Dave McNamee: Flying

Gliding

Sat, 28 Feb 2004 19:13:01 GMT

I have recently (within the past few months) decided that I am no longer going to pursue a career as an airline pilot. It's been a tough decision, but I would rather be home with my family on a daily basis than fly jets. Plus, I would have to significantly decrease my family's standard of living for a decade before we were back up to where we are now.

I am definitely not giving up flying, though. It's like an inoperable brain tumor-impossible to be extracted from my life. I will continue to work part time as a CFI. Eventually I will feel compelled to buy my own airplane. I am also very interested in becoming a glider pilot, maybe even a glider CFI. About a month ago I paid a visit to Morgan Valley Soaring where the owner expressed an interest in me becoming a CFIG so he could get out of the back seat of their old, uncomfortable Schweizer 2-33. It sounds like fun to me.

Boris Trajkovski

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 13:10:34 GMT

The President of Macedonia perished in a King Air. It's the old fog/rain/mountainside story. I am an instrument-rated pilot, so I can imagine the conditions and what the pilots were dealing with. I don't think King Airs have CVRs, and I am curious what kind of radar coverage they have in Macedonia, so we might not ever know if the pilots even knew they were in trouble.

Rained Out, Part II

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 04:53:30 GMT

Once again, the forces of nature have conspired to prevent me from completing my CFI. I had the flying part of my checkride scheduled for this afternoon, but it just so happened that some storms were rolling through right then. We've had 48 hours of brilliant sunshine, a gorgeous easter sunday, and I can't catch a break for a few hours. Now it's not going to happen until at least saturday. That is, of course, if I am not taking care of a new baby by then. I guess I am lucky to have all of this going on in my life right now.

Rained Out

Sat, 19 Apr 2003 15:45:41 GMT

I started my CFI checkride yesterday, successfully completing the oral portion of the test. It wasn't too bad, but there were some things that I didn't know. Fortunately they weren't major. I didn't get the impression that I was ever on the verge of failing, so I feel pretty good about it. Kelvin Hiatt, the designated examiner that I am using, seemed fair and thorough. The oral part took over four hours to complete.

When we were done with the oral part we went outside to look at the weather. It was crummy. We had some rain and low ceilings over the Ogden west practice area and over tooele valley, the two places that would be appropriate for the checkride. So, even though there was a good ceiling over bountiful, we went back inside and he filled out a letter of discontinuance, giving low ceilings as the reason. We did not determine when I would finish.

It's nice to have such a significant part of my checkride over. Plus, a lot of the aprehension I had about it is gone because now I have an idea what the examiner is like. I will keep you posted.

Ready for Another Checkride

Fri, 18 Apr 2003 01:59:26 GMT

What a difference a day makes. Everything is working on the Commander! The gear limiter switch was replaced this morning, and the CHT is working, too. I just hope that nothing decides to stop working overnight.

I did get to go flyig today by myself and with Matt. By myself I did all of the landings and take offs that could be requested on my test. Short, soft, normal, crosswind, and 180 degree precision emergency approach. I felt very good about all of them. Then Matt and I went and we did commercial ground reference maneouvers, stalls, lazy 8s, etc. before coming back and doing a few landings. Again, I felt very good, and Matt said that I was ready. I think I just might be ready.

After flying Matt endorsed my logbook. I think I am ready. Let's just hope the weather works out. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

After I successfully complete this checkride, I will only have 4 checkrides left: Instrument Instructor, Commercial Multi, Multi-Engine Instructor, and finally Airline Transport Pilot. Cool!

Little Green Lights

Thu, 17 Apr 2003 13:47:39 GMT

The fun never stops. Here is an update on my quest to become a CFI.

Yesterday I had a flight scheduled to polish up some of my maneouvers with my CFI, Matt. I was very much looking forward to the flight. I figured that flight plus thursday's flight would sufficiently prepare me for my checkride on friday (tomorrow). It was all going to work out.

