Finally Learning to Fly: Blog

Birthday flying

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:43:27 GMT

I celebrated by birthday today by flying, which was a pretty good way to spend it, if you ask me! Nothing major, just four touch-and-goes with Jim followed by five solo take-offs and landings. There was a crosswind, maybe five knots or so (maybe a bit higher), directly across the runway, right-to-left, which added a bit of a challenge, but I’m happy to report that my side slips are getting much better and I wasn’t much bothered by the wind at all. I’m still over-flaring a bit and porposing the plane a bit, but then I’m able to re-flare it and settle it down nicely. I’m not sure why the second flares are so much better than the first, but my guess is that it’s because I’ve shed some airspeed. Regardless, all five of my solo landings today were better than all three of my solo landings last week, which is good progress, right? Of course, they’re not yet as good as I’d like them, but that’s why I’ll continue to practice!

For my next lesson, we’ll go out to the practice area and repeat some stalls, steep turns, and slow flight. Then I’ll get some more solo landings and after that Jim expects to be able to clear me for the practice area solo. After that, we’ll revisit some area airports after which I’ll get cleared for them solo as well. That will be very cool.

Flight time: 1.0
Total time: 23.5
Landings: 140

First solo

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:00:59 GMT

I did it! I flew my first solo today!

I hadn’t flown in about three weeks, so I was feeling rusty when we started. The weather wasn’t fantastic either, thanks to Tropical Storm Fay, which is still spinning around just northeast of us. There were dark grey clouds shooting across the sky at about 1,200-1,500 feet (just above our pattern altitude of 1,000 feet) and steady winds at about 20-25 knots (or about 25-30 miles per hour). Fortunately, the wind direction was pretty close to runway heading, so we had a strong headwind but not much crosswind.

My instructor Jim and I went around the pattern doing touch-and-goes. We had to stop after the first couple to let me adjust my seat, because I had set it too low and couldn’t see over the engine cowling properly. My first few landings were pretty rough, but they got better and we ended up doing about 10 of them.

After that, we stopped and he signed my log book and stepped out of the airplane. It felt weird to have an empty space next to me where the instructor is supposed to be! As I took off for the first of three take-offs and landings, I realized that I was committed: once the plane was in the air, I would have to land it, no matter what.

My first landing was a bit rough. I was worried about flaring too much and ballooning the plane up over the runway (something I have a tendency to do), and I didn’t flare enough, resulting in all three landing gear pancaking on the ground pretty hard. The plane bounced up and I got the flare corrected and it settled back onto the runway softly.

On the second landing, I tried so hard not to pancake it again, that I did balloon it a bit, but I brought it back down gently and it was probably my best of the three landings.

On my third landing, the wind shifted as I was on short final and I had to fight a crosswind. I overcorrected a bit and had to wrestle the plane back on to the centerline of the runway, but it touched down smoothly.

Afterwards I had my picture taken (they do this now rather than cutting your shirt tail) and as you can see I'm pretty sweaty. This was less from the heat and humidity, of which there was plenty, and more from my nerves.

But I did it! I feel now less like a "guy who is learning to fly" and more like a "student pilot".

On short final for my first landing:

First landing:

Flight time: 1.5
Total time: 22.5
Landings: 131

"Safe" landings

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:19:46 GMT

This morning's lesson consisted of what has become our usual route: Tampa North (X39) to Vandenberg (KVDF) to Plant City (KPCM) to Lakeland (KLAL) to Zephyrhills (KZPH) and then back to Tampa North. It all went very smoothly, including talking to the tower at Lakeland and dealing with a very busy Zephyrhills. Some little ultralight jumped into the pattern at Zephyrhills right in front of us and I had to extend my downwind to give it room to land.

We had an interesting landing back at Tampa North at the end of the flight. The narrow runway there is bordered by grass on both sides (in fact, it's bordered on one side by the back yards of the people who live next door) and one of the airport guys was out there mowing the grass. On our earlier take-off, he was on a rider mower near the runway and we joked about knocking his cap off with our prop wash, but I noted that he had headphones on (the big noise muffing kind) over his hat, so knocking it off would have been difficult.

On our return, the guy was edging the grass next to the runway and was standing on the runway to do it. This runway is only 50 feet wide, so there wasn't much room to land without being too close to him, and of course should he stumble or trip, he could wind up right in front of us. When we got over the runway threshold I could see the situation was even worse, because the guy was facing the other direction and therefore could not hear us (with the headphones on) or see us. So I hit the throttle, pulled up on the yoke, and started a go around.

Just as I did that, my instructor Jim took the controls, popped the plane up into the air to clear the guy, then cut the power and did a forward-slip to descend again quickly. In fact, we ended up descending quickly at that point that Jim had to add some power back to have the plane touch down on the runway softly. I took the controls back at that point and had to do a lot of braking to stop us as we landed quite a bit faster than usual.

It was a pretty slick maneuver and it was one for which I'm definitely not yet ready.

After the flight Jim noted that my landings have gotten very good and more importantly, he believes that they are "safe" and "under control", which was good to hear. He also noted that my radio work was very good.

I'm not sure yet when my next flight will be. For budget reasons, it may not be for a couple of weeks.

Flight time: 1.3
Total time: 21.0
Landings: 116

Flying with my dad

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:41:41 GMT

It’s been awhile since I've updated here and that's mostly because it had been awhile since I was in the air. I finally did fly on Sunday, but first an update on my wait for my medical certificate...

As I've said before, I have a couple of health issues which require my first medical certificate to come from the FAA office in Oklahoma City rather than my local AME, although renewals can come from the local doc. Despite my careful review of the requirements and my own situation and despite the local doc noting that there "should be no problem at all" getting the certificate, I got a letter from the FAA noting that two of the medicines I'm on are not allowed to be taken together. It sure would have been nice for them to document that somewhere so I could have had them changed months ago! But I had to go back to my doctor and have them changed and now I'm in the middle of a required 14-day waiting period before my doctor can attest that I'm just fine with the different meds and I can re-submit my application for the certificate. What a pain!

In the meantime I had a chance on Sunday to do something very cool. My dad happens to be a flight instructor, but he trains airline pilots to fly the big jets, currently 737s. He lives in California but has been conducting some training down in Miami so this weekend he drove up and I got to bring him along on one of my lessons. Of course, he had to sit in the back seat, but it was still very cool to have him onboard. He first learned to fly in Cessna 172s but that was about 40 years ago and he hasn't even ridden in one in about 25 years.

We left Tampa North (X39) and got permission from Tampa Approach to transition the Class B airspace over Tampa and the bay and over to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International (KPIE). The controllers seemed to forget about us a couple of times and we ended up getting routed out over Clearwater Beach, but that was OK because the view there is very scenic with the Intercoastal waterway and the Gulf of Mexico's bright blue water.

