tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43213828926673807112024-02-20T01:04:07.317-08:00Learning to FlyBinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-29878639908979444662008-09-12T09:31:00.001-07:002008-09-12T12:55:13.107-07:00The CheckrideAfter having a hard time falling asleep Wednesday night, I awoke at 6am on my 22nd birthday to numbers flying through my head: V_r = 50, V_x = 54 (aim for 60), V_y = 67 (aim for 70), 121.5 & 7700 for emergencies, 122.0 for FSS, fuel is 6lbs per gal. I tried going back to sleep and thinking about something else, but it was useless. By 6:30 I climbed out of bed with at best 6 hours of sleep and a very big test in front of me.<br /><br />I'd left my half-finished flight plan on the coffee table, so I sat down, called FSS (Flight Services, 1-800-WX-BRIEF) and got the weather. It was supposed to be a good day for flying, and I logged all the key weather information. Using it I did more work on my flight plans before deciding at about 7:30 to drive to the airport. I didn't eat breakfast before leaving, but my mom made me a bagel and drink so I wouldn't be hungry during the test.<br /><br />On the way in I listened to music and managed to let my mind wander for a bit. I reminded myself that failing wouldn't be the end of the world and that if I had any problems I could certainly try again. Besides, I reminded myself, Chris is probably just freaking me out so that when Royal shows up, the test is a lot easier than I've expected. I still had my doubts, but managed to nibble on a third of the bagel and take a few sips before I got to the airport.<br /><br />I walked through the terminal to Classic Air (the company Chris works for). He had let me borrow a key last night in case I beat him in this morning, since my test was to start at 9am. Unfortunately, the key he gave me was the wrong one. The outside door didn't open. I went around through the unlit hanger to the main door. Nothing. I tried the back door. That got me as far as the back workshop, where a bunch of the tools are kept. Luckily the key I had gotten worked on the two remaining doors too. For a minute I thought I was going to be finishing my flight plan from the terminal, or the cockpit, while I waited for Chris to arrive.<br /><br />I was finishing up the details of all my flight information, including printing out more weather information from AviationWeather.gov when Chris and his uncle (the expert mechanic) came in. I wrapped up and Chris made sure everything was in order while I ate as much of my bagel as I could. Then we wandered around until Royal arrived.<br /><br />Royal flew in on his own plane, a blue 172, kept in great condition. When he walked over and shook my hand all I could think was "Mr. Rogers" - he was short, at least 67 (probably closer to 75), white hair, glasses and a big smile. He introduced himself and we went inside. Chris immediately peeled off as Royal started asking me ice breakers: when did I start learning to fly, when was my first solo and how did it feel? It was obvious to me that these were prepared questions intended to calm me down. Knowing that, I tried to let them work - and they did a little.<br /><br />Once we were done chatting, he logged onto the computer and we registered my exam using IACRA. (If any future pilots are reading this, make sure your IACRA is complete before you take your test or it doesn't count. I cannot over-stress this.)<br /><br />Then we returned to the table and the questions started out easy: show him the flight plan and explain it, show him the weather forecast and I had to decide if we could make today's flight (yes, we could). Then some of the harder questions came out: which instruments would fail if the vacuum pump died? I didn't know, and I wasn't about to bullshit. I misunderstood the vacuum pump as the static port at first, since the pressure difference (as you would find in a vacuum) is what the static port measures. He corrected me, at which point I figured out the answer. Still more hard questions: what would you do if you HAD to land and at Oxford but had a complete electrical failure. Using logic and reasoning I deduced that I wouldn't be able to talk to the tower since my radios would be dead, but I wouldn't be able to communicate my radios were dead by turning 7600 on my transponder either, since my transponder would be dead. Even though you're no supposed to break class D airspace without talking to the tower, I said I would be forced to, and hope to see light signals coming from the tower as I came in to land. I was correct. When he followed up with "what light would you hope to see from the tower?" I knew it: "green."<br /><br />The questions went on for a while, including a detailed coverage of the sectional, including several things on it I'd never noticed. Regardless, he said "you seem to understand everything just fine, now let's go for the flight and see how you apply it." I had passed the oral, the part I was most nervous about.<br /><br />For a fleeting moment I got excited: I had thought that if I passed the oral, I would certainly be able to pass the flight. Then I got myself in check thinking to myself: <em>ok, the oral's done, good. That doesn't mean it's over: you still have the check ride to worry about.</em> This was it.<br /><br />We went out to the plane and I informed Royal that I had performed the pre-flight prior to his arrival, which I had. We got into the plane and he reminded me that I was the pilot-in-command (even though I technically wasn't), and that I could do things on my pace. If I had any instruction for him, I was to issue it as I deemed fit. This was my flight.<br /><br />I used the checklist and got the engine started. For some reason I had to pump it more than usual because the first attempt at starting failed. (In hindsight, it could have been because Chris's uncle had done one last minute bit of work on it between my flight last night and my check ride.) Either way, Royal didn't seem phased by the start. I had him perform a break check and instructed him to put his shoulder harness on - something I think he was waiting for me to instruct him on.<br /><br />Before getting cleared to taxi I performed a break check and had him do the same. I then got ATIS and made my radio call. I missed part of what the ATC said -- I thought he said use runway 36, but Royal said something about 18 that corrected me. I wasn't sure if this was a test to make me mess up, or if he was helping me. Realizing the wind was coming from the south, take-off on 18 would make a lot more sense. I guessed he was helping and taxied onto 18, to taxi-way C as instructed (which I was pretty sure was on that end anyway).<br /><br />I did the engine run-up and everything fine. I was instructed to do a normal take-off and start my cross-country towards Groton. I made fine radio calls and remembered to set my heading indicator, perform my checklist and set my altimeter. Take-off went well, as did climb out. Despite best climb for time being 67 knots (V_y), Royal told me to put the nose below the horizon to check for traffic. He taught like Chris did. As I came up to 1400' (300' shy of pattern altitude) I turned left to start my cross-country.<br /><br />Then I started making mistakes.<br /><br />As soon as I was turning left to head east I realized that I didn't have my flight plan up front; it was behind my seat in my headset bag. I tuned the LORAN in to Groton, but Royal had me reach back to get it anyway to look up the heading. I kept my eyes in front as I reached back. Forgetting it was mistake #1. Not how I wanted to start. Even once I got my heading, I had a hard time maintaining it; I kept finding myself too far south since I took off on runway 18, something I'd never done prior on a flight to Groton.<br /><br />As I continued my climb to the 5500' I had planned (currently at almost 3000') we were passing Waterbury, the first checkpoint. Royal asked how long it took and how long my flight plan had predicted. That was when I realized I forgot to note what time we took off. Another mistake. I estimated to myself, and gave him a time. He was happy with it. Continuing to climb, however, I noticed the clouds were getting lower above us. Royal asked me what altitude I estimated them to be at: 3500'. So then, he asked, what altitude should we fly at instead of the 5500' proposed? Noting that the east/west odd/even thousand foot altitudes didn't apply below 3000', I would descend to 2700-2800' and continue flight there. He was happy, so I was too. I descended and maintained that altitude, but kept drifting south.<br /><br />During the descent I realized I had forgotten the emergency instructions prior to take-off (where we'd land in the case of an emergency during take-off and where we were going). I told him I forgot it and apologized, to which he simply replied, "OK." He pointed out I was drifting south a few times, so I'd correct. Eventually I found MMK, Meriden Airport, which was my next checkpoint, and continued on towards the one after it.<br /><br />Royal had me demonstrate how VORs worked as we headed towards Chester Airport. VORs were tools I liked, but had only used briefly before; I was nervous as I used it, but got it right. He then asked how much longer towards Chester and where it was, so I told him. He then informed me I had demonstrated enough of the cross-country and it was time to demonstrate some maneuvers. Suddenly I got nervous again.<br /><br />The first maneuver I was to perform was slow flight. I performed clearing turns first to make sure the area was clear, then made sure I had an emergency place to land, then made sure we weren't above houses. Finally it was time to do slow flight. Carb heat, a little power out, first notch of flaps, visually confirm down, second notch, visually confirm down, third notch, make sure the nose stays down until pulling more power and pitching for 40 knots. We were in slow flight. "Turn to 270," he instructed, so I did, with a very shallow bank. I explained as I turned that it was shallow so that the vertical component of lift, which was already minimized by my slow airspeed, would remain strong enough to keep us from stalling, whereas if I banked over too far we'd lose that vertical lift and stall. He gave me a few more headings to turn to, then I was done with slow flight.<br /><br />Next up was a power-off stall. Shit. These were probably my least favorite. I confirmed that the area was still clear (but made sure it was OK with Royal that I didn't perform more clearing turns) before turning the carb heat back on. Half-way to turning it on, I put it back and clarified: "do you want me to perform this until the first buffet [the bumpy feeling of a plane about to stall] or to actually induce the stall?" He replied, "full shall." Damn it.<br /><br />I pulled the carb heat (which turns it on), then a little power. First notch of flaps, visually confirm, hold the nose down. Repeat for the second and final notches. Then: pull the power to idle and maintain altitude until stall. I was doing it, but the plane started losing altitude. I pulled back harder, thinking <em>come on, come on, STALL ALREADY!</em> Finally it came - a good, solid stall. I recovered and reset to normal flight. Normally with Chris I couldn't feel the stall before he'd push the nose over; that time I felt it loud and clear. It may have even been the secondary stall, but Royal didn't look at me and say I failed, so I kept going.<br /><br />Next was the power-on stall. Double-crap. I knew the theory behind this one, but had only just learned exactly what to do last night. Here went nothing. I told him I would get the plane to 50 knots for V_r, as if I was taking off on the runway, but I doubt I ever got it below 65 before I gave-up on 50 and went for the stall. I pulled the power to 1900RPM and held the nose up. This time he said just do it until the first sign of a stall - even the warning horn would do. Easily I pitched back and got the horn to go off before recovering. That ended up probably being the most simple thing I'd do during the whole test.<br /><br />Royal then took the controls (we did a positive exchange of controls, which is one of the things he was supposed to check for) so I could get the BAI (aka. "foggles") on. He gave them back to me, then had me get certain headings and altitudes. After just a few of these I was good, so we transitioned to unusual attitudes. Correction: these were the easiest part of the test. And my favorite. I put my head down closed my eyes while he made the plane do something - well - unusual. I brought my head up (goggles still on) and noticed we were aimed way too high, potentially going to stall. I gave it full power to prevent the stall, lowered the nose to straight flight and leveled the wings before pulling the power back to a cruise speed. We did it one more time, this time diving the nose down. I pulled the power to idle and leveled us out again before applying power. I was done with the foggles - I'd done well.<br /><br />Next was steep turns: one to the left, one to the right. Left first. I kept my head out the window and turned sharply: 45 degree bank. With the proper rudder applied, and me calling out everything I was doing we whipped around pretty quickly. The turn the the right found me starting at the attitude indicator a little too much, so Royal covered it with special covers he'd brought. (He's used them a few other times too, but this was the one time I really remembered.) I had almost didn't go steep enough to the right (which is odd, since normally I go too shallow to the left), but did fine. It looked like I passed steep turns as well.<br /><br />At this point Meriden Airport was to the north of us, so Royal had me look up their information on the sectional and enter the traffic pattern there for runway 36 (left pattern, which is traditional). I made my radio calls and entered the pattern. As I came in to perform a short-field landing I was way too high. I dumped in the flaps, but wasn't set-up well. "How about you do a go-around?" Royal suggested, so I did. On the way up another plane was taking off runway 18, and said he had me in sight. I told royal I heard him, but didn't bother to call back on the radios.<br /><br />I extended pattern this time, but made it too wide. Royal commented, "learning at Oxford they make those wide patterns. You should bring it in closer here." I understood and agreed, but said I still intended to extend my down-wind leg so my final would be longer this time. Royal nodded, but apparently disagreed when he told me to pull my power (unlike Chris, who would pull it himself). Time for an emergency landing!<br /><br />I made the radio call: "Meriden traffic, Cessna 48984, turning left base for short approach, Meriden traffic." As I came in for the emergency short-field landing I touched down a bit hard, then veered to the left. Royal pointed it out, but I was already aware. "Right rudder" I said and I stepped on it. He pointed out the wind-sock (technically it wasn't a wind-sock, but it did the same thing) and that the wind was gently from the south, so I did a 180 on the runway and was about to perform a short-field take-off, per his instructions.<br /><br />Holding the breaks I gave it full power. I let go of the breaks and we started rolling -- quickly. I pulled back at 50, took off at 54 and climbed out at 67 (once clear of the trees Royal pointed out). We were off. Royal then had me head back towards Oxford, but on the way picked a cell-phone tower for me to do turns-around-a-point on. I said, "well, the wind is coming from the south right? So I should enter down-wind on the other side." He said "assume you don't know - figure it out as you perform the maneuver." Tricky man.<br /><br />I got down to 800-1000' above the ground (1000', since there were buildings in the area) before starting the maneuver. I made sure Royal was sure as I pointed this out as a "congested area" even though there were plenty of fields close by. He said OK, so I performed my turn to the left, keeping it off my wing the whole time, but getting pushed inward when I held a steep bank during one part of the turn. Oops. Royal pointed it out, but when I observed and corrected it he said nothing more about it.<br /><br />I climbed to 2500' (appropriate for the heading) towards Oxford and called to request a stop-and-go. (A stop-and-go, Royal told me, was a touch-and-go where you come to a complete stop. Sounded like fun.) We were denied due to painting operations on the ends of the runway, so Royal had me request a landing-taxi-back instead. Denied again: "I can't allow pattern work right now," the ATC said. Instead we requested a landing full-stop, but Royal said he'd have to figure something out.<br /><br />I came in for another short field landing, hoping to have a better one this time. It wasn't. Right before we touched down I meant to add power to help the flair during this type of landing, but we touched down (hard) and too soon, so I ended up giving it power (somewhat accidentally) while we were <em>on the runway</em>. What a dumbass move that was. That, and I started veering to the left again. As I slowed Royal asked why I kept doing that (nicely), to which I explained "I don't know - I'm normally MUCH better at landing than this." He also asked about the power, so I gave him the honest answer: I fucked up. I explain what I'd intended to do, and he seemed forgiving.<br /><br />We started taxiing back when I slowed to a stop once clear of the runway. Royal called the ATC and explained, "Oxford Tower, 984." He did it the old-school way: call the tower, then wait until they ack before stating your request.<br /><br />"984, go ahead" Tower called.<br />"Could you fit us in for just one more landing? If not, I'll go shut-down then start it right back up, 984." Royal was obviously going to get his landing. I began to realize what this was: one last shot for me to do a good landing.<br />"984, yeah, I just don't want any pattern work, but I can fit you in for one more landing. Taxi to 36 via hotel for take-off, perform a tear-drop turn and land 18. Winds are calm."<br /><br />Well, this was all new, but I was game. This was my last shot, and I knew it. Royal didn't have to say anything.<br /><br />Once cleared for take-off, he had me perform a soft-field take-off: never come to a complete stop and keep as much pressure off the nose as you can. I did fine, but I was nervous as I realized that 10 months of training was about to come down to a single landing. <br /><br />Once at 1600' I started the 180 degree turn to complete a tear-drop shape in the sky. "Steeper. Steeper. Really bank it!" Royal egged me on. We must have been at 60 degrees or more (which technically requires a parachute to be allowed to perform), but as I came around and got straight he said, "just keep center line." My rudder was going crazy again. I kept forgetting which to give: right rudder? left rudder? no rudder? too much? too little? Suddenly...<br /><br />Thunk! I touched down. My flair was short and the landing was hard. As I rolled I slammed the right rudder. <em>Must. Keep. Center line.</em> I wasn't even sure it mattered after that horrible touch-down, but I wasn't about to give up. I held center line alright, but it was still, in my book, a horrible landing.<br /><br />We taxied back and I left the airplane out since it was too crowded to bring it much closer. Royal thought that was safe. I performed the shut-down checklist (even though I hadn't used the checklist for almost any other part of the flight - another mistake I realized) and turned the engine off. We took off our headsets before he turned to me:<br /><br />"Congratulations..."<br /><br />I don't remember the rest of what he said. Some combination of the words "private pilot", "demonstrated" and "well done." I was in my own world. I passed. Somehow, with <em>all those</em> mistakes, I passed.<br /><br />We got out of the plane and I made sure the control lock was in and peto tube was covered. I cleared out the backseat and left the plane in a good condition. Chris had warned me that he would fail me if I didn't shut it down correctly, even if he already told me I passed. It didn't matter: I left the plane in fine condition, time logged and everything. Then we went inside.<br /><br />We filled out the paper work, he told me about a fly-in happening in Simsbury (where he's from) and gave me my temporary certificate. The real license will arrive in the mail in 2-3 months. Meanwhile, this paper is good for 120 days. I apologized for those landings and invited him to come up with me any other time; I insisted I was better than he got to see. He assured me it was nerves, and after a little chatting, he left.