For the avionics nuts out there

Here is my exchange so far with Avidyne about how the software became “corrupted” on my multi-functon display bringing my flight training to a halt last week:

Topic: MFD Failure     Posted: Yesterday at 5:02pm
I have recently purchased a 2005 Piper 6X with the Avidyne system and the latest version of Release 8. Last Thursday, as I was preparing to begin a three-day school in the plane at SimCom, we started up the MFD and it locked up and would not operate. Fortunately, there was a capable avionics shop on the field in Orlando, but the fix required new software or firmware to be shipped out Friday and installed in the plane today, so the school had to be rescheduled and I had to come home, leaving the plane in Orlando. It will be a couple of weeks before I can go back to do the school. I understand from the avionics shop today that the problem has been fixed “so far”. I am informed that sometimes the reinstall of software permanently fixes the issue or that there may be something else wrong that will corrupt the software again. So I was greatly inconvenienced and I am a little nervous now that this problem may be repeated. Can you explain what would cause the software or firmware in the unit to become corrupted, and let me know any experience the company has with such issues repeating themselves? I’m curious if there might be some hardware issue that would cause the software issue to repeat. Thanks very much, John Samford
jsamford   Newbie      Joined: Jan 30 2013  Location: Savannah, GA Status: Online  Points: 5	Post Options     Thanks(0)       Quote  Reply Posted: 24 minutes ago at 10:53pm
	I haven’t gotten any response on the forum, but I have been emailing with a couple of people at Avidyne regarding this issue. The first response was as follows: The problem with corruption has to do with a fundamental flaw in Windows SW.  When the system is powered off, if it was in the middle of writing to the CF (generally writing engine data), sometimes the write is not completed and the CF is corrupted.  This is very infrequent with MFD R8 and was more prevalent with earlier versions.  I am not sure how often it occurs in R8, but I would think it should be fine for a long time.  I am not aware of a hardware problem that is typically linked to CF corruption. My next questions and the answers were as follows: Thanks. The instructor and I did turn on the Avidyne for about five minutes to go through some things, and then shut it off while we went inside to gather weather, etc. Is that a bad practice? Is there some minimum time it should be on to finish writing data or some minimum time it should be off before restarting? We do not really find much of a need to have the system operate for any specific time, nor do we specify a specific shutdown time.  However, I do recommend that when multiple databases are updated on the same day to make sure that the MFD completes at least one full boot sequence in between each update attempt - even if an attempt fails.  stacking updates immediately after each other often causes software corruption.   *** Thanks for getting back to me. We were not updating any databases. We started up the system for about five minutes, shut it down for 20-30 minutes, and when we tried to start up again there was total failure on the MFD. I’m just curious if there is anything I can do to prevent this again. As I mentioned in the forum post, it forced me to cancel a three-day training school on a Thursday, await new software which arrived Monday, and leave the plane in Orlando awaiting reinstall of the software for the MFD. This has been an expensive and inconvenient failure on a plane I just bought, so I want to know what might cause it and how to prevent it happening again. I understand your concerns with the system.  It is uncommon to have a software failure in any situation and extremely rare to have a software failure that is not involving a database update. I do not have any suggestions to avoid software failures other than what I have already suggested.  In my opinion and experience it is not something to worry about too badly.
jsamford   Newbie      Joined: Jan 30 2013  Location: Savannah, GA Status: Online  Points: 5	Post Options     Thanks(0)       Quote  Reply Posted: 19 minutes ago at 10:58pm
	I’m not really feeling like I have a great answer to this so far.I’ve pretty much been told that “I would think it should be fine for a long time” and that it is extremely rare and “not something to worry about too badly.” I really want to know what would cause the software that runs the MFD to become corrupted, and whether there is anything I can do to prevent a reoccurance.  Edited by jsamford - 16 minutes ago at 11:01pm

Update on Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 05:30PM by John Samford

Here’s my latest post on the Avidyne forum, for those interested in this kind of thing:

So far there have been 58 views of these posts, but I have been talking to myself as no one but me has posted anything. 

