Cross-Country (part 6): navigation and radio communications

I am having a ball. I had already told Rob about the course that I had plotted the night before. He liked what I did so he set one of the navigation radios to the frequency used by the Sparta VOR. I have my aeronautical (sectional) chart on my lap with my penciled in course. As we pass over certain roads and other geographic features, I am sometimes able to look at the chart and see exactly where we are. Sometimes.

We are getting closer to class B airspace, but first we have to cross into or "pierce" the mode C veil that surrounds class B airspace. All aircraft entering mode C must have a mode C transponder.

I was talking about the transponder in an earlier post. Simply, the transponder reports our position to controllers. Before we get into class B (or bravo) airspace, we will enter an area 30 nautical miles (NM) from the center of class B airspace known as the mode C veil. I got raster files of the NY terminal aeronautical charts from the FAA; terminal charts depict class B airspace and includes the mode C veil. I extracted a portion of this chart to post here and put in an approximation of our route. The mode C veil is shown by the purple line, I have marked where our route "pierced" the mode C veil with the letter "T" and an arrow. A working transponder is required before piercing the mode C veil.

Rob turned the transponder on before take-off and set the code to 1200 (for aircraft under visual flight rules). Before we left the airspace around KABE, the controllers told Rob to change the code on the transponder to a unique four-digit code (e.g. squawk 4321). When we get to the mode C veil, we are all set.

Before entering class B airspace, 10 NM later, the controllers have to clear Rob to enter class B airspace. If the controller does not specifically clear Rob to enter class B airspace he has to stay out. In that case he would have flown below the 3,000 foot floor of class B airspace that is on our route to Westchester County Airport (KHPN). However, the controllers, in this case NY approach, have already cleared Rob to enter class B airspace, giving him an altitude and a course. This important bit of communication happens over a minute, maybe two. I have noted on the image where our route (in red) crosses into class B airspace (represented by the blue line) on the chart excerpt above.

Hearing the interchange between Rob and the controllers when we are given clearance to enter class B airspace was another thrill. Up until now, I have never been in or near class B airspace in a general aviation aircraft. The radio is busy, Rob says this is the busiest that he has experienced. I stay quiet. I know that Rob needs to pay attention to the communications, so I don't want to bother him with unnecessary chatter. Instead I concentrate on listening to the communications. It is fast paced, and I am pleased that I understood most of the communications.

Next up in part 7, more on radio communications.

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The image below is another excerpt from one of the aeronautical charts that I posted last week. This time I have noted the location of the three large airports in the NY-NJ metro area:

Newark-Liberty International in Newark NJ (KEWR)
John F. Kennedy (KJFK) and Laguardia (KLGA) both located in NYC.

Some of you may have flown into one of these three airports at one time or another, so I thought you might be interested in seeing what this airspace looks like on an aeronautical chart.
________________________________________________________________________________

Note, I need to point out that airspace and airport classifications take some getting used to. Aeronautical charts with their weird colors, circles, and other notations take even more time to get used to. Next week, I will provide you some references where you may learn more about airspace and airport classifications, aeronautical charts and other information discussed in this series. In the meantime, if you can not wait, please refer to my aviation links and info page on my blog where I have linked to some information on airspace and aeronautical charts.

Cross-Country (part 5): Take-off at KABE

The day of our cross-country flight arrives, the weather looks decent: broken clouds at about 4,500 feet with light winds and visibility of greater than 6 nautical miles. If the clouds are to pose a problem, I knew that both Rob and the Cherokee are rated for flight under instrument flight rules (aka above the clouds). I'll tell you now that the clouds will not be an issue. In fact, the sky will get clearer as the afternoon wears on. So, we will not have to go above the clouds.

I am psyched.

I am at the airport, finally finding the hanger were I am to meet Rob. We go out to the plane, a Piper Cherokee. Rob goes through his pre-flight check list both outside and inside the Cherokee. One important item is checking the fuel level, so he arranges to add fuel to the two tanks (one on each wing). Once inside he checks various instruments inside the cockpit including the radios. He sets the navigation radio to the frequency for the Sparta VOR, and sets the two bands on the communications radio, one to the frequency for ground control. He sets the other band to a frequency that we will use a little later.

He sets up the transponder. The transponder, a Mode C transponder, is a special piece of aviation equipment that will be required later in our flight. It communicates the position of our Cherokee to the radar used by various controllers along our route. He sets it to 1200, the code for VFR flight. Later in the flight, Rob will be directed by one of the controllers, to change this code (aka squawk) to another code.

After Rob is finished with the all the pre-flight checks, using his check lists, he radios ground control who gives him instructions on where to taxi, telling him to hold at area kilo where he does a final check, called a run-up (a check of the engine among other things). Ground also tells Rob that we will be taking off on runway 24. After Rob completes the run-up, we hold at kilo to wait while another plane clears the runway.

The take-off will be handled by the Air Traffic Control Tower (ATC). It is finally time, and Rob taxis to runway 24. This is not the first time I have been at KABE, I was at KABE about seven months on a scenic ride observing a maneuver called touch and goes where the pilot lands and then immediately take-off again. Not all airports allow touch and goes, KABE does. I had also flown on commercial flights out of KABE.

But this is different. I am in the cockpit of the Cherokee looking down a 7,000 ft runway at a decent sized international airport. There was something magical about this take-off. For me flying is peaceful and freeing. it is hard to explain but a part of the magic is sitting in the cockpit looking down at this long runway. This is so different from sitting in the back of a Boeing 717-200 on the way to Chicago.

I hear the familiar and comforting sound of the engine as our speed increased and we lift off. I am free. There is comfort in the communications with the controller at the tower who guides us through the take-off before giving Rob a course and an altitude.

Soon ATC will hand us over to Allentown departure, on another frequency and then Allentown Departure would hand us over to New York Approach on still another frequency. I trust Rob and all of the controllers to keep us -- Rob, myself, and the Cherokee -- safe. And the Cherokee, she is doing what she does so well, flying. I look out the windows watching the ground shrink as we climb to our cruising altitude of 5,500 feet. I sit, taking in the freedom. I am home.