<br /><br />I hung around until Chris got back from an intro flight with a new student, and when he finished with him I acted like I failed before telling him the truth. We hung out for some time before I finally left the airport. I'd be back - and soon - to get checked out on the Piper Warrior. But for a few days I decided I was taking a break. I was a private pilot now, and I could do whatever I wanted. It's a great feeling and it's still sinking in:<br /><br />I'm a pilot.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-61233663421078976112008-09-12T07:57:00.000-07:002008-09-12T09:30:54.851-07:00The Night BeforeWednesday night I went to the airport right after work as planned to go over last minute test prep prior to my Thursday lesson. I brought every book Chris had loaned me, with dozens of post-its with writing marking the pages I might want to reference. I also brought my books, a flight plan to Provincetown and the normal equpitment, such as my headset.<br /><br />Chris sat me down and told me about the IACRA, a form that MUST be completed for a checkride to take place and for a pilot's license to be issued. As he filled out his portion on the computer I asked him the 10-15 questions I had come with.<br /><br />Once we'd gotten the first bit of review done, Chris looked at my logbook and noticed I didn't have enough solo time yet: I needed 10 hours and I had less than 9. So he told me to go fly. I could do whatever I wanted, but had to just put some time on. So I went.<br /><br />During the run-up at the end of the taxi-way I noticed the left magnito was dirty. (The magnitos keep the engine turning, and you need to check both prior to take-off. When one is dirty, the RPMs drop more than they're supposed to when performing a check - max drop should be 125 - and the engine sounds like it coughs.) I pumped the mixture as Chris demonstrated in a previous flight where we'd had that problem, and that cleared it out. I took-off on runway 36 to fly to the practice area and work on some basics, talking (out loud) my way through everything I intended to do during tomorrow's flight.<br /><br />Everything went just fine, but it was getting late. I decided to head back to Oxford and requested a touch-and-go. I was cleared for the option, which means I could do whatever I wanted, but had to follow a Gulfstream in. I set up for a long final to make sure it had plenty of room, but ended up possibly giving it more than I needed to. Better safe than sorry, I figured.<br /><br />As I came in I called the tower back and requested to change the touch-and-go to a full-stop, since it was getting dark. I had really wanted to practice short and soft field landings, but I was running out of time. The tower called back and - sounding a little like I was stupid - reminded me I was clear for the option. I knew I was, but I wanted to give them the heads up. As a pilot you need to let ATC's comments not effect you personally; just let them slide right off. (Actually, as I was flying to the practice area I heard the controller telling another pilot off: "Next time let me know what you intend to do before you do it. We don't just do whatever we want to around here." It was harsh, but the pilot clearly didn't didn't sound too upset.) This isn't to say ATC should be ignored; just have thick skin if they're rude.<br /><br />I performed my landing and taxied back to parking before getting out to finish studying with Chris. We had already reviewed my flight plan to Provincetown and figured out that the weight and balance of the airplane wouldn't allow a flight that long with full feul, so I was going to make a stop through Groton to fill back up to 15 gallons on the way. Chris also showed me how to compute take-off and landing distances, something I had read about before, but he and I never went over.<br /><br />At about 9:30 I left to go back to my house. I had to review the manuevers, remember the V_x (best speed for distance climb), V_y (best speed for time climb) and V_r (speed to pitch the nose up for take-off) and calculate the flight plans (with weather) and weight and balance. It was going to be a long night. I finally stopped working around 11:40, but didn't fall asleep until at least midnight, probably a bit after.<br /><br />Thursday was the moment of truth.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-20177323524278722262008-09-10T05:36:00.001-07:002008-09-10T08:28:49.429-07:00Night Cross-CountryMonday night I finally completed the night cross-country flight that is required of a private pilot. I believe that was the last of my requirements, and I am now technically prepared to take the test.<br /><br />I got to the airport just after 6pm and Chris and I started going over Oral Exam questions. The test is two parts: the actual check-ride and an oral exam, where Royal (the examiner) can ask me basically anything at all related to flying. Luckily, for this oral exam I don't need to know everything, but I do need to know the basics, and how to look up information I don't know.<br /><br />Chris started asking me questions that I hadn't had time to get to yet, and I didn't know the answers and instead attempted to bullshit my way through it. Bad choice. When I don't know something on this test, admit it. Chris warned me that Royal will catch me and call me out on it; better to admit it and look it up, he'd have more respect of my decision making that way. Unfortunately still, these were some of the most basic questions, the kind I shouldn't be looking up. Clearly I still needed to do a LOT of studying.<br /><br />Once it started getting dark, Chris and I went out to the plane for take-off. I did most of the pre-flight talks that I'm going to have to complete during my check-ride (such as telling my passengers what to do in case of any problems and using the proper checklist), then we taxied down to the runway for take-off. I'd prepared a flight plan to Orange County Airport (MGJ), an untowered airport with two runways in NY State, west of the Hudson and just west of Stewart Airport, which was in class D airspace.<br /><br />We took off runway 36 with almost no winds and head left. I made the mistake of not starting my turn until 1600', when a turn should be started "within 300' of traffic pattern altitude." Another mental note for me.<br /><br />Using my sectional and my flight plan I navigated us over the first checkpoint before quickly learning my lesson: navigation during night flight is much harder. (The "digital VOR" that I often mention, technically called a LORAN, was turned off. Chris knew it would make the flight too easy.) The checkpoints I'd picked out would have been great for day flight, but at night things like small airports and lakes were almost impossible to locate. As I maintained my heading and altitude (4500') I tried to figure out how far along my course I was. I kept staring at my sectional, then trying to find the landmarks outside. This was a mistake, and one Chris let me make to teach me a lesson. Once I thought I'd figured out where we were, he told me I was wrong. What I should be doing is picking things from OUTSIDE, then finding them on the sectional, not the other way around. I'd read that before, but in flight forgotten to practice it. If you do it the wrong way, you'll convince yourself you're somewhere you're not, and that could cause troubles.<br /><br />Without warning, Chris asked me where I would land in an emergency: I had no clue. This wasn't a surprise to me, as I'd thought about it before and didn't know where to land in an emergency at night. Chris pointed to the highway I'd just found below us and said, "that's a lighted runway in an emergency; there nothing better at night except an airport." He followed up by asking me if I should land with - or against - traffic. With, of course. Then as cars see a plane about to land in front of (or behind them) they can get out of the way, whereas a head-on situation would give them much less time to react.<br /><br />Eventually I figured out that the city in front of us was one of my checkpoints, and Stewart Airport was right past it (and the Hudson), exactly as I'd expected. Chris pointed out the bridge crossing the Hudson and made a final note about emergency landings: "never, ever land on a bridge. I'd pick the water before the bridge. Bridges have ropes and beams that hold them up, and you're very likely to hit them coming in for a landing there. Avoid it." Good advice; I'd made a mental note to avoid all bridges since my encounter with one at Goodspeed.<br /><br />I flew over Stewart, making sure to stay clear of their airspace, before I found Orange County. I'd told Chris my options: contact Stewart to enter their airspace as I descend to Orange County, or overfly Orange County before descending in the free airspace to the west of it. Chris had me chose, so I went with the latter.<br /><br />Being uncontrolled, Orange County doesn't have a tower to talk to, but a UNICOM. A UNICOM is a "UNIversal COMmunication" radio: everyone around that airport should just announce where they are and what they're doing, and anyone in the area can talk with each other. It's a simple idea, and it works pretty well, but I don't have a lot of experience with it. When a helicopter was flying over the airport, Chris took over the radios and controls. Apparently I had just reported that I was entering right down-wind for runway 21 (when I had MEANT to say that I INTENDED to enter right down-wind for that runway). He informed me of my mistake and said "you have to descend pretty quick if you just told them you're entering right down-wind right now," as he banked the plane about 60-70 degrees in a tight turn to descend fast. I asked "couldn't I just correct myself?" Chris said I could, but we were already there by then.<br /><br />Coming in for landing was fine, though I did it very high intentionally. Chris had warned me that we were going to be flying right over a mountain that I'd never see at night, so I wanted to make sure I was clear of it.<br /><br />As we came in to land, Chris made one last radio call and the runway lights went out. Instantly I realized what happened: on untowered airports, at night, the runway lights were pilot-controlled on the UNICOM frequency. When you press down to make a radio call on that frequency, it adjusts the lights. There are four settings: off, low, medium and high. I quickly asked Chris "how many times do I need to press [the radio button] to turn them back on? 5?" Chris gave me his usual sink-or-swim answer: "you tell me." I tried 5: "I think 5 is medium, 3 is low and 7 is high."<br /><br />Click-click-click-click-click.<br /><br />...<br /><br />Then they came on, to medium. I was right, but it took a few seconds for them to turn on. I made a mental note; not for my check-ride, but for the next time I'm flying at night: don't panic if it takes them a few seconds. Once that was sorted out, I came in to land.<br /><br />After I touched-down and made my radio calls I started to taxi to what I thought was taxiway A, but was actually grass. Though I wouldn't have made it there before catching my mistake, Chris took the controls anyway and teased me about it. Once we got onto the taxi-way we turned around almost immediately and Chris made the radio call that we were going to take-off the same way we came in to land (runway 3; the opposite end of runway 21). Normally you wouldn't do this because of wind, but with no wind, there was no reason not to.<br /><br />My take-off was more "by the numbers" (per Chris's instruction) this time. Pulled back at 50 knots and once I took-off I got some speed before climbing at 70 knots. Chris then pointed out the mountain that I never saw: to the left was a huge ridge that extended 600' above the runway to 1000' MSL. A lone red light marked the top of it, but was so small I never noticed it during the landing.<br /><br />Chris instructed me to climb west of Orange County before I headed back east, so that I wouldn't break Stewart Airspace. He then asked me what altitude their airspace went to, what height I should go to and why. "They go to 3000', I'm going to 3500' because (1) a VFR flight heading east needs to be at odd-thousand plus 500 feet and (2) if a gust of wind or poor judgement knocks me down 50' I don't want to break their airspace." My reasons were fine, but Chris added one more: we hadn't adjusted the altimeter for Orange County, so the air pressure was still set for Oxford. While it wasn't going to make a HUGE difference, it was something to remember, and certainly a good point.<br /><br />We were still climbing to 5500' as we flew above Stewart, that way we could see more landmarks and have more time if an emergency occurred. Then I told Chris that I'd forgotten to make a flight plan back, but I could use my original one in reverse... to some extent. He told me I should have made it, but wasn't too harsh, since I'd simply not had enough time to make another one. Because checkpoints over this area wasn't too good, Chris reminded me that keeping my heading was my best friend. I had flown to Orange County with a heading of 273, so my heading back should be "140, which is what I'm on now."<br />"What? Your heading should be 140?"<br />"Yeah... or wait... 120? No, yeah, 140." I was obviously confused.<br />"What direction did we fly there with?"<br />"273"<br />"I mean: we went [almost due] west. So coming back we should go..."<br />"East! Wait... east is 090... oops!"<br /><br />I had tried doing some overly complex math in my head instead of doing the simple thing. It wasn't intentional, nor an attempt to impress anyone, just a mistake. I explained it to Chris and apologized that I wasn't thinking. He actually said, "you were thinking, and that's a good thing." True, but I pointed out that thinking the wrong thing was still a mistake. From now on I'll double-check using a different system.<br /><br />As we got closer to Oxford I spotted Hartford, then the two high towers by Robertson. I knew Oxford had to be coming up on my right at some point. Then Chris took control.<br /><br />Oxford was just off our right. In fact, it looked like we were just 4 miles out, though Chris pointed out that this was a visual trick of the night. He called the tower and we got clearance to land. I noticed Waterbury, then the tower at the airport, before Chris gave me back the controls. I had gotten lost - which is normal for a first night flight. After I get me license, I want Chris to instruct me so I can get better at it, and eventually be able to do it comfortably solo.<br /><br />As I came in to land, Chris turned off the landing light, which helps illuminate the runway under the nose wheel. Not comfortable with it, and not sure he intended for me to leave it off, I turned it back on and said "nope, it's on." He didn't hear me, because once we'd landed I repeated it. Apparently he didn't realize I had turned it back on and called me a bum. I told him that during my night training he could make me do touch-and-gos with the landing light off, if he wanted. That's going to be an interesting night when it comes.<br /><br />After shut-down, Chris told me to just hit the books. There's only three ways I would fail, he said: stare at the instruments, making up excuses, not knowing the basics. The first two are things I'm just going to have to hold myself to; the third I needed to fix.<br /><br />I've spent almost all my "free" time studying since that flight, and I'll be meeting with Chris again tonight, then tomorrow morning before the 9am check-ride.<br /><br />I don't know if I'll have time to post before then, but if not: wish me luck! This could be a great birthday :)Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-77792111240546480202008-09-08T05:36:00.000-07:002008-09-08T07:07:10.626-07:00More Stalls & BAI + BonusIt's been a while since I last posted; my apologies. I've been fairly busy with my check-ride fast approaching this Thursday. I had two lessons last week (since my most recent post) and one ground-school lesson too.<br /><br />The first lesson was Thursday night. With visibility a little low due to haze, Chris decided we were going to do "stalls and ground reference: one of each, then come back." So my lesson plan was going to include: one power-on stall, one power-off stall, one turn-around-a-point, one rectangular-turn and one S-turn.<br /><br />We took off and went north to the practice area. Chris told me to do either stall whenever I was ready. I took a minute to compose myself, find an emergency landing and remind myself not to stare at the instruments before starting my clearing turns: a 360 degree turn to the left, explaining out-loud what I was doing and why (looking for traffic). Once I came out of the turn to a north heading, I started my power-off stall: carb heat, a little power out, first notch of flaps - maintain altitude, when clear: second notch of flaps - maintain altitude, when clear: final notch of flaps - maintain altitude, hold nose straight and level until you can feel the stall coming on by "bumps" forming under the plane.<br /><br />I, however, was not stalling. Chris noted why: "it's hard to do a power-off stall when you're not power-off." Oops. I'd forgotten to pull the power to idle after my last notch of flaps. Once I did, the nose tried dropping, but as I held it to the horizon I felt the stall bumps coming on. I did the maneuver well... once the power was off. Now I'll remember to look for that next time.<br /><br />I then set-up for the power-on stall. Power all the way in, and just pull the nose back too high. I was giving too much right rudder, thinking back to last time when I wasn't giving it enough. I eased off and tried to keep the wings level. Once I felt the pre-stall bumps under the plane, I pushed the nose over. Much better.<br /><br />Then Chris asked me to enter slow flight, something I hadn't done in a looong time. In fact, we'd hardly ever gone over it, but I thought I remembered what to do, so I gave it a try. Carb heat on, a little power out, and all the flaps in (one notch at a time). It was basically the power-off stall I messed up earlier, because I kept some power in to maintain flight this time. I pitched my nose up to maintain about 50 knots. I kept scanning outside: "looking for traffic, got an emergency field picked out, airspeed 50 knots, altitude 3500 feet, heading due north, looking for traffic..."<br /><br />I was doing well, so Chris told me to turn east. I lifted the right wing slightly (checking for traffic) before turning to that heading. I noted that I was doing a shallow turn because I was in slow flight, and a steep turn would cause me to lose even more of my vertical component of lift, making it easier to stall. Chris told me that I would be golden if I could mention stuff like that on my check-ride, so I made a mental note. He had me turn a few more headings in slow flight before telling me that was good and to return to normal flight.<br /><br />On the way back, Chris pulled the throttle to idle. "Show me an emergency." I picked a field, then pitched to 65 knots (Chris noted that I should have done them both at the same time). I set up for the landing, but was still so high as I flew over it that I went right past and had to turn around. Since the field was perpendicular to the wind, this wasn't a problem, but now I was afraid I was coming in too short. Once I got back to facing the field, I realized I was set-up pretty well. Chris told me to put the power back in and take-off. We had gotten pretty low, so Chris gave me some advice for the check-ride: ask Royal (the examiner) to tell me when give it power again. That way, he's responsible for making sure we stay above the 500' AGL minimum required. Certainly something I'm going to have to remember, because if I get lower than 500', I fail. Plain and simple.<br /><br />I climbed out and noted that I wasn't pitching for the best climb speed because I was in a "cruise climb," meaning that I was climbing, but not in any rush, and I was en-route to a destination. Another useful thing to tell Royal during the check-ride.<br /><br />Coming in for landing I was set-up pretty nicely and touched down smoothly. Chris commented that it was a great landing. I noted that I only had 1 notch of flaps, but explained that it was all I needed. Overall, I'd had a very good flight. My biggest fault was not having the power off during that first stall maneuver. Keep studying.<br /><br />Friday I arrived to the airport early, with clear skies. There was a small airshow visiting Oxford, just showing off some WW2 bombers and fighters. There was a small crowd watching the B-35 bomber start up. Meanwhile I did my pre-flight right next to him on my Cessna 152. Little embarrassing to do that standing in front of an audience, next to an airplane that has at least 4 machine gun turrets on it.