The Apple iPad : Electronic Flight Bag?

In case you missed it yesterday, Apple just announced their long awaited tablet, the iPad.

At first, I was a bit underwhelmed, its just a big iPod touch right? Why pay $499 (at least) for features that are in the smaller, lighter cousins.

Then I stopped looking at it as a iPod, and more like an electronic flight bag.

What features does it have that make it excellent for an EFB?

• Long battery life (10 hours...although realistically probably five)
• Huge high resolution, back-lit screen (perfect for maps, IFR approach plates, etc)
• Loads of quality aviation software (you have to pay per app, but you get to customize the device with only the software you want / need to use)
• Doubles as an in-flight, or after flight entertainment device for yourself or your pax.
• Its price range already qualifies it for aviation ;)

All joking aside, if you're trying to decide between a light "netbook" and the iPad, why not take a look at a device that you can take in the cockpit as well? Now since the iPad is brand new, I wouldn't expect to see many of these in cockpits yet, but after a couple of generations of improvement from Apple, I have a feeling that will change.

Aviation Forums, the good the bad the ugly

When I started learning how to fly I realized something early on that really surprised me, finding decent relevant information online about flying is a virtual crapshoot (pun intended).

The problem isn't that there is a shortage of knowledgeable aviation professionals, and enthusiasts. On the contrary, there are hundreds of pilots, mechanics, licensed medical examiners, and aviation lawyers online right now asking and giving advice.

The problem is, unless you're cued into the right forums, the right groups (AOPA, EAA), and blogs, the people with the right answers to your questions can be quite difficult to find.

Furthermore, once you've found a forum, the proper netiquette is to search the forum or newsgroup to find out if the question has been asked before. With some of the forum software out there, that could be a slow, torturous prospect! Imagine searching for a needle in a haystack with only a refrigerator magnet!

So how can you fix this?

Step 1: Well, you can start by creating a site that's built with the sole purpose of having people ask questions and get relevant answers. You implement a voting system for best answers, you base the system off of wikis, allowing users to edit questions and answers to make them better, you give users the ability to self-moderate the posts to prevent trolls.

Step 2: Attract a community of helpful, resourceful pilots and other aviation folks to post their questions and answers.

I've got Step 1 down, all I need is to figure out Step 2.

Give Circle To Land (http://www.circletoland.com) a try, if you ask a question I'll be on there to give you an answer. If you give an answer I'll vote it up. In time, I hope to have Circle to Land be that place on the web you can go to get relevant answers about your aviation questions.

Circle to Land Groundhog's Day Contest!

Circle to Land needs pilots to post their flying questions and give answers pronto! What better way to bribe encourage people into using a website than to launch a cheesy themed contest?


Announcing Circle to Land's Groundhog's Day Contest!

Here's the deal, for everyone who creates and account on Circle to Land, and posts at least 10 questions AND 10 answers (yes you can answer your own question) by Feb 3rd, 2010 12:00AM EST...I will give them a $10 gift card (user will choose out of a selection of gift cards).

For the person who asks AND answers the MOST questions by the deadline (Feb 3rd, 2010 12:00AM EST), they will get a $50 gift card of their choice.

This is only for accepted questions and answers, I reserve the right to moderate the site, and I will take off questions and answers that are offensive or don't have anything to do with flying.

• Again, you'll get a $10 gift card if you post 10 questions AND 10 answers (yes you can answer your own question) by Feb 3rd 2010, 12:00AM EST


• One winner will get a $50 gift card, for posting AND answering the most questions by Feb 3rd 2010, 12:00AM EST


• Questions and answers have to be accepted by the moderators and visible on the site and they have to be related to flying or learning how to fly.


• Obviously, you'll have to create an account with a valid email address so I can contact you and send you the gift card. Due to shipping costs, I will not accept non-US mailing addresses.

So head on over to http://www.circletoland.com and get posting!

Dumb Pilot Questions

You know the saying that there's no such thing as a dumb question? I find that's especially true in aviation, although sadly there are some of those that disagree. Since pilots are held to a very high standard, I think there's a problem in the industry that after you reach a certain level, say a private pilot certificate, then you are expected to know anything and everything about flying an airplane (or helicopter, or balloon, or glider).

The truth is, despite what the media, general public, or the FAA would expect, pilots can't and don't know everything. We know a lot, but all of us still have questions that have been plaguing the dark corners of our minds that we have yet to share with the outside world for fear of ridicule (or a license suspension!).

