Cheerful Curmudgeon

Jonathan Trappe has discovered real flying, under a cluster of helium balloons. He took off from Oshkosh, Wisconsin last month, flew across Lake Michigan (overnight), and landed in Michigan, near Kalamazoo.

Sign me up! This looks like more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

[Updated 8/19/2010 to insert a missing title.]

I spent most of my time at AirVenture 2010 hanging out in the ultralight area. I headed down there first to learn about weight shift trikes, after talking to the folks from Evolution Trikes while on a fuel stop in Juneau, WI. I had been impressed with the versatility of these craft. With completely open cockpits, they are perfect for low ‘n’ slow flight on warm summer evenings while still being capable of cross country journeys. The Evolution people were flying a trio of trikes from Florida to Wisconsin for AirVenture. At one point, they had been as high as 9000 feet. They were kind enough to give me a quick ride in a REVO trike, up and around the circuit and back to a landing. It was a most excellent experience in a very fine airplane but it was not quite what I was looking for.

Since I have a Piper Arrow for flights where I want to “get there,” I am just looking for a fun, economical ride-in-the-sky. My obvious next choice was a much more bare-bones trike, perhaps even a single seater. (Click any photo for a larger version.)

A single seat weight shift trike approaches a landing at AirVenture 2010

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Getting to AirVenture this year proved to be much more difficult than I ever would have dreamed. Chris Seto, who is also in EAA chapter 32 with me, and I planned to  fly up to Oshkosh on Sunday morning, July 25. This is not a very difficult trip in my Arrow, especially since I have made it three times before. You just take off from home (St. Charles County Smartt Airport) and fly north for about 2½ hours to reach the greatest airshow on earth. (Click any of the pictures in this posting to view larger versions of the images.)

Route from St. Charles County, Missouri, to Oshkosh, Wisconsin

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This has got to be the coldest, most insensitive obituary ever written:

!STL 06/424 3SQ AD CLSD WEF 1006300501

In English, this NOTAM (federal NOTice to AirMen) says that the St. Charles Municipal Airport will close at 12:01am CDT, Wednesday, June 30, 2010. After 67 years of service, the owner will shut it down forever.

I returned to flying, after a 13 year hiatus, at this airport. Countless pilots have learned to fly at St. Charles Muni. Innumerable stories have been told. Lessons learned. Camaraderie savored. Airplanes loved.

You can read more about it in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

I just upgraded the instrument approach plates that I use when flying IFR in my airplane. My new iPad with ForeFlight Mobile HD replaces my Sony PRS-505 with ReaderPlates that I have been using since December 2008. The Sony and ReaderPlates replaced paper that I had been using since 1987. This is a very good thing and it demonstrates just how rapidly technology is improving.

When I am in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), which is a government approved way of saying “in the clouds,” and need to land my plane, I use a detailed map called an approach plate. The approach plate tells me exactly where to fly the plane both horizontally and vertically so that I get safely to the runway. It’s a lot like playing a complex video game, which I find both exhilarating and highly satisfying.

Paper worked well for years because it was pretty much the only game in town. I was very happy to switch to the Sony PRS-505 ebook reader, though, because it meant that I could stop recycling a 3″ stack of paper every 28 days. Yes, Virginia, you read that right; the government updates the instrument approach plates every 28 days, 13 times per year. Switching to an electronic format saved me quite a few dollars and was kinder to the environment.

The biggest disadvantage of the Sony PRS-505 is its small screen. As you can see in this photo, it is significantly smaller than the paper. I can get an overall view of the approach but have to press a key to zoom in and make the text large enough to read. The iPad fixes  this problem with a sufficiently large screen to display the approach plate 100% the size of the original.

ILS Approach Plate on Sony PRS-505, paper, and iPad (click to enlarge)

The transition from paper to Sony PRS-505 to Apple iPad in just 18 months is remarkable. The new screen is plenty bright enough to read in direct sunlight and, surprisingly, even higher contrast than the newsprint. There are no moving parts to fail.

I had one concern about switch to the iPad from the PRS-505: would the touch sensitive screen allow me to accidentally “lose” my approach plate at a critical moment of the flight? I don’t think so. When displaying an approach plate, the only part of the screen which can make the plate vanish or change is the “close” button at the top, left corner.

