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Aviator90 Episode 32
[music]
Chris Palmer: [1:00] Welcome to another episode of Aviator90 from Angle of Attack.
Here we are ready for another cross country flight. So, today we are going to go from
Whiskey November 10 in Washington near Mount St. Helens, which is a famous
volcano, to 21W near Mount Rainier in Washington as well. This flight will take us over
some beautiful mountain terrain and it should last about half hour. [1:23] So, we also will
be flying in an aircraft which is the Aerosoft Beaver that is very high powered to take us
over the varying terrain today. And in additional, also introduce you to the GPS. I think
you are going to have a blast with this episode because the terrain is beautiful and flying
with the GPS is quite easy and fun.
[1:48] So, as I mentioned before, our route is going to take us from Whiskey November
10 to 21W. We'll be going pretty much direct but we'll also be flying at 7,500 feet in a
mountainous terrain so we may have to make some deviations here and there for terrain
and other things. So, let's jump right into the cockpit and get to it.
[2:18] All right, so here we are and the first thing we are going to do is just get ready to
start up the aircraft. We want to turn in the alternator and the battery. Also the beacon
light and the nav lights and center fuel is on. We want both magnetos on and then we will
check the power, make sure that our mixture is all the way rich and then we'll crack the
throttle for the start.
[2:46] I'm going back to the switches panel and find the starter all the way in the left and
we'll start the engine. And there we go, a good start and it's nice and smooth so we are
good there. Now, I'm just going to check the flight controls here really quick and make
sure we have full range in motion in every direction. I'll also check the rudder pedals
here.
[3:22] It's always part of the pre-flight. I want to make sure there aren't any hang ups.
And then we will run through some other items. Let's put our flaps to takeoff before we
taxi down the runway. And then I'm going to turn my radios on, which is the avionics
master switch. So that turns the radios and the avionics on.
[3:53] And then what we'll do is we will just check the engine instruments. We are going
to rev up to 2,000 rpm. Actually about 1,500 rpm and then we will check our instruments
here.
[4:19] We cycle the prop a couple of times, get some oil going through that and we won't
explain that for now but it is good to set that up before the flight to make sure that
everything is flowing smoothly. And now we can check the GPS. So, what we are
basically going to do is to a direct two way point which is right here so we can click on
that.

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[4:51] Now, we then use the cursor area to move between fields. So, press on the right
one will go to the next field and we want to go to two and then you press down which
takes you to the next area one and W. And W is behind where the cursor was so there it is
there. You see 21W and we just hit enter three times so we activated it and now it's ready
to go. We see that it is in the right direction.
[5:16] It is the correct airport. Everything looks good there and it's all set. And you can
zoom out. You can hit the terrain key to show you the terrain in the area and then you can
zoom that to kind of see what we are going to be dealing. So, you see our flight path
takes us pass Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier which is the darker brown areas on the
map along our flight.
[5:59] That keeps things pretty simple. Now, you can enter an entire flight plan into the
GPS but today we are just going to make it simple and just do a direct two way point
from our current position which is Whiskey November 10 and that keeps things simple
there. So, I'm going to turn on the landing and strobe lights now because I'm about to turn
out on to the runway. So the strobe lights will remain on the entire time and landing lights
will be turned off soon after takeoff.
[6:18] All right, so let's power up here, ready to go. Push the power a little bit and we are
going to be taking off pretty much in the direction we are going now but we need to gain
some runway back here so turn right and come over here. Then we will taxi down here.
[6:40] It's not going to take a lot of runway to get off with this aircraft. It's very high
powered. It's made for this type of flying at these odd airports. It's also got the Tundra
tires on today, which make it even simpler. Something to look up here so you can see the
dash. We'll just continue to taxi on down.
[7:03] And the tail in aircraft act a little differently, you have to add a bit of power in the
turn in order to get the tail to whip around, which seems to work quite well in flight
simulators.
[7:24] So, we are going to get down to the end here or we see the little grass growing and
then we'll flip around in the lineup. We spent too long in the runway. We are just going to
power up and be out of here. It should be a really quick take off so you are not going to
hear the normal call outs. We've already done somewhat of a run up.
[8:07] And everything is good to go. So let's continue to whip this around and we'll face
into the wind here and then we will power up for takeoff. All right, all set up, we're lined
up. Let me get back into my normal view here so I can see my instruments and here we
go. I'm going to hold the brakes while I power up, smoothly advancing power, checking
engine instruments. Everything looks good and we can release when ready. So here we
go with the Tundra Wheels aircraft.
[8:27] We'll nose over just a little bit. And there we go, we're good. I already have my
RSP, so I can lift off now and we are in the air. So, during this initial climb, because we
have two notches of flaps, I'm going to make sure that I get about 300 to 500 feet of