Landing at KABE

Sorry everyone. I got distracted with various things including diagnosing and then sending off my Pentax DSLR for in-warranty repair, so I never finished today's article in my series on my cross-country flight. That article will post tomorrow, barring unforeseen circumstances. In the meantime, I found this video on youtube of a Cherokee landing at Lehigh Valley International Airport (KABE). You may recall that my pilot Rob and I took off from KABE for our cross country. Enjoy!

Upcoming articles about my cross-country flight

My cross country flight was not only about seeing first hand some of the things that I learned in ground school. It was also about the joy of flying. I may never be a pilot, but I can and do fly in my own ways, so to speak. This flight was part of that experience.

Upcoming articles about my cross-country flight:

• October 29: part 5 - take-off from KABE
• November 1: part 6 - navigation and radio communications
• November 3: part 7 - more on radio communications
• November 5: part 8 - Tappen Zee Bridge and KHPN
• November 8: part 9 - return flight to KABE
• November 10: part 10 - references

Cross-Country (part 4): plotting the course

The night before my cross-country flight I checked the weather forecasts and planned a possible route that for the scenic ride from Lehigh Valley International Airport (KABE) to Westchester County Airport (KHPN). The weather looked to be good for the flight the next day with low winds and good conditions for a flight under visual flight rules.

I admit that I had paid that much attention to the navigational aide known as a VOR since before I passed the FAA written private pilot exam. So, I wanted another opportunity to observe VOR navigation. The VOR is a ground based radio beacon that pilots use to navigate by referring to an instrument in the cockpit. The VOR transmits its signals in 360 degrees.

I planned for a route flying first to the navigational aide known as the Sparta VOR (SAX) and then proceeding to Westchester County Airport (KHPN). I wanted to show you the route that I plotted, so I went to the FAA website where I downloaded the NY Sectional raster file. the files are very large, so I cropped and saved a smaller image. I then drew the course on the image, adding some labels. The Sparta VOR (navigational aid) is circled. On this route, if the controllers let us into class B airspace, we will only be in class B airspace for a shorter time compared with the alternative of a direct route to KHPN.

I added the distance and true course to the image, but it may be a little hard to read.

KABE to Sparta VOR: 48 nautical miles, 70 degrees.
Sparta VOR to KHPN: 38 nautical miles, 102 degrees.

Nautical miles (or knots) are used in aviation. One nautical mile equals approximately 1.15 miles.

Aeronautical charts take some getting used, but I wanted you to see what one looks like. However, I thought that some of you might want to see the route plotted using more conventional maps. So, I went into Google Earth and using an aeronautical chart overlay, I added a marker for the Sparta VOR. I then deleted this overlay, reverting back to a normal image.

Next up, I'll get to the flight itself and talk about starting out from Lehigh Valley International Airport.

Cross Country (Part 3): Planning for the flight

A student pilot will sit down the night before a cross-country flight, look at the aviation weather forecasts for the next day with an eye towards the forecasted winds. Information they would like at includes but is not limited to:

• forecasted wind speed and direction,
• fuel capacity of the plane from the airplanes manual (aka pilot operating handbook or POH),
• gallons of gas used per hour (from the POH),
• nautical miles to be traveled (determined using the aeronautical charts),
• information about the destination airport(s) including but not limited to a diagram of the airport, runway information, radio frequencies used, etc., and
• noting all radio frequencies for the flight, including frequencies used by navigation aids.

On the morning of the flight, a student pilot/pilot will check the aviation weather forecast again, and adjust any calculations, if necessary. Finally, they would check for temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) and Notices to Airman (NOTAM) along their planned route.

This is a scenic ride, and I am not a pilot student or otherwise, nor am in flight training. Nevertheless, I did take a look at the weather forecasts the night before and the morning of the scenic ride. I made sure that I had a copy of airport diagrams, and noted radio frequencies that the pilot might use on the flight. I looked for TFRs and NOTAMs that might affect the route of the scenic ride prior to leaving for the airport.

In addition to the experience of a longer flight, I was especially interested in navigation and listening to radio communications. I will continue to write more about what I did before the flight in my next post. I will get to navigation, radio communications, and more in later articles. Stay tuned!

Cross-Country (part 2) - what is a cross country?

I want to take a little time to talk about what a cross-country flight is and it's role in flight training of student pilots. While I am not a student pilot nor am I in flight training, I wanted the experience of taking a scenic ride in the form of a cross-country flight.

Students seeking their private pilot's certificate (single-engine) have to complete a variety of piloting tasks, both dual time with their instructor as well as solo time. Before flying solo as a student, the instructor endorses their pilot log book for the specific solo task. One of these tasks is to log a certain number of solo cross-country flights. It is way beyond the scope of this article to go into these definitions and requirements, but one of the articles that I am including in this series of articles about my cross-country flight will focus on where you can go for more information about flight training and aviation safety.

What I can say is that when I was ground school, the instructors discussed cross-country flights, saying that a cross-country flight is a flight of at least 50 nautical miles (NM) to another airport where you land at the airport and come to a full stop. We also spent some time in ground school talking about all that must be done by the student pilot before going on a cross-country flight. In addition to ground school time, students spend time with their individual instructors going over the their cross-country flight in some detail.

As I understand it, Cross-country flights come after a student pilot has learned take-offs and landings, climbing and descending, straight and level flight, radio communications, navigation skills, weather advisory services, flight planning, runway markings, temporary flight restrictions, and the hand signals that ground crew members use as you are preparing to park your plane. A student pilot's first cross-country flight will be with their instructor (dual time).

If I am remembering my ground school training correctly, with the possible exception of looking at the charts and planning a route, most of the pre-flight planning done by the pilot prior to a cross-country flight requires an idea of the weather forecast as well as checking for any flight restrictions that might be in place along the planned route. Most of the real pre-flight planning, including checking for new flight restrictions, happens either the night before or the day of the flight. For example, a current wind forecast is an important component of any pre-flight planning, and might be available 12 to 18 hours before take-off time. On a flight into the wind (aka a head wind), ground speed -- how fast the airplane is moving relative to the ground -- the flying time to the destination will be longer. Conversely, if the wind is at the tail of the aircraft (aka a tail wind), you will get to your destination a little quicker. Ground speed affects fuel consumption.&

Stay tuned for my next post in this series where I will be writing about what I did to the night before/morning of my cross-country scenic flight.