I did three touch-and-goes at PIE and they all went fairly well. Afterwards, we requested and received permission to cross back over Tampa via the East-West runway crossing at Tampa International (KTPA). For those unfamiliar with this, it means we crossed directly over the airport at 3,000 feet, going directly over runway 9/27. We had a great view of the airport below us as well as Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

From there we were routed back up to Tampa North and my landing there was not so hot. The word "wheelbarrow" was used to describe the order in which my gear touched down. My instructor Jim also joked that he didn't know whether to count the landing as one or two what with the bouncing we did...

I asked my dad to just pretend that one didn't happen. Overall, I think he was pleased with my flying, mostly. I can't wait until I have my certificate and can take him up in the front seat!

Flight time: 1.1
Total time: 19.7
Landings: 110

The DPE doesn’t like things that are steep or spirally

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:12:52 GMT

Well, I still don’t have my medical certificate from the FAA, despite eagerly checking my mail daily. We did finally get our stimulus check from the IRS this week, so at least we got some good mail from the government… So, for today’s lesson, we kept it simple. We also kept it pretty short because the plane we were flying was just about due for its 100 hour inspection and at least one more person needed to fly it before it went in, so we had to leave a bit of time left on the tach before it was officially due and had to be pulled off the line.

We decided to fly down to Vandenberg (KVDF) and practice some soft field and short field take-offs and landings. The plane I usually fly, the older 172P, was not available, so I was in one of the newer 172SPs, which I have flown in before, but never flown myself. What a nice place! I love the GPS and the auto-pilot and wish I could afford the extra $25/hour it costs to rent it and take it on every lesson. That and the clear still air this morning made the flight really nice. The air was like glass and this was, by far, the smoothest flight I’ve ever had in a small plane.

My landings and take-offs were OK, for the most part. I did skid a bit, trying to stop the plane on a short-field landing and hit the first turn-off from the runway. Other than that, though, no real problems, including on a power-off landing that has been difficult for me before. Clearly, I’m getting better at this!

We did do one very fun take-off. We simulated taking off from a very high altitude, by setting 10 degrees of flaps and only using 1700 RPMs from the engine. We were on Runway 5 at Vandenberg, which is 5000 feet long, and believe me, we needed every inch of it! The interstate at the end of the runway was looming very large in front of us as we crawled along trying to build up enough speed to rotate. I don’t envy the folks who have to take off and land at that sort of altitudes regularly. I guess we’re pretty spoiled being very near sea level.

I've also been working on spreading out my pattern a bit so that I'm not making so many steep turns at low speeds as we turn to base and final. My instructor, Jim, has had me keeping very close to the field on my patterns, which has meant some steeper turns than I'd like, but I've found -- with practice, like today's -- that I can glide in without power from a decent distance, so I'm now trying that and making shallower turns as a result. Jim agreed with this idea noting that when I go to take my practical exam, "The DPE doesn't like things that are steep and spirally." Neither do I.

I don't have my next lesson scheduled yet. The extra cost of the SP wiped out my flying budget for this week at least, and possibly next week. Unless I get my medical in the mail, in which case I will scrape up whatever cash (including loose change) I can find to get my first solo done.

Flight time: 1.0
Total time: 18.6
Landings: 106

Airport hopping

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:59:13 GMT

As planned, my instructor Jim and I went airport-hopping this morning. After the lousy weather all weekend (rain and thunderstorms) I was worried about the weather on Monday morning, but it turned out to be beautiful, sunny and hot and clear (although it was starting to cloud up when we were finishing up our flight). We did change our itinerary a bit. Originally, we planned to fly from Tampa North (X39) to Vandenberg (KVDF), the Plant City (KPCM), Lakeland (KLAL), and finally Bartow (KBOW) before returning to Tampa North. However, as it turns out, Bartow is located on the Miami sectional chart, whereas the others are all on the Jacksonville sectional, so in order to same me a couple of bucks, since I didn't yet own any sectionals and the current charts expire in August, we skipped Bartow so I'd only need the one. Instead, we went to Winter Haven (KGIF) and Zephyrhills (KZPH).

So, armed with the sectional and a cheat-sheet I had made with several of the airports on it, we left Tampa North with no difficulties, and headed down to Vandenberg for our first landing. Winds were calm so we brought it down on Runway 5 and my landing was nice and smooth, although a little left of the centerline (something I have a tendency to do). I went around the pattern once more and told Jim I was going to try to get closer to the centerline this time. I did get closer, but still missed it just to the left. After the two touch-and-goes we set off for Plant City, however at that point I had a bit of a problem – I had no idea how to get to Plant City! So, out came the sectional which, along with Jim’s knowledge of the area (there’s a blue water tower just north of the field), made finding it pretty easy. As it turns out, much like I use Interstate 75 to find both Tampa North and Vandenberg, Interstate 4 is very useful for finding Plant City.

My first landing at Plant City was not good. I got low and slow and was adding power, but not enough, and we came down a bit hard. Jim suggested I go around the pattern and try again “to redeem” myself. So I did, and my second landing was much better.

We had already listened to the ATIS from Lakeland before landing at Plant City, upon departure we picked it up once more briefly to get the latest information code and then I called up Lakeland tower. I had never spoken to a tower before, at least not while flying the plane myself, so I was a bit unsure of what to say, but Jim coached me through it. I told them we had just departed Plant City and were inbound for touch-and-goes with information Oscar (and we know how important it is to get the ATIS first and let them know we have it). They instructed me to turn right base for Runway 23, but did not tell me to report again, which was a bit odd, because they were telling everyone else that. So we continued our approach, which takes no time at all from Plant City as the airports are only 7.7 nm apart, and when I turned right base, I waited for a call from tower, but when I didn’t hear anything, I went ahead and reported my position. They gave me clearance for my touch-and-go and instructed me to turn right after departure for a right-hand pattern to Runway 27. I guess they were changing active runways just then.

My touch-and-go was fine as was my second one on Runway 27 and this time they had me turn left to remain in the traffic pattern. We were ready to move on, so I request and received, clearance for an eastbound departure to Winter Haven.

My first landing at Winter Haven wasn’t too good. I got a little flat just above the runway. So once again, we went around so I could redeem myself. My second landing was also a little rough in the flare, and I porposed a bit, but I held it off and the actual touch down was nice and smooth.

From Winter Haven, we headed north on the longest leg of our trip, up to Zephyrhills. It was uneventful and we made use of pilotage and landmarks (mostly a huge sulfer mine near the airport) for navigation. My landing there was also just fine, so we headed back to Tampa North.

