It was one of the most epic sad days a 17 year old boy could endure. I actually remember crying in the car when the examiner told me the result. He failed me because I drove too often in the left lane. I had known it to only be a courtesy to remain in the right lane but not a law until that moment! I retook the test 2 weeks later, had a female examiner and passed. The MTO office is a sea of high or low emotion. There is no in between.

For Jes’ driving test she would be prepared. I knew she could drive and was impressed generally so far in how she has progressed as a new driver. I did not know how much difficulty she had with parking until the week of the exam. We tried all sorts of methods and finally she got into a groove the very morning of the exam. I taught her from the first day how to properly reverse a car and suggested to her that she back into as many spaces as possible during the test. For some reason she has more trouble pulling in than backing in and you can never specify a spot. She just takes whatever one she lands in.

She backed into the space behind the MTO building for practice and we went inside to wait. (You have to take a number even though you have an appointment made months in advance.) We eventually were called and I stood outside anxious for my little girl as I watched the family car head out of the parking lot.

It is odd to stand there, while your car drives away. Stolen for a road test! After 15 minutes or so she appeared and rolled to a stop as I saw the examiner point out a spot. He insisted she back in. I watched as the car clicked into reverse, the accelerator pressed gently and the big wheels turning. From my vantage point I could see she almost had it but needed to correct quickly. My heart paused for a moment as she slowly and expertly rolled the steering and the car was parked! Not perfectly centered but hey. I didn’t want to pressure her so I looked away. Her examiner was debriefing as I stole a peek to see Jes giving me a thumb’s up! The beaming smile told me now, SHE PASSED!

After another take a number wait, we were free.  as her reward she drove home by way of the Queensway.  A 100 KM/H highway that she was not allowed on till that day!

Great job Jes, I love you and am very proud.

I won’t say that I have done this,  but I also won’t say that I haven’t!

I kid you not.  What can anyone do to shed the evil of Bell?

Please, someone tell me.

All Canadians have to deal with the megalopolies now and then.  If you want to have a phone, internet or mobile anything you pretty much have to sign in blood and give away a bit of your soul in doing so.  My blood has been shed on cellular phone bills since 1999 when I signed up for a Cantel/Rogers deal costing a mild $1 per minute weekdays and a bit less on weekends.  My bills were roughly $200 a month then.  When that phone died I went on a romantic journey with Fido that spanned 4-5 years and a lot of technology changes.  Somewhere in 2004 I fell in love with Windows mobile and bought a two phone package from Bell on a three year term.  Total cost with everything I could imagine for both phones?  About $200 monthly.  I paid it dutifully for 6 years (renewing the contract once) until one day I decided it was time for iPhones, one for the missus and one for me.   That journey began May 13th and has caused me to age at least 5 years since.

Did you know that Bell sends their “loyal customers” a coupon good for $200 off any phone upgrade, it’s great until you go to the store and they tell you the $200 is only good on the unit’s $799 retail price.  This means that they reward any joe schmoe off the street more than they do their own customers.  It gets better.

Even if you are in a Bell store, all the “dealings” have to happen over the phone.  I’m pretty sure their phone system is geared towards a “let them wait long enough and it will wear them down” approach.  I have called in 5 times now.  Each call lasts a MINIMUM of 19 minutes before you even get to where they ask you what the problem is.  During that time they play this track that is designed by psychologists to raise blood pressure and make you want to urinate.  They simply hope you will hang up and keep paying the bill.

If you survive the 19 minute rigamarole, (including giving your name, date of birth, home phone) you now will be given a lot of completely useless information.  Don’t bother to ask for the name of the party, it’s not ever useful.  (anyone else will claim they don’t know that person).     If you are lucky enough to get their employee id number, it’s a lie.  they don’t look up employees by number apparently.

If you strike a deal with The Devil.  She holds all the cards.  If you want to back out, takes a 19 minute call (repeat above) followed by a escalation to a “retention department” where they repeat the 19 minute rigamarole then attempt sweet talk you into staying in bed with the devil longer.  Any question is answered with more “please hold” while they play the inane music on an endless loop.