And speaking of my next post in this series, I am still in the process of developing an outline of the series of posts that I will be writing on my cross-country scenic ride. I'll try to post some sort of outline in a day or so. I know that I promised some more pictures, but they don't really fit into today's article. I will be posting one last set of pictures from this scenic ride in a later article, I promise.

Cross-Country: part 1

I'm posting a few photos that I took today before I started on my cross-country scenic ride. The plane for this scenic ride is a Piper PA-128-140 Cherokee. We departed from Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, PA (KABE). I'll post more about my cross-country, an article and some more pictures on Friday. She is a nice plane. The door into the plane is on the passenger side of the plane, requiring that you step up on the wing to enter. Note the clouds, broken clouds at about 4 to 5,000 feet. By the time we flew back, we had scattered clouds (more blue sky and fewer clouds).

Piper Cherokee

Planes

Taxiways at KABE

Taxiway at KABE

I was standing on the wing on the other side (outside the cockpit door) of the Cherokee

Standing on the wing looking towards the rear

CAL FIRE TV Report: Oct. 18. 2010

I did go on my cross-country with Rob today. We had a great time. I had some photos that I intended to post taken from our departure airport. Unfortunately, the photos will have to wait because blogger has disabled image uploads for a couple of hours due to some scheduled maintenance. I'll post the photos when I am able, probably tomorrow. I am going to do a write-up of my cross-country flight that I will post on Friday with more pictures. So, stay tuned.

In the meantime, CAL FIRE does a weekly report on the fire situation in the State on their CAL FIRE TV youtube channel. I found this week's report interesting because they report on wind events that frequently happen this time of year in CA, e.g. Santa Anna winds. Santa Anna winds may lead to wildfires, so I have been trying to monitor the situation in California. To that end, I think that there has been some rain in southern California in the last day or so. But I suppose that things could change quickly. A few days of no rain might dry fuels out, and then the winds could kick in . . .

Another flight into the winds

Yesterday, I went for a scenic flight with a pilot (Mike) on a windy day. As I told the folk at the airport when I arrived, it is important to me to fly in windy conditions because tanker and helo pilots often fly windy and turbulent conditions. It is my hope that going on flights in windy conditions will make me a better writer. I knew that it was safe for us to fly, otherwise I would have gotten a phone call canceling the flight. Their concern was for my comfort, and being sure that the pilot and I knew where the barf bags were. I am happy to say that I did not need the barf bags, nor was I queasy.

The flight was within safe limits for the Cessna 172, but still windy. The winds were from the north west (330 degrees), sustained at about 8 knots (10 mph) with gusts to 17 knots.  (20 mph). We took off into the wind (a headwind). This was by far the windiest conditions that I have experienced on take-off (and landing), to date. Mike, whom I have flown with on a couple of occasions a few months ago, did all the right things on the take-off. We left the ground as soon as plausible in order to get the plane off the ground and not subject to the winds on the ground. It was rather bumpy and turbulent as we climbed to about 2,500 feet. Interestingly, the winds aloft were not as bad as either of us expected.

We flew for about 30 minutes. Mike gave me a brief explanation about how he was handling the plane in these winds. I wish that I could have taken notes, but in those winds, I knew that I could not. Anyway, I learned a lot. The landing was a little bumpy, but we got down.

The young pilot, Rob, who took me on scenic rides during the spring and over the summer, has moved on to a job at a flight school based at a larger airport not far from me. Later today, I am renting a plane, a Cherokee, with Rob as the pilot. Rob is going to take me on a special kind of scenic ride, a longer flight sometimes known as cross-country flight. A cross-country flight involves flying to and landing at an airport that is over 50 miles from where you departed. Bad weather has canceled this flight three times. The winds today should be calmer then yesterday and the skies look clear.

Stay tuned, and I'll write about the cross-country in a couple of days.

Update: after I posted this article, I got a call from Rob, postponing the cross-country until Wed. afternoon. The reason being that our departure airport is under a TFR later this afternoon into this evening because the Vice President is visiting.

Aerial resources slow the fire down

I think that it is fair to say that I have probably had no experience in being up close and personal with a wildland fire. For that I am lucky. However, I have been close to a couple of structure fires in urban areas many years ago. So, I do know what fires can do. In both of these cases I was lucky, no damage to my apartment buildings. Live streams from news helos of wildland fires has afforded me the opportunity to see aerial resources and ground crews working wildland fires. I always learn something from watching these live streams. Sometimes, I am in touch with one of my tanker pilot friends as he is we are both watching the same live stream.

Such was the case one evening a couple of months ago. My friend sent me an e-mail with a link to a live stream of the Largo Vista Fire that was burning in Valyermo CA the night of August 20. Sometimes when he has sent me a note about a live stream of a fire, the news outlet is no longer showing live streams by the time I read get the opportunity to read my e-mail. This was not the case that night. At the same time that I was the live stream, I was also listening to live scanner feed from the LA County Sheriff Department.

My friend is great. When I asked him,

"is that an Air Crane that I see?"

He responded:

"Yes, it is one of Siller Brothers Cranes ."

I then saw a CAL Fire S-2T tanker making a drop, my friend identified it has one of CAL Fire's S-2T's out of Hemet-Ryan Air Attack Base. Later, we both saw a Neptune P-2V making a drop along with what looked like a LA County helo make a drop. Then one of the Crane's made another drop.

But this time, the live stream was not just about the air show. Just before the aforementioned (LA County?) Helo was making a drop, the news helo had zoomed in on some ground crews working the fire. I saw what to me looked like the helo nailing the drop, making the drop just in the right place not all that far from where the ground crews were working. Not only was this drop effective, but it seemed to me that the ground crews were safely out of the way of the drop zone.

So, I wrote my friend:

"Nice drop, did you see that drop? A LA County Helo?

He wrote back:

"I did, a perfect drop." And he went on to say, "that was the absolute best example of the relationship of aerial resources and ground crews, we slow it down so the ground crews can pounce on it. It doesn't get any better than that!"

The fire was declared out on the evening of August 22. Final acreage was 120. For more information see this inciweb page and this initial attack thread in Wildland Fire.

A peek inside a CAL Fire S2-T

While I am working out the final details on the article that I hope to post later today, I want to offer this video showing you the inside of one of CAL Fire's S-2T tankers. Enjoy! And stay tuned!

