Category Archives: flying

Drone Compliance

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DroneBeacon db120

Piggyback on the drone is this stick-on dongle. It is a broadcast RemoteID transponder. It serves as a tag; a wireless number plate. It provides dentification and location information to help the FAA or law enforcement to track unmanned aircraft in flight.

Within the local range of a mile or so and position accuracy of 100 lateral and 150 feet vertical are designated minimum requirements for local detection.

Since the device is publicly broadcasting, anyone can receive if they are also in the area. One can download an app. Shown below is sample output from OpenDroneID OSM.

The UAS ID on the readout is the serial number of the transponder linked to the drone operator. This number is registered with the FAA. All of the rules of the road can be accessed here and LEO complaint guidelines, here.

This external ride along adds 25 grams and will induce an aerodynamic drag penalty. The alternative would be to replace the old drone with one that has UpToDate internals. $$$

Mavic Air (updated)

UAV safety for the public.

Historical Route Map

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WestAir Commuter Airlines (1979) expanded rapidly to provide connecting passenger feed to United Airlines on both coasts as of the year 1991. By then WestAir Airlines dba United Express was part of parent company, WestAir Holdings, Inc.

full resolution scan is here

The IAD domicile on the East coast was spun off to a newly formed company, Ed Acker‘s Atlantic Coast Airlines dba United Express. At dissolution. Employee Associates who had been domiciled on East duty were offered a one time opportunity to come home.

Those who elected to return to West Coast would be out of luck for WestAir was to become part of the ambitious Mesa Air Group before then losing their United Express contract all together. Atlantic Coast continued to prosper in the subsequent years, offering stable employment but that’s another story.

full resolution scan is here

Load factors were not sustainable, reference the ASMs in the chart. This was a good thing for the relative comfort of those onboard but unfortunate for the company’s bottom line which contrasts with the always packed flights of today.

Those were exciting times. From humble beginnings in Cessna 402’s and Britten-Norman Trislander’s primarily in California only to 37 cities in six western states and 28 cities in eleven eastern states, WestAir operated a national route system (their words).

The Power of the Pen

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Deviation from the norm occurs for a variety of reasons. Occasionally, the trigger is a mechanical failure or some external happenstance but in many cases it’s human factors like mistakes made or error of judgement in which case your immediate supervisor may want an accounting of your level of participation and your actions. Usually there are controls in place to document the screw up off chance snafu.

Does anybody else know about it?

Most likely people do and thus the written report!

Best practices: Refrain from filling a report while you might be hot under the collar. It won’t read well with your superior and your demeanor will be of note. It’s okay to jot down details or make a draft while events are fresh in your mind but wait until the next day when you are cool calm and collected before submitting a final revision.

To reduce the chances of self incrimination provide the facts short and on point. A lengthy story might reveal too much. Keep it concise. An incident report main purpose typically is to satisfy some bureaucratic need for documentation. Don’t raise questions that might not be asked.

Your report should not place blame or cast dispersion unnecessarily. There may be repercussions if you throw somebody under the bus.

