Okeechobee Flight

When I turned on the computer this morning, I browsed out to the Commander Owner's Group and found a nice surprise. In my inbox, I found a private message from Kiko asking if I'd like to ride along with him down to Okeechobee Airport to meet Pat for lunch. Pat was doing her long, solo cross country for her pilot's license. Of course I said yes!

At 10:55, Kiko called and told me he'd be on his way to Vero Beach shortly. I grabbed my headphones, scanner, and camera and we drove over to the airport. At 11:30 I heard a Commander report in to Vero Beach tower 8 miles to the northeast. It was Kiko's Commander, but it was a female voice. Huh? Something unexpected is happening here.

Kiko landed and taxied up to the terminal. Once stopped, Kiko got out the pilot side and Pat got out the co-pilot side. Now I was really confused. Pat told us that her cross country was canceled due to high cross winds at the various airports on her flight plan. Even though her flight was canceled, they were still going to Okeechobee for lunch because Richard was meeting them there. They invited Susan and Andrew to go along, too, but the plane only has four seats and besides, Andrew had a play date with a friend from school.

I said good-bye to Susan and Andrew and climbed into 77J. Pat sat in the back and ran checklists while Kiko verified items and got us moving. Once in the air, Kiko handed me the controls and I had the great privilege of flying 77J the 30 nautical miles to Okeechobee. We leveled off at 3,000 feet and entered the pattern 10 minutes later. In a nice twist of fate, Richard arrived in the pattern at the same time, so we followed him in. Before landing, I handed the controls back over to Kiko.

On the ground, we met up with Richard and organized a group picture. I grabbed the ladder from the self-serve gas station and took the pictures from the ladder. Then it was into the FBO/restaurant for lunch. I had just eaten left over pot roast, but Pat & Kiko insisted that I eat again, and then went and bought me lunch. Some people will not accept "No" for an answer. :-)

After lunch, Pat climbed into her plane to get out of the cold (60 degrees) while the guys talked shop about Commander upgrades and improvements. Before long, we pushed back to the fuel station, topped off the plane, and flew back to Vero Beach. Kiko again let me do most of the flying. I lost count of how many times Kiko said, "Another day in paradise." I agree.

CFI-A Lesson 4

Today's lesson was entirely ground lessons - no flight time involved. My ground briefs included: Principles of Flight, Flight Controls, Visual Scanning, and Navigation Aids. I spent most of yesterday and an hour this morning building my lesson plans, adding supporting images, and thinking up good questions to get a feel for how well the student understands each topic.

When I arrived at the airport, I gave the Flight Controls brief to my "student", then we discussed the other three with two goals: 1) Focus on the areas that directly effect the student and 2) hit the highlights of other indirect areas to ensure the student has a basic familiarity with the subject. As an example, I briefly talked about the various types of flaps and slats that are available, but then focused on slotted flaps, since that is what the student will see on the Piper Cadet training airplane.

Now it's time to begin work on Lesson 5.

CFI-A Lesson 3

A change - hopefully for the better - has swept through my training program. Today, I met my new instructor. My former instructor is now focused on getting a new instructor with lots of Cessna G1000 time up to speed with FlightSafety standards.

My new instructor is a former FSI student and instructor who was recently furloughed from Express Jet (Continental Express). After one lesson, I feel he has a lot to offer and will be a good fit moving forward. I'm most excited about his commitment to meeting my three-lessons-a-week frame of mind. Now I feel like I'm back on track and that I will reach the end of the program.

Today's ground brief covered slow flight. The discussion was very similar to the last discussion - the four fundamentals - with the main difference being the lower airspeed and the resulting turning tendencies. The briefing went fine. My instructor pointed out that I needed to be more motivational by telling the student how slow flight will lead to better approaches, smoother landings, and the applause of your passengers (he was an airline guy, after all). He also pointed out some areas where I spoke accurately, but could have made the point more clearly by simply adding a few details to my white board drawing.

