Flying

The Illusion of Security

I’ve mentioned it before but I thought I’d bring it up again: airport security is an insecure gongshow and worse, no one seems to care. But perhaps they’ll care after tonight’s Fifth Estate (Tonight at 9pm on CBC) which, according to an article on CBC.ca, exposes some major problems with security at Canada’s airports.

What I found most disturbing is that Mark Duncan, chief operating officer for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, thinks that CATSA is doing just fine since in a recent poll 90 per cent of the people were satisfied with the security process. Have I mentioned I hate the way society has become? It’s all about perception and politics now instead of actual results. CATSA, for those who don’t know, is the agency responsible for airport security. And CATSA is happy with the current security measures since most people think things are okay. It doesn’t matter that they aren’t actually keeping airports secure; what matters is that the general public thinks that things are secure. How very emu-like of CATSA. And the general public for that matter.

It’s time to pull our heads out of the sand and demand better security for our $2 billion of tax payer money. And if the system is perfect, we should demand further improvements, because wherever there is a fence, in today’s world there will always be someone trying to get through it. For more reading, CBC has an Indepth on airport security.

Update: the Fifth Estate’s investigative report last night was amazing. And scary. And frustrating at the government’s lack of concern. According to Liberal Senator Colin Kenny there’s a lack of common sense over at the Ministry of Transport. Oh, and the guy who phoned CBC initially to report the descrepencies has now been suspended.
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IFR Lesson #3

There was no simulator work today. Instead, we spent the entire lesson in the classroom talking about navigation aids, specially VORs and NDBs. My logbook shows 11.6 hours of hood-based instrument time, thanks mostly to my private licence and a night rating. Whenever possible I try to use VORs and NDBs for navigation so their use isn’t foreign to me. So I figured I’d be in good shape.

However, up until this point when flying I have either tuned the aid to find out what radial (or track I’m on) or maintained the current heading until I ‘ran into’ a specific radial. This was the first time that I had been forced to think about how to properly intercept a specific radial and what the TO/FROM flag would be showing. Or in the case of the NDB, how to intercept a specific track on both fixed and non-fixed card ADFs.

We went over the limitations of the various nav aids and the proper way tune, identify and test them. We then discussed how the VORs and NDBs function and, using a giant, magnetic VOR and NDB receiver, went through how the various nav aids would react based on the aircraft’s relative position. I think this is probably the most misunderstood part of navigation and there is a lot of information on the Internet to help. The best resource I’ve come across, thanks to my instructor Jason, is Tim’s Air Navigation Simulator. The Java-applet based simulator allows you to select the nav aid type, set them as desired and then move an aircraft around, either by dragging it with the mouse or by ‘flying’ it. Everything is done from a top-down view and overall it’s a great tool for getting your head around nav aids.
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Brad Can Fly

There was a brief article on Aviation.ca about the fact that Brad Pitt is also a pilot now, following in (his girlfriend?) Angelina Jolie’s footsteps. The article points out that many people never learn to fly because of the time committment required. The article then goes on to ask why that is the case, citing that if Angelina and Brad, which the author calls ”two of the busiest people on the planet”, can find the time then why not everyone else?

I’m not a very busy person, at least not anymore. I’m getting out of the Army reserve and while I’m in a fairly senior position at my job, I no longer work the 14 hour days I did when I owned my own software company. So I think I’m pretty typical. I put in my 8 or 9 hour work days, come home, walk the dog, eat dinner, do some stuff around the house, hang out with my wife and go to bed. Pretty typical. I also play hockey once during the week nights and try to get a little coding on my hobby projects done. On weekends we go for hikes or do yard work or skiing or whatever else in typically normal ‘keeping up with the Jones’ fashion. I’m not busy but my days are filled with things that need to get done and things I like to do.

I’m glad though that I got my pilot licence when I was 18 because as a 30-something there is no way I could have completed it, at least not without being rich. I’ve just started my IFR training and I am going to have to cut back to one day per week instead of the two I’m doing right now. Why? Because my fairly typical lifestyle doesn’t allow for it. And I don’t even have any children (except for our dog who, because he is old, is equally frustrating). I’m not saying that it’s impossible (all you need to do is read Mark Morissette’s blog to see that it is possible). What I am saying is that comparing Angelina and Brad’s lifestyle to a typical Canadian’s is not just life comparing apples to oranges but instead like comparing apples to aircraft; they have little in common.

