Finally Learning to Fly

Took my wife Beth and the kids for their first flight this morning.  Call it a Fathers Day gift to myself.  We didn’t go anywhere, we just flew around the local area a bit to them used to flying in a small plane. Especially Beth, who was very nervous about the whole thing.  Fortunately, it was a pretty calm day with not much wind and not too many thermals, although there were some.  We took off and flew out toward our neighborhood, staying at about 1,200 feet in order to stay below the scattered cloud layer.  The kids got a kick out of seeing our house and their school from the air.  Beth had a ton of questions about the different instruments and procedures.

We headed back to the airport and my landing wasn’t my best ever.  It wasn’t horrible, but I ballooned a bit in my flare.  The touch down was nice and smooth, though.

We only spent half an hour or so in the air, but it was a good short flight.  Hopefully they’ll be ready to actually go places soon.

Here’s a photo I snapped of Beth and the kids right after the flight:

As promised, here are some of the details of my oral exam and checkride from yesterday.

The test did not start well.  I arrived early, to get myself ready, but so did the examiner and he was eager to start so I didn’t get the last-minute prep time I was hoping for.  The worst of it was that I needed my FAA TFN  code the FAA gave me when I submitted my application, and not the code they print on the application itself.  They make the process of keeping your codes and IDs and logins to their website much more difficult that it should be.  Worse, in order to get the FTN code, I had to call an 800 number which went to a voicemail that did not identify itself very clearly as being the FAA and I left a message.  Fortunately, a guy called me back in about 5 minutes and was very helpful and I got the codes I needed.

First came the oral exam and it went pretty well, mostly.  I stumbled through a few of the questions, but the examiner was helpful and coached me a bit and I got through it.  I did completely miss one of them on airspace clearances, but he said that everyone misses it and showed me where in the regulations to look up the correct answer.

The oral exam lasted about an hour and then it was time to fly.  It was sunny and breezy and HOT.  And that heat meant there were lots of thermals pushing the plane up and down.  I had a bit of a rough time holding my altitude, especially in some of the maneuvers like steep turns.  But I didn’t bust it bad enough to fail, fortunately.

Some of the maneuvers we did were much easier with the examiner than with my instructor.   For example, the recovery from unusual attitudes.  My instructor Jim always made this tough, bouncing us all over the place before leaving us in a very steep climb or dive and a steep bank.  The examiner put us in a very mild dive for the first and almost no bank at all.  The second one was a mild climb and not much more bank.  Very easy compared to my training.

Also, for the slow flight, I was shooting for 40-45 knots and Jim always gives me grief if I go any faster than 45.  The examiner started yelling at me “Don’t let it stall!  Don’t let it stall” when I got below 50, so I just kept it there. Much easier!

My worst mistake of the day came after we had completed the maneuvers and the examiner told me to take us back to the airport for landings.  Of course, you’re supposed to navigate by pilotage, identifying landmarks and figuring out where you are. Fortunately, I knew exactly where we were and how to get back.  We were near a big phosphate mine that I know is almost exactly east of the airport.   And I told the examiner, so, that we were almost straight east of the airport.

And then I turned to the east.

Almost immediately I realized what a dumb move that was and I told the examiner that I would go ahead and turn west to get back to the airport since we were east of it.  Yeesh.

My landings were all pretty poor, unfortunately.  So was my soft field take-off.  But I guess none of them were bad enough to fail me so when we got back to the ramp he told me he wants to get some more cross-wind landing practice with my instructor, but that I had passed.

There was a Civil Air Patrol meeting going on and several people, all student pilots themselves, wanted me to give them details on the oral and the checkride.  A bunch of them will be taking the same test in a few weeks.  I got my temporary certificate and we took a picture with the examiner and the plane.

I made a ton of mistakes, but I still managed to pass.  More details later…

I flew on Friday morning with Jim and it went very well.

We first practiced some short field and soft field take-offs and landings, which has become the usual lately.  My first short field landing was a bit fast and long; I didn’t account for the tailwind on my base leg of the approach very well, but I adjusted and the rest went very well.

We also set out for some slow flight and stalls and those went well, too.  In fact, I think this was the first time I really felt comfortable flying along at 45 knots, in turns, and climbing and descending.  The stalls went well, too, and were really no problem at all.  I still can’t truthfully say that I enjoy power on stalls, but I dislike them less and less.

