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Sally has a question about retesting after a failed knowledge test:

I failed the written FAA test for Private pilot last month. I have studied hard and now I am ready to take it again. How soon can I take it again?? Do I have to have my instructor sign off again?

Hi Sally.  I’d encourage you to read 14 CFR 61.49 “Retesting After Failure”.

61.49 Retesting after failure.
(a) An applicant for a knowledge or practical test who fails that test may reapply for the test only after the applicant has received:
(1) The necessary training from an authorized instructor who has determined that the applicant is proficient to pass the test; and
(2) An endorsement from an authorized instructor who gave the applicant the additional training.

So in order to take the test again, you must receive training from an instructor who will then endorse your logbook saying that this training was given.

You can then sign-up to re-take the test at your local testing facility.  (Be sure to bring your failed test with you, you’ll need that as well)

Good luck, I’m sure you’ll do great!

In case you haven’t heard, the comment period is ending soon (Feb 27, 2009) for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that has been issued by the TSA.  This NPRM seeks to amend the current Twelve Five Standard Security Program (TFSSP) and Private Charter Standard Security Program (PCSSP) and apply new security requirements to all aircraft weighing more than 12,500 pounds.  In short, the rules that apply to charter and airline customers for aircraft weighing more than 12,500 would now be applied to part 91 operators too!  If you fly an aircraft weighing more than 12,500 lbs than this will adversely affect you! Even if you don’t fly that size of aircraft, you will still feel the negative financial implications that a program like this will have on all of general aviation.

These new security requirements include:

• Crewmember fingerprint-based criminal history records checks (CHRCs)
• Watch-list matching of passengers
• Compliance with the prohibited items list (PIL)
• Compliance with security directives and information circulars
• Designation of an aircraft operator security coordinator (AOSC), ground security coordinator (GSC), and in-flight security coordinator (ISC)
• Training for crewmembers and other identified personnel
• Development and maintenance of contingency plans to respond to threats
• Compliance with security audit program (twice a year)

These items, although they sound harmless enough, would impose a very large, very costly overhead for all private operators of aircraft weighing over 12,500 lbs.  Imagine if you are a small flight department with a KingAir 350, do you think you could possibly afford either the time or money that will be required to comply with these kind of regulations and security requirements? I know my flight department couldn’t.

The one that really gets my goat is the compliance with the Prohibited List Items.  The only reason that many companies even own a plane is so that they don’t have to comply with that rule!  Many operators use aircraft to ferry mechanics and their specific tools that airlines prohibit on board.  Hopefully your passengers or owners don’t enjoy the occasional hunting trip, because you can kiss those  trips (and the guns) goodbye!

Why 12,500 pounds?  Well according to the FAA definitions a “large” aircraft is anything over…you guessed it, 12,500 lbs.

The TSA is convinced that large private aircraft have the same national security threat as a fully loaded 747.   If the TSA thinks that, that’s fine and I have no problem, but they need to prove that hypothesis by providing the studies and evidence that support it (which they haven’t done).

I highly highly encourage you to submit your comments before the comment period is closed.  Many citizens are disenfranchised with their government because they think they have little or no say.  Well, here is your chance to let your voice be heard!  Submit your comments and then call your congressman and senators to tell them specifically why you think this NPRM would adversely affect your business or career.

I thank you in advance for your help in defeating or in greatly modifying this oppressive regulation.

I just received an email from Scott, asking about what to do when you lose your logbook:

In previous years I have accumulated approx. 30 to 35 hours in student training in the air, either with my instructors or by myself, Unfortunately I have lost my log book. What should I do ? Both of my instructors are still in my area, can they help?

Hi Scott.  Sorry to hear about your logbook, that stinks.  As a pilot, I have two recurring nightmares.  The first one is where I totally forget about a scheduled flight until about an hour after it is supposed to leave and the second nightmare is losing my logbook. You are in a great position in that you have less than 40 hours accumulated so it won’t be nearly the chore it could have been, if say you had like 4,000 hours.

