delaying your downwind

here's a scenario to consider, let's say you're on the downwind following someone and they are going either way slower or else do something like turn late to base. if you need to delay you have at least a couple of choices:

• extend the downwind (at KJYO you can't doing this for runway 35 because you might enter class bravo airspace at dulles)
• do a 360 turn, you probably shouldn't do this because you're not supposed to make turns to the right
• go ahead and turn midfield (assuming that there's no conflicting traffic) and enter the upwind as if you're going around (while watching out for departing traffic)

i'm sure that there are other actions too, it's things like this that i'd like to hear /read more about at times. i don't think that i've seen too much literature on "how to react to unusual situations" but i'm keeping an eye out for it.

another review session and a some long(ish) hood time coming

i had another ground review session today (weight/balance/performance, aircraft systems). i also discovered that i need some more hood time (flying using only instruments by wearing a vision obstructing device on your head) before i can do my stage-3 check (and then the faa practical test). i was relatively ready for the session today but it doesn't take too many questions from someone that really does know the cessna 172 to make me realize i've got to hit the POH (pilot's operating handbook) again. for example:

• what type of engine does it have? (4 cylinder opposable internal combustion)
• if the air filter becomes obstructed what happens? (a door opens automatically and air comes in via the cowling)
• how many vacuum pumps does it have? (2)
• if a brake cylinder on the pilot's side fails, can the right seat use the brakes? (yes, this is potentially not true in the diamond da-20)

i had read all of the above in the POH but clearly had not retained it.

charts and charts and chartssss

i had a ground lesson with my instructor the other day to review/prepare for the faa exam. one of the items we covered were charts and he threw a couple of good ones at me. i'm used to using the sectionals from around my area and am pretty confident with them. however, he pulled out the denver chart (way west of me) and it had some aspects/complexity that i hadn't seen before that had to do with elevations and airspaces. i can see that it's probably worthwhile to get a denver sectional just to look at because different areas of the country are likely to have different "things" on the chart that i might not be familiar with.
as usual, aviation is a never ending learning experience.

an elective flight and another lesson learned re chart scales

so far, i have learned something every time i have flown, and more when solo. today i had the day off and the weather was good so i decided to do a little flying and practice some maneuvers. i was going to go jyo (leesburg)-okv (winchester)-maneuver practice near berryville-jyo. unfortunately, the guy before me got back 35 minutes late which ate into my time. i decided to use my terminal area chart for a change so that i could see more landmarks for practice. the okv landing was ok and i did a quick taxi back and departure. while doing my (shortened) maneuvers i ended up closer to mrb (martinsburg) than i had intended. i didn't enter mrb class-d space but if i hadn't seen the tower in the distance i would have been above their airspace. after getting home i realized why, i usually use a sectional chart which is a different scale than the terminal area chart (i knew that but this is the first time that apparent relative distances sunk in). i'll be more careful next time and i'll use the gps map to be certain of where i am.

g1000 seminar and interesting article re "a software anomoly"

recently, i went to an interesting little seminar on a software simulator for the G1000 (advanced flight instruments, aka "glass cockpit"). having been in software development for almost 30 years i am always cautious about technology. this article on a recent 777 crash at heathrow caught my attention: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3216746.ece
down in the article there is a little info on a 777 incident on August 1, 2005. look for the comment 'combination of a failed sensor and “a software anomaly” had created an “unexpected situation that had not been foreseen” and for which the crew had not been trained'.
i do wonder how easy it is to become dependent on the G1000 and lose proficiency with the "steam gauges". software testing is always an interesting area and is a continuous process even for unchanged software because the environment around it is always changing.

long cross country solo done and was a real learning experience

i did my long cross country solo yesterday. i went from leesburg (JYO) to charlottesville (CHO) to richmond (RIC) and then back to leesburg with landings at each airport. i had a few technical problems on the way. they included:

