sectional map is because I needed him to look around for frequencies to tune into with the new Aviation (among other things) scanner I got him as well.
I talked to him last night as he was learning how to use the scanner. This morning I thought of the greatest idea…I would put a picture of the closest airport to him (ILM) here and highlight the airport information. This would help him locate the type of information he should be looking for.
Then I thought to myself, “You know, that’s not good enough. Let me also place the key information here as well, so he has something to refer to (even though he already has the same map).”
Wow! What a plan. Now, all my mother has to do is print this page and give it to him as a little reference (Mom, please print and give to Dad). Also, someone else in this world my be THRILLED at this information too.
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Friday, January 12th, 2007
Do you want to know what someone said to me about my previous post about VOR navigation? They said it was boring. I didn’t think it was boring when I was writing about the fascinating topic of airplane navigation. I thought it was quite thrilling. I was actually thrilled to write that post. What a thrill.
Well, after reading that post again, I kind of came to the conclusion that unless you are an airplane geek, you would probably get a big dent in your head from the thud of your skull hitting the desk in front of you while reading that thing. I mean, I had a full glass of water next to me on the desk when I started reading it and by the time I was done reading…the glass was empty. That’s how dry that reading was.
As an apology, I decided to write a little today about how to fill in a Jeppesen Sanderson Navigation Log for a VFR Private Pilot. This should make it up to you. If you are not completely thrilled by the time you are done reading this, by all means, please let me know. You know…I am a riot at parties.
CREATING A JEPPESEN NAVIGATION LOG PLAN TO A CLOSEBY AIRPORT (50NM – ONE VOR STATION)
Here we go…step by step. I completed this navigation log this morning for a trip to a nearby airport. I hope this helps you fill in your own navigation log.
- Plot your course on sectional chart. Draw line directly from your departure airport to your destination airport. In this case, we drew a line from Orange County (MGJ) to Waterbury-Oxford (OXC).
- Plot your course from departure airport to the closest VOR station and then from VOR station to destination airport. In this case, we drew a line from MGJ to the Kingston VOR (IGN) and then from IGN to OXC.
- Measure distance in nautical miles from departure airport to destination airport. In this case, the distance was 50NM.
- You will be flying to the VOR station and, once reached, to the destination airport. Find and mark checkpoints along the way.
- On flight plan, record your departure airport in the first box in check point column and your first check point in the second box in the column. In this case, our first checkpoint was Stewart International (SWF)/Orange Lake. Draw a line through the checkpoint on your sectional chart.
- Record the VOR station identification and frequency in the first two boxes in the VOR column. In this case, the VOR identification is IGN and the frequency is 117.6.
- Record the course for your first leg in the first box in the course column. To do this, use your plotter and find the true course from the departure airport to the VOR station. In the case of flying from MJG to the Kingston VOR, the true course is 064.
- Decide what altitude you are going to fly at. To do this, look at your sectional chart. Each longitude/latitude section has a number in it for the highest point in that section. You must add two zeros to the number to get the altitude for the highest point. You must fly at least 1000FT above the highest point. In the case of this course, the departure airport section has a highest point of 4600FT, the VOR station section has highest point of 2200, we cross through a section with the highest point of 2300FT and the destination airport has the highest point of 1400FT. Since we are flying east, we fly an odd number altitude ex.- 3000FT, 5000FT, 7000FT plus 500FT. Since we know the area of the departure airport and we are no where near the highest point (the Shawangunk Ridge), we decide to fly at 5500FT. We could fly at 3500FT, but decide not to. Record your cruising altitude in the first box in the altitude column.
- Find wind direction, velocity and temperature and record in the top boxes in the wind column. To do this, call the weather briefing center at 1-800-WX-BRIEF. Ask for the information for the winds aloft closest to your cruising altitude. In this case, I asked for the wind direction, velocity and temperature for 6000FT aloft. The information came back as 250 at 37 +3. That means the direction was 250 (SW) at 37KTS with a temperature of 3 degrees celsius.
- Find and record the CAS (calibrated air speed) in the CAS box. CAS is the speed found in the front page of your POH (pilot operating handbook) recorded by the airplane manufacturer. Our cruising power is 75% throttle, so our CAS is 122KTS. Knowing the airplane’s engine capacity, we will record this number as 110KTS.