The flight was more than I had expected. I misplaced my sylabus last week (I found it during today's lesson). I was unaware that in addition to teaching slow flight in the airplane, I'd also be introducing soft field take-offs and landings, power on and power off stalls, and crosswind landings. This caught me off guard, but I covered them the best I could and did OK. Near the end, my instructor was commenting on my choice of words and recommended that I describe the pattern as a series of different slow flight maneuvers. What a 'DUH' moment for me. Of course, that makes perfect sense. The thought never even entered my my mind in the airplane.

That turned out to be my biggest take-away from today's lesson. There are so many things that pilots learn to do at a subconscious level. Flying an approach is mostly subconscious. My conscious mind is focused on airspeed, glideslope, and centerline, while my subconscience deals with making the proper muscle movements to make it all happen. As an instructor, it is my job to point out all the things the student needs to do and then tie it all together with other areas of instruction that the student is already familiar. Training to fly is learning a series of building blocks. If taught effectively, a student can take knowledge from a previous lesson and apply it to the maneuver at hand.

CFI-A Lesson 2 (complete!)

Today, the stars aligned; my health and my instructors health was adequate and the weather was quite fair, if not quite chilly. Even with all of this, there was still a chance the flight might be canceled. When I walked out on the line to pre-flight the plane, I found a small amount of frost on both wings, and quite a lot on the windshield. The maintenance guys were out and about and stopped by with a rag soaked in alcohol. Problem solved. Then the plane didn't want to start. I bet we tried cranking the old girl at least 8 times before she finally caught fire - and even then, quite reluctantly. I am surprised the battery lasted so long.

The flight was quite enjoyable and I was well relaxed the entire time. I guess after being prepared for this lesson for so long, I felt that I didn't have anything to worry about. I did most of the initial flying, starting with taxi - which is a whole different animal from the right seat - through take-off and the flight to the practice area.

Once in the practice area, I put on my instructor hat and tried to think of everything that must be done. I made radio calls, I looked for traffic, and I taught my 'student' the four fundamentals of flight. One thing that did slip my mind on this short lesson was remembering to switch the fuel tanks every 30 minutes. My instructor gave me a good tip on how to remember this and at the same time, set a good example for my future students. Basically, I just write the time and tank on my kneeboard. For example, I write 8:30 R after take-off, then 30 minutes later, I write 9:00 L, etc.

The time went by quickly as my 'student' performed each maneuver per my instructions. He made a few mistakes, which caused me to clarify my words and think more about speaking each action when doing demonstrations. I think my 'student' is well aware of my desire to have positive control exchanges (your controls, my controls, your controls) and if he was paying attention, he would have noticed that I was pointing out all conflicting traffic in the area and making appropriate radio calls before each maneuver.

Back in the pattern, I was flying again. I showed my 'student' how and where to check the ATIS and some good landmarks for making the initial call to tower. Tower cleared us to land, but another plane entered the downwind from the 45 in front of us, so I had to clarify my clearance with the tower. He revoked my clearance to land and gave me #2 to land, following traffic. I told my 'student' that Vero Beach is a busy airspace with lots of student pilots. And although we prefer to follow procedures, it is very likely that you will be forced to modify your arrival due to other traffic conflicts. I told him that it was very important to keep a quiet cockpit, look for other traffic, and listen for and visualize the position of all other aircraft in the vicinity.

Now that my first flight lesson is out of the way, I can finally look forward to the next - slow flight. This is beginning to be a lot of fun!

Southeast Commander Owners Fly-in

When I woke up this morning, I was a little torn about what to do today. I knew what I wanted to do, but I wasn't sure that my family, including my mom, who is visiting from Ohio this weekend, would enjoy what I had planned. I got out of bed, looked out the window, and immediately knew that I must take the family to River Ranch airport outside Lake Wales to meet some of the southeast Commander owners.

