800

Having recently crossed the 800 total hour mark, I thought I'd write a bit about my last few months of flying.

 I've done a fair number of trips back and forth to Texas, not the least of which was my last one. When the day came that I was scheduled to head home, there was a major cold front that had just rolled in the night before. 

After careful preflight planning (that I re-did at least three times to double check myself) I decided I could not only make it home with plenty of safety margin, but could climb up to 15,000', don the oxygen cannula, and get all the way home in one hop at 240kts.  It worked out really well, and I landed with nearly 2 hours of fuel still in the tanks. The FIKI (Flight into Known Ice) capability of the airplane helped during the departure as it gave that much more of a safety edge as I climbed out through about 6000' of thick, cold clouds.


 In general, I've expanded my weather envelope a bit recently - I feel better able to evaluate NEXRAD in flight and know when its ok to punch though some rain and when I need to run far far away. I'll always be conservative when it comes to weather, because I'll never truly completely "understand" it, but I am getting more familiar and comfortable.

 I've also logged a good bit of time testing ADS-B traffic. The traffic data I can receive over the Stratus 2 is amazing, now that I have ADS-B Out installed in the plane (in the form of a Garmin GTX-33ES). It blows away any other traffic data I've ever seen, even letting me watch folks fly in a traffic pattern at an airport dozens of miles away - pretty slick. I've also flown a bit more at night, which has been enjoyable.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Updating data on the Garmin Perspective system

Image
After changing from the Avidyne system to the Cirrus Perspective (G1000) system, I had to relearn an important part of owning an airplane: how to update all the data the systems use. There's even more data in the Perspective, including AOPA directory data and more charts. In this walkthrough, I make use of the Jeppesen app for Apple OS X: JDM .  It has worked well for me, though I did need to call Jeppesen when I first set this up to get my subscriptions fixed up.  They gave great customer support when I did. The process starts (optionally) by hooking up a ground power unit (GPU).  In the case of the Cirrus, you can certainly do this without it, but I tend to hook it up just to be sure.  The systems draw about 8-10amps while updating, but you won't generally have the power on for long.  One tip I've read: power up the GPU before plugging it into the plane, at least for the one I bought.  That saves the plane from seeing any power spikes that might have occurred when t
Read more

Hiking to Rocky Peak in Steamboat Springs

Image
Did a great hike today that is not in the commonly used hiking apps.  The trail is generally easy to see, though there were times that we lost it.  There are plenty of bushes and undergrowth draping over the trail, so bring long pants. Leg gaiters might be nice too, just to protect your legs a bit. Many parts of the trail are actually drainage ditches.   Here's a KML file from our trip down - we followed the trail much better after learning what to avoid on the way up. We went right after a thunderstorm had come through the previous night, so got pretty soaked due to the plants being wet.   Found the path to the top and saw 2 moose along the way - gorgeous views for the entire trek.  2 miles to get to the top from the parking near the hot springs with about 1800' of elevation gain.  Certainly not a beginner's hiking trail, but not a problem for those with some experience (and lungs that are used to the altitude).
Read more

G1000 transistion training - emergencies - final flight

Image
For the final flight in my G1000 transition course we focused on failure scenarios. Not the "engine goes POOF" kind but the avionics kind. Normal situation This picture shows what the 2 Garmin screens show in a normal (non failure) situation. You can see we have 2 screens - the left PFD focusing on flight performance (airspeed, heading, attitude, altitude) and the right screen (MFD) focusing on engine data, mapping, checklists, and everything else. Failed PFD screen In this scenario the screen that is right in front of you (the PFD) has failed. This basically means the screen has gone dark. We simulate that by dimming the screen down to 0% brightness. After darkening the PFD we shot a GPS approach into Rock Hill. When this failure has occured you shift the G1000 into Reversionary mode. That means the info that is normally split across 2 screens is now merged into 1. It actually duplicates the same data on both screens, but since the PFD screen is no longer functioning
Read more