Yup this is a rant, sorry but Bell deserves it more than any of the others.  Not even Rogers do I hold so much contempt.   Every time I hear that music, my heart races a bit and my hackles go up, wayyyy up.  so much I can hardly speak to them I have to seethe.  How else do you address the whore while she sits on her own turf smiling her jagged grin?

Here is the latest, my cellular bill this month came in. I expected to find two neatly stacked charges for $20 each.  I instead got hammered by a $70 hardware upgrade fee ($35 each, for a phone that never got upgraded at all) and $39.04 billed for data usage, must be massive right?

0.7639 MB

That is not a misprint.  My cellphone, downloaded probably some email headers while it waited for it’s battery to slowly die off during May 14,15 and Bell says the charges are valid.  After 6 years and $14,400 she knows that she’s not going to see me anymore so she’s trying to give me herpes in hopes I come back.

I guess she is right, she has the power.  What are we going to do about it?

NOTHING,  hey we’re Canadian, that’s what we do BEST!

What did I do about it?  I canned the entire thing, moved down a block and gave my herpes to a dog.

I am no stranger to driving in some godawful conditions.  I have been in rain, sleet wind and snow that would send a lot of people to the shoulder with their hazards flashing but am I alone in noticing that weather recently has somehow upgraded?  Would we call this meteo two-point-oh?

Recently I had to make a trip to Toronto area to visit relatives and on our way back the forecast called for rain.  I checked NavCanada’s weather site as I often do before driving the 401 and saw that we were in for a long wet drive.  The entire front seemed paused in a line right over the highway.  I took this in stride and began my drive up Hwy 407 towards Pickering.

The rain was pounding and unstoppable.  I stopped at a Canadian tire store to pick up some Rain-X which works like magic in this type of driving and applied it under the canopy of a gas bar.  Once we were back underway I entered a sort of twilight zone where it no longer felt like we were driving a car down a highway but more like we were in a submarine ship, diving under, and I am the pilot.

After many hours of this non stop deluge I managed to turn up the 416 and after another 45 minutes the sky was light grey and the rain vanished.  Ottawa was spared the wrath, this time.

Perhaps it’s time we start thinking about building an ark?

You know the voices you hear in your head, sometimes doubting, sometimes encouraging but rarely shutting up.  They can get in the way of pure enjoyment of life.  They can also get in the way of pure control of a machine like an Airplane.

You can take these concepts a bit further reading www.pilotpsy.com which is an excellent resource for taking your airmanship to the next level.   This is not beginner “Stick and Rudder” type of stuff so be warned, it’s a how-to of a completely different sort.

In a nutshell for my next flight, I  intend on becoming completely enveloped in the moment of it all.  Still remaining as far ahead of the aircraft as I can, but being entirely involved in the whole thing.  The experience or the essence if you will, of man touching the sky.  I’ll not let the thoughts of normal ground pounding life interfere with the spirit of the flight.

I expect overall to feel an improvement of the smoothness and “feel” of the entire thing.   Only time will tell.

METAR CYND 091300Z 30004KT 15SM SKC M18/M21 A3024 RMK SLP245=

There were no photos to take today as I forgot the camera but imagine the most perfect day you’ve seen with sun shining and the air clear yet cold as all get out!  It was a very special day for me as it would be my 100th flight!  The flight began last night as Rica and I went over to the airport to look over an aircraft that we might be purchasing a 1/2 share in.  We spent a good hour or two shoveling off months of snow and clearing a path around the Piper Cherokee 140D that’s parked at Rockliffe.  We worked hard at clearing the airplane then sat inside for a good 15 minutes getting a feel for what it might be like to own an aircraft.  We left elated and on my way home I had a revelation.

All of the flying that I have done so far is “training” and not really going anywhere!  I had no real practical purpose to fly except to do it for the sake of doing it.  That didn’t bode well for me as a prospective aircraft owner.  Would we actually USE an airplane?  Something more than a trip to the practice area and back?  So I decided that if an aircraft was available today, we’d book and fly it!

I got home to find a nice 2.5 hour slot available for Jan 09 at 9:30 am.  I booked it then began digging up my flight plan paperwork for Maniwaki.  I ran the numbers to have them fresh in my mind and expected to use the aircraft’s ADF to get me there.  I slept poorly excited at the prospect of going somewhere new.  When I awoke and looked outside all I saw was glorious blue skies with mega cold temps!

