Wings on High.

holy bejeesus, it’s december.

I just checked the calendar. Holy hell, it’s December. I’ve been working 50 – 60 hours a week, so flying time has been not quite abundant, and writing time has been even more scarce.

I’m up to some 65 hours now, and am preparing for my check ride. I need a little more IFR hood time, but I think I’ve got most everything I need.

I’m going to ask a couple CFI associates of mine if one of them would be willing to take a run with me and go over my maneuvers. I took a 3 hr flight Sunday to get out and practice. The only thing still wigging me out a bit is a power on stall, and the oral exam. Everything else I think I’ve got down pretty well. I’m reviewing the PTS in my spare time, and going over the ASA’s oral prep book – both I and my instructor are hoping I’ll go into the checkride in the next few weeks. It’s all lead up to these coming weeks. I’m definitely looking forward to taking my wife and family and friends up and about. Now we just need to find places to go!

Safe flying and Joyeux Noel.

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A Flight In Pictures (Mostly)

So I took a flight yesterday, and on the way down to the airport (about an hour’s drive), I called my folks.  They knew I was heading out, but I could tell were still having trouble imagining me flying a plane.  I can’t blame them, as I still get that “hey, I’m flyin a frickin’ airplane!” feeling whenever I fly.  If I still get it, I’m sure others go “I can’t believe’ he’s doing that.”  So to help put together that picture of me in a cockpit for them, and what it’s like to go flying, I’m going to write out yesterday’s flight, from start to finish.  I asked my CFI to take photos off and on, but naturally he was a bit more occupied with watching me fly the plane than taking pictures, especially during the important bits.

Hi Mom & Dad! 

It’s Sunday, about 12.00.  I’m scheduled to go flying at about 3.00, so it’s now that I should start getting ready.  I’m at home still getting up from the day, but I look outside and it’s some mixed weather.  There are clouds around, and blue skies.  The wind looks pretty calm, so at least from here it looks good.  Knowing that the airport is about 30 miles south, and this is the Northwest so the weather is different from block to block, I call my CFI just to make sure he thinks it looks good on his end.  He says it should be fine, and says that if I want to get there around 2.30 to preflight I can.

So my next step is to find out what’s happening above.  I’ll hit some websites – www.aviationweather.gov, first, look up the SIGMETs/AIRMETs (ignore the jargon, it means “weather” for all intents and purposes) for the area, pull the METARs for Renton (KRNT), Boeing Field (KBFI), and Olympia (KOLM) just to see what’s happening.  Those will tell me winds, temperatures, and what levels the clouds are on at each of those airports.  I have to stay more than 500 feet below and away from clouds with my certificate right now, and although it’s pretty obvious when you’re in the air, it’s good to know what the ceiling is.  I’ll double check a few other sites (allmetsat.com, and intellicast.com) just to cross reference my info, make sure everything adds up.  Some days, I’ll also call Boeing Field, Everett, and Seattle, to check their ATIS systems (prerecorded messages updated every hour or two with information about the weather, and what’s going on at the airports).  That will give me some more of the same info, and a bit more.  On a day like today though, I don’t think I have too much to worry about.

It’s now 12.30 – I have an hour before I should be on the road.  I pull out my flight bag, and make sure I have everything.  I take:
- Area charts (maps with aviation-related info – everything from how high the mountains go to where the areas of controlled airspace are, places I can’t fly into without permission),
- sunglasses,
- A plotter (it’s a ruler with a protractor on it, and with standard and nautical miles imprinted instead of inches/cm – i won’t use it today, but I keep it just in case)
- An E6B (I’ll explain that some other time)
- Pen, Pencil, Scratch Pad,
- My handheld backup radio (fully charged)
- My headset,
- And my log book.  

I’m heading out the door, it’s about 1.30 now.  I’m on the road, and I’m looking at the skies to see what things will be like.  This is what I see on the way:

The weather looks pretty good for the Northwest.  The scattered clouds mean that I’ll have plenty of open space to fly around.  The only thing that concerns me is the shape of those clouds – big and puffy.  The rule of thumb is if it looks ugly, it is ugly.  I’ll stay away from where those are.  Because they’re floating around a bit though, that also says the air is kind of unstable, which could mean some bumps and jolts.  No biggie, just good to be aware of.

It’s about 2.30, I’m at the airport now, and here’s the plane -

It’s a Cessna 152.  A 2 seater, pretty small, pretty light, but a great trainer.  It’s hard to beat up, and is very maneuverable.  It also doesn’t stall – period (that’s a good thing).  I can’t say I’d buy one myself, but for great cheap flight training, it’s awesome.  The most important thing is that it flies, and that’s really all I care about.

I pull out the keys, open the door, and get in to check everything out.  This is what I see when I sit down.

Here’s the rundown, top left to bottom right. 
1 – Airspeed indicator.  Tells me how fast I’m moving through the air (though not how fast I’m moving over the ground.  There are some physics involved I’ll save for another time).
2 – Artificial Horizon.  Matches the ground and tells me when I’m turning or pitching, and at what angle.
3 – Clock.  
4 – Altitude.  Big hand is hundreds of feet, small hand is thousands, and the diamond is tens of thousands, but we don’t get that high.
5 – VOR.  This is for point-to-point radio navigation.  The lines change depending on where I am and where I want to go.  Another complicated one.
6 -  (bottom left) The turn coordinator.  This tells me how to make a perfect turn – I keep the little spirit ball at the bottom in between the two lines, and the wings on the dashes, and I get a nice smooth turn in 2 minutes.
7 – Directional Gyro – This is a compass facing me rather than flat.  
8 – (just right of the stick) This is the Vertical Speed Indicator.  Tells me how many feet per minute I’m climbing or descending.   
9 – Another VOR. 

On the brown part of the panel, top left is the parking brake, the two gauges left of the stick are fuel,
the two on the right are oil pressure and oil temp.  The long handle that’s pulled out is the throttle, and the one that’s cut off is the fuel mixture (lean/rich).  Back to bottom left, there’s a primer for the engine, the master switches for the electrics and alternator.  The white switches are for the lights and a couple of others.  All the white buttons along the bottom are fuses for the electrics. 

And this is where the copilot (in this case, my instructor) sits.  You can see the radio stack (top is the selection, next is the first comm and nav radio, then the second comm and nav radeio, and then the transponder – that broadcasts where I am, how high I am, and if I have a specific code from Air Traffic Control, that’s where I put it in.  1200 means I’m flying free under visual flight rules (VFR).  You can also see the throttle (long black), and mixture (red).  Left of that is the carb heat, under that is the aileron trim, and to the right of the mixture are flaps.  Those are the main instruments I use during a flight. 

So that’s the setup!  Back to preflight.  I do a slow walkaround of the whole plane – I’m looking for nicks, dings, twisting, warping, or anything on the skin of the plane.  I poke and prod at the wings and tail to make sure the ailerons and flippers are locked in like they need to be, and everything can move around as it needs to.  Then I check over the propellor, and look for any twisting or chips that could be problematic.  Then I pull out a cup and take a fuel sample from three places on the plane – one under each wing/tank, and one from the engine itself.  I’m checking for any water or grit that may be in the fuel lines, and making sure it was given the right gas.  It looks good, so now I check how much gas is actually in the tank.  The tank spouts are on top of the wings, so I have to hop up on a ladder or a foot hold.  Once I open the cap, I stick in a tube that tells me how many gallons are in.  Today I’ve got 5 and 1/2 in one tank, and 7 and 1/2 in the other.  This plane burns 6 gallons an hour no matter what we’re doing, so I know I’ve got about 2 hours of flight.  We’ll take it down and gas up after an hour though, just to be sure. 

Finally, I check the oil.  I want to make sure it’s got how much we need, and that it looks OK.  I have 5 quarts today (4 is minimum, 6 is max) so that’s perfect.  It’s a little sludgy, but it’s coming up on 50 hours, and my CFI knows this, so it’s time for an oil change soon.

My instructor thinks things look good, and I know the plane looks good to fly.  So it’s about 2.30 now, and we sit down in the plane.  Get belted in, put the headsets on, and pull out the checklist.  I run through it to make sure I didn’t forget anything on the outside.  And I did – I have to pull the wheel chocks out, otherwise we’re not rolling anywhere.  So I do, then I hop back in, and pick up the checklist again. 

Before I start the engine, I look over the instruments, and make sure the switches are set right (electrical all off, no radios, and only the red beacon light to warn people the engine’s coming on).  Then I open the window and shout “CLEAR!” to warn them some more.  We prime the engine a couple of times, push the throttle in about an inch, and start the engine.  It didn’t catch the first time (been a few days since it flew), so I try again.  I give it some more throttle, and it starts right up.  We let it warm up for a minute, turn on the intercom, radios, and lights.  We spend a minute going over where I’m going, and what’s going to happen right away – I’m taxiing out to the runway, we’re going to pull off to the side to go through the ‘run-up checklist’ before we take off, then we’re going to take runway one-five (15) and take a south east departure. 