Yes, I realize that Brad likely works long hours on his movies but that translates into big pay cheques. Which means that Brad can afford to pay for a housekeeper so he doesn’t have to clean his house every Saturday morning like I do. And he had the money to have options; he could have taken his time getting his licence, repeating lessons if required or done all the training at once during a month break between movies. If you check the Internet Movie Database entry for Brad Pitt, you’ll see that he only did 2 movies that came out in 2004 and one that came out in 2005. And he’s in two movies that are currently filming that are slated to be released in 2006. On top of that, he lives in an area that affords him more consistant flying weather.

I may sound bitter or jealous. Quite the contrairy. I like things the way they are for me. I just don’t think it’s fair to compare Brad and Angelina’s lifestyles to the rest of us. Nor do I think that it’s fair to say that those people are giving up on their dreams. And they shouldn’t feel as if they are giving up on their dreams. Sometimes, it’s just not in the cards no matter how you play it. I dream of working as a pilot someday. Will it happen? Probably not, for various reasons. Have I given up? No, I’m just being realistic. Sure I could probably give up hockey or let the house chores pile up, but in all fairness, that’s just not an option. Even if that does mean cutting back to one day of IFR training per week and taking twice as long to get the rating.
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IFR Lesson #2

Today was my second session in the simulator and the focus of the lesson was timed turns and rated climbs and descents. Jason started today’s flight by issuing me an IFR clearance prior to takeoff and mentioned that all sim sessions will start like this. We took off from runway 25 at CYBW and spent the better part of an hour flying around in circles up and down. The best thing about the sim is that training starts immediately; there’s no walk around, no taxing, no need to clear someone’s airspace before doing the practice exercises. Although I really wanted to do almost all my training in an actual aircraft (if you have the time and money why not?), I’m definitely seeing the benefits of sim time already. And although you can track your route using GPS, from a learning perspective I don’t think you can beat the ability to ‘freeze’ the sim and turn around and look at what you just did on the instructor’s station. And all I was looking at was timed turns; I can only presume it will be even better once we start doing radial interceptions, holds and approaches.

On an unrelated note, as I was paying for the session, I noticed a Cirrus SR22 taxiing along Taxiway Alpha, which runs in front of the Calgary Flying Club’s hanger. As it turns out this was my first brush with a US celebrity, though I’m not sure spotting a plane can necessarily be called a ‘brush’ per se. In any case, the registration on SR22 was N805MX, which apparantly belongs to Angelina Jolie, though the entry for N805MX in the FAA registry doesn’t give any indication of that. But I had heard that Angelina had been in the area to hang out with Brad Pitt, who was doing a movie shoot in the Calgary area. And since Angelina was in the Edmonton area, she had been flying her aircraft down to visit Brad.

Sim Time: 0.7 hrs

Update: be sure and read my rant on how Angelina and Brad are not a good example of how anyone can learn to fly.
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IFR Lesson #1

My instructor for the IFR training at the Calgary Flying Club is Jason. He’s done all my checkouts here at the club (on the Warrior and the 182) and will now be responsible for guiding me through the months ahead. Lesson #1 is actually supposed to be all classroom talking about the way the course is set up, expectations, required resources and books, etc. But since talking to the CFI a couple months ago I’ve already done that so we jumped right into the training.

Today’s lesson was an introduction to CFC’s simulator. CFC has a brand new PFC-MFD 2-person crew setup that can run either Elite or X-Plane. With the Elite software the LCD panels on the simulator display about an inch of “windscreen” and the remainder contains all the instruments. With X-Plane, the LCD panels display instruments only and the outside environment is displayed on a screen in front of the simulator flight deck via a projector. Both programs are very slick, especially combined with the accessibility of all instrument controls via the MFD’s setup.

Since X-Plane has yet to be certified, we will be using Elite. We took off from CYBW and did some basic maneuvers: straight and level flight, climbs, descents, turns to various headings, etc. It was all rather simple but the idea was to simply get comfortable with the simulator, where all the controls are located and how everything works.

Overall, I found the simulator quite good. The entire flight deck is enclosed like you were sitting in a spacious Piper (or other similar low wing) which helps with the realism. The only problem I would note is that I find the simulator very touchy when it comes to altitude. If you’ve ever flown a Cessna 182P, you’ll know that once the aircraft is trimmed out, all the plane wants to do is fly level. And trimming the real C-182 takes perhaps 10 seconds at most. Not so in the simulator; instead you seem to porpoise along in a sort of sine wave over the assigned altitude.