I will have more on ForeFlight and more on the iPad soon. Before posting more about ForeFlight, I want to actually fly with it. Before posting more about the iPad, I have to stop playing with it and write about it.

Kids of all ages love airplane rides, especially when they get to be in the front seat of a small plane and get to take the controls and do some of the piloting. Have you ever heard the buzz of an airplane overhead, stopped what you were doing, and stared up at the plane? Perhaps pointed it out to your son or niece or neighbor kid and reminisced about that time when…?

Famous Young Eagle Flight Grin

One way to get a free airplane ride is to show up at a Young Eagles event at your local airport. Yesterday, over 60 kids got rides at St. Charles Smartt Airport, courtesy of EAA Chapter 32 and several volunteer pilots (your’s truly included). Price of admission: zero. Requirements: be between the ages of 8 and 17. Guaranteed result: huge grins all around.

Do you want to arrange a Young Eagles flight? Call your local Young Eagles coordinator. Since the program started in 1992, over 1.5 million kids have gotten airborne. These days, in addition to the flight, each kid gets his own logbook in which to record the flight (and future ones), a certificate for free internet ground school training, and access to www.YoungEagles.com which is full of tons of cool stuff.

You can also simply drive out to your local airport, wander around, and talk to people. Here in St. Charles, MO (where I live), we have three visitor-friendly airports: St. Charles Municipal Airport, St. Charles Smartt Airport, and Creve Coeur Airport. Wander by any on a nice day and you are guaranteed to find pilots who are more than willing to talk and answer questions. You can probably even cadge a ride, just by asking.

Way to go Boeing!

We have many opportunities to experience both good and bad customer service. Rarely, though, do we bump into extremes at both ends of the spectrum in the course of one technical support issue. Doing so makes both experiences all the more poignant.

I use a Garmin GPSmap 396 coupled with a hockey puck sized XM Radio receiver in my airplane. The combination gives me NEXRAD weather radar in near real-time, with my current position and course superimposed. It has proven invaluable in keeping me safe and well clear of thunderstorms. Recently, the weather got “flakey,” sometimes I would receive it and sometimes not. On an August flight back from Wisconsin, when I was flying along the front edge of a line of rain and thunderstorms, the NEXRAD radar vanished and I could not get it back. After experimenting on several follow-up flights, I determined that the problem was heat related: when the XM receiver had been on for 30-40 minutes and got hot, it stopped working.

I called Garmin and asked whether they wanted the XM receiver back with or without the GPS unit and how much it would cost to repair/replace it. The Garmin rep, for whom American English was clearly his primary language, asked what model antenna I had and I told him that it was the old, original GXM 30 and that it was almost four years old. He immediately offered to replace it with a new GXM 40 for free under warranty. (I looked it up later; the GXM 40 retails for $268.) I shipped my broken receiver to Garmin on Wednesday and had the replacement on my doorstep on Friday. That’s amazingly awesome service, Garmin. Thank you!

I just phoned XM Radio to have the old receiver removed from my account and replaced with the new receiver. I got a woman who spoke English with such a thick accent that I had trouble understanding her. She then informed me that this “service” would cost me $15. Excuse me? Garmin just replaced a very expensive piece of broken equipment at their expense and XM wants to charge me $15 to type an eight letter radio ID into their computer?!?! Talk about petty. Worse, she then tried to “up-sell” me to a lifetime music subscription for “only” $399.99. I was flabergasted but did manage to recover my voice and tell her how angry I am that, after paying them $75 per month for weather, XM has the gall to charge me  an additional $6 for music. Truly apalling.

Garmin: I have had several of your products over the years. All have performed wonderfully. This is the first time that I have had to work with your customer service and I am thoroughly impressed. You’ve got a very, very happy customer who will certainly return to purchase more of your products.

XM Radio: The aviation weather “service” that I receive from you is overpriced and the additonal charge for music is insulting. I have had to make several calls to your customer service over the last four years and every one has been, without exception, infuriating. Were there any alternative source of cockpit weather data, I would drop you in an instant.

Candy and I have talked it over and decided to build a Vans RV-7A. To make room for the RV in our lives, we are selling our 1968 Piper Arrow. Details at www.N7430J.com

I am excited about the RV-7A. It will be almost 50 MPH faster than the Arrow, simpler (fixed gear and fixed pitch prop), and equipped with the latest whiz-bang electronic flight instruments. More on that in another post (soon).