The weather was a bit iffy, and there were low scattered clouds all over the place, but that just made the flight more fun as we went around some clouds and over or under some others.  My simulated engine out emergency landings were good, too.

All in all, it was a great morning of flying.  And to top it all off, I finally got my endorsement to take the checkride!  I’m going to call on Monday and schedule it and hopefully will get it done in the next week or two.

Now I’ve got some studying to do for the oral exam and some solo practice to get in as well.

Flight time: 0.9
Total time: 51.4
Landings: 229 (10 night)

I tried to fly this morning but some low clouds messed up my plans.  My endorsement for solo flight specifies a ceiling no lower than 1,200, but we guessed the clouds were around 1,000.  My instructor Jim happened to be at the airport with another student and told me that, since I was just flying in the pattern, he’d be OK with me flying if the clouds were at about 1,000.  That’s the pattern altitude at Tampa North (X39), but I he said I could just fly a bit lower to stay out of the clouds.

So I took off, but as I climbed up through 700 feet, I realized that our estimation of the ceiling was off and I was already getting into the clouds.  So I descended to about 600 and continued around the pattern and landed normally.

Flying that low in the pattern really messed up my routine!  My landing was fine, but I didn’t feel very comfortable with it, mostly because it just didn’t feel very precise.  I’m used to the routine of doing certain things at certain altitudes and certain places in the pattern and this just messed me up.

So I shut down and waited for the clouds to burn off, but after 30 minutes or so I gave up and went home, with one landing and 0.1 hours for the day.  Of course, on my drive home the sun came out and there was a beautiful blue sky above.

Flight time: 0.1
Total time: 50.5
Landings: 224 (10 night)

It’s been raining like crazy all week here.  Which is good for the drought and my lawn, but lousy for flying.  I haven’t been up all week.  Maybe it’ll clear up some this weekend.  I hope so!

I was supposed to go flying solo yesterday morning, but ol’ charlie-bravo (N612CB), the plane I would be flying, had different ideas.  Just as I was finishing my run-up, the Low Voltage warning light popped on.  At first I thought it might just be on since I was idling at low RPMs, but when I advanced the throttle, the light stayed on, so I taxied back to the ramp and shut ‘er down.

My instructor Jim was on the ramp with another student he walked over to see what the problem was.  i explained and he told me that they had just put a new alternator and voltage regulator in it recently and had had some problems with it, but thought that they had resolved them.  I went into the office and they called the chief mechanic who asked me to start the plane again, then pull the 55 amp alternator circuit breaker and cycle the Master switch.  He said to then wait about two minutes to see if that resolved the problem.

It did, but only for about a minute and a half.  The light popped on again so I figured it was going to take more than anything I could do to fix it.  I had thought that the circuit breaker / Master switch trick was more to cure an over voltage situation, anyway.  If the plane senses an over voltage from the alternator, it will take the alternator off-line and cycling the breaker and switch will bring it back online.  This appeared to be an under voltage problem.

They offered me another plane, but it was getting late enough in the morning that if I flew I’d then be really late for work, so instead I just decided to come back this morning.

Which I did.  My plan was to just stay in the pattern and work on my landings.  Especially after my last solo flight, which didn’t go at all well, I figured I needed a relatively easy flight just to get my confidence up.

First on my to-do list were short field landings.  I’d been doing pretty bad at them, but had received a lot of advice from Jim and several other pilots as well, so keeping all of that in mind, I made sure to slow way down on my downwind leg, pulling back power and adding in flaps very early.  I also made sure I used the entire traffic pattern, keeping it nice and square – but not extending the pattern – to use up all of my altitude and keep my speed down.

It worked well, and all of my short field landings were very nice.  I hit my glide point at about 60 knots on each and touched down well within the 200 feet requirement.

It may have helped that Tampa is now into the summer weather pattern with calm smooth air in the morning and thunderstorms in the afternoon.

I proceeded with soft field landings, and they didn’t go as well.  My first one was nice and smooth, although I didn’t hold the nose off the ground as long as I should.  The next couple were not good in that they weren’t soft landings at all.  I’m going to talk to Jim and figure out what I can do to improve them.  And hopefully I can get them squared away quickly.  I’m still hoping I can get to my checkride in the next few weeks.  My dad, a pilot instructor himself, will be visiting in June and I’d really like to take him flying.

