New Video

Here's a video of the climbout from Allentown, PA to Atlantic City, NJ on 9-27-2008. Also available on my youtube site (see link to right).

Ithaca and Dinner with Pops in ACY

I'm really surprised that I got my homework done as quickly as I did today. Over the weekend, especially Sunday night, I was swamped with various commitments and too much homework. I even spent all of my free time in school on Monday 9/29 finishing an advanced physics assignment that I had begun the night before and was due later that same day!

So, to make up for the lack of posts for the past two weeks, I'll begin by writing about my trip to Ithaca, NY with my Dad, my friend, and my friend's Dad to visit Cornell University. Unfortunately, the schedule called for a 5:45am wake up for myself, and I decided to arrive at the airport at roughly 6:30am to being my pre-flight for a 7am departure. Luckily, the weather was absolutely stunning, so there wasn't any extra paperwork to fill out for an IFR flight. However, one might think otherwise after seeing the morning mist on the way to the airport. Enroute the airport, I was driving along when my Dad and I noticed that the mist was covering only one side of the road! How unusual, right?

So I arrived at the airport and began my standard pre-flight checks. This typically consists of a "walk-around", during which a pilot, even of a jet airliner, will literally take a stroll around the aircraft checking for any leaks, major damage, tire pressure, fuel contamination, and much more. When I speak of fuel contamination, I mean that I actually take a small, fresh, sample of fuel from the wing and check for the following: blue tint (color of the fuel), lack of obvious contaminants (i.e. dirt), and lack of any foreign or clear fluid (clear fluid would indicate water). To see a sample, click here.

Another thing that I always check is the condition of the wheel and tires. I don't check the tire pressure, but I do make sure that it is firm and hard and I also make sure to look over the condition of the brake disc, pictured here. This is what allows me to slow down quickly, so I definitely want to make sure that it is good standing, which means no cracks or other obvious damage.

In addition to a fuel sample and tires, I'll also typically take a look at the pitot tube, which is an instrument on the leading edge of the wing that sends readings to the airspeed indicator. Essentially, all I do is be sure that there isn't any blockage in the tube and, again, that there isn't any obvious damage. To see a picture of a pitot tube, look here.

During my pre-flight of the Cessna 172RG (Retractable Gear), my friend called me to tell me that he had arrived, and I told him that I would be done shortly and hopefully we'd be on our way. Little did I know that a delay lay ahead of us. The airport employees actually show up at 7am, at which time they must conduct a routine inspection of the taxiways and runways for any debris that could be potentially dangerous. This takes about 20 minutes to complete, so I had to wait until that task was done until I could get some fuel. During my wait, I decided to wonder around a little and I captured this shot during that time. After finally getting the fuel required for the round trip, everyone got in the plane and I proceeded to start the engine. However, after sitting on the ramp through a colder-than-normal night, the battery was especially weak and the engine wouldn't start. Now I had to go request a GPU, or Ground Power Unit, to provide some extra juice to the battery during the engine start process. After about another 15 minute delay, I started the engine and we were finally on our way.

Shortly after takeoff, my passengers and I were treated to an extremely rare view. It seemed as though the mist yet had to burn off over the eastern section of the Lehigh Valley and to the north of over the ridges. Therefore, we witnessed some low-level fog and mist flowing through a gap in the ridges like flowing water. It was truly an extraordinary sight.

As we cruised along at 6500ft on a northerly route to Ithaca, we flew over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA and the windmills there before crossing state lines into New York. Enroute, we continued to see some more low-level fog/mist which covered some of the numerous Appalachian valleys. For a moment, my passengers and I thought that the fog in this picture was a river! Throughout the rest of the flight, the weather was the clearest that I had seen it in a long time, and the landing in Ithaca was typical.

The return flight was equally labor-free as the weather seemed to be working with us for once. It might explain why the general aviation ramp at Ithaca was unusually busy, according to the FBO employee. Due to the early wake-up call, my passengers decided to take a snooze on the way home to A-Town while I took a self-portrait (also capturing another dozing passenger) and a picture of the GPS (scroll your mouse over the different parts for descriptions). Just as we had on the way to Ithaca, we overflew Scranton/Wilkes-Barre once more and I managed to get a quick snapshot of the aiport there (see side). The landing back at Queen City was also typical, well, maybe a little bumpy. But nothing unusual.