Here are some of mine:
What's the technique for a short field AND soft field landing?

How will lasik eye surgery affect my medical?

Engine out in IMC?

So I invite any fellow pilot reading this. Go to http://www.circletoland.com, and post answers for my dumb questions. Better still, if you have any dumb questions of your own to post, please post them!

I promise I won't laugh.

Circle to Land - Questions for Pilots by Pilots

Questions, every pilot has them. Whether it’s about proper stick and rudder technique on a short field, VFR airspace restriction requirements, how to properly “burp” a Rotax 912, or even the emergency engine restart procedures on the Airbus A320, chances are you might have some questions that your buddies hanging outside the FBO can’t answer.

Sure you can try the various aviation related forums online, but even after you find a forum that’s close to the topic you’re asking about (after an hour of searching), how can you tell you’re getting the best answer? And how many times have you asked a question on an aviation forum only to be shouted by annoyed regulars “this was already asked before, read before you post!”?

What if there was an aviation site designed for pilots to ask questions and get answers from other pilots? What if as soon as you started to type a question a list of possible matching questions came up for you? How about a site where other pilots could up vote / down vote answers, helping you figure out the best answer to your question? How about a site that rewards you for answering questions by giving you less advertising, editing privileges, even advance community moderation tools to help make the site better for all pilots?

Circle to Land is that site.

Circle to Land is meant to be the site for you, questions and answers from pilots, for pilots. As long as your question is reasonably objective and has something to do with piloting something that flies (whether it’s a hot air balloon, powered chute, Cessna 172, or Citation X), Circle to Land™ is your site.

If you like to answer questions rather than asking them, Circle to Land has something for you! You gain reputation with each answer, the more questions you answer the more benefits you get (even editing and moderating other people’s posts)!

No matter what kind of pilot you are, a student, freight dog, CFI, bush pilot, or captain flying the Big Iron, if you have something to offer your fellow pilots at Circle To Land (and something to receive in turn). If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to ask me.

Pilot Myths

I just got May's issue of AOPA's Flight Training magazine which had an article titled Pilot Myths, citing some of the most common misconceptions non-aviation folks have regarding pilots and aviation. One of the myths highlighted was the "Jets are good, props are bad" myth:

In a Small Airplane Horror Story, the small airplane can be anything from a two-seat taildragger to a 70-seat turboprop commuter aircraft.

Speaking of propellers, to the public at large, the term "prop plane" bespeaks antiquity, technical inferiority, sloth, and decay. Never mind that a prop plane may be a cutting-edge turoprop design. Nor that the configuration may suit the mission better than any other propulsion system. In the layman's view, props are old, jets are new, and that's all anyone needs to know. Pilots are judged accordingly.

- Flight Training, May 2007 pg 45

Its a great article, one aviation myth they really didn't cover the was the unfortunately named "uncontrolled field." I get a lot of looks when I use this phrase in describing some of my flights to non-towered airports. I can literally see the astonished looks in non-aviation folks eyes as they imagine airplanes just arriving all willy-nilly from different directions at an airport in complete chaos without a higher authority guiding them in. How does everyone avoid crashing into each other? Well, same way millions of people each drive around highways and streets, by relying on system of widely understood rules and conventions designed to keep everyone safe.

After a few early mistakes I learned to use the phrase "non-towered", it doesn't sound scary as "uncontrolled."

Anyway its a great read, although the article was much better at highlighting the common myths and misconceptions, but it was a little light on providing advice on how to counter them. AOPA has a great website though on how to talk to the media, which every pilot should really pay attention too. The public already has some negative perceptions regarding aviation, its every pilot's responsibility to present aviation in a positive way.

Why I hate software development (warning: non-aviation topic)

I hate software development. This is a weird thing for me to say because I love programming, I love creating software; I even enjoy solving bugs and fixing crappy code. However, more and more I’ve found myself getting increasingly depressed and frustrated with the business of software development.

My best friend is rapidly approaching burnout; he’s working in an extremely high stress environment, putting in long hours, striving to meet an impossible deadline, and gradually losing his health. Can you guess what industry the company he works for sells their software too? Must be pretty important right? I guess so, if you’re into eCommerce solutions for window and door manufacturers.