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altitude and then I can pull up that first notch of flaps. And then we will use the climb
flaps for just a little bit.
[8:48] And then we will transition to the cruise climb, which is the clean configuration,
so no flaps. And then we can just slowly climb. But we'll slowly climb as far as vertical
speed, but we will be going much faster across the ground, which helps out quite a bit.
[9:07] So, you can see the GPS. And basically what we're going to be doing is just follow
the magenta line - magenta, purple, pink, whatever you want to call it. Technically it's
called the magenta line. And we will follow that line to our destination. And it's really
that simple.
[9:29] Now, if we wanted to, this aircraft is actually capable of tracking that course with
the autopilot, But I think that's a bit too complex to get into now. And besides that, we
don't want you guys to become button pushers. We want you guys to learn how to control
the aircraft, hand flown, on flights like this.
[10:07] It's very important to get that feel for your machine. And that will serve you well
in the future. And say that your autopilot went out. You really don't have that option of
having it there all the time; so you're going to need to know how to fly in those types of
situations. Not only that, it's a good skill to have, anyway, just in case something else
goes wrong and you have to disengage and take over yourself. Not every aircraft, and
very few aircraft for that matter, will land themselves. And only the most complex
airlines will actually land themselves.
[10:27] So, at least to some extent, you'll be hand flying the aircraft every flight. So, you
may as well get used to it. And by doing that, you can learn the intricacies of how the
aircraft acts in certain situations and what the autopilot would actually do if it was in
control.
[10:54] Now, I believe there is also a lot to learn from the autopilot itself, meaning that
you can watch how the autopilot controls the aircraft and you can then mimic that in your
own flight experience and when you're hand flying. So, the autopilot can actually teach
us quite a bit about how to control the aircraft, how to make small corrections here and
there, how to make big corrections smoothly and many other different things.
[11:29] So, just keep that in mind as well. The autopilot isn't your enemy. It's there
almost as a copilot. And in those situations where you have a lot going on and things are
quite hectic, say, you're in instrument conditions. And you need a little bit of extra help,
say you're a single pilot - well, you almost always are within Flight Simulator. Then the
autopilot can, like I said, be a copilot for you, which is extremely helpful in those
stressful situations.
[11:43] And that's not to say that you stop watching your aircraft. It just says that it gives
you a little bit more assistance to where you can focus on different things.
[12:30] So we're just continuing the climb here. Again, we are climbing to 7,500 feet.
And right now, we are just passing through 4,000 feet, as you can see on the altimeter,

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just now passing through 4,000. And I'm just going to the left side of Mt. St. Helen's here,
which is pretty much where our route takes us anyway. And we will enjoy the beautiful
scenery as we do that.
[13:00] I think the GPS is great for this get-in-and-go mentality that we have talked about
quite a bit. It just allows you to dial in the correct airport or the correct flight plan and
then enjoy the scenery and have fun with your surroundings. And it works out pretty
well.
[13:23] So, I like the GPS. I'm a huge proponent of the technology. I think it's very
reliable. And it's making the precision of navigation even greater than it ever has been.
It's like having a precision approach anywhere in the sky, because it has that sort of
accuracy to it.
[13:52] And not all GPS are created equal. So, some are more accurate than others. Some
are approved for IFR and some aren't. For example, if you have a wristwatch GPS, it's not
going to be as powerful as one that is certified for flight.
[14:17] So, the ones that are certified for flight have a lot more redundancy and they
allow the pilot a certain amount of work. They allow the system a certain amount of
error. But they have that redundancy there, and so those errors just don't show up as
often. And GPS aren't perfect, just like any other navigational instrument. But they are
highly reliable.
[14:32] All right, so there's a cloud here that formed and we're just going to try to steer
around it a little bit. Those types of clouds can be pretty dangerous. It's what's called
virga.
[14:51] And you can get a lot of turbulence that can really, not only hurt your head
because you'll end up hitting the ceiling and that's with a seat belt on. And I'm not even
kidding. You can have your shoulder harness and seat belt on and you can get such a
huge bump that you can hit your head on the ceiling.
[15:15] So, we just avoid virga all together. It usually shows up around thunderstorms
and precipitation. But it can also show up in other situations. So, we just avoid it. We're
just going to come around here. It could also be just rain or snow or something else. But
you don't really know that. And so you just err on the side of caution, make sure you're
set.
[15:56] So, another thing I just did, was I pulled the mixture to a leaner area, which
means that, because we're climbing in altitude we need to lean the mixture. And so I've
done that. Basically what you do is you pull out that mixture until you hear an increase in
RPM. And as soon as you start hearing a decrease or a choking of the engine, then you
know you need to add just a little bit more of the mixture. A little bit more fuel and you'll
be good to go there, on your mixture.
[16:18] And that's very general terms. When you get into higher performance aircraft like
this one, for example, I'm sure that there's a much more technical explanation for that

