Going to Work

Bruce asked if we could get an earlier start. He would be checking in at work and wanted to get as much time in as feasible before going into the office. I set my alarm for 0dark-thirty and got up to do the preflight planning. The weather looked good for early morning but winds would be picking up later in the day. It was a good decision to go early. As I scanned the NOTAMS I found one a bit different for Plant City. I'll watch out for that.

The flight went well. We accomplished everything on my agenda and headed back to KVDF to take a break. Bruce was ready for more so I planned to give him an introduction to the landing pattern. Bad decision. Those gusty winds came in sooner than anticipated and made all of the local airports unusable for pattern practice. However it was an opportunity to review procedures and radio calls. We departed VDF and went over to PCM and did a 45° entry.  All of his calls were good and he did a nice job with the pattern, although it wasn't fair to have him turn on final with winds gusting to 18kts. We "shared" the landing and taxied back for takeoff. We bounced a bit on the departure and made our way back home. Another opportunity to practice procedures in the pattern ended with a full stop landing. Good effort today.

I still had the intermittent GPS problem. So after the debrief I brought Sally back to the hangar for some trouble shooting. After a few tightened connectors and some strategically placed tie-wraps I got the purple GPS needle back on the HSI.

Just maybe I got it fixed. Bruce and I are scheduled for an early flight tomorrow, I can check it again in the morning.*

*Saturday Morning Update: It works! After a short flight with a number of landings the GPS interface to the Dynon Smart Aviation Bus (DSAB) stayed strong and consistent.

Reference: User guide

Trouble Shooting the GPS

On Final

Saturday: Just canceled. It would have been high work, steep turns, slow flight, stalls, etc. When I left my house it was still dense fog, most local stations reporting IFR in mist or fog. I was betting that the fog/mist would clear to blue sky, unfortunately, it just lifted the base up about 1000'. VDF was still reporting IFR by the time I got home, and PCM had wind gusts up to 14kts. Rain showers predicted for the afternoon.

So it was a good call.

Wednesday: I drove out to the airport to prepare for a short maintenance hop. The Dynon (D100) HSI and autopilot are not capturing GPS data from the Garmin 696. Everything seems to work fine on the ground but one airborne the HSI needle goes away and the autopilot will not activate the "Nav" mode. (The VOR works fine.) I hate intermittent problems. 

So I suspect a loose connection somewhere. I removed the pilot side panel to get a good look at the back of the EFIS, nothing found except a possibly loose ground wire. I pulled the 696 out of it's mount and checked the connections. Possibly a loose antenna connection. All of the version levels of software are good. So I put everything back together and prepare for a maintenance check flight. 

I decided to go north for a change and dialed in Zephyr Hills (KZPH).  Everything looked great during taxi and runup. An Icon A5 was in the pattern for touch and goes.The purple needle held strong on the HSI without flicker or fluctuation. We taxied to the hold short line and waited for arriving traffic. I watched the CHT start to climb as the second airplane (twin Beech) announced his turn from base to final.  I waited for him to clear as the CHT nudged up to 250°. I took the runway in front of a plane on a 3 mile final and departed to the north. We cooled down immediately. The purple needle was gone.

The clear blue sky had begun its Florida summer weather cycle. Puffy clouds had started to form at about 2000' so we climbed to get above them. The Tampa Class B has a shelf out here that starts at 3000' and goes up to 6000' so not much headroom to use today. I decided to go back down to 1500' to stay clear. It was beautiful trip up and down, dancing with the clouds.

B1RD

The pattern at ZPH had a Cessna and an Autogyro practicing landings. I entered behind the Cessna on downwind. The landing was good and we turned off at the first taxiway. No purple needle. I taxied back, waited for a plane to depart, the Cessna to land and the Gyro to land, then made my departure to the east. This time I stayed below the puffy cumulous clouds that were continuing to build skyward.

We passed just under a bird.

The pattern was still busy at KVDF. I got in line behind a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Cessna. A normal approach to a 5 Star landing. (The kind when it just "rolls" onto the runway.) 

Now, back to that GPS. Worked great once I taxied clear of RWY 5. 

Notes: I changed the camera setting to "wide" from "ultra zoom" and like the effect. Upgraded the firmware on the Virb cameras. I have the latest version of Camtasia and Virb Edit installed. 

Video notes: Happy