Well, I show up to the airport yesterday and waited for the plane to get back. As I am waiting in the FBO, I hear over the radio "91W has a gear indicator light that is not green." It was my instructor and another student. They did a low pass, and everyone agreed that the gear looked fine, so they decided to land, which they did safely (thank goodness). Unfortunately, upon inspection it was determined that the gear limiter switch was broken. Also broken was the CHT guage, and the transponder was still reporting high. I was grounded. I made sure to raz my instructor's other student, "you broke my airplane!" She is strongly considering switching to the comanche for the remainder of her training.

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The mechanics assured me the thing would be flying again by the next morning (this morning). If it is, then I may be able to squeek a flight in today before the weather deteriorates below VFR. If I don't fly today, I don't get signed off for my checkride, and I will have to reschedule AGAIN. On top of all this, my wife could pop at any second. She's 80% effaced. If things don't work out today and tomorrow, I can imagine having to cancel again because my wife is having a baby. Of course, that would be more important than a checkride.

Humility

Sat, 12 Apr 2003 18:34:13 GMT

People who fly airplanes usually posess qualities such as confidence, a sense of adventure, intelligence, and attention to detail. One less frequently found quality in pilots is humility. I am no exception. I have a tendency to think I am pretty good at this flying thing. Well, my flight yesterday helped me remember to be humble.

It was supposed to be just a regular pre-checkride check, and I was going with an instructor named Ann St Peter. My regular instructor, Matt Bradshaw thought I would benefit from going with somebody else. I agreed that it was a good idea.

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So, I went through my normal preflight checks on the Commander N4591W and we strapped ourselves in. Ann was pleased to see that she was not going to need her booster pad to see over the instrument panel. She is a little vertically challenged, but a fantastic CFI.

I began running through the engine start checklist, and got to the point where it was time to engage the starter and fire up the engine. So I started cranking the thing over, and it wasn't starting. It had flown earlier that day, so I didn't think it would need priming. After a few tries, though, I decided it could use some more gas, so I primed it according to the checklist. Cranked it and it sputtered a few times and died again. What gives? Finally, after letting me wallow for a minute, Ann casually mentioned that I may want to put the mixture at full rich if I wanted the engine to run. Garbage! *$#&#*!!! That would cause me to fail on my checkride.

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Finally, I got the engine started, and pulled myself together. We took off and headed north towards the practice area west of the OGD VOR. We messed around, watching the CHT which had spiked to redline after liftoff. It crawled back down, so we continued.

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We did just about all of the commercial and private maneouvers. My steep turns stunk. I busted the altitude standards a couple of times. My chandelles were aweful. Ground reference maneouvers were good, as were my lazy 8's, slow flight, and stalls. Those things were the high point of the flight.

We finally and mercifully decided that I had had enough. We headed back towards skypark. I set up to land. I let the thing get a little bit ahead of me, then I let it get too slow on final. I was supposed to be demonstrating a normal landing, but I ended up doing a fantastic short field landing, except I touched down about 20 FEET in front of the extended threshold. SUCK!

Totally disgusted with myself, we taxied back to the hangar. Ann was great, she said this was the reason we do these stage checks, so that we get this kind of flying out of our systems. All of her students do their worst flying right before a checkride. That was some solace, but I still flew like crap.

I pulled myself together and went by myself this morning. Things went much better. I had better success with maneouvers, and three really good landings, including one soft-field landing with a wheely that lasted almost until I was ready to turn off onto the taxiway. All in all, I think I will be ready for my checkride next Friday. But one thing is for certain: I won't be forgetting to be humble for some time.

Spins

Tue, 11 Mar 2003 04:34:46 GMT

Today I strapped myself into a little Cherokee 140, N8277N and went out with my instructor to the Tooele valley to practice spins. This is something that I have looked forward to for some time, so I was very excited about it. Matt and I slowly climbed up to 9000 ft, cinched down our belts, and Matt demonstrated the proper way to spin a Cherokee and recover. I loved it!

Next it was my turn. I climbed back up to 9K, and because we were already slow from the climb all I had to do to produce the stall was to reduce the throttle to idle. This plane only has a stall warning light, which seems to go off early. I held it nose high until it shook and then I gave it full left rudder. Sure enough, the thing dropped the left wing, and started to spin. It is a unique and exquisite feeling to only see ground in all the windows of the airplane. There is an old saying, "keep the blue side up" which is an urge that you have to suppress when practicing spins. It is extremely exciting to watch the ground whizzing around in circles. With the Cherokee, all you have to do to recover is to relax the rudder and the elevator, and then bring the nose level. No snappy jerking motions to break the spin. It was a lot of fun.