Fast forward one week. It's Saturday, September 27. The weather is horrible, but I still have an urge to get out of the house and go somewhere. What better way to go somewhere than to fly? So, I attempted to fly to Atlantic City, NJ in the early afternoon with my sister, but I was literally at the airport for only five minutes because the weather forecast had actually changed while I was driving to the airport. The weather was bad all day, but it wasn't anything I haven't flown in (low visibility, rain, low cloud ceilings, etc.). However, when the cloud ceilings drop below a certain altitude, or are expected to during the timeframe that I would be airborne or away from Allentown, it would be very ill-advised to fly because I would not be able to return to Queen City because the ceilings would be below the "minimums" for the instrument approach. So, I cancelled this flight, but I re-scheduled myself for 5pm when the forecast was predicting that the cloud ceilings would be higher (hopefully it would be right this time).

So far so good. I checked the weather at about 4pm and the ceilings were well above the legal minimums and my personal minimums. This time, however, I would be taking my Dad because my sister was now busy doing her schoolwork. My choice in destination you ask? Atlantic City, New Jersey (ACY). My Dad and I concluded that, if the weather still looked good enough for later in the evening, we would get out at ACY and grab something to eat before returning. So, I filed the IFR flight plan and we were off in no time. This time, the aircraft in use was a Piper Warrior registered as N8015X, a single-engine, fixed gear aircraft. This is probably my favorite aircraft to fly in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions) because it has many features that make the workload much lighter, like an autopilot and a GPS just like the one I gave the link to above.

We took off from runway 7 at Queen City Airport, and immediately we were in radar control and receiving instructions from ATC to proceed on our course. Our route of flight took us in a southeasterly direction towards Trenton, NJ and McGuire Air Force Base, circumnavigating the busy Philadelphia Class B airspace, before turning almost directly south to Atlantic City. Once it was clear to the controller that we would not enter the Philly Class B airspace, he cleared us, "direct to Atlantic City VOR," giving us a bit of a shortcut by cutting a corner.

The low weather conditions continued to be ever so present throughout our flight over Trenton and northern Philadelphia. Occassionally, we spotted some gaps and holes in the clouds, exposing the homes below. To the west, my Dad and I could spot some sunlight, but I knew that weather was deceiving because only a bit further west was some thunderstorm activity.

As we came into contact with Atlantic City Approach Control, I was instructed to, "report the field in sight for the visual approach to runway 1-3." I thought to myself that I would, except I'm still in the clouds! I had listened to the Atlantic City ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) only moments before, which reported clear skies. I thought that the report was either old or the weather was going to clear up very soon. Speak of the devil! I kid you not, but about ten seconds after the controller gave me those instructions, we broke out of the clouds, revealing totally clear skies. Behind us, we left a wall of clouds which were heading north. In unison, the surprise came with a, "Woah!" from both my Dad and I. The clear weather really helped ease the workload for the approach, since I simply flew directly to the airport and essentially flew a straight in approach.

I checked the weather forecast for the next three hours in Allentown after landing, and fortunately, it was good enough so that my Dad and I could hop out and grab something to eat. We took a cab to a nearby sports bar and enjoyed a scrumptuous American sized burger while watching an amazing last inning in the Phillies-Nationals game (4-3, Phillies!). We returned to the airport by 7:30pm, and ten minutes later, the engine was started and we had obtained our IFR clearance back to Allentown. Unfortunately, the weather was still poor in Allentown, so I definitely expected to conduct an instrument approach, most likely the GPS approach to runway 7.


By the time we took off, it was well into the night, which made for an interesting flight in the clouds. With the landing lights on and flying through the clouds, it was very surreal because it gave the illusion of traveling at warp five. To prevent any disorientation on my part and keep my Dad's hamburger where it is supposed to be, I turned off the landing lights. Personally, I like flying at night with all of the lights on. Of course, I couldn't see the lights on the ground, so I had to enjoy the cockpit lights, which also look pretty neat.

Enroute, we were vectored by Philadelphia Approach to the north near McGuire Air Force Base at 4000ft before turning west towards Allentown. Since the traffic was sparse in the area, the controller was nice enough to give us another shortcut, like the previous controller.

Finally, I came into contact with Allentown Approach, who set me up for the GPS approach that I expected to execute. The approach went by flawlessly, if I do say so myself. I came out of the clouds exactly where I expected to (about 200ft above the minimums, or 1100ft above sea level/700ft above ground level) and we had no problem landing at Queen City. When we broke out of the clouds, we were pointing straight down the center of the runway that we were landing on, and the precision of the approach seemed to impress my Dad immensely. He said to me after the flight, "I had no idea where we were the entire flight and then all of a sudden I see the runway lights right on front of us! That's technology at its greatest!"

I'm happy that my Dad was able to come along on this flight because he had never gone with me on a cross-country flight before without an instructor in IFR conditions. It gave me a chance to show him how one flies without looking outside the window (I'm not sure if that frightened him or impressed him. :-) ) and the skills I've acquired over time. Hope you had a good time Dad!