Jeppesen Professional Logbook

There are several ways to copy your logbook once it has been lost or destroyed by using other paper records of the flights, no matter what stage you are in your flying career.

1) Your flight Instructors. Your flight instructors will have their own personal logbook that has records of the flights that you flew with them.  You could ask your flight instructors for copies of the pages where you flew together.  You could easily use that in a new logbook.

2) Your flight school. The flight school should have both financial records and aircraft records of the flights that you lost.  You should contact the flight school and ask for a copy of the aircraft hobbs records.  Usually the hobbs will record the name of the instructor and student so it should be pretty simple to track down these records if you have a general idea of when you flew.

3) Canceled Checks.  I remember one of my flight students would jot down the flight time and aircraft registration number in the notes portion of his check.  If something would have happened to his records,  it would have been a simple matter of flipping through some old checks to duplicate his logbook.

4) FAA Form 8710. When you go to take your checkride you will fill out a form 8710 which is basically your airman application form.  Near the bottom of the form you will fill in a table that documents your flight hours and experience.  You can easily duplicate a logbook from this information.  In fact, that is one of the purposes of that form.

5) Company Records. If you are a professional pilot you can use company records to help duplicate your logbook.  I often make records of the company forms I use in the aircraft and keep them handy in the event something would happen to my logbook.

6) Electronic Backup. There are many options when it comes to logbook software and online pilot logbooks. One of the best electronic logbook programs is Logbook Pro by NC Software. One of the nice things about Logbook Pro is being able to export to many different formats for both printing and storing.

Good luck Scott with your logbook. I hope that you continue your training and that you find a solution to help prevent this in the future.  Be sure to…

Fly Safe.

Received a question tonight from a northern aviator:

In Canada we have the Designated Airspace Handbook. It’s the legal document that defines Canada’s airspace.  Does the FAA have something similar?

Hi Blake.  I took a look at the link you sent me for the Canadian Designated Airspace Handbook and to answer your question, the U.S. federal government does not produce a similar file.  However, if it is any comfort…it used to! The file and data used to be called the Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File or DAFIF.   DAFIF is managed by the NGA or National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.  The DAFIF data was publicly available until October of 2006 when it was pulled because of “national security” (actually it’s a much longer and boring story).  DAFIF data is still available but you have to have a really good reason for accessing it (like you work for the NGA) So for plain old folks like you and me nope, sorry Blake.

However…

Thanks to the internet and people willing to share this information you can still find some outdated DAFIF files out there if you are wanting them for mapping and such.  The Worldwide Soring Turnpoint Exchange has one of the best collection of links for outdated DAFIF data. If you are U.S. you can also request access to the National Flight Data Center and get access to the FAADS, but I think you might have to be a U.S. citizen (although don’t quote me on that).  One of my favorite tools for viewing the U.S. airspace in 3d is this kmz Google Earth file.  You can download Google Earth to view this file.  You can also download U.S. sectional kml file to get a complete picture like the screenshot I made for you below.   Wow, I’ve been typing for like a hour and I don’t even know if I answered your question or not….

If you have followed this site for any length of time, you’ll probably recall how Ask a CFI used to be forum based.  In fact, it has had a forum feature on / off since 2001 when I registered this domain.  I have tried out a couple different types of forum software in the last few years.  The first one was Dcscript’s DCforum.  I then switched to the more popular Vbulletin forum script.  One of the needs I recognized was that the vbulletin “theme” would have to be customized for the aviation community so I drafted a rough sketch and paid a vbulletin designer to tweak and customize the style.   Ask a CFI.com is no longer utilizing the forum feature and I thought it wasteful to let a good theme sit idle.  So I am now giving away a FREE Aviation vbulletin style to those who might be interested.

A couple of rules / notes.

1) This file is AS IS. I am not providing ANY support for this theme.  Why? Because I have a lot of projects going on and I am not a VB expert AT ALL.

2) The lastest version of vbulletin used with this theme was 3.6.9.  I have no clue if it is comptabile with anything before or after.  (see note 1)

3) I ask that you please leave a link to my site in the footer.

