The Aviator's Log Book

Yesterday was my 26th birthday ... nothing too special about this one, and I'm gonna be getting use to that from now on. My G'd! ... How time passes!

My birthday did get me back on here. One thing I have gotten use to use to is very high workloads. But my spare time is getting minimal, and unfortunately a lot has to do with being too exhausted to do anything. At least I still get to troop when I want. But I really run out of energy quickly. But despite me not having the time to visit the forums much anymore, I am still thankful I get to hang out with the 501st and my coworkers as much as I do.

I'd say life is still good. I still love flying, and I still like teaching. But these students have finally pushed me to the breaking point (and anybody who's known me for a while knows it takes quite a bit for me to reach that point.) As much as I do a good job of teaching students how to be professional and skilled pilots, they just want to learn the minimum to pass the test and forget the rest. It's been that way, and I see them get away with it. It's like no matter what I do, I can't stop these students from becoming very complacent. And it finally pushed me over the edge which put me in a depressed state for a while.

I actually had my 3rd aircraft emergency not too long ago. When the pilot brings the landing gear down, 3 green light illuminate to confirm each wheel is down and locked. But I only got 2 (the right wheel light did not come on.) While I was pretty sure it was down and locked, there was always the chance it actually wasn't. So I once again called out the emergency vehicles. I had to shut down the right engine just before the wheels touched in case the gear did collapse and let the plane roll over 6000' down the runway. Nothing happened in the end.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Two thing have happened very recently that are very noteworthy. First, I became one of VERY few of the hundreds of pilots at the academy that has flown every aircraft in the fleet. I was about to be dispatched out for a 5-hour flight in the Seminole. As I was being dispatched out, I noticed something - the only plane left that I haven't flown was available for cross-country flights only (since one of the engines had been replaced.) Since I was going on a cross country, I finally flew the last plane in the fleet I hadn't flown: N302PA.

But something even bigger happened today. It was suppose to happen last Friday, but my schedule wouldn't allow for the briefing before the managers left. I was concerned I had done something wrong because I wasn't told what the subject was, and that left me with a big element of uncertainty. But I came in early today and found out what the news was: I actually got yet another promotion further up the management chain - team leader! This one was about the equivalent of being promoted from Garrison XO to Garrison CO. What is kind of freaky about this is that I am now legitimately somebody's boss ... actually the boss of quite a few people as they have to report directly to me.

Quite an amazing past few days I must say!

Yesterday I was feeling really down. Looks like I pulled a 180 in just a day because today was a mighty fantastic day! The last time I wrote an entry about a checkride was in September 2007 when I passed my CFII checkride:
http://aviator-vader.livejournal.com/77572.html

In it, I said that would be my last checkride for a while ... but I knew it would not be forever. I figured it would be at least a year. Well, that clock finally ran out ... and I had another checkride today: this time for my ATP (Airline Transport Pilot.) And I passed! But it is kind of freaky just knowing I have the highest level pilot's license I can get. A license that actually lets me legally captain a Boeing jet (once I get simulator training on it.) A license that even some airline pilots don't have!!!!!!

But the checkride was as close to flying a jet as it could possibly get. Even though I was flying the Seminole, I was flying FAST ... much faster than that plane is suppose to be flying an instrument approach at. Normal approach speed is roughly 100 knots (115 mph.) At one point, I was approaching at 180 knots (207 mph!) That is actually faster than most commercial jets approach at! I was flying around 140 knots (161 mph) for a good portion of the flight, and I was even flying singe engine at 120 knots (138 mph) which is almost one-and-a-half time normal single-engine operation speeds.

But Dave said I did an excellent job ... especially since I had an actual instrument failure! But that was quite an amazing flight!

The ATP or Airline Transport Pilot is the highest pilot rating a civil airman (like myself) can get. The only thing a pilot needs a license like that for is to be the captain of a large commercial airliner. As with any rating, there are two parts to getting the rating: the FAA written exam and the checkride (oral and flight test.) The written is probably the most difficult FAA written test out there. It's only 80 questions, but the questions come from a question bank of over 1,500 questions!!!!