<br /><br />When Chris and I taxied out to the runway it suddenly got very busy. About 5 planes landed before the tower called me back: "984, I haven't forgotten you, it's just busy." Chris noted that the planes were trying to get home before the bad weather came in. He and I weren't going to be gone long, so we were OK to go up. When a break came, the tower gave us the chance to take-off "without delay." I did it fine, but Chris noted that I don't have to accept a "without delay" take-off. In fact, during my check-ride, he advised against it. One more mental note to stuff my brain prior to Thursday's flight. I appreciated any tips I could get.<br /><br />Chris had decided we would be doing BAI, since I didn't have enough time yet. (BAI is the official name for "foggles" - the sunglasses which make it so all I can see is the instrument panel, as if I flew into bad weather.) Chris had me put them on as we climbed out all the way to the practice area.<br /><br />Once we got the to practice area, Chris gave me some altitudes and headings, reminding me to SCAN the instruments and not get focused on just one. I was doing pretty well: talking the whole time, admitting my mistakes, but correcting them. Eventually Chris decided I should start climbing at about 500 feet per minute, and just keep climbing. He gave me more headings, but never had me stop my climb. Noting that this was an otherwise boring flight, he decided: "let's see how high we can get."<br /><br />Around 9000' MSL Chris saw something: a balloon. Apparently we flew directly over a balloon. I was a little nervous, since hot air balloons were hard to maneuver, and I didn't want to hit it, but Chris corrected me: it wasn't a hot air balloon. It was a regular one, like kids get at carnivals. He took the controls and I removed the foggles for a minute to try to find it again. No such luck. At least we had a cool story, I noted, putting the foggles on and starting to climb again.<br /><br />Chris had us flying south-west, into the wind (which got even stronger at these altitudes). Flying into the wind gave us a ground speed of "very slow." Nothing normally goes this slow at this altitude. Passing 10,000 feet, Chris joked that the local traffic advisory were looking at us on radar thinking "there's a tiny VFR flight going 3mph at 10,000 feet... is that a bee?" A few jets flew overhead. We were at the point where you could see the atmosphere, not just the city you were over (when Chris let me peak).<br /><br />By the time we finally got to 12,500 feet, Chris gave me a chance to look again. I could see the shoreline all the way from Rhode Island to New York, complete with the storm slowly moving in. Chris told me to just have fun, flying around and looking, so I did for a bit before he had me return to BAI flight.<br /><br />As we descended, he gave me a few headings, but mostly just told me to descend faster and faster. My ears and sinuses were feeling funny, which was expected. (Chris and I actually went over medical stuff in Saturday's ground school.) Then came the fun part: Chris told me he was going to have me do a nearly-blind landing. He grabbed the pillow from the back and stuffed it in my windshield so I couldn't peak. He then gave me headings and had me descend at a bunch of different numbers. He commented "giving you this information is as hard for me as it is for you." Understandable. Trying to land a plane blindfolded isn't easy for the pilot, or for the person trying to talk him through it.<br /><br />Less than a quarter-mile from the runway, with 1 notch of flaps in and the carb heat on, Chris removed the pillow and told me to take off the foggles. "If you can't make it, do a go-around," he said. I knew I could make it, so I aimed for the runway. Chris dumped in the last two notches of flaps and helped push down on the yoke to keep the plane from climbing (which it always tries to when you first add flaps). I made my (slightly bumpy) landing when he told me that I should have done a go-around. "You wouldn't have made it if I hadn't added the flaps." I wasn't sure I believed him, pointing out that the runway is a mile long. Surely I wouldn't have flaired for a mile. "It's also down slope," he pointed out. I remain unconvinced, but took note of his advice. I was coming in faster than I should have, so the flaps were a good idea.<br /><br />That was it for Friday.<br /><br />Saturday was ground-school. We just went over the test questions: some of which I knew, and many I didn't. Chris told me what to study and told me to admit when I didn't know the answer. Also: don't be a know-it-all. If I go into detail on a question I could have answered simply, Royal will dig deeper until he finds something I don't know. I need to remember that this isn't a test I need to pass 100% - it's a test where I need to show that I am a competent pilot and know how to find answers that I don't already know.<br /><br />I won't get into the detailed questions, but two hours of ground school can be just as draining as 6 touch-and-gos when you're as focused as I was.<br /><br />Sunday came with some excitement. Instead of flying myself (Chris took the day off, and I didn't ask to go solo) I decided I'd go to the airshow at Westover AFB that I'd gotten rained out of on Saturday. There they showed off a bunch of planes (though the only modern fighters were the F-16 and F-18) and I took tons of photos and videos. (They will eventually appear on here, I promise.) After watching one pilot tumble through the air, then dive into the ground on a maneuver I was sure was going to end tragically, I was at a loss for words. These people made the most complicated flights look so easy I could do them. They were amazing.<br /><br />I also spent some time talking to a Major Dave "CK" Kase, who was standing next to an Air Force trainer. Apparently he instructs the instructors. I joked that he was the CFII of the Air Force, and he was impressed at how much I knew about flying. He was my favorite guy at the whole show because he was willing to talk, and was genuinely nice.<br /><br />Finally, the Thunderbirds. In what can't really be described in words, I saw, first-hand, the most amazing flight skills that I can possibly imagine. With 3-mile straight-up flight, head-on games of chicken at 1000MPH closing speeds and much more, it was certainly an amazing airshow. Without attempting to describe how awesome it was (since I would certainly fail), let me just say this: if you get a chance to see the Thunderbirds: do. Afterwards they even came out to sign autographs and everything. Instead, I got my picture with them all, except #5, the girl, since they ran out of time. Unfortunately, my camera also ran out of battery (and was low on space on my memory card) so my video clips are just seconds long each, and two of my 5 photos of me with the Thunderbirds are from my phone - much lower quality.<br /><br />Anyway, that wraps up my lessons thus far (and the bonus). Every night this week I plan to go flying, and my check-ride is Thursday. I'll try to post before then, but if I can't, wish me luck!Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-12790228160879529262008-08-29T08:01:00.000-07:002008-08-29T11:03:02.527-07:00Back to BasicsLast week Chris and I decided we were going to go flying in the next bad weather, so he could take me up IFR. Then I could both see what it was like, and get my remaining instrument time in (the stuff I used the foggles for previously). Well, the weather didn't cooperate: the past two nights have been clear blue skies with almost no wind. Well, I can't complain!<br /><br />With my check-ride scheduled, Chris and I had to go over the basic maneuvers to give me a refresher. It's been a while since I've done the basics; you don't really use "turns around a point" or "power-off stalls" when you're doing the cross-countries (at least, not if you do them right). Wednesday Chris decided it was time for us to go over stalls.<br /><br />During the engine run-up prior to take-off, Chris told me I couldn't use the ailerons to take-off. I laughed at what I thought was his joke. He wasn't joking. I ended up taking-off with the trim wheel, which was a lot harder than I'd expected it to be. The planes tips back and forth a bit, and Chris insisted I could correct it with rudder only. I tried, but it wasn't a great take-off. I was just glad it was done. Then we were on to stalls.<br /><br />There are two types of stalls: power-on and power-off. The idea is to simulate what it would be like if the airplane stalled while you were taking-off (power-on) or coming in to land (power-off). In both cases, the stall is created by having a combination of airspeed and angle-of-attack (that's the angle between the wing and the relative wind) such that the air no longer flows smoothly over the wing and basically means the wings aren't generating [much] lift. In both power-on and power-off, this simply means you need to have the nose too high for the speed you're going. Since you're going so much faster during a take-off, the angle is much steeper, whereas flying level can be enough to induce a stall if the power is off.<br /><br />Chris decided to start with power-off stalls, the harder configuration to get into. Since it had been so long since I'd done them, I didn't remember the procedure. When I started touching the controls, Chris corrected me:<br /><br />"You need to do clearing turns first."<br /><br />Clearing turns are basically turns used to make sure there's no traffic or other obstacles in the way. A 90 degree turn to the left, then a 90 back to the right would work, but Chris said he generally likes to do one 360 (either to the left or right). I did it his way, just to try it.<br /><br />Once I'd gotten that out of the way, Chris demonstrated the configurations, but so quickly that I didn't get them. Once I thought I knew what to do, I tried it. While I was eventually able to get the stall, I was losing a lot of altitude first and it took me a while. Chris was rattling off instructions the whole time, correcting me and telling me what I was doing wrong, then reminding me I had a time limit to induce the stall. With all of the warnings and directions he was spewing out, I felt certain I had screwed up royally. I tried it several more times and got better and better, but never great. Hell, I didn't even think I did good. If Chris had asked me "did you think you would have passed with how you just did?" I would have replied with a strong "hell no."<br /><br />Power-on stalls I felt a bit better at. I still found myself in the situation with Chris directing me every step of the way, including "more right rudder! More! If you reach the secondary stall and don't have enough right rudder we could induce a spin." Needless to say, I was a bit nervous, and did reach the secondary stall at least once (but with enough rudder that we were plenty safe). The stall warning horn goes off inside the plane when you're anywhere near a stall, at which point I usually fix it. Trying to induce it is counter-intuitive, and left me feeling stressed. That, plus the fact that the secondary stall occurs within a fraction of a second of the primary stall made me even more uneasy. The lesson was not going well, I though.<br /><br />Throughout the whole lesson Chris would catch me staring at the instruments that I wasn't supposed to be. "The only way you'll fail this test is if he catches you doing that. I promise you that." Since then I've been reminding myself: don't stare at the instruments! Glance!<br /><br />As we finished stalls, Chris decided to try some unusual attitudes. These I liked, since I'd always been good at them. How they work is simple: I close my eyes and Chris puts the plane in an odd position, such as "steep right bank with the nose too high." For that example, I would turn it left to even out the bank, give it full power to prevent a stall, and nose down to correct my angle. We did one of those, then another one with the nose down this time. Same idea, but this time I made the mistake of putting the power in again, causing us to be diving down at about 155mph and stressing the engine more than I should. Oops. We did it twice more (both nose-down) and I pulled power -- as you should in that situation. I was feeling a bit better about myself, though stalls still were pissing me off.<br /><br />As we came in for the landing on runway 36, Chris told me to land without ailerons. I wasn't keen on that idea, because I knew that if I didn't manage to flair the plane correctly, we'd smack the runway pretty hard, or possibly even prop-strike. And while I trusted Chris, I wasn't sure he'd let me abort and start using the yoke. Instead he told me he'd demonstrate, then have me do one next time we went flying. On final Chris looked like he was going to do it. We were all lined up, he was talking me through what he was doing and giving it nose-up trim as we came in over the runway. Hmm... we were still descending. More trim. Still descending. Isn't there supposed to be a flair in here somewhere?<br /><br />THUD!<br /><br />We smacked down on the runway pretty hard before bouncing back into the air. I think Chris pulled the yoke back, but only for a second. When we came back down it still wasn't a nice landing. I told him he botched it, and that he cheated. Claiming it had been a while since he did that, he showed me the trim wheel which was giving as much nose up as possible. Clearly it wasn't enough.<br /><br />Before I left he gave me a list of things to use to make a lesson plan for Thursday. I was to decide what to do.<br /><br />About the same time on Thursday I arrived. When Chris and I got into the plane he asked what the lesson plan was for the day. Having totally forgotten about it -- though not having time to do it anyway -- I apologized. Chris said that today was going to be ground reference then, which I was OK with.<br /><br />Again, Chris wanted me to take-off without touching the yoke. After yesterday's decent (though not great) take-off, I was willing to try again. This time I did much better. In fact, I believe that if I'd have had passengers who didn't know that I was supposed to be touching the yoke, they wouldn't have had a problem with that take-off.<br /><br />On the flight north towards the practice area I asked him to define ground reference. I had thought it was "recognizing things on the ground while flying from one place to another", but Chris corrected me: ground reference is turns-around-a-point, box-turns and S-turns.<br /><br />We started with turns around a point. Again, Chris got to the point where he was giving constant instructions. I was doing a better job this time, but still not great. After one turn around a point, between 600-1000' above it (I was trying to hold 800' above) we moved on to box turns. About half-way through I got that: enter at a 45 degree angle into the downwind, steepest turn, level flight straight, medium turn into the next leg, shallow turn, straight, medium, straight, steep. That may be confusing, but just remember that you need to bank into the winds as they try to blow you off-course. That's all the varying angles of bank are for.<br /><br />Finally we did S-turns. Those are turns making an S-turn over a straight line on the ground. Again, you have to enter from down-wind. The trick here is both altitude, and making sure your wings are level as you cross-over the line on the ground (in my case, telephone wires). After a few turns I was certainly getting better, but still didn't think I was good enough to pass the test. When I finished, Chris had me fly due west (staying at roughly 2000' AGL) to show me a grass airstrip.<br /><br />I was flying along when suddenly the engine died. Normally, Chris pulls the throttle back and says "engine died", but not this time. No one touched the throttle or the mixture. Instantly I knew what was wrong. Jokingly I said, "uh oh, well, better pick a place to land!" as I reached down between us and turned to Fuel Shut-off Valve back to the "on" position. Chris had warned me since I started flying that someday he'd pull it on me, so I always check it once in a while, even on solo flights, just to be safe.<br /><br />This time, as soon as I put it back on, Chris pulled the throttle. Clearly he wanted me to practice an emergency. I didn't have a field already picked out, like I should have, so I scanned for one. I saw one off the left wing and picked it. As soon as I did I thought "what the hell? you picked the field by the power lines? are you an idiot?!" I pitched the plane to 65kts (Best glide speed, though I should have done this AS I picked the field) before Chris said "there's a great Field under me." I looked, and sure enough there was a nice one there. I changed my mind and said I'd go there instead, but Chris said I'd never get set-up to land into the wind before suggesting another field straight-out. I changed my mind to that one again.<br /><br />Finally Chris put the power back in. He was disappointed; that was the worst I'd messed up in a long time. When you pick a field, you STICK WITH IT! He warned me that my examiner would try to get me to pick another field. Don't! He warned me he may even throw a pen by my feet while I'm flying normally and ask me to get it. The correct response is "I'll get it when we land."<br /><br />We made our way back to Oxford. Chris told me to tell him when I though we were close enough to make the runway. When I told him, he had me pull the power out and try to make it. We certainly cut it close, but managed to land past the take-off arrows (which mark the part of the runway you can take-off on, but not land on). Chris said I should've waited another 30 seconds before I said I could make it, but that I did make it, so he couldn't fault me.<br /><br />When we got back inside, he told me that I would've failed. I wasn't surprised. But then he told me something else: if I hadn't had that one bad emergency, I would have passed -- both today and yesterday. I gave him a stunned look, to which he replied, "yeah, it really is a joke." Apparently all students go through what I am. Me being rusty at the basics isn't unique to me after all. Even just telling me that made me a lot more confident that I'll be able to get better before my test.<br /><br />Chris gave me some homework: write down everything I know about flying, including every maneuver, etc. He also gave me a book to study during my long weekend. When I get back next Wednesday, Chris owns me until I get my license.<br /><br />Less than two weeks. I can't wait to be a certified pilot.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-4009534326497753042008-08-25T12:31:00.001-07:002008-08-25T12:36:27.519-07:00Check Ride SheduledJust a short update, since there has been no flying:<br /><br />After speaking with Chris yesterday, it looks like I won't be flying tonight or tomorrow either: the runway at Oxford is getting patched up. Apparently this happens twice a year: once before winter and once after. Anyway, it's going to be two days before I can fly again.<br /><br />In the meantime, I did schedule my check ride with Royal Griffin (an aside note: really cool name) for my 22nd birthday at 9am. So if all goes well, I'll be a private pilot on September 11th, roughly 10 months after I started training with Chris.<br /><br />That's it for now. More updates once I get another chance to fly, which will be Wed or Thurs. Until then!Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-89929827349755464552008-08-22T07:01:00.000-07:002008-08-22T09:33:26.768-07:00Long Cross-Country Complete!Now that the weather in New England has gotten better for flying, I went from delaying my solo cross-country to Groton for 2-3 weeks to completing both that flight and my solo long cross-country within 26 hours of eachother. Since I've alreadt recapped on the first one, let me detail the Oxford-Groton-New Bedford-Oxford trip now...<br /><br />A few minutes after 4pm yesterday I arrived at Oxford, where Chris was ready for me. I did my preflight, then we went inside to review the flight plans and everything while the plane got fueled up. Chris asked for my flight plan, which I have maticulously detailed: one page for the OXC-GON flight, one for the GON-EWB leg and the third page for the EWB-OXC return flight, all complete with airport diagrams, checkpoints, radios frequencies and notes as needed. <br /><br />Chris asked me: "what's your plan for Providence airspace?" <br />"I plan on staying south of it from Groton to New Bedford, then flying over it at 4500' from New Bedford back to Oxford."<br />"How will you know you're high enough before you enter their airspace?"<br />I pointed to the notes section on the third page of flight plans and read it outloud: "If not at 4500' by first checkpoint, circle and climb to 4500 feet. If needed, call Providence (134.5) below 4100 feet."