So this article has recently caused quite an uproar in the aviation community about being a one sided story and not showing all the facts. When I read this article I immediately felt horror! So many non-aviation travelers are going to read this and think "Why the HELL am I paying for these guys to fly there toys around!"
Because of my education from the University of North Dakota I recently had a class on airport management in which we discussed the AIP funding program. I knew instantly that not all the facts were being shown and in all honesty it really pissed me off. I immediately wrote a response to the article on the website and also a letter to the editor explaining my disgust.
Many other groups have mentioned many of the same stuff that I did. I did my research in about 15 minutes(while in class) and found more information then USA today. Here is my response to them.
Please understand, whether you are involved with aviation or not, that General Aviation is a key factor in our national system. Without it we would lose a lot of business, vital airports for the postal service, patient and transplant services, fire fighting, policing, news, and many more.
"I also did research on the AIP funds for this year from the FAA website, not hard to find just go to FAA.com and search AIP funds. Your author failed to mention that the majority of the money from these funds already goes to Primary commercial service airports.
I looked at the state of Florida because of it's large amount of airports. In Florida there are 20 primary commercial airports and 58 general aviation airports. Of this the 20 primary commercial airports are already slated to receive $44,000,000 this year. On the other hand the 58 general aviation airports are only going to receive around $15,000,000. Commercial service airports are receiving almost 75% of the AIP funds for this year. This works out to just over $250,000 per general aviation airport and almost $2,200,000 for each commercial service airport.
This would have been very easy for your writer to do research, as I did it in class in about 15 minutes. I'm an active reader of USAtoday.com and still will be but was shocked at the one sided story that was put up this morning. If you have questions contact me and either I will have the correct answers for you or know someone who will."
Here is the link to the article. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-09-17-little-used-airports_N.htm
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Medical Situation
Well, I've encountered my first medical restriction in my flight career. I would venture to say that all pilots are more conscious of their health than the majority of people. Especially pilots who want to operate on a commercial certificate or higher.
The reason for this is because you are required to have an aviation medical certificate to fly. There are different kinds of medicals, first class, second class, and third class. With first being the most restrictive and working its way down from there.
There are many things that go into these medical exams, eyesight, hearing, are two that come to mind right away. There are many other things that could prevent you from getting a medical.
One of those is medications and surgeries that you've had. Just this past weekend I had to have surgery on my kidney. Because of this I'm now taking prescription pain pills.
Even though I have a second class medical at the moment the pills I'm taking prevent me from flying.
This is a scary thing for any pilot and you almost always think about the money that you put into your training.
I'm writing this to inform all the readers that there will probably be a short break in my stories. As I'm not flying during the next few weeks, possibly longer, I will be taking a break from most things aviation.
Thanks for following the blog and I promise when I come back I will be writing with a fever and passion that I had when I first started writing. See you soon!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Long Days
Any "real" pilot loves to just hang around the airport, talk to other pilots, be around airplanes, and just have a good time at the airport. As a flight instructor it is your job to be at the airport when you are needed. This is your job, this is what you get payed for.
Before we go any further let me explain how we charge students for our time. Usually the majority of what you pay your instructor is going to be for time actually spent in the aircraft. This is also the time that you can log. At UND we use a hobbs meter(timer) that starts ticking when you turn the master switch on. We also charge for what we call Pre/Post time. This is the time that before and after your flight when the instructor is actually teaching you.
Some instructors will charge for every minute they are at the airport in their Pre/Post time. Me on the other hand I really only count the time that I'm actually discussing flying or teaching with the student. So after the first few flights does this include the interior and exterior preflight that the student is conducting? Not unless I'm teaching something new or important.
What does this all mean to anyone who is interested in being a flight instructor? Your going to spend a lot more time at the airport than your actually getting payed for. Lets look at an example of a recent flight I had with a student.
The flight was a 10:00 AM flight so we met at the airport around 9. Here is the time breakdown for our flight...
9-9:15 student gets weather briefing and does performance
9:15 - 9:30 student and I will discuss the flight and talk about what we are going to do
9:30 - 10:00 student does preflight checks as I help out and make sure everything is OK.
10:00 - 11:30 Flight time
11:30 - 11:45 Student does the post flight check and turns in the aircraft book
11:45 - 12:00 Student and I discuss the flight. What went well and what we need to work on
Now that you have the break down let me tell you what I charged the student for. 1.5 hours of flight time and .5 Pre/Post(I usually only charge .3 for Pre/Post but for argument sake I'll use .5 here). I got payed for 2.0 hours of instruction.
That's pretty good right? Well not really, I've been at the airport since 9 and it is now after noon, 3 hours. So I've lost an hour of payed time. Not a huge deal if you only do one flight a day but now lets assume I do 3 or 4 flights a day.
If I do 4 flights a day that turns out to me getting payed for roughly 8 hours a day, almost an average work day. But lets think back, I lost 1 hour during for that one flight so multiply that by 4 and now I've lost 4 hours. I've been at the airport for roughly 12 hours and only got payed for 8.
Granted if you enjoy being a flight instructor you don't mind being at the airport. Just be prepared for long long days!
Power-Off 180s
Energy management. That's what Power-Off 180s are all about. For those of you who don't know a Power-Off 180 is a simulated engine failure to landing. On downwind abeam your touchdown point you pull the power to idle and try to land with in a certain distance from your touchdown point. While many people do this maneuver for their Private Pilot training it isn't actually required for you to pass a check ride.
To pass your Commercial check ride you need to do a Power-Off 180 Accuracy approach and landing. The key word here is accuracy. What does accuracy mean? From the PTS "touches down in a normal landing attitude, at or within 200 feet beyond a specified touchdown point."
