Flying Dutchman

Icewater Mansion

2011-09-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

It felt good to stretch my wings a bit. After getting my fill of local flights, and flights to nearby airports, I asked my wife Monica what she'd think of a "flying vacation". She thought it was a great idea, and so we made plans to fly to Sky Harbor Airport on Duluth's Park Point. Monica and I both went to college in Duluth, and it's a neat town, so we like to visit as much as possible. Plus, Lake Superior, which boasts the largest surface area of any lake in the world, is also a seaport and the ship watching is very cool.

Amazingly, we left the house on time, got to the airport a little early, and took off 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Another club member landed and was putting a plane away when we were getting ready, and said the air was very smooth. He was right...it was a nice smooth flight all the way up to Duluth. I climbed to 3500 feet and cruised at a stately 108 knots (fuel burn of 9.6 gallons per hour). As we approached the Duluth/Superior area, I heard on the shared CTAF frequency that they were doing skydiving ops over the Superior Airport (3 miles southwest of Sky Harbor) and there was a slightly disoriented older gentleman over the airport as well. I did a non-standard wide entry to base for Sky Harbor and landed without a problem.

Jake helps with the preflight


Gotta make sure the altimeter is set correctly...

Just like riding in the car.

Sky Harbor is the bare patch in the middle of the narrow strip.

Later my wife mentioned she was nervous because the runway looked so short. It's actually 3000 feet long but with water on both sides, it's a much different sight picture than what she's used to. My son Jake simply played his leapster in the back seat the whole trip. I took that as a compliment.

Actually it does kind of look short from up here.

Ship watching in Canal Park. You have to take the bridge to get to Sky Harbor.

After using my iPhone to learn how to tie a knot in the tiedown, we grabbed our bags and met the Enterprise rental car driver. We dropped him off, and did our usual touristy stuff.

The flight back was a little bumpier, as the winds had picked up a bit, but the takeoff, cruise, and landing at Crystal Airport were all uneventful. I even got my wife to take the controls for a bit as I set up the GPS, but upon looking back outside, I noticed we were in an unusual attitude. So, we might have to look into a pinch hitter course for her some time...

Home sweet home.

All in all, it was a very fun and successful weekend. My wife has now made more suggestions for flights like Madeline Island and Door County, Wisconsin.

The Long Forgotten

2011-08-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

I've been delinquent in blog updates of late, as you can tell. I've flown a couple of times since the last post, but they were just local flights that weren't really worth talking about.

However, I'm flying the family up to Duluth in a few weeks (KDYT on Park Point) and we're staying at Canal Park overnight. This will be the first practical use of my pilot credentials since my checkride over two years ago. I know, it's a slow start, but at least it's a start.

Watch here for the full report.

Long Lunch

2011-05-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

So I work with this guy named Luke and ever since he found out I'm a pilot, he's suggested on a weekly basis that maybe we could take a long lunch and go flying.

Well finally we had an opportunity today to grab a real quick lunch and head up to the airport. The winds were calm and the sky was blue. Everybody had the same idea and it was pretty busy at Crystal airport.

Since we had to do a quick flight, I just did a loop around Lake Minnetonka and Lake Waconia. It was calm on the ground but a little bumpy up in the air. We snapped a few photos and zipped back to the airport. It was nice to get up in the air but I hope to do some longer flights now that winter is finally gone (fingers crossed).

Winter's Bone

2011-03-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

A month ago I foolishly ventured onto a large ice patch and broke my leg. Now, as a Minnesota resident, I'm no stranger to slipping and falling on ice...it's practically a tradition for those of us in the frozen north. In the past the worst that's happened is a mildly bruised backside. For some reason, my leg tangled with gravity, force, and momentum in the wrong way and was soundly defeated.

That being said, I'm on the road to recovery. I have a removable walking cast that allows me to put some weight on my leg. Oddly enough, it's the ankle that is the source of most of the pain lately...I wonder if I messed it up a bit when I fell or if the surgery to insert the stabilizing rod caused some distress.

So I'm hoping in 2-3 weeks I can get into the air again before I forget too much. The weather is improving as well, but this vicious winter is reluctant to let go.

Here's a photo of the break and repair for you to peruse. They laid some sort of contrast enhancing sheet over the leg to take the xray, but if you look above the horizontal stripe, you can just make out the spiral fracture:

Status: GROUNDED

2011-02-25T10:44:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, during the Great Blizzard of 2011, I managed to break my left leg on a patch of ice near my house. I'm not thrilled about that but I decided on surgery to speed things along versus a full leg cast for a month (followed by many more weeks in a smaller cast).

So, with a rod down the middle of my tibia secured with surgical lag bolts, my leg is pretty solid and the partial cast will most likely come off in three days. Then I will have five or so weeks with a brace. Doc says I shouldn't have a problem getting back in the air after the brace comes off.

On the brighter side, winter should be over for the most part by the time my leg is healed. But then again, considering the winter so far, it might not be over till June...

Flight Review

2011-02-19T12:07:00.000-08:00

So, on Feb. 12th (a week ago) the weather was perfect for some flying. I met Bob, a club CFI, at the hangar for my Flight Review.

The Flight Review is required by regulations and must occur every 24 calendar months, starting from the time the initial checkride is passed. There are some situations that allow you to go longer (such as participation in the FAA's Wings program) but normally if you are beyond the 24 months, you are not current to fly as PIC (pilot in command).

Well, as I mentioned in the previous post, the winter has not been ideal for flying small airplanes. When it's been warm, the clouds have been low and/or it's been snowing, and when there's no clouds, it's been very cold. So I had a 90 day hiatus in flying which put me beyond the 24 month flight review requirement and the 90 day flight currency with the flying club. Thankfully, I knew I could knock both of these out at the same time.

The flight review requires a minimum of 1 hour of ground instruction / review, and 1 hour flight time. So as soon as I got to the airport, Bob was asking questions, sometimes so nonchalantly that I didn't realize they were part of the ground review. I answered most the questions correctly, got a little review on some things, and then we taxied out for some flying.

My steep turns were a bit rough but it had been awhile since I'd done any. We kept them up until Bob was happy, then did some slow flight (flying right above stall speed, and maneuvering without stalling). After that, some stalls. Now, I've never had any problems with stalls, and the last time I did them was last summer when I was checked out in the club 172. But this time, I had a hard time keeping it coordinated during the stall despite my best efforts. The first stall resulted in a spin, which I was glad (after the fact) that I immediately stopped with opposite rudder, neutral ailerons, and throttle. Understandably, Bob wanted to polish stalls a bit more so we did a few more power-on and power-off stalls until I wasn't dropping a wing anymore.

Then we did a bit of "foggle" work (goggles that prevent you from seeing the outside world so you have to fly on instruments). Those skills hadn't atrophied much so we moved on to landings.

I'm proud to say that in general, my landings are pretty good. Granted I don't often land on 1000 foot strips in 30 knot crosswinds, but when it comes to landing, I look forward to it because it's fun and challenging to do a good one.

I did 5 landings with Bob and all of them except the last one were safe but ugly. And the reason is that Bob kept talking during the entire pattern, increasing his chatter and tips during the short final. After landing #4 I asked him to please not talk during short final. He did anyway but I ignored him and had a nice smooth landing.

We did another 30 minutes of ground review and he endorsed me for 2 more years and another club checkout.

The long, cold, brutal winter.

2011-02-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

Anyone who lives near me can attest that this winter has not been ideal for small airplane flight. It's either been sunny and too cold, or warm and snowy. So I haven't flown since November.

Every two years, a certificated private pilot must obtain a Flight Review from an instructor to make sure that he or she is safe to fly and is keeping current with their knowledge and skills. Also, a Club member must fly at least once in a 90 day period. I've exceeded both of those timeframes. Since the Club now requires a checkout, and the FAA requires a Flight review, I decided to knock both out at the same time. I had a flight review scheduled with a Club CFI for February 5, but it was foggy and I had to postpone. This Saturday the weather looks like it might cooperate. With any luck, I'll be back in the air soon.

River flying and a new passenger.

2010-11-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful day to fly so that's what I did. I arranged for a friend and his 7 year old son to meet me at a small regional airport 20 minutes from my home base of Crystal Airport.

Now this flight contained a series of planned and unplanned "firsts". I carefully planned my flight but forgot to check for TFRs (temporary flight restrictions) until I got to the airport. Then I realized that the Vikings were playing at the Metrodome and my departure from Crystal Airport took me very close to that TFR. Also, the airspace from Crystal to New Richmond has multiple types of controlled airspace that has to be carefully avoided or prudently managed with radio work. So, I called up Minneapolis Approach (at the "big" airport) and got a transponder code that would allow me to plow through everything as long as I was in contact with them. It was much more painless than I anticipated and it reduced my workload considerably.

The second "first" was having someone meet me at a distant airport. I did some careful research and found the most likely place to meet them (self serve lounge at Griggs Aviation). I landed and found them hanging out at a picnic table nearby and we loaded up.

One cool thing we saw was a Republic RC-3 SeaBee airplane right in front of us on the taxiway. I guess that was also a first...I've never seen one in person before.

We cruised around St. Croix county and the little guy picked out his house and his grandma's house and even found a buddy's house. He definitely seemed to be having a great time. Eventually we headed west and picked up the mighty St. Croix river and followed it north. Then it was time to return to New Richmond.

We landed uneventfully and my passenger disembarked. I then flew back to Crystal. As I was on short final approach for 14L, the controller switched me to 14R which was odd but somewhat amusing. I managed to keep my stabilized approach and make a decent landing - ending a very good day of flying.

Google Earth Track

Fully Loaded

2010-09-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks but I flew again today, and had some company with me. We have an exchange student living with us, Rachchapol, who is from Thailand and is hoping to be an airline pilot with Thai Airways. Now, I've attempted to do this flight 3 times in the past, and had to cancel every time due to high winds. Today it was windy but within my personal limits so Rachchapol (or "Name" as he likes to be called), Joe, and Jake headed over to the airport and got the plane ready. Jake asked if he could help with the preflight, so I said "sure" and he walked around the plane, fussing over a rivet or the tires. He'll be a pilot some day.

Everything looked good so we hopped in and took off. It was a bit bumpy up there but not horrible...nobody complained of nausea so we just motored around, enjoying the flying. Joe took a bunch of photos of farms and houses - he is attempting to grow as a photographer. He gave me permission to share a few here:

Changes.

2010-07-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after work I went up to Crystal Airport to work on getting familiar with the Cessna 172 and the airport layout. I knew Flying Cloud airport like the back of my hand and never had to use an airport taxi diagram, but Crystal is quite a bit different. The penalty for making a wrong turn and getting on a runway without permission can be significant, so I wanted to make sure I learned the layout.

Winds were very light and the air was smooth, so it was a good day to learn the taxiways and the airplane without throwing huge wind corrections in the mix. I made three takeoffs and landings (all three rendering the airplane suitable for further use). I still have some polishing to do on the landings but that just means getting used to the airplane. My brother Joe kindly snapped some pics while I was in the pattern.

I think the next step will be a trip to Duluth/Superior or possibly Brainerd for lunch.

Movin' on up.

2010-06-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

I'll spare the suspense - I passed the checkout flight so now I can fly the two Cessna 172s at Yankee flying club.

The checkout flight was pretty straightforward. The CFI gave me a briefing on the plane's communications and navigations systems, went over the differences between the Warrior and the 172, and taxiway navigation at Crystal Airport. Then we took off and headed to the west.

First he started me with steep turns...haven't done those in a long time. I deviated from my altitude a bit on the first run, but the second one was a lot better. Then we did some power-on and power-off stalls, and a simulated engine out to a landing at Buffalo airport. Amazingly, I never did a simulated engine out to a landing during my primary pilot training - we'd approach some hay field and then throttle up and fly away. It was fun, and a little hairy, but my first landing in a 172 was a dead stick landing. Sure it was a little rough, but the plane was flyable afterwards so I counted it a success.

We headed back to Crystal and did 3 landings. The first one was kind of rough...I found it a lot harder to pull the yoke to flare, and I didn't want to pull too hard. The second landing I put some muscle into it and got a good flare and soft landing. The third one was a no-flaps landing, yet another first, and though the speed was higher than what I'm used to, and the landing roll longer, it wasn't too big of a deal.

After wiping off the bug guts and buttoning up the plane, Kevin signed my logbook and said he was very satisfied that I could fly the 172 safely. If the weather is good this week I'll take one of the 172's up and get some pics and video for all the world to see.

All good things must come to an end.

2010-06-24T19:15:00.000-07:00

I can definitely say that I had fun while it lasted. Many of my loyal blog readers have noticed a lack of flying on my part, and now I will explain to you why.

Renting is great for taking flying lessons, but not so great for anything else.

A few months ago I started scouting some flying clubs in the twin cities area, limiting my search to Lakeville, Eden Prairie, and Crystal. I found a great club in Crystal (at Crystal Airport, KMIC) that had a good combination of affordable share price, very nice planes, and reasonable plane hourly rates. So the past few weeks I've held off renting so that I could use the money to get going with the Yankee Flying Club.

Now before the nice people who run the club will let me fly their nice planes, I need to do a "check out" flight. Insurance requires a designated instructor to verify that I can fly the plane safely. In this case, I'm going from a low-wing Piper Warrior to a high-wing Cessna 172. Sadly, the last four scheduled checkout flights were cancelled due to daily thunderstorms. Tomorrow is attempt #5...and the morning looks t-storm free so I'm confident that I'll be able to get checked out.

Hopefully this will allow me to fly a lot more...my anemic logbook is begging for more ink.

Artic Blast

2010-01-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, I live in Minnesota and I've been hardened against cold weather. But December and January have been so cold as to test my ability to tolerate it. Nothing works right at -20°F. Motor oil is like grape jelly. Garage door openers fail. The dog can barely take care of his "business" before his feet start to freeze. And nobody in their right mind flies a small airplane unless...nope, they just don't.

The relentless cold subsided a bit on the weeked of January 17 and I decided to do a little pattern work to keep the rust away. I did 5 approaches, with one go-around due to a "technical" runway incursion, and 4 landings.

My brother came along again and took photos and videos. The video is from my nifty new Zi8 HD video camera, and I think the video came out really clear.

The weather was calm with high ceilings but visibility was low at 4 statute miles. The visibility improved while we were flying and ended up at 6-7 statute miles.

Here are some photos my brother took during the flight:

Folks icefishing right next to the airport.

Downtown Minneapolis peeking through the haze.

A view of Flying Cloud Airport from the pattern.

Final approach!

Certificated Aeronaut.

Brother Joe the flight photographer / videographer.

Currency.

2009-12-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

One of the rules of most FBOs (Fixed Base Operators) is that you need to be checked out in an airplane to make sure you can safely fly their rental aircraft. In the case of Thunderbird Aviation, where I took my training and rent my planes, is that you need to fly each type of plane you are checked out in at least once every 90 days, or you need to get checked out again. Last week I got an email saying that my currency on the Tecnam Bravo would expire on the 24th of December, so I started watching the long range weather forecasts to see when an opportunity would arise. When saturday rolled around, the weather was very cold (0°F) but calm and sunny. At 9am I rolled up to the FBO and saw they had the heater on the Bravo, which is a very good sign.

I preflighted and fired it up, taking my time in making sure I knew where all the gauges were and re-learning how to program the glass panel and GPS. I made the call to Ground control and taxied over to the run-up area to perform the pre-takeoff engine checks. As I increased the engine RPM, the cowling (engine cover) flapped up on the left side and I had to cut the power to prevent damage. I radioed ground and told them I needed to taxi back to Thunderbird to secure loose equipment. Now, the cowling on the left side isn't accessed as part of the FBO's checklist...BUT...I should have checked to make sure it was secure anyway. Seeing as how I didn't damage the aircraft, I fired up the engine again and called for permission back to the runup area, and soon I was airborne. Tower told me to make left traffic (I was staying in the pattern for full stop landings so left traffic meant to make left hand turns back to the runway) and on downwind, the plane was flying extremely crabbed (angled to the direction of flight).

