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| Steve on “Ranger Creek” (25 Aug 2010 (Wed) @ 6:38 PM (PDT)) | We did a total of three landings there: I did two,... |
| Mom on “Ranger Creek” (25 Aug 2010 (Wed) @ 6:36 PM (PDT)) | Did you actually do a landing here? Too scary for... |
| Mom on “Mountain Training” (6 Aug 2010 (Fri) @ 6:59 PM (PDT)) | Wow - you continue to amaze me |
| Mom on “Flight to Friday Harbor” (26 Jul 2010 (Mon) @ 6:45 PM (PDT)) | Sounds like a great learning experience and fun to... |
| Mom on “New Front Siding” (15 Jul 2010 (Thu) @ 6:44 PM (PDT)) | Wow -that looks amazing. Great job! |
| Flight to Friday Harbor |
Today was an interesting flight: first time into Renton, picking up John, and then off to Friday Harbor. Lots to regale.
John took the photos, they are online at his picasa album, I reproduce a few here.
First thing, from the top. I arrive at Glacier about 8:30. They are scheduled to open at 9 on Sunday, but sometimes don’t open until a little later. Immediately, a man approaches me and asks if he can drop off the sandwiches. I tell him I don’t work here, but while I’m talking to him, a Glacier guy drives up. They open early for the corporate jet that will be departing. Possibly good news, although corporate jets take a lot of tlc from the staff and often make getting out of there a long process.
I let the guy I know I’ll need 8ZT out of the hanger, because I don’t see it on the flight line. This will no doubt introduce a delay. I have no idea. After taking care of the corporate jet, he wanders out to the hanger, then back. The plane is not there. He suspects it’s down at another hanger. By this time a second employee has arrived, so the first guy sends the second guy to take a tow, go down to the other hanger, and retrieve the plane. The uncertainty in their voices make me nervous.
Shortly thereafter I see the second driving the tug back. No airplane. I tell the first guy, working behind the counter, “He’s coming back empty handed” This quickly starts an all out search: the airplane is missing.
I call John to keep him appraised of the situation. Soon the airplane is found and its fueled and ready to go. So hey ho and away I go. The conditions are quite turbulent, and I’m bouncing around like crazy trying to navigate the busy and complicated south Seattle airspace. To make matters worse, I notice that the engine has developed a regular RPM fluctuation and accompanying noise. It’s not serious enough to abort the flight, but it needs to be watched. I decide that before departing Renton a detailed runup will be done. I had had some trouble with the right mag in Olympia, but didn’t think much of it.
Landing in Renton is fairly straightforward, although there is a big blast wall at the south end of the runway to fly over, which is a little weird. Also, I was unfamiliar with the reporting points, but the controllers were very helpful. After landing, I went toward a sign “Proflight” which is where John was supposed to be.
Turns out the Proflight folks have two buildings. I parked at the wrong one and had half a mile hike to find John. We met in the epic walking toward each other movie sort of way on the tarmac. We briefed, and got the plane running.
A detailed runup showed the right mag had substantially fouled. Restoring acceptance performance was difficult and took several clearings. It is very unusual for a mag to foul so quickly after being used in normal flight, without much taxi’ing.
We departed to the north, dodging more airspace and an increasing volume of traffic. The flight out to Friday Harbor was pretty. John handled navigation because he had flown in the San Juans before. There was a LOT of traffic as we approached Friday Harbor, and one guy started clogging up the frequency asking for help with a GPS waypoint. It was ridiculous. I was getting stressed out.
The approach was questionable with gusty winds, and difficult visual cues (the runway is narrow and slopes noticeably). As I passed over the threshold, probably at 30 to 40 feet above ground, I was blown off the runway and twisted by the wind. Unable to recover, I initiated a go-around. At this point there was additional chatter of positioning traffic and I felt completely overwhelmed.
“I’m so scared” I told John. I think, more than scared, I was stressed. In an airplane there is no “time out” you can take. Whatever is coming at you, you have to take it and deal with it. John helped by calmly indicating that he had all the traffic managed and the radio, and I just needed to fly the approach. Second time around, I was having trouble setting up the approach but got it more stabilized, and we were able to land this time.
Braking hard, I could have made the first turn-off, only 1100 feet down the runway (wow the slope was in our favor for landing, so that’s why even with a questionable approach I landed so short). I didn’t feel any need to push the brakes as we had a lot of runway left and there was no one close in behind us. We easily made the next turn-off at 2200 feet.
We taxi’d to the fuel stand and refueled. Friday Harbor fuel is expensive, and Glacier only re-imburses at a fixed rate, so I took a hit on that one. John mentioned it seemed like bad practice, as it might encourage pilots to “push their fuel” hoping to complete the trip without refueling.
