Flash

Wish I could fly with you. The Hudson River is a blast to fly, and your cross-country trip should be gorgeous. Are you going all the way to Penn Yan in one day? That's a very long day.

Another interesting thing about this approach is that coupled approaches are not allowed. My understanding is that this means there's risk of temporarily incorrect guidance that, if the autopilot were flying the approach, might lead to a dangerous "chasing the needle" reaction, whereas a human would not overreact or overcorrect in the brief time that the signal is incorrect. (Didn't mean to hijack the thread away from 3 degree tricks, but thought this was noteworthy.)

I agree with V1VRV2 that it's good practice to dial in the ILS even if you're not flying the approach. OTOH, you should be careful if you're flying this approach not to get distracted by the glideslope; the approach plate warns you that "VGSI and ILS glidepath are not coincident." If you're flying VFR or flying a visual approach, you probably should be following the visual glideslope indicator rather than your plane's glideslope indicator, especially because, as V1VRV2 mentioned, your eyes should be focused on what's outside the aircraft, rather than what's showing on your panel.

If you want to stop short of AEG/ABQ, Tucumcari has cheap fuel, and you can sing to yourself the classic Little Feat song, Willin': I've been from Tucson to TucumcariTehachapi to TonapahDriven every kind of rig that's ever been madeDriven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighedAnd if you give me weed, whites and wineAnd you show me a signI'll be willin', to be movin'. Both Tucson and Tonapah are well out of your way, however.

Best route is just to the north of direct, so that you pass north of the Sandia Mountains, which guard the east side of ABQ. Agree with others that AEG is OK for a lunch stop, but it's well out of town so you're eating at the field or you're driving a bit. ABQ is a lot closer if you actually want to see Albuquerque; Frontier Restaurant just across the street from the University of New Mexico has amazing tortillas. Fuel price at ABQ is about a dollar a gallon higher than at AEG. If you're not in a hurry, detour to the north as you approach Las Vegas so you can overfly the Grand Canyon. If you're really not in a hurry and want to see the whole Grand Canyon, consider landing at L41 (Marble Canyon), which is within walking distance of a place that when I went to it had some great fry bread. No fuel at L41, though. When I went there, I parked, stepped out onto the wing, and then had a few seconds of horror as the plane started to move toward a chain-link fence. Plane stopped before it got there, though.

Wow. Great job getting yourselves and your plane safely on the ground.

You should definitely do it, preferably in June or July. Flying the North Atlantic is an incomparable experience. The Faroes were my bailout option if something went wrong between Iceland and Scotland. Not sure why I decided not to drop in for a day; might have been that there were so many other things I wanted to see and do.

It has been 17 years since I did this trip in my Mooney (my avatar is from that trip), and I generally echo the advice above. A suggestion: Spend a night at BGJN, about 155 miles north of BGSF, assuming that a 2700-foot runway is long enough and the weather is good enough, and take a midnight boat tour of the ice fjord. This was the best stop on my three-week trip to Europe and back. It's not a place you're ever likely to be this near to in the future, so take advantage of the opportunity. I wound up there based on advice from a Greenland Air pilot. I am paying it forward by telling you. Don't miss this. My full route going east was CYFB-BGSF-BGJN-BGKK-BIRK-EGPC. My route westbound was EGPC-BIRK-BGSF-CYFB. BGKK is a lovely village, and the flight into it is pretty, but the ice fjord at BGJN was special. Pay attention to the "closing times" for the airports in Greenland. They're not based on when the sun sets, and the fees for landing after the airport is "closed" are no joke, or so it was in 2003. I had VHF radio only and relayed position reports through airliners flying overhead. There may be fewer of those these days, but there should still be enough, and you'll have plenty of time on your hands, anyway. Something you might not have considered: You are probably safer over snow-covered Greenland and over the North Atlantic than you are over rocky, forested northern Canada, where there may not be a good place for a forced landing. This is an amazing trip. Enjoy the adventure!

The Flightaware track also shows the plane flew past a private airport with a 4000-foot runway after making the 180. I don't know if there was a reason it was not usable, but it's likely that if the pilot had fully appreciated the seriousness of the problem he could have made an uneventful landing there. I type that not to second-guess the pilot's handling of a difficult situation from my comfortable seat in front of my computer (he made a landing from which everybody walked away), but to remind myself and maybe others that if something is wrong and you don't know how bad it is then getting on the ground quickly and figuring it out there might be the best idea.

By the way, if you want to hear it yourself, it's about 10 minutes into the 15:30 Zulu DVT tower recording for May 13.

