Too Nice to be Landbound

This morning dawned a beautiful clear blue sky, much too nice a Sunday to waste on the ground, even at minus 11C. So out to the airport to plug in the preheat and scrape the light skiff of snow that arrived yesterday way from the hangar. One of the things that is unique about my Cherokee is the turn coordinator. In the more common form of the instrument the pictorial representation of the airplane moves in response to bank and roll motion of the airplane. The turn coordinator in my airplane the airplane remains fixed the schematic horizon moves.

The first picture (on the left), taken on the ground, shows a close up view of the instrument. I've only seen one other like it in an avionics repair shop, although this configuration seems to be growing in popularity and new ones are available on the market.


The next picture is in flight, almost in a rate one turn to the right. The picture is a little blurry from vibration, but you can clearly see that the horizon line on the turn coordinator (bottom centre) closely matches the horizon line of the artificial horizon (top right). Personally I find this a more intuitive display with coordinated movement, though other pilots who've flown the plane are not as enthused. The other reason I prefer the this display is that while on the gauges there is only one place to focus attention for rate of turn information. With the common format the index marks are near the left side for left turns and the right side for right turns.


Whatever your preferences for instrument displays, it was a very good day to be in the air.

COPA Flight Log - Electronic Logbook. Part 1.5

COPA Flight Log - Electronic Logbook. Part 1

It has been quite a while since part 1 of this series so I thought I should get an update going. I haven't had too much success with the import feature. I created a query for my Access database to pull out the data this software wanted and put it in a comma separated list file. Unfortunately when I tried to import the data the Logbook crashed. I checked my file, made a few tweaks, but the Logbook still crashes. So I made some standard entries into the Logbook, exported them, cleared the log and tried to import the file just exported, and it still crashed.

So, I'm torn between submitting a support request and entering all my flight data by hand. I'll probably do the former and get a start on the latter this weekend so at least I can make some reasonable comments on the software.

Big Sky Theory

Quite often the immense volume of the sky keeps us safe. Every so often it fails and tragedy happens. Sometimes its just time to call it a day.

unGPS

For Christmas I received a Garmin Street Pilot C330. This is a GPS based automotive navigation system featuring a 3.5 inch colour LCD touch screen, a road and address database for all of North America (or Europe), a suction cup mount and the ubiquitous cigarette lighter adapter. It will provide turn by turn guidance with on screen cues and voice directions in a number of languages with a pleasant female voice. I like the British English voice. It sounds a bit like Claudia Black paying Aeryn Sun on Farscape. The ubergageteers out there will be thinking this is old hat, but I still have enough Luddite in me to want to know what the technology is doing before I rely on it and I want to be technology's master, not its servant or peer. I've use a Belkin Bluetooth GPS and navigation software with my iPaq. It is a more open solution in that the GPS can be used with other software on the iPaq, or a Bluetooth enabled laptop. The road navigation software had some fatal flaws, I may post something on it latter. For now back to the street pilot.

As a pilot, armature radio operator and general techno geek I was immediately struck by how unGPSish the unit is. It won't, for example, give you a position by latitude/longitude or any of the other standard coordinate systems, nor will it give you the number of satellites it can receive or any information about the visible constellation. You can poke your finger at the streets on the map and it will give you a street number for that location if one exists. It does have a cellphone like cluster of 5 vertical bars of increasing size that tell you in a very general way how likely it is to know where you are. Given the intended market I understand these design choices, I'm just wondering how I will be able to get along with it.

One problem with all navigation systems is that the guidance is only as good as the available data. In the aviation world the required data are maintained by government authority and distributed on a 56 day update cycle by commercial companies, like Jeppesen. I'm not sure where Garmin gets the road database from, but if it contains errors, the GPS will provide bad directions.

The unit can be configured to avoid some of the less salubrious driving experiences: U-turns, highways, unpaved roads, toll roads and carpool lanes. A look at the on-line manual tells me that it will only avoid these things if doing so won't take me too far out of my way. I stumbled upon a way to add what the unit calls 'via points'. It will guide me to the via point then to my final destination, thus forcing the unit to guide me further out of the way than it normally would to avoid roads I don't want to drive. But that requires a knowledge of the route that eliminates the need for a navigation system.

The user interface for entering in text for city and street names is ABCDE format not QWERTY format. The back light is adjustable but even set to 0% intensity it is still brighter than I would like for night driving and not off which one might think. 100% intensity isn't bright enough for driving into the sun wearing shades if the unit is mounted to the windscreen. It will switch automatically between day and night mode, and remember the last brightness setting. Unfortunately it switches at sunset and sunrise, so the last remembered brightness will likely be too bright or too dim.