We taxi over at a pretty slow pace, and get to the run-up area beside the runway.  This is where we rev the engine up, go through a “mag-check” to make sure that each magneto is clear and running well (that way if one fails we still have one running), and that everything really is good to go.  I tap each instrument with my finger to make sure I’ve checked it and it’s set to what I need it to be.  I can say “We look good”, so I throttle up a bit, and do a 360 turn with the plane to check for anybody coming or going from the airport.  Also looks clear.  Now I get on the radio and tell people what I’m doing:  “Crest Traffic, Cessna 6139(er)Mike is taking runway 15 for a southeast departure.  Crest traffic.”  (that last one tells anybody who missed the first part what area that call was for).  Nobody shouts back “Hey wait a minute”, so we’re good to go.

I run the engine up a little bit to pull us onto the runway, line it up on the centerline, and go full throttle.  We speed up pretty quick now, and at 60 knots we have enough for take off.  I pull back on the stick, and we go airborne.  The plane climbs best at 70knots, so I have to hold the attitude of the plane at just the right spot to keep it at 70. 

So we’ve cleared the airport, and we’re going to go to Tacoma first.  This is a first for me – I’ve only flown to a few airports outside of Seattle.  We check the charts, figure out what heading I need to make, and my CFI tunes in a radio navigation aid (the VOR instruments) to help us along.  We make it out to Tacoma, so I call the tower and tell them we’d like to do some Touch And Goes.  These are loops around the airport where we land, and as soon as we touch down we go full throttle and take off again.  They clear us in, and tell us we’re number 3 in the pattern.  I confirm that back to them, and join the pattern around the airport.  We’re following two other Cessna’s doing the same thing we are – touch and goes for practice.  

Tacoma turns out to be a perfect practice field.  It has a great open space, the area is open and clear, and best of all the wind is blowing right on our tail just as we get 200 feet down.  This gives me just a little push, and some crosswind to make the landing a bit more challenging.  We do 3 or 4 loops around, and make a full stop landing to get gas.  And here we are at the pump…

Because the tanks are above, we have to get a ladder to bring the hose up.  And because of static electricity, we hook a grounding cable up to the exhaust pipe.  All for good measure.  So we buy $50 worth of gas to fill it up, my CFI finishes talking to a friend of his (we always run into people when we land – it’s just a fact of flying life), and we get ready to head out again. 

Even though the engine’s been stopped for only about 20 minutes, we do another mag check, and quick runup.  We call the tower to taxi, and they send us to the runway.  From there, I call and ask for a departure to the south.  They clear us, we take off again, and follow the pattern around until we leave Tacoma’s airspace.  Now we’re heading to Olympia – another airport I’ve never been to.  We do the same thing there – a few touch and goes in the pattern.  We flew over the Capital building, and a few other interesting landmarks on the way.  Once we’ve done a few laps, we turn around and start heading back north.  My CFI is pointing out areas on the map to me along the way – places to keep in mind, like the naval base.

We’re going to head over to Boeing Field now for some more pattern practice.  My CFI asks me every so often “How are you doing?”  I tell him I’m fine, and loving every minute of it!  He asks how much longer I want to go, so I say “How much you got?”  He calls me a sadist or something, and we get back to work…  About 10 miles out we call Boeing and let them know we’re on the way.  I can hear it’s kind of a busy day for them, they sound pretty rapid fire, which is fine, I just have to be more aware of what’s going on around me, and listen closely to the radio for my number.  They clear us to come in on “the 45” which means that we’ll fly over the airport, then join the pattern on the other side.  A few minutes later, here we are -

Once we’ve flown over the field (and no, we didn’t get to buzz the tower), I pick up the flow with traffic for runway 31R (the smaller runway).  There’s a Kenmore plane who’s been told to wait for us, I’m following another Cessna, and there’s a Beaver on floats about to enter.  We’re under a controlled airport, so I just need to go where I’m told, but it’s still good to know.  Once I do my first lap, I have to go a bit long on my climbout to rejoin the pattern behind the Beaver.  He goes in to land, clears off, and I do a second and third lap.

It’s about 6.00 now, and we could both use a bit of a break.  We’ve been flying since about 2.30.  We ask Boeing for a full stop landing, and they clear us in.  I taxi over to a Jet Center that I know, and we sit down for about 20 minutes and call home (we’ve got a bit longer than originally planned, but the weather’s great, and the plane and instructor are available). 

Once we’re ready to go again, we get out, give the plane a once over, run a mag check, and call for clearance to taxi for a southeast departure.  They clear us, and ask us to watch out for a Citation jet on the taxiway.  We let them by, and get to the runway.  As we’re sitting there, we watch a 737-400 take off marked “United States Of America”.  It looks like a mini-Air Force One, and it was unfortunately too dark to take a picture.  Neither of us have any idea who just left, but oh well.  I call the tower for take off clearance, and he says to watch out for the turbulence from the jet that just left.  I acknowledge, and we get ready to go. 

Once we leave the pattern, we head out from the city a bit more, and do some maneuvers at 2500 feet.  I did some more turning work, keeping the nose level on the horizon while I turn at 30 and 45 degrees, and then we do some steep turning descents.  Once we’ve wrapped up there, and have both decided it’s time to go home, we head over for the airfield.  This one is pretty small, and not well lit, so you have to know where you’re going.  Fortunately, my CFI does.  I get us set up to land, and as we’re coming in, I realize we’re a bit high, so we call it off and go around for another try.  This one works well – I put us right down.  I had a bit of wind to work with, so it wasn’t as smooth as I would hope, but we’re down.  We taxi off the runway, and head over to the hangar.  I get it set up for us to push back, then kill the engine and start to pack up my stuff.  Once we have our stuff, we push the plane back (by hand) into the hangar, and put it away for the night.

We step inside and debrief for about 20 minutes.  We talked about what we did today, how I did, things I need to work on, and what will be coming up.  We filled out the logbook today, and had a few things to put in.  19 landings, 4 airports, and 4.8 hours of flight time.  Probably the most intense flight I’ve had before. 

It’s around 8.30, (ish) and I’m heading back home now, thinking about everything I worked on today, and thinking about the next time round.  Mostly though, I’m thinking how this was one hell of an afternoon, and when I get to do it again. 

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Ice is forming, on the tips of my wings… Condition Grounded.

Flight time was nixed yesterday, partially due to my schedule, partially due to weather.  It worked out for the best – even after I’d called my CFI to say “Hey, I don’t think I can make it” he said that an hour later it was whiteout conditions at the field.  I’m ok with letting that one go.  We needed a weekend down anyway, we’ve been packing a lot in through the weekends lately.  I’ve been ‘chair flying’ as my CFI calls it – sitting in a quiet room, just going through the steps in your mind, and physically reaching for what you’re looking to do. 

[ not to be used as an instruction manual.  do not fly with this ]

I.e., patterns.  Sitting alone, visualizing this the whole way through…

I’ve taxied to the runway.  Checked for traffic, clear.  Announce I’m taking the runway and will stay in the pattern.  (Think for a moment what i’m about to say) “Brush Traffic, Cessna121PP is at runway 35 for takeoff, will be in the pattern, Brush”.  Push the throttle in just a bit, taxi out to the numbers.  I stop, check everything again for a few seconds, make sure instruments, heading bug, everything is configured for take off.  Looks good.  I push the throttle to full for takeoff.  Have to hold it on the centerline – a bit of wind is pushing it right.  I hit 55-60kts, time to rotate – pull back on the yoke.  Feel it lift off, starting the climbout.  I pitch for speed at 65-70, climb out to 1200 ft.  I use the rudder to keep it on heading, and watch my track.  I hit 1200, so I turn left to join the crosswind leg.  Watch for the runway at 45 degrees behind me.  I’m there – so I raise the wingtip to look for traffic, then come left to join downwind.  Call it on the radio – “Brush traffic, Cessna121PP is on downwind for a touch and go, runway 35, Brush”.  Chill out for 30 seconds (my only break in the pattern).  Check the instruments, think what I need to do next… get myself ready for what’s ahead…

Halfway down the runway on the downwind stretch, reach to pull the carb heat on.  Look over, and I’m abeam the numbers, time to pull the throttle back to 2200rpm, and put in 10deg flaps.  Angle the nose down to descend maintaining 65kts.  I see the runway back at about 45 deg behind me.  Time to call it on the radio … “Brush traffic, Cessna121PP is taking base for a touch and go, runway 35, Brush” .  Lift the wing, check for traffic, then start my turn left to join the base leg, reach and put in another notch of flaps.  Pull the throttle to idle.  Keep the nose down, check speed – looks good, 65kts.  Final sneaks up quicker than you’d think.  Check altitude, it’s a bit low – I add a 1/2” throttle.  It revs up a bit, I feel it start to hold itself up a bit more.  Make my turn to final – "Brush traffic, 1PP on final runway 35, touch and go, brush”.  Put in the final notch of flaps – they’re out all the way now.  The runway’s dead ahead, and I’m looking right down the centerline.  Eyes on the PAPI – how’s my approach?  White over red – looking good… Aim the nose at the numbers.  Feel it start to glide down. 

