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An AirVenture Oshkosh to Remember

July 27, 2015/in Having fun, Personal stories/by studentpltnews

GA shines on the world stage I’m just back from the greatest aviation show on earth – EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. One week each year, Oshkosh (home of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)) is transformed into the center of the aviation universe. And for this one week, Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH), becomes the world’s […]

More Out with the Old, In with the New

July 17, 2015/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

In aviation, change comes slowly from the FAA and sometimes more slowly from its users. The Lifted Index Analysis / K-Index Analysis chart was a useful product in its day. It has essentially become a relic of history but this twice a day product of historical data has been replaced with faster and easier to interpret products. Find out more here.

An AirVenture Oshkosh to Remember

July 27, 2015/in Having fun, Personal stories/by studentpltnews

More Out with the Old, In with the New

July 17, 2015/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

An AirVenture Oshkosh to Remember

July 27, 2015/in Having fun, Personal stories/by studentpltnews

GA shines on the world stage

I’m just back from the greatest aviation show on earth – EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. One week each year, Oshkosh (home of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)) is transformed into the center of the aviation universe. And for this one week, Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH), becomes the world’s busiest airport. AirVenture 2015 was even busier thanks to spectacular weather, education and entertainment for the entire family, and of course, the indescribable energy created by the passionate, diverse group of aviators that is the general aviation community.

More than a half million people attended this year’s event, making it the highest-attended show in at least a decade. There were more than 16,300 arrivals and departures throughout the week, including more than 3,000 arrivals in a single day. These numbers don’t include the thousands of operations conducted at nearby reliever airports.

Adding to the excitement and enthusiasm was a diverse lineup of aircraft including the B-52, F-35 Lightning, F-22 Raptor and the Airbus A350. The arrival of the, eight-engine B-52 was the result of nearly eight months of coordination given the outrigger landing gear of the mammoth bomber spans 148 feet and the runway is only 150 feet wide at KOSH.

The impressive arrival of the F-22 Raptor was extra special for the local community. Maj. John Cummings, an Appleton, Wisconsin native who spent years coming to AirVenture as a child, now leads the F-22 demonstration team and was personally welcomed by friends and family.

Goodyear’s newest airship, Wingfoot One made its first Oshkosh appearance continuing a long tradition of appearances. Icon Aircraft presented EAA with an Icon A5, the much-celebrated and newly certified amphibious, light-sport aircraft initially unveiled at AirVenture back in 2008.

A record 74 Cessnas traveled from Juneau, Wisconsin to Oshkosh for the annual Cessnas to Oshkosh mass arrival. Their number grows each year. Pilots participating represented 30 states and two Canadian provinces. While not near the number of Cessnas but equally impressive, were the 19 Stinson airplanes arriving together as part of the International Stinson Club – all produced between 1946 and 1949.

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and Jeff Skiles, best known as the pilots who “landed” their Airbus A320 on the Hudson River in 2009, received the Freedom of Flight Award at the EAA Annual Meeting. Special tributes to legendary aviator Burt Rutan and the Apollo 13 crew added to the magical week. Rutan, continuing to push the envelope in aircraft design, is already working on his latest. The SkiGull, Rutan’s 46^th design, is a trimaran-hulled, amphibious airplane designed to land on water, snow, ice, and other unimproved surfaces. Rutan plans on bringing the SkiGull to AirVenture 2016.

EAA officially opened its Aviation Gateway Park, meant to inspire and get youth interested in aviation and innovation. As if there weren’t enough going along the flight line, the Park includes the Innovation Center, Forums Area and Education/Career Center as well as drone cage which attracted a lot of attention throughout the week with daily competitions.

Country music superstar and pilot, Dierks Bentley, performed the opening night concert to a massive crowd on Boeing Plaza. Dierks’ interest in aviation, like most of us, goes back to childhood growing up in Phoenix. Now a Cirrus SR22 owner and full-blown aviation enthusiast, he relies on his freedom to fly to keep him better connected to his wife and three kids while maintaining a busy travel schedule. He even has a position on a new Cirrus Vision Jet and is looking forward to the jet transition.