The LiveATC.net recording shows what happened. The pilot declared an emergency, reported a propeller governor failure, then later reported he lost the engine. Looks like a good off-field landing. You can hear the controller say "check gear down"; I would think the pilot decided against using the gear, given the terrain.

I'm glad you enjoyed your flight. I'm sure you'll cherish the memory, and well you should. But you don't have to stop with SFO. Remember that in aviation in the United States, it's not normally a question of where they want you to land. It's a question of what the regulations require and what fees you're willing to pay. I don't know if the controllers wanted me to land my Mooney at ATL, BWI, BOS, DCA (pre-9/11), HOU, IAD, LAS, MDW, MEM, MYS, OAK, PHL, or STL, but I've done it, sometimes VFR, sometimes IFR. The controllers were always nice about it; they were doing their jobs, and I tried my best not to make their jobs more difficult. The FAA has a slot reservation system for certain airports (DCA and LGA reservations are available here), and DCA has other ridiculous requirements post-9/11, but you can land an IFR flight into LGA on a Saturday without getting a slot reservation. I haven't done it, though.

Looks like he had take-off flaps, per this blow-up of a photo that's on the first page of this thread.

Being low and slow in a crosswind, having trouble keeping the airplane over the runway, and worried about porpoising -- that's a bad place to be. I wouldn't underestimate the role fatigue played. The pilot did four instrument approaches and a short-field landing before the unsuccessful short-field takeoff in a crosswind. Pilot was 63 on the date of the accident. Flight instructor was 72. Here's a photo of the plane from the NTSB report file.

Here's the relevant part of the pilot's description of the flight: We Departed CHD Chandler Municipal Airport shortly after 6 am and flew to Standfield VOR to practice approaches. We flew 2 ILS approaches and a VOR into Casa Grande airport, CGZ. I have been working with Mr Price to regain my instrument proficiency signoff and complete a BFR with this airplane at the same time. My BFR was done in a Piper Archer in January 2019 and I thought it would be good to have it with the Mooney Bravo. The final Approach that morning was into Chandler on the GPS 4R approach. Chandler airport is the home base for my airplane. I have a hangar there. The landing was uneventful. Another Takeoff was also successful after taxi back on 4L. We remained in the pattern and did a short field landing, stopped and taxied back. The final takeoff was to be a soft field takeoff which I had never done in this aircraft before but had done in other aircraft, then remain in the pattern and land coming to a full stop. I was cleared on runway 4l for takeoff with no delay by the tower controller. After taxiing onto the runway and centering the plane quickly, I applied power and pulled back on the yoke to raise the front tire gently from the surface. The back pressure on the yoke was in retrospect to abrupt for the power that this airplane had. It wasn't but 2 seconds later that the airplane began to fly in ground effect. The airspeed was about 10 kts slower than normal rotation speed. There was about a 9 to 10 KT crosswind at the 60 degree angle. At the airspeed it lifted off at I tried to bring the aircraft back into~ or keep it in ground effect. I was unable to keep the plane effectively flying in ground effect and was struggling to keep runway heading. The airplane touched the runway abruptly several times in the process of trying to achieve flight. I was trying to keep the airplane from porpoising. The airplane was also being pushed off the left side of the runway by the cross wind and I knew if the tire hit the median it would be impossible to control. I thought I had established a small rate of climb but was just above stall. I put up the landing gear hoping I could increase the rate of climb and correct the airplane heading. All the while I was trying to maintain airspeed and correct heading. Ultimately I was too aggressive trying to have he airplane fly and caused a stall. The left wing hit the taxiway at the edge of the median and the airplane slid on the belly to just in front of the fuel tanks at Chandler. It seems like it took forever but in reality~ it was only 5-7 seconds of time.

Remember that the shelter in place order is not limited to state law but also is affected by the laws of local jurisdictions. For example recreational aviation is not per se essential travel under my reading of the order issued by six (or perhaps more, now) counties in the Bay Area.

This Harvard guy politely crushes arguments raised by that Stanford guy. The Stanford guy never does come to grips with the fact that his best case scenarios are inconsistent with what has happened in Wuhan and Italy. https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/18/we-know-enough-now-to-act-decisively-against-covid-19/

Get well soon.

