May Gray and June Gloom

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It’s late April, but we’re already getting a typical Los Angeles basin weather trend that we call “May Gray” and “June Gloom” (since that’s usually when it is at its worst). When we are experiencing this, we get low clouds and visibility that may or may not “burn off” later in the day. This means a lot of delayed or cancelled flights for private pilots and students and can be bad enough to ground even IFR pilots.

I woke up this morning to drizzle. This means a cloud layer that may be 3000 feet thick. I check PIREPs and see base and top reports that confirm that:

SMO UA /OV SMO270005/TM 1538/FL037/TP BE58/SK OVC008-TOP037
POC UA /OV POM/TM 1525/FL043/TP UNKN/SK TOP043

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Catalina (KAVX)

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Most of you are probably too young to remember (or even to have heard) the song by the Four Preps:

Twenty-six miles across the sea
Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me
Santa Catalina, the island of romance
Romance, romance, romance

The song speaks to the lure of this member of the Channel Islands that’s so close to Los Angeles. This island is especially luring to pilots, with a publicly accessible airport. However, the island and airport hold some surprises for the unprepared pilot Continue reading →

Recording lessons

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Communications is almost always a challenge for new pilots. Trying to listen and talk, all while learning to fly, is no small feat. If English is not your native language, it adds additional complications. Many students have found it valuable to record lessons for later review. The easiest solution uses a special cable and a small digital voice recorder.

Suggested Hardware

The recorder I use now is an Olympus VNC-721PC that I picked up for about $50 (that exact model no longer available, so here’s a couple of similar ones: VN-541PC and WS-852). It’s small, light, runs for many lessons on 2 AAA batteries, and is simple to use for recording, playback, or downloading of the audio files to your computer. In order to record what you, your instructor, and other pilots and controllers are saying, you need to connect the output of the airplane’s audio system to the mic input of the recorder. That’s not always as straight forward as you might think.

The headset output of the intercom is designed to drive the speakers in your headset. If you simply make the direct connection, you’ll find that the recordings are horribly distorted. Since 2016, I’ve used an all-in-one attenuating/y-cable solution that costs about $40 – this is a more convenient solution, but I find that it lets in a bit more noise than my previous solution. I’ve also found that the cable is delicate, so be careful in how you wrap/bend the cable when in use and when stored.

Once you have all the equipment you’ll need to do a little experimentation to get the recording sensitivity set properly. I also suggest that you set the recorder to use voice activation. This should mean it only records when there is something to record (though some airplane audio systems are noisy enough to always trigger it). Otherwise, a typical flight may have many long blank pauses. I find a typical lesson generates about an hour of recording and a file in the 10-15MB range. The audio quality is surprisingly good for that level of data compression. I connect the recorder to my computer via a short USB cable and download the recordings to my computer in a few seconds and email them to students.

Other options

It is possible to record to your smart phone, like an iPhone or Android headset. The cabling may be a little different as the microphone jack on many phones is different than the one used by the recorder I mentioned. You’ll need a recording app and I recommend one that is intended for voice recording. For me, the downside is that the phones are much heavier, so you have to be more careful where you stow them in flight and they tend to run through batteries quickly.

It’s also possible to do both audio and video recording of a lesson, though that increases the file size considerably and will be the topic of a later post.

Complications

The cables I have mentioned assume mono (not stereo) outputs and inputs. This seems to work ok in the planes I use, but depending on the recorder and audio system you use, you may need to deal with issues related to stereo audio.

Propeller safety

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It’s a grizzly topic, triggered by a sad story. While not common, this happens more frequently than it should and is a reminder of the dangers posed by propellers.

1) When moving the propeller, always assume it could start; keep all body parts out of the arc of the propeller

2) When the engine is running, be aware of any people or animals that approach the plane. If unsure, shut down immediately. Remember that a moving propeller can be very difficult to see; a woman in Plano is lucky to be alive.

3) Never attempt to hand prop (start) a plane without proper training of both the person turning the prop and the person inside of the cockpit.

