Finally Learning to Fly: In the air

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

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

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...)

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

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

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

Back in the comfort zone

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:04:47 GMT

I had my lesson today that had been rescheduled from last week due to weather. It was my big chance to redeem myself from the previous debacle. The weather today was cool, around 71 degrees and sunny with some scattered clouds up high. Winds were out of 260 at 10-15 so we took off using runway 23. Out flight to the training area northeast of the KVDF was bumpy with a pretty good tailwind. I remained calm, however and flew us out to the training area. Since I'm flying again day after tomorrow, I decided we'd use today for me to regain my nerve and comfort with the plane and then move on to stalls on Friday. It was a good choice, I think.

We just did the four fundamentals again, so I practiced several turns, climbs, and descents and then some climbing and descending turns. I'm getting much better at all of them although I still tend to overshoot my altitudes and headings a bit. After that, my instructor Ken told me to just "fly the plane around awhile", so I did. I picked some ground points and made some turns around them and basically just flew around. There was another plane out there a bit north of us who appeared to be doing the same thing we were, so I made sure we stayed well clear of him.

We turned back to KVDF and passed just west of the Zephyrhills airport where there was a glider just above our altitude turning in circles and appeared to be ditching altitude and getting ready to land.

Since AWOS reported the winds still from 260 and at about 6 knots, and since traffic at the field was light, we flew a straight-in approach for 23. Actually, I flew it and was somewhat proud of myself of lining us up right on the centerline (or pretty close to it, anyway) by crabbing the plane into the wind and bringing us down almost to pattern altitude about 3 miles out. Ken took over from there and made a nice landing, despite the fact that AWOS was way wrong. The winds as we landed were actually more like 320 and at least 10 knots sustained, if not higher.

On the flight in, Ken and I were chatting and I found out that he's from California. Which is very interesting, because I am too! And in fact, he's from Sonora which is just a little ways away from Merced, where I grew up. In fact, Ken used to take his student pilots over to Castle Airport (formerly Castle Air Force Base) just outside of Merced to train on the long runway there. His "home" airport in California was Columbia, in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and it turns out I have some experience flying there...

Several years ago, back when I was living in the Bay Area, a friend of mine got his pilot certificate and decided to fly his girlfriend, another buddy, and me from Palo Alto to Columbia. Sounded fun! He had done his training in a 152, but had gotten checked out in a 172 just in time for our trip. We boarded the plane and did not think things through as my buddy, both big guys, sat in the rear seat, as my pilot friend and his girlfriend, both more medium sized, sat in front. Clearly the plane was not balanced correctly, and we should have realized that as soon as we took off from Palo Alto and the stall horn sounded immediately. My friend had to work pretty hard to put the nose down to get the proper climb speed as we headed out over San Francisco Bay.

The flight to Columbia was uneventful, however the attempted landing was not. We were way too fast, especially for for the high density altitude and bounced a couple of times off the runway before my friend had the sense to hit the throttle and declare a go-around. Of course, as soon as he pitched up, there went the stall horn again.

So he pitched forward to gain some speed, but here came the trees. Did I mention the tall redwoods that surround the airport? They were looming straight ahead of us as that poor overloaded little Skyhawk tried to claw its way into the air. We missed them, but not by very much. We went around the pattern for another try, but my friend ended up thinking better of it and we aborted the approach and turned around. We ended up landing at Stockton, with its long runway and easy, unobstructed approach to re-distribute our weight and refuel before returning to Palo Alto.

After I told Ken this story today he noted that they used to watch pilots from the Central Valley or the Bay Area (as we were) try to land at Columbia (as we did), shoot some go-arounds and eventually give up (just like us).

I'm sure it's much funnier from the ground.

Flight time: 1.2
Total time: 4.2
Landings: 5

Freak out

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 19:53:32 GMT

Today's lesson was supposed to be stalls. We started with some ground school in which we discussed both stalls and spins, although we would only practice the stalls in the air. No problems there, I understand the basics and of course, Ken would demo the stalls in the air before asking me to do one. The takeoff was decent; there was a pretty strong crosswind on Runway 5, so Ken helped a bit with the takeoff.

The problems started for me shortly after that point. It was very windy and bumpy as we climbed to 2,000 feet and headed Northeast towards Zephyrhills. So bumpy, in fact, that I was having a very hard time controlling the aircraft. Or at least, that's what I kept thinking. Ken was assuring me that I was doing fine, but I kept getting more and more nervous and therefore more tense, and the more tense I got, the more I was over-controlling the plane (at least in my head I was). It got to the point where I guess I was freaked out enough that I asked Ken to take the plane for a bit so I could calm down, get my heart rate down, and re-focus. He flew for awhile and we decided to postpone the stalls lesson and just fly for awhile so that I could regain my comfort level.