After we did a few spins and we practiced what to do if a student gets the airplane in that condition, Matt challenged me to do a spin, and roll out on a specific heading and altitude. I tried it, and I was within 100 feet and 10 degrees. Pretty good. I cannot believe that anyone would want to do anything other than fly airplanes for a living. I can't wait till I get there.

CFI checkride is scheduled for April 5th. :)

CFI Update

Mon, 24 Feb 2003 13:32:42 GMT

I am inching ever closer to finishing my CFI. I'm getting excited about it. I have a dozen or so potential private pilot students, so I should be able to get things going fairly quickly after my checkride. The last time I went flying with my instructor we did all kinds of landings and take offs, go arounds, and he even gave me the opportunity to take control of the airplane on a simulated botched soft field landing. On thursday we're going to do some private pilot ground reference maneouvers, and then all I'll have left is commercial stuff (an initial CFI ticket lets you teach private and commercial students).

I'm also taking the opportunity to hone my CFI skills with pilots and non pilots. A week ago saturday I went flying with two pilot friends in thier airplane and we did some instrument work. I'm not sure how much value I provided to them, but we had a good time. This week I am going with a non pilot friend.

I am also working on a logbook application using MySQL. CFIs have to record a few more pieces of information, and I have not been impressed by the commercially available logbook programs, so I am writing my own.

CFI Training

Tue, 21 Jan 2003 03:53:46 GMT

Today was my second flight with my new flight instructor, Matt Bradshaw. He is an experienced guy that has been involved in aviation for many years in one capacity or another. We flew out to Tooele valley in a 172, N734LE, and did stalls of various kinds. I am getting used to flying from the right seat, and this time when we came back my landing was much nicer than when I went with him on Saturday. All in all, I felt very good about the flight.

I am not scheduled to fly again this week due to the scout campout that I am attending. However, we are going to do some ground school stuff on Wednesday and I am going to spend a lot more time studying. My goal is to have my CFI done by February 22. That will be a major accomplishment for me. The next step will be CFII (sometimes called "double 'I'" which stands for Certified Flight Instructor, Instrument). Then the step after that will be Commercial Multi Add On, then MEI (Multi-Engine Instructor). We will have to get a new training twin before I can work on any multi stuff due to the fact that the seneca was crashed.

Jake Garn

Sun, 19 Jan 2003 19:20:18 GMT

On Friday night Jake Garn came to talk to Utah Aircraft Alliance members. He spoke about just using good and prudent judgement to stay out of trouble when flying airplanes. He spoke for the better part of an hour.

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I could have listened to him talk about space for much longer. He told us that there is no way to describe it, no camera that can do it justice.

I'd vote for him if he ran for anything again.

Birthday Flight

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 05:28:53 GMT

Today was my birthday and I went for a flight. Here are a few pictures.

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This is the back of timpanogos as the sun is coming up. I had flown from Skypark to Provo and done the ILS 13, and then flew up Provo canyon and did a touch and go at heber before I remembered that I had intended on taking some pictures.

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It was an absolutely beautiful morning. This is looking west towards Mt Olympus.

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I work with the scouts and this is where we will be attending the Klondike Derby next weekend. East Canyon Res. isn't even frozen over, and this picture makes it look like they have a lot of snow, but there really isn't much at all. We better put wheels on our sleds.

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Here is a picture of my house from the air.

More Sabbatical Fun

Fri, 10 Jan 2003 17:31:47 GMT

Here is some of the fun that I have had during my time off.

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I went to the airport for a flight, but visibility was pretty poor, so I decided to hang around the airport and take some pictures.

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I talked to the pilot after he landed and he let me take a picture of the cockpit.

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Later I went out to KSLC and took a few pictures. Here is a 767 taxiing to 34R for takeoff.

