Purchasing an Airplane

A Marine buddy put me in touch with a former Air Force C-5 Galaxy pilot who's interested into purchasing a plane for himself. He wanted to know my experience, so here is the crux of it...

I own a 1966 Cessna 182 Skylane that I bought in 2011 (I learned to fly in 2010).

For starters, when looking for a plane, checkout Controller.com. It is one of the best ways to find a plane for sale. When purchasing a plane, obviously costs are one of the biggest issues.

Since I bought an older plane, it was one tenth the cost of a brand new plane from the factory (I then added in avionics to turn it into a glass cockpit panel).

You’ll want to know how many hours are on the engine since its last major overall to compare costs. For example, two of the same make/model planes for sale, with the same number of flight hours on the airframe, might cost very different amounts if one plane has 100 hours since its last major overall and the other has 1,700 hours since it last major overhaul. Piston engines typically last 1,800 – 2,100 hours before needing an overhaul. And pricing is straight forward. For example, a new engine might be worth $40,000, and at 1,000 hours, it would be worth $20,000, at 1,500 hours it would be worth $10,000, etc. (i.e. I’m figuring $10,000/500 hours of use).

Annual inspections will be your biggest cost. Over the years, my annual inspections have run anywhere from about $2,500 to just over $20,000 when I had a cylinder overhauled and my propeller and windscreen replaced. Keep in mind with a twin engine plane, you’ll be paying close to 1.5x - 2x more for your annual inspections since two engines need to be inspected.

Ideally, you’ll want an aircraft that has all of its logbooks back to the beginning, when the plane shipped from the manufacture. This will tell you about issues and accidents. My plane was in two crashes/hard landings around 1988 and 1992 which have never been an issue for me. My opinion is if a plane was in an accident many years ago, and it’s been flying regularly since then, then all should be well. I would be very hesitant to buy a plane that was in an accident within the past couple years for fear of an unknown surprise.

Don’t forget about partial ownership, which is very common. Rather than purchasing the plane yourself, you could go in on it with 1 - 3 others and split the purchase costs and maintenance.

When I found the plane I wanted to buy, I took it to a maintenance shop to conduct a pre-sales inspection. A couple issues came out of that inspection which gave me the ability to further negotiate down the sales price.

After buying my plane, I had to pay use tax (sales tax) and an annual property tax. In San Diego, I pay about $550/year in property tax on the plane.

Surprisingly, insurance isn’t required for owning or operating an airplane as a private pilot (part 91). I got my insurance through AOPA and I pay about $1,500/year for a “smooth million” of insurance across the board (I’ve never needed it, so far).

These are some of my thoughts, off the top of my head.

California Pacific Airlines: Dead on Arrival

How brutal is this? After more than nine years, California Pacific Airlines "crashes" trying to get off the ground on its first day of operations. (Ok, it didn't really crash, but one of their planes did have an accident, days earlier.)

I thought I would be part of history when I booked my ticket for California Pacific Airlines's first flight, on their first day of operations, last Thursday, at Carlsbad's Palomar Airport. (This airport has a special place in my heart since it's where I learned to fly.) I had to be in San Jose by 2:30 PM, Thursday afternoon, for my speaking engagement. I booked CPA's 7 AM flight, wondering what I'd do with the extra few hours before my talk.

As I bellied up to the counter to check in, before 6 AM on Thursday, I was immediately told by one of the three ticket agents/flight attendants that my flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem. (I now wonder if it was related to their previous week's plane accident.) Then they told me they'd be happy to book me on the evening flight about 12 hours later. I told them that wouldn't work since I was returning that evening, also with CPA. 

I spoke to the agents both at ticketing and on their reservations phone line, all of whom were very pleasant, but they simply offered a refund. Mechanical problems, like this one, have happened to me, in the past, when United Airlines used to fly out of Carlsbad. When it did happen, United booked all of the passengers on new flights and provided car service to San Diego Airport, downtown. No such luck with CPA. They could have offered this, especially since it was their first day of operations. They also could have offered vouchers, ticket endorsements to fly on another airline, etc.

To put a finer point on the matter, I am writing this, a week after the cancelled flight, with no sign of the refund processing on my credit card (this was supposed to be handled Thursday morning). Perhaps soon? I also sent a direct, yet professional and respectful e-mail to CPA customer service which has gone unacknowledged. 

CPA Leadership MIA

One thing that struck me as odd was how quiet the Carlsbad airport terminal was, when I arrived. (CPA is the only scheduled airline flying out Carlsbad.) I wondered, on the drive to the airport, if CPA would have any banners, balloons, bagels, or coffee to celebrate their first day of operations. Instead, the pleasant CPA line employees were offered as cannon fodder for disgruntled passengers. Where was CPA's senior management or the board of directors to celebrate such a historic day? Where was Paul Hook, Mickey Bowman, Ted Valles, John Barkley, etc? Not a single executive was visible to apologize for failing to get off the ground on their first day. (The Union Tribune also noted the lack of fanfare for their first flight.)

