Ferry Flight Return

We got a call that the work had been done. So again Eric and I volunteered to go to Flint and bring the planed back.

It was a beautiful day for a short ferry flight to bring the planes back to Pontiac after getting some avionic improvements in Flint.

All the work was done including protected avionic master switches to prevent pilots from inadvertently turning it off in rough air as the switch is close to the GPS screen and two pilots did manage to hit the switch so we wanted to prevent that from happening again.

Fall colors look great from the air.

Entered the downwind to 27R and then made a great crosswind landing.

A nice quick flight followed by a great landing.

The Return From Toronto

As usual, you file a flight plan to depart Toronto Island Airport, it gets accepted, and then it gets changed when you ask for your clearance.

I had asked for a simple plan that had been approved before - Depart direct DERLO and from DERLO to Port Huron. 

Nope.  Instead I got the PERL4.08 Departure, to ANCOL, to DERLO, To MARGN and then Port Huron.  The controller first mistakenly said White plains airport and I asked that be clarified and she changed it to Port Huron so that was good at least.

MARGN is past Port Huron, but that was the required plan. 

Why Port Huron? Because Customs and Border Patrol is not open at Oakland County airport on the weekends, but Port Huron is Open 24/7 assuming you file the requisite paperwork and make the proper arrival intention call, which I had.

So I did the run up and got in line for departure and was soon off and on my way.

Again, very nice weather but windy with a good gusting crosswind on takeoff and very much during the initial climbout. 

Got put over the Lake Again, climbing to 3,000.  Got turned out farther into the lake and climbed up to 4,000 then 6,000 and finally 8,000 as I was then told to turn direct to ANCOL.

I then flew the route and got handed through the Toronto Control frequencies and then handed over  to Selfridge ANGB before the Border.

Selfridge then changed my plan to have me go direct to Port Huron which was great, and the controller was very much on the ball, and descended me perfectly, in plenty of time to be on track to get to pattern altitude at Port Huron. 

I had already picked up the automated weather, which was reporting a shifting and gusting crosswind that would wander near the heading for Runway, 4 so Runway 4 it was.

Selfridge had me descend to 2,500 and once I had the airport in sight, and then had me switch to the CTAF.  I listened for traffic, made my calls, crossed over the airport and then dropped down into the downwind for Runway 4 and made a darn nice pattern and  excellent landing. My first landing at Port Huron.

I then taxi'd over to the CBP building, cancelled my IFR flight plan with Selfridge,  got out and cleared customs. The officers were very friendly and made it a very easy experience with no issues.

I then went back to the plane, taxi'd back to the runway, did the runup and departed heading for Pontiac. I contacted Selfridge and requested VFR flight following as the weather was nice and clear and they obliged, alerting me to a ton of traffic around Romeo.  I stayed above it at 4,500 feet.

I then got passed to Detroit Approach and requested the RNAV 27L approach as the setting sun was right in my eyes, making the approach almost IFR-light and making it hard to see the airport, much less the runway.

Using the RNAV approach guidance it5 was easy to be on a proper glidepath and I was able to make yet another very nice landing.

Then taxi'd back to the hangar and that was then end of a very nice weekend trip. Using Poet Huron makes a weekend trip to Toronto and back a lot more doable and convenient, which is great.

That's a 1.7 and a .6 flight, and 2 great landings.

A Nice Day For An Instrument Currency Flight

Flying like shooting. It is a perishable skill. Instrument flying even more so.

Instrument currency can also be a pain to maintain as it is like herding cats to find a safety pilot sometimes, and you need a safety pilot for those practice approaches to count.

So I got up early this morning and headed to the airport to meet Scott who I had convinced to be my safety pilot.

It was a beautiful sunny day to fly, if a tad windy, with gusting winds at 10 knots from 100 degrees.

 After the preflight and adding some oil, we got ready to go.

I got flight following and let then tower know I would be doing practice approaches and they got me all setup.

A nice takeoff and tower had me initially turn on course for Flint and then changed their mind and had me go due north for traffic, and then handed me over to Detroit Approach, who almost immediately handed me over to Great Lakes Approach. 

