Labor Day Flight To Jackson

Got up this morning and headed out to the airport.

First of the month, so as the Flying Club Secretary, I did the first of the month tasks at the hangars such as retrieving all the fuel receipts, getting the log pages from August form each aircraft and transferring the Hobbs time, Tach time, and the Time before Next Oil Change to the September pages so all was in order for the month.

The I had to wait for fuel as one of our more special members hadn't refueled the plane last night after flying it and had been late this morning to call for fuel.

Then I had to reprogram the radios as the same special member had decided to use COM 2 instead of COM 1 and of course flip flopped all the frequencies.

 Then with the preflight complete, I got my taxi clearance, did the run up, and was on my way to the southwest.

 Beautiful day to fly.

Not a cloud in the sky, and the tiniest of crosswinds.

Keeping the power in I was soon cruise climbing at 114 knots and 121 knots ground speed.

 

Leveled off at 6,500 feet, and was heading to Jackson at 130 knots ground speed which isn't bad for an Archer at all.

Arrived at Jackson rather quickly, and entered the downwind for Runway 7.

I had a nice pattern going and then the tower wanted me to make a tighter base turn for traffic and keep it going into a final, which I did. But this meant I was a tad high on final and had a lot of speed to burn up as a result.  A very nice if both a high descent angle and high speed long landing. 

There in .7 from engine start at Pontiac to shut down on the ramp by the restaurant in Jackson. Not too shabby.

I then met Mr. B., who had arrived before me and saw my high angle of approach and my long landing. There's always an audience when it is less than perfect.

We had a good breakfast and even better conversation.  

The restaurant at Jackson is under new ownership and instead of The Apron is now known at Taildraggers - but the same favorites such as the Pilot's Omelette are still on the menu, the staff is much the same and it is still a great place to go.

After breakfast, we walked around a bit and then headed back to our respective aircraft to get them ready to depart. 

We started up and headed out at the same time and I followed Mr. B. on the  taxi to the runway and we both did our run-ups and took off in sequence.  He departed to the West, and I flew to the East.  

Again I made good time back to Pontiac.  A few clouds and some minor bumps but nothing serious and just another lovely flying day. 

The GM Proving Ground in Milford makes for both a great landmark and a great potential emergency landing location.

I soon had Pontiac Airport in sight and they had me cross over the departure end to the north and then enter the downwind for Runway 27R.

 

 I then entered the right downwind and got landing clearance and did a good landing with 0.8 from startup at Jackson to shutdown at the hangar.

It was a great time to get out and meet up with Mr. B.

That's 1.5 and 2 very nice landings.

Flying Friday: Independence Day Flight To KAZO

For Independence Day I flew to a suitably patriotic site:  The Kalamazoo Air Zoo.

Flew VFR with flight following. Pontiac airport was rather quiet at even at 9:00 am they still were using the ASOS rather than the ATIS. Called up ground and got flight following. I decided to fly to KAZO via the HAAKK waypoint so it kept me away from Battle Creek where there was a TFR for an airshow there and would otherwise be directly in the route.

 

So I flew there and it was quire a nice day. Very smooth conditions.

 

Some haze and a layer at around 5,500  that stopped me from climbing to 6,500 as I had planned.

Flew by Battle Creek, safely outside the TFR.

Got clearance to land on Runway 17, and was told to enter a left base and did so and then did a nice landing. Stopped lined up right for the taxiway to go right to the Air Zoo, which was fortuitous and rather perfect for arrival. Did the very short taxi and parked the plane and got let in through the back of the museum and signed in. We were in the second building, the Flight Discovery Center, where they do the restorations and had the place to ourselves in the morning.

Grumman F-11 Tiger in Blue Angels Livery

F-104 Starfighter

 

F-117 Nighthawk - the only one on display outside of a government museum.

There is also an F-86 Sabre and a MiG-15 on display:

 Lots of cool things to see in the building, including their work restoring a SBD-1 Dauntless recovered from Lake Michigan. The plane went down in 1942, killing the trainee pilot and was recovered in 1994, 52 years later.

The restoration is coming along, per the status board:

 Very cool and it is not far from being restored to display condition, even as it doesn't look it.  Unfortunately, it will not be restored to flying condition, only display. When complete, will be shipped off to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial Museum.

