On my own

Today I was scheduled to go up with the CFI to work on more ground reference maneuvers, which the CFI wanted me to go over again because there weren't much winds the last time I did them. The weather today was cloudy at about 1500-2000 ft and no winds. I called the CFI and said the weather didn't look good for any of the maneuvers we planned on doing. He agreed, but thought it was still a good opportunity for me to go solo and get more practice with the plane on my own. I was happy to do that.

I also mentioned that I had been going over a bunch of material on navigation. Yesterday I learned to use a flight computer, and solve navigation problems with it. I also told him I was working on my flight simulator to practice maneuvers, landings, radio, and navigation equipment. He seemed impressed and said that even rudimentary simulators have helped his students out a lot when they started learning about the navigation equipment. So I suggested that since we've been having a lot of low wind days that perhaps we could move on to cross country in the meantime and when a day came up with winds we would concentrate on ground reference maneuvers. He agreed. So it looks like next tuesday I will start with that :)

Now for today... I eagerly went to the airport over a long lunch break. The first solo flight is exciting, but the instructor is still with you in the plane for most of that lesson, and on the radio watching from the ground for your solo part. Today I am really on my own. I check the winds at the airport, and call the local ASOS for the weather report. Pre-flight the plane (the C-150 today). Power everything up, taxi out to the runway, do the pre-flight check list and take off... all on my own. I felt relaxed though and excited, even though the weather was crap - again. I'm not going to know what to do with myself when we get some clear skies!

So I'm up in the air now... now what? Where do I go? I had planned on going out to the usual practice area and practice my ground reference maneuvers, but instead I thought "Why not do the obligatory buzz-my-house maneuver" instead? I used my new GPSMAP 96C to navigate over to my house. I couldn't believe how fast I got there! It's normally about a 20 minute trip to the airport. But in the air it's only about 5 minutes due to traveling about twice the speed and no traffic - or traffic lights for that matter. Seriously... I am sick of traffic, traffic lights and speed limits! I just got a ticket the other day for going 48 in a 30. But not now. Now I am in a plane and if you go 30 you fall out of the sky. So I press on at 85-90. In the sky the only speed limit is Vne. So I fly over to my house, call my wife on the cell phone and say "Come out and look!". I see her and my 3 kids come out on the driveway and wave. I wave the wings and fly on. I do find a field though were I can fly ground reference maneuvers. The tricky part about them for me at this point, is maintaining my altitude while I circle around. I will have to work on that in upcoming solo flights. While flying over the field, I notice some other birds (seagulls I think) flying at about the same area at the same altitude I am. This concerns me. I hope they are watching out for me.

Then I fly back up north to the airport, and find it pretty easily. I do 2 touch & gos and a full stop landing. Put the plane away, secure it, file the paper work. It felt great to take the plane out for a spin today, and as always I look forward to the next time.

The Cessna 150

My plan for today was to get certified on the Cessna 150. I thought it might be a stretch to get both of us in the plane with only 400 lbs of weight for him and me, but I wanted to at least get certified so I could do my solos in the C150 which would be cheaper than the 172. I woke up to lots of rainy weather today, and the CFI called to tell me the bad news. This was not flying weather. I agreed. So I started looking at when I could do my next lesson, and checked the weather. I saw that today, afternoon, the rain would stop, the winds would be non existant, and the visibility & cloud ceiling would be improving. So called him back and we were back on for today - just a couple hours later than planned.

Before flight I had to fill out the airplane quiz on the V-speeds and other information about the plane. Then we got going. Now that I saw the C150 up close, I saw that it was in better condition than I thought it was. We started off doing a couple of landings. I don't know if it was the still air, or the plane, but it landed very nicely. Then we did the turn maneuvers again for the C150 checkout. And then the CFI cut off the power. I was about 1000 ft up. I set the proper glide slope and looked for a place to land. There were no obvious straight strip of road I could use, so I looked for a nice grass field and found one back behind my left shoulder. I did a 180 and lined up for a landing on a strip of grass that probably would have made a pretty good short grass runway. I was high though and after adding full flaps, decided my only option was to do a slip to drop some altitude. This is where you dip one wing and apply opposite rudder to crab the plane and drop altitude without increasing your airspeed. I had only read about them and hadn't done one, at least not successfully, before. This time it worked very well and 20 ft above ground CFI was happy with my almost-emergency-landing, so I pushed the throttle back to full and ascended again. I found my way back to the air port. We did some more landings and then the instructor told me to stop and let him out. So I was going to get certified in the C150 today then :) I breezed past my 3 landings and I was done. Again, I don't know if it was the still air, or the plane, but I really liked it. I told the CFI since the plane seems to handle us ok, that I would like to do the rest of my lessons in the C150.

