Official Airport Bum!?

[denverpilot]

Last week was eaten up by real job, and a pre-planned trip to Keystone for the ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention over the weekend, starting on Thursday -- so this week is the beginning of "hammer written tests" mode.

FOI, otherwise known as "That 70's Psychology Test", done. 94.

Took longer to drive to the facility than it took to take the test. And overdid the study again. You were right @LDJones , piece of cake.

My favorite question regarding FAA irony for this one is the one that stresses that instructors should always use "up-to-date, simulating material"... Huh... FOI material need not apply?

The other entertaining ones are the ones that harp on only FAA material should be used, and other study materials should be considered inferior, and the ones that talk about never introducing the PTS standards until precisely the moment the required three hours of prep for sudents, starts...

Bu wait! Other questions say that not providing clear and concise objectives and goals will create apathy in the student! ROFLMAO...

Such psychobabbly suckage... but those with the ability to critically evaluate the built in contradictions in the material, and just answer the stupid questions the way they want them answered, will do fine.

 

[denverpilot]

 

[denverpilot]

Someone pointed out that after the Commercial SE/ME, if the goal is to add CFI-G (with Glider Comm along that path) there may be no point at all in doing the Private Glider add-on. Just go straight to the Glider Commerical.

I haven't thought it through really, but posting to see what the assembled peanut gallery of PoA thinks of that.

It's a while off anyway.

Oh yeah, flying starts heavy the week after the holiday weekend! Yay!

 

[Anymouse]

It's ten extra solos to qualify. Not a big deal. Go for the commercial if CFI-G is the way you want to go.

 

[denverpilot]

Phone rang around 9AM...

"Hey Nate are we starting today?"

"Ummm, I had Thursday on my calendar but I'll be right over. Be about an hour..."

So we did some ground work and watched a Jepp video on mulit flying and then the weather did this...

So we bagged it for today. And my plans for this week are all out of whack now but that's normal around here. Ha.

Take two, tomorrow!

 

[denverpilot]

Note to self: Turbo Seminole does not have a STOL kit, like my 182, and I'm not going to need to get the throttle off before touchdown to bleed off speed. Thump! Twice. Slow learner. Primacy. Whatever. Haha. Stop doing that, idiot!

2.0 in the multi-engine dump truck. Feels right at home for a 182 driver honestly. Nose heavy in steep turns, needs gobs of power, lots of drag. Haha.

Turbo'd engines are nice though. Wouldn't mind that on the 182 at this altitude.

Gusty winds. I'll blame it on that! Yeah, that's it. Nope. Totally me. Throttle to idle and thump...

 

[denverpilot]

Honestly, things DID get a bit squirrelly again today as expected. Only got two short flights in because we decided we'd better go put her away when this popped up.

 

[eman1200]

what, no video?

 

[denverpilot]

what, no video?

Hahahaha. You're a funny guy.

Not a chance. I was way too busy. Talk to me in another ten hours or so.

 

[coloradobluesky]

I was an airport bum for a while. I had an airplane and was unemployed for a while. I had this dog, Dottie, a Dalmation mix and she would crawl under the coffee table when I left for my flight. Then she would hear me as I arrived and called in on the Unicom on the FBO's loudspeaker. She would get up, go over to the window and watch me land. Then she would go over to the other window and watch me taxi by to the hangar. When I came up the stairs she would be at the top of the stairs wagging her tail to greet me. What a great dog! Dottie the airport firehouse dog.

 

[denverpilot]

Well this is a ball. I'm still behind the airplane but got 2.0 and five more landings in today before the forecast became real and chased us out of the sky.

Start with the forecast last night... I was laughing over "quasi-geostrophic lift". Had to look that one up.

Flew from APA over to FTG. Usually quieter over there for going around the pattern over and over and today was landings day, with both mills turning.

Still dealing with the massive sink rate if I pull the power back too much turning final, but figuring it out. Landings were a lot more sane today but flight path control on base to final is both a little too slow and low, and with a little more speed I keep overshooting the turn a bit. Ha.