Sim Time: 1.0 hrs
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IFR Preparation

This week I begin my IFR training at the Calgary Flying Club. I actually started my IFR training a couple of months ago when I met with CFC’s Chief Flight Instructor, picked up the sylabus and all the recommended books and other materials (CAPs, LO/HI maps, etc). In Canada the ‘C’ in CFI refers to Chief not Certified, so from here on in CFI refers to the Chief Flight Instructor not Certified Flight Instructor. Up here in the north you’re either a flight instructor or you’re not. Then it’s simply a matter of what level instructor you are. Anyway, so I met with the CFI and he discussed briefly how things work and recommended that I try to train a minimum of two days per week and preferably three days per week. While three days might be a possibility if you are a full-time flight student, it’s practically impossible if you work a day job and don’t live (or perhaps work) near to an airport. For me, Springbank (CYBW) is a 20 minute drive at the best of times, so a settled on trying for two days a week; one weekday and one day on the weekend.

Like a little kid, I excitedly went through all my new ‘stuff’. I started reading through the recommended weather text (Air Command’s Weather Manual), which is a long slog, especially when done at night before going to bed. Next I went through the Instrument Procedures Manual (IPM) and followed that up by reading the IFR section of the AIP. Finally, I went through all the other stuff (as per above) and familiarized myself with everything. I also have the AeroCourse Instrument Rating Workbook which I started going through and answering questions in preparation for the written test.

Starting with the Weather Manual, I read everything at a rather rapid pace so as to give me a basic knowledge of as much as possible, but not so much that I formulated any ideas that were wrong. That is, I didn’t want to over think things that I hadn’t learned from the instructor in case I learned it wrong and had to unlearn the wrong way and re-learn things the right way. The idea will be to review the information again before and after each lesson. We’ll see how that goes.
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Dauphin-bound

This afternoon, if the weather stays nice like it is now, Ali and I will be renting a plane from CFC and flying out to Dauphin for the Thanksgiving Weekend. We’re also bringing Ali’s cousin AJ along since he’s from Dauphin and because we’re heading to a farm, we’re bringing our dog along too. That leaves us with roughly 350 pounds of usable load for fuel and luggage. I won’t know how much fuel we’ll be taking until I weigh AJ’s luggage but I’m shooting for 220 pounds. That translates to 36 gallons of fuel, which will give us enough to get to Saskatoon with a conservative reserve. At Saskatoon, we’ll fuel up again and continue on to Dauphin, landing at CYDN after dark.
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Sound Vibrations

According to a Wired News article, the vibrations from sound (single tones are apparently most effective) can increase the efficiency of an airfoil up to 22%. And interestingly enough the researcher, an engineer, experimented with different sounds, including white noise and Australian rock music. ”Music isn’t as effective as a single optimum frequency, but you could get some noticeable effects … it comes through quite clearly.”

I think it would be interesting to see if there was a correlation between the popularity of the band and the percentage of lift increase. I could see pilot conversations going like this:

”What’s your plane tuned to?”
”Oh, I have Tragically Hip playing. I find it gives me better performance for the Lester Seven Departure. How about you?”
”I prefer AC/DC. It totally rocks the turbulence away.”
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Use of Flaps

IFR Pilot wrote an entry a few weeks ago about an accident involving a Cessna 172 that stalled on short final at 50 feet AGL. The pilot was seriously injured and the passenger was fatally injured. What’s interesting about this entry is that IFR Pilot questions the pilot’s use of full flaps on the approach since the wind was right down the runway at less than 10 knots and the runway was 6100 feet long.

The exception, of course, to the use of flaps is crosswind landings, wind shear or turbulence in the circuit. But those situations aside, I was taught that flaps are used to lower the stall speed, which will allow the aircraft to have a lower speed at the point of touchdown. The end result of a lower touchdown speed is a shorter rollout on landing, less overall wear and tear on the aircraft (ie. less braking required) and most importantly, safer. If anything is going to happen on touchdown, in any situation I can think of, it would be better to have it happen at a lower speed, whether it’s a tire blowout or nose gear landing (heaven forbid). And to me, it doesn’t seem any less safe flying an approach with full flaps. In both cases (full flaps or no flaps) you will be flying the aircraft at a speed slightly above V_s (either V_s0 or V_s1). So whether you are flying at 10 knots above V_s0 or V_s1, you are still flying at a speed 10 knots above the airspeed at which the aircraft will stall. If you lose that 10 knots of speed for some reason, you will stall in both cases.

Am I simply too old school? I realize that any landing that you can taxi the aircraft off the runway and walk away from is a ‘good landing’, but why wouldn’t you want to use most of your flap (if not all) available if it’s safe to do so?
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