The company isn’t really doing well; the software they produced is usually so buggy and slow that a lot of their biggest customers have threatened to sue multiple times. This results in a heroic effort by the already overworked developers to fix the problems and save the company. I know because I used to work there to, and I left along with half of the development team because I kept seeing the same damn cyclical pattern.

FUZZY REQUIREMENTS + SCOPE CREEP + UNFLEXIBLE DEADLINES = CRUNCH TIME = BAD SOFTWARE

BAD SOFTWARE + ANGRY CUSTOMER = EVEN MORE CRUNCH TIME

HEROIC EFFORT = BARELY SATISFIYING THE CUSTOMER TO GET THEM TO AGREE TO A NEW VERSION

REPEAT

I left that company thinking that surely this was the exception, not the rule. How could you be smart enough to start a company, bring in brilliant people, and then just totally mismanage it to the point where your customers sue you, and you lose your brightest staff? Not only that, but keep repeating the same goddamn mistakes year after year?

Fast forward a year and I’m working for one of the largest banks in the world. This employer is one of the top three largest employers in Columbus, my team works with the Auto Finance division and this was our goal as described by our team lead.

Fix a failed offshore project (bad software) so we can limp it into production, so we can immediately start on a total rewrite/upgraded version (since the original only delivered a tenth of what was needed) of the software in house.

The internal team (us) made our goal; we got the project into production and totally exceeded everyone’s expectations. A handful of developers fixed a failed project that took sixty offshore developers to make. Considering our success you’d think the business we’re supporting would be jumping up and down to proceed to a new version.

You’d be wrong.

Over the past four months we’ve been mostly sitting on our hands, our team has tried and tried again stressing the case for getting a new version up and running quickly, only to be faced with collective silence and stone-walling from our business.

Today things changed; there were some new people in the office today, people in suits, meeting with our team lead and his boss. A VP for Auto Finance flew in from NY, something was up. I joked to a team member that they’re going to offshore PDS again for version 2; we had a pretty good laugh about that.

Until another team member came by and told us that’s exactly what the business is considering doing. The meetings are with another offshore company, the business wants them to look over the code for our project and come up with an evaluation of how long it would take them to come out with a rewrite.

See the pattern? Yup, despite the fact the internal team completely turned around the project, despite the fact they tried to offshore and failed, the business is hell bent on making the same mistake again.

Its all about cost, the original offshore company quoted a price $3 million below the competition, and they delivered a product that met a tenth of the requested functionality. The business wants to throw the dice again and hope that this time another low-bid offshore company will do better.

It’s this kind of insane thinking that has made me sick of software development. This isn’t atypical, what’s atypical in the field are companies like 37signals, Fog Creek, Source Gear, Microsoft, and Google. Everyday I read online at how awesome these places are for developers to work in, and how successful their products are, it makes me physically ill to think how rare those companies are in this field. It’s not like there are any secrets to creating a successful software company, Joel Splosky and Eric Sink's blog basically spell it out to everyone for free!

I’ve been feeling this way for a while, everyplace I’ve worked at as a developer so far has been met with huge disappointment. I hate this industry and my hatred of the stupidity the companies I work for grows with every passing day.

I’m desperate to escape; NOTAMAce.com is an attempt, at least with my own website I’m in control. I can craft my own ads on Google AdWords, I can come up with the design and the copy of the home page. I can decide on the hosting provider and I can control what features go into the site, and which features are cut.

Of course, I’ve thought about giving up software development all together, just change career paths completely. A friend of mine recently suggested building airplanes (laying down carbon fiber for composites), I was pretty surprised how tempting that sounded. Another option is to get my commercial and CFI, start taking up students, maybe ferry some airplanes for the flying club.

I apologize if this post deviates a little; I try to keep this blog aviation oriented, but this was something I had to get off my chest. Almost like last weeks “Designing for the Passenger” post/rant, by the way I was playing around with a new writing style, I don’t usually run around screaming at the top of my lungs about corporate jet jockeys.

Til next time, clear skies!

Designing for the Passenger (Not the Pilot)

In the eighty-plus years of general aviation, there is one simple fact that I believe GA has ignored (or at least paid little attention too). That most people are terrified of small airplanes.

Scariest thing in the world to a passenger

“BUT PATRICK,” you feverishly type in the comments of this blog, “STATISTICS FOR OVER HALF A CENTURY HAVE PROVEN THAT GA IS SAFER THAN ANY OTHER FORM OF PERSONAL TRAVEL!”