We found a parking spot and into town we went. Town is an easy walk and we looked around a bit and found a great restaurant with a view. It’s called Maloula’s Mediterranean and American Cuisine. I ordered an appetizer of spano and a main dish of falafel sandwich. John had a bacon cheeseburger. We relaxed and watched the ferries come and go.
Later, we toured the beach, and then headed back. There was a cool helicopter parked at the airport that took off while we were there. Preflighting the plane, I found fuel leaked out of the fuel overflow drain on the left wing. That can happen right after fueling, but this had been hours. What was happening?
Well, I’m irritated at myself for this, but here’s what happened. I mentioned the airport is sloped. Well the parking spot we chose put the left wing on the lower part and the right wing higher. I didn’t switch the fuel selector off of both, so the wings could passively cross-feed while sitting there. The higher wing fuel tank pushed on the lower wing fuel tank, which, since it had the drain, pushed the fuel right out and on the pavement. A sticking confirmed about two to three gallons had been lost from the right tank in the time we were in town. Morals of the story: if you’re going to fuel on arrival, instead of on departure, maybe don’t fill the tanks all the way to the brim. And if you’re parking on a slope, set the fuel selector to prevent crossfeed.
After waiting for someone blocking the parking area (ironically a guy from rents from John’s FBO, and John knew the guy), we taxi’d to depart. At this point the wind had shifted to behind 110 degrees, favoring runway 16. Runway 16 would also give us a downhill departure, which is favored. However, traffic was using runway 34 still, and it was heavy enough that I didn’t want to “rock the boat” (although, at some point, someone has to say, hey folks, let’s switch directions).
I taxi’d down to the departure end of 34, and assessed. We had a 5-7 knot tailwind. We had an uphill slope. We had 3000 feet of runway. This could be a challenging takeoff. So I elected to call it a short-field takeoff with flaps, even though the distance alone wouldn’t indicate that. We did a runup and again the right mag was royally fouled and it took a long time to clear it.
Departing FHR felt like the longest takeoff roll ever. I’m glad I elected for the short field technique.
We returned without incident to Renton. We sat on the deck at Proflight for a while and chatted about flying and life. I departed then, electing to perform the Boeing Field transition instead of backtracking down the valley. Very smart. From now on I will not go up or down the valley but only take the BFI transition out and in from Bremerton. It’s so much easier. I flew south, as the sun began to set, occasional quips from Seattle Approach (I was on flight following) directing aircraft. It was a lovely evening and an easy landing back at Olympia.
I told them the problems with the right mag. An instructor overheard and told me had had the same problem a number of times and the mechanic had looked, but nothing was found. He said he’ll ask the mechanic to look again.
Select photos:
The view from the restaurant:
Friday Harbor in the background:
Ferries and airplanes:
The islands:
A little desolate rock:
Downtown Bellevue:
Approach into Renton:
The plane:
John took the photos, they are online at his picasa album, I reproduce a few here.
First thing, from the top. I arrive at Glacier about 8:30. They are scheduled to open at 9 on Sunday, but sometimes don’t open until a little later. Immediately, a man approaches me and asks if he can drop off the sandwiches. I tell him I don’t work here, but while I’m talking to him, a Glacier guy drives up. They open early for the corporate jet that will be departing. Possibly good news, although corporate jets take a lot of tlc from the staff and often make getting out of there a long process.
I let the guy I know I’ll need 8ZT out of the hanger, because I don’t see it on the flight line. This will no doubt introduce a delay. I have no idea. After taking care of the corporate jet, he wanders out to the hanger, then back. The plane is not there. He suspects it’s down at another hanger. By this time a second employee has arrived, so the first guy sends the second guy to take a tow, go down to the other hanger, and retrieve the plane. The uncertainty in their voices make me nervous.
Shortly thereafter I see the second driving the tug back. No airplane. I tell the first guy, working behind the counter, “He’s coming back empty handed” This quickly starts an all out search: the airplane is missing.
I call John to keep him appraised of the situation. Soon the airplane is found and its fueled and ready to go. So hey ho and away I go. The conditions are quite turbulent, and I’m bouncing around like crazy trying to navigate the busy and complicated south Seattle airspace. To make matters worse, I notice that the engine has developed a regular RPM fluctuation and accompanying noise. It’s not serious enough to abort the flight, but it needs to be watched. I decide that before departing Renton a detailed runup will be done. I had had some trouble with the right mag in Olympia, but didn’t think much of it.
Landing in Renton is fairly straightforward, although there is a big blast wall at the south end of the runway to fly over, which is a little weird. Also, I was unfamiliar with the reporting points, but the controllers were very helpful. After landing, I went toward a sign “Proflight” which is where John was supposed to be.
Turns out the Proflight folks have two buildings. I parked at the wrong one and had half a mile hike to find John. We met in the epic walking toward each other movie sort of way on the tarmac. We briefed, and got the plane running.