Ok, over the numbers now.  Here’s the flare.  Pull back to bring it even with the ground – holding steady at about 15 to 20 feet up.  It’s gliding down a bit more, and then ground effect kicks in … I’m floating.  It wants to nose down, so I pull back a bit.  The stall horn kicks in (beep..beeep…)– Good!  One more gentle pull (beeeeeeeep), then one final tug on it, and the wheels take the ground – a little rough.  I’ll get that better next time.  Let the nose down a bit, the stall horn has stopped now.  But this is a touch and go!  Time to kick into gear again – I’m still rolling!  Flaps up, carb heat off, full throttle, ready for take off, rotate!  And do it all again. 

Back to reality for now.  It’s still snowing, and traffic is backing up nicely. 

Condition Grounded, but determined to try.  Next weekend. 

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Wunderkind Revisited

Ok, that Lego cargo plane – the green one listed below – it’s flipping huge.  No, really.  The box says it’s over 20” long.  That’s a foot and 2/3s.  I thought “yeah yeah, not that big, it’ll go on a shelf”  Fat chance.  The wingspan alone is at least a foot.  And it comes with a neat little staircase for the pilot, cargo lift, and a ground truck.  Put together with the little airmail plane and that yellow low-wing I mentioned below, it’s a full airport!  My wife and I are joking about turning the garage into a model lego airport…  Some day. 

…But we’ve joined the Lego club.  Seriously.  Never too old. 

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9 landings, with a bit of a breeze.

Flew the 152 out of Crest today.  Got in just under an hour and a half.  Worked entirely on pattern procedures.  We left Crest, and went right over to Auburn, did 4 touch and goes there, then went to Renton, did two touch and goes, then back to Crest for 2 touch & goes.

Still getting used to Crest – that will take a while.  Getting much better though.  Auburn is much comfier to fly out of – the runway’s bigger, the pattern is easy to visualize.  Lots of roads running parallel and perpendicular, helps keep your pattern track honest (i apparently like to go wide – real wide), and the altitudes are at sea level – i.e. TPA at 1500 /reads/ 1500 on the altimeter.  My 2nd or 3rd T&G through Auburn, and my CFI was hands off.  That felt pretty good.  He was still talking me through things, which I needed, but it was a nice feeling to hear (after the fact, albeit) that I was handling the plane, even resetting for takeoff right after the touchdown.  I’m also pleased to say that a number of those T&Gs were serious greasers.  Smoothest I may have ever done.

We had some pretty wicked winds though.  There were some points where we were approaching at a 30 degree angle off our track (we pointed 30deg. right but were flying straight – major crab).  Auburn wasn’t too bad, but when we went to Renton – holy crap.  Flying out over the water was some serious chop.  Bumps I can handle, I don’t worry about those.  It’s being 500 feet off the ground and feeling the plane slam down to the left, and the yoke working really hard against you.  That was a bit much.  We left there pretty quick, and I’m not complaining.  Though the runway is huge for a 152, it’s getting to the runway I had to worry about.  And that water looked cold. 

Working on the approaches from base to final, the pitch started to feel more comfortable.  What was also very encouraging was the number of times he said “See, you’re pitching for speed without even thinking about it.”  I’d just set the plane where it felt comfortable – 800ft, 65kts, 10deg flaps, bit of down angle, 1500rpm, and bam!  right on the line.  My flares came a long way, too.  I think all of my landings were pretty smooth, and a few of the flares I know I nailed.  I liked that

I need to keep with it though, to stay on top of it.  Keep flying that is.  I hit this point some time back, and then some scheduling and financial issues hit and I had to break for a long while – that set me back a long way, I know it.  It’s taken this long to get back to that point.  If I stay with it this time, I know I’ll see lots more forward progress, and pretty quick.  So, once a week for an hour and a half, if not two.  Once I solo I’ll probably go out much more frequently, since I won’t need to schedule time with the CFI, just the plane.  I need to find some way to get him to check me out on a plane at Boeing, since it’s /way/ closer, especially in traffic.  I could do a lot more with that arrangement. 

I added up my hours after I capped the first page in my log.  12.3 hrs total, with an even 10 of instruction time.  Figuring I’ll be around 60hrs for my checkride, that puts me 1/6th of the way there.  Every little bit. 

I like what I accomplished today.  Felt good.  Now I sleep.

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Wunderkind

I just bought this the other day (right).  I pieced it together pretty quick, and it’s seriously cool!  Last Lego airplane I had was a little twin from the late 80s – the pieces were all very simple (but it still looked neat – I think I have it around somewhere).  But this, they’ve come a long way with!  The propeller spins pretty freely, and the gear is retractable.  Have to give them credit for this one.

I used to have this guy (below) floating around  – I think it’s in my Lego set in my garage down south (3 hrs out – major drag).  I’d have just bought a new one, but $500!  No way!  I think I had more than $500 worth of fun playing with mine, so I’m glad I didn’t just put it on a shelf hoping to go to college on it.

And I just ordered this one (right).  Hopefully it will arrive
before it becomes $500.  They’ve also got a Lego 787 Dreamliner which looks pretty righteous, and a few nutters built a 1:25 scale Airbus A380.  Something like a 10’ wingspan?  3’ tall?  75,000 bricks if I read right.  But I’m a fan of turboprops more than jets though, so things like this I find way more entertaining. 

If only I could find a Lego King Air… 

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New shots -

I put up a few new photos today, and changed some of the layout in the gallery.  I took a number of shots from McChord AFB in late January, and finally got those posted, along with my flight in the T34.  A few of them came out pretty nicely, I thought. 

I’ve been laying off the sim during training.  I think it was hindering more than helping me, given what I’m trying to do right now.  I know when I go for IFR though it’ll be invaluable, but right now, since I’m trying to learn to feel the airplane, it’s making it a bit tough.  I may hit it up again every once in a while, but I’ll wait until my muscle memory gets more developed.

Hope to have more flights than photos before long, but once the sun comes out a bit more I’m sure I’ll have some to share. 

Safe home.

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Back in the air

So it’s been a while since I’ve been able to write, and it’s been a while since I’d had a lesson.  I’ve picked up the pace a little bit over the last few weeks, though.  I had an impromptu lesson two weeks ago, a night flight around Crest Field, which is notorious for its difficult approaches – you have to know it to find it – and I had another lesson yesterday. 

The night flight wasn’t my first time up in the air at night (I hitched along in a 182 a month or so ago sitting right seat hands off), but it was my first time up at night with the controls.  I’d asked the instructor (whom I shall call CFI) if I could do as much as I was comfortable with, including working the radio (which has maddened me since I started taking lessons to not be able to do – my first instructor allowed me to, and I was very grateful for the experience), landing procedures, etc, with his giving me commentary, advice, procedures etc as he felt like it – I indeed wanted his input and help throughout the flight, I just wanted to take on as many tasks as I could.

I’d flown through Crest a few times during some instruction a while back, and I didn’t have much to gauge it against, so I couldn’t comment about its difficulty in approaching.  I did remember that the trees and powerlines on either end got my pulse going a bit…  And it also turns out that the runway lighting is pretty bleak – not much to draw your attention to it, and zip to show you the approach.  You’re either on top of the runway, or it’s buried in trees.

Well, regardless of everything wrong, I loved it.  I ran three laps in the pattern, and though I know it wasn’t anywhere near as good as it needs to be for a checkride, I kept a handle on things much better than I thought I would.  Watching headings, staying relatively in the pattern (I went out a bit far on crosswind, which messed up my downwind approach because I had a hard time spotting the field), calling positions, and the takeoffs and landings.

I grew a bit frustrated, because well known landmarks aren’t that easy for me to spot (finding a McDonald’s at 1500 feet at night isn’t as easy as it sounds), so figuring out the boundaries of the pattern weren’t as easy as they were in the daylight.  I also discovered that landings are a big pain in the ass when you can’t see how far off the ground you are.  I bounced on a couple of the landings, and hard.  After another lesson I realized that eventually I’ll be able to feel it based on what the plane is doing and how the yoke/stick feels, but it was much more difficult without that muscle memory.

