Cheerful Curmudgeon

Candy and I took a day out of our Door County escape to visit Oshkosh for the AirVenture 2009 airshow. Landing on “runway” 36R was fun.

Landing at Oshkosh on 36R. It's a runway, not a taxiway. Really.

With only a day to spent, we saw the airshow and pretty much whatever we happened to wander by, such as the business end of this Thrush ag sprayer.

Thrush Ag Sprayer

Click through to visit my photo gallery of AirVenture 2009 photos.

Oh… I also downsized several of the photos to 320×240 so they work as Palm Pre wallpaper.

This is why we fly. I took these photos flying over Illinois at 5,000 feet. Make your browser full screen and click through to see the pictures large.

If you are reading this on Facebook, you won’t see the photos until you click on Cloud Dancing.

The sun set as we flew home over Illinois yesterday. Here is a small sample. These photos really look better large so make your browser window full screen and click through to the photo gallery for maximum enjoyment.

This just in from the Alliance for Aviation Across America:

The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security recently released a report that dispels many of the myths about the security of general aviation.

In the report, DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner stated that “Although [TSA's Office of Intelligence] has identified potential threats, it has concluded that most [general aviation] aircraft are too light to inflict significant damage, and has not identified specific imminent threats from [general aviation] aircraft.”

Recognizing the great steps the aviation industry has already taken to keep our airports and airways safe, the Inspector General continued that “The current status of [general aviation] operations does not present a serious homeland security vulnerability requiring TSA to increase regulatory oversight of the industry.”

Click here to read the full story in GovExec.

Perhaps now DHS will stop treating small plane owners and pilots like we are inherently more dangerous than the people who own and drive trucks, minivans, and cars.

Julie Pukelis put a camera in front of a telescope to get this view of the scene in the river.

As I am sure you know by now, a US Airways A320 ditched into the Hudson River this afternoon, just minutes after departing from LaGuardia Airport. The accident appears to have been caused by multiple bird strikes. It is truly amazing that the simplest things, from ice to birds, can bring down our most promising machines despite our best efforts.

But, and this is huge, unlike that fateful night in 1912, today everybody lived. It looks like everybody got out of the plane to safety due to the exemplary work of the pilots, the crew, the mechanics, and the people who designed and built the plane and its safety gear.

Did you realize that the US airlines did not suffer a single passenger fatality in a crash in either 2007 or 2008? This is the first time since the airlines began flying jets, 50 years ago, that two consecutive years have passed this safely. So the next time you fly, or see an airplane, or think about someone who is flying, send some appreciative energy to the men and women who make aviation safe, the

• Pilots
• Crew
• Mechanics
• Air traffic controllers
• Designers
• Builders
• Managers

Safety is no accident.

I purchased my Sony PRS-505 ebook reader primarily to run Reader Plates. This is a set of electronic IFR approach plates or, to be technically correct about the name, the FAA (NACO) Terminal Approach Procedures. When I fly IFR (in the clouds), I use these half-page charts when taking off from or landing at an airport. For example, here is the St. Charles Municpal Airport GPS 9 Approach. Several things bother me about these charts. We kill too many trees producing them; the FAA sends me a 3″ stack of paper every 28 days, and I only subscribe to three of the 17 books in the United States set. The things are expensive; including shipping I am paying about $23 for every set of three books. The things are heavy and bulky; by far the heaviest thing in my flight bag on a cross country flight is the approach plates. And last but certainly not least, they are inconvenient; it is a royal PITA to assure that I have the books for distant states before leaving home, especially since they have to be mail ordered.

A small company just released an electronic version of the terminal approach procedures which actually makes sense to me. Reader Plates offers the entire set of approach plates, everything in the US, for a very reasonable $9.99 per month on a device which fits both my cockpit and my wallet. The Sony PRS-505 is about the size of half a sheet of paper, so it fits nicely on my kneeboard. At $299, the PRS-505 is one third the price of the eFlyBook and the $9.99 per month subscription works out to less than half the cost of the chart subscription for the eFlyBook. And I love being able to carry all the charts for the entire US in a ½” thick package.

Last week, I tried it out, flying both day and night approaches using the PRS-505 in lieu of paper. It worked great.

My first stop was at the local office supply store where I bought one of those rubber pads that you are supposed to stick on the dashboard of your car so that you can plop your cell phone on the dash and keep it from sliding onto the floor. I stuck that onto the back of the Sony Reader so that it would not slide off my kneeboard. With the pad in place, I took off into the wild blue yonder (with a safety pilot in the right seat, of course).

