On The Glideslope

I have had some rare openings in my calendar this week and have been able to take advantage of them to get in nearly 10 hours of cross-country instrument time. Flights included a round-robin Albert Whitted to Daytona to Melbourne back to Whitted, a hop up to Perry, FL for a $100 hamburger, and today a flight from Whitted to Pahokee, FL (on the shores of Lake Okeechobee), then to Naples for lunch at a German deli, then back to Whitted. All this leaves me less than 10 hours short of my cross country and instrument hours requirements. With any luck the check ride will be in September.

Note that much of what has made flying this week interesting has been weather planning, in particular avoiding the afternoon cumulous and cumulonimbus buildup typical of Florida this time of year. But perhaps the most fun thing about this week has been its fulfillment of one of the reasons people love to fly: the ability to see things and go places. While we didn’t stop in Daytona, flying the missed approach next to the track was great for its views, as was the flight down the Space Coast past Cape Canaveral to Melbourne , as was the routing over the top of Tampa and KTPA on the way back. The hop to Perry yesterday was great because it was a chance to borrow the crew car, see a neat little north-Florida town, and have a great burger at a local haunt — without the seven-hour round-trip drive. Today we saw the large agricultural districts of central Florida, the still wild areas around Lake Okeechobee, and the always-exciting and beautiful view of the Skyway Bridge with St. Pete and Tampa in the distance. Flying to travel new places is really, really, cool, and I’m excited to explore many new places in the years to come. Here are some snaps of these flights over the past few days.

My posting is down quite a bit, for a variety of reasons, none of them bad. Some of it is that I’m busy with things away from the blog. Some of it is that I’m spending most of my aviation-related time on real-world instrument training. Some of it is that streaming IFR flights via VR is a bit of a challenge in the X-Plane aircraft I’m using. But here’s an update on all that and more …

Instrument Training

I rolled directly into my instrument training in February / March, and have been doing most of my flying toward its requirements since then. I’ve checked out in the SR20 (which took about 10 hours of flight time to do right) and am doing all of my flying in that aircraft, and while that creates some scheduling conflicts, I enjoy that airframe very much and am better for keeping to one set of avionics and numbers during my training. I’ve completed most of my requirements for the practical exam, and just have a body of instrument hours and cross-country hours to complete, along with the written exam. My long cross country is done. If things stay on track, I hope to schedule my instrument check ride for sometime in September or October. All that said, flying in Florida in the Summer continues to be beautiful, if strongly defined by afternoon cumulus buildup (as you can see below).

MS Flight Simulator

Like everyone else in the world of flight simulation , I was surprised and excited to see Microsoft recently show a preview of its new flight simulator. And like everyone else, I have the same questions about how full-featured and capable it will be for those of us who use flight simulators for real-world-level simulation or training. So we shall wait and see … but I can tell you this, even if it’s “just a game,” that game will be on our X-Box 360 if it’s anything like what we see in that promo video …

Yoko “The Yoke” PLUS

I’ve been using the Yoko “The Yoke” PLUS for several months now

, and It’s fantastic. Rock-solid construction, extremely fine resolution and responsiveness, and a feel that, at least for me, is very much like a real-world yoke in terms of force and resistance. Highly recommended.

Video Streaming

I haven’t been doing much, for a few reasons. One is that streaming in VR when practicing instrument procedures isn’t as easy as in the physical cockpit , although with the AviTab plugin and my Navigraph subscription, it’s not too challenging. But the SR20 models available for X-Plane vary in their avionics in VR, and it’s not really easy for me to simulate in VR the Avidyne systems I’m using in the real world. I enjoy streaming in the physical cockpit, too, though, and in it I’m able to better simulate the Avidyne platform I use in the real plane. BUT — the cable I use to connect the GoPro to the PC for streaming broke and is out of action. So until I get a new one, my streaming is probably going to be limited to VR VFR leisure flying … and I hope to put some online soon.

