JackG's random blog

#5: Cool day of flying, taxiing, learning and eating.

Jack Gershfeld — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:49:00 GMT

Today I flew to KHND (Henderson, NV) to attend Digital Signage show. The day started great, with 2600ft overcast (so I got some IFR in 0.1hr)

and then severe clear with 50KNTS tail wind. What else can you ask for. A 55min flight ended with good landing, parking at a transient and the whisking to the terminal in a comfy airport car.

The winds at KHND were strong with a steady 28KNTS when I was landing and steady on the ground. The airport people said that I need to secure my airplane well, due to the winds. No problem, I have chocks, and I have tie downs that will not ruin paint on my plane. After securing the plane and makings sure nothing is moving, I got my backpack, car GPS and out I went to do some business. A little pat on the back for having chocks and tie downs.

Coming back later in a day, I filed IFR and started taxi to RW35R as cleared by ground. At the same time a Citation was landing and was exiting to the taxiway as I was taxiing by on the uncontrolled area of the airport parallel to the taxiway. The Citation had to stop before entering uncontrolled area due to my crossing. As I was cleared to taxi, I was proceeding as was requested by ground control and did not realize that Citation was there until I was right in front of him.

He companied to the ground control that I interfered with his movement and requested to know if I had clearance to taxi. For which ground controller said "Yes, and he also told Citation that he did not talk to ground and he should.". Citation pilot insisted to tell the controller that it was too close for comfort and that the tower told him to switch to ground, monitor ground and taxi to parking and that he did not have to talk to ground. The controller finally said, you were entering uncontrolled area for which you are responsible for maintaining separation at all times. And that was the end of it. The lesson I learned was to stay aware at all times and not to assume that I have the right of way.

As I stopped at the RW35R for run up, a consistent beep was attracting my attention. I could not figure out where it is coming from. Then I remembered that I picked up a CO2 detector at Migration and stuck it in the bottom pocket next to my feet. I pulled it out and sure enough it was reading 49ppm and beeping insistently. By the time I took the picture it dropped to 28ppm. All doors were closed, so I opened one to clear the air. Within 5 minutes the reading went down to 0. That incident got me alarmed and I kept monitoring CO2 throughout the flight, but nothing happed.

Battling head winds on the way home, I finally got vectored for VOR-A to Fullerton and landed without an incident. A quick text message to my wife that I landed and will be home in 15 minutes, parking pane, connecting chargers etc and out I go. Dinner is waiting with all of the fanfare of being with the person I love and have been together for the last 27 years.

All in all a cool day of flying, taxiing, learning and eating.

#4: Explore your mind and everything else using “Mind Mapping”

Jack Gershfeld — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:30:00 GMT

Introduction

MIND MAP – two simple words yet a very powerful concept used for hundreds of years for brainstorming, visualizing concepts, solving problems and helping relationships. Many times we use it while not being aware of it: by drawing flow charts, diagrams and random pictures. Mind mapping is not an answer for all but if it works for you, you will get another tool to work with and to improve your life. Will it help you to get through tough times ahead? It all depends on you.

Foundation

A mind map is a radial diagram for representing your thoughts around a central key word. The different paths in a mind map are arranged intuitively as different ideas or concepts visualize in your mind. The three rules are simple and are easy to follow:

Step 1: Start on the center of a page with a single concept or word

Step 2: Draw branches and connections between words and ideas and pictures

Step 3: Enjoy the process and use as many colors as you can and make it look nice (Mind Map Examples)

This fascinating tool can take you places you have never seen before and the only thing you need is a pen and a paper. Explore relationships with your wife, your children, your relatives or any one you associate with. Define a project and all possible outcomes as you map your way through endless combinations. Chart your business and its future with possibilities and outcomes. Investigate decision making process and its effect on your day to day activities.

Regardless on how you draw it, the results will be the same, better understanding and visualization of any concept you decide to mind map. To help you out, there are few software packages available on the market. The one I'd like to focus on is called FreeMind. It is a free software, it is Java based and will work on many different platforms. There are only three things you need to know about this software to make it useful:

1. Enter key – Insert a Sibling branch

2. F2 Key – Edit text on the selected branch

3. Insert Key – Insert Child branch

Now download the FreeMind software, place cursor on a node and start exploring everything imaginable in your universe. If you never used this approach before, you are in for a fun ride. Just to get little creative, I mapped out our COPA organization, and I think it looks grrr..eat!