polite and civil …
Narrative Summary of Event: Nearing the RWY for departure we received an Ops ACARS msg that ramp reported an access panel left open. Ground control cleared us to leave the (long)line for T.O. and hold in the RWY runup block. Ramp personnel arrived via xxx passenger van and requested that we shut down engine #2. The ramper determined that the open access panel was too high to reach. This flight crew then realized that they were focused on the Outflow Valve Door, which is always open during ground operations. The confusion cleared up we rejoined the line and departed. As flight crew we appreciate that the ground crew is observant for potential safety issues but would ask that they review this particular normal configuration so as to avoid a repeat mistake. The loss of position in the sequence delayed our flight 30 minutes.
CYA …
 Narrative Summary of Event: Enroute, the FA reported a disruptive passenger (Seat 4C) to us via interphone. My read was that the passenger was upset over something was neither abusive nor threatening but had lost his temper. The FA did not consider this passenger to be a [TSA] threat level. We radioed ops to request a Customer Service Supervisor (who showed briefly with our code-25 release and then disappeared?!) be present during our arrival deplaning. The passenger requested a minute for a word with the flight crew at flights end and I was able to connect the individual with an Inflight Supervisor planeside. Witnesses from the flight offered that they thought that the disruptive passenger had been a "jerk" and attempted to console / re-assure our FA. My interest in this was to insure that there was no escalation. The inflight supervisor listened to his complaint and was able to placate and diffuse the situation.
sometimes it just can’t be …
Narrative Summary of Event: Informed by FA, Xxxx Xxxxxxxx, via interphone that a PCFA onboard our flight had misplaced their purse and that their weapon was carried in that purse. I instructed Xxxx to notify the other PCFA onboard of the situation. Xxxx called back less than 3-4 minutes later to inform me that the purse (and weapon) had been located and secured safely. Dispatch notified of the event enroute.

This sampling took place 20 years ago with identification redacted for the privacy of the guilty or the innocent. You might notice the narratives highlight the ability of words to persuade, inform, or affect outcomes but mostly it’s just routine paperwork and nothing comes of it. In any case tone is set by the power of the pen.

No one’s career was harmed but as for the hapless PCFA, one can only imagine.

Runway Incursion at Midway

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Fun fact I leaarned that Juan Browne’s channel. blancolirio was actually his [Spanish] wife’s youtube channel which he borrowed when he began citizen journalist reporting of the Oroville Dam catastrophe. Popularity ensued and it became kind of difficult to jump after that.

I listened to his ATC audio of the Midway runway incursion this morning and have some observations. The Flex crew did right by getting clarification on initial taxi clearance before they even started moving at the FBO. Contributing to their initial confusion: the taxi instruction began with a new departure frequency. This is not unusual but the controller should have waited for a readback on the new freq and THEN proceeded with the taxi clearance. Contributing to the fluster, the controller asked them what taxiway they were going to exit the ramp to. The pilots weren’t prepared for that question to give an immediate answer. So train of thought disrupted they got their first set of taxi instructions jumbled. Off on the wrong foot so to speak. When they got the clearance the SIC misspoke reading back 13 instead of 31 which the controller caught and correctly restated so that it was crystal clear.

Dyslexia with runway numbers happens more frequently than one might think — symptomatic of not enough sleep or caffeine.

The SIC however, read that final clearance back abbreviated saying “cross 31L and hold short“. Technically he should have read back the name of the rwy he was to hold short of but the controller let that go. This speaks to a busy ATC system.

I can address how we were trained to handle taxi instructions. It begins with a briefing before calling ground control. The briefing is a deliberate part of a before engine start flow. The SIC gets the ATIS and ATC route clearance and loads the [FMS] box. During the subsequent briefing this info is exchanged and discussed. Besides local Wx, the ATIS provides the landing and departing rwys. So you can see that before the pax show up the crew can pre-brief their location relative to their departure rwy and pre-view possible taxi routes. That way when the real taxi clearance does come it’s not out of the blue. Finally, when it’s time for the SIC to call ground he would have pen and paper at hand too transcribe the taxi clearance as it is verbalized to him. At the end of the transmission the SIC reads the clearance back to the controller from what he wrote down. Before the PIC starts movement both pilots can be heads down as necessary to confirm what they both heard. They both can briefly look at the chart and make sure the clearance makes sense and is clear. While taxiing, the PIC is “eyes outside” and navigating and it’s upon him not to deviate. The SIC should be monitoring and maintaining situational awareness.

A good PIC will actually parrot a revised taxi instruction to the SIC so that the SIC has confidence that the PIC (who is steering) is in the loop. ATC does revise clearances on the fly so if at any point the PIC is unsure of himself, and the SIC isn’t sure, he stops the aircraft until resolution with ATC. In a busy environment this may just irritate ATC, but the pilots know that once they’ve acknowledged a clearance, they own it and deviating from it is a bust.