<br />Visibily impressed, Chris replied, "ok, yeah, you're all set then." I love it when my hard work and attention to detail shows and is done correctly.<br /><br />Chris signed off everything in my logbook, then wrote a quick note for me on a small piece of paper. He folded it in half and wrote "In case of emergency" on it before folding it in half one-more time. He then told me:<br /><br />"I've done this for all of my students for this flight - all nine of you. Don't open this unless there's an emergency. You can open it when you get back, but not before then."<br />Curious, I half-jokingly asked: "What is it? Identification in case I crash? I have my driver's license on me."<br />"Haha, yeah, that's fire-proof paper," Chris laughed.<br /><br />I promised not to open it until I got back, and while the tempation to peak was hard, I kept my word.<br /><br />When I climbed into the plane I turned off the VOR to prevent radios problems like those from yesterday's flight. Chris hadn't flown this plane since I tied it down last night.<br /><br />Everything went perfectly smooth during run-up and take-off. Chris was in front of me on the taxi-way, flying his brother to Hartford. His take-off and climb out were flawless, of course. Mine weren't bad, I noted as I accended. I've certainly gotten much better at holding center-line.<br /><br />Having just made this leg of the flight the prior day, I forgot to use my flight plan until I was already passing Waterbury (my first checkpoint) and onto my second. Two-three checkpoints later I stopped looking for checkpoints: I knew where the airport was, and I had the "digital VOR" which was quickly becoming a favorite tool of mine. (Chris had told me I could use anything in the plane to make this flight; every tool was at my disposal.)<br /><br />When I got to Groton, everything went smoothly. I took a few photos and a short video of the airport (and a close-up on my face - by mistake - of me saying "Welcome to Groton" over the sound of the engine) as I taxied back to runway 23 for a take-off. Still the only runway at Groton I've had the chance to use.<br /><br />Before requesting take-off for the second leg of the trip I reviewed my flight plan and sectional (which had flight paths and checkpoints marked): what was my heading going to be? what altitude was I flying at? what was my first checkpoint? how far out was it? etc. Once I felt relatively confident about flying to an airport I'd never seen before, I got clearence to take-off and depart northeast.<br /><br />During the take-off roll on the runway birds were flying out of the way, which is usual, but I came within feet of striking one on the lower-right side of my plane almost as soon as I took-off. I'm not sure what would have happened, but I was able to remain calm and focused, which I proud of. There's not a whole lot you can do with a sucidial pidgeon when you're flying -- just don't get yourself into trouble trying to avoid hitting it. Sort of like when you have to avoid running over a squirrel in a car: do your best to avoid it, but don't choose to run into an oncoming truck to save the squirrel. Aside from that the climb out was both smooth and BEAUTIFUL. I took more photos and another short video clip, which will be posted eventually (my apologies for not posting all my promised photos yet!).<br /><br />The flight to New Bedford (EWB) was calm. I found myself almost completely ignoring my flight plan, and just using my marked-up sectional to figure out how to get there, and how to make sure I was clear of Providence airspace. Again, the "digital VOR" was helpful too. The most exciting part about that leg of the trip (aside from the stunning water scenes below me) was a small Diamond (a type of plane) that passed below me, but he was well clear of me. The fact that I was able to scan and find other traffic successfully felt good though.<br /><br />On the route I finally figured out how New Bedford got such a weird airport tag of "EWB": New Bedford -> newbedford -> nEWBedford -> EWB. That helped me remember both the name, and the tag, of the airport.<br /><br />Coming in for landing everything was going fine. I finally was entering the downwind leg of the pattern, meaning I could do a more "typical" pattern landing in terms of when I put my flaps down, etc. I was coming in so high that I made sure to decend rapidly. When I got to pattern altitude (about 1070' there) and was setting up for landing on runway 23 (yes, 23 at EWB too) I was still decending. I slowed my decent a bit, but still opted to make tighter traffic once I was cleared for landing. As I'm making my turn base - then final - I heard the tower clear someone to take-off on the runway. I slowed my flight down and thought about radioing the tower "Uhh, tower, comfirm 987 clear to land runway 23?" but decided it might rub the tower the wrong way; besides, I was perfectly able to space out a bit and land clear of the departing craft.<br /><br />I made my landing smoothly and tower asked where I wanted to go. I requested "transient parking" which I thought was the name of "temporary" parking at an airport, but the tower asked me to repeat. I used the word "temporary" this time to make sure my intentions were clear, and stated that I was unfamiliar with the airport. (Despite having a crude diagram on my flight plan I'd certainly never been there before, and was by no definition "familiar" with where to park.) After all, there's no point in using the correct terminology (assuming "transient" even was) if it doesn't get the idea across.<br /><br />The tower gave me instruction to taxi via bravo to parking, though I didn't understand where he instructed me to park. I decided to try to find out myself before asking him, but first he had me hold short of crossing taxiway alpha as a jet came towards me and took alpha to the runway. He then instructed me to continue to parking once the jet was clear, where I found a young man directing me where to park. I was approaching him, but didn't turn when he apparently wanted me to. Clearly I should have gotten more familiar with hand signals. He made a gesture to explain to loop around into the parking spot, which I did. Upon turning off the engine I apologized and told him I was a student pilot - the only person I told the whole trip. He was very understanding, and directed me to the bathrooms.<br /><br />I tied the plane down, had some crackers I brought along and called Chris as I was instructed. He congradulated me and told me he wouldn't be there when I got back, but to call him again then. I made another call to a friend, but ended up leaving a voicemail. I used the bathroom, got some water, took a few photos (they'll come, I swear!), then checked my fuel. I had enough, but there was no reason NOT to put more in, so I had Paul - the guy who helped me park - put in 4 gal in each wing. Since the cost of fuel was built into the plane rental, I got a reciept so I could get paid back.<br /><br />I checked the planes fuel after paying for it, but that was the extent of my preflight since I'd only landed 15 minutes ago. I untied the plane and got cleared for take-off back towards Oxford. Nothing usual about it, but still AWESOME that I was in Massachusetts - after crossing Rhode Island - alone in a plane. I focused and commanded the plane to climb to the 4500' cruise altitude I'd chosen for my flight back, clearing Prodivence's airspace at 4100'. I made it to the altitude as planned, without having to circle over my first checkpoint like I'd read to Chris, but I still wasn't comfortable. See, Providence is a class C airport - which is pretty big, like Bradley in Connecticut is. Even though I was 400' above the top of their airspace, I knew there would be traffic - BIG traffic - in the area, and I didn't want to risk dipping 500' and getting in trouble. I decided to call Providence approach.<br /><br />"Providence approach, Cessna November 48984 with request." After a minute with no reply I repeated. That time I got an answer.<br />"November 48984, state request and location."<br />"November 48984, departing New Bedford, flying west towards Oxford-Waterbury, request flight following."<br />"48984, squawk 0444, ident"<br />"November 48984, squawking 0444"<br />Once I changed my transponder from 1200 (for standard VFR flight) I pressed the "ident" button to confirm the change. They then called back: "November 48984, got your ident."<br /><br />They were very busy, as was Bradley approach during my one experience with Chris. I noticed a Boeing 737? 747? decending about 7-10 miles in front of me, so I went a little further south to stay clear. In fact, it wasn't until I got much closer that I even realized I was passing over the path a Boeing just took. Awesome! I was a little concerned, however, that approach didn't warn me about that traffic, so I kept my eyes peeled for other traffic, not wanting to rely on approach. It was tough though, since I was heading west -- directly towards the setting sun like last evening's return flight.<br /><br />"November 48984 Airbus 6000 at 11 to 12 o'clock" they called me.<br />"November 48984, could you repeat the altitude?"<br />"6000 ft, 1000 ft above you, between 11 and 12 o'clock" he repeated. If he was annoyed, it wasn't clear.<br />A moment later "984, traffic in sight." Let me tell you, those things are HUGE, even when you're 1000' below and not directly under them. I knew I was clear of him though, so there was no worry, and I was almost past the busy area, having only seen the two jets.<br /><br />About 10-20 miles later I requested to terminate flight following. This one took a second call again, but was then granted. I realized I was well south of my flight plan's path, but using the "digital VOR" and my sectional I realized I didn't care about the flight plan. I knew where I was, I knew where I was going, and I knew what I was doing. It was pretty cool being so confident in my ability.<br /><br />Most of the rest of the flight back included me snacking on peanuts (all long flights have peanuts, don't they?), singing to myself ("Whole New World" was still in my head), taking photos (mostly of the sunset) and relaxing (including barely touching the controls). It was a nice, though at moments boring, flight back. I tried to figure out breifly how to turn on the AM radio Chris once showed me that the plane had, but gave up quickly. I decided it was best not to start twisting a bunch of knobs I thought was the radio only to find out it was something critical.<br /><br />As the sun crept behind the final peaks of the mountains out west, I knew it was going to be another twilight landing. Having just been through one yesterday, and today confident in my tools and abilities, I was unfazed. When I finally got to Oxford I made all my radio calls, spotting the traffic I was to follow and set-up my landing perfectly. I noticed as I decended on final that I love the way an airport looks at night: like Christmas with all the little white, red, green and blue lights adorning the runway and taxiways. With all my flaps in - something I hadn't done for either previous landing that trip - I was coming in nice and slow. Like yesterday's landing back at Oxford's runway 36, I noticed ground effect almost worked in opposite again: instead of hovering for a few seconds above the runway the plane felt like a giant magnet was dragging it down. I kept applying back-pressure, but not fast enough, so I jerked it. Oops. I definitely stopped decending, but I was now doing the "burp" that often ends in a less-than-smooth landing. I pushed the nose over and managed to flair slightly, making for a smoother landing, but still not the best of the day.<br /><br />The ATC cleared me to taxi back to Classic Air (he must be so familiar with 48984 by now that he knew where I wanted to taxi to) and I took a few photos of the sunset behind the tower as I taxied in. I turned off the plane, logged my time and tied it down. I left Chris a voicemail and was finished. My long cross-country was done.<br /><br />On the drive back to my house, Chris called and congradulated me again. He told me to call him back on Sunday to plan what we'll do next, but until then he'd text me the number of the guy I'd be taking my check-ride with to call Friday (today). In 2-3 weeks, I will be taking my test. My next lesson will be sometime next week, so you can expect my next post then. Until that time though, I think I'm taking a break - I'm exhausted after flying 4.7 hours solo in a 26 hour span. My flying this week is done.<br /><br />...<br /><br />I stopped for gas en route and pulled out my wallet. I almost forgot about a small piece of paper that was folded up inside it, reading "in case of emergency." Having kept my word to Chris, I finally opened it. It read:<br /><br />Emergency huh<br />To bad<br />Figure it out!<br />Sincerely<br />ChristopherBinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-77366003901539559342008-08-21T04:58:00.000-07:002009-06-11T08:06:28.882-07:00Cross Country Solo - Finally!After getting back from my week-long vacation on Saturday, Chris's schedule and the weather haven't played along. Finally last night things came together, and I made my solo cross-country flight to Groton.<br /><br />I got to the airport just minutes after 6 and was all signed-off and behind the yoke by 6:30. During the preflight I noticed some water got in with the fuel, but I managed to drain it all out and have Chris confirm I was clear to fly. I was. My instructions were simple: fly to Groton, then fly back. If I felt uncomfortable with the landing, do a missed-landing (which is generally the same as a go-around, though a go-around implies you'll try landing again). I could do some touch-and-gos there, just land and taxi back for another take-off -- whatever I wanted. Chris said he wouldn't be there when I got back, but to call him and let him know I got back safe. Walking away he wished me good luck, and issued a final - less than reassuring - command: "don't die."<br /><br />The taxi, run-up and take-off all went fine. I kept my flight plan to Groton, my sectional, and my baseball cap (to block the sun from my eyes) on the empty seat next to me, along with the return trip flight plan tucked away. I'm a very visual person, and I've been visualizing this flight ever since Chris and I first made it together, so while I did locate every checkpoint on my flight plan, I forgot the first one (Waterbury) until it was behind my left shoulder. I knew where I was going, and could probably make the flight without checkpoints, but to keep the practice up I used them. Past Waterbury though I was getting nervous when I hadn't seen Meriden Aiport (MMK) yet. I had been drifting a little further south than I wanted since the heading indicator kept sticking, but the airport should still be in sight. Finally I came upon it -- I was expecting it to be closer to the ridge I flew over already, but it was further east than I remembered. I confirmed my mistake on the sectional and now I probably won't make that one again.<br /><br />On the way there the sky was clear, the winds were calm and I had little-to-no work that I really needed to do. I was flying GREAT! Looking out the window - scanning for traffic - check the ground for emergency landings and reference points - glance at the instruments to make sure everything was OK - back to looking outside, repeat. After a little while I started noticing some faint sounds in my headset -- it certainly wasn't air traffic. I listened closer and realized it was definitely a radio station, as in AM or FM radio. I couldn't tell exactly what was being said or played, but once I realized my radios seemed to still work, I was just amused by it. Strangely, it stayed in my headset even when I changed to other frequencies. I just shrugged it off -- at first.<br /><br />As I got Groton in sight I had been checking their ATIS to make sure I knew what to expect when I got there. They were using runway 23, which was the same one Chris and I used when we made the flight together. I had mixed feelings about that: I'm familiar with that approach and landing which is a plus, but coming from Oxford I'm set up perfectly for a straight-in landing on runway 15. Well, I certainly wasn't going to ask the tower for special permission, so runway 23 it was.<br /><br />During my flight to Groton I had used the "digital VOR" that I've mentioned in a few previous posts to get my heading and distance to Groton, so I knew when to call and inform them I was close to entering their airspace. I realized after I could have used the checkpoints on the ground instead, since I had measured those distances previously, but I liked having multiple systems to double-check. As I got closer and closer to Groton I wanted to call the tower and run-off all the information I wanted to give them: "Groton Tower, Cesnna 48984 12 to the West-Northwest, solo student requesting landing, taxi-back, with Delta." I made the call, but I knew I was a little more than 12 miles out, despite my report. This was when things got interesting.<br /><br />Although Groton Tower heard my request, they called me back informing me that my radios were fuzzy and asked if I had another I could use. Not sure what to do, I simply called back, speaking louder and more clearly, asking "984, is this better?"<br />"984, not really, you're still pretty scratchy, but I can make you out. Report 3 mile right base."<br />"984, will report 3 mile right base, thank you."<br /><br />As I was getting closer and lower to the airport, suddenly my radios freaked out. It sounded like the channels on a TV that are only static, with no one talking. As I was getting close to my 3 mile mark I considered calling the tower and asking if they heard it to -- or if they could hear me at all. I worried that my radios had died completely and that I was going to either be making a landing by coded lights (something I'd studied a bit, but wasn't a master at, and certainly wasn't prepared for) and wondered if I should turn my transponder to 7600, the code for "no radios". First, I thought, let me try my call to tower.<br /><br />"984, entering 3 mile left-- err, sorry, right base."<br /><br />Luckily, the static died when I called. Then:<br /><br />"984, clear to land runway 23," they called me back<br />"984, clear to land," I confirmed.<br /><br />On the way down I noticed they gave someone else clearance to take off on runway 23 ahead of my landing. I was a little surprised, but I slowed down a little more to make sure he had space. My landing was smooth and I was cleared to taxi back for my take-off. The traffic had really died down and I was the only one currently using the runway, so I was cleared to take off as soon as I'd requested it.<br /><br />I requested a turn Northwest and was cleared. While climbing I noticed another plane above me to my right -- exactly where I wanted to go. He radioed the tower and was entering a right downwind. A few seconds later tower called me:<br /><br />"984, I'll call your turn"<br />"984, could you repeat that?"<br />[A moment passes in silence.]<br />"Groton Tower, 984, could you repeat the last instruction?"<br />"984, I'll call you when you can make your turn out."<br />"984, waiting for your call, traffic in sight."<br />"984, you're clear to turn after that traffic."<br /><br />I love radios. I don't understand why people are so afraid of them; yeah, you might mess-up on it and sound like an idiot, but they really are wonderful tools. And not being too afraid to ask for that command to be repeated could have saved me big trouble had I not seen the incoming traffic.<br /><br />The rest of my climb to 4500' was smooth, and once I was out of the Groton airspace I called tower requesting a frequency change, and thanked him for his help. Now I was just flying back towards Oxford -- straight into the sunset.<br /><br />Hmm... straight into the sunset. It was beautiful, certainly, but I couldn't see squat. I took some pictures with my phone (which came out funny due to the prop) which I'll get uploaded at some point. <span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE:</span> Here are the photos, finally!<br /><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Se9u5oSsGy0/SjEcdtflFYI/AAAAAAAAExU/k_Sem03hsm4/s512/photo.jpg" /><br /><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Se9u5oSsGy0/SjEcdjxrriI/AAAAAAAAExY/xEMj9zgHh8A/s512/photo%282%29.jpg" /><br /><img style="width: 512px; height: 384px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Se9u5oSsGy0/SjEcdnE4CnI/AAAAAAAAExc/yZV3ALZKrqc/photo%283%29.jpg" /><br /><br />I tried looking for traffic, but it was hindered by the glare. Also, as the sun was going down things were getting darker. That started making me concerned, but I reassured myself that I was very familiar with this flight, and that I had the tools and knowledge to get back, even if it was dead night. The fact that the cold air vent was open and blowing on me just made things less comfortable.