Equipment

One of my readers, Jeff, asked me a few questions about some of the light equipment I use while flying... and I though I might as well post it all here. I've done some research on these products, and I might as well share that as well.

Lets start at the bottom, and work our way up.


Shoes: Yes, I have special flying shoes. Most people don't I've noticed, but I wear Birkenstocks, almost exclusively, when my feet are on the ground. Loose shoes are really not something you want while flying around, so I had to find something better. I tried standard running shoes, but found that the tread design often got caught up on the petals in the R22. Not anything significant, mind you, but I found myself holding my foot at funny angles so that the pedal-bar did not fall into the tread groove. I found these Puma SpeedCats (nice name, eh?) in a discount shoe store... perfect! They have no tread at all, and the tread runs all the way up the heel. Apparentely they are driving shoes, and it works out very well when flying. The heel tread allows a little bit of extra cushion while flying and reduces some of the fatigue. Be forewarned... no tread means they suck on snow and ice tho.

Kneeboard: I was forced to buy this model... by my CFI, Kristie. Actually, she just highly recommended I get the loose-ring type as there is much less chance that the rings would get caught up on the cyclic. Obviously a plus. Anyway, you can get this from MyPilotStore, and it is really a great price for what you end up getting. It has the standar 7-Ring format for plates and pockets, as well as a bunch of elastic straps for holding pens, lights, etc. The hard plastic clip-board that slides in the back gives the kneeboard enough rigidity to be useful, but the flexible material molds comfortablly to you leg in flight. Plus, it works with my TiMount and TiMount XT Kneeboard Timer Mounts!

Flight Timer: I use the ASA Flight Timer. It is, honestly, a little expensive for what it does, but it has done we well. In particular, I like the fact that it has a fuel-usage countdown as well as a count-up timer. Large buttons and a light, make this a great option. It has some approach features, which I have not seen as even a little bit useful. But, this is what I use... and it has done me fine.

Now, here is the big question...

Chris, how do you mount your timer to your kneeboard?

TiMount & TiMount XT Kneeboard Timer Mount: My own personal invention! You can get these from MyPilotStore.com too, as well as a number of other places. Anyway, there are two models. The both fit with you kneeboard and either slip vertically behind the clipboard or hook into 4 of the 7 rings. You then mount your timer to the heavy duty Velcro® (provided) and you get your timer in easy reach. No muss, no fuss. Pretty cheap for an aviation product, don't you think? Buy one... support a starving pilot. :)



Flashlight: You will realize you need one of these the first time you try to take a flight at night or early morning. It is perfect for pre-flight and post-flight walk throughs. The hyperbright light is 5-LED in white... whith a very bright red LED in the middle. It is pretty small, and you can actually hold it in your mouth when using both hands to check things, like the main rotor, for example. A little expensive for a flashlight, but it is also built like a tank. Dropping it from 5 feet on to the runway is no issue. (Trust me, I've done it myself). You can use red or white light (via two buttons) and that works out nicely when trying to protect your night vision. Trust me, the white lights can completely blind you for a few minutes... so don't use this in the cockpit. Sporty's sells these.

Headset / Comms: This badboy is, by far, the most expensive item of the bunch. Coming in at $995.00 each, the Bose Aviation X Active Noise Cancelling Headset is awesome. Really, you get what you pay for with headsets, and this one comes through with flying colors. It is light, comfortable, and most importantly... it seriously reduces engine noise. The noise cancellation circuit is fantastic and allowing your voice to be easily heard over the roar of a Lycoming 0-360 engine running at 100%. Totally worth the price.

Head Lamp / Cockpit Light: While you can get this many places, I found it cheap at REI. The reason I like this is that:

• it is held to your forehead... one less things to do with your hands.
• it has lots of lighting options. Red/White/Flash-Red/Flash-White
• it has 2 off positions, so you don't have to go through the white light to get to the red. Thus, eliminating the slaughter of your precious night vision.
• it comes with its own little plastic container to keep it from getting lost / smashed in your flight bag.
• it is cheap.

I think that's it. That is what I fly with everytime I go up. (I only use the lights at night, obviously, but they are in my flight bag... just in case.)

Night Cross-Country Solo - a.k.a Heaven & Hell

Flight #: 125 Commercial VFR61
Aircraft: Robinson R22
Aircraft ID: N2223p
Duration, as PIC: 3.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 157.4hrs

First of all, I love night flying. On a clear night you can see incredible distances and you get to see amazing views of the city, towns and roads. Purely awe inspiring.