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Cessna 172N N3570E

Wed, 08 Jan 2003 04:43:32 GMT

This is my favorite plane. It may not be as fast or as well-equipped as the comanche, but this is the one that I have spent the most time in.

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New Year's Day Flight

Tue, 07 Jan 2003 04:09:26 GMT

I took a flight on new year's day in a piper comanche, N6867P.

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I flew out over Tooele valley and climbed up over the clouds

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I had a great time

Thomas the German

Fri, 11 Oct 2002 23:55:53 GMT

Yesterday I flew my brother-in-law's father-in-law, Don, down to Moab in his Cessna 182. He has a client down there to whom he has sold a bunch of two way radios, and they needed to have a new channel programmed in to each unit. Don is a pilot, but he is due for a biannual check, so he asked me to fly him. Not being one to turn down free air time, I agreed. The flights both down and back were uneventful. It was some good navigation practice, and Don is an interesting guy to talk to.

The really interesting part of the trip was the outfit that we did the work for. It is an adventure outfitter, which owns 18 jeeps, a bunch of four wheelers, and a whole lot of other equipment. It is actually a German company that hosts adventures for people who win a contest sponsored by a tobacco company. People come from all over the world, and the place was very well organized.

One of the Germans that runs the place gave us a ride back out to the airport, and Don suggested that I take him for a quick ride to test out the new channel that we programmed from the air. His name is Thomas, and he is a very likable fellow. We took off and I climbed to 7000 feet (about 2500 agl) and he talked to his base over the radio. He enjoyed the ride, as did I. It is fun to take people up in small airplanes. I guess I can say that I have flown my first international customer.

Flying Stuff Migrated to this Domain

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:56:35 GMT

Well, I finally had to break down and cut and paste all of my flying entries manually. I tried to get the directory from my work blog to work, but I guess I just don't know enough about radio userland to get it to work. So, from now on, all of my flying entries will be found at this domain, here.

WAP

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:37:40 GMT

I love my wifi connection. It is so cool to be able to take my laptop into a meeting and do work during meetings as I currently am doing. I just explained RSS and Blogging to a Portal/Content Management meeting, and I can actually be doing it at the same time with my wireless connection. I don't concern myself with the security issues as much as other folks. I know there is some risk, but I have only so much bandwidth for worrying, and it seems like I should not worry about things that I am not responsible for. It would be cool to go warflying like phil did yesterday. Although I am a commercially licensed pilot, I don't have the requisite GPS or wireless card. Need a copilot Phil?

DaveMcNamee.com

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:37:15 GMT

I have decided to move my flying stuff off of my product managment blog and onto davemcnamee.com, which just came online this weekend. I realize that having non-work related information on my work blog is hard for some people to deal with. This way there will be no ambiguity about the purpose of this particular blog, and I would feel comfortable moving it onto a state server. Of course, my personality and attitude will come through still, but you will have to go to my other site to read about my flight training and other topics. Look for the move to take place sometime this week. I will post links to davemcnamee.com as I develop the content. It's going to be cool.

Betrayal/Reconciliation

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:36:41 GMT

Last night Steve Lewis and I flew a Comanche, N6867P, up to Pocatello. It was Steve's first flight in a Comanche since an engine quit on him in our club's other Comanche, N146P, and he ended up off the end of 13 at provo with the gear folded up underneath.

I wanted to practice some hood work and using the GPS on the way up, so I didn't look out the windows much until we got to Poky. The weather when we left skypark was hazy, with CB to the south. We had a 10 knot tailwind, and the ride was smooth all the way up. After I landed on runway 3 Steve called his grandparents who came out and took us to Burger King.

After returning to the airport and showing the folks the plane, we strapped in again, this time with Steve in the left seat. We did a runup and taxied out onto 21. Steve advanced the throttle, and away we went. I can only imagine what that must have been like for him, after having his faith shattered in a crash that could have killed him, he was at the controls of the same type of airplane. He hesitated retracting the gear, and understandably so. We climbed out, with the combination of haze and the setting sun making effective visibility less than 10 miles. Steve checked the fuel guages often, but there was never any problem. Over Tremonton we could see lightning strikes to the east and west of our destination, but we could see the faint light of Salt Lake in the distance, so we believed we would be OK. A quick call to Cedar Radio increased our confidence. We made it back to skypark without incident.