My last landing of the day wasn’t my best, but it wasn’t my worst either, so I guess it was OK. More importantly, at no time in the entire flight, did Jim need to take the controls for any reason. That felt pretty good!

In fact, Jim was disappointed that my medical clearance hadn’t arrived yet and said that as soon as it does, I’m soloing. I’m still pretty nervous about that, but am really looking forward to it.

My next lesson is next Monday morning and if I have the medical, I’ll solo, otherwise we’ll do something else I’ve wanted to learn, which is to cross the Tampa Class B airspace over to the St. Pete side of the bay. I understand that there are specific procedures to follow to transition Class B, but that it is very scenic and pretty cool. Jim had asked me where I might want to go for my cross-country flights and that was number one on my list. Number two was a flight up to Leesburg (KLEE) because my mother-in-law lives where and I am sure I’ll be flying there once I get my ticket.

Here is a look at the sectional of our flight this week, from Skyvector.com. Unfortunately, Winter Haven is on another page, so it appears beyond the right edge of this chart:

Flight time: 1.5
Total time: 17.6
Landings: 98

Where have you been?

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:27:38 GMT

“Where have you been?” That was how my instructor Jim greeted me today when I showed up for my lesson. It was a fair question; it had been three weeks since I had flown with him, although I did fly a little over a week ago with another instructor, Ryan.

As we have done for the last several lessons, today was more landing practice. I think I mentioned in my last post that at the end of my lesson I started to understand why I was having the problems flaring that I was having and on my last landing on that day, I started to put it together. With this lesson, I applied that from the start and I’m happy to say that almost all of my landings were pretty decent!

A couple of them were a bit hard, and Jim had to help me on one as I got on the left side of the runway and couldn’t quite pull it back over on my own. And I did have one go around as we came in high and I could not force the plane down, even when using a forward slip; it would just not descend at all!

Speaking of the forward slip, this was my first time trying it on a few landings and it is pretty fun (when it works)…

I did most of my landings at Tampa North (X39), as usual, but then we headed down to Vandenberg (KVDF) for a few more, including one short field landing, required because I business jet had just taken off in front of us and we wanted to make sure we came in underneath his wake turbulence. We also did a power-off landing, which wasn’t all that good; I needed a fair amount of help getting it set up properly.

Jim is booked up all next week, but we’re flying again on Monday the 23rd, and he wants us to go airport hopping. He told me to make sure I’m familiar with Vandenberg, which of course I am, and also Plant City (KPCM), Lakeland (KLAL), and Bartow (KBOW). Should be fun!

I saw the FAA medical examiner yesterday and because of some existing medical conditions I have, he had to defer the certification to the FAA office (I knew this going in), but he reviewed all of my paperwork and doesn't see any reason why they'd turn me down, so I should have my medical certificate in about three to four weeks. By then I should also be about ready to solo!

I did hand in my pre-solo written exam to Jim who corrected the few questions I missed. I really can't wait to solo, although I do want at least one more good lesson under my belt, like today's. In my mind, when I solo is when I go from "some guy learning to fly" to a genuine "student pilot".

Flight time: 1.5
Total time: 16.1
Landings: 88

A few times around the pattern

Wed, 28 May 2008 19:58:52 GMT

I got to fly a bit on Sunday, despite originally thinking I would have to cancel my lesson. Instead, I was able to get in a quick lesson between my son's swim class and a birthday party I took my daughter to. It was a busy day!

I flew with a new (to me) instructor, name Ryan. No, I haven't lost another instructor, in fact Jim was there and we chatted, but he was booked up with other students all day. Ryan is a commercial pilot during the week and gives lessons on weekends. I knew that I didn't have a lot of time to fly, so I asked that we just stay in the pattern and let me practice some landings.

I was rusty, not having flown in over a week, and it showed. We had a crosswind at almost 90 degrees from runway 14, which we were using, and most of my landings were pretty rough. But I did learn a couple of things, which I think will help me going forward.

The first thing was a little memory trick to help me remember the things I need to do to set up the approach on the downwind. Specifically, I have a problem remembering the carb heat on the older C-172 I'm flying, but the simple trick of remembering "left-to-right" means I'll get the carb heat, then throttle, then mixture, if necessary, and finally 10 degrees of flaps. On a touch-and-go, I'll use the opposite and go "right-to-left" to take out the flaps, put in full power, and take off the carb heat, in that order. It's a very simple thing, but it should help me.

Secondly, and perhaps more useful, I learned how much I am still over controlling on the flare at landing. I think it comes from very early on in my training where I didn't use enough back pressure to flare properly and the instructors would yell, "More back pressure! More back pressure!" Now, as soon as I start the flare, I yank back on the yoke and porpoise the airplane. On my last landing on Sunday, I got to the point where I was using much less pressure, and much more smoothly, and I avoided porpoising and had a much better landing. Hopefully, I'll continue to remember that and my landings will improve.

So far they've gone from "unsurvivable" to merely "uncomfortable", so there's been improvement, but still a ways to go.

Flight time: 0.8
Total time: 14.6
Landings: 73

Grounded for a bit

Sat, 17 May 2008 01:06:29 GMT

I didn't fly this week as planned. Budget and work issues are keeping me grounded for at least another week or so.

So, does anyone know much about the Cessna 350/400? They look a lot like the Cirrus SR22/SR22 Turbo. Anyone have a good comparison of the two? Not that I'm in the market; they're all well out of my price range, but I'm curious.

Getting closer

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:48:15 GMT

Last Thursday I got more practice landings, which I clearly still need. Mostly, we went around the pattern, as usual at Tampa North (X39), but then we left and headed south to Vandenberg (KVDF), my old stomping grounds. We did some touch-and-goes down there, and I forgot how bumpy it can be there with all the canals and ponds surrounding the field and the thermals you get above them.

At one point we had an Air Force C-5 (one of the largest planes in the world) fly directly over us about 500 feet above us. He must have been heading in to MacDill AFB and it was very cool!

I was a bit sloppy in my pattern at Vandenberg and was on my downwind leg, but well south of runway 23 when Jim pulled the power to idle and told me I'd had an engine failure and would have to glide it in. I was aware that I was farther than I should have been and was trying my best not give up any altitude. Trying so hard, that is, that I came in way too high and could not push the plane on to the ground and keep my airspeed down. We ended up having to go around and later my buddy Alex said, "Why didn't you forward slip?" Honestly, because I hadn't thought of that at the time! Darn it, now I want another chance... On my second power off landing I did better. The landing wasn't pretty, but I got us down.

We also attempted some short field landings and my first one was way off. I landed a good hundred yards (or more) farther down the runway than I had wanted to, but those also got better with a couple of repetitions.