Holding the Bag

So, where did that leave me? It left me with a 1,000 mile round trip drive, through LA rush hour traffic, to get to Silicon Valley. I've driven cross country about half a dozen times --- sometimes alone when I was in the Marines --- but this was the first time I spent 16 hours, driving 1,000 miles in a day. A new record for me.

By the time I returned home, it had been a 22 hour day, for me. This is the lesson I teach to others, about Apple:
Best possible customer experience.
What more can a company do to make the experience better for their customers (especially due to a company's shortcomings)?

If only CPA put as much care into their customers as I did with mine, requiring me to spend an unplanned 16 hours driving so I wouldn't cancel my commitment.

You cannot build a reputation on what you're going to do. Nine years in the making and CPA's customers were left worse off than if they never tried to get off the ground on that first day. At least that's exactly what my experience was and I think we can see the writing on the wall. I fully expect CPA to be tripping over themselves to make things better for their customers.

Communicating with ATC without Talking

The most direct way for a pilot to communicate with air traffic control (ATC) is by speaking to them over the radio. Sometimes, though, it's hard to get a word in, "edgewise," when ATC is busy speaking to many different aircraft in rapid succession. This can be an issue when a pilot is trying to establish initial contact.

It's not uncommon, under busy circumstances, to hear ATC tell a pilot, who is trying to establish initial contact, to call back later, perhaps in two or ten minutes. That's happened to me, a couple times, as I orbited the Del Mar Racetrack waiting for permission to enter the busy "bravo" airspace surrounding Miramar Airport and San Diego's Lindbergh Field.

Occasionally, there are times when I've established communications with ATC, but, due to their workload, I'm not receiving timely updates. The delays aren't a safety issue, but I often wonder if the controller has overlooked me or if I'm simply a lower priority.

The corporate pilot for QUALCOMM gave me a simple trick for getting the controller's attention. She told me to simply "ident" which causes my plane to flash on the controller's radar screen. Ident is short for "squawk identification." It's a signal sent from a plane's transponder to help a controller identify an aircraft's secondary radar (transponder) return. By asking a pilot to "squawk ident," the controller can ensure that the aircraft they're talking to matches the radar target they're looking at.

Airplane transponders send out codes that the pilot sets. The transponder code 1200 is the most common code when a pilot is flying VFR. If a pilot is flying under an instrument flight rules plan (IFR) then the controller will assign a specific code to an aircraft to track the callsign and aircraft type. 

ATC has established specific codes for special situations:
7500 Hijack
7600 Communications failure
7700 Emergency
7777 Military intercept

Simply hitting the ident button is a helpful way to get ATC's attention. I like simple tricks like this because they're effective yet not as brittle as an unbaked computer hack.

Tips for Getting Back into the Cockpit

Flying to Catalina.

One key thing I learned from Dave Winer about blogging is that its purpose is to narrate one's work. Whenever I type up a long "how to" e-mail, I realize that other's can probably use the info so I post it to my blog.

A classmate from the Naval Academy wrote me, today, saying that she wanted to get back into flying and she asked for my opinion. 

Here's my response...


Hello Melissa,

Great to hear from you.

Head-set, what type do you use? 

I used https://www.clarityaloft.com headset. It uses foam hearing aid plugs which provides excellent passive noise reduction (plus it doesn’t press against your glasses/sunglasses like traditional headsets). When I was learning to fly, a couple of my instructors were using headsets with active noise reduction (i.e. like Bose), but their batteries kept dying making the noice cancellation useless until they replaced the batteries.

If a helicopter uses the same two prong headset connector as a fixed wing plane then it should work.

Ipad? What are you using? Wi-fi, or the wifi plus cellular?

I always fly with my iPad using the ForeFlight app. It is phenomenal. It graphically shows TFRs, weather, etc. I have cellular so I can file a flight plan via ForeFlight  But cellular isn’t required. When you subscribe to the app, you can use it on two devices like an iPad and iPhone, so you could file your flight plane (VFR or IFR) via your iPhone.

You don’t need data connectivity when flying because ForeFlight downloads any VFR and IFR charts that you need, plus it’ll download the approach plates so you can see your position on an approach as well as on a taxi diagram. 

I have a Stratus receiver that I place above my panel and it relays NexRad weather and traffic to my iPad, plus Stratus has WAAS to augment GPS with accuracy down to one meter.

Kneeboard? Type you use?

I have a generic kneeboard that I bought at my flight school. Nothing special about that other than it has a bunch of handy stuff written on it like light signal codes for loss of communications, special transponder frequencies for emergencies, etc. 

Any sectionals or maps you recommend?

The FAA allows private pilots to use ForeFlight as an EFB (electronic flight bag) in lieu of paper maps/charts, A/FD, etc. Keep in mind, though, that technology can fail. I had that happen once, after I landed at an airport, so I pulled out my iPhone and used the taxi diagram on my iPhone to taxi. I still print out my approach plates and taxi diagrams and have them clipped to my yoke.

