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For a good part of his diatribe, Mr. Collins is building an argument about the deficient Cirrus pilot stereotype, when suddenly... this:

Normally a single-engine airplane has to be spun as part of the certification process. The Cirrus wasn’t. The FAA waived this requirement and accepted the airframe parachute as an alternate means of compliance. I kid you not, the spin recovery in a Cirrus is based on deploying the chute. That is the only way a pilot can recover from a spin in a Cirrus.

Two things:

#1 It's a lie. Cirrus recovers from a spin just fine, and it was spin-tested for certification in Europe.

#2 Let's assume that that SR-22 were not recoverable. What then? The answer is: absolutely nothing. The reason FAA removed spin training from the Private Pilot curriculum is very simple: spins almost exclusively happen at base-to-final turns, and there is almost never enough altitude to recover in such case. Therefore, pilots should be taught to avoid spins instead. And so they were, for decades now. It does not matter one iota if their airplanes can recover.

That whole paragraph is utterly bogus and had no place in the post. To paraphrase, I knew Richard L. Collins, he was a friend of mine, and this is no Richard L. Collins.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 01:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Went up for practice, using the agenda of WINGS activity that would count for 1/3rd of BFR. We ended doing the kinds of things that I diligently avoided back when I was a student, except perhaps a base-to-final spin! I possibly came close to a gear-up, because of dealing with pattern traffic, although we'll never know if I actually did, because my instructor caught it. Also, at some point I took off prematurely and, despite my best efforts, ended settling down on the runway. Good thing I did not settle into bushes beyond, and that gear was still down. The lesson is: never force an airplane to fly if she does not want to. That aside, I bounced gently and kept it in the ground effect to gain the missing 5 knots that allowed us to climb. Still not sure if it were a safer choice to close the throttle and brake in the remaining distance. We practiced an aborted takeoff, too, but come the decision time, I chose not to abort. Perhaps I should not agonize over it, considering that there was no damage, but make a mental note.

UPDATE: See comments at PoA.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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With a post to PoA, another student -- Sara -- announced a passed checkride, and is a certificated pilot now. What makes it remarkable is that she has about as much time on the Hobbs as I do: no less than 150 hours by my estimation (a year ago she had 130). It took her 2 calendar years.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 06:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I had a funny experience on the way to Clovis: I got lost for the first time. I read about student pilots getting lost, but managed to rack 150 hours without, and started to think that I may be invulnerable.

It should to be noted ahead that N2966V has a broken VOR receiver (which was broken for more than a year and finally was placarded instead of repaired). It also has a broken 12V outlet, so I cannot power my AV8OR and monitor my progress on its moving map. AV8OR has a battery, but the life time is pathetic, less than an hour. Having flown the aircraft to Artesia, I thought it would not be a problem, thanks to my supposedly superior pilotage skills. Just in case, I took a civilian GPS, Garmin Oregon 400t, which I use sometimes to capture flight track. It is powered by AA batteries and its battery life far exceeds the time aloft of the C-150.

But I did not account for the terrain features, or rather lack of them. By comparison with central NM, flying in the "Western Kansas" is like flying over an ocean. I am too used to see and recognize mountains, but the landscape out there is essentially flat, offering few natural landmarks.

Things went great until I passed the restricted area and had to bear south. The plan was to follow a creek, but in the event I somehow jumped on the wrong one. I followed it for a while and then realized that the road pattern did not match the map, and I have no clue where I am.

I have to admit, my first thought was to look at the watch, estimate the fuel burn, and panic. I was not going to make it to my alternate, Santa Rosa. Then I put my cool face on, and quickly and professionally went through a series of failed backups.

First, I reached for the Garmin... but it was nowhere in the bag! As I found out later, I packed it in an unexpected place, with emergency supplies.

Second, I called Cannon Approach on 121.05, hoping they would pick me up on the radar, but received no answer. Either they were closed for Saturday, or I was on a wrong frequency.

Third, I turned on AV8OR, using the little juice that it had. It booted and displayed an alert "NO POSITION DATA". It was completely reliable before and after!