I was a little worried: what was wrong with this airplane? Was the rudder damaged? There was only a gentle breeze on the ground, so I didn't immediately suspect such strong winds above, but sure enough, as I descended for landing the wind died down. The landing itself was my best in the Bravo by a long shot, a squeaker to be sure. Now, I'm getting to learn this neat little airplane's personality. The Cessna 152 and the Warrior are much different to land, because you start putting in flaps long before your final approach to landing. Because the Tecnam Bravo's safe speed for flaps is so low (70knots) I can't safely put them in until I'm on final approach.

So anyway, I'm current again in the Bravo and I hope to fly enough this winter to keep my skills from getting too rusty. I'd like to budget enough money to fly a lot more next spring, and possibly look into a flying club to cut expenses a bit.

Until next time, fly safe!

I haven't stopped flying.

2009-12-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the lack of updates but my last two flights were done solo and were more to keep my skills updated than anything else.

I flew the Tecnam Bravo in September for some takeoffs and landings, and to maintain currency with the outfit that rents planes to me. The landings were a bit rough but overall it's a pretty easy airplane to fly and it was a lot of fun.

In the beginning of November I took a Warrior out for a jaunt around my stomping grounds, just to relax and enjoy flying.

I have obtained a small HD quality video camera that I will mount on my next flight, so expect some high quality video soon. I'm curious to see how it works in the plane.

Passenger Service

2009-09-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

Like many Americans, I had Labor Day off, which happily coincided with a visit from my Dad who lives in Colorado. So when I mentioned that I'd be flying that day, four of my family members in all asked for a ride:

Joe, my younger brother and veteran of many of my flights;
Susan, my baby sister (who happens to be an archaeologist);
Julie, my other baby sister, who expressed both a desire to fly with me and serious reservations against, and
Dad, who has flown quite a bit as a passenger in small airplanes, mostly while I was in diapers.

Four adults would be a full load and an unnecessary risk, as well as leaving someone behind anyway, so I decided to fly two "sorties".

Sortie Alpha

My first flight was with my two little sisters, neither of which had flown in a small airplane before. Julie, the older of the two, was the most nervous, so I made a point of explaining in detail the emergency procedures in case of engine failure, flight into IMC, electrical fire, and inflight structural failure.

The wind was almost nonexistant, so the takeoff was smooth as silk and straight as an arrow. We climbed out to 2500 msl and I did my usual tour of the countryside, lakes, and my house. The visibility was about 8 miles or so with ground haze but no clouds to speak of.

Julie was sitting up front and I offered her the controls. She put her hands on it, clearly afraid she was going to crash the plane. I said I wouldn't allow that, and did she want to make a gentle right turn to follow the highway? Nope, she didn't want to, but I had her keep her hands on the yoke so she could see what the control input for a turn felt like. She seemed relieved to take her hands off the controls.

Soon we turned back towards Flying Cloud, I dialed up the weather (hadn't changed) and made a nice straight in approach for landing, and even greased it a bit. I taxied back to the FBO and shut down the engine. After disembarking my passengers, I embarked the second set - my Dad and my youngest brother Joe.

Sortie Bravo

With my second load of passengers loaded, I performed a hot start procedure on the Warrior, which started without any trouble (I'm told some engines can be fussy about hot starts). We launched into the hazy blue sky and cruised over Lake Minnetonka and watched a sailboat regatta, and did some lazy flying around the countryside again.

My Dad took the controls for awhile and I decided to head for my house. Just as we were getting near, my brother, who was in the back seat, said "Traffic, behind and to the left". I immediately spotted the plane and noticed it wasn't moving in relation to my plane which meant we were going to get closer to each other than I was comfortable with, so I lost some altitude and watched the other plane cruise over me without so much as a sign that he'd seen me. I bought my brother lunch that day - his experience as a passenger and traffic spotter kept the other plane out of my safety zone.

We headed back again to the familiar runways of Flying Cloud, which was difficult to see with the sun illuminating the haze. I was about 4 miles out when I could finally see the runways. I greased up the landing and wheeled onto the ramp, having successfully completed Sortie Bravo.

Logbook: Logshare
Google Earth Track - Sortie Alpha
Google Earth Track - Sortie Bravo

VIDEO - Takeoffs and Landings

Crosswind Practice

2009-08-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, I got an email from an old high school buddy ("Rob") who reads my blog, and he asked if I'd take him flying. So I scheduled a plane and we met at the local aerodrome.

It was a bit breezy, but not gusty, and the wind was pretty much aligned with the runway, so I felt pretty confident that we'd have a nice smooth flight.

Rob walked through the preflight with me and after I was satisfied that the airplane was airworthy, we saddled up and got in the air.

However, the air was fairly bumpy, but both pilot and co-pilot were holding lunch down well, so we pressed on. Rob snapped some pictures (finding out along the way how hard it is to take good photos from a plane) and then I gave him the airplane. He made the same mistakes, at first, that everyone makes the first time they get the controls of an airplane. After awhile, he got the hang of straight and level flight, and even some turns. I had him continue with my IFR flight plan (I Follow Roads) and we flew back to Flying Cloud along Highway 212.

I got a little surprise with the ATIS weather report...winds at 16 gusting to 24. Now, this isn't a dangerous situation, as I have plenty of crosswind landing experience and the Warrior is very stable in crosswind situations. But it means I would have to work a little harder to get in a good landing.

So, I made a decent pattern and set up for a crabbed crosswind landing. A couple of times, the gusts blew the plane almost 45° to the runway (briefly), but I kept the plane on the glide path, kicked the tail over as we crossed the threshold. I felt plane float just a bit, then the tires kissed the pavement for a brief moment, then we were up a few inches, floating along again. The tires yelped a bit and we were down. Rob thought it was a good landing, so we'll go with his assessment.

Here are some pictures for your amusement. The batteries for the GPS tracker were dead so no track for you!

Next flight I'd like to take the bravo up again so I don't forget how to fly that little go kart with wings.

Rob is more or less in control of the aircraft.

A view of the beautiful Minnesota countryside.

Coney Island on Lake Waconia. Once a resort paradise...

Oh yeah, the plane is still airworthy, yessir!

Pictured here: Rob

Go Kart With Wings

2009-07-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

"Wow this thing looks like a go-kart with wings!"

That's what my brother said when he saw the Tecnam Bravo that I was preflighting on Sunday the 5th.

I decided to ask my brother to grab his fancy new digital SLR camera and come to the airport for some awesome flying photography action, as the weather was just about as perfect as a guy could ask for. 80°F, low humidity, good visibility and just a few scattered clouds meant that I couldn't in good conscience do yard work while the Bravo sat idle at the FBO.

Now, I just got checked out in the Bravo last week and I wanted to fly it on my own to get more comfortable with it, and with the winds a little calmer than the gales that I had for the checkout, it seemed like a good opportunity.

So, we launched and took some pics of my house, my in-laws house, the local church, and a popular lake. I also wanted to get a landing in at a nearby airport (KGYL) instead of just working from my home base (KFCM).

It was gorgeous up there with good visibility, smooth air, and not too much traffic, though for the first time a passenger of mine spotted traffic before me (a plane flying near my home airport but not in the pattern).

All in all, it was a great flight. I had a lot of fun flying this nimble little go-kart with wings and my brother snapped a ton of pictures, some of which are included here. If you get the chance, fly one of these cool little buggers, they are way too much fun.

Tecnam P2004 Bravo

Flooded Gravel Pit

My House

A Church

Lake Waconia

GPS Track: Google Earth

Logbook: Logshare

New Airplane

2009-06-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Many months ago they took away the Cessna 152s I was training in. So, they finally replaced them with a Tecnam P2004 Bravo airplane, a neat little 2 seat Light Sport airplane. I've wanted to get checked out in the airplane for awhile (meaning, trained on the specific airplane to satisfy the rental facility's insurance demands) so finally I went in and did it. Well, it's a neat little airplane and I'm going to have a lot of fun flying it.

First, it's a nimble little airplane with plenty of zip. It doesn't hurt that the plane is brand new - 32 hours total. It still smells new inside. Also, it is a stick instead of a yoke, which at first I thought would be hard to get used to but it's not at all. It feels very natural and more "free" than a yoke at times.

First thing we did was takeoff and do some turns around a point. Amazingly I can still pull that off, so then we climbed to 4000 feet and did power-on and power-off stalls (these simulate stalls in takeoff and landing configurations). I recovered from them easily, but I noticed it stalls more like the 152 than the Warrior - it tends to drop off the cliff after the stall, whereas the Warrior kind of vibrates and mushes along until you push the nose down.

After the stalls, we did steeps turns which I messed up at first. Here, the stick vs. yoke was throwing me off because of the way I am used to holding my steep turn in the Warrior. It's easier to hold the yoke perfectly still than a stick - but after a couple of tries I was getting it. The other thing that was throwing me off was that the attitude indicator is in the glass panel display...and with the bright sun it was difficult to see the tiny hash marks for the bank angle.

So after steep turns we headed back to the airport, and Jim showed me the GPS system where you can lock onto your airport and it draws a line right to it. From the practice area I could probably find my way to the airport on pure instruments (hope I never have to!) but it was nice seeing how it worked.

The first landing was ugly due to me overcontrolling. The Warrior has a robust control system that requires a bit of effort to manipulate, but the Bravo has smooth as silk movement in the full range of motion. I did land the plane without breaking anything and my second landing was very smooth. I forgot, though, how much a crosswind throws these little planes around, so the Bravo is not for flying in gale force / hurricane force winds.

All in all, it was a lot of fun to fly and it's nice having another option if I'm just going up with 1 other person. It doesn't hurt that it's a new airplane with glass panel and GPS displays, either.

Rusty but trusty

2009-06-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sad to admit that I let my currency for carrying passengers lapse. Regulations (FAR 61.57 to be precise) says that I have to have 3 full stop take offs and landings in the preceding 90 days to be able to carry passengers with me. As of June 9, I only had 2 T.O.s and landings. When my wife starts to hound me about staying current, I know I'm overdue for some stick time.

So I toddled on out to the airport and flew in the pattern for an hour. Here are the results of my landing attempts:

1. Too high, too fast - REJECT REJECT REJECT
2. Trying to remember how to fly the pattern. Landing was smooth as silk.
3. Figuring out how to fly the pattern. Landing was good but not perfect.
4. ATC threw me a bunch curve balls. First, they had me extend upwind (takeoff heading). Next, they had me extend my downwind (opposite takeoff heading) for an incoming medical helicopter. But my training and experience finally started to drizzle back into my head and I adjusted my pattern nicely for a greaser landing.

There were a few planes flying around but it was congested due to one runway being out of service to be extended from 3900' to 5000'.

The weather was partly cloudy, no wind to speak of, 75°F. I'm now current to carry passengers again. Woohoo!

Flight Status: ACTIVE

2009-05-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

I went up for a half an hour today with my brother Joe, to see if I remembered how to fly. Turns out I do!

It was cool finally seeing green things from the air, instead of white and brown. There was a little turbulence aloft but nothing too bad. All I can say is thank goodness for checklists. Going through them really jogged my memory on procedures.

My GPS tracker decided to work today so I'll post the flight log tonight when I get home from work.

Google Earth: Flight Track

Logbook: Logshare

I haven't given up flying.

2009-04-29T07:18:00.000-07:00

Seriously. But Minnesota springs are not known for good flying weather. It looks like there is some good weather in the next week or two so I can go out and see if I still remember how to fly.

On a related note, I got my "plastic" pilot certificate in the mail a few days back. It's a welcome addition to my wallet.

Positive Role Model.

2009-03-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law "Candice" called me up and asked me if I could give her foreign exchange student "Lars" an airplane ride. I told her that I would be able to make that sacrifice, and made the arrangements.

Now, some backstory is in order. This young man has been with a family since September of 2008, and apparently they are now going through a divorce and the environment Lars was in deteriorated significantly, until he actually started showing signs of depression. When Candice went to pick up Lars from his family (and get all his stuff) she said there were dirty dishes stacked almost to the ceiling, and dog hair and filth everywhere.

So, Candice had agreed to take the boy for the rest of the school year. Unfortunately, Lars was with another foreign exchange student who into some trouble, and he became collatoral damage. The organization that runs the foreign exchange decreed that Lars was to be sent home. In my mind Lars has been dealt a crappy deal, seeing as how much money these kids' families have to pony up for the experience.

So I decided that I would use this opportunity to give Lars a fun experience to temper the bad experience he had with his first dysfunctional host family.

First of all, Lars is a great kid, thanking me for the opportunity and joking around. On the drive to the airport I quickly briefed Lars and Candice on the what they needed to know about the flight.

Besides the overcast, the weather was good for flying and things went very well. After I configured for cruise, I gave Lars the controls and let him fly almost the whole time. He very naturally was able to hold course and altitude (flying right seat even!) and kept saying he couldn't believe he was flying a plane. He had a grin on his face almost the whole time and seemed to genuinely be having a great time. Candice took video and pictures which I burned onto a CD for him to take home.

I really hope when he thinks about his time in the US, that things like this stick out in his mind, and not the filthy hole he was trapped in for months on end. I present for your enjoyment a video and some pictures:

Full Airplane

2009-03-05T18:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, at my wife's request, I reserved a plane for noon and met my wife, son, and neice at the aiport. We climbed into the rusty but trusty (she's old but she'll hold!) N2240G, the airplane that I used for my long solo cross country flight. You know, the one where the starter failed and some kind soul hand propped it for me, saving my bacon?

Anyway, I fired her up and we took off (I could tell I had a full load, we used a bit more runway than I'm used to) and headed out to the west to snap some pics and take some video, and let the kids have some fun looking out the window.

Having gathered all the pics and vids that we wanted, I headed back to Flying Cloud airport and learned that the winds had picked up from 9 knots to 14. Funny thing was, though, that on final approach, I hardly had to correct for any wind, but about 20 feet above the ground I could feel it pushing me off to the side. Right before touchdown it swung the airplane ever so slightly to the right so when the wheels hit the pavement we were a little sideways...this made for a bit of a "clunk" when we hit. Glad my smooth landing was on my wife's FIRST flight!

Some photos from the flight:

My house:

Pilot In Command™:

My neice:

My little boy:

First Passengers!

2009-02-22T20:26:00.000-08:00

After looking marginal this morning, the weather decided to cooperate with me this afternoon and I took my wife and 4 year old son to the airport for some flying. After checking and double checking the weight and balance, I did one last check of the weather: scattered clouds, 9 knots of wind, and 15°F. The TAF spoke of improving conditions, with the cloud deck clearing out and the wind dying down. So, I preflighted the bird, got the family all situated in the cabin (wife and child in back) and took off.

I'll have to admit, it doesn't happen very often, but everything with the flight went very well. Taxied to the active runway, did my runup (mags were fine), and launched into the cold air. A couple seconds after we lifted off I heard my little boy shout "woo-hoo!". That was a good sign!

We climbed up to 1500 agl and set a course for our house. On the way we flew over my in-law's house and snapped some pics, but it was hard because I didn't fly low and slow (for safety reasons). My wife tried to take a pic of our house but with a low wing going 100 knots and her in the back seat, the shot didn't turn out.

Next stop was a large nearby lake, Lake Waconia. It has a nice little ice fishing house town and a cool island. We circled for a bit then decided to head back to Flying Cloud. My wife took a couple pics of the airport, then the runway when I was on short final. Red over white, you're alright!