I think I'm getting close to soloing. I've got most of the endorsements in my log book that I'll need and have the pre-solo written test to take before my next lesson on Wednesday. I've also got to go get my medical, which I've been putting off. I'm seeing my doctor on Monday and the FAA doc on Thursday. Wish me luck with this; this is my biggest concern at the moment.

Flight time: 1.4
Total time: 13.8
Landings: 65

Crosswind landings

Sat, 03 May 2008 18:36:09 GMT

Last Tuesday we went up to Hernando County Airport in Brooksville (KBKV) for some cross-wind landing practice. The winds were out of the north so we used Runway 9 for our touch-and-goes. It was a nice day, although a bit overcast, and the winds were at about 8 knots. In other words, prime cross-wind landing weather.

When we arrived at Brooksville, there was a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over Runway 3 and an Air National Guard Blackhawk 'copter hovering near 9. There was also some traffic departing Runway 3 the entire time we were there, so we had to be a bit careful in the pattern to avoid them. In fact, one helpful pilot reminded us over the radio that the winds were favoring Runway 3, to which my instructor Jim replied that that was why we were on Runway 9!

I spent a lot of the time in the pattern practicing switching from a crab into the wind to a side-slip. It was tough, especially going into the slip and moving the rudders and ailerons in opposite directions at the same time. Eventually, I got better at it, at least while in the pattern. Throughout the morning, I struggled on short final to get us lined up on the centerline, tracking down the runway, and flairing the plane properly all at the same time. None of my landings were particularly good.

Jim did show off some, running the plane down the runway and touching down one main gear wheel, then the other, and then picking them up and doing it again a few times before we took off again. I can't wait until I'm proficient enough to have that kind of control over the plane.

He also showed me something that I can't wait to try; a short field takeoff. Leaving Tampa North (X39), we popped the nose wheel up almost immediately. I still am amazed at how slow we were still moving when it came off the ground. Then he popped the main gear up off the ground and we accelerated just a few feat above the runway. We were also crabbed into the wind, which made it more impressive. Maybe I'll get to try it myself in my next lesson this Tuesday morning.

Flight time: 1.3
Total time: 12.4
Landings: 53

More landings, more mistakes

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:07:41 GMT

Sorry, I'm a few days late in posting this one. I did have my lesson last Thursday as planned. In fact, it was a very good day in that, not only did I fly, but I got to golf too! That made up for the rough time I've been having at work lately (big project, not going particularly well.)

Anyway, we didn't get up to Brooksville (KBKV) as we had originally planned, but we did go over to Zephyrhills (KZPH) for some touch-and-goes and then back to Tampa North (X39) for a few more.

I finally had a couple of what I would consider to be pretty decent landings, including on in a crosswind with one main gear wheel touching down first, then the other, and finally the nose gear. And then there were a couple of particularly bad ones, too...

On one of my first landings, I got flat, with the plane no longer descending, but quickly losing airspeed, about 8-10 feet above the runway. Obviously, had the plane stalled there, we would have dropped down to the pavement rather hard. I'm still trying to get the feel for when and how much to flair the plane.

One of my later landings could have been very dangerous had my instructor Jim not been there to correct my bad instinct. We were coming in very low and to a rookie like me, the natural thought is to pull up on the nose to try to hold altitude. Of course, that is exactly the wrong thing to do! That's a very good way to stall the plane short of the runway and instead, the correct fix is to apply power, which is what I did at Jim's urging. To Jim's credit, his voice remained calm the entire time...

I was able to record our cockpit audio during the entire lesson and I am in the process of editing it down into a podcast, which I will publish here as soon as it's ready. It may be a few more days, however. I've been working some very long hours lately, including all weekend (yuck).

My next lesson is scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. I don't yet know what we're doing, but I imagine it will involve more landings. Maybe this time we'll go up to Brooksville.

Flight time: 1.1
Total time: 11.2
Landings: 43

Patterns and podcasts

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:02:30 GMT

I went flying with my instructor, Jim, on Friday morning as planned. The weather was beautiful; sunny and cool with calm winds — perfect flying weather. As with our last lesson, we stayed in the pattern so I could practice my landings.

There is no AWOS at Tampa North (X39), but the windsock was hanging limply so we started out using runway 32 for our pattern work. I was having a lot of problems getting my altitude down when turning to base and final and also keeping my speed down. We did several touch-and-goes and two go-arounds, where I was just too high and fast to put it down at all. A couple of them were OK (and that's being a bit generous), but most weren't so good. I was coming in fast on all of them and floated well down the runway. I'm also still having some trouble using enough back pressure to bring us down gently on the main gear.

Eventually, in order to get low and slow enough, we were reducing power to idle on the turn to base! Of course in cool air the Skyhawk with the upgraded 180HP engine would be performing very well, but that was a bit ridiculous. It occurred to us that there might be a bit of tailwind which was confirmed by checking the AWOS at nearby fields, so we switched around and used runway 14 instead.

Much better! My landings still weren't fantastic, but we sure used a lot less runway for them. Actually, my last two were too bad at all and my very last one was pretty decent, I think (for me, anyway).

Next Thursday we're at it again, but this time, instead of staying in the pattern at Tampa North, we're going to fly up to nearby Zephyrhills (KZPH) and Hernando County (KBKV) in Brooksville, and practice in the patterns up there. I'm really looking forward to that!

Jim also mentioned that I need to take my pre-solo written exam soon, which is a good sign. I also need to get my medical certificate.

Speaking of that, I have a couple of medical conditions that I wanted to be sure wouldn't prevent me from getting my certificate, so when we were at Sun-n-Fun last week I stopped by the FAA pavilion and chatted with one of the FAA doctors. I should be fine to get my cert, but in our conversation he said one of the nicest things anyone has said to me in a long time. He said, "Well, you're pretty young. What are you, in your mid-20's?" He seemed genuinely surprised when I told him I'm actually 40.

Just before my lesson started, I did run into my previous instructor, Mark. He was there finishing up one of his students before fully transitioning into his new charter job. He told me that his new job is flying for Cirrus up at Vandenberg and he's flying SR22's mostly now. I am so jealous!

I just picked up some new equipment that will allow me to record cockpit audio and I'm planning on putting together a podcast to go with this blog, soon. I have hosted other podcasts, so I've got some experience with them, and I'm really looking forward to doing this one. Of course, this will depend on Jim allowing me to record our lessons, but hopefully he'll have no problem with it. I'll let you all know as soon as I do when I'll have the first episode ready. My pilot mentor and friend Alex and I are also looking to produce audio and/or video podcasts of our flying together as well. I think that will make for an interesting mix of relatively new student and relatively new certificated pilot.

