Flight to Florida -- The Cure for Winter

Dan wrote in news:0234b8dd-7e57-415a-bad8-
:

On Mar 31, 8:56 am, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

Why thank you. That means something coming from you!

Hey lots of aviators aren't all that bright!


Bright is as bright does and says.

That brings up an interesting phenomenon -- there seems to be a bias
towards intelligence -- but not too much.

We all know the "natural stick" who "get's it" quickly but never goes
past the physical skill.

Then there are the really smart ones tend to over-analyze and get
brain cramps.



Yeah, I know what you mean. It's a rare guy who has all the talents in
equal and generous proportion. I can count the ones I've met on one
hand. One stands out in particualr he was a relatively famous drummer
before he went flying!



Then there are the really, really dumb ones -- we should call them
"maxwells"

I don't like to nail myself down to one name for them.

Bertie

On Mar 31, 9:03 am, Denny wrote:

Flying VFR into marginal weather without the ability to climb into the
murk and call the nice folks on the dark room is really, really,
gambling with your life and those who are with you...
I have pushed Jay and others several times to get the IR...
XM will not bail someone out if the air suddenly turns opaque all
around you - and it can do that in just minutes...

Why would you settle for a level of training as a pilot that is
limited to "VFR only" unless you were staying near the patch or
limiting your trips and airplane choices?

Even if you never intend to fly IMC, the added precision, knowledge,
and overall fitting into the system that IFR provides is worth its
weight in gold.

Aviation is all about options. The IFR ticket adds a whole passel of
options.


Dan Mc

It's pretty clear to me that jay did have the big picture in his mind.
The XM kept him on top of it far better than getting updates on the
radio. XM is a too powerfull to ignore.

Will somebody make it their so reliance of data for decision making?
Sometimes yes and sometimes it will end badly. Jay wasn't doing that and
never threw out common sense and experience. His SM was just extra
information available whenever he wanted it.

Nice trip. I am going to have to git me one of them things one day.

John

Dan wrote:
On Mar 30, 9:51 pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:



XM weather gives you a weather picture that is absolutely
unparalleled in GA aircraft.


Yes, but...

You -- as a pilot -- should have that "picture" in your mind, and be
able to predict the changes, rates of changes, and the impact of those
changes on your flight.

XM will help you adjust that picture, and should help you acquire that
skill more rapidly IF you take the approach that YOU have to know, and
not rely on the XM.

The XM -- as GPS -- should simply confirm what you already know.

Curmudgeon lament follows:

I guess it's here -- a whole generation of pilots following magenta
lines who will now be looking to fly through green and avoid the red
and yellow.

We should call them Crayola-viators.

Dan Mc

Denny wrote:


A case in point:

weather was snotty and getting worse...

I had suggested we call it a
day and continue on Monday,

I let myself get pushed beyond my
good judgement..


And Jay doesn't go there.

Experience has taught me. If the winds are stronger than forcast, the wx
is moving faster than forcast too. And many others concerning the Lakes.

When you entered IMC, why not do a 180 degree turn? Why would you
think/wait for "atc to save you? I think here in Canada PP's are still
taught to do the 180 on instruments to maintain vfr. Least they succumb
in 178 seconds....

John

On Mar 31, 11:15 am, The Visitor
wrote:

When you entered IMC, why not do a 180 degree turn? Why would you
think/wait for "atc to save you? I think here in Canada PP's are still
taught to do the 180 on instruments to maintain vfr. Least they succumb
in 178 seconds....

John

US Student pilots are required to have 3 hours "under the hood" before
the PPL practical.

This is not meant to imply instrument proficiency, but rather to
provide the minimal expertise required to extricate from an
inadvertent encounter with IMC.

In the old Bonanza manuals, they recommended that a VFR pilot do a 180
using only rudder, using aileron to limit to no more than 15 degree
bank, to fly out of IMC.

The only problem with the current training requirement is that it
really doesn't prepare a VFR-only pilot for a real encounter with IMC.

Such conditions do more than all the preaching in the world to
convince them how absolutely disoriented they can get in a very short
time. The hood simply doesn't provide the disorienting cues that being
in the clouds does.

My strong recommendation is for every CFI to file IFR on a cruddy day
for one short XC and let his/her charge see what IMC is all about.

Hopefully you'll encourage him/her to continue on for the Instrument
rating, but at the very least the aspiring pilot will realize "this
ain't for me" at his/her current skill/knowledge level.

Dan Mc

On Mar 29, 9:59 am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
6 days, 16.5 hours of flying, 2500 miles, all VFR. The perfect escape from a
brutal Iowa winter!

Here are few PIREPS from the journey:

- Thanks to great weather and a nice tailwind, I climbed to 5500 feet,
leveled out -- and never changed course or altitude again till we touched
down 4.8 hours later. We could easily have made Florida in five hours
non-stop, a new record for us.