There are, obviously, negatives to night flight:

• emergency landing spots - hard to see good ones... simple as that.
• clouds / mist - again, hard to see them.
• obstacles - yet again, can't to see them in time.
  
• distance estimation - at night, your depth perception is off... so it is hard to judge distances and altitudes. Coming in to land is rather tricky as you can't really tell where the ground is. All you get to see is two hyper-bright spots where your headlights meet the ground. I happen to come in to a high hover each time. Practice.
• weird wind patterns - as the earth cools down, you get some changes in wind... and as I found out on this flight... it can be a really big deal.
  

So, lets talk about the flight... in general a really good flight. The flight down had great visibility, a little bit of turbulence in the known spot where 26E meets 217S, but nothing to write home about. Kept the helicopter controls loose and under 60kias, went right on through just fine.

On the way down I decided to make a quick approach at Aurora (KUAO) airport. I've had a few approaches here in the past, but this was my first at night, so I felt relatively comfortable with the layout of the airfield.

I have to mention one of my favorite things about night flights... pilot controlled lighting. Basically, airport landing lights are just for aircraft landing at that local airport. No other reason for them. So, when there are no aircraft, no point for them to be on. Most airports will power down their lighting systems after XX minutes of innactivity on the radio. Basically, everything goes dark. (Except the airport beacon... you can see that flashing white-green from miles away.)

So, at night, on a speficic communications frequency, you can click your mic and turn on/off the airport lights. 3-clicks within 5 seconds = low intensity. 5 clicks within 5 seconds = medium intensity. 7 clicks within 5 seconds = high intensity.

There is something incredibly cool to be flying along... know the general location of the airport (from the rotating beacon), clicking your mic 7 times, then all of a sudden a full airport lighting system comes on to welcome you. Obviously the bigger the airport, the cooler it is... but still, even at a little airport like Aurora... it is cool.

So, as long as nobody is near the airport with me... I will put the lights on full for an approach. After I turn downwind, put them on low (or off), then put them back on high as I turn base. Kind of childish, I suppose. But it is really cool to turn final and click on the lights and see it just jump up out of nowhere.

Cheap date.

After departure, I headed down to Salem (KSLE). Salem is a Class-Delta airspace, so you are required to get permission to enter their airspace. It is good practice to enter these airspace from time to time. Luckily, Hillsboro is also a Delta airspace, so I'm used to the back and forth communications. On the way in they had me come in rather close to the runway and I obliged. They then told me that if I could make it, I was able to do a quick / hard right turn... followed by a hard left to make a direct in approach to the runway. Being a helicopter, this was no issue. I did a few approaches, and then headed down to Albany (KSLE)

This is where the fun began. Another Hillsboro student / CFI were doing their first night cross country flight here, and I could recognize their voices. I joined the pattern and made a few appraoches, but also noticed that there was another helicopter on the ground, in front of the 24 hr, self-serve fuel pump. No big deal... happens all the time. I'd just wait my turn.

Well, as it turns out, this person happened to have an overspeed. A serious overspeed during the run-up after getting fuel and could not fly the helicopter from that point on. Why? Well, lemme tell you. Pull up a chair, sit back...

The main rotor blades are mounted to the mast via a series of bearings and hinges. The outward force, directed along the length of the blade, is proportional to the speed at which the blades rotate around the central hub. The faster the rotation, the more force there is trying to pull the blades out of the hub. To allow the pilot to still be able to conrol the pitch of the rotor blades with the cyclic, there have to be bearings at that rotor/hub junction. Apply too much force at that joint, you could have blade seperation (rare) or serious damage to the bearing itself (common). This damage is called Brinelling. Think of it as the internal hub bearings being stressed to the point where they either crush, or dent the inner/outer surfaces of the bearing itself. Basically... bad. Real bad thing to have happen to you.

If you get an overspeed with 100% - 104% rotor RPM, things are egenerally fine. The helcopter (Robinson R22) can take it... and you don't have much to be concerned about. 104% - 110%, you need to shut down, and have the helicopter inspected. >110%... is really bad. Basically, the aircraft it completly torn down, and sometimes requires that the ship be sent back to the factory for an overhaul. At that speed, they have to check, not only the rotor blades, bearings and hub, but they have to check every bit of the drive train as well. Everything has to be going over-max speed to get the rotors going that fast.

