FIRCED AGAIN, 2020 STYLE
Homebuilder’s Workshop By Ed Wischmeyer
Once again, the online Flight Instruction Refresher Clinic for renewing Flight Instructor certificates was an excellent cure for low blood pressure. The most inane question asked in an end-of-module quiz, and there were many contenders, was, which is more dangerous, hail or turbulence? The answer is, of course, extreme turbulence. Hmm. Was “extreme” mentioned in the question? And dangerous in terms of… what? The good news is that filling out the IACRA form was painless, as was submitting credentials for the vendor to process and submit to the FAA.
Check that. The day after I submitted the whole package according to the FIRC vendor, I got an email asking, we got IACRA, where is all the rest of the stuff? I resubmitted and sent them yesterday’s and today’s acknowledgements. The trolls…
I’m pretty close to a tee-totaler, but this course reminded me of the W.C. Fields line, “My first wife drove me to drink. I’ll always be grateful.”
So while I was in a test-taking frame of mind, I realized that my drone license (Part 107) had expired, so I got on line to take that renewal course. Surprise, the questions were actually related to the material. (Part 107 sUAS licenses actually do expire, unlike airplane licenses.) The sUAS license can be resuscitated – sounds better than renewed – with a free FAA online course.
When I finished the course, I clicked exit to hit the review material (which was advertised to have information that had changed since the flash videos were done), and I was off into the uncharted dimensions of the FAA website. Eventually, I got back to the Part 107 quiz, but it had forgotten that I had taken the course. Completely. I logged out and back in, and it knew that I had taken the course and let me do the review material, but now it would not let me take the quiz that I needed to renew my license. And it said that I could not retake the course for 90 days. Tech support did answer my email and said that they had a technical problem. Eventually tech support came to the rescue and I got the course completion certificate.
Following that rabbit trail a little deeper… You’ve probably heard of 14 CFR 107, which regulates flying sUAS (small unmanned aerial systems) for any- thing other than purely recreational purposes. You’ve probably not heard of 49 CFR 44809, which describes recreational flying of small unmanned aerial systems for purely recreational purposes. These are both different from the model air- plane regulations, 101(E), somewhere else. Not to worry, 44809 is under revision. You don’t need to pass any tests, yet, but you still have to know where you can and can’t fly and all that. Found out about 44809 on an excellent FAASteam webinar on sUAS. (There have been some really good FAASTeam webinars of late).
44809 is evolving, though, and knowledge tests and such are in the works. Hard to argue with that, of course – a year or so ago, the local Staples was selling drones and the sales clerk had no idea that there were any regulations at all involved in drone operation. One last parting shot – saw an ad for a company that will help you through all of the certification required for commercial drone operations – under Part 135, same as air taxis. None of the courses I’ve taken have mentioned Part 135…
For Thanksgiving, I got to use the RV-9A for something else it was suited for – cross-country flying!
Weather forecasts and radar indicated that my best bet for flying from Savannah to Knoxville would be on Tuesday, although Wednesday would have been first choice. The Tuesday flight weather was clear and forever with tailwinds averaging 15 knots, smooth, even over the Smokey Mountains. Wednesday morning would have been doable, as it turned out, but I would have had to leave early to beat some weather coming in.
Coming into Knoxville, the controller asked for maximum forward speed. No problem, can do, 200 MPH. Then he asked if I could turn base, and I did, losing speed and altitude both, some- thing that would have been hard to do in the RV-9A before I put the constant speed prop on it. Touchdown was heard, not felt, and I made the turnoff to TacAir, a moderately pricey big city FBO but with wonderful service.
Not sure what the hurry was all about because there was no traffic on the ADS-B nor did I hear anybody on tower frequency.
Thanksgiving was great, visiting my younger sister and her family, talking about times old and new, and enjoying delicious recipes that Mom used to make. Watching the weather again, it wasn’t clear if I could stay till Saturday or should leave Friday, but Friday morning, the answer was clear. As were the skies, visibility halfway to forever and only high cirrus – that is, if I left noonish after the morning crud had burned off at both ends. Again, I was blessed with tailwinds, this time in the high t(216 mph), fastest I’ve seen in the RV- 9A. But landing at Savannah, I could feel the wheels touch. Oh, well.
I did make a fuel stop on the way home, just so the plane would be relatively full for the next adventure, but even so, out the door of my sister’s house to plane in the hangar in Savannah was 3:30. Driving time, door to door, nonstop (to my house, 25 minute drive from the hangar), was advertised on the computer maps as 6:30. And the route choice would have been through the often clogged South Carolina interstates and twisty windy I-40 through the North Carolina mountains, or through that incorporated traffic jam known as Atlanta. Two ugly alternatives.
And, as it turns out, a Saturday flight would have been IFR in rain – and the RV-9A leaks – so Friday was an excellent choice.
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So now I’m FIRCed, sUASed, medicaled, and a bunch of other projects are done. Tomorrow, I’ll go look for a Christmas tree, first one in years… But the RV-9A enabled a great Thanksgiving, a much-needed change of scene and everything else. I am thankful. And blessed.