When we arrived at the airport there was bad news, they were not going to allow rentals due to the runway being 90% ice and with a CRFI of .3.  Simon was near the dispatch and offered to me that since he knew my flying he would release the aircraft to me as long as he got a decent pirep form the first instructor out that day.  He also graciously moved me to C-GQUO which has a wonderful Garmin 430 GPS.  I pre flighted and filed my flight plan awaiting Kathy’s pirep.  Soon she called it in as “okay” and we were good to go!

I used a soft field technique to take off and soon we were climbing away from Rockliffe and heading up the Gatineau river.  I noticed that the AI had a slight tilt of about 5 degrees when we were wings level.  I opted to not cancel the flight as it would clearly not be required on this CAVU day!   As we leveled off in cruise I tested the carb heat and was surprised at how stiff it was to move.   Ahh well this was the 100th flight, it had to go on!

We flew up the river and I tuned in the Otttawa VOR to the 9 degree radial and followed it as well as the GPS’ magenta line up to Maniwaki.  As I got close I called for unicom field advisory.  No answer.  Tons of radio chatter from Carp which shares the frequency but Maniwaki was silent!  I found the airstrip and we flew the pattern for a nice low and over of their long but icy runway.  The total time from engine start was 1.0 hours.  There was a brisk headwind!  I opted to skip the landing as there was quite a stiff x-wind and we had no business at CYMW.

I used the DRCO at Mt Laurier to contact Quebec radio.  It was the first time I ever did that so it was interesting to hear a phone call over the radio.  I updated my ETA to Rockliffe and proceeded to climb up to 4500 and head South.  Once level we were hitting groundspeeds of 150 KT!  Rica asked if she could hold the controls so I granted her control as I got comfortable and tried to close off a major draft with my toque.  She did a marvelous job of keeping us over the river and soon we had to descend down to 1700 in prep for landing at Rockliffe.

Over the chelsea dam I took control and descended to 1200′.  There was another aircraft in the near vicinity so after some conflict resolution I was number 1 for the icy x-wind landing on 27.  I flew a picture perfect pattern and slipped down to a short final over the numbers.  I assumed the correct flare attitude and was given the sweet siren sound of a full stall landing.  As we rolled out I felt elated!

So 100 flights, a possible aircraft buy and a wonderful trip.  Thank to all my supporters so far and here’s to another 100!

Total Times

Time on Type

In aviation we call them human factors.  For instance did you know that as you climb higher and higher, the brain receives less oxygen.  The brain doesn’t naturally assume “oh this is because I am high up in an airplane” it just senses a lack of oxygen.  A suffocating feeling at best.  If you were not trained to “know better” you might actually panic, and get into a mode where you actually ARE in danger instead of just THINK you are in danger.   See the fine line there?

Rica for example has very little anxiety when it comes to flying, roller coasters, sky diving,  she is a thrill seeker.  Last week when Louis and I were performing “unusual attitudes” in the C172 she was LOVING IT!  I was under the hood so didn’t get to experience much of the visuals but certainly felt the roller coaster effects in my tummy.  Most instructors will not allow a passenger if we are performing some of the more “wild” things like slips, unusual attitudes or even steep turns as they are considered the “pilot’s domain” and not really meant for pax.  In this case the pilot actually has more fear of them than the passenger!  The weapon against fear is knowledge.  If you know that you are experiencing something due to a known factor, it is far easier to deal with it.

I don’t care for the feeling of unusual attitudes yet I am 100% able to recover from them and then calm myself immediately after.   I don’t care for the feeling of “G” yet I LOVE to fly and therefore I put up with it.  Someone else might go on to learn full aerobatics and high G.   I am content to fly standard rate, shiny side up thank you.

Does this make me a bad pilot?  I sure hope not!  I always try to remain ahead of the curve both in knowledge and in proficiency.  If anything becoming aware of the items that bother me, make me a batter pilot.  I also do push my limits and try to become the best pilot I can be and not just “another hour around the pattern”.