Habits. Breaking them. It's fun. I haven't flown a different type than a 182 in lord knows how long, but many years. Makes me mad at myself. Larry is the quintessential quiet instructor who just says things like "you probably don't want to pull that much power" when he sees me setting myself up for something. Heh. I like flying with him. He hasn't threatened to paddle me upside the head with the Home Depot paint stirrer that's marked for sticking the tanks on the Seminole... yet.

Side note: We haven't been able to really do air work yet. Stalls, slow flight, etc. We've been trapped under an overcast layer both days. That's not helping me understand the low speed behavior of the airplane any, but what're ya gonna do? We're hoping the scud moves on, next week.

Anyway, weather was great in the morning and early afternoon ... See how that scud layer broke up, too... Just as we landed for lunch? LOL. Puffies for an hour or so.

Anyway he said we'd move on from normal takeoffs and landings to short field. Takeoff was fine but holy hell the t-tail needs one heck of a yank to rotate it off at low speeds. Methinks this girly man needs more curls at the gym. Oooooof!

Oh, the airplane went in on Wednesday to troubleshoot the electric pitch trim and today it was back, well kinda. It was somewhat intermittent. Had to look at the floor and see if the wheel was moving each time. Minor distraction but cranking it by hand is definitely more work than in the 182. So I'd try it and about one in six times it'd ignore me. Ha.

So we were watching the radar and the line of junk that formed over the mountains all up and down the Front Range from upslope, and agreed at lunch that as soon as it moved off the hills, we'd bail out of FTG for APA. And right at run-up, the line started moving. Okay, no more landings over here today, we're outta here!

We noticed leaving FTG that DEN was landing to the north, wind at FTG was directly out of the east at 080 right down the runway, and aloft the APA ATIS said they were landing 17. Ha. Frontal passage much?

Short field landing at APA was kinda goofed by controller and the wind shifted. She said first, "Left base for 17L, report Parker and Arapahoe", then that changed to, "Left midfield downwind for 17L", okay... Sequencing? Then she shared the secret... Seminole 8341X, wind is now 320 at 12, would you like runway 28?

We were still at 7500 just starting the descent and somewhat aligned with 28... "Can we have a left 270 for the descent?" "Approved... Cleared to land runway 28..."

Round in a circle, toss out the gear and the flaps and roll out on a long final about 15 knots fast and still coming down, and this is supposed to be a short field. Okay I've already learned how to turn this thing into a brick, so power back a bit... Yup there's my buddy the sink rate! Okay lower now and on speed for a normal approach but not for 75 knot short field ... Full flaps! And it slows some more.

Still coming over the fence with too much power so the short field is only "kinda short" but I at least get the idea. We'll fix that next week.

Weather timing was good. Ten minutes after we put her in the hangar the heavy rain and light hail started. Had to time running to the Subaru between waves of hail so as not to get bonked on the head. Ha.

And later it looked like this...

More work to do. Flying again Tuesday after the holiday weekend. Tried to sneak in Monday but Karen was not enthused about me stealing a day of her camping trip for flying! Haha. Okay. Okay.

I'm a little behind the airplane and fighting a couple of bad babits from all the 182 flying. But I see it and it's just a battle of "know" vs "do".

If we get a full day and a couple more flights in on Tuesday that'd be great... Bloody weather!

 

[denverpilot]

Oh and that same storm line did this up on Pikes Peak... Ha. It's really time for Spring to be over with now, thanks.

 

[denverpilot]

Hey haven't updated! Okay...

Another 2.5 in the Seminole today. Yesterday was scrubbed for low ceilings. We needed 3000' AGL minimum for high air work.

Today was great. Did some oral prep for the Commercial Multi and waited for the last of the ceilings to lift. They finally did.

Check out that blue stuff! Wooooo!

Went out and did stalls (finally got to see how slow it'd fly), more steep turns (held them to Commerical standards! Woooot!), and slow flight, and then some more short field landings and takeoffs. We are a bit behind on the syllabus due to the weather so we haven't actually done any engine out stuff yet.