We then went to the main building, the Flight Innovation Center, which had more people there.

And lots more aircraft to see.

 

SR-71

V-1 Missile

XP-55 The Only One Left In The World.

P-47

Buchon, the Spanish copy of the ME BF-109

A Pink P-40

F-14 Tomcat of Top Gun fame

 We also got in line and tried the full motion  simulators.

Yes, you can do a full 360 degree roll in them.

 

 Much fun.

Then we walked back to the  Flight Discovery Center and saw more aircraft on display outside.

F-4 Phantom II

MiG-21

S-3 Viking

 

A decent cloud layer was in place.  Time to fly back VFR and play dodge cloud.

Did a weather brief, and pre-flight, and called Kalamazoo Ground for flight following back to Pontiac via HAAKK, and to taxi.

Got all that done and did a nice takeoff.

On connection to Great Lakes Approach, they asked me if I had put the HAAKK waypoint in myself.  I said I had. The controller then said nice job putting it in to avoid the Battle Creek TFR.

Quite a few clouds about.  I was at 3,500 and couldn't get above for awhile. 

 

 

Then I got a break in the clouds and climbed to 7,500.

But I soon had to descend as the clouds further ahead were going up higher than I could climb. So I descended to 5,500 to make a clear way through and maintain VFR.

I got handed overt to Detroit Approach and they noted a large area of heavy (and unforecast precipitation) between me and Pontiac. I could actually see the area of heavy rain. Heavy enough that it blocked out all visibility, and the rain shadow was visible for a good distance.

So, I diverted south to avoid it, and then once past it and with sufficient distance away, I resumed heading back to Pontiac.  I got the weather at Pontiac, and got handed off to Tower, and entered the downwind for Runway 27L, but was then switched to 27R and made a nice landing.

That's 1.4 there and 1.2 back and two very nice landings, and a great time in Kalamazoo.

Flying: 3 Up And 3 Down

3 up and 3 down is either the end of an inning, or enough takeoffs and landings to be current to carry passengers.

So I did 6.

It was a beautiful day to fly today, with a negligible crosswind of 10 knots from 060-080 using Runway 9L. A nice cool and sunny day with great performance from the Archer. 

I did touch-n-goes rather than full stop landings.

I was the only one in the pattern so I had no delays. and could get the touch-n-goes in quickly. 

 Tower on occasion had me extend my upwind for spacing for other arriving aircraft which was fine.  Kinda neat to know why he would extend based on the other radio traffic.

The first pattern wasn't perfect, but I got it dialed in more and more with each pattern.  I soon had it right where I wanted it performance-wise and soon was right on the numbers.

It was great to shake the rust off and get back in the air.

That's 6 landings and 0.7 to start off the flying season.

Flight Review Done, Complete With Some Extra Excitement

Had my Flight Review yesterday.

Required every two years, you need to go out with an instructor and show you can fly.  It's basically an abbreviated reenactment of your Private Pilot Test.  It has opportunities to both correct issues that may have cropped up in your flying, and to learn more stuff, so it is worth doing.

I had Brian, our flying club maintenance officer who is also a CFI do the review with me yesterday.

We were taking out the Archer and the prior pilots, who had flown to Oshkosh on Friday reported the Ammeter gauge was showing zero and not being responsive both on the way there an back. Prior to our flight review Brian had tested it out and couldn't duplicate it. More on this later.

So we started with the ground portion and he quizzed me on basic airspace, the items required for a pilot and aircraft to be legal and other useful stuff such as personal limits, issues in flight etc, and the current bugbear around Pontiac - making sure you don;t have a runway incursion as too many students have recently been doing their best to land on the wrong runway here.  He was quite satisfied that I knew my stuff and noted a lot of pilots forget a lot of it right after the test.  So the ground portion was no problem and I apparently know my stuff.  I also learned some new things, so it was worth it.

For the flight part, he stated we'd be doing dead-reckoning without using the GPS, just like on the private pilot exam.  We'd be heading to Linden. This was shades of my private pilot exam as that was the same route for it. He was happy that I knew Linden was under Flint's Class Charlie airspace so we'd need to be under 2,000 feet when we got near there.

So I did the run up and again, the ammeter gauge worked just fine, no issues at all. You might guess where this is going to go.....