When crossing ANY runway, active and inactive, both pilots are to look out their respective side windows and SEE that nobody is coming.

It would be of interest to know where the sun was in relation to the SWA and the eyes of the SIC. It’s possible for that time of day for the SWA to be coming out of the sun. Answer: https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5_acce359e-a637-4377-bcff-2d5136c20b4e

This too is verbalized with SIC saying “clear right” and the PIC “clear left – clear to cross”. (Exact phrases are monumented in company procedures verbatim) Additionally, all external lights are switched on prior to the crossing and then reconfigured after crossing. I don’t know if Flex has procedures or if they were followed but they worked fairly well for us. Statistical data shows runway incursion as a common human error point and all of these routines have been put in place to mitigate.

The Go-Around

Quite the impressive quick reaction and execution by the SWA crew! Analyzing the event Juan Browne claimed that the SWA crew initiated the Go-around on their own and that part is true. ATC did not issue that directive per se. Looking at the timing in the replay from the security camera, the SWA was definitely spring loaded. But it couldn’t have been certain what Flex was about to do…

The part we didn’t get to hear (nor did the Flex crew) was ATC keying up on ground frequency last instant, to tell Flex to STOP! Since a 3rd aircraft was concurrently transmitting on ground, (VHF radio is Simplex) that crucial last effort call to stave Flex was blocked. You can tell somebody walked on the transmission because to the receiving aircraft the sound is garbled.

But simultaneously, ATC also transmitted “Flexjet STOP!” (or words to that effect) on the tower frequency which was clear channel and that’s all that SWA needed to hear. Off they flew and good on them. SWA was faultless in this obviously and ATC can’t be blamed as they were mostly by the book. Pilots and controllers both are tying to expedite commerce in limited airspace that is too busy. Human errors are to be expected but within a task saturated outmoded legacy system trouble comes.

Proceed at a Professional Pace

Disclaimer

Keeping Things Straight

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The RV-14 rudder requires a fair amount of precision. Its surface controls aircraft yaw and as an aerodynamic foil it must also be slippery (low drag) as it moves through the air upwards of 200 MPH. The feature to get right, is the trailing edge (TE) which slims to a pointed ending. It must be straight and true without twist.

trailing edge depicted and a desired result

Observe the underlying aluminum angle bar fixed to the workbench in the photo. While the bench itself is quite flat, the aluminum straight edge clamped to the TE will minimize any pucker or wave tendency in the skin. The skin is quite thin (0.016″) and needs the support. A preformed wedge is sandwiched between the right and left skins as you can just make out inside the TE of the rudder (lying on side).

TE wedge

The TE wedge is machined so that its rivet thru holes are angled properly. They are matched drilled 90 degrees with reference to the chord of the wedge. The holes are also machine counter sunk so that the dimpled skin will lie within for an interference fit that also allows the skin to lie flush upon them.

An adhesive seal provides a bond between skin and wedge. Once the sealant cures the cleco clamps can be removed and the sandwich permanently fixed in place by riveting. With this effort the structure will be robust and provide good handling characteristic without adverse yaw or drag whilst cleaving the sky. Straight and true.

Continued VFR

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Fraught with the risk, a scud running pilot conducting a flight that started out under VFR may blunder into IMC conditions. The outcome is known as and described by the catchphrase continued VFR.

In a foray to get across the Sierra my hope was to have a “look-and-see” as it was obvious from official reports as well as my observation on the ground from the flat valley floor that mountain tops were likely to be obscured. My plan was to depart and follow the North Fork of the San Joaquin which would traverse the range and lead to the Mammoth Pass. At 9,300 ft. elevation this is the lowest point at the ridge for over 250 miles. I’d crossed there many times during routine visits to the MMH airport so I knew it visually. But today it wasn’t visible from start. I launched pretending that there’d be a break in the clouds as a possibility.