Anything else you can recommend to help get me back in the air?

I don’t use anything from Jeppesen only because, when ForeFlight first came out, they used FAA approach plates and charts. Now, ForeFlight offers Jepp, but what I’ve been using is great.

Of everything I mentioned, ForeFlight is the most important to me. You can probably download it and try it for free for a month or so to check it out. It’s amazing. It’s revolutionized cockpit resource management for the single pilot.

One other piece of gear that I love is my Brightline flight bag. It’s modularized to be taken apart, but I always fly with the entire bag. It holds my iPad, Clarity Aloft headset, Stratus receiver, clipboard, charts, flashlight, emergency hand held radio etc.

How’s that sound?

Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any more questions.

Cheers,

Joe

Air Traffic Control Center Tour

I took a tour of an air traffic control facility, this afternoon, and learned a few things from a controller's perspective. We couldn't take photos as we toured the actual floor of the air traffic control center, but we were allowed to snap pictures in the training center; they look almost identical.

1. There are three basic types of air traffic controllers, each of which is highly specialized: those who work in the towers at the airport, those who work in the "centers" that handle en route traffic, and approach/departure terminal controllers who handle traffic arriving and leaving the airspace outside of an airport. So, a center controller hands traffic over to a terminal controller who would then hand traffic off to a tower controller for landing at an airport. Simple concept, tricky execution, especially when there's a VFR pilot flying close to controlled airspace (like Class B) and not talking to any controllers, which is perfectly legal when flying VFR (i.e. not on a flight plan).

2. Air traffic controllers jokingly refer to jumpers (parachutists) as "meat rockets." (Parachutists don't show up on radar.)

3. For IFR pilots: It's rare that a controller will ask a private pilot to fly an "unpublished hold," especially on a VOR. In other words, it would be rare for a controller to tell a pilot, "Hold east of the Oceanside VORTAC on the 090 radial, left turns, maintain 5,000', expect further clearance 0+50." The controllers probably wouldn't know the exact phraseology, either, and VORs are going away in lieu of GPS. For private pilots in small (slow) planes, controllers would rather simply give a pilot vectors to fly a box rather than a racetrack (see last photo).

4. Everyone knows "Mayday. Mayday. Mayday," but no one seems to know or use "Pan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan." Mayday: Emergency (from the French, "m'aider" meaning "help me"). Pan: Urgent problem (from the French, "panne" meaning "breakdown" – think of it as Mayday lite). 🛬

Beautiful Danger

Yesterday's enthusiastic delegation from China

Yesterday, I gave a speaking engagement called The Apple Way. I usually give it in Cupertino to business people from China. But yesterday's group was close to 50 people, so I used another venue about 12 minutes from the Infinite Loop campus in San Jose. The core of the two hour presentation is about what makes Apple unique when it comes to design and marketing. 

My plan was to fly up on Wednesday, give the talk on Thursday morning, have lunch at Apple with a buddy, and then fly home Thursday afternoon. Everything worked out, except my flight back. The weather turned bad by the time I reached the southern part of California's Central Valley and I had to divert to Meadows Airport in Bakersfield. It was cloudy and raining and I was flying a few thousand feet above the freezing level. My small plane doesn't have ice protection like the big boys. I could see ice building up on my wing after flying through the clouds, which can quickly become dangerous. As ice builds up, it changes the shape of the airfoil and compromises the wing's aerodynamic lift.

At 11,000', the temperate was well below freezing

Air traffic control was very helpful in suggesting that I land at Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield since that airport had a precision approach. A precision approach guides a pilot into an airport when the runway can't be seen until only a couple hundred feet above the ground. This is accomplished by sending out a radio beacon that keeps the plane lined up with the runway and on the proper glide slope. This was the first time I've ever diverted, overnight, and it worked out nicely.

Once I landed, I needed to find a place to stay for the night. Airbnb to the rescue with a $36 room. But the weather's still too bad, today, so it looks like I'll be spending another night in Bakersfield.

To add to the inconvenience, I left my iPhone charging cable in the presentation classroom. Also, there are no restaurants within walking distance of my Airbnb. So, it was off to Walmart for food and a cable. The walk to Walmart was nice, but it started raining while I shopped. So, I "Lyfted" back to my Airbnb.

Hopefully, I'll fly out tomorrow. It's always something. But, better safe than sorry. In the mean time, I keep watching this beautiful danger: http://adjix.com/flying.mov

Flying vs. Driving

Flight planning, flight planning, and more flight planning.

When I learned to fly, I thought it would be like boating. Sure, I knew maintenance would be expensive, but I imagined jumping into my plane, at a moment's notice, and heading off into the wild blue yonder.

It turns out, while driving and boating can be relaxing, flying is a bit more stressful on a complex level. For starters, when flying, I have to always be "on," meaning highly attentive, lest I make a catastrophic mistake. Even when cruising on autopilot, I have to continually monitor the instruments while talking to air traffic controllers; and they're not patient if you miss their calls more than once or twice. Driving tends to be very linear, in a single direction. A driver maneuvers based on what's directly ahead. Rarely does a driver worry about what's coming from the sides, never mind above or below as is the case when flying through three dimensions. What's more is that most of the flying I do is to keep my skills and plane from getting rusty. I'd love to fly for leisure, every day, but that's not realistic.

