happylife

Night rating

Finally tonight, I completed all the requirement for the night rating. I found that the night flight was much more enjoyable and comfortable than I had expected, because the wind is generally calm, the traffic is less crowded, and the night view is very attractive. You might feel strange but it's easier to find the airport than under the sun, because the runways of the airports are illuminated at night with a characteristic shape. I'm thinking about flying by solo for more hours and want to fly anywhere around Vancouver by myself. Getting the float rating was my target this year, however, I'm reconsidering about it because I heard it's difficult to rent a seaplane even after getting the float rating.

Night cross-country

To get a night rating, I was supposed to do instrument training last night, but it was so clear that my instructor changed the plan and we did a night cross-country flight. We took off around 10:00PM after I made a navigation log in a hurry and filed a flight plan with the flight service by telephone. The course was CZBB(Boundary Bay) - CYYJ(Victoria) - CYCD(Nanaimo) - CAP3(Seschelt Gibson) - CZBB(Boundary Bay). It was just a two hour flight with four touch-and-goes. Different from the bright night two days before, the moon was still behind the horizon and it was harder for me to see every thing. It was a little bit scary to do touch-and-goes at CYCD and CAP3, because both the airport lie close to mountains and those mountains looked like a black hole at night. I hear that some airplanes crashed there at night years ago. On the way back to CZBB, we flew over Greater Vancouver which looked like scattered jewels around the moon.

Midnight circuit

To get a night rating in Canada, we have to fly more than 10 hours at night. It was after 9:30PM when I took off with my instructor and started solo flight around 10:15 after dropping him off. It was a full moon night with no winds; the perfect conditions for night flight. I flew around the circuit seeing the moon in the sky and on the sea. I kept flying after the tower closed at 11:00PM. I was flying so long that I forgot how many times I did touch-and-go. Though it was a pleasant flight, the fuel was short and my instructor was waiting at the terminal, I landed finally before the date changed.

Airport security

This is the picture of the entrance gate of a typical airport in Canada. It is taken from outside of the airport. The airport site is surrounded by an easy wire fence and a couple of gates with a keypad like this picture is set up. When the airport building is closed at night, we have to use this gate. Everyone can get out of the airport site through this gate with no special method, but you have to know the secret four-digit code and input it to this keypad lock to enter from outside. The "secret" code is written on the back of the keypad so that everyone can see from inside of the airport. Thought the secret code is sometimes changed, you can see and remember it in the daytime while the airport building is open. It means that anyone who wants can enter the airport whenever he likes. As you know or not, most airplanes have no door key, and it's easier to start the airplane engine than usual cars. I think this airport security system is too easy.

Round tirp to Victoria

I flew to Victoria as a PIC (Pilot In Command) for the first time. Though my instructor was on my next seat, I was a little bit nervous because the Victoria International Airport is complicate with three triangle-shaped runways. Plus, it was a special day according to the NOTAM which says "RAG 1500 FT FM THR 09 AND 1500 FT FM THR 27, FOR MIL USE ONLY." A rag means a wire which is usually stretched across the runway on an aircraft carrier to stop a jet fighter immediately. It would have been set for a military training, but I didn't understand if I could use the runway 09 or 27, which is the main runway of Victoria airport. No one knew whether the rag or the runway was for military use only. Anyway, after some communication mistakes, I landed the runway 09 and had dinner with my instructor at a restaurant near the airport. We spent so many minutes there that the sun was almost set when we returned to the airport. As I don't have a night rating yet, we had to come back to our home airport before the official darkness. The return flight from Victoria was hurried, but we could enjoy this beautiful sunset over Gulf Islands.

Tethered blimp?

Pilots are required to get NOTAM(NOTice for AirMen) before the flight, but it is sometimes difficult to understand because of a lot of abbreviations and strange words. When I was preparing for the night flight, I found this code in the NOTAM - "CZBB TETHERED BLIMP 490456N 1230006W (APRX 1200 FT BFR THR 25 AND 1600 FT RIGHT EXTENDED RWY CL) SFC TO 200 FT AGL 207 MSL. LGTD 0604290030 TIL 0605011700" I didn't know both the words, "tethered" and "blimp." As I didn't have a dictionary, I asked a Syrian instructor. Though he didn't know the former word, he knew the latter one. "Blimp is a balloon" he answered and I understood what the NOTAM meant. As I had a spare time before the flight, I drove to the exact point located on the NOTAM and took this picture. As you might know, this is a so called "tethered blimp."

Blueberry power

As I had a terrible experience about my eyes in the last night-flight, I prepared a secret weapon this time. I got it at Save on Foods in Ladner, the nearest village from the airport. It is a bottle of blueberry smoothie which contains a lot of effective component called anthocyanin. This dark blue material is said to activate human eyes and I felt it personally. I drank the beverage a few minutes before the flight, and I felt it worked very well; I could see the memo on my knee-pad in the dark airplane without difficulty. If you have difficulty in your night vision, I recommend that you have blueberries before night flying, driving and whatever activity in darkness. It would take effect at once.

Helicopter tour to Victoria

Late this afternoon, I got a lucky phone call from my friend who is working for Helijet as a helicopter pilot. He told me that I could get a ride on his helicopter at a super discount price. It was less than $50 for a round trip from Vancouver harbor to Victoria. As the airline is mainly for executive businessmen, the usual ticket price is more than $200 for one way. It was a huge, twelve-seater helicopter excluding two pilots, and had only four passengers including me. Different from the plane take-off, the helicopter took off without a long take-off rolling. It was a strange feeling to climb up almost vertically. Fortunately it was a super fine day today and the window view was great. It take three days to sail from Vancouver to Victoria on my boat, though it took only 35 minutes in the helicopter. I enjoyed walking around Victoria Downtown and flew back to Vancouver after three hours. It was such a great half-day trip that I ran out of the memory of my digital camera.

To go back to the sea

We started the painting job at 10:30 after getting another can of paint and finished all the job before noon. I asked the marina staff to lift up the boat again and go back to the sea. It came up to $500 in total for the maintenance this time including the lift and paint, excluding the labor of my friends and me. It's almost the same as a normal car maintenance cost for one year. We were thinking about enjoying sailing on the shiny boat, but the wind was a little bit cold and strong, causing choppy waves, so we docked at the public pier on Granville Island, and had lunch with beer together. The sky was blue and quite a few seagulls were hovering. After separating, I came back home and took a shower. It was so pleasant that I took a nap on the bed for hours. A few minutes ago, I woke up. It's about 18:00 and I have two more hours before getting dark. What should I do?

Critical red

It was my second night flight lesson. I took off after nine with my instructor, because the daylight saving time has started and it doesn't get dark until this time in Vancouver. Our flight plan was CZBB - CYNJ - CBQ2 - CYCW and my instructor told me to divert to CYXX on the way. I made one critical mistake not in the air, but on the ground. I had been always drawing the course line with a red pen because it is conspicuous on the chart. Black is good, but I think red is better, because it doesn't hide any characters or symbols behind the line on the chart. However, at night, the red is the worst color because we use red light for night flight. Red color is said to be gentle to our eyes and therefore we usually use it for night flight. As you know, red line under red light equals to nothing. It was what happened for me tonight. Anyway, I felt that it is very hard to see the chart and the navigation log in the airplane at night. I thought it's more difficult to see the inside than the outside of the airplane.