4) Never handle the propeller with power on or keys in the ignition, unless you intend to start the plane.

5) Don’t allow passengers to enter or exit the plane while the engine is running.

Death Valley (Furnace Creek)

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Death Valley is a perfect example of a flying destination. It takes a long time to drive there. It takes much less time to fly there. Once you arrive, there are things you can do without having your own car (I recommend the Sunday brunch at the Furnace Creek Inn).

Routes

Getting there is not without challenges though. If you draw a straight line between El Monte and Furnace Creek, you’ll find terrain and a LOT of Restricted areas and MOAs in the way.  The direct route is not going to work. You should always plan for the likelihood that you will need to navigate around all the Restricted space. With that in mind, I break the trip into three basic routes. My personal preference is to take the Baker route on the way to Furnace Creek (hoping to get closer to Goldstone) and fly some version of the Owens Valley route on the way back (maybe with a detour to check out Mt Whitney).

East (Baker) Route

This is probably the easiest route to do via pilotage, i.e. the other IFR (I Follow Roads). Take the 210 to the 15, go to Baker, turn left and follow the road to Death Valley. On this route, I frequently find that some, or all, of the R-2502 areas are cold and I’m able to turn the corner earlier than Baker. If R-2502N is cold you may be able to fly over JPL’s Goldstone complex.

The route, as shown will require you to make a small deviation around the edge of R-2502A. See this route on SkyVector.

Trona Route

This is the shortest route, but also the most difficult route to navigate, unless you are following GPS or using flight following to help confirm your location. It is also the most direct if all the restricted areas are hot. You could go direct to Mojave, but I find I usually need to climb a little more towards the west (towards JPL ) to clear terrain in my climb. On the way to Mojave, I suggest keeping SR-14 off to your east to ensure you don’t stray into the R-2515 area. If you want an interesting view coming into Death Valley, fly closer to Telescope Peak on your way in.

Take a look at the Trona Route in SkyVector.

Owens Valley (395) Route

This route is pretty easy by pilotage as well, with some flexibility on where to cut across from the 395 to Death Valley.

View the Owens Valley Route in SkyVector

Furnace Creek

The Furnace Creek airport (L06) is below sea level. This is worth a trip by itself, just to see your altimeter wind below zero (with the proper altimeter setting). Once there, I suggest you call the Furnace Creek Inn for a shuttle to pick you up. In the past, there was a pay phone with which to call. More recently, cell phones seem to be working there. It’s a short drive to the Furnace Creek Inn (and reasonable walk there or back). They have a pleasant restaurant and an excellent Sunday brunch. It’s only open from about October to May.

The airport has no taxiways, just a runway and a parking area. You’ll need to back-taxi on the runway after landing and in preparation for departure. It can be quite windy, so bring tie downs and/or chocks. There are cables to connect to, but usually no tie down ropes.

Fuel is currently available, but it takes some effort to pay and have someone come over from the Chevron station on the main road (reported in March 2012 that fuel is no longer available at Furnace Creek).

Notes:

  1. Remember that VFR flights may legally enter MOAs. I would however recommend flight following or confirming that the MOAs are “cold”.
  2. Flight following will usually be terminated 20 miles or more south of the L06, as you descend out of radar coverage below terrain.
  3. Reservations are recommended at the restaurant, especially for brunch.
  4. It can be very hot in Death Valley, but very cold at altitude. Dress in layers. Drink lots of water.

 

Smooth flying to Mammoth (and back)

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This may have been the smoothest flight I’ve ever had through the Owens Valley and over the Sierra Nevada. I accompanied two pilots on our FLIT Sunday to Mammoth Lakes, California.

Approximate route flown

You can investigate the route in more detail on RunwayFinder

As has become more common, we took off on runway 1 at El Monte in the morning with calm winds. LM had us soon climbing direct towards Clear Creek. That route keeps us in the shadow of the Verdugos, relative to Burbank’s radar, so radar identification took a while with SoCal Approach. We turned more directly towards Mojave, as we were able to see over the San Gabriels toward Edwards AFB; Continue reading →