After the lesson I asked CFI how he felt I did.  I could see he was a bit reluctant to tell me (rarely a good sign), and I said “be brutal, i want to know.”  He said that one of the take offs got his hair on end because he felt me steer the yoke to the right right before takeoff, and that if the wing had clipped the ground or a light, it would have been game over.  He felt that someone with 7 or 8 hours should have had that down by now.  But aside from the knowledge of the pattern for that field, I did pretty well.

I heard what he said about what happened on that takeoff, but I remember that one, and that’s not how i remembered it… I knew exactly what (i thought had) happened – i felt the plane start to try and take off on me, but we were below speed, so I was trying to keep it from lifting up too early.  Whether it was trying to lift off or not I couldn’t tell you, because it was pitch flipping black and the lighting on the runway (even with the landing/taxi light) was barely enough to see the centerline, so it was feeling alone I had to go on.  I don’t remember it listing to the right, let alone going far enough to clip a wing, but he was the instructor and the one watching, so I take his word on it, and I’ve been watching my takeoffs since.   

His remark about someone having 7 or 8 hours ought to have takeoffs and landings down is absolutely right.  My problem is that those 7 or 8 hours that I’ve accumulated have been since April of 2008, just shy of a year now.  Lessons went with anywhere from a couple of weeks to 6 months between them.  So while I’ve learned a lot, including going through ground school, passing my written, and hitching along on as many flights as I can with friends or associates, I don’t have the inherent experience that consistent lessons (once every week or two weeks) would give someone by 8 hours.  Very frustrating.  My wife, by comparison, only took 1 hour in April, and has only flown with friends since, not any more stick time.  So, in turn, she doesn’t have anything she has to un-learn, or anything she learned then forgot and remembered wrong.  From where I sit, a fairly enviable position.

So I took another lesson yesterday, and did rather well.  I need to get procedures in the pattern down so I can do them without thinking about them.  Take off attitude, throttle adjustments, carb heat, when to put in flaps, and watching my speed.  I had been up since about 5.30 that morning to take a class down in Tacoma (with an hour drive each way), and my lesson went for about 2 hours.  I wasn’t tired going into it, but I certainly got there after about an hour and a half.  Fortunately we stopped for gas, so I was able to debrief with him a bit, and catch my breath again.  I think we ended the lesson just in time.

I knew going into that lesson that I have this particular issue, and I was able to make some improvement with it, but below a certain altitude I have an inherent dislike of pointing an aircraft at the ground.  Something very deep within me says “You’ve got to be kidding…”.  This makes landings difficult.  I realized what it is though – I don’t know the angles in which the plane glides.  I read about the concept and the difficulty students have with this concept in Stick & Rudder, understanding that a plane won’t go where it’s pointed in the same way a car will.  In fact, I experienced it first hand on a take off – I noticed that the nose was pointed right at the treeline, so it looked like we were heading right for it.  But instead we sailed right over it, and by several hundred feet at that.  So, now I need to learn to apply this to landings.  Pointing the nose at the ground (i.e. aiming at the numbers on a descent) does not mean said nose will come in contact with said ground.  There were a couple of landings towards the end where it started to feel better, but I’m still not happy about the idea. 

I also noticed that I’m making significant progress in handling the airplane.  Certain things like straight and level and trimming I was doing instinctively (which CFI commented on), and steep turns felt more ok to me, and produced less of the “Oh sh#% the plane’s not supposed to go this far” reaction.  In fact, I pulled a few steep turns quite happily.  Then we worked on some stalls, which were a complete non-event.  Apparently this 152 (or all 152s) are built so well they don’t stall unless the engine’s dead.  We had it at idle, put in full flaps, and just let it coast.  The needle was flapping around 20kts, the stall horn was blaring, but it just wouldn’t drop, it kept mushing along.  Awesome when you’re in flight, but when you’re trying to feel a stall and learn recovery, doesn’t help much. 

Not much of a problem though, as I feel pretty confident in handling a stall.  My wife, however, is scared witless about them.  I told her we worked on them, and I could see her tension rise.  It obviously wasn’t proof enough that I was standing in front of her when I told her (indicating we did indeed make it back to the ground), she was still worried about them. 

So I’ve still got an awful lot of work to do, and I hope I’m able to get cracking on it sooner rather than later.  My goal is to take my checkride come June, but I’m basing that call on if I feel ready, not my number of hours. 

No pictures from this flight, but I’ve got a bunch more I’ve put up, and I have a bunch more I have yet to edit.  Signing off for now.

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Winter flying blues

Winter’s cold, wet, and in this instance snowy and stuck-at-home-because-of-the-snow –ey.  I miss flying, and I miss flying kites when I can’t fly.  I am, however, playing an inordinate amount of MS Flight Sim w/ Virtual ATC (networked – there’s real people on the other end) on my TV-Computer, which passes the hours quite nicely!

Signing off for now!

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Passed the written!

After several months of intermittent studying, a recent weekend intensive (the last half of a Part61 ground school course), and loads and loads of practice testing, I took the written today.  I’m pleased to be able to say that despite an awful lot of other crap going on in my sphere recently (work, travel, deadlines, etc.), I passed with 83%.  This was quite surprising to me, actually, as I don’t think I scored higher than 76% or 78% on the practice tests!  I made it a goal to at least try by the end of this month, and if I didn’t pass to double up on studying to nail it by the end of the year for certain.  But, I knocked it out in one shot! 

There’s obviously areas I need to keep working on (most likely weather), and I plan to keep using the practice test software I have to keep working on it and keep some skills sharp – plotting, using the slide-rule E6B, WCA’s, etc.  Although I mostly used the on-screen E6B in the test, there were a few problems I used the slide-rule for.  I’d like to make sure I know how to use it to keep it in my back pocket.  And I have to say, using the slide-rule E6B helped to show me the relationships between velocity, heading, wind direction and speed, and how they all come together to form a WCA.  Yes, the calculator was much easier and accurate (to 3 decimals?  Can you steer to 191.248?  No.), but the slide-rule showed me how it all worked.  I’m pretty certain that’s what my algebra teachers were on about years ago…

Now, I’ve got to make a plug here.  I highly recommend Dauntless‘ software suite.  Not only are the questions continuously up to date, but they offer every test available, and have simulator modes for each of the testing vendors, like LaserGrade, CATS, etc.  I must admit, it was easier for me to catch on to things once I had a plotter, E6B, and a hardcopy of the FAA handout (to take measurements on, compute angles, etc), as I’ve been working with the tests since August, and only picked up those materials a few weeks ago.  Trying to use the on-screen rulers, protractors, angle measurements, etc, was really quite a pain in the arse.  But once I got the hardcopy stuff down, it became much easier.  And, they’re also cool about installing on your laptop and your desktop – it’s not Per-PC licensing, just per-user.  Not many vendors are that open.  And for the record, again, I’m not sponsored, and I did pay for the software!

So now, hopefully, I can get back into flight training, as the new instructor I want to study under requires the written before any flight time.  This is another pain in the arse when all you want to do is fly, but it’s sensible, and it did push me to get much of the basic understanding before getting behind the stick for a reasonable amount of time.  Now I can start pushing my way through the hours, and actually get back on the road (or the runway? the victor?) to getting licensed.  Or certificated.  Whatever they call it.

I hope to have actual flights to be able to write about soon. 

Fly well, all, and safe home.

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Cleared Medical

Well, at long last (just from my own delay) I’m now a “certificated student pilot” with a 3rd class medical.

Can anyone explain to me what the devil happened to “certified” in the aviation community?  “Certificated” is a new word that I’ve never heard before I started flying.

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.8 in a new friend’s ‘68 182 – good times, then good beer!

Backstory – A while back (early October if I remember right), I’d signed up to assist on an AngelFlight mission with a pilot in the area, but the mission was scrubbed when he needed work done on his plane before it could fly again.  I hadn’t met the pilot yet, but we’d had a good chat about the mission, what I’m doing with training, etc.  Jump forward to today.

I was at the airport on Friday afternoon watching flight ops (after another AngelFlight mission was scrubbed, this time because the passenger couldn’t get a return flight), when I called him to see how things were going, and if he was taking a flight anytime soon and wanted someone to fly right seat with him (and pay for some of the gas).  We chatted for a few minutes, he was telling me about his planes repairs, how they were going, etc, when he heard one of the Boeing experimental jets (the Turkish AF 737 – N358BJ) take off overhead.  He asked where I was, and I said I’d come down to the airport to hang out while I had some time to kill.  Apparently his office wasn’t too far away, as he said “well hang on for a bit, I’ll meet you there in half an hour.” 