I squeaked the landing, I have to admit. My wife told me that if I hadn't bragged about the landing, she would have thought they were all like that. To be honest, it was the first non-short field landing I've done in a long time, so it seemed easy to do a regular landing.

On the ride home my wife admitted to feeling queasy (yes, we had sick sacks on board) but not nauseous, and it passed within an hour or so. I had the same feeling on my first few flights too. I tried to make all my maneuvers as gentle as possible, but we did get a little turbulence while we were up there.

All in all, it was a lot of fun but I can't wait for it to be warmer.

Student Pilot Stories.

2009-02-18T20:29:00.000-08:00

Since I'll be flying less frequently as a private pilot than I did as a student, I'll fill in some gaps with random experiences I had during my training, but didn't get included in the previous blogs (or wasn't described in detail.)

Close Call

After winter set in, the airport line crew would pull the plane out of the hangar and plug in the engine block heater and plug the air inlets with foam blocks. One time I preflighted the whole plane, and got to the part where I turn the key to start the engine. I actually put pressure on the key but at the last second, stopped. Something (I don't remember what) prompted me to think about the extension cord that was plugged into the engine block. I jumped out and sure enough, there was the cord. Had I started the engine, many bad things would have happened. I was fanatical about pulling that cord off before the preflight after that incident.

Silly Truck You Are Not An Airplane

I never blogged this flight due to the incredible amount of time I was spending studying for my checkride. Just prior to my Stage III check, I recieved an endorsement to fly to Glencoe airport to practice nontowered airport operations and short / soft field landings and takeoffs in a new environment. I got to the airport, circled, noted the windsock, and noticed a snowblower working along the side of the runway. He was clear of the runway, but I wasn't all that sure, so I kept my eye on him as I approached for landing. At 300 feet I noted that he was almost to the far end of the runway and was no factor to my landing. Just then a truck drives out onto the runway and hauls ass down to the other end. I shoved the throttle in and took the flaps out and got out of there. There was enough self-doubt to abort the landing. I checked the NOTAMs (Notices To Airmen) when I got back to Flying Cloud but there wasn't anything about Glencoe being closed. I found out that another CFI had gone there about 30 mins after I did and aborted his landing too, so I felt like I did the right thing.

More next week!

One week later.

2009-02-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

I've decided to continue this blog into the next chapter of my aviation adventures. I still haven't flown since my checkride, but my wife's schedule is very busy right now and she is quite adamant about being the first passenger. We've got Feb. 22nd down as our day to fly.

Sadly, today was absolutely perfect flying weather and I was committed to helping with a fundraiser with my wife, so no flying today. Pity.

Checkride passed.

2009-02-06T18:14:00.000-08:00

My first flight lesson as a student pilot was on May 8, 2008, almost exactly nine months ago.

Today, I took the checkride, which was a 4 hour test of my knowledge and flying skills that I've accumulated over the last nine months.

The first two hours was slated for the oral exam portion of the test. The examiner, Marsha, quizzed me on weather, airman privileges, airspace, and more. Except for a few really obscure things she threw at me for the heck of it, I did very well on this portion of the test.

Then I went to preflight the plane, but alas, it was not there! Some commercial student had taken it up to St. Cloud and was fueling it up when he called in. Knowing that he was at least 30-45 minutes away, I elected to take the solid but clunkier sister ship, 2240G. Marsha did not watch me preflight the airplane, which was sped things up a bit (seeing as I didn't have to explain everything I was doing). We started up the plane and she had me dive right into on my planned flight to Des Moines.

I hit my closely spaced and easily recognizable checkpoints. One thing I wasn't happy about was the insane windspeed at 2500 feet. Marsha told me to calculate my ground speed vs. airspeed. The first time I used my E6B flight computer to determine our groundspeed, I looked at her and told her I wasn't sure my answer was right. But it was...our groundspeed was 68 knots, or about 78mph. Our airspeed was 110 knots, so we were facing a 42 knot headwind.

After the first couple of waypoints, she had me divert to the airport I assumed she would choose. Unfortunately it was lousy with traffic. I made an over pass, and then had to circle before I could see the tiny windsock. After I overflew, I attempted a cloverleaf to 45 entry to downwind, but I started too close the airport. After I flew south a bit to get some space, I made a nice 45 to downwind and thought I was doing a nice pattern when she started acting a little nervous and saying "look how close we are to the ground!". I kind of looked at her and said, "uh, the altimeter says were at 700 feet" (plenty of altitude). She kind of backed down and said "oh yeah it does". I then made the only real mistake that came close to a bust...I made a hard soft-field landing. The reason was, it was very windy and gusty, and just getting the bird down was a chore. I know she gave me some credit for the windy conditions, plus, the landing wasn't bad, just firm and a little left of center.

She said I was still within the standards, but if I busted I could still continue (then reminded me I hadn't busted). I gritted my teeth and told myself "I am not failing this test".

She then had me perform a short field takeoff, and I cleared her imaginary obstacle by a large margin. She was happy with that, and told me to run the pattern for a short field landing. Turning downwind, we spotted a plane above and to our side, which appeared too low to be just passing through. We watched it as we made our pattern, and I extended my downwind a bit to give me some time to setup my landing. Just then, this guy, who was not on the radio, swooped inside our pattern and landed!

Marsha was NOT happy, and attempted to raise the guy on the radio, but he wasn't talking. She said "this isn't safe, let's depart the area". So we did, and moved onto maneuvers.

She had me do turns around a point, slow flight, instrument maneuvers (no unusual attitudes though), some stalls, and a simulated engine failure. I did all of these well within the standards, thankfully. Then she told me to dial up the Flying Cloud VOR and head home for a full stop landing.

But I knew one more test remained.

The short field landing. I was cleared for a straight in to runway 10L. Marsha said "The threshold is a 50 foot obstacle. Clear it and make a short field landing."

Ok, now, none of my CFIs ever had me practice this way. They always told me to pick a point and hit it, +200 / -0 feet tolerance. I honestly didn't know what point was my target, and maybe that was the intention. So I configured for a sink rate that would bring me over the threshold at about 100 feet, and then I flared hard and I THOUGHT I floated and landed way long, but the touchdown was a greaser. Marsha smiled and said "well that's a nice way to end a checkride!" I didn't argue with her.

I parked the plane and shut it down, and Marsha shook my hand and said "Congratulations, you're a pilot now!" I was exhausted but happy.

They typed up my temporary airmen certificate, and that, ladies and gentlemen, brings the first chapter of my flight training to a close.

Checkride scheduled.

2009-01-29T14:01:00.000-08:00

Well folks, it's been a long road full of updrafts and downdrafts, but I'm on the schedule for my checkride. The date is Feb. 6 from 12 to 4.

While there were some frustrating times, I'll have to say that learning to fly is overwhelmingly fun and rewarding. There's just something about nailing a landing that is unlike anything else I've ever done.

So, now I have a week to study for the oral portion of the test, and probably fly at least once more solo to polish up some rough spots. But, I feel confident that I'm ready.

This will be my last entry until after the checkride. Catch all you cool cats on the flip-flop!

Stage Check.

2009-01-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

Today I completed the last item in the syllabus, the Stage 3 Checkride.

The check instructor, Dan, had me depart the pattern and head to the practice area for some maneuvers. We did a steep turn, in which I gained 150 feet in altitude (100 is allowed) so he let me start over. I did a steep turn in each direction and stayed within the speed, altitude, and heading constraints. We then did some slow flight, which is flight near stall speeds. That also went well. My power off and power on stalls were good, as well as my response to a partial-power emergency.

After that, we did a nice little turn-around-a-point, which I nailed and then we headed back to the airport for takeoffs and landings. I did a short-field landing, hitting my mark PERFECTLY (thank you very much), and a soft field takeoff, which was a little shaky but adequate. Dan had me do a soft field landing (land as softly as possible, no brakes) and I managed to set the plane down as smooth as silk.

We filled out some paperwork and Dan, signed me off to take the final Check Ride. The next step is an "audit" with my CFI to make sure my paperwork, lessons, and endorsements are all in order. Then I'll schedule my checkride with Marsha (head CFI) and I'll be a Private Pilot.

Logbook: Logshare

Total Hours: 53.0
Solo Hours: 12.2
Cross Country: 9.8
Simulated Instrument: 3.0
Day Landings: 111
Night Landings: 10

Wayback machine.

2009-01-21T06:07:00.000-08:00

Awhile ago I posted my long solo xc landings video, but I've had some requests for a takeoff video. Here is my takeoff from Brainerd (BRD). It's not the straightest takeoff in the world, but I assure you my takeoffs now are a lot better. Enjoy!

Quick before the snow gets here!

2009-01-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

After not flying for a few weeks, I finally flew again today with Peter to knock the rust off and get my mind right for the remaining items in my student pilot career.

Sadly, the batteries in my GPS tracker went kaput so again, I don't have a track for you (boo hiss).

We did a review on short field landings and ground reference, and overall flying the plane. We also did a soft field takeoff which, in the past, I've been shakey on, but today I nailed it pretty good. Overall I'm feeling pretty good about finishing up, but what worries me is the weather.

Take today, for instance. We had partly sunny skies with almost no wind, but snow flurries to the west. The weather was moving north to south, so it looked like we'd be fine in the practice area. After our maneuvers, we started heading back to Flying Cloud Airport. Both of us noticed the clouds and snow tightening like a noose around the airport. The snow wasn't heavy, but visibility went from 10+ miles to maybe 3-5. The funny thing was, though, that the airport was this isolated island of clear weather. It was the darnedest thing I've ever seen. We flew a normal pattern and I did what would have been a good short field landing, except I held it off too long and floated unnecessarily. I was trying to make a soft landing again...which is NOT a requirement of the short field. If I would have just let it thump down on the runway, I would have been fine.

So, Wednesday I'm flying solo to Glencoe airport (GYL) to practice short fields at an unfamiliar airport so that I can concentrate on doing it right. And yes, I'll put new batteries in my GPS tracker.

Thirty Below.

2009-01-15T06:55:00.000-08:00

That's right, it got to -30°F last night and it's still only -27°F right now (9am). So, no flying until next week when it warms up.

Global warming my ASS.

Ice Road Pilots.

2009-01-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

Screw the ice, it's time to fly.

I slipped around the taxiways and runways today and finally figured out the short field landing, I hope. Anyway, I did three landings, and hit my target all three times.

I'm going to fly again with Peter to review a bunch of things I haven't done in awhile, and then take the remedial stage check and the checkride. Again, the weather will dictate the time frame but I'm hoping to have my certificate before Christmas of 2009.

A new perspective.

2009-01-05T18:28:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile since I last flew, so when the weather turned out to be gorgeous today, I was fairly upbeat. On the way to the airport, Peter called me and said the runways were pretty icy. I said I was on the way and let's evaluate the situation when I get there.

Well, there were some pireps saying that the runway braking action was fair, so we gave it a shot. The taxiways were glare ice so I had to be super careful. It turns out that the runways weren't much better. After a white knuckle takeoff (the plane wanted to skid down the runway), and a tense but successful short-field landing, we decided to abort the flight. I'd hate to tempt fate by being too impatient to wait for better runway conditions.

I'm flying again tomorrow, so hopefully the ice will have retreated a little by then.

A New Hope.

2008-12-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

I just checked the 10 day forecast - after Christmas it looks like we'll be getting clear skies and mid-20s temps for awhile, so I might actually be able to get this stuff finished up!

Right now it's a balmy -5°F, so it's at least warmed up a bit since this morning's -14°F.

S-s-so very c-c-cold...

2008-12-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling far too lazy to type up a full report of everything so a summary will have to do. Basically, I took the stage check, did pretty well on everything except the short field landings. Ah yes, the short field landings, which I was oh-so confident about just a couple of weeks ago.

Well the check instructor wants me to polish them up a bit and retake that part of the stage check. In a way, it's good to find the rough spots now, rather than on the checkride, but the problme now is that the weather has been horrific lately. It's either snowing, cloudy, or clear and very, very cold. I flew with Peter a few days after the checkride and the engine just never really heated up. So, I've decided to just lay low until the holidays are over and I get some decent weather.

I've got another flight schedule for tomorrow morning but since it's supposed to be -10°F, I'm going to deep six the reservation and wait for better times.

Because Knowledge is Power!

2008-12-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

I used a precious half a day of vacation this morning and sauntered on down to Thunderbird Aviation for my Stage III Check Ride. This is the last step before the final FAA Checkride can be scheduled.

My appointment was from 9am to 1pm, with two hours each for knowledge test and flight test. The Stage III Check Ride is a practice FAA Check Ride, so I knew if I did well today, the actual checkride should go well too.

I got there at 7:30 so I could finish my cross country navigation computations and cram a little more info in before "show time". The knowledge exam portion is an oral exam with a check instructor, so it's a face to face discussion about aviation. I'm pretty comfortable in this format so I wasn't too stressed about it.

We talked for about 90 minutes about all the various aspects of aviation, and though he did stump me on a couple of things, I felt pretty confident about most of my answers, even getting airspace designations correct for once (very confusing, I'll have to post about them someday). He did tell me one thing that I'm pretty sure he's wrong about - he asked me about the electrical system of the airplane, which I've been told is similar to that of a car. He asked how many volts were in the system, I answered that while the system components were designed to run on 12v, the alternator put out closer to 13.5 volts, and the battery, at peak charge, would output the same. He said the battery couldn't output more than 12 volts, which I believe is incorrect. In the end I nodded my head as it's not at all critical to airplane operations as far as I'm personally concerned. It will never lead to this scenario:

Me: What is wrong with this plane? She won't respond to any of my control inputs!
CoPilot: Oh no...the voltage output from the battery is reading 13.5 volts! It's only supposed to be 12 volts!
Me and CoPilot: AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!(cut off by sound of explosion).

So after my stellar performance regarding aviation fun facts, I headed upstairs to study a bit more on the flying portion. Our plane landed and parked so I checked the weather. Uh oh, ceilings are at 1600 feet and dropping. For a lot of stuff we do during training, this wouldn't usually be an issue but for stalls and slow flight you need to be at 2500 feet AGL (above ground level). So, I told Dan the check instructor that I'd rather do it all at once and not have to worry about the weather. Dan agreed and we rescheduled the flight portion for Sunday at 3pm. I feel pretty good about it so it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Last Flight with an Instructor.

2008-12-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Friday I flew what was most likely my last dual flight with an instructor. We worked on Short Field landings and Soft Field takeoffs. My re-education came along nicely and I think I've conquered those demons now. The next two milestones are the final Stage Check (a mock checkride to make sure I'm ready for the checkride) and, of course, the actual checkride, which is a test to FAA standards to see if I'm ready to be a pilot.

The weather is the critical factor here, so if it cooperates, I may be able to take my checkride before Christmas. I'd also like to practice solo a couple times too, just to keep from getting too rusty.

Written Exam - PASSED

2008-11-26T17:26:00.000-08:00

My training lurched forward a bit today. I took my written test, which is good, because I'm ready to be done with the book work. Now, I know that expectations are very high for me to perform, and I've really felt the pressure. So it shames me to admit that my score was 93%.

Now, there was something about the test that was, uh, kinda odd. On the questions that required me to refer to a sectional chart for navigational calculations, I checked the provided chart against my plotter, and the scales were off by a small amount (3.3%). The problem with that is, when you are trying to figure out how long it's going to take to get from Point A to Point B with X amount of winds and Y heading, and the multiple choice answers are A. 39 minutes, B. 37 minutes C. 41 minutes, well, you can see the problem. So, I decreased all of my distances by 3.3% and it seemed to work ok.

Out of 60 problems, I got 4 wrong, which is pretty good, but I was hoping for 100%. Because then I'd get the respect that I've always hoped for. Or something like that.