MUCH better on the power changes now that I finally got some time in "cruise" setting up for the stalls and slow flight and what not, to see how the power behaves. I also see now why I was overshooting on power changes, it's the turbos. If you push to where you think you need them and then divert attention away from the MP, they climb a bit more after that, both engines. My 182 obviously doesn't do that, so it's a side effect of having not flown fixed wastegate turbos before. No that I know to watch longer, power settings are right where I want them.

Short field takeoffs are fun. Hold brakes and shove up the throttles to 34" (they'll climb a bit after that) and release and off you go. Any of you t-tail Piper pilots have any tips for getting a smooth rotation out of the darn thing at 70 knots? That tail goes from not doing crap to flying "right now" and I'm not over-rotating but it feels "poppy" to me. Nose pops up and you hold it and wait for airspeed to catch up. Very odd sensation compared to the Cessna that'll essentially just fly off with a little up trim. I badly want to push forward when it pops off like that but I've been told not to and I haven't yet. Ha.

We need to start the long XC (I have a feeling engines are going to fail in cruise hahaha) time to get the 5 hours in and the 5 of night, so tomorrow we'll combine those two. Possible destinations are Amarillo, Santa Fe (it's not 250 technically but you also can't fly direct and apparently no local DPEs give it a hard time) or Rapid City with a return after dark for a couple of night landings and some of the night time.

Having a ball and getting the feel of it now that we could do the high air work. We're really nose heavy and almost out of the envelope forward and that's helping explain why the thing is so hard to pitch up for short fields. I'd love to throw another body in back. Or some lead weights. Haha.

We're banging on the forward CG door real hard. I run out of left arm strength and I'm very not used to having electric trim, so tomorrow I'll be pushing that button in the last 100' more! Need some more left arm strength!

People whine that the 182 is nose heavy... A turbo Seminole with big guys up front and full fuel just makes that last 50' a left arm workout! (I really want to do it one handed to leave the right hand on the throttle quadrant!) Landings are still a little flat, especially with 40 flap. If you pull the power off before touchdown you'd better be ready to grunt and pull hard with your left hand! Much easier to just get slower early and not have to do that. It flies nice and stable at 75 for short fields.

Anyway... Weather looks good tomorrow. Yay.

Book learnin'..:

The most optimistic performance chart I've used yet in my flying time...

 

[denverpilot]

Oooh. USAFA Graduation TFR cluster**** in KCOS. So KSAF is out. We're going to KRAP tomorrow. We could go around it all, but why bother. We'll just go north.

 

[murphey]

Why not put some weights in the baggage area? Even in the Cherokee, with 2 people in front, I always have either a 4 or 8 gal tank of water.

 

[gkainz]

want to drop me off at KCUT and pick me up a few days later? Or finish these database builds for me so I can fly up and visit my mom?

Note to FAA bots - this is not a hold-out for illegal commercial operations.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Why not put some weights in the baggage area? Even in the Cherokee, with 2 people in front, I always have either a 4 or 8 gal tank of water.

I always keep a case or two of bottled water in the 16oz bottles, shrink wrapped from Costco. I think a 35-pack or a 40-pack.

Handy if I ever need a drink, and, if I ever need the baggage space or weight, the line guys are always appreciative of a case of water.

 

[Twin_Flyer]

People whine that the 182 is nose heavy... A turbo Seminole with big guys up front and full fuel just makes that last 50' a left arm workout! (I really want to do it one handed to leave the right hand on the throttle quadrant!) Landings are still a little flat, especially with 40 flap. If you pull the power off before touchdown you'd better be ready to grunt and pull hard with your left hand! Much easier to just get slower early and not have to do that. It flies nice and stable at 75 for short fields.

I had the same issue. Using no more than 2 notches of flaps (unless they were needed) solved the problem. Less distant to raise the nose in the flare. Also learned that you have to get the nose wheel on the ground real soon after touchdown because the tail will stop flying and the nose will come down hard without warning. Loved the Seminole but it was a different bird until you understand it.