Earlier this week, Tom Ewing sent me an email inviting me to the fly-in. I wasn't sure at the time how my name got included, but I responded with a firm 'I'd love to, but we'll have to wait and see'. I was sick at the time, and I wasn't sure what else we might have planned for today.

The plan was for pilots to arrive between 9:30 and 10:30AM. I rallied the troops, programmed the GPS, and was on the road with a planned ETA of 9:30. When we arrived, Tom was already on the ground with his friend Sam. Richard Rolland was next to arrive in N4874W. I couldn't help notice how close the tail number is to our plane - N4857W. I later asked him about it and he told me his serial number. His plane rolled off the assembly line 17 planes after ours.

Richard's beautiful Commander 114

Although clear and sunny, it was a bit chilly outside, so we retreated into the FBO to get warm for a few minutes. I asked Tom how he picked me and he told me that he went through the list of members on the Commander Owners Group forum and sent an email to everyone in Florida. After a while, Jeffrey Boccaccio arrived in N1408J - a Commander 112A Hot Shot - and Pat & Kiko Picornell arrived in N1977J - a Commander 114.

Tom said that everyone he expected had arrived, so they arranged for some golf carts and we drove to the resort's restaurant; about a mile away. The restaurant was great. It had equal seating inside and outside on a large porch overlooking the Kississimee River. Breakfast included an omelette bar and a fresh waffle station.

After breakfast, we gathered for a quick group picture before heading back to the FBO.

Sam, Kiko, Tom, Jeffrey, Richard, Pat, and David

Back at the airport, everyone walked from plane to plane while the owner described his upgrades or problems and everyone else oohed and ahhed, or offered advice on how to fix a problem or find a part. It was very interesting to note that there were three different types of 3-blade propellers. Pat & Kiko's was by far the coolest with its custom paint job. Everyone was interested in Richard's wing tip LED recognition lights. I was most amused listening to Pat & Kiko discuss their wish list as more and more items were potentially being added.

I think the rarest and therefore the most interesting item was N6024P. It had arrived late and I didn't get a chance to meet the owner, who was now at the restaurant. This plane is a Commander 114B with the 'Super Commander' upgrade. As far as I know, there have been less than 10 conversions made so far. I think everyone wanted to go for a flight in this plane.

As you would expect, Andrew wanted to get inside the planes. First we asked Pat and she agreed to letting us look inside. What a fabulous interior. I don't think I've ever felt softer leather. Then we asked Richard and he agreed. Andrew wanted me to close the door so he could look out the opening in the side window, which by the way, was new, made from thicker-than-normal plastic, and looked fantastic.

On the way home, I asked if everyone had fun. I was especially curious what Mom would think of these folks. Some people think of GA pilots as rich and flamboyant people rolling in money, but that is generally far from the truth. Aircraft owners, in my opinion, are hard working folks who have a passion for aviation. Instead of fancy homes or RV's, they spend their extra money on their airplane and fly to their vacation destinations. Mom told me that she thought the owners were all very nice, easy to talk to people, like anyone else you might meet.

So, even though I didn't have the pleasure of actually flying in to the fly-in, I totally enjoyed my first Commander Owner's get together. It was also good to see that the old adage that GA pilots are all part of a big, happy, helpful, and sharing family is absolutely true. I'm looking forward to the next get together. There was some talk of flying into Vero Beach. Now that would certainly be convenient for us!

The Force is with Andrew

While in Ohio for Christmas, Andrew got a chance to play with his cousin's light sabre. He didn't know what it was, but it didn't matter - he thought it was pretty cool. So once we got back to Florida, we have been working our way through the 'Star Wars' collection. As expected, Andrew really enjoys the movies. His favorite character is R2D2.

Everything in the house is now a star fighter. He has a collection of fighters built from his Mega Blocks, each one containing an R2D2 to help fly it. Today, Andrew really cracked me up. I heard him playing by himself and humming the Star Wars theme; specifically Darth Vader's theme music. How funny!

