Never Again

It was nice Texas early Fall day in 1992, just like today.  The sun was shining, the sky was steel blue, temps around 80 deg F during the day, 50 to 60 at night (that's about 25C daytime, and 15C night, for you Celsius users).

I had got my private license the previous year, with about 75 hours PIC, and a wife-to-be.  I think those two things came together as a package, because once I had a strong, settled relationship, I could find the time and interest to finish up my private license.  We thought it would be fun to fly down to San Antonio and visit some friends there, and do it in my flying school’s Cessna 152, call sign Five Kilo Alpha.

My original intent was to pick up the plane after work on Friday, and return Sunday morning (autumn Sunday afternoons in Texas are dedicated to football).  We got to Addison airport (KADS) around 5 pm, expecting to take off shortly thereafter, and to land at San Antonio International (KSAN) around nightfall.  Astute readers will note from the tense, that things did not go as planned.

The school had lost my reservation.  There was no blue and white Cessna 152 sitting waiting for us, tanks full, keys on the rack.  After some discussion, they said there was one just coming out of annual in the hangar, 38 Hotel.  I could have that one, although it was new to me.  An hour or so later, it appeared on the ramp, signature still wet in the log book.  I started pre-flight.  Step #1 - turn on the master, and check the fuel level indication.  Ooops!  no fuel.  Call the office, await truck.  I completed the rest of the pre-flight, and climbed the struts for a visual check of the fuel level after filling - ooops #2 - no fuel caps!!!  A hurried search of the hangar reveled two caps, which clicked into place with a reassuring "snap!"

7pm, and we had engine start.  I taxied out to runway 16, received take off clearance, and climbed on runway heading.  A call to DFW approach, and I had clearance through the Dallas Class B airspace, South over Love Field, and past the skyscrapers downtown, as the lights started to come on.  I should mention here that as I rotated, one of the radios started to slide out of the rack, and my fiancée, sitting in the right hand seat, pushed it back in.  She told me later.  Fortunately, she is a good sport when it comes to flying.   She isn’t interested in the mechanics of learning to fly, but she would like me to teach her enough to land if I was incapacitated.

Level at 5,000 and 20 miles south of DFW on a heading of 190, I noticed that the radio reception with DFW departure was weak, but it was (just) good enough to communicate.  We continued to San Antonio, skirting the restricted airspace around Fort Hood.  Approaching the class C airspace around San Antonio, now fully dark and near 10 pm - I couldn't raise San Antonio approach, unless I circled as close as I could get, under the outer shelf of their class C ring, and called when facing AWAY from the field.  Finally I made contact, got clearance, and made a rapid final approach (120 kts on final) with a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 close behind.  Fortunately, having started to fly at Love Field, and finishing at Addison with a lot of business jet traffic, I was fairly used to that!

We had a good time in San Antonio, dining on the River Walk and drinking margaritas and Corona beer outside the Alamo.  Sunday morning dawned wet and drizzly.  The sky was 700 to 800 overcast, with light rain, the cloud tops reaching to 3,000 feet, and extending to 30 miles North of KSAN, beyond which CAVU reigned supreme all the way to Dallas.  Having only a fresh PPL, I was grounded.  We waited in the FBO lounge, and watched the NFL on the FBO’s TV.  And waited.  And waited.

Around 3pm, the ATIS finally stated that the ceiling was 1100 feet and 5 miles visibility.  VFR!  We loaded up the Cessna, and took off, along with 3 or 4 other VFR airplanes that had also been waiting.  800 feet AGL, and we were at the cloud bases again.  Not familiar with the area, and not having GPS (no-one did in 1992), I headed North(ish).  Trying to keep 500 feet below the clouds put me uncomfortably close to the ground, climbing put me too close to the cloud base, and seeing radio towers ahead on the sectional, I decided this was not safe and started to do a 180 turn to the left.

I made a radio call to approach to let them know, but I couldn't get a response with the poor radios in 38H.  I glanced at the AI - 60 degrees of bank, and a lot of descent - a real world, honest to goodness unusual attitude in IMC!  I leveled off in some random direction, very unhappy now, somewhat scared.  I was a disoriented, low time VFR  pilot in IMC conditions, without a working radio, in class C airspace, near a large airport.  I knew this was often how accident reports began - or ended.

Finally I raised approach, and got vectors back to the airport.  A wiser pilot.  An unhappy pilot.  A pleased-to-be-on-final-approach pilot.  An alive pilot on the ground.  We called our friends, stayed an extra night, and flew home on Southwest the next day.

