Ask me about being an airline pilot or flying in general
12-20-2012
, 11:26 PM
Quote:
w0x and/or anyone,
i'm planning my longest cross-country to date, a whopping ~4 hour jaunt from the bay area to the san diego area for xmas. i have some questions and welcome any advice.
here's my planned route on skyvector.
i'm planning my longest cross-country to date, a whopping ~4 hour jaunt from the bay area to the san diego area for xmas. i have some questions and welcome any advice.
here's my planned route on skyvector.
i met with my flight instructor to talk about the flight (and also about instrument rating vs complex as my next milestone). i take it as a good sign when someone with a financial interest in me says my plans make sense
.i also talked to a friend of mine who used to fly and teach a bit in socal. his response was awesomely useful for me, so with his permission i'm sharing it here:
Quote:
The thing is that until you get to the actual day of departure, what's going to happen may be a crapshoot...and you probably have about 48 hours max to make an educated guess that's better than just flipping a coin. For most domestic airline operations, they're planning flights about 5 hours ahead of departure time at most. And things still change at the last minute with them. The idea is to have an escape route if things go to ****. The good thing in your case is that you have a GPS onboard, so your routing is a lot more flexible than VOR/DME, or using dead reckoning/pilotage (which I have done before....it kinda sucked, and doing it nowadays for a long cross country is really neglecting all the great resources you can use.)
So, if we further break things down, it seems like the biggest threats are going to be weather, specifically low ceilings and visibilities, associated with onshore advection fog near the coast, but it's also possible to get really bad radiation fog in the central valley. The other big threat is severe turbulence and mountain wave activity near the mountains. We'll rule out more extreme convection and icing, and I'm guessing these would cancel the trip before it started. Mechanical problems are always a threat, especially in a piston single, but you can mitigate the risk by staying in good VMC weather during the day. So we can break down the main three threats, and figure out what to do with them:
1) advection fog--- this is pretty much going to be your big issue in coastal areas. You're not planning on arriving at night, which is a good start. The other good thing is that you will see this creeping in in, and you should be able to beat it east and land before it becomes an issue. It does get bad enough in San Diego to sometimes fog in everything to the mountains, so in that worst case scenario, you can divert over the Lagunas and land in Borrego Valley (L08) . If you see it happening and are in the LA area, you can hit up San Bernadino (SBD) or Banning (BNG). These scenarios are really, really unlikely until it gets dark..so this may not be a huge issue, but your instincts about staying away from topping overcast layers are spot on. To avoid these, I suggest checking your area forecasts, AIRMETs, and TAFs for everything on, or near your route, and getting a weather update or two enroute. (and check temp/DP spreads over nearby ATISs, too) If it looks like you are going to run into issues- start deviating eastward....and if you start getting reports of widspread low cigs and IMC you can't avoid, divert and land.
2) radiation fog-- the central valley is notorious for this. It again, usually starts at night, but if it's really bad, it may persist into the day. It pretty much can't form or stay if winds pick up above 5 knots, or if you have a big temp/DP spread of more than two or 3 degrees. The only other thing to warn about here is that this stuff hugs the ground, and may not appear to be that thick, when you're looking down on it, but when you descend into it and try to look through it horizontally, you can't see much of anything. So if you see this in the forecast, stay clear of the central valley, or at least the affected areas, and stick to the coast...and if you see the forecast is calling for a strong marine layer, too you may want to scrub the trip and book a flight, or drive... or wait a day or two.
3) severe turbulence/mtn wave -- this may be a big problem on your route... but only under certain conditions. If you see signs or reports of this happening, though...do NOT attempt to fly through the pass at Tehachapi, or the pass by VPLCP. If you hear about forecast Santa Ana conditions, or high winds in the vicinity of the mountains, or AIRMETs and PIREPS for moderate or greater turbulence in the area, that is a bid red flag....and if you have well developed mountain wave, you may start seeing SIGMETs for it, as it can mess with large transport category airplanes, too. The thing about this happening, though, is that you can probably more safely plan to fly over the coast if you see this happening, since really bad days for turbulence tend to be very, very clear. And unless you are talking about well developed mtn wave, turbulence will mostly bounce you around, and make your passenger(s) airsick, and make your flight a bit miserable, but it statistically kills a lot less than low vis and ceilings. Just slow down to Va when you start getting bumps, make sure all of your luggage is well secured, and that anything that isn't or can't be well secured isn't too pointy or heavy. If you start getting knocked around really badly, just try to maintain a level attitude and accept altitude and airspeed deviations.
