Seasons Greetings
Merry Christmas and a happy new year 2013!
Tilbo
(originally posted on December 21, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/seasons-greetings/)
Chinese Civil Aviation Museum
Visibility: almost unlimited
Temperature: 21°C
Wind: light autumn breeze
Location: The Chinese Civil Aviation Museum, Beijing, China
On a web search for chairman Mao’s aircraft (a Hawker Trident), I stumble about Brian Slaters blog about his visit to the Chinese Civil Aviation Museum in Beijing. I had not heard about this museum before – of course I have to go!
My host and I struggle to find the address online, but eventually we find the website and decide, it looks open. We plan the way. Bus line 935 should take me right there. He writes the correct stop down for me.
The next morning, my day starts with a search for the bus stop. On the street we saw on the map, there is no bus stop at all. Just as I start thinking about options, a 935 bus comes around the corner and passes me. I walk in the direction the bus came from and before long I find the nest. A bit off my map but never mind. After some discussion with the driver of the next 935 bus (involving my cheat sheet and lengthy explanations I can’t follow), I am on board.
Coupled Navigation
Once in the bus, I note the time and start counting stops. It is supposed to be 8 stops in about 40 minutes. My flight instructor would be very proud. As my stop comes up, I compare the electronic display with the characters on my paper and double check with the attendant. It all checks out, this is it. However, I find myself standing on an empty road in the middle of a construction site. I am way off my little map of the city center and I try to navigate from my memory of the computer map we looked at the night before.
5 Euro joker
I walk down the road and towards a high way I see in the distance. On the way I ask a worker who only has a blank stare for me. So eventually I pull the joker out of my pocket – the mighty iPhone. After about 5 Euros in roaming charges, I am back on track. The museum is about 3 kilometers to the east. A half hour walk along a busy street with staring Chinese pedestrians brings me to the gate.
The museum is large, new and very nice. The building flows like a waive and definitely has an aerodynamic quality. Brian’s experience has prepared me, so I pull out my identity card at the entrance. The lady at the desk checks it thoroughly, smiles and hands it back to me with the ticket. I’m in.
Room for expansion
I start my visit with the museum building. I enter through the main door and am greeted by a clearly surprised person at the coat check. The inside of the museum is divided up in individual parts that look like trade fair booths. All of them have displays, posters, artefacts and no visitors. A tired cleaning person stares at me, at the bathroom my appearance stops the vivid chatter of two attendants.
The museum is great and I am startled that it is so deserted. Are there no aviation enthusiasts in China?
Out and about
The museum is surrounded by ample space for aircraft. The collection is obviously just starting and the number of exhibits is still small. But they are interesting and not fenced off – a big plus.
It looks like the area has been improoved since Brians visit in 2011. Two C47s and a C46 (with replacement wheels) are placed in a row with neatly trimmed grass around them.
The A310 and a Hawker Trident are sitting a bit further back. I later read about the Trident (B-2207) that it used to be a VIP transport and was open to the public at its earlier base. I would love to see the insides of this beauty. Maybe on a future visit.
Behind the building I see a weathered Iljushin IL-14. Chairman Mao received one as a gift from Stalin in 1954. Is it this one? Probably not but I will have to brush-up on my Chinese to find out.
To be continued…
(originally posted on October 15, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/chinese-civil-aviation-museum/)
VOR
I bought a text book in order to prepare for the CVFR rating. I have always loved good text books. I know, that’s a bit weird, but I like to follow a well organized stream of thoughts on a specific topic.
CVFR is a very specific topic. Controlled Visual Flight Rule is a part of the qualifications of a private pilot. The rating will enable me to fly in controlled airspace and with guidance by ATC.
The big thing about CVFR however, is learning to make better use of the instruments and to use radio navigation.
VOR stations are the back bone of radio navigation. VOR is short for “VHF omnidirectional radio range”. The idea is very close to the idea of a light house. The VOR indicator in the cockpit shows me the bearing to the VOR station.