So as long as you agree to these 3 rules, here is the file for you:

Download: vb aviation style.zip

Instructions: Extract this zipped folder to your local drive and then upload the images folder to your vbulletin directory. Go to style manager in your vbulletin administration and upload / download styles. Browse to aviation-style.xml and you should be good to go! Good luck.

I just saw this video and had to share it. Apparently, a Cessna 150 landed on a highway in Florida after one of it’s cylinder’s seized up. After making repairs, the owner got FAA permission to take off on the highway! The owner told police that he would need 600 feet for takeoff. I bet some instructor his proud of his short field takeoff instruction!

Here is the link to the story: http://www.wesh.com/news/16634189/detail.html

As reported in this month’s Flying Magazine, the National Weather Association (NWA) is offering a free online weather theory course.   It is designed to help general aviation pilots understand how weather theory affects flying.
When you go to their website (see links below) you will find they currently offer two “modules”  An introduction module and an aircraft performance module.  To begin you download each module to your computer.  You are actually downloading a zip file which contains an executable file that will launch a  Macromedia Shockwave presentation.  Each download is roughly 22 megabytes.  The introduction module goes over:

• Moisture
• Vertical Motion
• Stability

The aircraft performance module goes over…well, how weather affect aircraft performance.

I found both tutorials and courses to be extremely informative and highly educational.   The aircraft performance is very through and goes through many different aircraft performance scenarios and how weather would affect that situation.    I also learned from their website that they are planning on releasing two more courses Aviation Weather Forecasts and Application of Weather Theory.  I look forward to both additional courses.

My only complaints about this course would be that it is advertised as online and really you download the course which makes a “offline” course and also the menu and navigation were a little bit clumsy.  Once you start a section, you can’t stop it.   I actually had to use CTL-ALT-DEL and the task manager to end it when I had to stop it mid course.

You can check it out and review it for yourself at http://www.nwas.org/committees/aviation/WeatherTheory/

Enjoy.  I look forward to hearing your comments about the course.

I was “stumbling” tonight and found a great website that I thought you would enjoy. But first, maybe I should explain what I meant by “stumbling” before you call my AME.

Stumble Upon! is a website and application that allows you by simpling clicking a button “stumble upon” new websites. It is kind of like having a “random” button on the internet but with preferences. When you set up your profile you can say what kind of sites you enjoy and has you begin to stumble upon new sites and approve or disapprove them it creates a preference pattern of what kind of sites you like or dislike compared to what other users with your tastes liked as well.

Ok, so the site I stumbled upon tonight is “the oops list” which is basically a collection of links to photographs of “oops”. What I like about this “opps list” was of course, a lot of the pictures were aviation and aircraft related. This picture of an airliner that landed with it’s parking brake on is an example of the kind of photo you will find on “the oops list”.

You can learn more about Stumble Upon here and here is a link to my stumble profile.

Fly Safe (so you don’t end up with a photograph in the oops list!)

This past week I spent a lot of time on Airnav.com. It is THE online aviation database. I use this site, well, A LOT. How do I use it?

• If you want to quickly find some airport information (like latitude and longitude).
• If you quickly want a list of the FBO’s on a field
• If you want a list of local hotels
• You want a quick glance at the airport diagram

So it is a pain if you are looking up a lot of airports because once you are on a airport page it is 2 more clicks to get to another airport page. There is no search engine built into the airport information page. I also use the internet browser Firefox (vs Internet Explorer). One of the reasons I like Firefox is because of the built in search engine window and the ability to add extra search engines. I was thinking to myself this week, “I should create an Airnav search engine extension for Firefox.” Too late! I found an extension this morning on Mozdev.com

Now all I have to do is go to the upper right of my Firefox window. Type in the name of my airport I’m looking for and the Airnav.com information appears in new tab. Awesome!

Here is a link to the plugin at Mozdev.org it says it was developed by a man name George Bean. Thanks George!