Skyatty

Burbank, CA to Vancouver, Canada Addison, Texas to Salt Lake City, Utah All in a J

KSLC has badging and background requirements and the initial process was a PIA mainly because I live 30 miles from the airport. Once the badge was issued, I never experienced another problem with it. Most of the are accessible from outside the fence so that has never been an issue. I have never experienced an issue at any "foreign" airport that I have visited including Van Nuys, North Las Vegas and Idaho Falls. On the positive side, as an aircraft owner, I appreciate security at my home airport that leads us all to monitor what is happening in and around the entrances to our hangar areas and I don't mind reasonable regulation. I suppose that 8G now requires an additional step in flight planning to make sure that there is a means to access your aircraft after hours. Thanks for raising the issue Mitch, I will add it to my checklist. As with all regulations, different facilities will enact and enforce regulations differently, The Grand Junction manager has pushed it to the extremes and the impact on the GA businesses at that airport are likely to force him to moderate his enforcement. I hear that you are frustrated, Mitch, but tying this to the Nazis minimizes the true horror of the Nazis. This is more another example of government bureaucracy run wild.

I was able to get a couple from Don Maxwell earlier this year.

I have a relatively long taxi from my hangar to the runway at KSLC. I start up and have the engine running while I get the Class B clearance, check the intstruments and controls and finalize the cockpit organization. I taxi to a numbered spot on the ramp, which is where I contact ground for a taxi clearance. As I approach that spot, I switch tanks before taxiing to the runup area. That gives me about five minutes on one tank and about the same on the other before takeoff. There are also enough turns in the taxi route to help settle anything in the tank before takeoff. I try to replicate the timing at other airports as well. It is another reminder to me to not hurry departures.

Quote: 201Pilot

Hope to run into you some time Lew, my J model is at SLC.

Ross, thanks for the explanation. i don't have a multi-rating and admittedly know nothing about the limitations. I was trying to figure out how much additional drag can slow a crippled twin. Aside from prop drag, or lack thereof if feathered, I wonder how much performance degrades due to the yaw in the direction of the operating engine and, assuming that the pilot increases rudder forces to neutralize the yaw, how much additional rudder drag is present. Intuitively, 50% reduction seems too small and 80%-90% seems high.

Quote: Parker_Woodruff 2. The TBM-700 and PC-12 don't necessarily have the same roles at a B200 or 350. 3. SE Service Ceiling is a function of horsepower, weight, and the engine's ability to produce power (turbo or NA).

With a 110 lbs. difference it becomes a safety issue. There are good reasons for weight and balance restrictions, the foremost being safety. Even if you decide to make a conscious decision to overload by a small amount, the unknown can kill you by increasing that unknown to unsafe levels. I suppose shooting yourself in the foot on paper beats shooting yourself in the head in practice. Just my opinion. I respect the envelope. Quote: jetdriven

I just came through annual and decided to have my J reweighed. The IA said, that like most people, most airplanes gain weight as they age. We reweighed the aircraft largely because he found that five 337s had not been completed and he was concerned that W&B changes had not been updated correctly. The aircraft was painted in the late 90s and has a relatively recent interior and much of the panel has been replaced. The bottom line is that the aircraft was that I lost 110 lbs. of useful load based on the new weight - down from about 970 to 860. Seemed like a huge amount to me and I may not have purchased the aircraft had I know the true empty weight.

Welcome Mitch.

Thanks for the suggestions. WHP is a nice little airport but I think the area is a little shaky for my airplane to be outside for four days. Fox Field in Lancaster is really too far but also a cool little field. The good guys deserve a shout out. OR75 is right. Pentastar gets great reviews, has the lowest priced fuel on the field right now ($6.12 - doesn't hurt too much if you say it fast) and does not charge any fees. I spoke to them last night and the guy laughed at the idea of a fee. They just ask that you buy their gas. Over at Burbank, Million Air charges $33 a day but will waive the fee one day for every 10 gallons of fuel you buy. Seems fair. I will burn somewhere between 35 and 40 gals on the trip down so should be a wash.