The VOR stations are marked on my aviation map. If I know That my relative bearing to the station is 090, I know that it is at 90° to the right. So I know that if I draw a line at 90° from the staion, my position would be somewhere on this line (called a radial, by the way).
This information alone is enough to get a pretty good idea about my position if combined with other VFR navigation skills (“this looks like the lake on the map”). At night or above the clouds however, I would need a second VOR station in order to do a triangulation. If I know that I am on radial 90° of station A and radial 200° of station B, I can draw two lines on my map and the point at which they meet is going to be my position.
Still with me? Great!
I have been taught to use the VOR from my first lesson for the private pilot on. My instructor knew that I was going to go for the CVFR rating eventually.
Today he means it. The flight preparation today is longer than usual. We have a very detailed flight plan. Up to the north and climbing up into the controlled air space over the city. Then a flight from the VOR in Löwenberg, via Tegel Airport to the VOR in Fürstenwalte. North to south over the big city.
I call ATC after take-off and anounce our big plan. After a bit they call back with bad news. The weather is bad, the airspace is full and they don’t need a green horn who needs extra attention. No clearance for me today.
Plan B is to clear the controlled airspace to the north and then climb to 7.500 feet and do our drills there. The day is rainy and other small aircraft ask for advice and divert right and left. My instructor is not impressed by a bit of rain on the screen and before long we are above the grey clouds. I close the vent as the stream of outside air is getting quite cold. The instructor hands me the IFR cap “Put this on”.
An IFR cap is a plastic visor that blocks the view to the outside. After I put it on, I can only see the instruments. What a difference!
Steady as she goes
The first task at hand is to hold course and altitude. The air up here is calm but I still need a lot of concentration for the task. After a bit, the instructor tells me to start going right and left, 10 degrees from the course. After this works, he pulls the flaps lever. Kilo Sierra slows down because of the added drag and climbs at the same time because of the increase in lift. I counter the movement and fight to keep the altitude.
Radio Navigation
The instructor seems to believe that I will not fall out of the sky. So we start with navigation. He tells me to fly to the Fürstenwalde VOR station. We had set the frequency before, so all I have to do now is turn the bearing indicator of the VOR receiver until the course deviation indicator is in the middle and the direction flag shows “To”.
The bearing to the station is 179, so I turn right onto the new course. After a few minutes, the instructor tells me to sink. We go down to 5.500 feet, 3.500 feet, then 2.000 feet. Finally I contact Strausberg and ask for QDM. That is the magnetic heading to the station. The controller on the tower can determine my relative bearing to him.
The heading to the airport is 250. So I turn right until I have 250 locked and ask again. 260 now. The runway is 270, so we are getting very close. The instructor tells me to sink to 1.000 feet and take off the cap. The runway is directly in front of me, I am on long final – wow!
After we are back on the ground and done with the de-briefing, I walk to the train station. There is a light drizzle and I enjoy the rain on my face. My head is pounding from the concentration, I’m exhausted but I feel great nontheless.
To be continued…
(originally posted on October 7, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/vor/)
Bring her home!
Visibility: about 8k, scattered clouds at 2.500 feet
Temperature: 18°C
Wind: 210°, 7 knots
QNH: 1020hPa
Location: EDCE (Eggersdorf)
Equipment: D-MAKT (FlightDesign CT)
I am eying the sky with apprehension. Gray clouds and light rain, the sun is nowhere to be seen. There is an improvement in the forecast, we will see.
My flying buddy is picking up his new aircraft today, “Kilo Tango”. He has asked me to come along. I will use the occasion to get a check ride on the FlightDesign CT LS. I am excited.
The sky is still gray when we arrive at the airport but the rain has stopped. I start with ground school, he has got some more paper work to attend to. “Kilo Tango” is a very clean flying machine. The speed management is very important and needs attention. She is not as forgiving as my training ships.