Having never been in any kind of crash, I guess I can't fully understand what it must have been like for Steve, getting back in a Comanche. I hope I never have an experience like his. But last night proved that he was overcoming the challenges that come with that kind of betrayal. I think a solo flight would probably seal the deal.

RV6 Mania

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:35:54 GMT

I know you must all be dying to hear about my flight in Kory Branham's RV6. Well let me tell ya, it was better than Christmas. After flying down to provo in a cherokee I met Kory at his hangar at 8 am. He had his beautiful plane, N29KB, all preflighted so we strapped in and fired up the lycoming. It is 180 horse with a constant speed hartzell prop. Plenty of ganas for such a small airplane. We taxied out to the runup area, where we did a full runup and programmed all of the advanced avionics in the cockpit. After waiting for a few 172's and Katanas to get out of the way we taxied out onto 13 and put it to the firewall. The thing screamed into the air, and we headed for unoccupied airspace.

We reached 9500 ft in no time with me at the controls. After clearing the area we did loops and rolls. The G forces from the first loop drained my sinuses and made me want to buy a share in his airplane. After tightening our harnesses, we tried some extended inverted flying. Usually you try to keep the blue side up, but it sure was cool to look up to the ground as we flew along strait and level. We did some steep, 3 G turns. The thing handled like a dream. The controls are very responsive, with 360 degrees of roll being completed in about 3 seconds. Very little rudder is needed for almost all types of flying, and the view under the bubble canopy is unparralled. Before heading back to Provo, we did an immelmann, pulling 2 Gs. I flew it back all the way until turning base for 13 where I handed it back to its owner and builder for a smooth landing. After that experience, flying the cherokee back to skypark was like driving a porsche on the autobahn and then getting back in your used hyaundai excell to drive home.

I will update this article with pictures after I get the film developed (I know, I should have a digital camera. I spend the money I would use on cameras on flying). During our flight Kory told me all about his latest soaring experiences. He also owns a high-performance sailplane that he has flown all over the state. Now I want to try that, too.

Summer Flying Adventures

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:35:21 GMT

My flying adventures continue this summer, despite my lull in training. I have been trying to go at least once a week. This week I went with a friend and practiced instrument approaches, holds, etc. It had been some time since I had done serious approaches under the hood, and my rustiness showed. That's how it is with flying. The currency minimums from the FAA are actually pretty lenient. I was IFR/night current, yet if I was in real IMC I would not have been as sharp as I would like. I was within parameters the whole time, but not as precisely as right after I got my instrument rating.

Tomorrow I am going in an RV6 (pictured below) with the man that built it. It is fully aerobatic, so it should be a lot of fun. I'll let you know.

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Future Office

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:33:58 GMT

Here is a picture of my future office. Although this is an airbus, and I would much rather be flying a good old american-made boeing, it conveys the general idea.

I earned my commercial license last month, but my final goal is still several years off. I gotta get a ton of hours. If anyone wants to learn how to fly, I will be a certified flight instructor in a couple of months! :-)

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Flying: Not for Everyone

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 04:33:06 GMT

Not too many people can understand the passion that most pilots have for flying. I guess that goes for a lot of activities that take a large amount of dedication and that are slightly on the crazy side. Of course, to the person passionate about that activity, it doesn't seem crazy at all. To me, getting in a 40 year old Piper Comanche and blasting off by myself into the solid clouds is completely sane activity. I get excited just thinking about it. But to others, it's nuts, and I can understand why they think that.

But, the beautiful thing about modern aviation is that there are many tools available to the pilot to make things like IFR flight safe. The Comanche that I fly has a fairly nice instrument panel. Moving map GPS is a very comforting thing, especially an IFR certified GPS. Although an HSI would be really nice, I am very comfortable using the VORs. The training that I received for my Instrument Rating and my Commercial ticket have taught me everything that I need to know to fly single pilot IFR safely. And as I study for more ratings, my experience and knowledge increase the margin of safety even further. Although risk can never be completely eliminated, it can definitely be controlled and minimized.