Flying with the one I love

Nancy and I have been married 31 (and a bit) years - the first and only marriage for both of us. We met in the summer of 1976 at university, and married in 1979 at the start of Nancy's 4th year, which was mid-way through my final year.

I have a very patient wife - some might say that only a very patient person could stay married to me, especially for that long. The most recent test of her patience was watching the bank account drain as I worked through fulfilling my life-long dream of earning my pilot license. But it was my dream fulfillment, and she agreed to the commitment at the start of the journey, so she saw me through it.

The classic question, asked mid-way during 2009: "So, once you get this thing, what are you going to do with it?"

"Why, go flying of course - we are going to go flying."

Fast-forward to January 30 2010, when we scheduled our first flight.

It was appropriate that Nancy would be my first passenger. Technically the flight test examiner is the first passenger, though that designation is there primarily to make it clear that the Transport Canada examiner is not there in a role as a pilot or as an instructor and therefore the PIC is the examinee - all of which is there for liability limiting reasons. Maybe it would be best to call her my first passenger of choice.

And so discussions started. Where do we want to go? What do we want to see? How long do we want to fly? Is this going to be a breakfast flight to a destination, or a sight-seeing flight around the area?

I asked another pilot and instructor at the club, Tony Hunt, about airports within a decent distance that had decent food. Most of the restaurants are of the greasy-spoon variety, and breakfast flights are better in the summertime anyway.

So Nancy and I decided on a local sight-seeing flight, over familiar landmarks, not too long or complex, with lots of novelty.

As always, I had my own objectives for this first flight:

• Make sure Nancy had an excellent experience. After all the investment of time and effort and money, I did not want this to culminate in one flight which freaked her out, and as a result we'd never fly together again. Smooth, simple, safe, well-explained and no-surprises would be the key criteria.


• I wanted to fly with precision - holding altitudes, holding headings, final approaches which were stabilized early. In other words, make it look easy and build her confidence.


• Build my confidence. Just as with any important event, nerves were going to be a factor for me. But I have a decent number of hours, I know how to fly an airplane, I can do this, so quit worrying about it and just go do it.

Flight planning was Friday night. The weather was going to be clear though frightfully cold, the winds were going to be minimal, the jet stream was not overhead, so it was looking like a day with great visibility and minimal or no turbulence.

Route selection was to be local. We live on the west end of Ottawa, and so the route was to be a loop on the northwest side. Once I calculated the total flight time I removed the final leg, there is such a thing as too-much, especially on her first long flight.

Saturday morning: Sky clear, winds were 300 light, temperature was -22C, 30.34". With a density altitude of -5026 feet, the C172 was going to climb like a homesick angel. The club's limitation was a minimum temperature of -25C. Definitely a day to wear layers, especially long underwear (which I wear for every winter flight anyway).

The selected route:

• CYRO R27, clearing to the west. Fly alongside the Gatineau hills at 2200', providing Nancy with a nice view of the lookouts in Gatineau Park.


• Turn southwest, fly over Constance Bay to Carp (CYRP). Point out the landforms and towns around CBay, Constance Lake, etc.


• Descend from 2200' to 1400' over the town of Carp. Fly over the airfield to join the mid-left downwind to a stop&go. Carp is a quiet airport situated in farmland, so it has lots of airspace and not much traffic, a good place to practice circuits with no pressure. I wanted Nancy to see landings, since to an inexperienced passenger seeing the approaching ground get larger through the windscreen is usually one of the more stressful aspects of flying.


• Backtrack R28. To highlight the performance of the aircraft (and to practice my skill), I briefed her on the short-field take-off technique. No obstacle-clearance required, since I didn't want to surprise her with the extreme nose-up attitude. She was impressed with how quickly we were airborne.


• Climb straight-out to 1400', circle left to a southeast heading, clear CYRP frequency and talk to Ottawa Terminal, requesting 2000' over Stittsville (our town) then west to Carleton Place for sightseeing. Approved by terminal, I did an enroute climb.


• Over Stittsville I pointed out a few landmarks, such as the neighbourhood school and the shopping plaza near our house. Nancy traced streets until she figured out where we lived. Pictures were taken.


• Westbound to Carleton Place. Nancy had the map on her lap, and was correlating landmarks to the map (the world looks very different from even a bit of altitude).


• Just west of Stittsville to floor of Terminal's airspace changes from 1500' to 2500', radar coverage terminated, and we switched to enroute 126.7. Nancy was relieved, since the radio traffic on Terminal's frequency was constant, and overwhelming her.


• Highway 7 is being rebuilt to 4 lanes, between the 417 and Carleton Place, and so she was quite interested in trying to figure out the new routing.


