The Student Pilot Cast

Hello again SPC listeners.  Today’s episode takes us on a solo training flight on a very busy day to practice performance landings and takeoffs (shorts and softs).  We have everything from FOD to go-arounds in this episode, so enjoy.

I was nearing the end of stage III in my training, so I was almost in the home stretch.  I also explain in this episode the cramming of flights I had to do over just a few days to finish stage III.  This flight was the first of them.

As mentioned, If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.

Lastly, don’t forget to go check out the newly released (out of beta) myTransponder.  This aviation oriented social networking site is great.  To commemorate the recent full release and the fact that it is now open to anyone to join, I’ve created a group on myTransponder called, “Fans of the Student Pilot Cast.”  Please head over to the site and sign up if you haven’t already, and by all means, join my new group!

Thanks again for listening, and enjoy the episode.  Then, get out and fly!

This is part II of my night dual cross country flight.  This part takes us from Marana Airport in the far northern part of Tucson back to Chandler. 

[KAVQ-KCHD]

I mentioned the Remos GX LSA flight from Oshkosh in this episode.  Here is the link to the Airspeed episode that covered this.  My flight video from this will be coming in the future.

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter for the latest news from Student Pilot Cast land at http://twitter.com/billwil. 

If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.

I hope you all enjoy the episode.  Please send comments and feedback.

This is part II of Podapalooza 2009, the part of the show that was not broadcast live on EAA Radio.  This took place at Oshkosh, July 31st, 2009.

If you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way. 

Enjoy the episode.

Hello, everyone! Here is the first part of the audio from Podapalooza 2009 from Airventure in Oshkosh, July 31st, 2009.  This part contains the audio from the show that was broadcast live on EAA Radio.  After the radio station had to cut away, we continued Podapalooza and I will bring you that audio in the next episode.  By then, I’m hoping to have my Remos flight video completed, and I will release that shortly thereafter.  Here are a couple of photos from this years show.

Getting ready to start	The Pavillion filling up as we get started
Stu talks about his first impressions of Oshkosh	Stephen Force cracks wise, I’m sure
Jack getting a comment from Rod	Threw in a pic of the Terrafugia for good measure :)

Don’t forget, if you are thinking about learning to fly, check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide, an e-book that will answer many of your questions beforehand, and do it in an entertaining way.  Freddy has included many stories from his over 9000 hours of dual given time that help you learn what to expect and how to make decisions as you start your training, perfect for the beginning pilot.  Air Freddy sponsors this podcast through these e-book sales, so you’ll be supporting The Student Pilot Cast as well with a purchase, and I appreciate that.

Let me know what you think of Podapalooza 2009!  I hope you enjoy it.  Now, get out there an fly!

I don’t usually post current events (besides Airventure) on my website since it is more a historical record of my flight training, but today I’m changing that.  While I prepare my video episode from my demo flight in a Remos Light Sport aircraft from Oshkosh, I thought I would post a quick summary of a flight I took last weekend.

Last Saturday I took a quick flight with a friend of mine who’s thinking about becoming a pilot.  Some members of The Phoenix Pilot Group were headed up there that morning to have breakfast, and see some of the airplanes on display by Cessna, Cirrus, Piper, Beech, Diamond, and Mooney at the Prescott stop of the Arizona Aircraft Expo.  My friend wanted to take a flight, and since this was going on, we thought we’d head up there to check it out.

The weather was sketchy here in the usually nice Phoenix area.  For a few days we had a weather system passing through that brought a lot of moisture and unstable air.  That meant humid mornings with lots of clouds and possible scattered thunderstorms in the afternoons.  I had been following the weather, and when I woke up that morning I took a look outside, and sure enough, there was what looked like a couple of layers of clouds, some as low as 1500 feet from the ground.  My weather briefing confirmed that, but it looked broken enough to get out, and the weather in Prescott was supposed to be better, so off to the airport we went.  My youngest son, Trey, accompanied me as well.