<br /><br />Once I was on my way, and realized I couldn't make the plane go a whole lot faster (in an attempt to beat the sunset), I decided to find my checkpoints and fix the things that were annoying me. First, I put on my baseball cap on under my headset to block the sun better. Second, I grabbed the air vent's plug from the back of the plane and shoved it in. Third, I reattached the visor which had fallen off while I was climbing. Finally, I took off my sunglasses once the sun was behind the mountains, which helped clear things up a bit.<br /><br />As I got closer to Oxford I heard the faint radio music playing. I'm sure it wasn't "A Whole New World" from Alladin, but for some reason I got that song in my head. Appropriate for flying, I guess.<br /><br />I'd had some troubles with the "digital VOR" earlier -- it was giving me two different headings and distances to Oxford -- but now it seemed consistent: I was 12 miles out with a perfect heading. Wait, 12 miles already? Oops! Time to get ATIS! Got it and called Oxford Tower. I was told to report a 3 mile right base (that sounded familiar), but as I got closer I heard the tower talking with another plane who was going for a straight in to the runway. As tower called me to inform me of the plane ("it probably shouldn't be a factor for you, but I'll call it anyway") I got it in sight and informed the tower. They called back "984, clear to land #2 following that traffic."<br /><br />I'd turned on all my lights so it would be easier for the tower to see me, as well as any other traffic. The runway was all lit up, though it wasn't technically a night landing yet. I set up perfectly, and finally figured out giving that little push of left rudder as-needed during my landing at Groton (though at Groton I felt like I swerved on the landing a tiny bit; practice will help). As I attempted my flair, however, the plane refused to level out. I just "sat" on the runway. It bounced slightly, though it wasn't a rough landing. Strange. I'm still not sure why it happened, but I was done for the night, so I didn't worry about it.<br /><br />As I was cleared to taxi back to parking I considered asking the tower if he had any problems with my radios, but decided not to bother him with it. I'd let Chris know when I called him after I tied the plane down.<br /><br />I parked and performed the tie down and logbook entries, then, as I was walking away from the plane, I got a phone call from Chris. I didn't get back until 8 o'clock, so it was an unusually long flight, though Chris's major concern was because they had actually shut down Oxford's runway for 15 minutes due to a plane that landed with its brakes on. Oops! Strangely, it was actually the Extra (a VERY fancy stunt plane) that did the run-up behind me prior to my departure from Oxford. Anyway, he was glad I was back and safe. I told him about the radios and how I picked up some AM or FM station. Apparently there were two things at play: 1. the actual VOR was left on, which caused interference, and 2. the radio's connections needed to be cleaned. Chris is supposed to have that taken care of today so I can perform my long-cross-country (150 miles minimum) tonight.<br /><br />Tonight's flight: OXC-GON-EWB-OXC, all solo. And I've never been to EWB before, so I better get studied up! Assuming things go as planned tonight, I'll be making another post soon.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-2196085116399774052008-08-08T05:13:00.000-07:002009-06-11T08:09:05.353-07:00The Good, The Bad, and the Kick-assThree things have happened to me recently in relation to flying, and while none of them are actual flights I still thought I'd share them in a brief update:<br /><br /><strong>The Good</strong><br /><br />In an attempt to help both myself and other student pilots to plan flights more easily, I have created three Flight Plan templates. Here's the info, and download link, for each of them:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.michaelyingling/random/fplan.ppt">Flight Plan Print-out Template</a><br />This is a simple single-slide Powerpoint. Print it out and it's got a pretty complete listing of all the information used in a flight plan.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.michaelyingling.com/random/FlightPlan.xls">Basic Flight Plan Digital Template</a><br />This is a single-page Excel document used to fill out on your computer, then print your plan before taking off. A few minor calculations are built-in, but it's minimal. Modeled off the PPT file in the first link.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.michaelyingling.com/random/FlightPlanAuto.xls">Automatic Simple Flight Plan</a><br />By far my proudest of these. All you have to do is fill out the blue parts (as needed) and any calculations that can be done for you are completed automatically; no flight calculator needed! This is only useful for straight VFR flight, but since that's all most student pilots (including myself) need, it's pretty useful. Otherwise nearly identical to the other XLS file.<br /><br />If anyone has feedback on these, let me know and I may be making more templates in the future. Also, if hosting gets expensive I may move them to a free server instead.<br /><br /><strong>The Bad</strong><br /><br />This is the really sucky part: I haven't flown. Yesterday the weather was bad -- rain, thunderstorms and low clouds. Obviously I was stuck on the ground. I was hoping to go today instead, but looking out the window right now I can only see for 2-3 miles, and visibility only gets worse as you get higher. My flight tonight will probably be cancelled, meaning I don't get to go again until after my vacation. While I'm really looking forward to my vacation (Sandbridge Beach, Virginia -- amazing), I always love flying.<br /><br />I did speak to Chris about it yesterday, and apparently this is how the rest of my flying is going to go: solo cross-country to Groton, then solo long cross-country the very next day (weather pending), then one-two weeks of test prep before taking my check ride. (For those who don't know, a "long cross-country" is one in excess of 150 miles, whereas my Groton trip will be just 50 each way.) I'm a littler nervous about doing a solo long cross-country to airports I've never been to with Chris before, but that makes it pretty exciting, since I don't want to need Chris anytime I want to fly somewhere new. All-in-all it looks like I may only have a few weeks left of lessons once I get the Groton trip done.<br /><br />Now if only I could get some good weather...<br /><br /><strong>The Kick-ass</strong><br /><br />Yesterday when I got back from work I was a little disappointed about the weather (no surprise). Luckily, my brother informed me that "a large package arrived" for me. It took me a minute to realize what it was, since I hadn't expected it until tonight, but once I figured it out I was very excited.<br /><br />You see, after I passed my written exam, my grandparents (and Grandma, I know you're reading this) decided to buy me a pilot's jacket as a "learning to fly" gift. It took me a while to agree, then a bit longer to find a good one, but I picked it out and it arrived last night. Here's the website, which includes a picture: <a href="http://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/4346">http://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/4346</a><br /><br />The jacket is AWESOME! The leather is pretty stiff still in some areas, but it will wear very nicely. I will be taking some pictures and putting them online, though it may not be until after my vacation. Either way, I'll be updating THIS post with the link to the photos, so keep an eye out for the change. <span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE:</span> The photos can finally be found online <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/MYingling/PilotJacket">here</a>!<br /><br />Well, that's it for now. Expect the next post in a little over a week. Hopefully Sunday the 17th will bring clear skies -- and a trip to Groton.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-56412747226225760472008-08-06T06:39:00.000-07:002008-08-06T07:46:05.875-07:00Finally Solo'd - Just not to GrotonSorry it's been so long since I updated, but here's a summary of how things are going...<br /><br />Saturday afternoon I arrived at the airport just before it started pouring. Huge storms were rolling in, so I helped move the airplanes around and tie them down. There was clearly going to be no flying that day; there were thunderstorms all over New England and winds gusting to 60mph. I hung around the airport for a bit, then finally left, scheduled my next lesson for Tuesday, since I couldn't make it before then.<br /><br />Monday night my plans freed up, but Chris wasn't able to make it when I called him (and he said the weather wasn't good enough anyway), so no lesson then.<br /><br />Yesterday was looking good. I was worried that the clouds were too low, so I was tracking them all day: 1-800-WX-BRIEF, AviationWeather.gov, OXC ATIS (Oxford's Automated Weather line). Everything said the lowest clouds were 3600-3900' -- just high enough -- and moving up. At lunch I thought "I should call Chris" but upon asking myself "why? To say: 'see you tonight'? I'll just see him at 6."<br /><br />So I got to the airport a little after 6 only to find Classic Air Services (the company Chris works for) closed and locked. So I called him and left a voicemail. When he called back he confirmed what I expected: he was at his house, and the weather wasn't good enough for me to go. I wasn't too happy, but I knew I should have called him earlier so I wasn't mad with him. He suggested I do some touch-and-gos solo (he wasn't too worried about the insurance; I'm a much better pilot now so he just warned me to be careful), since I was there already. Considering how much I wanted to fly, that I wanted to practice some solo landings and I needed more solo time, this sounded good to me. So I hopped in the plane and went. Have I mentioned how great it feels to be able to do that?<br /><br />Start-up, taxi-out, engine run-up: everything was fine. I remembered to set my transponder to ALT (so I can be tracked by ATC if needed), something that I've been forgetting in recent flights. As soon as I got enough speed and took off I was climbing FAST. Normally I would be very happy with this, but for some reason it was extra bumpy today. So I gave it some nose-down trim to slow my climb, and made my left-turn cross-wind fairly shallow, using rudder to swing the plane around. During my run-up the airport had gotten VERY busy, so when I called tower to request my first touch-and-go he told me to extend my down-wind so other traffic could come in first. No problem -- I just kept going straight past the airport...<br /><br />I was starting to get concerned when I was 3 miles away from Oxford (which isn't as far as non-pilots might think, but I've normally turned within half that distance). I was getting ready to call tower and remind them of my position (I was NOT going to turn without their permission; that would get me in a lot of trouble and risk hitting another plane) when finally they called me:<br /><br />"984, I've lost sight of you. Where are you now?"<br />"This is 984, I'm about 3 to the Northwes-- sorry, Northeast."<br />"Ok, I see you. When you get to 4, turn final and report."<br />"984, will report final turn at 4"<br /><br />I got a little past 4 by the time I completed my turn to base, but that worked well because when I turned final there were so many people talking (including one person who ATC started yelling at to reply) that I didn't get to call until I was 4 miles out. I called just after ATC had given someone else clearance to land.<br /><br />"Oxford Tower, this is 984, I'm at a 4 mile final."<br />"984, you're number 2 to land following traffic turning base. Continue at the slowest possible speed you safely can."<br />"984, number 2, looking for traffic, slowing down."<br /><br />A few seconds later I found the traffic and reported it. Once he landed I was clear to land. As I came in I turned on the carb heat and dropped in my flaps. By the time I had it all in I felt like I was going very slow, but my airspeed indicator said I was going at least 80. As soon as I got over the airport it got VERY bumpy. It felt like a crosswind from the east was pushing me left of the runway, but I used rudder properly and stayed calm and confident -- key in any landing. I performed my touch-and-go and was told to make left traffic again, so I did. Climb up was just as bumpy as last time, but now the clouds looked like they were starting to creep down.<br /><br />Nothing too exciting about that touch-and-go. Traffic had slowed down; the only two staying in the pattern were myself and another student pilot who was landing and taxiing back. As I came in for that second touch-down I heard their conversation:<br /><br />"Oxford tower this is Hotel 81 holding short of 18 request take-off."<br />"Hotel 81, hold short."<br />"Roger that."<br />"Hotel 81, repeat back the command. State intentions."<br />"Oh, I'm looking to do 3 more landings and taxi back."<br />"Hotel 81, no, I mean: when a controller tells you to hold short the pilot is required to repeat 'holding short' back"<br />"Oh. Hotel 81 holding short. Sorry, student pilot."<br /><br />I was surprised at how patient the controller sounded. He must have been in a good mood (he did congratulate a previous pilot on his short landing earlier). It was probably Ben, who was in the tower on the day Chris took me up to tour it.<br /><br />During climb-out this time I was told to make right-traffic, so I did. The clouds on the left looked like they were getting higher again, so it seemed like I was directed to the cloudier side. I knew this was because there was some traffic east of the airport (which was to my left as I departed runway 18), but I still thought it was funny. I'd hardly ever done right traffic off runway 18 before, so it was certainly a good experience to see what it looked like from there. I was going to make this my full-stop landing, but ATC called me before I could contact them and cleared me for another touch-and-go, so I figured I'd go for it.<br /><br />All of my landings were fine, but during this take-off I encountered serious force pushing me left. I don't know if it was just the force of the prop turning, or if there was a gust of wind too or something. I'd been building up my speed on the runway pretty high before take-off on my previous climbs, but this time I decided to pull back a little since I wasn't keeping center line very well after that force. I should have just corrected with right rudder; I'll remember that for next time. Minor mistake considering I already had plenty of airspeed, but still something to work on.<br /><br />This time during climb out the ATC called me:<br /><br />"984, the pattern is clear so you can make any traffic either way. Which do you want?"<br />"984, I'll make right traffic again, thanks."<br />"984, right traffic approved."<br /><br />That was pretty cool, being given an option by the controller. Seriously, whoever this guy was he was my ideal ATC.<br /><br />I went right to get more familiar with that pattern, since, as I'd said before, I wasn't used to it. At mid-field I called and requested a full-stop.<br /><br />"984, you're clear to land number 2 following traffic turning left base. Report insight."<br />"984, clear to land number 2, looking for traffic."<br />[A moment passes.]<br />"984, traffic in sight."<br /><br />I extended my downwind again, but only about a 1/2 mile this time (as opposed to the 3 miles the first time). I came in for my landing and touched down smoothly. (I need to remember to focus my eyes on the END of the runway once I enter my flair, it always makes my landings so much better.)<br /><br />Then came the best part of the whole evening:<br /><br />"984, taxi back with me via Alpha. And I don't know if you're a student, but you held your own very well in the unusual pattern today, very good work."<br />"984, taxiing via Alpha. And yes, I'm a student, and thank you very much! Have a good evening."<br />"Thanks, you too."<br /><br />Having an air traffic controller commend you on your flight performance? One of the highest compliments I can think of while acting as pilot in command. I'm still pretty proud of myself for that.<br /><br />I taxied back, shut down the plane and tied it down, double-checking to make sure I entered the time in both logbooks, performed the shut-down correctly and had properly tied the plane down. Chris had left me a message apologizing for the night's confusion, and suggesting that the weather was supposed to be very good on Thursday. I called back and left him another message, mostly just letting him know I landed safe, tied the plane down and was "go" for Thursday. On my drive out I checked ATIS one last time -- the clouds were now at 1700' -- pattern altitude. I was correct about my observations while flying. Always a nice thing to confirm.<br /><br />Today it's pouring out and foggy all around. Hopefully Chris's forecast for tomorrow will be correct. Either way I'll be making another post soon. All next week (Saturday to Saturday) I'll be on vacation with my family (and girlfriend) at Sandbridge Beach in Virginia, so Chris and I are trying to get my solo in before then. Thursday looks like it's our best shot.<br /><br />We'll see soon enough. Until then, here's hoping for good weather.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-92038894886978723222008-08-01T11:06:00.000-07:002008-08-01T11:41:04.444-07:00Danbury, but Not GrotonI still haven't been able to do my solo to Groton; the weather has been hazy or rainy every night that Chris and I have free. (Tonight actually looks good, but neither of us can make it -- go figure.)<br /><br />On Wednesday we tried again (as I mentioned in the last post). When I got to the airport it was clearly too hazy for me to go solo, so Chris brought me inside and proposed two options: we could fly to New Haven or Danbury to get experience flying to other airports, or we could stay here and do test prep ground work. I'm always weary about Chris testing me - baiting me to want to fly in weather I shouldn't in order to teach me a lesson. I certainly wouldn't have gone solo in this, I noted, but I couldn't turn down the chance to fly, especially to a new airport.<br /><br />So we went! As we got in the plane, Chris said "I'm just here so you're legal," indicating I was [mostly] on my own for the flight. Before take-off Chris had me find Danbury on the map and request the proper turn-out (west) of Oxford. This also gave me a chance to find ATIS and the tower codes for Danbury on the sectional, since I hadn't prepared a flight plan prior. Good things to do for a flight to another airport -- I made a mental note.<br /><br />Everything went fine. I had a minor mistake on the radios (when calling Oxford Ground I forgot to actually request the taxi to runway 18) but other than that it was a good flight. On the climb out, Chris and I saw a hot air balloon off the right wing, but we climbed above it, then lost it in the thick haze. We suspect it landed, but were careful not to get too close to where we last saw it, since it has the right-of-way. (The less manuverable aircraft always has the right of way.)<br /><br />On the way Danbury I saw the city, but started worrying because I couldn't see the airport (and the "digital VOR" I'd talked about previously said it was 5 miles directly in front of me). Finally I saw it (double-checking my sectional helped a lot) about a mile PAST the city. We already had clearence for a straight-in landing (my favorite!), so when tower said we were now #1 to land, we flew right in for a touch-and-go.<br /><br />I came in high and fast, but managed to slow it down and get low. It looked like a very short runway, but I checked the sectional after the flight: 4400 feet. I can land on half that. I think the hills we flew over on the climb out made it feel shorter. Either way, we did just fine on the touch-and-go and Chris congradulated me on it. (Again I made a minor mistake on the radios though, originally requesting a south-east departure; Chris revised it to north-east during climb out.)<br /><br />On the way back I made a few minor mistakes (though overall it was a great flight). They were: creeping into the runway at Danbury as we flew back to Oxford, imperfect navigation in the pattern at Oxford (we had to land fast since a solo pilot was coming in for a landing too) and a slightly tail-left landing. I do that landing way too often. I need to ask Chris how to fix it (left rudder??).