My first IFR Flight!!!

LAst Saturday, 9/18, I had my first IFR flight. The weather was below minimums so we had to file IFR to take off.  Cince I had been doing my IFR training this seemed like a good thing to try.   It worked out very well.  I flew N4404J in actual IFR conditions, made 2 VOR approaches to SPB (scapoose, OR) and a VOR approach to PDX that terminated at Pearson field.  It was a lot of fun.

Lots of flying this weekend

So, I did a lot of flying this weekend.  None of it was flight training related, but it was flying anyway.  I flew down to Salem to join up with two of my very best friends and go to the state fair with them.  We had a great time even though it was a short visit.  In the morning I picked up a friend in Salem and flew her to Skagit (near Bellingham) to meet up with her husband.  The weather was overcast at 6000ft so we climbed above the clouds and enjoyed a couple hours of sun before descending back through the clouds inti the San Juan Island area.  We picked her husband up and flew around the archipelago for about an hour and then returned to Skagit.

We all had lunch and then I headed home.  I had to climb up to 9500ft to be above the clouds.  While passing over the Seattle area I had a 747 fly below me which was pretty cool to see.  I made pretty good time since my ground speed was 122 knots and I was only using about 9 gallons per hour.  I landed back at Pearson field at about 5pm.

The next morning, I flew my friend Jason to McMinville to got to the aviation museum.  We saw the Spruce Goose and many other aircraft including an SR-71 and an Me-262.  It was a lot of fun and I am glad we went.  I let Jason fly a fair amount of the flight home.   he did really well.  it was a very nice day.

I had a great time at the museum and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in aviation.  it is a 2hr drive from Portland but only 25min by air, so if you want to go, let me know :-)

Instrument rating - Pass written Exam - Check :-)

Last Wednesday I passed my instrument written exam.  It was a lot of studying and stress leading up to this accomplishment.  I attended a ground school last year and also purchased Sporty's Instrument course.  I used the instrument course to study up on all that I had forgotten in the last year.  I also used the Online Instrument Practice test for the exam material and this great training site VOR ADF HSI and Holding simulators. I had a bit of a problem with the Sporty's online test not remembering that I had completed it multiple times at 90% or better and the ensuing frustration dragged my practice scores down considerably.  In the end I passed my exam and I am on to the more practical aspects of instrument flying.

Lately my flight instruction has been focused on holds and holding procedures.  That is now complete and I am moving on to approaches!!!  I will have to make a blog post for each of those flights.

Arlington Fly-In 2010

I just got back from the Arlington Fly-In.  I spent the week there cam[ping under the wing of my airplane.  Most people had a tent but since I thought that they were not allowed in the piper parking area, so I just draped a tarp over the wing and slept under there.  It was hot and clear the whole time which was a bit uncomfortable but nice. 

On the first day I walked around and found all of the restrooms, showers, and food locations.  I also took some time to check out all of the planes that had already arrived.  I meet a lot of nice people and was greeted by a cold bottle of water and several other Cherokee owners.  I found that the primer line to one of the cylinders of the airplane was broken.  I got quite sunburned that day and had a little trouble sleeping. 

Day two, I woke up to the sound of a hot air balloon being inflated.  Later that day we found several baby birds that had made a nest in the air filter of of one of the airplanes.  We rescued the birds, tried to help them learn to fly and then gave them to the CAP to take care of.  They took them to the animal rescue and I hear that they are doing well.  Later that day we flew out the the San Juan islands on a scavenger hunt that ended at Paine field.  Paine field is where Boeing makes the 747, 777, and 787.  The tour was really great. 

Day 3 and I finally got a replacement part for the primer line and got it fixed.  I sat and watched the airshow and marveled at the number of airplanes coming in to land at any given time.  There were so many airplanes coming in at any given time that the controllers expect you not to use the radio.  Rather the controllers refer to you by color and type only.  You comply by wagging  your wings.  It was quite amazing.

Then I flew home.  I left at the same time as my friend Ben and we departed as a flight of two.  We both lined up on the runway and each took a side.  We took off and stayed in formation until we got to the Portland area and I descended to land.

All in all it was a fantastic event.

Second Annual Maintenance

Great news!  It turns out that the alternator was not bad and that the wire going from the voltage regulator to the field coil of the alternator had just broken.  This is likely an inexpensive fix (rare on aircraft).  Aside from that I am working with my mechanic on an owner assisted annual.  This means that I can do some work under the supervision of an A&P IA and really get to know my airplane.  I cannot begin to explain how important this is and how enjoyable the work is.  We took all the cowling off and inspected the engine and part of the airframe.  Nothing major has come up so far which is a stark contrast to my last annual.  We had to stop due to lack of light but I bought an 8’ light bank for my hangar last  night so it should be easy to see tonight J  I am really looking forward to this.