Saturday morning I'm flying with Peter to figure out these darn short field landings, and then hopefully we'll get to the stage check next week. Stay tuned!

Amazingly cooperative weather.

2008-11-25T06:21:00.001-08:00

I'm going up for a quick solo jaunt today to see if I can hold my maneuvers to the Practical Test Standards as outlined for the FAA Checkride. Also, I found out that because my flight school is a Part 141 school (stricter standards than part 61), my school is allowed to perform the checkride. Not that the checkride will be easier, but it eliminates an unknown variable ("crusty old FAA examiner) from the equation. I know the lady that will be doing my checkride, and she seems normal.

And what about this Midwest weather? Sure it's a bit crisp out there, but for flying, you just can't beat it. If this weather holds out, I might have my certificate before my arbitrary deadline*.

Also, what's up with Ovaltine? The can is round, the cup is round, why not call it "Roundtine"?

*Deadline subject to change without notice.

Almost there....

2008-11-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I have been progressing with my training. My evenings have been a little busy slogging through the written test prep, and now I'm signed off on it to take the actual FAA written test, which is scheduled for this Wednesday (Nov. 26). Also, I flew solo on Friday to practice ground reference maneuvers and short field landings.

Tomorrow I fly again solo to work on my rusty short field landings. If I'm satisfied with how they look, I'm going to try to schedule my Stage III checkride for early next week, and, if the weather holds out, my ACTUAL final checkride for late next week or early the following week.

Stay tuned, our journey is almost at it's end.

Google Earth Track: Lesson 23 - Checkride Practice
Logshare: Online Logbook

Milestones.

2008-11-18T17:12:00.000-08:00

Today was a turning point in my student pilot career. I flew my last actual lesson with a CFI. The syllabus requires only one more solo practice flight to polish any rough spots.

We worked on the items that I felt weren't quite perfect. The two biggies were short field landings and steep turns. The steep turns were just a bit too rough for me the last time we flew, because I just couldn't keep my altitude constant or my bank at 45 degrees. Turns out I was relying on the instrments too much, and Peter told me that this was a visual maneuver, not an instrument maneuver. Once I figured out the sight picture I nailed the turns with no change in altitude.

Short field landings require you to come in a little steeper and slower than normal so you can do an exaggerated flare to quickly slow the plane down for stopping on a shorter than usual runway. I just didn't have any stick time on this maneuver so Peter just worked with me on three landings and now I feel pretty good about it. I'll practice a bit solo but I think that particular dragon is slain.

EDIT:
One interesting and new thing that the tower had me do today was perform a 360° circle on long final approach, due to a small jet landing on a crossing runway. At first I was glad I had Peter with me but it really wasn't a big deal - I made the circle and came out of it right where I left off. I continued my approach and nailed a short field landing. It was cool because the tower initially said "526 Papa Uniform, go around, uh, actually could you do a 360 and resume approach". After I did the 360 the tower thanked me for the help. Fun!

Next steps:

Solo practice flight - scheduled for Friday the 21st.
Written Exam - going to try to get endorsed for it Friday so I can take the exam Tuesday-ish.
Oral exam - Review with Peter, scheduled for Monday.
Final Stage Check - this is the mock checkride
Checkride - The big Show. The Feds examine my flying skills and give me the thumbs up or down.

Home stretch.

2008-11-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

I'll combine a couple of lessons here. A few days ago, shortly after my long solo cross country, I took the Warrior 526PU out to the practice area for a solo practice flight. I did a few ground reference maneuvers but I didn't loiter too long, as the mist seemed to be thickening and I didn't want to get caught in the soup. So, I went back to the airport to work on short and soft field takeoffs and landings. The takeoffs are pretty much where they need to be, but the landings need a little work. This brings me to my next flight.

A few days later I went up with Peter to start polishing the rough spots. We did a lot work on ground reference maneuvers, slow flight, stalls, and finally my nemesis, short field landings. To be honest, I believe that short field landings are the only thing that I really suck at. Now, in all fairness, we did a grand total of 3 or 4 in the 152, and before our flight last week, ZERO in the Warrior. So I think another lesson to concentrate on the short field landings should do the trick (I hope).

Anyway, I've included Google Earth waypoints for my last two lessons. I apologize for the brief entries but I'm doing a lot of studying for my written test. Enjoy!

Google Earth Track: Solo Flight / Short Field Landings
Logshare: Online Logbook

The Long March.

2008-11-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

Well folks, we are nearing the end of our journey together. The last major training milestone has been surmounted, and all that remains is some review, the written test, and the checkride.

But, let's back up a bit. On Halloween I was scheduled for my long solo cross country flight. I agonized for two night over the route, and checkpoints, and VOR fixes. My route, Flying Cloud to Brainerd to Superior, Wisconsin, took me over some very sparsely populated areas. I'm not talking about the suburbs here, or farm country. There are large swaths of land in northern Minnesota where nobody ever bothered to build a house. So, you can see my motivation for not getting lost.

Preparations.

Friday morning arrived and I checked the weather. Sunny, cool, and calm all day, at Flying Cloud airport, Brainerd, AND Superior. I couldn't believe my luck - uneventful takeoffs and landings, smooth air for flying, great visibility, and no clouds to speak of.

Pete, my CFI, met me at the airport to endorse my logbook (a student pilot can only land at airports specifically approved for solo cross country trips) and give my flight plan and charts a quick inspection. He liked what he saw, asked a few questions, and turned me loose.

Now, the plane I usually fly was in the shop for routine maintenance, and the only plane that was available was a Warrior that had been at the Crystal airport (Thunderbird has a school there too). I asked the desk person what the radio stack was like the previous day and he said "oh it's like most of the other Warriors". WRONG! The communications array was a single frequency radio with a single frequency VOR, both with mechanical knobs and displays. That's right, the frequency was displayed with painted plastic disks that rotated. I wasn't happy, but I had no choice. There were no other planes available, so I preflighted the plane and fired it up. To be completely fair, the radio really worked well and although it was more work to juggle all the frequencies on one analog radio, the quality was superb and was not a negative factor on the flight. In fact, I was hearing aircraft making positional calls at airports 90 miles from my location.

Launch

The first leg, a 113 mile jaunt to Brainerd, Minnesota, went very well. Minneapolis Center had me on radar and was giving me traffic advisories (and once had me climb from 3000 to 3500 to stay clear of another airplane - thanks guys!). I landed behind a Mesaba Airlines twin prop plane and taxied back to the runway for takeoff. Soon I was airborne again for my 100 mile trip to Superior, Wisconsin. I strayed a little from my course but was soon back on track and picking up checkpoints. I was also tracking the Duluth and Brainerd VOR's so I was able to stay the course. About 20 miles or so from Superior, I could see Lake Superior, which is the largest freshwater lake in the world (by surface area, not water volume). 25 miles from Duluth I contacted Duluth Approach and received traffic advisories coming into the Twin Ports area. Landing at Richard I. Bong airport was uneventful, and the wind was very calm.

Trouble Brewing

As I taxied into the FBO (fixed-based operator) for fuel, I did not know that a critical part of my airplane was about to fail. I parked the plane and went into the building to find a bathroom and figure out how to refuel. A kid with a book on flying jammed his finger towards the back of the (very nice) FBO office and with one mission complete, asked him how I could get fuel. He said it was self-serve but I'd have to taxi closer to the pump as the hose wasn't long enough. So I jumped in, started the engine, and taxied over. Fueling was pretty easy and soon it was done. I buttoned up the plane, got out my checklist and turned the ignition key.

THUNK.

Huh? Did I forget something? I checked all the switches, dials, and fuses but everything looked fine. Every time I tried to engage the starter, I just got a THUNK. I wasn't happy. But, I went back to the office (the kid was currently in the air giving some other youngsters a ride) and tried to find a mechanic. I found a guy named "Skip" but he said he "only worked on Bud's equipment". There was a mechanic at the FBO but he was at lunch. I then called the flight school and we checked a few things, mostly wiring, and pretty much figured the starter was fried.

Now I was pissed. Stuck in Superior, 2/3 of the way through my long cross country, and grounded for such a stupid reason. Arrgh! I walked back to the shop to see if the mechanic was back, but it was just Skip. I explained what was going on, and he agreed to see if he could help. He came to the same conclusion regarding the starter, then said, "well, hmmm....I suppose I could hand prop it." I said "isn't that dangerous?" and he replies "well, yeah it is. Turn on both magnetos and STAND ON THE BRAKES". So, and I apologize for my language here, but that MAGNIFICENT BASTARD started the plane on the fifth pull. Skip is a true blue, born and bred, STEELY-EYED MISSILE MAN. Read that again so you don't forget.

Warrior 2240G surged into the afternoon sky, 90 minutes behind schedule and itching for open air. The first section of this last 145 mile leg followed a four-lane highway. I had some VOR fixes for waypoints, and after that, some pretty unique lakes. I kept on track for Princeton, and then turned south towards Flying Cloud in Eden Prairie. I did this to avoid the Class Bravo airpace around MSP airport.

Once I left the Princeton area, I hit a couple checkpoints then put the chart away. I was in familiar territory and didn't need it. I checked in with Flying Cloud tower, was told I was number 3 for landing. I followed another Warrior (that I've flown in a few times) into the pattern and made a nice soft landing. I was happy to be home, and relieved to not be stuck in Superior.

There you have it, the whole story of my long cross country. I'll make a few more entries, and then I'll be taking my checkride.

Until then....

Google Earth Track: Long Solo Cross Country
Logshare: Online Logbook

Slog.

2008-10-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of checkpoints in a 320 mile flight.

I'm packing extra batteries for the GPS (don't tell anyone).

Pilotage and Dead Reckoning.

2008-10-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

The third and final stage of my flight training began today with my first solo cross country flight. I planned a trip from Flying Cloud aiport (FCM) to St. Cloud Airport (STC), a distance of 50 miles. Since I learned some hard and expensive lessons about waypoints and visual navigation, I chose very carefully. Each checkpoint feature was about 4-8 miles apart, and I made sure that I could see the next checkpoint from the current checkpoint. Doing this doesn't really add much to the workload but you always know where you are.

Of course, I'm a man of precautions. Sensible steps were taken to ensure a successful flight. So, I programmed my cheap little handheld GPS unit with a number of nearby airports and used it to verify my route of flight. Now, lest I get accused of relying on a cheap handheld GPS for navigation, relax. I used a sectional chart, waypoints, and VOR triangulation find my way around the Minnesota countryside.

So, the trip was uneventful so I won't bore you with a lengthy discourse on flying from waypoint 3 (Lake with small island) to waypoint 4 (western shore of Pelican lake). But a few interesting things DID happen.

First, when I landed at St. Cloud, 31 was the active runway. Now, this thing is a monster at 7000 feet long and 150 feet wide. As I rolled out the tower said "Warrior Five Two Three Papa Uniform hold short of Five - Two - Three." I read back the instruction but immediately became confused...what the hell did I just say? 5-23 is the runway that crossed 31, but I had to ask for confirmation. "Tower, do you want me to hold short of Five Two Three on runway Three One?" The answer was yes. I was essentially stopped on a runway capable of handling a 757, puttering away in my single engine airplane. The tower said "affirmative, hold short of Five Two Three on Runway Three One." So, that's what I did (it was a helicopter repositioning itself or something).

The second thing was another airplane that, defying the odds, managed to get close enough to cause me to alter my heading and altitude. Luckily I've been forcing myself to scan for traffic more often, and sure enough I saw this guy at 9:00 about 200 feet above me. I was at 3000, descended in a left hand turn to 2500 and watched him fly right over me. I slacked on getting flight following, and that definitely won't be happening again.

The third was when I was entering the pattern for Flying Cloud, I heard on the radio that two T-6 Texans (WWII trainers, kinda look like TBM Avengers) were coming in for a landing, and one was getting a warning horn on his gear. The other guy checked it and said one wheel was coming down slower than the other one, but looked like it was locking down. They flew the pattern a few times and finally the Texan pilot set it down REAL gentle, and it held. Drama, I say!

I'm hoping to complete my long (3.5 hour) cross country flight this week while our good fall weather holds up. I'm toying with a flight to Superior, Wisconsin and possibly Brainerd. Friday is looking good so far.

This is what I have left:

-> Long Solo Cross Country
-> Three (3) Review / Checkride Prep Flights
-> FAA Written Exam
-> FAA Practical Checkride

Hour Totals:

Total Hours: 37
Landings: 87
Solo / PIC: 3.5

Google Earth Track: Short Solo Cross Country
Logshare: Online Logbook

Stage III.

2008-10-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

I took another stab at the whole cross-country stage check. Much attention to detail was paid this time to checkpoints, landmarks, and VOR cross-references.

We launched at about 4:45pm, and the visibility was good, with the winds at around 10 knots. As I climbed out, I turned to my calculated heading and began a "cruise climb" to 4000 feet. Immediately I began to identify my checkpoints and adjust my heading as necessary. This time, I could tell I was ahead of the airplane. I had spent a good amount of time reviewing the route and picking out secondary checkpoints that I could use in case I got off course.

In this case, a major highway was my southern boundry, and I was able to keep referencing it to maintain my heading. Also, the towns along the highway were good markers to indicate my progress.

When we got about 1/3 of the way along my planned route, Rob said "ok let's divert to Winsted". Excellent! I looked at my chart: we were due south of Winsted so I wheeled the plane north and started my scan. Since we were only 7 miles south, and I'd landed at Winsted before, I easily found the airport. We flew over, got the wind direction from the wind sock, and entered the pattern for landing. The landing was actually pretty good, but it's easy at Winsted, with it's luxurious 150' x 3000' foot grass runway.

At this point I relaxed a little, because from here I knew I could throw away the chart and easily make it back to Flying Cloud airport. We made a straight-in approach and I didn't screw up the landing too bad.

Rob said I did a good job and he thought I was ready for the solo cross country flights that are next on the agenda.

Google Earth Track: Stage Check II - Take 2
Logshare: Online Logbook

Solo in the Warrior.

2008-10-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

Went up for a quick jaunt in the pattern today. I wanted to fly solo in the Warrior before my solo cross country trips, just to get the novelty out of the way. So now I've logged 3 more solo landings and I'm starting to get those polished a little more. One thing I proud to see was that I'm holding my patterns nice and consistent. Sure, it helped that the wind was only at 4 knots but I'll take what I can get.

I'm repeating my stage check next week, and after that, solo cross country flight.

Google Earth Track: Pattern Work - KFCM
Logshare: Online Logbook

Remedial Cross Country.

2008-10-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Ok I worked through my anger issues that arose from my less-than-stellar performance on my stage check last Monday. Oh I was mad alright. I admit I drove angry all the way home.

But to understand what happened, we must examine the root cause of the failure. Two cross country flights with instructors (one at night) went off without a hitch. So, the first error was my overconfidence inspired by two fairly long, and successful, flights of the same type. So, while I spent a good amount of time preparing for the stage check flight, I did not study the details of the area I was flying through. The terrain north of Flying Cloud airport is riddled with dozens of lakes that are roughly the same size and shape (small, round).

Another error was the assumption that my performance on the first two cross country flights would prepare me for the diversion to another airport. This is simply not the case. Without an awareness of your exact location at all times, it is difficult to replot your course to a new airport. I believe that this should be taught before the stage check, because obviously I wasn't ready for it.

So, since Dan probably won't be my CFI anymore, Pete will now assume that role. He seemed like a really good instructor, and had me plan another flight to Alexandria. I kept an eagle eye on on the landmarks, stayed ahead of the airplane by entering VOR and CTAF frequencies into the radios before I needed them, and when I was told to divert, I cross checked my position with my chart and VOR fixes, and immediately flew to the diversion airport. The only thing I'd change is my landing, it was high and fast, and I should have gone around, but oh well. I'll practice landings next week.