- Find and record the TAS (true air speed) in the first box in the TAS column. To find the TAS, use the ACT TAS (actual true air speed) function on your Sportys E6B flight computer. Enter the pressure altitude (5500), the temperature (3C) and the CAS (110). This should give you the result of TAS=118.8. Round up for 119. The reason you have a faster TAS than your CAS is because there is a lower density altitude (5121FT) than your pressure altitude (5500FT). This means that since the air is more dense due to the cold temperature, your airplane will fly more efficiently.
- Record your true course (TC) and the wind correction angle (WCA) in the TC column. To do this, simply re-record your course from the course box earlier. Then, use the HDG/GS (heading/ground speed) function on your Sportys E6B. Enter the wind direction (250), the wind speed (37), the course (064 or 64) and the TAS (119). This should give you a heading of 62.1 or 62 rounded down. Now, you can see that heading is different than the TC by 2 degrees. Record the WCA as the difference between the two. In this case, the WCA is -2 degrees.
- Record your true heading (TH) and magnetic deviation in the TH column. To do this, just use the result from the prior calculation (062) and find the closest isogonic line to your course on the sectional chart. In this case, the magnetic deviation was +14.
- Record your magnetic heading (MH) and the compass deviation in the MH column. To do this, just add the magnetic deviation (+14) to your TH (062). Record 076. Now, look inside your airplane on the compass deviation chart right near your magnetic compass. Find the deviation closest to your magnetic heading and solve. In this case, we chose -2 deviation.
- Record your compass heading (CH) in the CH column. In this case, we have 076 – 2 = 074.
Now, that’s basically the tedious part for the first leg of the trip. For all the following checkpoints along this heading, use the information that you recorded above.
- Record the distance of the entire course directly from the departure airport to the destination airport in the DIST box. In this case, the distance is 51NM.
- Record the distance from one checkpoint to the next and record it, as well as the remaining distance, in the DIST boxes. In this case, the distance from MGJ to SWF/Orange Lake is 7NM, therefore the remainder is 44NM.
- Record your ground speed (GS) in the GS column. To do this, use the HDG/GS function on your Sportys E6B. Fill in the required information and you should get a result of 155.7, rounded to 156.
- Record your departure time in the Time Off box. In this case we departed at 12:00.
- Record your estimated time enroute in the ETE box. To do this, use your E6B LEG TIME function. Type in the distance (7) and the GS (156). You should get 00:02:41, rounded as 3 minutes enroute. Your actual time enroute (ATE) will be recorded as you fly over your checkpoint.
- Record your estimated time of arrival (ETA) in the ETA box. In this case, we recorded 12:03. Your actual time of arrival (ATA) will be recorded during flight.
- Record your gallons of fuel per hour (GPH) in the GPH box. In this case, our airplane (C172) burns 9 GPH. We started our flight with 40 gallons of fuel on board.
- Record your fuel burned and remaining fuel in the FUEL and REM boxes. To do this, use the FUEL REQ function on your E6B. Type in 00:03:00 for the time and 9 for the FPH. You should get a result of .5 gallons of fuel used. Now, subtract this number from the total fuel on board and record your result (39.5).
That’s it. Now, repeat the steps above for each checkpoint of the trip to the VOR. Once the VOR is reached, change the course and the following figures that relate to that course. The altitude, wind, CAS and TAS will remain the same.
Once this information is complete, use your sectional chart and airport/facility directory to fill in the Airport & ATIS Advisories as well as the Airport Frequencies sections.
Yup, I just reread this post and I was right…THRILLING!
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Sunday, January 7th, 2007
Hours – 20.4
This was a fairly challenging but rewarding lesson. That seems to be the default description of flight school…challenging but rewarding. I remember the first time I did VOR navigation with Yigal. It made so much sense on the ground, of course things are different in the air. It helps that I am studying my ass off for the written test. The reading makes things a lot easier.
