Saturday, June 20, 2009

Vertical Development


This is long over due but summer is finally here. You have to love the benefits that come with summer in Grand Forks, ND. We finally don’t have to carry/wear our boots to go flying, no bulky jacket, gloves, and hat. No frostbite while you are pre-flighting the aircraft.

There are finally clouds that tower above you and lightning and rain. Gotta love it!! T-shirts and shorts(not at work of course). Grilling out and bonfires. Motorcycle rides. Pontoons and tubing.

But you also have to take the bad that comes with summer. The heat, the storms, the bugs, and the sweating. The heat definitely plays a major factor in performance during the summer months. In the winter with a fully loaded warrior you can still expect to get about 700 FPM climb rate on take off climb. Yesterday, with a fully loaded Warrior I didn’t think we would get to 3,500’ before we hit Canada, we were climbing like a rock. Not only is it the heat it is also the humidity which ruins your performance.

Another big issue in the summer is storms. A few days ago I was getting ready to go on a XC flight with a student to Alexandria, Crookston and then back to Grand Forks. The weather at the time was very unstable; a low pressure system was to the north of us with a trough to the south which was combining to create some pretty nasty storms. However, during our planning it looked like we would be able to make it to Alexandria and back before the storms hit.

So we decided to go ahead and get an aircraft book, call and file our IFR flight plans and get ready to head to the aircraft. I suggest we take one last look at the weather before we leave and sure enough new TAF’s our out along with up dated radar images. The TAF’s are now predicting storms through the duration of our flight. The latest radar shows that a cell is starting to build up right next to the Alexandria airport.

Okay, time to reevaluate our flight. With the new TAF’s, Radar, and an updated call to the FSS station we decided to cancel our flight. It ended up that we made a pretty good decision. When I got home I checked the radar at about the time we would have been in AXN and there is a HUGE thunderstorm that has tops at 40,000’ MSL and is producing hail.

Summer is a great time to fly, open the windows and doors and just enjoy the beautiful scenery. Any pilot who flies in the summer also needs to be aware of the hazards associated with summer flying including poor performance and unpredictable weather. Enjoy your summer.

Time Management


Time Management is one of the most important things for anyone to master. If a person isn't able to manage their time accordingly many bad things can happen, including stress increasing. If you are late to a job interview or meeting you instantly start with one strike against you that someone who is on time doesn't have.


Little did I know that as an instructor time management would be something that is constantly on my mind. Not only so I stay under the 8 hours of flight training in 24 hours as required by the FAA but also that I'm under the 10 "contact" hours for UND. Scheduling can be a major issue when you need to do cross country and night flights.


Time management is also very important when ever we take an airplane out for a lesson. If we have a 10:00 launch, a launch is 2 hours long, we need to be back by 11:45(15 minutes before our launch is over). This policy is in place so people with launches after us don't get delayed. This is a good policy IF everyone follows it correctly.


Last night for example we had a 7:00 pm launch, which meant we had to be back on the ramp by 8:45 pm. No big deal, more than enough time to get the lesson completed. However, because of lots of training going on and no aircraft we didn't get an aircraft till 7:10 pm(40 minutes after we can get the airplane). Now we are in a time crunch.


Preflight, taxi and runup checks take time. Finally we are wheels off at 7:35 pm, 1 hour and 5 minutes to get to the practice area, do the lesson and make it back on the ramp. Not nearly enough time.


I found that the best way to make it back on time is once we get to the practice area set one of the GPS's to the Grand Forks airport and keep my eye on the ETE (estimated time en route). When it gets close to the time en route to equal our due time back it is time to end the lesson and head back, regardless if the lesson is complete.


This has probably been one of the biggest surprises to me as a CFI. You prepare so much for teaching instruments, maneuvers, stalls, everything but never talk about time management when you are becoming a CFI. I think I have a new topic to talk about when I start teaching initial CFI applicants.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Three green and lock...ahhh...


Throughout your training at UND you start in the Warrior, or C172 now, then move onto the Piper Arrow for your complex and part of your commercial training(mainly commercial maneuvers) and end with the Piper Seminole. However, to instruct at a part 141 school you need to be "standardized" in every aircraft you instruct in. What does this consist of? Well usually it consist of stalls, and other maneuvers, as well as all the different types of landings.

I've been standardized in both the Warrior and C172 since I got hired but recently got the word that I was getting standardized in the Arrow. Awesome, I finally get to fly a "bigger, more complex" airplane! The stan flight went pretty uneventful and was over pretty quick. After not flying the Arrow for almost a year and a half it came back pretty quick.

So now that I was standardized in the Arrow I began looking for commercial flights to pick up for other instructors. Sure enough, the first weekend an email went out asking for help. I jumped all over it.

After take off and heading to the practice area to work on some maneuvers we head towards the airport for landings. Usually on midfield downwind is where you do your before landing check, Gear down and locked, fuel pump on, etc etc... So at midfield we put the gear down and I kept a watchful eye as we got one green, then two greens and finally.....just two greens. Okay, no worries, YET. The first step in trouble shooting is to make sure it's not just the bulb. So we will switch the lights and see if it lights up now.

Sure enough switch the lights and it turns green. Good to go. With the advantages of flying a faster, more complex airplane comes the disadvantages of more things to go wrong and forget. Every pilot will have experiences that they build on and this is one that I will make sure I'm always checking down and locked.