I did a decent job using dead reckoning and the sectional chart and we made it to Linden, and I did an ok and decent pattern entry and a nice if somewhat long-ish landing due to some fun crosswinds that had whipped up. All good, but it did show I've been focusing on doing IFR stuff and approaches and neglecting VFR pattern flying so that's something I should be working on.  We then did a bit more pattern work at Linden and headed back to Pontiac, on the way doing steep turns and stalls.

Since the Archer now has the GFC500 installed, the plane automatically activated the autopilot during the stall and forced a recovery, which was kinda neat. It also was not a fan of very step turns again sounding an alarm. Neat to see the protective mode of the autopilot system works. We turned the protective mode off and did the stalls to spec, and then put it back on so the next pilot wouldn't be surprised by a lack of the protective mode being on. It works and it doesn't like you putting the plane into a bad spot.

Just for fun, we played with the autopilot a bit and Brian showed me a few neat techniques that answered some questions I had about the autopilot and its quirks with altitude settings.  I now know how to handle those quirks better and that makes it even easier to use.

Then, as we were heading back, not only did the ammeter got to zero but the alternator warning light lit up.

So we shed all unnecessary power consumption, shutting down radio 2, the landing light, fuel pump, autopilot. Basically we were trying to avoid losing the radio and power before we made it in.

We then booked it back to Pontiac at full throttle and got in the pattern rather fast we got a landing clearance and zipped in to make it happen but had to stay high as we had to do a long downwind for spacing. Brian then took the controls to show a really full-tilt, high-speed, side-slip to drop altitude real fast to get us down quick and line up on the runway at the same time, which was fun. A rather long landing as we had a fair bit of speed to spare but we got it down very nicely.

So, we got down fine, and never lost electrical power, and after taxiing to the hangar we checked and the battery still had 12 volts and hadn't been fried. So, he's going to see what the issue may be and so far the suspect is a loose connection somewhere on the alternator circuit.

One guess is that when the autopilot got installed something got knocked loose.

So, the Archer is now grounded until we get that sorted out, but my Flight Review is complete and I'm good to go.  

Apparently I'm still the World's Okay-est Pilot.

That's 1.1 and a couple fun landings for me, and one very fun one for Brian.

Saturday Flyday - Operation Archer Retrieval

Unfortunately we're going to be waiting even longer for the Archer's autopilot to be done, as the avionics shop can't get to it right now for reasons, namely they are swamped and don;t have the techs available to get it done right now. Argh.

So, the plan was to pick it up this morning at 9am at KADG and bring it back for now.

So I got up early to meet with James and make it happen by flying the Dakota there and he would fly the Archer back. We got to the airport at 7:30, and James had brought his son along, nice kid.

Plan was to get over there and get back quick as the winds were going to really pickup today.

We then ran into a key problem:

Namely, our keys didn't work in the Dakota.

The Dakota has just come out of annual, and as part of that, the lock cylinder was changed as it had deteriorated to the point where you could remove your key in an other than the off setting, which could be potentially bad.  Bad because you could leave the magnetos hot that way and someone turning the propeller could find the engine starting up on them.  Not good so it got changed,

Problem was, they didn't leave the new key behind.

So we had to wait a bit and finally we managed to get in contact with who had the new key as their phone was apparently on Do Not Disturb, and James drove off to get it. We lost a bit over an hour of time with that issue.

I had already done the preflight so we got in and got going.

Called Ground, got flight following, did our run up and I took us off for Adrian and after clearing Pontiac's airspace was directed to contact Detroit Approach.

Used the autopilot and it both connected and disconnected just fine.

Wind had already picked up a bit and we would be having a 22 knot headwind on the way there.

It was a smooth flight there, and since I had another pilot with me I put the foggles on and did the RNAV 23 approach. Detroit Approach was very cool and had us fly direct to a middle fix on the approach, and cleared us into the Bravo to do so, which saved us time.

I then did a great approach and a nice landing as the wind, while gusting was straight down the runway at 230.

We then met with the avionics shop and got the Archer.

We then flew back to Pontiac, James and his kid in the Archer, and I was in the Dakota, and things started getting a tad interesting.