6/26 Flight over the volcano!!

Today I went flying with my friend Tim and his girlfriend for a little scenery.  The weather was not great, an overcast ceiling at 3300ft and no sun to be seen, but it was good enough for a flight.  We took off from Pearson field and headed north toward Scapoose, OR.  About half way there the clouds started to open up and I could see that they were very thin.  I began a climb to 7000ft and pointed the airplane toward Mt. St. Helens.  The flight took about 20 min to get out there and we could see the “intact” side of the mountain.  I always forget how rugged and beautiful the terrain is around there.  We passed around to the far side and could clearly see the devastation that was left from the eruption in the early eighties.  After a nice view of the lake, which is still filled with the trees blown off of the mountain, I decided to climb to 10,000ft and fly directly over the top.  The view was fantastic.  Absolutely amazing view.  After we passed over I thought of the movie Finding Nemo.  Particularly the scene where he was being initiated as Shark Bait and the fish were chanting as he prepared to cross the erupting bubbles of Mt. Hockalougie.

Shark bait Oh Ha Ha J

Then on the return home I lost my fuel flow gauge, and then the GPS screen started to flash out, then the clock and turn coordinator!!  I lost all electrical.  I luckily had a hand held radio so I could make my radio calls and I was only 5 miles from Pearson field.  Landing was no issue and I put Serenity away.  Nerves are high though as I am sure that this is some sort of alternator problem and it will be expensive.

Instrument training continues

Well I have not posted in a while so I will give you a quick update.  I have just completed the training of stage 1 and I have a proficiency check this Saturday.  This includes hood time, instrument scan, partial panel, VOR, intercepts, and DME arcs.  The next stage consists of holds and approaches.  This is the part i am really looking forward to.  I will try to be better at keeping you all updated.

Flight to the San Juan Islands

This Sunday After my flight lesson I felt the need to “test my compass” and get some food in northern Washington.  I watched the weather and found that it was a beautiful day in both Vancouver and in the San Juan Islands.  I took off at VUO (Pearson field) and requested flight following.  This has four huge advantages for pilots.  First, and probably most important, flight following will let you know if there are other aircraft near you.  This comes in really handy and has helped me avoid some close encounters.  They will also will pre clear you through various airspace and give you frequencies to change to as needed.  This is essential when transitioning complex bravo airspace like Seattle.  They will be able to report your last position if you have an emergency which can be the determining factor in survival.  Finally the flight can be later tracked on various websites like flightwise and FlightAware.  These sites can email people when you depart arrive etc.

 

                Once I was north of the Seattle area I could see the islands coming into view.  The water was a clear blue and the weather was fantastic.  Flying over the archipelago was more than I had expected.  I could see a lot of boats out on the water.  Some commercial and some recreational.  To my one o’clock I noticed another aircraft.  It looked like an airliner but it was close to my speed and altitude.  It was heading the same direction as I was, so I was not terribly concerned.  Then it turned and crossed my path at about a thousand feet below and headed to the west.  I radioed the approach controller and he told me it was the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.  This is the next generation of airliners!  It is not even in production at this time.  I was so excited I attempted to take pictures of the aircraft knowing I had almost no chance of getting  a shot with a camera phone.  It was really exciting.

 

                When I arrived at Orcas island I made a small circle of the airport and landed on runway 34.  I taxied up to the pumps and tried to fuel the plane.  The pumps would not take my card.  So I tried another and still no luck.  I flagged down one of the islanders and he suggested I fly to Bellingham as they have staff there on Sundays.  I thanked him and departed runway 34, which terminated in the water.  It made for a really neat takeoff.  I climbed over the water and headed for Bellingham.  After some confusion with the tower controller I landed and taxied over to the fuel pumps.  I was successful this time and filled the tanks.  When I was done I contacted ground control and requested clearance from the fuel pumps to the best spot on the airfield to walk to a restaurant from.  He not only gave me directions to the ramp and tie downs, but also walking directions to a Greek restaurant that he recommended.  I parked the airplane and headed off to the restaurant.

 

                The restaurant is called Mykonos, was only about a half mile walk and had fantastic food.  While I was eating, there was a girl outside that was so animated that she looked like she was a mime.  It was really entertaining to watch her do her little self theatre.  The police showed up shortly after that and as I was leaving the restaurant I overheard the conversation the police were having with her.  It was quite amusing.  Apparently she was really high and on her way to Mexico.  The irony was that she was starting from Bellingham.  About as far north as you can be without being in Canada.

 

The flight home was less eventful as the weather had deteriorated a bit, but I did got to see five decommissioned aircraft carriers in a shipyard.  I have never even seen one in real life and now I can see five.  It was truly a trip of opportunities.  I saw a lot that I would have never seen otherwise.  I truly love the ability to fly.  To be able to appreciate the world and all of its diverse beauty.  The tree covered hills, the jagged snow covered mountains, the deep blue water around the archipelago, and the steep majestic cliffs of the Canadian Rockies.   Where else could you see all this in one afternoon.