<br /><br />Overall it was a great flight. The 0.8 hours put me from 39.8 to 40.6, breaking the 40-hour barrier. (For those who don't know, 40 hours is the legal minimum for a private pilot's license, though I still have more stuff to do.) I got to see a new airport, fly without a flight plan, found it myself, did radios [almost] completely alone and had decent landings all-around. I wish I could do that kind of flight every day!<br /><br />Chris and I planned for me to come back on Thursday for the solo to Groton, but rain and haze kept me from even wasting a drive to the airport. I'm hoping to go up Saturday afternoon - let's just hope mother nature cooperates this time.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-13106225590034253292008-07-29T13:31:00.000-07:002008-07-29T13:34:59.216-07:00Not TonightChris just called. Less than 5 miles visibility means no solo tonight. In fact, it means there's nothing Chris and I can really spend our time on except just messing around. It was my call, but we cancelled.<br /><br />Trying again tomorrow. Hope these thunderstorms avoid Connecticut.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-60875187052436854212008-07-28T08:04:00.000-07:002008-07-28T10:13:03.320-07:00Cross Country & RainWell, the rain went away in time for the weekend! In fact, the weather forecast for Saturday was "calm winds, clear below 12,000' and visibility greater than 10 miles." In other words, perfect conditions. When I got to the airport though, Chris seemed skeptical. He showed me <a href="http://aviationweather.gov">AviationWeather.gov</a> and showed how everything was great -- except the dew point. You see, the closer the tempature and the dew point are, the more hazy the conditions are. Well, turns out they were pretty close on Saturday.<br /><br />After telling me we weren't going to Groton (which has only 1 "T" in it, oops!), Chris said we could still go up and possibly divert somewhere else. So we went, using the flight plan I made the previous night.<br /><br />The ride was smooth (except under one cloud), but hazy the whole way. I kept waiting for Chris to tell me to divert to another airport, but I kept finding my checkpoints en route and he seemed pleased with that. He showed me how to use the VOR, which I grasped the basics of, and we used that until Groton was in sight. I got ATIS and called the tower. The guy there was CRANKY! Chris warned me that all ATCs are like this, and that the guys at Oxford are just really cool. Great.<br /><br />There was a lot of traffic at <a html="http://www.airnav.com/airport/KGON">Groton</a>, and the ATC's voice was speaking faster than I could listen. As soon as I finished talking to him, he'd already be on the radio again talking back to me -- so fast that I'd miss the "984" that he'd start his reply with to indicate he was talkign to me. I had to turn to Chris a few times and ask "was that directed to us?"<br /><br />We did our landing and taxiied back, giving me a chance to see the airport a little. There are two runways (and a third that had been closed down) which cross each other to make an "X", runway 23/5 and 15/33. We landed -- and took off -- on runway 23, right over the water. After we climbed to 1000' we turned right and Chris made me fly back with no navigation tools: no flight plan, no map, no VOR and without the digital system (which basically acts like a digital VOR). All I could use was my eyes and memory. I made a mistake at one point of thinking Meriden was Waterbury, but corrected it as we got closer.<br /><br />My big mistake of the flight actually took place within the traffic pattern. We were #2 to land, so I was extending my downwind before turning to base. Then I made a stupid mistake -- part out of stupid reasoning and partly out of just not thinking -- I extended my base. Here's a visual:<br /><a href="http://stoenworks.com/images/How%20to%20land%20airplanes,%20images/Traffic%20pattern.jpg"><img src="http://stoenworks.com/images/How%20to%20land%20airplanes,%20images/Traffic%20pattern.jpg"></a><br /><br />The problem is that the traffic patter isn't just flown to the left of the runway, but to the right of it too. Sure enough, I flew into the right side when I extended my base, while there was traffic there. I never saw any, so I couldn't have been about to hit it, but Chris took the controls and jerked the plane to the left. I don't know if it was really as dramatic as he made it seem, but you can be sure I won't forget a sudden 60 degree bank left just before landing. That's a mistake I'll be thinking about more when I'm in the pattern from now on.<br /><br />We landed and Chris told me that (aside from that stupid mistake) my navigation was great. My radios with Groten could have been better (I called them "Oxford" before take-off, and told them we were North-East -- when we were really North West -- when entering their space, though I corrected myself on that one), but overall he was VERY impressed. He sincerely didn't expect us to make that flight, but I had done well. If the weather on Sunday was good, I'd be making the trip solo. I was nervous at the idea of that, but if Chris trusted me, I could too. He has pretty high expectations.<br /><br />I left that afternoon praying for good weather.<br /><br />That night I woke up between 4 and 5 am to pouring rain and sounds of thunder. "Shit," I thought. "Flying's off." When I woke up around 9:30 (what good's the weekend if you can't sleep in?) the rain and thunder had passed, but it was cloudy and wet outside. Chris called and we agreed to meet anyway, but not go flying unless it really cleared up. Thirty minutes later there was signs of the sun and Chris called again. We were flying. I called 1-800-WX-BRIEF to get a forecast to Groton, and they warned me of thunderstorms on my route. So we were flying, but I wasn't going to solo even if Chris let me.<br /><br />I got to the airport and things were looking down again. Any signs of the sun had hidden behind the clouds. Chris and I sat down and he explained VORs to me in more detail -- how they work, how to read them, etc. Then he pulled out the "pre-cross-country solo exam." I wasn't prepared for this; I quit studying after I passed the written. I filled it out as best I could, certain I failed. After I handed it to Chris he informed me that the score didn't matter: I just had to go over it with him. In fact, he thought a few of the questions were wrong as he graded it, but it was done, and that was the important thing.<br /><br />We checked the weather and he suggested a few touch-and-gos. I informed him I would not do them solo, but that if he was up for it, alright. So we went for "three landings" Chris said. When we got to pattern altitude (1700' at Oxford) visibility was 5 miles at best. I made a tighter turn from base to final to not repeat past mistakes and came in for the landing. Chris told me to perform a go-around, so I gave it full throttle, carb heat (I was thinking of the <a href="http://bing-learningtofly.blogspot.com/2008/07/learning-from-mistakes.html">Goodspeed incident</a> as I did it) and the first notch of flaps up. Chris radioed that we were doing the go around. Second and final notches of flaps, sequentially. I nailed it.<br /><br />Just before turning to base some rain appeared on the windsheild. I asked Chris if we should land it, cause I wasn't looking to fly through rain. "Nope, we do one more," he said.<br /><br />While on final it was raining more. I wanted to touch-down and stop. "You sure?" I asked.<br />"Positive," Chris said. So we did the touch-and-go.<br /><br />Upon the final turn to downwind I found myself entering a cloud (which Chris called "fog"; I don't see a difference) at 1700'. We decended to 1600' to get clear of it, but I had had about enough. The visibility must have been down to 3 miles and it was still raining. We performed the final landing (worse than the previous one) and taxiied back.<br /><br />Overall it wasn't too bad. Chris said I "freaked out", but I just don't think Chris has ever seen me freak out. I thought I was using good judgement to say "hey, let's not fly through rain." It wasn't until we finished that Chris said it was good practice in case I ever find myself in that situation. Good point. Thinking about it that way I wish we'd done more practice. He's always got a good reason for what he does -- I'm just a little to slow to pick up on it sometimes.<br /><br />The next flight is schedule for 6pm on Tuesday. Weather pending, I'll solo to Groton then. Wish me luck.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-54574125132755204082008-07-24T06:15:00.000-07:002008-07-24T06:30:53.829-07:00Rain Rain RainJust a short update. This week I was really hoping to have three lessons: the nights of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (today). Tuesday and Wednesday were both cancelled due to weather (rain, fog, etc.) and today's even worse. For now, Chris and I are playing it by ear. Hopefully this weekend will open up, since I really need to get some cross-countries and night flight done, and will be staying in town for a change.<br /><br />On a side note, Chris told me he got locked in the airport bathroom last night. With no way out and no way to contact anyone for help, he BROKE THROUGH THE WALL to get to the other bathroom. So now there's a Chris-sized hole between the men's and women's bathrooms in the hanger. Poor guy was stuck in there for 90 minutes with no sense of time, no windows and no help. It's a good thing he's got the attitude he does.<br /><br />Anyway, I'll make another post when I find out about the next lesson. Here's hoping to rain goes away...Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-30348537710995115272008-07-18T08:07:00.000-07:002008-07-18T09:03:02.298-07:00Solo and a TreatI got to the airport at about 6:10pm, earlier then normal. I preflighted the 152 (while Chris finished up with his prior student) and went inside. Matt (the student before me) was leaving as I sat down and Chris asked to see my logbook. I handed it to him, but was confused. I wondered if he was going to give me some sort of endorsement or sign-off, but he was just checking to make sure my math was correct, and to see if I was low on anything.<br /><br />Turns out I was: I only had 2.1 hours of solo time, and I need something like 10 before I can take my test. Even if ALL I did from now until my check ride was solo flights I still couldn't do it in exactly 40 hours -- not that I was going to anyway. Some of that time will be done during my solo cross-country and solo long cross-country (a long cross-country is one in excess of 150 miles), but those together will be 5 hours, tops. I needed more.<br /><br />"Go have fun. I'll be here when you land," Chris told me. No instruction on where to go, what to do, etc. Just, "if you have any problems, come back here." So I went!<br /><br />I'm getting used to this whole "flying solo" thing, in that I can do it without thinking or worrying too much. I got into the plane and made a quick phone call to my friend Johnny before I took off: "I'm going flying. Be outside in 20 minutes and I'll fly over your house." Now I know that sounds bad, but I was at least 2000' AGL the whole time, and had wanted to explore over by where he lived for a while. Besides, I wanted to practice turns around a point, and his house seemed like as good a point as any.<br /><br />Nothing unusual happened on the way up. I got cleared off runway 36 for a NE departure, and after a smooth run-up I did just that. The only spot worth mentioning was that once I completed my run-up and requested take-off from the tower, they said, "984 take-off runway 36 without delay." The "without delay" part was key. I had noticed he had just cleared another plane to come in for a landing, so I was expecting him to send me up after him. Nope, he let me go -- I just had to do it fast. So I did, without any problems. It was a little exciting though, seeing as it was something Chris and I hadn't really practiced before this.<br /><br />So upon reaching 2700' I flew towards Waterbury and traced I-84. I passed by Johnny's house going East once before I saw it, so I turned around and went back, getting it in sight this time. I paged him on my phone, just to notify him I was overhead (but never spoke on it -- since I wouldn't be able to hear anything anyway).<br /><br />I did three circles over his house (he told me later he did see me, though I wasn't sure if I saw him) before heading NW towards my practice area. I kept the radios tuned to 118.47, Oxford Tower's frequency, to listen for traffic. Supposedly there was another plane NE of the airport where I was, but I never found him, so clearly he wasn't too close. Flying from Waterbury to the practice area a lot more emergency fields showed up, and a lot less hills meant perfectly calm air. I continued West as I had in a previous solo, but with visibility better this time I opted to go further. More hills prompted me to fly higher -- up to 4500' the moment before I turned around (4500' is an East heading, while I was flying West, but I kept climbing until I decided to turn around just to be safe -- keeping a lookout for traffic the whole time). I saw one helicopter above me while I was still at about 3500', but we were never anywhere close.<br /><br />I went as far as Candlelight Airport (untowered, but I called to warn any traffic I was in the area) which was surrounded by water. Chris said he'd be taking me here for short and soft fields, so this trip helped familiarize me with the area. After getting there I almost instantly turned around. I was doing a good job of checking instruments (is my heading indicator aligned properly? fuel shut-off valve still on? transponder set to Alt?). Oops! I forgot setting my transponder to Alt, so I switched it. It wasn't a big deal (and I told Chris after), but I should've caught it. Next time I'll be more mindful of it -- like my carb heat from the Goodspeed flight.<br /><br />Flying back was a breeze. I got ATIS and called tower, who told me to enter left traffic and call mid-field down-wind. I was careful to lose altitude (by using less throttle, of course!) steadily on my flight back so as not to repeat the mistake I made with the bumpy landing on my last solo. Seeing as this landing was in the pattern it gave me more buffer room to get my altitude right so I'd be at 1700' by the time I called tower. Everything went fine, including my not-perfect-but-by-no-means-bad landing (started coming in high again, and touched down slightly bumpy). I was pleased.<br /><br />When I got back to the airport I performed the "after landing" checklist and tied the plane down. I forgot to mention last time, but <strong>Chris warned me that if I pass my check ride, then don't tie down the plane properly I will FAIL! I NEED to remember to tie down the plane after my check ride.</strong> I went inside looking for Chris, but he was taxiing a plane over from the other side of the airport. (There are hangers and parking on both sides of Oxford.) When he got back, he asked me how things went and we talked for a few minutes. Next week (Tues, Wed, Thurs) we're hoping to go to Grotton, then have me solo to Grotton, plus one day of buffer time, if we need it.<br /><br />Then Chris asked if I wanted to go for a ride. Him and his cousin Mike (he calls him Mikey) were taking a REALLY nice plane through the pattern once to test it out and see how it handled after Chris's uncle did some work on it. With a 300HP engine, 6 leather seats, GPS, retractable gear, one turbo prop, etc., this thing was a BEAST.<br /><br />I climbed in the back for a joyride, and after having some trouble getting my door closed (this was the first time Chris was ever actually mean to me, remarking "you can fly the plane by yourself, but you need me to explain how to close the door") we were off. I wish I remembered what kind of plane it was -- some type of Piper, but it was so powerful that Chris was climbing at about 1500 feet per minute and it was going steady. It had so many technical bells and whistles that when he got close to another plane in the pattern a voice came on saying "traffic, traffic" and it appeared on one of the radars. So not just did this thing have the muscles to fly fast, it had the brains too.<br /><br />Chris's landing was hard -- harder than the solo I'd had earlier. He taxied the three of us back in, then offered to take me up in the Bonanza, which was supposedly even faster. I wanted to, but it was after 8:30 and I had to finish laundry and get ready for my weekend (down in D.C.) so I left. Hopefully I'll get another chance to in the future sometime.<br /><br />All-in-all it was a great night of flying! Next week should be even better!Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-89196629675794688582008-07-17T05:48:00.000-07:002008-07-25T08:01:11.710-07:00The Hood & One WheelLast night's lesson was mostly just Chris and I talking, but seeing as we weren't going for the cross country, that's fine. I've now got about 36.5 hours, so I'll definitely have the magic number of 40 soon. (For those who don't know, 40 is the legal minimum to take your test.)<br /><br />When I first got there, Chris took me inside and pulled out a pile of papers. Each page was a lesson we were supposed to cover. He went through them one at a time: "steep turns, climbs, descents... done... practice area solo... done..." Twenty-two pages, and what we have left is: cross countries, night flight, foggle flight (more on this soon), a little more navigation and weather, and the respective solos. What caught most of my attention was Chris's comment: "You're almost done."<br /><br />Today, Chris decided we were using the foggles. Foggles are these big sunglasses you wear that cover everything except the very bottom of your field of vision. When you're in a cockpit, the only thing you can see is the instruments, as if you'd flown into a cloud -- or fog. (Fog + goggles = foggles.) Chris doesn't like teaching this lesson since it makes you focus on flying "by the number," something he discourages for VFR flight. (After all, the V in VFR stands for Visual whereas the I in IFR stands for instrument.)<br /><br />He also gave me tips on doing a checklist from memory: scan the panels in a clockwise fashion starting at 6 o'clock. this way you start by making sure the fuel switch is on (located on the floor between pilot seats), then make sure mixture and throttle are set properly (for whatever you're doing), carb heat, check the engine gauges to make sure there's no overheating or anything, then the key and master switch, the 6 main instruments, the radios, RPMs, circuit breakers and then flaps. All in all it looks like this:<br /><a href="http://myingling.googlepages.com/c152.jpg"><img src="http://myingling.googlepages.com/c152.jpg"></a><br />[Click the image for full version.]<br /><br />During take off he had me close my eyes and lean my head back to get a "tumbling sensation" so I could experience what it can feel like when you give it throttle through the clouds. I didn't get the sensation. "I never did either," Chris told me. Maybe it was a good sign.<br /><br />After take off he had me put the foggles on and climb to 2500'. He'd keep an eye out for traffic. As soon as we got to almost that height I "lost my motor" (Chris pulled the throttle out).<br /><br />"Uhh... can I take off the foggles?"<br />"Hahaha, yeah."<br />"That field."<br />"Ok, go for it."<br /><br />I didn't set up my landing very well because Chris wanted me to do the "all around the cockpit" checklist. I managed to pick my field and perform that checklist while only losing 500' though. Even though I was too high coming in for my landing, Chris was happy with my efficiency. I probably could have landed in any of the fields surrounding the one I picked with my excess altitude, but "you never change fields." Makes sense, though in a real emergency if I found myself too high for one, you can bet I wouldn't nose-dive into it instead of just going for a better one.<br /><br />We climbed back to altitude, then Chris had me put the foggles back on. "Give me an altitude of 2700' and a heading of 200." I did, though it was a little sloppy. "Ok, get down to 2500' and a heading of 270." Less sloppy. I asked Chris if I could turn the to heading, then lose altitude, but he said I should be doing both at the same time, then demonstrated:<br /><br />He chose a heading (360) and an altitude (2300) and instead of simply banking and diving, he gave it a slight turn and pulled some power, using trim as needed. I didn't think about controlling climb/decent via power (which I should know by now), but the next two headings he gave me after that were much better.<br /><br />"Ok, now close your eyes completely. We're going to do unusual attitudes."