2016 today's flight

[Alain B]

42 minutes ago, Marauder said:

I think you would be fine with Trump -- as long as you didn't show up with bags of tea in your pocket. 

I thought we were the only one to have political " clowns " , I see now that you guys have your own share of them ! May the best clown win ! 

[Pritch]

Nice day to fly from KEKA (Eureka) to KUKI (Ukiah Ca) to take my hangar neighbor to pick his BT6, some other interesting planes there also.  These planes made mine look small but thrifty on fuel.  The BT burns 30 gph at 150mph.

Pritch

[BradB]

Today was my new longest flight.   KERI (Erie, PA) to KFMY (Ft. Myers, Florida) with a stop in Tallahassee for fuel and a weather assessment due to the hurricane.  Overall, it was a very smooth flight.  The winds on the landing were gusting to 25 in both KTLH and KFMY, but they were right down the runway.   .  

On my leg from KTLH to Ft. Myers, I had filed for 13,000.   It was 21:30Z when I called up for my clearance. I was told that I would have to wait until 00:00Z.  Fortunately, the nice folks in the tower made a call or two and if I agreed to an altitude of less than 10,000, I could be released immediately.   That was easy,  and I still had a 50kt tail wind for much of the way.

The picture with the rainbow shows the remnants of Matthew in the background.

And I must add that @pmccand is a genius.  Today was the first time using my new Halo headset.  I feel sorry for my passengers that have to suffer with my old Bose sets now.  I thought everyone was exaggerating about the Halo's, but they really are that comfortable and that good.

 

Brad

 

[rbridges]

I flew my daughter back to Kennesaw State Univsersity.  Got lucky and was only on the outskirts of hurricane Matthew.  Gusty but not too bad at either airport.  Feeling very blessed to be able to fly over the crowded interstates below.  I-16 and I-75 were crazy packed Thursday.  hope everyone was safe!

[rbridges]

This is shortly after departing Cobb County in north Atlanta.  You may be able to see the southbound lane is fairly crowded.  Not sure if it's typical Friday night traffic or people heading back to Florida.

 

[DaV8or]

On October 3, 2016 at 10:15 AM, Hyett6420 said:

I would have left immediately.  As a Brit he would point me out as an immigrant. . . 

A sensible thing for anybody to do. Donald Trump might be in it!

[Hoeschen]

Headed to Mahnomen, MN for some $3.65 / gal fuel.




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[MyNameIsNobody]

Fun trip to bird hunt in northern Wisconsin this weekend.  Friday had a lot of wind and decided to land on grass (22) strip as was 16 gusting to 22.  They have a well maintained grass strip and landing/roll-out was uneventful.  I rolled out to the paved strip, so back taxi to ramp was easy vs. grass with bumps and higher RPM.   Not fun to try and put a cabin cover on when that windy...

They have a "borrow a bike" rack in front of airport and only a short ride back to the cottages.  About 3:30...If I rush back to get dog with SUV I should be able to hunt a couple hours...Go to garage turn key...click.  UGHHH.  Low battery.  Connect battery and change into hunting cloths.  Another turn of key "bingo".  Out to airport get my 1 year old and now "seasoned...One weekend hunting Pointer Pup Tuck" (after Stanford Tuck of WWII B.O.B Spitfire pilot fame) and guns/food in plane.  Leave SUV running.  Right out to bird habitat and gook three woodcock over stylish points.  I do believe he is "getting it".  Bell to left and RRRRRWWWWRR a pair of grouse go up.  Spun one down with a quick shot.  Should have taken the back barrel...Damn.  Winged.  We got us a runner.  Come on Tuck find the bird.  100 yards later his buddy flushes out of a tree.  Sneaky.  Tuck gone on point and the winged bird takes off with Tuck in pursuit.  Bird lost.

Today's return flight was a patchy layer at 4000 and just Clear above.  Smooth.  Climbed up to 8500 and was seeing 150 knots burning 10.2. Nice.  Two hour flight vs. a 7 hour one way drive last week.  I LOVE GA.  I LOVE my POINTER and I LOVE crystal blue smooth skies....and I love my Mooney

 

Edited October 12, 2016 by MyNameIsNobody

[Yetti]

[MyNameIsNobody]

2 hours ago, Yetti said:

Is that Earth?...Or Heaven.