Buy my Arrow. You’ll love it and I’ll get to start building my RV! Thanks.

The reactions to the mid-air collision last month between an airplane and a helicopter over the Hudson River in New York City have me thinking about safety in airplanes and safety in cars. For those unfamiliar with the details, just before noon on August 8, a six person airplane and an eight person helicopter came together in the air over the Hudson River; the nine people on board the two aircraft died in the ensuing crash. This was a terrible tragedy and my heart goes out to the families and friends of the nine people who lost their lives.

Immediately (as in, within a couple of hours) after the accident, the calls-to-action to improve safety in the “VFR corridor,” the name of the airspace where the collision occurred, began. These calls took many forms, from the sensational TV news reporters and politicians who demanded that the VFR corridor be closed and the helicopter tourist business be shuttered to the FAA which convened a New York Airspace Working Group panel to review everything from airspace structure to pilot training to air traffic controller practices. The focus has been on safety much more than on blame, and that’s a good thing.

Compare this to the common reaction to a driving accident: If the accident is big enough to make the news, the key reporting points are a) what happened, and b) who caused it or blame. Rarely do we react to an automotive accident with an urgent need to prevent future accidents in the same place and of the same type. We may well get to this point, of course, but only after several accidents have happened. A city might install a traffic light at an intersection, for instance, but only after several accidents have occurred at the intersection.

According to the Air Safety Foundation, the August 8 collision was the first accident of this type (airplane and helicopter) over the Hudson River in ten years. It may well have been the only accident ever. What is the cultural difference between flying and driving that we demand safer flying, even after a single accident, yet we accept car accidents as the daily norm?

Pilots place safety first. The Federal Aviation Regulations stipulate biennial “flight reviews,” essentially flying tests, by FAA certificated flight instructors. Fail the review and you don’t fly until you get some training and are “passed” by the flight instructor. Beyond that, the flying culture strongly encourage all pilots to participate in on-going training such as the FAA’s WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program. This, in turn, builds on the assumptions that none of us are perfect and that all of us can learn from others’ mistakes and can become better, safer pilots. We actively seek out and study stories of bad situations, not to assess blame but to learn and improve our skills. Even more to the point, most of us regularly fly with a safety pilot, asking the safety pilot to critique our performance. I try to get up once a month, though it is sometimes as infrequently as every three or four months, with either Jack or Linda. On these flights, I expect them to be vocal with me about anything I do that is less than perfect. Some of the training is during the flight; some during a debriefing afterwards. I always come away from these flights having learned valuable lessons.

We act differently with our cars, though. Most of us are deeply offended if anyone suggests that we might need to take either a written test or a driving test when renewing our driver’s license. We never volunteer for recurrent training on driving. One of the best ways to make a friend angry is to suggest that he or she do something differently while driving. Why? I think because driving is more important to us, on a personal level, than safety. We judge that we are “safe enough” that we don’t need to stress about driving safely any more. What is most important is that we preserve our “right” to drive, pretty much at any cost.

I think our priorities are a little mixed up and I have a suggestion. First, bear with my while I share a few figures with you.

• In 2005, 43,510 people died in the US in fatal car crashes.
• That same year, another 2,699,000 people were injured in the US in car crashes.
• In 2005, the latest year for which the NTSB reports aviation statistics, 563 people died in the US in fatal aviation accidents.
• That same year, another 723 people were injured in US aviation accidents.

Consider again our reactions as a society to aircraft accidents and to traffic accidents. Now take it to a personal level: How do you react to aviation accidents versus fatal car crashes? Are your reactions congruent with the numbers of people killed and injured in each type of accident?

Here is my suggestion to improve traffic safety, to reduce the number of deaths and injuries.

1. I’m not a perfect driver. Join me in admitting that you aren’t perfect, either.
2. Get a friend to act as your safety driver for an hour. Go drive around. As you drive, talk to your safety driver about what you are seeing, what you are thinking, and how you are making your decisions. Invite your safety driver to give you constructive criticism on how you might improve your driving.

It’s that simple. Imagine how many fewer people would die if we took driving safety as seriously as we  take flying safety.