I have been corresponding with people at Avidyne who have been attentive and courteous, but I’m a little miffed that I haven’t gotten a better explanation yet. I have been told that this is rare and not to worry, but when you’re dealing with flying in instrument weather, it’s disconcerting to think your equipment might fail. The worst comment I received from Avidyne was an effort to sell me more extended warranty at what they call a “reasonable” cost of $3,700 for three years. Never had to do that in the past for an airspeed indicator or altimeter. A system that costs in the high five figures ought to be warranted forever at no cost. Fortunately, the plane came with a good extended warranty until some time in 2016.

I am curious because Avidyne is telling me that the unit may have been shut down while it was still writing engine data, thereby corrupting the software. I understand that Avidyne uses a version of Windows NT, and most people know that Windows cannot be properly shut down by just cutting the power. That is why you need to press “Start” in order to begin to Stop your Windows computer. The Avidyne has no shutdown procedure. You just taxi in, cut the engine, and turn off the master switch. Is it possible there is a design flaw in this system by having turning off the power as the only means to shut down Windows, or has Avidyne found some way around this?

Anyway, most pilots are fairly technical people, and I think we need to be able to hear from the software engineers rather than sales or tech support when a question like this comes up. Is anyone at Avidyne reading their own forum where questions like this are supposed to be answered?

Discombobulated

Laura Lee’s 1990 Jeep Wrangler is in a hangar in Georgia from when I departed by plane a week ago to go to Birmingham for a meeting. My car is in a hangar in Birmingham from when I departed there by plane to go to Orlando, Florida last Wednesday for a three-day flight school. The plane is in Orlando because it had an avionics malfunction requiring me to cancel flight school last Thursday. I am in Richmond Hill, GA with the rental car I got for the school in Orlando, but ended up driving back here to Georgia. The Jeep keys are in the Jeep locked in the hangar. My car keys are with me in my backpack. The plane keys are at the desk at the airport in Orlando so the avionics guy could get into the plane to fix it, which he did today. I’m reduced to going over this several times a day to remember where I am.

But I’ll try to start getting all the pieces back where they belong tomorrow. I’ll drive the rental car back to Orlando where I got it. If the weather’s OK one of the next few days, I’ll turn in the rental car and fly the plane to Sarasota to get the avionics upgrades I had planned. I’ll rent another car there and drive back to Georgia for a meeting Saturday, then to Birmingham for a meeting Monday, and then back to Sarasota to turn in the car and pick up the plane, then fly back to Orlando to finish the school, then fly back to Birmingham. The plane will be in the hangar in Birmingham, I’ll have my own car, and when I fly back to Georgia, the Jeep will still be waiting.

Got it?

C'est La Vie . . . I guess

Had it all planned. Fly to Orlando Wednesday, flight school today, Friday, and Saturday, fly to Sarasota Sunday, have GPS units upgraded Monday and Tuesday, fly back to Savannah Wednesday.

Spent some time this morning in the classroom, went to lunch, and got out to the airport to fly around 1:30 pm. Turned on the power and the magic “glass cockpit” multi-function display (MFD) would not start up. Gave us strange messages, and it would never come on correctly.

Taxied over to an avionics shop. Avidyne (the manufacturer) says the software is “corrupted”. They will send new software but it will not be here until Monday. Flight school is cancelled to be rescheduled. GPS upgrade is cancelled to be rescheduled. Can’t fly anywhere near Savannah from Orlando commercial without going through Atlanta or Charlotte and spending $600 to $800 and five or six hours. Driving a rental car four hours to Savannah tomorrow. Leaving the plane here to get fixed. Will probably be three to four weeks before my schedule will allow me to set this up again.

Even if the new software works, there may be some hardware problem that “corrupted” the software, so this first step may not really solve the problem for long.

Only good news, the previous owners had some kind of extended warranty on the Avidyne that runs to 2016, and transferred to me when I bought the plane. Priceless.

I won’t be writing about flying for three or four weeks, but I’ll be back.

Cap'n Ron

As a boat person, one of my favorite movies is “Cap’n Ron” starring Kurt Russell as an irresponsible mostly drunk boat captain. Turns out Kurt is an accomplished pilot in real life. Check it out here.

Just Another Pilot

Harrison Ford. See the video here.