[Oldguy]

So wife drives pickup to Kentucky to donate it to the Thoroughbred Rescue she works with (http://ourmims.com/) on Friday, and I go up to get her Sunday. Beautiful flight up to Georgetown, KY (27K) but took forever! Quick return, though.

 

[Marauder]

So here's an interesting question to all you king kap and Kfh users out there....when your AP is in nav mode does it VERY gently turn left then right (ie bank 2 degrees left right) all the time it is tracking on nav mode. I know of three others that do this and wondered whether yours did John?
nice photos. 

Andrew - you provide me way too much material.

The reason it tries to fly left and goes back to the right is because it is a U.S. made autopilot being flown in the UK.



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[Marauder]

Good try but that doesn't explain Craig from Scheme designers who has the same issue. . Next?  

You check Craig Barnett's surname profile? I think you will find it is deeply ingrained in him as well.

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Barnett

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[Andy95W]

1 hour ago, Hyett6420 said:

So here's an interesting question to all you king kap and Kfh users out there....when your AP is in nav mode does it VERY gently turn left then right (ie bank 2 degrees left right) all the time it is tracking on nav mode. I know of three others that do this and wondered whether yours did John?

nice photos. 

If the autopilot does it when tracking a VOR signal, that is normal.  The VHF VOR signal simply isn't accurate enough to provide the exact resolution that the autopilot wants.  It's sometimes referred to as "scalloping".  It probably works better tracking an ILS.

If it does it when following a GPS signal, that could be a different issue in which case I think Chris' explanation is as good as any.

[N201MKTurbo]

2 hours ago, Hyett6420 said:

So here's an interesting question to all you king kap and Kfh users out there....when your AP is in nav mode does it VERY gently turn left then right (ie bank 2 degrees left right) all the time it is tracking on nav mode. I know of three others that do this and wondered whether yours did John?

nice photos. 

It sounds like the gain needs to be cranked up a tad.

[carusoam]

Sounds like a process tuning issue...

Scalloping is an accurate following of a scallop shaped path, created by the analog wave signal of the VOR.

My best technical description.  

My KAP150 stays on target without being able to feel it working.

Best regards,

-a-

[Oldguy]

4 hours ago, Hyett6420 said:

So here's an interesting question to all you king kap and Kfh users out there....when your AP is in nav mode does it VERY gently turn left then right (ie bank 2 degrees left right) all the time it is tracking on nav mode. I know of three others that do this and wondered whether yours did John?

nice photos. 

No, can't say I have seen mine do the "wandering/scalloping" you describe, although it is usually following the GPS versus a VOR. It does seem to let the changing wind velocity get it off track every now and then, but I can correlate it to wind speed and direction changes. With a constant wind/GPS track it seems to stay right on course.

[Marauder]

I am not sure I would like living in the SF Bay Area. That marine fog looks pretty scary coming over those hills!




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[Bennett]

I am not sure I would like living in the SF Bay Area. That marine fog looks pretty scary coming over those hills!

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Not really. The fog layer is usually fairly shallow, and seldom lower than about 800' at most of the Bay Area GA airports: San Carlos, Palo Alto, Hayward. Quite a few pilots file IFR to VFR on top. Only takes a few minutes to get above the fog. But even more to the point, most days the fog stays on the coast, and lifts by 11:00 AM or so. You can almost always fly into and out of the Bay Area VFR.

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[Marauder]

Not really. The fog layer is usually faintly shallow, and seldom lower than about 800' at most of the Bay Area GA airports: San Carlos, Palo Alto, Hayward. Quite a few pilots file IFR to VFR on top. Only takes a few minutes to get above the fog. But even more to the point, most days the fog stays on the coast, and lifts by 11:00 AM or so. You can almost always fly into and out of the Bay Area VFR.


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The picture I posted was from around 6 pm this evening. It looked like it was clinging to and climbing over the hill. Was today one of those exception days?

Speaking of fog fronts. Normally on the east coast the fog is due to heavy moisture content in the air and ground convection fog caused on some summer evenings. It normally never is seen as a front moving, even by the ocean or Delaware Bay.

I did see it one time in western New York. I was flying home to my home base 7G0 and it was a nice late afternoon with excellent VFR conditions. As I got closer to my airport, I saw what looked like a low cloud deck moving from the northeast, across Lake Ontario, over Rochester and towards my home airport. It was unusual since this was a late summer afternoon and seeing a northeast wind is strange during the summer.

