Piper Seminole

This is the type of plane I'll be doing most of my flying in during school. The PA-44-180 Piper Seminole.

And this is what the instrument panel looks like:

It's equipped with a Garmin G500 glass panel display and dual Garmin GNS430 GPS NAV/COM radios.

Here are some stats about the plane:


Engine
Manufacturer: Lycoming
Model: 0-360-A1H6/LO-360-A1H6
Horsepower: 180 hp

Weights
Gross Weight: 3800 lbs/1724 kgs
Standard Empty/Equipped Weight (*b,c): 2586 lbs/1173 kgs
Standard Useful Load (*a): 1230 lbs/558 kgs

Dimensions
Wing Span: 38.6 feet/11.8 meters
Length: 27.6 feet/8.4 meters
Height: 8.5 feet/2.6 meters
Wing Area: 183.8 square feet/17.08 square meters

Fuel Capacity
Usable Fuel: 108 gallons/409 litres

Maximum Speed
TAS at Gross Weight: 168 kts/311 kmh

Cruising Speeds
Normal Cruise Speed: 162 kts/300 kmh

Cruising Range
Cruising Range: 610 nm/1130 km
(45 minute reserves at 75% power)

Stall Speed
Flaps Down Full 40 degrees: IAS 55 kts/IAS 102 kmh

Service Ceiling
Twin Engine (100 fpm): 15,000 feet/4572 meters
Single Engine (50 fpm): 3,800 feet/1158 meters

Take-Off Distance
Total over 50-foot obstacle: 2200 feet/671 meters

Landing Distance
Total over 50-foot obstacle: 1490 feet/454 meters

*a. Standard Useful load is ramp weight minus standard equipped weight.
*b. The standard empty weight and standard equipped weight are the same.
*c. Standard aircraft per marketing.

In Which I Decide to Become a Professional Pilot

Yup, that's right. I am leaving my career in the software industry to go fly airplanes for a living. I left my job back in June, and since then I've spent a lot of time thinking about where I want to go and what I want to do with the rest of my life. The reality is that flying is the first thing I can remember ever wanting to do, and I'm at the point where I either need to go for it, or give up the dream for good. I came to the realization that I didn't want to risk living the rest of my life regretting not pursuing a dream I've had since I was a little kid. So with that in mind, and with the support of my amazing wife, I've enrolled in the Airline Career Pilot Program at Airline Transport Professionals (ATP). ATP is the largest flight school in country, and they offer a fast-track program that results in getting the multi-engine, instrument, single- and multi-engine commercial, certified flight instructor, certified instrument instructor, and multi-engine instructor ratings in 90 days. Those are all the ratings one needs to be a professional pilot. I start training on September 24 in Mesa, Arizona. After that I have a guaranteed job with ATP as a flight instructor in order to build enough hours to get hired by a regional airline. Ultimately I hope to be hired on at a regional by this time next year.

To say I'm excited is an understatement. This is going to be an incredible adventure, as well as a huge challenge. The training is intense, and I'll be flying pretty much seven days a week. There's a huge amount to learn, and I've already started studying for the first phase of the program, which is the multi-engine rating. I already have my multi-engine checkride scheduled for October 2, and I haven't even started the school yet!

This will also be a big challenge personally, as I will have to be living away from my wife and kids for at least three months. The longest I've ever been away from home previously was two weeks. While in Arizona, I'll be living with three other ATP students in a two bedroom apartment. I haven't had a roommate since my Army days over 20 years ago, so needless to say that will take some getting used to. I hope they can handle living with a gassy, grumpy, middle-aged guy like me :)

I will try to keep this blog updated with my progress and experiences, so check back to see how it's going.

Oh, and the one downside of all this is that the school dress code forbids facial hair, which means I've had to shave off my handlebar moustache. :(

Daddy, My Ears Hurt!

On August 16th the weather was beautiful and so I planned a flight East across the cascades and then North to Omak (KOMK), a small airfield just North of Okanagan. My daughter, Lauren, was excited to go too, so she and I headed to the airport around 3:30 that afternoon. I had originally planned to take a 172 (N9534H), however when I got to the airport I noticed that the 182 (N42043) was available. I canceled the reservation for '34H and booked '043 until 9:00 PM. I did the preflight and we took off into a blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds. As we climbed, Lauren complained that she was getting a headache, probably because the adult-sized headset she was wearing was squeezing a little too hard. As we passed Cle Elum on the East side of the Cascades she said she wanted to go back home, so we turned around and headed back. I started a 500 foot-per-minute descent, and within a few minutes Lauren started complaining that her ears were hurting. I tried to help her equalize the pressure, but she wasn't having any luck. Unfortunately we had to continue on down in order to make the landing back at Auburn, and she was in tears during the rest of the flight. Since I had to keep flying the plane, there wasn't anything I could do for her. It's hard knowing your little girl is in pain but there's nothing you can do to comfort her. Fortunately after we landed she started feeling a lot better. I need to start looking for a kid-sized headset, and try to teach Lauren how to relieve the pressure in her ears. Total time: 1.2 hrs.

