Judging wind direction and velocity

I was flying the Twin Comanche into ALX (Alex City, AL) the other day. The AWOS was on the fritz, and there are no other nearby airports with weather reporting. I flew over a nearby lake which gave me the exact wind direction and a decent estimation of the velocity.
Basically, the water on the windward side of the lake is glassy while the other side of the lake has increasing waves going up to the shore. Judging velocity takes a little more experience and depends on the fetch, which is the length of the lake from the windward shore to the leeward shore.

The waves increase from the windward side to the leeward side. Glassy water indicates winds less than 3 mph. Small ripples indicate 3-7mph. Medium waves without white caps indicate 7-10 mph. Some white caps indicate wind less than 15mph. Lots of white caps indicate more. All of this is for a fetch of about a mile in length.

Using bodies of water for your wind indication can be done at altitude and does not require a low pass over the airport to see a tiny windsock. In addition, the water is not likely to be affected by hangars and other airport structures as many windsocks are.

New Ratings

I had a big ratings year last year. I plan to describe each new rating in detail, but I wanted to talk a little about new ratings in general. Ever since I was a boy scout I have liked learning new things and earning the merit badge. Each new badge required study and actions. Once all the requirements were met I would take an oral test and either passed and recieved my new badge or I would fail and have to try again at a later date. Each badge was a sign that I had at least a working knowledge of the subject or skill that the badge stood for. This was nearly instant gratification. Once the badge was earned, it was mine to wear proudly. The toughest badge that all pilots must earn is the private piltos licence. To get there we had to slay many dragons personal, practical, family related, medical, and financial. The courage that we had to garner to actually go to the airport and setup that first demo flight is non trivial. It is the first thing that separates pilots from those who have not tried it. Yes... There are those who try it and quit, and those who try it and never go up again, but at least they made the effort and got to the airport and flew. Once we have that private or sport pilot license, we truely have joined a new fraternity/sorority of special individuals. We have been measured and found good enough to fly by ourselves and even take passengers aloft. We can go out and rent a plane whenever we want. (after passing a checkout flight) Usually after that initial time when you are on cloud nine and you have flown all your friends that you can talk into it, and you have done the hundred dollar hamberger a few times. You may have even taken a couple of trips. There is a malaise that develops in some pilots. They stop going to the airport as often. Work and family excuses/pressures interfere with getting to the airport. What you need is to get out there and earn another badge or two. Master a new type of plane. Get some new skills. My demons were college and finances. I started flying when I was 16. I got my private licence shortly after my 17th birthday. I was a valet at a local country club to earn the money to fly. Once I had the licence I flew a good bit, for a while. Then it got further and further in between flights. I got through my first biannual flight review. I did some spin training. I did a few cross country flights. I got to my second biannual flight review and never actually finished it. I stayed away from the airport for 11 years. I graduated from college, got married (twice), and had a few jobs. I was always looking upward, and thinking that I need to get back up there. I took a buddy of mine who was curious about flying. I arranged a demo flight for him. He had a great time and purchased a Cessna "Learn to Fly" CD course. He still has yet to take up lessons, but I got the bug again. I started by getting a good BFR and got my complex aircraft sign off. I started working on my instrument rating as well. This got me steeped in aviation again. I even bought a part of a Cessna 206. I was hooked again. After the instrument raing, I tried to get a seaplane rating, but never finished the training because I really didn't hit it off with my instructor. I eventually got the seaplane rating after I bought a seaplane. I have added a rating or a skill every couple of years until last year. I guess I was pent up or something but I added private helicopter, ATP multi-engine, private, commercial, and CFIG glider ratings. I would get a new temporary certificate before my permanent one came in the mail. I had a great time. I may be running out of ratings to do pretty soon, but there are tons of new aviation things left to try. Every new rating or skill increases all of your flying awarenes, and it keeps flying fun and interesting.