After passing the Ann Arbor  airport, we both hit some decent wind shear and turbulence to bounce us around a fair bit. The turbulence continued towards Pontiac.

Even with the turbulence, I managed to snag a nice shot of The Big House from 3,500 feet.

I had to slow down to remain in safe maneuvering speed, but I was still moving pretty good. A ground speed of 151 knots or 174 mph is rather nice.

Got to Pontiac, and first they had me do a left downwind for Runway 27L.

They then had me turn a tight base and moved me over to 27R which got a bit challenging in what was a gusty crosswind of 10-18 knots from 220 degrees.

I almost had to go around as the wind was pushing me past the run way rather nicely,  but I managed to salvage the approach in good order. I was then lined up on short final, started to land, and then one heckuva gust made it not super pretty.

The wind, just as my wheel started to touch decided to kick up to 25 knots.

Not my best landing, but the aircraft was and is fully usable, so it still counts as an excellent landing, doesn't it?  Had we been back as planned the winds would have been far better.

James arrived awhile after, and also had a fun crosswind landing too in the rather gusty conditions, but they sent him right to 27R and didn't do a last minute switch.

We then put the planes away and that was a rather challenging 19 knot crosswind factor, but I did it, so I'm rather happy about that.

Winds are currently16-30 knots and really whipping around, so glad we got back when we did.

That's 1.7 with 2 excellent landings and one approach in the books.

Speaking of books, I've now filled up my first logbook completely, and these two entries were the first ones in my new logbook.

Archer Ferry Flight Accomplished!

So this morning we decided to try and get the Archer to Adrian.

Conditions were better than yesterday with Marginal VFR conditions and ceilings around 3,000 or so.

So we preflighted the planes and decided to launch.  This would be a flight of both the Archer and the Dakota.

We arranged for flight following, as our course would take us through Ann Arbor airspace and rather close to Detroit's Bravo airspace. So, it's always good to be talking with Detroit Approach where you're that close to their Bravo.

E. flying the Dakota, as it is a faster airplane, took off first and would scout the route.

Takeoff was good with gusty winds from 250.

The overcast layer got a tad lower as we headed southwest, and I was soon at 2,500 feet.

E.  reported light to moderate turbulence as he approached Ann Arbor, and indeed I soon hit the turbulence which made it a bit of a bouncy flight.

Detroit Approach cleared us through Ann Arbor's Delta airspace and I got some nice shots of The Big House as I flew on by.

 

 

  Yes, the Big House is Big!

The turbulence subsided as we got south of Ann Arbor and Detroit Approach  noted no other aircraft in the area, ended flight following, and had us squawk VFR.

At Adrian, winds were gusting 10-21 out of 250, so not bad for a landing on Runway 23.

Eric checked out the field at Adrian and radioed to me that it was nice and clean and no one else in the pattern.  So I did a practice RNAV approach to Runway 23 and did a very nice and smooth landing.  I then taxi'd off the runway and headed to the avionics shop to meet up with him.

1.1 on the way there with some strong headwinds, turbulence, and a great landing.

We dropped off the Archer, and then took off in the Dakota and I flew us back. We picked up flight following again, and again were cleared through Ann Arbor's class D.

I got to play with the autopilot and let it do most of the flying back. Again there was quite a bit of turbulence and we got bounced around quite a bit and had to stay around 2,500 to remain out of the clouds.

We then got back to Pontiac and landed in gusting 10-22 knots from 240, which again was not too bad.  First we were cleared for a left downwind to 27L, but this was soon amended to a left downwind for 27R.

0.6 on the way back, and another nice landing.

Best part of all, since these were ferry flights to get the avionics installed, the Flying Club covered the cost of the flights.  No flying is better than free flying.

Flying: 6 Up, 6 Down, And 6 All The Way Around

Finally got out flying today.

Weather was excellent, and I and the aircraft were available so all things fell into place.

Since I was way out of practice, I decided to regain some currency by doing pattern work.

Another club member had grabbed the Dakota and we met at the airport as he was also going to do some pattern work. 

So I got the Archer pre-flighted and got ready to go.

Finally, Runway 27R is open again, as are the taxiways, even if they have been renamed.  Taxiway Kilo is no more, it's now Delta 2.  

The Archer started right up and I got the ATIS and then did a taxi to the run up area, did the run up, everything checked out so I headed to the runway hold short line.