Olympic Airport Tour

After the outrageous heat wave we had here (the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Seattle, 103 deg.!), the weather turned wet and cloudy. But on Tuesday the ceiling was forcast to lift up to 3600', so after work I decided to fly out to the coast and land at some airports I hadn't visited before. The planned route was Auburn (S50) -> Elma (4W8) -> Willapa Harbor (2S9) -> Westport (14S) -> Bowerman (KHQM) -> Sanderson (KSHN) -> Auburn (S50).

Overall the flight was great. The air was very smooth, and I only had to dodge one low cloud on the way to Elma. After Elma, as I approached Willapa Harbor, I noticed some panels layed out in an "X" on the runway, which is an indication that the airport is closed. As I flew over the field I saw several trucks crossing back and forth over the runway. Evidently they are making some improvements to the field. So I had to skip a landing there and continued on to Westport where I made a nice touch-and-go. From there it was on to Bowerman in Hoquiam. Bowerman has a long, wide runway, so landing there was no problem.

Next up was Sanderson. On the way there I heard on the radio a Piper Super Cub doing touch-and-go's, but he had landed for good by the time I got there. Another easy touch-and-go. After that it was back across Tacoma Narrows Class D and a final landing at Auburn.

Overall the flight was a great training exercise in cockpit resource management. Since most of the waypoints were within 30 miles of each other or less, I had to keep busy navigating, setting up the radios, decide which runway to land on, communicating, and keeping an eye out for traffic. Total flight time was 2.4 hours with landings at four new airports.

Below is the SPOT track of my route and some pictures I took along the way.

Western Washington Airport Tour at SpotAdventures

Map created by SpotAdventures:GPS Geotagging

Change of Plans

The plan today was for an early morning flight before work to go land at a few airports in the area I haven't been to before. I was initially planning to head West to the coast, however weather forcasts were showing fog out there, so I decided to head North and make a loop around Seattle, landing at five new airports.

I woke up at 5:30 AM and checked the weather. Already things weren't looking too good as SEATAC was reporting IFR conditions, and Boeing Field was showing solid overcast with a 900'. ceiling. Further North things were clear, so I headed to the airport in hopes that the clouds would start to lift by the time I took off.

The sky was clear at home, but as I drove West on I90 I could see a line of low stratus clouds to the South. At the airport the ceiling looked to be about 1200', so I pre-flighted 9534H with the hope that I could work may way North under the ceiling until I hit clear sky.

I took off on runway 34 and turned East and at 1200' I hit the cloud deck. By the time I was two miles from the airport the ceiling was down to 900' AGL, and looking North and East it appeared to drop even lower. I made the decision to abort the planned flight and turned back to the airport where I made a few touch and go's. This is one reason an IFR rating would come in handy!

So all in all things didn't go quite as planned and I'll have to attempt this flight another day. As I sit in my office writing this, the clouds are breaking up and blue sky is starting to peek through :(

Total time: 0.6 hrs.

Hello Again!

Wow. It's been nearly a year since I last posted. Sorry about the lapse. A lot of things have been keeping me busy, and frankly I got hit with writer's block while I was trying to post an entry about my trip to the Reno Air Races last year. There was so much to write about and I just couldn't get in the groove. So in order to get back on track I'm going to compress the past several months of aviating into one post, and from there I will try to keep posting regularly. So, what's happened in the past 10 months? Here's the synopisis:

1. As I mentioned, I flew down to Reno last September for the annual air races. It was a fantastic trip, and not just because there were lots of low-flying, fast airplanes. I reconnected with my best friend from my Army days and we flew down together. He's also a pilot and we had a blast. I've posted a bunch of pictures from the event.
   
   Total flight time: 10.7 hrs.
   

   From Reno Air Races - Sept. 2008

   
   
2. 11/23/08 - Practice flight. Did some stalls, steep turns, etc. 1.6 hrs.
3. 1/18/09 - Took my friend Tony for a flight around Mt. St. Helens. 1.7 hrs.
4. 2/1/09 - Flew up to Bandera State airport in the Cascade Mountains. Made a low pass but didn't land. 1.8 hrs.
5. 4/18/09 - Took my daughter lauren for a ride. She even got to fly the airplane and she loved it. 1.1 hrs.
6. 4/24/09 - Flew with some friends from work for lunch in Friday harbor. 2.4 hrs.
7. 5/2/09 - Practice flight. 1.0 hrs.
8. 5/3/09 - Dual instruction to get my high performance endorsement. 1.2 hrs.
9. 5/16/09 - More dual. 1.1 hrs.
10. 7/15/09 - More dual - 0.9 hrs.
11. 7/20/09 - Final high performance lesson. Signed-off to fly planes with 200 h.p. or more! 1.1 hrs.
12. 7/22/09 - Practice flight. Back in the 172 to practice stalls, and ground reference maneuvers. 0.9 hrs.

So I logged a total of 25.5 hours since September, which is quite a bit short of my goal of 10 hours per month. I'll need to pick up the pace! This Friday I'm going on an early morning flight to land at a few airports out on the Olympic Penninsula that I haven't landed at before.

Honoring the Fallen

My daughter, Lauren, paying her respects at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.