Not a good day flying.  I had intended to go up solo, practice some slow flight and stalls and then some short field landings.  Pretty much none of that worked out.

I was fighting the plane and bouncing all over the sky pretty much from the start.  I was over-controlling with a death grip on the yoke and quickly decided against the slow flight and figured I’d just head back to the airport and do some landings.  Easy, right?  Well, on my first attempt I was so high and fast that a short field landing would be impossible so I went around.  On my second try, I was still high and fast, but less so, so I landed, but decided just to hang it up and call it a day.  Better to come back again some other day when I’m feeling better than to do something dumb today.

So, after only one (poor) landing and 0.4 hours, I shut ‘er down.  Afterwards, I was talking one of the guys who works on the line and who is also CFI certificated, and he thinks I may have been cutting my pattern too short and that’s why I was coming in high and then fast.  I think he may have been right.  I was cutting power to idle before I turned base, but was still high.  Perhaps had I extended my downwind leg a bit more, and squared off my pattern a little better, I would have burned more altitude before reaching the runway.

Hopefully, I can find some time again early this week and try it again.

Flight time: 0.4
Total time: 49.7
Landings: 217 (10 night)

I started off today with a lesson with Jim.  It’s a good way to start the day!  I wish I could say my flying was as good, but I struggled a bit.  We started with take-offs and landings, particularly soft field and short field.  My short field take-offs were good right from the start, but Jim wanted me to demonstrate better on my soft field take-offs that I was pushing the plane to level flight as the main wheels came off the ground.  It took a couple of tries to get it right, but I did.

My landings weren’t so hot.  I kept coming in high and/or fast, especially on my short field landings.  My last one was better (after Jim did one while I watched) and I think I’ve got the procedure down, now, I just need to practice it some more.  I need to practice my soft field landings, too, and I think getting a bit slower on my approaches will help there as well.

After the take-offs and landings, we left the pattern and climbed up to 2,500 feet for some stalls.  Now, I think I’ve mentioned once or twice (or many times) that I’m not a big fan of stalls.  Especially power-on stalls.  So, of course, we did a TON of them.  I’m not sure what it is, exactly, that I don’t like about them.  It could be my general aversion to slow flight, and the difficulty controlling the plane in that situation.  Or the drop that you feel when the stall happens and you go immediately from nose-high to nose-low.  Or my fear that I’ll get the plane uncoordinated and turn the stall into a spin.

Whatever the cause of my apprehension, I need to get over it, and today helped.  I did a few stalls, then Jim did a bunch, and then I did several more.  I can’t say that I’m in love with them, but I can do them well enough and I guess I’ll get used to them eventually.

I’m flying solo on Saturday morning so that I can practice the stalls by myself (which should be interesting…) along with slow flight and some short field and soft field landings.  Hopefully I’ll have a good day and improve on all of these areas where I need work.

Flight time: 1.1
Total time: 49.3
Landings: 216 (10 night)

I flew with Jim to Tampa International (KTPA) today.  I wanted to see what it was like and to say that I had done it.  The flight over was short and mostly uneventful, although it was pretty bumpy; a lot of thermals in the hot afternoon.  They gave us runway 18L and then asked if we’d prefer 27, but we stuck with 18L so we could land on one of the BIG runways.  And it is, too.  8300 x 150 ft.  You could almost land a 172 on it sideways…

The FBO we went to (Signature) wanted a $25 ramp fee, but would waive it if we bought at least seven gallons of avgas.  So we did only to find as we were walking out to the plane that they had still charged me the ramp fee.  I went back in and got it cleared up.

The flying was the easy part today; harder was the radio work.  I missed a couple of things, like telling Tampa Approach at first my altitude and that I had information “Mike”.  And on our way out I kept calling Tampa Departure, “Tampa Approach”.  First Jim and then the controller corrected me.  Whatever, they’re the same controllers on the same frequencies!  But I bet I remember to get it right next time…

I still need another 0.5 hours of prep time, which I’ll get next Wednesday morning.  We plan to just practice take-offs and landings, which is fine by me – it’s fun and I need the practice.  Then we’ll see if I get the endorsement for the checkride.

Flight time: 0.8
Total time: 48.2
Landings: 208 (10 night)