Flying Into Writing: It’s All About Your Perspective

By Eric McCarthy Cruising along serenely with my friend and fellow CAP squadron-member, Derek, we passed over the LA Coliseum at 8,500 feet en route to Van Nuys VOR (VNY). We were flying up the Central Valley for one of my photo missions in my friend, Rich’s, Cessna. It was a beautiful day with few clouds and unlimited visibility. We had a bit of a headwind as we traversed the mountains on V107 north of the Fillmore VOR (FIM), and had been anticipating some turbulence, but it never materialized, and we were able stay at 8,500 feet for the crossing.There’s some pretty inhospitable territory in those mountains, with not many options for an emergency landing. Subconsciously, I began to “cheat,” adding a little “insurance altitude” by climbing to 9,000 feet; Derek called ATC to request a block of airspace between 8,500 feet and 10,000 feet. Other than the airliners passing way overhead and a couple of business jets on their way to Van Nuys (KVNY), there was no other traffic, so our request was immediately granted.Entering the Central Valley south of Taft, the scenery changes dramatically – from rugged, forested mountains to rolling hills and flat agricultural land that stretches to the horizon. Much of the land below us throughout this area has been scarred by oil production, a pock-marked labyrinth of drilling sites, empty pads, and storage facilities, but to our left is a spectacular view of the Southern Coastal Range and Carrizo Plain in full bloom. The recent winter rains brought out the vibrant greens and brilliant yellows of the wildflowers covering the hills and valleys as far as the eye could see! These hills and valleys are usually a monochromatic tan suede color, so to see them in bloom like this was quite a treat!I’m always impressed when professional pilots express their enthusiasm for racking up a few more hours in a small aircraft. Derek, call sign “Fluff,” logged thousands of hours as an S-3 Viking pilot in the Navy and then as a Southwest 737 captain but still just loves to aviate. In fact, Derek, an excellent writer in his own right, just had his first article published in the April issue of AOPA Pilot Magazine––a compelling story of rediscovering the joy of flight in a Light Sport Aircraft after his lengthy and illustrious career came to an end (https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2017/april/pilot/musings-saved-by-milt).I mentioned to Fluff that he could have easily crossed the country in the time it would take us to complete our mission. He dismissed my comment, noting that “the earth seems to slide by at the same rate from 35,000 feet…” Here, as we droned along at 90 knots groundspeed and 8,500 feet, we enjoyed a completely different view of the world than he had spent a career viewing from 35,000 feet. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it’s true – it’s all about your perspective.Accident chain?Approaching Avenal VOR (AVE), I noticed a new icon on the Garmin G5 Rich had recently installed. The G5 is an incredible instrument, and was working just fine, but wasn’t there a lightning bolt displayed over the battery symbol indicating it was charging? I wasn’t quite sure what exactly the new icon was trying to tell me, but I was quite sure it involved a red “X,” and that’s never good news.Somehow we had enough cellular coverage for me to download the G5 Pilot’s Guide to my iPhone that I had uploaded to my DropBox when the G5 was installed. Yep, there it is: a lightning bolt with an “X” through it! “Battery charger hardware fault, or temperature too high or low to charge the battery safely.” Hmmm… I wonder what that’s all about.We checked circuit breakers and fuses – everything was in order. The G5 seemed to be operating perfectly off its internal battery – or was it working off the plane’s battery? Well, either way, it didn’t seem to be a critical problem, so we continued onto our photo target 75 miles distant.Most of the flying to and from the target site is straight and level – somewhat boring. But once at the site, we needed to maneuver to get the pictures, and this is where Fluff’s years of experience in chasing subs over the Pacific really came through. In addition to orbiting the large development site, we were also tasked with photographing about 20 miles of winding road through the hills and valleys, requiring lots of relatively low-level maneuvering. He was in his element executing perfectly coordinated, tight turns while holding altitude – much as he had done at 500 feet over the ocean zeroing in on enemy submarines. I always keep an eye on our airspeed, attitude, and altitude whenever I surrender the controls to my “guest” pilots, but this time it was clearly unnecessary. I felt very comfortable as I hung out the window with my camera with Fluff at the controls.We finished up at the photo site and headed to Los Banos (KLSN) to refuel. After stowing my camera gear, I took control for the short flight. Wait – what was that? Do you smell anything? For just a moment, I thought I got a whiff of smoke – and then it was gone. It really didn’t smell electrical or fuel related – more like a campfire… maybe it was something on the ground. Derek hadn’t smelled anything, and we’d be on the ground in just a minute anyway, but we