Many buttons
“Kilo Tango” has an EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrument System), a so called “glass cockpit”. The flight instruments are electronically displayed on two screens. The advantages in safety and comfort are hugh. The integrated system can relate important information to raise situation awareness. But it requires a lot of training.
Ground school completed
The sun has come out and its time to fly the beauty. “Kilo Tango” climbs at a 750 feet per minute and I take her through a hole in the clouds. The sun is warming my face up here and we begin with some air work. The aircraft is fast, responsive and easy to direct. She wants to go.
After a quick set of turns and the regular routine of stall drills in various configurations, we are back in the pattern. I’m fighting to slow Kilo Tango down, just as I was told. On the last turn into final, she starts talking to me. “Five hundred” she whispers into my ears. Gotta love it!
We fly for almost two hours and conclude the training with a special kind of emergency drill. The instructor shuts the engine down completely. I have done this before, but it is a very special sensation every time. “Kilo Tango” seems to think so too. Her warning voice sounds a bit shrill, or am I imagining things?
Sun set
After the check-out, it is time to get going. The weather is still good and we are not going far tonight, but we don’t want to push our luck. And we have a quick stop-over in Strausberg planned. My buddy is flying and I am in the right seat. A very odd perspective for the approach into the home base.
The sun is low and the sky starts turning a warm orange. The clouds are beautiful today. I get ready to go home. Before I leave, he takes the second set of keys for “Kilo Tango” and hands them to me. “Keep ‘em, it’ll make it easier in the future”, he says. They are small and unspectacular. But to me they are more impressive than Porsche keys.
To be continued…
(originally posted on September 30, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/bring-her-home/)
Buying an airplane
Visibility: almost unlimited
Temperature: 19°C
Wind: 330, 18 knots
QNH: 1017hPa
Location: EDCE (Eggersdorf)
Equipment: “Kilo Tango” (Flight Design CT LS, a new bird in town!)
I know the airport in Eggersdorf well. It is about 10 minutes by air from Strausberg and a good part of my sports pilots training has happened on the long grass strip over here. Today is only the second time ever I visit Eggersdorf from the ground. I’m here with my flying buddy and he is here to buy an aircraft.
Eggersdorf is the East German base of the Flight Design company, makers of the CT line of light sports aircraft. My friend is buying a used CT LS. He has seen the aircraft here before, has negotiated with the owner by phone, has paid a deposit and is inspecting it today.
When we arrive at the Flight Design facility, “Kilo Tango” is waiting for us on the apron already. She is three years old, has about 400 flight hours and is very well equipped. Dynon glass cockpit, Garmin GPS, 100 horse powers Rotax engine, even leather upholstery – a fun ride!
We are greeted by the manager. He walks us around the aircraft, then lets us explore her some more on our own. We do a thorough check. “Kilo Tango” is in very good shape. She looks almost new and in fact, 400 hours is not much for an aircraft. After a bit, the manager is back and we taxi the plane over to a shop hangar for a technical inspection. We take off the engine cover, check the fluids and do a visual inspection of the engine.
Lunch break and check ride
After a lunch break with stew and aviators stories, it is time to fly. I will stay on the ground today, my buddy gets the check ride for the CT. Him and the manager are gone for almost one hour. The day is clear but a nasty cross wind makes for difficult training conditions. The CT is a very nice flying machine and it is fast for its class. The pilot needs to pay a lot of attention to the correct speeds and it is easy to come in too fast.
Paperwork
When they are back, my buddy is happy but also a bit overwhelmed. I guess it will take a few days for him to wrap his head around the fact that he is buying this high-tech beauty.
We go through the paper work of the aircraft. There are two big binders of documentation plus a number of thick hand books, probably exceeding the useful load of “Kilo Tango”.
On the way back to the big city, we stop by a pizza place. We sit in the sun and it is difficult to stop smiling. What an amazing day.