And More …

While my posting here and on YouTube isn’t as frequent as it has been, I remain passionate about aviation and simulation, and intend to keep posting as well as I can. I also get mail from time-to-time from folks saying that the site is still a strong resource to those building their own simulators or getting started with simulation. Thanks for that, and I’ll try to keep it so.

I caved and ordered a Rift S. It arrives Wednesday. Review to soon follow.

In other news

, instrument training continues and I’m enjoying the SR-20 very much. Took some family up in the 172 yesterday, though, for some sightseeing. It sure is nice up there.

… this time in the home cockpit. I’ve not tried this much lately as I’ve been trying to focus on instrument rating practice in the sim. And when I have tried

, the sim has crashed. But today we made it from virtual Portland to virtual Teri Cities and enjoyed some virtual IMC along the way. PilotEdge founder Keith Smith was also in the chat room most of the flight

, and we discuss the merits of PE for instrument training at some length. As always , thanks for watching.

A very interesting box showed up on my doorstep this week …

I’m still here, but have been quiet as late so I thought I would post an update. First, my private pilot license finally came in the mail last week. It’s great to have the plastic!

Second

, since passing the checkride I have rolled directly into IFR training. A series of things have kept me out of the air over the past three weeks , but prior to that we got four lessons in, one in the FAA-approved sim at the school and three in the SR-20. These lessons have been great, and I have enjoyed both the IFR work and getting to know the Cirrus platform. I am proud to say that on our third flight we completed my long cross-country IFR requirement. This is a flight in real or simulated instrument conditions (we flew it under the hood as the weather was beautiful that day) with three different approaches at three different fields. We departed Albert Whitted then shot the VOR approach at Gainesville, the ILS approach at Lakeland , and then the RNAV approach at Albert Whitted. I was very pleased to complete this requirement so early in my training, and for me it was a strong testament to the value of PilotEdge. On my third instrument flight I shot three approaches and navigated over 250 miles cross-country, under the hood, manning the radios in and through congested Tampa Bravo airspace, and never missed a beat. I’m absolutely certain this would not have been possible without my PilotEdge experience.

Third, a few weeks back I attended a Cirrus Pilot Proficiency Program at Lakeland Airport, near Tampa. I took classes in GNS430 use, in-flight weather, pre-flight and in-flight decision making, and much more over two days. I found this experience extremely valuable and worth every penny, and it was very humbling to rub shoulders with so many pilots and instructors who are (1) deeply experienced, and (2) deeply committed to a culture of safety. I continue to be impressed with Cirrus not just as a platform (I love flying the SR-20), but as a culture. It makes me a better pilot, that’s for sure.

Fourth, I’ve been spending time in the simulator but primarily as an IFR training aid. I have it configured as an SR-20, and have been spending all my flights on PilotEdge, mostly working through the I-Ratings the provide via their website. I’ve completed up through the I-9, and I hope to fly the I-10 in the next few days.

Finally, I have not posted a video since passing my checkride. Folks have been asking for another one, and I’ll post one, but so far the absence has been intentional. Because I am now using the sim primarily to augment my real-world instrument training I am trying to replicate the same environment I would try to create in the real world — an in the real world I would not introduce the distraction of narrating a flight and interacting with folks via the chat. This isn’t to say I won’t stream live in the future — certainly once en-route chat is no problem — but I’ve been flying the I-Ratings and working on shooting approaches, and it’s bad practice in my view to be managing a stream at the same time. Practice makes permanent, after all. But I will post a new video soon, and I may try streaming a flight privately or filming it for posting later rather that streaming it live with interaction. Either way, I’ll have something up in the future, and thanks for staying tuned in.

I’ve made quite a bit of progress with the Avidyne Entegra panel modification I’m doing in Air Manager. I have the ILS bugs working correctly, have added a flight director, am making progress on the HSI display, and how have a working power tape on the left-side of the display. It’s starting to look and work more and more like the real thing

, and I hope to try it out on a PilotEdge flight later today.

Here’s the original …

And here’s the current modification …