Ones and Zeros

I’ve been a pilot for a while. So usually I’m watching the weather for clear skies and good visibility. Now I find it odd that I’m hoping for clouds and poor visibility for better IFR training weather. I want to fly in actual IFR weather, not foggles, with my instructors after all.

So, I was excited about today. A warm front’s coming through. Lots of clouds and poor visibility, but otherwise relatively innocuous. At least compared to cold fronts. As the day wore on it became clear that I was to be frustrated. Good clear flying weather, darn it!

Instructor M and I briefed what we would do - a couple localizer approaches nearby. Then, as a change of pace, I would drop him off at another airport to pick up and fly back a plane just out of maintenance. I would fly back alone in VFR (Visual Flight Rules - clear weather) conditions. It would be my first time alone in a plane for a couple months now. Another guy who parks his plane two spaces down from my club’s plane was also flying up to the same location for similar purposes.

We got in and started up. The high voltage warning light came on as it is supposed to. However, it didn’t go back off quickly as it usually does. I gave it a minute - no change. I used the POH (Pilot’s Operating Handbook) procedure: turn off the master, then turn it back on again. (As a side note, turning off the master switch doesn’t affect the engine, but does affect all the other electronics. The engine’s spark is powered by the two magnetos. The alternator runs the other electronics and charges the battery. You can - and I have - turn off the master switch in flight and the engine works fine.)

No change. Well, if I ran it like this I would boil out the electrolyte from the battery and destroy it at best. At worst I might overheat something and cause a fire. So, we shut down and canceled our flight. M got a lift from our friend also going to the same place.

I think it’s probably the voltage regulator. It was adjusted recently. If it needs adjusting again then it is not staying in tolerance and needs replacement. If it is just broken, it also needs replacement. That’s my guess at least. If the other owners agree, I’ll be talking to the mechanic tomorrow. I’ll see what he thinks.

Later, I got a call from M. Turns out that they got to the other airport, and the plane he wanted to take back was locked in a hangar. No one was around, and no key was available. All for naught. And, when he and our friend came back, they hit IFR conditions and had to air file to get home. So, I would have been stuck there. Or my plane would have, I could have gotten a lift back with our friend.

Some days it’s just one thing after another.

Update:  The local news radio station WTOP reports:

Local drivers were buffaloed Sunday night as a bison brought traffic to a halt in Loudoun County.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office reported a bison in the middle of the road at Route 7 and Yellow Schoolhouse Road, with a companion keeping guard on the shoulder. The animal caused delays for 90 minutes.

The animals ventured away from a nearby farm where about 20 bison are raised.

Neither bison was injured during the traffic delay.

We were coming back from WV and a wonderful evening with friends when we saw the blue lights flashing ahead. A lot of them. And we saw all the red taillights of the stopped cars in both eastbound lanes. We have a GPS in the car - it comes in really handy once in a while - and plotted a diversion to what we hoped was around the problem ahead.

After winding our way through dirt side roads, on to Snickersville Turnpike, then back on another dirt road, we got back to the highway. And as it turned out we got back to the highway just past the problem! A sherff’s deputy was there so we asked him what the problem was. (He was pouring pellets from a large bag into a bucket.)

“A buffalo on the road”, he said.

“A what?”, my wife asked. I’m glad she did, I couldn’t have heard that right.

“A buffalo on the road!”, he said again.

Alright, whatever, a buffalo in the road. Once home (via a now empty road) I googled around. Seems that there is a guy who keeps buffalo in that area. I can see how a two-ton animal might be a traffic problem! And would be hard to fence too.

I contact my representative government elected officials. I view it as a way to “vote” between elections. So when necessary, I call or send emails to my elected representatives. After all, they can’t represent me if they don’t know what I think right?

After reading an article in the BBC, I got riled up and sent the following to President Obama via http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

President Obama is emphasizing Afghanistan. Certainly there are pitfalls there as the Russians and many others have found. I am nowhere near sure we should be doing this. But we have made promises there we’re not keeping. Simple ones: build roads and clear mines for example. So I would like to be positive on this policy.