 Got permission to take off and then I was off as if I hadn't been away from it for way too long. Haze and crappy viz from the smoke was mainly above pattern altitude but it was still hazy-ish at and below pattern altitude making it harder to see other aircraft.

Landing 1 was kinda hot and long with a fair bit of float.

For takeoff two, they had me takeoff from 27R and then do a Left pattern for 27R.

A left pattern for 27R?

I repeated it back with an emphasis on left, as going left would put me across 27L's departure end and I'd then be heading down 27L's downwind, so I wanted to make sure what they said was what they meant.

Tower confirmed, so off I went.

I did the left pattern, was cleared to land on 27R.  Right after I had turned base, the tower then amended the instruction to have me land on 27L.

This meant I had to do a pretty tight left turn to line up on 27L, and a slip to drop altitude to land on it rather than 27R.  Which I did, but I was still all sorts of fast and landed quite long.

Then took off from 27L, and then they had me cross over to 27R where I then stayed for the next 4 landings.   Each pattern was a bit different with tower adjusting things to fit aircraft in - extended climb-outs, extended downwinds etc, just to keep things interesting and to make sure everyone was paying attention.

All landings continued to improve and I finally got it all on speed, on picture and right in, which was nice.

Quite a few aircraft where in and entering and leaving the pattern but it never got terribly busy.

It was good to shake the rust off. Now I need to shanghai a safety pilot and get my instrument rating current ASAP.

That's 1.1 and 6 landings, ranging from good to excellent.

Clean-The-Planes Day

This morning was the twice-yearly aircraft Wash-n-Wax.

The weather was absolutely perfect for it.

Scrubbed the planes down, took them to the wash stand and covered them in soap.

Then we brought them back to the hangar, dried them off and waxed them, and  buffed them to a shine.
 

Probably picked up a few knots in speed and dropped a few pounds worth of grime each.

Given the nice weather, both planes were reserved and took off shortly after being cleaned.

Great turnout of club members, so we were done by 11 a.m.

Flying - To The Air Zoo!

I had the day all to myself so I decided after taking car of the dogs to take flight.

I had never gone to the Kalmazoo Air Zoo at KAZO, so I decided to fly there today.

Wind was kinda gusty and strong from 040 so I took off in the Archer (Dakota was booked by someone else for the weekend) from Runway 9L and headed on my way.

I got flight following which was helpful as there was parachute jumping activity and glider activity that I was routed around, which was rather nice.

Climbed to 6,500, and with a nice tailwind was doing 123 knots ground speed.

Overflew Battle Creek on the way.  Need to stop there soon as the food at the restaurant there is supposed to be amazing, and the WACO aircraft factory is there.

Then coming in to Kalamazoo, I got to choose if I wanted Rwy 5, the shorter Runway or Runway 35, the longer one with a major crosswind.  Since the wind was blowing 040-050, Runway 5 was the right choice for me.

So, I entered the right downwind for it and then made a very nice landing. The wind remained gusty but kindly settled on 050 right during my landing which made it rather nice indeed.

Then Kalamazoo Ground most helpfully gave me progressive taxi to the museum airplane parking area.

You can see the flag whipping in the wind.

I then parked in the visitor area.

One other plane, another Piper Archer, was there when I got there so I parked nicely beside it.

And then I headed into the Museum.

Pilots and their passengers get their own entrance into the museum, at the restoration area, and then I get a shuttle to the main museum.  We also get to sign in with our plane info as well and get a sticker badge with our N-number on it to wear to show we flew in (and probably to find us if they need us to move the planes around I suppose).   I had a great chat with one of the docents on the way to the main museum, and then paid my entrance fee and went in then off to explore.

That's 1.3, 1.3 cross-country, and 1 rather nice landing. 

Flying IFR - Lesson 39 - IFR And Landing 1000

Well this lesson while sucky, ended in a nice milestone.

The milestone being that it was my 1,000th landing.

Weather was MVFR-IFR with reports of light rime icing at 3,000 feet.

So we filed IFR and headed to do the route the examiner generally likes to do - Troy for the RNAV 9 circle to 27, then Pontiac for the RNAV 27, and then the Localizer Backcourse 27L.

