Dan's Landing » Flying

One of the most frustrating ATC exchanges I have heard

Danny — Thu, 27 May 2010 03:47:13 +0000

Let me set it up for you: Swiss air 1311 experience bird strike after take off and declares an emergency. Russian ATC is seemingly oblivious at how to handle an emergency and makes a stressful situation even more so by pestering the pilots for unnecessary information. Once on the ground, engines shut down, the pilot asks for an inspection from the fire crews and a tow. The finale is the greatest though:

1311: “Did you contact our company?”

ATC: “I don’t have contact information for your company. In any case, what would you like me to tell them?”

I must warn you, the facepalm level is high in this video:

The following is a dedication to the ATC people involved in this emergency:

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Cirrus crash near Buttonville, Ontario (CYKZ)

Danny — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:11:00 +0000

A sad event transpired today: an airplane crashed in Markham after taking off from Buttonville Municipal Airport (CYKZ).

Here are some news reports about the crash:

Here is the aftermath

My condolences go out to the families of the victims.

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Winds Aloft Calculation

Danny — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:05:00 +0000

A commenter on a post regarding the PPL tests had trouble with the following question:

The average wind applicable to a direct flight from Winnipeg (CYWG) to Brandon (CYBR) at 5,500 ft would be
(1) 290°M at 30 kt.
(2) 290°T at 30 kt.
(3) 310°M at 31 kt.
(4) 310°T at 31 kt.

FDCN CWAO 061920
ISSUED 1200Z 07 FEB 2007 FOR USE 6-17Z

3000 6000 9000 12000 18000 24000

YWG 2825 2728-07 2932-10 2935-15 2939-26 2841-38

YBR 3030 3132-06 3133-10 3135-15 3041-28 2948-40

YYQ 3529 3428-13 3229-14 3130-19 3032-32 2733-42

YYL 3327 3435-10 3338-14 3337-19 3136-31 3038-44

He got as far as interpolating the wind speeds and directions at 4,500 feet by averaging the respective values but did not know how to proceed after that. Here is how I solved it:

The pertinent information is as follows:

	3000	6000
YWG	2825	2728-07
YBR	3030	3132-06

Between 6,000’ and 3,000’ there is a difference of 3,000’. The altitude required is 5,500’ which is 2,500’ above 3,000’ (or 500’ below 6,000’ depending how you look at it. For the purposes of this example I will be using the 2,500’). There are two steps to this problem:

Find wind speed and direction at the required altitude at the respective airports.
Average them to find the the average wind.

Step 1: Finding wind speed and direction at the respective airports

I will show you the calculation for YWG. Follow the same steps to find the values at YBR.

Wind Direction Adjustment = (270 – 280) * 2500 / 3000 = – 8.333…
Wind Speed Adjustment = (28 – 25) * 2500 / 3000 = 2.5

Wind Direction = 280 + –8.333… = 271°
Wind Speed = 25 + 2.5 = 27.5 kt

At YBR the wind direction would be 308° and wind speed would be 32 kt.

Explanation: Finding the wind at non-reported levels is simply a matter of properly interpolating the information you are provided. In this case I used a weighted average to give me the values I needed. One thing to keep in mind with this calculation is that order is important. The order I followed was going from 6,000’ (I took the values here) to 3,000’ (subtracted these values) then back up to 5,500’ (multiplied by the weight, 2,500/3,000 and added to the values at 3,000’).

Another way to think about it is you will be going 2,500 / 3,000 = 83% of the way from 3,000’ to 6,000’ so you add 83% of the difference between measurements at the different altitudes to the values at the lower altitude (or you subtract 17% of the difference from the values at the higher altitude).

Step 2: Average wind

Average wind direction = (308 + 271) / 2 = 289.5
Average wind speed = (32 + 27.5) / 2 = 29.75

With rounding, the applicable wind is from 290 at 30 kts. Keeping in mind that the FD reports directions in degrees TRUE leads to the correct answer being (2) 290°T at 30 kt.

Notice that these calculations assume the change from one altitude to another is linear which may not always be the case.

How would you have solved it? Leave your reply in the comments!

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The view from the control tower

2010 Canadian Aviation Expo recap

Danny — Mon, 24 May 2010 20:22:00 +0000

The 2010 Canadian Aviation Expo took place during the weekend of May 1st to 2nd. I had the chance to attend again this year but I wasn’t as impressed with it as I was last year.

