PilotEdge Forums

Hi, all. I've had a couple recent minor Peaware issues. *I've read the relevant threads, including this one: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3049&p=19653&hilit=+peaware#p19653) I still have a couple questions.

1. A couple days ago I filed VFR from 1G4 (Canyon West) to 0O2 (Baker), but I made it only as far as Triangle Park because real life intervened and I had to land abruptly. (My in-world reason was that I "needed to refuel.") Although Peaware did track my flight, and I looked at it after I landed and sat on the ramp for a bit, the next day I no longer could see it in my Peaware logs. (Callsign N1701A.) Is it because I didn't reach my filed destination?

2. Right now I'm sitting on the ramp at 0O2, having filed VFR to 86CL (Ernst). I see my flight plan on the PE map, but Peaware hasn't noticed me, even though I've refreshed a dozen times. Should I disconnect, reconnect, and re-file?

Thanks in advance.

I usually re-file if that happens, and don't start until PEAware sees you "ready to depart". Nope, you don't need to land at your destination, I'll post something here later once I'm done this flight - lets just say it wasn't pretty.... Not sure, but it seems like a PEAware glitch where sometimes it doesn't pick up your flight plan. No idea about the log disappearing after a day, never had it happen and I personally haven't seen it mentioned.

Thanks. I'm a bit short on time in real life, so I just went ahead and started my flight. In the future, I'll try re-filing.

And yes, I'm still curious about my partially-completed flight log. Not a big deal, but I do love looking at my Peaware data.

Geoff wrote:I do love looking at my Peaware data.

+1

http://peaware.pilotedge.net/flight.cfm?id=93503 - Landed back at origin airport...

For the disappearing flight, did it disappear after you saw it logged the previous day? Strange...

On the bright side, I just nailed my best crosswind landing ever in a 25kt gust at LAS. Woo!

Hey, grats! Well done.

As it happens, I've had two tough crosswind landings in a row. I just did one at Ernst Field. Wind is howling from the west, and I chose to land on runway 20. Wish I'd chosen 02, as the approach is a little easier, and the crosswind would've been no worse. Anyway, I missed the first approach and had to make a CTAF call to that effect. On the second try, I did manage to land on the runway, but the wind blew me off the runway as I was trying to slow down and stop. Still, I finished in one piece.

Yesterday I had a crosswind landing at Baker that was insane. The wind was gusting up to 50 knots from the west, and again I tried to land to the south. (Why did I build my FBOs on strips with north-south runways?) I tried the crabwise thing, and I felt like I was pointing directly into the wind and *still* got blown east of the runway. I landed beautifully -- on a strip of dirt just east of the runway. Hey, I'm in a little Piper Archer. It gets blown around a bit.

I guess I need some crosswind practice, but all quite fun.

I didn't know a 50 knot crosswind was a thing... I had always tried to do the crab and kick-out, but after the billionth mess-up, I decided I would try a sideslip instead. Well, first time I tried I do pretty well. Not a stable approach in any sense, but hey, the landing was smooth! I might post the replay later if I decide I care that much.

https://vimeo.com/126072098#t=53s - You know, I was so proud of getting the upwind main to hit first... until I watched the replay. Turns out the downwind wheel hit first. Agh!

Looked pretty good to me! And that was a big aircraft, too. Well done.

Yeah, I don't know what's up with my 50-knot winds. I'm using the NOAA Weather Plug-in for X-Plane (and, as of today, SkyMaxx Pro 2.0). Also, I was flying out in the desert, so maybe it's windier out there than elsewhere in ZLA?

I'm about to do my last PE flight of the day, and once again PEAware is unaware of me. I filed the flight plan twice, and I see it (and me) on the PE Map, but Peaware no longer seems to like me. Hmm. Maybe it's all the untowered fields I'm flying to and from? This flight is from 86CL (my FBO at Ernst) to 46CA.

I've had a few problems with PEAware recognizing airports (notably BYS). If there isn't a K prefix in the "official" naming scheme, don't file a K (and vice versa). Many of the smaller un-towered airports have quirky names that are easy to type wrong (resulting in PEAware not opening the flight plan). Doesn't help that FSE has a lot of the small airport's names wrong, and seeing that a lot of FSE's fun is small airports... You need a origin and destination airport to open the flight plan, but seeing as 86CL and 46CA are valid ICAOs, I'm stumped. Maybe one of the PE staff gurus can enlighten us?

On the topic of winds - I don't use NOAA, but I would suspect that has something to do with it. Maybe look at the settings? The highest winds I've ever seen in SOCAL are at LAS gusting to 30 or so. 50 knot winds are insane...

PS - I've gotten into the habit of filing up to 3-5 times per flight if its VFR...

Thanks for your reply. Next time I'll take your advice and try filing VFR more than twice. Later tonight I might try a short helicopter ride, and I'll see if I can get Peaware to log that.

For what it's worth, the wind at Rancho was a mild 11 knots, so maybe my NOAA plugin is working okay. Perhaps the eastern desert is more prone to gusty conditions? It's pretty wide open near Baker, with big flat salt lakes all around it. Although even Ernst was pretty gusty, and that's not so far east.

Lots of posts here, hopefully I caught all the questions.

Geoff wrote:1. A couple days ago I filed VFR from 1G4 (Canyon West) to 0O2 (Baker), but I made it only as far as Triangle Park because real life intervened and I had to land abruptly. (My in-world reason was that I "needed to refuel.") Although Peaware did track my flight, and I looked at it after I landed and sat on the ramp for a bit, the next day I no longer could see it in my Peaware logs. (Callsign N1701A.) Is it because I didn't reach my filed destination?

Correct, the PEaware system is a legacy codebase and was written (in 2007) for a network environment with a much higher percentage of flights left uncompleted. Therefore it purges out flights when they do not reach their filed destination. This will be addressed when the PEaware system is rewritten, which is on the to-do list about midway down

Geoff wrote:2. Right now I'm sitting on the ramp at 0O2, having filed VFR to 86CL (Ernst). I see my flight plan on the PE map, but Peaware hasn't noticed me, even though I've refreshed a dozen times. Should I disconnect, reconnect, and re-file?

Similar to the above, if the destination airport is not in the DB (which 86CL was not) it will not pick you up (even if it did, it would drop you since you would never "arrive" at an airport it doesn't know about). In this case 86CL was in the DB under its old code 17L. I've updated it.

Nelson L. wrote:I've had a few problems with PEAware recognizing airports (notably BYS)

This is a data error and should be reported airport-by-airport so I can fix it. PEaware works with ICAO codes, and the proper ICAO code for Bicycle Lake Army AAF is KBYS. I've corrected the data.