A couple months ago, I noticed the big difference between flying and driving on a trip to Cupertino for a speaking engagement on Apple's design and marketing philosophies. My intent was to fly myself into San Jose Airport. I did my usual planning, the night before, and drove out to the airport at noon. As soon as I got out of my car I noticed it was eerily quiet; like the calm in the eye of a hurricane. Something didn't seem right since the airport, which is usually a whirlwind of activity, was too still. After a minute or two I heard several F/A-18s flying fast, low, and loud. I pulled up a digital chart (map) of the airport and saw that it was under temporary flight restrictions (TFR). I hand't noticed the pending TFR, the night before, which seemed odd. I called the airport operations manager and he confirmed my concerns. The airport had suspended operations while the Blue Angels practiced for the next day's airshow. He also mentioned that the TFR was a moving target since the times kept changing leading up to when it went into effect. The TFR began about 30 minutes before I arrived at the airport and it would be in effect for nearly six hours.

Buttoned up since I was driving instead of flying.

I took a few minutes to do some mental math as I sat in my car listening to the silence, pierced by the roar of jet engines. Flying commercial, on short notice, was prohibitively expensive. My next option was to wait until 5 PM, pick up my flight clearance, and then depart, along with many other flights. That would probably get me to Silicon Valley around 9 PM. My final option was to hit the road and drive for eight hours. That would get me to my destination around 8 PM. I chose to drive.

As I headed up the 5, I couldn't help but notice my immediate mental shift from being outwardly focused on flying to being inwardly focused on me, myself, and I as I daydreamed through LA traffic.

Biennial Flight Review

BFR ground review with pilot Debbie.

As a private pilot, I require a formal review (previously known as a BFR), every other year, by a certified flight instructor (CFI). The purpose of the flight review is to ensure a pilot is safe and competent to fly. The key tell is that the pilot stays ahead of the aircraft meaning they're prepared for what comes next. For example, when approaching an airport to land, the pilot should have already set up the ground frequencies so, after they taxi off the runway all they need to do is push a button, instead of looking up the ground control frequency, dialing it in, and switching over to it. Since private pilots, like myself, are not required to fly a minimum number of hours it means a private pilot could go almost two years without flying and still legally fly an airplane. After becoming a pilot, I was surprised how much flying I had to "force" myself to do so I felt comfortable at the controls. Commercial pilots, on the other hand, have more frequent checks mandated by the airline, so they're skills are fresh and spot-on.

Yesterday, I had a college classmate, who's also a CFI and commercial airline pilot, take a flight with me for my BFR. We spent time on the ground, going over the fundamentals of aviation and planning, before taking to the skies. She also shared with me the detailed, structured, environment of her daily life as a commercial pilot for United Airlines. Suffice to say, the processes and procedures of the airlines are thorough and detailed.

Passing by Scripps Pier on our way to Carlsbad.

When I first bought my plane, I was surprised how many fighter pilots and commercial pilots wanted to go flying with me. Cruising speed in my Cessna-182 is slower than a jet can typically fly without falling out of the sky. It turns out that these jet jockeys love the freedom (and low flying altitude) of a small, single engine plane. A commercial airline pilot has to file an instrument flight plan and stay exactly on course, or as an air traffic controller directs. While I do the same thing on my cross country flights, I usually find myself flying much shorter distances, in clear Southern California weather, using a less formal procedure known as visual flight rules (VFR). The difference between flying under instrument flight rules (IFR) and visual flight rules is the difference between standing in line at the DMV and walking, willy-nilly, through the mall. Just like in the mall, VFR literally uses the same procedure to prevent collisions: "See and avoid."

I'm happy to report I passed my BFR without any problems and even received a complement, "I like how methodical you fly and do your checklists!"

Too Perfect To Fly Casual

Today seemed like the perfect day to go flying, sunny and mid-70s. It turns out it was too perfect to fly casual.

It was unusual when I taxied up to the runway and there was only one plane ahead of me and none behind as I did my runup. I figured they'd be a lot of pilots looking to take advantage of today's weekend weather. But it turns out I was ahead of the rush as we departed on a 25 minute flight from Montgomery Field to Palomar Airport.

As I entered Palomar Airport's traffic pattern, the control tower asked me to make a right 360°, meaning they had a lot of planes in the traffic pattern. A standard rate 360° turn takes two minutes. After completing my turn I proceeded downwind for a minute or two when the airport tower asked me to repeat the maneuver. There were some mountains less than a mile to my right and higher than me that I kept an eye on since my navigation system kept giving me terrain alerts.

After my second 360°, the tower controller had me continue downwind a few more miles before turning base to make my final approach. One 360° means the airport traffic pattern is congested, two 360° turns tells me they're very busy. But it all worked out.