I'm pretty confident that I can do the same thing again with Rob the stage check instructor, so I'll be calling him tomorrow to set it up.

And to silence the howling of a vocal few, I did remember to bring my GPS tracker with so there's a Google Earth track today.

I love the smell of aviation fuel in the afternoon...

Google Earth Track: Flying Cloud to Maple Lake
Logshare: Online Logbook

Correction and Update.

2008-10-16T10:03:00.001-07:00

Ok, I've analyzed my historically awful cross country stage check flight from last week. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I was never really off course (the VOR at the time confirmed this). The bad news is, I just didn't know where I was along the course.

So today I'm going to fly the same course again with a CFI and this time I'm going to know where I am at all times. I've gotten a painful lesson in waypoint selection so I think I can do a better job. I should have a report tonight.

Update.

2008-10-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well I found out my new instructor Dan took a job flying a freight plane so he's not available for lessons before 5pm anymore. That won't work for me because I need to be home at 5:30 and also, it gets dark at 7 (and earlier every day).

But it's ok, there's not too many lessons left. I have a remedial navigation / pilotage lesson scheduled for Thursday and hopefully I can make up the failed lesson Friday or early next week. At some point I'll have to choose another CFI but for now I need to focus on getting past this stage check.

A Flock of Seagulls.

2008-10-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to mark the start of the last phase of my training. But it really didn't work out that way.

I took the afternoon off so I could plan my stage II check ride. This was to be a final check to see if I had the skills to navigate a cross country trip in an airplane. So, I broke out my calculator, E6B flight computer, sectional chart, and ruler and went to work. The trip was a flight from Flying Cloud airport (FCM) to Alexandria (AXN). This is an 118 mile flight but we wouldn't really be flying it. The routine is to start the flight, go out to a few checkpoints, and then "divert" to a nearby airport. I thought I had everything all set, all contingencies accounted for, and every possible piece of information gathered. I even guessed the top 5 airports that the check instructor was likely to pick, and had critical information for each of the airports.

By now you can guess that everything did NOT go to plan. I found the first couple of checkpoints, and then things started falling apart. The check instructor kept asking "ok where are you right now?" And that's where I started to "get behind" the airplane. As I was trying to figure out where I was (and to be honest, I should have been always aware of my position), I didn't notice that I was seriously drifting off course.

The first mistake I made was getting the winds aloft (windspeed and direction at the altitude I'd be flying) at 12:30. I was not informed that there would also be an oral test portion of the stage check. So, I calculated my course and speed by using a wind direction of 180 degrees. We took off at almost exactly 2:00pm, so my data was 90 minutes old already.

I didn't discover this issue until I had gotten lost. We finally found a town, circled it, saw the name on the water tower (Annandale), and diverted to Maple Lake Airport. After I overflew the airport, I saw that the wind was right down the runway at 100 degrees. Yikes! The wind was 80 degrees off of where it should be.

I'll spare you the embarrassing details of my fumbling around trying to tell 28 different lakes apart from each other. The bottom line is, for some reason I couldn't navigate my way out of a paper bag today, even though I did really well on my first dual cross country to Willmar. It was pretty hazy today for some reason, but I think the wind direction really goofed me up.

Ok, enough whining. Here's a summary of where I screwed up and how I need to fix them:

Incorrect Wind Direction: Check winds aloft just prior to takeoff.

Not finding next checkpoint: Space checkpoints closer together and make sure they are unique enough to positively ID.

Not using all resources: Cross reference multiple VOR's to get a positional fix.

Hazy weather: Not sure...weather reports said 10+ miles of visibility, only thing to do would be to turn back. Hazy weather not really the cause of my problems.

Airspace: Be aware of what airspace I'm in and make appropriate radio calls to ensure safety.

Ok, there were a couple of things that I did ok that I should add here so that I don't get too depressed. One thing that I needed to improve was pattern work at unfamiliar airports. When I actually found Maple Lake, I overflew 500 feet above the pattern and then entered the left downwind at proper pattern altitude. I then put together a pretty good base and final approach. I did not panic when I flew through a huge flock of seagulls that was roosting on the runway threshold as I landed. Also, the landing was a pretty good one.

Next flight is a practice cross country to a nearby airport to sharpen my nav skills, then a short make up flight with Rob to demonstrate good skills in the areas that I screwed up this time.

So, everyone who had my up on a pedestal can now take me down a peg (a whole peg!). I've got work to do.

Limited Time.

2008-09-26T20:00:00.001-07:00

Today I was reminded once again that we have limited time here on this planet. About 30 of my co-workers and I took a half day off to play paintball. We played about 4 games when suddenly the game was stopped by the ref. Apparently one of our co-workers had a medical problem up at the staging area and we needed to stay by the field so it could be dealt with. Well, apparently, the guy had decided to sit out a game because he was "tired" (and had complained of heartburn after the first game, you see where this is going) and he walked to his car to get something. He got as far as opening up his trunk, and he hit the pavement.

One of the course workers immediately started CPR and the other called 911. Cops, firemen, EMTs, and a helicopter all raced to the scene but nothing could be done. He did pass away and although I never worked with him, and in fact had never talked to him at work (he worked across the street), he was on my team and we discussed tactics and how the first match went. Neither of us knew at the time that he had less than an hour to live.

So I'd like to suggest a couple of things. Give your loved ones a hug today and tell them you're glad to have them around. Second, explore and experience whatever interests you, to the best of your ability and means.

Airplane stuff will return next week.

Happy Funtime Jamboree.

2008-09-25T17:04:00.000-07:00

I had my second flight with my new instructor, "Dan", and it was essentially a checkout for solo flight in the Piper Warrior. We did a couple of stalls, some slow flight, and three landings.

Now, I've expressed some grumpiness at the Warrior's landing characteristics, but I think the light bulb switched on today. My first landing was a "normal" Warrior landing for me: straight, but a little bumpy, and kind of fast. Now that last element, landing too fast, was the key to figuring it all out. You see, I was flaring too flat, getting on the ground quickly, and speeding down the runway WAAAAY too fast. I couldn't figure out why I was using up so much runway (not a good thing if I ever want to land on a shorter runway).

My second landing was awful and there's no need to whip that dead horse here.

My third landing I started my flare, but over flared just a hair. I kept the yoke back, held the flare, and then slowly started letting it out. Turns out, when you hold the flare that long, you can "grease" the landing and that's what I did. Also, flaring slows the plane down better than the brakes, and I used a lot less of the runway.

So, now I'm endorsed to fly the Warrior solo, and my next lesson is a ground session with Dan to get ready for my Stage 2 Check Ride.

The flying anvil.

2008-09-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'd Like My 152 Please

I hate to brag (no really) but I was pretty good at landing the Cessna 152. Occasionally, I greased a landing or two. But I tell you, this Warrior II is challenging my patience. It really is slowing down my training and I'm getting grumpy about being forced to switch. I've accepted the fact that I do have to finish my training with the Warrior but I really hope I can smooth out the landings. Here is a play-by-play of my typical landing:

Set up approach
Going too fast, pitch up
Uh oh, going too slow, pitch down
Too low! Throttle up!
Whoa, too high! Cut throttle.
Whoops, too slow, pitch down!
There's the runway, start your flare...hold it...
Why is it so hard to pull the yoke back on flare?!?!?!?
SPLAT.

Oh yeah, I had a dual night cross country on Sunday night and I pretty much suck at cross country and night flying. I came close to a stall turning base to final at STC and jacked up the landing. Also, I was way behind the airplane in terms of setting radio frequencies, and my checklists took forever because of the darkness and I don't have them all the way memorized yet. So, I wasn't thrilled with the flight at all. However, I did manage to get us to our destinations using VOR navigation just fine. There's your silver lining I guess. At least the weather was great for flying.

Wednesday i get checked out for solo flight in the Warrior (more $$$ - whoopdee do). I'll post more when I'm in a better mood.

Google Earth Track: Flying Cloud to Saint Cloud
Logbook: Logshare

Flying Cloud to Saint Cloud.

2008-09-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Dual Night Cross Country

Sunday I'm scheduled to fly with my new/old CFI Dan on a night cross country to St. Cloud airport (KSTC). I'm hoping then to do my short and long solo cross countries next week so I can then prep for the written test and check ride.

Watch this space for updates!

Eight is enough.

2008-09-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

Night Flight

The weather last night was great, so I was able to fit in my first night flight. Jim, my new instructor, took me up in the venerable Warrior II and we went out to the practice area. The takeoff was unremarkable, because all you need to do is keep the plane centered and rotate at 55 knots. You don't really need to see the runway, just the lights.

So, we practiced all the usual manuevers - stalls, steep turns, recovering from unusual attitudes. The darkness made it more critical to watch certain instruments, as the horizon outside the airplane can be hard to see clearly at night. But, despite my rustiness, I managed to do the maneuvers ok and we headed back to the airport to grind out 8 landings.

And grind we did. I would have to say that my landings were actually pretty good. None of them were greasers, but all of them were well controlled if not perfectly smooth. I know there's a trick to smooth landings with the Warrior, but the plane really overreacts compared to the Cessna 152. Flare a bit and she likes to balloon - cut the power too soon and you drop like a rock. So, you have to use a lot of finesse with the yoke, but get this - the yoke is a lot stiffer than the 152.

When we were done with the landings (which took a lot longer because a helicopter was buzzing around the pattern too) I begged my CFI to endorse me for solo in the Warrior. He said "no problem" but I just looked at my logbook and he didn't do it. So I'll have to hound him next week to get it done.

I'll have to say that I am a bit frustrated right now, though. I've changed airplane types and instructors in the last few weeks, and almost simultaneously, so I feel like I'm really struggling again. In the 152 I was flying 2-3 times a week and my CFI never touched a control. Jim, the new CFI, is always touching them and worrying that I'm going to kill us all, it seems. It doesn't inspire confidence and I'll have to just trust myself, I guess. I'm not that far from my checkride so I'm just going to work through it and learn what I need to.

Next flight: Night Dual Cross Country

Google Earth Track Part 1: Night Flight
Google Earth Track Part 2: Night Flight
Logbook: Logshare

Some thoughts on the cross country.

2008-09-08T07:01:00.001-07:00

I've had some time to think about the cross country from Friday, and some of the things I learned. One big lesson is to be careful about what you pick for visible waypoints. Powerlines appear on the chart but can be very hard to see. I wasn't able to see any of the powerlines I chose. Luckily, Jesse had suggested I choose checkpoints with at least three identifiable features, so I was still able to navigate just fine.

Another lesson is that it's easy to get off of your course if you miss the first checkpoint after taking off. We turned to the south after takeoff, and of course, I missed my first reverse course checkpoint. From there, we were guessing our position (visibility was good despite the overcast layer above us) until we found an airport that was just south of our plotted course. We could have used the VOR but we were trying to just use pilotage and dead reckoning.

A final, and controversial lesson, is whether to fly a pattern at an untowered airport or just do a straight in to final approach. Jesse's approach was to fly over the airport 1000' above the pattern altitude (2000' above the ground) and check the windsock for windspeed and direction. Then, he'd have me fly perpendicular to the downwind and do a turning descent to pattern altitude (and announcing on the CTAF frequency all of my turns). Then we'd join the pattern and make a normal landing. This is done so everyone knows your position and you have more time to look for traffic.

Jim's approach (and he's not alone in his opinion) is to just fly to the airport, announce your position, and make a straight-in approach and landing. It was made very clear to me that this is not the safest plan. When we flew to Willmar, we made a straight-in approach and a Mooney who was doing instrument approaches announced that he was flying a "missed approach" and exiting the airspace. I asked Jim if he was flying towards us or away from us, and sure enough, he flew right over us (Jim had me lose some altitude to avoid the plane. It was probably 500' above us, and not a danger). However, had we flown the pattern, we'd have gotten nowhere near the Mooney. So, when I'm pilot in command, I think I'll do it Jesse's way.

Clear of clouds.

2008-09-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

So my instructor Jesse has moved on to the next phase of his career. The computer at the flight school churned, clicked, and whirred, and spat out the name of my next instructor. The name, which has been cleverly changed to avoid having him discover this blog, was "Jim".

This was attempt #3 at completing my dual cross country trip. The planned trip was to Willmar, and learning the intricacies of planning a trip like this was a little painful. However, like anything, after you run through it a couple of times, it really isn't that hard at all.

I got to the flight school about 90 minutes before my scheduled session with Jim so I could finish up my navigation log. The nav log allows you to calculate the wind's effect on your heading and speed. Computers can easily do this but of course, we're required to learn how to do everything manually.

The other thing I was carefully watching was the weather in Willmar. The ceilings were a bit low but holding steady, so when Jim arrived we analyzed everything together. I was hesitant, and starting to think we should abort, but my instructor explained to me that the risk was low because the ceilings would be 1500 feet above us, they weren't getting lower, and many alternate airports were within close proximity of our course in case the clouds got too low.

Besides, he said, you should fly when the conditions aren't perfect, especially when you have the safety of a CFI on board.

Convinced that it was safe to do so, we launched, and it was very cool. We hit all my checkpoints perfectly - and 2 minutes ahead of schedule for each one. My meticulous and agonized planning had paid off. We landed uneventfully (except for just a little rain) and took off again. Since we turned to the south after departure, I got off my course quite a bit. We weren't using VOR so I had to pick out new waypoints on the fly, which I did and got us back to the airport without a problem.

This flight was extremely fun, and it was nice to get flying again. I'll have to say, though, you get very rusty on the details if you don't fly regularly. My radio work was pretty rough at first but luckily it came back quickly.

Now, I have 3 more curriculum flights left. 10 takeoffs and landings at night, a cross country trip at night, and a solo cross country. After that, it's all review for the checkride.

Again with the update.

2008-09-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

So, it turns out Jesse is going full time to his other job and he's giving the school two weeks notice. We were going to fly on Tuesday but the weather grounded us. I'm flying with a different instructor tomorrow for the dual cross country to Willmar (BDH). Then, I can fly with Jesse for his last two weeks and hopefully get most of my remaining lessons out of the way.

Update.

2008-08-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

Some of you are aware that I was planning on a dual cross country flight with my CFI on Monday. Due to a misunderstanding, we did not have enough time to fly but we were able to get the flight all planned and more importantly, I understand how to do it now. We've rescheduled for next Tuesday.

My CFI's pseudonym is "Jimmy". I gave him a fake name for this blog so he wouldn't find it on his own. I didn't want him to read any of this until the training was done. However, on Monday he informed me that he might be going full time with his regional airline job, and he might not be able to teach anymore.

His real name is Jesse, and I'm hoping to find out who I'm flying my dual cross country with very soon. While I'm disappointed that I couldn't finish with Jesse, I understand that flight instructing is almost always a transitional job on the path to an airline career.

We'll see what the future holds, but Jesse made a good point: he's already taught me the fundamentals of flying the airplane, and all that remains is cross country navigation and preparing for my checkride. In the meantime, I've scheduled the Warrior for a solo flight tomorrow to polish up my takeoffs and landings.

Found some good grass.

2008-08-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

Cross Country Prep

Well we are just motoring right along with our lessons. Today was the last "cross country prep" flight, and next week we start doing our full flight plans and cross country trips.

So, today I did some more hood work (instrument practice). Essentially, it was all about being able to navigate to VOR's and keep the airplane on a heading and altitude if I accidentally fly into a cloud. We also navigated to a grass landing strip (Winsted, MN) via an outbound VOR radial at FCM airport, which did actually get us to our destination. Then, to my surprise, my CFI says "we get to put your soft field take-off and landing to practical use". So we overflew the airport, looked at the windsock, turned around and entered the pattern. Jimmy made the CTAF calls (there isn't a tower so the calls are to alert traffic in the area of our intentions) and made a pattern for landing. Unfortunately, I was struggling a bit with the 90* crosswind (8 knots) and I muffed up the approach. We did a go around and I landed ok. It was really fun to land on a grass strip. The funny thing is, it's longer that the 18/36 runway at FCM and twice as wide!