The coordination and volunteerism never ceases to amaze me at EAA AirVenture. In particular, Oshkosh legend Fred Stadler received the Phillips 66 Leadership Award. About 15 years ago, Stadler and his wife moved from Texas to Oshkosh, in part to be close to EAA’s headquarters. Most days during the summer you’ll find Stadler helping out at Pioneer Airport on the EAA grounds and piloting Young Eagle Flights. In fact, Mr. Stadler recently flew his 6,000^th Young Eagle but graciously shuns the spotlight in favor of the thousands of volunteers and supporters that make the program possible. To his point, the number of volunteers on the grounds at AirVenture exceeded 5,000.

An annual tradition of AirVenture is its salute to veterans. Courtesy of an American Airlines B737, nearly 100 Vietnam veterans flew from Oshkosh to Washington, D.C. to visit the memorials that honor their service and sacrifice. The veterans visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Smithsonian and Arlington National Cemetery before returning to Oshkosh. The day’s events also included a parade and warbird air show.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was the constant entertainment of the Fun Fly Zone, also known as the ultralight area. At the southernmost reaches of the field each year, ultralights gather at the Fun Fly Zone to showcase the latest innovations and enjoy the many forms of purely recreational aviation in light, single-seat aircraft.

The night airshow didn’t disappoint – yes, night airshow – aerobatics without any real outside reference. AirVenture’s night airshow featured the AV-8B Harrier, the F-4 Phantom and the F-100 Sabre. Pilot Gene Soucy also performed in his modified Grumman biplane with wings that include 20 stainless steel tubes that store fireworks. The show concluded with fireworks and the “wall of fire.”

AirVenture 2015 was the best show I’ve attended. I say that each year and each year I mean it. I can’t possibly take you to Oshkosh by virtue of describing the week’s events and my personal experiences, but I can say there’s nothing else like it in aviation. It’s a reminder that the aviation community is not only alive and well, but thriving. And no matter your experiences in aviation, there’s always something new to learn, see and enjoy.

Yes, it’s too late to experience this year’s show, but it’s just the right time to be making your plans for next year. AirVenture 2016 – July 25 – 31, Oshkosh, Wisconsin (KOSH).

More Out with the Old, In with the New

July 17, 2015/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

Earlier this week I was speaking to a pilot about a Private Pilot checkride that he had recently completed. He indicated that things went positively on the oral examination though the weather portion had been a struggle. The struggle was not because the applicant didn’t have a knowledge of current weather products, but because the examiner had some favorite weather products that he always liked to test on examinations. Products, by the way, that are no longer available from the National Weather Service.

When the applicant asked the examiner for more information, the examiner pulled out a worn and out of date copy of Advisory Circular (AC) 00-45, Aviation Weather Services. AC 00-45 is a great reference but even the latest edition as of this writing is not up to date with recent weather product changes. An older version of the book should only be used for a history lesson, not current flight instruction or examinations. By the way, I do not know this examiner nor is it someone that our flight school uses, but it sounds like it is time for him to update his Plan of Action and reference materials.

Back in February, 2015, I wrote a post about the demise of the old Radar Summary Chart and TWEB products. This month I’ll cover the Lifted Index & K-Index chart and its replacements.

Lifted Index / K-Index Chart

I first encountered the Lifted Index Analysis / K-Index Analysis chart (L/K) as one of the four charts contained on a Composite Moisture Stability Chart (CMSC). The CMSC disappeared a couple of years before the L/K but was a tool for determining the stability, moisture content, and freezing levels of the atmosphere below 18,000 feet. It included the L/K, a Precipitable Water Analysis, an Average Relative Humidity Analysis, and a Freezing Level Analysis. Using the four charts together you could get a rough idea about the possibility of thunderstorms, the likelihood of their severity, and how much moisture was available to feed the storm.

The L/K was a big piece of this analysis. These indexes measured moisture and stability (or instability); key ingredients in the formation of thunderstorms.

A Lifted Index (LI) is purely a measure of stability. It is the difference between the theoretical temperature of a parcel of air lifted from the surface to around 18,000 feet (500mb) and the actual temperature at that level. A positive LI means that the atmosphere is essentially stable below 18,000 feet and a negative LI means it is unstable.