To be continued…
(originally posted on September 23, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/buying-an-airplane/)
Day trip to the beach
Visibility: about 5 kilometers
ceiling: inversion with clouds at about 3.000 feet
GAFOR: “C” clear skies!
Temperature: 18°C
Wind: 240, 20 knots
QNH: 1017hPa
Location: EDAY (Strausberg)
Equipment: “Foxtrot Mike” (Cessna 152)
One of the great things about being a pilot is the ability to go places. The term “day trip” gets a whole new meaning.
Sunday in late September. The morning is a bit hazy but promises to be nice. The kid is with the grand parents, the wife is with the pilot. The island of Usedom is the goal for the day. We will meet up with friends there who also travel by air.
The visibility is not great but we climb “on top”. Here, above the clouds, we enjoy the sun and the calm air.
Never trust the fuel gauge
On top
When we arrive, our friends are there already. We start talking about each others ride. His flying club’s Cessna 172 is from the 90s – practically new in general aviation terms.
There are bikes available at the airport and we ride to the near by town. Fish for lunch and chatting in the sun. Time flies and before we know it, the afternoon is over.
Climbing out of Peenemünde
On the way back, we climb to FL65. Visibility is still not great, especially as we are flying towards the sun now. But spirits are high and we enjoy the rest of our pick nick. Sure beats airline food.
Back at home
Back at home the sun is hanging low already. The shadows are long and the day on the beach comes to an end. We have some of the days fresh catch with us for dinner. A very nice conclusion to a very nice day.
To be continued…
(originally posted on September 17, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/day-trip-to-the-beach/)
IL-62
Visibility: limited only by the imagination
Temperature: 28°C
Location: EDOR (Stölln)
Equipment: DDR-SEG, Iljuschin Il-62 “Lady Agnes”
The Village of Stölln, north of the big city, has the oldest air filed in the world. Did you know that? I did not!
The German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal came here on a fairly regular basis for training. And it is here that he managed to take-off, fly a controlled turn and land at the same point he started. And by the definition of the good people of Stölln, this makes the site the first air field of all time. Hard to argue with this!
The other great thing about Stölln is the “Lady Agnes”. She is an Iljusihin IL-62 jet liner. She was operated by the east German airline Interflug and ferried to Stölln as a museum piece after she was retired in 1989. The most significant thing about this is, that she was landed on the local sail plane strip – 900 meters of grass. There is quite a spectacular video of the landing available on YouTube.
Today, Lady Agnes is a quiet sight. But one that will make the aviators heart go warm.
To be continued…
(originally posted on September 6, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/il-62/)
aero camping
Visibility: more of a vision, really
Temperature: 26°C
Location: the local outdoor store
Equipment: the battered VISA card
I like outdoor stores. I can spend a lot of time looking at the sophisticated solutions for the simplest form of traveling, dreaming of the great outdoors. I am at the local outdoor-hipster meeting point on my quest for a sleeping bag and an air martess.
The wood-chuck-on-staff recides hight tech materials, qualities and degrees below freezing that the individual models will safe me from. I am actually only interested in packing size. The wood-chuck has a difficult time accepting that I decide against the model that would enable me to go hiking in Barrow, Alaska in January.
The last item on my list is a number of earth anchors. He shows me a few tent pegs of different sizes. I ask for something bigger and he brings a larger version, still not what I had in mind. I ask for something more serious. That seems to grab the wood-chucks’ professional attention. “What do you plan to fasten down?” he wants to know. “an aircraft” I answer with a smile.
Friday evening rush hour
6 p.m. on Friday evening. The weather is gorgeous and the airport is busy. We are number 3 for take-off on runway 05. The small baggage compartment behind the seats is stuffed with a tent, sleeping bags and other camping gear.
The air is smooth as silk. The lowest clouds are in airliner territory, there is no wind. Flying is a dream.
A good friend has invited us to a BBQ party. He lives 10 minutes away from a small, private airfield. The owner will be at the party as well. So the idea came up to fly to the party and camp out for the night. What started as a random idea turned out to be quite feasible and a great adventure.