This led to lots of good practice switching frequencies quickly with the new Garmin 650XI GPS unit.  We have just replaced the 23-year-old GPS 430Ws units that were in the planes with nice new 650XIs.

We went from this:

 to this:

 

 

Some serious improvements in 23 years, including a touchscreen, better integration with the autopilot, much easier entry of Arrival and Departure Procedures and T-Routes, and a much more intuitive process -- that does take some training and study to get used to and take advantage of to use it safely.

I had studied and used a simulator of 650XI, and had used it for a VFR flight, and this would be my first time using it for IFR approaches. 

So we headed to Flint and I put the foggles on, and we started doing approaches. Unfortunately Flint's main runway is closed so no ILS approaches were available, and it would be an RNAV day.

The first approach quite frankly sucked. 

The controller dumped us to join the approach right on top of the Final Approach Fix for the RNAV 36 at 3,500 feet and it was chop, drop, and try to get on glideslope and glidepath time.  The plan was to make it a missed approach even if it was good. This one truly was not and was blown from the start and was missed pretty much as soon as it began.

Went missed, climbed out, got a little bouncy at 2,500 feet in light chop from the wind shifting all around, and tried again and had a much better result.  The controller had us vectored in from a much more doable distance from the final approach fix rather than past it.

Then tried it with the 650 and Autopilot flying the vectors and then the approach to the final approach fix and that went well as I manually adjusted the altitude as we reached the waypoints.  Then hand flew it in the rest of the way. Then did it one more time.

After that it was back to Pontiac for two more approaches. 

The last approach I hand flew and was right on track on the glidepath and glideslope both, even with the crosswind. Landed it like butter and it was a great finish to some very focused practice, and I'm now instrument current again.

That's 1.9, 6 approaches, and 1 great landing. 

Flying: Knocking Off The Winter Rust

This morning was a perfect day to get up and fly.  Winds calm, sun bright and sky totally clear below 7,000 with only a few clouds above that.

I did the preflight and all was good.  First time flying the Archer since it got a new engine.

The Archer started up immediately and it climbed into the sky like a homesick angel.

For the first pattern I had to do a go around as the prior aircraft to me did a bomber pattern and then decided to take their sweet time departing the runway.

So I got a nice go round in to stay sharp.

 I then did 5 landings with three full stop and two touch-and -goes as most aircraft in the pattern were doing full stops, so Tower couldn't fit in my touch-and-goes in the traffic flow.

Lots of aircraft were flying this morning.

Landings were good and got better as I got more landings in. 

So, I'm now current for carrying passengers, now on to throwing a safety pilot in the right seat and getting my IFR rating back in currency.

That's 0.8 and 5 landings. 

Sunday Brunch With Mr. B.

Mr. B. Flew in to KPTK today. I wasn't flying as the Archer is still down getting its new engine, and the Dakota was out for the weekend with another pilot. So Mr. B. came to visit.

Not Mr. B.

 

 

He landed with one heckuva crosswind. It was blowing 18 gusting 25 knots at 280-310 for a 15 knot plus gusty crosswind component.

 He did it with style, and made it look easy, with a very nice landing.

 He taxi'd in and parked, and we headed off to a great brunch, which he kindly paid for.

After a great time catching up, I drove him back to the airport.  

He did the preflight, and as he did that I removed the nose chock, and he got the engines started and soon headed back home.

It was a darn good meet-up. 

Back From T.O.

So the visit concluded, I got ready to return homeward.

Weather forecast was good, all electronic border crossing stuff was done, and I went to the Island.

I checked out of the FBO, did the pre-flight and got ready to depart.

I had the more complicated departure procedure with transition and arrival procedure already filed as I figured they would give it to me anyways, so might as well. 

They did.

So I did the run up and took off from Runway 26 and began the departure procedure, turning south over the Lake as I did so climbing to 2,000 feet which isn;t a lot when you're over the Big Lake.

 

However, Toronto Center soon climbed me higher and I was first cleared to 3,000 then 4,000 and finally up to 6,000.

The problem was a cloud layer that decided to be right at my flight level.

 The problem is this batch of clouds had an attitude problem. In that they liked to try and change my aircraft's attitude.

Yep, I was soon in IMC.

