Automatic Dependent Surveillence Broadcast (ADSB) Out - It's Coming!

The FAA has mandated that as of January 1, 2020 all aircraft will need to be equipped with ADS-b Out capability in order to fly in most airspace where a transponder is needed.  While this mandate will only apply to aircraft operated within the United States, I believe that we will see this technology come to Canada as well due to the sheer usefulness of the technology.  Many pilots do not understand or have never heard of this technology so I wanted to assemble some information for our pilots.

In its most basic structure, ADS-b replaces ground based radar systems.  Currently, a ground based radar system scans the sky looking for objects (like our Cherokee) to reflect the beam back to the station.  Using this reflected beam and your transponder,  very accurate information can be found regarding your poisiton, altitude and direction.  Now, we have all been in a situation where ATC cannot find us for flight following when leaving Collingwood Airport until about 20 miles south of the airport and up at 3000'.  ADS-b seeks to change all of that (if it were in Canada!).  ADS-b Out, effectively reverses the process of determining aircraft position, altitude and direction to the aircraft and eliminates, that's right, eliminates the need for ground based radar.  The aircraft will need to be equipped with an ADS-b Out unit with WAAS GPS which will broadcoast the information on a specific radio frequency: 1090Mz.  Most general aviation owners will be upset about the cost of this upgrade, about $3,000-$5,000 today, but the added benefits can be huge.  In addition to improved coverage for flight following, ADS-b comes in 2 flavours, IN and OUT.  ADS-b IN is where this technology really shines.

ADS-b IN

With all of the aircraft sending there information about poisition, altitude and direction to a ground based receiving station, there is a huge amount of information available regarding the traffic in the sky in any area.  Presently, with radar, a person needs to relay the information about conflicting traffic to airplanes in flight following in general aviation anyway.  Not so with ADS-b.  The ground station will actually continuosly transmit all of that information back into the sky for airpolanes to RECIEVE.  If you aircraft is equipped with ADS-b IN as well as OUT, you will receive information about all of the aircraft in your general area.  It will then display this information on the screen of your choice providing the pilot with an extremely accurate and real-time picture of the sky around your aircraft.   It will also be able to receive real-time weather and NOTAMS.  Very powerful stuff. 

Check out these links for more information:

Introduction to ADS-b Out

A pilot's Guide to ADS-b Out - VIDEO

FTM Exercise 13: Spins

I have been fast and furious with my lessons and with the videos so it has been hard to keep up with the blog.  First off, here is the video of the lesson:


For those that do not know what a spin is, it is a rolling tendency of the airplane if a stall is aggravated by yaw.  That is, the tail slides out kind of like a car spinning on ice but you are also falling to the ground.  If you watch my video on stalling here, you will notice that the recovery process involves rolling the airplane without the use of aileron (turning the yoke).  If you were to try to recovery from a wing drop stall, you could turn a simple stall into a spin which is far more hazardous.  Here is a video of what it looks like from outside the plane:


Recovering from a spin is a relatively easy process if you recognize that you are in a spin.  You simply, set your throttle to idle, neutralize ailerons (turn yoke to centre), apply opposite rudder to the direction you are spinning, slowly pitch the nose up to stop the dive and finally add power back to climb.

In the beginning, I struggled with the natural instinct to pull back on the yoke.  When all you can see is the ground, it is amazing how strong the instinct is to pull back.  This is catastrophic.  You can see the instructor is very quick and consistently trying to break this reaction from me.  The g-force that a strong pull back induces can make the blood flow out of your head and make you loose consciousness at the very moment all your abilities and concentration are needed.  Also, since your airspeed can be substantial, it is possible to cause structural damage.  It took a few tries, but I did learn to fight the urge.

It is definitely a good feeling to know that I have the skill needed to deal which such an emergency.  I definitely think that I will try to take a lesson on spins and other emergency recoveries every now and then after I get my license.  Since it is not something I plan to experience in normal flying, I think that the skill could get rusty.

I did start to feel a bit nauseous towards the end, partly because we had flown the stalls lesson 2 hours before and we did a good number of back to back spins.  We called it a day and the instructor thought that I had the technique to recover properly.

Ah, the memories...

All of this flight training has brought back the memory of favourite aviation scenes from Iron Eagle.  Doug races his nemesis Knotcher, but it is motorbike against airplane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgor8hf--TM

FTM Exercise 12: Stalls

Check out the video!


So after several day of rain, we were finally able to get a day of flying in and continue the journey.