Keep the updates coming and Blue skies!!!

btw, I'm with you on the weather...

 

[denverpilot]

Weather relented nicely today! 5.3 hours, flew APA-BFF-CDR-RAP-APA, long XC completed.

Strange day to do it with all the news about the two military team crashes going on around the time we departed.

Back at APA at midnight. Got part of the night time and a night landing done.

Totally black hole up at KRAP departing until about 20 miles south. Overcast and little ground lights. Got to see how non-Instrument pilots get in trouble at night. I wouldn't call it "VFR" out there. Gave the instrument scan a good workout. That feels like it's coming back, which is great. Nice side effect.

Working the electric trim hard made the landings a LOT better today. Starting to like the little beast.

 

[denverpilot]

Looks like some schedule conflicts came up over the weekend, so we'll be back at it for another night flight Monday night, weather permitting!

That'll let me catch up on some (bah!) work stuff today and help with a work project on part of Saturday, take the wifey out for her birthday, yadda yadda. (Main schedule conflict wasn't me, but I could use a couple of days to get straightened out here...)

 

[denverpilot]

Weather delay. Flying Wed night. Well except that we're forecast to have more thunderstorms again and again and again.

I spent half the day helping someone get their FCC license for their Air Boss frequencies for an airshow and now that I've made a grocery store run, I'm gonna make up a "yuge" batch of beef stew in the crock pot for Karen and I to munch on as the rest of the week gets super busy.

The FCC crap required I dig out this old laptop with XP and Java 6 on it. FCC new applications require it. Horrible website.

This weather follows me around, even in the grocery store parking lot.

 

[Lachlan]

Honestly, things DID get a bit squirrelly again today as expected. Only got two short flights in because we decided we'd better go put her away when this popped up.

You fly straight through Buckley's airspace?

 

[denverpilot]

You fly straight through Buckley's airspace?

It's just a course line on FF generated by the route. No normally not. Although DEN TRACON can get it approved regularly -- BKF is only busy in short spurts. Normal way to avoid it is go to Aurora Reservoir and hang a left/right, depending on direction of flight. That also keeps you out of the lower section of the Bravo, and is a massive landmark almost impossible to miss.

 

[Lachlan]

It's just a course line on FF generated by the route. No normally not. Although DEN TRACON can get it approved regularly -- BKF is only busy in short spurts. Normal way to avoid it is go to Aurora Reservoir and hang a left/right, depending on direction of flight. That also keeps you out of the lower section of the Bravo, and is a massive landmark almost impossible to miss.

Oh. Your FF screenshot made me wonder. I live in Centennial, equidistant between APA and BKF Class Delta airspace. I don't see very many aircraft fly due North from our house because we're about 2.5 nm South of BKF's Delta. I see a LOT of aircraft overfly the house because of that tiny corridor between the two airspaces.

 

[denverpilot]

Oh. Your FF screenshot made me wonder. I live in Centennial, equidistant between APA and BKF Class Delta airspace. I don't see very many aircraft fly due North from our house because we're about 2.5 nm South of BKF's Delta. I see a LOT of aircraft overfly the house because of that tiny corridor between the two airspaces.

Bravo airspace has a tendency to create some very busy corridors around the edges, perhaps ironically lowering safety for those not "participating" vs the airliners and those who are.

The east/west direction across Aurora Res is pretty congested airspace, some days.

I got to see the "hockey puck" problem in action with ADS-B there the other day. Technically the other aircraft should have been creating the "puck" but we've seen reports where the stupid system simply isn't working right. Had him on TIS on the Garmin 430, and not a target for 10 miles on the Foreflight/Stratux combo. Same altitude, crossing course.

We only saw him because of the TIS alert, and if he's on TIS, he's supposedly in the NexGen computer, but not a damned thing on ADS-B. Solid signal from either him direct (should have seen him direct from his transponder transmission) or the 978 tower, too. Nada on the iPad screen.

Passed less than half a mile in front of us. Count me in as not trusting this crap at all... Eyeballs outside... He was northbound east of the reservoir and we were eastbound just south of the reservoir.