The usual suspects were all there:

Cessna with its Caravan, 172 and Citation Mustang
Diamond with its DA40, DA42 and D-JET
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum with all of its heritage CAF airplanes

Attendance was much smaller than last year with only a few airplanes parked outside of the museum. As well, there were not many people walking around taking in the exhibits.

The one participant that grabbed my attention was Air Safaris International which organize flying trips around Australia and more recently introduced a tour of Eastern Canada. The tours look like a great adventure and someone has actually made a movie about taking part in one of them. It’s definitely something I’d like to try when I get some time and some money. Check them out at http://www.airsafarisint.com/.

Does anyone know if there is something similar to these tours somewhere closer?

Here are some pictures I took at the aviation expo. Enjoy!

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Solo Short Cross Country

Danny — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:11:00 +0000

I flew my short cross country solo back in February during reading week. It was a cold, overcast day with quite a bit of snow on the ground. Having not flown for over two weeks, the first flight of the day was a checkout with Ashley making sure I haven’t forgotten how to fly.

As soon as the check out was complete and we were down I set to getting the weather and doing all the other final flight planning things which needed to be taken care of. The waypoints on this flight were a bit different than on my dual cross country. The Brantford to Tillsonburg leg was still the same however I did not go to Kitchener-Waterloo. Instead, from Tillsonburg I took off and headed for the south end of Cambridge, the red dot on the map below.

The flight preparation complete, I handed it off to Mark, the manager of the airport and an instructor at Brantford to look over while I was walking around the plane. I headed outside, made sure GINS was all ready to go: fuel tanks full, oil good, brakes and tires looking good, etc. Mark cleared me to fly and reassured me that I will be in radio range of CYFD the whole time.

I took off from runway 29, made a right turn to climb to altitude then came over the airport for the set heading point and off to Tillsonburg I went. The whole way there I was trying to match what was on the ground to what I was seeing on the ground. This worked well until I approached CNQ4 and realized I could not find the airport yet again. I tuned the Tillsonburg frequency and there was a lone aircraft broadcasting as it landed full stop. I frantically searched the ground and for an airport but I could not for the life of me find it. I maintained cruise altitude (the higher you are, the better your field of vision). As I was beginning to lose hope and considering turning back to Brantford I gave it one more shot. Through the windscreen I could see a fairly large city at my 10 o’clock. Looking at the map, the only city it could be was Tillsonburg so drawing a line to approximately where I was put me…right on top of the airport. Looking down, beneath GINS’s main gear I could see Tillsonburg airport gliding below me. I turned toward the city, flew an appropriate distance away then turned around, made the radio calls needed and proceeded with an uneventful touch and go.

You can see my flight path on the map below. This was recorded by my iPhone (don’t worry it was stowed away in my flight bag and I didn’t take it out until I got back to the clubhouse).

As I took down the time I left Tillsonburg I realized it was getting close to 16:00 EST. I remembered seeing the plane booked at that time and there was no way I would make it to Cambridge and back to Brantford in time. I made a quick radio call to the Brantford Flying Club asking what they would like me to do: come back or continue with my cross country. It seems while I was flying the booking at 16:00 was cancelled so I had the airplane for the rest of the day. “Brantford Unicom, GINS, roger. See you in half an hour,” I said and continued on to Cambridge. The second and third legs of the cross country were uneventful. Finding the water tower in Cambridge was straight forward and coming back to Brantford posed no challenges.

All in all it was a fun flight and I was happy that I didn’t lose myself and give in to frustration when I wasn’t able to find CNQ4. Map reading is a skill I will continue to practice and improve.

Next up: diversions and the long cross country!

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Canadian Aviation Expo

Danny — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:03:00 +0000

The Canadian Aviation Expo is taking place this weekend (May 1st and 2nd) at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. I had a great time at last year’s expo and I plan to attend this year’s too. I’m hoping to get a chance to interview some people for the podcast I am working on. If you can make it out, it’s a great time! If not, enjoy the pictures I took last year:

Pictures taken at the 2009 Canadian Aviation Expo

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Short Cross Country (CYFD, CNQ4, CYKF) – Dual

Danny — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:37:00 +0000

I have awaited the cross country portion of my flight training for a very long time. The idea of flying from place to place on a map rather than the usual “hey let’s fly to the practice area” lesson was really exciting to me. There is something fulfilling in actually flying to another airport rather than just doing flight planning for the fun of it (am I the only one that does this?).