CFI-A Lesson 2 (continued, yet again)

My last entry talked about fate. Today, I got a double dose. First, when I went to bed last night, my sinuses were clogged and I could not breathe through my nose. When I woke this morning, things had not improved. Second, the weather once again became a factor during my schedule block of time. Here are the METARs:

KVRB 132100Z AUTO 23007KT 10SM FEW040 OVC080 21/19 A2992 RMK AO2 TSNO
KVRB 132053Z 23008KT 10SM BKN015 BKN033 OVC055 21/19 A2992 RMK AO2 PK WND 25028/1957 RAE36 SLP129 P0064 60077 T02060194 55014
KVRB 132025Z 24012G23KT 10SM RA BKN015 BKN033 OVC055 20/19 A2991 RMK AO2 PK WND 25028/1957 P0063
KVRB 132000Z 25019G31KT 1SM +RA BR BKN012 BKN017 OVC043 21/19 A2992 RMK AO2 PK WND 25028/1957 P0021
KVRB 131953Z COR 23018G33KT 1SM +RA FG BKN012 BKN022 OVC050 21/19 A2991 RMK AO2 PK WND 24033/1950 SLP128 P0012 T02060189
KVRB 131948Z 24012G18KT 2SM -RA BR BKN018 BKN027 BKN080 22/21 A2991 RMK AO2 VIS 1 1/4V4 P0006

Translated:

2:48PM Winds WSW at 12, gusting to 18 knots, 2 miles visibility in light rain, clouds broken at 1,800 feet

2:53PM Winds WSW at 18, gusting to 33 knots, 1 mile visibility in heavy rain and fog, clouds broken at 1,200 feet

3:00PM Winds WSW at 19, gusting to 31 knots, 1 mile visibility in heavy rain, clouds broken at 1,700

3:25PM Winds WSW at 12, gusting to 23 knots, 10 mile visibility in rain, clouds broken at 1,500

I think I need some good kharma or something to get me past this lesson. Think happy thoughts.

CFI-A Lesson 2 (continued, again)

Well, I must say that I'm dumbfounded by my poor luck with the weather. It's not something new; I was forced to cancel nearly half of my first dozen Commercial lessons last June, but that was in Seattle. I'm in Florida now - weather should NOT be an issue!

But it is. Here's the actual weather conditions from this morning at the time I was supposed to fly:

KVRB 121442Z 01008KT 8SM OVC011 19/18 A3014 RMK AO2
KVRB 121353Z 31005KT 5SM BR BKN004 OVC009 17/17 A3013 RMK AO2 CIG 003V006 SLP201 T01720167
KVRB 121347Z 32005KT 5SM BR BKN004 OVC009 17/17 A3013 RMK AO2 CIG 003V006
KVRB 121308Z 33005KT 8SM BKN006 BKN060 17/16 A3011 RMK AO2

Translated:

8:08AM Winds from NNW at 5 knots, 8 miles visibility, broken clouds at 600 feet.

8:47AM Winds from NNW at 5 knots, 5 miles visibility, mist, broken clouds at 400 feet, overcast at 900 feet.

8:53AM Winds from NW at 5 knots, 5 miles visibility, mist, broken clouds at 400 feet, overcast at 900 feet.

9:42AM Winds from NNE at 8 knots, 8 miles visibility, overcast at 1,100 feet.

The low clouds were the primary cause of the cancellation today. We were scheduled to fly a plane with minimum instrumentation and radios, which would make it very difficult to get back into the airport if the weather changed for the worse. Besides, I have a personal rule that says, "Don't take off from an airport unless you can turn around and land at the same airport if something goes wrong."

Sometimes I get philisophical about my flying destiny. If you believe that things happen for a reason, you can't help but wonder if someone is trying to send me a message. But I'm not ready to give it up just yet. I'm anxious to see how the weather turns out tomorrow afternoon.