 

[Lachlan]

Bravo airspace has a tendency to create some very busy corridors around the edges, perhaps ironically lowering safety for those not "participating" vs the airliners and those who are.

The east/west direction across Aurora Res is pretty congested airspace, some days.

I got to see the "hockey puck" problem in action with ADS-B there the other day. Technically the other aircraft should have been creating the "puck" but we've seen reports where the stupid system simply isn't working right. Had him on TIS on the Garmin 430, and not a target for 10 miles on the Foreflight/Stratux combo. Same altitude, crossing course.

We only saw him because of the TIS alert, and if he's on TIS, he's supposedly in the NexGen computer, but not a damned thing on ADS-B. Solid signal from either him direct (should have seen him direct from his transponder transmission) or the 978 tower, too. Nada on the iPad screen.

Passed less than half a mile in front of us. Count me in as not trusting this crap at all... Eyeballs outside... He was northbound east of the reservoir and we were eastbound just south of the reservoir.

Every time I fly through there I tell anyone aboard to start scanning for traffic, and I fly some shallow banks to hopefully make us more visible to someone that we might not see.

 

[denverpilot]

2.8 of night in the Seminole and 9 landings tonight, APA, BJC, COS, APA. All done with night requirements for the multi commercial!

Oh and I managed a few landings that I actually liked... I'll be darned... It does land well if you work it!

Puuuuuuullllllll while holding the electric trim up up up ... ahhhh. There it is! We're still nose heavy so you really do run out of up elevator but that trim tab is huge compared to the Cessna.

And the pattern I've always had continues...

I still land stuff better at full flap than without or partial.

40 flap and voila... I can land the silly thing!

I have no idea why I like that better but I always have.

25 isn't bad. 10 I'm pitching in the flare for no good reason. Ha. But 40? Perfect.

LOL. I'm just a STOL-brained pilot I guess. Me Og. Me like drag. Give Og more drag. Og like. Haha.

 

[denverpilot]

Oh forgot. The foggles went on for a while and while I haven't been IFR current in quite a long time, @jesse must have done good stuff traumatizing me in Nebraska, because I really didn't have any trouble...

We didn't fly any approaches (yet) but hey...

You people with a panel mounted GPS and moving map are cheating! (Too easy. Haha. Wow. That's seriously going to spoil me...)

Anyway, more night simulated IMC -- no wonder I felt right at home! LOL. I'd probably freak out if it was daytime. Grin!

 

[denverpilot]

No flying this week. FIA written tomorrow most likely.

 

[murphey]

You fly straight through Buckley's airspace?

Buckley controllers are great. Unless there's lots of F16 traffic, just call and ask for transit thru. Not only great folks, but they're really good about warning you about the 6500 msl airspace. KBKF sits underneath Denver Class B, like most of the area.

 

[denverpilot]

Buckley controllers are great. Unless there's lots of F16 traffic, just call and ask for transit thru. Not only great folks, but they're really good about warning you about the 6500 msl airspace. KBKF sits underneath Denver Class B, like most of the area.

They really are good. They only really say no if they have fast movers or heavy lifters in the pattern. I've used the "climb via Buckley airspace" method when departing FTG and attempting to climb up for a westbound mountain flight before. They'll even help sometimes with a handoff and clearance into the bravo to keep that climb going. Not that DEN is bad in any way about helping out with that either. I really love our TRACON when I hear the horror stories of folks from less helpful and friendly Bravos. Denver is a piece of cake compared to many. They have enough staffing and just less than the number of aircraft per sector where there's almost always a decent break in the Comm to ask them for some crazy request like a westbound climb and they almost go out of their way to help unless you're climbing right into their pattern for DIA. Even then they'll issue vectors and get you on your way as quick as they safely can. Love our TRACON. Really I do.

 

[Lachlan]

Buckley controllers are great. Unless there's lots of F16 traffic, just call and ask for transit thru. Not only great folks, but they're really good about warning you about the 6500 msl airspace. KBKF sits underneath Denver Class B, like most of the area.