After the pre-flight, we were off.  My usual course of action to head north is to immediately open my flight plan on departure from Stellar Airpark in Chandler, AZ, and then quickly get over to Phoenix approach to request a northbound transition through the class Bravo airspace directly over Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.  I did this, and quickly got a left 360 for spacing before being cleared into the airspace.  The approach controller cleared me to transition over Sky Harbor (KPHX) at 5000 feet MSL.  As I was climbing and approaching the transition, it became obvious that I wouldn’t be able to maintain Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and climb to 5000 feet.  I contacted the controller and let him know that I was unable to comply with the request and maintain VFR.  I told him that I could maintain 4000, and maybe go higher later, and he accepted that, and cleared me on the transition at 4000 feet.  Later, I actually had to drop down to 3,500 ft to remain clear of clouds, and the controller was kind enough to coordinate my transition of Deer Valley’s (KDVT) class D airspace. 

It turned out there were several layers of clouds that day, scattered at about 4000 feet, broken at about 6000 feet, and overcast at 8000 or so.  Visibility was also terrible under those layers, which is very unusual for Phoenix.  While flying the transition I probably only had about 8-10 miles of visibility.  In contrast to what I normally fly in, which is 10 times that, this seemed rather limiting.  My passenger actually asked me if I was concerned as we dodged clouds over Phoenix in poor visibility, and I thought for a second, and realized that I wasn’t really. We had many outs, and were on radar and in contact with Phoenix approach.  Even if we couldn’t get out of the valley due to low clouds, or a thunderstorm in our way, we could have landed at half a dozen airports that were either in sight or would be in a few minutes if we flew toward them, including even PHX right below us.  Also, I was still pretty confident that we would be able to climb out of the valley toward the better weather north of us.

It turned out I was right.  After crossing over Deer Valley we were able to continue climbing and the low clouds did disperse the farther north we went, and we were able to fly between an overcast layer above us and a scattered and dispersing layer below us.  While flying at our assigned altitude (I think it was 6,500 feet) heading north, we had a Southwest Airlines 737 fly directly over us as they headed into Phoenix (approach had warned the other pilot and me, and we had each other in sight, and the controller had us separated vertically).  After traffic was behind us and no factor, the controller gave us a higher altitude after cautioning of wake turbulence from the three-seven.  At this point we were good to go and continued on toward Prescott.  The ride was cool and smooth for a summer flight in Arizona and we were cruising at about 8500 feet.

As we approached Prescott, we heard on the center frequency that we were being followed on that another airplane was cancelling their VFR approach into Prescott because of weather.  We were about 15 minutes out, so that worried me a little…but from my vantage-point, it looked like I could easily duck under a layer that was hanging around the area, and get into Prescott.  We continued on, and cancelled flight following as we turned westbound at Prescott Valley so we could get ATIS and start talking to PRC tower.  Sure enough, visibility under the 8000 foot layer that we ducked under was pretty good, and rain showers washed the plane a bit as we approached the airport.  The wind was kicking up pretty good, over 20 kts, but almost directly aligned with a smaller cross runway (runway 12) that they have at Prescott, and that’s where I was headed, so the wind would not be a big factor.  There was a bit of gusting, but I would just come in with a little extra speed to compensate.  Even this smaller runway 12 was still 4400 feet long, so I wasn’t worried about that. 

Besides asking for the tower to call my base for traffic I knew was on final, but couldn’t see, the approach and landing was pretty uneventful.  With the wind coming at me, normally it would have seemed like a slow approach, but KPRC is over 5000 feet in elevation, and with the heat of the summer, density altitude is routinely over 8000 feet, the approach seemed pretty normal (the thin air compensated for the headwind, making it seem sort of normal).  The same thing happened a couple of hours later on our departure; the headwind combined with the high density altitude cancelled each other out, and it felt like a normal takeoff in the valley.  Interesting.

After landing and parking near Legend Aviation where the event was taking place.  We were a bit late to meet up with Phoenix Pilot Group members, but we ate a nice lunch at the restaurant there, and then got to browse around some nice, new airplanes from Cessna, Mooney, Beech, Piper Diamond, and Cirrus.  Man, those are all nice airplanes.  Then, it was time to go.