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope that I can keep up with my posts more frequently, and as always, I'll do my best to do so. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at mike_stangy@msn.com. Also, all of my photos here and more are available on my flickr site (see link to the right), and I've also uploaded a new video to my youtube account (also see link to right). As always, comments on this blog, my flickr site, and my youtube site are highly appreciated!

Mr. Procrastinator

Yeah, I know. Still no new post. But I did manage to find some time to quickly upload some pictures from this weekend's past trip. Take a look at them here. I won't make any promises this time, but I really hope I can write about the trip to Ithaca and this weekend's trip before October 3. If you're one of my family members, you'll know that I have had a larger than normal workload from school lately, so I'm doing my best to get as much done as soon as possible. Bear with me and the reward will be great!

Update coming soon

Hey everyone. Sorry about the long wait. I'm trying as hard as I can to get some free time to write a new post. Anyway, I went to Ithaca, NY this past Saturday (9/20), and I may fly to Lancaster, PA tomorrow night (9/26) for dinner with some friends, depending on the weather conditions. If you haven't noticed already, I've uploaded some new photos from my flight to Ithaca to my flickr site, some of which I will use on my upcoming post. In the mean time, I found these fantastic photos of Hurricane Ike taken from the International Space Station, so enjoy those until I have updated my blog.

Again, comments are appreciated on any of my sites.

Bad weather, new privileges, and a grand finale (long post)

This weekend I'm actually a little relieved that I'm not flying since it gives me some extra free time (especially to write here). I never thought I'd actually put the words "relieved" and "not flying" in the same sentence before, but I guess everyone could use a break once in a while. Anyway, I'll write about what I've done in the past week starting with Saturday September 6.

If you've been keeping up with my posts, you would know that I was planning to fly to Ithaca, NY on September 6 to visit Cornell University, a school on my college list. But you would not have had to read my blog to hear about Tropical Storm Hanna (was it a Hurricane?). It made landfall only a day or two before in North Carolina, but it moved north quickly and thus disrupted my plans to fly to Ithaca. I actually waited until that morning to decide whether or not to go (to get a forecast that's as accurate as possible), and we could've gone there without a problem, but the issue remained on whether we would be able to return or not ("We" being my Mom, Dad, and I). The forecast called for gusting winds up to 30 knots (nautical miles per hour) around the time we would've returned, 3:00pm. Had the visibility and cloud ceilings not been so low, I might have considered going, but it's one thing to fly in gusting winds when it's clear weather versus when you cannot see outside the window, so I elected to cancel the flight.

However, I still had a few hours until the winds would pick up (it was about 7am at this point), so I decided to go flying alone to do some approaches in the local area and complete my IFR currency requirements. When a pilot obtains an instrument rating, the he/she must also adhere to the currency requirements, which call for: six instrument approaches; intercepting and tracking courses; and holding procedures in a six-month period. However, I cannot simply go up on a clear day and conduct an approach so that it can count towards currency. One of the following two conditions must be met for the approach to count: the weather conditions are IFR (1000ft or less cloud ceiling and/or 3 miles or less visibility) at the airport where the approaches are being conducted or there is an appropriately rated safety pilot with you. A safety pilot is anyone with a Private Pilot's license, and he/she can go with the other pilot to watch outside the window while the pilot flying conducts the approaches wearing a hood or foggles. Under this condition, the approach can be conducted in clear weather conditions and count towards currency since the pilot flying cannot see out the window (he can only look down onto the instrument panel) but the safety pilot can. Just so that there isn't any confusion, this is only used for training purposes. When you fly on a commercial airline, the Captain or First Officer doesn't wear a hood while the other watches outside the window.

Anyway, I completed the four approaches I needed (I had two before I went) to meet currency requirements. The first was an ILS approach to runway 24 at Allentown, the second was a GPS approach to runway 06 at Allentown, and for the last two I returned to Queen City for a VOR and another GPS approach. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I went into a holding pattern briefly at East Texas VOR (ETX). In all, this took about an hour and half to complete. Later that day, I discovered an F1 tornado had touched down in Allentown (tornados can form in Pennsylvania?!) and destroyed part of the roof of a local high school (see article: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5tornado-bug.6578732sep08,0,3422909.story). Even more, the tornado touched down about the time that I would have returned from Ithaca had I gone.

I imagine that many people feel like going to the ER after seeing one of those charts, so I thought I would briefly explain one. This particular one is for an ILS approach at Los Angeles International Airport (I apologize for the quality).