Speaking of podcasts, I was listening to the Uncontrolled Airspace podcast the other day, when one of the hosts, Dave Higd0n, told a joke that I liked. It's probably a very old one, but I hadn't heard it before, so I'll end this blog entry by sharing it here:

"You know why the propeller is in front there, right? It's to keep the pilot cool. If that propeller stops, just watch the pilot start sweating..."

Flight time: 1.1
Total time: 10.1
Landings: 34

Sun-n-Fun

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:21:38 GMT

I'm flying again on Friday, early at 7:00 a.m. In an attempt to avoid these long delays between lessons, I went ahead and scheduled one for each of the next three weeks, including this one.

We drove out to Lakeland on Sunday to attend Sun-n-Fun which was fun, despite the weather being pretty lousy — rainy and cold, after a week of great sunny weather. I took some video, but it didn't come out all that well, and some photos, including these:

The USAF Thunderbirds, who (as always) put on a fantastic show, flying in formation:

My son's favorite airplane at the airshow, an A-10 "Warthog":

A couple of big ol' Air Force jets; a C-130 and a KC-135:

Here's my son standing in front of a Cessna (nee Columbia) 400, a very nice plane that reminds me a lot of the Cirrus SR22:

Here's the XFV1, an early (and failed) attempt by the Air Force to produce a Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) plane. Despite the fact that it didn't really work, it sure looks cool:

Here's the "business end" of an F-15:

And finally, my kids in front of a neat looking SeaMax seaplane:

Garmin SVS - like Flight Simulator without the simulator

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:34:57 GMT

I'm still fighting this stupid cold and I hope to be back in the air soon. It's really a shame because the weather is outstanding here!

In the meantime, I came across this video on the AOPA web site, which looks at the new Garmin SVS system.

SVS is a "synthetic vision system" which adds display of your surroundings to the Garmin 1000 glass cockpit's PFD (primary flight display). As you can see on the video, it's pretty amazing! It looks like Microsoft Flight Simulator, only it's in your cockpit. The really cool thing is that it's just a software upgrade; no new hardware required, so hopefully we'll all be seeing it in glass cockpits near us very soon.

Cold

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:52:03 GMT

I didn't end up flying on Thursday as planned. I came down with a cold after working nearly all night on Tuesday night so, as much as I hated to do it, I had to cancel my lesson. I'm hoping to be over the cold soon and reschedule for this week some time.

A beautiful day

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:01:16 GMT

It was a beautiful day to be flying today! Sunny and warm, with a bit of a crosswind at first, but then calm air later on.

I was finally flying again, this time with my ~~latest~~ new instructor, Jim. He's probably in his 50's and very, very low key. Nice guy. Much like my last lesson with Mark, we spent our time flying around the pattern and practicing my landings.

And my landings are improving, somewhat, although I've still got plenty of work to do. I pancaked the gear on one of them and nearly had us in the grass next to the runway on one of the touch-and-goes, but I am slowly improving leveling off in ground effect and flairing the plane. As we taxied past the maintenance hanger afterwards, I think I only imagined the dirty looks from the maintenance guys as they had seen every hard landing I made in their plane...

I did discover, with some helpful coaching and demonstration from Jim, that having the plane trimmed and setup properly for each phase of the approach makes a huge difference in the quality of the landing! When it's setup properly, it'll pretty much fly the glidepath and speed you need all by itself. That sure is easier than fighting it all the way down.

I will say that my ability to get it on the center line and hold the runway heading is much improved this time. As I think I mentioned last time, I had a real problem with that before. No doubt the lack of any real crosswind helped tremendously there.

Next lesson is a week from today.

Flight time: 1.0
Total time: 9.0
Landings: 26

Cheap Bastards

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:07:05 GMT

In addition to various General Aviation blogs, I also read some by airline pilots. Captain's Log is a good one, and this post on cheap pilots was hilarious.

Somebody call George Jetson

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:43:24 GMT

How would you like to fly this?

Or just drive it, as you apparently can do both. The wings fold up for road use:

Somehow I'm skeptical that the AirCar, as it is not-so-inventively called, will ever fly (pun intended), but it is cool.

As for me, I'll be flying on Thursday with Jim, my ~~latest~~ new instructor.

World famous in Poland

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:23:33 GMT

I'm somewhat famous!

You can't imagine my surprise as i was reading Mike Collins' monthly column in the April issue of AOPA Flight Training, which arrived in my mailbox a couple of days ago, only to see my name and this blog mentioned. Thanks, Mike for the plug! Now I just need to live up to it. Just to make the media full circle, here's his print column online. (You may need to be an AOPA member to use that link.)

In his column, Mike mentioned that I had gone through several instructors in my training so far. Well, as of today, add one more to the list. My last instructor, Mark, took a charter flying job and quit his teaching gig. Punk! Actually, I hope he enjoys the new job and I wish him well.

Still, for those who are counting, this makes three instructors so far with only eight hours of flying time. I talked to Angela, who runs Tampa North, and she's going to hook me up with instructor number four next week.

In other news, I did get to fly today. Well, in the right seat anyway. My buddy Alex and I flew from Peter O. Knight Airport (KTPF) in Tampa to Lakeland Linder Airport (KLAL) out in Lakeland (and home to the huge Sun-N-Fun airshow in a few weeks).

It was a nice flight and my first experience in a GA plane talking to a tower! We messed up a lot of our radio calls, but fortunately only the ones on the ground and they weren't very busy, so they were able to take the time to straighten us out. In fact, while we were there, we decided to call the tower and ask to come visit, to which they agreed, and we had a very nice chat with Controller Larry and the other controller whose name I unfortunately did not catch.

We asked them what the most common mistake made by pilots is and they both agreed, it's assuming they know something they don't. A perfect example of which is the way around the taxi ways at the airport. We were confused ourselves and of course the solution is to simply ask for help (which we did).

It was a fantastic learning experience and one I highly recommend to everyone, regardless of flying experience. Thanks again to Larry and his colleague for letting us visit!

I had my "good" camera, but had left my memory card in my computer at home, so the pictures I took were with my lousy camera phone. I apologize for the poor quality.

Our plane for the day:

A WWI vintage SE-5A replica on display in the terminal building at Lakeland Linder:

Another view of the SE-5A, it is actually 7/8 scale:

The view of the tower and the field from the terminal:

The Ground control station in the tower:

The Tower control station and controller:

The signal light in the tower:

Checking out the radar screen (pictured L-R: My friend Alex, the controller whose name I didn't get, and Controller Larry):

And finally, here's a video I took of our departure from Lakeland on Runway 9 with a turn back to the west.

WARNING: This video is extremely boring! May cause drowsiness. Do not view while operating heavy machinery.

(Bonus points to anyone who knows from where I stole the title of this post...)

Still here, just not in the air

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:01:40 GMT

I haven't forgotten this blog here, I just haven't flown in a couple of weeks! My instructor and I mis-communicated on my last lesson and I just haven't been able to set up another one yet. Soon, I hope!