 

I would then be in and out of IMC for most of the flight, getting some light precip in the clouds and experiencing everything from mostly light chop to moderate chop, on  to moderate turbulence and one episode of severe turbulence which was not fun as it put the nose up at a very high angle and my airspeed started rapidly dropping into stall territory until it let up.

Trying to cloimb out didn;t help, I climbed up to 8,000 and was free for a bit but then a set of clouds from 10,000-5,000 feet loomed ahead.  so it was in and out of IMC for most of the flight.

On top of that, beverage selection was quite limited.

 Today's lunch was either a protein shake or the protein shake, so I chose the protein shake.  It was extra shaken from the turbulence as well.

Finally by the border the clouds lifted enough so 6,000 was just under the worst of it.

 A nice easy handoff to Selfridge ANGB controllers and across the border I went.

Then I got the ATIS at Pontiac and was handed off to Detroit Approach.

 Detroit Approach then had to give me some delay vectors as everybody had chosen to arrive at Pontiac just as I was coming in qnd he needed to create spacing to handle all the planes coming in.

The controller at Detroit Approach did an impressive job perfectly sequencing all the traffic in for landing with excellent separation and I was soon doing a visual straight in approach to 27L, which I backed up with an RNAV approach for practice as well.

I landed with a great landing, very nice and smooth and where I wanted to land.  I went to Customs, got cleared, and then taxi'd to the north side of the airport and shut down and took care of the plane.

That's 2.6 hours with .5 bouncing around in IMC, and a great landing. 

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.

Birthday Flight And Activities

So, having turned 53, I decided to go for a flight to somewhere I had not been before.

So I went with a friend and picked up Leah and the three of us headed to the airport. Abby was unavailable as she was heading back from an academic conference out of town as she was presenting there after she had just published a scientific paper as a co-author- as a junior no less - not too shabby at all.

So the three of us went to the airport, and I did the preflight, got a weather brief which looked good and METARS and TAFs all were in favorable territory, and then we headed out.

Overall everything looked favorable for a flight to Traverse City, a decent crosswind ws expected but well within my personal limits.

Departed VFR with flight following to the northwest on a sunny day with a bit of wind.

 Very smooth in the air though.  Detroit Approach had me hold my climb at 4,000 and then divert 20 degrees left to avoid traffic that apparently was coming right for us, which is one of the reasons I like flight following - its a great extra safety measure. Soon got cleared to head back on course and to my desired altitude of 6,500 feet.

Got switched to Great Lakes Approach and mosied through their airspace at 154 knots ground speed, which was nice. Both passengers were nice and relaxed and both fell asleep on the way.

Getting closer to Traverse City, I got switched to Minneapolis Center and got the weather at  Traverse City.

ATIS was now reporting a direct crosswind gusting between 18-28 knots; a low level wind shear warning; and of pilot reports from landing aircraft of moderate turbulence on final on top of that.

Those conditions are outside my comfort zone, especially when carrying passengers who depend on me to make good decisions. 

I let the passengers know that going to Traverse City would have to wait, and suggested we go to Mt. Pleasant instead as it was close by and we could hit the Casino for lunch and activities.

I let Minneapolis Center know that we were going to divert to KMOP due to the current conditions at TVC and they updated my fight following and I was soon talking to Great Lakes Approach and heading to KMOP.

Arrived there in almost no time and the wind conditions there were also gusty with a crosswind of up to 17 knots.

On the first approach, I did a go around due to a late gust, and then on the second attempt I did a darn nice landing that both passengers liked.  They didn't quite get how much I was working to do it with the gusts on final on that one. 

But, I got it down landing long having added a bit more power to deal with the gusts, but on center-line, and apparently made it look easy to the non-pilot set.

We got the shuttle to the Casino and had lunch. We had chicken from the Chicken Guy for lunch and it was quite good.

We then hit the casino floor and tried our luck.  I hadn't brought my gambling fund with me as I hadn't planned on the casino, but had an emergency hundred tucked in my wallet and played with that.

Played craps for awhile and I had a good roll, but was then up and down with other players, and after an hour plus of playing I walked away having broken even, which was not bad for the entertainment value.

Leah, having not been at the casino before decided to try slots for the first time.