For this lesson, we are going to practice stalls and stall recovery.  For those that do not know, a stall occurs when the angle of attack (the angle that the wing makes to the relative airflow) reaches a certain point and the wing looses lift.  It is an important skill to learn as stalls kill many pilots each year.

We also used this lesson to build my skill at entering slow flight as we rushed it a bit in the last lesson since we were burning daylight.  Since the winds were fairly high, the instructor was looking forward to trying to achieve a negative ground speed...and we came oh so close!  A little bit of fun to start the lesson.

The instructor then demonstrated a few different types of stall and I was able to practice many different recoveries.  I really thought, as did my FI, that my skill improved with each recovery.  I definitely felt that I did a good job on this lesson.

FTM Exercise 11: Slow Flight

After learning how to set up the airplane for Endurance Flight as described in my last post, it is now time to learn how to fly slower!  That is, to fly the airplane right on the edge of stalling.  Really, slow flight is the range of speed from stall up to the endurance speed.  Check out the video!


Why would you want to fly so slow?  Mostly importantly, during take-off and landing.

The idea was to establish straight and level flight at cruise speed, 105kts.  After doing so, I was instructed to reduce the throttle to idle and raise the nose progressively, as the plane slowed, to maintain straight and level flight.  One trick the FI showed me was that as soon as I reduced the throttle, to roll the trim wheel to the limit for a nose up attitude.  This establishes a relatively steep nose up attitude.  As the airspeed bleeds off, the stall horn faintly starts to sound.  As soon as you hear the faintest sound, apply throttle all the way full.  Then, it is just a matter of adjusting the throttle to maintain altitude.

While we were doing this exercise, there was a lot going on.  For the first time, I found it took a lot of concentration.  Once I watched the FI demonstrate it and then work through establishing it myself a couple of times, I started to get the hang of it.

One of the major points of this flight, other than learning how to establish yourself in stable slow flight, is to experience the substantial reduction in aileron sensitivity.  Normally, when flying in cruise the ailerons are very responsive.  The slightest rotation of the yoke translates into a a bank of the airplane.  In slow flight, the wings are inclined so much, very near stall, that the airflow over the wings is very turbulent and the so the ailerons have very reduced sensitivity.   The yoke feels loose and it takes large rotations to effect a bank.  The rudder and elevator controls remain about the same since they are in the slipstream of the propeller blasting fast moving air along their surfaces.  This is great training to get a feel for this at such a high altitude so that when landing (especially) you are ready for the 'sloppiness' of the ailerons.

We started this flight pretty late and so we flew, excuse the pun, through it.  We landed just as the sun was setting. 

Ground School

Since I am getting through my flight training relatively quickly, I figure it is time to start ground school.

My flight school does not currently have a formal ground instruction program.  They recommend an online program.  I decided on www.pilottraining.ca.  They have ground school options for many different kinds of licenses.  The private pilot course is $250 CAD + tax and includes PSTAR and Radio Operator Certificate preparation.  You get online access for 270 days. 

There are reading assignments, presentations and videos.  Each section has a quiz which tracks your understanding and grades you through the course.  Since the TC requirements indicate 40 hours of ground school, I am surprised that they do not REQUIRE you to spend 40 hours minimum.  Anyone who has a boater license might know what I mean.  Each reading section has a timer and you are not allowed to move on until the timer reaches zero.  Major annoying if you learn quickly, but there are time requirements.  the PPL course does not have something similar.  From what I gather, if you have the knowledge, you can do all the quizzes and watch all the videos and you are good to go. 

I am just waiting for my copy of From the Ground Up (THE book for PPL ground school) from my flight school and I will start making my way through the material.

FTM Exercise 10: Flight for Range and Endurance

I seem to be motoring thru flight training at a pretty good pace.  I only did one flight today (I normally try for two): Flight for Range and Endurance.

We started off as usual with a short ground brief to make sure that I read the FTM section and that I have some understanding of what we would be practicing.  It seemed pretty straight forward.

The purpose of the exercise is to set up the airplane for to fly for its' maximum distance given the amount of the fuel it has on board.  This is Flight for RANGE (FFR).  One important point is that this does not necessarily mean that you will be airborne for the longest time, just that you will fly the farthest in this configuration.  It is also important to note that it does not mean that you will have the fastest ground speed.  Setting up the airplane for the maximum time in the air is called Flight for ENDURANCE (FFE).  FFE does not maximize ground speed nor fuel efficiency, just time aloft.  Think glider...with an engine providing minimal power.