Reading takes me into the cockpit

Over the last few months I have taken to reading books by or about pilots with related books about aviators and/or their airplanes. I love reading these books for often I am taken into the cockpit. At other times I may an observer, watching the action. Most, but not all, of the pilots have not flown tankers. That doesn't matter for they are pilots. I may not be able to obtain a pilot's certificate, but when I am reading these books, that doesn't matter. My prior studies at ground school, along with scenic flights serve me well for those times when basic terminology about flying airplanes is not included in a glossary or explained in the text. And when basic terminology is explained, I can draw on that which I have learned and acquire a greater and deeper knowledge about flying.

As I write this, I have some of the books that I have read piled next to me. There are eight books, not including one that was borrowed and since returned to my local library. One, the recent autobiography written by Chelsey "Sully" Sullenberger, the captain of US Air flight # 1549 that "landed" in the Hudson River in NYC, is on loan to a friend. Another, Fate is the Hunter, by Ernest Gann, is in my to read pile. From time to time I'll write about some of these books.

I will be writing about Fire Bomber into Hell by Linc Alexander in a few days, stay tuned.

So for me, reading about flying is not only something I do to pass the time or for those subtle ways that I hope it helps to make me a better writer. Reading about flying is about who I am.

Retardant drops are complicated

Several days ago, I was showing my nephew some pictures of tankers making retardant drops. He asked me how fast the retardant was falling when it came out of the tanker.

There is no simple answer to the speed at which the retardant drops out of the airplane onto the ground. The answer is, It depends. Some of you may recall that I wrote about retardant drops here, and information on retardant coverage levels from the USFS may be found here. The best drop is one that drops straight down as a heavy rain of retardant where all the retardant reaches the ground. In reality, this is hard to achieve, depending on a few different factors that all have to come together.

I'll start with the concept of the safe drop height. This is defined as the height above the ground that the tanker needs to fly in order for the retardant to drop straight down in a heavy rain of retardant where all forward momentum is lost. Drop to low and the forward momentum is not lost, resulting in possible injuries or even death to firefighters on the ground either from flying debris or from the retardant itself. Drop too high and the retardant disperses before it reaches the ground. To make it slightly more complicated the safe drop height varies depending on how much retardant is drop and the rate of flow from the tank.

How low are these tankers flying when they are making retardant drops? The multi-engine tankers are flying anywhere from 150 to 300 feet above the ground. Single-engine tankers are flying about 100 feet above ground level. This is dangerous flying, and the pilots know it. If something happens to the airplane when they are flying so low with a load of retardant (it is heavy), even the best and most experienced pilot may not be able to avoid a fatal crash.

Winds can affect the drop. A tanker pilot can take low winds into account when making the drop by either starting the drop before or after the start of the drop target depending on whether it is head or tail wind. But this only goes so far for sometimes the winds are too strong and dropping in conditions that are too windy can cause the retardant to miss the drop target. Sometimes the winds are too strong for the tankers to fly safely, not only will retardant drops in such conditions be ineffective, but strong winds can bring an airplane down.

Aircraft speed also affects the accuracy of the drop. The temperature and elevation affects aircraft performance which affects the accuracy of the drop.

What can I say to wrap this up? I'll quote one of my tanker pilot friends who keeps reminding me, "see I told you that the tanker business is complicated."

So, I think that the answer to my nephew's questions is, it depends because flying tankers is complicated.

Another great airtanker video

I have been thinking about a question my 11-year old nephew asked me a few days about retardant drops and have been working what could be an answer that I think will be a good article. However, I need a little more time to work on this article. In the meantime, a friend of mine pointed me to this great airtanker video that may have been shot from a lead plane. Enjoy!

great article on recent fires in Colorado

I just came across a really great article on Global Aviation Resource about the recent wildfires in Colorado. He writes about tanker and helo operations, lead planes, air attack planes, and how a USFS King Air with a thermal image infrared camera is used at night. There are interviews in the article, including an interview with someone on the ground who provided an account of how the tankers helped save a town from wildfires. And you will see lots of great pictures. This article is a must read. There are other very interesting articles about aviation on this site.

2010 Blue Angels Jones Beach

The video that I first two videos that I embedded here were removed by the users. Here is another video shot at the 2010 Blue Angels show at Jones Beach in NY, direct link to youtube video

2010 Blue Angels San Francisco Flyover

The Blue Angels Video that I originally embedded was removed by the user, so I found this video shot in 2010 in San Francisco.

Enjoy!

Revised Nov. 17, 2010

Tropical rainstorm: flooding in eastern PA

The worst of the heavy rain has finally left most of the mid-atlantic region heading for New England as I write this. Earlier this morning there was major flooding in NYC and NJ as reported by myfoxny.

I was checking out myfoxphilly a short time ago. I knew that they had significant rainfall yesterday later in the morning and through the afternoon when much of NJ was seeing little rainfall, I wanted to see how they made out. In my corner of NJ, we had a couple of hours of heavy rain that ended before 8AM yesterday morning, seeing light rain for the rest of day into the evening. After these bands passed through NJ yesterday morning, eastern PA continued to see heavy rainfall from late morning and into the afternoon or early evening. Our bands of rain in NJ came through sometime between 2 and 5 AM this morning, possibly hitting eastern PA first.

I found these two reports, one is raw video of flooding in Chester, PA. The other is a report on a rescue of a Darby PA man that was trapped in his house by flood waters.

Flying Tankers is Complicated

By the time that I had been writing about aerial wildland firefighting for a few months I had realized that flying tankers is complicated. Moreover, a couple of tanker pilots that I correspond with will be quick to remind me that the tanker business is complicated. Recently, I have have found reflecting on the fact that the tanker business being complicated.

Speaking of being complicated, even flying Cessna trainers (e.g. the Cessna 172) used by many flight schools is not uncomplicated. There is a lot for the student pilot to learn, both for the systems portion of the FAA written exam as well as all aspects involved in flying the airplane. The Cessna trainers do not have retractable landing gear and have what is known as a fixed pitch propeller. You can not change the pitch or angle of a fixed pitch propeller as you can with controllable pitch propellers found in more complex airplanes. And as a reminder, the Cessna trainers have one engine and what is known as tricycle landing gear - two main wheels and a nose wheel. By the time the student pilot has passed all of the FAA exams (written and practical) flying a Cessna trainer should be close to being second nature.

