Ones and Zeros

It was about time to get into the air, get a different view of the world.  I also wanted to try out my iPad and ForeFlight app that contains all charts and approach plates.  So I ended up planning a trip to Charlottesville.Most of it was IFR on the way there, either in the clouds, or above them.  There was little wind, and there was a broken cloud layer below, then a higher stratus layer.  The broken layer started about 3000 feet and the top of the stratus layer was around 5500 feet.  It was very bright in the upper layer of the clouds and above them.  I could see nothing, it was white outside all the windows.  I was surrounded by clouds, and had to wear sunglasses.  Then when I broke out, it was just as bright.The iPad worked well.  The battery life is good and lasted through flight planning, briefing, the full flight till I got back home.  But the bright sunlight on the screen created too much glare.  And I couldn’t read the screen with my sunglasses on, and had problems reading the panel GPS as well.  I had to keep flipping my sunglasses on and off.I buy laptops with the matte screen to avoid this glare problem.  But I didn’t see an option on the iPad for a matte screen.The “buttonology” of ForeFlight is something I need to practice.  Moving between the map and approach plates screen isn’t completely automatic for me for example.My route was through CSN..V140..WITTO, but long before WITTO I was redirected to KENNI for the ILS03 approach.  When turning inbound for the approach I was advised to keep up my speed since there’s a jet due behind me.  I’ve not had this happen before, but have read about it and knew what to do.  I flew the approach at cruise speed basically, then about a mile from the runway pulled power, let it slow down, and put out just 10 degrees of flaps when slow enough.   I still landed long, but was well off the runway when the jet came in.After Charlottesville, I wanted to head back home, but first go to Orange County for their VOR approach.  (Anyone know why Orange County is in Virginia?  I always thought Florida for that!)  I planned a route to home, but with OMH (Orange County) as the route.  This was overridden in the clearance I got.  So I negotiated with ATC once I got into the air.  I’m not sure exactly how to file a plan for one destination, with an approach somewhere else in the middle of the plan!  Much of the return flight was also IFR, but the ceiling was 4000 feet this time.The VOR approach is used when the approach direction isn’t lined up with the runway.  In this case it was over 30 degrees off, so the runway wasn’t very visible in the trees till close.  You have to circle to land.  I did a low approach, the followed the missed approach procedure.That was a climbing right turn to 3500 feet and back south to the VOR.  But I stopped the turn to avoid the vultures soaring to my right.   I was in VFR conditions then so this wasn’t a major issue.Then followed vectors to CSN (another VOR), and from then to home.But something happen as I got near the approach for home.  I was cleared to an initial fix for the approach, but no further.  The controller was very busy and trying to make sure the approach was clear for me.  I got closer and closer the miles ticked down close to zero and I had no direction.  I can’t just go flying in the clouds willy-nilly after all.Around 3 miles away I got a chance in the radio traffic to ask for clearance.  Got a rapid and quick reply, “I’m working on that”.  As I passed my clearance fix I got another chance on the busy radio and just asked, “At my clearance fix, what do you want me to do?”.  ”Maintain your heading” said ATC.  Ok, good enough for the moment at least.  I’d broken out into at least marginal VFR so could avoid hills and the like if he forgot about me.  But very shortly later he worked it out and cleared me for the approach.But it was a couple minutes later before I could get another word in edgewise and cancel IFR and get off his hands.  When I did, the usual, “thank you” was more like, “Thank You!!”  I was cleared on my approach, could see the airport, we didn’t need to talk to each other anymore.  But, it was a new situation for me.So, it was an interesting flight and good way to clear my mind.

It’s been a while.  I don’t talk about my day job and don’t plan to start, but it’s part of the reason it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  Here’s a short vignette.At a meeting recently there were nine people in attendance, seven of us physically present and two called in to the meeting.  We’re discussing the project that I and one other engineer are working on  (both of us are there in the meeting).   The other engineer is part-time. He’s also very experienced but near retirement and as the titular head of the technical effort handles more of the official paperwork.  Both the ideas behind this project and the large majority of the code are mine.  So the critical path for almost all of the actual technical work runs through me.The nine of us in the meeting were from the client (government agency) and my day job’s company.  We spent over an hour and a half discussing what this project is to do.  Essentially we were discussing what the next six months of my working life and what time I would be able to have off and what I expected to be able to accomplish.I’m not important enough that this many people need to plan my activities.  Something’s wrong when seven people are managing two workers.  And we’ve got yet another meeting today too.

Ah.  That’s the problem.  I’ve been chasing a bug lately, it works fine in the sim but the feature doesn’t work on the iPhone. Turns out the simulator isn’t a perfect simulation.  We all know about the obvious stuff: no GPS for example.  But on application termination with iOS 4 there’s a little detail that can be important:An app exits on the simulator by first calling first applicationWillResignActive then calling applicationDidEnterBackground on the application’s delegate.But on the phone, we get first applicationDidEnterBackground, then applicationWillTerminate. In both cases this is when the home button is pressed. If you kill the app with the debugger then it’s just killed and none of these gets called at all.This isn’t a big deal till you’ve got some data that you want the app’s delegate to save when the app goes background or is quitting.  This is also one of the behaviors that changes in iOS4 too with the advent of multitasking.  Unfortunately the Apple docs on the application delegate don’t go into the order the delegate calls are made, nor the variations between the sim and phone.And, since the test phone is a 3G, it may behave differently on a multitasking phone like a 3GS or 4 model.Sometimes, testing is the only way to find out what really happens.

When the haze is thick in summer.  In the Washington DC area lately the temperatures have been very high, that’s cooking the crud that we humans put in the air and making haze.  This morning several major local airports were marginal VFR (MVFR) on what’s otherwise a great day due to this haze.IFR; it’s not just for rainy days!I’m not flying today, but I was up recently on a hazy day but where the visibility is better than today’s is.  I was just up for a regular self-guided currency exercise. I didn’t cross the Blue Ridge because I couldn’t see the other side.I did my stalls, slow flight, flight at minimum controllable airspeed, steep turns, turns around a point, and some compass turns just to keep up the practice on basic exercises.  It’s not that I need to do stalls or any of the above in normal flying, but that practicing them hones skills and reminds me of where the edges of the plane’s capabilities - and mine - are located.Oh, and it can be fun too.  I got slow flight to 50 mph (not knots - I have an older plane) with engine power up, a steep angle, and the stall horn blaring loudly.