Human Element Range Extender

Long long ago, when I was 23 years old and in my first year of law school, I flew to the beach for a weekend with another couple. Our female guest spent the day Sunday by the pool, drinking beer (or was it wine?). So as we flew back at around 9pm Sunday evening, at 8,000 feet and an hour out of Birmingham, the young lady announced that she positively desperately needed a pit stop. I tried to see if she could hold out for another hour, but the answer was clearly no. So we descended to an airport somewhere in Georgia and landed. There was no tower, no traffic, no one there, and no open building, so we just stopped right at the end of the runway and let her take care of her business in the grass. She hopped back in, and off we went to continue our journey home.

So getting into the real nitty gritty of flying in small planes, this brings us to the question of what to do when nature calls, since there is no bathroom on N881RJ. First off, it is useful to schedule legs of only two to three hours between stops on any trip. It’s nice to walk around, stretch your legs, buy some fuel, and yes, use the facilities. But for those times when you just gotta go, someone years ago invented what pilots call the “Human Element Range Extender”. Here’s a photo of one that is marketed today by online pilot shops under the clever name of “Little John” (forget the snide remarks concerning my name). It is a useful gadget to have in the plane and there have been times when I have needed one and used it. I’m sure I have one packed away with old aviation stuff, but I’m not sure where it has ended up, and I’ll be ordering one for the plane.

As for the ladies, someone cleverly invented an adapter that goes on the top of the bottle to make life a little easier for women, and it is called the “Lady J Adapter”. You go girl. I assume that “Lady J” means a ladies John, but it should have been named for my guest on that trip years ago, who required our unscheduled stop at the remote airfield in Georgia. Her name was Patsy, and if it was named for her, it would have been called the “Lady P” adapter, a far more appropriate name for the device.

And so what about privacy when using one of these range extenders? Well, there is none unless you just get under a blanket or something. Travel in small planes only with good friends. Put the women in the back seats. There’s no curtain, but there’s also no rear-view mirror. Best real advice: don’t drink anything for about an hour before the flight and until you only have an hour to go before landing.

And now that this is covered, we can go back to discussing the more interesting aspects of flying, which I promise to get into in the next installment.

Another Flight

I’m beginning to get comfortable with the plane now, and completed another flight of about 2 1/2 hours today from Savannah to Birmingham. If you havent noticed, I’ve put a menu item at the top of the blog entitled “Track the Plane”, and you can click on it to see the path of whatever my latest flight was. I’ve also got a new IPad app called CloudAhoy which I will be using soon to let readers reconstruct a flight in detail with a virtual view of the trip using Google Earth. The reconstructed trip can be sped up as much as 10 times so that a 120 minute flight can be viewed in 12 minutes.

Here is a link to a YouTube ad for my plane posted by the broker I bought it through. The music is absolutely horrible, so I would suggest you mute the speaker before watching, but it does give a fairly dull overview of what N881RJ looks like.

In Birmingham now for a couple of days before heading down to Orlando Tuesday or Wednesday, weather permitting, for a little flight training at SimCom, followed by an upgrade of the GPS’s on the plane in Venice, Florida which I hope will occur the following Monday and Tuesday.

Flight Training and Avionics Upgrade

This is all moving pretty fast, but I need to go to a basic school dedicated to my specific airplane, to learn the systems and get really familiar with how everything works. And I need to get some instrument (IFR) work so that I can fly when there are clouds in the sky. Finally, I need to upgrade the two GPS units in the plane to what is called WAAS, which stands for Wide Area Augmentation System.

According to Garmin, WAAS is “a system of satellites and ground stations that provide GPS signal corrections, giving you even better position accuracy… an average of up to five times better. A WAAS-capable receiver can give you a position accuracy of better than three meters 95 percent of the time.” This kind of system permits instrument approaches as good as a full ILS (Instrument Landing System) at almost any airport, and is a tremendous boost to safety. 

I plan to fly to Birmingham Friday or Saturday for a Tuesday meeting there. I’ve been trying to figure how to schedule the school and the avionics upgrade and it came together today more quickly than I had thought possible. To get me and the airplane up to speed quickly and ready to fly, I’m planning to head down to Orlando to a flight training facility called “SimCom” next Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on weather, for a three-day “initial” school for the Piper 6X. I should also be able to complete an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) during this training to make me legal to fly IFR.