Flying Home

Flying back to Montgomery Field was even more congested. The busiest airspaces are designed as Class B, also known as bravo airspace, surrounding the most active airports. San Diego's Lindbergh Field and the Marine Corps' Miramar Air Station, both surrounded by bravo airspace, are eight miles apart. About halfway in between these two airports is my home airport, Montgomery Field. Getting in and out of Montgomery Field, without going through bravo airspace, requires a little finesse. Two alternatives are to ask for a clearance into the bravo airspace or to request an IFR clearance. An IFR clearance is like having a second sets of eyes (air traffic control) looking out for my well being; but it also means I'd have to follow their flying instructions which isn't always the most direct route.

When I reached the outer edge of the bravo airspace, I began orbiting the Del Mar Racetrack as I tuned in air traffic control. It was virtually impossible to get a word in edgewise. The air traffic controller was continually giving instructions to the airlines flying into and out of Lindbergh Field. After a long several minutes there was a pause. I asked for clearance into the bravo airspace and she immediacy said, "Unable." I continued to orbit for a few more minutes, hoping she'd call me back, but that never happened.

I began heading back to Carlsbad so I'd be in a less busy area as I dialed in a new air traffic control frequency and requested an IFR clearance to get me into Montgomery Field. Air traffic control issued me my clearance, gave me a heading to fly, an altitude to climb to, and a new frequency to switch to. It seamed that the air traffic controller and I were the only two people on this frequently. The same was true for the next frequency I switched to. Those were good signs that things were not busy where I was being routed to as I began my approach to Montgomery Field.

The last air traffic controller began lining me up with the runway about eight miles from the airport. Normally, from this point, it's smooth sailing to touch down, especially since the weather was clear. Once I was lined up I tuned in Montgomery tower to let them know I was approaching the airport. The tower asked me if I could cancel my IFR clearance and fly VFR. This seemed unusual, but I told her that I could do it. She then told me to make right 360° turns. Next, she told about six aircraft, on the ground, waiting to take off, to hold their requests for six minutes until she cleared out the inbound traffic.

As I completed my first 360° the tower cleared me to land where I could see a line of planes, leading to the runway, waiting for their departure clearances. That's when I realized the reason for the congestion at Montgomery Field was due to the fact that the airport has three runways and two were under construction. Usually, the two parallel runways at the airport are in use, simultaneously. With the beautiful weather bringing out private pilots, like me, and every plane vying for the same runway, it made flying a bit more exciting. Unlike driving, flying alway yields new learning experiences.

Harrison Ford's Plane Crash

Dave Winer asked me to comment on why Harrison Ford's plane crash.

My response...

I heard Ford's brief conversation with the tower just after he took off where he reported "Engine failure, immediate return." So, why did his engine fail during the most critical part of flying (taking off) is the question? It could be anything, wrong fuel, water in the fuel, engine "threw a rod." Small planes, like this, are nothing more than internal combustion engines like in a car.

The problem, right after you take off in a small plane and lose your engine is, if you're below about 1,000' above the ground, you can't make the 270° turn needed to get back to your departing runway (a 180° turn puts you in the opposite direction, but you're displaced about half a mile from the runway, so you need to turn another 45° to get back to the runway and then another 45° to line up with the runway).

I've flown out of the same airport (Santa Monica Airport), several times and, other than the golf course, you don't have many other immediate landing options. I also saw a video of Ford gliding into the golf course and it looked like he was going straight and not turning back to the airport which is smart, since he wouldn't have made it back to the runway.

This attention is unfortunate for Santa Monica airport. The city dislikes this airport because the approach is over Beverly Hills and they'd love to close it down, but they have a contract with the FAA to keep it open.

Here's an article from last summer that opens with Harrison Ford filing a federal complaint to keep the airport open: Santa Monica Airport closure in 2015 challenged by tenants

Planes, Bikes, and Automobiles

I'd been looking at foldable electric bikes since 2012 and this past July I bought one. My thinking was that I could load it in my plane and use it, instead of renting a car, at my destination. This idea would be a one-bike endeavor, though. Even though my plane can seat four people, it would be difficult to squeeze in more than one bike.

Yesterday, I finally got a chance to try out my transportation mix when I flew up to La Verne to have lunch with my life-long friend, Andy. I told him not to worry about picking me up at the airport. Using my electric bike to cover the four miles from the airport to his house would be a cinch.

It's always a learning experience the first time I try something new. I remembered to pack my helmet and even though the bike has a 25-35 mile range, I packed the battery charger, too, just in case. I even remembered to bring flowers for Andy's wife since they're newlyweds.

I had to laugh at myself when I landed at the airport, took out the bike and hinged it together. I forgot to bring the key. No ignition key for the bike meant no electric power. Of course, I was too proud to call Andy for a lift so I had to use old fashioned human pedal power.

I don't mind making mistakes and learning from them. But I despise making repeat mistakes. So, to avoid this problem in the future I've placed one of the three keys for the bike in my flight bag. I will certainly never fly without it, again.