Lets just say, you do not want an overspeed of any kind. Definitely not one >110%. This one was "well above 110%". The result of all of this... that helicopter was not going to be moving from the spot that it was in... directly in front of the refueling station. Which meant... I was not going to be refueling the helicopter at Albany as planned.

So, I headed back to Salem to refuel. Certain Delta airports close down at certain times... Salem shuts down, converts to Echo airspace, at 10:30pm. The first time I was here, it was a Delta airspace, now it was Echo. Basically, no tower to help me find the fuel pump.

So, being a helicopter, it really is not that big of a deal... you just go searching. Off in the distance I found a nice, bit BP sign and headed that way. As it turns out, this is a mega-self-service pump with multiple hoses, and the other student/CFI who I saw in Albany were there doing the same thing. We chatted a bit, stretched and refueled.

By the way, the seats in the R22 suck. After about 90 minutes, your ass is numb. But, you are flying a helicopter... so things could be worse.

I finished up first, and headed out... back to Hillsboro. Back with the pilot controlled lighting. But, this time, I was at a big airport, with real lights and approach lighting systems. So, 7-clicks, and the world just lit up. Taxiway lights, approach lighting systems, all kinds of cool stuff. Thrills!

Headed north, as usual. Now, as I mentioned before, wind gets a little weird at night around here. I expected to run into a few bumps on my way back when I hit the 217N & I5N intersection. And boy did I.

I am, in general, not a motion sick kind of person. I have been on plenty of boats, car rides, airplane rides to know what turbulence is... how you just have to take your knocks... and move on. This was different. I was sick as a dog - this was horrible. I can honestly say, I have never been in such a bad batch of turbulence in my life... let along behind the stick at the time. After the fact I checked the wind in the area (local airports had minimal wind), but right at that spot... 20knot gusts. PDX, after I landed, had 30 knot gusts. Now, that kind of wind sucks in general... let alone in a tiny R22.

I swear I was getting knocked around like I was in a inflatable raft on the open ocean. I would yaw 30º in either direction. +50 feet, -50 feet in altitude. My speed would jump from 60kias to 40kias in a second.... then jump up to 75kias. Really, sucked. About halfway in, I had to make a real decision about what I was going to do. Would I make an emergency landing? What if I puked? Finally I decided to pick out two points of decent spot for an emergency landing. If I made it to the first, I would pick one just on the other side of the second and limp my way along. If I puked... I would just do it right in my own lap, and clean up afterwards. Twice I thought... "Ok, this is it... I'm going to boot."

Now, everyone knows that fresh air helps when you are nauseous. What about 2º air at approximately 60 knots? Sure, it helps, but you freeze too. So, I opted for uncontrollable shivering rather than puking on myself. Nice choices.

Anyway, I made it back to the airport safe... which, in the end, is all that matters. But, it sucked.

I landed, post-flighted the helicopter, and stuffed the helicopter log-book into a door slot and went home. Sandy greeted me at the door and said I looked "really green, are you OK?".

As Sandy pointed out, there is a good thing as a result of the last 15 minutes of flight... "You know your limit now... you can do it again if you had to, and you know the outcome." She is absolutely right.

I would certainly never intentionally go through that again, but if circumstances forced me there again, I'd make it through. Puke / Emergency free.












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Commercial Night Flight - North

Flight #: 121 Commercial VFR61
CFI: Kristie E.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N856HA
Duration, as PIC: 3.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 152.9hrs

Knocked out another night cross country flight. This time, we went North into Washington. The interesting stuff on this flight was that neither Kristie or I had been this far North before... neither day nor night. So, it was fun for us both.

Since for night flights you stick to lighted areas, we fly over I5. That takes us right into PDX airspace... and actually right across the approach path for PDX's runways. This is not a problem... since you are on with PDX Tower at all times, but it does make for some interesting situations.

Me: "Portland Approach, Helicopter 856HA, one-thousand-five-hundred feet, 11 South-West with request."
PDX: "Helicopter 856HA, Portland Approach, go ahead."
ME: "Request transition through the airspace to the north, via I5"
PDX: "Squawk 0124 and Ident"
ME: "Squawk 0124 and Ident, 856HA"
PDX: "Radar contact, 6HA, maintain 1500ft, remain on or west of I5, Transition Approved"
ME: "Remain west of I5, maintain 1500ft, transition approved, 6HA"

So, we keep putting along at a slow, but adequate pace of about 75kias to the north, and we see that we're coming to the approach path for PDX's active runway. Not a problem, PDX tower is aware of us, and knows what we want... but it is still funny looking out the right window and seeing the airport... then out the left at a line of jets lining up for a landing.

