I’ve received my flight review endorsement! I’m officially a pilot in command again. It has been fun getting back into the pilot mindset and being a part of the general aviation community. Getting current in the Bay Area out of San Carlos airport added to the challenge. This airspace is very complex and crowded. It is certainly different compared to where I learned to fly in rural Champaign, IL. I would personally say that it was even more intimidating flying VFR around here than back in my old home of Frederick, MD and the Washington DC SFRA. I’m so happy to be back and I’ve learned a lot through the process. There were times when I felt intimidated, but I had to remind myself that I’ve done this all before. And while a flight review is an evaluation of my skills, it is not a test. The components of a flight review are very flexible and should be planned out for what will best suit you and your flying. I was very adamant about being an active participant in what my flight review consisted of, instead of just showing up and relying on my new flight instructor to plan it out. That got me back to thinking and acting like the pilot in command.

Flight review endorsement and C172 rental checkout by the numbers:

Flight Hours: 5.5
Flights: 4
Landings: 17
Ground Instruction Hours: 4

Because San Carlos and all surrounding airports are towered, have noise abatement procedures, and tight airspace, I think that I could have gotten my endorsement in a less time if I flew out of an airport farther away from the city. However, this is my home and local airport, and I wanted to make sure I was ready to stick with it, have access to aircraft close by, and fly here with confidence. 

 

Overall, my VFR maneuvers felt pretty good. Of course I felt rusty, but the maneuvers never felt foreign to me. I did a solid amount of chair flying and watched some YouTube videos to help me prepare for them, and it made a big difference. Debriefing the maneuvers at home was also helpful. For example, I knew my instructor kept hounding me for more right rudder (as they do), but not until I reviewed my stall recovery and played it out in CloudAhoy watching the 3D cockpit view, did it really hit home that I did indeed need more right rudder! I also compared my two simulated emergency landings during my debrief. I can see that my airspeed (the blue line) moves up and down in both attempts, and I’d like to see that line hold more steady with practice. You can watch me debrief my VFR maneuvers in this video.

 

We added a night flight into my training to make sure I was fully current and able to carry passengers anytime, especially with daylight savings here. The night flight was not my favorite flight, in fact it was my least favorite. My head was spinning the entire time and I just couldn’t get ahead of the airplane. I expected to be a bit disoriented at times and to have some difficulty with less defined reference points in the dark, but I did not expect to feel behind the airplane for nearly the whole flight. We went to Oakland international and did 8 landings. About half way through, I told my instructor that I’d like to do a full stop landing and a taxi back to the runway so that I could have a few minutes on the ground for me to take a breath. It was a good call and helped my brain reset.

 

My instructor had a set checklist required by the flight school of items to cover for the “official” ground portion of the flight review. It was pretty straight forward. It was a mix of rote memory type regulations questions and some scenario based. The scenario based questions were very helpful to talk out and apply to real situations and examples for the local area. Once we got out the sectional and laid it on the table, it felt more fun and practical. I could better explain and show my knowledge when talking it out through examples. My instructor does very thorough pre-flight discussions as well, which were also important learning moments during this flight review. [As a side note, I’ve participated in AOPA’s Rusty Pilot seminars in the past; they are a great way to help you prepare for your flight review or to simply review the basics.]

 

Things I see that I still need to work on:

Centerline deviation on Final. A review of my last few landings reveals that I consistently score lower in this area. This tells me that I’m not correcting properly for the wind, I’m often over correcting, and that my sight picture for a stable approach still needs improvement and more practice.

Fly in less than perfect weather & set my personal minimums. My four flights have been in nice weather and light winds. I have not had the extra challenge of a large crosswind or low ceilings yet, so I know that I will remain conservative on any solo flights and that I will still want to fly a bit with my instructor. I also have not been pressured to make any decisions with questionable, but “probably” fine, weather situations, like the fog creeping in here in San Francisco. But, I know it is a common occurrence and want to fly with my instructor to understand the nuances of the local weather. I still want to work with my instructor to grow and be safe, and I will remain more restrictive on my personal minimums for now.