I was in luck as one of my coworkers recommended a software package that cut it down to about 750 questions that are consistently asked on the test. And that was a lifesaver! Yeah, it did mean I was pretty much spending a few weeks remembering the answers to 750 question, but the software package saved me probably a couple MONTHS worth of studying as it had a method of actually remembering the answers to about 1/3 to 1/2 of the questions.

So for the past few weeks, I have spent numerous hours studying for this test. Most are just pleased if they get a passing score which is a 70% or better. I took the test today and got a 99%. I only missed one question, and quite frankly, it appeared to be a question that was not in the 750 I studied because I didn't recognize it. Regardless, that studying really paid off!

Now that's done, I have to take the practical test, but that requires a pilot to log at least 1,500 hours. I currently have about 1,450 hours logged, but I was told the wait to get the practical test is about 3 weeks due to a HUGE backup for the academy's students getting scheduled for checkrides. So I have 3 weeks to get 50 hours ... shouldn't be a big deal.

Weather in Phoenix this time of year is typically clear skies. Occasionally clouds to roll through, but they rarely affect our flights out of Deer Valley. But rarely does not mean never, and one such time occurred yesterday. All of a sudden the bases were reported at 900 feet above ground. And that means it is impossible to maintain the required 500' above ground and required 500' below the cloud bases.

Ground control notified me that this had happened, and there was one trick up my sleeve that I train and test people on, but have never had to use until now: SVFR (Special VFR (Visual Flight Rules.)) Getting that clearance meant the required 500' below the clouds was eliminated. I knew how to get the clearance, but since I've never done it before, I had no idea what the required air traffic control procedure was ... I only knew what I had to do. Apparently, only 1 aircraft is allowed to be operating in the airspace at a given time when the clearance is issued. That took me by surprise.

It definitely was a great learning experience. I'm glad I got to do that at least once in my aviation career.

A member of the Mountain Garrison was in town last night, and members of the DSG (myself included) took him out to Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Phoenix. We had a great time, but there was one thing that was pretty unbelievable to witness. It's been a little while since I've been downtown, but when I arrived, it was almost the equivalent of a ghost-town. A car drove by once maybe every minute and the new light rail was nearly empty as it went by. On top of that, I have never been into a Hard Rock that was about 90% empty.

Either there really isn't that much to do in downtown at night on a weekday, or the economic downturn has really taken its toll on the city.

I've wanted to go to MegaFest for 3 years now, but it kept falling 2 weekends before Thanksgiving. Because of my flying schedule, trying to work that in with getting time off for Thanksgiving itself was never successful. But this year, Megafest fell the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I was able to fit it into my schedule. I had originally planned to drive to and from Chicago for Thanksgiving, so continuing the drive to Massachusetts was no hassle at all. It did mean a one-way trip of 2,655 miles, and unfortunately another collision. I hit a guardrail when I had to make a split-second decision of whether to hit the car in front of me or use the guardrail to slow myself down. I swear I hate the terrain in western PA combined with ice on the roads. At least this is a minor repair.

Anyway, MegaFest was a lot of fun even though I could only stay for a day. I got to see all of my friends from the New England area again ... which is great because I'm not sure when the next time I can travel out there again will be. A big highlight was getting to see Dewey! Absolutely jaw-dropping (I haven't uploaded the pictures yet.) Big Kudos to those guys for all of that hard work. The one thing about MegaFest that did literally give me quite a shiver was the temperature. It must have dropped to under 20 degrees with high winds. And I left my jacket in Phoenix!

It was a shame I could only stay for a day because I had a 991-mile drive back home to get done. That drive was uneventful. The only thing to speak of was a huge gap in gas prices between Buffalo, NY and Ohio. $2.58 in Buffalo and $1.57 as soon as I crossed into Ohio. $1.57 is the lowest I have paid for fuel since the last recession and the only time I can recall being able to completely fill up the tank for less than $20!!!!!

A quarter of a century. And probably the last major milestone (i.e. 18 you can vote, 21 you can drink) ... 25 just has to do with rental cars and lower insurance premiums.