The school runs Thursday through Saturday, and then I will head over to Venice, Florida to the Sarasota Avionics facility to spend two days having my two Garmin GPS’s upgraded to WAAS. Sarasota Avionics, which is really in Venice, is the largest installing Garmin dealer in the world for the last 7+ years, and promises to upgrade my plane in a mere two days by trading in my GPS units for new ones, at a slightly higher cost than upgrading my units, but with a full new unit and warranty. This upgrade can be done in two days rather than the 7 to 10 days required to upgrade my units.

If all goes well, both the plane and I will be up to speed in a little over a week from now. It will be good to get all of this out of the way, and be ready for the next adventure.

I'm in Nerd heaven

If there was ever a project to occupy a gadget freak/computer nerd over a rainy weekend in Georgia, it is figuring out how to keep the information up to date in the electronic playground that is my new plane’s cockpit.

If you look at the photo  to the right, you will see that my panel consists of two large displays with two smaller GPS/Radios between them. The two large displays are made by Avidyne and are the Primary Flight Display (PFD) on the left and the Multi-Function Display (MFD) on the right. The PFD derives information from onboard instruments and from the two Garmin GPS’s, and replaces traditional flight instruments such as the airspeed indicator, Altimeter,Horizontal Situation Indicator, Attitude Indicator, rate of climb, etc. The MFD does several things but usually shows a map with the plane situated on it from GPS information. It also has an engine information page showing various temperatures, fuel flow,etc and it has a Chart page with instrument approaches, airport diagrams, and other useful data.

Having all of this information essentially replaces both the old “steam guage” instruments and the bulging flight bags you often see pilots carrying full of approach charts for every airport and other needed paperwork. And it provides a wealth of information I never had in my past flying, such as real-time weather (from XM Radio) and traffic information showing other planes flying nearby. Its all simply fabulous, but I am finding out it comes at a cost, both financially to pay for the various services and in the time required to download and install updates monthly to the system.

So far in my exploration, I have figured out that I will need a subscription to the XM weather service for the MFD, monthly updates to the basic “Nav Data” on the MFD, monthly updates to the charts on the MFD, and monthly updates to the charts for both Garmin GPS’s. The weather service should be fairly simple and just involves calling XM Radio and activating an account for the weather receiver, kind of like activating and subscribing to Satellite radio in your car. The remaining subscriptions involve using a Windows computer (not a Mac) and a special program to download the updates from a chart company called Jeppesen and put them on USB Drive’s for the MFD or memory cards for the Garmin’s, and then bringing these sticks to the plane and plugging them into the gadgets to upload the new data. It shouldn’t be too hard once I get going and find a Windows computer when I’m not at my office, but registration and login’s and passwords to set it all up are pretty overwhelming. Tomorrow I will go out to the hangar and try to get all the serial numbers of the equipment necessary to begin setting this up. Meanwhile, I’ve spent the weekend reading manuals and Googling things to learn what I need to know. I’m having a blast.

It is clear to me now that this blog, while it will contain some flying adventures that may be of interest to friends and family, is also going to dive into some of the technical aspects of modern-day flying, a subject that may interest some and bore others to tears. As I’ve always said, read what you like and skip the rest, I may try to move the more technical stuff off of the main journal page and onto a new section dealing with such subjects as avionics, engine care, and other subjects of interest only to pilots or would-be pilots. We’ll see how it goes, but I hope to provide sections you may choose, depending on your interests. Not everybody is fascinated by how to lean an engine at altitude.

For the moment though, I plan to document my learning curve right here on the blog, and I’m not offended if anyone who came here to read about boating or the births of my grandchildren chooses to check out. I’ll miss you, but feel free to visit when you like.

Short Field Takeoff

One of the things you learn getting a pilot license is how to do a “short field takeoff”. Here’s one that’s really short. I count his takeoff roll time at about three seconds:

Zee Plane, Zee Plane

After selling the boat recently, and taking up flying again with a few lessons, I have been looking to purchase a small plane to make getting back and forth between Birmingham, Alabama and Savannah, Georgia easier, and more fun.