He said he would like to do another lesson on the good ol' ground reference point maneuvers again (if we ever get some significant winds), and then I would start my solo practices. Then after that would be the cross country flights. I am really looking forward to those because it will take me beyond where I have been in my lessons from before when I first started flying. Then I'll feel like I truly am back on track for my private pilot's license. My next lesson is next thursday. I am hoping for some winds! (But not too much ;) lol)

Ahhh that's better

Today's weather was pretty nice. The air was clearer for the first time, and the winds were only 4-5 knots 40 degrees left of the runway. We practiced landings some more. They went fine. Then we flew over to Wolf airfield, which is a grass strip, and landed, stopped and took off. Grass strips are fun :)

I found my way back to the airfield, and entered the pattern. I had some traffic today... there were 3 other planes in the pattern with me. We did a couple more landings and then the CFI asked me if I wanted to do a couple of landings solo. Wanting to redeem myself, I said yes. I know what I did wrong tuesday when I soloed. After studying short field landing procedures, I had them stuck in my head. So that's why I came in steep and slow. So I went around the pattern again (traffic and all) and the first landing was pretty good, and the second landing was great! I taxied over to the parking area and let out a WOOOOO!!!! That felt more like what my solo should have been.

I have next tuesday & thursday scheduled on the plane, but I've been bumped for it's annual maintenance. I asked the CFI if I could get checked off in the Cessna 150 so I could use that for solos for a cheaper rate. So I might do that next.

BTW... to update what happened yesterday, I ordered a CH Products Flight Yoke, and rudder peddles from New Egg. I eagerly went home after work yesterday to plug them in and try it on my simulator. I was very P.O.'d to see that New Egg only shipped the flight yoke. They charged me for both and only sent the yoke. I called and they said they were out of stock on the rudder peddles. Gee thanks for telling me. They refunded the money for that, and I went to Fry's to get Saitek rudder peddles there.

So anyway... After configuring all the aircraft controls for the yoke and rudder peddles it worked very well. All the jittering I experienced from my crappy joystick were gone. And using a yoke & rudder is a much more realistic way to interface with the sim. I was able to duplicate the weather conditions during my last solo and virtually fly at the same airport and practice over and over again. The one thing missing that I desperately need is a Track IR head tracking system. This is a relatively cheap way to track your head movements so when I'm flying in the pattern, I can turn my head to look at the runway without having to clumsily use keys to look around. (No, I don't need to turn my head 90 degrees - the head motion is scaled so you turn your head say 20 degrees left, and the view on the monitor rotates 90. This way you can still see the monitor while turning your head). Or if the strut between the front & left windows are in the way on base, I can just move my head to see the airport rather than turning the plane. See this video for a demonstration.

Can you tell I'm a gadget freak? :-b Actually I work on simulators for a living and appreciate the value of being able to try things out or build proficiency in the safety of a good simulator. And compared to the cost of renting a plane and gas these days it's actually a cost effective way to train.

Solo already??!

The last few days have been busy. Over the weekend I've been doing lots of reading. Yesterday I got my Class III medical, and gave it to my instructor this morning. The weather was clear except for a few scattered low clouds. We went out and did pre-flight and saw only 5 gallons in each wing. So I learned how to fill er up. Today there was some wind, so I practiced maneuvering around a point on the ground - something the CFI has mentioned wanting to do every time we met. We also did some instrument flying. I did pretty well at that, since I tend to over use the instruments anyway.

Then we entered the pattern of another local airstrip. I think this is one of those lessons I've read about in other blogs where you take a step or two backwards. There was a crosswind at this airport, and I ended up coming in steep and slow. But the landing was ok. The approach made me nervous because I'm coming in steep at low airspeed. To raise your airspeed you need to drop the nose down. But I'm already coming in steep, and close to the ground. My brain is going - Does not compute! We landed again for good measure. I explained because of the crosswind, I was trying to crab it a little. He reminded me not to do that with the flaps. Oh yeah... I did read that. There is a lot to absorb.

He asked if I could find my way back to our airport. I had a vague idea which direction I was from the airport, so I was able to get back into the general area. We got into the pattern and landed. The CFI told me to stop. I asked if the time was up. He said "no, you're going to try some landings by yourself". What??! I knew he said it was coming quickly but I really did not expect that today. Not with the winds being the way they were. But so far I've been doing ok. So he got out, and I took off. The first landing was a little short, but was ok. The 2nd and 3rd landings, I was having that same problem I was having before... too steep and too slow. They were ugly landings. I bounced the plane a few times. Ugh! CFI liked my first landing and suggested more speed and aim further down the runway. Usually I land just fine. But those last 2 landings took away from the thrill of my first solo in 19 years. As I found out later, there was a 14 knot wind 30 degrees off the runway. Not really ideal. Also, I think if I learn to aim for a point further up on the runway, and not so much flaps, I'll do better.

