East Carolina Aviators

An FAA/industry working group has recently drafted new Airman Certification Standards (ACS) documents that aim to provide a more integrated and systematic approach to airman certification testing and training.

These documents specifically address knowledge and flight proficiency requirements for the private pilot certificate and instrument rating. They also support the FAA’s goal of reducing fatal general aviation accidents by incorporating task-specific risk management considerations with the flying skills outlined in existing practical test standards.

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The May/June 2013 issue of FAA Safety Briefing focuses on environmental advances in general aviation. Articles explore ways we can “fly green” through new technology and by following environmentally sound practices.

Among the feature articles in this issue include:

• how to be a noise-friendly neighbor (page 10)
• the future of electric aircraft (page 18)
• and a look at FAA’s avgas initiative (page 13)

The issue’s Checklist (page 17) and Vertically Speaking (page 30) departments outline some simple ways pilots can fly more environmentally friendly, while Nuts, Bolts, and Electrons (page 26) looks at workplace safety practices.

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With the closure of around 149 control towers around the United States, it isn’t a bad idea to review and refresh your knowledge about operations in a non-towered airport.

PilotWorkshop.com put together three short videos, featuring Bob Martens, with the objective of quickly reviewing some of the procedures pilots should pay attention to.

The 29 minutes of videos cover the following topics:

• Non-towered Airport Challenges;
• Non-towered Airports: Safe Approach; and
• Non-towered Airports: Traffic Patterns.

You may watch the videos by visiting the following URL: http://pilotworkshop.com/nta/.

 

Air traffic controller James Price has spent the past decade building a full-sized Boeing 737 flight simulator in his garage.

“My Flight Deck is actually a real B737-100 shell cut just aft of the cockpit door. I have cut, stripped, cleaned, and repainted the entire section,” says James on his website at www.737simguy.com.

The website, maintained by James, is going through a redesign process, but visitors can find a link that redirects to the “old” pages containing information about the simulator.

The crew from Tested.com visited James and had the opportunity to see and experience the simulator first-hand.

You can watch the interview videos below.

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Today’s Tales of a Pilot is written by Israel Mueller, a student pilot and creator of East Carolina Aviators. Israel is currently working on his Private Pilot license, flying a Diamond DA40 at KPGV (Greenville, NC). Check out his story and the video below.

I think the story I’m submitting today is a good example to show that everybody makes mistakes. It’s an eye-opener for both learners and experienced pilots.

I’m a student pilot and, as “expected”, I find myself doing the dumbest mistakes! My instructor does a great job of nicely pointing them out and correcting me, by the way. Sometimes I don’t really notice them until I review my flying videos at home – they are a fantastic learning tool to me.

Today I went to KPGV and my instructor and I stayed around the pattern doing some touch-and-go training. The winds were calm, visibility and ceiling were great. A really good day to fly! Although the winds were calm and any runway could be used, most aircraft were using runway 20 for take-off and landing. And that’s what we were doing as well.

Halfway through my training, while I was on downwind, the instructor pulled the power to simulate an engine failure. I proceeded to turn left to attempt landing on runway 20. My turn ended up being a little too steep, but it looks like I would have made it safely to the ground. Instead of touching down, we did a go around.

At this point, we were aware of an aircraft approaching the airport to land. The pilot of the aircraft announced a straight-in approach to runway 20. I announced my upwind position on runway 20 and repeated my intentions on crosswind.

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Our first “Tales of a Pilot” story was submitted by one of the members and supporters of East Carolina Aviators, Taft Stallings (@ecucfi). Below is Taft’s recount of his adventure flying cross-country from coast to coast, along with some pictures he sent us.

In November, 2011, I had the great opportunity to fly a 4-place single-engine aircraft (for the second time) from coast to coast. The first time crossing the country was just after I had earned my instrument rating. This was in a C172XP, from KPGV (Greenville, NC) to Palm Springs, CA, round trip… what an adventure and learning experience!

The 2011 trip was also an adventure and learning experience, of course! I instructed a newly Diamond DA-40XLS aircraft owner who was a very low flight time pilot. He had taken only one flight lesson,  from KPGV to KFFA (Kill Devil Hills, NC). After that, over the course of five days, we went on a real cross-country adventure.

We followed the southern US coast from KFFA all the way to San Diego, CA before our final destination, the owner’s home base in Scottsdale, AZ. We intentionally landed at approximately thirty airports as we flew from North Carolina (due to time, we overflew several planned airports) down the coast to Florida, crossed the state to the gulf coast and followed the gulf coast to Texas.

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