• navigation lights out, this is not critical for daytime VFR (but i was planning on using them to alert the real pilots that "i was out there")
• comm-1 radio failed about 15-minutes out, it was fine during pre-flight check and getting squawk from ATC and requesting flight following, on the way to CHO it was receiving fine and i asked ATC for something, got no response kept trying and then realized it was not transmitting (the 'T' appear on the radio during transmit so it thought it was transmitting), i switched to comm-2 for ATC and that worked, after a while comm-1 stopped receiving as well which meant that i couldn't monitor 121.5 (emergency) nor check weather on it in advance of arrival, i considered this and pondering aborting the flight and returning to JYO but i thought i could get by with one radio, note, after the flight another student suggesting using the VOR radios for monitoring guard/weather since they can receive but can't transmit, i had never thought of that before but it is an excellent idea
• the next technical problem was on the return from RIC to JYO, ATC notified me that my transponder was intermittent which was affecting their ability to provide flight following, they also started getting busier, after another 10 mins or so they lost it entirely and terminated flight following and i noticed that i became "unidentified traffic" when they talked to other aircraft in my area, this concerned me a bit since i had to squawk 1227 to enter the DC ADIZ on my return to JYO, i pondered diverting to winchester (OKV) but figured i was already north of the CSN VOR so i changed my route a bit and dropped to 1,400 and flew JYO via upperville and purcellville, nothing (like an F-16 or Blackhawk helicopter) intercepted me so i guess i squeaked by this time
• the last technical problem i had was that the right wing fuel gauge needle would drop to zero and then back up to the correct level every now and then, that was distracting because i could see it out of the corner of my eye but i could live with it since i had topped off fuel in RIC

and to top all of this off, when i got back to JYO someone had parked in my plane's spot (first time that has happened to me) so i had to turn around and find another spot (probably annoying someone else later).

as to my flying, when i got to CHO the winds were calm and a dash-8 (twin engine commuter/regional airline type plane) was doing touch and go's on a left downwind and the tower told me to fly the right downwind. this was a first for me as i was on the downwind with the dash-8 directly abeam me on the opposite side. the tower told the dash to turn base and said i should be able to turn shortly, i (foolishly) thought that meant the tower would tell me when to turn base so i kept going, and going, ... and going and someone behind me commented on the unusually long time i was taking to turn base so i realized that the tower wasn't going to tell me to do it. this of course made me look rather dorky. ah well, another lesson learned.

landing at RIC was also entertaining in that i think the CHO tower had told them i was taking the short bus to RIC so they were very helpful to me and gave me very specific headings all the way to the runway. i also got progressive taxi to get to the executive terminal (sounds better than it is). it was very interesting being around large aircraft for a change. on the way out, the tower had a large jet following me on the (long) taxi to runway 2. i wish i had had a camera pointing out the back window because i'm sure it would have shown some very annoyed real pilots behind me as i was putt-putting my way down the taxi way.

all-in-all it was a very interesting and informative experience. as far as i know, nobody cried (including me) so it turned out to be a positive thing.
this now means that i have the final checkride at my school to evaluate my skills/knowledge and then the FAA test.

question re airspace restrictions and nuclear power plants

here's a question for knowledgeable people, recently i was in wilmington nc flying with an instructor. there is a nuclear power plant in the area and he said to steer clear of it. i had studied the chart previously and did not see any mention of it being a nuclear power plant and i was wondering why the airspace would not be marked/identified/restricted.
a notam exists on this subject and contains this text (from: http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams.html#1/1980):
4/0811 ...SPECIAL NOTICE... THIS IS A RESTATEMENT OF A PREVIOUSLY ISSUED ADVISORY NOTICE. IN THE INTEREST OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND TO THE EXTENT PRACTICABLE, PILOTS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO AVOID THE AIRSPACE ABOVE, OR IN PROXIMITY TO SUCH SITES AS POWER PLANTS (NUCLEAR, HYDRO-ELECTRIC, OR COAL), DAMS, REFINERIES, INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES, MILITARY FACILITIES AND OTHER SIMILAR FACILITIES. PILOTS SHOULD NOT CIRCLE AS TO LOITER IN THE VICINITY OVER THESE TYPES OF FACILITIES. WIE UNTIL UFN
i'm assuming that someone living in the area would be familiar with it and thus not practice maneuvers anywhere near it but someone not familiar might be unaware. i'm also guessing that the text "to the extent practicable" means they would prosecute a pilot that appeared to be loitering and could not give a reasonable explanation.
the reason this comes to my attention is that i'm planning a cross country to richmond, va and i think my (original) return flight was going to take me near one.

passed stage 2 check

i recently passed my stage 2 check. this means that i can now go on a long cross country solo (a flight of at least 150 nm with landings at 3 airports). my current plan is to go to richmond via charlottesville. that should be pretty cool.
the stage 2 check involved a lengthy oral exam and about 1.5 hours flying with an instructor to demonstrate various things. while near martinsburg (air national guard) i got to vector around a c-5 (ginormous air force plane). neat to see in flight.