In the meantime, have you see this video of the Lufthansa airliner trying to land in Germany in high winds? Scary! The full news story is here.

Flying cat

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:17:42 GMT

I saw this video on Gear Diary, one of my favorite tech sites, and figured that anyone interested in flying would enjoy it. My favorite part is the end when the cat "talks" to the pilot...

YouTube - Iris landing

In the pattern

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:52:42 GMT

Today's lesson was entirely in the pattern doing touch-and-goes. Actually, it was originally supposed to be stalls followed by the pattern work, but the sky was overcast with a ceiling at 1,500 which is too low for stalls, so we just hung around the field instead.

My pattern work was decent, I suppose. There was a mild crosswind on runway 32 which affected my turns a bit and for some reason I just could not remember to apply carb heat when I reduced my throttle to 1700 RPMs on the downwind leg until like the fourth of six landings. I think I was just concentrating so much on everything else!

My landings were not great. Only one was particularly bad; we bounced pretty hard, but the others I'd classify all as "medium-bad". For some reason when I thought we were lined up on the runway, Mark would tell me I needed more right rudder. I'm not sure why my perspective is off, but it is. I'll need to work on that.

I did work on lining up on the centerline with the rudder and continually applied a lot of force to the rudder pedals with both feet to hold the plane pointing down the runway while dipping the wing to keep us on the right path. I'm still not very good at it, but I'm sure it'll come with practice, which is why we do it, right?

My six-year-old son was actually riding with us in the back seat today because he was off from school and I had "kid duty" for the day. I was worried that he'd be scared but instead he was bored! I didn't see that coming. I imagine he'd have more fun on cross-country trip.

One final note. After the lesson, Mark and I were reviewing my flight log and he was going back and giving me credit for my landings which nobody had entered in the log yet. And in doing so, we realized that I had fewer hours logged than both of us had thought! It looks like the culprit was a simple addition error made by me awhile back. Anyway, I've gone through my blog entries here and corrected them all for the proper numbers of hours and landings.

Flight time: 0.8
Total time 8.0
Landings: 16

Private note to Anthony

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:13:46 GMT

Hey Anthony, who left me a message about Ken, I'm not able to reply to you because of your communication preference settings. Do me a favor and adjust the settings, or send me your email address so that I can reply to you.

Cirrus SR22

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:46:40 GMT

I flew a Cirrus SR22 G3 (third generation) today, specifically, this one:

What a fantastic plane! I so want one. Unfortunately, they run something like $500,000 which is about $499,993 more than I have in my wallet just now.

Cirrus was holding a "mobile roadshow" at Vandenberg Airport (KVDF) complete with several SR22's, both the new third generation G3s as well as the older G2s. They also brought in a big truck trailer with displays and information inside. Of course, there were plenty of sales people and three demo pilots giving rides to those who had pre-registered. My buddy Alex and I had signed up and had planned on flying over from Peter O. Knight Airport (KTPF) and then doing the ride, but the weather was not cooperating with us and shortly after take-off from Peter O., we had to turn back due to poor visibility. Alex didn't want to drive to Vandenberg because he lives pretty far from there, but it was on my way home, so I stopped by and got my demo flight.

The first thing you notice when you sit in the SR22 is how high you sit compared to other planes. The height of the instrument panel in front of you is more like your car's dashboard than the instruments in a Cessna or other planes. You also have a nice clear view over the cowling outside.

The car-like experience doesn't end there, either. It's got XM music, which you can adjust via a nifty wireless remote, and air-conditioning, which is terrific to have here in Florida.

The nose wheel is castering and not directly steerable so you steer with differential braking until you have enough speed for the rudder to work. It's actually easier to taxi than I had thought it would be.

During the take-off roll, that big engine puts out enough power to require a lot of right rudder to hold it on the centerline (or near it, in my case).

The SR22 is fast! Because the weather was lousy and there was a 1,600 foot ceiling, we stayed down around 1,000 feet. Well, as close to that as my lousy flying skills would keep us. I swear, the slightest touch on the side stick and we had climbed a hundred feet. I was pretty much all over the place between 1,000 and 1,300 feet as we made some turns to evaluate the performance.

Despite my lousy flying, the SR22 is actually very easy to fly. We were cruising at something like 180 knots at 1,000 feet, screaming over the houses below. The controls were extremely responsive and smooth and the side-stick and center throttle lever felt very natural. In fact, it's pretty much how I drive my car with one hand on the wheel and one on the gear shift.

The Avidyne displays are nifty, too. I've flown the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit exactly once, so I wasn't sure how well I'd take to a glass cockpit. I'm still not sure how well I like the primary flight display (PFD) compared to steam gauges, but I love the multi-function display (MFD) on the right of it. Among the cool things you can get on the MFD (or the GPS units on the center stack) are XM weather, terrain, traffic, and airport charts that even include an icon that shows you exactly where you are on the airfield. Pretty slick.

We flew the auto-pilot on the approach to show me how it worked but then decided to switch runways at the last moment so we shut it off and I flew the plane. My downwind leg wasn't very good; I wasn't allowing for the crosswind and was too close to the runway, so our turns to base and final were basically a single steep turn. One final, the demo pilot, who knew I'm a student with only 15 or so hours, asked me, "There's a crosswind, will you be all right?" I responded, "So far, all of my landings have been with a cross wind, but keep your hands close to the controls."

The landing wasn't great. I got it on the runway, but bounced it pretty hard. Still, given my lack of experience, I was pleased.

As we pulled up to the hanger area, there were some ground crew guys messing with some collapsible road barriers. The demo pilot was taxiing at this point and turned the plane around so that the ground crew was now behind us. As he did, he gunned the engine and the prop wash knocked down the barriers the guys were setting up. Laughing, he explained to me that he did it because those guys were constantly coming into his office there and stealing hats and stuff, so this was a bit of payback.

After we got out of the plane one of the other demo pilots standing there started to give my demo pilot some grief. He said, "You should be ashamed of that!" My demo pilot started to explain that he meant to do the prop wash stunt, but the other pilot said, "No, I mean the landing!" Sheepishly, I owned up to the landing and apologized for bouncing what I learned was his demo plane.

A lot of flying

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:41:03 GMT

Last week Friday I flew with my friend Alex around the pattern at Peter O. Knight (KTPF). Well, he flew the plane; I sat in the right seat and made our radio calls. After last Monday, I definitely needed the practice! There was some cross-wind, but all went well. We completed five landings with one go-around.