Today I learned how to track a course with the VOR (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range) Indicator. I also learned how to intersect a VOR radial. What we actually did today was to fly to the destination VOR station and then change heading to a nearby airport, using the VOR signal. Ok, here’s how it went down:
We wanted to fly to the Huguenot VOR station (HUO) northeast of Port Jervis and then to the Resnick airport (N89) in Ellenville. We would be flying parallel to the Shawangunk Ridge with the Catskills to the northwest. On the ground with my chart and plotter, I made a line from our departure airport (MGJ) to the VOR station, so I knew the general direction to head after takeoff. The heading is 260 (magnetic). Then, I made a line from the VOR station to the destination airport. The heading is 037. You can see the compass rose surrounding the VOR station below. You can also see the little headings written on the outside circle of the compass rose.
After I wrote those two items down, I recorded the radio frequency for the VOR station. In this case, the frequency was 116.1. Each local VOR station has a different radio frequency. Just for your personal information (so you can talk about this at parties), VOR stations transmit within a VHF frequency band of 108.0 – 117.95 MHz. Keep that in mind because I am going to quiz you on this one day. I also recorded the UNICOM frequency of 122.8 for Resnick airport. Yigal and I did a practice flight with the simulator and then hopped in the airplane.
We took off from runway 26, so we were already headed in the right direction. After I climbed to about 3,000FT, I tuned the NAV portion of the radio to the VOR frequency of 116.1. I listened for the Morse code. After tuning into any VOR station frequency, you need to listen for the Morse code because sometimes the station might be down for maintenance. If you hear no beeps, don’t use that VOR. I continued climbing to 3,500FT. Orange County Airport was pretty busy today, so I wanted to get away from all the traffic. Also, this was a good cruising altitude.
Once the frequency was dialed into, I turned the OBS knob on the VOR Indicator so the little arrow pointed “TO” and the needle was centered. Below is a sample of a VOR Indicator. The “TO” and “FROM” are not showing. What you see is what it would like like if you were directly over the VOR station. See my previous post for what a VOR station looks like from the air.
When the needle is centered, that is the track you fly. If the needle moves to the left, that means you need to fly left because you drifted to the right and vice versa. The needle acts as the actual track and you don’t touch the indicator again until you reach the station.
Once we reached the station, and actually saw it on the ground, we flew over it. Right at the point of flying over the station, the “TO” flipped to “FROM” and I changed the indicator to read the new heading to Resnick airport of 037. Then, I turned the airplane to that heading.
Basically the idea is the same. You fly based on headings and what the VOR Indicator is telling you. At the same time, you use your chart and ground reference charts to confirm your heading. We decided not to go all the way to Resnick and to head back to Orange County. How did we know where we were, you ask? We just took the closest ground reference point and made a note of the heading from that reference point to the airport and then flew it. Easy. The hard part is that Yigal kept cutting the engine when we got close to the airport for simulated engine out practice.
Also, I learned soft field takeoffs. You need this when you are taking off from a grass or snowy runway. That is pretty straightforward…basically you need to set your flaps to 10 degrees and punch it like a normal takeoff. When you reach about 40KTS, you pull back just to get off the ground. Then, you use ground effect to keep the airplane about 20FT off the ground. When you reach climb speed of 70KTS, you pull back and climb, while putting the flaps back up in normal position. This type of takeoff is used to get you off the ground as quickly as possible because the grass or snow creates drag on the wheels and slows you down.
For next lesson I need to create my first flight plan for our cross country flight to an airport at least 50 miles away. Word.
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Saturday, January 6th, 2007
A while back, Laura and I were driving home from Lowes in Middletown, NY. I have a bad habit of turning the radio dial to NPR with other people in the car. I don’t think a lot of people appreciate that station like I do. Anyway, there was some sort of request hour on and there was a pretty interesting request. Someone called in and said that they haven’t heard, “Peter Kagan and the Wind” in such a long time. The DJ played the story/song…it lasted for about 20 minutes! I have to say that it was rather strange, but one of those things you go home and look up on the internet. It sounded deep too…but there are some things in the story that I just don’t get. I liked the tone of the story because it reminded me of some trip I have been on in the past…something like sitting at a dark bar in Vermont or something.
If you ever hear this story, please share some of your insight here. I certainly would appreciate it. There is a pretty good post about this story/song here…
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