 

Next up in this adventure:

• I will fly by myself and “re-solo”! So excited to do this, but maybe after one more flight with my CFI. 
• I also need to get instrument current, and I’m way more rusty on those skills, eek. 
• Take my friends on a San Francisco Bay Tour flight

I’m so happy and proud to be back flying and current!

(Interesting times for flight training, but we are definitely smiling!)

Proficiency says 1000’, safety says 500’… 

Professional jet pilots are trained to maintain a precise airspeed and altitude during the approach and over the threshold, and to aim at the 1000’ mark. CloudAhoy measures these parameters (as well as many other parameters) and scores the approach accordingly. But what if touching down on the 1000’ does not leave enough “runway remaining” per the Standard Operating Procedures? Obviously safety is always of paramount importance. 

The same applies to all pilots. Suppose you’re a C172 pilot landing on a 2500’ runway. Or a Citation pilot landing on a 4000’ runway. What would be different in your approach and landing on the short runway compared to landing on a 10,000’ runway?

We just released a new version of CloudAhoy which includes more accurate scoring for short field landings.  This is a response to feedback we got from many users, for being “penalized” incorrectly for landing short when the runway length required it. 

The main differences in the new version are:

• Aiming point: on short runways you’d want to touchdown closer to the numbers, leaving yourself more runway for the landing roll.
• Altitude and airspeed over the runway’s threshold: on short runways you’d be typically lower and slower.
• Descent angle over the threshold: you may reduce the slope, and in some cases even begin the flair at the threshold. Especially if there’s a displaced threshold.

How we score

The new release automatically adjusts the tolerances in the scoring envelope based on the aircraft type and the length of the runway.

The new adjustments affect mostly scoring approaches using our “CloudAhoy Precision Landing” envelope, but also affect scoring with other envelopes.

Consider these two landings on a specific short runway. The one of the left touches down at 1000’, the one on the right touches down on 500’.

For scoring, we consider a runway to be short if its length is less than the “minimum remaining runway at touchdown” (as defined per aircraft type per the SOP) + 1000’ + safety distance (typically 500’).  These numbers have default values and can be modified.

Normally the “Precision Landing” envelope requires touchdown between 900’ and 1200’ and scores the touchdown distance accordingly. These numbers are configurable using the Envelope Editor by an individual pilot or by an organization. However, if the runway is short, CloudAhoy’s scoring does not penalize for a shorter touchdown – as long as it’s more than 200’ for a fast aircraft, or 10’ for slower aircraft. Obviously – CloudAhoy scoring will penalize for not enough runway remaining – known to be a major cause for incidents and accidents.

When a pilot lands short on a short runway, we automatically adjust the scoring envelope’s parameters for this specific approach, based on the actual touchdown point and the aircraft type. The adjustment is proportional to the actual touchdown point: 

• In scoring the IAS from 500’ AGL to the threshold, we adjust the required minimum IAS.
• In scoring the sink rate and descent angle from 500’ AGL to the threshold, we adjust the required range.
• We adjust the required altitude and airspeed over the threshold to account for a potentially lower and slower threshold passing.

The result – more accurate scores for a good approach that landed short on a short runway to allow for a safe amount of remaining runway.

Similar considerations are applied when using our “Basic” envelope.

The changes affect all CloudAhoy Pro users, including users who customized their envelopes.