- Following Jim Burns' advice, we stopped short in Bay-Minett, Alabama for
fuel. This is a WONDERFUL place to stop, with a great FBO, incredibly
helpful and friendly people, reasonably priced MOGAS (thank God!), and nice
long runways. Tanking up there saved us over $100 compared to Pensacola
fuel prices.

- Pensacola has a nice airport, but I'm really glad we stopped short in
Bay-Minett to buy fuel. The folks in Pensacola barely looked up from their
paper, didn't have a line-guy tell us where to park, didn't move a muscle to
help us carry a ton of luggage (or offer a cart), didn't tie us down, and
generally regarded us as a somewhat amusing nuisance on their ramp. We won't
return.

- The Naval Aviation Museum at the Pensacola Naval Air Station is fantastic.
The fact that the Navy moved the old Cubi Bar from our now-abandoned Subic
Bay Naval Base in the Philippines -- and I mean EVERYTHING, from the
squadron plaques right down to the barstools -- made it all the better. This
museum was the last one of our "must-see-before-we die" aviation museums in
the US -- now we have to start on Europe.

- St. Petersburg's downtown airport, Albert Whittig, is every bit as cool as
Meigs Field in Chicago was! Landing on that little 2800 foot by 100 foot
wide runway, I was surprised to see SAILBOATS at the end of the runway! And,
yes, they were in the water. Precision is rewarded.

- St. Pete's Beach, on a little barrier island in the Gulf, just off-shore
from St. Petersburg, is an outstanding place to recover from winter. I
wouldn't want to live there, but miles of white sand beach and mid-80s sure
felt good.

- Thanks to Jim, who's as Irish as they come, we managed to find not one
but TWO great Irish pubs (one in Pensacola, one in St. Pete) where we could
celebrate St. Patty's day, his birthday, and their wedding anniversary.
Another great use for the internet!

- Muscle Shoals, AL is always a nice place to stop for fuel. Great,
under-utilized facility, nice people, relatively cheap fuel. We always stop
there on our way back from Florida.

- Spirit of St. Louis has a nice airport, and the Jet Corp FBO is extremely
nice -- but they are used to the jet crowd. We paid $5.20 per gallon for
100LL! Next time, we won't simply taxi into the closest FBO when there are
several to choose from. (We knew when we saw the *free* Starbucks coffee
and individually custom wrapped, fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies that we
were in for a world of hurt -- but it sure was a nice place.)

- The flooding in Missouri was incredible. After flying over a "normal"
Mississippi River one day, and then (just 5 days later) flying over after
15" of rain, the difference was amazing. We saw many isolated farmhouses,
and lots of Coast Guard helicopter performing rescue work. (They were
staging out of KSUS)

- If you've never been to City Museum in St. Louis, make plans now. This
was our third visit, and we always leave wanting more. It's an
indescribable place, sorta like a museum on acid -- but where else would
they stick an old LearJet on a four story pole, and then weld up re-bar
coils to let kids (and us bigger kids) safely climb up to it?

Florida ain't cheap, but, boy did it feel good to hit the beach for a day or
two. We made it down in record time (thanks to our 84 gallon fuel load) and
truly enjoyed a few days away from the late-winter Midwest.

Click to view pix from our flight:

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/2008_florida_trip.htm

Blue skies!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Your son didn't go with you? did you make him stay home and tend the
hotel, or did he just take all the family pictures?

On Mar 31, 3:43 pm, John Smith wrote:

Dan wrote:
I guess it's here -- a whole generation of pilots following magenta
lines who will now be looking to fly through green and avoid the red
and yellow.

Interesting you should say that.
When The Little French Girl went through training with the airline she
now flys for, one of the instructors referred to the newest crop of GA
pilots as "children of the magenta".

Yikes.

On Mar 31, 4:13 pm, John Smith wrote:

Dan, have you tried to find the lifted-index page on any of the weather
websites recently?

I find this useful: http://adds.aviationweather.gov/convection/java/

On Mar 31, 4:03 pm, John Smith wrote:

I can argue both sides of the coin.

If you have learned to recognize forming cloud patterns and use ATC for
reports ahead of you along your route of flight, you can make some sound
decisions. But, you have to know how to read the clouds, something that
requires experience.


Thus you agree with my earlier post, "XM will help you adjust that
picture, and should help you acquire that
skill more rapidly IF you take the approach that YOU have to know, and
not rely on the XM."

Jay seems to be arguing (at least he appears to be) that XM *replaces*
this ability.


Dan Mc

On Mar 31, 4:17 pm, John Smith wrote:
In article
,

Dan wrote:
Then there are the really, really dumb ones -- we should call them
"maxwells"

I hope you aren't inferring to James Clerk Maxwell?
I am still in awe of everything can be done with his equations.

Nope, and not Maxwell Smart, either.