Why is this so difficult for students? Again I'm going to say energy management. Thinking back to your long days studying physics you obviously remember that there are two types of energy, Potential and Kinetic.
The bare bones description of potential energy is energy that is stored within an object, energy that can be converted to other forms of energy. Kinetic energy is the energy that an object has due to its motion. A good way to think about this is altitude above the ground is stored energy, potential, which can be traded for airspeed, kinetic.
Back to the maneuver at hand. Depending on the airplane you need to time your turn to base depending on your sink rate. I'll use the C172 and Piper arrow as my two examples. Both of these aircraft start the same way, pull the power abeam your touchdown point and start pitching for your best glide speed. When you pull the power on the C172 you need to keep going on your downwind leg for a bit, however on the Piper Arrow you need to almost always start your turn to base right away.
Base leg is the most important part of this maneuver. This is where you determine if you have the right amount of energy. If you are going be high you square off your base turn to final turn, if your low you are going need to turn towards the runway and shorten your pattern.
So why is this difficult? Well most students don't understand that you aren't judging whether you are high or low but rather judging your sink rate. Do you have enough energy to make it to the runway? Do I have enough potential energy, altitude, that I can trade for airspeed to make it to my landing point?
If you are too high there are a few things you can do, slip the airplane, square off your base turn, or add flaps. However the one that not a lot of people know about is slowing the aircraft up to below best glide speed. If you pitch down to loose altitude you are going to gain airspeed, kinetic energy, and float past your landing point. However, if you pitch back, you increase your induced drag(drag due to lift and AOA) . Because of this increase in drag you will now be able to descend faster.
This is a very difficult maneuver to perfect but a very important one. In a real engine failure emergency you don't want to miss your only landing area by floating long or coming up short.
Link to a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nCDyL3toEg&feature=related
To pass your Commercial check ride you need to do a Power-Off 180 Accuracy approach and landing. The key word here is accuracy. What does accuracy mean? From the PTS "touches down in a normal landing attitude, at or within 200 feet beyond a specified touchdown point."
Why is this so difficult for students? Again I'm going to say energy management. Thinking back to your long days studying physics you obviously remember that there are two types of energy, Potential and Kinetic.
The bare bones description of potential energy is energy that is stored within an object, energy that can be converted to other forms of energy. Kinetic energy is the energy that an object has due to its motion. A good way to think about this is altitude above the ground is stored energy, potential, which can be traded for airspeed, kinetic.
Back to the maneuver at hand. Depending on the airplane you need to time your turn to base depending on your sink rate. I'll use the C172 and Piper arrow as my two examples. Both of these aircraft start the same way, pull the power abeam your touchdown point and start pitching for your best glide speed. When you pull the power on the C172 you need to keep going on your downwind leg for a bit, however on the Piper Arrow you need to almost always start your turn to base right away.
Base leg is the most important part of this maneuver. This is where you determine if you have the right amount of energy. If you are going be high you square off your base turn to final turn, if your low you are going need to turn towards the runway and shorten your pattern.
So why is this difficult? Well most students don't understand that you aren't judging whether you are high or low but rather judging your sink rate. Do you have enough energy to make it to the runway? Do I have enough potential energy, altitude, that I can trade for airspeed to make it to my landing point?
If you are too high there are a few things you can do, slip the airplane, square off your base turn, or add flaps. However the one that not a lot of people know about is slowing the aircraft up to below best glide speed. If you pitch down to loose altitude you are going to gain airspeed, kinetic energy, and float past your landing point. However, if you pitch back, you increase your induced drag(drag due to lift and AOA) . Because of this increase in drag you will now be able to descend faster.
This is a very difficult maneuver to perfect but a very important one. In a real engine failure emergency you don't want to miss your only landing area by floating long or coming up short.
Link to a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nCDyL3toEg&feature=related
Garmin G1000 what???
Recently the University of North Dakota made the decision to switch its fleet from piper warriors to Cessna C172S equipped with Garmin G1000 glass cockpits. For those of you not already familiar with the G1000 it is a great tool for pilots. It consists of two 10" displays that are split up into a PFD(primary flight display) and an MFD(multi function display). These two displays are powered by multiple different devices. There is an AHRS(attitude and heading Reference system) which controls the attitude indicator, and heading indicator. The ADC(air data computer) is for all the pitot static instruments, airspeed, VSI, altimeter, wind vector, and TAS. Other pieces of equipment are the engine instruments, magnetometer(for heading information) and GPS and Comms.
The PFD shows all your flight instruments; airspeed, attitude indicator, altimeter, VSI, heading indicator, HSI, turn coordinator, and a small map if you want it. The MFD can do multiple things, as the name says. Usually is will show the engine instruments on the left side of the screen and a map covering the rest of the screen. There are also small steam standby steam gauges in case you loose your PFD and MFD.
The G1000 is amazingly simple and effective and dramatically improves situational awareness. However, for a private pilot who should be focusing on the outside references to fly the aircraft I have noticed that they are becoming more and more focused on whats happening inside the aircraft and not outside.
Because of this one of my favorite things to do to a private pilot student is to turn the contrast on the PFD all the way down so that it is basically a black screen. This forces the pilot to look outside and fly the aircraft with outside references and by feel.
You would be surprised how much students rely on the PFD to keep the aircraft level. Initially it takes a little bit for a student to keep the airplane level and on a heading but very quickly they pick it up. I've also noticed that because of this when you do turn the screen back on the students aren't looking inside as much. It improves their piloting abilities and makes everything they do better.
The G1000 is a great tool but we need to be able to fly an aircraft without it. To feel the aircraft, to hear the aircraft and understand what it is doing.
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