• Just short of CP I turned north, to track along the Mississippi River.


• Almonte is a great little town (childhood home of James Naismith, inventor of basketball). Nancy didn't figure out which town it was until she cross-correlated with the map (and I pointed out the water tower with the big black letters on the side).


• Just past Almonte the floor of CYOW's airspace rises from 2500' to 6500', so I climbed to 2800' in anticipation of over-flying Arnprior's airport.


• Flew past Packenham, between the town and the ski hill.


• Just east of Arnprior airport (CNP3) we turned northeast, entered the practice area and climbed to 3950' to maximize visibility of Gatineau Park. Told Nancy we were headed to Wakefield to see the covered bridge.


• Pointed out Meech Lake under the right wing - a very long and narrow lake in Gatineau Park. We've taken the kids swimming there in previous summers.


• Nancy asked where the covered bridge was located. I told her "look right over the nose", reduced throttle and pushed the nose down - and there it was.


• Descended to 3000' in a slow descending sweeping turn to the right, so she could have a good look at Wakefield and at the bridge.


• Flew over the Mont Cascades ski hill. Nancy wanted to have a look at the hill, so I told her to take the yoke and turn it slightly to the left, so we would not fly directly over the hill. Nancy redefined the word "gentle" in a gentle turn. Who knew a C172 would turn with 3 degrees of bank.


• I took control, dropped the right wing a little so she could see the ski hill. "Oh, that's neat, there is a red helicopter taking off from the ski hill." This observation was made while looking almost straight down, so the heights were clearly not bothering her. We didn't hear any radio calls from the Medevac helicopter, but I made my position reports on frequency. I expect they have TCAS anyway.


• Enroute descent to 1700' over the Chelsea dam, flying south down the east side of the Gatineau River. Casino and the Parliament buildings were straight ahead.


• Pre-landing checks complete, landing briefing complete, descend to 1200' and join the straight-in left downwind for CYRO.


• Normal landing R27.

Radio:

• This was a busy flight. CYRO - practice area - CYRP- Ottawa Terminal - enroute - Arnprior CNP3 - practice area - CYRO.

Done well:

• The crosswind landing at Carp CYRP was stunning. Told Nancy exactly what to expect, and I landed exactly on the centre line, no yaw, right wheel first, then the left wheel, and a greaser.


• Turns were all gentle, 10-15 degrees of bank.


• No surprises. If I was going to turn, climb, descend, drop a wing so she could have a better look, I remembered to always tell her first.


• I had a flight plan filed for the route, with calculated times and headings. The only heading I used was Arnprior-Wakefield, the rest of the flight was flown via pilotage (ground landmarks). All the legs were too short to bother calculating ground speed, so I just noted my time at each turn and calculated a delta against my ETA (a minute early here, two minutes late there, ...).


• I ballooned a bit on the final landing at Rockcliffe, but put in a little power and ultimately greased it. Nancy commented on the smooth landing, and didn't even notice the balloon until I mentioned it.

Lessons learned:

• I did startle Nancy on the descents. Though I told her we were going to descend, over Carp and approaching Wakefield I reduced power to idle and the nose dipped down to the descent profile. She just didn't think it normal that you would "turn the engine off and the airplane would keep flying". Note to self - use gentle enroute descents where possible when flying new passengers. Otherwise, brief the passenger better.


• The volume of radio traffic on the Terminal frequency was overwhelming for someone not used to typical radio traffic.

Overall, it was an excellent flight. Nancy enjoyed the eye-candy out the window. Flying over our house was an excellent idea. I did not frighten her. Her comfort grew as the flight moved along, and she was comfortable with looking straight down out the window. Same as being a passenger in the car, she likes to have a map on her lap.

Apparently, she believes I can fly safely. She'll come flying with me again.

It's great to do things as a couple.

Just a little behind.....

I am behind on my blogging - I have about 32 flights between August 20th, and today. I'll do some catching up, likely through a summary posting. The objective of all those flights was to get up to snuff for the flight test - grinding out circuits, filling in some skill gaps, build instrument time and three cross-country flights.

Compounding all of this, I was heading towards the last three months of the year, when sunset seemed like it was at 4pm and the weather seemed like it was always crappy.

But I have my Private Pilot's License - I tried my flight test on December 22nd and had a severe case of test-itus, and the DFTE passed me on all but two items. I obtained the remedial instruction, did the supervisory check (my primary flight instructor is a Class 4 so he needed his recommendation supervised by a Class 1/2 instructor), I got weathered-out six times, and finally passed the two remaining items on a partial flight test on January 21st (the last day of the 30-day period to conduct the partial flight test). I'll summarize everything later.