I noticed on my last flight, while climbing out for the second circuit I felt a little bit of vertigo.  Not enough to worry anyone but since I am ultra sensitive to it, I clued into what was happening.   I believe that on my final approach I probably was breathing a bit shallowly, when I raised the nose to take off I leaned forward instead of just remaining calmly in my seat.  The airspeed indicated climbing towards 80 KT when I felt the vertigo.  My mind expected to see 67 KT and yet to lean back made me feel at an awkwardly nose high attitude.  These crossed signals to my brain caused me to get “dizzy”.   I believe that the correct thing to do is to maintain my seated posture even if it’s uncomfortable for a moment as the signals that my brain and body receive will at least be coincidental.  I can then accept the feeling more readily.  If instead I try to “fight” the sensations they will get lost in the ensuing vertigo or other human factor based result.  I managed to overcome this bout simply by sitting correctly and then looking at what I needed to do to put the aircraft back into profile.   Another habit I need to break is nodding my head to answer the instructor’s questions.  It’s far easier on all to simply say “Yes” into the mic but instead I bob, bob my head along and it makes me somewhat sick when flying at night.

I wish that Canada had the same “vertigo simulator” that the FAA has so that I could try to experience and avoid these feelings in a safer place, something like immersion therapy.  Or I guess I could just go “man up” and fly!  Maybe these feelings are completely normal and expected and this is why Canada demands these dual hours for the rating?  I’ll accept that!

After a couple of sessions in the 4040 Simulator, Louis and I were ready to spend some more time getting our butts frozen off and our night dual time worked on.   As mentioned previously the night rating is made up of some dual, some solo and a lot of Instrument time.  of the 10 required hours IFR 5 can be simulated and 5 must be hooded.  The trick here is that if you fly at night, and do hood time you cannot count both simultaneously.  It’s a tricky reg and I understand the spirit of it however it can cause one to do all their hood time during the day, and never actually see how hard it is to fly by instruments that you can barely see at night!   I opted to do some of my hood time at night, and then save $$ by doing as much as possible in the sim.

Louis was a great simulator instructor as he has a strong grasp of the equipment and has a small tell tale smirk that happens each time he “tries” something.  On our most recent sim flight I was captain of a C182 flying an ILS into Ottawa’s runway 32 when I noticed that no matter how much throttle I gave, the aircraft would keep descending at an unholy rate.  As I broke out of the cloud, I could see we were about to crash into the approach lighting.  I said Louis, she won’t climb, too much drag.  he asked “What could cause drag?”  I offered, flaps, up,  Gear?  Up, what else??!!  The lights loomed closer and then the simulator popped up with “you have crashed”.  It was almost as exciting as the real deal.  My heart pumped and Louis then showed me that I had accrued 60% icing on the airframe!  I guess he clicked it on and forgot about it.  I just flew the airplane.  Good one!

So that sim time would do nothing to prep me for tonight’s lesson which was to be made up of circuits over at CYND.  We had a short briefing to discuss aircraft lighting then I performed the walkaround on GYWN.  My secret favorite bird in the RFC’s fleet.  It was a balmy -20 with the wind chill so it was a pain to have to add 1 liter of oil but at least that was the only snag and soon we were taxiing over to runway 09 for takeoff.  During the taxi I discovered what “soft field” techniques really mean as I proceeded to get the aircraft stuck on a big chunk of ice.  It was interesting doing the runup and trying to keep from sliding around!  Soon I was flying down the runway on my second night takeoff.  I had left my “head lamp” flashlight on with the red LED’s glowing brightly during the take off roll but as I rotated to climb I noticed they offered horrible glare off the foggy windshield so I snapped the light off and went with the regular lighting.

We flew over to Gatineau and I joined the circuit well to come around for my first landing.  No landing light allowed!  It was decent, little off center but passable for sure and great for my third only night landing.  I noticed the approach was shallow and long so on the second time around I modified my pattern slightly to try to come in “normally” for what I am used to seeing.  This only sorta worked with us again sighting the PAPI from a lower angle than I am used to.  Another T&G and we were flying around again for three more.  The part I worked hardest on was the base to final turn, I seemed to rush it and ended up making a long angled final instead of that picture perfect turn to line up straight final.