Today I had a lesson at Tampa North (X39) and again, it was very windy! Sustained winds out of 190 at 14 with gusts to 17. After some pre-flight discussion, we headed out and first did some steep turns. I did fairly well at holding my altitude and speed (not perfect, but decent), but had a hard time keeping the plane all the way over in the 45-degree bank. My stomach also did not particularly enjoy the turns, so we moved on to stalls.

We did a couple of power-on departure stalls, but the wind was really blowing us around, enough so that the stalls were much harder this time than last time I did them. I clearly need some more work and, in fact, that will be part of our next lesson.

Lastly, we decided to come in and practice some landings. Finally! This is the part I've been waiting for! I've done the take-offs and flying around and what-not, but I've never actually landed a plane, so I was very excited about this.

We were using runway 14, so with the winds coming from 190, there was some crosswind. Enough of one that I really had to crab to the right to hold us somewhere near the centerline of the runway. Actually, I didn't do all that well and needed help on two of the three landings we did. (On the other one, Mark, my instructor, took the controls completely.) I assume that, since he was actively helping with the landings, he didn't credit me with any in my log book, but that's OK. After the stalls in my next lesson, we'll be back to practicing landings. I'm hoping then I'll be able to do one without help.

Oh, and I was fine on the radio. No mistakes really, except once I forgot to end my call with, "Tampa North".

That next lesson is next Monday and, given how windy it's been lately, we're going to fly from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 because the winds don't seem to pick up until after that time. With any luck, we'll have some smooth still air, and all will go well.

This Friday, Alex and I are getting a demo flight in a Cirrus SR22-GTS Turbo. This would be my plane if I were made of money. I hope we both get some time in the left seat! The demo is at Vandenberg (KVDF) and we plan to fly there first from Peter O. Knight and then back to Peter O. afterwards. There will be a lot of flying that day!

Flying time: 0.9
Total time: 7.2
Landings: 10

In the air again

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 02:27:40 GMT

I had my lesson with Mark, my new instructor at Tampa North (X39) today. It was pretty windy, about 15-17 knots, so I wasn't sure if we'd even fly, but we did, and I'm glad we did!

It was very bumpy aloft and on take-off we were all over the place heading down the runway. That was my fault entirely as I fought the winds on our take-off roll and initial climb out. I was also making our radio calls and really screwed up my first call. It went something like this:

"Tampa North, Cessna 6-1-2-Charlie-Bravo at runway one-two... No, one-three... Ummmm... I mean three-two, for Northeast departure, Tampa North."

I got better after that.

Once in the air we practiced some ground point maneuvers, including following some roads on rectangular patterns and then doing some turns around a point. With the winds, they were a challenge, but I didn't do too terribly badly. We also worked on approach pitches in preparation for our landing.

Finding our way back to the airport is a challenge! Our plane, Charlie-Bravo, has no GPS, so we were strictly using our Mark II Eyeballs for navigation. Find I-75, then the big new shopping center near SR-54, and then the hangers next to the airport. The runway is completely invisible from any distance, hidden by trees. But we found it and overflew the field at 1,500 to check the windsock. Pretty much a full cross-wind no matter which runway we picked (14/32), so we went with 14.

Since it was so windy, I flew into the pattern and on to final (making the radio calls along the way, mostly correctly) but because it was so windy, Mark took the controls from there. It's really a shame, too, because I had hoped to get a chance to land myself, and had it not been so windy, Mark said I would have. Maybe next time.

So the new plane, Charlie-Bravo, is nice; it handles pretty similarly to the last one, even though it's got 160 HP compared to the 180 horses in Uniform-Juliet. They've also got some newer S models, and I'll fly them at some point, but hopefully not too often as they cost more.

The next lesson is next Tuesday and we'll practice S-turns, and review slow flight and stalls.

It's good to be flying again!

Flying time: 0.8
Total time: 6.3
Landings: 7

Flight videos

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:12:38 GMT

A couple of very cool videos from other flight-related blogs...

First, from Behind The Yoke, we have a marketing pitch for the "QSST", the Quiet Super Sonic Transport, which promises to whisk business travelers at supersonic speeds. Wouldn't this be fun to fly!

From The Cranky Flier, we have a much more scary video. I understand this actually happened back in 1999, but I hadn't seen it before. A United plane at Providence made a wrong turn in thick fog and ended up on an active runway. The controller inexplicably insisted that there was no problem and cleared a US Airways flight to take off on that same runway. Fortunately, the US Airways pilot, hearing the conversation between the controller and the United pilots, decided not to go.

Back to the air / Flight Simulator

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:05:22 GMT

Well, as it turns out, my instructor Ken is going to be teaching at Lakeland Linder Airport (KLAL), out in Lakeland. I used to work out there, right next to the airport, in fact, and I know how long of a drive it is. A little too long, unfortunately. Part of my plan for my flight lessons is to be able to slip out of work for a couple of hours to take the lessons, and Lakeland is just a bit too far away for that. So, I guess I will be getting another new instructor after all. I called back Tampa North and have a lesson with a guy named Mark tomorrow at noon. We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, I've been flying a fair amount with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. I've got a pretty decent setup since Christmas with the Saitek Flight Pro Yoke and Throttle Quadrant and the Flight Pro Rudder Pedals. They work pretty well, although they're certainly not perfect.

For one thing, the motion of the yoke, especially for the elevators is not smooth at all. It takes quite a bit of force to move it at all and then it tends to move a lot, making controlling the airplane difficult. I'm wondering if spraying some WD-40 on the shaft of the yoke would help, but I'm a little bit hesitant in case that messes it up. I've also found a bug in FS2004 in which the mixture cannot be adjusted with the lever on the throttle quadrant, but that's not really a showstopper or anything.

Although not pictured here, there is a new little flat panel piece that sits up on top of the yoke. Right now, it's just blank white plastic, but next month they're releasing an LCD flight instrument display panel which I definitely want to add to the setup.

I'm also still trying to figure out a better place to mount both the yoke and the throttles as right now I have them attached to the keyboard tray on my desk which moves, and that makes pulling or pushing the yoke a problem as I have to hold the tray still with one hand while using the yoke with the other.

The pedals are very nice, and include not only the rudder motion but also toe brakes. You can adjust the tension on the pedals as well.

As with the yoke, there are bugs with the pedals. I discovered at first that when the brakes were used, they stayed on and could not be disengaged except by setting and releasing the emergency brake using the keyboard. What a pain! Fortunately, I found a solution on the forums on Saitek's site. The solution is to set the "null zone" (the area of "give" in the pedals in which they can be moved with no effect) to 0 and make sure that the overall sensitivity is greater than 40%.

Another ugly bug was that the toe brakes were reversed: pushing the left brake turned the plane right and vice versa. Fortunately, that one is an easy fix as Microsoft provides a "Reverse" setting for each joystick control axis within Flight Simulator.