We would love to receive your feedback!
Please click the feedback button on an approach 

Or the general feedback link on the top-left     

 

Truth be told, I’m a bit intimidated to fly again and don’t want to rush my flight review. I don’t want “just” the endorsement that shows I’m legal to fly. I want to feel safe, ready, and confident in my abilities. So, my flight instructor at San Carlos Flight Center, Mari, and I decided that we’d start off with a fun flight first. Something that would allow me to get back at the controls right away without too much ground discussion, maneuver prep, or stress. We made my first flight back a San Francisco Bay Tour. It was perfect. A clear beautiful day (very welcomed after weeks of smokey haze and strange skies). It was a great orientation to the local airport procedures, airspace, the plane’s radios and avionics, and to knock the rust off my ATC communications. It was a 1.2 hour flight and a nice way to get started and be challenged.

*I’ve also made a video of my debrief, you can check it out here!*

Let’s debrief my Bay Tour!

I flew a steam gauge C-172 and recorded my flight from the CloudAhoy app on my iPhone. Debriefing my flight with CloudAhoy was very helpful to review all the local landmarks my instructor had pointed out. For noise abatement after takeoff from San Carlos airport, we were to follow the “Oracle Departure”. This meant at the diamond shaped waterway, I was to turn right and follow the slough, being sure not to fly over any of the homes on either side. Check out how I did… pretty good and kept the neighbors happy.

Next, ATC directed us to fly to the “mid-span” of the San Mateo Bridge. Before our flight I was told that the mid-span is halfway between the flat part of the bridge, not the entire bridge. I was given the tip of how many poles to count, but that felt like too hard of a task my first 10 minutes into this rusty pilot’s flight. So I appreciated taking the time with my CloudAhoy debrief to actually validate that I did this correctly, with both a satellite and VFR chart view to reference.

Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, Sausalito, and the Golden Gate Bridge – what a site to see!
This segment was a nice relaxed time to just fly and look outside. ATC wasn’t concerned about us and we could do some circling and touring around. I was supposed to maintain 1800 feet. Overall, I feel like I did okay, but I do see some dips in altitude that I hope as I fly more become less of a trend (see graph below). I did voice to my instructor that I needed to physically relax and loosen my grip on the control, as even my shoulder was starting to feel tight. 

Next we flew along the coast line and then climbed to prepare for our route back to San Carlos. I felt like I had good situational awareness and was able to overfly the runway then enter a right downwind as instructed. I was to fly over SQL at 1300 and so I had to lose 500 ft to reach traffic pattern altitude. I probably should have extended my downwind a bit to give myself time to get better established with a more consistent descent angle.  CloudAhoy’s CFI Assistant feature scored my final approach a grade of 77. While it isn’t in the green range, it was a good place to start and now I can measure my improvement. I knew I wasn’t doing a good job holding the centerline and of course, this grade confirms how I felt in flight. 

For my first landing in many years, I thought it was okay. I don’t think I impressed anyone, but it wasn’t a horrifying smack down or anything. I definitely needed to add some power during the flare, but then it was too much power, so I floated, but it was an eventual fine touch down. I’m pretty sure the instructor didn’t touch the controls, she just gave some helpful verbal guidance on the finesse of the flare and final few seconds. 

This bay area flight was the highlight of my week. I’m glad to be back in the air. I recognize many areas for improvement and look forward to the fun challenges ahead as I continue to knock the rust off. 

Do you have any advice for Britt? Send her an email at britt@cloudahoy.com.

Written in 2020, the year AirVenture was cancelled

Chuck uses CloudAhoy to relieve a memorable flight, flown 7 years earlier.

 

Converging traffic!

I was on the left base to runway 36 when I saw at my 2 o’clock a Bonanza on a one mile final. Seeing converging traffic almost on a collision course rings all your alarm bells. Normally I would immediately abort my approach and initiate an evasive maneuver, but this was not a normal flight. The tower was fully aware of the situation. 

On that day, the tower had a banner “The World’s Busiest Tower”. It was seven years ago, on July, 30th 2013, and in one minute I would land on the yellow dot on KOSH RWY 36, after flying the Fisk arrival.

Now it’s 2020, the year Oshkosh did not get to be busy.  I took my time to relive that memorable flight. A year later, in 2014, we would have a booth at AirVenture, and, sadly, I could no longer afford to take a few days off to fly my own plane to KOSH. 