At that point I was out of ideas, and even contemplated asking for help on CVN's CTAF 122.8. But while I was stuggling with the navigation, I subconsciously drifted to the south, and I recognized a populated area. Thinking about it a bit more, and looking at the map, I concluded that the field had to be somewhere to the east of the town. I went there, found the airport without extra drama, and landed with 7 gallons remaining.

On reflection, an obvious way of action would be to go south and look for the freeway. It's impossible to miss a freeway, and it is trivial to follow it to the airport. What can I say, my hindsight is excellent.

The real surprise, however, was how quickly I exhausted the redundand backup plans. Wow.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:09 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Haganai P includes a bonus of its BGM tracks, in full length and with a ticker blurb. I pulled one example through the analog hole and re-typed the ticker... But the kanji are so small, that I could not figure out some of them. Incorrect substitutions are marked in bold:

少し懐かしい感じのするメロティライン、リズムアレンジの曲です。 ９０年才後半～００年才始め頃ＪーＰＯＰを思わせる雰囲気でしょうか？ この曲に限らず、このタイトルでは「歌詞が付いて歌になってもおこしくないメロティ」念頭に作曲しました。 誰かが歌詞をつけて歌ってくれたらとても嬉しいのですが・・・

A native speaker would guess them easily, just from the context, but I have no clue what they may be.

UPDATE: On second thought, I probably got them both right. "J-POP wo omowaseru fun-iki" means "athmosphere reminiscent of J-POP", which makes sense. I have no idea what "kagirazu" form means, but "kagiri" is a limit, so it's something like "within limits of this tune".

Tags: anime

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Rumor has it that the old airport manager at Clovis was an unfriendly guy who did not want fly-ins. The new manager decided to run the place differently, and for starters he got a self-serve 100LL pump installed. Then, to celebrate the grand opening, he set up a fly-in. The program included a flour bombing competition. Pictured is a competior reinstalling the door on his Citabria.

Yes, there were burgers, too.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 10:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Back when I dealt with Yukimura and switched my attention to Rika, I raged a little bit about the numerous flags on Rika's path, without a way to know what or where they are (I should note, however, that it's rather normal for legacy VNs). But when I looked at the path seriously, it dawned on me that there's a system to the flags: they all are related to Kodaka's failed confessions. In other words, first, once you know about idiotic dialog traps that Namco inserted, the path is discoverable, and second, Rika's path requires hounding the poor thing. Not stalking: everything is very proper and each failure is played for comedic effect. Nonetheless, I think I hit the "理科を口説く" button no less than 20 times. Fortunately, the result was quite worth it.

I remember being disappointed about Sena, although intellecutally I saw why she was laid out like she was. And now I am content completely, because Rika is what I wanted. No confused teenage sex here, in fact it seems that Kodaka wears skirt in that couple in the end. Rika's ending is the only one that includes a sizeable epilogue that makes up for the grind. In it, we see her continuing to apply her genius talent for the cause of science, with Kodaka playing Tanda to her Balsa. By the way, Toradora P included a branch like that, with Sumire. One has to wonder if a certain formula is being followed in both cases, but in any case the product tastes great.

One thing I noticed that Rika's pervertedness abated as the aforementioned hounding took a toll. I don't know if this was in-character for the anime, but it worked in the game, and explained that as a sublimation. She is a real role model for frustrated fujoshi everywhere.

P.S. Spoiler video for the epilogue: Youtube:0cmZd_6GZ3U.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was up today for a mountain flying lesson and the instructor demonstrated a departure from Los Alamos with an exit through the valley. It was something in between a James Bond movie and a Jeb Corliss video: after takeoff, we turned left and nosedived off a cliff into a canyon. For sure, it deconflicts one with the arriving traffic very effectively (LAM is a one-way airport). Sadly, no pictures.