The weather had actually improved a bit in the valley, but was still pretty low in Prescott.  It was easy to get out, though, and on the way back my passenger snapped a few photos, which I’m including here.  When we arrived back at Stellar, the air was hot (and humid by Arizona standards), but we had enjoyed the nice cool air in Prescott for a few hours, had a nice meal, and had seen some beautiful airplanes.  A good morning of flying for sure.

Prescott Valley, a town close to Prescott	Approaching KPHX from the north
A close-up of the KPHX Tower	Sky Harbor (KPHX) looking down the runways
My navigator on the way back

We continue my coverage of EAA Airventure with episode 30.  Today I present an interview with David Fetherston of Nexair Avionics about their new airplane, the Saratoga NX.  The NX is a rebuild from spinner to tail of Piper’s Saratoga, but with all new avionics, speed mods, etc.  It’s a very interesting value in a travelling six-seater mini-van.

Along with the interview, I want to share several pictures with you of their first product of this program, a 1982 fixed gear Saratoga.  Enjoy.

I hope you enjoy the interview, and I want to once again thank the folks at Nexair.  I’m impressed with what they’ve done.  I’d love to hear from you on what you think.

Okay everyone.  I’m finally releasing a quick video covering how I record cockpit audio.  This is my most frequently asked question.  The video does not tell the whole story, so I’m doing that here on the website as well in this post.  I may make it a permanent feature on the site as well.

So take a look at the video, but here are some more details.  The first thing to understand is that what you record to doesn’t really matter.  I use a digital audio recorder, but recording to a video camera, an mp3 player, or even an old fashioned tape recorder is the same thing.  The trick is getting the audio from the plane to a level that can be recorded by one of these devices correctly.

The Levels.  Whatever your method of recording, you will likely be using the Microphone (Mic) input jack of some sort of recorder.  The levels that a Microphone puts out are much lower than the levels that are needed to drive headset speakers, which is why just plugging a headphone output directly into the Mic input on a recorder will likely not work well.  The audio will be overdriven and garbled.  So, the first issue is to reduce the levels coming out of the plane’s audio system to a mic level that can be recorded.  There are several ways to do this, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The Jacks:  The other issue is much more straightforward; you have to use adapters and cables that allow the different jacks for headsets and recording devices to be connected.  This is a simple physical plug problem which can be addressed with various adapters.

The Solutions:  There are probably many more ways to do this, and I welcome comments from readers/listeners for more ideas, but I’ll likely cover most of the common ways to accomplish the same thing; record audio in the cockpit.  Here are various solutions in no particular order.  I will list pros and cons for each solution.

• Probably the simplest and least expensive solution from an equipment perspective is to use a simple attenuating cable that can be found at many audio and electronic parts stores, including Radio Shack, like this one.  This type of cable is special because it has electronics built in that will "attenuate" the higher speaker audio signal coming out of the plane down to a lower signal suitable for recording from a Mic input on your recording device.  The one I've linked here attenuates 90 dB if I remember correctly, which is about right for this application.  Notice also that the cable is a mono 1/8 inch male to mono 1/8 inch male plug.  That means you'll have to buy adapters to match the output and inputs that you'll need.  In most situations, that will be a 1/4 inch male (stero or mono depending on your plane's audio panel...mono being safest) to 1/8 inch mono female adapter.  The 1/4 male plug would plug into an unused headset port in the plane.  Pros: Cheap, simple, parts likely locally obtained. Cons: Requires an unused headset port in the plane (i.e. in a four seat airplane, you can't have 4 people with headsets plugged in), doesn't record ambient noise.

• Another solution would be to build on the attenuating cable solution into a pass-through attenuating cable.  Using the solution above you can add additional adapters and cables to allow the contraption to pass through the audio while attenuating and splitting the audio to a recording device.  This would necessitate some additional splitters and adapters that can likely be found at local or online parts retailers such as Radio Shack and PartsExpress so that you would split off the audio from the airplane’s audio panel into two paths, attenuate the one to the recorder, and pass through the one to the headset.  This would allow a jack that is in use by a passenger to be used to record as well.  I have not used this setup myself.  Pros: Parts likely locally obtained, can use an in-use jack and works with any headset.  Cons: Solution getting complicated with many wires, adapters, etc., doesn't record ambient noise, and is starting to get expensive with all of the adapters.