The flight school lets us have the aircraft over night (“sure, no problem, nice idea!”),
we can camp on the airfield (“people have done that before”),
and we made all of our gear fit into the ultra light two seater (easy!).
Big fish in a small pond
We got “Charly Oskar” for the evening, the new Rider with the 100 hp engine. The trip up north is about 45 minutes. Navigation to the small town is easy. The tricky part will be to find the barely marked grass strip in the middle of other fields. We navigate by roads and ponds and before long, we have the runway in sight. It has a few cars parked on the side and a trailer as the only building.
I call on the unicom frequency but only get a broken up answer. Never mind, I have called before. They know that I am coming. In order to get a feeling for the traffic pattern and to make double sure that other traffic knows that we are coming, I start the approach with a low pass. The pattern is tight and the runway short. This will be fun.
On the second round I set flaps and approach the runway in order to land. I am a bit low and need some gas. So I am not as slow as I would have liked to be on short final. The threshold is coming closer and I begin to flare. Charlie Oskar floats for a long time and just as I start to get nervous, we make contract with the high grass that is the runway.
Two motor glider pilots are on the ground to greet us. We talk aircraft and they are all excited about our ride. I am more used to being the flying scum at other airports…
The party is warm and full of friendly folks. We walk back under the stars and crawl into the tent. What a spectacular day.
Back at 9
The next moring we pack our gear and I walk down the runway before we go. There is quite a depression after the threshold. This is why we were coasting so long last night. The runway is bumpy, in bad condition and in desperate need of mowing. I hope we make it out of here without damage.
We perform a short field take-off. I set flaps, pull on the break and give full gas. When the engine is at max RPM, I release the break and we shoot off. I pull Charlie Oskar up as quickly as I can and after a final hop, we are airborne. I’m glad we have the stronger engine!
As a morning salute, we fly low over our friends house. We see someone waiving, I hope it is not a fist shaking.
The trip back is as smooth as yesterday and as we approach EDAY, I am sad that our little trip is over already. But there is no dawdling, Charlie Oscar has to be back before 9 for a long day of flying lessons. To teach new students, who hopefully will take her aero camping some day.
To be continued…
(originally posted on August 19, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/aero-camping/)
Check ride
Visibility: more than 10 kilometers
ceiling: more than 5.000 feet
GAFOR: “C” clear skies!
Temperature: 26°C
Wind: 300, 10 knots
QNH: 1021hPa
Location: EDAY (Strausberg)
Equipment: “Kilo Sierra” (Cessna 172)
A check ride is a test of the pilots nerves. Your instructor will not sign you up before he is sure that you are ready. The examiner is not interested in failing you either. So the only thing you realy have to worry about, are your own nerves.
I have had several check-rides. The first one, for my sports pilots license, was the worst. In the beginning, my hands were shaking from nervousness. In the end I passed and found out, that the examiner was both understanding and doing his best to help me calm down.
Today I have my next check ride. I will try to get the class rating for single engine piston aircraft with up to 2 tons of maximum take-off weight.
The day starts with coffee and sandwiches in the flight school. The office manager tells me later on that she always gets sandwiches on the day of a check ride. She found that a snack gives the examiner a good mood and helps the student relax. She is great!
And what does this do?
Kilo Sierra is waiting for us on the apron. We start with a thorough pre-flight check. I keep talking and comment the checks I perform. I learned early on that this is important. The examiner follows me around the aircraft and asks many questions. More than I expected. And then he gets me.
He points at the air intake behind the propeller. A small device, driven by a belt is mounted there. “So, what does this do?” he asks.
My instructor is very much a pilot and not so much a technician. We never took the cowling off, I have never examined the engine except for the parts visible through the oil filler door. “Alternator, generator, starter…?” I try to guess. The examiner smiles, “yes, one of the above”.
After he tells me that we are looking at the alternator, he wants to see me fly.