A detailed runup showed the right mag had substantially fouled. Restoring acceptance performance was difficult and took several clearings. It is very unusual for a mag to foul so quickly after being used in normal flight, without much taxi’ing.
We departed to the north, dodging more airspace and an increasing volume of traffic. The flight out to Friday Harbor was pretty. John handled navigation because he had flown in the San Juans before. There was a LOT of traffic as we approached Friday Harbor, and one guy started clogging up the frequency asking for help with a GPS waypoint. It was ridiculous. I was getting stressed out.
The approach was questionable with gusty winds, and difficult visual cues (the runway is narrow and slopes noticeably). As I passed over the threshold, probably at 30 to 40 feet above ground, I was blown off the runway and twisted by the wind. Unable to recover, I initiated a go-around. At this point there was additional chatter of positioning traffic and I felt completely overwhelmed.
“I’m so scared” I told John. I think, more than scared, I was stressed. In an airplane there is no “time out” you can take. Whatever is coming at you, you have to take it and deal with it. John helped by calmly indicating that he had all the traffic managed and the radio, and I just needed to fly the approach. Second time around, I was having trouble setting up the approach but got it more stabilized, and we were able to land this time.
Braking hard, I could have made the first turn-off, only 1100 feet down the runway (wow the slope was in our favor for landing, so that’s why even with a questionable approach I landed so short). I didn’t feel any need to push the brakes as we had a lot of runway left and there was no one close in behind us. We easily made the next turn-off at 2200 feet.
We taxi’d to the fuel stand and refueled. Friday Harbor fuel is expensive, and Glacier only re-imburses at a fixed rate, so I took a hit on that one. John mentioned it seemed like bad practice, as it might encourage pilots to “push their fuel” hoping to complete the trip without refueling.
We found a parking spot and into town we went. Town is an easy walk and we looked around a bit and found a great restaurant with a view. It’s called Maloula’s Mediterranean and American Cuisine. I ordered an appetizer of spano and a main dish of falafel sandwich. John had a bacon cheeseburger. We relaxed and watched the ferries come and go.
Later, we toured the beach, and then headed back. There was a cool helicopter parked at the airport that took off while we were there. Preflighting the plane, I found fuel leaked out of the fuel overflow drain on the left wing. That can happen right after fueling, but this had been hours. What was happening?
Well, I’m irritated at myself for this, but here’s what happened. I mentioned the airport is sloped. Well the parking spot we chose put the left wing on the lower part and the right wing higher. I didn’t switch the fuel selector off of both, so the wings could passively cross-feed while sitting there. The higher wing fuel tank pushed on the lower wing fuel tank, which, since it had the drain, pushed the fuel right out and on the pavement. A sticking confirmed about two to three gallons had been lost from the right tank in the time we were in town. Morals of the story: if you’re going to fuel on arrival, instead of on departure, maybe don’t fill the tanks all the way to the brim. And if you’re parking on a slope, set the fuel selector to prevent crossfeed.
After waiting for someone blocking the parking area (ironically a guy from rents from John’s FBO, and John knew the guy), we taxi’d to depart. At this point the wind had shifted to behind 110 degrees, favoring runway 16. Runway 16 would also give us a downhill departure, which is favored. However, traffic was using runway 34 still, and it was heavy enough that I didn’t want to “rock the boat” (although, at some point, someone has to say, hey folks, let’s switch directions).
I taxi’d down to the departure end of 34, and assessed. We had a 5-7 knot tailwind. We had an uphill slope. We had 3000 feet of runway. This could be a challenging takeoff. So I elected to call it a short-field takeoff with flaps, even though the distance alone wouldn’t indicate that. We did a runup and again the right mag was royally fouled and it took a long time to clear it.
Departing FHR felt like the longest takeoff roll ever. I’m glad I elected for the short field technique.
We returned without incident to Renton. We sat on the deck at Proflight for a while and chatted about flying and life. I departed then, electing to perform the Boeing Field transition instead of backtracking down the valley. Very smart. From now on I will not go up or down the valley but only take the BFI transition out and in from Bremerton. It’s so much easier. I flew south, as the sun began to set, occasional quips from Seattle Approach (I was on flight following) directing aircraft. It was a lovely evening and an easy landing back at Olympia.
I told them the problems with the right mag. An instructor overheard and told me had had the same problem a number of times and the mechanic had looked, but nothing was found. He said he’ll ask the mechanic to look again.
Select photos:
The view from the restaurant:
Friday Harbor in the background:
Ferries and airplanes:
The islands:
A little desolate rock:
Downtown Bellevue:
Approach into Renton:
The plane:
| New Front Siding |
In just two days start to finish Patrick and his crew replaced the front siding, removed the ramp and installed some steps. (A step, I suppose).
all photos
The old siding comes off. You can see the water stains on the moisture guard caused by the 25 years of aging angled cedar siding.