Installing Windows 7 Beta 1

I must start by saying that I haven't been excited or interested in using any Microsoft product for quite some time. Other than various versions of Flight Simulator that have come out over the past few years, the last product that interested me was Windows XP. It's been a while since I looked forward to trying some new Microsoft software.

Windows 7 has put an end to the apathy. I've been following its progress on various technical reports for the past month. Microsoft was reporting that the beta would be available to the public in early January. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced that the beta would be available on January 9. So, yesterday I waited and refreshed and waited and refreshed my browser over and over again. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect to Microsoft's site to start the download.

Then there was an update. Microsoft said the beta would be available in the afternoon. Well, who's afternoon? Certainly not east coast because it was already after noon. So I continued trying to get the download started - no luck.

Then I found a blog with a direct link to the beta on the Microsoft server. Yes, now I was getting somewhere. I started the download of the 64-bit version before going to bed last night. This morning, I burned a DVD of the disk image and tried to install it on my spare 30GB partition. At first, my computer would not boot off the DVD drive, so I tweaked the BIOS to make it boot the DVD before the hard drive. I restarted and again, the computer booted from the hard drive. My monitor doesn't display immediately after the computer starts, so I figured I must be missing some instruction, like "Press Enter to boot from the DVD. " So I restarted again and pressed Enter several times while the DVD was spinning in the drive.

And there is was; the Windows 7 setup program was now running. The installation was completely mindless. It only asked for my name, time zone, and a Product Key. I hadn't been able to get a Product Key, so I left it with the default value.

It rebooted once, and then the trouble began. Windows 7 Beta 1 failed to load a driver for my network card, so I was unable to connect to the internet. In the mean time, I was finally able to get both a 32-bit and a 64-bit Product Key from Microsoft. I wanted to activate my beta, but without a network, this would have to wait. Then I realized that you can activate the software with a modem, so I plugged the phone line into the modem and it worked like a champ - oh so 1995.

I spent the next hour booting back into Windows XP and downloading drivers for Vista64 that I hoped might work on Windows 7. After four or five tries, I found a winner. With the network card working properly, I was able to get on the internet and run Windows Update. The update found newer versions of five of my drivers, including the network card driver. Then I downloaded and installed one of the Microsoft recommended anti-virus programs.

With the basics out of the way, I then moved on to other applications. First I installed Google Chrome. It failed out of the chute, so I had to go search Google with Internet Explorer and try to find a solution. Like most computer problems, someone else experienced the same problem and there was a solution available. I applied the solution and now Chrome is working fabulously.

So far my experience has been going well. It will be interesting to see what problems arise over the next 8 months; the beta runs through August 1. If all goes well, I'll have to see what Microsoft wants me to pay for Windows 7 and then decide if it is worth it. I'd personally like to see the sub $100 upgrade, but I highly doubt that will be the case.

CFI-A Lesson 2 (continued)

Today I went to FlightSafety to complete the flying part of Lesson 2: Four Fundamentals of Flight. This morning, I checked the weather reports. The 'general public' reports said rain in the afternoon. The aviation reports specifically showed a two hour block of bad weather between 2:00 and 4:00. Of course, my flight was scheduled exactly during this time window.

I showed up at the flight line at 12:30. The weather at the time was quite nice. I checked the latest weather reports and nothing had changed. I looked at the animated radar reports and clearly saw the line of storms preceding the cold front that was heading southeast passing over Orlando. It was just a matter of time before it reached Vero Beach.

My instructor arrived a little after 1:00 and we talked about a few items from our last lesson regarding turning tendencies while in a stabilized climb. Then we went through the syllabus and discussed everything that I was expected to cover in this lesson.

At 1:30, I got the tin for the airplane - I wasn't committed to cancelling the flight just yet. I finished my weight and balance and performance calculations. We discussed in some detail the progressive maintenance plan that FlightSafety uses to maintain the aircraft. We hypothesized about various equipment failures and whether or not we could legally fly the plane. I highlighted section 91.213 in the Federal Aviation Regulations for further study.

