captbrando’s log

Tie down!

Just a short one this time, but that’s what currency requirements do to ya! My next flight will most likely be my biannual check, sometime in the next few months. For this flight, just Garrett & I went for a ride.  It was extremely hot, so we just did a couple of rounds up at Gainsville and came back.

It was PRETTY busy at Gainsville, and there were numerous light aircraft between KDTO and KGLE.  I think this may have been the busiest airspace I navigated outside of a Class B so far.  Garrett enjoyed himself and grabbed the yoke once (don’t do that, please).

Pretty uneventful.  After my biannual, it will be off to see Springfield at F46!

It was time to head back to Stephenville for some Hard 8 BBQ!  Boy, it was a hot one on the ground on Saturday, but a pleasant 55 degrees at 8,500.  I got to fly N12180, which while recently back from the paint shop, had some pretty significant electrical problems that didn’t fully make themselves known until we were flying inside Class Bravo airspace.  No two flights are the same!

Takeoff from KDTO was uneventful, though I input the tower frequency incorrectly so it took a double check on the radio with ground to make sure things were working well.  I received a report from ground initially that I was having audio issues.  Anyway, takeoff, and hand off to regional approach.  From there, cleared into Class Bravo.

On the climb out, two things started happening that derailed us a bit.  The first was an electrical problem that caused our Garmin 430 to go on the fritz.  The backlight was not working, and it also housed our primary navigation and radio control.  I quickly switched that off and went on backups, so no real issues there.  We did have some feedback issues with the primary radio, so I completely turned it off (as opposed to keeping the mic on COM2 and listening to audio on COM1/COM2). While this felt like a short or grounding issue, it also popped the main alternator breaker which basically stopped it from charging the battery while in flight.  While the ammeter was indicating a slow drain, we had most of the electrical systems off and it wasn’t until we were doing some radio transmitting (outside of Class Bravo) and flap adjustments that I noticed how serious the issue was.

A quick pop of the breaker back in and careful monitoring of the electrical systems showed that things were at least operating within tolerances, so we left it.

The second issue was carburetor icing in my climb out, which I have experienced only once before.  Yes, icing can occur in a carburetor when the temperature is as high as 70 degrees and it is humid outside.  We had both during our climb.  So we had to halt the climb while I turned on the carb heat to melt the ice.  It melted, we resumed our climb, and didn’t have any more problems once at cruise.

The landing at KSEP was by far my smoothest landing, ever.  I call it luck more than skill, but wow.  We parked and had Hard 8 pick us up.  We had a tight timeline, so it was a quick lunch and then back in the air.  Thankfully we the engine was not too cold and we had sufficient power to crank it over.  Takeoff and the return flight was uneventful.  TOO quiet.  I even called a normally busy regional approach controller just to make sure my radio was still working—a frequency that is usually very busy was dead quiet for a good ten minutes.

Landed and had the thing turned off with a good ten minutes to spare!  Though, crippled.

Pretty lame of me to be flying and not posting!  I got a little bored and decided to go flying a couple of times over the last few months.  The first flight was with a friend on Feb 20 where we took 80508 up for a spin around the north end of Tarrant county.  Had a little scheduling snafu, and someone else (who was LAZY AND MEAN) took the plane I reserved, so we stayed local.  Having personal limits is important, and I’ll be damned if I am flying in or around Class B airspace with only one functioning radio (with no standby frequency and a manual clunky-chunk turn).

Wrapping up!

Regardless, had a good time and logged three landings and .8 hours.

Next, my kick ass right seat warmer James was back in town, so we took 8348M from DTO up for a spin around down town!  The airspace was pretty congested, so this was the first time I had to hold over White Rock Lake.  Like just do circles.  WHEEEE.  That was a nice 1.1 hour flight.  Just before that, I needed to get re-current with this rental facility and logged .6 hours with an instructor.  He was VERY happy with my proficiency, and pulled an engine out on my downwind.  Stuck the landing. Total of four landings with those two flights.

I have some video from our downtown trip, so when I get some time I’ll edit that together for you guys.

Where's the Moblog?

Been a while since I posted anything on the Mobile Blog, hasn’t it?  Well, as per the usual, I was totally ahead of my time.  Then Twitter and Facebook exploded in popularity and mobile usability.  I don’t like doing things twice, so now all of my mobile pictures end up getting posted to my Twitter feed or Facebook page.  Those of you that were big followers of the Moblog know how to find me in those areas, so just expect to find them there!

Well, I’m kinda late posting this one.  I didn’t fly today, I flew on December 10 with James!  Had a fun time in the Diamond DA-20. After flying that one a few times, I really have come to love how easy and fun it is to fly.  I’ve not been in a Cessna 172 in a while, but the next time I go, that’s what I’m going to take up.  Figure it would be nice to get back to a normal yoke vs. this fancy stick thing I’ve been doing.

Course, I won’t feel like a fighter pilot either, but oh well.

Anyway, easy quick flight.  Did a tour north of Alliance and came back to land.  We both had stuff going on that afternoon so an extended tour was not an option.  Here’s a video of me on final!

James & Brando and the DA20! from Branden Williams on Vimeo.

Diamond DA-20

Today was a quickie to get checked out on North Texas Aero’s new DA-20!  I went with an instructor to learn all about this fun little aircraft.  It’s larger than the SportStar, but smaller and faster than the Cessna 172.  It also has a center stick like the SportStar, but was much easier to fly.  It has a few quirks in the mechanics of how it flies, but nothing that was not easy to conquer.

We did the standard maneuvers, including slow flight, steep turns, stalls, and engine out procedures.  I made my field quite nicely, though traffic made us cheat a little bit.  We had to continue past where the instructor wanted to do the engine out, and wouldn’t you know he had me set up on a HUGE green field.  It’s not uncommon to find farmland, but it is uncommon to find such a large patch without any obstructions.

Then it came time to practice landings.  There was a 10kt, 20° crosswind component gusting to 19kts.  Now, those of you that have flown with me know that I do well in high wind situations. Today was no different.  SMOOTH AS GLASS BABY!  I promise you, if it was calm air I would have botched them for sure.

Odd quirk about my piloting skills.

Anyway, did a few of those, dodged all of the 172s pulling banners over the Texas Motor Speedway, a few helicopters, and headed back home.  Pretty solid showing today!

Yep, I’m late with this one.  I actually did this flight on July 20 with Cayce!  This flight included a run from 52F to KAFW then to KXBP (Bridgeport).  Have a GREAT video below.  Pay special attention to the 4 minute mark where a big ass bird goes flying probably 50 feet in front of us from left to right.

Flying with Cayce from Branden Williams on Vimeo.