My stomping grounds part 3

The point I’m trying to make with these posts is that no one likes you doing stalls, forced approaches and the like in controlled airspace. You have to go a ways before you get to somewhere where all you are scaring are cows. In my neck of the woods prime cattle confusing territory is centred around a small, barely visible from the air, town called Claremont. I have no idea if the residents of this town are aware of this. Surely they must notice the very low flying aircraft buzzing the livestock?

Right, picture time. The chart below starts just as City’s zone is ending. Even I can manage to follow the shoreline along until I see a very obviously large water treatment plant (just in case I drew it on my chart). Once you get here ATC clear you enroute (sometimes they forget and you remind them that you are exiting the zone) and you look for your next landmark, Bluffers Park.

This is a large Marina that juts out, visible even in the winter. It’s a good navigation point, especially on the way back where it marks the point where you should make your initial call to politely ask ATC to let you back in. Class C airspace needs permission to enter.

Beyond that there are two large, white towers that mark the edge of one ring of the wedding cake (marked with a red cross here). Beyond this point I can climb from 2500ft to 3500ft. From here I also have a choice. Claremont is boxed in red, you can see that it nestles in between Buttonville’s zone (purple) and Oshawa’s (pink).

I can either steer a course of roughly 030 degrees from Bluffers and cut across to get to Claremont (solid yellow line), or I can carry on along the shoreline until I see Pickering. Pickering is a large nuclear power station, with a conveniently placed wind turbine and a road leading directly to it, the infamous Brock Road. From there you can follow Brock road up to Claremont.

I usually follow the latter and slightly longer route (dashed yellow), it is easier and you don’t risk inadvertently nipping into Buttonville’s space.

Enough for now, more next time.

Just me, myself and I

Even before I got into “major conference mode” I could feel myself getting fatigued. It’s been a long and difficult year* at work but there is light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.

I could feel that I was getting a little run down emotionally and to be honest, physically I'm exhausted. I've decided to take pre-emptive action before work ramps up again. I made a decision that I needed some “me” time away from work and away from home. I’m a little limited by my lack of driving ability but eventually I settled on somewhere I can get to by train. I’m off to spend a few nights in Kingston, Ontario. I have no plans other than to watch the boats go by, swim in the hotel pool and maybe get a massage at a local spa.

I may or may not get round to blog posting. More when I return.

* I work on Academic not Calendar years.

My stomping grounds part 2

Trying to strike a balance between those of you who read this and are familiar with ATC and those of you who don’t have a clue, so forgive me if I miss the mark for any of you.

The main feature of my local airspace is Toronto Pearson’s (CYYZ) Terminal Control area. It looks kind of like an upside down wedding cake, each layer representing a different altitude. Below that altitude you are ok, above it you are in their airspace and jockeying for position with the big boys.

 

The complication is that CYTZ is in a class C control zone which sits under Pearson’s TCA. Normally a control zone around an airport goes up to 3000ft. City’s stops at 2500ft which is the first “step” on the wedding cake that is Pearson.

Confused?

Good you should be! No one said this was easy

On my VTA I’ve marked YYZ and YTZ, you can see the dark blue circles which represent the layers of the wedding cake. The inner ring goes from surface to 1700ft, the next to 2500ft then 3500ft. But you can also see that the “rings” aren’t ring shaped! Because there are so many little satellite airports in proximity, even the messed up airspace is messed up!

Ok enough about the big bully that is YYZ, let’s look at YTZ. Zoomed in picture here shows City in orange with its control zone around it. Normally control zones are 10 miles across and circular. This one is neither. That’s because of the green, red and purple zones butting onto City. Respectively Pearson, Downsview and Buttonville. All of these are control zones that require, at the very least, two way communication before you enter them.

 

To anyone then it becomes very obvious that my only escape from these zones is to the east, that is where our practice area is located and that is where LOCALFLIGHTEAST spends the majority of her flying time!

 

 

My stomping grounds part 1

I’ve been promising for a while a post about the actual area I fly in. Let’s start with my home airport, I fly from CYTZ also known as Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, or “city” to its friends! City is a busy airport, nestled underneath the airspace of an even busier airport. Learning here has some distinct advantages and disadvantages.  

Advantage-wise, I’m learning at a busy place, if you can handle it here, you’re pretty good anywhere. I’m forced to fly good circuits, maintain strict limits and have excellent situational awareness. I get a lot of practice at non-standard stuff. My radio work has to be good as well, technically ATC can tell me to eff off out of their zone at any point. And yesterday I heard them do exactly that, one plane was trying to enter the zone with a dicey radio, ATC denied them as they couldn’t establish the two way communication reliably. I also heard them deny a takeoff clearance because the radio was only working intermittently. That conversation got a bit heated!

Disadvantage-wise, I’m learning in busy airspace! If you need it spelled out to you, view my YouTube “10 minutes at the hold short line” to see what this means. Follow this with the “15 minutes orbiting while trying to get a landing clearance” one and you definitely understand! As well as busy, the airspace is complicated; with many control zones in a stupidly small space.