We ended up flying over Dade City up to Brooksville where I took the controls again and then turned us back towards Vandenberg. It was still very bumpy but I held my heading and altitude pretty well. I think I was able to do a better job in part because I made sure I was focusing outside the windshield and not at the instruments as I had done on previous lessons. It really makes a big difference! Fly the plane visually and just use the instruments as a cross-check. So I got that lesson down today, even if I didn't get to do the stalls yet.

I also think I'll be a bit calmer next time I'm in some chop, having gotten through it today. Hopefully, one freak out will be it for me. Ken mentioned moving to ground point reference maneuvers for our next lesson (which is scheduled for next Friday) and pushing stalls out to the one after that. Probably a good idea. He also mentioned trying to get the plane earlier in the day when it's less bumpy generally, but that plane is so hard to get I've got it at the same time as today (11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) for both of my next lessons. Oh well, I know it will be bumpy from time to time and I've got to get used it.

Before I did the pre-flight check (which I did all by myself today), I snapped a few photos of the plane:

Flight time: 1.0
Total time: 3.0
Landings: 4

Afternoon flying

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:44:48 GMT

After work today I went flying with my Project Pilot mentor, Alex. Of course, my dad is my "unofficial mentor" and I'm lucky to be getting all of the help. We practiced approaches out of Peter O. Knight Airport which is near downtown and since Alex was doing most of the flying, I had time to take pictures. I did take the controls for a bit, mostly so I could have Alex snap a photo of me.

Downtown Tampa from the air:

Downtown on the left, the airfield on the right:

On final approach, Runway 3:

The instrument panel:

"I've got the plane"

Flying is fun!

Second lesson, second instructor

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:41:42 GMT

I had my first lesson with Ken, my new instructor, on November 7. He's my age or a bit older and, unlike with Tyler before, we took some time before the lesson to do some ground school. We went into a little classroom they have in the terminal and he quizzed me on my flying and aerodynamics knowledge. I did well, mostly because I've been reading a lot, and I think that impressed him.

In the air, we did more of the four fundamentals (turns, climbs, descents, and straight-and-level flying) and practiced flying at different airspeeds and different configurations (partial flaps down, full flaps down, flaps up). I think I did OK, but I've clearly still got a lot of practice to do before I get proficient at the mechanics of flying the plane.

The next lesson we're doing stalls and will discuss, but not practice, spins. I'm pretty familiar with stalls, at least from a book-knowledge point of view, but I need to brush up on spins. After that, we do ground reference maneuvers, where we pick a spot on the ground, like a building or tree or something, and basically fly around it.

Flight time: 0.7
Total time: 2.0
Landings: 3

Four Fundamentals

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:31:35 GMT

I had my first formal flight lesson on October 20, and the first one in the Cessna 172 Skyhawk, tail number N733UJ. This lesson was called "The Four Fundamentals of Flight", so that's what we practiced: climbs, descents, turns, and straight-and-level flight. The Skyhawk definitely seemed easier to fly than the SportStar and the weather was a lot nicer, too. It was cloudy, but very smooth.

I did the takeoff and most of he maneuvering in the air, although Tyler did the landing, as that is obviously still a ways off for me. I was much calmer, too, this time and learned to release my death grip on the wheel and just use two fingers and my thumb. I also learned to find and use the throttle, mix, carb heat, and trim wheel all by touch.

In my next lesson, Tyler said I'd get to wear the hood (which prevents you from seeing outside the airplane) and practice instrument maneuvers, however that was not to be...

Flight time: 0.8
Total time: 1.3
Landings: 2

Discovery flight

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:24:38 GMT

I had my Discovery Flight on October 12. I flew the plane in the picture there, an Evektor SportStar, tail number N915LS. It's a small â€” really small, unbelievably small â€” Czech-designed, American-built, two-seater sport plane. It had a glass cockpit with a slick Garmin GPS unit with XM satellite weather which is very cool. The flight controls are a flight-stick rather than a yoke, like the Cessna planes have.

The flight itself was short, only half an hour, and we just went out northeast from Vandenberg Airport over trees and fields. Immediately west of the airport is Class B airspace, so we wanted to stay clear of that. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, but it was still pretty bumpy up there. That didn't bother me much, except when I was flying the plane.

For some reason, while the instructor was flying, I was perfectly comfortable, but when I had the stick I was very nervous. VERY nervous. I had a death grip on the stick and he had to remind me just to rest my hand on it and move it very gently. I eventually calmed down and made some decent turns.

For my future lessons, I would be flying their Cessna 172 Skyhawk, but it was at that time being repaired, getting new radios and a new airspeed indicator. It also doesn't have the glass cockpit or the fancy Garmin, although it does have a very basic GPS unit. I was told that the Skyhawk is very popular and tough to reserve but that the school was looking to get a second one. Since then I've learned that they are purchasing an Arrow, but it's not yet available for rental.

The instructor, Tyler, was very young. I figured he was just working on getting his hours so that could eventually get a gig with an airline. But, he was very nice and not cocky at all (something I would generally worry about with the young guys) and a pretty decent instructor.