As I lined up for final on runway 10, this "low level cloud deck" turned out to be a fog bank that was just getting to the runway 28 side. No sooner than I began my landing roll, I went into the fog bank. The temperature dropped significantly and I literally could not see the runway edges or the runway lights that I turned up on high. I had to shut down on the runway and have someone help me walk my plane off of the runway.

Strange stuff.


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[bonal]

1 hour ago, Marauder said:

I am not sure I would like living in the SF Bay Area. That marine fog looks pretty scary coming over those hills!




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Best air conditioner ever made east of those hills mid summer can be high nineties when that layer burns off usually by mid morning on the west side you have low humidity and temps in the mid seventies. Depending on where you were it's pretty rare that layer would be present at that time.

[Marauder]

Best air conditioner ever made east of those hills mid summer can be high nineties when that layer burns off usually by mid morning on the west side you have low humidity and temps in the mid seventies. Depending on where you were it's pretty rare that layer would be present at that time.

I was on 280 headed south, I think just north of Palo Alto.


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[Bennett]

The picture I posted was from around 6 pm this evening. It looked like it was clinging to and climbing over the hill. Was today one of those exception days?

Speaking of fog fronts. Normally on the east coast the fog is due to heavy moisture content in the air and ground convection fog caused on some summer evenings. It normally never is seen as a front moving, even by the ocean or Delaware Bay.

I did see it one time in western New York. I was flying home to my home base 7G0 and it was a nice late afternoon with excellent VFR conditions. As I got closer to my airport, I saw what looked like a low cloud deck moving from the northeast, across Lake Ontario, over Rochester and towards my home airport. It was unusual since this was a late summer afternoon and seeing a northeast wind is strange during the summer.

As I lined up for final on runway 10, this "low level cloud deck" turned out to be a fog bank that was just getting to the runway 28 side. No sooner than I began my landing roll, I went into the fog bank. The temperature dropped significantly and I literally could not see the runway edges or the runway lights that I turned up on high. I had to shut down on the runway and have someone help me walk my plane off of the runway.

Strange stuff.

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We are having a bit of a transition this week from warm and clear to the precursor of rain forecast later this week. But, it is not unusual for the coastal fog to move out to sea during the late morning and afternoon, and returning back to the coast by late afternoon and early evening. Mostly in this scenario, the fog is blocked from the Bay by the Coastal Range, and I believe that is what is shown in the photo. Hard to make generalizations about Bay Area weather. What I have described is our typical summer pattern. The springtime pattern has little fog, light winds, and clear skies. Our rainy season runs from October through March, but between storms, we have good flying weather. In my opinion, the Bay Area is a great place to live, and to fly virtually year round. Yes, the airspace is complex, but we have quite a few GA airports, mostly towered, relatively short runways, but still manageable. Most of the Mooney pilots I know in this area are very competent pilots. The attendance at safety seminars is phenomenal.

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[bonal]

Just now, Marauder said:

 

I was on 280 headed south, I think just north of Palo Alto.


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Oh hell I thought you were on 680.  other side of those hills is the ocean and east of where you were is the entire Bay Area. The normal summer pattern is the fog flows into the bay through the golden gate fills in around the bay cities some times as Far East as Livermore and north to Napa and Santa Rosa. Normal burn off is around 0900 to 10 flying VFR is almost never a problem around the Bay Area 

[MyNameIsNobody]

Had a dream flight today.  Lately I have been getting a head wind or benign winds on trips.  Today I had a true tailwind at 7500.  I had speeds of 168-175 knots in cruise with a nice push from the south ALL THE WAY.  1.7 on a normal 2.0-2.5 flight.  Burning 10.4 30LOP it was awesome.  A Mooney was on base when I was 5 SW.  I landed on 14 and taxied in to fuel pumps.  No wave.  Exited at pumps and saw him skulk away.  REALLY?  Doesn't compute with me.  A nice 201...Took "my spot" on the ramp.  Just goes to show that "not every Mooney driver wants to talk about how fast they got there and on how little fuel.  Whatever dude.  Enjoy the Northwoods.  My son and I did.  FYI...A wave to a fellow Mooney driver is free and costs you a total of two seconds.  Or just be a dick and skulk away like a thief in the night....Photo to follow.

Edited October 24, 2016 by MyNameIsNobody