Set browser full screen and click on the image to enlarge it.

Conclusion

There are many organizational, motivational and relationship building tools available to help us to succeed in business and in our personal life. FreeMind is one of these tools. Try it, learn it, use it and set your mind free to explore your life. Here are some hints for trying out FreeMind: Mind Map your Cirrus airplane, Mind Map your family, Mind Map your holidays. The list is endless. Send me a note about your success story!

Usefull links:

Download FreeMind

Wikipedia article

Mind Map Examples

#3: State intentions

Jack Gershfeld — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:24:00 GMT

Tuesday I flew to Palo Alto (KPAO) for a meeting and was returning home on an IFR flight plan at 7pm. Slowly it was getting darker and at some point it became pitch black. Coasting on the autopilot I settled into a routine and turned on my XM. Scanning PFD and MFD displays with engine monitor selected.

After being interrupted several time by ATC, I thought to myself “Night is clear, no wind, perfect flying conditions and a working heater: may be I should cancel IFR and just go straight to Fullerton on my own”. I have done that before many times.

Just as I contemplated that thought, my attention was focusing on the main bus voltage. It started at 28, then 28.5 then 29, then 30 then 30.5v. A quick check of the ammeter, showed zero amps draw, and no charging. Within a few minutes everything went back to normal and voltage settled to 28.2 volts. Well I did not want to cancel my IFR flight plan anymore and decided to stay on it until my destination.

30 minutes before reaching the Fullerton airport I got the call “N521JL Fullerton airport is closed due to the airplane upside down on the runway. Runway is closed till tomorrow morning. State intentions.” . “Stand by” I said and started contemplating options. “N521JL request to land on the Taxiway, can you arrange for this”. Controller: “521JL contact LA Center on XXX.XX and pass your request”

Few minutes later, I am talking to LA Center and I finally made decision and said “N521JL would like to divert to KSNA. Can you call my wife and let her know that I am going to Santa Anna” After everything was arranged I was diverted and within the next 30 minutes I landed on the runway 19R and taxied to America Aircraft Maintenance to check my Alternator issue next morning.

Now I am driving back to Fullerton to pick up my car and sure enough there is a Cessna upside-down on the runway with big X placed on the approach end of RW24. In addition I see a black suburban parked across the taxiway Alpha at Charley. Holly smoke, I said to myself. If only I would attempt to land on the taxiway, I’d be dead.

Everything became crystal clear to me: every time I fly – no shortcuts, stay with the program, and follow the rules. I am glad to be here with all of you today.

#2: To eat or not to eat…

Jack Gershfeld — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:21:00 GMT

As pilots we are always on a lookout for any health issues, since we never want to lose our Medical. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease are few of the medical conditions that afflict millions of people every year. Of course Cirrus pilots are not exempt from these statistics.

I was born in rural Siberia with very little fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter. Our main meals were bread, potatoes, meat, sauerkraut and boxes and boxes of fresh caviar. By the time I was 32 and well versed in McDonalds, Carls Jr. and In’n Out, I routinely when out for dinner and had 20oz steak, 3-4lb lobster, 2 large baked potatoes, and of course a big scoop of ice-cream for desert. Who can refuse a dinner like that at Red Lobster, La Vien Rose or Ruth’s Crisp.

One day, my wife noticed my love handles, stomach, heavy breathing and a desire to sleep after a good lunch. After she brought it to my attention, I went to my mom (she is a doctor) and said “What do I do now?”, I want to change. For the next 18 years I focused on a good healthy diet. I know for sure it made a difference, since my wife never complained again.

A few weeks ago I flew Dr. Alan Goldhammer from San Francisco to Chino and during this flight he introduced me to a book called “The pleasure trap”. Little skeptical, I bought the book and just finished reading it. This is the most revealing book I read on why we do what we do in our day to day eating habits.

Fully annotated with references and logically laid out nature’s plan to keep us addicted to processed food. For all of us, cognitive pilots the book offers fascinating information that passes the most rigid critical thinking test.

If you are tired of hearing what you want to hear and ready to read what you need to know, then this book is for you. It is brutally honest, scientifically supported and easily understood.

When you get a chance, check it out and see how it can change your live and keep you flying with intact medical till you are 90.