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particular leaning procedure. But that one will do just fine. It will keep your engine
temperatures good. And you will be getting better fuel economy that you were prior to
doing that.
[16:31] So, keep in mind that as you climb, you're going to need to lean the aircraft. And
as you descend you're going to need to increase the mixture or adding more fuel.
[17:09] Awesome scenery around here, just incredible. So I'm really not sure if this an
actual volcano or if it's just an inactive volcano. But I think they would still consider it an
active because it erupted in the '90s or the '80s or something. So it was a pretty big event.
I can imagine how scary that would have been, living in that area.
[17:33] All right. So now we are coming up on 7,500 feet. And as always we are going to
level out the aircraft, pull back the power for a better cruise setting. And then we will
continually trim the aircraft as we accelerate.
[17:50] Now today we're actually going to stay pretty much full power. I want to get this
flight done rather quickly. There's no sense to get better fuel economy, when we have
plenty of fuel and everyone's time is precious. So we don't want to drag out the video.
[18:15] And that's basically it for this portion of the flight. So what I'm going to do from
here, is I'm going to fast forward quite a bit once we get to Mount Rainier. And then I'll
take over from there because we'll be about 10 minutes away.
[18:31] But just follow the track on the GPS and monitor terrain. You'll see me swerving
here and there to avoid terrain. You'll see me making altitude adjustments and other
things, as this video accelerates.
[18:49] But you're in control. You've got plenty of terrain clearance here. And just have
fun with it. Follow that GPS track and I will fast forward this to save some time and I'll
see you guys in a few minutes here.
[silence]
[20:21] All right. So you can see that we are now at Mount Rainier. And instead of
running straight into the mountain at our altitude, I'm actually going to turn a little bit
here, if you guys don't mind. And we'll just wrap around the east side of the mountain
here and set up for our descent into Ranger Creek.
[20:47] And all the while, I'm just going to enjoy the scenery. Quite awesome.
[21:06] Now it's safe to say that mountain flying isn't exactly this simple. It can be a
situation or a particular flight situation where you can potentially get yourself in a lot of
trouble.
[21:22] So there's a lot more rules to this mountain flying thing, than just what we're
doing today. Because updrafts and downdrafts can be pretty scary in the mountains, and
we've got to be diligent in making sure that we aren't putting ourselves in a situation we
can't get out of.

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[21:40] And if we do get in a situation, there are specific rules and things we can do to
get out of it. But unless you're trained and you know how to do that, then it's going to be
difficult and you will probably never come back.
[22:02] So maybe we'll do another episode on mountain flying. But because we're safe in
what we're doing today and this kind of stuff isn't necessarily modeled within flight
simulator anyway. Then we are going to just kind of go with it and not do any of that
stuff.
[22:12] So, basically, the fact that the winds are pretty light and variable today, you
wouldn't have to worry about a lot of those winds, anyway.
[22:25] That's a pretty sweeping statement so, that isn't how it always is. It can be
perfectly calm where you are 20 miles away. And then once you get in the mountains, it
can be quite intense.
[22:52] So, just watch out and be careful and know your surroundings and, you know.
The way that you tell what the aircraft is doing within flight simulator is you just watch
the aircraft, to see how much it's buffeting and how much turbulence there is. What the
vertical speed indicator is doing, because you can get yourself in a lot of trouble really
quick when you start to lose a ton of altitude with a downdraft. So keep that in mind.
[23:08] All right, so on the other side of here, we're only a few minutes away from
Ranger Creek. That is cool. Excuse me for being interrupted here. That just looks
awesome.
[23:24] All right, so like I was saying, we're a few minutes away from Ranger Creek.
And it's down in this valley right in front of us. So what we're going to do is we're going
to start descending towards that area and we'll get nice and set up.
[23:44] This whole thing is going to go really quickly. We're not doing a pattern. We're
going to be flying straight into the airport. And that will keep us nice and honest here.
And it's all going to happen really quickly. I'll talk you though exactly what I'm doing,
during the process. And so you can set up for things yourself and know how to do it.
[24:01] So I nosed over and didn't pull out the power. And I was getting kind of close to
red line. So what I'm going to do now is pull out some power as we descend, to make
sure that we are within a safe air speed as we descend along the creek here.
[24:27] And this is mountain flying at its best. I'm going to pull back a little more as the
powers up and just let the speed settle down.
[25:08] It's a pretty high altitude at this airport. It's 2,500 feet which is quite a climb. But,
you know, right now we, it looks like we're at 6,500. I'm not reading that correctly, 5,400.
So we're about 3,000 feet from the airport and that's not bad. We're at a good descent.
The creek bottom is pretty close here. So, we're going to stay on this current path. It looks
like we're gliding down nicely here.