Relive

Landing – I was assigned the yellow dot.

I did my best to touch down exactly on the yellow dot. How well did I do? Not so great. 

Landed.

Reliving the flight was emotional and fun. Admittedly, I watched the landing more than once.

Watch capture of the landing on CloudAhoy:

Was it a good landing? 

As is well established, a good landing is one you can walk away from. In this case it was an amazingly good landing: not only we could all walk away, but it was on KOSH soil during AirVenture! CloudAhoy was great to relieve the flight.  But there’s some interesting debriefing to do.

Debrief

First I looked at the touch-down and yellow dot.  Indeed, CloudAhoy confirms my frustration. The touchdown was 3586’ from the runway’s threshold. The yellow dot is 3300’ from the threshold, and I missed it by 286’.

Looking at the graph with the 3D Cockpit view :

Then I got curious how stable my approach was.  The automatic scoring did not exist in 2013, but now I could see my score:

I lost most of the points on airspeed. CloudAhoy reported airspeed of 89-96 knots between 500’ AGL and the runway threshold, while for the Warrior the goal was 65-85. In my defense I can say that since I intended to land long, I flew faster over the threshold than I would for normal landing. Still, I should have been slower. 

The other contributor to the low score was the descent angle’s consistency. I was approaching the runway pretty much on the glide path, but then I flew pretty low over the runway.

* * *

Where is the video?

While looking at the flight with CloudAhoy, I had a moment of confusion: I remembered that Etan (CloudAhoy co-founder) took the video of the landing from the back seat.  However, I could not see it in the flight debrief… why?  Then I remembered – the feature to embed a video in CloudAhoy was added a year later!  (blog-2014/08/18/video-embedded/)  So I dug up the video and added it. 

Relieving this flight is a prime example for using this feature 🙂

* * *

The trip

The trip from KBED to KOSK took us 4 days (originally planned for 3, but we added a day due to weather).  A leisure trip, four friends, two airplanes:  Eldar and I alternated left seat flying in a rented Warrior, with Etan in the back. Itay was flying his Beech B-19 Sport. 

We spent the last night before OSH on the beautiful Mackinac Island. In the morning a horse-drawn taxi brought us to the airport. 

 

From KMCD, Eldar flew our first leg, only 9.5 minutes of air time, to 83D where we fueled (no fuel on KMCD).  He then continued to KISQ.

We swapped seats, I took off, and landed 1:59:30 hours later just past the yellow dot.

It was delightful and nostalgic to dig out the old OSH flights, and remember the jokes we exchanged on the radio (we used frequency 123.45 for chatting between the two planes).

 

 

Oshkosh!

We are here.

 

Debriefing directly on the iPad has become increasingly popular.  To adjust to the small size of the screen relative to desktop or laptop, we redesigned the tools and layout of iPad debriefing:  by default there are two views, and the left panel (including the Segment Manager and tools) is initially collapsed to preserve space.

The new iPad interface is available on both CloudAhoy Standard and CloudAhoy Pro.

Select either a single view on the entire screen, or split it into two views. Open or close the  left panel to see the Segment Manager and the Tools – Graphs, Nav, etc.  Below are a few examples:

Default view showing a visual approach:
(Screenshot: landscape, CloudAhoy Pro)

Opened the left panel to declutter and show only one of the three closed traffic patterns:
(Screenshot:  portrait, CloudAhoy Standard)

After tapping the selected traffic pattern in the Segment Manger, the left panel auto-closes:

Select any display mode for each of the two views: tap to select between 2D, 3D, HUD and Info. Tap the Options button to further select overlays including aviation charts and wind vectors.

Sometimes you may want to display one view on the entire screen. If two views are displayed, close one of them and the remaining view will grow to fill the screen:
(Screenshot: CloudAhoy Pro, debriefing an X-Plane sim fight)