And just like that the new HardiPlank starts going on:
And the ramp comes out:
This old rotted board? Out.
Cover the windows and paint it:
The new steps down:
The finished product:
all photos
The old siding comes off. You can see the water stains on the moisture guard caused by the 25 years of aging angled cedar siding.
And just like that the new HardiPlank starts going on:
And the ramp comes out:
This old rotted board? Out.
Cover the windows and paint it:
The new steps down:
The finished product:
|
| Arlington Air Show |
Went up with John, Katy, and Nic to the last day of the Arlington Air show. Because we just caught the very tail end, many displays were already gone, so there was a lot less to see this year. On the upside, we got to see some cool vehicles moving out which, if you came mid-stream, you’d only see on static display.
all photos
Some photos:
This plane was there last year, and we took this same silly picture last year. So we decided to make it a tradition.
Some videos:
This crazy four engine plane caught our attention parked on the way in and we were there when it left too.
Some kind of crazy flying boat. I guess they taxi with the doors open.
A lot of these military vehicles on display still move on their own power. Here they are positioning the tank to be loaded onto a trailer. We saw the tank on the trailer later on the freeway.
The tank was carefully driven onto a semi trailer.
Later:
all photos
Some photos:
This plane was there last year, and we took this same silly picture last year. So we decided to make it a tradition.
Some videos:
This crazy four engine plane caught our attention parked on the way in and we were there when it left too.
Some kind of crazy flying boat. I guess they taxi with the doors open.
A lot of these military vehicles on display still move on their own power. Here they are positioning the tank to be loaded onto a trailer. We saw the tank on the trailer later on the freeway.
The tank was carefully driven onto a semi trailer.
Later:
|
| A trio of flights |
From last weekend.
Friday: Jeff joined us and we flew to Hoquiam. Ceiling was low (2,500), so that was interesting. We took the southern pass around the hills. At hoquiam, we had a hot chocolate and then walked the boardwalk. Returning, the ceiling was still low. I wanted to take a peek at the northern pass - it was ok, so we went north and did a touch-and-go at Tacoma Narrows.
Saturday: Lisa and I flew to Corvallis (150 nm), the longest X-C I’ve flown. The way down was bumpy and the Portland area heavy with traffic, especially the obnoxious kind. We started out low due to ceiling but then the ceiling broke and we were able to climb a little. The original plan took us over downtown Portland but we didn’t have to do that. We spent a few hours in Corvallis helping Lindsay pack, and then back we went.
Fueling the airplane was a challenge. I have participated but not lead fueling before. It was stressful but we got 'er done.
With clear skies for the return, we cruised higher and had smoother air. We did have to descend in the Portland area for some clouds. Traffic wasn’t as bad and we made decent time back to Olympia. Still an hour and a half each way in the airplane is a while to be in such a cramped space.
Sunday: John and Nic arrived in Olympia by plane to pick me up. We then flew to Astoria via Kelso and the Columbia. At Astoria, found a very bored airline rep (two flights a day, and she worked all day), and we decided to walk (2 miles) into town. It was a fun trip. The plane John flies has very comfortable seats. We then returned to Olympia, noting what appeared to lenticular roll clouds over the hills, but experienced only minor turbulence.
Friday: Jeff joined us and we flew to Hoquiam. Ceiling was low (2,500), so that was interesting. We took the southern pass around the hills. At hoquiam, we had a hot chocolate and then walked the boardwalk. Returning, the ceiling was still low. I wanted to take a peek at the northern pass - it was ok, so we went north and did a touch-and-go at Tacoma Narrows.
Saturday: Lisa and I flew to Corvallis (150 nm), the longest X-C I’ve flown. The way down was bumpy and the Portland area heavy with traffic, especially the obnoxious kind. We started out low due to ceiling but then the ceiling broke and we were able to climb a little. The original plan took us over downtown Portland but we didn’t have to do that. We spent a few hours in Corvallis helping Lindsay pack, and then back we went.
Fueling the airplane was a challenge. I have participated but not lead fueling before. It was stressful but we got 'er done.
With clear skies for the return, we cruised higher and had smoother air. We did have to descend in the Portland area for some clouds. Traffic wasn’t as bad and we made decent time back to Olympia. Still an hour and a half each way in the airplane is a while to be in such a cramped space.
Sunday: John and Nic arrived in Olympia by plane to pick me up. We then flew to Astoria via Kelso and the Columbia. At Astoria, found a very bored airline rep (two flights a day, and she worked all day), and we decided to walk (2 miles) into town. It was a fun trip. The plane John flies has very comfortable seats. We then returned to Olympia, noting what appeared to lenticular roll clouds over the hills, but experienced only minor turbulence.