The next level of complexity in airplanes could be a plane with retractable landing gear and a controllable-pitch propeller. Not only do you have to retract your landing gear at the correct speed after take-off and extend it again before landing, the controllable-pitch propeller means more instruments to monitor. The change to a tail wheel plane means learning how this plane, known as a tail dragger, handles. At one time, taildraggers were the convention, now a days, there are more tricycle gear planes than tail draggers.

When you transition to a more complex airplane there is another round of sessions with a certified flight instructor.

Take the Air Tractor 802F (one of the types of SEATs used in aerial wildland firefighting), a tail dragger, with non-retractable landing gear, and a type of controllable-pitch propeller known as a constant speed propeller. Now, add in the gate system for dropping retardant and remember that SEATs -- as do other tankers -- fly low, often in windy conditions in mountainous areas making drops on a wildfire. Flying SEATs is way complicated.

Now take a heavy tanker, such as one of Butler's DC-7's (4 engines), a P-2 (2 engines plus 2 jets), or a P-3 (4 engines. More engines, more instruments. Another layer of complexity is added with multi-engines on top of the complexity of retardant drops.

A verbal picture of initial attack

Please bear with me as I experiment with painting a verbal picture of tankers and helos working fires without relying on photos or videos.

I offer these two hypothetical stories of air resources used in initial attack. In both stories, residences are not threatened and there are no evacuations.

Perhaps there is a small fire somewhere in California. Doesn't matter where. Someone reports the fire, doesn't matter who, and the nearest CAL Fire base sends up their S-2T tanker(s) and OV-10 air attack plane. Ground crews are deployed, but the S-2T tanker(s) get there first, it is only a very short flight to the fire. Perhaps the fire is an acre or two. The tankers start laying retardant lines around the fire, go back to their base, reload and go back. By this time, the OV-10 Air Attack plane has arrived. The ground crews arrive and start building line. The S-2T tankers have reloaded and returned. Perhaps by the third load, the S-2T's have built a retardant line around the fire and Air Attack releases them from the fire. Their job is done. The ground crews contain the fire not long after. Perhaps only three or four have passed since the fire was first reported. The fire is contained, ground crews are their mopping up. The fire will soon be under control.

There is a small fire reported early one afternoon in a forested area during the spring fire season in a mid-atlantic state. The fire burns in an area that is difficult to access by ground crews, and fuels are dry making this a tricky fire that could grow into a major fire. SEATs are on contract. Two are already loaded and ready to go from a base only a few minutes flight time from the fire. The State Forest Fire Service mobilizes crews to go to the fire along with volunteer municipal firefighters under mutual aid. The SEATs are there early on, bombing the fire with their load. A helo with a bucket arrives. Everyone, on the air and on the ground, work together to contain the fire before it "got it" and became a major fire. The fire is well on the way to being contained by nightfall when the air operations are called off. Ground crews stay over night. Early the next morning, the fire is 100 percent contained. By mid-day the fire is under control.

On Helos

As I was writing about the Herriman Fire the other day, I got thinking about the important role that helos play in wildland fire fighting, whether it be for transporting cargo, helitack operations, or bucket operations.

So, when I went on you tube just now to like for videos of aerial wildland fire fighting operations, I did so with the intent of finding a video showing help operations. I believe that some or all of the footage in this video was shot in Canada. But that doesn't matter, for this could be the U.S. or any one of a number of other countries for that matter. I also wanted to find a video showing light or medium weight helicopters, along with some footage that I had not embedded previously. Enjoy.

Herriman Fire: update

The other day, I wrote about the Herriman Fire here and here. Sometime yesterday, I saw this inciweb page for the Herriman Fire including a map and news reports (the last one posted yesterday evening). I saw a report earlier today on KTSU (fox13now):

• the fire was at 50 percent containment,
• a little over 4,300 acres have burned,
• four National Guard Blackhawks worked the fire yesterday,
• a lightning storm moved into the fire,
• ground and air crews worked hard during yesterday's Red Flag conditions, with the fire seeing minimal if any growth,
• flooding may be a concern and firefighters were pulled off the line during the storms this morning.
• some residents were allowed back into their homes yesterday and evacuation remained in place, at least through this afternoon for others.

The bereadyHerriman twitter site just reported (I am writing this at 5:31 PM EDT), that all evacuation orders will be lifted at 4PM.

According to the latest update on inciweb -- yesterday evening -- the following resources were used:

• 400 personnel (estimated)
• 35 engines
• 7 crews
• 2 helicopters
• 2 single engine air tankers (SEATs)
• 3 heavy air tankers
• 6 dozers

Note that I wrote that four National Guard Blackhawk helos were used on the fire yesterday. I think, but am not sure, that they are not included in the numbers from inciweb. A temporary flight restriction is in place around the fire.

Some of the news reports that I have seen include short clips of air tankers (I think it was a P-2), a helo and bucket, and a National Guard Blackhawk helo working the fire. Even though I have no clips to show you here, it sounds to me like the airtankers and helos (including the National Guard Blackhawks) have played an important role in working this fire in support of the ground crews.

Machine Gun Fire - Herriman Utah - Utah Fire Info

I was just looking at the webpage for the Eastern Great Basin Coordination Center to see what, if any information they have about the Machine Gun Fire. I found a link to the Utah Fire Info home page. The Utah Fire Info Page has a map showing the location of current active wildland fires in Utah. Clicking on each "fire icon" brings up some information about each fire. There is also a box on the left side of the page with the same information about each fire, including the Machine Gun Fire.

Machine Gun Fire - Herriman Utah

I was going through this morning's new posts on the wildlandfire.com hotlist forums when I saw this Wildland Fire Hotlist thread on the Machine Gun Fire in Herriman Utah (near Salt Lake City). Being intrigued by the reports of damage to homes as well as evacuations affecting some 1,600 homes I followed up on this fire. The video that I have embedded above was posted to youtube by the Salt Lake Tribune showing footage of the fire that was shot last night.

I have been accessing reports, including live streams from the Fox affiliate in Salt Lake City (fox13now) on and off for the last few hours. Most if not all of the information that I am reporting here on the fire has come from fox13now, and those of you wanting current information might want to check them out, or check out the Salt Lake Tribune. There is also a twitter page for the fire. The fire was started at Camp Williams near Herriman on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 19), the National Guard confirmed in an interview carried by fox13now that live ammo was the cause of the fire. From what I understand by listening to weather reports on fox13now, the winds were upwards of 50 mph yesterday afternoon making things extremely difficult for firefighters working the fire. By later in the evening, at least three houses had been destroyed, residents of some 1,600 houses had been evacuated, and the fire had grown to about 3,500 acres.

