PropBlast

Don't know why I haven't posted this here. Another listing couldn't hurt!

N334CM has been a good and loyal steed that is looking for a new home. A mere $270,000 and you could call this beauty yours! Gotta make room for a new Cirrus Perspective.

She is a fantastic plane for business travel for 4. Provides a fantastically stable IFR platform. Since it doesn't have the factory air conditioning, you've got the extra load carrying capacity for the equivalent of just shy of one hour more endurance. She has been inspected and serviced  regularly at 50 and 100 hour intervals by factory authorized mechanic. Fly her lean of peak and she'll take you farther than most people's bladders can handle!

Here are the specs on the plane followed by some additional pictures:

• 2004 Cirrus SR22-G2
• CAPS parachute system
• 310 horsepower TCM Platinum Engine w/6 point engine mount
• Full Avidyne glass panel with dual Garmin GNS430 GPS/Nav/Com
• 55x Autopilot
• Skywatch
• Strikefinder
• EMax engine monitoring
• TKS anti-ice panels
• Factory supplemental oxygen system
• Approximately 1200 TT (plane is flown regularly so this number may change)
• Bruce's cabin cover

If you are interested, she is stationed at KSNA for viewing purposes and you can contact us about her either via phone at 949-331-3337 or by using the Contact Us form. Reasonable offers will be considered!

They call it an Anatomy of a Mid-Air and talk about being in the right place at the right time! Aero-News.net has secured photos taken of a landing collision between a low wing Piper Cherokee and a high wing Glastar taildragger at Napa airport on New Year's Day.

The pictures clearly show the classic confrontation that we were all warned about in basic training. A low wing plane coming down on top of a high wing plane; each one in the other's blind spot.

Seeing this really gives one pause. How do you prevent this type of thing from happening TO YOU? Given that this was at a non-towered airport (dare I say "uncontrolled"?) and having a tower directing traffic would have gone a long way towards preventing this from happening.

I think the key to this is to be extra vigilant in the pattern. If either pilot was aware of what was going on in the pattern around them (listening and making radio position reports) and keeping a mental picture (as the controllers call it "getting the flick") of where everyone else is in relation to yourself.

However, at non-towered airports, one needs to be extra vigilant as not everyone flying the pattern will have a radio or be making position reports if they do have one. 

I know as I came close to this once at French Valley airport. I was making position reports all the way around and then someone comes on while I'm on short final and reports that HE was on short final. I called out my altitude and wildly looked about trying to find him. I didn't spot him until he popped out ahead and below me over the threshold and I was in a high wing aircraft. I can't imagine if I would have ever seen him in the Cirrus. What I should have done was immediately radioed that I was breaking out of the pattern if I didn't immediately identify the target's location visually.

Needless to say this ended in a low pass over the airport and once again around the patch before landing. Never found the guy either...

John over at Aviation Mentor Blog blogged today that "All in all, a great day to be a pilot." He went on with a few examples of humorous exchanges with ATC that he overheard while flying a Caravan from California to Oregon and back.

While my flights today were nowhere near as long, I had the pleasure of overhearing one of those exchanges that just made us all laugh...

Today was my first IFR cross-country flight with my instructor and when we were returning from CRQ, ATC informed us that they were going to vector us from V23 across the approach course to the ILS of 19R at SNA for right hand entry to the approach. This is not too uncommon given that there are mountains to the east of the approach course that would make vectors to final from the south with a left-hand entry dangerous (as seen graphically in this approach chart).

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Shortly after crossing the approach course we overheard a conversation between ATC and a pilot for whom, English was not their primary language. Every time that ATC would tell the pilot that she could descend at her own discretion, she would reply

Cessna 1234 at 4 thousand 5 hundred."

The controller rephrased this close to a dozen times before she started to clue in and said something to the effect of

what altitude do you want me at?"

to which he replied

I don't really care where you put your plane"

to which she replied that she was going to stay at 4,500 feet.

The radio was dead silent as I'm sure all pilots in hearing distance were either laughing in their cockpits or shaking there heads when the controller came back on to anyone who was listening that he

want(ed) to see how she's going to land her plane at 4,500 feet."

Perhaps it was something that you had to be there to fully get. Perhaps it is time for me to start recording audio on my flights for later playback 'cause this exchange was priceless.

In case you are wondering how the flight went, my performance on the ILS at SNA was MUCH better than I did at CRQ. I don't know why but I think I was too tense at CRQ and just seemed to be too ham-handed in my corrections, and slow to boot.

I was spotting and correcting trends on the localizer and the glide slope much better at SNA. About the only excitement came as we were coming down the ILS 19R. Tower wanted us to move over to 19L and Ron asked if we could take it down to minimums before sidestepping and tower replied they were OK with that.

We got down to about 300 feet when Ron decided I should go ahead and come out from under the hood rather than waiting to hit minimums since as we were coming down, tower was positioning an airliner onto 19R. You can imagine them begining the turn from taxiway Lima to 19R watching this Cirrus continue down the glideslope right at them.