Flying time arrived and it was time to make the go/no go decision. Here's the weather observations from the time window I was supposed to fly:

KVRB 071753Z 22012G23KT 10SM FEW026 SCT034 BKN080 27/20 A2981 RMK AO2 PK WND 20029/1733 SLP093 T02720200 10278 20200 58023

KVRB 071853Z 24020G27KT 10SM SCT038 28/19 A2979 RMK AO2 PK WND 23031/1843 SLP086 T02830189

KVRB 071953Z 29010KT 4SM RA FEW021 SCT038 BKN060 17/13 A2984 RMK AO2 PK WND 30037/1924 WSHFT 1912 RAB10E13B31 SLP102 P0004 T01720133

KVRB 072053Z 27012G20KT 9SM -RA BKN046 OVC060 18/12 A2987 RMK AO2 RAE1954B46 SLP113 P0000 60004 T01830117 53020

Here's the translation:

1:00PM

Winds from 220 degrees (SW) at 12 knots, gusting 23 knots, 80 degrees Fahrenheit

2:00PM

Winds from 240 degrees (SW) at 20 knots, gusting 27 knots, 82 degrees Fahrenheit

3:00PM

Winds from 290 degrees (NW) at 10 knots, visibility 4 miles in rain, 62 degrees Fahrenheit

4:00PM

Winds from 270 degrees (W) at 12 knots, gusting 20 knots, light rain, 64 degrees Fahrenheit

In all cases, the ceilings were not a factor and the visibility was marginal VFR or better, but looking out the window looked much worse than the reports indicated. The sky turned dark purple, the rain poured down, and the wind pushed the rain across the tarmac. It reminded me of seeing light snow blowing, but was heavy rain, instead. It didn't last all that long, but the timing of it washed out my flight lesson. The most amazing thing to me was the 20 degree (F) temperature drop as the front passed.

Hopefully Friday will be a more typical Florida day.

Andrew's First Day of Pre-Kindergarten

Today Andrew began Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK). Last night, he told us that he was scared. We tried to reassure him with stories of our first day of school and how the kids we met became life-long friends. He seemed fine at bedtime. This morning, he was fine at home, but I heard him telling his 'friend' scaredy-cat (a small stuffed kitten) that he was scared while driving to the school.

Things quickly fell apart once we entered the school. We arrived early to take advantage of the breakfast offered to the kids, but Andrew was visibly nervous and latched tightly onto my leg. He wouldn't sit down at the table and didn't want to eat his rice chex. Nothing I said would restore his confidence. He was literally in tears from anxiety.

Then a teacher saved the day. She led him and another little boy to the classroom next door to show them something. We waited around for a few minutes because A) we didn't get to say good-bye and B) we wanted to be sure he was doing OK. After a while, the lady came back. She said that she hoped that we had already left and that Andrew was fine now that he didn't see us.

We left feeling sad for our little guy and his stressful first day of school. We hoped that he was feeling better and making friends with his new classmates. Over the past few months, we've been watching a video about safety and strangers - 'don't knows' and 'kinda knows'. Basically, the video teaches kids not to trust anyone unless your parents say it is OK. Andrew loves this video and has watched it many times. But here we are releasing Andrew to total strangers. What kind of parents are we? What must Andrew be thinking about all of this?

At 1:15, we were back at the school to pick up Andrew. We entered his classroom and he came running to see us. We were anxious to hear his report. We were prepared for some bad news, but hoping for at least some positive feedback. Once outside, he asked if we could stick around until the other kids' nap time was over so he could play with the Thomas train layout!

So much for be concerned about Andrew fitting in. He is now looking forward to going back to school tomorrow morning. I feel like my little guy has lost his innocence. He is now exposed to people who we do not know. Who knows what he'll hear or see while in school. He is growing up so fast. Such is life.