• The purpose-built patch cable solution is probably the most simple and the hardest to screw up.  It is not necessarily the cheapest of the solutions, but isn’t too expensive.  This is the solution that I have used for the vast majority of my recordings.  I have chosen this because it is simple, reduces clutter in the cockpit (least amount of wires), and reduces the likelihood of missing audio because of batteries, wires coming unplugged, etc.  This solution simply involves purchasing a purpose built cable for recording in cockpits and plugging it in between the audio panel plug and your headset.  This solution works with virtually any standard airplane and any headset, and is the solution outlined first in the accompanying video.  It is essentially a pass through attenuating cable that is packaged into a small and simple cable.  Various versions of this type of cable can be purchased through aviation audio specific resellers and manufacturers, including Marv Golden, Barnstormer Audio, Aircraft Spruce, and probably others.  I personally use the one from Barnstormer, but they all do the same thing, and will likely cost somewhere between $30 and $40.  Pros: Simple and foolproof, can use an in-use jack and works with any headset.  Cons:  More expensive, doesn’t record ambient noise.

• A lavalier microphone (lav mic) solution can be used as well.  This is a more organic solution for recording the audio in the cockpit because it doesn’t interface with the airplanes audio system directly.  I touch on this near the end of the accompanying video, and I have used this method personally with success a few times.  You simply use a lav mic that can be obtained from many places, including this one from Radio Shack, and you simply plug it into your recording device and put the small microphone into an ear cup of your headset.  Electret type microphones will give better results, but require batteries.  You’ll need to play with the levels a bit to get it right, but this method does work, and will record some ambient noise as well…something many people desire.  It is more like the sound of actually being there, but does require having extra wires dangling from your headset and of course does not work with in ear headsets such as the Clarity Aloft.  Pros:  More organic sound recording, doesn’t use an audio jack in the airplane, relatively inexpensive (especially if you already have a lav mic or another need for one).  Cons:  Works only with “over the ear” headsets (most of them), increases clutter and wires in the cockpit, could require additional batterries in the mic, could be uncomfortable with some headsets.

• The poor-mans lav mic solution is simply a variation of the lavalier microphone solution outlined above.  Everything is exactly the same, but instead of using a real lav mic, some people have had success using a set of cheap earbud style headphones (like those that come with an iPod for example) as a microphone.  Simply stick the earpieces in your headsets earcups and the other end into the mic jack of your recording device, play with the levels, and cross your fingers.  I have actually tried this for giggles, and it does work, but the levels and sound quality are nowhere near that of a good electret microphone, or one of the other solutions listed here.  With the right combination of earbuds and recording device (with various levels of input), there is nothing wrong with this, but you will have to experiment a little.  Once you find a combination and settings that work, it shouldn’t be a problem and should produce results similar to the lav mic solution above, but do your testing.  Pros and Cons are the same as above besides the extra testing mentioned here. 

Okay…there’s the rundown.  For what I personally do, as I mentioned, most of the time a use the Barnstormer purpose-built cable for audio.  As I record video, though, I’m trying different things, including splitting the audio coming from the cable to my audio recording device AND the video camera, or using the splitter cable for the audio only device, and using the lav mic solution for the video camera.  This gives me the best of both worlds as far as audio goes (more organic audio with the video and more pristine audio with my audio recorder).  This is an especially useful scenario if I have a passenger who is willing to put the lav mic in their earcup, that way it keeps the extra cable away from me and reduces the chance of it interfering with my PIC duties.  The Barnstormer cable and other solutions like it are absolutely bullet-proof…I’ve never had a failure or forgotten anything, etc.  There are no batteries to change, no extra cables into my earcups to deal with, etc.  I just leave the splitter cable attached to my headset and carry it in my headset bag as if it were part of the headset.  Works out well.

Hopefully this post and video answers this question for everyone.  I’ve tried to be as comprehensive as I could, but I’ve missed anything or made any mistakes, please let me know through the comments (so others can see as well).  Happy flying (and recording).  Can’t wait to hear everyone’s cockpit audio.

