Dan’s Pilot Times

Today marked my 200th landing as a pilot and my first flight to DuPage Airport (KDPA).  After getting back in the air yesterday after almost 50 days without flying, today I wanted to fly somewhere new and different for me.  I decided upon DuPage Airport because I wanted more practice at a towered airport as well to try the Kittyhawk Cafe there - which I heard is pretty good.

The flight down to DuPage went great as I had both the plane’s (1981 Cessna 172P) old GPS system as well as my new trusy Mio C320 with NavGPS Pro software on it to get me there.  Both systems worked great and had perfectly consistent data between the two.  The southerly winds today lent to a straight-in approach to runway 20R at DuPage.  That runway was absolutely huge and I felt like I landed literally in the first TENTH of it!  After taxiing to the ramp I had lunch at the Kittyhawk Cafe.  I felt like lighter fare, and in homage to the $100 Hamburger, I had what I’ll call a “$100 Club Sandwich”…even took a pic, what you see pictured here (what was left of it halfway through lunch, anyway).  It was great food and the flight center is very modern and posh.  I felt like a high roller.

The flight back to Westosha I just enjoyed the gorgeously clear skies and the view.  The flight went quickly as those southerly winds helped push me back north a little more swiftly.  The landing back at 5K6 marked my 200th as a pilot.  It’s hard to believe that less than 1.5 years ago I had never landed a plane, now I have 200 landings under my belt!  Time certainly does “fly”!

This flight I logged 1.2 hours of flight time and my 200th landing.

I finally found some time this evening to get back in the air!  Almost 49 days since my last flight and I was worried I was going to be rusty.  Tonight’s flight was just to get up in the air again and practice takeoffs and landings.  I did two quick loops of the pattern at Westosha.  I have to admit the first landing was a little snarky but I had everything dialed in by the second.  After that greaser, I flew up to Burlington (BUU) for a change of scenery.  Apparently a lot of other pilots around there had the same idea I did, because there was a lot of traffic up there (especially for Thursday dusk).  Ultimately I was happy for the challenge and the radio work, though…since it had been so long.  I did three landings and takeoffs at Burlington (all nice in my opinion) and flew back to Westosha to end my flight.

Man, it was great to be flying again!  I know 49 days days isn’t THAT much, but I was itchin’ to fly.  I actually have a plane booked for tomorrow as well.  I think I’ll fly to DuPage Airport and the Kittyhawk Cafe for lunch.

I logged 0.9 of Pilot-in-Command flight time this flight and 6 landings.

Although I haven’t had a chance to fly in over a month now (which stinks), I’m happy to report I’m still alive and kicking.  Work has been crazy busy, and weekend weather (and plane availability when there is nice weather) have been uncooperative recently…all making it difficult to get up into the sky.  Hopefully this week/weekend I’ll MAKE time to fly, but I wanted to just write a blog post to stay active.

I keep meaning to head over to Chicago Executive (Palwaukee) or DuPage airport…so maybe that’ll be my next trip!  Any tips/suggestions for flying into those two bigger/busier airports?

Last night I went on my first Chicago lakefront / skyline flight.  We had our first real taste of Spring yesterday with temperatures reaching up into the mid 60’s, and clear skies and little wind all day, so I couldn’t resist going up with my wife for a flight.  I figured visibility would be incredible, but unfortunately there was a little bit of haze once we got up into the sky.  That being said, once we were fairly close to downtown, everything was visible just fine to the naked eye.  However, photographs still were affected by the haze and the dusk light.  We tried our best though and posted pictures here.  We got some neat pictures of downtown, Navy Pier, and even a controlled brush fire in (I’m guessing) Mundelein on our way back.

The flight itself was fairly uneventful and super smooth as the winds were calm.  I departed Westosha and headed direct to Campbell (C81) to avoid Kenosha and Waukegan airspace.  From there I headed East-Northeast to the shoreline and just followed that down.  I cruised around 2,400 feet the whole trip to give myself plenty of vertical buffer (600 feet to be exact) from the 3,000 lower edge of O’Hare’s Class B airspace.  The flight was surprisingly quick to get to downtown, about 34 minutes after takeoff.  If only travel by car could be so efficient!  And oh how awesome it would have been if Miegs Field was still open… darn! darn! darn!

Overall it was a great flight and a good change to give me more experience for when I take more guests up to fly.  I’ll have to try it during broad daylight and a full night flight too eventually.  I logged 1.2 hours of flight time.

This past weekend my wife was out of town for a spa trip with one of her girlfriends, so I had some time to myself. Considering I hadn’t flown at night in probably over 5 months, I figured it would be great time to get current on my night takeoffs and landings (since I’d have to do those solo before taking passengers up at night anyway).