<br /><br />This is the fun part. I close my eyes and Chris turns the plane into a roller-coaster for a few seconds, then had me open my eyes (this time seeing only the instrument panel) and correct any problems. The first time we were in a very steep right bank pitched way too high. I corrected it and leveled the plane. The attitude indicator has a little orange airplane in it, with a blue sky and brown ground, which helps a LOT for this exercise. Chris performed one more (shallow left bank, diving towards the ground). I fixed this one even better, and Chris was satisfied.<br /><br />Chris made me fly back with the foggles on, giving me altitudes and headings while he did radios and looked for traffic. It was easy enough, and I probably could have done radios myself, but I wasn't going to object. (There's an instrument by the radios in our 152 that tells you how many miles and at what heading you are from any airport you tune into, which would make it easy to tell the tower how far out you are while wearing foggles.) Upon entering the traffic pattern he had me remove the foggles and proposed a new game for us to play, and compete against each other. No matter what it was, I knew I was going to lose.<br /><br />"I'm going to do the first landing, then you're going to do exactly what I do, OK?"<br />"I'll do my best."<br /><br />Chris comes in for the landing, gentle and smooth, but VERY fast and touches down on JUST the right wheel, rolling most of the way before the left and finally nose-wheel also touched down. He handed me the controls to complete the touch-and-go. I was impressed, but confused.<br /><br />"I don't have to land on one wheel, do I?" I asked. Stupid question.<br />"Of course! I said you had to do it exactly how I did."<br />"Well, I'll try. Just save us if you need to."<br /><br />We flew the pattern (Chris still on radios) and were coming in for a full-stop. I started high, but Chris had me pitch the nose down. I would have liked to keep the altitude until I was closer to the runway, but Chris is the boss. Coming in to land I was much slower than Chris -- about normal landing speed. I banked shallow to the right (not as steep as his) and felt the right wheel touch. I held it for maybe a second before the left wheel touched-down too. I tried to get it back up so I was just on the one, but I didn't have the speed. Finally, at the last second, I let the nose-wheel touch.<br /><br />Chris told me what I already knew: "you weren't going fast enough to ride the one wheel."<br />"I did get the right wheel down first though." It was a small victory, but I was glad to take it.<br />"Yeah, but I did it longer, so that one's my point."<br /><br />When we got back Chris and I talked more about what we had left. He said we'd continue that game, eventually getting to hop from one wheel to the other -- back and forth -- until we landed. At first I wasn't sure I liked that idea, but then I realized how good that would make me at landings. If I can make the plane dance on my landings, touching down two-wheels when I'm solo (or with passengers) would be a walk in the park.<br /><br />It was nearly 9, and we'd only flown for 0.8 hours, but it was good to lay out what we had left. My next lesson is tonight (Thursday), then hopefully next week we're going to finally go to Grotton, then I'll go solo.<br /><br />I can't wait!Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-53404646198594572352008-07-14T07:12:00.000-07:002008-07-14T08:13:31.967-07:00Flying FreeAs of my last post I didn't think I'd be flying again until this week. I was wrong. I got to go back up on Saturday for what Chris thought would be a short lesson, since he had stuff to do. I got there a little early, but as soon as I was done pre-flighting Chris was ready to climb in and take off. There was a HUGE Gulfstream starting up right next to us, and that thing was LOUD. Chris was climbing into the airplane to get away from the noise, which I completely understood. Chris pointed out these "noise reducers" attached to the back of each engine. "A million dollars a side," he said. Damn, for a million dollars they sure didn't sound like they worked.<br /><br />We taxiied out, took off and just stayed in the pattern. Everything was normal, including my normal mistakes (slowing my climb at around 1300'-1500' and creeping my nose in towards the airport on my downwind). Chris reminded me of these and I fixed them. Two more things to fix.<br /><br />We had to extend out downwind for traffic that was ahead of us, but everything went fine. Coming in for our touch-and-go my landing was GREAT! Chris started saying "if you land like that again--" but got cut off when I started flailing on my taxi and made him jump. Once I got back in the air I asked what he was saying. "I was going to say that if you land like that again I'd send you solo," which he'd suggested prior to starting this lesson, "but not after that taxi." Damn, cost myself the chance to solo today!<br /><br />We climbed better this time, but still not as smooth as I would have liked. I kept looking back at the altimiter and noticing I still wasn't at 1700'. I also kept myself from creeping in as much, but since Chris and I were talking I forgot to set up for landing and started extending my downwind leg of the pattern like last time. Chris had to point it out. Eventually I would have realized, but who knows how far north I would have been by then!<br /><br />Coming down Chris radio'd "984, request full stop, taxi to Classic Air." Seeing as it had been only a half-hour, I suspected my solo was coming. After I executed another perfect landing (and this time I stayed straight on the runway) Chris had me go back to Classic Air and he got out. "Show me your stuff for a solo," so I did. Driver's license, medical, with sign off and date and logbook endorsement with date. Chris had the plane refueled so I had plenty, then told me to "go have fun." He suggested I fly up to the practice area (about 15 miles due north), then head west (since I've never been out there) and scope it out. Before I got back in the plane after the refueling was done, Chris shook my hand and told me he wouldn't be here when I got back. That felt strange, knowing he was just sending me up free, but also really really good knowing he had that much confidence in me.<br /><br />I got in, did radios and taxiied just fine. Did my run-up, including emergeny preperation. I got cleared for take-off and stayed in the pattern until I was to break north. For a 152 that thing climbed FAST with Chris out of it! I was at 1700' before I had to turn cross-wind (the first turn of the flight pattern). I departed north, and once I was beyond 5 miles of the airport I requested frequency change, but ended up leaving it alone since Oxford was the closest traffic I really wanted to hear about.<br /><br />By the time I go to Bantam Lake it started getting hazy. I could still make out the shoreline and Oxford, which was plenty, but I noticed the change. I went due west over two small lakes and another big one (and found a lone airplane flying east, about 800' below me to the left) before I decided the haze was getting too thick to fly over this hillym unfamiliar area. I found the last landmark I wanted to (a river to my 10 o'clock) before I did a 180 and flew back towards Bantam Lake. On the way I sent Alli (my girlfriend) a text saying I was soloing. I considered flying over Waterbury and calling my friend Johnny to have him look up to see me, but I couldn't hear my phone well enough, so I decided to save that for another time. Instead I just turned right and head towards Oxford. I got ATIS, then called up to let them know I was coming in and they cleared me for a straight-in landing, my favorite kind.<br /><br />At 3 miles I called them back to let them know, and got clearance to land. This was when I realized I was only 3 miles out and still at 2000'. Oops. I pulled my power and pointed the nose down. I had a lot of altitude to lose and not a lot of distance to do it in. I knew this landing was not going to be as smooth as the two prior with Chris, but since it was only me, I was OK with a few bumps. If Chris, or any other passangers, had been aboard, I would have done a go-around and set up for a more comfortable landing. Instead I came in high and fast. This resulted in a long flair, which is difficult. I bounced slightly on the runway, but it wasn't too bad considering what I'd expected. I taxiied back, shut off the plane, updated the logs, pushed it back to it's spot and tied it down. I felt like a real pilot. Great lesson!<br /><br />It looks like my next lesson will be Wednesday night, so hopefully I'll have a post shortly after that. Until then!Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-33767354476961119812008-07-11T08:14:00.000-07:002008-07-11T09:13:34.822-07:00Learning from MistakesSo my lesson last night was great. The tempature drop, the clear sky and the lack of humidity made for a much smoother time in the air. I got to the airport, preflighted, then talked with Chris about cross countries, the flgiht plan to Grotton I made, etc. Then, we got to the good stuff.<br /><br />Taxi out, run up and take-off were all just fine. I wasn't perfect on the radios but I wasn't too bad, and the climb out was also iffy. I should have lowered the nose after I got off the ground to gain some airspeed instead of going straight into a 10 degree climb, but at Oxford the runway's so long it wasn't a serious mistake.<br /><br />While we were in the air, Chris started asking me questions, like "where are we?" and "how long should it have taken us to get here?" and "how long did it take us to get here?" and "write down notes about your mistakes on your flight plan to correct for them later." It was overwhelming, but he got the message across with his next question: "did you see that plane we almost hit?" THAT will get your attention! What plane where? Sure enough, 500' under my left wing there was a plane heading in the opposite direction. Shit! Of course, 500' is no where near hitting, but that's something I should have caught. Chris asked me "what does this teach you?" I replied "there's a lot of stuff to focus on during a cross country and most of it is pretty important." I was right. Somehow I missed another plane which flew over our left wing by about 700'. I was spending too much time looking at the ground: mistake #1.<br /><br />Flying East towards Grotton at 7pm the sun is setting behind me and giving a clear visual of the rivers and cities up ahead. Chris had warned me that he'd probably be doing diversions to New Haven and Danbury (south and southwest of Oxford; both towered airports), but almost as soon as Grotton was in sight he told me to divert to Goodspeed. I checked my sectional: southeast of my current position, right along the east side of the river. Very small. Shouldn't be too hard, I thought. I'll just fly along the river and look below me. After a while of guessing (wrong) as to where the airport was I did a 180 and finally saw it. I flew right over it! Not a serious mistake, since I was clearly well above it (Chris did radio "Goodspeed traffic, Cessna in the area, Goodspeed traffic"), but still kind of stupid. The runway (2100' on the sectional, but 1700' usable, per Chris) was so small it hid behind the trees.<br /><br />Once I had it in view for some reason I totally forgot about traffic patterns and decided to decend. Chris pointed out that I was a dumbass (kindly) and I got further away from the airport before losing more altitude. There wasn't another plane in sight, so I wasn't too concerned, but that I messed up something that simple wasn't something I was proud of. Mistake #2.<br /><br />Once the altitude was at 1000' (Goodspeed's elevation is 9' -- yes, nine feet) I entered the pattern and set up for landing. Chris told me what to say on the radios, since I have minimal experience at non-towered airports, but considering my lack of experience I wasn't too bad. I came in very high for the landing, but lost my altitude (and airspeed) at a good rate. I was quite confident I would be able to land without problem and I'd do it smoothly. My flair was looking great when Chris said "go around."<br /><br />Now normally "go around" is a simple procedure: full throttle, carb heat in, 1 notch of flaps up (2nd and 3rd notch after the previous ones have cleared to make it smooth). I, however, fucked this up wildly. First, let me divert with a description of Goodspeed...<br /><br />Goodspeed is right on the water. I mean RIGHT on the water. In fact, it's got water on both ends of the lone runway. Runway 32 (the one I opted to land on) starts just over a pond and ends just before the Connecticut River. Runway 14 is of course the opposite. But the water isn't the scarey part - oh no. That would be saved for the draw-bridge about 1000' up the river front Goodspeed. So if you were to take off (or, say, do a go-around) from Runway 32, you now have a bridge to clear. A big white one. And another 2000' north of that bridge? Power lines. Because obviously water and a bridge wouldn't be enough excitement, nevermind the fact that the Connecticut River flows through a valley, so you have hills on both sides. It's a fantastic sight and a very beautiful area (complete with a large white opera house on the river and wonderful ships of all sizes), but quite tricky as a student pilot.<br /><br />Anyway, back to my story. Now that you know what Goodspeed looks like, you can probably guess what happened. Chris said "go around" so I gave it full throttle, pulled it back and put up one notch of flaps. I didn't like how close the bridge was getting, but we cleared it comfortably. "Another notch." So I did, still climbing, although unusually slowly. "Last notch." I did again. I don't think I would have without the reminders though, which was a fault: mistake #3.<br /><br />Then came the scarey part. "Do you see those?" Chris asked. I saw the water below us covered in boats, hills off to the sides covered in trees... wait, except for that one part where a large powerline was going through. I wonder why they put a power line so close to the water if it didn't extend... OVER THE WATER!<br /><br />Shit, I was too low for this. I looked out my left window and saw the faint powerlines. They were at best 50' below us; close enough that a gust of wind, mechanical problem, or a student pilot unstable with the controls could make us hit them. "My bird" said Chris. He turned a steep right and we climbed out towards the south-west. He gave me back the controls and told me to take him home. Once I got some altitude (2700', to be exact) he asked me what I did wrong back there.<br /><br />"Well, I couldn't find the airport."<br />"Yeah, but not that." Clearly he was looking for something specific.<br />"I didn't consider the pattern when I started trying to lose altitude to land."<br />"Yeah, what else?"<br />"My radios weren't good."<br />"But what did you forget?"<br />"Flaps up? Angle of approach? Climb out? Too close to the bridge? Too close to the power lines?"<br />"No, what else?"<br />I just shrugged. I don't know. Did I mess up something else? Chris put his hand down and turned off the carb heat. Our engine jumped 250RPMs. It was like someone installed a turbo into the car.<br />"You forgot carb heat. We would've cleared everything just fine if you'd turned it off."<br />"Ah crap."<br />Mistake #4. That was the big one of the day.<br /><br />The flight back was fine. My altitude kept creeping up and down on me, but that was wind, mostly. The sun got most of my attention, since it was directly in front of my face. Chris explained that he wears hats to avoid the sun, whereas my sunglasses just dim it. Keeping a visor or baseball cap in my headset bag sounds like a good idea.<br /><br />On our, Chris paid me a nice compliment after testing where I would land in an emergency ("that field" <em>pointing</em>): "most of my students I worry about in an emergency. Not you. You always seem like you'd be just fine." That felt good.<br /><br />Coming in for landing everything was fine. I was perfect for talking to tower, set up the landing just fine (regardless of the sun) and came in at a fine angle. My flair, however, sucked. I touched down hard. I'm still not even sure why it was so bad. I think I flaired too late and didn't bleed off my airspeed in ground effect as well as I should have. Even though I know I can normally land better than that, landings are one of the things I want to be GREAT at. That one wasn't. Mistake #5.<br /><br />Nothing exciting happened after that. Chris and I talked a bit. He explained that I did really good. Now, based off this post you wouldn't think that was the case, but I focus on the mistakes to learn from them so I can avoid them in the future. Chris had nothing to say about my navigation because it was fine (even if I couldn't find Goodspeed at first) so it didn't get much mention here. He didn't have anything to say about my flight plan, my turns, etc. because they were all good. All-in-all it was a great flight. But I made some mistakes and need to learn from those. Part of the reason I'm focusing on them here is to remind myself "put the carb heat in (in=off) for your next go around." <br /><br />I'm proud of my flight overall, but these mistakes were real. I need to keep getting better.<br /><br />My next lesson is up in the air. It sounds like it won't be until sometime next week since Chris's schedule this weekend is too full. I'll keep updated once I know.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-82034987929427785402008-07-10T06:25:00.000-07:002008-07-10T08:40:29.295-07:00Back FlyingIt's been a little while since my last update, I apologize. Between working, visiting people on weekends and other random tasks after work I simply haven't had the time. Let's remedy that now:<br /><br />Ok, so the lesson I was supposed to have right after my test never happened: weather. Last week I was back at the airport on Thursday night with bad weather coming in. Chris and I decided to try to squeeze in two landings before the weather hit.<br /><br />We get into the 152 and I call up ground: "Oxford ground this is Cessna 48984 with information Whiskey, request taxi to runway 18 for closed pattern." Then comes the call "984, I suggest you wait this out a few minutes." Chris seemed to have mixed emotions about it but we turned the plane around and taxied back. We got out and walked back inside when he got a call on his cell phone. It was Ben, the lone ATC in the tower apologizing. Apparently ATC isn't supposed to tell you not to fly -- it's your call as the pilot in command, which is why Chris was a little annoyed.<br /><br />About 60 seconds after the phone call the clouds opened and it started POURING. That explained Chris's other emotion: appreciation. "I think Ben just did us a favor," he said. That was shortly followed by a strong gust of wind and, "let's go tie up the plane!" We ran outside and did just that. I'm sure we would have been able to land the plane in that weather, but I would have let Chris do it (though knowing him he'd have made me land and just saved us from any potential mistakes). I told him before we even decided to taxi out that I wouldn't go up in that without him or Melanie, my original flight instructor.<br /><br />The rain passed fast, but ominous clouds lingered on so we didn't go up then either. My last lesson was on Tuesday, and that's where I'll continue...<br /><br />Tuesday morning I call Chris from work. The visibility looks bad, and I'm almost certain Chris is going to cancel. I call ATIS and hear that visibility is 10 miles. "Bullshit" I thought. I check www.aviationweather.gov (a great weather site for pilots!). It tells me visibility is 7 miles. I'm still not buying it. When Chris calls me back he says we're still on for 6:30. Alright!<br /><br />When I get to the airport visibility isn't any better, but I see Chris taking off with someone for a quick trip in the 152. He better not say we can't fly today after all this! Sure enough, when he gets back down he says "we can't go anywhere, but we'll practice landings in the pattern." Sounds great to me! I always enjoy working on my landings; I'd like to make them so smooth that a sleeping baby wouldn't wake up -- it's not easy in a plane this small.<br /><br />When we taxi out Chris comes up with a new plan:<br /><br />"I've got a better idea. I want you to land short and do an entire touch-and-go without letting your nose-wheel touch down."<br />"Uhh... what?"<br />"You can do it! Just don't let the nose-wheel touch the runway."<br />"At all?"<br />"Yeah!"