Managing Complexity

Cessna 182 airborne checklist.

From cars to computers, the 20th century saw an increase in complexity like no other. Consider how the automobile changed our lives to the point that entire cities are designed around it. Grace Hopper summed it up best, "Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems." And, ultimately, software engineering is all about managing complexity.

Checklists 

At yesterday's Tech Coffee, a fellow attendee shared this 2010 NPR piece with me. This radio interview highlights the importance of using checklists to avoid medical complications. Checklists are common, especially in aviation. But it took decades until it was incorporated as a crucial component in a pilot's standard flight procedure. As a time management aficionado I have great respect and appreciation for the checklist, especially in aviation where missing a single step can be deadly. Initially, it seemed odd that 20% of the medical profession was strongly against using a checklist. When these medical professionals where later asked, "If you were to have an operation would you want the checklist?" 94% supported it. Deadly mistakes by medical professionals have less of an effect on themselves compared to their patients. This is very different in aviation where a deadly mistake can cost pilots, as well as passengers, their lives.

It's amazing how much work it takes to simplify complexity.

The Dangers of Private Planes?

Update, 24 Jul 2014: The president of the AOPA responded to the NY Times op-ed.

Yesterday, the New York Times published an op-ed piece on the dangers of private planes. Most people don't realize, on average, there's one incident each day that the NTSB investigates. Few of these incidents are fatal. Regardless, all of these incidents are reported, publicly, in their database. Ninety-four percent of the fatal incidents involve general aviation (GA). GA flights cover everything outside of commercial scheduled flights and government flights. In other words, GA flights include operations like charter, corporate, balloon, glider, and small plane flights to name a few.

The op-ed author reasoned that GA flights – especially by private pilots – are susceptible to accidents because most are amateur pilots. That makes sense. A pilot flying a few hours per month isn't going to be as good as a professional pilot doing it a few hours every day. The author proposed:
The F.A.A. should require all general aviation pilots to carry liability insurance, which would force them to have better training.

Most Americans would be surprised to learn that a private pilot, unlike an automobile driver, isn't required to have insurance. I personally carry a "smooth million" worth of insurance which covers liability and hull damage in the air or on the ground. But carrying liability insurance, alone, isn't a high bar to set in terms of safety since insurance companies don't look too hard at how many hours/year a pilot flies. Instead, they're more concerned with the cost and size of the plane. To qualify for my insurance I only required seven hours of formal flight instruction in my plane.

Insurance requirements does not equal proficiency. Instead, the FAA's biennial flight review sets the standard.

I'm wondering why the op-ed author makes no mention of the biennial flight review requirement. Being current and experienced is the key to being a better pilot. Flying through the clouds, especially low clouds when landing, requires a pilot to fly six published approaches every six months. It's practice and FAA requirements like this which will improve a pilot's skills. Insurance is the wrong tool to solve this problem.

Aero Glass Augmenting the Cockpit with Google Glass

From time to time we see true technological innovation. As I've said before, innovation is anything that can reduce the cost of a transaction, either in terms of time or money. Revolutionary technology doesn't necessarily need to be disruptive, but, ideally, if a new technology (i.e. iPhone) can replace multiple, older, technologies, (camera, iPod, phone, maps, etc), then it's a game changer.

At last night's San Diego Startup Week VC after-party, I had a long talk with the VP of business development at Aero Glass (glass.aero). I had a clear idea of the augmented reality benefits of using Google Glass as a HUD in the cockpit. But, I didn't fully grasp the checklist benefits until I watched their demo video. Pilots, quite literally, live and die by their checklists. If I forget to turn on my carb heat when landing on a cold humid day I could get ice built up in the engine. Also, a surprisingly common mistake made by private pilots is that they forget to put down their landing gear, even with an audio alarm beeping in their ear. Most importantly, during an emergency, a checklist displayed on a personal HUD will keep the pilot focused.

The Aero Glass features in this video, below, will become very common place in the cockpit. It's just a matter of when; and, from the looks of it, it'll be very soon since Aero Glass will be attending "Oshkosh" in six weeks. Their business will definitely get some attention there.

Is it Safe to Drive with Google Glass?

Wearable technology Q&A on Google Glass at Qualcomm.

Driving while talking on the phone is distracting and texting is worse. So, what about driving while wearing Google Glass?

Google Glass is a heads-up display (HUD) for consumers. HUDs were invented for military fighter planes since flying requires intense focus and concentration in a distracting environment. Surprisingly, a large amount of today's computer science design best practices related to size, distance, and grouping U/I controls originated in the airplane cockpit.

Some user interface decisions seem obvious such as not putting the ejection button right next to the landing lights switch or not placing small, related, buttons far apart on a web page. But how do you figure out what's best? Paul Fitts, an Air Force Officer, modeled the theory behind human movement in a mathematical fashion. Based on his work, human machine interfaces have been refined leading to the development of technologies like the HUD. Technology should enhance an experience, not interfere with it.