Things I like about it so far:

• It has a huge database. With the Belkin/iPaq solution I had to plan where I was going to go that I may need navigation help, then try to make the required maps fit on the SD memory card, go buy a bigger SD memory card, etc. With this unit I could be abducted by aliens and use it to find my way home, as long as they're North American aliens.
• The voice directions are loud, and clear and have a convenient volume knob (no piling into the car in front of you while surfing the menus just trying to get the thing to shut up).
• It is very fast calculating routes, taking only a few seconds to find its way halfway across the country.
• It turns on when given power from the cigarette lighter, and will turn off 30 seconds after power is removed unless battery operation is selected.
• It has a safe mode which warns you about playing with it while the car is moving. This mode can be turned of so a passenger can update the route.
• If no destination is programmed in it will display the next cross street eliminating the annoying search for the hidden street sign.
  

I recently had an opportunity to use the unit on a trip to a distant large city. The hotel we were going to was not located exactly where the database thought it was so we missed the entrance the first time, but the unit guided us neatly around the missed approach for another try. Over three days the unit took us shopping and eating and back to the hotel much more easily than we could have done with hard copy maps. On one excursion the digital sign over the expressway warned of 30-35 minute delays ahead. With two button pushes I was given new directions before I passed the next exit. Since I was supposed to meet someone in less that 30 minutes that trick alone is probably worth the price of the unit.

Finally the biggest advantage is that navigation errors can be blamed on the Garmin. This goes a long way to reduce the chances of an argument with the SO when stuck in traffic or lost. That is definitely worth the price of the unit.

Winding up the Rubber Band

AVweb was kind enough to post this video to YouTube:



It's from 94 so it has been around the web for a while but it is nice that someone found it so we can all look at it again, or for the first time if that's the case. Wikipeadia has a good article on spins and spin recovery as well as another spin video link.

Both these videos have the airplane spinning to the left. A left hand or anticlockwise rotation is common because, even though fixed wing trainers are usually certified for spin recovery they often have design elements which make them resistant to spinning, gyroscopic precession of the rotating propeller, as the nose pitches down, will tend to yaw the plane to the left, assisting a spin in that direction. Stalling with high propeller RPM may be enough to cause a spin without any other encouraging input, and carrying high RPM through the incipient phase can cause the spin to flatten. I have done the occasional spin to the right, other than being slightly more difficult to enter than a left spin, I haven't noticed any significant difference in the spins themselves or the recovery, except for one time.

After a hiatus in my flying I thought it prudent to take some extended recurrent training. So I shopped around till I found a school with an instructor that impressed me with his plan to bring me up to speed. Using a Cherokee 140 over several days we worked our way through the standard PPL syllabus, smoothing out the rough spots as we went. Once done he asked me if I wanted to do some spins, they weren't required, but why not! So we climbed up and between us did 4 or 5 spins, all to the left. It was a real hoot and very good revision. I stabilized in a climb after the last one he looked at his watch and announced that we were getting near the end of our time block but we might have time for one more if I was up to it. Of course I was! He said I could try one to the right if I wanted, so standard entry technique, right rudder and smart as you please we were spinning to the right with a nice stable rotation. He called for recovery, and I applied full left rudder. To my surprise the rotation to the right accelerated. He must have been expecting it because simultaneously his arms left the standard instructor position (crossed on his chest) and flew to the yoke. I beat him though and got the nose down, the rotation stopped and recovery was completed without any additional excitement. When we got down my instructor walked up to the dispatcher (who was working on his commercial at the time) and said "You're right, spins to the right in that plane do...". Well it was a surprise to me, but good training and a confidence booster for all that.

So if you're a pilot, or student pilot, have you done spin training? What is your left right ratio, and have you encountered any quirky spin behaviour?

Radar Loss of Separation Alerts, ELTs and Smoke Alarms

How are these things related? Well the simple answer is that they could save your life. An other answer is that they are all complex technologies which aim to solve pernicious problems by alerting humans to danger. They also share a property with all complex technologies, bugs. Bugs in an alerting system lead to two types of false alarms:

• False negatives, where a real problem goes undetected, or unreported by the technology.
• False positives, where an alert is issued when there is no problem.

