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!