So we met at one of the FBOs up the way.  After shaking hands and sitting down, he said “It’s a shame we can’t get out and fly today.”  I said “Well, why not?”  “Seriously?” he asked.  “Sure!  The weather should hold up for a while longer” I replied (after having checked the weather reports while I was waiting for him to arrive).  He lit up and said “Alright!  I don’t need my arm twisted to take a few laps around the patch.” 

We went out to his plane, a ‘68 Cessna 182.  He started to explain some of the characteristics of the model to me, and I must admit I was quite surprised.  The first is the lack of flipper trims.  In this model, rather than having trim tabs, the entire elevator is pullied and has a range of a few degrees both up and down.  When you trim, you’re not adjusting a tab, you’re adjusting the angle of the entire elevator.  A very cool fact I never knew about – I’d always assumed trim tabs were the standard.

The next particular trait he explained to me was that the plane had no counterweights built in.  At some point along the way, the FAA mandated that planes be built with weights and balances placed throughout the frame so that if a pilot were rendered unconscious, the plane would stabilize itself as best as it could (makes sense, right?).  I believe that up until now I’ve only flown planes with those weights built in.  He described that the plane would handle much differently than planes with those weights – much more responsive, much easier to ‘feel’ the handling of the plane.  I imagined the difference would be something like driving with manual or power steering in a car (not turning sharply, just driving and feeling the road).  This metaphor wasn’t far off. 

And finally, once we’d done the preflight and checked over everything, I noticed the cockpit felt about as big as a 152.  I wasn’t far off with that, either.  The cabin is 8″ narrower than the present day 182s.  Definitely cozy.  He got us cleared with ground and the tower, taxied over (we passed a twin-Otter RG, which was a sight), and took off. 

Although I must admit, I’d been hoping to get a chance to take the controls and fly for a bit, but I wasn’t presuming and I didn’t intend to ask – it was his plane, and just being able to get up and fly was more than enough of a thrill.  But sure enough, after we were up and level, he said “Go ahead and take it.”  Well, once I was done grinning like an idiot, I started to notice what he had been talking about earlier.  It really was a different feeling in the controls.  It felt heavier, sturdier than the other planes I’ve flown.  I don’t know about more responsive, but it certainly felt like you were more in touch with what the plane was doing.  Did some steep turns, power-on stalls, flaps-down slow flight (at about 3500ft), and he demonstrated a few maneuvers to me.  Turned out he has his CPL, and a former CFI that accidentally lapsed – turns out the FAA isn’t as forgiving about deadlines as other government agencies. 

As we flew around, I asked him about what got him into aviation, he told me about some of his work (and how he gets to commute to Alaska for a few months out of the year, flying himself), and we chatted for a bit.  We kept flying around Seattle and Renton for about 45 minutes, and started to head back to the field.  Surprisingly enough, he let me land as well.  (With his help) I brought it in with a fair crosswind coming from 2 o’clock.  I had to crab into the wind a bit, but we brought it down about 3/4’s of the way down 13R (intentionally, as it was much closer to the parking spot than we’d have been on 13L). 

Ran through the post-flight and got it put away, when I offered to buy a round in gratuity.  We went to a pub down the way from the airport, and spent a couple of hours chatting some more about IT (my industry), a trip he’d made ferrying a friends plane from Alaska to Maine, and general conversation.  We both had homes to get back to, so we called it a night just after dusk. 

For having started out the afternoon watching planes come and go and getting ready to go home, it definitely wound up quite well.  I’m certainly grateful for a chance to get out and fly, let alone a plane in as nice of a condition as his is, and I hope this was the first of many good conversations.

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New radio – Icom IC-A24 w/ NAV & COM.

I’ve been shopping around for a while to find a decent hand-held scanner.  My main goal was to have something I could listen to ATC with while at the airport or at the park, and get some forewarning about cool shots I needed to get ready to take (such as a trio of F15s coming in for a ball game.)

I stopped by a pilot supply store at Boeing Field last sunday and did some poking around with the scanners they had.  While decent, they were still between $100 and $150.  A fair price, but a few pennies that would only receive, when I knew that further down the road I’d want a full on transceiver for comms from the ground, or if my radio stack died while I was mid-flight.  They had a mid-level Icom A6 (which I greatly prefer over the new design of the A14) for about $250.  I went home and did some research for a few days about makes, models, and various preferences.  I was intending on picking up the A6, when I called and discovered they’d just received a few A24’s (with NAV features).  So I did some more research.

I talked with a few experienced pilot associates, and some fact finding on the net.  I heard on more than one occasion that Icom is the standard, and anything else is more or less a waste.  Then I did some research on the differences between the various Icom models, and the pricing.  I soon came to the conclusion that if I didn’t get the A24 now, I’d certainly want to later.  Rather than spend $150 on a scanner, or $250 on a radio that I’d use but didn’t have the NAV/VOR functions, I decided to drop the $300 on the A24 (rather than $150 on a scanner now, $250 on a mid-range handset then, and $350 on the A24 when I wanted NAV functions).  I got the store to price match with Sporty’s online (after shipping of course), and headed home with my new handset, and a copy of the ‘09 FAR/AIM.

Well, let me be the first to say that the IC-A24 is a great handset.  It feels built like a tank, comes with good accessories (belt clip, faux-leather case with clear keypad screen, and a headset/mic/tape recorder plug to connect standard aviation headsets to it for flying duties), and has an assortment of features built in.  It has a rather large memory capacity, which I’ve already set to work in filling in.  My personal config has one bank with all the KBFI frequencies, one bank with all the KSEA approach and ground frequencies, and another bank with all the unicoms of the smaller fields I’ll be flying to and from, identified by name (each memory preset has a 6-char name you can program in, such as BFITWR or SEAGND for instance).  You can enable scanning of each memory preset in banks by a “tag”, which is a flag to either include or exclude the preset in frequency scanning.

Another feature is the duplex frequency operation between NAV and COM channels.  Not only will it give you VOR functions coming to or from a site, but you can also conduct vox communications on another frequency without having to hop back and forth, or lose your NAV channel.

The battery it came with is NiMH, which is great to avoid battery memory effect and require topping off.  And they’re relatively cheap to replace, or get additional batteries.  The screen is a good size, the main info (frequency or name) is very easy to read, it’s got a great backlight, and you can plug a standard headset 1/8th” – same size as your CD or MP3 player) into the side without the adapter.  It’s mono, but no big deal – lets me pop an earpiece in while I’m at the field, and keep another ear out to listen around me.  As with most of the other radios, the antenna is a standard BNC connector that twists off rather easily, so you can pack it without worrying about snapping the antenna, or (best part) connect it to an external antenna (such as one attached to your airplane window for emergency use).

Aesthetically, and I know this is entirely superficial, it looks the way I’d expect a radio to.  The new design of the A14’s (to me) look like glorified cell phones.  The screens are miniscule, the buttons odd, and they look chintzy.  Even though I recognize the A24 could be phased out before too long, I’m definitely glad I snagged one when I did.

That’s about all I can say right now for the review of this handset.  I expect to have this for quite some time, and hope to put it through its paces, including the NAV functions, before too long.  If you’re looking for a new handset, pick one of these up.

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New Photos

A friend has been loaning me his Nikon D80 every so often.  I’ve taken a ton of new shots, mainly from Lake Union and Boeing Field, only the best of which are posted.  Having a 200mm zoom makes a world of difference in the types of shots I’m trying to get, along with a manual shutter and aperture.  Also, I’ve recently discovered RAW mode.  The file sizes are much larger (7mb a pop!), but the quality of the picture is vastly superior.  It gets compressed down in the post-editing, but only to my desired levels.

Check out the photos, leave some feedback if you like, but mostly – enjoy!

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1.9 Hours, on a nice day.

Took a lesson this morning, even though I’ve wretched my back out so bad I’m walking with a cane (it’s quite a sight).  Aside from not being able to bend over during the preflight, or climb up and refuel after getting back down, I’m grateful I wasn’t in so much pain I couldn’t fly.  I could scoot close enough to the pedals I wouldn’t twist or turn in a way to aggravate it.  Even driving my car (a stick shift) hurt more than flying.

So it was a nice clear day out of the field.  When we first started, there wasn’t a lot of wind, and it was early enough the thermals weren’t very noticeable, but we sure started to feel it as the day went on.  Out of this field, there are trees and high power lines just a couple hundred feet down either end of the runway, which is new for me.  It’s a different sensation knowing that you have to rotate or set up your approach at the right point, because otherwise you’re flying through wood, which the plane wouldn’t appreciate.