Is it safe?

The plain English description of the HUD (heads-up) tells all. It's much safer to drive when Google Glass displays your speed and GPS directions than it is to look away from the road to find this information on your dashboard. Of course, it can be equally distracting if you're viewing videos and surfing the Web with Google Glass while driving. This issue has become relevant when a woman was ticketed, in San Diego, for merely wearing Google Glass this past October. Last week, the case was dismissed because the judge decided there wasn't enough evidence to prove the device was on. That still leaves the legal issue of driving while Google Glass is turned on to be answered.

Local WW II Pilot

Joe Pellerine, pilot and owner of Pacific Canvas.

Today I had to bring in my airplane's canvas cover for restitching. It was given to me by the previous owner so I have no idea how old it is. Luckily, it had the name of the original company stitched on it, Pacific Canvas of Oceanside, CA.

I called the company and spoke to an older gentleman named Joe who owned the business – he told me to bring in the canvas cover and they'd repair it for me. It turned out that it only needed an hour's worth of stitching to redo all of it so it'll be as good as new when I get it back.

As Joe wrote up my order he asked me if the canvas cover was for a boat. When I told him it was for a plane, his eyes lit up. For the better part of the next hour I eagerly listened to his experiences flying a B-25 in the South Pacific during WW II – including three crashes without getting a scratch. He loved flying so much that he'd bought three personal airplanes over the years.

He looked great for 90 years old. The only reason he stopped flying was due to heart surgery last year. He was as sharp as a tack but said that the anesthesia from his surgery had slowed him down a little as he continues to recover from it. I could have easily listened to his stories for another hour except that the Oceanside Fire Department showed up with some canvas work for Joe.

Pilot Procedures and Paperwork

Last year, I mentioned how paperwork has been virtually eliminated from the cockpit due to the iPad. But, when flying through the clouds, pilots still need the old pen and paper.

There are two sets of rules pilots follow when flying an airplane: Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). In order to fly under VFR I need to be able to see a few miles and keep my distance from the clouds (the distances vary depending on the type of airspace I'm flying in).

A key limitation when flying VFR is that I am not allowed to fly into the clouds since I can't see who else might be in there. This problem is easily solved by filing an IFR flight plan since air traffic control will track me on radar and give me a specific route to fly.

Flying IFR is more complicated than the simple "see and avoid" technique used when flying VFR. For example, what do you do if you're flying under IFR in the clouds and you lose communications? (There are specific procedures to follow in this case – needless to say it's not a situation any pilot wants to find themselves in.)

Before departing under IFR I will file my IFR clearance request and then it will be issued to me just prior to taking off. It helps to know what clearance I'll be issued ahead of time since it's a mouthful to write down, as it's being issued, and then read back as you can hear in this simulation.

IFR clearance from San Carlos (SQL) to Carlsbad (CRQ).

To make things flow smoothly I jot down CRAFT (orange oval) in a column to remember all parts of the clearance:
C – Cleared to (usually my destination)
R – Route to fly (blue rectangle in photo)
A – Altitude to climb to
F – Frequency to switch to after departure
T – Transponder code to squawk so ATC can track me on radar

My notes from a three hour flight.

While it's perfectly acceptable to get an IFR clearance issued after taking off it certainly makes things more complex since I'd have to write all this down while flying the plane. It's much easier to do on the ground. Lightening a pilot's workload is the reason commercial airlines have two pilots (the captain and first officer).

Once I'm airborne ATC will usually guide me to fly a specific route until I'm established on my flight plan. It's handy to have ATC act as a second set of eyes looking out for my wellbeing. Occasionally, ATC will give me course adjustments to deviate for bad weather, traffic, or to shorten my route. If I have no course adjustments then the only thing I need to write down are new radio frequencies as controllers hand me off from one radar sector to another.

iPads are great but for quick notes, nothing beats a pen and paper.

Yet Another Aviation Lesson Learned

This past weekend, I flew down to Norfolk, VA. I was surprised that it was actually cool when I left Morristown, NJ but the forecast called for highs around 90° F so I knew that it would be warming up.

I had never flown into Norfolk International Airport and I hadn't printed out a hard copy of the approach procedures or taxi diagram since that information was on my iPad.

It was very pleasant at my cruising altitude of 6,000'. But, I could feel the heat and humidity when ATC stepped me down to 3,000' as I approached my destination. I realized that it would be an uncomfortable ten minutes, once I landed, until I reached my tie down spot and opened the door. Most small planes don't have air conditioners – it's all about the weight – so the only air movement inside the plane happens when it's flying.

As I touched down, the tower told me to expedite a turn onto the taxiway because there was a jet on short-final approach behind me.

I had already brought up the taxi diagram on my iPad so I knew exactly where I was and where I needed to go. Then, within 30 seconds of landing, the iPad display went black and it shutdown. It had overheated.