SIDEBAR: A "one-way" airport means the exact opposite of "one-way" street. In the usual airport arrangement airplanes form a loop, taking off an landing in the same direction, one after another. The unidirectional loop permits a large number of operations on one runway. In the glory days of Van Nuys, they had up to 30 airplanes in the loop at busy days, which is mind-boggling. These days, if a loop, also known as "pattern", has 5 airplanes, the runway is considered busy. But I digress. A "one-way" airport is one where landings and takeoffs are conducted in opposite directions. Often that is accompained by a sloping runway, so that landings are done uphill and takeoffs -- downhill.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:05 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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In both anime and game continuities, Yukimura is a crazy girl who manages to convince everyone around her that she is in fact a man, only in drag. Namco trolls decided to outdo themselves on her path. The basic plot is that while Yukimura's charms gradually win over Kodaka, he manages to convince himself that he's gay, which leads to a major disappointment once Yukimura's actual sex is revealed. Ha-ha, very funny. They also troll in the small a lot. For example, in one of choices, 42 incorrect answers fill the scroll space and crowd out the correct one. I was not amused. Don't want to deal with Rika now. She requires hitting a dozen of flags, and all for what?

BTW, I visited a little side path known as "IF", too. Its main premise is that Kodaka saves Yozora's hair. From there on, it's a linear story to a status quo ending. That one was neat.

Unfortunately, when I replayed for "IF", I was not very dilligent hitting items, keywords, and flags, and so I essentially had to restart from the very beginning for Yukimura. Worse, I only found about it when the necessary paths turned out closed. For example, in order not to be thrown to Sister Battle after the reutrn from the island, you must have the keyword "部員の絆" (at the haircut time), but you can only get it if you gather keywords "幸村の連帯感" and "理科の連帯感" (before the voleyball). Each time I had to go back. Documentation was not very helpful. Sure, it's complete, but one has to figure it out. So, instead of making the world a better place, I spent a whole day on going back and forth and puzzling it out.

Todaroda P also required a good deal of puzzling, but it mostly made sense. There I only disagreed with the requirement for complete replays to grab ends. But here it's not a challenge, it's Namco being assholes. Big difference.

P.S. I should mention that the sequence where Yukimura goes full-out Ai yori Aoshi on Kodaka's ass was chuckleworthy, especially since she's nowhere near Aoi Sakiraba in housewife's ability. Naturally, once she breaks another plate, she asks Kodaka to behead her in Seppukku ritual. Alas, no CG!

P.P.S. One of the priceless weaboo parts was how Rika made her big announcement. She said: "Yukimura should not be called `Yukimura-kun', but rather `Yukimura-san'". But wait, didn't we learn from Rocket Girls and other places that -kun is applicable to subordinates regardless? It is far trickier than you ever imagined!

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 04:03 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Although the opening post went to Ani-nouto, I am going to make a tradition of overflowing into Meenuvia, where I feel less hamstrung. And so, without further ado, let it be known that I finished both tips of the main fork.

Unfortunately, it required consulting Kampeki-Konryaku. In one of the first dialogs, it is necessary not to make a selection, and let the timer expire. A default is selected in such case, but it is not one of the listed selections and the only way to continue into the bulk of the story. Completely troll move by Namco, in my opinion.

I did Yozora first, and the story was allright, I thought (the CG above is from Sena's path BTW). I was already thinking about comparing it to Toradora P and the ways to explain just what exactly was lacking in the drama. Too early!

Sena's path felt like a missing opportunity at first, thanks to the confused teenage sex early after fork. It essentially mirrors Yozora's path, and I thought that it made more sense to make them more different. But I changed my mind about it as the story developed.

The reason for that was the right amount excitement and careful consideration for the differences. It was clear that the symmetry was overplayed intentionally, so that one crucial difference stood out: Kodaka and Yozora were childhood friends. So, while they were sorting out their issues on Yozora's path, Sena was generally let to her own devices (even complaining explicitly about being ignored), and while Kodaka had to settle with her, it did not carry much of emotional load. On Sena's path, however, settling with Yozora was a more loaded affair. It was quite effective, in my opinion.