A week later I flew on my own using Southwest Airlines down to San Antonio, picked up 38H, and flew it back to Addison in the normal severe-clear Texas Autumn skies.  Unable to raise DFW approach, I flew around the Class B, under the Eastern-most shelf over White Rock Lake, and landed at Addison.  A few days later, I was on the ground in my normal 152, and I saw 38H on approach, with the pilot complaining that he couldn’t hear the tower, and the tower complaining that 38H wasn’t responding to his calls.  I had told the school about the radio issues, and previously I hadn’t seen bad maintenance from them.  The school went out of business soon afterwards – maybe the rot was just setting in.

Lessons learned? 

1) Get there-itus caused me to continue the flight with a sub-standard airplane at night, and again on the way back in conditions I wasn't ready for.  The fact that it was only 15 minutes to clear skies influenced my decision.  I didn’t think about the fact that 15 minutes is enough time to die. 

2) My training was good (I got out of an incipient spiral dive essentially on instruments. But my judgment was not.  I learned to stay well inside the envelope! 

3) I had never had to face a maintenance issue with an airplane I was flying before.  The school’s aircraft were generally well maintained, and I had never seen anything worse than a low tire or fuel.  The next time I didn’t like something, I would (and did) abandon the trip. 

4)  ATIS or AWOS may not tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Presumably it happened to measure the ceiling as a higher patch went over the field. 

5) Get Instrument Rated!!!!!!!!  I stopped flying for several years due to work, young children and other things, and started again in 2006 when I bought my Beechcraft Sundowner, which used to be an instrument trainer and has 1 of everything, and 2 of some things. 

Learning to fly

Not me.  Her.

I'm practicing for becoming an instructor by teaching my oldest daughter, Thing 1 how to fly.  We're only on lesson 3, and already she can climb, descend, speed up or slow down and trim, and perform level turns without gaining or loosing more than 100ft.

Next time - take offs and circuits.  Stay tuned!

Hudson River Approach

Those of us who fly respect Captain Sullenburger, who successfully ditched his Airbus in the Hudson River last year, after a double engine flame-out caused by geese, but we do not worship him.  We realize he did what he was trained to do, with a high degree of competency, but that many other pilots could have done the same.  So we applaud the demonstration of skill, and understand the "oh shucks" attitude, mistaken for modesty by the press, as actually being a form of embarrassment at all the fuss.

In instrument flying, we use approach plates to describe the horizontal and vertical maneuvers need to end up safely in the touchdown zone - this gag version shows what would be needed to replicate Captain Sullenburger's Hudson River Approach.

BTW, has anyone else, other than me, noticed that the cause of this was CANADIAN geese?  Were they in this country illegally?  Were they Muslim suicide geese?  Why is no-one else crying "FOWL" over this?

Turn hard right, mind the trees (and the hill)

Time to leave Gaston's. 

Where I normally fly from, McKinney airport in Texas, we have a 7,000 foot concrete runway with no building or trees within 1/2 a mile of either end of the runway.  I have room to take off and land 3 times on the runway without turning, and I'm at 500 feet or more before crossing over an obstacle.  So the departure from Gaston's was a new experience.

We loaded up the airplane with all four of us, plus luggage and the fish.  With 30 gallons of fuel in the wings, the Sundowner was just under it's maximum gross take off weight, and within the center of gravity limits ( I know because I had previously run the numbers).  I did a careful check of the airplane and engine, and taxied to the end of the runway as far back as I could get.  3,000 feet on dry, short grass is plenty, but nothing is less valuable than runway behind you.

Running up to full power, with 15 degrees of flaps and brakes hard on, I checked I was getting full RPMs and let her roll.  It seemed to take a long time to get the airspeed needle alive, but finally we had 60 kts and I eased Charlie into the air.  I stayed low in ground effect to let the speed build up until I had 75kts (best climb speed), and reached for the sky.

Best climb with full gross weight was not going to clear that trees covered hill, so I started a long curve to the right, intending to get into a downwind position where I could land back on the field if anything went wrong as soon as possible.  Did I say that I'm not used to trees?  Or hills?  It was a perfectly normal take off if you are used to such things, but I felt crowded.  Simulating a short field, max climb take off and doing one for real are not the same experience at all.  But they are the same to actually execute the movements and configuration, so all was well.

Continuing the climb on the downwind, I immediately felt better - I knew I could S-turn onto the grass if I had to glide in; I was visualizing the maneuver in my head.  Non-pilots would probably be surprised at how much we think about emergencies and "what I would do now if the engine quit", but this is actually normal.  Both guys in the front of your airliner are doing the same thing - only they have more procedures.  They calculate how much runway they need to accelerate to takeoff speed and then emergency stop - and based on that they call out V1 and V2 airspeeds on the take off run - V1 means you have to go - there isn't room to stop.  I do the same, only for me I make the decision to fly just before using 50% of the runway.  And yes, I have abandoned takeoffs if something wasn't right at that point.  But not this day.