Its not about the actual safety record of general aviation aircraft, its the PERCEPTION of safety. Why do we assume that people can override thousands of years of honed evolutionary traits that have developed the practical fear of falling just like that?

“SEE THE STATS PROVE THAT IF YOU FLY WITH ME YOU PROBABLY WON’T DIE! LET’S GO FLYING!”

Commerical air travel has evolved to the level of use today because it focused on making the passengers FEEL SAFER. This involved practical safety measures (need examples), but a lot I believe had to do with the perception of safety. Jets were installed so airplanes could fly above turbulence, Flight attendants were registered nurses (to alleviate the passenger’s fear of being trapped in a tube in the sky while having a heart attack and no one to offer medical aid), aircraft seats double as floatation devices.

All of these innovations were messages to passengers saying “We care about how safe you feel, don’t be afraid, come fly with us!” They didn’t just tell passengers it was safer, they worked hard to demonstrate to passengers that it was. It still took a couple of decades, but eventually passengers finally relented and BOOM! Commercial aviation exploded and killed off its main competitor in long distance travel, the passenger train.

BIG JET = SAFE

This strategy has worked so well most people have it hardwired into their brains BIG JET = SAFE. This has worked so well it’s sort of come round to bite the airlines in the ass regarding regional carriers and turboprops. Ask a non-pilot relative or friend who has done some moderate air travel in the last few years, they will undoubtedly tell you how much they loath getting on a Dash 10.

Not a "real" airplane

WHY IN THE HELL DO I HAVE TO RID IN THIS LITTLE PUDDLE-JUMPER INSTEAD OF A REAL PLANE? WHAT ARE THOSE SPINNING THINGS UNDER THE WINGS? WHAT IS THIS, 1930? MAN IT’D BE REALLY EMBARRASING TO DIE IN THIS PIECE OF CRAP!

So what can GA as an industry, specifically aircraft manufacturers do to make passengers feel safer?...

Oh wait, were you expecting an answer? HA! Honestly I don’t know, if you’re expecting specific technological, marketing, or sales solution that’ll get your hot wife in the air instead with you instead of staying behind at the FBO lounge (WHERE YOU JUST KNOW THAT SOME MID-TWENTY NETJETS CITATION JOCKEY IS FLIRTING WITH HER RIGHT THIS MINUTE DAMNIT!), I don’t have it.

But a smart company would find out, because a smart aircraft company would realize that in GA we’ve just about reached an upper limit on what matters to the person in the left seat (avionics, performance, cost of ownership) and while we’ve got a person sitting on the right that we’ve completely ignored. A smart company will start take a Right Seat Design approach to building aircraft (and the company), because in the future that’s what will sell new airplanes.

I plan to start such a company.

IFR Refresher

A while back I went into the simulator with Matt to just do some IFR stuff. To be honest I was a little nervous, I hadn't flown in nearly three months since I got my IFR ticket. So I was a little unsure how well the skills I've developed in the six months it took to get my IFR rating had held up.

To make a long story short, it was awesome!!

Seriously, it was like I had just taken the checkride. In the sim I did the VOR 28 at DLZ (hold at APE), GPS 27 at MRT, and finally the ILS 9R into OSU. Of course it was in the simulator, but the my tracking, procedures, and radio skills all came back to me and everything felt natural. The weather is getting a lot better, and there's starting to be more daylight in the evenings, so pretty soon I plan on doing some real life IFR in marginal VFR weather. Just to make sure.

I have some plans actually for the summer, an idea that I hope will help me fly to some interesting places and meet some interesting people. I'll update this blog when I actually get details worked out. But I'm pretty excited about it!

Clear Skies (or if Cloudy Skies for the IFR folks)!

Dropped from Google

One of the biggest challenges I've had to face in starting my own website hasn't been the actual code. Nope, I can write the software just fine, after all, that's what I do everyday (usually). My biggest challenge so far has been advertising, informing people that my site exists and what it can do for them. For public websites, there has to be some kind of strategy in getting a high rank on the search engines, Google being the #1 search engine to target.

There's some controversy about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), whether is it actually a legitimate practice or not. Unfortunately SEO usually gets a bad rap, there are a lot of people who consider SEO nothing more than "spamming" search engines in order to get a top rank (at the expense of actual meaningful content). In actuality, legitimate SEO practices stress an importance on creating meaningful content, and good website design practices.