I headed to Westosha on a beautifully calm and clear Saturday night. The night air was crisp and the new moon allowed the stars to shine very brightly. Of course, this also meant that pre-flighting the plane was a little more difficult and tedious as everything had to be done by the light of my flashlight. I forgot how difficult it can be to check the airplane and read the checklist in the dark of night. Even once in the plane, things are a notch more difficult. Just goes to show how important it is to properly prepare beforehand.

The flight went great. I first headed up to Burlington (BUU) for a change of scenery and knocked out 2 full-stop landings there. I then proceeded over to Kenosha (ENW), since I always need a little more practice with communicating with towered airports. I had my Mio C320 personal GPS device and the airplane also had GPS to help me find my way. I must admit, I’m pretty happy with my C320 and the NavGPS software…it worked like a charm and jived 100% with the built-in GPS of the plane. It is great for situational awareness. That being said, I realized a pilot must take the data these devices provide at face value. For instance, the tower told me to report out 1 mile right base of the landing runway. Of course, the GPS doesn’t measure distance from the end of the runway, it measures from probably the airport center. That being said, when I reported to the tower 1 mile out (according to my GPS), I was probably 0.5 miles from the end of the runway. And as usual with night flights, distances are hard to measure visually. Needless-to-say, I had to perform a side slip to lose altitude quickly enough to land near the end of the runway. It was good practice, though, as I hadn’t had to perform a slip in some time anway.

After Kenosha I headed back to Westosha and tied up the plane. I completed 4 full-stop takeoffs and landings, one extra from the required three to keep me legal to take passengers up at night for a while. I can’t wait to take Lisa up at night again; it’s so pretty and peaceful with all the lights. I logged 1.1 hours of pilot-in-command flight time.

We got a taste of Spring a little early this past weekend in Chicagoland, with temperatures reaching into the 60’s and gorgeous clear skies.  I wasn’t the only pilot who had the itch to fly as the skies were full with general aviation aircraft.  This past Sunday my wife and I went back to Pilot Pete’s (which hadn’t been to since the fall) for dinner.  Everything about the flight and the day went great.  I had probably my finest landing to date at Schaumburg that afternoon, just a perfect greaser  (the non-existant winds probably helped too).

The flight helped me also flight-test my Mio C320 personal navigation device with the NavGPS Pro software (see my full review here), since I was flying with our club’s older Cessna 172 without a moving map GPS.  I gotta admit, my little GPS system (which cost under $100) performed just as well as a built-in GPS system for my needs.  My only complaint with the Mio is that during the late afternoon with the sun low in the sky, the glare off the screen was pretty bad.  Once the sun wasn’t direct, though, the screen was totally readable and the software did great.

The dinner was awesome as usual at Pilot Pete’s and my wife and I had a great time.  This trip I logged 1.0 hours of flight time.

Navtech’s EFISce application is another Windows CE compatible aviation GPS software package.  To install on the Mio C320, use the Pocket PC 2003 version (the 2nd one down) on the download page.  Install using Activesync, and ignore any errors/messages it throws up.

The software does work, but pretty slowly.  Also, unfortunately the application only occupies half of the screen on the Mio, in either the lanscape or portrait screen settings.  The program seemed fairly unstable (I’m not sure why), and crapped out a handful of times not really allowing me to fully test the software, nor want me to try it in the air.  I can’t say that these errors may just be a function of the “trial” version of the software, maybe the $50 priced real version won’t fail so much, but I’m not willing to drop the cash to find out.  It may be worth downloading and installing the trial version yourself, but don’t drop the money until you do.

Test Specs: Navtech EFISce Pocket PC 2003 version tested on March 7, 2009 on Mio C320
Pros: Cool looking, appears to have lots of features.
Cons: Does not work reliably on Mio C320, app only occupies half of screen on the Mio.

This past Sunday I finally made it to Kealy’s Kafe at Janesville (KJVL)!  I was supposed to fly there 2 weekends ago, but because of an airsick passenger, I had to turn that trip around.  The weather for the day was brisk and cold (around 15-20°F), slightly windy, but not a cloud in the sky.  After getting the aircraft keys and looking at the aircraft log, I saw that the Cessna 172SP hadn’t flown in about 3 days.  Furthermore, once I got to the plane to pre-flight it, the engine heater wasn’t plugged in.  To compound that, when checking the oil level, the oil was a very slick sludge.  I knew it would be difficult to get the plane started.  Sure enough, I almost didn’t get the plane started and almost didn’t make it to Kealy’s yet again.

