I haven't written in a while, but I have gone flying since I got my license. I have been enjoying taking my kids for a ride. They loved it. It was such a good feeling being able to share that with them. I wondered if my son (who is 6) would like it as much. When he was younger he seemed to be afraid of heights. But he seemed to like it the most.
My wife is a nervous flyer though. She's flown on a commercial jet twice in her life, and never in a small plane. She chickened out the day that I took my kids. Which was a shame because the weather was nice and the air was smooth. But then she built up her nerve later in the week and wanted to go. And on that day the air was really turbulent and the visibility wasn't that great. I have yet to be able to predict how turbulent the air will be. I was worried that she was not going to like it. But she said it was fine. She thinks it's always like that though. I can't wait to take her up again when the weather is better. She'll be pleasantly surprised.
Last weekend I flew again with my parents. That was also pretty cool. My mom's dad was in the air force and practically lived in the plane. He liked to show off though with some aerobatics which she didn't like. I'm a newbie, so I'm fine with keeping it straight and level for her. She was nostalgic about it all. It seemed to bring back a lot of good memories for her. And my dad also liked the experience. We went up to 7000' and the view was great. He had a couple of lessons when he was younger so I let him fly a bit. It was a great day.
This week the weather is fantastic and crystal clear. I had to get up again, so I called my CFI to go flying yesterday. I wanted to get checked out in the Piper PA-28 so I could get some more variety. The PA-28 is a pretty cool plane. It's a bit more beefier than the 172, and I found myself having to trim it a lot as I flew. It climbed better too. By the time I got into the downwind leg, the plane was almost at pattern altitude. Usually it gets there just before I'm abeam of the numbers where I start my descent. The clarity of the air from the ground was nothing compared to being in the air. I wish I had my camera. I had never imagined it could be that clear. It was windy and turbulent though. As I went around the pattern to do my first landing in the PA-28 I turned on final and saw downtown Houston in the distance - clear as a bell. It shocked me. But I was able to concentrate on the task at hand and landed the plane pretty well. We did another landing, and then did some stalls and turns to get the feel of the plane. The plane was pretty responsive, but just required more back pressure, or trimming, to do the maneuvers. On my last landing my CFI complimented me on all my good landings in the plane.
It was fun, and now I can fly all the planes in the club. I am looking forward to getting more experience with the PA-28 Cherokee.
Now that I have my license I have to slow it down though. I need to replenish our savings account after all those lessons. But still I can't wait until I take a real trip. I am keeping my eye out for opportunities.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
The Checkride
Yesterday I went to take my checkride. I went and picked up the logbooks, prepped the plane, and flew the short trip to Laporte. I was a couple hours early to allow me time to get there, get relaxed and do some more studying. The time finally came, and I met the DE - a very impressive woman who is the current national champion in the U.S. Unlimited aerobatics contest, an airline pilot, and a flight school owner. Talk about immersing yourself into flying!
After some snafus with the IACRA system on the FAA website we started the oral and started talking about the cross country flight. That all went well including all the question & answers about airspaces and other map features to which she said "It looks like you know all this", and moved on. We also talked about weather, requirements for the airplane & the pilot, airplane logbooks, FAA regs, and airplane systems. She was nice and if I didn't get something right away, she rephrased the question. The part that stumped me were the specific systems of the C150 I was flying. I wound up getting a lesson in alternators and magnetos. The oral lasted about an hour (though I heard later that her orals usually last at least 2... whew!).
Then came the flying part. I gave her the passenger briefing, and we took off and started the cross country. I was supposed to fly NE for about 3 miles and intercept the Galveston VOR to fly NNW. I should have practiced the start of this cross country... I had the VOR set up for the bearing I was looking for, but I wasn't prepared for how fast I would get there, and as I then remembered, the Galveston VOR often seems to be off. What's up with that!!? So I backtracked and tried to find the VOR again. Looking at the map, I could see that I was over the ground track I was looking for, but the VOR wasn't showing that I was. I played with it, and found that it was about 15 degrees off. Piece of crap. So I used pilotage to continue on my cross country. After about 5-10 mins she said ok, divert to RWJ. I knew where it was on the map, so I pointed the plane to that direction. Then I entered RWJ in my GPS. It couldn't find it. So I tried KRWJ. Still couldn't find it. What the hell? So, again I had to use pilotage to find the airport. Turns out the ID for the is 54T, and the name is actually RWJ. What kind of name for an airport is that? I thought it was the ID.
