Well, i have decided to put a hold on the blog so i can spend more time with my website. It should be done early next year 2008.

Check out the Terminal forecast for SEA

TAF KSEA 121725Z 121818 17020G30KT 2SM RA BR OVC025 WS015/20065KT
  FM2000 20030G45KT P6SM -SHRA BKN025 OVC040 WS015/24050KT
   TEMPO 2024 2SM SHRA
  FM0000 22015G25KT P6SM -SHRA BKN030
  FM0400 VRB06KT P6SM VCSH BKN030

Hope nobody had plans to go flying today!

Traveling for the holidays? Check airport delays HERE!

2 Days ago a TFR was put out for the shuttles recovery. It pretty much covered the entire US with 25 miles on each side of the projected path from the surface to infinity. Since NASA didn’t know what the exact path was going to be they put out multiple paths. Pretty much shutting down the airspace for the whole US. I was pretty sure this was some sort of a mistake. Finally, early today the removed the TFR and just made it a general FDC advisory notam. So long story short… if anyone looked at aeroplanner or any other graphical TFR website and had seen some crazy looking TFR that’s the story.

Don't forget... plus 8 for zulu time time now!

Bend Airport in Oregon is going to be closed again on November 5th
BDN AP CLSD WEF 0711051500-0711060600

Also, here is the notam for the new runway
BDN 16/34 (NEW) 5200X75 CMSND/ 16/34 (OLD) CLSD WEF 0710252200

Think your Mode-C transponder was expensive just so you could fly into class B airspace? By 2020 you could also have to have an ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) installed. As part of the FAA’s “Next Gen” proposal; all aircraft will need to be outfitted with ADS-B to enter class B and C airspaces. I had a chance to use ADS-B while I was in school and found its many uses to be quite helpful. We could pull up real-time weather, be alerted to near by traffic, use it as a form of terrain avoidance, navigate around restricted areas and class B airspace. It was a very nice piece of equipment… I’m sure it costs a fortune. I briefly looked around to try and find a price for purchase and install but had no luck. The price I’m sure is astronomical. The price will not just be high for pilots. The FAA will have to place GBT (Ground Based Transmitters) across the US for the ADS-B to function. All in all, I could see this killing the weekend flyer who is struggling to afford an already expensive hobby. Not to mention rental rates going up with FBOS having to outfit all their aircraft. The FAA is currently looking for comments. AOPA, has more info on their website.

Here is some reading on the Situation:

Garmin ADS-B discription
FAA ADS-B PAGE
AOPA ARTICAL

Just a heads up. A Piper Cherokee is a P28A not a PA28. They changed it awhile ago. Personally, a PA28 made more sense. I’m sure there is some reason behind it… besides confusing people.

Auburn has a new SID. The Auburn one departure went into effect a few days ago. I know SEA center computers are not adapted to the departure yet so as of now they are rejecting them. I'm not completely sure how DUATS works with rejected flight plans from center. But you can always put in remarks that you want the Auburn One and when getting your clearance request it. Also, if you call Flight Service and get a briefer outside of SEA you might want to tell them to put it in remarks because they probably wont know that it’s non adapted.

The government is discussing a new rule for GA international flights. The proposal would make any GA pilot trying to cross the boarder get a clearance via the internet! They want pilots to submit a list of all people onboard so they can do background checks against known terrorist. Imagine the guy flying out of a grass strip with no computers in sight. This could be a huge pain for a lot of people. You can read more about this HERE. Also, this is the place to leave any comments or concerns. Comments are due by 11/19/07.

If you are having a hard time with the new automated call director for Flight Service try this. Click Here. This is a card put out by Lockheed-Martin to help pilots with the system. Instead of saying where you are calling try using the number prompts from the card. Sometimes when you say Oregon the system thinks you are saying Florida. AOPA also has a card on their website with some helpful hints AOPA.

I had discussed earlier all the runway closures they were having at the Bend Oregon airport. According to their website and the NOTAMs, they are done! Looks like at 3 PM on the 25th they opened their new runway.

On a different note, I am glad i am not flying in southern California. Between the fires and the president it's just a TFR violation in the making.

The FAA has changed the wording a bit on their TFR’s. “Any person who knowingly or willfully violates the rules concerning operations in this airspace is subject to certain criminal penalties under 49 usc 46307.” With the way presidential TFR’s work it would be very easy for someone to fly into one or bust a rule while flying into or out of them. When the President came to Seattle this past summer I was able to see first hand how confusing and how much airspace one of these TFRs take up. There were portions of the TFR that you could not enter…period. Other portions, you could take off from but had to exit immediately and could not land at another airport within that ring of the TFR. The part that really got me was the fact that at a moments notice they could extend the TFR. Now I understand the need for these TFR’s, although cumbersome they are much needed. What I do not understand is the fact that they can extend it with little to no notice to the public. We have to have a way to get out the information to the pilots in a timely manner. With a suitable amount of time there should be no excuse for flying into a TFR. With little to no notice criminal penalties are just too much. With all said, one website that I really like is www.runwayfinder.com. You do need to be careful because they are slow to update sometimes. But it gives you a good visual representation of were the TFR‘s are in relation to your route of flight. Of course the best source for TFR’s is still Flight Service. But this website is a great supplement to use in conjunction with your standard brief.