Sooo, my suggestion is to be prepared to be flexible with your routing, and don't get fixated on any one game plan this early on. I would have a few probable routes in mind, and fit that to the best weather you see on the day of your flight. If you see warning signs, especially when you get multiple corroborating sources that affects only one route Just AIRMETs or a lone PIREP may not be a complete show stopper if you don't see other stuff, though. you have to use your judgement.
Also this link: http://sua.faa.gov/sua/siteFrame.app , if you are unfamiliar with it, shows all active special use airspace in the US. Really handy to check, so you can stay out of MOAs or restricted areas that are, or will be active.
And I don't know how you plan for fuel, or if a stop is already planned, but you may want to consider to have a minimum of one hour of fuel on board when you get to Ramona. This takes the regulatory 30 minutes, into account, plus that gives you another 30 minutes to divert somewhere. I just checked skyvector, and it looks like with an 85 kt groundspeed, it takes 25 minutes to go to Borrego Valley, and that's also taking a dogleg to not overfly the mountain peak by Julian...and I can't see a diversion needing to go much farther than that in the San Diego area....and you'll have all that enroute fuel for a big diversion if you do it earlier...so there's that, too.
So, if we further break things down, it seems like the biggest threats are going to be weather, specifically low ceilings and visibilities, associated with onshore advection fog near the coast, but it's also possible to get really bad radiation fog in the central valley. The other big threat is severe turbulence and mountain wave activity near the mountains. We'll rule out more extreme convection and icing, and I'm guessing these would cancel the trip before it started. Mechanical problems are always a threat, especially in a piston single, but you can mitigate the risk by staying in good VMC weather during the day. So we can break down the main three threats, and figure out what to do with them:
1) advection fog--- this is pretty much going to be your big issue in coastal areas. You're not planning on arriving at night, which is a good start. The other good thing is that you will see this creeping in in, and you should be able to beat it east and land before it becomes an issue. It does get bad enough in San Diego to sometimes fog in everything to the mountains, so in that worst case scenario, you can divert over the Lagunas and land in Borrego Valley (L08) . If you see it happening and are in the LA area, you can hit up San Bernadino (SBD) or Banning (BNG). These scenarios are really, really unlikely until it gets dark..so this may not be a huge issue, but your instincts about staying away from topping overcast layers are spot on. To avoid these, I suggest checking your area forecasts, AIRMETs, and TAFs for everything on, or near your route, and getting a weather update or two enroute. (and check temp/DP spreads over nearby ATISs, too) If it looks like you are going to run into issues- start deviating eastward....and if you start getting reports of widspread low cigs and IMC you can't avoid, divert and land.
2) radiation fog-- the central valley is notorious for this. It again, usually starts at night, but if it's really bad, it may persist into the day. It pretty much can't form or stay if winds pick up above 5 knots, or if you have a big temp/DP spread of more than two or 3 degrees. The only other thing to warn about here is that this stuff hugs the ground, and may not appear to be that thick, when you're looking down on it, but when you descend into it and try to look through it horizontally, you can't see much of anything. So if you see this in the forecast, stay clear of the central valley, or at least the affected areas, and stick to the coast...and if you see the forecast is calling for a strong marine layer, too you may want to scrub the trip and book a flight, or drive... or wait a day or two.
3) severe turbulence/mtn wave -- this may be a big problem on your route... but only under certain conditions. If you see signs or reports of this happening, though...do NOT attempt to fly through the pass at Tehachapi, or the pass by VPLCP. If you hear about forecast Santa Ana conditions, or high winds in the vicinity of the mountains, or AIRMETs and PIREPS for moderate or greater turbulence in the area, that is a bid red flag....and if you have well developed mountain wave, you may start seeing SIGMETs for it, as it can mess with large transport category airplanes, too. The thing about this happening, though, is that you can probably more safely plan to fly over the coast if you see this happening, since really bad days for turbulence tend to be very, very clear. And unless you are talking about well developed mtn wave, turbulence will mostly bounce you around, and make your passenger(s) airsick, and make your flight a bit miserable, but it statistically kills a lot less than low vis and ceilings. Just slow down to Va when you start getting bumps, make sure all of your luggage is well secured, and that anything that isn't or can't be well secured isn't too pointy or heavy. If you start getting knocked around really badly, just try to maintain a level attitude and accept altitude and airspeed deviations.