Neverless, search engines, especially Google will take a firm hand when they suspect that a site has used unfair practices to gain a higher ranking in their listings. I experienced this first had on Friday when I realized my Google Page Rank for NOTAMAce.com dropped to zero. What this means is that it is practically impossible for NOTAMAce.com to show up on any search listings for "notam" or "notams" in Google (fortunately, my ads for those keywords are still up).

At first I was furious, I wasn't participating in any "link farming", "hidden text", or other dubious practices to gain a high rank. I found the reinclusion request page for Google, however I resented the fact I had to confess that I did anything wrong in what I felt (at the time) was Google's error.

Well, after I calmed down I rechecked the guidelines, and I realized I had inadvertently violated them. You see, it took me a while to come up with the name "NOTAM Ace", a year ago I first launched the site as "Preflight Pro" and placed it on the domains "preflightpro.com" and "notduats.com". Well it turns out Google frowns on the same page under different domains (can't blame them, spammers do that too), so when they found three domains that had the same content, they flagged me.

I had decided to keep the domains active, simply because there were links to some directories and in archives of newsgroups that still had a link to "notduats.com". But I'd rather have NOTAMAce.com reactivated, so I called my ISP and requested the domain pointers be removed, and filled a reinclusion request to Google, explaining my situation and informing them I had taken steps to correct the problem. The time it takes to be reincluded ranges anywhere from two to eight weeks. I hope I get reincluded soon! At the very least I still have my Adwords to help with the traffic.

In the end I don't really blame Google, they have to make sure the listings are legit. I do blame the spammers (not legit SEO guys), who've really poisoned the wells for the rest of us.

Till next time, clear skies!

Port Columbus Tower Tour

Last Friday my flying club, Capital City Aviation set up a tour of Port Columbus's tower (KCMH). This was my first time seeing the operations inside the tower at an airport and it's something I definitely recommend to any pilot. The staff were very friendly, and they took extra time for the pilots, explaining everything and answering all of our questions.

The big hit for me was the radar room, Port Columbus has about ten radar terminals, each with a large screen showing the radar returns, and smaller monitors on top displaying information such as IFR enroute charts, weather, PIREPs, and NTOAMs. The radar screen itself is amazing, packing a lot of information in a very concise and surprisingly easy to read manner (once you have someone explain what some of the numbers and symbols mean).

Up top, the "tower" portion is for the ground and on airport operations. The visibility is excellent of course, I could stand in the middle of the tower and have a 360 view of both ends of CMH's runways (there are rolling lifter stands for shorter folks). In the tower, there are monitors set up also showing radar returns from aircraft around the airport. At the time we toured the airport, there were three people in the tower, one guy handled the takeoffs and landings ("tower"), another the ground operations, and finally a very nice woman was handling the departure clearances and flow control.

All in all it was a very education and interesting experience, it was great placing faces to the voices. It gave me a greater sense of appreciation that these hard-working men and women are there to help the pilot and to prevent people from losing their lives. I'd like to go back solo and spend more time just sitting around and talking more with the people who work there!

If you're a pilot, take some time to visit your local airport and tour their tower. If they're like Port Columbus, they'll be very accommodating and pilot-friendly. Port Columbus preferred we visited during the weekday, simply because they could handle a large group better when they weren't busy, and midday during the week is fairly slow.

'Til next time, clear skies!

Setting the hook

I'd like to congratulate my friend, Mark for taking his first intro flight yesterday. I still remember my first intro flight (also the first flight I've ever had in a small airplane), it was the first step in a long journey (which I'm still on), and it's a step not everyone makes. Mark wrote the following in an email to me soon after he solo'd:

"Ground school cast out the line."
"When you took me up I bit the hook....Matt just set it!"

Clear Skies Mark! Once the hook's set, you're not getting free!