In order to help you understand both the local geography and the local airspace, I’m putting together a series of posts to introduce you to the tools I use to navigate this crazy space.

Chart-wise there are two things I can use.

1.       A VFR Navigation Chart or VNC (acronym within an acronym!), this is a 1:500 000 scale Lambert Conformal Conic projection chart.  The Americans call them “sectionals”. They are good for general VFR flights.

2.       A VFR Terminal Area Chart or VTA. A 1:250 000 scale Transverse Mercator Projection. As well as being finer scale this also has more information on the actual airspace as well as geographical navigation features.

For the local area I fly around in I solely use a VTA chart, as my main concerns revolve around not ending up in someone else’s control zone, rather than really getting lost. As RTH has taken great pains to point out with a large geographical feature like Lake Ontario, it’s really difficult to get totally lost, but you may well bust someone’s zone trying to find your way back.

To end this intro post here is a picture of what my VTA looks like, semi folded. As you can see it holds a lot more info than merely geographical stuff.

Next time I’m going to zoom in on some areas and talk you through some key points

 

Just keep flying, just keep flying!

RTH and I were watching “Finding Nemo” last night. It’s an awesome movie; yes we were watching it by choice. Both RTH and I have eclectic tastes in films!

We’d both forgotten how funny that movie is, unlike for example, Disney’s “Up”, a movie I can never ever watch again. The truth is as well, I kind of identify with some of the characters in Finding Nemo.

RTH reckons I’m totally Dory! I think I should be insulted, maybe! She does make me laugh though and given the tendency I have to spout random nonsense, I can kind of see where he’s coming from though. Maybe I can try the “a sea monkey took my money” line on dispatch when I have to pay for my next flight.

I sort of identify with Nemo a little bit as well, he has an obvious physical problem which means he’s not a great swimmer but somehow still manages to save the day. My spatial awareness problem isn’t so obvious but it’s still there; despite it though, I’m still managing this flying thing.

Maybe Gill is a combo of RTH and Bob, not taking “no” for an answer and telling me I can do it.

Maybe my next project should be learning to speak whale.

But for now, I’ll just keep flying, just keep flying!*

 

* admit it, you’re singing this in Dory’s voice, aren’t you?

For a reasonably smart person….

…. I can be really dumb sometimes. I was flying in less than optimal visibility, later in the evening and light to moderate rain. Just a couple of circuits to get a feel for the conditions. I was following a 152 in the circuit, so was a little paranoid about running into the back of it. My circuit flying was fine but I can be amazingly dumb sometimes.

As well as keep trying to take off the sunglasses I wasn’t wearing to improve my view of the Cessna in front I was worried that I kept losing sight of it momentarily. This worried me a little and then it dawned on me….. Nav lights flash.

DUH!!!

Now I can see it

Now I’ve lost it

Now I can see it

Now I’ve lost it.

Yep, you get the picture!

Yes you may laugh at your pleasure.

Looking forward

Hopefully regular readers of this blog will have noted the undertone of optimism reflected in my more recent posts. This blog has been an amazing tool for me, allowing me to reflect on just how far I’ve come. I still remember the circumstances behind each and every post and I’m the first one to admit that I am simply not the same person in that plane anymore.

Looking back is all well and good but I’m definitely in the mood for looking forward at the moment. I know that I have a thousand more obstacles to overcome but I know that I can do this. Bob’ll equip me with the tools and I’ve certainly got the motivation to do this thing.

I have so much that I’m truly excited about at the moment. Bob laid out his plan to expand the repertoire of airwork available to me when soloing. Eventually I will be doing steep turns, stalls, forced approaches and slow flight. All on my own*, with him coming along occasionally to see how it’s all going.

Once we are through that, well then it is time for the really fun stuff. Cross country flights. Away to other airports, dual initially solo eventually. Culminating in the big one, City to Muskoka, Muskoka to Peterborough and then returning to City (hopefully!) The aim being that one day we do it dual, the next day I do it solo.

Now I’m apprehensive about this, I won’t lie. I know this kind of stuff isn’t going to come easy to me but there is an underlying belief that I will be able to do it eventually. I just think it might take me a little longer than some people, that’s all.

I have no problem with taking the leisurely approach to this, I’m enjoying flying. Being in the plane is fun, why hurry?

I expressed this opinion to Bob, that it might take me a while to grasp the navigation stuff. He was sympathetic; as usual he has a plan! We can try for the big one straight off and see how I go. I might be Ok, in which case there you go WMAP, take the plane and call me when you land! Otherwise we can evaluate our options for there, may another shot at it dual first.

Or we can try a smaller jaunt first, maybe just Peterborough. I chimed in hopefully “St Catharines looked to be a fairly simple flight, when I went there with RTH….” Bob just looked at me “yes it is WMAP, which is why we won’t be going there. You’ll not learn anything from following the shoreline round til you hit the airport!” His look telling me that he’s got me sussed!

Damn, worth a try though!

 

* Not at the same time, that would be BAD!!!!!