Sooo, my suggestion is to be prepared to be flexible with your routing, and don't get fixated on any one game plan this early on. I would have a few probable routes in mind, and fit that to the best weather you see on the day of your flight. If you see warning signs, especially when you get multiple corroborating sources that affects only one route Just AIRMETs or a lone PIREP may not be a complete show stopper if you don't see other stuff, though. you have to use your judgement.
Also this link: http://sua.faa.gov/sua/siteFrame.app , if you are unfamiliar with it, shows all active special use airspace in the US. Really handy to check, so you can stay out of MOAs or restricted areas that are, or will be active.
And I don't know how you plan for fuel, or if a stop is already planned, but you may want to consider to have a minimum of one hour of fuel on board when you get to Ramona. This takes the regulatory 30 minutes, into account, plus that gives you another 30 minutes to divert somewhere. I just checked skyvector, and it looks like with an 85 kt groundspeed, it takes 25 minutes to go to Borrego Valley, and that's also taking a dogleg to not overfly the mountain peak by Julian...and I can't see a diversion needing to go much farther than that in the San Diego area....and you'll have all that enroute fuel for a big diversion if you do it earlier...so there's that, too.
http://skyvector.com/?ll=34.99490377...ANNR:A.K2.KRNM
01-14-2013
, 01:37 AM
01-14-2013
, 11:36 AM
Quote:
Anyway, onto something I experienced earlier in the year flying into Vegas. We were probably 10 minutes away from landing when the captain came over the pa and said we had to circle for a little while because president Obama was landing in Vegas.
We circled for probably 10 minutes (3 laps it was) with vegas in view for a brief part of the lap and then landed as normal
It just seemed weird with us being so close to the airport/city. It was late notice for us, but would the pilots have known about this before take off or would they have received late notice as well? I guess it was pretty exciting despite nothing happening.
We were flying into McCarren, is it normal for Air Force One to land at major airports? I thought they might've gone somewhere more discreet where they had more control etc, but I'm a tourist so not familiar with president protocol
Ever had VIPs ruin your flight plan?
We circled for probably 10 minutes (3 laps it was) with vegas in view for a brief part of the lap and then landed as normal
It just seemed weird with us being so close to the airport/city. It was late notice for us, but would the pilots have known about this before take off or would they have received late notice as well? I guess it was pretty exciting despite nothing happening.
We were flying into McCarren, is it normal for Air Force One to land at major airports? I thought they might've gone somewhere more discreet where they had more control etc, but I'm a tourist so not familiar with president protocol
Ever had VIPs ruin your flight plan?
The last time I had a brush with Air Force One was in Ireland, over a year ago. Our departure was delayed for over an hour while we waited for Obama to land. I took two pictures, one during my walkaround and another during taxi out:
AIR FORCE ONE on the landing rollout in Dublin, Ireland
AIR FORCE ONE on the ramp (windy day!)
In my opinion, we overdo the security for AF1. Whether it's taking off or landing, the standard procedure is to essentially shutdown the airport for all other operations. Many flights have diverted due to excessive holding in these situations. The cost in extra fuel burn (nevermind the inconvenience to passengers missing connections or having to divert) is something that doesn't appear on the balance sheet when they talk about the cost of Presidential security. I don't see the risk in allowing other scheduled traffic to continue during AF1 ops. I understand the need to protect the President, but it amazes how he lives in a cocoon of "security" for his entire term of office.
Sorry about that...I was close to getting off on a rant there. I'll rein it in...
One experience with this stuff that really stands out in my mind involved AF2, a 757 carrying Al Gore. At the time I was flying the J-41 (29 seat turboprop) and we had just gotten clearance to taxi out from the gate. We hadn't gotten very far when Ground Control announced: "All traffic, hold position. Repeat: all traffic, hold position." So we stopped and someone on the frequency finally asked what the reason was. The controller said something about Air Force 2 departing.
So we sat there, engines running, while two cars swept the runway checking for FOD. It was a good 15 minutes we waited and the scene at the airport was eerie. Planes everywhere, but none of them moving. It made me think of that old Twilight Zone episode where the guy has a stop watch that he can use to freeze the world in a moment of time. (Does anyone remember that or is that too much of an 'old guy' reference?) Then Al finally took off, leaving a tiny carbon footprint.
You asked if we have prior notice on these VIP movements. I'm not sure how much information is given to the airlines on this, but the times I've encountered it have all been surprises.