Then I read this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7991937.stm

In it the US representatives leave a BBC reporter to stand in for us.

If we’re going to stay in Afghanistan - no matter if we should or not - we need to do a good job of it. This is the kind of article that I read and I’m pissed at our US officials there. I’m ashamed of how they acted. After all the time we’ve been there we should have knowledge of the culture. We should have respect for the people who live there. Instead we’re acting like some fat cat rich bastard tossing coins to children.

It’s simple: Do the right thing. If we make a promise, follow through. Treat people with respect - just like anywhere.  And then we can keep our self-respect.

Once the guy already on the runway was clear of the pattern we also departed. But we departed for the opposite direction on that same runway. At my airport there’s a preferred runway listed in the A/FD, the direction I was using. Today’s winds weren’t calm, but they were directly perpendicular to the runway.

Instructor R and I departed without crisis and headed to Fredrick (FDK) for the ILS 23. I’ve flown an ILS several times in my home sim, but this is my first in the plane, in real life, with no pause button. R played the part of ATC and vectored me to intercept the ILS. He was busy with traffic watch - FDK can be pretty busy. I let him do that and focused on the plane. After all he could see traffic, I just saw the instrument panel.

The first ILS was shaky. I don’t think I was scanning the instruments fast enough. I would catch myself being off the localizer or glide slope and correct back. Next time I noticed them, I’d be off the other side. This repeated so I snaked down the localizer and porpoised down the glide path to minimums. I wasn’t to the extremes of the needles, but at least half way there.

At minimums our plan was to go around and do it again. The second time we would land. I pushed in the throttle and pitched the nose up.

R said, “Full power.” I pushed the throttle again. “Full power” I heard again. Then he said, “Check your carb heat”. Damn. I pushed that it too and felt the engine get actual full power.

“The first word in all the missed approach instructions is ‘climb’.”, he said. If you’re out in the mountains you want to follow the safe path and get above them. You need full power.”

We continued to follow the missed approach, circled back to RICKE intersection, where I forgot to start my timer, then tracked the localizer outbound. The “five T’s” are supposed to help me remember the timer and other necessary things to do: “Time turn twist throttle talk”. It’s a nice mnemonic, I wish I could remember to use it.

We did the procedure turn - I remembered the timer this time. Then back in to intercept the localizer again. I decided to stay at 2800 this time to intercept the glide slope higher and maybe get more stable on the way down.

R, doing his ATC bit, changed me to 2300 for traffic avoidance. I was glad to comply. R talked a bit about tracking, “..watch the trend. Make a quick correction, roll in, roll out, then check the trend of the needles.” I also tried to scan my instruments a bit faster too.

This time, it certainly wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t snake or porpoise dance either. I was happier with this. When I “broke out” (took off the foggles), the runway was dead ahead about 1/4 mile and slightly to the right. And I was going way too fast to land on my approach speed. So, pull back the throttle and add flaps and the speed came down.

A nice landing, got the first turnoff past the intersecting runway and taxied back for takeoff.

We departed straight out to head home. During the climb out (full power!) the engine, um, burped. It lost power briefly. Definitely not what you want to hear or feel. I scanning the engine gauges - all three of them: Tach, oil pressure and oil temperature. All look normal, for what little they can tell me. R and I discuss it briefly. He says to put on carb heat. The engine burps again, then smooths out with a tad more power on the tach.

So, my first carb ice today too. The outside air temperature is in the range for if, and the full power climb straight out is also more likely to cause it too. R says to slowly push carb heat it now, and monitor the tach.

The rest of the trip home is uneventful. The localizer approach went well, even more smoothly than the second ILS. Except, that I got to the MAP (missed approach point) too high. I didn’t do a good job of descending on the approach.

Fortunately, we have a long runway, I never use most of it so I was able to land on the second half. As one friend said later, “It’s very nice of you not to wear out the ends of the runway!”