What in the NOTAM - CARF

CARF stands for Central Altitude Reservation Function is the organization responsible for processing altitude reservations (ALTRVs) for military operations. These types of NOTAMs are designed to keep private air traffic clear of military operations, and to give authorization for military aircraft to conduct operations not normally allowed under standard ATC rules and regulations. Here is an example of a CARF NOTAM:

!CARF 01/109 (KZBW A0009/07) ZBW CARF NR. 111 ON CORONET EAST 019 LEG-3 MILITARY ACTIVITY ALONG THE ROUTE BETWEEN DOVEY ACK 15000-FL210 WEF 0701251609-0701251841

Not all altitude and airspace reservations start off with CARF, off-shore reservations or reservations where there is inadequate radar coverage may be issued as an international NOTAM like the one below:

M0493/06 - AIRSPACE RESERVATION ACTIVATED AREA OAK ALPHA 3907N 7153W 3841N 7155W 3820N 6957W 3830N 69W 37N 69W 37N 7240W 3715N 7240W 3757N 73W 3820N 7248W 3846N 7230W SFC- FL055 08 NOV 23:59 UNTIL 07 FEB 23:59 2007

These types of NOTAMs should be treated like Special Use Airspaces (SUA), you should avoid flying in the area described in the NOTAM while the area is active. Speaking of SUAs, the FAA has a great site for checking the coverage and status of SUAs at http://sua.faa.gov/. A careful check of both the CARF NOTAMs and SUA should help you stay clear of the fast-movers!

Clear Skies!

Tower LGTS OTS

I'm pretty happy to announce that I've just rolled out a new feature for NOTAM Ace, unlit towers.

How many times have you called the flight briefer or checked DUATS to be told there's an unlit tower near the airport. How many times have you just ignored it, simply because the information in the NOTAM is so vague as to be completely useless? ("8 miles East - North East of the airport", yeah okay that's really specific)

Well no longer, when you do a search in NOTAM Ace if there's an unlit tower in the NOTAM, you will know exactly where its located.

I'm really pumped by this feature, simply because it illustrates the benefit of NOTAM Ace's mapping technique, and it offers something DUATS and even the FSS briefer can't match (although as always call 1800-WX-Brief to get an approved FSS flight briefing before you fly...seriously I mean it!).

Till next time, watch out for those towers! Clear Skies!

What in the NOTAM - USD & UAR

While developing NOTAM Ace, I've run across a lot of different Notices to Airmen. Understanding NOTAMs is important for conducting a safe and legal flight, however a lot of pilots have only a vague understanding of what they're actually reading. Most pilots (and I'm including myself) just do a brief skim, looking for only a few things like "Temporary Flight Restriction" or "LGTS OTS", and missing other NOTAMs that could have a critical impact on the safety of their flight. I built NOTAM Ace to help make understanding NOTAMs easier, but software can only do so much.

That's why I'm starting a segment called "What in the NOTAM?" Weekly I'll research something that is often found in NOTAMs and try to cover what it is, how its written up, and why a pilot should pay attention to it.

This week, I'm going to start off with two NOTAM contractions important to every IFR pilot (especially if they operate in and out of busy Class C or B airspaces), USD and UAR.

USD depicts changes to the published Departure Procedures (DP) for the airport, here's an example:

!USD 07/020 (KPHX A0290/05) PHX ST. JOHNS THREE DEPARTURE...DEP CTL 119.2/281.45

This example shows a change in the departure clearance frequencies for the ST. JOHNS THREE departure at PHX. If you were used to the old frequency, checking this NOTAM could prevent a couple of seconds confusion when the tower gives you 119.2.

UAR is the NOTAM code for changes to the published Standard Terminal Procedures (STAR) for the airport. Here's what one of these may look like:

!UAR 06/042 (KJFK A1485/06) JFK LENDY FIVE ARRIVAL LENDY INT THEN VIA LGA R-315 TO LGA VOR/DME MEA 3000. RADAR REQUIRED. WEF 0606281600

This UAR shows that for the LENDY FIVE arrival at JFK, there are some changes to the published route of the arrival. Knowing this in advance is essential if ATC happens to assign you this arrival.

Remember ATC can assign you a DP or STAR if available while you're on an IFR flight plan. Knowing in advance any changes to the published DPs or STARs is essential if you are planning an IFR flight.

That's it for this week in What in the NOTAM, if I've made any errors or omissions please feel free to leave a comment, I'll correct it ASAP.

Till next time, clear skies!

The past year in review

Wow, its been nearly a year since I last posted! A lot has happened to me aviation-related in the past year. Here's a brief summary:

1. IFR Certification - I went for and received my IFR rating, passing my checkride on 11/22. Its been a challenging and rewarding experience, even more so than the private pilot certification. I own my thanks to my flight instructor Matt F at Capital City, who showed infinite patience and guidance during my training, especially when I "gave bad radio."