More IFR flight training

The last time I went flying with my flight instructor, my airplane had a bit of a tendency to roll to the left.  This was very distracting and made it difficult to keep everything in check.  On Saturday I had a mechanic look at the airplane and found that the  right flap was sitting a little bit low.  He raised it up a tiny amount and told me to fly it and see how it performs.  It was astounding how much that little change helped.  I can fly pretty much hands off now.  Sunday morning I went flying with my flight instructor again and I felt like I had so much more control of the airplane.  We worked on making a pitch, power, and performance chart.  This is used to learn the airplane better so you can make known changes to the aircraft’s configuration and get predictable results.  I am really starting to feel like I have a lot more precision in the air.  The only problem that I saw was that the compass or the DG was having a problem keeping direction.  I blamed the DG and planned to  look at the compass to confirm.

 

I took Serenity (my airplane) to the compass rose at the air museum and found that it was wildly wrong.  I spent an hour trying to correct the deviation.  I was able to get it close to correct at the cardinal points.  More flight testing will be required to fine tune it.

 

Instrument Training take two.

Yesterday was day two of my instrument flight instruction.  Again we worked on partial panel flying and a little bit of full panel.  I was so happy to have all of my instruments visible that I made sure to pay attention to all of them.  This turned out to be a great training aide in preventing me from ignoring any of the instruments.  The weather was fantastic so there were a lot of other aircraft flying.  It was a busy task keeping a good lookout for all of them.  Looking forward to the next flight and enjoying the fact that I am getting to know mt airplane even better.

Instrument Training back in swing!

Last Monday I had my first instrument flight lesson in almost a year.  I only had one at that time so I am pretty new to this.  My instructor is Theresa, who also taught my instrument ground school class.  We started off with a short discussion about what we would be doing that day before taking off.  We talked about starting partial panel (flying with only some instruments available) so that I could get used to what instruments worked best for me to maintain maximum control.  This technique helps to solidify the confidence in each instrument as well as develop an efficient scan of the instruments when they are your sole source of information.  The flight went well.  It pointed out to me that I have a long way to go to being a proficient instrument pilot.

Mountain views and a blanket of clouds!

Yesterday the weather in Vancouver cleared up for a little while and I needed to test out my new Bose Aviation X headset.  I also needed to test the two new passenger sets. (I now have one for every seat)  I asked Stacey to call her friend Laurie, who previously declared that she would never fly in a small airplane, and see if she wanted to go with us.  She responded with more excitement then I had expected and we planned to leave at 3pm.  Stacy got to the airport and ran through the preflight, while we waited for 3pm and Laurie to arrive.  Laurie got there and we rolled Serenity out of her hangar.  I went over a preflight brief, completed the run-up and then taxied to the runway.  PDX cleared us for takeoff and we speed off toward downtown.  We flew over downtown PDX and followed the Willamette river for a while.  then Laurie noticed how great Mt. Hood looked and we headed out that direction.  We passed around the mountain and Laurie and Stacey took pictures.  Stacey began telling Laurie that Mt. St. Helens was very impressive as well.  Being so hard to convince, I decided to head out that way.  We spent most of the time over the clouds at about 8000ft.  We made a pass of St. Helens and then headed home.  while we were out the weather had declined and the cloud layer had almost completely closed up.  The sun was setting providing a glorious view while I hunted for a way home.  We found an opening about 10 miles north of Vancouver and popped down below the clouds.  it was so dark and gloomy down near the surface compared to the view we had been enjoying for the past three hours.  As we got closer to the airport, Laurie told me that she was nervous about landing.  I tried to explain that it was not a big deal but notices that she was still very tense on flare out.  We taxied back to the hangar and put the airplane back in.  It was a lot of fun, and I am really glad that we had the opportunity to share flying with someone who thought they would be scared.  In the end she seemed to be on one of those euphoric highs that flying brings to some of us.  It was really rewarding.

Winter weather :-(

Well I have not been posting much lately due to the weather here in Vancouver, WA. My airplane is happily hangared so it is protected from the elements but I do not get to go flying as much any more. Thankfully this weekend the weather took a little break from the low oppressive clouds and lifted up to about 5000 feet. It is still gloomy because of the overcast but it is flyable weather. So I took this opportunity to take Serenity out for a little while. Nothing much but it was wonderful to go again. I forgot how well that little airplane can climb in the cold dense air of Winter. The flight was near sunset and I snapped a few pictures with the camera on my phone which are not the best quality but it illustrates how beautiful the sky can be between cloud layers around sunset.