----

Book reveiw here.

Try this if you do not want to buy the book.

#1: Trust, parachute, mountains and COPA

Jack Gershfeld — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:32:00 GMT

A few summers ago I was involved with COPA on organizing Migration number four. There were host of volunteers working daily to make Migration the best event ever. And sure enough, each Migration was getting better and better. Every volunteer was entrusted with a specific task and everyone trusted that this task will be completed on time and as promised. After the Migration, I was a de-facto organizer and continued to work on the Migration 5.

About 5 month before M5, I had serious issues that affected my family and I knew that I would not be able to dedicate anymore time to the job I was trusted with, yet I did not bring it up and discussed it with the team. At the end, Gordon and his wife volunteered to take over my responsibility within 4 month of Migration 5 and with the help from many volunteers pulled it off without a hitch. At that point the trust between my peers and I was broken.

Forward to September 9, 2008:

My wife has been telling me about a seminar at Snowbird, UT which is put together by www.coveylink.com and is called “The Speed of Trust”. Being somewhat skeptical, I agreed to spend two days in UT. We departed in the afternoon to fly from KFUL (Fullerton) to KSLC (Salt Lake City) in essentially straight line over Las Vegas. During the flight at 11K and 13K and deviating for thunderstorms, I watched mountain ridges pass by and new ones appear in front of me. With all of the tasks to do and weather to deal with, I felt safe inside the Cirrus. I did the pre-flight, I studied weather, I filed IFR flight plan and I just finished by BFR and IPC even though I was IFR current.

There was another feeling during this flight, the feeling of safety because of trust. I felt the safety of the parachute right behind me ready and willing to bring me softly to the ground in case of emergency and I felt yet another comfort level knowing that I flew the Cirrus aircraft. I have been at the factory 4 times; I have met both Alan and Dale brothers and was always fascinated by their true desire to make a better plane. The bottom line I trusted them with the product they made and company they run. I also felt the safety of COPA wisdom. Over the years of Cirrus ownership COPA members were always ready to answer any questions raised and provide recommendation on any situations. Because of COPA I had enhanced check lists, better understanding of emergency procedures and I was well versed in reading MFD engine data.

Landing at Salt Lake City:

The landing was uneventful and was helped by the KSLC controller who mentioned that if I cancel IFR, I can go visual instead of staying at 11K and then circling down over the runway. It took us a few minutes to unload the plane and another 30 minutes to drive to Snowbird, and that is when I was startled. The mountains looked huge, uninviting, and sharp and with very steep slopes. The granite peaks looked straight up ready to tear apart anything that comes in contact with them. There is no way; I thought to myself, I would survive a parachute landing in these mountains. My trust and comfort with the “parachute inside” was slowly deteriorating.

Next two days:

For the next 2 days I and a group of other 30 knowledge starving people around the world were exposed to the concept of “Speed of Trust” that included “The 5 waves of trust”, “The 4 Cores of Credibility”, “Smart Trust” and “The 13 Behaviors of trust”. The process was tedious and full of explanations and exercises, but the Cool Aid tasted great! In the process I met many interesting people with many fascinating stories to tell. And if you ever decide to play around with this concept, visit the http://www.whotrustsyou.com/ web site and see what score you will get.

On the way back to KFUL I selected the route to minimize exposure to high peaks and I had 2 hours for an uninterrupted flying and thinking. It was VMC and when I was out of KSLC airspace, I was on my own at 13500 over the desert with my wife safely sleeping on the back seat and autopilot engaged. And once again the peaks did not look as dangerous or steep at that altitude.

COPA:

I could not stop but thinking about COPA 2.0, the conversion experience, the bugs, the difficulties, the disappointments and acceptance. Many of us wanted the old forum back, because it worked, yet the reality was different, we were in the COPA 2.0 land. It took some time to get adjusted and to find an acceptable way to work around the old habits. Today, I miss the old COPA 1.0 forum but I embrace the new COPA2.0 platform. I believe that COPA leaders have Integrity, Intent and Capability to make COPA 2.0 the best platform for all members of this organization.

I landed at KFUL at 8:15pm, parked my plane and drove home thinking how privileged we Cirrus pilots are. We fly the best plane in the world, we have freedom of flying anywhere at any time and we can accomplish more in less time.

Blue skies.