I spent my birthday at work when I was scheduled to be and then with my coworkers. Had a great time! Just been enjoying my time at the academy lately. Not too much else to write about. Turning 1 year old this time didn't give me any freaky feelings or thoughts as some of my previous birthdays did. The only thing close was ... "gettin' older, Scott. Enjoy it while you can." Well, I've been doing just that!

I decided to do something different this Halloween - I hung out with my coworkers. And darn it, I had a good time. I'm a lot more social around them as we all have aviation stories to share. Furthermore, they really wanted me to bust out a costume and go out to a club with them. They had been waiting for about 10 months for that. So I busted out Darth Vader and went out to Scottsdale with nearly a dozen of my coworkers.

Only one problem that I hadn't thought about - how late we stayed up. I enjoy partying for a while, but after being in Darth Vader for 8 1/2 hours straight, it took its toll on me big time. It became quite difficult to control my body temp, and I began to have trouble breathing. But by that time, we were all heading out.

I finally got to meet Albin today! I have run into him many times at conventions, but I never really got a chance to speak to him. He is in town for the make-A-Wish foundation. The DSG took him out to dinner tonight, and I got a lucky break. I was suppose to fly 5 1/2 hours tonight, but I canceled the flight due to severe turbulence in my flight path. Funny how even Albin could tell me it was a good decision as he flew into Sky Harbor and said the ride was very bumpy through New Mexico. Anyway, he and I got the chance to talk about a variety of topics. I was glad I could get some input from the Legion founder regarding being CO.

I had a great time!

There was always one thing that was really sad. The top 5 1-day losses for the Dow were over 500 points for the past 7 years. The Dow had only ever been up slightly more than 500 points for about a total of a minute-and-a-half. In the past month, 4 more losses totaling over 500 points showed up on Wall Street. The Dow had never been down more than 722 points ... ever. Up until about 2 weeks ago when that number was pushed to 777 and then to 800 last week. The negative always outweighed the positives.

Until today! I got back from a 3 1/2 hour flight and saw the market had posted a crazy gain of 936 points. It had been up as much as 976 at one point! That number is absolutely unheard of. But it's great to see the positives at last outweigh the negatives! (At last for biggest single day point moves.)

When I was a senior in high school, everybody was coming up with senior quotes. I had no idea what mine would be, so I thought of something I said a lot. I couldn't think of anything original or good. Then one day it dawned on me. Whenever passing period rolled around, I would constantly get asked the question "what's up?" I finally thought of an original answer. Since I was obsessed with the stock market back then, and it was a time when it was consistently sinking like a rock, I came up with the response "not the market." That became my high school senior quote: "What's up? Not the market!"

I hadn't used that quote for about 5 to 6 years ... until recently. I started using it at work since the stock market started making some large moves. But I used it consistently today! Since the house voted against the $700B bailout, the stock market made history. It was amazing to see it happen. The largest 1-day point decline for the Dow took place when the market opened following 9-11 with a closing decline of 684.81 points. But it had never been down more than 722 points ... ever. Both of those records were wiped out as the market closed at it's low with a decline of 777.68 points. So I had used my senior quote quite a bit today.

Been a while ... yet again. But there really isn't too much new to speak of.

This was my 3rd Dragon Con. I still love it, but there wasn't too much new to see with the exception of some really cool costumes. Always great meeting up with new folks and meeting up with those who I don't get to meet up with often ... especially the OLG. D*Con was the second time this year I have trooped an event with all 3 Fetts. Speaking of that, that was probably the biggest let down. I saw 1 or 2 other Boba Fetts and not a single other Jango. Pictures:
http://s56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/AviatorVader/2008-08-30%20Dragon%20Con%202008/

The drive out to Dragon Con was did have some significant events. Such as seeing a truck with the concrete K-rails and then hit the top of a bridge!!!! I was right behind the truck when it happened ... been a while since I’ve smelled red-hot metal. In Mississippi, I was right behind a truck that blew a tire! A cloud of black smoke came out, and there was debris everywhere. I also broke the record I set a few weeks ago: miles driven on 1 tank. It was 509.7, and I managed to get it up to 517.8!!! MPG was over 42 when that happened. I drove home on the future I-22 to avoid Gustav. That route took me through Arkansas ... the only state east of the Mississippi River I had yet to enter.