SPC Video #005-Recording Cockpit Audio from Bill Williams on Vimeo.

Direct Feed Link

Airventure 2009 is over, but I’ve got a bit of good material from Oshkosh that I’ll be publishing.  This is the first of it.  In this episode, I confirm why everyone loves Oshkosh so much with a quick discussion with John and Christine Halbrook around the campsite one evening.

Obviously, this is a small break from the normal episodes of my training, but I think you’ll find these quick podcasts interesting and worthwhile…at least I hope you do.  Please let me know what you think.  As usual, I’d love to hear from you.

I have a few more things to share from Oshkosh, as well as a short video about recording cockpit audio that is ready to go, and will be published in the next couple of days.  After that, we’ll resume normal programming and finish up my training.  Enjoy.

Hello everyone.  I’ve spent my first night in Oshkosh for Airventure 2009.  I arrived yesterday afternoon in Milwaukee, got my rental car, and after grabbing some grub for lunch and some supplies for camping, I drove on up to Oshkosh, and set up my camping area at the MyTransponder basecamp.

Then I found out some good news from Rod at MyTransponder.  I was scheduled to do a media flight in a brand new G1000 Cessna 206 Thursday morning. Stoked. Unfortunately, we woke up this morning to pretty heavy rain, and the media demos were postponed.  Not sure if I’ll still get to fly it, but hoping for a reschedule soon.

The best part, though, is the I got to finally meet up with so many people that I haven’t seen in a while and meet some other friends that I’ve never met face to face.  Steve Tupper, Jason Miller, David Allen, and a couple others did a little jam session, so we got to listen to some music, catch up, and basically have a good time.

Tonight is the MyTransponder party in our campground, and I’m really looking forward to that.  If anyone is here at Oshkosh, follow MyTransponder and/or me on Twitter for more information.  http://twitter.com/MyTransponder and http://twitter.com/billwil. I’ll see you all there!

Okay, I’ll try to keep you posted as we go, here.  In the meantime, enjoy a shot taken by Mike Miley of MyTransponder of work being done on the Ford Tri Motor.

Mike’s Oshkosh Photostream

Hello SPC listeners! Today we will follow my outbound leg of my dual night cross country.  I had to take a couple of weeks off because of extensive travel, including some family vacations.  I’m back now, though, but headed to Oshkosh this week.  This means lots of content coming up hopefully.  For most of it, follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/billwil, and I’ll keep you updated.

In this episode, we did a dual night cross country from KCHD (Chandler) to KAVQ (Marana) which is in north Tucson.

KCHD-KAVQ (around Eloy)

Thanks again for listening, everyone.  I hope to see you at OSH!

Okay, everyone.  Oshkosh is once again upon us.  In case you don’t know already, yes, I’m going.  I had an out of town work conflict come up, so I need to be in the New York area for meetings on Tuesday, but I’m flying straight there on Wednesday morning.  Sadly, I’m flying as a passenger in a regional jet, so no front window view to Wittman Airport, but upon landing in Milwaukee, it’s a quick rental car drive to the real field of dreams.

It’s actually difficult to explain to someone who hasn’t been how incredible this gathering is, so I won’t try.  If you’ve been, then you know what I mean and we’ll leave it at that.  This is only my second year, and thanks in part to great new friends I made last year, I can’t imagine this year being any better…but I’m sure it will be, as I expand that list of aviation friends once again.  Last year, Kent (of The Pilot Cast), graciously picked me up at MKE in his Skylane and allowed me to experience the “fly-in” arrival as it was meant to be my first time.  Since I was a kid I had dreamed of that arrival, and I finally did it.  Twice, actually, as we picked someone else up later in the week.  Camping under the wing of a trusty Cessna 182…isn’t that what it’s all about?  Thanks, Kent.

This year, while arriving a bit later, I’ll be staying until the bitter-sweet end, all the way through Sunday.  Again, I’m camping, but this time I’ll be camping in the “drive-in” camping area of Camp Scholler.  A whole new experience to be had, I’m sure.  I’ll be near the base camp of many of the other new media folks who are gathering around MyTransponder’s RV.  I can’t wait to be there, and especially to be giving updates to all of you.