On the upside I got some more real IFR time.

Yep, spent a lot of time in the clouds this lesson - rather calm clouds not very bumpy at all.  No icing happening either. Just nice balls of nothingness.

On the downside my Troy RNAV 9 circle to 27 wasn't great.  While ok overall, I was a bit off course getting there and had a lot of trouble getting the needles lined up for it. Then not a bad circle but came in a little high on final so need to work on that.

The RNAV 27 at Pontiac was just fine, no issues with that.

The partial panel Localizer Backcourse 27L just plain sucked. 

First try getting vectored I went full scale deflection and went missed.  That would be a nice fail on a  checkride. Was banking way too much to intercept it and couldn't get it so it was a major pain.

Second attempt was a fair bit better but needed to descend quicker.

Third attempt was actually good and things went well, and I landed my 1,000th landing on that one doing a side-step to Runway 27R.

At least they were all in actual and not breaking out of the clouds until past the final approach fix.

So not a lesson  with a result I had hoped for.  Felt like some major steps backward.  Here I was thinking I'm about ready for the checkride and after today's lesson not so much.

Since I'm pretty much stuck going with my not-so-favorite-examiner that would have been a hard fail.  Ah well when you think you're ready to take a step forward you end up going two steps back. Much frustration.

That's 2.1, with 1.3 actual, 5 approaches, and one good landing.

Flying IFR - Lesson 30 - An Interesting Diversion

Today the weather was a little iffy. Kevin and I met prior to the pre-flight and went over it.

Low clouds, rain, so yep, good IFR flying weather.

So we decided to give it a go and filed an IFR flight plan to Flint and back to Pontiac.

Got N5337F preflighted, started it up, and found out the turn coordinator was inop, so not legal to fly in IFR.

Switched to N1869H and we were off.

Right into the soup with clouds and rain.

Broke out at 3,000 feet between two layers.

 

Very pretty while it lasted, which wasn't long.

We then hit more clouds on the way to Flint.

First I did the ILS 9 Approach at Flint and did it pretty well.  Still stumbled a bit with the hold entry but I'm starting to figure it out. 

Flew the ILS 9 Approach just great.  Then broke out of the clouds at minimums and then went missed and back up into the soup.

The I did the VOR 18 circle to 9 and it also went really well and I had a great circle to land approach.

Then back to Pontiac, and this is where the tale begins.

Through solid IFR headed back to do the RNAV 9 approach at Pontian. I had started the approach when Detroit Approach announced Pontiac had just issued a special weather report with a thunderstorm and heavy precip right over the field.

No Bueno.

So we diverted back to Flint  (it was listed in our flight plan already as our alternate) and I did a beautiful ILS 9 approach and landing, perfectly centered and lined up the whole way,  breaking out right around minimums to see the runway right where it was supposed to be and an easy landing.

My first real IFR diversion.

We then went to the Avflight FBO at Flint, got fuel, had some coffee, and waited out the weather for awhile.  Great FBO with very good complimentary coffee. Downside is I kinda missed lunch and had to reschedule some afternoon stuff.

Once the thunderstorms passed through, it was still IFR and rain but safe to travel so we headed back to Pontiac.

Came back to Pontiac through some decent precipitation, with a bit of lightning off in the distance.  A superb RNAV 9 approach like it was on rails and a great smooth landing and done.  Rolled to the end of the runway and headed back to finish the lesson.

It was a much longer lesson than I had anticipated.

That's 2.3 with 4 approaches, 2 holds,1.5 actual IFR and .5 simulated instrument and a nice landing for the flight out.

That's .6 with 1 approach, .2 actual IFR. .2 Simulated and a really nice landing for the flight back.

Total for the day:  2.9, 5 approaches, 2 holds, 1.7 actual, .7 simulated, and two nice landings.

Cleaning Day

Had both an enjoyable and a not-so-enjoyable cleaning experience today.

The enjoyable cleaning experience was my Flying Club's Wash n' Wax where we cleaned both planes and made them shine, not to mention vacuumed the interiors.  We then held a meeting of members and discussed the state of the club and some future plans.  The club is in good financial shape with reserves for the engines and the engines on both planes are running strong, even as the Archer is getting close to its TBO time.  So far oil analysis and compressions are excellent but we've got enough to cover a full factory overhaul just in case.