As I mentioned in the opener, Sena is overhelmingly more popular among anime watchers. The game has similar characterizations, and after dealing with the two individually, I have no choice but to concede: Sena is superior. I didn't want to give it to her, since we all love the underdog, and she offers advantages of being rich and, not to put too fine a point at it, buxom. But it is simple, really: Yozora's personality is unpleasant at its core, even when she unwinds and opens up a little. She is not merely strict or traditional, but needlessly rude, tactless, and prone to bullying (even double-dealing in anime, although not in the game). Her cute tsundere act would work much better if there were an actual deredere in it and not just dere relatively to the tsun norm. In contrast, Sena acts kindly by default, unless provoked into yelling, and even then she chills out quickly. When one has to choose with whom to spend a lifetime, there's no contest.

Getting back to Toradora, I think that Ami's True End still offers more to the mature audience, at least more than the main fork of Haganai. The story has more fidelity to my sensibilities, and is properly open-ended. It is more bittersweet than sweet, while Haganai is just "they lived happily ever after, the end". Toradora also offers a "main fork": Taiga/Minorin, and that part seems like a better implementation of the idea, too. For one thing, it's a far bigger struggle, both from the effort the main character had to put in, and from the players effort (especially Minorin). A lot was happening, and there were some interesting moments, like when everyone involved into Taiga's path knew by unspoken agreement what to do (I am talking about Takasu's confession). Granted, Haganai has off-main-fork paths, but even if they are masterpieces of game writing, I really do not care for Rika and Yukimura characters. Too broken. Toradora's Sumire was truly interesting, but nobody here is shining.

One positive of Haganai is the BGM. It was properly haunting and involving as necessary, and I kept in enabled throughout.

By the way, Haganai makes a very large progress in sprite animation. Probably nothing new for console players, but still, impressive. Not sure if it added much to the experience, however.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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On March 1st, a Lancair Legacy 2000 crashed near Belen with two local pilots onboard. One was the airplane's owner, and the other was a well-known instructor, whom I met last at a fly-in in November. According to the TV chopper video and some private pictures that I saw, the plastic airplane disintegrated on impact, with most shards about a size of a book.

Although a crash wiki has an entry (last edited by Rob Finfrock), there is no NTSB report at this time, not even a preliminary, factual, or narrative.

Crash happened around 6 a.m., or about half an hour before sunrise. Perhaps they were trying to grab a time before winds picked up. I tried to land in Belen around 10 a.m. on March 2nd, and just could not do it, it was too windy.

P.S. I just noticed that Tim sold the airplane to George Westbrook, who I did not know, and it was George who crashed. That may explain why Chester had to be onboard: he was giving istruction to the owner. On the other hand, George was already owning the airplane when he ran out of runway back in 2008, so it was not a transition training flight.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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On the pages of AVWeb, Paul Bertorelli shills for an new iteration of DA-42 with updated Austro diesels. I mean "shills" in the nicest way possible, because the airplane certainly is impressive (even the old one was). Nonetheless, I think he is badly wrong about its safety.

If I were selling the DA42, I'd make the sales promo focus on the airplane's simplicity of operation and try to eliminate the stigma that twins are one engine choke away from a smoking crater. This prejudice against twins has been justified mostly in circumstances where pilots simply aren't proficient in engine-out ops or where the airplane was just marginal to begin with. (The word Apache comes to mind.) Does the new DA42 eliminate that problem? I'm not so sure, although it certainly appears to knock the sharp edges off. Its performance is impressive.

Nowhere in the article Paul mentions Vmc: the minimum controllable speed on one engine. But it is crucial. If a failure happens below Vmc, the pilot must close the remaining throttle, and it is difficult to do. Worse, he must not tardy even for a second, because the rollover takes less than that second (see the video of King Air in Phillipines). The rapid development of the problem, and the need to be perfect about responding is difficult. Paul dismisses pilot proficiency with a qualifying "simply". But it is not a simple matter. A pilot of twin must be highly trained and even more on the ball than a typical pilot, by a large degree.