Here is the Base radar image off of the NWS website. As you can see we have a pretty good weather system coming in today. Take a look at these 2 Terminal Forecasts for the winds!

SEA TAF
FM2100 18015G25KT
FM2300 20025G38KT
FM0200 21015G30KT

HQM
FM1400 10020G30KT
FM1900 22029G45KT
FM2300 21030KT
FM0200 23015G25

I thought this was a pretty good radar image that shows the shadow caused by the Olympic mountains. You can see south of Port Angeles and west of Bremerton there is no rain echos from the radar. But more than likely it is raining. Just the mountains getting in the way of the weather radar up on Camano island (ATX)

I was combing through the WSDOT website and found a few webcams. I have a list of other ones Ill post in the next few days. Also on the WSDOT page has webcams on quite a few roads WEBCAMS.

ARLINGTON
OLYMPIA
PORT TOWNSEND
SKYKOMISH STATE

The National Weather Service has been putting out new aviation products that use java. One of their new products is the alternate site for radar. NWS RADAR click on a blue bubble to get that sites radar. With the java you can click on the map and then move your pointer to an area of interest. If you look under the radar map you will then be able to see the distance and direction from your original click. So, if you want to see how far a storm cell is from a city this becomes a useful feature. The Java tool will also give you a lat/long for the area of the map your mouse is currently over. More and more of these java tools are coming out from the NWS and you can find them all on Aviation Weather

Runway Finder

RUNWAY FINDER, a very useful website for depicting TFR's, has a false TFR on it near Bend Oregon. DSD 7/9388 ended a few days ago. I called seattle center and verified it with them as well. I originally thought that Runway Finder received its TFRs via the FAA TFR site. But the FAA site seems to be up to date. Keep in mind the FAA site is not very reliable. They do not update on the weekends and i believe they do not update it late at night. So heads up on all of that. Weather looks nice this afternoon as fog dries up. Fog tomorrow with a nice afternoon before the next weather system comes ashore late Sunday.

Notam search

Here are the notam search pages for unpublished notams. I always have a hard time navigating the faa website so this will just be easier.

FAA NOTAM.

DINS NOTAM.

Published Notams

I was doing some notam searches and came across the FAA's published notam page so i thought i would share

NTAP for 10/25/07


Link for FAA Published notams

TDO and BDN

Pilots who fly the I-5 corridor know the importance of the Toledo (TDO) weather reporting. It seems like all of I-5 will be marginal with 1500 to 2000’ ceilings and Toledo will be sitting there with an 800’ ceiling. I would say that the 2 most important weather reporting stations in WA are Stampede Pass and Toledo. Anyways, what I’m trying to get at is the government has cut the funding for the Toledo weather observer. Once an hour a lady would call flight service with a report and they would put it into the WMSCR weather network. Well that ended recently and I am quite sad to see it go. First the TWEBS… now Toledo.

BDN AP CLSD WEF 0710110200-0710161400

Bend airport in Oregon is closed until 7AM local time on the 16th. They are doing some runway paving. here the link to their website

http://www.ci.bend.or.us/depts/urban_renewal_economic_development/bend_airport/index.html

Rain Rain Sun!

Looks like rainy conditions will continue through the day today. Upper level trough is moving through the area. This weekend shouldn’t be too bad though. We might actually get a break from the gloom. There should be a ridge building sometime early Saturday giving us a partially cloudy day. But should see some good sun breaks!

Sad story out of S43

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,300128,00.html

Looks like they found all 10 people.

VFR into BFI

I come across a lot of good aviation planning websites everyday. I was looking at the Boeing field website and they have some pretty good info on the arrival and departure procedures. I’d suggest anyone planning a trip to BFI that’s not familiar with the airport to check these out. I have not flown into Boeing for a few years but I remember it being a bit tricky. Here are some of the graphics from their website

South Flow

North Flow

Here is the link to their website with the written procedures
http://www.metrokc.gov/airport/pilots/procedures.stm

Scott Crossfield

NTSB has released their findings on the Scott Crossfield accident out on the east coast. Crossfield, a well known civilian test pilot was flying IFR and flew into embedded thunderstorms. The accident could have been avoided entirely if Crossfield would have obtained enroute weather. With yesterdays thunderstorms and today’s mention of further thunderstorms I thought this would be a good story to bring up. Flight Watch is available until 10PM on 122.0 through out Washington State. A simple call to flight watch could have saved this pilots life.

NTSB accident report

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20060501X00494&ntsbno=CHI06MA115&akey=1

Looks like Friday might not be a bad day for flying. The upper level trough that has been giving us our usual Seattle weather is moving south and out of the area. Take advantage of it while you can Saturday brings more rain!

ATX OUT!