The flight was from Brantford (CYFD) to Tillsonburg (CNQ4) for a touch and go then off to Kitchener-Waterloo (CYKF) for a low approach then back home to CYFD.

I arrived at the airport a few hours early with most of my planning done (as much as one can do before the weather brief). I knew from previous experience that it would take me about an hour and a half to finish up so I gave myself plenty of extra time. Once done I handed my planning to Shea and then went to pre-flight the airplane (C-GINS if you’re wondering). Upon returning to the warm embrace of the flying club’s building, Shea and I sat down to go over my planning. Seems I had chosen the flight altitudes based on true headings and not magnetic, oops! Not a big issue but still something I will remember for next time.

We took off and headed towards Tillsonburg. My excitement was mounting giving myself a mental “high-five” each time I matched a feature on the map to one on the ground and vice-versa. It looks nothing like the map from up there! As we passed Norwich and approached CNQ4 my excitement turned into a sort of frustration: I could not for the life of me find the airport. Shea had to point it out three times before I finally saw it. Granted everything was covered in snow and not as green as in the picture below.

We did our touch and go and headed north-east to CYKF. It was easier to find, mostly because of the 401 running very close to it. We had to orbit for about 10 minutes before we were allowed in the control zone. It being a nice day everyone was out flying, especially the kids from the Waterloo-Wellington Flight Centre. The controller was very nice and patient with me as she pointed out numerous landmarks which would have been known to someone from they city but to which I had to respond “Negative, GINS is unfamiliar with the area.” (Go flight sim terminology go!). After our low approach we headed back to CYFD, landed safely and completed the flight. Another one for the books!

Overall the cross country exceeded my expectations in terms of awesomeness. I came back with a feeling of great accomplishment: this was the flight I had to postpone for more than a year and now here it was, complete. Map reading and recognizing landmarks in non-populated areas was a real challenge and it is one that I will face for a few more flights. My previous experience with ATC and in a control zone while flying at CYHM really came in handy during this flight. I can see how those who have trained exclusively at an uncontrolled airport could be overwhelmed by the sudden need to fly and follow ATC directions.

All in all it was a great flight! Next up, the solo cross country!

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Don’t forget to claim your flight training on your taxes

Danny — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:16:00 +0000

As I mentioned last year, flight training can be claimed on your taxes by filling out CRA’s “TL11B Tuition, Education, and Textbook Amounts Certificate – Flying School or Club” form. The 2009 form is now available for download so grab it, fill it out and get some of that money back.

Personally I received about a quarter of the amount back last year and I plan on claiming the flight training I did in 2009 as well. Read my previous post on the subject for an explanation of the form.

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Videos from Ask a Flight Instructor

Danny — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:41:29 +0000

Ask a Flight Instructor is a site with great answers to some great aviation related questions. There is a post on VFR equipment required which mentions the TOMATO AFLAMES acronym that should help you to remember the equipment you need.

Ask a Flight Instructor also features a videos section with some flight training videos as well as “best practices” and “did you know” features. It is definitely worth a look at as the videos are quite enjoyable. While you’re there, feel free to ask them anything that comes to mind!

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Tragic video of the midair collision in New York city

Danny — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:29:43 +0000

By now you have probably heard of the tragic crash between a helicopter and a Piper Saratoga over the Hudson river which killed nine people. There were some images released at first:

Now a video has surfaced on and I’ve included it below. Note that it also contains a commentary by the anchor and a guest.

Note: It is a disturbing video of the last moments of the airplane and the helicopter. Hopefully we can learn what happened and how to avoid this kind of tragedy in the future.

	3000	6000	9000	12000	18000	24000
YWG	2825	2728-07	2932-10	2935-15	2939-26	2841-38
YBR	3030	3132-06	3133-10	3135-15	3041-28	2948-40
YYQ	3529	3428-13	3229-14	3130-19	3032-32	2733-42
YYL	3327	3435-10	3338-14	3337-19	3136-31	3038-44