AOPA Pilot Blog: Reporting Points

Poor me, I never win anything…sniff, sniff. So imagine my surprise when the Bahamas Tourist Office (BTO) held an impromptu ceremony and gave me some very special chocks. The BTO has been promoting its new “Gateway FBOs,” which are at select airports in Florida. The Gateway FBOs are set up to provide all sorts of helpul advice and hand-holding for those launching for the Bahamas.

As part of this promotion, TBO has made loads of chocks bearing the BTO name, plus the names of the Gateway FBOs.

But wait, there’s more. Students in the Bahamas have given a special touch to a select few chocks: They’ve painted Bahamian-themed scenes on them.
I was pleasantly surprised to receive one such set of chocks from the artist herself! At the BTO booth, tenth-grader Rhudi Kerr gave her “The Swimming Pigs” chocks. (Seems that pigs on Big Major Cay are wont to swim in the ocean.) So Rhudi painted her chocks with a pair of piglets making their way in those famed turquoise Bahamian waters. What a prize! Thanks for the chocks, Rhudi and the BTO! I promise I’ll give them their well-earned place of honor.

For the past two days Colorado and Wyoming have been hammered by the first real snowfall of the season. The wx geek in me took over and I was a clicking fool, capturing images and data of this remarkable weather event. A HUGE, very elongated trough dug southward over the mountain and central states. The snow came from an equally long frontal system at the eastern fronges of the trough. Meanwhile, east of the snow action, winds were out of the south at 60+ knots–at 5,000 feet! This is a low-level jet stream folks, and it’s sending juicy Gulf air inland. That’s what caused the tornadoes and flooding rains in Louisiana and Arkansas. Yikes–snow next to tornadoes. The accompanying water vapor image from yesterday says it all. Anybody want to go flying in the lower Mississippi valley today? I didn’t think so.

With Halloween in just a few days, I was reminded this morning of perhaps the only horror movie made that features vampires, creepy reporters, and general aviation. That would be the 1997 film “The Night Flier,” based on a short story by Stephen King.

The bizarre tale focuses on a reporter for a Weekly-World-News-ish type of rag who uses his Bonanza to take him all across the country chasing sordid stories. (I know, already it strains credibility–a reporter owning a Bonanza? Maybe those pulp rags pay a lot better than we know.) He travels to a tiny field in Delaware where a brutal murder has been committed. As the story progresses, he finds himself tracking a vampire who flies a black Cessna Skymaster. Yup, a black Cessna Skymaster.

I won’t give it away, but if you’re squeamish you should know that the final scene is, in keeping with Stephen King’s reputation, pretty gory. The vampire in question isn’t one of those Twilight/True Blood pretty boys. But as far as I can tell, no Skymasters were harmed in the making of this film.

I’m not going to get into details about the economy. There’s no need to waste electrons doing so. Let’s just all agree it’s bad. Despite that, work still has to get done. Goods and services are still being sold, and luckily for Brad Pierce, people still need to eat.

Pierce is the owner of a restaurant supply and consulting company in Orlando. He also owns a Cirrus and is profiled in the November issue of Pilot as part of our ongoing series explaining how GA serves America. Although the story is familiar to many members, the rest of the American public doesn’t understand the benefit of GA. Surveys show while they may know they have a local airport that’s somewhat smaller than O’Hare, they don’t understand who flies in or out, or why.

I first heard about Pierce at Sun ‘n Fun earlier this year from the folks at Cirrus, who wisely used a letter he wrote to tout the benefits of the airplane for business travel. But as we know, the airplane doesn’t even matter in the end–it’s almost always better than the airlines.

Pierce got a chance recently to explain that fact to a Senate subcommittee on a non-aviation topic. Since the Cirrus allows him to quickly travel to his state capital and lobby his state legislature often, Pierce has made relationships that resulted in an invite to talk about trade export in Washington. As part of his testimony, he plugged GA as a great technological benefit to his business.

I think the impact of actions like Pierce’s can’t be overstated. AOPA clearly has significant clout in Washington’s aviation circles, but getting beyond that is always difficult. Pierce was able to capitalize on his opportunity and mention the positive benefits of GA to senators that likely don’t know the story. It’s an opportunity we should all grab whenever possible. AOPA’s ranks of CEOs, company owners, and influencers has the chance to do this type of thing often. So make sure to help the cause whenever possible and keep GA strong.

One difference between a single-engine piston airplane and a pressurized turboprop is the level of sophistication among the systems. While your average piston airplane has a simple electrical system and basic hydraulic system if any at all, a turbine airplane is likely to have multiple electrical busses, hydraulics driving numerous systems, and, of course, the pressurization system itself and redundancies.

While I knew all of this at a certain level, it wasn’t until going through the SimCom course for the Piper Meridian that I understood how sophisticated the systems are in the turboprop. Day three of the training was mostly spent wading through the systems. The thick training manual includes colorful system outlines, diagrams, and schematics. But it was instructor Bill Inglis who made it all come alive and made it relevant. Along with discussions about the systems, Inglis included right from the start points about how to deal with failures of those systems and the consequences. While checklists are stressed, there is also emphasis on cockpit flows–ways to move through checklist procedures in a logical path in the cockpit. Pilots can more easily move through flows and then follow up with the checklists to make sure no items are skipped.

In addition to the deep dive into systems, we spent time in the flight training device (FTD) practicing for failures. A Garmin G1000 trainer–basically a panel with the system installed just for practicing using the system–also proved helpful.