We started the morning doing steep turns and getting adjusted to the feelings of the plane.  I’ve been flying very gently, keeping stability and comfort in flight ahead in the priorities.  I know we started to pull a few G’s because my head went wonky a number of times during the turns.  45 degree bank, pulling fairly hard back on the stick, and I go very light headed.  Fortunately, I remembered what Air Force pilots do, and why you hear them grunt (they’re tensing up their legs and abdomen to force the blood to stay up in your head, rather than filling in your gut and legs).  So I started doing that, and it worked.  Going to have to work out some more though to keep that up.  But it certainly helped me appreciate the plane, and push the envelope a bit. 

Then we started into touch and go’s out of Crest and Auburn.  Each time around, my CFI was pushing me to be aware of my profile.  He kept nudging me every time I drifted off the runway heading, or when I wasn’t maintaining speed (too fast or too slow).  Today was the first day we went through trimming for speed, which is an interesting concept to get as soon as you understand that the trim is part of a triangle.  I’m going to try and explain this, but I may be off because I’m still getting a grip on it myself (write a comment with your take, I’m curious what other perspectives on this detail). 

The triangle is composed of engine power, pitch, and speed.  To trim for speed, set a power level, work with the nose until the pitch holding the speed stable, and trim the nose until it holds itself.  To trim for pitch, hold the nose where you want to maintain it, and adjust power until it holds where you want it, then trim it out to hold itself, and pull the pressure off the yoke.

So it’s kind of like algebra, and the Pythagorean theorem – a^2 + b^2 = c^2 .  If pitch and power stay the same, speed will be constant.  If power and speed stay the same, pitch will be constant.

Anyway.  Further into the lesson, we started to hit some crosswinds on the landings.  So I learned (the hard way), I have to understand better how it’s OK to crab coming in for a landing.  One thing you quickly learn about driving, is that all things being equal, the car will go the direction you point it, unless you’re turning.  But landing in a crosswind, you point your plane a little more over into the wind to counter, and even though you may be 5-10deg off the runway heading until 100′ or so above the runway, you’re flying in the runway’s direction.  Put another way, pointing straight at a runway in a crosswind won’t work. 

Also did some work on landing flares.  This is something I’m still getting used to as well.  I’m still operating on the principle that the plane will go where I point it.  I.e. if I put the nose down below the horizon during a landing, I’m going to hit the ground where my nose is pointed.  This is wrong, and I need to learn so!  I need to get used to bleeding off altitude and using pitch (both positive AND negative) to hold speed on approach.  So then comes the landing flare. The nose is pointed down, aimed at the runway, and with between 100 and 150′ to go as we come over the runway, I pull back on the stick to even it out, set idle power (if haven’t already) and we float along because of ground effect.  We coast like this for 100′ or 200′, then pull back on the stick again to (essentially) put the plane into a stall.  The angle stays the same, and we glide in to land.  This took a few times around to get, but by the end, I was able to grease it!  Definitely a moment of pride.

I’m working on prep for the written, which I’m hoping to have done by the end of the month.  But at the very least, I know I’m making progress (well, my CFI says so anyway).  A little more progress, but I’m glad I’m pushing forward!

On a side note, I’m now a member of AngelFlight West.  Now I just need to find pilots who need a mission assistant out of Seattle! 

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Tales from SouthWest Air, stuck in Vegas.

As I write this, I am sitting on a SouthWest Boeing 737 on a flight that’s temporarily grounded, stranded on the Las Vegas taxiway.  We were headed into Phoenix, and the FAA halted traffic between Vegas and Sky Harbour due to weather.  Fortunately, the pilots made an announcement (as we heard the engines shut down) to let us know that it wasn’t anything mechanical, and what was happening.  As the Jet Blue fiasco proved some time back, that goes an awful long way to maintaining passenger satisfaction.  Kudos to them.

Shortly after I began this post, we got a clearance via a reroute, and had to pack up for take off.  So we’re airborne now, probably close to 25,000 ft, and we’re flying through some very nasty looking clouds.  The worst we’ve had so far is a few bumps, but I can see why they’d advise against going direct.  I certainly wouldn’t have attempted it in a GA aircraft.

After we touched down in Vegas, my wife and I were set to continue on, so we stayed in the plane.  After everyone had left, I asked if I could head forward and talk to the flight deck.  Sure enough, the FO is there making preparations for the next flight on the ACARS, and so I introduce myself and ask if I could just peek my head in.  I told him I’m working on my PPL, and he understood my interest right away.  So I’m looking around, and all of a sudden I realize the instruments make sense, in a way that they never did before.  I felt oriented.  As a kid, whenever I’d see the cockpit of a plane, I knew what the basics were for – the compass, the speed, the artificial horizon.  But mostly, a cockpit seemed like a fantastic way to push buttons and knobs, and make things light up.  (Ok, so perhaps some childhood attitudes won’t ever leave).  But looking at it now, they take on meaning, an understanding that those instruments direct the operations of the aircraft.  I was looking at the altitude selector, the speed selector, and the VSI selector on the AP director and remembered having worked with the “FeelThere” CRJ 700/900 sims.  I began visualizing being midflight, and you dial these knobs and the AP takes you up a few thousand feet at whatever VSI selection you make.  Course corrections or new headings made by bringing the AP heading selector around, and we make a 10 or 15 degree bank.  Most of the comms equipment had taken on meaning as well – the radio frequencies, the squawk selection…  I was astounded, as I watched him punching departure and arrival info into the keypad, that I was following along, and could make sense of what he was setting up, in large part because of a few hours sim time.

Now admittedly, I’m not suggesting that after playing a $40 add-in for Microsoft FS 2004 that I’m intricately familiar with all the ins and outs of a multimillion dollar passenger jet, nor am I implying that I’d be able to fly one off the cuff.  But I can’t help but notice how much more familiar the cockpit felt.

The FO took off for a break, and then the captain came forward.  I’d talked with the FO real quick about how he began – he started out getting his PPL at 17, then joined the AFReserves and became a pilot in  the USAF.  He joined the airline industry about 12 years ago, and has been flying since.  The captain, as it turned out, had done something very similar.  He’d flown C120s for the AF, and left about 10 years ago and joined the commercial sector.  What was very encouraging to discover, was that even in his off hours he enjoys flying his Cessna Caravan.  He said even though he flies on an almost daily basis, he still finds excuses to get up and do more. 

We’ve left Phoenix now, just shortly after dusk.  Ever since I can remember watching airports, I’ve always loved the way the taxiways and runways look at night, especially lined up for an approach or takeoff.  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve kicked myself for burying my camera in our luggage. 

I’m still fairly green to the flying world, I recognize this.  It’s at times frustrating, because I’m limited only by my experience.  But at the same time it’s an excitement I haven’t felt about an occupation or a hobby in years.  Starting at the ground level (no pun intended), there’s nowhere to go but up.  I don’t know what made me choose to learn to fly, but I’m grateful for whatever it is.  I’m loving every minute I get in the air, or I’m hanging around an airport, I’m researching about airplanes or careers, or even write about it.  And I can certainly say that flying as a commercial passenger will never be the same.  I just wish my talking about it (constantly) didn’t drive my wife nuts!

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3rd Flight

Got .7 hrs today in a Cessna 172N.  I got to the FBO at Crest Field half hour late after I put it into my calendar wrong (Smartphones rock, but don’t account for human err).  So I get there, chat with my CFI for a bit, as he’s someone I’ve met a few times but hadn’t taken instruction from until today, and we go over what I’ve flown so far, how familiar I am with a plane, etc.  I explained I’d been up a couple of times in a Diamond DA-40, which is a very different beast, but I got used to flight handling, landing, takeoff, etc.

We walked across the field to the classroom (a room in one of the hangars), and went over the pattern.  I knew enough about pattern operations from the Sporty’s videos and my own research that I wasn’t starting from scratch, but it was definitely good to be taught.  We went through the profiles, altitudes, the legs of the pattern, and general procedures, and then he said “Oh, by the way, I drew a right-turn profile, but Crest is a left-turn field.”  This was actually good, because it gave me a chance to draw it all out again myself, but mirrored, so I could solidify it a bit more.  No complaints.

So we go out and do the preflight.  Now, I should say that I’ve never been a fan of the premise that you dump your sampled fuel onto the ground.  With the Diamonds, we poured it back into the fuel tank because it’s a low-wing, and has easy access.  Maybe I’m an environmentalist at heart, maybe gas costs keep me conserving, or maybe I’ve just been in the northwest too long, but that just seems wasteful and polluting to me.  Nevertheless, we did.  For all three samples.  I groaned a bit internally every time…  I’ve heard some FBOs have gas cans around to dump the samples into, so I’ll try and nudge them in that direction.  Anyway, we do the walkaround of the plane, and after looking in the plane and examining the exterior, it’s very obvious that it was a ..uh.. well used plane, and had seen more than a couple of flights.  As we’re looking over the prop, we find a big ole hole in the cowl right behind the prop on the top right side of the engine compartment!  I should have taken a picture…  It was probably about 1/4″ wide, and when we stuck the wire from the fuel sump into it to see if it was corroded, some rust starts falling out, and the hole gets bigger!  Definitely confidence inspiring!  There were scratch marks around it all going in the same direction, the way a rock looks after it gets run over by a lawnmower?  So he figures that a mower went by and kicked up a rock at some point that hit the cowling.  In the end, we took note, and decided it wasn’t a problem. 