But I am now a pilot.

Passenger Briefings

I'm surprised at how little information is present in the usual student reference sources regarding the provision of passenger briefings.

I could not find anything in the AIM.

FTM has one paragraph, p.39:

• Seat belts and shoulder harnesses,
• Smoking limitations,
• How the doors work,
• What actions to take in the event of an emergency landing,
• Location and use of emergency exits, the ELT, the fire extinguisher, the first aid kit, and any other emergency items that may be in the aircraft (survival kits, life vests, life rafts, etc).

FTGU has one line, on p.315

• Brief passengers: door, seat belts, prop hazard, ELT.

The CARS has, of course, the definitive requirements. CARS 602.89:

• Location and means of operation of normal and emergency exits,
• Location and means of operation of seat belts, shoulder harnesses and restraint devices,
• Position of seats, and securing of seat back and chair tables,
• Stowage of carry-on baggage,
• Use of oxygen, if flight is planned to an altitude where oxygen is required,
• Any prohibition against smoking,
• If an over-water flight, the location and use of flotation devices, before the over-water portion has commenced,
• Location and use of first aid kits and survival equipment,
• Location and use of the ELT.

And passenger briefings are detailed in one more spot - the flight test guide itself (TP13723E):

• Use of seat belts,
• The location and use of emergency exits (but regular exits are not mentioned),
• ELT,
• Fire extinguisher,
• Passenger considerations for aircraft evacuation (which generally means "to the tail good, towards the engine bad"),
• Action to take in the event of an emergency landing,
• Smoking limitations,
• Items specific to the airplane being used (the Diamond Eclipse had a pointy hammer which could be used to break the plastic canopy so it can be used as an emergency exit,
• Other items for use in an emergency (first aid kit, life vests, etc).

Aircraft Documents

To be legal for flight in Canada, the following documents are required on a powered aircraft in Canada:

• A - certificate of Airworthiness
• R - certificate of Registration
• R - Radio station license (not required for flights solely within Canada)
• O - pilot Operating handbook
• W - Weight and balance calculation

• J - Journey log
• I - Insurance
• L - personal Licences (license, medical, radio operator certificate)
• I - Intercept procedures

Certificate of Airworthiness

See CARS 507, AIM LRA 2.0, FTGU Ch. 5

• Is issued by Transport Canada, certifying that the original design is airworthy,
• Is issued when the aircraft is built, or imported into the country,
• Remains with the aircraft until the aircraft is exported or destroyed
• An Annual Airworthiness Information Report must be filed with Transport Canada on/before the anniversary date of the CofA. A copy of the AAIR does not need to be kept on board, but failure to file the AAIR will automatically expire the CofA.

For the CofA to be in force, the aircraft has to be airworthy at the time of the flight:

• Periodic inspections must be up to date (annual for private aircraft, every 50 hours for commercial),
• Airworthiness Directives must be up to date,
• Defects which affect airworthiness must be repaired, or signed off as "deferred" by an AME,
• The aircraft must be operated in compliance with the POH and with regulations, meaning that all equipment required for the planned flight must be installed and functioning, the weight and balance must be within the limits specified in the CofA, required emergency equipment is installed.

Certificate of Registration

See CARS 222, AIM LRA 1.0

Is issued by Transport Canada and is valid for the life of the aircraft and must be carried on board (CARS 202.26), unless:

• There is a change of owner, in which case the seller must complete and mail the postcard section of the CofR within 7 days. The buyer must complete the Application for Registration form on the CofR to apply for a new CofR, mail the white copy and keep the pink copy. The pink copy is the interim CofR, for a maximum of 3 months after the transfer or until the permanent CofR is received (or unless the aircraft is subsequently sold again).
• There is a change of address, in which case the owner must notify TC by completing and mailing the postcard section of the CofR.
• There is a change of purpose (private to commercial, or vice-versa).
• There is a change of nationality. An aircraft can be registered in only one country at a time.
• The aircraft is destroyed (notify Transport Canada).

Radio Station License

A Radio Station License is issued to an aircraft by Transport Canada. However, carrying this licence on board the aircraft is not required provided the flight is carried our solely within Canada. It must be carried on board for International flights.

Pilot Operating Handbook

See CARS 605.04

The POH not only must be on board, but it also must:

• Be available to the flight crew members at their duty stations (e.g. as a pilot I need to be able to reach it when I need it in flight, as opposed to having it buried in baggage compartment),
• It must have all the required supplements and amendments.
  