Since the runway was long and in excellent shape we left the lighting off for all the circuits here and soon were looking at the hobbs and heading back to Rockliffe.  It always feels good to enter a pattern you know so well.  Louis even gave me back my landing light for this one.  As I turned final for CYRO I could tell immediately that the runway was much shorter and really really rough.  I quipped to Louis, “I don’t know what to expect when we touch down here”.  He responded “like normal but with a lot more noise!”.  He was right,  I landed in the first third then using no brakes just allowed the aircraft to roll to a crawl then turned around to taxi in.

We shut down and put away the bird then walked in to pay and debrief.  I am certain that I did learn a lot on this flight, however it didn’t really feel like it.   Although we did practice flying at night, there was little said so I don’t know if it’s that I’m just doing well enough, or if I could be doing more?    I think that flight instructors are taught to keep their comments “professional” and not to pat their students on the back so much but it still feels great when you put together a nice approach and landing to hear it from them.  To hear nothing is almost the worst thing because then we wonder what was done right?  What was done wrong?  Not complaining here at Louis by any means as he generally does offer much insight I just guess that I expected the night flying to be either harder, or maybe I’m actually pretty good at it.  As my own judge I do not want to make that call without the experience to know better!

That said although I have done 100% of the flying to date on our night flights, I would not feel comfortable going out solo right away.  First I’d like to go with Louis over to CYOW and practice there, both the comms and the flying.  I also MUST go out over to the uber dark areas of the world and get the actual feeling of night flying.  I want to do this with Louis on board and not when I’m alone for the first time!!   I’m sure he has these cards up his sleeve already and am looking forward to the next flight!

Today I embark on a new adventure in my flying, I am beginning the training for my Night Rating.  In Canada although I am a Private Pilot I am not allowed to fly at night as opposed to the American version of the PPL that does allow it.   I find this is a much safer mentality as it can actually be dangerous to fly at night unprepared!  OTOH I CAN fly a high performance retractable gear aircraft without any special rating so pfft.  It’s all the same thing, the PPL is simply a license to learn and today would be no exception to the rule.

I arrived at the airport on a crystal clear night that was easily -22 with about -33 windchill.  The aircraft we had booked was fresh out of maintenance and had a few snags like a missing fire extinguisher.  The real snag however was the total lack of a battery!  It had been removed to be charged.  Louis and I decided to do our briefing as we waited for the battery to come up to spec.  The briefing mostly consisted of special night flying needs.  I had already taken the night lesson of the commercial ground school and so had understood most of this prior and therefore the briefing went smoothly.   I went out to preflight GQQV and realized it was not ready.  As I was about to can the flight, a pilot arrived in a freshly warmed up GMME.  We swapped and soon were preflighting this nice C172 M model.

Rica was her amazing self not sitting in the lounge with the other pilot’s wives but instead hopping up on a wing strut to verify the tanks were full and generally helping me all around in prepping the uber dark cabin.   I got to use my new “head lamp” which is a totally geeky thing to wear unless you’re a private pilot, then it’s the ultimate in coolness.  My light has a dual red led, single white led and a krypton bulb.   Performing a pre flight at night is the same as during the day but take a bit longer and has a couple of additional steps (Checking the nav lights, taxi light and landing light).   During my walk around I bumped my light against the underwing and it caused the krypton bulb to burn out!  Arrgh!  At least it is still effective for in cockpit use.

The GMME model is most unfamiliar to me so it took a bit longer for me to do the start and run up.  I noticed some of the placards were made with RED INK!  Do you know what red ink looks like under red light?  nothing.  It looks like a blank label, so I got to see how having a secondary light is handy.   Louis was awesome in handling checklist and allowing me to make things move along quicker on this really cold night.    Soon we were back-taxiing runway 09 for runway 27.  My first taxi at night was interesting but simple if you can follow a yellow line.    As I turned the aircraft around to line up for the takeoff the runway lights ahead of me and the blackness made it all so real.  I expected Louis to fly the take off but he wanted none of that.  I queried “short field”? He concurred.  I firewalled the throttle and soon we were airborne in the dark night.  It was surreal!