<br /><br />Chris really liked this idea. I wasn't so sure. Normally I touch-down with my mains (the two wheels under the wings are referred to as the "mains") first, as you're supposed to and hold the nose off as long as I can until the plane slows down to a nice taxi speed. But holding it off that long, then giving it power as I balance holding the nose off... I told him "I'll do my best."<br /><br />When we got up the visibility was HORRIBLE. I could see the airport alright, but Waterbury (which was only a few miles to the East) was hard to see and fading fast. It wasn't bad enough to effect my landings though, so the terrible first landing was my fault. I started landing sideways on the gear. Chris jammed the rudder in and saved it. We wouldn't have crashed, but it wouldn't have been comfy on the plane -- or us.<br /><br />After that the landings just got better -- slowly. The 2nd to last landing I didn't let the nose touch at all, and both the landing and take-off were smooth. I nailed it! The final landing (full-stop, not a touch-and-go) Chris told me to "do a regular landing." I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to after practicing so many of those, but I responded the same "I'll do my best."<br /><br />Coming in everything looked good. I thought I flaired a little too late and a little too hard, but was surprised when I felt the mains touch down in one of the smoothest landings I'd ever had. Chris told me that I would have passed my check ride with that one. I was pleased.<br /><br />"Well, that was short and soft fields" Chris commented when we got back inside. "I wanted to surprise you." Apparently we practiced the skills of short and soft fields and Chris didn't want to waste too much time repeated it.<br /><br />"I'd still like to land and take off on a short soft field at least once, to see how the landing gear feels on grass," I pointed out.<br /><br />"Oh yeah, we'll still do some of that."<br /><br />Chris and I planned for lessons the rest of the week, but yesterday's got cancelled (weather). Today the sky is blue, the humidity and haze have finally broken and the temps dropped a good 10 degrees and the wind seems to have died down. PERFECT flying weather! Hopefully tonight we make a cross country -- or at least start it and practice diversions. Tonight should be fun!Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-19299890660456689332008-07-02T08:00:00.000-07:002008-07-25T07:59:46.795-07:00Written Passed!I finished my written exam last night in about 90 minutes (leaving 60 extra) and scored a 55 out of 60, or 92% -- well over the 70% needed to pass. I admit I think I got <em>really</em> lucky on a number of those guesses, but as Chris says: just pass the test. Thankfully it's now over and I can move on to flying. Now, let me detail exactly what it was like in case any future pilots want some heads-up...<br /><br />I entered the test center at about 6:28pm (my exam was scheduled for 6:30pm). Raj, the proctor, had me come in and set up the computer for me. (Because I took a CATS exam it was on a computer.) He told me what I was allowed to use: pencil/pen, scrap paper, calculator, plotter and flight calculator/computer. I brought my scientific calculator, which he said was fine to use, but I ended up not needing the calculator at all anyway. I was also required to bring my logbook with the endorsement from my flight instructor saying that I was allowed to take the test, but Raj never asked to see it -- probably since he knows Chris and spoke to him about me coming. The final thing I was required to bring was the two forms of ID, at least one of which had to have a picture of me on it. I used three, to be safe: my work ID (name and photo, nothing else), my driver's license (name, photo, address, etc.) and my boating license (name, some basic info, no photo, no address).<br /><br />Of course, knowing me I brought way too much stuff: extra writing tools (he supplied me with two pencils, and all I ever did was draw a picture of an airplane once), my study book (which I wasn't allowed to use, of course), a bottle of water (which I didn't open)... It was a bit much, but it was better that I erred on the side of caution; it would have sucked to have needed an extra pen and not had one.<br /><br />Once the computer was set up time started ticking down. He showed me how to navigate the test (which I'll get to in a minute) and made sure everything was OK before he left the room. I was the only one in it. Strangely he didn't take my cell phone (which he told me had to be off) or my test prep book (though it was across the room). I was amazed at how trust-worthy the whole situation was. Raj did walk in at one point during the test (and scared the crap out of me, since I was focused on a question), but it wasn't a formal check-up, just getting something in the room...or so it seemed. One of the questions on the test even had the answer written on the wall: how should you position your wings while taxiing with a left-tail <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">quarter-wind</span>? I didn't even notice it until I answered that question (correctly, I might add), but I was amazed at the lack of security. It felt nice though, to not have someone staring at me while I worked. Just know that if you're taking the test, it's a very calm environment -- at least based off my experiences.<br /><br />The test itself was mixed. Some of the questions were really easy, while others made me do double-takes. The test books I used and the websites I used had many of the EXACT QUESTIONS used on the test. I cannot stress this enough; the test questions are not secrets! Even if you don't know what a plane looks like, if you memorized just one of the test books, you could pass. I also found a website since my last post that gives the questions along with the answers: <a href="http://coryat.com/faa-pp-written/">http://coryat.com/faa-pp-written/</a><br /><br />I was thinking about detailing the questions I got and writing as many of them as I could remember, but I think that would be useless; the best thing you can do is memorize (and if you understand the "why" that's even better, but passing a test and knowing how to fly are two totally different things). If you're taking this test: memorize!<br /><br />Now, the CATS test I took looked like the following:<br /><a href="http://myingling.googlepages.com/flighttest.JPG"><img src="http://myingling.googlepages.com/flighttest.JPG"></a><br />[Click the image for full version.]<br /><br />Pretty self-<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">explanatory</span>, but I'll review:<br /><ul><li>The Questions area on the left tells you which questions you've answered, which you've "marked" (by clicking the Mark button at the bottom of the screen), which you've marked and answered and which you've done neither to. There's a key below to remind you which symbol is which. You can also click any question to jump to it; they do not have to be done in any order. (Remember, there's 60 questions, so the scroll bar really was there.)</li><li>The question at the top of the main area with 3 radio buttons with possible answers below (in my picture, answer A is correct). When you click one it just checks that circle (my example shows no checked answer yet).</li><li>There are 5 buttons below the question. They are:<br />1. Mark: marks the question so you can remind yourself to return to it or for whatever reason you may want. If you want to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">un-mark</span> a question, simply click "Mark" again.<br />2. Previous: takes you to the question before the one you're at. So if you're at question 10, it takes you to question 9.<br />3. Next: takes you to the question after the one you're at. So if you're at question 10, it takes you to question 11.<br />4. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Calc</span>: brings a pop-up calculator onto the screen. This basically eliminates the need for bringing your own calculator, as this one has the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">arithmetic</span> functions and a few more (I think <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">exponential</span> and trig).<br />5. Finish: click when you're finished with your exam. Don't worry if you <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">accidentally</span> click it -- it double-confirms that you're done before you exit.</li><li>MISSING FROM THE FIGURE: There's two things that I didn't put on the image: (1) a clock telling you how much time you have left (h:mm:<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">ss</span>) is located right above the Questions list on the left and (2) if the question says to refer to a figure, an image will be listed below the A/B/C choices that you can click on to see a pop-up of that figure/diagram/etc. Sometimes the image is of text which reads "YOU MUST REFER TO YOUR BOOK FOR THIS FIGURE". (The proctor will give you a book of these figures for your exam.)</li><li>Finally: I noticed an error when I took my test: whenever you try to move a pop-up (the calculator or a figure) it becomes transparent and you have to exit it (by clicking the X in the top-right) to exit. My advice: either don't move the pop-ups, or use the calculator you brought and the figures in the book (they're better than their simulated versions anyway).</li></ul>Well, that about covers the exam. Sorry for the long, technical post. I just wanted to get this up ASAP and didn't spend much time worrying about grammar or logical flow, so accept my apologies for that.<br /><br />My next lesson is for tomorrow night, assuming the weather stays fair before I leave town for the weekend. Until then!Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-1937997375986804382008-06-26T06:12:00.000-07:002008-06-26T06:57:22.553-07:00Coming Soon: My Written ExamSo far, almost all of my posting has been about the practical flying side of things (which makes sense, since that's what I'm learning to do), but there is another side: the theory. In other words: ground school.<br /><br />In case you don't know much about it, let me explain: ground school is basically the same thing as driving school, minus the few hours of driving you actually do. It's all the small, technical rules everyone forgets just a year or two after getting their license because they're not really as important as the tests pretend they are. (For example: did you remember that you "must" park at LEAST 18 inches away from the curb?) For flying, this translates to things like "how many feet should you be above clouds when in class G airspace at night?" The "correct" answer may be 1000', but the practical answer is "far enough away that they aren't a hazard to me."<br /><br />So anyway, like with driving there isn't just a practical test when you learn to fly. There's a theory portion too. The difference between the two (besides content of the tests, of course) is that the FLYING written exam can be taken many months (I believe up to 24) before you pass your practical exam. So even though I still clock in with only 30.8 hours of flight time -- meaning I have AT LEAST 9.2 hours left, and more likely twice that -- I can take the written and have it apply to my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">PPL</span> (private pilot's license).<br /><br />So the only things stopping me from taking my written are (1) studying enough for it that I feel ready to pass (70% is passing) and (2) scheduling the exam. Well, (2) is officially done: I'm taking my written next Tuesday (July 1st) from 6:30pm to 9:00pm (you're allowed 2.5 hours, but I highly doubt it will take that long) at Oxford. There's a flight school right next to Chris's that is certified to let me take it through them.<br /><br />To anyone reading this now (I'm looking at you, Grandma) or in the future (if anyone is looking to learn to fly themselves), I thought I'd detail a bit about the test itself:<br /><br /><ul><li>The test is 60 questions long, at 2 and a half hours. That's 2.5 minutes per question if you average it out, which is plenty of time. </li><li>You're allowed to bring a simple calculator, your flight calculator (used for <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">measuring</span> winds and fuel usage) and your ruler/protractor combo (which I forget the formal name of) used for <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">measuring</span> distances and angles. </li><li>The test can either be done through Laser Grades or CATS (computer-aided testing systems), the latter of which I am using. </li><li>You need a sign-off from your instructor to take the test, need to schedule it with a testing facility (the school next to my school) and need to register it through the official testing facility (in my case CATS testing). </li><li>The types of questions that can be found on the test are in several practice test books, including "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Jeppesen</span> Private Pilot FAA Airmen Knowledge Test Guide" and "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Gleim's</span> Ninth Edition Private Pilot and Recreational Pilot FAA Written Exam" books, both of which I use.</li><li>[Final bullet] If you want to <span style="color:#cc0000;">take practice tests</span>, which I <strong>highly</strong> recommend, I found two websites which offer them for free:</li></ul><ol><li><a class="postlink" href="http://www.mywrittenexam.com/" target="_blank">www.mywrittenexam.com</a> Multiple tests for everything from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">VFR</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">IFR</span>, Commercial, etc. All tests are 60 questions and generated each time (so taking test twice won't give the same 60 questions). Live timer, and emails you your results. Can pause mid-test. Sometimes asks about visuals that the website doesn't provide. Sorts by question categories and gives you percentages by category too. Requires an account (which is free) to take tests. Website is a little slow for me. </li><li><a class="postlink" href="http://www.exams4pilots.org/" target="_blank">www.exams4pilots.org</a> You type in how many questions you want so you don't need to dedicate 40 minutes at a time to take the test. Much faster to load with the questions on a single page (instead of 1 question per page like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">MWE</span>) and also timed, but doesn't show you a count-down until you submit it for grading. No <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">login</span> required, but no pausing either. Some required visuals not provided, but there's an option to not use those in generating the test. </li></ol><p>Well, that about covers it. If you're interested in seeing what I've been studying, I suggest taking a glance at the exams4pilots.org website.</p><p>Now it's time I hit the books and get ready for Tuesday! Wish me luck!</p>Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-13057740182150105742008-06-21T10:53:00.000-07:002008-06-21T11:05:47.077-07:00Back in the Sky!Let's start from where I left off: the last lesson I was supposed to have in the Warrior never happened -- bad weather. Go figure. Luckily, since then the 152 has been cleared for flying, so Chris and I set up a lesson for this morning... pending weather.<br /><br />I woke up to a clear blue sky, and was at the airport by 9:30 doing my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">preflight</span> to calm winds and no clouds. I find Chris (still finishing up with his last student) so I go <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">pre</span>-flight the 152. The tool used to measure fuel was absent the plane, and Chris said it needed more. Of course, the fuel truck was out of service, so I was convinced this meant I wasn't going up. Turned out Chris had a tank of fuel in the hanger and a hand-crank pump. What luck!<br /><br />As we got in the plane, Chris said "we'll do 0.5 of touch-and-gos, then maybe I'll send you up for some yourself." A chance of going solo? I wasn't expecting that, nor was I sure I wanted to yet. We got <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">ATIS</span> (which was basically perfect weather) and got ready to take off. Everything was great, though I was a little rusty, but not too bad at all. The new engine has a LOT more power. I kept finding myself giving it too much throttle, since that was the amount I USED to have to give it. Now the 152 flies more like the Warrior (though still not quite that nice). We did 3 landings (Chris wanted to do 4 prior to take-off, but we ran out of time for several reasons, none serious) and each one I did better with. We taxied back and Chris didn't send me solo (maybe because some of my rust was showing, maybe because he had another student coming, I'm not sure), but that was fine with me.<br /><br />To sum it up: the flying was a nice "get back into it" lesson. Nothing new really learned, just cleaning the rust and getting used to the new power under the hood. Chris says we're just going to do 30 minutes of flying per lesson until I get my written done, when the excitement will really start again. I'm going to try to get that done within a week -- two tops. I'll post again later about that test.<br /><br />Now, to hit the books!Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-78330308940552279492008-06-11T08:45:00.000-07:002008-06-11T12:32:52.094-07:00Next FlightTomorrow will mark my 3-weeks-since-flying date. The 152 still hasn't been finished yet, so it was stating to look like it would be some time before I got to fly again. Then I remembered the Piper Warrior -- the larger of the two rental planes.<br /><br />Chris hasn't had me flying that because (1) it's more expensive, about $20/hour more, and flying lessons are expensive enough and (2) I want to learn on the 152, since it's harder to fly -- that way I'm a better pilot by the time I get my license. At the point I'm at, Chris says, learning on the Warrior won't give me much experience towards completing my license on the 152. Because of all that, I've been waiting almost 3 weeks for the 152.<br /><br />Well, I called Chris a few days ago and said I was tired of waiting. I want to go flying -- even if it's in the Warrior. So my next lesson is Saturday (either 10am or 2pm -- Chris will get back to me on that). Even if it's 1/2 hour of touch-and-go's, I'll be happy. I could use to practice landings, especially since I DO want to learn the Warrior.<br /><br />It will be like doing my training a bit out of order: instead of finishing up my license on the 152, then learning how to fly the Warrior I'm going to start learning how to fly the Warrior, then finish up my license. Although as soon as the 152's back, I'll be right back to my license and finishing my Warrior training after that.<br /><br />Now let's just hope Saturday has good weather. About time I get back up there...Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-69647015875441237612008-05-30T12:43:00.000-07:002008-05-30T12:51:54.701-07:00Still GroundedWeather's been GREAT this past week! Seriously - blue skies, calm winds, sunny and warm. So of course, this is the time that the 152 needs a new engine. Bummer.<br /><br />To anyone afraid of flying: no, there was no problems with the current engine, it was just old. Pilots are VERY careful with things, and after a certain number of hours airplanes get whole new motors. So while it sucks that I still haven't flown since the Simsbury trip, when I do get flying again the plane will be faster, smoother and safer than I've ever seen it before - and that's saying something.<br /><br />Just to add to the safety factor (and the delay in my flying again), Chris actually has to put in 10 hours of flight time on the new engine before he's allowed to teach me in it again, just to make sure everything's good. Extra safe, but not flying in this weather is still dissapointing.<br /><br />The plan now is to meet with Chris tomorrow for ground work. I need to get my written wrapped up so we can focus on the flying from here out.<br /><br />Hopefully I'll be up again soon... I'm getting tired of waiting.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4321382892667380711.post-65334734426559042982008-05-22T06:04:00.000-07:002008-05-22T06:08:33.937-07:00Weather & TimingJust a quick update: I haven't been up since the flight to Simsbury, though I'm craving it more and more. The weather in CT has been rainy, windy and cold. My next lesson is planned for Friday, assuming things can clear up a bit by then. (Couldn't fly last weekend, since Chris took it off, so I ended up going to the Muhlenberg 2008 graduation instead.)<br /><br />Well, that's about it. Ironically enough I have to spend my time not flying (due to weather) studying for the written (mostly the weather part). Weather sucks.Binghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122434007195109287noreply@blogger.com0