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[25:20] And the nice thing about this aircraft, it's made for situations like this. So, you
know, say we spotted the airport right away. It was only several miles away, say right in
the bend in the creek right there.
[25:36] You could really pull out the power and start to get the flaps down. We could
make that landing. It's made to get in situations like that, where you really have to slow
the aircraft down quickly, dump the flaps and be landing with only, within only a few
seconds.
[26:09] All right, so I'm going to look for the airport here because I know it's up there
somewhere. And I think I see it. Just straight ahead on the right side of that ridge, at the
creek bottom. I can see a strip there. There's a little void in the trees. So that is where it is,
looks promising. And you can also look at your GPS, if you need to, at this point. But I
pretty much know we're set. So, we won't have to worry about that.
[26:34] All right. Now, I'm going to pull back the power, all the way, because we need to
get within the safe area for the flaps. So I'm really going to pull out the power here. That
will allow us to slow down quickly. And then I'm going to turn along this other ridge.
[27:04] All right, you can see it better now. The strip is off to our left. And I'm going to
set up for somewhat of a final landing leg here. And I'm going to put in some flaps. Start
to get slowed down. We're in this safe flap operating range. And now we're just watching
our airspeed. We're quite high right now but we're going to be able to adjust for that. This
aircraft, especially at fill flaps which I actually just put in, can really descend quite
quickly. So you can see that.
[27:26] And I am at idle power, full flaps. And we're actually still degrading too much in
our air speed. So unless I nose over or add power, we'd probably stall out. So let me add
some power here, as we come down and set up for this landing.
[27:40] And this is, this is more of a short field landing because this isn't asphalt runway.
So we don't have to worry about the sod field too much. But it's in bad condition and we
do have tundra tires so we're going to be OK.
[28:12] All right, so now we're watching our air speed. And just be very commanding
with your power in this bush flying situation. So let's bring it down, right on the edge of
the runway here. Use rudder at this last second to make sure you get lined up. Pull power
when needed and then just settle in. There we go. We're down. A little hard but, we're
down, we're safe, no one's hurt. And we have plenty of runway to spare.
[28:25] And you're not going to have a lot of that relaxed feeling at other mountain
airports. You may have a 1,200-foot runway, for example. And you don't have time to
mess around. You've got to get down.
[28:37] So, it's nice to practice that and just always have that mentality. And then when it
counts later, you can be confident that you can get in that situation and perform correctly.

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[28:50] So let's bring the flaps up. We no longer need those. And then we will continue
down here and park. Should be pretty simple.
[29:24] So, good job on this flight. I really, I love the GPS direct stuff. It works really
well. It keeps thing simple. It's a reliable source of navigation. And it allows us to enjoy
the scenery and have a confident co pilot, if you will, in the cockpit. And that helps out
quite a bit. We'll be using GPS a little more later. I'm not sure how much. We need to
touch on VOR stuff and, but we have plenty, plenty of room to do this more.
[30:10] So let's come up here. And I will add more power to whip around and just park
right next to this cub. We can just pull the mixture, shut down the engine. And that does
it. We cheated death once again. So let's get down to the panel here. I'm going to turn off
the lights, beacon, nav, strobe, landing light and also the avionics master. And turn the
battery and alternator off, and the magnetos to off. And that does it folks.
[30:34] So thank you for joining me on this episode of Aviator90. Next time we'll be
doing another cross country flight. Again, I'm not sure exactly what that's going to be.
But we'll come up with something cool, something pretty like today's flight. And we will
have a good time no matter what it is. And we'll see you next time. Until then, throttle on.
Transcription by CastingWords