2. Preflight Pro - I did some work on my visual NOTAMs tool, Preflight Pro and relaunched it as NOTAM Ace. Its more polished and offers a better UI experience. You can see the new version at http://www.notamace.com/.

3. Mentoring - People who know me quickly realize its hard for me NOT to talk about flying. One of those people Mark, who I worked with during the first half of the year, figured since I talk about it so much there must be something to this whole flying business. He's now pursuing his private pilot certificate as well! He'll be training at Capital City (http://www.capitalcityaviation.com/) and I look forward to seeing him around OSU!

This year - 2007

What's a blog post for the new year without a list of goals? Well here are several of my goals for the new year as a pilot.

1. Keep IFR currency - a requirement and responsibility that comes with having the rating, still it'll be pretty challenging as a "casual" pilot

2. More training - I've been bitten by the aerobatic bug, ever since I the flying club outing to Red Stewart field. I recently found out that Marysville (MRT) has a flight school for aerobatics, I want to check it out and see about getting some aerobatic training. Maybe even compete as an amateur in a few competitions.

3. Getting non-pilots involved - I love sharing my passion for flight with others, it was great taking Mark up in the air and just cruising around. Another friend, Will is pretty interested in flying too, so during a nice weekend (a rarity in Ohio this time of year) I'd like to take him up in the Warrior as well. I believe strongly in aviation being a shared experience, and I want to show as many people as possible what I experience in a small airplane 3000 feet up.

Preflight Pro released to rec.aviation.piloting!

Wow, what a great weekend! On Thursday night I officially introduced Preflight Pro to the aviation community, or at least a major part of the aviation community with the following post on the Usenet group rec.aviation.piloting.

The response and positive feedback from the group was overwhelming. I think I was on pins and needles all Thursday night and through Friday morning. Its one thing to THINK you've created something useful and cool, its a completely different story to have those thoughts confirmed by your actual target audience. I felt like a theatre producer/playwright on opening night.

Here are some of the things that came up during the initial release:

1) There was a bug early on in the searches for Sacramento that was caught and reported by a user (thanks Todd). The automatic error logging worked perfectly and sent me an email that pretty much spelled out what exactly went wrong.

2) A number of people noted that all they got was the city of Columbus, OH. Reading between the lines, I realized that the program didn't really do a good job of letting people know that a search was in progress. Therefore a lot of folks assumed (rightfully so) that the was stuck or hung. I plan on fixing that as soon as possible by putting in a animated "please wait" graphic.

3) There was a huge buzz over filtering the NOTAMs. It was a feature I considered before, but I wasn't sure if it was something people really cared about. While only one person initially called for filtering, a lot of other people jumped on the bandwagon in a small legal debate, offering alternatives to simply hiding the filtered NOTAMs etc. Based on the feedback, I plan on incorporating filtering in the next big release of the program.

4) I was worried about server load and performance, but the fact that the application performed 5000 requests over three days (75% of the requests served on Friday) without crashing or any noticeable slow-down, has put my mind at ease. My daily bandwidth consumption was also well below my calculated daily max, so I now know traffic can grow quite a bit without any more financial cost on my part.

All in all, I don't think I could have asked for better. Traffic after the weekend has dropped off, as expected. But I feel like I accomplished the goals I set out to do. My next plans are to continue to develop the features and just keep getting the word out to other pilots.

Finally, I'd like to thank all the posters of rec.aviation.piloting, I couldn't have asked for a better group of users for my little infant program. I will continue to seek your collective input as I work on making Preflight Pro the best NOTAM tool on the Internet!

Preflight Pro is the visual alternative to DUATs for NOTAMs and TFRs on the Internet. See the difference at www.notduats.com.

Clear Skies!

Preflight Pro: The alternative to DUATs for NOTAMs and TFRs

Flying has been slow recently, with it being winter and all in the mid-west. Mostly my time has been occupied with a personal software project I've called Preflight Pro.

This project came from a need to address a major headache in preflight planning, Notices to Airmen (or NOTAMs for short). Currently there are three ways to retrieve NOTAMs so far:

1) Obtain a preflight briefing by calling 1800-wxbrief
2) Through DUATs
3) Or through the FAA's PilotWeb

Number 1 is hands down the best and most accurate way to get up-to-date NOTAM information before you fly. I'd like to repeat that, getting a preflight briefing from an approved FSS briefer is the best and most accurate way to get up-to-date NOTAM information before you fly.