The screen on the Sony Reader is 6″ diagonally. Fold a sheet of paper in quarters and you will be in the ballpark. Reader Plates presents an entire approach plate on this screen and it is surprisingly readable, even with my eyes which need reading glasses. (Click on the image to see it larger.)

Reader Plates full page view

Since this is pretty small, pressing the center of the navigation wheel (lower, right corner of the PRS-505) magnifies the image, zooming in on the top half of the chart. In this mode, the image is exactly the same size as the printed approach procedures.

Reader Plates magnified view

Pressing the center of the navigation wheel a second time switches to a magnified view of the bottom half of the chart. Pressing a third time cycles back to the full page view. Reader Plates has a larger set of screen snapshots on their web site.

This actually works out quite well for me. When I fly an approach, I prep by looking at the whole page and getting an impression of the overall route which I will be flying. After that, I really only look at the bottom half of the chart, constantly reminding myself of the MDA or DH. I leave the lateral navigation to the GPS with its moving map display and the CDI needle.

The Sony Reader takes its time doing things when you press buttons, so it requires several seconds (and several button pushes) to navigate from one chart to another. This is generally not a problem except after landing, if you need to quickly switch from the approach plate to the airport diagram. In this one case, you may find it handy to have the airport diagram on paper.

Having initiated Reader Plates with my day practice approach and a night IFR flight from Kalamazoo back to St. Charles, I am thrilled with the combination of the Sony Reader and Reader Plates. I have already cancelled my subscription to the paper terminal approach procedures and plan to use the PRS-505 on a 2,200 mile cross country trip in a couple of weeks.

There are several concerns about electronic charts, especially for the landing phase of flight which is particularly critical. I have given them some serious thought since I am kind of fond of being alive:

• What if the battery dies? The Sony Reader uses eInk technology so it only uses power when you change pages; when simply displaying an image, it consumes absolutely no electricity. With an advertised battery life of 7,500 “page turns,” I don’t worry about running out of batteries during a flight.
• What if the PRS-505 dies? It is unlikely since the Sony Ready is pretty durable and, other than the switches, has no moving parts. But if the PRS-505 did expire mid-flight, it would not be the end of the world if I had to fly an approach without the chart. My plane is equipped with a KLN94 IFR GPS and that has a database of all approach procedures. Beyond that, I would need someone on the ground to tell me the MDA or DH for the approach, and that would be a hassle, but I would get safely to the runway.
• But the Sony Reader does not have a light. Neither do the paper charts that it is replacing.

If you are an IFR pilot, give Reader Plates a serious look. I think you will like what you see.

Woo hoo! This afternoon, I passed my glider pilot checkride in N5751S, a Schweizer 2-33A! I am now officially allowed to fly airplanes with either one or zero engines.

I owe it all to the Silver Creek Glider Club and the good folks there.

For a change, American Airlines is making a good business decision. Instead of whining about how it cannot run profitably, it is doing something about its bottom line: raising its prices. There has been lots of news coverage about the $15 fee which American Airlines is charging for the first piece of checked luggage. Good for them. It’s not personal; it’s just business.

When a business is losing money, as most airlines are doing, the business gets to do at least one of a very few things:

1. Increase revenue
2. Reduce costs

The airlines have reduced costs, sometimes admirably and sometimes ruthlessly, to such an extent that anything even vaguely resembling customer service has largely vanished from the entire industry. Everyone I know who flies commercial airlines dreads the experience.

For the last several years, the airlines have been trying to increase revenue by a) waging a price war and hoping to make up the difference in volume of tickets, and b) pleading with the US government for more tax relief. With luck, yesterday’s announcement marks the beginning of a new airline industry phase, one in which the airlines charge enough for their products that they can

• safely transport passengers,
• in comfort,
• while fairly compensating their employees.

Yes, it can be done and charging a fair price for the product delivered is a key piece of the puzzle. Here’s hoping that they improve product quality while raising prices. It’s about time.

Now I’ll readily admit that I’m no expert in windsocks. I’ve seen my share but never paid ‘em much mind. I’ve certainly never delved into the technology which makes ‘em work. Obviously, I have ignored somethin’ which ought not be ignored.

I just read this NOTAM:

Trenton NJ (Trenton Mercer) [TTN]: May NOTAM #5
Aerodrome 16/34 WINDSOCK out of service between taxiway A, H

Obviously, a WINDSOCK ain’t just a sock, whippin’ about in the wind. Obviously, a WINDSOCK’s got some high fallutin’ technology which can either work or be “out of service.”

Well now. I guess I done learned somethin’ tonight.

Here is a little bit of just “plane” fun to brighten your Monday. Watch Boeing build a new 777 in just four minutes.