a more perfect day yesterday. It seems that with the furnace coming
on, the cold feeling of winter sets in and it's so nice to get a
glorious warm day like yesterday....kind of like a little autumn
bonus! I got up and did a little writing to document the week at
work. It's so up and down. The new "Guy" is great and the Operations
team is actually getting things done that I need to do my job (first
time ever) so that's good. But there was a weird vibe around
potential layoffs. We had an emergency meeting on Friday where Marcus
said we had decided to "reset" and design a new solution the "right"
way and go for more investment money. I think that's a good approach
but am concerned that they are very naive when it comes to knowing
that it will cost to actually do the solution the right way. The good
thing is that I should be part of the new design so I can help
engineer away from all the pain we currently experience. So,
cautiously optimistic...again. The hard part of this job is that it
never fails and never succeeds....kind of luke-warm and sometimes, I
just want to spew!
So when the emergency meeting was called, I was not there as I had
just finished an awesome flight from Bountiful to Provo in the Mooney!
Claus called on Thursday to say that the new transponder was in and
certified and the plane was ready to go. I picked him up at 6:30 and
it was still dark with the sliver of the moon in the east. I did the
pre-flight while he did a little work in the shop and we were soon
rolling north on runway 34. The plane leaped into the air and we did
a couple of S-turns as we climbed to 6000 feet and went through the
radio drill. He had asked me if I wanted to avoid Salt Lake Air
Traffic Control and go up and around or transition through class B air
space (B stands for Big airplanes!). "Transition through," I said,
"so I can refresh how it's done." "Good answer!" he said.
Radio management is intense!!! So, at Bountiful Skypark, there is no
tower and everyone just announces their own position on CTAF (common
traffic advisory frequency) of 122.8. Before entering class B
airspace around Salt Lake International, you have to get permission
from Salt Lake tower. But before you can ask permission, you have to
listen to ATIS (Automatic terminal information service) for weather
and surface conditions. Each ATIS announcement has a letter
associated so that when you talk to the tower, you can say you have
"information Golf" or the report associated with the letter G so they
know you have the right weather info.
So ATIS for Salt Lake is 124.75. We listen that that and then call
the control tower to request permission to enter class B airspace
(that's about at the refinery and Bountiful hills). Salt Lake is big
enough that there is a frequency for "approach" and another for
"departure". So we switched to 118.3 and say, "Salt Lake approach,
this is Mooney Niner-Niner-Echo-Whisky (99EW) at 6000 feet over
Bountiful requesting VFR transition to Provo with information Golf."
VFR stands for visual flight rules which means that you will fly
through the area and you can fly watching for other planes, without
the tower telling you exactly where to go.
The tower comes back and says, "Mooney Niner-niner-echo-whisky, squawk
0328 and ident." Here's where the new transponder comes in handy. It
is a box that's sending out a radio signal with the altitude of the
plane from the altimeter included in the transmission. That way, the
tower can see you and your altitude on their radar. So, we switch
over from 1200 (the standard transponder frequency) to 0328 and press
the "ident" button that causes a little blip to show brighter on the
radar for a second so they know it's us. You then repeat back, "M99EW
squawk 0328 ident." They say, "Identified. Permission to enter B
airspace. Maintain VFR. Transition to Provo along I-15 route."
About then, I look down to see us flying over the state capitol and
then Temple Square and the rest of the city. It's only a few seconds
and we are at 2100 South where we get handed over to Departure which
means we switch to another frequency where we again identify and
confirm our position and route. Claus says, "Do you want to go around
the point of the mountain or over Corner Canyon above Draper?" "Do we
have to coordinate the route with the tower?" I ask. "No. You're VFR.
You just need to check out as you leave B airspace." So we head for
the pass and Corner Canyon and start to gain altitude to get to 7500
feet. About then, the morning sun comes up just to the side of Lone
Peak with a blast of brilliant light. Claus is checking the VORs
(other expensive instruments that don't seem to work) and we almost
miss checking out of B space but I remind him and we switch the
transponder back to 1200.
Then, it's time to contact Provo. Provo has a new control tower since
I flew there last (in 2002!). So we contact Provo tower on frequency
125.3, announce our altitude and location and intention to land at
Provo. It is completely clear and still and the only other plane in
the sky is a Katana on base approach way ahead of us. Provo tower
says, "Straight in approach for runway 13" so we head out over the
lake and start dropping altitude on a long straight shot for the
runway heading to the south.
The Mooney is a "slippery" plane as John, the guy that's going to
continue my training, says. In order to get it down in altitude and
also down in speed, you have to "dirty up" the plane. (We had tuned
it for efficient flight and were flying at about 170 miles per hour).
The easiest way to dirty the plane is to put down the landing gear
which immediately induces drag. Then at 100 mph, I pumped in the
flaps which also slowed us to a final approach speed of 90 (the other
planes I'm used to flying had approach speeds of 60-65!). As we came
in, the runway was newly paved and painted and very wide compared to
Bountiful. We settled in at just a few inches above the ground and I
let it float and float in ground effect. This is going to be a really
smooth landing I thought. I nudged it on to the ground and suddenly
it wanted to fly again! Those bouncy new rubber pucks in the landing
gear. Claus told me to pull way back which stalled it down but again,
it wasn't "one of my better landings!" as some of us in the family are
heard to say.
Provo also has Ground Control now so as we taxied off the runway, we
stopped on the line and switched frequencies one more time to 119.4
and identified. Kind of funny because there isn't that many places to
go once you're on the ground so the controller (which sounded
strangely similar to the tower guy) just said taxi ahead to the
Millionaire terminal. We taxied over to one of the open tie downs and
shut it down...successfully out of the shop finally and ready to fly
after just about 22 months!
Saturday, I was in agony. It was another perfect day to fly but John
was tied up so I went out and just went through the box of parts to
see what was in it. I found an old GPS that had been put in the plane
in 1993! What a dinosaur as it just has a digital line of text
printing out coordinates! I started the plane, taxied it over to a run
up area and went through the drill and then back to the tie downs. It
was still fun. Anyway, looking forward to getting more time at the
controls and hopefully, will bring it to an airport near you in the
not too distant future!
The rest of the day was mowing lawn, disposing of flowers and a
beautiful bike ride (after I fixed the chain on my mountain bike) and
then a great dinner with Ben at the Bangkok Grill. He was just coming
back from Green River where he has been assembling and testing one of
his design projects. Great to catch up with him!
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