The proper training is attainable, of course. Airline pilots maintain the required level of profeciency by going through a simulator. They call it "recurrent" training. The question is: would the owner of DA-42 be dilligent enough to do it? There is no FAA requirement for it. Insurance may offer incentives, but are they sufficient? The owner also gets to pay for the training: either the sim time, or CFI time and gas. I highly doubt that a typical owner is going to be rigorous enough.

UPDATE 2012/04/09: An article in Air Facts considers the question at length and with a benefit of experience that I lack, yet basically comes to the same conclusion:

Conversely, if an engine quits in a twin, the aircraft will immediately and dramatically begin to diverge from controlled flight in all three axes. It takes prompt, correct and in some situations aggressive pilot action to prevent the airplane from going out of control.

The solution offered is the primacy of the simulator training, and not because of its lower costs:

But you simply cannot accurately or safely practice critical engine-out scenarios in the actual airplane; in my opinion it takes simulator training to be truly safe. Do so every year without fail, and you can enjoy the safety benefits of the second engine. Do not, and no matter how frequently you fly and even how frequently you train in the actual airplane, you’re fooling yourself if you think you’re safer because you have a second engine. In many respects the opposite is true.

UPDATE: Ron Rapp (who also blogged on the topic of Vmc) reminded in the comments that twins are different:

The DA42 is, in my experience, a fairly benign twin with low Vmc and relatively docile handling. I like that aircraft a lot (I flew the DA-42NG with the new Austro turbodiesel powerplants). It reminded me of the Piper Cub, which as the saying goes, is the safest airplane in the world: it can just barely kill you.

Right... I should not swipe them all with one broad brush. Sill, a Cub was quite capable of killing Shaun Lunt, so I am not certain that it would be wise for me to gain the AMEL rating after all. A local FBO offers a pretty Grumman Cougar for about $260/hr wet, but I figured it made no sense to bother.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:15 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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By way of GA News comes a report that someone created a performance enhancing snack for pilots:

Pilot Chews contains huperzine A, vitamin A, vitamin E, ginkgo biloba, choline, ginger root, and caffeine. It comes in four fruity flavors including fruit punch, lime, watermelon, and orange papaya.

This very much reminds me of a Penny-Arcade strip about "Gamer Grub", where Tycho says "I'm perfectly capable of digesting ordinary food". In my humble opinion, the same critique applies to Pilot Chews as well. Granted, my flight bag contains Clif Mojo bars, which are not "ordinary food". But they are not aimed specifically at pilots and do not contain half as much useless junk.

P.S. Mind, I think that a room for innovation in cockpit snacks exists. In particular I wish someone came up with a package that can be opened with one hand and did not shed a cap or tear strip. But that may be too much to ask. Pilot Chews are packaged into a typical peanut bag.

UPDATE: Bob Russo comments:

I've tried it. Its not a snack. Its a supplement to help with pilot fatigue. Works pretty well.

This disarmes the comparison with "ordinary food", but then it pits the product against "5 Hour Energy", the idea of which I consider rather nasty. Perhaps I am afraid of getting addicted. Sometimes it's benign. For example, my primary CFI is a big fan of coffee. I was able to exploit it a couple of times by suggesting that we visit a fly-in or other, where we were sure to find coffee. But sometimes, it's not so wholesome. Not sure in which category Pilot Chews fall.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 08:01 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Yesterday morning, I was stuck in Mustang Island (KRAS) with crosswind exceeding the demonstrated value for Arrow and killed time at the airport office. At about 10 a.m. a Cirrus landed. I talked to pilot and he said that he barely managed it. Well, I thought, that's a Cirrus with a high stall speed. Soon, however, I saw a pilot of the little yellow-and-red RANS S-6 Coyote preparing for takeoff. He was going to take a friend for a trip around the pattern. I raised an eyebrow and went outside to take pictures.

While I was standing there, an academy C-172 went in to land, and, naturally went around. However, on the second time he made it stick by crabbing all the way to touchdown and planting it sideways in a way that would make any of my instructors swearing. That was just cheating.

