VLJ Accident History

New wiki article: VLJ Accident History. Summary:

• Eclipse incidents have been primarily due to manufacturing and design issues.
  
• Mustang and Phenom incidents have been primarily due to operator error during landing, especially runway overruns.
  

Review of "My Heart is Africa"

Just completed "My Heart is Africa - A Flying Adventure" by Scott Griffin. Griffin is a CEO who takes off two years to contribute to the Flying Doctors Service in Nairobi, Kenya. He flies his Cessna 180 from Toronto, around Africa and eventually back home.

The book is an enjoyable read, both as a flying journal and as insight into the unvarnished world of living and loving in Africa. The adventures, flying challenges and tangible contribution to the less fortunate are inspiring.

The risk taking he incurs while flying seems beyond reason to me. While he's lucky to be alive, his need for adventure and personal challenge seem excessive, almost pathological. Some of situations, like purposefully flying into a thunderstorm or landing 1000 lbs over gross, are engrossing like a bad horror movie, waiting for the blood to spurt. The descriptions of the landscape, the diversity of people and societal injustices are the strengths that hold the book together. Recommended, provided you don't mind watching multiple suicide attempts.

Impressions of the Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) Course for the PW615F

Today, I completed the completed the Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) online PW615F General Familiarization Course, which is the engine exclusively used on the Mustang. There are equivalent courses for the PW610 (Eclipse) and PW617F (Embraer Phenom 100).

The Mustang Wiki has a review of the course. Bottom line: highly recommended for the Mustang Pilot 4/5.

<Rant>
Online courses have become inconvenient. In addition to this course, I recently took several other commercial online courses. In protecting the intellectual property of the courseware, the utility has decreased. As a software guy, I'm all for the protection of intellectual property. The course material is no longer conveniently available offline or in a portable way. Worse than that is the material times out completely in as little as three months in the case of some of the providers. At least in an instructor led course, the materials are yours to keep forever.

The moral equivalent is paying full boat for a perpetual software license but then the software shuts off after three months. Either charge less for monthly access, or let me have perpetual access.
</Rant>

Extended Over Water Operations for Mustang

In the last month, I've had plenty of time to think about flying these light jets over water. New wiki article: Extended Over Water Operations for Mustang and Phenom 100. It's a start mainly focused on gear, not procedures.

How to Fix eAPIS

The Department of Homeland Security implemented eAPIS a little more than a year ago. Having flown more internationally than domestically in the last month, I can now unequivocally state that it is a horrible system. I have no problem with the general concept of having the passenger manifest and passport numbers sent in advance for arrivals. I understand the need to balance security against privacy and convenience.

Here are the major flaws:

• Internet access required. Outside the US, where flight plans are often still on paper, hand walked or faxed in, Internet access is far from a given. Mandating Internet access is unrealistic.
  
• Departure manifests. If I drive my car from Boston to Toronto, I can get on a flight to almost anywhere in the world. I do not need to inform the US Government prior to departing the country by car. Why do I need to tell them if I leave by private plane?
  
• Cannot cancel a manifest. If a manifest is submitted and then the flight is canceled or delayed a day, a completely new manifest has to be submitted. I already know in advance the flight is canceled. There would be less confusion for everyone if I could cancel or modify the manifest rather than re-submitting it.
  
• Still need to call local customs office. While eAPIS replaced the 178 form, most Airports of Entry still expect a call on the day of arrival to confirm.
  

In contrast, Canada has been operating the CANPASS system for years. CANPASS addresses these flaws in a simple way.

• Advise by phone. A manifest can be submitted and updated simply by phone. A change in tail number is a simple quick call, not the complete submission of a new manifest. The same main number removes the need to notify the local office, instead of keeping a directory of all Customs and Immigration offices across the country.
  
• No departure manifests.
  

The CBP web site is so bad that multiple vendors have stepped offering alternatives. At least the CBP had the foresight to specify an XML submission format as an alternative to their horrible user interface, leaving companies like fltplan.com to make a better user experience.

Nevertheless, if CBP adopted some of the common sense of the CANPASS system, the system would be a lot more usable for everyone involved.

More at the AOPA ASF Blog

Can I Borrow your Fire Truck?

Returning home from Nevis was relatively easy and uneventful. A quick technical stop in Turks and Caicos, clearing customs in Wilmington, and a fast hop home to BED.

When preparing and pre-flighting the previous day, we noticed fine grit on the plane either due to dust, or possibly volcanic ash from ongoing emissions at Montserrat. The engines and all openings were carefully plugged so the only residue was on the surface of the plane, including the wings.

So how does one remove this grit with no real FBO facilities? Simple: you ask to borrow the fancy new fire truck at the airport. The fire captain was very pleased to show off his new toy and provide some training for his new recruit.







To celebrate our departure, Montserrat stopped emissions for the first time in a week, much to our delight.

Thoughts on Nevis

While biking around Nevis, I had some thoughts on the island. It's a special place, relatively unspoiled by development foisted upon a lot of the Caribbean. Part of the reason is difficulty in getting there. There is no scheduled airline service directly from the USA or Western Europe. Large commercial planes and cruise ships go to nearby St. Kitts instead. The runway is long enough for turboprops and small jets but not long enough for common carrier planes like Boeing, Airbus or even Bombardier and Embraer RJs. There are no casinos or other man-made significant attractions.

Instead there is natural beauty of the volcano, the rain forest and the sea.

NASCAR enthusiasts would love the place since there is a single ring road, driving British on the left side, so one can go fast and turn left all day long (If the runway is closed, there's always the private drag strip on the east side of the island. Strangely, this isn't mentioned in any of the tourist guides).

Literacy is 98%, which is better than Israel and Greece (source). While the beaches are not in the top ten of the Caribbean, they are still far better than almost anywhere in the US or Canada.

The food at the Nisbet Plantation was excellent, far exceeding our expectations. Michael Pollan would approve as most of the ingredients were grown locally on the island. The fish and seafood was caught daily - we could see the boats going out. The roads are lined with goats and chickens - to the point that as a driver one wishes they did not have so much free range. One caveat: if you see lamb stew on the menu, it's likely goat, not lamb.

A 12 year old friend of ours stayed on the island a year ago and hated it. "There was no wifi [at the time] and no TV." That's a feature, not a bug.

There aren't that many places like this left to visit. Enjoy them while you can.