By day four–last day–it was time to go flying again. For that, we set off from Vero Beach, Florida, to Florence, South Carolina. The climb to FL270 gave me time to run through normal checklists and manage the systems. While en route we practiced running through checklist flows for a dozen imaginary problems. Of course, there were multiple approaches at each end.

Day five is the long anticipated flight home. Piper’s Bob Kromer handed me the keys to the $2.2 million airplane on day four. The plan is to fly it home solo today. Stay tuned.

I saved a toad today. Actually, Bill Inglis, SimCom instructor and center manager at the Piper facility saved the toad. And then the little guy peed on Bill! Just as we were about to close up the right side cowling of the Meridian during the preflight I spied the critter. He was just hanging out, unaware that he might be about to be launched to FL250 to be freeze dried! Bill tried to gather him up, but he jumped farther into the cowling among the Pratt & Whitney’s innards. Eventually he was scooped up and sent to the grass behind the airplane.

Meanwhile, we launched this evening for some approaches at Melbourne. The GFC 700 autopilot is amazingly capable, but learning all its tricks will take some time–especially the Vnav modes. Check out the varied missed approaches MLB handed us for ILS, GPS, and VOR approaches–always to the south: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N6101G

We spent the morning in the classroom further looking into the Pratt and details about the pressurization system. In the sim, I roasted about $1 million worth of simulated engines, but then just flew away–hot starts, hung starts, wet starts.

Tomorrow promises more emergencies and other maladies to haunt me in the sim and perhaps in the airplane too. Follow N6101G at FlightWare.

Still looking for your G1000 and Meridian operating tricks.

I watched the Pratt & Whitney turboprop engine’s Ng stabilize at about 15 percent and then I lifted the fuel control lever up and slid it forward. The Piper Meridian’s engine lit and within a few seconds it was clear this was going to be a “good” start. It doesn’t always happen that way. A miscue or a few seconds inattention can turn that $400,000 engine into an expensive conversation-starter coffee table.

With the Pratt spooled up, SimCom instructor and center manager Bill Inglis and I were soon launched into the steamy Florida sky over Vero Beach. After some introductory maneuvers we came back to KVRB for some stop-and-go-landings, a fitting and rewarding end to a challenging day of training that had started 11 hours earlier.

 Ground school on systems and then a pass through the Meridian FTD led up to the late-day flight.

Tomorrow is day two of this five-day initial course. At the end of it, I hope to be able to fly away in a new Meridian with its flashy Garmin G1000 panel.

More ground school and sim sessions tomorrow and then back in the airplane for some approaches to Melbourne.

Do you have any Meridian or G1000 tips and advice to pass along? All input welcome.

Not being forced to sleep in my airplane.

The editorial team has been so busy at Oshkosh this year we haven’t even had time to blog. But now that I’m back in the security of the office, I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about what’s new and interesting at the show.

Without a doubt, the A380 and WhiteKnightTwo are the draws this year. Garmin has yet more new products, the OEMs are generally happy and optimistic, and technological innovation is continuing to transform flying. But none of that matters when you get to see the world’s largest airliner and the future of space travel fly on the same day in the same place. I feel very fortunate to have been there. The A380 will be old news in a few years, but seeing that behemoth fly slowly by the crowd was simply incredible. But watching WhiteKnightTwo was, for me, infinitely better. I feel like it was a moment I’ll get to tell my grand kids about–the first time I saw the future of space travel. What’s most amazing to me is not that Rutan and his crew have built this incredible airplane, but that we all believe they will really succeed in this adventure. It’s practically a foregone conclusion at this point. Imagine relatively normal (I say relatively because certainly most people will never be able to afford it) people going into space as tourists. It’s the stuff of science fiction and we’re going to see it in the near future. Incredible.

Otherwise, there’s lots of new stuff going on at the AOPA tent, including a P-51 from The Horsemen on display, and some cool new outfitters, including one guy who’s making beautiful vintage aviation clothing. All in all, it’s a great year for OSH.

Well, the bill of sale and the “flying wire” have been recorded, the logs look good, the flight checks were flawless, and everything checks out on the equipment lists. The Phenoms–now transformed into N610AS and N620AS per the new U. S. registration–are sitting on the delivery center floor now. I can see them from my office on the third floor, which has internet access and Phenom checklists, flow charts, etc.

We’re waiting for the Brazilian certification authorities to show up. The Brazilians check to see if the Phenoms comply with FAA Type Certificate specs. They’re empowered to do this by a reciprocal agreement with the US.

But it’s the waiting that’s killing us. When these guys show up, the mood changes. A cordon goes up around the airplanes, and NO ONE can go near the inspectors or the airplanes. It usually takes them four hours per airplane to do the job….but there are “horror” (use Colonel Kurtz voice from “Apocalypse Now”) stories of 8-hour inspections, complete with re-wirings, etc.

After that, it’s STILL not over. You don’t just blast off in an N-registered airplane with your FAA pilot certificate. That’s illegal in Brazil–unless you have an overflight permit. Which is also in the works.

Bottom line: this should all be done by tomorrow morning. By then the rest of the crew will certainly have recovered from last night’s exotic adventures, and we’ll be legal for our trip back. Try Flightaware.com about mid-day. I’ll be in N610AS. Stops are still set for Brasilia, Belem, Port of Spain Trinidad, and FLL. Does Flightaware work in South America? I dunno……….

Soon, it will be time for lunch in the company cafeteria. Very civilized here at Embraer.