I'm still working on soft-field takeoffs but on the real deal it made a lot more sense to me and I managed to do it just fine. We climbed up to 2500 and then Jimmy pulled the power. "You just lost your engine". I pitched for speed, picked a landing spot into the wind, and went through some emergency checklist procedures.

So, then we flew back to FCM using a VOR to navigate and after what Jimmy called an "atrocious" approach, I managed to grease the landing! Got to work on my approaches though...

Monday I have a 4 hour lesson where we plan out and fly to Willmar, MN. This will be my first actual cross country. These are exciting times!

Google Earth Track: Winsted
Logbook: Logshare

Back on track.

2008-08-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

I flew again in the Warrior today, this time in the morning when it was relatively cooler. We did hood work and unusual attitudes, where the CFI has you put the view restricting hood on and look down while he does all types of crazy stuff with the airplane. Then you look up at the gauges only and try to get the plane flying straight and level. This simulates accidently flying into a cloud, getting all screwed up, and then trying to right the plane. I felt I did pretty well, until the last time. I tried to correct the airplane but it was flying soooo slow...what the heck was going on. I checked the flaps, they were down, and added power, but it still flew sluggishly. What the heck...? Ooops...take a look at the vertical speed indicator, it was showing a 500 feet per minute climb. My CFI had adjusted the artificial horizon (you can change the position of the little airplane based on your height). So, I thought I was level but I was in a pretty steep climb. I did figure it out, though, eventually.

So then, we practiced "lost procedures". Jimmy had tried to get me lost by flying to a different area, more to the north and west than to the south and west of the airport. Adding to this was the muggy weather and lower visibility. I immediately identified two distinctive lakes and turned right towards the airport. Jimmy realized the gig was up so he had me tune in the FCM VOR and fly to it. The odd thing was, as I got closer the VOR steered me in the wrong direction (after initially working fine). I double checked the frequency and it looked fine. So, I flew back towards where the airport should have been, and sure enough, it was there.

We did a regular, short, and soft field landing, and it's obvious I still need to practice landings in the Warrior. Thankfully we can incorporate landing practice in with the other lessons so it doesn't have to hold me back.

A note on the Google Earth track today: the website I use to convert the GPS file to .kmz has a limit of 1.5MB. My track today was 1.6MB so I split up the file into two tracks. If you open one, then the other, in Google Earth you will see the whole track, and it will be glorious.

Google Earth Track:
North! To Delano (Part 1)
North! To Delano (Part 2)
Logbook: Logshare

He named himself, "Banana Tree"

2008-08-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

The cool morning air teased me as I closed the front door to my house. In the air, the faintest hint of fall lingered for a moment, then slipped quietly away. Not yet, old friend, I thought. Not yet.

My lesson was scheduled for three o'clock in the afternoon, and I assure you, the cool air was a forgotten dream. Air, to be sure, and plenty of water suspended in it. It coaxed the sweat from my hide easily, and miserably. Yet my mood couldn't be dampened - I was to be checked out in a new type of plane - larger, more powerful, and longer range. The Piper Warrior II.

Part of me was a bit frustrated, though, as this change in airplane type was hindering my training schedule a bit. No matter, there was nothing to be done and the future cares not for our present tears. Onward, lads, to the undiscovered country!

The preflight checklist was similar to the old 152, and the differences were easily noticed. I then grabbed my CFI and off we went.

I'm aware of the high wing / low wing debate, and having only flown a high wing Cessna 152 prior to today, I was ill prepared to venture an opinion. But, I would have to say that the visibility in the Warrior is better, and looking for traffic is a bit less stressful.

Overall, the maneuvers felt familiar, but a little different. The biggest thing I noticed is elevator pressure - you need a lot of it in certain situations, such as rotating for takeoff, and getting the nose down for landing. I found myself using trim a lot more than in the 152. However, I made three good landings without assistance from my CFI so he marked me as checked out on the Warrior.

Overall I think things turned out for the best. The Warrior is a better plane for cross country flights and it's a good plane to use for when I get my certificate.

Google Earth Track: Forgot to Turn On the Tracker

KHAAAAAAN!!!

2008-08-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

Where Have All the 152s Gone

My trusty Cessna 152, N46953, has joined her sister in the maintenance shop with a bad cylinder. She's out indefinitely for an overhaul like N67973 (for several weeks/months).

So, seeing that a bunch of their students were suddenly without a flight training device, the school called me and they offered me the Piper Warrior II for about 12 bucks more an hour than what I'm paying for the 152. Since I don't have a ton of plane rental hours left, this is not a huge added expense.

HOWEVER it will take a few flights to get familiar with the plane so obviously this is a setback, if minor. I spoke with my CFI, Jimmy, and he said since our next few flights are dual anyway, it shouldn't be a huge deal and I'll be able to get signed off for solo in the Warrior quickly. Also the warrior is a bit more roomy, which is a pretty big advantage.

They're going to reinstate my cancelled lessons next week and replace the plane with the Warrior, so I'll only be missing today's flight. Tuesday should be interesting.

Get well soon 46953.

2008-08-15T12:23:00.001-07:00

My favorite airplane, and the last currently operational Cessna 152 at my airport, has been "squawked" - taken off the flight line due to a maintenance issue. Now, the other 152 is down for scheduled maintenance - usually an engine teardown and thorough inspection (which is a good thing). But it won't be available for many weeks. The sad part is that the weather is PERFECT for flying today.

I'm a little worried, because the abrupt nature of the extended maintenance downtime most likely means one of two things:

1. A serious problem with the engine was discovered. The ticking time-bomb type.

or

2. Some buck-toothed, knock-kneed, corn fed goat roper slammed the poor thing down on the runway and broke something important. My guess is #2, but we'll see.

So, I'm grounded for now. Updates to follow of course!

:(

Getting ready for cross country.

2008-08-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Flight #20

Well I gained 165 pounds again as my instructor Jimmy insisted there was more for me to learn. Today we concentrated on short and soft field takeoffs and landings. What this means is, how do you make the Cessna 152 take off safely on grass, and also, how do you take off on a short runway without mowing down the rhubarb at the end of the runway with your bright and shiny propeller?

Well, for short fields you shove in 10 degrees of flaps and hold the yoke way back and let the airplane get up into ground effect (15 feet off the ground or so), then you build up airspeed and pitch for best angle of climb. This is actually pretty fun because it rockets you upward pretty fast, or so it seems, and you're into a nice little climb over whatever nasty stuff was gettin' all up in your grill at the end of the stubby little runway.

Short field landings are what I like to call "combat landings". You come in steep and a little fast and flare hard right at the last second and land right past the threshold. It's a nice twist to a normal landing and shall prove to be challenging to master.

Soft field takeoffs are easy, in theory. You hold the yoke back at all times to keep the nose gear out of the turf (remember: grass runway) and you use 10 degrees of flaps just like short field takeoffs. Then you pitch for best angle of climb (in the case of the 152, your best angle of climb speed is 55 knots) and climb out normally. The landings are just normal landings, but "softer". So, basically, improve your landings and you're good to go.

Next lesson is VOR operations - that is, radio direction finders used for cross country navigation.

Google Earth Track: KFCM Pattern
Online Logbook: Logshare
Kittens: They are cute

Leaving the pattern.

2008-08-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Well I have my solo student pilot wings, so I decided to use them. The wind was 8 knots today, and holding so when I got to the school my instructor, Jimmy, told me "I checked the weather and it looks good for you to fly to the practice area yourself."

I think he's eager for me to get solo hours and to be honest, so am I. I ran out quick and checked the fuel amount, ran the weight and balance, and got the tanks filled up. There is so much extra room with just one person in the plane, getting all my stuff organized is much less stressful. So I preflighted, taxied, and took off. For the first time, I departed the pattern by myself and flew into the Great Unknown.

Well it's actually pretty well known so I farted around in the practice area with some s-turns, turns about a point, and rectangular turns. No stalls by myself yet - that's madness. Madness I say!

So, on my approach back to the airport, I report that I'm 7 miles inbound from the southwest. The tower says "call when you're 2 miles" - pretty standard. Then he calls back and says "953, I've got traffic at your 11 o'clock at 1900 feet". I couldn't see him no matter how hard I tried and told the tower. I wasn't worried because I was at 2500 feet.

"953 I have traffic closing on you at 9-10 o'clock at 2500 feet." What?!?! Again I looked but couldn't see the traffic. I was getting a little nervous at this point and then the controller said "953 traffic is not a factor, cleared to land 28R."

I made my pattern and came into 28R WAY too high. I had the throttle to idle and I was just floated merrily 100 feet above the runway, and I shoved in the throttle and said "Tower, 953, go around." Made a right crosswind, hit all my numbers, and made my best landing so far. Go arounds are easy and only really add about 2 minutes to your flight. So instead of salvaging an ugly landing, you have the option of making a good solid one.

Next flight is next week, and we'll be learning all about soft field landings and short takeoffs and landings.

Google Earth Track: Solo Practice
Online Logbook: Logshare

165 pounds lighter.

2008-08-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well ok, I was nervous this morning. As I got closer and closer to my 12:00 flight reservation, I could see that the weather conditions were within the parameters for my solo flight. I was getting worried that I might actually be able to fly.

I got to the airport and Jimmy wasn't there yet so I preflighted the plane. When he showed up he quizzed me on fuel, weather, and weight and balance. He's definitely expecting a lot more out of me, and for good reason.

So, I told him that the wind was 7 knots and the cloud ceilings were 2500 feet, within the school rules of 8 knots and 2000 feet. We saddled up and taxied over to the runway.

The first two landings were, well, a bit hard. My flares were just a bit late and my throttle pulled a little too early. Nothing bent, but I really wanted a good third landing to make sure Jimmy was confident that I could land the plane by myself. So, I flew a nice square pattern, lined up for landing, and set that bird down just as smooth as you'd like. Jimmy said "Ok that landing was pretty much text book". So you see, even a blind squirrel gets an acorn every now and again.

Jimmy then tells me to taxi back to the school because he "wants out". We pulled up to the school and he endorsed my logbook for solo flight. Then I shook his hand and walked out to the plane. Wow. It was weird. But you get used to procedures and I just dove into the checklists and decided that I needed to be all business. I taxied out to the active runway, did my runup checklist, and said the magic words: "Flying Cloud tower, this is student pilot Cessna 46953 ready for takeoff on runway 36 for full stop taxi backs".

The airplane jumped off the runway as I was missing 165 lbs of instructor and I made a long upwind to make room for a King Air on final. I told the tower I had the King Air in sight and they let me turn for crosswind. The rest of the pattern was uneventful, and I paid SUPER close attention to my airspeeds (I let them get too slow in my stage check flight and I knew I couldn't get into that habit). The approach was good but flying into Runway 36 is tricky because you fly over this gulley - and there is some weird wind stuff happening there all the time. But I kept it under control and the landing was straight but...I flared a bit to early, floated a bit, pulled out too much throttle and the plane touched down a bit hard. Sigh. Well, it wasn't alarming but it wasn't my best work. So the next landing I flew another standard pattern, flared too late and bumped down a little hard.

On the approach to landing number 2, the tower announced that wind was now "360 at 20", meaning 20 knots out of the north. Yikes! 12 knots more than the minimum. I sat at the taxi turn off for a minute and considered calling the school and asking advice. But I'd just done two landings with the wind not really being a factor and I figured with the wind straight down the runway, my ground speed would be slower and I'd actually have more time to get the landing right. So I taxied up to the runway and took off again. This time, the landing was great. Maybe not a greaser but nice and smooth and maybe a little crooked but nothing to get in a twist about. I taxied back to the school and my instructor met me outside, shook my hand, and took my picture with the plane. We chatted a bit about the flight, and he asked me about my landings. I told him the first two were a bit hard but the third seemed good. He said "yeah that's kinda what I saw through the binoculors". Good thing I didn't lie.

Next flight: Solo takeoff, fly to practice area, practice, land by myself.

Google Earth Track: FCM Pattern
Online Logbook: Logshare

Rage against the wind.

2008-08-01T18:48:00.001-07:00

Yeah ok, it was too gusty out today to solo. The school's max wind for solo students is 8 knots and no gusting. Today at 3pm when my lesson was scheduled it was 10 knots gusting to 16, so we scrubbed.

So, in lieu of flying, I copied my logbook entries to the INTERNET. Using the INTERNET you can now see everything in my logbook. I suggest you go to this HYPERLINK to access it.

Good night and good luck.

-The Flying Dutchman

The ghost and the wind gusts.

2008-07-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of my stage check arrived with a stiff wind out of the west. It was 10 knots and gusting to 20 knots, and it was a situation that was promising to make my flight portion of the stage check "interesting".

It didn't help that it was muggy and almost 90 degrees, so my climb rate was around 300fpm. My check instructor (Sammy) wanted to go to 3500 feet and I said "I don't think we have enough fuel for that". Thankfully, he laughed. He finally settled for 3000 feet (2100 feet above ground - the ground is 900 feet above sea level). We did steep turns and I held my altitude and speed pretty well, though my speed was definitely a little fast. It became obvious that my maneuvering skills had started to tarnish a bit from concentrating on landings the last four lessons.

After steep turns, we did slow flight. Sadly, Jimmy had only done this with me once or twice, and of course the check instructor wanted me to do a bunch of stuff in slow flight so the tarnish became a little more apparent. But I did what I could, and then we went to stalls. I was taught to recover the stall at the break, but Sammy wanted to show me that it's more elegant to recover at the shimmy, which I suppose might be a safer way to react to an impending stall (the airplane will start to vibrate just before it stalls). To be honest, recovering from the shimmy vs. the break is a lot faster and easier, so I had no problem with it. We also did power off stalls (a stall with the engine at idle). I made sure to keep the plane coordinated (not slipping or skidding) which is key at preventing a spin.

Once we were done with stalls, Sammy pulled my throttle out to idle and said "oops your engine just died". I went through the emergency checklist, by pitching for the best glide speed, picking a landing spot, and other things like broadcasting a mayday and setting my transponder to "7600" (emergency). I did everything right, except I chose to land with a tailwind. Now, the landing is still possible with a tailwind but it's going to be faster and require more space. Landing into the wind is always better.

Now, onto landings. I warned Sammy that my landing skills were green and not "gust tested", but he assured me that if he had to take over a landing it wouldn't really count against me due to the weather. The first landing was actually pretty good. I compensated for the gusts and crosswind, and although it wasn't a greaser, it was a good solid landing and Sammy said "that'll work!". I took off and flew the pattern again and this time I made sure to screw up the landing. We came pretty close to the edge of the runway, and Sammy urged me to steer towards the center of the runway. Anyway, we didn't even land that hard but good grief, that landing was one I hope to forget.

So, we taxi back to the school and we head downstairs for debriefing. He basically said "you did fine out there today, I see no problem letting you solo. I'll talk to your instructor."

Friday, weather permitting, I will get to solo. These are exciting times!

Oh, one more thing. A new feature of my blog is a cool GPS track of my flight. Download the .kmz file and open it in Google Earth. It will show altitude and course. Enjoy!

Google Earth Track: Stage Check

So close...

2008-07-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

Friday I motored on down to the airport to take my stage check test. The test consists of 1 hour of oral testing and 1 hour (or so) of flying. This test is to demonstrate if a student is ready for solo flight.

So, I got there and Sammy, the check ride instructor, took me downstairs for the knowledge test. I think I did really well, but he found one item (power curves) that I hadn't reviewed since I first studied the material. That really sucked but I nailed everything else so I'm not too worried.