Now…to the real hope I have for this post.  Let me know if you’re going to OSH09 this year.  If so, and our schedules line up, I would love to meet you, the listeners and followers of Student Pilot Cast.  Use the contact link to let me know…or send me an email directly (listen to any episode for the address).  I firmly believe that the best part of this gathering are the personal relationships made or re-kindled, so let’s meet face to face if you’ll be there…have a beverage, and talk about learning to fly.  Follow me on twitter if you haven’t already, and send me a message there if you want to meet up real-time…that works, too.

If you’re not going to be there, stay tuned on twitter as well, as I will be updating what is going on as much as I can.  I’ll be attempting to release small episodes while there as well, but last year I was hampered by very limited connectivity.  Hopefully this year is better.  The only luck I ever had was the press link, but I had to be at a specific place on the grounds, and even then it was iffy.

In any case…that time of year is here again, and I feel very blessed to be a part of this great aviation community in general, as well as be amongst the great folks who represent new media in aviation.  I’m also very grateful to once again be making the annual migration to aviation Mecca.  I hope you all can join me there; if not in person, in spirit.  I’ll try to keep you posted.

This episode chronicles my return flight to Chandler from Tucson international, and is the second part of my first solo cross-country flight during my training.  There’s some interesting things that happen, and another bonehead move on my part with the radio.  Please enjoy this flight as I learn to fly in front of the world.

The route home was only slightly different than when I went to Tucson.  I needed to do a touch and go at Ryan Field down in Tucson, so that changed the route slightly.  Here is the return.

NavMonster, KTUS-KRYN-TOTEC-KCHD

Remember, If you are thinking of learning to fly, find out everything you need to know to get started and what to expect during your training with Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide.  You help support this podcast by using my link here, so if you consider purchasing this e-book, please click above.

Today’s episode is a very special one as we’ll cover my first solo cross country.  It was a simple flight from Chandler to Tucson International, but a giant step for me in my training.  Join me as a learn to fly in front of the world in podcast episode 26 of the Student Pilot Cast, Out of the Nest, Part I.

I’ve included a couple of pictures.  First is the route I took on this leg from Chandler (KCHD) to Tucson (KTUS).

[Cross Country Route, Courtesy of Navmonster.com]

The next photo is of Pinal Airpark and all of the mothballed airplanes.

[Pinal Airpark From Above-Showing some of the big iron]

As usual, I hope you enjoy this episode.  Please send me feedback through email or via the contact link above.  Also, feel free to leave comments below.  My training was getting hot and heavy now…I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Tailwinds.

This episode is the conclusion of my long dual cross-country training flight, or the last two legs.  We went from Prescott (KPRC) to Sedona (KSEZ) and shut it down to go have a late breakfast at the excellent restaurant.  Then it was on home to Chandler (KCHD).

I hope you enjoy the episode.  As usual, take a few minutes and let me know what you think.  Also, remember to check out Air Freddy’s Learning to Fly Guide eBook to help support the Student Pilot Cast.  As I mentioned before, Air Freddy has over 9000 hours of dual given, so he’s been around the block a few times.  If you’re thinking about becoming a pilot, his guide may certainly help you prepare, so check it out.  If you use the link above to purchase, the Student Pilot Cast will get credit, and it is much appreciated.

During this flight my instructor, Lary, grabbed my camera and took some shots.  I’ll include a few of them here. 

The first two are approaching Sedona.

These next three are approaching the Phoenix valley from the northeast over Mesa, including a shot of Red Mountain.

This last one is our long straight-in approach to Chandler’s (KCHD) 22R.

Hello, everyone.  I'm pleased to release audio episode 24 of the Student Pilot Cast, Across the Hills.  Follow me on the first leg of my long dual cross country from KCHD to KPRC right through the middle of Phoenix.  We've got a busy airspace in Phoenix and a really busy airspace in Prescott in this episode.  I hope you enjoy it, and as always, let me know what you think.

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter HERE to see what I'm up to now.  Thanks again, everyone.  Have a great flying day!