Some members want to overhaul the Dakota's interior, so we will see what the cost of that may be.

I was asked to run for a Board of Directors slot, so I am doing so and we'll see what happens.  

Lots of fun and good to be around airplanes and a good bunch of people.

Then the not-so-enjoyable experience:  

Piper went to the vet yesterday and got checked out.  Turns out she's growing properly but running a tad thin so we're upping her food amount, but she was otherwise great.  She also then got the appropriate shot for her age.

It turns out dogs can have reactions to vaccines. Did not know that. Piper certainly did.

The reaction in this case is explosive projectile poop-age.

9 times overnight and this morning, 5 of which were examples of biological warfare indoors.

How something so small can have that much poop inside is a mystery.

Cleaning that up was no fun. 

So, she went back to the vet today and got some medication to help with that reaction and she's fine and it seems to be settling down but still not back to normal yet.  Keeping her off the carpet anyways for now until she's back to normal.

It's always got to be something.

Flying IFR - Lesson 29 - Checkride Prep And Partial Panel Approaches

Today was a simulated checkride flying day.

Up to Flint for the ILS 27 full procedure, followed by a missed, then to the VOR 36 with a circle to land on 27.

Both went really well and i'd say the circle was my best yet.

Then on to an RNAV approach for 27 which went great.

Back to Pontiac and we did partial panel localizer back course 27L approached. 

Partial panel before even getting on the approach so being vectored without a heading indicator and using the compass which sucks. 

With only VOR Receiver 2 working I had reverse-sensing and also had to flip its frequency from the localizer to the Salem VOR to intercept the approach fix.  Kinda busy but not a bad approach.

Then went missed and did it yet again partial panel and then landed.

Some of my best approaches and overall feeling pretty decent, but the partial panel still needs some work, and I need to tighten up a few things, but I improved from last Friday so that's a good thing.

That's 1.9 with 1.6 simulated instrument, 5 approached, a hold and a decent landing.

Flying IFR - Lesson 28 - IFR Long Cross Country

Last Tuesday the weather had thunderstorms and a cold front along the route scrapped that.

Today was much better with a mix of VFR and IFR along the way but no thunderstorms.

I got to the airport and filed the flight plan for Pontiac to Muskegon then from Muskegon to Grand Rapids and then back to Pontiac. We were flying N3553M, the Archer with the Garmin GFC 500 autopilot.

As we were doing the run up Pontiac went IFR.

No problem, were going IFR.

Took off from Runway 9R and climbed through the layer, first to 4000 and then almost immediately Detroit Approach cleared us to climb to 6,000.

Detroit Approach then had us head to Muskegon as I had filed it, via the Miggy2 departure procedure.

It was just beautiful above the layer.

 

Smooth as silk at 6,000. After flying for a bit we worked on autopilot usage and the GFC 500 is a nice unit.

The cloud layer continued to thin out to practically nothing as we flew westward.

Made it to Muskegon.  We were going to request an ASR approach but they stated they don't have that capability anymore, even as the charts still say they do.  So we switched to an ILS Runway 32 circle to Runway 6.

We used the autopilot to descend and fly the approach down to circling minimums and it worked very nicely.  Hand flew from circling and did a very nice circle and landing on Runway 6.  Getting a lot better at those.

Then got clearance for our next leg and headed to Grand Rapids.

For Grand Rapids we used the GFC 500's Flight Director rather than the autopilot and its a nice way to fly - just line up the chevrons and you're all set. Did the RNAV Runway 8 approach at Grand Rapids and did the flight director all the way to the M AP where I took over and hand flew it to another nice landing.

Then got a new clearance and back up again and headed back to Pontiac at 5,000 feet, again using the Flight Director.  By the time we got there the layer had fully burned off.  Did the Localizer Runway 9R and the Flight Director really helps with getting down nicely.  I then did a very nice landing.

It was an excellent experience using the GFC 500. It's an incredibly powerful tool - assuming you program and use it correctly.    A great long IFR cross country.

All that's left is a whole lot of check-ride prep which means approaches and partial panel work until I puke and then more approaches and partial panelwork.

That's 3.5, .1 of actual instrument time, 2.8 of simulated instrument, 3 approaches and 3 landings.