More details, if you're curious: DATE OF ORDER: MARCH 16, 2020 ORDER OF THE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE COUNTY OF SAN MATEO DIRECTING ALL INDIVIDUALS LIVING IN THE COUNTY TO SHELTER AT THEIR PLACE OF RESIDENCE EXCEPT THAT THEY MAY LEAVE TO PROVIDE OR RECEIVE CERTAIN ESSENTIAL SERVICES OR ENGAGE IN CERTAIN ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES AND WORK FOR ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES AND GOVERNMENTAL SERVICES; EXEMPTING INDIVIDUALS EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS FROM THE SHELTER IN PLACE ORDER BUT URGING THEM TO FIND SHELTER AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO PROVIDE IT; DIRECTING ALL BUSINESSES AND GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES TO CEASE NON-ESSENTIAL OPERATIONS AT PHYSICAL LOCATIONS IN THE COUNTY; PROHIBITING ALL NON-ESSENTIAL GATHERINGS OF ANY NUMBER OF INDIVIDUALS; AND ORDERING CESSATION OF ALL NON-ESSENTIAL TRAVEL Please read this Order carefully. Violation of or failure to comply with this Order is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both. (California Health and Safety Code § 120295, et seq.) ... All travel, including, but not limited to, travel on foot, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, automobile, or public transit, except Essential Travel and Essential Activities as defined below in Section 10, is prohibited. People must use public transit only for purposes of performing Essential Activities or to travel to and from work to operate Essential Businesses or maintain Essential Governmental Functions. People riding on public transit must comply with Social Distancing Requirements as defined in Section 10 below, to the greatest extent feasible. This Order allows travel into or out of the County to perform Essential Activities, operate Essential Businesses, or maintain Essential Governmental Functions. From the airport: Airport users, The County has published Frequently Asked Questions about the Shelter in Place Order: FAQs about the Shelter in Place Order To help clarify the “essential” operations that may continue at County Airports during the Shelter in Place Order, please see the following definitions: “Essential Travel” includes travel for any of the following purposes. Individuals engaged in essential travel must comply with all Social Distancing Requirements as defined below. Any travel related to the provision of or access to Essential Activities[ii], Essential Governmental Functions, Essential Businesses[iii], or Minimum Basic Operations[iv]. Travel to care for elderly, minors, dependent persons with disabilities, or other vulnerable persons. Travel to and from educational institutions for purposes of receiving materials for distance learning, for receiving meals, and any other related services. Travel to return to a place of residence from outside the jurisdiction. Travel required by law enforcement or court order. Travel required for non-residents to return to their place of residence outside the County. Individuals are strongly encouraged to verify that their transportation out of the County remains available and functional prior to commencing such travel.

Enjoy your Mooney while you can. My airport (San Carlos, California) is closed to non-essential operations (I can do an Angel Flight, for instance). I don't see much logic behind it, but I also think this isn't the time to be arguing about it, and anyway in my case (I have no car), I can't get to my plane without doing something that does expose me to others or them to me, either Uber or Lyft drivers or CalTrain riders or people who are between me and wherever I'd walk to to pick up a ZipCar. Stay safe, everyone, whether on the ground or in the air.

Paul, I'll be happy to take you up on that some day in the not-too-distant future.

+ another for Cole.

Looks like fun. The Bahamas mean you’ll be within glide distance of land or shallow water for a lot of this flight. Provo was a good fuel stop for me 14 years ago. Have you considered doing some island hopping after St. Maarten? There are some fun places to explore.

BTW, the regulations also explain that "Federally-regulated commercial aircraft means a commercial aircraft regulated by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)."

RealID does not appear to be required under current law for piloting a non-commercial airplane, even after October 2020. To make it required, there probably would need to be a new law enacted or a new regulation promulgated. Section 202(a)(1) of the RealID Act provides: "Beginning 3 years after the date of the enactment of this division, a Federal agency may not accept, for any official purpose, a driver's license or identification card issued by a State to any person unless the State is meeting the requirements of this section." The effective time has been pushed back, but this is the statutory language enacted in 2005. Section 201(3) of the Act provides: 'Official purpose.--The term ``official purpose'' includes but is not limited to accessing Federal facilities, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants, and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine.' The Secretary's determination is reflected in the Code of Federal Regulations. 6 C.F.R. § 37.3 defines "official purpose" as "accessing Federal facilities, boarding Federally-regulated commercial aircraft, and entering nuclear power plants." Yes, the statute says "includes but is not limited to," which does open the door to broader application, but the regulation does not include that language. The regulation therefore limits the breadth of the statute. The above is not offered as and is not intended to be relied on as legal advice. Pilots should consult their own advisors as to the application of the statute and the regulations to their situations. Fly safe.