Weight and Balance

See CARS Standard 571 Appendix C

Each aircraft is weight after manufacture, and after each modification which could change the weight and balance. The W&B printed in the POH is the manufacturer's standard for the fleet. The current W&B for the specific aircraft is contained in the journey log, and all previous W&B reports must be marked as "Amended" (which is the pilot's trigger to go look for something more current).

A W&B report for the specific flight (e.g. one which includes the actual fuel, human and baggage load) must be calculated and carried on board. This document will prove that the aircraft is being operated in compliance with it's CofA.

Journey Log

See CARS 605.94, 605 Schedule 1

The CARS are very specific about the requirement for the Journey Log, what needs to be entered, and when it needs to be entered. There are specific provisions for continuity in the Journey Log (knowing that there are no missing logs).

See CARS 605.95

The Journey Log needs to be carried on board the aircraft except when it is planned that the aircraft will not land and shut down at another aerodrome.

Insurance

CARS 606.02 specifies how much liability insurance must be carried.

CARS 606.02 (9) states the the proof of insurance must be carried on board (unless it is a hot air balloon)

Personal Licenses (License, Medical, Radio Operator Certificate)

See CARS 401

"While acting as a member of a Flight Crew, the individual must be able to produce the appropriate permit, license or rating AND a valid and appropriate medical certificate." (CARS 401.03)

Pilot License

A pilot license in itself is not a time-limited document (though a student permit has a lifetime of 5 years). However, for the license to be valid the pilot also has to carry a valid medical certificate, and for the pilot to utilize the license (fly an aircraft) the individual has to meet the required recency and currency requirements (CARS 401.05).

Medical

Fixed-wing aeroplanes are operated on a pilot license under a Class 1 or Class 3 medical (pilot permits require only a class 4 medical). Medicals must be renewed every 6, 12, 24 or 60 months, depending on the permit, license or rating type, and the age of the individual - see CARS 404.04.

Radio Operator Certificate

If an individual will operate the aircraft radio, then the individual must be carrying a Radio Operator Certificate (which may be restricted to aviation operations). Radio Operator Certificates are issued by Industry Canada, not Transport Canada - they call it a "Restricted Operator Certificate with Aeronautical Qualification (ROC-A).

Intercept Orders

Not legally required to be carried on board, but a darn good idea in case an F-18 appears off your wing. A copy appears on the last pages of the CFS.

After another layoff

2009/08/20

Another month of no flying - some family time, some vacation time, lots of work, and a bit of weather and suddenly it has been a month.

Today I had the aircraft booked for a dual cross-country to Kingston and Brockville, however the low cloud base precluded the cross-country trip. We flew circuits instead, exercising the landing gear.

Take-Offs:

• I have no issues or problems with normal and short-field take-offs, with and without obstacles, and we reviewed them and performed them.
• Crosswind takeoffs require a crosswind, which we did not have today,
• I have performed soft-field takeoffs in the Diamond Eclipse, but from a hard surface the high performance of that aircraft meant you were well airborne before you knew it -- and so my soft-field takeoff was under-practiced.

For each circuit I performed a normal landing - no sense trying the "specialty" landings unless you have the normal landings working smoothly.

After a few circuits demonstrating and practicing the short-field and normal take-offs, the instructor hopped out and I proceeded to grind out circuits. I got in a few short-field take-offs, but the airport was getting busy so stop&go landings would be very disruptive, so I reverted to normal touch&go landings.

Time: 0.8 dual, 0.7 solo
Landings: 3 dual, 9 solo

Summary: Landings improved significantly after the practice.

Foggles

2009/07/19

Today's objective was to get some in-aircraft instrument time, under the foggles.

Launch, and up to the practice area over Aylmer. I was under the foggles just north of the casino, just after we passed the Gatineau River (lots of southbound traffic from the practice area comes down the river, so it is a good thing to have two sets of non-distracted eyes outside the aircraft until we get past this point.

Exercises:

• Flew eyes closed for about 4 minutes, using only my sense of balance and hearing to keep the aircraft straight and level. I surprisingly didn't go into a spiral dive or a descent, so the objective of the exercise did not work (it was supposed to teach me that human senses are entirely adequate for doing human things like walking or standing, but not adequate for operating non-human high-speed machinery). I had it easy - the air was absolutely smooth, and the aircraft was very well trimmed. However, I did manage to make an undetected 110 degree left turn, when I thought I was flying straight.
• Under the foggles, did a number of climbs, descents, level turns, climbing and descending turns, and other basic aircraft movements.
• Under the foggles, flew straight&level for 2-3 minutes, then did a shallow-banked 180-degree turn, then flew straight and level in the opposite direction. This is the standard procedure to follow when one has mistakenly flew into cloud, and is a flight test item.