There’s the option to fly VFR over-the-top [of the clouds] but this assumes the there will be a clearing or at least a hole to descend through at point B. My Centurion P210N, while very capable altitude performance wise was ill-equipped for an in-cloud icing conditions encounter so I elected to stay underneath the deck.

Barreling up the North Fork canyon it was apparent that the cloud ceiling was solid. However, I still met separation criteria from both cloud and terrain so I pressed onward. Emotional stress began to factor in. The hope for a light at the end of the tunnel was not assured and further the undercast was a grey mass. In fact, to the left and the right was plenty gloomy with the canyon walls merging with cloud. I routinely swung my vision to assess. The Centurion has a back window and this scan included looking behind to verify that my completed route was still re-traceable. I found myself becoming increasingly concerned, not so much with what was ahead, but what was behind. I was relying upon a 180 degree turn route escape. That backup was becoming less assured as I pressed forward.

Canyon flying presents the peril of getting boxed in meaning U-turn collision with canyon wall. Further, that lovely diminishing tight circle of clear daylight aft was becoming quite small. Maintaining visual with the mountainous terrain was crucial and going IMC at this juncture could not be good at all. The grey tunnel surround was bleak.

I learned about flying from this. The trap of continued VFR was raring to bite. Finding relief and dumping the anxiety, I aborted and turned back.

If you don’t like the mountain weather – wait a few minutes (hyperbole). I returned to base for re-fuel and flew an alternate mission plan. All the wiser, this was the safe course and a successful outcome. Discounting expectation bias will help a pilot to avoid a continued VFR pitfall.

Vertical Stabilizer Finale

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The VS has been completed. A buck (tungsten bar) in the one hand and a pneumatic gun in the other, fixed skin to skeletal structure. Rivets were placed one by one in the dozens of holes perfectly aligned and previously held fast by temporary cleco fasteners. The gun placed against the manufactured head and the bar against the shop head formed the rivet making each one fast.

Vertical Stabilizer mock up

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Inner skeletal structure

Once encapsulated by (0.032) 2024-T3 sheet aluminum the vertical stabilizer will be quite robust. The spars and interconnecting ribs enhance rigidity while retaining light weight. The outer skin will tie it all together. The spars are of the same material spec as the skin. To add backbone i.e. rigidity extra material is strategically employed. This doubler material is of greater thickness (0.125″). You will observe the large diameter holes in the doubler; they are for weight reduction.

Rear spar to doubler finish drilling and rudder hinge match drilling on the RV-14 project

Pre-Punched – In the kit manufacturing process the vendor enhances the product by machine piercing the rivet holes. The machine has a much more precise tolerance than any amateur in their positioning. In this application they are slightly undersize at 1/8″ (0.125)

Doubler – A small piece of plate attached to a larger area of plate that requires strengthening in that location

As described in the video clip the manufactured holes must be enlarged from 0.125 to final size 0.1285 in a process called finish drilling. I use a #30 reamer for this purpose.

A reamer is a rotary cutting tool that is used to enlarge and finish holes that have been drilled, bored, or cored. Reamers are designed to center themselves in an existing hole, which results in a rounder hole and with fewer burrs. 

Thanks to the precision of the pre-punched holes everything generally will line up for excellent fitment. When alignment is crucial a process called match drilling is employed. A piece that already has pre-punched hole(s) is used to center an underlying piece which does not. The former acts as a guide for the drill bit once the two are mated.

RV-14 Amateur Build

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Vertical Stabilizer Forward Spar Fabrication

Not without challenges and learning curve, the video for brevity has been somewhat polished. Behind scene lots of investigation, a little practice, and study has occurred. This is the beginning of an amateur build of an experimental (E/AB) Van’s Aircraft.

EAB –Experimental Amateur-built is an aircraft built by an non-paid individual and certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as “Experimental“. Colloquially known as home-built aircraft and kit-plane, they are typically constructed with acquired tools, a set of plans and parts from kit plane manufacturers.  E/AB aircraft make up nearly 10% of the U.S. general aviation fleet. 