Thing 2 wanted to fly over the dam, so having more than 1,000 feet at this point, I left the field and flew over the dam, then turned on course.  Fuel was too pricey at Gaston's, and I was already near max weight, so I had checked fuel prices on www.100LL.com, and selected Mt. Ida as my fueling stop.

Mt. Ida was just over an hours flying time away.  Fuel there was $3.85 a gallon, instead of over $5 at Gaston's, and nearer to $6 at my home airport.  It also has a 4,000 foot concrete runway, and was right where I was planning to turn to avoid the Hog MOA (Military Operation Area).  It was a Sunday, so I was sure the MOA was not active, but I don't like the high ground and lack of airports under it, so I determined to go around, expending the extra 10 minutes of so for additional safety margin (there we go again....).

After partially replenishing the fuel ( I couldn't just fill up like in a car - that would have made the airplane too heavy with all of us and our luggage), I took off from Mt. Ida heading west.  Once again it became clear that I couldn't get over the ridges with our heavy load on a straight climb out, so I made a right turn and did a spiraling climb over the airport.  Thing 1 thought we were like a big hawk looking for a large mouse!



Once above the ridges, I turned on course.  The air was becoming bumpy in the hot afternoon air, so I climbed (slowly) above the clouds to 8,500 feet where it was smooth, and slaved the autopilot to the GPS, pointing straight home.

4 Arrived, 10 Left

The water at Gaston's Resort is COLD!  It used to be a warm water river, typical for Arkansas, until they built the dam and hydo-electric plant.  Now the water comes from deep in the lake, and it's 45 to 50 degrees year round (7 degrees C).

While bad for the native river flora and fauna, this was good for tourism, and the State of Arkansas, smelling gold, stocked the river with Brown and Rainbow trout, and the occasional Cutthroat.  Outfits like Gaston's sprang up on the shore, and the rest is history.

The cabin we rented came with a free boat - but we had to rent the motor, chain, and chairs!  We didn't hire a fishing guide, and so for the first 2 hours, we caught nothing.  After breaking for breakfast, we talked with the dock guys, and followed their advice on how to load up the hooks, and where to cast.  Perhaps it was also that the river started to run, as they opened more generators at the dam, but soon we were catching fish!  Since we declined to pay for fishing licenses, only the 2 Things could fish, but I manned the motor and Sally de-hooked our catch and put them in the wet well.  The fishing limit was 10, and we caught 11, putting the littlest one back to gain some weight.

The dock guys killed and gutted the 10 keepers, for a small tip. 4 we ate for dinner, the other 6 went into the freezer and came home with us.

First time on grass

The field is 3000 feet long, but all it has going for it. One end had tall trees and wires strung across it, the other, a 500 foot hill. We wouldn't have bothered, but for the fishing.

Two hours and 45 minutes after leaving McKinney, I caught my first sight of Gaston's in North Arkansas. Sally sat in the right seat, while Things 1 and 2 occupied the back. Gaston's is a trout fishing mecca, with a hotel and restaurant attached. Oh, and an airport. (www.gastons.com)

The strip is nominally one way, although I did see a Bonanza land the wrong way. I'd practiced the landing a few times on Microsoft Flight Simulator X, so while a bit nervous, I knew how to approach it. I flew a left downwind leg on the other side of the river, and turned onto the base leg in a normal descent. The abnormal part is that means flying straight towards a large tree covered hill.

The trick is not to fly a square pattern, but to make a curved biplane-style approach. As I continued the turn, Sally asked "where's the airport?" in a concerned tone. Well, I couldn't see it..... but I knew it was there. At least in a Sundowner, you have great visibility - normally, due to the low wing. In this case the runway was hidden by tress, until the last few seconds.

Heading for a gap in the trees, we finally saw the runway threshold, and I realized I was lower than I expected. Pulling up the nose, I let the main wheels settle onto the runway - and there was my first surprise. Grass runways are BUMPY!!! And this one has a large bump about a third of the way along where it used to end before being extended. Airborne once again, we landed the second time with a "thump!"

Slowed to walking speed, I found the tied downs, and a man in a Gaston's van drove out to meet us as I shut off the engine and prepared to tie the airplane down.

Circle and Climb

So my original plan was to do the CFI next, and then multi-engine and so on. But I have almost decided to change that, and do the multi rating next. The reason is the great deals that can be had for multi training right now.

So the new (tentative) plan is to do the multi-engine commercial rating add on this summer/fall, and finish the CFI-Airplane rating next winter/spring. I could also do the multi-engine and Instrument CFI ratings at the same time.

When airborne and lost, the proper thing is to climb and circle, to widen your perspective and find more landmarks. Or to get on the radio, admit to your mistake, and get help.

I'm doing both.....