False negatives lead to law suits and so get prompt (in the broadest sense of the word) attention from regulators and manufacturers. False positives are often seen as an inconvenience that can be most effectively dealt with by the human when alerted. Unfortunately humans usually have a direct response when face with a high rate of false positive alerts.

The tech that cried wolf

When smoke detectors first became available they had a very high false alarm rate. Often residents would solve the problem by disabling the smoke detector with predictable and unfortunate loss of life. However legally mandated installation in residential buildings created a huge market. Competing suppliers drove improvements to the technology that has brought the false positive rate down to a very low level.

Aircraft ELTs (Emergency Locator Transmitter, which Search and Rescue can use to find missing aircraft) come in three flavours by TSO designator (the Technical Service Order or TSO is one of the ways equipment can get approval for use in an aircraft, and is required for ELTs); C-91, C-91A and C-126. Due to a whole bunch of history that I won't go into, the C-91 and C-91A units were (in my personal opinion) never properly engineered to do the job. This has lead to a staggering number of false positives, and an appalling though not widely reported number of false negatives. While the aviation community was wrestling with the limitations of C-91/C-91A units, the maritime community was adopting the Category I and II EPIRB which would later be imported into aviation as the C-126 or 406MHz ELT. Through some creative and dogged pursuit of their mandate the aviation SAR community has never given in to the temptation to ignore this particular boy crying wolf. But the system has. Citing the better performance of the 406MHz technology, and the high cost of maintaining the 121.5MHz COSPAS/SARSAT packages processing of the 121.5MHz signal will cease 1 February 2009. If you read enough material on the subject you will also encounter references to the high false alert problem.

So why not just buy a C-126 ELT? This is a very complex issue. If you are involved in general aviation this is something you should educate yourself on and decide for yourself what to do.

Lastly, in the aftermath of a mid-air collision over La Mesa California Feb 8, 2006 it appears that controllers have displayed the same human frailty as early smoke detector owners. I am glad to see that at least some attention was given to fixing the false alerts. If the response is only to require controllers to forward alerts to pilots as the technology issues them, it would only move the problem from controllers (who are all professionals, current and experienced in assessing the traffic threat, of whom we can expect more) to pilots (who may only fly recreationally, be inexperienced in dealing with high traffic volume and the technology quirks, and finally just as able to fall into the trap of ignoring the boy who cried wolf).

If we want safe homes and safe airspace we need to deal as proactively and diligently with false positive alerts as we would with accident investigation reports. Replace the cranky smoke detector and give it fresh batteries, check ELTs after landing or servicing the airplane, be vocal when safety technology promotes more annoyance than safety.

Live footage - ALG

I found this footage amazing when I first saw it back in 1999, eight years later landing technology has improved but I think this is still amazing. Warning there is some strong language at the end.

Live footage

COPA Flight Log - Electronic Logbook. Part 1

COPA in conjunction with Skymark Technologies is offering members a free copy of COPA Flight Log electronic logbook. As an aircraft owner I have to be frugal, and the price is right. I'm a self confessed geek so my system is littered with all kinds of software that I have tried so what's one more download. I'm also skeptical, I've been in IT long enough to know that some free software isn't worth what it cost, on the other hand some free software is better than any you could buy no matter the cost. So off I go testing the software.

Since I'm a geek you might think I could write my own electronic log book. Well I have, but I'm also a pilot so given the choice between using brain cells writing software and flying I would rather fly. So I do have a spread sheet, and an Access database in addition to my hard copy logs, but neither is anything special. But I do know what I want from an electronic log book.

The first step is to get the swag installed. The COPA page has some nice screen shots, the standard download link and a form to request a serial number, more on that later. The download is an executable Install Shield package weighing in at 2.66MB. IE (shudder) will probably offer to install it for you, follow your heart.Firefox drops it in the location of your choice where opening it starts a quick and painless Windows (if you agree to the fine print) install.

To get a serial number you have to give your name and an email address. The serial number is related to your name. You have to give both to the software to activate it. Very common now but I don't have to like it. You are also given the option of opting in to marketing info email. Since I have my own domain and email server, I can create and destroy addresses at will, so I hand over an address and I'll take the hype, for now at least. I was thanked for my interest and told my serial number would be mailed to me soon. That was at 1840 so let's see what soon means.