Quote: thinwing hi skyatty...if you are concerned about a Marine Layer and costs...rather than lancaster....there is whitman north of van nueys that frequently escapes the marine layer that often settles over the La basin and van nueys and burbank...getting an instrument clearance out of van nueys is no big deal..a simple SID just like out of Heber City...100 bucks is too much even for an overnight hanger...these fbos will negotiate you know...just ask!!!..kpc....PS couldnt believe how much development over the Jordenelle reservoir when I was there last month....kpc

My learning process as a pilot will continue indefinitely, which I expect, and I learn new things all the time concerning my Mooney’s operational capabilities and limitations, which I expect and enjoy - usually. But every now and then I get slapped with something for which my only reaction is “Really?” I have to make a trip to the Los Angeles area this week and all looks good for clear skies on the flight down and the return. I will be staying in the San Fernando Valley so I started checking the FBOs at Burbank and Van Nuys to see what it will cost to park for 4 nights. The first response I received was from an FBO at Van Nuys – after asking me the aircraft type, the response was “Handling would be $27.00 which you can waive if you purchase 25 gallons of gas or more. Parking per night is $101.50.” $406 to park for four nights. No hangar, just parking on the ramp - chocks in front of and in back of the nose gear tire presumably. I went through several with very high fees and finally found one that does not charge anything at all. No handling, no ramp fee, nada. They just ask that you buy their fuel - and the fuel at that particular FBO is the lowest on the field. I am told that at Santa Monica, the ramp fee is only $15 a day, but the weather and marine layer at SMO is more limiting. Do you ever have the feeling that as pilots and aircraft owners we get kicked in the wallet far more than is reasonable? Another report coming soon about my just-completed annual.

I've flown into VGT a few times and it has been a good experience for me; never been to Henderson. In addition to the ramp fee, I have paid $20 for a shade hangar and $50 for a hangar for the night. Depending on the heat, the shade hangars are worth it IMO. Staff is friendly and VGT has a good terminal facility.

Hate to speculate on the cause of the accident but the accident site is only about an hour and a half from SLC and I have flown over that area several times in the past. It is mountainous terrain and that can complicate weather issues and on Monday there was a lot of convective activity in the area. I was supposed to fly with a friend from SLC to DEN on Monday but we cancelled our flight that morning and took a commercial flight due to weather. There were significant thunderstorms in the region on Monday as well as some icing. When we landed back in SLC at about 7:45 p.m. the weather was still significant. All the way to Denver and back we were second-guessing whether or not we could have safely made the flight with "maybe" being the final word. I will take a WAG that given the weather in the region on Monday, whatever happened had something to do with weather. I have a 16-year old son so this one is a little more personal to me. RIP boys.

Thanks guys.

Becca: I'm curious whether your reaction is primarily to his delivery or the content that underlies his tirade. In other words, if he said "You know, I'm a single guy and one of the reasons I thought it would be cool to be a pilot is that I heard stories that pilots had a lot of relationships with flight attendants. But most of the time it seems that our crew is older than I prefer, more overweight than I prefer or are homosexuals, which I am not comfortable hanging out with. So the bottom line is that I haven't had much of a social life at all on trips the last few months. I went out with a couple of women but it was a very negative experience. I'm hoping my new duty station brings some changes." I think that is the essence of his comments. He just peppered them with objectionable terms like "fags," "grannies" and "fatties?" and plenty of words that will not be heard on network television. I have to say that if we fired everyone who utters stupid or insensitive comments in the workplace, the unemployment rate would be substantially higher. This guy may rate firing but not for these particular comments but because he was identified easily by co-workers, which suggests that perhaps these are common comments for him. I suspect that SWA, like many large corporations, has policies against comments that create a hostile workplace. The collective bargaining agreement, however, will generally trump those policies and SWA will have to follow those terms and guidelines. California is also an "at-will" state and yet few employers feel comfortable simply firing employees. There are too many ways that an employer can be ensnared is very costly litigation by doing so. "At-will" always sounds good to the layman, but the state of employment decisions around the country make employee terminations very tricky. I spoke to a Delta driver friend and he said that cockpit conversations should never be heard outside the cockpit. People sharing a small space together for 2-14 hours will share all kinds of information that they would not want made public. If every pilot were fired for saying something offensive or insensitive in the cockpit there would be a lot more opportunities for young pilots to get jobs with the airlines.

I agree with the check your speed on final. I keep the yoke pretty neutral, maybe a little back to lighten the weight on the nose gear. I brake slightly until slow enough so I don't have to jam them to make the exit - I don't hurry turn off on the taxiway unless ATC has someone right on my tail. With all due respect to Parker, I don't touch the flaps until I am off the runway and behind the limit line - then I clean it all up. Crazy as it seems some people have been known to retract the gear rather than the flaps due to distractions while on the runway or turning off. JMO.

I will be starting the IR flight training Wednesday and I am really looking forward to it. Any advice from any J pilots. Any standards re power settings and AI indications for climbs, descents and turns? Curious how my AC compares to similar Js.