Work has been fun, but my days are averaging 12 hours now. On top of that, I have been logging a lot of flight time since I returned from D*Con! In fact, I logged 8½ hours of flight this past Wednesday. For many, that is over the legal maximum, but since I wasn’t logging instruction given for a lot of it, I can legally do that. One thing of interest lately has been the storms in Phoenix! Pictures to come.

Pottery Barn took place today, and we had a CROWD!!!!! We were definitely a hit. Pictures:
http://s56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/AviatorVader/2008-09-13%20Pottery%20Barn/

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 was the longest workday I have encountered so far. Over 15 hours! I logged 7.5 hours of flight which is the most I have ever logged in a 24 hour period. But it was productive and a big reason was accomplishing an instrument currency flight. I think that's the only time I've flown 6 instrument approaches in an airplane in 1 flight.

Logging 7.5 hours of flight this Tuesday also took my total logged flight time to over 1,000 hours.

I broke another one of my personal driving records yesterday / this morning: miles driven between fill-ups. When I do this, I tend to stretch things a bit by waiting about 30 miles after the idiot light comes on to fill up. But surprisingly, even after doing that, it doesn't take a full tank ... so I'm not stretching it to the limit, but I don't want to do that and completely run out of fuel before reaching the gas station.

My previous record for this was 493.1 miles: from Erie, PA to Worcester, MA when I was traveling out to Massachusetts for my grandfather's 90th birthday in late September of last year. I finally broke that record, and it was largely due to 3 techniques I use to stretch the gas mileage of my car:

1) Draft off semis (but not dangerously close.) Anybody who knows anything about aerodynamics knows this works really well!
2) Do not run the air-conditioning. Yeah, I'm crazy ... it's well over 100°F and I have the windows down. It usually has to break 110°F before I turn on the air conditioning. But I have driven Honda Fits since they've been on the market, and I have noticed that the vehicle's fuel economy goes to hell (up to a 15% loss) with the air conditioning running.
3) I don't speed, and I don't accelerate rapidly. Lately that has meant averaging about 60 mph on the freeway. I don't have an adrenaline rush to speed. I fly airplanes!

Those techniques gave me a fuel economy of 41 mpg (not a record there ... my record there is 43 to 44) and a duration of 509.7 miles between fill-ups! And the fill-up cost me $45.67 and it took just 12.414 gallons.

Only a few days into the Olympics, and I am blown away. I can believe how fast some of these guys are going in swimming. Olympic and world records are being obliterated! But what is really cool is that I know and have swam with 2 of the swimmers who are breaking records.

I had yet another student on a checkride today. And he was in N446PA a.k.a. Pan Am 46 a.k.a. the plane I've written about twice now for dealing some nasty problems (including the emergency landing.) This was strike three ... and thank G'd ... it's out!!!!!

As he made is approach to landing, a cylinder on the right engine blew up! The FAA examiner, John Ortag, took over and landed the plane safely. Afterwards, maintenance showed him the damage: there was a huge hole in the engine block. That is the second time this student of mine has been in an actual emergency in the same plane. It's the third time that plane has terminated my students' flights due to malfunction. This was strike three. And because it's going to need a new engine, it's out of service for a while!

I now consider this plane to be the worst Seminole in the fleet ... worse than N433PA (Pan Am 33.) I use to call Pan Am 33 the worst Seminole after I nearly had a nose gear collapse coming into Las Vegas and after both engines almost blew up after I took off from Prescott. But Pan Am 33 never dealt any emergencies like Pan Am 46 has.

SDCC 2008 was VERY quick for me this year. Because I am looking to get time off for Dragon Con and Christmas, I did not request any time off from work. That meant the first day I attended (Thursday), was the most hectic (as it has been the past 2 times I've gone.) Get up to get to work at 5AM, drive 370 miles to San Diego, get my con badge, and go to the 501st mixer. I'm glad to see that there was an appearance by the DSG this time, and the location was VERY suitable (immediately across from the convention center; good food; reasonably priced.