As explained to me, it is important to know how and when to use each of these types of configuration.  For example, you would want to set up the airplane for maximum range (FFR) when your are on a long distance flight and you want to minimize the number of fueling stops.  Fueling takes a lot of time especially when the airport is busy.  You might even have to hold or divert depending on circumstances at that airport you planned to stop at.  Landings and take-offs also put you in slow flight near the ground which is a very undesirable state of flight (though safe when trained as I will find out!).

Now we all know that fuel is very expensive, so when do we ever want to fly in a less than ideal state of fuel efficiency such as FFE?  Say for example, you are approaching an airport on you cross country trip that you intend to make a fuel stop at.  You arrive in the area with about an hour of fuel in reserve as planned.  As you contact ATC to get clearance to the circuit for landing, they put you in a hold for some reason (high traffic, VIPs, deer on the runway, an accident on runway, whatever).  As a pilot, you have a decision to make: hold or divert.  ATC will not make that decision for you.  If it is a matter of traffic, you probably can make a pretty good estimation of the time needed to fit you in.  Sometimes it is not so clear.  The problem becomes critical if you do not have enough fuel to make it to the next airport or if you do and that airport is closed due to weather.  This is when FFE becomes your configuration of choice.  This flight configuration maximizes the amount of time you can remain in the air for the fuel you have on board.  FFE is also the slowest you can fly the airplane before you enter SLOW FLIGHT (which I will discuss in another post).

So how do you achieve them?  That was the point of the lesson today.  Sometimes, an airplane will have a table, but the point today was to learn how to figure it out by experiment in flight.

We took off an headed out to the practice area at 3,500.  We accelerated up to cruise at 105 MPH at 2,300 RPM.  The rule of thumb is that for each reduction of 100 RPM, we should see a drop of 5 MPH of airspeed while holding altitude.  We keep dropping the RPM by 100 increments until we see a drop in airspeed larger than the 5 MPH linear drop.  In our case this was about 1,800 RPM.  The speed dropped about 8-10 MPH.  We note that RPM and speed on our kneeboard and put the RPM back up to 2,300 and accelerate back up near cruise and then reduce RPM back to the last RPM that gave us the steady linear 5 MPH to 100 RPM drop and add 100 RPM.  In our case 1,900 RPM at an airspeed of 85 MPH.  We adjusted the mixture which is important for fuel economy.  This is FFR.  If we flew at 85 MPH, at 1,900 RPM at 3,500 we would fly for the maximum range that we could achieve with the fuel on board.  If we know the fuel on board and the fuel flow, we can calculate how long we could fly at that airspeed.  Using wind information, we could calculate the ground speed and we would know how far we could fly.  It is important to note that we would have to find a new FFR if we were at a different altitude because the engine runs at a different efficiency at different altitudes.  Generally, flying higher gives greater range (up to a point). 

Now to find FFE, we use a similar procedure with a subtle difference.  We again start off at level flight 3,500 MSL at cruise speed with 2,300 RPM.  We begin reducing the throttle by 100 RPM however this time, we are paying attention to altimeter.  For each RPM drop, I kept changing the attitude to maintain straight and level flight at 3,500.  The lowest RPM that I was able to maintain altitude was noted.  It was just under 1,900 RPM...1825 RPM.  A tiny difference in this plane.  We accelerated back up to cruise and reduced RPM back down to the noted 1,825 RPM and we settled in at our FFE airspeed and attitude.  This was the configuration that would allow us to remain airborne for the greatest possible TIME.

To finish off, we descended to 2,500 and found that the lower the altitude, the greater the endurance time we could achieve.  This is an important point: when FFE is required, you should fly at the lowest safe altitude possible.  Things like obstacles, buildings, ATC, traffic and turbulence should be taken into consideration.  Of all considerations, turbulence is the most problematic generally.  Because, in FFE, you are operating at the lowest power setting possible to maintain level flight, turbulence can cause changes in drag and more power will be required to maintain altitude.  This results in constant changes in throttle and higher fuel flow which will decrease your endurance.  As I learned, in this case, you should either change altitude or fly at a slightly higher power setting which will not require constant throttle changes which would be less efficient than a slightly higher constant power setting.

To be honest, I really enjoyed this lesson.  For the first time, I really felt in control and confident in flying the airplane.  Unfortunately, I accidentally set my GoPro Hero 3+ Black to still image instead of video mode so I all I found at the end of the flight was a picture of my hand pressing the record button.

Tomorrow, I have slow flight and I will be sure to get a video up on that one.