As I passed thru 700′ AGL Louis called “I have control” and passed me the foggles.  Tonight would be mainly an IFR practice and therefore the “night” part was really insignificant other then to make it feel real.  I donned the goggles and soon was flying up the river to the North flying on instruments alone.  We climbed up to 2500′ and Louis commanded turns from 330 to 030, climbs and descents.  I flew these quite well and soon he was reaching for the instrument covers.   Louis asked me what would happen if we experienced a vaccuum failure.  I tapped the AI and DG and stated these would be lost.  He then covered them in a simulated failure mode.  I modified my scan and kept flying as directed.  When Louis asked me to turn from 030 to 330 I looked up at the compass and began my turn, something was wrong!  The compass was spinning the wrong way.  I had always READ about compass errors but this was the first time I actually spent the time to witness it.   I realized the compass would be useless for these and instead switched to timed turns.  Using the TC and turning always at standard rate it was a breeze to turn any which way Louis commanded.  More climbs and descents were called for and accomplished.  I saw the odd glimpse of ground lighting and really wanted to look outside!  I felt I was missing a lot but Louis assured me I would have plenty of time to take in those sights later.

Now we were heading back to the south and Louis asked for control of the aircraft, I sensed we would be doing unusual attitudes, partial panel!   Louis is a MASTER at setting up the unusual attitude.  In fact it’s the first time I was ever “tricked” during a setup and normally you can sense what the aircraft is doing based on sound and feel.  Louis would pitch up but add power or vice versa and so my assumptions were all wrong.  Something else he did was instead of asking me to close my eyes, he had me read the checklist aloud.  ”you have control” I look up to see airspeed rising fast so power back, wings level then pull out.  Well I think I pulled first but quickly caught the error.  Next one, speed dropping, almost at stall, power forward, stick forward!  We did 5 of these, all different and during one he even snuck out some flaps.  Great job by Louis and great job by me.

I then was vectored over to CYND for my first night landing.  It would be a touch and go on 27 with a 10 KT wind from the North.  Louis vectored me all the way to a long final and as we passed thru 700′ AGL I was asked to remove the goggles and land.  It was a lot all at once.  I could tell by the crab angle this was a serious crosswind and although the runway is long it was dark and somewhat foreboding.    I was beginning to sweat a little and feel overwhelmed.  I cranked in the slip necessary and flew down the runway, the PAPI indicated I was high but I knew I had time.  I left the flaps at 20 to give me compensation for the x-wind.  I flew closer to the runway when things seemed to get squirrely.  I was weaving to the North side of the runway and the lights were passing by I did not feel in command of the situation and was just about to add full power for a go around when I was surprised by the sweet rrrchh of the main wheels touching down.  It was amazing, I just landed and did it pretty well, but my secret was that the plane really landed itself.  I still feel a bit of shame over that one.  No time to dwell I added full power and soon we were climbing away from the runway, with 20 flaps and carb heat on.  ARRGH!!  I pushed the carb heat in and milked off the flaps,  Louis was really cool and didn’t chastise me knowing I was already taking care of it internally.

We climbed away from Gatineau up to 1700′ and soon we were crossing overhead Rockliffe to descend and join from the upwind side.   Here the pressure was on, I knew that the runway at night is approximately half the length it is during the day and we were landing on 27 which is the one ending at a fence and not with another 1000′ of dark pavement!  No need to worry, I flew as I knew but made a huge mistake.  You see I ALWAYS pull the power abeam the touchdown spot and fly a power off glide approach.  Tonight for some reason, the darkness made me keep the power up and soon we were looking down at a really really high approach.  I could see clearly we wouldn’t make it but since Rica was in the back decided to slip it hard and put the plane in as big of a slip as I ever have watching for it to descend.  I made two errors, one was to allow the nose down too far which increased my speed and the second was not putting in enough rudder.  All this to say, we didn’t’ make the landing and about 100′ agl I overshot for trial #2.

This time around I extended my downwind and still ended up high!  Why does the engine sound give me comfort at night?  I managed to slip this time better and as we neared the runway tried to visualize what I should see.  It happened too quickly for me to really take in snot but I got it down somewhat sideways loading the front wheel but not damaging anything.  Sheesh!  thanks for the snow..

Louis helped me shut down and we tied the aircraft in the now bitter cold.  I felt accomplished even though I definitely need circuit practice.  Louis commented that he loved my unusual attitude recoveries and didn’t mention the landings at all so I guess I might be being too hard on myself.

Thanks for an amazing and challenging flight, I can’t wait for the next one!