We do the preflight, get inside, go through the checklist, and walk through what the wind is doing, which way we’re taking off, and what I’m going to do as we work through the pattern.

First off, the cab of the Cessna is way narrower than the Diamond I was in.  So it felt like I was looking through a funhouse mirror, combined with my CFI being pretty scrunched in next to me, even though neither of us are big guys.  Second, the instruments were all steam,(rather than the all-glass G1000), which I don’t mind because I need to learn to fly by both types, but the panel was (also) pretty well used.  And finally, inside the plane smelled an awful lot like dirty socks.  Either it was really bad and nobody notices but me (or they don’t say anything), or I’m starting to think I was pretty spoiled for those few hours in the Diamond.   

I did some taxiing for a while to get used to the feel of it, then we went down the ramp and did the runup.  Checked the mags, looked good, ran the final control check, felt good, so my CFI made the call (he wanted to this time, I missed it.), and we went for takeoff.  As we taxiied from the hold-short line, we never stopped again before takeoff.  This was a bit nervewracking, as the other two flights I’ve taken (plus most every commercial flight I’ve taken) we went onto the runway, stopped for a moment, and went full throttle.  I think I like making a stop to get your mental sh*t together before pushing the throttle, but maybe I’ll need to make that mental moment at the hold-short line.  (Any input here would be appreciated).

During takeoff, I staggered around on the runway as we got some speed, I’m looking forward to the day that it’s a nice straight line.  But I get up in the air, and WOW is that bird different to fly.  It’s a yoke, so there’s that to consider (flight stick on the Diamond’s), but mainly I found it was sloppier to hold on to, and although coordinated turning itself was easier, getting the rudders to do what I wanted was more of a challenge.  But we get up, hit about 1500 on the altimeter, and then take a look at a rainstorm we’re going straight into.  Instead of hitting the pattern at Crest, we flew out a couple miles and went into the pattern at Auburn for some practice runs.  I had a hard time making out where the field was, because it was right in an industrial complex, and next to the freeway.  So he points and says “See the runway?” and I’m looking at the freeway.  That’s a problem waiting to happen.  Fortunately he pointed out the correct one to me, so no trouble there.  We join the pattern at crosswind, and go through the procedures with the carb heat (a new practice for me, since the Diamond was fuel injected), flaps, and throttle.  We did two touch and go’s through the pattern.  It kind of freaked me out, since he essentially aimed the nose at the runway on the approach until right before touchdown when he flared, and I’m more used to a gliding descent in with the nose up.  It may very well just be my perception, but I’m not yet accustomed to pointing my airplane towards the runway at 500′ up.  (Again – any input here would be appreciated). 

A couple rounds through the pattern, and we head back to Crest.  For some reason, he decided that he should land at Crest because I hadn’t before, although he had no problem with my landing at Auburn.  Maybe the runways are different?  Or there’s different handling?  In any case, he took the controls, and I just felt them as he brought it in.  He did a nice job touching down, although there was certainly a bit of turbulence like we’d been feeling all morning, so no reflection on him.

All in all, I don’t think I like the plane – I mean the 172 in general, not just this one.  I’m going to keep flying it though, for a number of reasons.  First, because it’s cheap (although I probably spend the difference in gas getting down there); also because it probably won’t be the last Cessna I try and fly in my piloting career; but when it comes down to it, I’m learning to be comfortable with flight right now, not comfortable with my seat or the look of the instrument panel.  I intend to fly a lot of planes for an awful long time.  So if I fly something atrocious right now, it will just make anything else seem that much better, and make for some stories down the road. 

I didn’t take any pictures of the flight this time round, because it was just me and the CFI, and I was a bit busy learning to fly.  But after I got back to my office this afternoon, I needed to head into downtown Seattle.  I discovered that one of the highways was closed, because of a Blue Angels show.  I had to hit another bridge to make it over, but it was a parking lot.  I soon discovered why – the show was happening right over us.  As I’m sitting in my car on the highway, I see the blue smoke wafting over, and then a jet makes an immelman right over my head.  I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera when they all fly straight overhead in formation.  I kicked myself a bit harder after that.  I was able to snap one which I’ll put up, but it wasn’t nearly as spectacular!  Although I probably shouldn’t have taken my life in my hands with a camera on the highway anyway… but we were parked, so it’s ok, right?    

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Updates

Looking over the pages, after being prompted by a comment (thanks Rand!) it’s been a while since I’ve written anything.  There have been a number of reasons behind that, but lack of interest isn’t one of them.  Shortly after my first flights, my (former) company sent me out of town on a project for a month, so I spent May living out of a hotel, and not my FBO like I’d hoped.  After returning, I then changed jobs (coincidence?  maybe…), so I’ve been getting ramped up and online, and buried in a few projects with my new organization.  Between that, and some family illnesses, time for flying has been nonexistent.  I have, however, managed to squeeze in enough time to join a local CAP chapter, and attend a couple of meetings.  I also found that a post I’d written in April never got posted, only drafted!  LiveWriter for the win.  I’ve since fixed that. 

A hobby I’ve picked up over the last couple months is kite flying down at Marymoore Park.  Admittedly, it’s a very distant second from personally being up in the air, but it certainly does help one feel a bit closer to flying.  What I’ve found most interesting is how I’m feeling more at ease with wind.  I don’t intend to go gliding anytime soon (though I’m not ruling it out), but certain concepts about powered flight, like why you take off into the wind, are making more sense.  Personally, I’d always felt the idea was backwards – why wouldn’t you want to take off away from the wind, to gain a tailwind to give you more of a push when getting airborne?  But the first time you successfully launch a kite, it makes perfect sense.  I think that’s mainly because you feel the tension on the string as it’s gaining power, you can feel when the wind is giving the kite better flight, compared to being inside an enclosed cockpit, trusting your instruments and the feel of the stick.  I’m sure I’ll begin to feel those sensations more instinctually, to know what they indicate as I’m flying, but meanwhile it’s helping me solidify the concepts and the ideas in my mind.  I don’t advocate replacing flight time with kite flying, but if you find yourself on the ground with some time to kill, and a nice day down at the park, I highly recommend taking some time to feel the way it responds to the air, to your controls. 

If you have access to a computer with speakers, or better yet a headset, I also suggest spending some time listening to Air Traffic Control (ATC) online (there is a link on the right to LiveATC).  I tune into the KSEA composite, which includes the Departures, Arrivals, Seattle Tower, and the Final approach.  They don’t mention this, but I believe it also includes Seattle Ground, and Boeing Tower.  Whenever I get the chance, such as sitting in a WiFi hotspot, or in a high-rise office, I tune in and follow flights with FlightAware.com (although its regional radar scope sometimes leaves out flight details, or planes entirely).  Spotting planes as they announce their turn to final, or as they begin descending from the clouds is helping me comprehend approach and departure patterns into KBFI and KSEA, as well as grow much more accustomed to radio calls and conversations.  Check it out for your local airport, or pick up a scanner from Sporty’s or Radio Shack and tune into your local hobby field’s frequencies and watch the planes coming and going from there.  You may find yourself surprised at what you pick up about patterns, traffic, and the radio.

I have a number of photos from our second flight, which I’m going to put up in a general photoblog on this site, which I’ll link to as soon as I get it working.

So in the mean time, I’m hoping to carve out some time ahead to get back to training, and I’ll keep writing as I do.  Keep checking back, and thanks for reading!

Update (07-28-08/12.52pm): I have the gallery up now, I just need to start adding and referencing content.  And, I’ve added an OpenID.net plugin that will allow readers to comment with their OpenID account (which can be as simple as your blog address, or your Yahoo account), so you don’t have to sign up for yet another web identity.  Follow the OpenID.net link to find out more.

Posted in General, Ground School, Kite Flying, Radios | No Comments »

Second Flight!

Couldn’t get enough the first time around, so we went back for more.  We started out fairly early, around 8 or 9 am (definitely early for me), but I was too excited to care.  My wife was with me again, so she got some instruction by proxy, until about halfway through.  We left BFI, and it was a bit cloudy so we had to be careful about where we went, since we’re going VFR only.  Well, we found an opening through the top and went up above the cloud layer.  It was beautiful.  It was like flying on pillows of snow.  The sun was shining down, the clouds were silver below us, the air was calm and smooth, it was astounding.  I’ve watched a number of YouTube videos of folks going cloud surfing, so my instructor let me get a bit closer to the clouds (probably more than we should have!) and start winging them.  It was the most phenomenal feeling.  The DA-40 has the G1000 in it, complete with XM radio.  We tuned in some Bach and piped it through the headsets while sailing about.  Have now rediscovered ‘bliss’.