Turn, stall, glide
We take-off and go towards Neuhardenberg. On the way over there we do full circles in various degrees of bank as well as some stall drills and slow flight. Nobody answers my calls in Neuhardenberg (as expected) and so we use the runway for a low pass and go-arround maneuver.
We climb out and go over to Eggersdorf for the more demanding part of the check ride. Various start- and landing drills. We perform a short field landing and take-off, a landing without engine power and a landing without flaps. Finally we simulate an engine failure shortly after take-off. In this maneuver, everything has to be very fast (nose down, flaps out, watch your speed, flare, land). We have trained this many times and I know the drill.
The examiners check list is complete and we go back to Strausberg (track of the route, Google Earth plug-in required). I land and while we taxi back to the apron, he asks me for the times of the landings in Eggersdorf. He’s got me again, I did not write them down. Stupid mistake! I tell him that I will have to call the tower in Eggersdorf and ask for the times. “They will role their eyes at you” he says and tells me that he has got them.
I’m unhappy about the stupid mistakes. The examiner is cool about it. He smiles and congratulates me. The rest must have been enough for the rating.
To be continued…
(originally posted on August 15, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/check-ride/)
North German Plain
Visibility: more than 10 kilometers
ceiling: more than 2.000 feet
GAFOR: “O” open skies
Temperature: 21°C
Wind: 260, 10 knots
QNH: 1024hPa
Location: EDOP (Parchim)
Equipment: D-EARE (Cessna 150)
My flying friend Bernd has a work assignment. He needs to take areal pictures of a pipeline. A co-pilot, who can fly while he takes the pictures, would make the job much easier for him. So he asks me and I – of course – am game!
We meet in Parchim (EDOP). The airport is large but not busy. Our plan was to fly in a Cessna 172. But unfortunately it had technical problems and we have to use a much smaller Cessna 150 as back-up. D-EARE (“Romeo Echo”) is old and very basic. She does not even have a VOR on board. But she flies, I am certified to fly her and am familiar with the type, and I get to fly for free. So I will not complain!
After checking out the aircraft, we go over the route for today. Bernd has several way points that he has marked on the map. One of them is north of the rest, noticeably off the route. He smiles and says something about a private detour but does not tell me more.
Bernd wants to do take-offs and landings to practice. The rest of the flying is basically for me. He will navigate and take pictures. This is much better than I had anticipated!
“The impact is still visible”
“Romeo Echo” handles well, just like “Lima X-Ray“. We stay low between the picture sites. Eventually, Bernd guides me toward the single site that is apart from the others. It is a farm close to a small town, right by a lake. It looks very scenic. In the wheat field closest to the farm house, there is a track visible. “This is were I made an emergency landing.” Bernd says.
So this is the “private business” he did not want to go into details about before we left. Now he tells me the whole story. He owns a motorized hang glider. Two weeks ago, he had engine problems and had to land on this very field. When his engine quit, he looked for a possible landing site and carried out a decent touch-down. Just as he was trained to do. The damage was minimal and no one got hurt. I am impressed.
The farmer family helped him and was very friendly. That is why he decided to take pictures of the farm as a present to them.
Fish for lunch
The trip takes us well over three hours. We fly past the city of Hamburg and cross the mighty Elbe river. Close to the coast, the area gets less interesting from above. The north German plains are just that, plain.
The last site on Bernd’s list is close to the city of Leer. After we have taken all the pictures, we land there for fuel for both, aircraft and crew. The airport in Leer has a nice restaurant with a terrace looking onto the runway. We have fish for lunch and two colleagues from the local construction office join us.
The way back is very easy. We take the scenic route along the coast, cross Jade Bight and come even closer to Hamburg before we turn south.
We arrive back in Parchim with well over six flight hours under our belts. This is a lot of flying in one day for a low time pilot and I am beat. What a day!
To be continued…
(originally posted on August 12, 2012 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/north-german-plain/)