Don't scream yet please. It's a lot simpler than you think. I'll start with the top. In the first three rows, you have all of your essential radio frequencies and course headings to conduct the approach plus the missed approach instructions (where to go, when to go there, how high you can go) and any nonstandard takeoff minimums. The largest box in the middle represents the horizontal profile, or the bird's eye view of the approach. I know it's confusing without the geographical shading, but essentially LAX is to the right and you conduct the approach heading west. That white/gray flag that gets thinner and thinner is your approach path, or localizer. On the bottom right is your vertical profile, which displays the glidepath down to the runway and the waypoints that you cross along that path. Those same waypoints are also depicted on the horizontal profile, except here it mentions the minimum altitude that you can cross them. Below that box are the minimums, what are sometimes referred to as the Decision Height (DH) or Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA). This dictates the lowest altitude that you can descend to on the approach without having the runway environment in sight. Now that was a very brief overview of the chart and you would have to go into a lot more detail to explain the entire chart.

To continue, I also obtained the hours necessary to receive the privileges to fly in a Cessna 172RG without an instructor (see post "Quick Harrisburg turn" for explanation of the systems). Although it is slightly more expensive to fly per hour, it is worth it to have the ability to fly this plane because it is actually cheaper to fly on lengthy trips than the smaller, less expensive aircraft on the rental fleet. Therefore, my trip to Michigan on October 10 won't be as expensive.

This last event really summed up the week. Last spring, I had promised two of my teachers that I would fly them to the Hudson River Corridor, and this week I finally had the chance to take them. Unfortunately, one of my teacher is on a leave of absence, so he wasn't available to go. However, the one remaining teacher found a substitute and we continued as planned, well, almost. We had decided to go on a Friday night, but the weather forecast was calling for rain and poor conditions, so we moved it up to the night of Wednesday, September 10.

With the weather the clearest that I've seen it in a long time, we took off at about 8pm and headed east towards Newark. Once we began speaking to New York Approach, I kept south of Newark flew towards Sandy Hook Bay. Over Sandy Hook Bay, I descended to about 1000ft above sea level and flew over the Verrazano Bridge. This is the first checkpoint for the Hudson River Corridor, and I stayed on the right side of the river heading north ("northbound, city side", is what the pilots there say on the radio, and, "southbound, jersey side," for the opposite direction). From there, you fly along Brooklyn and then Manhattan at about 900-1000ft above sea level to stay clear of the strict and busy airspace above you. When I fly here, I'm actually below the tops of some of the skyscrapers! At night especially, everything is crystal clear with the lights and just stunning. After passing the George Washington Bridge, we made a 180 degree turn and passed Manhattan once again. Also, we flew close to the Goldman-Sachs building on the Jersey side of the river, and I always like to laugh at the investment bankers still working in their offices. :-)

I always think the way out is the most fun and also the most challenging because I have always circled the Statue of Liberty to give the passengers a good photo opportunity. It's fun, well, becaue you don't circle the Statue of Liberty at 1000ft or less everyday. It's also challenging due to the strict airspace restrictions (I have to keep a constant eye on my altitude), the speed restrictions (I should not exceed 140 knots), and the tight turn around the landmark required to avoid other traffic. Also, if I want the passengers to be able to see the Statue, I can't make the turn too tight because otherwise the wing will block the view. However, I was able to make the turn successfully without any complaints, and from there I exited the corridor for the short trip back home to Allentown. I've done that trip three times, and everytime I go I feel the same amount of excitement as before. Furthermore, the fact that we conducted this trip the night before the 7th anniversary of 9/11 really hit the spot.

Unfortunately, my family has not obtained another camera yet, and now it's really starting to irritate me since I cannot share the feeling through images or videos. However, I'm in contact with some of the passengers that I have taken in the past on the Hudson River Corridor, and they may send me some of their pictures.

In the mean time, if you have not seen my pictures or videos, check out my flickr and youtube links to the right! Feel free to leave comments on either of those sites and here on the blog. You do not have to be a Blogger member to post comments on my blog. Thanks for reading!

Sorry!

Sorry about the wait. My flying schedule changed a little over the weekend and I've been a little busy with school work. Expect a new post by Sunday, September 14. This time, there's a good chance that there will be pictures and/or videos too!

See my flickr (photos) and youtube sites through the links at the right of this page!

Weekly update

I went flying today (more bad weather !!!), but I'm not going to write about it now because I also plan to fly tomorrow. Unfortunately I do not have a functioning camera, so photos and videos are unfortunately still not possible until a) we buy a new camera, or b) it gets fixed. Anyway, just keep an eye out for a new post really soon. Also, my schedule for the time being is as follows: this coming Friday (9/12), I'm flying to the Hudson River Corridor (probably the most exciting flying experience), and the following week I may be flying to Ithaca, NY to visit Cornell University. After that point, I'm not sure what I'll do right now. Check back soon!

In the mean time, entertain yourselves with this video of a Thomson Boeing 757 which suffered from an engine fire during takeoff. You can hear the ATC as well!