Making that sidestep means transitioning from a 5701x150 foot runway to a 2887x75 foot runway that is over a football field to the left of primary runway (as seen in this airport diagram from FAA)!

While this is not a dangerous manuever by any means, it does make for a rather quick transition to VFR flying. I ballooned a bit on the landing as I felt I was flaring too low and ended up overcompensating. I suppose most piplots are never as happy with their own landings. All in all though, any day you get to fly makes it a great day! 

I guess I've kind of fallen behind in my blogging about personal flying. I've actually, with the kinds support of my wife, gotten back on my instrument training.

I had stopped after the first third of the training about two and a half years ago to concentrate on transitioning into the Cirrus. And like many others, it has been a challenge to get back to this point due to work, family and just life in general.

I've been flying with Ron from Sunrise and he's great. Lots of experience in SR22s as well as many other types of airplanes. We went up Monday night for some practice and after doing a number of maneuvers, we moved on to try a few holds using the autopilot.

It actually was much simpler than I thought it would be. Of course, we were holding over a VOR so it was much simpler than it would be at an intersection but here's the drill.

Once you've copied and acknowledged your hold, you tune in the VOR and identify that you have the right one. I set the "Pri Nav" on the PFD to VLOC1 (where I've tuned the VOR to hold over) and I also set the "Sec Nav" to point at VLOC1 as well to give me a bearing pointer to the station for reference purposes.

I would then turn the "Crs Set" knob on the PFD to indicate the inbound course for the hold. Looking at the CDI indication (Pri Nav) as well as the bearing pointer (Sec Nav) on the HSI I can easily determine a suggested heading to fly and enter the hold. While flying to the hold fix (remember, it is just a VOR this time) I will climb/descend to the altitude assigned by ATC. I'm guessing the best way to do this is with the autopilot (since that is what we are working on) so we'll assume that I'll just flying Heading and using the Bug to set our course.

During the time spent flying to the fix, I would get set up and do my calculations and diagrams. Draw the fix, determine the entry and then determine the inbound course to set up in Pri Nav. For example, if told to hold west of El Toro on the 270 radial with left turns (the default being right), I'll set the Pri Nav course to 090 degrees.

As I cross the fix, I'll spin the bug to my desired outbound heading for the entry (assuming teardrop or parallel) for one minute. This, of course, is the beginning of my six Ts. Time (start), Turn to correct heading for entry, Twist Crs for inbound (which I've already done), Throttle back (already slowed to 120 while approaching hold), Tune com (as needed) and finally Talk to ATC and advise of entry into the hold.

At the end of one minute, I begin the turn to the inbound course. If all is going well, this can be accomplished by leading the turn with the Heading bug and then once the turn is started hitting HDG NAV on the autopilot for the system to pick up the course on Pri Nav. While flying inbound, I can take the time that "Otto" is flying to spend more attention setting things up for the next step. Initially this will be determining the outbound course (in the example given, 270 degrees) keeping in mind any anticipated wind correction needed.

This is another great thing about the Avidyne PFD is right there next to the HSI is a wind indicator that shows you the wind's direction and strength which makes guessing at an outbound course so much easier.

So, with the bug now set to my outbound course (unless it is the reciprocal of our current heading in which case I would subtract it by 10 or 15 degrees to keep the autopilot from accidentally turning the wrong way to pick up the heading) I continue flying toward the station. Once I've passed the station and the flag flips to From instead of To, I'll press the HDG button on the auto pilot so that it will turn in the appropriate direction to acquire the heading indicated by the Heading bug. Once the turn is initiated, I'll place the bug where it needs to be in case I had to set it short of the outbound course.

Once I've passed the station again going outbound, I'll begin timing and off we go. From this point on, it is just a matter of refining the outbound course and the length of the outbound legs to ensure that we can get a good solid 1 minute inbound leg.

This seems like a pretty long way to describe what is going on, but it actually was quite simple. Anyone else out there have a differing technique they'd like to share? If so, please leave me a comment.

I'm hopeful that by documenting these procedures after I fly them, it will help reinforce them. Can't wait to see what kind of fun stuff we'll be doing on Friday morning!

Just tragic to read as this could have been avoided with proper planning it appears...

NTSB ADVISORY
************************************************************
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
November 3, 2006
************************************************************
UPDATE ON CIRRUS PLANE CRASH IN MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
************************************************************
The National Transportation Safety Board today released the following update on its investigation into the accident involving a Cirrus Design SR-20 N929CD that crashed into an apartment building while maneuvering above Manhattan, New York on October 11, 2006.

The accident occurred about 2:42 pm eastern daylight time. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post crash fire. The certificated private pilot owner of the airplane, New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, and a certified flight instructor were fatally injured. Marginal Visual Flight rules conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed for the flight that departed Teterboro Airport (TEB), Teterboro, New Jersey. The personal sightseeing flight was conducted under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. There were 1 severe and 2 minor injuries on the ground.