Time: 1.0 Dual, 0.4 Instrument

Circuits

2009/07/17

New type of aircraft, new airspace, right-hand circuits, a layoff from flight... all of them combine to make landings a bit dodgy. One of the first things to do is to grind out some circuits and get the approach much happier.

Started with a new instructor (ML, who was to become my primary instructor), and we went up for a demonstration, then I flew four circuits.

My original struggles in performing a landing (touching down on the centre of the runway, landing with yaw) have disappeared, hopefully to never return.

However, I found that I was allowing myself to get rushed on the circuit and final, and so that nice long stabilization period that I should be experiencing on final was instead consumed by getting the aircraft down, managing the speed, and lining up with the centre line.

I had talked to several instructors about their speed management in the circuit, when they reduce throttle, put out flaps, and so forth, and they all vary BUT they all start early.

Clearly that's the key, and that's what I need to incorporate.

After four circuits with the instructor, he hopped out and I flew another 5 circuits solo. Getting better.

Time: 0.9 dual, 0.5 solo.
Landings: 9

Summary: Just work on it. The landings are safe but rushed - they will improve once I get into the groove of getting most of the work done before the final approach.

Mind the Gap

So my last post was July 15th, about flying activities on July 10th. Since then I have 21 entries in my logbook. Ooooops.

Quick status:

• I'll get a short posting about each flight posted (members of my family follow this blog to understand what I have been up to),
• I am very happy with Rockcliffe Flying Club, and have continued my training there,
• I've flown five different C172 aircraft, as well as the simulator. Each aircraft is unique, either in their original configuration, or because of the variances in equipment and layout that have crept in over the years,
• I have completed my solo cross-country hours. Flew the dual with my instructor to Kingston and an overflight of Brockville, then (on the seventh attempt, but that's another story) flew it solo with only a touch&go in Brockville. Subsequently flew the same circuit, again solo, adding the full stop in Brockville.
• Wrote and passed the PPL written examination,
• Spoke and passed the english proficiency test,
• Am in the home stretch for the PPL flight test.

Posting to resume shortly, both as a summary of each flight (which will have to be short out of necessity), as well as the examination/skill items for the upcoming flight review and flight test.

Instrument Time

2009/07/10

My instructor had some more time on Friday afternoon, so we booked the simulator, did the preparatory work for instrument flight and for unusual attitudes. I went home to study, eat, and do some domestic duties, then came back to the Club in the mid-afternoon.

Back to the Club at 3pm, and we did some instrument flying. It is a bit weird to be flying a dashboard with no tactile input (ears, balance, noise, or seat of the pants).

But the "flying" went reasonably well. We started with the tach and Attitude Indicator only, did some flying around, then added additional members of the six-pack to build up the scan.

Then I crashed. Turns out I had runaway trim because the trim rocker switch on the yoke had a 100% contact to set the trim nose-down. In a real airplane you could still fly but there would be significant muscular force involved. In the Sim the nose just kept going down, no matter what I did with the yoke. We turned off the electricity (which cost me the Turn Coordinator, and impacted the objectives of the lesson), but it killed the electric trim. The instructor set the trim to more-or-less the middle using the mouse and gave me control. More throttle nose-up, less throttle nose-down, so by changing power 100rpm at a time I could get back into straight&level trimmed flight, which was a good enough starting point for all the manoeuvres I was doing.

Instrument Simulated: 0.6
Landings: 1

Done well:

• The scanning methods taught in the Flight Training Manual work very well.... I followed them in the Sim and had little difficulty.

Needs Improvement:

• Lesson was too short to come to any conclusions here.

I suspect my Flight Simulator days will be of future use, but it is yet to be determined if the FS time will be of practical use beyond the introductory level.

Next Lessons (all are subject to the Wx Gods):

• Next Friday: Cross-country dual
• Next Saturday: Dual instrument time, hopefully some crosswinds
• Next Sunday: Cross-country solo

Language Proficiency

2009/07/10

As a result of an ICAO requirement, pilots must now demonstrate English language proficiency. I think proficiency solely in another language (e.g. French, or Spanish, or whatever) is also acceptable but you restrict where you can fly. English is the universal language of aviation, and if you have English you can fly anywhere.

You might not be able to get a job at Air Canada if you don't have French, but you can fly the planes. But that's another rant.

It's a 20-minute exercise, over the phone, and while the context of the discussion is aviation, it is not required that you give a sensible aviation answer to the discussion.

Painless. Completed. On the assumption that I passed (the examiner is not permitted to inform you of your results), I should get that certificate in the mail from Transport Canada within 3 weeks.