Snakes on a Seaplane

I was flying the seaplane today on Yates lake just below Lake Martin Dam. I often go here when the main lake is more busy than I would prefer. There are only a few houses on the lake and very few boats. It is about 10 miles long and 1500 feet wide for most of its body. It is an awesome seaplane lake with often perfectly glassy water since it is down in a canyon of sorts. Today my student and I were idling around in the middle of the lake just appreciating mother nature's grandure when my student noticed something moving pretty fast in the water. It looked like a large snake swiming across the lake. We taxied over to investigate, and sure enough it was a snake about four feet long . It was apparently as interested in the seaplane as we were in it. As we taxied by, it climbed up onto the back of the right float. It did not look happy, but then again, what makes a snake look happy? It stared at me as I peered through my open window and kind of rared back like it wanted to strike. I was too far away and inside the plane, which was where I intended to stay. I was concerned that it might find a more secure perch on the plane or maybe even gain access to the cockpit, but this was unlikely. I was not about to get out. I am sure that the weight and balance was not good with a ten pound snake that far back on the float. We gunned the plane a bit and it decided to depart the float. Now I was mad at myself for not snapping a picture with my iPhone.

Pilot's Fear of Doctors

Most pilots flying today have to have a medical certificate in order to fly. This medical has to be renewed as often as every 6 months for an airline pilot to as long as 5 years for younger private pilots. The FAA wants to make sure that you are fit to fly. They don't want pilots dropping unconscious in the sky, and they want us to be lucid and in control of the airplane. We are all required to self certify for every flight as well. We cannot fly under the influence of any of a cadre of drugs and substances, and even a common cold may be enough of an impediment to keep us on the ground. We should not even fly if we are distracted by work or family issues. We have to treat flying as serious business that may need our full attention.



We as pilots do what many people would consider a daredevil sport. Operating a machine thousands of feet above the ground with nothing but invisible air keeping us from our doom. When the time comes to meet our medical examiner for our medical renewal, we all have some trepidation. I usually try to see my regular doctor before meeting with the FAA designated medical examiner, (AME) just to see if there is anything to worry about. I have generally been pretty healthy over the years, but one bad reading from the AME and I cannot fly. Once the exam starts the die are cast. You can discontinue once something is found, and come back another day for a try. All this has a tendency to raise blood pressure, which is another trigger point with the FAA. Too high no fly. My BP is generally pretty normal except when at the AME. I have pilot frined who have issues with their hearts or diabetes or cancer. These guys really have it tough. They can get a medical but not without extra tests and waiting for month for an answer from the FAA in Oaklahoma City, sometimes just to get a letter requesting more information. Many of these people you would never suspect that they have an issue.



I have a commercial medical which means that I go through this process annually. I always feel better after I leave the doctors office. (so far). I can fly for another year, unless something bad like cancer gets me in the mean time.



There is one other option. In the past few years the FAA has created a Sport pilot certificate. This one only requires a drivers licence and self medical certification. It also limits the kinds of airplanes that you can fly to the smaller, slower, and simpler breeds. Pilots that have higher certificate ratings like private, commercial, or ATP can fly as sport pilots in sport qualified planes as long as they did not fail their last medical and they are generally in acceptable health. A bit of a catch 22.



The only other option is to fly gliders or ballons. These craft do not require a medical to operate. This is my backup plan should all else fail.

New Tailwheel

I have changed many a tire in my day. It is one of those things that the FAA has graciously allowed the lowly non-mechanic pilot to do, but this one was different. My cub has a solid rubber tailwheel tire. This was upgraded from just a tail skid back in the 40s. In some ways the tail skid seems like it would be easier to control for some of my students, as the stearable tailswheel seems to baffle some people. The skid would have been a stricktly grass operation however. The scraping sound on the asphalt would drive me nuts. Anyway... My plane came with this tailwheel that has been on it for some number of years. Much of the solid rubber has worn away and some of the metal that the solid rubber is bound to was starting to show through. It was also no longer really round. When rolled, it did not have a round orbit, but more an escentric orbit. Every time that I landed the plane you could hear and feel the tailwheel. I thought this was just a normal part of flying this particular airplane. Anyway... Since there was metal showing, I ordered a new tailwheel tire from Aircraft Spruce. It came with new bearings, a new hubcap, a new hub bolt, and even a new cotter pin for about $95. The old tire came off really easily and the new one went on just as easily. I was done with the change in less than 30 minutes. I did four landings after the change and the feeling is like night and day. When the tailwheel comes down or on a three point landing the ride is smooth and quiet. I should have done this years ago.