As of this writing (3:20 PM EDT), evacuation orders are still in place. Winds today are somewhat calmer but are forecasted to pick up tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 21), though not at levels experienced yesterday. There is a type III incident team in place, I heard a couple of interviews with one of their officers. Earlier this morning it was reported that the fire had grown to 10,000 acres but this figure was scaled back to 3,500 acres according to a recent fox13now interview with the type III incident officer. In this same interview that I heard live only a short time ago on fox13now, she reported that there were three heavy airtankers, two SEATs, and a number of helos (including National Guard Black Hawke's) working the fire. I have not been able to find any videos of the air operations, but I did see the following video, also posted to youtube by the Salt Lake Tribune with aerial footage of the fire damage.

Miranda Fire (part 3 of 3): retardant drops

Larry described the initial response to the Miranda Fire, which burned on Federal lands:

The fire started within 600 feet of state protected land and the initial ground response was by the Oregon Department of Forestry. Tanker 62 was used initially because of a lack of immediately available Federal resources. T62 was released under the current joint use policy when additional Federal resources were on the way. For example, T17 eventually arrived from Moses Lake.

Jim Hansen, Klamath Falls Air Attack, took a series of aerial photos of the Miranda Fire, including tanker operations. These photographs are used here with his permission. Larry added some annotations to these photos that to go along his commentary of the fire. I found that these photos along with Larry's commentary and annotations provided me with an excellent up close and personal look of air tanker operations.

Referring to the photo above, Larry begins by setting the stage:

I had to start the drop a bit early because we had a strong tailwind and they wanted to be sure to tie into the road with retardant to make an anchor point.

He added some annotations so that you can follow along:

Red Arrow: This is the road that I was instructed to be sure to tie into to act as an anchor point.

Greenish Arrow: This is a second road. This drop carried almost to the road with the tailwind.Tanker 17 was to extend this drop and try to start around the head in a right turn. It isn't readily apparent in these pictures,but the terrain rose in the direction of the drops,so a right turn was used for the exit. This picture shows Tanker 62 closely following the leadplane.

Moving on to the second photo, Larry continues:

Red Arrow: This points to the anchor point road from first picture.

Green Arrow: This is the second road that figures in the Tanker 17 drop pictures.

Yellow Circle: This is the leadplane starting his right turn to avoid the rising terrain.

Looking at the third picture, Larry goes on to explain:

Red Arrow: This points to the anchor point road at the beginning of T62's first drop.

Yellow Line: This line shows T62's first drop on the Left Flank of the fire.

Green Line: This line shows T62's retardant line from the second load which anchored to the same road as the first load,but on the Right Flank of the fire.

We end with the fourth and last picture of the series. Tanker 62 had been released from the fire by the time Tanker 17 arrived. Larry says that

This picture shows Tanker 17's second load. This was after I'd been released from the fire, so I can only give an educated guess, which follows:

T17's first load extended T62's first load and this picture shows T17 extending his first load (which had extended T62's first load).

Red Arrow: This is the second road from the first and second pictures. Tanker 62's first drop ended just short of this road.

Yellow Line: This retardant is from T17's first load.There was also a SEAT working on the fire (T845), so any stray retardant that runs at odd angles to the main line is likely from his attempts to fill in or strengthen weak spots in the line.The wind made exact tie-ins difficult.

Green Circle: This is Tanker 17.

Orange Circle: This is the Leadplane.

He wraps by saying that "the parts involving Tanker 62 should be completely accurate. Those on Tanker 17 are probably 95% accurate."

There is not much else I can add to Jim's photos and Larry's wonderful commentary and annotations. He has given us an up close and personal look at tanker operations on the Miranda Fire. I don't know about you, but I found that these pictures and commentary have made tanker operations at a wildfire come alive. Thank-you Larry and Jim!

Miranda Fire: Flying to the fire (part 2 of 3)

When Larry and I were discussing the Miranda he had this to say about the route he took:

Just for reference,when we get a fire to the east of Medford, the terrain usually climbs faster than we can. So,we take the scenic tour until we can get to about 6,000-6,500 ft, which will get us past Mt. McLoughlin on the Four Mile Lake side (just to the north of the mountain) or on the Lake of the Woods side (just to the south). We took the Lake of the Woods path to Miranda as it's a couple of hundred feet lower than going over Four Mile Lake.

I have spent some time thinking about the best graphic to show to go with Larry’s description about the route he took. I settled on this excerpt from an aeronautical chart (Klamath Falls Sectional Chart) covering the Oregon area. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) makes digital raster file versions of Sectional Charts put out by the Federal Aviation Administration, National Aeronautical Charting Office freely available charts on this webpage. These files, probably meant for GPS devices are rather large in size, much too large to reproduce here. However, I was able to use my pdf viewer, to extract the relevant portion of the Klamath  Falls Sectional showing the location of the Miranda Fire.

One of the areas depicted on the chart are different kinds of airspace, e.g. the thick solid purple line around the airport, which I labeled as Medford. Go here to read what I hope is a freely available booklet describing the different kinds of airspace in the U.S. The airport that I labeled Medford, Rouge Valley International Airport, is where Larry’s tanker, tanker 62 is based while on contract with the Oregon Department of Forestry. In flying out of Medford on his way to the Miranda Fire, he had to avoid Mt. McLoughlin (9,495 ft.), that I labeled with the letter A. If you look at the mountain on the chart, you will notice that as the elevation increases, the brown shading darkens. Look around Medford and you will green shading, indicating a lower altitude.

The key here is that Larry has to avoid the higher terrain until he is able to climb to a high enough altitude. Remember that he is flying heavy with a full load of retardant! He did this by flying south of Mt. McLoughlin by Lake of the Woods (“B”). I’m not sure of the exact route he took to the MIranda Fire, labeled on the map. I’m sure that his choice of the route depends on the terrain. But I’m fairly certain that he crossed Upper Klamath Lake, perhaps flying over the area called Modoc Point (see the little purple flag on the east side of the Lake). Modoc Point is a distinctive feature, see the google earth image and you will what seems to be fields at Modoc Point and forested areas to the south of Modoc Point. Pilots flying under visual flight rules often rely on distinctive visual “waypoints” and other features (railroads, powerlines, and roads) noted on the charts.