Van’s Aircraft having a solid reputation as a kit provider will be shipping airplane parts from the West coast over a multi-year span for the duration of this project. A first sub-kit has already arrived. The end result when completed will be the RV-14 model.

RV-14 (Flyer Magazine JULY 2021) depiction

The Empennage (first sub-kit) includes the tail cone (fuselage aft structure) and the airfoils affixed thereto:

  • Vertical stabilizer (VS) and attached rudder
  • Horizontal stabilizer (HS) and attached elevators)

Wings, fuselage, firewall forward, engine/prop, finishing, and avionics will follow in progression. There will be ups and downs (idiom and pun) and lots to learn. The experience (06-02) begins!

aero workspace

WFU

flying, , , , , ,

Not an acronym for an off-putting phrase, in FAA lingo it means withdrawn from use. Occasionally, I run across an early days airframe that I used to fly. These machines may have reached the end-of-the line due to age, component wear limit, abuse or neglect but in some cases, with extra care and good fortune, they might be operationally airworthy and still going.

This green job is still flying the airways. I have stick time in this one only when early on in my career it was liveried in United colors, a 15 seat EMB110P1 N102EB one of a fleet operated by Westair Commuter in California. Re-numbered TG-JCO you’ll note is not a USA registered tail but a Honduran one. We’ve both moved on.

photo credit: Gerrit Griem

There are significant others that I have tracked down from my office desk: N3053W LJ-613 a Beech King Air that I flew in the 1980’s now operating in South Africa; another King Air N511D LJ-951 operating as PT-OZJ in Brazil. The tail numbers and paint schemes change so if one happened to be physically within eye sight you’d never know it. A useful resource for tracing aircraft is a Dutch website with a database that can reference by registration number or C/N (construction number).

As there are many photographer aviation plane spotters worldwide actively capturing and identifying aircraft and location; it is usually easy to find any particular bird while stalking my Exes with a simple search. Some camera toting enthusiasts even venture into the graveyard.

photo credit: Jay Dee Kay

Sad and at the same time artistic as they return to earth, this boneyard in Bates City, MO turns up dozens of old relics that have many flight hours logged and recorded in my own pilot log book. Pictured is N616KC c/n 110238 “retired” in 1991. There is a DNA resemblance to the green one above. They are of the same fleet type but this one has been stripped for parts.

Not all have been put out-to-pasture. Tragically, a number have been damaged beyond repair — written off. This is a euphemistic way of implying Crashed.

THE LAST RADIO CALL MADE BY THE PLT WAS AT 0658 EST WHEN HE REPORTED LEVEL AT 8000 FT. RADAR DATA AT 0708 EST, SHOWED THE ACFT CHANGING HEADING FROM 327 TO 335 DEGREES, ALT DECREASED FROM 8000 TO 5000 FT AND GROUND SPEED INCREASED FROM 179 TO 188 KTS. COMMUNICATION WITH THE ACFT COULD NOT BE ESTABLISHED AT THIS TIME. RADAR COVERAGE WAS LOST 5 MILES WNW OF SAYRE INTERSECTION. THE ACFT CONTINUED ITS DESCENT COLLIDING WITH POWER LINES FOLLOWED BY THE GROUND. INVESTIGATION DID NOT REVEAL ANY MECHANICAL FAILURES AND/OR MALFUNCTIONS.

That was N806Q a Beechcraft 58 Baron that I flew during happier times and I am sorry to learn of its demise in a morbid way. I logged 523 flights in it. Her sister, N807Q, another bad ending with occupant fatalities.

On a much happier note: N4702X a 1966 year model Cessna 150G still flying!

I had my first flight and solo in N4702X c/n 15064752 [photo credit: SBJ over Watsonville, California]. It still wears the original paint color scheme from memory. At the time (1975) it was part of a small flying club at a small airport in Fresno and this is where it all began.