Monday, January 16, 2006

Got Wind?


The winter season in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA and WVA provides an awesome opportunity to not fly very much at all. A low pressure system moved through the region Friday and partially on Saturday. It brought warmer temps and lower celings. The freezing level(which is usually around sfc-2000) was way up around 9000 ft msl. Might be a good chance to work on some instrument skills if I had some time. So, my schedule was set for the weekend. Two students saturday, one on Sunday. Saturday morning I was set to work on CFII stuff in the clouds, but that nice warm low pressure system decided it was time to push through. As is typical with all cold front passages, the wind on the leading edge and back side is usually pretty viscious. The isobars are packed so tightly together that the winds are just ripping apart anyone who dares to fly. This is a look at the metar for KJYO-Leesburg airport for Sunday the 16th. These are just the morning, so as the day warmed you can imagine how bad they got. The highlighted portion shows the wind direction, followed by wind speed in knots.
KJYO 151500Z AUTO 30024G35KT 10SM CLR M01/M11 A2984 RMK AO2
KJYO 151440Z AUTO 29028G39KT 10SM CLR M02/M11 A2985 RMK AO2
KJYO 151420Z AUTO 30028G34KT 10SM CLR M02/M10 A2985 RMK AO2
KJYO 151400Z AUTO 29027G35KT 10SM CLR M02/M11 A2984 RMK AO2
KJYO 151340Z AUTO 30026G37KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2983 RMK AO2
KJYO 151320Z AUTO 29030G36KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2983 RMK AO2
KJYO 151300Z AUTO 30024G34KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2982 RMK AO2
KJYO 151240Z AUTO 29025G36KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2980 RMK AO2
KJYO 151220Z AUTO 29025G38KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2979 RMK AO2
KJYO 151200Z AUTO 29033G41KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2977 RMK AO2
KJYO 151140Z AUTO 29027G34KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2977 RMk

Todays prog chart shows that low system moving off to the northeast in its typical fashion. There are still some remnants of the tightly knot isobars that rocked us.

There were a few small planes that dared to takeoff and land this past weekend. We watched one cessna 172 come in to land, he had what looked like full aileron and rudder inputs into the wind, and he touched down, rode a wheely, lifted off again at least three times. Some pilots like to say that wind is alright..."im good enough to handle the wind, etc"...it must be an ego thing. its one thing if you are flying a large jet with someone paying you to get them there, but to rent a cessna for an hour to joyride in an airmet for moderate turbulence and a viscious x-wind just doesnt make sense. anyways, today is much nicer and people are flying again. I dont think I could take another day of that bone-chilling wind.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Is my headset broken?

Sunny Saturday. Weather looks great for a VFR flight in one of the old 172s from Leesburg to BVI--just north of Pittsburgh to pick up a friend. Well, as luck would have it snow showers, ice, low vis, and ceilings enroute prevented me from departing. So, sitting at home I thought of my options. I really didnt want to waste the gorgeous weather we were experiencing at my home airport, and i had the plane reserved, so i decided to head out for an hour, put my ipod in my ear and shoot some approaches from the right seat since i am currently working in the CFII. I walk into the flight school and find a middle aged gentleman standing at the desk looking lost, but noone was at the desk to greet him. I walked over and introduced myself. As it turned out, he had just moved to northern VA and was looking for a flight school to finish his private pilot at. He was also looking to go flying. So, I wasnt scheduled for anything other than my own joy ride, and offered to take him up. Great, I thought. Someone to pay for my flight. So we departed the ADIZ and headed west towards KOKV-Winchester regional where I was to have him do a few landings and learn the area. Once outside the ADIZ we set up for steep turns....looked great. Then into slow flight and a power off stall. On recovery I noticed his flaps were sluggish. Then almost simultaneously my headset got weird. I thought maybe it was breaking on me(lightspeed headest too). then I noticed the radio stack was dead and the intercom was on its way out. The ammeter showed a large discharge. We were experiencing electrical failure. Returning to leesburg was not an option since the ADIZ notam states that two way radio comm must be established with Potomac Tracon and a discrete transponder code must be used. So, what to do? I took control of the airplane and had my new student run the emergency checklist. Nothing fixed the problem.......so time to land. I knew the area so it was no problem. except for the crosswind at winchester. this would be a test of my skills. I knew from my preflight weather briefing that winds were from the south, so we entered a 45 to the left downwind for runway 14. I flew a wider than normal pattern to give me a long final with a shallow descent. It worked beautifully. 75 mph all the way in, over the numbers into the sideslip, power to idle and the upwind wheel squeaked down followed by the downwind wheel and the nose. I stopped the airplane, taxied in and tied her down. We would be waiting for a few hours for a ride.

Whats ironic is that my DE on my PPL checkride in that same airplane simulated and electrical failure to show me what the overvolt light looks like and what the ammeter would look like. I got to do it for real with a student. Im sure he wont soon forget this lesson.

So, my first real emergency with a rather impromptu student, worked out for the best. I reacted like a CFI should, and kept calm in a mildly tense situation. Its all apart of the learning experience and is a reason why I think all aspiring pilots should instruct for at least a little while. And to think, I almost flew the same airplane to Pittsburgh in marginal weather, but that voice in the head said no. I can see why he said no now.