Even with the controls, Flight Simulator is not a great replacement for practicing in a real plane. For one thing, the rudder is far too sensitive and using it causes the plan to immediately yaw in the direction of the pedal pressed. Also stalls are very difficult to practice and aren't very realistic. In the Cessna 172, the plane stalls almost instantly as the stall horn sounds and recovers almost instantly as the nose drops, too. There should be a bit more delay in both, and especially in the stall itself. I've seen the Skyhawk fly quite well enough with the stall horn going off and without actually stalling. It's also impossible to cause the Skyhawk to spin in Flight Simulator. Since we won't be practicing spins in the real plane, I had wanted to do it here, but as far as I can tell, it just can't be done since the plane recovers from the stall so quickly.

Oh well, it's still a lot of fun to play. And of course, I get to do the real thing again tomorrow!

Phone call

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:36:35 GMT

I got a call yesterday from my instructor, Ken. I can't say much publicly right now, but I may not have to get used to another new instructor after all. I'll know more in a couple of weeks or so...

Another Setback

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:00:36 GMT

I had another setback in my quest to get my pilot certificate yesterday.

Back in December I had a lesson canceled because N733UJ was in for maintenance of some sort "for a couple of days", they said. What was really frustrating at that time was that I couldn't find another block of two hours to reschedule my lesson between then and my next planned lesson, which was supposed to be yesterday.

Before my lesson time, I called the airport because the online flight scheduler now showed N733UJ as reserved for "maintenance" instead of reserved for me as it had been. The very nice girl who answered said that it would be in maintenance for another month, that it had failed some aspect of the annual check and she thought one of the problems was a bad starter. Well, I know that's not it because it just got a new starter back in November, but two months is a far cry from the two days I had originally been told. I mentioned that I had a lesson scheduled with Ken and I assumed it was then canceled and she let the other shoe drop.

Ken no longer works there. For those counting, that's two instructors now who have quit leaving me stuck. So now, the flight school at Vandenberg (KVDF) has only one instructor left and zero Skyhawks, at least for another month or so.

So what to do?

Well, I called another flight school, this one at Tampa North Aero Park (X39), which is also pretty close to the house. Way back when I had rejected them because their rental rates seemed much higher than anyone else's, but this time I got a very different story.

They have a 1982 172P which rents for $100/hr (including a $10 fuel surcharge), and a 2001 and 2004 172S's which rent for $125. The instructor rate is $40. This is pretty comparable to Vandenberg, which ran $107 for the 172N and $45 for the instructor.

I spoke with the woman who runs the place and she seemed very nice. They use all three Skyhawks I mentioned for private lessons and they have another 172RG (retractable gear), which they rent but do not use for lessons. If I'm willing to take my lessons on weekdays (I am), they can fairly easily fit me into the schedule, especially as she is hiring a new instructor to work Monday through Friday. Getting a plane for the lessons is also not a problem, she said. That would a huge improvement!

They use the Cessna ground school kit, but she said they don't require it, which is good since I already have the Gleim books and didn't want to spend another $330 on essentially the same information.

We're going to talk again tomorrow, but it looks like I'll be getting used to a new instructor, some new planes, and a new airport very soon.

Apology

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:18:16 GMT

My apologies to those of you who have left comments to which I didn't reply. This blog software (Windows Live Spaces) is supposed to email me whenever someone leaves a comment but I just realized that it isn't working.

Thank you all very much for reading here and taking the time to respond!

Grounded again

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:12:27 GMT

I was supposed to fly today and practice ground point reference maneuvers, however I got a voicemail that N733UJ is grounded temporarily and getting some maintenance. I don't know what the problem is, but I had to cancel my planned lesson and haven't been able to find any free time on the flight scheduler in the next two weeks (that plane is kept VERY busy), so I guess my next lesson won't be until January 3, which is when I was supposed to try some landings and pattern work. Oh well.

Stalls

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 20:58:42 GMT

I had my second lesson this week today and, as expected, we practiced some stalls. We climbed out to about 3,500 feet which was above the broken clouds and very smooth. In fact, it was a beautiful day today, nice and warm.

I was a bit apprehensive about doing the stalls, mostly because you have to keep the ailerons and rudder coordinated during the stall so as not to push the plane into a spin, and I was worried about my ability to keep everything coordinated, especially as the plane stalled and "broke" in one direction or another. I shouldn't have worried. As it turned out, it was pretty easy and I was able to do it mostly by feel and without thinking about it too much.

We started with departure stalls and my instructor Ken showed me one and asked if I was ready to try it. I asked him to show me one more, and then I was ready. The only real hard part was putting enough back pressure on the yoke to get the nose high enough to stall. Ken and I are both pretty big guys so we were heavy forward of the CG, so it took a ton of pressure to make the stall happen. Recovering was easy enough, though.

The approach stalls were a bit more complicated, but also pretty easy from which to recover. Ken showed me one and I did a couple myself. Again, I was surprised that the recovery was straightforward and pretty easy.

In flying out to an area where we could do the stalls, going around the scattered clouds, and then doing the stalls, we ended up near Inverness, pretty far north of Tampa, so we turned to head back to KVDF. There was a TFR today for the shuttle launch over on the other coast, and we made sure we stayed well out of that 40-mile radius from Melbourne and Cape Canaveral. We weren't sure what time the shuttle was scheduled to launch today and were hoping we might see it from the air, but we did not.

On the way back, I asked about making some of the radio calls. Ken said that he usually doesn't start letting the students do that until after they've practiced some landings, but we figured we'd be fine with me doing some on our approach. So, starting with the 10-mile-out call to CTAC I was on the radio. I believe my first call was, "Vandenberg traffic, Cessna 733 Uniform Juliette 10 miles north for approach to land, Vandenberg." It's a lot harder than I thought to make the calls! As soon as my thumb hit the transmit button, my mind went blank. In fact, I completely flubbed the next call, telling CTAC we were three miles out instead of the correct five miles, but I corrected myself quickly. I made the call for our turn to downwind, but after that, Ken made the rest of the calls, because I was too busy flying the approach.

And yes, I flew the entire approach all the way to final. I did let my airspeed drop too much on the turn to base; I was trying to hold 70 and let it dip to 60. I guess those stall recoveries could have come in handy had I let it drop further! There was a crosswind, so I crabbed a bit on final to put us on the centerline. Just before touchdown, Ken took the controls, but unlike previous flights, I got to keep my hands on the controls as well, so I guess we both kind of landed it. That was very fun, and I can't wait to do some more approaches.

In fact, my next lesson is in a week and a half or so and we'll do ground point reference maneuvers. After that, in the first week of January, we'll get to landings. I'm really looking forward to that.

Flight time: 1.3
Total time: 5.5
Landings: 6