Rejuvenation - The Flight Home

In order to get the seaplane back to Lake Martin after its restoration at Bibb County Airport, it was necessary to execute a trailer take off. (video link to follow) We ran up the engine and back taxied the plane down the runway. It was very disconcerting to have so little control, as I was at the mercy of the driver of the truck. We wanted to use every bit of available runway. I had read everything I could on the subject of trailer take- offs and watched all the other videos that I could find. I had been though the sequence a million times in my head. At the end of the runway I did another run up and then we unstrapped the plane from the trailer. I was in constant contact with the driver of the truck over the radio. I gave the go ahead to start the roll. I added power to keep positive thrust as we accelerated and I kept down elevator to "pin" the plane to the trailer. I did not want the plane to tilt back or slide forward, and I wanted sufficient airspeed to climb over the truck.



Once we reached 50 kts I began to raise the pitch. According to the truck driver we hit 70 mph before liftoff. The plane came easily off the trailer and climbed and accelerated nicely. I lost contact with my ground crew by radio shortly after takeoff. My partner in the Twin Comanche, Allen, was going to follow me to the lake, but since we could not make radio contact he went back to Bessemer. The flight to Lake Martin was about 45 minutes.



About 15 minutes into the flight I started getting a random 200 rpm drop in engine speed. The drop kept coming and going. I was 10 minutes from Lay Lake so I continued the flight and kept my eyes out for suitable landing spots should things go badly. The drop turned more rhythmic as I got to Lay Lake. Once over the lake I climbed to 5,000 feet. I could see Lake Martin and I felt that I could make it. I had people on the water at Lake Martin. If I landed in Lay Lake on untested floats it could be ugly. So I made the journey home. The engine did not get any worse, but I was sure glad to see my home lake and my buddy waiting for me in the pontoon boat. I had not landed a seaplane in 4 months, which did not help my stress level. Neither did the fact that the float skins were new and untested. I set up and landed near my buddy and then taxied straight to the dock to do another leak check. Once at the dock, I called everyone to inform them that I was good. The rejuvenation project was finally at an end and I could sleep well. The issue with the rpm drop turned out to be a bad ignition lead. I bought a fresh new harness from Aircraft Spruce. If you would like to see the video follow the link-www.waterwings.com/video.html

























It was very sweet to finish this project and land back into Lake Martin. Thanks to Erol Kyzer and Allen Taylor for the videography and Kevin Williams for the metal work and paint job on the plane. The airplane design is by Anna Welden (my daughter).

Rejuvenation - Assembly

The paint is finally done and the floats are attached. The plane is starting to look like a plane again. Every piece that we add back on takes us one step closer to flying again. While the deconstruction was interesting and it was nice to be "Out with the old" putting stuff back together is way more inspiring. We had been pretty careful during the deconstruction to make sure that every piece is accounted for. Unless this is done religiously, the construction phase will be trouble. Many of these parts are hard to find and expensive. Some nuts are in the hundreds of dollars. We did a great job of being careful and we found pretty much everything that we needed to put the plane back into flying condition. One of the most difficult operations was putting the wings back on. This required 4 people. Two of us held the wing while the mechanic attached the bolts. There are only a few bolts but the tolerances are very tight where they go. There are only 4 bolts that hold a wing on. Two hold the strut and two hold the wing root to the plane. The first three bolts seem to go pretty easily. The last one always seems to be tough. It took a couple of hours to attach both wings. The prop and the spinner and all the control surfaces went on pretty easilly as well. After about 2 days we had a complete plane. All painted and ready to go, except for the leak test on the floats. We went ahead and fueled the plane and ran it. The plane is very "tippy" on the trailer. If you get too far back on the floats it will fall back onto the back part of the floats. We strapped the plane down to keep it stable. It felt very nice to spend some time in the completed cockpit and to actually hear the engine run. It started easily and ran perfectly. We kept it running for about 15 minutes. I was very happy for about 20 minutes. We then decided to do a leak test on the floats, by putting water in them with the hose. There were very many leaks. My hopes of flying were dashed for several days while thinks dried out and more sealant was applied.