I'm sitting under KDEN's Class Bravo every day. I know that you can transit BKF, but his ForeFlight plan was not a track log. It was a planned transit, which seemed surprisingly presumptuous.

 

[Caramon13]

@denverpilot I must have missed some of the thread, are you going for your Multi-Commercial and doing the single addon later? I have my single commercial probably doing multi/CFI as you are as well...don't have a date to start though at the moment.

 

[denverpilot]

@denverpilot I must have missed some of the thread, are you going for your Multi-Commercial and doing the single addon later? I have my single commercial probably doing multi/CFI as you are as well...don't have a date to start though at the moment.

Yep. Going from Private Instrument to Commercial SE/Multi with multi first, and then CFI ratings. That's the plan anyway.

 

[denverpilot]

Oof. That was a bit rough. I don't mind rough but whew. Pass. But not a pretty score. Also not particularly bad on four hours of sleep. Haha. Isn't sleep well. Oh well!

The new figures book is really pretty. No more looking like a mimeograph machine made it in 1970. The better graphics in the book overstretched the capabilities of the testing center's monitor or the quality of the graphics, or more accurately the quality of the digitized images downloaded to the testing computer is really low.

Definitely just open the new pretty multicolor book and look at them in there. The computer screen is nearly useless with the new graphics on some of the chart stuff. Can't even read the small stuff.

Definitely a high number of odd-ball crud questions worded in horrible ways. If you're studying with older practice question pools do NOT take these new tests if you aren't getting solid 90s. You'll be thrown at least 5-10 or so really strangely worded things you'll sit and scratch your head and wonder WTF they're even trying to ask. I feel bad for any non-native English speakers on some of these. They're the most tortured English I've ever seen on a multiple-choice test.

About six of them I just gave up trying to figure out WTF the author was asking and took a SWAG at it. About four read like someone shoved as many alike sounding words into three answers as they could find. One in particular about how a slipping or skidding turn was entered I just sat and stared at it for a while and said screw it. How hard is that to put in question form? It took up four lines of text per answer. Haha. Wow.

Executive Summary: The updated test has about 10% total ******** questions. You'll do fine if you're prepared. If you get well above 90 after the changes I want to kick you, just because. LOL.

Onward and upward. More next week. Oh joy. Haha.

 

[denverpilot]

AGI passed. 80.

It's the written-test-week-from-hell around here.

Probably do the FII and IGI before the weekend is over.

All depending on if any more crap breaks or is broken by doggies or whatever else circumstances can keep tossing at me to blow my study time!

 

[denverpilot]

FII done! 94. That's more like it!

IGI tomorrow or Sunday depending on when folks want to do the oil change on the 182...

 

[denverpilot]

Oil change done. IGI passed. 90. No more writtens!!!!

 

[FlyingElvii]

After 3 years of "retirement" (thank you, sequestration) I'm back at work so I can afford to retire again and get the certs and have a real retirement career as CFI.

Same here...
Sold the business several years back, when someone pestering me to buy it caught me on a bad day. Retirement secured.

Did some consulting and short-term contracting for a few years, and then I stumbled into the PERFECT pre-retirement job (Wife still has 2 years to go to fully eligible, and we aren't 55 yet), a reasonably (For the work) high-paying, totally-brainless factory job! For 2 years pre-retirement, it's perfect. The most stressful thing about it is driving there.
(That said, if I had been forced to do this for 20+years, I'd have likely gone insane.)

It's nice to have choices, especially ones I could never have imagined doing a couple of decades ago.

 

[LDJones]

Someone pointed out that after the Commercial SE/ME, if the goal is to add CFI-G (with Glider Comm along that path) there may be no point at all in doing the Private Glider add-on. Just go straight to the Glider Commerical.

I haven't thought it through really, but posting to see what the assembled peanut gallery of PoA thinks of that.

It's a while off anyway.

Oh yeah, flying starts heavy the week after the holiday weekend! Yay!

I ran out of time so did the private glider add-on and regret it! Get the extra solos and do the commercial.