After that things went much better. We went on to stalls and flight maneuvers. She asked for a 'Power On Stall'. Ahhh it's so nice to have a DE who's familiar with the PTS. Just to make sure, I asked if she wanted me to slow down to departure speed first? "However you want to do it" she said. Sweet! So I slowed down to departure speed (like I had been practicing recently) and did the power on stall and recovery fine. Then did the power off stall in a turn. And... uh oh... lost my engine. Dang thing keeps going out. I set up for glide speed, found a landing spot which was about half dirt, half weeds or something, went through the procedures to restart the engine, and set up for a landing. She said ok before I got below 200', and we were on to ground reference maneuvers, and instrument flying. With her being an aerobatics pilot I was wondering if I would learn a whole new definition of 'unusual attitudes'. I closed my eyes while she screwed around with the plane. It wasn't all that unusual though. About 30 degrees down & banked to the left. I backed off the throttle, righted the wings and raised the nose. Then we went back to Laporte for soft/short field takeoffs & landings. On the way over she asked me how I thought I was doing. "Fine" I hoped. It did seem to be going well except for that initial part of the cross country, but I recovered from that. She smiled & nodded. I did the landings, and before a no-flaps landing she said I could stop after that.
Drum roll....
I passed!!!!
I'm a frickin PILOT!!!!
We talked a little more, and then she handed me my temporary license. The real deal should come within 90 days. I made all my calls to tell my wife, parents and CFI that I passed, and then took a leisurely flight back to my airport which included flyovers of Nasa, my house and Galveston Bay. This weekend I will celebrate by going to the Wings Over Houston airshow.
Perma-grin time :D
p.s.
Total Flying Time (including 19 year break): 59 hrs
Dual Time: 41 hrs
After some snafus with the IACRA system on the FAA website we started the oral and started talking about the cross country flight. That all went well including all the question & answers about airspaces and other map features to which she said "It looks like you know all this", and moved on. We also talked about weather, requirements for the airplane & the pilot, airplane logbooks, FAA regs, and airplane systems. She was nice and if I didn't get something right away, she rephrased the question. The part that stumped me were the specific systems of the C150 I was flying. I wound up getting a lesson in alternators and magnetos. The oral lasted about an hour (though I heard later that her orals usually last at least 2... whew!).
Then came the flying part. I gave her the passenger briefing, and we took off and started the cross country. I was supposed to fly NE for about 3 miles and intercept the Galveston VOR to fly NNW. I should have practiced the start of this cross country... I had the VOR set up for the bearing I was looking for, but I wasn't prepared for how fast I would get there, and as I then remembered, the Galveston VOR often seems to be off. What's up with that!!? So I backtracked and tried to find the VOR again. Looking at the map, I could see that I was over the ground track I was looking for, but the VOR wasn't showing that I was. I played with it, and found that it was about 15 degrees off. Piece of crap. So I used pilotage to continue on my cross country. After about 5-10 mins she said ok, divert to RWJ. I knew where it was on the map, so I pointed the plane to that direction. Then I entered RWJ in my GPS. It couldn't find it. So I tried KRWJ. Still couldn't find it. What the hell? So, again I had to use pilotage to find the airport. Turns out the ID for the is 54T, and the name is actually RWJ. What kind of name for an airport is that? I thought it was the ID.
After that things went much better. We went on to stalls and flight maneuvers. She asked for a 'Power On Stall'. Ahhh it's so nice to have a DE who's familiar with the PTS. Just to make sure, I asked if she wanted me to slow down to departure speed first? "However you want to do it" she said. Sweet! So I slowed down to departure speed (like I had been practicing recently) and did the power on stall and recovery fine. Then did the power off stall in a turn. And... uh oh... lost my engine. Dang thing keeps going out. I set up for glide speed, found a landing spot which was about half dirt, half weeds or something, went through the procedures to restart the engine, and set up for a landing. She said ok before I got below 200', and we were on to ground reference maneuvers, and instrument flying. With her being an aerobatics pilot I was wondering if I would learn a whole new definition of 'unusual attitudes'. I closed my eyes while she screwed around with the plane. It wasn't all that unusual though. About 30 degrees down & banked to the left. I backed off the throttle, righted the wings and raised the nose. Then we went back to Laporte for soft/short field takeoffs & landings. On the way over she asked me how I thought I was doing. "Fine" I hoped. It did seem to be going well except for that initial part of the cross country, but I recovered from that. She smiled & nodded. I did the landings, and before a no-flaps landing she said I could stop after that.
Drum roll....
I passed!!!!
I'm a frickin PILOT!!!!
We talked a little more, and then she handed me my temporary license. The real deal should come within 90 days. I made all my calls to tell my wife, parents and CFI that I passed, and then took a leisurely flight back to my airport which included flyovers of Nasa, my house and Galveston Bay. This weekend I will celebrate by going to the Wings Over Houston airshow.
Perma-grin time :D
p.s.