In closing, I want to acknowledge that aeronautical charts take some getting used to. I spent many hours before, during, and after attending ground school learning my way around aeronautical charts. There were several questions on the FAA written private pilot exam on using aeronautical charts. Passing this written exam, while giving my some confidence, has given me an appreciation for the complexity of flying. I am not going to even try to offer a crash course in using these charts. The AOPA has what I think is a freely available document  here that provides a description of some of the symbols on the chart, with a focus on airspace.

Next up: retardant drops.

Miranda Fire part 1 of 3

Larry Kraus, pilot of Butler’s DC-7 T-62, has been on contract with the Oregon Department of Forestry since early July. Some of you will recall that I have written a couple of series of articles on T62: articles about DC-7 tankers and articles about T62 in action. Larry and I have been in touch since he went on contract. He gave me some information about one of the fires that T62 flew. This was the Miranda Fire, first reported on Thursday July 22. It was located about 10 miles east of Chiloquin, Oregon. It eventually burned about 50 acres before the fire was fully lined later that evening, go here and here for more information on that fire.

I am going to start with the location of the fire, before discussing the approximate route that Larry took to get to the fire in part 2. Part 3 focuses on retardant drops on the Miranda Fire.

Larry gave me the latitude and longitude of the fire which I used to plot the fire in google earth.

Next up, flying to the fire.

Note: As a point of reference, the Miranda Fire is located at 42 degrees 37.4757 minutes north and 121 degrees 40.3301 minutes west.

Fourmile Canyon Fire

I have been aware of the Fourmile Canyon Fire, burning five miles west of downtown Boulder CO, for a few days now. After writing yesterday about the houses lost as a result of the explosion of the gas main in San Bruno, CA I knew that I had to write about this fire. Not just because of the video that I embedded above (Sept. 8, CBS4 in Denver), but because I knew that residence had been lost in this fire. According to the Sept. 10 update from inciweb, 172 structures have been lost, of these 169 were residences.

According to the latest update (Sept 11) from inciweb the fire has burned 6,427 acres and is at 56 percent containment with seven minor injuries. The fire started on Sept. 6.

The main incident page on inciweb for this fire may be found here, there is a map showing the location of the fire, links for news reports, photos, satellite imagery, etc.

I am sorry for those who lost their homes in this fire, and relieved that injuries to date have been minor. I again offer this post as a sign of my thoughts and prayers.

postcript: If you are seeing test annotations in the video, I apologize. If you see them, you should be able to turn them off by clicking on the triangle on lower right of the video. You will see three icons, click on the top one and that should turn off text annotations. Alternatively, I found a copy of the video on the video archive page of CBS4 Denver, you may go here to view this video online. As always, I don't know how long that link will be active.

San Bruno Gas Main Explosion

By now, I think that many of you have heard about the rupture of the gas main in San Bruno, CA. Four people are dead, 52 are injured and 38 homes were destroyed in the resulting fire. The video I embedded above was shot this morning by KGO (ABC-7) in San Francisco.

There is not much more that I can say. In a video report I saw last night, the Mayor of San Bruno asked all of us for our prayers. I offer this article as an act of prayer.

San Francisco Chronicle Article
photos from San Francisco Chronicle
1st hand account from Brian Carmody. The footage was taken about 15 minutes after the explosion. The interview was with KGO reporters. The video is a little over 15 minutes and is on the intense side, perhaps not for the faint of heart. Brain is a freelance photographer.

Brushfire on Staten Island rekindles

I took a break this noon and caught this news report from WABC TV in New York that a brushfire on Staten Island (see the article from the NY Daily News on the right side of the page) has rekindled. The Fox outlet in NY (myfoxny.com) was showing a live stream of the fire at about 1 PM EDT.

Update on January 9, 2012. For some reason, the embed code that I used in Sept. 2010 does not work. Don't quite know how to fix it. But I did find the video below on youtube that I believe is from the same fire.

A hike up one edge of wildfire burnout operations in NJ

A friend and I went for a hike the other day on the Douglas Trail in the Worthington State Forest in NJ. We accessed the trail from the Douglas Parking Area on Old Mine Rd. tThe other end of the trail terminates on the Ridge (1,100 ft climb over 1.7 miles) at the Appalachian Trail (AT) about 6/10 of a mile west of Sunfish Pond. 

We were about half way up the trail when I saw evidence of burning operations. We continued to follow the burned area on the left side of the trail as we hiked up the Douglas Trail to the Appalachian Trail. When we reached the AT we turned left, continuing to follow the burn area until we turned around after a five or ten minute hike along the AT. Because these burning operations  -- burned ground and underbrush, some scorching on lower tree trunks -- were only on one side of the trail and because the Douglas Trail terminates at the Appalachian Trail about 6/10 of a mile west of Sunfish Pond, I suspect that what I was looking at may have been the back burning operations used to control the Sunfish Pond Fire. We did not hike to Sunfish Pond, our goal was the ridge and we did that.

I suspect that this burn area was shown in the aerial photo that I posted with this article.

As I understand it when first reported the fire was about five acres, soon growing to twenty acres. Back-firing operations were used by fire fighters to bring the fire under control brought the final acreage burned up to about 250 acres. Go here to see reports on the Wildland Fire Hotlist forums about the fire, the report I am referring to is the first report posted.

Back firing or burn out operations are used by wildland firefighters to indirectly attack the fire. Wildland firefighters start from natural or constructed fire breaks. Examples are old fire control lines, hiking trails, woods roads and the like. In this case the wildland fire fighters intentionally burn the fuels between these "fire breaks" and the perimeter of the active fire. In some cases, these fire breaks may be a distance from the active edge of the fire. The idea is to burn the fuels so the fire can eventually be contained.

I was unable to find a good hiking map of this ridge (sometimes known as the Kittatinny Ridge) at the Delaware Water Gap in NJ. However, the image from google earth with the topological maps from the USGS gives you an idea of the terrain. I was able to pinpoint the parking area by going here and plotted that point on google earth. With the help of my paper hiking maps of the Kittatinny Ridge from the NY-NJ Trail Conference (2005 edition) and a conversation with someone at the Worthington State Forest I was able to approximate where the Douglas Trail joins the Appalachian Trail. The Douglas Trail climbs the ridge through a series of switch backs. 