Meanwhile, the little Coyote was ready to go, and took off. He kept the nose down, then popped off. I made a mental note. Then, he went around the pattern, and landed with a kick-out. No drama, no fuss, absolutely amazing. I really wish now that I spoke with the pilot, because I had a chance while I waited for him to refuel. He must be one of those airline guys who fly into Dusseldorf.

Once I saw him doing that, I figured that I had no excuse. I started up, rolled, and took off. Surprisingly, it wasn't so bad. Then my door unlatched. I knew that trying to repeat the performance of the pilot of the little LSA would be too much for me, unless in emergency. So I went inland where winds were lower and better aligned with the runway, landed and locked the door.

The S-6 was something that I seriously considered owning (no link because RANS' website sucks and changes internal structure all the time). Of course I realize that it's the pilot that makes the airplane do it, and there is no magic built into the airframe. But it was a very impressive demonstration nonetheless. Unfortunately, a ready-to-fly S-6 costs about $85k, which is far outside of my range.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 11:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The flight back was not as full of adventure. Here's a picture of a rare private airport with a paved runway (Canyon, TX).

I made a fuel stop at Ozuna (KOZA), and it was a more pleasant experience than Sonora. Although they have no self-service, the attendant assured me that airport manager lives on the property and helps out with fueling after hours (within reason, I presume).

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Driving to the airport, I saw this:

Seemed like no-brainer: go around the storm, through the hole, and we're free to go. It turned out differently. The system extended to the south quite some ways, and unfortunately we have an enormous restricted area there, which is usually hot (to be entirely honest, I could not get in touch with Center, so I did not know if it was). I thought I saw a hole, but eventually I ended with nowhere to go. I immediately made a 180 and proceeded back, keeping cool head and flying a heading. It was snowing, but fortunately not icing.

On this side of the ridge, I decided to land at a local field and wait the weather out. Only I could not close it. The cross-wind must be close to 20 knots. I tried a couple of times, and thought, what the heck, before going back let's make another try. This time I managed to sqeeze just by the restricted area, and from there it was open all the way to Artesia, where I made a stop to rest after all the trouble.

Pretty soon, however, started to become hazy.

Very hazy.

The clouds kept pressing me down and I decided that as soon as I am unable to maintain 2000 ft, I'm turning back. Fortunately, it was just enough to squeak into Mustang Island.

I later learned that locals do not make much of this kind of clouds, and just buzz around very low, or go on top. It all looked quite nasty to me, although of course it's not Illinois.

By the way, here's the worst idea ever, as seen at Sonora, TX:

Can you see the pool of water in the hose compartment? Good grief, who comes up with stuff like this?

P.S. Mr. Honeck's hospitality at Amelia's Landing Inn was outstanding. The WiFi is a bit flackey, mostly in the DNS department, which is easy to fix with an application of nscd( .

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:54 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I think I was the only one who flew in. About 20..25 people were present, 4 of them women. And no wonder, only the older guys want to talk to an AME. Doctor, who is also a pilot, mentioned that the other day he was in the pattern and out of 6 airplanes he was the only man on the frequency. Apparently ladies are not only getting interesting guns these days.

Curiously, there was another WINGS seminar in Deming a month ago, on the topic of back-country flying. That one was packed: all 40 slots were taken well in advance.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 09:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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According to Matthew Gionta, VP of Engineering at Icon (in a post by James Lawrence):

Additionally, these specialized airfoils used for spin resistance were not suited to the no-flap wing design ICON had previously planned to use on the A5, so ICON engineers chose to reintroduce wing flaps to preserve takeoff performance on the water.

Not again. Frankly, I think they are on a fool's errand: trying to create an uncrasheable airplane to be flown by a recreational boater. If Icon A5 ever ships, the target clientele will fly in a hazardous manner, they will crash, and they will sue. The money thrown at the unspinnable airplane whould be better spent to buy a good liability insurance.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 03:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Scalo was disappointing a little recently, but they did quite well today.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 02:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is going to be even more capsule than usual:

* Just as good as Hyundai Fanbois at TTAC say, but

* The visibility to the left is impaired by the A-pillar even worse than usual, atrocious.

Tags: cars

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 07:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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