Then we looked at the weather. The automated weather monitor was reported 10 knots gusting to 20 knots. Now, it was coming straight down the runway, but even a gust from directly ahead will cause the plane to balloon. I preflighted the plane and stood outside for a moment, and it didn't seem to be gusting much. The wind sock was pretty steady so I told Sammy that I'd be ok flying. He said that he's more lenient if the weather is challenging, and to be honest, the first half of my training has been in gusty weather.

We fired up the old 152 and taxied out to the runway. She seemed to be running well but then....the oil temp gauge was fluctuating and not giving a good reading so we had to abort.

In a way, it's ok because I got to break up the test and possibly have better weather, so I'm not too bothered by it. If the weather is good this week I should be able to complete the flight test and then solo. I'm excited but a little nervous about the solo. Updates to follow!

Time to move on...

2008-07-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

I've been stuck on landings for several lessons now, as all of my faithful readers are now painfully aware. There are, oh, half a dozen things you have to do all at once when you land and if you mess up one element, your landing goes in the crapper pronto. Each bad landing was unique, in that I would correct something I'd messed up on a previous landing, but then something else would escape from me. It was very frustrating, but then...it came to me.

Eventually I figured out the magic formula. In the last lesson I did a bunch of bad landings...then, the last one was good. Today I confirmed that it wasn't a fluke and I did 3 good landings and 1 "OK" landing. There wasn't any intervention from Jimmy (although on the "OK" landing he touched the yoke to make sure I didn't flare too high...I didn't).

Jimmy was satisfied that my landings are acceptable and he scheduled for me a Stage Check on Friday - which is a pre-solo check consisting of an hour of oral knowledge testing and a 1 hour flight to demonstrate basic flight maneuvers (and landing LOL). So, with luck I'll solo next week.

CLICK

2008-07-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

Wear and Tear

I had a tough lesson on Friday. We did six take offs and landings. The first four were, well, terrible. After the fourth bad landing (with a couple that Jimmy had to intervene in), we pulled off onto the taxiway and I threw up my hands. I said "Jimmy I'm getting worse - I'm forgetting things in the pattern and my landings are not improving. I need to just clear my mind a bit." Jimmy of course was as cool as a cucumber and just said "I'll fly the next one completely. You just watch and try to relax."

So, that's what I did. And the funny thing is, his pattern was just like mine. His approach was a bit more polished, but I just took a step back and watched him flare and land. That's when it hit me: the landing is just a mirror image of the takeoff. My takeoffs are rock solid - straight down the runway. You see, the problem I've been having is losing positional control at the flare, so I've never really been able to concentrate on getting the flare right.

Pattern #6. Everything looks tight. Glide slope: red above white (approach is alright!). Speed is right on target. Wind starts moving me around, I make small corrections and keep my approach as clean as possible. I crossed the threshold, pull out power SLOOOWLY, nose starts to drift, and I made a slight rudder correction. I started my flare, the airplane was nice and straight, THUMP! It was a nice, straight landing. A deeper flare would have made it smoother, but everything finally clicked. We're going to keep doing landing practice until all the landings are good and non-assisted, but next lesson is starting to look promising. Updates to follow.

Shadows and dust.

2008-07-15T10:29:00.001-07:00

Lesson: Eleventy-two

Today I had more landing practice. It was a bit warm but not too muggy, so we didn’t suffer too much while taxiing around. The “good” 152 was in the shop today (they were fixing the nose gear shimmy dampeners – YAY) so we had the “bad” one. I guess it’s not so bad, because in some ways it’s better. First, the nose gear doesn’t shimmy at all, it starts faster, and it has a very early GPS that can tell you how far and what direction the airport is. But, it’s an older plane with more hours, tends to get fouled plugs, and the radio has some weird squelch thing going on.

The Good

The first two landings were good. Landing 1 was a bit hard but that’s all that was wrong. Landing 2 was a nice solid landing.

The Bad

The next two landing were a mess. Suffice it to say that there was some really nice bouncing and yawing that didn’t wreck the airplane. But I’ve figured out the problem: I’m overcorrecting for wind, altitude, etc. when I should be just correcting.

The Aftermath

I know how decent landings look and feel, so I’ve made real progress. Jimmy wants one more lesson with just landings and I agree – I need all the landings to be good before I would consider moving on. I’ve got another lesson tomorrow, and hopefully everything will click.

I reiterated to Jimmy that I wasn’t in a hurry and that I’d do as many landings as I needed to make them all “decent”. I’m not trying to set a record or anything. Landings are not something that I want to rush.

Kick the tires and, uh...

2008-07-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

Lesson 11

The stage check is barreling down on me like a freight train. I'm ready for the oral portion, and my takeoffs and flight maneuvers are pretty solid. The last bit that needs polishing is, of course, my landings.

We were going to do three takeoffs and landings today, but it turned into four for reasons that will become obvious in a moment. I'll stick to my normal format here and break down each of the landings.

Landing One

Jimmy, my instructor, keep reminding me to loosen up and make small control inputs, not large jerky ones. Sadly, I already know this but I was nervous. This wasn't a checkride but I knew that landings were the last obstacle to taking the stage check and soloing. While my pattern looked good (if a little clunky) and my approach was decent, I flared too much and Jimmy had to take the controls to salvage the landing. I wasn't happy with this, as it seemed like a step backwards. We reviewed my mistakes and took off again.

Landing Two

Good pattern, solid approach, lined up perfectly. Flared way too late. BANG. Nothing bent. To elaborate a bit, I instinctively abandoned the flare when I heard the stall horn. Note to self: stall horn OK during the flare.

Landing Three

Pattern and approach are a lot smoother, I'm shaking off the jitters. This time I flared too high and had to let it float down a bit. Jimmy helped on controls a bit but the landing was salvageable.

Landing Four

Pattern and approach are not a problem anymore. I crossed the threshold, chopped the throttle, let her settle a bit, and started my flare. Then I pulled back slowly but completely, and the plane settled down on the runway with a satisfying "chirp". Jimmy suggested we stop on a high note and I agreed.

Aftermath

Essentially, we both agreed that I need another landing practice session before I take the stage check. He thinks I'm ready but not confident enough. I agreed 100 percent - I need more landings under my belt. So Tuesday of next week I have a session scheduled for landings, and then Wednesday or Thursday he's going to schedule the stage check. I feel like I'm on the verge of putting all the elements of landing together, but it hasn't clicked yet. We shall see. Oh yes, we shall.

Next lesson: greasing every landing.

Stage Check.

2008-07-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

Well I don't have a whole lot to write about this time. My last lesson was 2 hours of ground school reviewing weather, weight and balance, and performance charts. We also spent some time going over the knowledge test to prepare for the stage check.

The stage check is to ensure that I'm ready to solo. To be honest, I feel ready for the solo except for landings, which we are going to practice quite a bit in the next few days.

I have a lesson scheduled today to practice pattern work and landings if the weather holds out.

Landing strut stress test.

2008-06-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Lesson 10

We had a nice, long, hot flight today. The temp was topping 88 degrees and the air conditioner in the Cessna 152 wasn't...uh...installed. Our goal for this lesson was to review everything I've learned, as I have a stage check coming up very soon. I did pretty well in everything but I got a bad start with my S-turn, started late and didn't watch altitude, so my instructor let me try it again. I also got to do more "hood" work, or instrument flight, and although it's hard, and I tend to climb a bit steep, I didn't stall and I was able to do everything Jimmy asked me to do with the hood on.

So, then I got to do three full stop / taxi back landings. This means I land as normal, and taxi back to the runway for a normal take off.

The first landing, well what can I say, was very good. I was able to adjust for the 15 knot gusts (slight crosswind but mostly on the nose). The rudder was my friend and I ended up perfectly aligned and in a perfect flare. That's a great feeling, making a landing like that in challenging conditions. Unfortunately, I didn't quit while I was ahead.

Let me preface my summaries of landings two and three by saying this: my approaches are generally pretty good. I'm getting the hang of the forward slip and keeping the plane straight. But, with these gusts, sometimes all the factors pile up and I make the ugliest damned landings you could imagine. At this point I'll just say there was bouncing and ballooning and crabbing and leave it at that. The important part is I got the plane down both times with no damage and no injury. But I'm going to practice until all my landings have more in common with landing #1 than #2 and #3.

From here, we go to written test prep (next lesson), and then a stage check which is to make sure I have the skills needed for solo flight. At that point, Jimmy will determine what I need to improve or practice before endorsing me for solo flight. I'm seeing landing practice in my future.

And, on a side note, this is the most fun I've had, uh, ever.

The one where they switch the instructor.

2008-06-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Lesson 9

I got a call today from my flight school and they told me that my normal instructor, Jimmy, was stuck in New York because of bad weather (commercial flight). So they told me that they assigned me Bill, who was to be my original instructor before all the craziness with him not being checked out in a Cessna 152 (hilarity!).

Well at this point I'm not all that excited about getting a lesson from an instructor that I'm not familiar with, but the syllabus is pretty rigid and each flight follows the syllabus, so I figured it would be OK. Also, the weather was warm and winds were calm.

Our objectives were emergency procedures, such as engine failure / fire, and electrical fire. We spent about 45 minutes on picking places to land (we're in farm country so it's not all that hard) and setting up for landing in Farmer Lundquist's bean field. Also, on takeoff he said "oops your engine just seized up, pick a landing spot NOW", and luckily, I was able to pick a nice smooth landfill (covered up) just past the end of the runway.

The other emergencies are pretty straightforward, remembering to fly the plane first, then go through the checklist for the particular problem.

Then we got to do three landings. The first landing I did not flare enough and we hit pretty hard. I don't know what the C152 gear struts are made of but it is stern stuff. So, we took off again and this time I tried to concentrate on the flare and the rudder, and keeping the damned nose off the ground a bit (nosewheel shimmy). Flare was a bit flat but the landing was nice and straight. We hit quite a bit softer than the first one, so I was pretty much feeling good.

And now I'll tell you about the perfect landing I spoiled. I flew a good pattern, got the plane set up for landing, executed a workable forward slip-to-land without Bill's help, and was just crossing the numbers when my brain went "you're not going to make it!" so I goosed the throttle. Bill goes "no don't do that!" and took the controls for a second to re-establish the glide slope, and then I put it down in a fairly smooth landing that was a bit fast, but otherwise decent.

I guess in the grand scheme, I'd rather err on the side of throttle and have to go around or use a bit more runway, than not be sure and hit the ground in front of the runway. But of course, practice will help my confidence and my ability to judge my glide slope better.

Having Bill pinch hit for Jimmy wasn't a big deal, but I'll be happy with Jimmy back as my instructor.

Glide slope.

2008-06-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

Lesson 8

Today's lesson was, by far, the most difficult, demanding, and fun. The wind gave me a break, sort of, and was kind of a lazy 6 knot wind all day until my lesson was supposed to begin. Then it kicked up to 8 knots with 13 knot gusts (1 knot = 1.15 mph). My instructor, Jimmy, debated whether or not he wanted to take me up for takeoffs and landings with gusting winds, and finally decided to do it.

When we got to the "runup area" the right magneto was running the engine very rough. If you recall from my very first attempt at a lesson, this problem is what scrubbed it. However, this is a different Cessna 152 (the "good" one) and I was not pleased at all at this turn of events. Jimmy, however, tried running the plane at 1700 rpm and leaned out to see if he could burn off the fouling on the plug - if that's what it was. Amazingly, it worked. So, we took off. I made four landing attempts.

Landing 1

Good approach, some adjustments to throttle to account for downdrafts. Gusts were not strong but I had to make a lot of control inputs. Slip to landing finally started to sink in. The landing was a little rough around the edges but pretty good overall. Jimmy had his hand on the yoke but says he didn't make any control inputs.

Landing 2

Approach was fine. Jimmy continued to give advice for using throttle to control the glide slope, which was "mushy" due to the wind. Slips are feeling good, and the landing was actually pretty nice. Again, Jimmy has hands on yoke but says he did not have to intervene.

Landing 3

Things get hairy. My nose was pointed off the runway a bit and we hit sideways on the left main gear, which abruptly straightened us. I salvaged the landing with a decent flair but we're going too fast. I missed the first taxiway and had to take the second one. Jimmy was hands off on that one. He says it wasn't a pretty landing but it was a safe one.

Landing 4

I nailed the approach to the WALL. I was slipping perfectly, nice glide slope, airspeed just right, lined up with the runway centerline. POOF! A downdraft shoots us straight down. "I have the controls" said Jimmy and he salvaged the landing in the blink of an eye.

I told Jimmy that today's lesson was the most nerve-wracking and fun time I've had in a long time. Landing an airplane is harder than it looks. A lot harder.

Friday we get to do some more!

Two weeks?

2008-06-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

Lesson 7

Well this lesson was supposed to be all about takeoffs and landings. However, the relentless winds won't give me a break, so we worked on steep turns, forward slips, and setting up crosswind landing approaches (we skipped to the next lesson). Jimmy says that he will now cancel future lessons until we get a calmer, non-gusty day so we can really work on takeoffs and landings.

I'm starting to understand the fundamental workings of the forward slip, both for bleeding off altitude, and for crosswind compensation. Jimmy let me get into the airport pattern, set up the approach, and essentially land the plane (he was hands on, but I really was able to get a feel for when I need to level out and flare). I also worked the rudder on landing, which was easier to handle than I thought.

Jimmy then debriefed me afterwords and we talked about some of the finer technical aspects of landings. He mentioned that if the weather cooperates I'd be able to get my takeoffs and landings polished and complete the competency check, and possible even solo in about two weeks. I'm obviously not going to hold him to that, and I know he's not going to send me up by myself unless he's sure I'm ready.

Two more lessons are scheduled this week, so watch this space for updates. Cheers!

In da hood.

2008-06-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Lesson 6

In two weeks time I forgot very little of my flight training. We worked on instrument training, just enough to help me not immediately explode if I fly into a cloud. It's pretty hard - you basically put a hood on your face that limits your viewing to only the instruments. You have to keep scanning your "six pack" - your main instruments - and you can't stop on just one instrument because then everything falls apart. So we did turns, climbs, descents, and heading /altitude holds just on instruments. It's a real eye opener, because when you are flying visually, your body starts to automatically make minor corrections in reference to the outside world.

Also, I almost landed. Now, today we had the "other" Cessna 152 with a crappy radio that when adjusted so you can hear the other person on the intercom, the radio calls make your ears bleed. And of course, it was busy today so it was hard to communicate in the cockpit. So, Jimmy had me fly back to the airport and set up for base leg (perpendicular to the runway), get the plane ready as far as airspeed and flaps, and turned to final. We were too high (of course) so he had me do a forward slip to drop altitude, and when I straightened out, VOILA! I managed to get the plane on a perfect approach. We were 10 seconds to touchdown, the radio is chattering nonstop, and I thought I heard my instructor say "my controls". It was not the best time to be hesitant, so I say "You have the controls". Turns out he had said "I'll keep my hands on the controls". So, he wanted me to land. DANGIT!! Other than that, the flight went really well.

Next lesson: I'll get my chance to land.

whisper

2008-06-06T11:09:00.001-07:00

i can't seem to see the sun but it is so windy, like the breath of an angry giant
the greyness washes over everything and where is the happiness...?

it is gone

Grey.

2008-06-04T10:34:00.001-07:00

The clouds are here to stay, and they are low. Can't fly with clouds this low, because we can't get high enough to safely do certain maneuvers. It's very likely that I won't fly at all again this week (2 cancelled flights so far) but I'm continuing to schedule lessons out for the next two weeks. Right now I'm scheduling lessons for every day that I'm free and my instructor is free.