After getting up a bit higher and doing some basic maneuvers, we needed to find a hole to get down.  We found one, but it wasn’t very wide, at least for me to make through in anything but a nose dive.  My instructor took the opportunity to demonstrate an emergency decent.  THAT was a thrill…  Made it straight down after a series of descending turns, and brought us in under the cloud layer.  Definitely a good time.  After coming through and leveling out, we made for the coast, and took it into Hoquiem.  There was some ice starting to come down, so my instructor was very ready with the controls.  We made it down safe though, and went into the pilot’s lounge for a quick break.  We got ourselves ready, and my wife piped in that she was really keen on giving it a shot too, after having seen two flights of mine, and watching my flying dozens of hours of MS Flight Sim on our TV at home.  So she got in the left seat, I got in back, our instructor got in the right, and off we went!  She did very well for the first time up in the air.  Her uncle had a small plane which she’d flown in a couple of times as a kid, but she said she’d never flown before.  Well, you’d never know it.  It took her some time to get used to the controls, but she caught on very quick, and was making very smooth, coordinated turns before I realized it.

Then things went a little south, tho through no fault of hers.  We started to try and head back to KBFI to land, but there was a snowstorm in our way.  In the middle of April, at 3500 feet.  So our instructor made the call to deviate and take us down to Bremerton.  We came in, taxied, and parked for lunch at the airport diner.  Had a nice lunch (I had breakfast), and got a chance to chat with the instructor for a while.  We talked about careers, what got him into teaching, why we’re flying, etc.  My wife told him that I’d freaked her out by watching all these YouTube videos of airplane disasters.  I saw it as a learning opportunity, seeing what went wrong on planes or during demonstrations, so I was fascinated by the events.  My wife, as someone about to get up in a plane, was less than thrilled about my choice of viewing.  So she tells our instructor, who mentions that he agrees, that that would probably freak him out too.  I’ve stuck with the YouTube videos of Hoover’s airshow since…

So after lunch, we get back in the plane, I’m back to flying left-seat, and we take off and make it back to BFI.  It was a fairly short hop, since we were now an hour or so later on our return than we intended to be, and we all had appointments to get to.  Short though it was, I landed the plane, brought us back in, and we put the plane away.

Definitely an interesting second flight.  But, I can say with certainty that I’m hooked now.  I’m investigating the local CAP chapters to join, finding the various pilot organizations around, and finding new and interesting ways of talking about flying any opportunity I get.  I’ve also got a ton of photos I’m going to post up, so look for edits and added photos.

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First Flight

Fantastic day. Woke up feeling excellent. Did some errands, the sun was shining, put the sunroof back as my wife and I were driving around, went to the library for some research stuff for her, went for a nice lunch at an indian place we’d never been, then I said “Hey, want to go to the airport and watch the planes?” I was thinking I’d go and prod the flight school into letting me meet an instructor, maybe check out one of the planes, get a bit of a fix, then watch some planes take off and land, call it a day. Except, as we’re on our way, my wife says “Hey, if we can get it scheduled, I think you should take your first flight.” An excellent idea, and I love that she thought of it…

So I called the flight school, asked if I (as a potential student) could swing by, check things out, meet an instructor, etc. It was a beautiful day, and the guy I talked to said he’d probably have trouble finding an instructor, but he could show us around. So we turned up, and sure enough, he showed us the sims, the DA-40, and a DA-42 Twinstar (awesome!). We opened up the cockpits, poked around, saw inside their Cessna, watched an Airlift NW heli take off (I’ve never seen a vertical takeoff from only a few hundred feet), and talked turkey about joining up. I asked if he could get somebody for an intro flight, and he said he’d make some phone calls, see what he could do.

We went to the terminal at BFI to watch the Kenmore Air planes come in and out (my wife was doing some homework, and I was reading the latest flight magazine I picked up). It was a bit like watching Wings reruns, a small local airline flying Cessna Caravans. Kind of neat. Well, after an hour we hopped back to the school to give them a hard time about finding someone. After calling the list of flight instructors, he found someone who could take us for a flight! Not bad for two hours notice.

We went through the briefing, went over where we’d like to fly, talked about procedures, the airplane we’d be flying (a DA-40XL w/ the G1000), and then went out for the preflight. The Shorty’s videos I’d been watching really paid off, because the CFI let me go through the checklist with him, and I knew what the hell we were going over (I was more astounded than anyone else). There were several more complicated things he handled, but I took the fuel samples, handled the electricals (with instruction of course), went through the physical checks of the wings, control surfaces, fuselage, etc. We started up the engine (my wife in the back seat, the CFI let me sit front-left, and he sat on the right), tested the magnetos, went through instrument briefings, and called for permission to taxi. He made the initial request to ground, but when we got to the runway and were holding short for the final preflight check, I asked if I could make the call to request takeoff. He gave it to me, but I botched it up. I’ve practiced on VATSIM, but I couldn’t get the words out fast enough, and I forgot (twice) to announce our departure route. My CFI was very forgiving though.

I handled the throttle and the rudder while we went out to the runway, and got it lined up for takeoff. Got clearance, and then I took the controls for takeoff! I was absolutely not expecting this. Throttled up, rotated, and pulled the plane up. I knew I wasn’t keeping it straight, I could see us skidding a bit, and there were a few bumps (even for a clear day, though he’d warned us about this), but it hit me as we were passing 500ft that I was flying the freaking airplane (I even said this over the intercom, as I could barely believe it). The CFI kept his hands nearby, as I was grateful for, but he let was letting me fly. We came left from the takeoff heading, and went out over the lake, flew over Redmond, and then headed back out over Lake Washington and flew over Puget Sound into the practice area.

After a few minutes of experiencing holding the controls, I kept checking to see how I was doing. The weather gave us a pretty rough ride, more so than I’d expect for a sunny calm-winds day, but he said I was doing pretty well. He turned on the autopilot for us to see how I compared, and it was able to hold the plane very smoothly. He demonstrated a couple of turns and climbs with the AP, to show how smooth it flew. Then we went back to manual, and started into some maneuvers. I practiced some steep turns, climbs, and general control maneuvers. Keep in mind I’ve only flown MS Flight Sim (or other not-so-realistic combat games), but I was astounded at how little one needed to work the controls to get a response. The gentlest pressure saw a 5 degree change in pitch. A slight left pressure had us banking at 10deg before I knew it. Once I saw the turn coordinator on the PFD, I started working on rudder/stick integration, which was a trip as I’d only ever used joysticks at home. A little latter, he showed us how some Zero-G maneuvers feel – nothing big, just a couple 10degrees climbs and dives, but pretty great stuff. I checked with him a little further into the flight to see how I was doing. He said I was holding it together pretty well, but it was obvious I’d spent time flying simulators, as I was gripping the stick really tight, and was spending too much time on the instruments for VFR. It didn’t help that I had a hard time peering over the dash. Holy hell those things are high. The sim model isn’t exaggerating – sitting back in your seat, you really can’t see over the top, let alone hold the centerline for taxi. I was surprised.

After flying over the sound for a bit more, we started to head back towards downtown Seattle, and he called for landing clearance. I followed the landing directions, and began to get us lined up for approach. My CFI handled the controls a bit more, managing the throttle, keeping us more on the path, but I kept my hands on the stick, and felt the approach. He had us into a perfect gentle landing. I was really suprised how high and steep the approach was. Had he not been on the controls, I would have had us coming in much more shallow from further out. Definitely something I’ll have to work on. He let me ask ground for taxi back to the flight school, we parked, and put away the plane. Then I walked away with a list of maneuvers for the DA-20 (the sim model I have for FS2004), and my first flight log entry.

I was beyond giddy. I was so excited about what I’d just done. My wife was so thrilled too. She’d been up in a small plane before, but I never had, let alone taken the controls of a plane. I loved the feeling, and my wife said she was impressed at how smooth I handled it. She’s excited about getting her PPL too now, which I think is great. I love the idea of flying around together, and I’m so glad she was there with me for this. We went out to celebrate at a pub she’d just found, and had a couple Guinness’, played some darts, and now we’re watching the X-Files. Definitely a day for the record books, but we’ll take a camera next time.

Stuff to work on: Landings, gentle maneuvering, steep banks, VFR flying techniques (judging the pitch/attitude from the wing levels against the horizon), and radio calls.  But hey, I have a list now.

Posted in Flight Time, Flight Training | 2 Comments »