I gave her $10 to play with for her first try with the machine.

She then made $13.50 on the penny slot machine.

 

Not bad.  My friend also made $43 playing slots as well on the neighboring machine so it was a great time.

We then headed back to the airport.  I got a weather brief and all looked good, as did the preflight.

Took off and contacted Great Lakes Approach in the air and got flight following.

It was a fair bit bumpier on the return trip but not a big deal, and both passengers soon fell asleep again.

Soon we passed by Flint airport on the way back.

 Pontiac was soon seen in the distance and I got in touch with Pontiac Tower and was cleared into the downwind for Runway 27R.  I did have an oncoming aircraft as I was heading for the downwind, but Pontiac Tower maintained a good separation keeping me higher and he passed off my wing and below me.

I then descended to pattern altitude and flew a good pattern.  Winds had calmed down to a pretty steady 9 knots from 200, and I made a nice crosswind landing that I was very happy with and my passengers complimented me on yet again. That one was so much easier than the landing at KMOP.

After that, we refueled, cleaned, and put the plane away, dropped Leah off, and my friend took me out for sushi for dinner which was excellent.

Then we went for a swim and had a good time and headed home after that.

Thar was a great birthday day. 

That's 2.3 and 2 great 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.

Sunday Flyday

Sunday was yet another great day for flying, no one had checked 914P out so I decided it needed some exercise.  I decided to take a friend to Mt. Pleasant.

Got to the airport and the pre-flight went as expected.

Our neighbor beside our hangar had just taken his Cessna 170 out:

 Very pretty aircraft.

I pulled the plane out as he left and the start up was nice and normal as was the run-up.

I had decided to go VFR and got flight following arranged and took off from Runway 27R heading to the northwest. 

I initially got to climb to 5,550, poking through the blue in between a very scattered layer of clouds.

 I overflew Flint airport, talking with Great Lakes Approach.

  

As I got closer to Mt. Pleasant, a more solid overcast layer started appearing, so I called Great Lakes Approach and let them know I needed to descend to avoid clouds.  Since I was VFR, going into clouds was a no-no.  They stated altitude was at my discretion and they appreciated my calling them before I started descending.

Soon, I arrived about 10 miles out at Mt. Pleasant with the runway in sight.  Two other planes were in the pattern to land with a third stating they were maneuvering above the airport at 3,500 feet. Since I was  at 3,500, I descended for separation and let everyone know I would overfly the airfield and do a midfield downwind entry for Runway 27.  I would have used 9 as the winds were calm and it would have been convenient, but the two other aircraft had stated they were going to 27 so I joined in accordingly.

I did a nice overflight and then dropped into a midfield downwind entry, by which time one plane had landed, and the other plane was already on base and separation was good. 

I did a really nice landing, parked, and headed into the terminal and called for a shuttle to the casino.

Had a nice lunch at Johnny Rockets,  hit the craps table and got slaughtered.

That's why it's called gambling and not a sure thing. Still, it was an enjoyable experience, nice dealers and nice folks around the table and I learned some things. Didn't bet the rent, so no serious loss other than play money, and  that I'll win back the next time, maybe.

Got the shuttle back to the airport, did the preflight and then took off from Runway 9 as winds were again calm and no traffic was about, and headed to the southeast back to Pontiac.

 It was a pleasant flight back, with a few bumps from the heat of the day.

 I got yet another nice view of Flint.

 

Nice to get a higher aerial view.  I'm typically under the hood when flying at Flint and tend to just see the runway on final.

Great Lakes Approach at the end of their airspace decided not to hand me off to Detroit and instead had me squawk VFR and contact Pontiac Tower, which was fine.

I already had the ATIS for Pontiac and after contacting them was told to enter the right downwind for 27R and was #2 to land, behind another aircraft.

Said aircraft decided to fly a bomber-sized  pattern, so Tower finally told them to turn base, I then extended my downwind for spacing and turned base outside of them, and then landed with a decent landing. I had too much speed so had to bleed some off - which I seem to do often with N914P, and I need to work on that.  So I had a lot more float than I wanted.  But, I still landed on 27R to complete the trip.

It was a very nice, if quite hot, day to fly.

That's 1.9 and 2 landings.