CFI & I will go flying again thursday to work on getting to know the area better, and then I'll go solo next week again.

Ground work

I've got the blues today. After flying for 2 days, I've been on the ground for 2 days and I miss it! Oh well... I used the time to start preparing for my FAA written exam. CFI gave me some homework, which was to read ch2 of the Gleim Private Pilot exam book: Aircraft Systems. I had a bit of learning to do in that section.

Last night I tried to practice some of the maneuvers on my flight simulator. It was very erratic. I have a typical joystick. It's ok for gaming sims of fast planes, but for accurate simming of a real plane like the C172, it sucks. As I moved it and twisted it (for rudder control) for smooth precision maneuvers the scene would shake around violently. I was really disappointed, because it would really be nice to practice everything I'm learning at home on my desktop away from my CFI at my leisure without aircraft & instructor rental, and then put it into practice in the air. So today I ordered a yoke & rudder from CH products. From the reviews I've read these 2 items make all the difference in the world. I will let you know how they turn out when they arrive next week.

2nd flight

This morning I woke to the sound of thunder... ugh. I went to the computer and checked out the forecasted weather for my airport. There looked like a lot of rain north of the runway in Houston. Winds were calm though and the sky was half clear, half high altitude cloud cover. I met CFI at the airport and we talked about the sectional airspace map, and emergency landing procedures (I had a feeling that was coming up). There is a lot I need to become familiar with on the airspace sectional map. I have also thought about getting my instrument rating after I complete my private pilot's license. With map reading knowledge and an instrument rating my freedom to fly greatly increases. I've also been looking into a handheld GPS unit. The planes I'll be renting do not have any GPS installed, so I was looking for something handheld that would work for general use too. I found the Garmin GPSMAP 96C. It's nice except for the small screen. It shows airspace, automatically logs your flights, and comes with a yoke mount. But it's also pricey, so... we'll see...

I also went out and bought a Telex Stratus 30XT noise canceling headset. I tried it out today, and it was pretty nice. So today I practiced basic flight maneuvers, stalls, a couple of landings, and then CFI threw in an emergency landing as well. All these seemed to go ok, except maybe the stalls... the plane doesn't want to stall! Or at least it's hard to keep in in a stall for very long, which is probably a good thing. CFI said I seemed to be pretty comfortable in the plane. I said I was, and that it was a nice plane to fly. He was pointing out some landmarks which were hard for me to spot initially because it was so hazy. Mental note... solo on nice clear air days until I get my bearings. And speaking of solo, I am getting more comfortable in the plane, and am looking forward to some solo time. The next flight is scheduled for next Tuesday.

First flight (in 19 years)

Woohoo!!!! I got off the ground :) When I woke up this morning I looked outside, and it didn't look good. Lots of low clouds and a bit of rain. I drove to the airport though, and over there, it was much better. Still hazy though. I met the CFI, went through the preflight procedures, and off we went. He gave me some headings & altitudes to fly to. Then he had me do a right & left 360 degree turn. He seemed satisfied with my control of the plane. We were going to do stalls, but because of the haze & clouds he decided to stay low and have me practice touch & gos. It really does come back. The first one I did, he had his hand on the throttle. Then I did the next 4 on my own. They all went well except the next to last one, he had me put on full flaps. We were about 15-20ft off the runway, and I was losing airspeed. Then came the stall warning. He told me to nose down because of the stall, and we came down a bit hard. But other than that, it was pretty good :)

After the flight, I asked him if he had a feel for how much time I would need to solo. I thought it would take 7 or so hours since it had been 19 years since I flew. He surprised me by saying it would only take another couple of flights and whenever I was comfortable to do it. I am a little nervous about that, but I did think I did well - in the limited controlled environment that I was in. I need to get more practice so that the coordination of pitch, roll, rudder, throttle, radio work, & scanning the skies becomes more natural. Right now it requires a lot of thought.

One thing that would be nice... if someone made a high res scenery add-on to Flight Sim of the Houston area. It would be nice to learn the area from the air. I would also like a sectional of the Houston area to start learning where all the airspace restrictions are.

My next flight is scheduled for tomorrow morning. But that may change if the weather does not allow us to fly higher like what happened this morning.