I had narrowed the type of plane down and figured it would take a lot of patience to find one I would want and that would be within my budget. Among the planes I have owned or flown in the past was an eighties model Cherokee Saratoga, a fixed-gear, single-engine, six-seat Piper. As Wikipedia will tell you “The Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six is a series of single engine fixed landing gear light aircraft manufactured in the United States by Piper Aircraft between 1965 and 2007.” The most recent version is called a Piper 6X, or a 6XT for the turbo-charged version.

My criteria for a plane were as follows: first, I needed roominess and the ability to carry two couples or the lovely Laura Lee and a few grandchildren; second, I wanted a fixed-gear, single-engine, naturally aspirated plane which would save enormously on the costs of maintenance, fuel, insurance, and required pilot recurrent training. The last plane I owned was a Beechcraft Baron, a 200-knot twin-engine, retractable-gear, fabulous piece of machinery. My recollection is that I had a cost of about $100 per hour of flying just to cover insurance and required annual training at Flight Safety in Wichita, Kansas. I was ready for a serious downsizing from that type of aircraft.

The Piper 6X fits the bill perfectly. It has a roomy cabin with club seating for four behind the pilot and co-pilot seats. It has a “useful load” of 1,200 lbs., which means it will carry that much weight in fuel, passengers, and luggage. With about 50 gallons or 300 lbs of fuel on board, it will carry 900 lbs. of passengers and luggage for about three hours and cover 450 nautical miles. There is only one other plane in this size and category that will compare to that, and it is the Cessna 206. However, the Cessna is not as roomy or luxurious, lacks the club-seating, and feels very utilitarian in comparison.

So I studied the market for late model 6X’s and got a handle on the prices and equipment for those available. None of them were quite right as they were either overpriced, not in good shape, had too much time on them, or lacked some of the avionics equipment I thought I would need. I assumed I would sit back for awhile, taking flying lessons and slowly getting back into flying. However, about a week ago N881RJ appeared on the market, a beautiful 2005 model with only 800 hours total time that looked to be reasonably priced and have all of the equipment I was looking for. So last week I flew up to Lexington, Kentucky to take a look, and the plane looked perfect. It was listed by a brokerage firm called Airmart in Lexington, which is owned by a gentleman named Grant Sutherlin. I asked around among the aircraft community about him and he has an excellent reputation and is rapidly growing the company that was founded by his parents. He and his company are well-known and respected in the industry, and I felt good dealing with him. By the time I left Lexington, we were working on an offer, and a deal was struck the next day. 

So Monday of this week I drove to Birmingham and Grant had arranged a pilot to fly the plane down for the “pre-buy inspection” on Tuesday. This involves a mechanic going over the engine and airframe very carefully, checking the compression of the cylinders, and making sure the required service has been maintained. I was fortunate to have an old friend who has maintained the planes for the company where I worked for many years perform the inspection. The plane passed with flying colors and the deal was closed yesterday morning.

So yesterday ended up being a whirlwind of activity, and one of the longest days of my life. I had agreed to fly the pilot back to Lexington as I was covering his expenses anyway, and he is a licensed and very good flight instructor. I went to bed at midnight Tuesday planning to sleep until 7 yesterday morning, but I was up at 5 and felt like a kid on Christmas morning. I was busy wiring funds, renting a hanger in Birmingham, moving the plane across the field to buy fuel, waiting to hear that my insurance had been “bound”. etc. It was a hectic morning and we finally got away a couple of hours later than I had hoped.

The pilot/instructor accompanying me is a Frenchman named Laurent. He pronounced his name very carefully and allowed that it was OK to mispronounce his name, but just don’t call him “Larry”. I took that as good cause to call him “Larry” from then on. He knows what he is doing, and if I was learning from scratch, he would be the perfect instructor. But I’m an old dog, and I like to do the checklist the way i do it. So we had to come to some understanding as we went. Laurent is a gentleman and a scholar, and there aren’t many of us left. I learned a lot in two hours of flying with him, and I appreciate his contributions to my safety and knowledge.

When I dropped him in Lexington, there was a further delay dealing with the closing paperwork, which meant I was destined to arrive back in Savannah after dark. After everything was done, I suffered a pretty serious loss of self-confidence when I realized I was about to take off alone in a plane for the first time in 12 years. I had a nearly three-hour trip in an unfamiliar plane with avionics with which I am not yet experienced. I would have to climb to 8,000 feet in some mild turbulance and below-freezing air to get over some mountains, and I would arrive at an unfamiliar airport to do my first night landing in more than a decade.