Total Flying Time (including 19 year break): 59 hrs
Dual Time: 41 hrs
Monday, October 1, 2007
More flight maneuver practice
Yesterday I met with my CFI to make sure I had my maneuvers down. We talked about the steps one would take to do each of the flight maneuvers, which is pretty much what I had already been doing. Then I pre-flighted and we took off with a simulated soft field take-off.
Ashley Pardue is the DE I flew with, and I will be changing DEs for reasons beyond what I've already discussed in my previous entry. If he has some alternate set of standards in his head that he rates people by, then whatever... I planned on learning all the maneuvers cold and going to him again. Then I had a discussion with a CFI (not mine). He says he would never send anyone to Ashley for their checkride because he's heard Ashley say he would not pass anyone who trained at our airport. WTH? Yeah... he had some student from a CFI who isn't even around anymore, and apparently it went bad. So he's not going to pass anyone from our airport. Now, I know that he did pass at least a couple of our students and they were both using the same CFI. So if you're not with the "right" CFI you've already got a huge strike against you with this guy. I don't need this crap. I'm just trying to get my fricken license. At that point, I didn't care if I already passed my oral with him. He's already robbed me of $400 if he didn't intend on passing me. I don't need to deal with CFI/DE politics. So now I'm trying to get with a DE from either Ellington or La Porte. My CFI and I flew over Ellington to La Porte.
It was pretty hazy out. I did all my maneuvers to my CFI's satisfaction, except for turns about a point. This flight was the first one I've had with significant winds and I didn't flatten out my bank as much as I needed to on the wind side. We also did an engine out at just 800 or 1000 ft. I forget which, but it didn't leave much time. That went ok though. He asked what else, I said short/soft field landings/take-offs. So we went to Bayport airport and practiced on the grass field there.
I was thinking for soft field I had to come it at full flaps & 60 mph. When I did this it was pretty precarious with the 9kt crosswinds. The CFI suggested 30 degree flaps and add more power just before the flare. I tried that on the next go-around and it was one of my smoothest landings yet. "Great job" he said. I was impressed too, but felt it was more luck.
We headed back to the airport, and again flew over Ellington. On the way back the weather started to deteriorate. It looked like we were in 1 big low density cloud. By the time we flew over Ellington I had to descend to 1000'. At Clover I wanted to do a short field landing. That was also tricky with the added crosswind. Then I did a short field takeoff. By the time I went around the pattern again, it was pouring rain as well. The CFI suggested a 700' pattern altitude so I would be in G airspace where I only needed 1 mile visibility to stay legal. I just did a normal landing - no need to make this anymore complicated than it was already becoming.
Ashley Pardue is the DE I flew with, and I will be changing DEs for reasons beyond what I've already discussed in my previous entry. If he has some alternate set of standards in his head that he rates people by, then whatever... I planned on learning all the maneuvers cold and going to him again. Then I had a discussion with a CFI (not mine). He says he would never send anyone to Ashley for their checkride because he's heard Ashley say he would not pass anyone who trained at our airport. WTH? Yeah... he had some student from a CFI who isn't even around anymore, and apparently it went bad. So he's not going to pass anyone from our airport. Now, I know that he did pass at least a couple of our students and they were both using the same CFI. So if you're not with the "right" CFI you've already got a huge strike against you with this guy. I don't need this crap. I'm just trying to get my fricken license. At that point, I didn't care if I already passed my oral with him. He's already robbed me of $400 if he didn't intend on passing me. I don't need to deal with CFI/DE politics. So now I'm trying to get with a DE from either Ellington or La Porte. My CFI and I flew over Ellington to La Porte.
It was pretty hazy out. I did all my maneuvers to my CFI's satisfaction, except for turns about a point. This flight was the first one I've had with significant winds and I didn't flatten out my bank as much as I needed to on the wind side. We also did an engine out at just 800 or 1000 ft. I forget which, but it didn't leave much time. That went ok though. He asked what else, I said short/soft field landings/take-offs. So we went to Bayport airport and practiced on the grass field there.
I was thinking for soft field I had to come it at full flaps & 60 mph. When I did this it was pretty precarious with the 9kt crosswinds. The CFI suggested 30 degree flaps and add more power just before the flare. I tried that on the next go-around and it was one of my smoothest landings yet. "Great job" he said. I was impressed too, but felt it was more luck.
We headed back to the airport, and again flew over Ellington. On the way back the weather started to deteriorate. It looked like we were in 1 big low density cloud. By the time we flew over Ellington I had to descend to 1000'. At Clover I wanted to do a short field landing. That was also tricky with the added crosswind. Then I did a short field takeoff. By the time I went around the pattern again, it was pouring rain as well. The CFI suggested a 700' pattern altitude so I would be in G airspace where I only needed 1 mile visibility to stay legal. I just did a normal landing - no need to make this anymore complicated than it was already becoming.
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