While I'm waiting what kind of things do I want to see. Well, I've been flying for quite a while so I would like to be able to start using it without having to enter in all my flights. But I would like to be able to go back and enter all my flights over time so that my entire flying history is eventually in electronic format. It would be fantastic if I could import the data from Access or the Excel but that would have required them to know my schema, or me to write a translation schema so I don't seriously expect this. It should track all Transport Canada recency and currency milestones but it would be very nice if it would allow me to create my own checks to cover recency specified by flying clubs or organizations like Hope Air or CASARA.

The email with my serial number arrived by 2242. I don't know if 4 hours is typical, but you may end up doing this install over a couple of evenings because of this. I had gone to bed before the mail arrived so play had to wait until I got home from work again. Armed with the serial number I finished the install and found out two things I like:

• It has a feature to find new versions. The pop up contains information on the changes and were to go to get the new version.
• There is a logbook import feature and a comma separated data file translator. Importing data from Excel or any other program that will produce a CSV file should be easy.

I will let you know how the update, and import goes once I've worked through those steps.

Update on ethanol in auto fuel

From the COPA non-members page there is an update on ethanol in mogas for Ontario:

Since the 1st of January 2007, new rules requiring ethanol in auto fuel have commenced in Ontario. Does this mean that aviation use of auto fuel is at an end? Not at all.

The new Ontario regulations require that fuel suppliers must sell their gasoline with an average of 5% ethanol in it. That leaves the door open for some companies to sell some gasoline with 10% ethanol and other products with none.

This is exactly what Shell Canada has decided to do. Information from the company indicates that they will be selling their lower grades of automotive gasoline with ethanol included but that their premium grade gasoline “Shell V-Power” will remain ethanol free.

Other gasoline companies may also provide ethanol-free gasoline around the province at certain times and locations.

With the availability of ethanol-free Shell premium all STC holders will continue to have a source of auto fuel in Ontario.

However, we urge everyone who uses mogas for aviation to carefully check their fuel source to ensure that it does not contain ethanol.

The reason being, under the Ontario province’s new regulation, there is no requirement for fuel companies to post that their fuel contains ethanol if the percentage is 5% or less, so members should be testing every batch they use.

For more information about the Ethanol in Gasoline regulation visit the Ministry of the Environment’s website, http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/ethanol/index.htm.

FAA InFO: Noise Attenuation Properties of Noise-Canceling Headsets

An article at AVweb says it all. The FAA InFO is available as a PDF.

NAV CANADA Internet Flight Planning System-Survey

Update: According to the COPA non-members page anyone can fill out the survey, there is a link from COPA to the survey so no need to wait.

I received an email from Nav Canada requesting subscribers of the Internet Flight Planning System (IFS) to complete a survey. For those who may not know this system allows subscribers (pilots or dispatchers) to edit, store and file flight plans using a Web Browser. I don't think my Cherokee and I were the primary audience for this system but it does support us and I have found it quite useful on occasion. The survey had lots of the standard Strongly Agree, Agree, ... stuff but also had two free form text areas where the responder could enter opinions, suggestions or product requests. It was not limited to IFS but also had questions targeting the AWWS products as well. If you aren't registered for IFS you won't be receiving the same invitation. Since AWWS is potentially of interest to all pilots I asked a manager at Nav Canada Customer Service Systems & Performance by email if they had plans to survey those who aren't registered for IFS. Within 10 minutes I had received an answer, and they do. So if there is something you like, hate or want on the AWWS page start keeping notes.

Leveraging Blackberries with Open Source

Warning: May be Habbit Forming.

If you work in an open source software shop, have people who carry Blackberries activated on your company Blackberry Enterprise Server you want to push data to you should have a look at Jan-Piet Mens' Real-World Blackberry MDS Push Applications: an Extensible Framework. This is one of the best organized and presented piece of open development I've seen for some time. His entire blog, or at least as much as I've read, is all like that. Standing on Jan-Piet's shoulders I was able to go from a standing start to pushing Browser-Message data in the morning, and had extended the frame work to include Browser-Channel data in the afternoon.

If you don't currently have a Blackberry Enterprise Server but would like to use MDS Push applications there are ways without going totally over to the dark side. But I'll save those for latter.