But, logic told me it would be a piece of cake, and it was. The plane performed well. The weather was good. And I knew how to fly in such a basic situation. Not to say I wasn’t alarmed at every little bump, white-knuckled on the night landing, and totally exhausted when I finally landed, but the trip went well.

So here I am, out of boating and into flying. I will write a lot more about the plane in the coming days, for those who are interested, and there will no doubt be many new adventures to report. Stay tuned.

"Learning to Fly"

Into the distance, a ribbon of black                          

Stretched to the point of no turning back 

A flight of fancy on a windswept field 

Standing alone my senses reeled

A fatal attraction is holding me fast,

How can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can’t keep my eyes from the circling skies

Tongue-tied and twisted,

just an earth-bound misfit, I

 

  Pink Floyd “Learning to Fly” (Click for video)

With the boat now sold, I have turned my attention to the next great life adventure, and I am trying out going back to flying. I do not exactly need to “learn to fly” because I have been licensed since 1970. I have an instrument and a multi-engine rating, and nearly 1,000 hours of flying time. But, I sold the last plane I had in 2001, and have not flown anything since then.

So last Tuesday I found myself in a doctor’s office in Savannah getting an aviation medical exam. I got through it without incident but now I am required to wear “corrective lenses” when flying, and I had to request some medical records to be sent to the FAA so the records would be complete. Wednesday, Medical Certificate, license, and 40-year-old logbook in hand, I drove out to the Reidsville airport just over an hour away to take off with an instructor and see if I still have the right stuff.

It was a great flight in a little Piper of the same airframe (and vintage) as the plane I owned in 1971. In good weather just flying around, it was like riding a bike. We flew over to Vidalia, Georgia and landed, and then flew back to Reidsville where I did an instrument approach. It all came back pretty quickly, the landings were smooth, and the instructor signed me off for what is called a Biennial Flight Review, a requirement that pilots prove they can fly to an instructor every two years. So just like that, I am a legal pilot again. But there is a difference between what is legal and what is safe, and I have some work to do.

Today I went back to Reidsville and we filed an instrument flight plan and went down to Hinesville, GA to the Mid-Coast Regional Airport. We spent some time with the airport manager and the Army manager of the shared military/civilian facility learning about the effect on civilian flying of the new drone training facility being built there by the Army. They are putting in a whole building of consoles similar to Microsoft Flight Simulator where trainees will fly drones the size of a King Air right outside off the runway. Best to get out of their way I think, until they have completed their training and the drones are deployed to Afghanistan or to fly around and spy on all of us.

So now I’ve got a total of 976.1 hours of flying time, 2.3 of which is in the last 10 years. I’ve got a ways to go to get back to the skills I once had, and I fly again Monday to begin some work on instrument flying where you wear goggles to simulate flying where you can see the instruments but can’t see anything outside the plane. Should be an interesting day. I am fortunate to have found an experienced instructor to keep me out of trouble.

Our trip to Hinesville today had a purpose. I have searched high and low and, if I buy a plane, there is no hangar space in the Savannah area available. Believe me, you do not want to leave a nice plane parked in the sun in South Georgia in the summer. It will melt your leather seats. I found one “T Hangar” in Claxton, GA but it is an hour away and not an ideal place to keep a plane. Driving an hour from Richmond Hill, GA to fly two hours to Birmingham doesn’t make a lot of sense.

As we discussed the lack of hangar space with the manager at Hinesville, the City Manager dropped in and when I asked if new hangars might be built, he suggested I build some myself under a ground lease from the city/airport authority. We discussed a deal where I would enter a ground lease and build a string of 12 T-Hangars to be leased out to other aircraft owners. It might not make much money, but may be an economical way to get a free hangar and a little return on the building. I’ve already decided to form an LLC for the project which will be called “Sky King, LLC”.

I’m taking this one day at a time, and still not sure where it will lead, but at this stage in my life, getting around to see (and pick up) grandchildren at 150 knots seems more interesting than cruising the ocean at seven knots, so perhaps this will be the next great adventure. I’ll keep you posted.