Fly the Gap???

It was a beautiful weekend to fly this past Saturday and Sunday. I got a chance to go flying Saturday on a route up to Placerville, Auburn (stop for fuel - human and plane), Cameron Park then a stop at Stockton before returning to San Carlos. I was flying with my friend Michael and his Mom's friend Mort. We had flight following for the flight and was handed off to San Carlos just prior to Coyote Hills. San Carlos tower frequency seemed to be busy but I was able to report in and was told to report the cement plant for left traffic for runway 12. I continued on in and reported over the cement plant and was told #3 following Cessna on crosswind. I didn't immediately see it but picked the traffic up as it turned downwind. All seemed normal. I had noted that the number of planes calling into SQL started to increase. A plane from Crystal springs, another plane from Coyote Hills and yet another plane. The controller was also dealing with one plane that he didn't have the current tail numbers and was trying to get the pilot to read back the full call sign. The level of tension in the controller's voice was increasing. The controller also started issuing instructions for full stop landings which they seem to only do once they get a bit saturated. The plane coming in from Coyote hills for some reason was maneuvering over the cement plant and said they were doing that for spacing. All of a sudden the controller instructed that plan to leave the air space and fly the "gap". I have heard many calls including calls to remain clear of San Carlos airspace but I have never heard an instruction to "fly the gap". After a few more calls the controller explained to fly the gap between San Carlos and Palo Alto class D airspace... now if you have a nice moving map that isn't that hard to do but can you imagine trying to do that on command with just a VFR chart and at probably 800 feet altitude where landmarks aren't all that visible? Lucky for me the only thing happened on my landing was the controller got mixed up and while I was #1 on short final he said I was #2 following the Cessna on short final. Before I had a chance to reply he caught himself and all was good.

Well know I know what this controller means when he says "fly the gap".

...revise the definition of “Night”

An update to the FAR was posted recently and was effective October 12th. One of the changes that caught my eye was a revision to the definition of "Night". I thought to myself how could it be that somehow Night has changed. Perhaps the FAA was going to simplify the various night rules. So I read on with curiosity only to find out that the FAA was merely making a correction in the title of the source for obtaining the published twilight time. Specifically they removed the word "American" from the source document.

SUMMARY: The FAA is correcting the title of the publication ``American Air Almanac'' to its current title ``Air Almanac''.
  Background
The former ``American Air Almanac'' was created to meet the general requirements for air navigation in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. In 14 CFR 1.1 the definition of night refers to twilight times as published in the ``American Air Almanac''. The ``American Air Almanac'' publication ceased in 1953 and is currently called the ``Air Almanac''. This technical amendment corrects the title of the publication.

The "Air Almanac" can be found here

A Star among us...

Most of us have been fortunate to have Patti as a flight instructor. We all know the quality of her teaching style and we have come to appreciate her teaching skills. We know how great of an instructor she is and we sometimes even jealously protect our little secret since Patti has another full time job teaching at Norte Dame de Namur University and does the flight training in between. Now Patti has been recognized for her flight training achievements. Patti is now a Gold Seal instructor... this is an FAA honor bestowed only on CFIs that meet the qualifications and high standards of training. We knew we had a star, now she is Gold!



Good Bye to the Airship

No longer will we be sharing the sky with Airship Ventures' airship. Occasionally one would see if slowly making its way up and down the peninsula. As of November 14th the company has ceased operations.

Its a two way street

I happened to be at MHR yesterday for a visit off airport. When I returned to the FBO I saw two buses parked outside. I thought to myself, wow I wonder if this is some special group departing from the FBO. Maybe some sports team or maybe even the latest music group that I would have no clue about. As I was walking into the FBO it was crowded with a group of mostly older men dressed in non-descript work clothes. Then I caught a glimpse of a logo, PG&E. These 100 workers were being staged to go back to help with restorations of the aftermath of the devastation from Sandy. Walking out to the ramp I saw at least 5 news trucks all capturing this news worthy event. Shortly thereafter I was headed out taxing to the runway when it was overheard the ground controllers wondering what all the activity was about. My right seat heard the talk and communicated back that all the commotion was for the PG&E workers flying out to help out in the aftermath of the Hurricane. It was interesting to note that often times I think the controllers know everything that is going on but in this case they had no clue… so it is indeed a two way street.. pilots know things that the controllers don’t and we should never assume that the controllers are these all knowing voices in our heads.

GBT What?

A new NOTAM showed up for SQL that I hadn't seen before.

Navigation NOTAMs

San Carlos CA [SQL]: October NOTAM #6

Navigation GBT out of service

The flight briefer wasn't able to explain it, essentially saying it isn't anything I needed to be concerned about. I asked the tower and they said they really didn't know the details but it wasn't anything that impacted their approaches (e.g. GPS).

The Pilot/Controller Glossary gives some insight:

GROUND-BASED TRANSCEIVER (GBT)- The ground-based transmitter/receiver (transceiver) receives automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast messages, which are forwarded to an air traffic control facility for processing and display with other radar targets on the plan position indicator (radar display).

Looks like it is related to ADS-B.

So that's how they do it!

Has this happened to you? You are planning a flight and calculating the W&B and determined how much fuel you can carry to be within the W&B limits. You get to the plane and find out that there happens to be more fuel than what you can carry or need. You can always tell your passengers that one or more of them can't go or consider other options (reduce the baggage carried) to accommodate for the extra fuel. Another option is to drain fuel. Recently I saw how this can be done. Another member was taking a trip in a 182 with 4 passengers and needed to have the fuel at 50 gallons or less. The plane had about 63 gallons. They requested WVFC MX to drain the fuel. To do that, they cut the safety wire holding the wing fuel drain valve, then unscrewed that drain valve while standing ready with a funnel, attached to tubing that drained the fuel into a fuel container. Once the appropriate amount of fuel was drained the fuel drain valve was quickly screwed back in to stop the flow of fuel. Then the safety wire was reattached with a special tool that puts a nice twist on the wire.


What happens to the fuel that was drained? It doesn't go back into a plane but can be used in some vehicles.
Who pays for the fuel drained? As near as I can tell, the owner eats the cost of the drained fuel.