PDX: "Helicopter 856HA, I've got some jets coming in, I may need to vector you for spacing."
ME: "Roger, 6HA"

...puttering along...

PDX: "Helicopter 856HA, 30º to your left, I'm going to bring this jet in."
ME: "30º left, 6HA"

Now, at this point, we are about 5 miles from the jet... but headed directly towards them. They are crossing our path, left to right... quite a bit faster than we are. The is no chance for collision, but is does feel weird. He is descenting as well, so the controller is just giving the jet more time to descend, before sending us behind him.

PDX: "Helicopter 856HA, 20º to your right, pass behind the jet landing 10R, climb and maintain 3000ft. Caution for wake turbulence."
ME: "20º right, behind the jet, climbing to 3000ft. Cution for wake turbulence. 6HA"

OK, so as you might imagine the wake of a landing jet is quite intense... in any aircraft, let alone a tiny little R22. Wake turbulence always falls and is behind an aircraft. SO, if you cross their path above and in front of their line of travel, you will be fine. Only problem is that an R22 does not climb so fast. I start a 1000ftp climb, and make it to 3000ft well before any point of concern, but what ends up happening is that we are about 1500ft above the jet while it lands. Directly above. Got to tell you, that was pretty interesting to see.

Rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. Easy to follow the road all the way up to Chehalis, where we refueled. Turned around and headed back home the same route.

All in all, pretty good night.

Now that I have the north and south run down, I'll pick and choose which one to do for my upcoming 5hrs of night solos. Actually, I'm going to try to knock those guys out pretty quickly as the days are getting longer and I'd rather not be leaving for my night flight at 9pm.

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Whirligear - It's Official!

Well, it's official... Whirligear products are now available through web-based pilot stores, like MyPilotStore.com!

If I didn't mention it before, I decided to fill a large hole in the aviation product market. There is no way to mount your flight timer to your kneeboard. Well, there is if you like to use a wooden ruler, duct tape and cardboard. I kind of think that a method of like that is rather ghetto... so I made a product (patent pending, BTW), that will securely mount your timer to your kneeboard.

Nice, eh?

I'm doing this under a new company I created called, In Ground Effect, LLC. The product is branded under the Whirligear name. I'm pretty psyched about it. It's not a major money making venture or anything, but it is pretty cool - I think.

Take a look, and hell, pick up one while you are at it.

TiMount and TiMount XT : Kneeboard Timer Mounts

Designed to work with standard kneeboards (both loose and fixed 7-ring style) to orient flight timers where they are visible, accessible, and will not interfere with control-stick movement.

• Specifically engineered for taller pilots and small cockpit environments.
• Mounting angle of flight timer provides enhanced in-flight viewing.
• Industrial strength Velcro Dual Lock for secure and repositionable mount.
• Durable ABS plastic for long life under real flight conditions.
• Extremely small, lightweight and ultra-portable.
• Innovative design slides cleanly into pocket of most kneeboards.
• Mounting tab compatible with almost any personal flight timer available.
• Designed to support needs of both rotor-wing and fixed wing pilots.

Commercial Night Flight - South

Flight #: 120 Commercial VFR61
CFI: Kristie E.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N227SH
Duration, as PIC: 3.1hrs
Cumulative Time: 149.8hrs

Part of commercial training is flying in normal, everyday, situations for a commercial pilot. This mean being redirected to a new location during flight, and flying at night, etc. Today was training for both situations.

We headed south to Albany, OR via Route 26E, 217S and I-5S. You really would be amazed at the stuff you can see from 1500ft. Especially when following a major road. I'd say we saw 3 cops hiding behind road embankments/signs along the way. Actually got to see someone get pulled over.

This was not my first night flight, that was back in April of 2008. This is really just prep for my 5.0 Solo Night hour requirement for Commercial. Since the rule is that you only fly over lighted areas... we are pretty limited to where we can go. I-5 is the biggest, and most traveled road around that would allow us to go more than 25nm. This trip was South. Next one is North to Chehalis (KCLS).



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Commercial Stage 1

Just nailed by Stage 1 Oral exam for Commercial. Knocked out the written the other day. Looking to go the distance with the Commercial Stage 1 flight check. Will report back when that is clear.