I am attaching a couple of photos of the area that I think may have been a part of these backfiring operations for the Sunfish Pond Fire. I took the first two photos on my way up the Douglas Trail. The last photo is taken on the way down. 

Sunfish Pond Fire (Warren Cnty NJ) from the air

I wrote about the Sunfish Pond Fire that burned on the Appalachian Ridge north of the Delaware Water Gap in NJ here and here. To review the Sunfish Pond Fire was first reported by a hiker on the afternoon of August 6. In a steep, remote, and inaccessible area, the NJ Forest Fire Service contained the fire on August 10. It rained the night of August 12.

On Friday August 13, I went for scenic ride. At the time of the flight, I knew that the fire was already contained, that there were no Temporary Flight Restrictions and/or NOTAMs over the fire area (I don't believe there every were any), and that it had rained the night before. I therefore felt safe asking the pilot, if we could fly over the burn area on top of the Appalachian Ridge. Just so you know, we would not fly over an uncontained wildland fire if there was any chance of air operations in support of ground crews, TFR or no TFR.

A couple of hours after I got home after my flight, I found out that the Sunfish Pond Fire had been declared under control about 30 minutes before we took off.

Back to our flight, the weather that morning was beautiful with minimal winds. The minimal winds made our flight to and over the Ridge fairly easy. And I could take photos without risking getting air sick, something I could not do if it was windy.

We flew past Sunfish Pond because I was thinking about the mileage that I had hiked a few years ago from the Dunnefield Creek Parking area, off of I-80, to Sunfish Pond. The distance I walked was in statue miles, in aviation nautical miles are used. One statute mile equals about .898 nautical miles. Moreover, the distance walked may be a little longer than flying distance. Fortunately, hiking this area and being familiar with the hiking maps of the area meant that I recognized landmarks from the air. So it wasn't to long before we found Sunfish Pond. And once we did, the burn area was easy to spot. I took photos, four of which I am showing you here.

In the first photo with Sunfish Pond at the top of the photo, you will see a lighter patch of vegetation on the right hand side of the photo. I think that is an old burn area. In this photo the camera is pointing more or less due east. The Appalachian Trial is between the new burn and older burn. The ground elevation at Sunfish Pond is around 1,300 ft above sea level.

Here are three more photos that I took that day. Enjoy!

DC-3

Here are a couple of videos of Buffalo Airway's DC-3's. Buffalo Airways, located in Yellowknife, NWT in Canada is one of the last commercial operators of DC-3's. She is beautiful, isn't she?

Postscript added Sunday September 5, 2010

Specifications for the DC-3 may be found here.

A I understand it smoke jumpers used relied heavily on DC-3's for a lot of years. Other aircrafts such as Sherpas are being used by smoke jumpers, but the DC-3's are still around. For example, the fleet of aircraft used by the Missoula Smokejumpers includes a turbine DC-3.

My journey into Aviation - ground school and FAA PP exam

Several months ago I decided that it was time for me to learn more about aviation and the world of flying airplanes. For reasons that I won't go into, I found out that I may never be able to obtain a private pilot's certificate. I am not taking flight training through a flight school, and am not a student pilot. But I found out that there are still things that I can do to learn more about the world of flying airplanes. To that end, I took what is known is ground school, offered at a nearby general aviation airport. What was great about this ground school, was that this was an actual school, on site, two nights a week.

For those who are able to, a few words about the process of getting a private pilot's certificate. Obtaining a private pilot's certificate involves a couple of things, one is ground school and then passing the FAA private pilot written test, At the same time if you are working on getting your private pilot's certificate you will enroll in the flight training component of the flight school In flight training, you will go flying with your certified flight instructor in a trainer, often a Cessna 172, and learn how to fly the airplane. When you have passed your FAA private pilot written test and another pre-solo test administered by your flight school, your certified flight instructor endorses your log book for solos as a student pilot.

There are a variety of maneuvers that you must have learned how to perform, and a minimum amount of flight time (including solo time) required before you go for the practical exam administered by an FAA flight examiner. This involves an oral test as well as a practical flying test where the student is in the left seat as pilot, and the examiner is sitting in the right seat asking you to perform various maneuvers. If you pass both then you will have your pilot's certificate with the appropriate endorsement in your logbook.

Back to what I can and can do. I can go as far as taking the FAA private pilot written exam and that is all. I am not enrolled in flight training, so I do not have a flight instructor. I'll talk about the FAA private pilot exam a little later. I will not get as far as having my log book endorsed as a student pilot. Of course, I will never solo. I can go on scenic rides and continue learning more about aviation.

I do have a young pilot, who takes me on scenic flights, the added benefit being that I have learned a lot about flying and aviation from him. These scenic rides helped me as I was studying for the exam. For example, there are many questions about the various instruments on the airplane as well as navigation aides ("those damn needles'). And I had to learn them all, taking scenic flights in the right seat helped me to learn the instruments and the needles.

After completing ground school, I took and passed the FAA private pilot exam. The date was April 13, 2010.

The pictures above are of one of the Cessna 172 airplanes (aka trainers) that I take my scenic rides in. Where the pilot is sitting in the left seat, flying the plane. And I am in the right seat. We have a great time. She is a nice little airplane.

I'll be writing more about journey into aviation from time to time, so stay tuned.

One thing that I have done that fits in here is that I have added a new page -- Aviation Info and Links -- on my blog highlighting some of the things that I learned in ground school. You will also note that I moved the links to my blog pages to the right side of my blog page. I will be referring to some of this information in future blog articles. I rely heavily on various links that I have found over the last several months, some sent to me by my tanker pilot friends. Thank-you guys!

Hurricane Earl

I got some kmz files from NOAA for Google Earth. What it shown here is the track and the cone for Hurricane Earl as of 8AM on Thursday, Sept. 2. There is a kmz file indicating hurricane/tropical storm watches and warnings but I could not find a "key" so I left it out of the image.

For those of you are interested in such things, I have included a widget on the right side of this blog from NOAA that links to the latest advisories on Hurricane Earl. I'll leave this up for the duration as Earl continues his trek off the east coast of the U.S.