As per the 172SP checklist, before attempting to start a cold engine, you are supposed to run the auxiliary fuel pump until the fuel flow meter starts to move.  It’s only supposed to take under 10 seconds to get that needle to move. I turned on the pump and let 5 seconds tick by, then 10, 15, 18… and no movement.  I decided to stop the pump then (I didn’t want to flood the engine) and try cranking.  Nothing.  I tried the pump a little more, still no movement.  Cranked again and nothing.  Kept cranking, and I hear the battery starting to get taxed and run down.  I opened the door and looked outside and saw fuel under the exhaust…I definitely flooded the engine (crap).  I follow the flooded engine procedure in the operating handbook: to basically crank with the throttle open (to use up the fuel in the flooded engine).  I hear it starting to use up the fuel, but nothing firing well, the battery is definitely getting dangerously low.   I decide to plug the plane in and let it warm up for 5 minutes (and hopefully recharge the battery a bit).  After 5 minutes, I try the flooded engine procedure again without success (crap again).  I decide I’m going wait another 5 minutes and try one final time.  Luckily, that’s what the plane needed.  After 6 minutes (one minute extra for good luck), the battery had just enough juice and the flooded engine procedure worked!  The plane started and I let it warm for quite a while before starting on our journey.

The trip to Janesville went fine.  I actually did some reading up on the autopilot system this past week so I was able to fully use it to navigate to Janesville.  That autopilot making flying way too easy.  Lunch at Kealy’s was very nice, I’ll definitely go there again.  It was great to have a little more experience flying into a towered airport as well.

The plane started fine for our return leg, but it was funny/reassuring to see that the pilot parked next to us at Janesville had trouble starting his engine (although I never wish to see troubles for any pilot).  This morning I read another pilot at Westosha (Evan) had scary troubles of his own this weekend.  Apparently it was a rough weekend to fly.  Luckily everything worked out fine for me.   Oh, and I DID plug the plane in when I returned it at the end of the day…I wouldn’t want the next person to have the same difficulties starting the engine as I did.

I logged 1.2 hours of pilot-in-command time this flight.

Approach Systems Inc’s APIC Moving Map software, although very cool looking, AND the availability of a totally free version, is not compatible with the Mio C320.  According to their website, the program is not compatible with any program running Windows CE.  Even though the Mio does indeed run WinCE, I did try installing it anyway and sure enough, it doesn’t work.  Oh well.  If the makers of APIC decide to ever make a version for Windows CE, you bet I’ll be first in line to test/try it!

I will say the PC version (especially the free version) is very cool and if you have an ultra-mobile notebook PC with a GPS receiver, definitely give this software a shot.

Test Specs: Approach Systems APIC tested on February 27, 2009 on Mio C320
Pros: Cool looking, but doesn’t work on Mio.  Give PC version a shot.
Cons: Does not work on Mio C320.

The next program on my review list is NavGPS Basic / NavGPS Pro series of software.  Both versions looked pretty cool on their website so I again was hopeful this could be a viable option.

I was a little intimidated by the install process as this wasn’t as “turn-key” as PocketFMS, but I finally got it installed and working.  Here’s how I did it.  The download page offers three different versions for the Pocket PC platform, luckily the first one for the ‘ARM/XScale” processor is the correct one for the Mio C320.  You then need to be running your Mio just like a Pocket PC.  So, you’ll need have installed and be running “PocketMio” on your Mio and then “activesync” on your computer and install through that.  (I’ll post separate instructions on how to turn your Mio into a fully functioning Pocket PC later).  Anyway, when you install the NavGPS package through activesync, it may also throw up a message stating the installed application may be incompatible, but allows you to continue.  Obviously do continue and everything will install fine and work fine (clearly it is compatible).  Once installed, the program will load and ask for your registration info.  If you are just trying the software for 30 days, you can leave it empty (which is what I did).

Running the program the first time it looked very promising.  The software had a hard time finding the GPS unit automatically, but if you go into the preferences and set the GPS port to “Com 2″ and the Speed to “57600″ it runs fine.  The program has many of the same features as Pocket FMS and other high-end aviation GPS programs.  See their site for the full details on the Pro version.  The one GREAT thing I noticed right off the bat is that the program ran a LOT faster than Pocket FMS.  It still wasn’t blazing/instant, but things were reasonable this time.  Also (and this is very good), when the screen redrew itself after a zoom in/out, it would have the airspace and airports/fixes draw first (almost instantly).  The topography and ground detail would come in shortly after (if you have the Pro version).  THIS I could live with and made complete sense.  I don’t know if they planned for this, but I definitely like it.

The only major negative is that the software is definitely created for a “standard” pocket PC, using a stylus/pen and supporting hardware buttons.  Obviously the Mio has none, so the shortcuts you could assign to hardware buttons are lost here.  Furthermore, many of the on-screen menus and buttons are way too small to click with your fingers (especially during a flight).  You’d definitely need to use a pen/stylus to perform the actions you need.

Bottom line is that this is definitely a solid application.  Hopefully future versions will be a little more “finger-friendly”, but I’m going leave this one installed and test it in the air on my next flight.  The standard version is $99 and the pro is $234, both reasonably priced.  I will also play more with the Pro versus Basic versions to see which really has the features I personally would need to use.

Test Specs: NavGPS Pro version 4.5 (and NavGPS Basic version 2.5) tested on February 26, 2009 on Mio C320.
Pros: Lots of features, good data, good maps, basic version would get the job done.
Cons: Buttons/menus too small to operate with just fingers.