Friday was surprising my best day there. I busted out my holiday special Fett again, and my goodness a lot of people recognized the costume! While it was uncomfortable to be in, I sure had fun it it. I had a lot to do on Friday including 2 shifts at the TDH table, attending the Mandalorian wedding along with the DSG Mando clan, and organizing the DSG dinner. However, by this time I had a total of about 8 hours of sleep in the past 3 days, and it all caught up with me:


The DSG Dinner gave me a very unwelcome surprise that I was not expecting: I picked an expensive place. And it turns out I picked the wrong place (I thought we went there last year.) It was easily fixed as there was a place not too far away (1 block) with reasonably priced food and plenty of seats. But I did something that I shouldn't do for too long: run. And doing so dealt my knees a nasty blow. I was hurting for the rest of the night.

By Saturday, my total sleep was up to 13 hours in 4 days. And I knew I needed a nap at some point or else I wouldn't make it back to Phoenix. I had to scrap the droid hunt to catch a nap in between the 501st group photo and TDH group photo. Also, my knee on my ROTJ cracked. RIGHT THROUGH JB WELD!!! I have never seen that happen. By the time I got back, things were getting out of hand with the 501st and the nerf guns. We were shooting all too often and hitting innocent bystanders. But it was funny. I didn't have much time to hit the con floor in my ROTJ Fett this year, but it did happen.

The the funniest moment of the con came during my shift at the TDH table on Saturday. 987654321a was working with me and asked if I minded if he dosed off. I didn't object, but 15 minutes later, Chewbacca came over and woke him with a loud scream. I wish I had caught it on video!

The con itself finished with the TDH dinner. It was really wild with napkins being thrown everywhere. There were a lot of people from TDH who made it which was great to see. I had to bail out early, though as I had to drive back to Phoenix right after that. It was confronted with a 13-hour straight work day when I got back ... not very pleasing.

I don't dwell on ironic things happening. But today was a very rare exception. And I haven't been able to get it out of my mind for the entire day since it happened.

I took yet another student up for his first flight in the multi-engine airplane. The irony started from minute 1: he was in Pan Am 46 (N446PA) ... the same plane that I had to do the emergency landing in about a month-and-a-half ago. That emergency landing was done with 2 of my students who were both flying that plane for the first time ever. I mentioned this to my student, but we both laughed. The problem had been fixed.

But things eventually did get so ironic to the point that I was reliving the day I had to do the emergency landing. That flight a month-and-a-half ago started with the left engine having a spark plug problem (namely a fouled magneto.) This is rare, but it does happen. But it happened again with the exact same spark plugs / magneto! I was in complete disbelief. I was actually thinking to myself, "am I about to have another emergency?"

And then it did happen. Not as extreme as the emergency landing, but something I once again have never done before. I saw my instructor do it when I was a student pilot, but I have never done it completely for real myself. During the takeoff, the oil door popped open. And if that happens, the takeoff must be aborted ... which I did with no problem. It was very easy, but nonetheless, the first time I've done it.

That is the second time Pan Am 46 has malfunctioned on one of my students' first flight in it. The only minor difference was this time, it was the right engine with the oil door problem. A month-and-a-half ago, it was the left engine with the malfunction.

A childhood illusion ended today. The illusion was there is a pot-o'-gold at the end of a rainbow. Being an engineer, I knew this was just make believe, and I still liked to call the end of the rainbow the pot-o'-gold. Even as old as I am now, I still found myself calling it that ... until today.

It all stopped today when I saw a rainbow. 99.999% of people who see a rainbow will probably see it from the ground while standing still, or see it from the ground in a car. The only time somebody usually sees it from height (and can see the pot-o'-gold) is from a multi-story building ... the person would be standing still, though.

I saw it from a location that I have never seen it from: 3 to 5 miles away in a plane going 175 mph. I could see very clearly on the ground where the end of the rainbow was. That is the first time I have ever seen the end of the rainbow that clearly ... and that wrecked the illusion of the pot-o'-gold. Not because it wasn't there, but because the rainbow was moving with the plane!!! The rainbow was traveling at 175 mph! And so was the so called pot-o'-gold. Well it shouldn't do that ... so my illusion of it has been shattered.