But what if you're just checking out NOTAMs just to stay informed about the area you currently fly in? Or what if you're planning that dream flight to the Super Bowl this Sunday? You don't want to call up a flight briefer and harrass them if you're not actually going to fly in the next two hours are you?

So the only alternatives to access NOTAMs online are either through DUATs or PilotWeb. Let's be honest here, DUATs is an out-dated system that was designed to present text information on 300x150 monochrome terminal screens, and PilotWeb is nothing more than a screen scrape of that same text dumped out on a webpage.

I'm not denying that DUATs and PilotWeb are not informative; in fact they are excellent resources for information. But this is 2006, if you're going to present information on the web you're going to have to go a step beyond in HOW that information is presented.

That's where I hope Preflight Pro will fill the niche. I'm not going to say anymore except provide you a link to my site, I want you guys to see for yourself and make the call if I'm on the right track.

Preflight Pro: The alternative to DUATs for NOTAMs and TFRs.

Frozen body of WWII era pilot found in the Sierra's

"Ice climbers have discovered what investigators believe are the remains of a World War II airman who crashed in Kings Canyon National Park and whose body -- still wearing an unopened parachute -- has been preserved in glacial ice for more than 60 years."

Click here for the article

Sporty's and the $200 cockpit poster

Well I finally made my cross-country down to Sporty's at Clermont County (I69) and it was pretty awesome! Flying down to Sporty's was a plan of mine ever since I learned they were based in Ohio. The pilot shop was great; it was pretty cool seeing things you'd normally find in the catalog. I really enjoyed the aviation posters and I picked up a free cockpit poster of the new Cessna 182T with the flat panel displays (okay, it was free if you didn't count the $200 bucks spent just getting there).

I also bought this recreation of the Phillips 66 "Airplane pilot on Duty" sign (I’ve always wanted one). Now my question is, do I hang it up in my cubicle at work, or keep it at home? I'm leaning towards work.

The flight itself was pretty good too; it was extremely clear out, unfortunately there was a lot of turbulence. It was pretty bumpy up there at times, one jolt knocked me an inch up out of my seat (thank god for seat belts). I did get an opportunity when it was smoother to practice flying hands-off (keeping a heading and altitude with just the rudder and trim), which is a great technique when you have to swap radios and manage maps. It’s also something you need for IFR flying if you don’t have an autopilot.

The Ryan International TAS is excellent! This was the first opportunity to really use it and appreciate what it was capable of. The traffic enroute was very light, but I was able to keep an eye on the few planes that were around, as I got closer to Clermont I was able to see the traffic in the pattern and spot the traffic leaving the airport. It only gave me the voice warning alert once, and that was for a plane I had not previously spotted that intersected my path about 500 feet below me.

The only problem I had that put a damper on the flight was at the end, landing back at OSU. I was assigned runway 32, which isn't a runway they often use and I don’t think I’ve ever landed on before. Needless to say I wasn't thinking straight (I was in a rush to get home since I was almost overdue to have the plane back) and I got confused at where the runway was (I didn't have an airport diagram print out of OSU either). I could have worked it out though if I had been thinking and if I had asked for help from the controller. Well I didn't and I lined up for the wrong runway (5), the tower caught it (and so did I when I saw the big white 5 on the concrete). I tried to get back to 32, however I was still unsure where it was and I overshot it. Finally the tower took me out West and had me turn a 180 back to 27L.

It was embarrassing, and unsafe (thankfully there wasn't any traffic at the time) and it really was a poor ending to an overall great flight. Fortunately I wasn't asked to call the tower and I didn't get an earful (even though I know I deserved one).

Flying is a learning process, so here are some things that I learned:
A) ALWAYS carry an airport diagram, even if it's your home base, one look at a diagram or even a drawing of the airport would have prevented the whole mess.
B) If you're unsure at what the controller wants you to do, ASK ASK ASK! I could have told the tower "I'm unfamiliar with 32, I don't have it in sight, can you tell me when to turn onto final?" Or I could have simply requested 27L (a runway I was far more comfortable with).
C) Finally, don't let the rush to get to the ground cloud your judgment. I was running late and I was letting that extra pressure keeping me from thinking clearly.

That's all for now, if you find yourself in Ohio, definitely check out Sporty's (I69).

Clear skies!