“WSR-88D RADAR IS AWAITING PARTS FOR ANTICIPATED REPAIR THIS AFTERNOON. UNTIL THEN...THE RADAR WILL NEED TO REMAIN IN CLEAR-AIR MODE. THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE RADAR COULD DROP OUT ENTIRELY BEFORE THEN...UNTIL FINAL REPAIRS ARE COMPLETED”
-NWS

What a time for the radar to go out. I am sitting in my car and there is steady rain right now. Luckily southern Puget sound can get radar coverage from Portland. As the above excerpt says, we should have the radar back and normal by this afternoon. I learned some good information from this. Last night the NWS put out a convective sigmet but the weather radars were not showing anything (ATX was still out). NWS still had access to the data from the Canadian weather radar and could see an area of convective activity. In the future if this ever happens again here is a link to NAV Canada’s radar page.

http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/cgi-bin/CreePage.pl?Langue=anglais&NoSession=&Page=Fore-obs%2Fradar&TypeDoc=html

P.s. anyone going flying today, NWS is talking about possible thunderstorms this afternoon.

“VIGOROUS PACIFIC FRONTAL SYSTEM APPROACHES”

The discussion this morning put out by the National Weather Service begins with the above title. This afternoon we are going to see our first real winter style system move onshore. NWS is talking about it being inland by 7PM. Watch for a few inches of rain to fall along the coast and over the Olympics!

BYE TWEB

At 5PM today the National Weather Service is getting rid of the TWEB forecast. They had discussed the possibility of ending the TWEB earlier this year. May 20th was the final day for the public to speak out against their removal and less than 1% of the users responded. So goodbye to the TWEB. I found them to be most useful for a forecast between the western side of the Cascades and the eastern side. Since Stampede Pass is the only weather reporting we have over the mountains they were quite helpful. If you didn’t know… a TWEB forecast is a specific route forecast such as Seattle to Ellensburg. Now we will just have to rely on the area forecast which I just find to be entirely WAY to broad of a forecast. Oh well.

THE ONLY GOOD PLACE FOR ICE IS IN A CUP

We had a pretty good cold front move through the area today, lowering temperatures through out Washington and Oregon. For most of the day the freezing level sat at about 4500’ on the west side of the Cascades and 5500’ for the east side. Quite a few pilots reported light to moderate icing as well. So, in light of all this bad news of icing I thought I would share a little known local procedure called deviation vectors for ice. This is a procedure that Seattle set up to help pilots get across the mountains or to descend down below the freezing level to attain minimal ice. When you file your flight plan and you suspect conditions are right for icing put either “deviation vectors for ice” or “an uninterrupted descent to ____ feet for ice.” Deviation vectors for ice allows you to climb to an altitude above the freezing level over the lower elevation terrain. If you do pick up too much ice you can safely descend to a lower altitude and a warmer temperature. An uninterrupted descent to a certain altitude (one below the freezing level) keeps you from being assigned an altitude on descent that could put you into or near the freezing level. These are just two more tools to use in the battle against ice in western Washington.

HERE WE COME WINTER

Leafs are falling off of trees, temperatures are declining and rain is in abundance. This means only one thing… WINTER! Or winter :( anyways, with winter comes many airport closures through out Washington. So I have made a list of all the seasonal airports I could find.

BANDARA STATE (4W0) OCT 1ST- JUNE 1ST
CLAYTON (C72) WINTER
CLE ELUM (S93) NOV-APR
DE VERE (2W1) WINTER
COLFAX (00W) OCT 1ST - JUNE 1ST
DARRINGTON (1S2) WHEN SNOW IS ON RUNWAY
EASTON STATE (ESW) OCT 1ST - JUNE 1ST
GREENWATER (21W) OCT 1ST - JUNE 1ST
KAHLOTUS (W09) OCT 1ST - JUNE 1ST
KENT (S36) WHEN SNOW IS ON RUNWAY
LAURIER (69S) OCT 1ST- JUNE 1ST
LEAVENWORTH (27W) OCT 1ST- JUNE 1ST
LESTER STATE (15S) CLOSED INDEFINITELY
MAZAMA (W12) NOV 1ST - APR 1ST
METALINE FALLS (09S) OCT 1ST - JUNE 1ST
RIMROCK (4S6) OCT 1ST - JUNE 1ST
RITZVILLE (33S) WHEN SNOW ON RUNWAY
SKYKOMISH STATE (S88) OCT 1ST - JUNE 1ST
STARBUCK (16W) OCT 1ST - JUNE 1ST
STEHEKIN STATE (6S9) OCT-JUNE

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

I am starting a new website that I have titled “Fly Washington State.” My goal of the website is to bring pilots all over Washington state together. The website will have a forum, information on airports with a local twist. The airports will have information that you can not find on the many website out there that give you what is in an AFD. For example, phone numbers, webcams and that kind of stuff. Also the website will be full of local procedures, upcoming events and anything else I can find that a pilot flying in Washington state would like to know. Finally, I have decided to start up a blog that I can quickly post information to that I come across and just general stuff that I can not find a home for on the website. The website is not yet up. I have been working on it for the past year or so and it is quickly coming to a point were I can put it online. I hope everyone enjoys!