would definitely give it a more determined “sniff” test when we shut down.We refueled and checked for any indication of problems, but found none, so we launched for lunch at the One-Niner Diner at Paso Robles (KPRB) 84 miles south. We checked in with NORCAL Approach to get flight following; we were given a squawk code and asked to identify.NORCAL: Skyhawk 99700, NORCAL - we’re not getting your Mode C. Say altitude and position.US: We’re currently at 4,000, climbing 7,500, abeam Panoche VOR and we’ll cycle the transponder, 99700.Derek restarted the transponder but noticed that the interrogation light was very intermittent at best or not illuminating at all and began to troubleshoot as best he could. The way the transponder is mounted in Rich’s plane allowed for a narrow gap at the bottom of the avionics stack – probably to facilitate airflow. Fluff reached in and quickly removed his hand.“That’s really hot in there…” I reached in to give it a try – yep, it sure is! Maybe that was our problem––overheating…NORCAL: Skyhawk 99700, NORCAL – we’re still not getting your Mode C; we’re having problems with our radar in that area…We might be able to pick you up in about 20 miles. No reported traffic in your area.Okay, maybe it’s not us – maybe it’s their radar. Everything else was working fine… Let’s get some lunch, let everything cool down, and we’ll reassess then. We also needed to call Rich to let him know of the issues we were facing and get his take.We enjoyed a delicious burger for lunch then returned to the plane. We preflighted and, again, double-checked everything we could think that might have been causing our overheating problem. Nothing… It was time to call Rich.Rich is kind enough to let me use his plane, and I try to take care of it as if it were mine, so I felt bad making the call to tell him we were having problems with his plane, but I also felt he should know and be a part of the decision-making process going forward.Rich was very understanding: “…no worries… old avionics are going to fail sometime…” Safety, of course, was our number one concern. We had checked the circuit breakers and fuses again, and verified that the avionics fan was working – we could find no obvious cause for our problems, despite both the transponder and the battery charger for the Garmin G5 indicating overheating problems.Weighing our options, we all decided we would make the attempt to get back to Palomar (KCRQ). If we had any additional problems following take-off, we could turn around and land back at Paso; if not, we would press on. Worst case, if the transponder failed, we’d have to skirt LAX’s Class Bravo and possibly land short of Palomar at French Valley (F70) or Fallbrook (L18) due to the 30-mile Mode C veil around San Diego (KSAN). We had plenty of fuel, and we could deal with those issues as they came up – at least we’d be closer to home.The decision was made, I discussed with Derek that I wanted us to be “spring-loaded” for any additional problems – this sounded an awful lot like an accident chain, and it would look pretty bad if we two idiots couldn’t have figured that out! He readily agreed.We took off and joined our course to Fellows VOR (FLW). As we cleared the airport’s airspace, Derek contacted Oakland Center to pick up flight following. Again, we were given a squawk and asked to identify. We did, and it worked this time! All was right with the world again! Apparently our plan to let everything cool over lunch had worked.Until it didn’t… Approaching Fellows, we got word once again that ATC was not receiving our Mode C. Hmmm…Okay – cycle the transponder – still nothing… Then I remembered that I had packed cold drinks in the cooler with thin, blue ice packs––I think they’re made for icing injuries. Derek dug them out and applied them to the bottom of the transponder; a few minutes later, ATC informed us that they were getting our Mode C again. Aha! We may have figured a way to make this work after all!Nope! Twenty minutes later it failed again… But by this time, a plan was developing in Fluff’s mind: if we could time this just right, we could finesse it so that we could get through the Class B. Off went the transponder – ATC weren’t receiving it anyway, but they did have us as a primary radar target. The goal was to let it cool until we got closer to the decision point just past Fillmore VOR, then turn it on to get through the Class Bravo airspace.It worked– mostly; we still had some intermittency, but it worked long enough to get us through LAX and on our way down the coast. But another test loomed ahead: we’d need it to work again when we got closer to Palomar so we could get into the Mode C veil, which begins about 13 miles north of the airport.Off went the transponder, and under went the ice pack again, until we got to the San Onofre Power Plant, where we crossed our fingers and turned it back on. Moments later, the controller announced that they were receiving our Mode C again… what a pleasant surprise! All it took was a little ingenuity and we made it home! It was a long, challenging, but enjoyable flight.Until next time – fly safe!  (PHOTO 1 – Caption: Corrizo Plain and hills in bloom as far as we could see).(PHOTO 2 – Caption: Garmin G5 - Notice the near-perfect coordination and altitude – I suspect Fluff was flying at the time…)