Finding a SAR Plane

While reading Cockpit Conversation this weekend I learned about the selection of the new Canadian fixed wing search and rescue airplane (FWSAR). I'm glad Aviatrix has her finger on the pulse of the nation because I don't seem to have the time to read everything I need to, let alone want to. Leaving aside the political fur ball over the contract I think they picked the right aircraft for the following reasons:

• The C-27J sports military style glazing in the cockpit, where as the C-295 has a more transport category windscreen. When the mission includes prowling around at 500ft AGL in less than ideal weather surrounded by hills or mountains, the more glass and less aluminium around the pilots the better.
• The Spartan shares engines, propeller and avionics with the C-130J which can greatly simplify servicing, maintenance, training and operations.
• SAR pallets can be moved between the C-130J and the C-27J without reconfiguration. While the plan seems to call for all current SAR Hercs to be replaced with the new FWSAR, the ability to move SAR crews and their equipment rapidly to the larger aircraft should the need arise is a big advantage.

And of course it has an in flight operable ramp which is essential for loading, unloading and deployment of SARTECHs and their equipment, and many other elements of SAR operational doctrine. The C-27J also has larger side doors than either the C-295 or the C-130J. While this is good for dropping troops it may be a slight disadvantage for a SAR aircraft. Current SAR configured CC130s replace the rear side doors with a plexiglass window attached to a pedestal mounted swivel/slide chair. For searching the spotter can position the chair very close to the window facing outboard. From this position the spotter can easily view from horizon to nadir. If you haven't seen a C-130 side door, imagine a 737 passenger boarding door replaced with a plexiglass wall. Now imagine your seat is positioned so that your knees are in contact with the plexiglass. There aren't very many better positions for a spotter engaged in search. At 700ft AGL and 130kts it provides a riveting view. It would be nice if the existing doors could be moved from the C-130s to the C-27Js but I don't imagine it would be difficult or expensive to have such a window manufactured for the Spartan.

The final judges will of course be the SARTECHs and their flight crews. They truly are heroes and deserve whatever they need to their job effectively and safely. I hope they like their new kit.

See also The Hunt for Affordable & Effective SAR by Peter Pigott and Replacing the Buffalo in Canadian Defence Review.

Missing Man

It is always sad to learn of an airplane crash, even more so when it results in the death someone you know even if only well enough to share a beer or hangar flying with. So long Jason, we will miss you.

CNW3

Back in July 2005, just after buying into a Piper Cherokee 180 I convinced my wife to fly in to the pancake breakfast put on by the Bancroft Flying Club at the Jack Brown airport. This airport features a number of challenges: the surface is good, but unpaved; at 2200ft it is near the shorter end of the spectrum; trees at both thresholds and rising terrain in all directions require good technique of a pilot flying any of the more modest performing examples of the general aviation fleet. The weather was forecast to be spectacular with the area dominated by high pressure giving clear blue skies and 30°C. Density altitude calculations from the flight manual gave a take off distance to clear a 50 foot obstacle as 2000ft at maximum take off weight. Since we would be at least 450 pounds under maximum for the return trip we would have a nice cushion for any less than perfect aviation on my part. I filed a flight plan and we were off.

The flight up was uneventful until we joined for landing. The active runway was 30 requiring a dog-leg final approach between areas of elevated terrain. There are segments of this approach where the landing airplane is not visible from an airplane on the ground, and radio contact is blocked by the hills. This is not really a problem, but something to be aware of because it makes it more likely to have conflicts between aircraft on approach and those departing. Just such a conflict happened to us. As we descended on base to final an airplane started backtracking the runway to take off. Once we cleared the terrain and the conflict was recognized he quickly offered to clear the runway allowing us to land. However since there is not a lot of room, and it was my first time in, I elected to go around and inspect the runway and the departure path from low altitude. My second approach culminated in a landing. We shutdown, closed the flight plan and enjoyed pancakes, sausage, bacon, juice and coffee.



After breakfast we toured the line looking at other airplanes and talking with other pilots and their passengers. It was interesting watching other airplanes take off. I quickly noticed that the Cessna 150s and 152s would climb to about 100ft and quickly turn north. It wasn't until my own departure that I would understand this strange departure procedure.



It was soon time to leave. I filed a flight plan, inspected the airplane, started up and completed pre -takeoff checks. Now I was faced with the task of getting to the threshold of runway 30 without creating a conflict. As it turned out we only had to wait for one arrival and the circuit was clear.

Short field technique got us off the ground and over the trees with room to spare. It was quickly apparent that a continued climb at best angle was called for to get over the hills immediately west of the airport. I quick glance to the right showed me the comparatively level ground to the north that had attracted the 150 and 152 drivers. But we were up and away and, once above terrain and circuit altitude, turned on route for home, a fine end to a great day.

We didn't get to Bancroft in 2006 but I hope to get back there in 2007. Good food, good company and a bit of an aviation challenge. Who could ask for more.