The weather is bound to change for the better. Right...?

Airport Inspection.

2008-06-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't fly this week. One of my reservations had to be cancelled because of a work meeting, and the other one was due to weather. I have three reservations this coming week, so I'm hopeful that I'll get airborne at least once.

Today I took my little boy to the airport to watch takeoffs and landings. It was a perfect day for flying, but not too many people were taking advantage of it. We watched 4 takeoffs and landings and he absolutely loved it.

Next scheduled flight is Tuesday, so I will have an update then.

One Zero Right.

2008-05-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

Lesson 5

We had a nice long flight today but I'll keep it short. I preflighted the plane, taxied out to the runup area (where we check the engine and major systems for correct operation before committing to flight). Jimmy had me handle all of the radio communications, which actually was easy since I modified a cheat sheet to be kind of a flow chart. I just followed the chart and the radio calls became easy. But enough of that. After the runup, Jimmy casually mentioned some procedure and then said "...because you'll be taking off today." Yikes!

But that's what I did. I made the radio call, waited for a Cessna 172 to land, taxied out onto the runway, and pushed the throttle all the way forward. For the most part I kept the plane centered and straight, and right on cue the front nose gear began to shimmy just a bit, so I eased the nose off the ground. After we got enough speed, the plane lifted off the runway and that was that. I climbed out to pattern altitude (1000 feet above the ground) and departed south to my most favorite practice area.

Jimmy dialed in MSP int'l to see if they'd give us traffic advisories again, but before we could talk to them, we heard them warn a Cessna 172 (yes there are tons of 172s around) that a "slow moving aircraft was northwest of them at 3000 feet". Jimmy looked at me with a grin and said, "That's us." They actually passed pretty close, and while we weren't in danger, it illustrated why it was a good idea to ask for help whenever it was available. He then made his request for traffic advisories from MSP international and we were assigned a transponder code, which allows the tower to keep track of us better.

After that we practiced cool things like turns around a point, square turns, and s-turns. Essentially, these are drills that are designed to teach a student pilot how to stay on course with wind coming from a given direction. I didn't find it all that hard, and it was really cool maneuvering the airplane while keeping track of features on the ground.

Jimmy let me find and fly to the airport, then make a right turn approach to land. I got to try a forward slip to bleed off altitude which went ok at first, then I pooched it up real good and Jimmy took over and landed.

Next week: I continue my training according to a predetermined plan!

Fuel.

2008-05-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

Fuel prices affect general aviation pilots substantially. However, after analyzing the markets and oil supply and demand, I predict that gas prices will return to $3.00 a gallon within 60 days. You'll see. YOU'LL ALL SEE!

Centerline.

2008-05-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Lesson 4

A more perfect day for flying, there could not be. No clouds in sight, high sixties, and a nice breeze out of the northwest. However, this enticed many pilots to take to the skies, so Flying Cloud airport was pretty busy.

As we took off and turned south, a Beech jet was on base leg turning for final (base leg is perpendicular to the runway, and final is lined up with the runway) so we had to hold off on turning towards the practice area until he was established in final. It was cool seeing him land 1000 feet under us and about a half mile to our right. At this point, my instructor ("Jimmy") contacted Minneapolis-St.Paul Intl. airport control and requested traffic advisories since it was so busy. They weren't too busy so they assigned us a transponder code and kept us on their scopes.

Now I've been itching to take off since I started lessons, and it's been obvious that Jimmy has been easing me into it. He said that if you can't taxi straight you can't take off because it's just a high speed taxi. So apparently he thought my taxiing ability was up to snuff today and he let me operate the rudder during takeoff (he still handled the yoke and the "pulling up" part). It wasn't as hard as I thought, though I drifted left of the centerline a bit.

The new stuff to learn today was talking on the radio and stalls. Talking on the radio is a pain in the ass at first, but I'm warming up a bit on it (I'm a ham radio operator so it's not that alien to me). Stalls are pretty easy if you know what to expect and what to do. In a nutshell, point the nose down to break the stall, then pull back up slightly to start your climb again. Altitude is paramount. Stalls at low altitude are pretty dangerous so there's quite a lot of emphasis on stalls in the lesson plan. I look forward to them because they are kind of fun.

However, I made my instructor go "whoa" today when we were practicing power-off stalls, or stalls that might occur close to landing when your power is pretty much at idle. We were at roughly 3500 feet (or, 2600 feet above the ground) and I executed a power off stall per Jimmy's instructions. The plane's stall horn sounded, the plane shimmied a bit, and then we nosed over. Well the procedure is to lower the nose and break the stall, so of course I shoved the yoke all the way forward. In about 2 seconds I was staring straight at the ground. Jimmy made a suprised sound, and either he or I pulled up immediately on the yoke and everything was fine. There was no danger but I did get Jimmy's attention a bit. My other stalls went off just fine.

We landed without incident (I flew in as usual to base and final, working the flaps and keeping landing airspeed steady) but we were coming in a bit high so Jimmy used a skid approach to bring us down quickly but not increase our airspeed. Very interesting to fly that way. Again, Jimmy is a very good pilot and a good teacher, so I think I'm pretty lucky.

Next lesson: How to buzz the tower when the pattern is full.

Hold on, we're in for some chop!

2008-05-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

Lesson 3

Training is going well. I flew my 3rd lesson today, and there was some goofy stuff going on at 2500 feet today. It was really a challenge to keep the old 152 on a steady course, but Jimmy said it was good practice, and I agree. We worked on some slow flight, which is essential for landing operations.

Once again I flew the plane into the pattern and the downwind, base, and final legs. Jimmy took the controls for the touchdown, and right before we crossed the threshold, the plane shot up about 50, then the wind slammed us down right towards the ground. I will say this for Jimmy - he's a hell of a pilot. He anticipated the downdraft, shoved the throttle in, finessed the little plane, and landed without incident.

Another thing that I'm working on is taxiing - nothing else on earth drives like an airplane with steerable nosegear. Being a farm boy, I've driven my fair share of equipment and I can tell you, this is very alien to me. I'm getting quite a bit better at it but it's tough. Until I can taxi well, no takeoffs or landings for me. You have to be able to hold the nose straight while you are on the runway.

I've got two lessons scheduled for next week.

In the pipe, five by five.

2008-05-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Lesson 2

I skipped lunch today and flew instead. The weather was very nice today, with lots of sun and not too much wind. However, up at 2000 feet or so, it was kind of choppy, which made me work a bit to keep the plane level and pointed in the right direction. My instructor, Jimmy, said that this was good practice for me, and it agree.

Jimmy taught me how to use trim (to neutralize the elevator) and we also did climbing and descending turns, power off gliding, clearing turns, and mock landing approaches with flaps.

However, the best part was Jimmy let me fly to the airport pattern, enter it, and line up with the runway while descending. I did everything but set the plane down. A few more of those and I'm thinking that I might be ready to try the touchdown.

As usual, Jimmy was quick with compliments and he told me it's more fun to teach when the student is intuitive. I'm having a lot of fun and hope that I can stay ahead of the curve.

Next lesson is scheduled for the 16th of May (Friday) but it's supposed to be pretty windy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but so far the weather forecasts have been maddeningly accurate.

Airspeed Velocity.

2008-05-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

I had to settle for "ground instruction" today because the hurricane force winds won't give me a break. Either this is the windiest spring I can remember or I'm noticing it because it affects my training.

Right now I'm back on the schedule for Wednesday and Friday from 11:00-12:30. I'm curious to see how flying during lunch hour works.

Stick time

2008-05-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

Lesson 1

Well my student pilot training got off to a bumpy start but it's all behind me now. I went up today with my new instructor and I had a blast! Also, I learned some things.

Preflight

Since I had gotten very detailed training on preflighting the 152, my instructor (I'll call him "Jimmy") handed me the 'tin' and the fuel strainer and told me to preflight the airplane. So with my checklist in hand, I went over the plane like he showed me, and it was pretty easy with the checklist in hand. I did find some sediment in the right hand fuel tank which Jimmy complimented me on. When I was done, Jimmy double checked my preflight (do you blame him?) and we got in.

Point of No Return

We did our runup and when we got to the checklist item for testing the right and left magnetos, I held my breath. The other 152 had failed this test and we had been forced to scrub our flight. This time, though, there was barely a flutter in the RPMs and we proceeded onto the runway.

Pilot in Command

Jimmy shoved the throttle to the firewall and we were soon airborne. We climbed up to 1500 (~500 AGL) and turned south to the practice area. He explained some things to me, like how you have to "pull up" when you are turning and apply rudder to counteract skids and slips. He then turned the controls over to me and had me bring us up to 2K ASL. We did some shallow turns, with Jimmy making sure I was keeping altitude and turn coordination. Then we did some medium turns, some climbing, and he showed me how to maintain attitude and altitude by using outside references, which I found to be much easier than I expected.

At that point Jimmy did a 45 turn to show me what the plane was capable of. The g-forces were a bit disorienting at first, but I adapted quickly and it wasn't a problem. I suspect that Jimmy was try to see how my body reacted to higher g-forces. One cool note is that up until that time I was not at all tempted to try to find my house (as the practice area is right over my house) but when we did the high-g turn I looked straight down and saw a grass airstrip that a farmer has about 2 miles from my house. That was it for familiar landmarks, the rest of the countryside looks all the same from the air.

"Flight Simulator Promotes Bad Habits"

My flight instructor pointed out a number of times that my ability to hold a course and maintain altitude was very good for a beginner, and asked if I'd ever flown before. I said "not a real plane, only flight simulator". He said that some students were more naturally comfortable with the mechanics of flying, and others it was a lot harder. I've been using various combat and regular flight sims since I was 15, and I think that has given me an advantage. So I would have to say that although MSFS is not a substitute for real pilot training, it certainly gets you familiar with the basics of flying an airplane and it definitely helped me. As Jimmy said, it's probably going to save me a few hours of training.

Wrap Up

Jimmy let me fly the plane to the downwind leg of the pattern and turn the base leg. He said he'd let me fly the approach but the whole part about using attitude to govern speed didn't sink in fast enough and he took over for the final approach. Landing was uneventful and we debriefed a bit before I headed home.

All in all, it was a great flight. I learned a lot, I did a good job flying, my instructor is very good at what he does, and I had a lot of fun. Best of all, I have .9 hours of flight logged in my book now. I fly again on Monday!

Cocked. locked, and ready to...

2008-05-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

The ways of this world can be very mysterious. I have chosen what is considered by many to be the premiere flight school in the seven county metro area. The first hurdle I faced in actually flying was weather related, which, considering where I live (frozen Midwest) and considering how weather dependent flying can be, is not surprising or improbable. The second time I selected a time for my first flight, I came to the flight school and found out that my flight instructor is not checked out in the Cessna 152 that I'm signed up to fly in. The flight school supervisor insisted that he'd get checked out quickly and I could be in the air lickety split. Fine.

That was Saturday, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning went by without a word. So, "screw it" I said and drove over there. I walked in and explained my situation to the dispatcher and as I was talking, the supervisor walked out to get a cup of coffee. He didn't even look at me - he just said "Ok Keith, go ahead and yell at me." I walked over and said "Bill, I'm not here to yell. I'm here to learn. What is the situation and how can we fix it?" The short version is that they did what they should have done to begin with...they assigned me another instructor and scheduled me for a flight at 1430 this afternoon. Excellent!

I get to the flight school and the new instructor helps me preflight the 152 and go through the checklist for everything. We get into the plane, fire everything up, and taxi to the runway. We turned into the wind and began our engine run-up, and the checklist says to switch the magneto selector from "Both" to "R" and then "L". "R" (right) is ok but "L" makes the engine drop 300 rpm and run very rough. My instructor tried running it at 1700 RPM at full lean to clear a fouled plug but nothing he could do made it run better. So we taxied back to the school and he says "well I'll preflight the other 152 real quick and we'll get in the air yet today".

Well, we met the other 152 heading out to the runway so that was the end of that. The good news is that I'm on the schedule for tomorrow again and their 152's don't get a lot of heavy use so it shouldn't affect my training much.

But I remain confident that someday I will fly a plane...

90 minutes.

2008-05-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

My first flight is in 90 minutes. I will explain all in my next post. Stay tuned...IF YOU DARE.

Ground school.

2008-05-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

While I'm waiting to get some flying time (I'll explain later), I've started my "learn at home" ground school program. This is huge because I don't have time to go to ground school class at the airport twice a week for eight weeks. I've been given an excellent set of CD's as part of my flight training that I can study on my own time and the results are automatically transmitted to the flight school.

While I'm disappointed about the delay in getting in the air, it's nice that I can work through the ground school course in the meantime and read the Operating manual for the Cessna 152. My instructor did go through a pre-flight of the airplane with me so when it's time to fly it shouldn't take long at all to get going.

Confusion and delay.

2008-05-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

Mother nature does not wish me to fly today. That is the bad news. The good news is that the next few days look very good for weather so it shouldn't be too long before I'm in the air. In the meantime I'll begin the ground school courses and wait for the weather to clear.

62.5 hours.

2008-04-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

I'm all signed up and ready to go. I chatted with the guys at the flight school today, turned over a significant amount of money, and scheduled my first flying lesson for 8am Friday morning. I'll post a nice fat diatribe Friday night.

Shoving into overdrive.

2008-04-28T21:03:00.000-07:00

Financing is all squared away. I sign up for lessons tomorrow. It begins.

Hard numbers.

2008-04-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

One thing the government is good for is crunching numbers and creating reports and related documents. As I'm waiting for my flight training funding to free up, I've been studying various FAA statistics that are freely available to the public. Here are some FuN fAcTs (all numbers are from 2006):

Number of private pilots: 219,233
Number of women private pilots: 14,111
Number of rated airline pilots over the age of 80: 1,562
Number of student certificates issued per year: 61,448

The interesting part is that you, dear reader, have no use for these numbers, and I've just wasted your time. Sorry!

-Keith

Flying Dutchman

Icewater Mansion

The Long Forgotten

Long Lunch

Winter's Bone

Status: GROUNDED

Flight Review

The long, cold, brutal winter.

River flying and a new passenger.

Fully Loaded

Changes.

Movin' on up.

All good things must come to an end.

Artic Blast

Currency.

I haven't stopped flying.

Passenger Service

Crosswind Practice

Go Kart With Wings

New Airplane

Rusty but trusty

Flight Status: **ACTIVE**

I haven't given up flying.

Positive Role Model.

Full Airplane

First Passengers!

Student Pilot Stories.

One week later.

Checkride passed.

Checkride scheduled.

Stage Check.

Wayback machine.

Quick before the snow gets here!

Thirty Below.

Ice Road Pilots.

A new perspective.

A New Hope.

S-s-so very c-c-cold...

Because Knowledge is Power!

Last Flight with an Instructor.

Written Exam - *PASSED*

Amazingly cooperative weather.

Almost there....

Milestones.

Home stretch.

The Long March.

Slog.

Pilotage and Dead Reckoning.

Stage III.

Solo in the Warrior.

Remedial Cross Country.

Correction and Update.

Update.

A Flock of Seagulls.

Limited Time.

Happy Funtime Jamboree.

The flying anvil.

Flying Cloud to Saint Cloud.

Eight is enough.

Some thoughts on the cross country.

Clear of clouds.

Again with the update.

Update.

Found some good grass.

Back on track.

He named himself, "Banana Tree"

KHAAAAAAN!!!

Get well soon 46953.

Getting ready for cross country.

Leaving the pattern.

165 pounds lighter.

Rage against the wind.

The ghost and the wind gusts.

So close...

Time to move on...

CLICK

Shadows and dust.

Kick the tires and, uh...

Stage Check.

Landing strut stress test.

Flight Status: ACTIVE

Written Exam - PASSED