The Safety Board go-team was composed of four teams: Airworthiness, Powerplants, Operations, and Witnesses. The Weather, Air Traffic Control and Aircraft Performance group chairmen gathered data from NTSB headquarters. Parties to the investigation are Cirrus Design, Federal Aviation Administration, Teledyne Continental Motors, and Ballistic Recovery System.

The on-scene examination of the wreckage has shown that there was no sign of an in-flight fire or damage to the airplane. The airplane impacted the 30th floor of the apartment building, bounced off, then fell to the street below, where it came to rest inverted and was engulfed in a severe post crash fire. The engine was ejected from the airplane and entered the building through an apartment
window on the 30th floor.

The New York Central Park Automated Observation System reported that at the time of the accident, that the winds were from 060 degrees at 6 knots, visibility at 7 statute miles, ceiling overcast at 1800 feet above ground level, the temperature was 17 degrees Celsius, the dewpoint was 13 degrees Celsius and the altimeter was 29.90 inches of Mercury (Hg). No visibility restrictions were reported at any of the surrounding airport weather stations. An aircraft that was landing at Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) at the time of the accident was equipped with a weather reporting capability that indicated that the winds at 700 feet altitude were from 095 degrees at 13 knots.

Over fifty witnesses to the accident were identified and many interview summaries were obtained from the New York Police Department. Eleven of those witnesses saw the airplane before it impacted the building.

Radar data indicate that the airplane was flying over the east side of Roosevelt Island prior to initiating a 180 degree turn. At this location, there would have been a maximum of 2100 feet clearance from buildings, if the full width of the river had been used. However, from the airplane's mid-river position over Roosevelt Island, the available turning width was only 1700 feet. The prevailing wind from the east would have caused the airplane to drift 400 feet toward the building during the turn, reducing the available turning width to about 1300 feet. At an airspeed of 97 knots, this turn would have required a constant bank
angle of 53 degrees and a loading of 1.7 Gs on the airplane.

If the initial portion of the turn was not this aggressive, a sufficiently greater bank angle would have been needed as the turn progressed, which would have placed the airplane dangerously close to an aerodynamic stall.

Since the accident, The FAA issued a Notice to Airman prohibiting fixed wing aircraft such as the accident flight from operating in the East River Class B Exclusion area where the accident occurred unless authorized and controlled
by ATC. This will prevent pilots from encountering a situation in which they must attempt a complete u-turn in order to avoid entry into controlled airspace.
Maintenance records for the accident airplane indicated that all Airworthiness Directives and Service Bulletins had been complied with. The propeller and engine have been examined by Safety Board investigators at their respective manufacturers and they indicated that they were operating normally.

Additional work continues in the investigation. Two damaged portable GPS units were recovered from the wreckage and sent to the manufacturer to try to recover additional data. The memory chip associated with the airplane's Multifunctional Display was retrieved and sent to NTSB headquarters to try to recover any stored data. A damaged laptop computer that was found in the wreckage and may contain flight log information, is being examined at NTSB headquarters. Several cockpit instruments are being examined in the Safety Board laboratories, and work is underway to enhance a video obtained from the Coast Guard that shows the airplane's impact with the building.

A graphic depicting radar tracks from several local radar facilities may be found at the following link on the Board's website:
http://ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2006/N929CD_final_turn_3radars.pdf

Ok, so this posting is a little old... Sue me!

Over the Memorial Day weekend, N334CD was not being rented so I figured that I would take my son Bobby up for a flight to get steaks at Harris Ranch in Coalinga [3O8]. Not only would it be good eats, but the strip looks like a good challenge (being significantly narrower than the wingspan on the Cirrus SR22) and it is only about an hour and a half away.

When it came time to head off to the airport he begged out saying he wasn't feel well enough and didn't want to hurl in the plane; an admission I was glad to hear 'cause I didn't want that either. So, plan B was to ask my father-in-law as he has also expressed interest in taking a flight in the plane.

He was agreeable and after picking him up, we stopped in the offices at Sunrise Aviation to pick up the keys and were about ready to head out when inspiration hit... Why not go to Vegas? Not only is is closer by about 30 minutes, but Fritz loves to gamble! So the decision was made to head off to North Las Vegas [VGT]. This was a route that I fly often enough that I could do the routing in my head normally but the flight plan was still loaded up in the Garmin from the last time we flew out.

Read the rest of the story here: [http://propblast.org/articles/Vegas_with_FritzAgain.aspx]

In the interest of keeping to a regular schedule of tracking my flights on this blog here's a few quick lines about this weekend's airtime.

To read more about our flight into Sedona this weekend, please check out the following link: [http://propblast.org/articles/Carrier_Landing_at_USS_Sedona.aspx]

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