The K-Index (KI) measures both moisture and stability at certain levels of the atmosphere and is a bit more complicated to calculate. The formula is KI = (850mb temp – 500mb temp) + (850mb dew point) – (700mb temp/dew point spread). 850mb is around 5000 feet, 700mb is around 10,000 feet, and of course 500mb is around 18,000 feet.

Values for KI range from high positive values to low negative values. High positive KI (greater than +20) implies moist and unstable air. Low or negative KI (less than +20) implies dry and stable air.

When used together, the LI & KI values told you the likelihood of thunderstorms and their severity if they happened. See the charts below for their use.

If you knew how to use this chart, it gave a quick overview of thunderstorm potential. If you wanted to know about the instability of the lower atmosphere, which is important to many pilots, the LI portion was great for a glance.

On the negative side, most pilots did not have any real idea how to use the chart. It wasn’t intuitive and the key wasn’t included on the chart. It also only came out twice per day and it was based on historical temperatures and dew points determined during recent soundings. It wasn’t useful for fast moving storms and the further you got from the time of the soundings the less reliable the data became for determining thunderstorm likelihood.

It appears that the National Weather Service issued their last L/K chart on March 16^th, 2009. As of today, I could only find a couple of sources with a current L/K chart and one may be gone by the time this is published. The one that may be gone was DTC DUAT and they lost their recent bid with the FAA to remain a DUAT provider. Depending on the outcome of their dispute with the FAA and internal decisions, their L/K may be a thing of the past. Lockheed-Martin FSS was the other source with a true L/K chart. (CSC DUAT has a variant with some significant differences.)

So What Can I Use?

There are numerous products currently produced by the National Weather Service to replace the intended use of the L/K chart. Some of my personal favorites can be found on https://aviationweather.gov/convection. This includes several charts related to thunderstorms and is known as the ADDS Convection page. You need to click into the chart shown on the page to get the full details.

The Current Convective SIGMETs chart shows a graphical representation of Convective SIGMETs and outlooks for convective activity. This shows where things are currently bad and could become bad with regard to thunderstorms.

The Experimental Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) Convective Forecast Planning Guidance is known as the CCFP. These graphics are produced every 2 hours and are valid for 2, 4, 6, and 8 hours after issuance. While the product was designed for the FAA to help make decisions about traffic flow, it can be useful for pilots as well for short term evaluation of thunderstorm forecasts.

The Extended Convective Forecast Product (ECFP) Planning Tool is another graphical representation of the forecast probability of thunderstorms. It is related to the CCFP and uses similar graphics but shows the likelihood of thunderstorms over the next 72 hours instead of 8.

The National Convective Weather Forecast (NCWF) product shows current convective hazards and 1-hour extrapolation forecasts of thunderstorm hazard locations. It looks a bit like a radar screen but it is only showing convective hazards. It updates every 5 minutes. Clicking on a region of the map allows you to zoom in more closely.

The national radar is easily accessed from ADDS Convective page along with a map of current weather watches and warnings issued by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Oklahoma.

The final product shown on this page is the Convective Outlook also produced by the SPC. This product is produced as Day 1 through Day 8 charts. The shorter range charts tend to be more useful and provide a general expectation about the chances of any thunderstorm but more importantly give an indication about the risk for a severe thunderstorm. Information on the Day 1 Convective Outlook page also shows expectations for tornados, damaging winds, and hail. If you learned about Convective Outlooks more than a year ago, you will need a refresher as categories for the severe thunderstorm outlooks were changed earlier this year.

As you might imagine, the Storm Prediction Center, https://www.spc.noaa.gov/, has quite a few excellent products showing forecasts for storms. Take some time and explore their site before your next flight with convective weather nearby.

Conclusion

For many years, change in aviation was a slow process and it really still is, but change does come and all of us, especially flight instructors and pilot examiners, need to keep up. The L/K chart has essentially become a relic of history but this twice a day product of historical data has been replaced with faster and easier to interpret products. From twice a day to up to 288 times per day. I think there may have been some improvements.

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Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

An AirVenture Oshkosh to Remember

More Out with the Old, In with the New

An AirVenture Oshkosh to Remember

More Out with the Old, In with the New

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An AirVenture Oshkosh to Remember

More Out with the Old, In with the New

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