Obviously, this isn't an emergency situation but my heart did skip a beat as I evaluated my options before ground control told me to move. I figured, worst case, I could inform ground control that I needed progressive taxi instructions to the terminal, but that would be hard on my ego. After all, I didn't want to seem unprepared. Luckily, I remembered that I also had the taxi diagram on my iPhone. The electronic taxi diagrams are very handy since they not only display the layout of the airport's runways and taxiways, but they also mark your exact location, via GPS, within a couple meters.

As I brought up the taxi diagram on my iPhone, I wondered if it, too, would shutdown due to the heat. Luckily, it didn't, but this is a scenario I will be better prepared for, next time.

Last Weekend's Aviation Lessons Learned

26 mile flight turned into 196 miles.

A college classmate, who used to fly F/A-18s in the Marines, is now an airline pilot with well over 10,000 hours under his belt. He made a comment, last year, that no two flights are the same and there's always something to learn. I was safely reminded of his axiom, this past weekend.

I took a buddy, who was visiting from out of town, on a flight to Sussex Airport that's about 20 minutes away. The clouds were dissipating as the afternoon progressed. Just to be on the safe side, I filed an IFR flight plan and expected a direct route, via ATC vectors, to our destination. When I was issued my clearance I discovered that my 20 minute flight of 26 nautical miles (nm) had turned into a nearly two hour, 196 nm flight.

The first lesson I learned that day was not to take for granted the route that ATC will issue through busy airspace. Another lesson that I didn't learn until I got home was to always recompute fuel requirements when there's a change to your flight plan. I didn't top off my fuel tanks before I left my home airport since I was only expecting to fly about 20 minutes to a place where the aviation gas was significantly cheaper. However, even though I had almost three hours of fuel on board, it still should have crossed my mind. But, before leaving, I decided to turn down the clearance that I was issued (which is perfectly allowable).

When I took off from my home airport of Morristown the weather was clear so I simply flew my route visually. About 20 minutes later I learned an even more important lesson. Since Sussex Airport doesn't have a control tower, I flew directly over it at 800' above the traffic pattern altitude. This procedure gives the pilot an opportunity to check the wind sock and runway conditions for any glaring problems. But, since I didn't suspect any issues at the airport, I wasn't looking for anything in particular. Everything seemed fine as I announced my position on the traffic advisory frequency until a voice recommended that I not land at Sussex Airport since a "plane had crashed" at the far end of the runway.

Obviously, this seemed like good advice, so I turned around and, as we overflew Sussex airport on the way back to Morristown, we took a harder look at the runway. While we could see a King Air airplane at one end of the runway, there was no way to know that it had - as I found out today - landed with its landing gear up. In other words, the King Air pilot, who was returning to the airport after dropping off jumpers (parachutists), simply forgot to deploy his landing gear and he landed on the belly of the plane.

You might be asking yourself, "How does a pilot forget to put down the landing gear?" That's a great question since an alarm will go off if you forget to put it down as you can hear in the following video. But, it happens more frequently than you'd expect.

And don't take for granted that the runway's clear before landing.

An Everyday Plane Crash

Click to view video

Most four-seat single-engine airplanes can't actually carry four adults with full fuel tanks, especially in the summer.

There are three "enemies" to small, single-engine, airplanes: heat, height, and humidity. A piston engine aircraft's performance severely degrades as these three factors increase.

The plane crash video, above, is unique in its clarity, first person point of view, and the fact that everyone survived.

The passenger in the right seat stated to the NTSB that the plane was unable to climb more than 60 or 70 feet above the ground before experiencing a down draft as it collided with the tree tops.

Investigation
My initial reaction, when I saw this video, was that the plane was overloaded for the prevailing weather conditions. While drafting this blog post, my buddy, who's a commercial pilot / flight instructor, and I researched the airport and weather conditions as well as the aircraft's performance specifications. The key variable we didn't know was how much fuel was aboard the aircraft, for weight considerations, as we speculated the cause of the accident.

The airport that they departed from was 6,370' above sea level, "on a high mountain valley surrounded by mountains," and the temperature was about 80°F. It's possible that the airplane may have been climbing, relative to sea level, but the ground was sloping up faster than the plane was climbing. Also, after running some back of the envelope calculations, we figured that it would be very easy for this airplane to be outside its operating envelope for ideal conditions, let alone the conditions at the high, hot, departure airport. I'd be surprised if the FAA investigation doesn't mention these factors in its final report in about 12-18 months.

Experience
I experienced the high, high effects for the first time as I piloted my plane out of Las Vegas, last August, while carrying four adults. Fortunately, for me, my aircraft could handle these conditions since it was operating within its performance envelope. However, it was extremely obvious that I couldn't climb very fast. Air traffic control, who's used to seeing this type of degraded performance in the Las Vegas desert, simply had us circle a few times so we could gain enough altitude to get over the mountains on our way back to San Diego.

Plane crashes, like the one in this video, happen almost every day. Many are minor and most go unnoticed except by the local media. As a matter of fact, on the day this video was recorded there were six other plane crashes in the United States resulting in five fatalities.