Flying - Homeward From Mackinac

The taxi was a two horse-power vehicle.

Quite a fun ride. We got picked up and then he picked up 4 more to go to the Grand Hotel so we got to see it on the way to the airport.

Then we did not go direct to the airport as the taxi required an engine overhaul.

With fresh horses, we headed to the airport.

At the airport I checked the weather again and saw a nice PT-17 had come in after we had arrived.

 

Checking the weather and updating my weather brief, the winds were gusting up to 30 knots from 210-270 which was kinda concerning.  Still within crosswind limits, but sporty.

Did the preflight and all was in order and still with plenty of gas, and kept watching the windsock which was almost always fully extended but kept pointing right down Runway 26, more or less, and not deviating. This made it do-able.

 

I announced on the CTAF that I was taking off, then lined up on the runway and then held the brakes and brought the aircraft to full power. I then took off and the wind stayed pretty much right down the runway so it was a pretty easy takeoff and a 30-knot headwind made for good performance. Windsock stayed right down the runway the whole time.

We headed towards Pontiac and saw the Mackinac Bridge.

 Climbing up we ran into a lot of light turbulence, lots and lots of bumps and directional control was then rather difficult.   Any motion to head to the left was met with massive bumps so we were getting off course due to the turbulence. I was working hard just to keep the wings level.  Bit of a heavily scattered / broken layer above made it hard to get above it, too.

I checked in with Minneapolis Center and got flight following given to me immediately without even asking for it, and I reported the light turbulence.   Other pilots in the area were also reporting wind shear and light to moderate turbulence as far south as Traverse City, and Harbor Springs had some severe wind shear.  

I finally got to a point basically following Highway 75 south to where the clouds opened to a scattered layer, put the throttle all the way forward and climbed up to 7,500 through the hole and got back on course.  Was still able to see the ground the whole time even with it being a bit hazy up there. The air was nice and smooth and Minneapolis Center was ok with my being at that height to avoid the messy air below.

Co-pilot then did some homework in the calm air and I was back on course.

The kid was doing Physics homework in an airplane.  Kinda cool.

Got handed off to Great Lakes Approach Saginaw frequency and continued on.

I checked with Fight Service to get an updated weather report for Pontiac and see if any turbulence had been reported there.  No turbulence, but winds at 210 from 10-20 knots. Very sporty.

Then handed off to Great Lakes Approach Flint and then to Detroit Approach. 

For practice I requested the RNAV 27L approach and got it and I kinda wanted the guidance that comes with an RNAV for the approach.  I was told to head to LEHRA intersection and I started descending as I headed towards LEHRA.  At LEHRA I was then cleared for the approach and contacted Pontiac Tower.  The winds were then 210-230 at about 11-15 which was nicer.  Still, it made it hard to stay on course. I was constantly getting pushed to the right by gusts and was crabbing like crazy to stay on the needles and keep it from deflecting too much.   I was VFR so I could see the runway which also helped stay as lined up as possible even as I kept getting pushed and the needle was a dot left of center most of the time.

A decent descent following the glide-slope and with tons of crabbing and power adjustments due to the gusting wind.  Got lined up and made the landing rather firmly and we were down.  Landed at 6:12 pm.

Then I got to have some fun. I had told Tower that for parking I needed to go to Royal Air East for fuel, so instead of a long taxi around the south-side to get to the north-side, Tower had me do a 180 and back-taxi on the runway to the Hotel intersection and then cross to Delta and taxi to Royal Air East. Very nice of them and I think I'm the first person to get to back-taxi on the new 27L Runway. First time I've ever done a back-taxi at Pontiac.

Got to Royal Air East and still had well over an hour's fuel in the tanks, so my fuel planning was on which was good. Then taxi back to the hangar, wiped all the bugs off the plane, and then headed home with our day's shopping.

2.4 in sporty conditions and a rather sporty landing as well.  Challenging, but I handled it all just fine and I'm quite sure al the IFR training has helped me be both more precise and capable.  Leah had a great time on Mackinaw Island and in the air, except for the turbulence part.  The rest of the family enjoyed the fudge we had brought home.

This is definitely why I learned how to fly, to be able to take the family on neat trips, especially day trips that can't be done by car in a timely manner.