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Archive for April 2013

Crosswind Landings

So went for my pre-solo test today and a flight lesson. I showed up an hour and a half early (well, only an hour because of the train schedule I always show up half an hour early) and took it. I asked a question about a frequency before which was good because I needed to know it! I finished the test pretty quickly, but my instructor was out. So I sat around for 45 minutes talking to our receptionists.

The test wasn’t exactly what I studied for, it was different than all the tests I saw online that other schools give. It was disappointing to get an 84% because apparently the school wants an 85% but she gave me a copy of the test I took with the right answers, I’ll spend like 15 minutes taking it again the next time because she wants 100%. I don’t quite see the point of me just memorizing the answers but okay.

After correcting it, and insisting I was right on an answer, we were off to do touch and goes. The wind got kind of strong so we had a good crosswind that was changing from 12-18kts. We ended up doing 6 landings, I only really remember 3 of them. After the lesson when she was filling out my logbook I was surprised we got so many done.

I remember the first one being terrible. The crosswind was surprising. And I’m always again surprised by how much crosswind landings are. The last two landings were good is what my instructor told me. I believe her but it seemed like she was helping me even though she said she wasn’t except just stopping me from flaring too soon on the landing. I was able to feel ground effect more and just getting the centerline was a struggle though in this wind.
On our last landing a Gulfstream was in the Final while we were still in the Downwind. I tried to watch how they crabbed but couldn’t watch too much before I had to pay attention to my own flying. My last landing was best. I could feel it the ground effect into the flare better. We looked afterwards and part of the right tire was worn away. Not sure how much of it was from me from not correcting for the crosswind after touching down.

We did a little ground instruction afterwards. My instructor asked me what I thought and I was just thinking about the landings and not sure how well I did. She thought I seemed a bit discouraged so she was trying to convince me how well I did. She even heard that the Gulfstream we watched landing bounced on his landing and I didn’t so that should make me feel better. I appreciate her for trying to encourage me.

Now it’s TWO WEEKS until my next lesson since the 152s are going away. My instructor is trying to convince me to do a lesson or two in a 172 while waiting but I’m not sure how good of an idea that is and how different they fly. EB doesn’t like it and others I’ve talked to don’t like it but everyone at the school is trying to convince me of it. I don’t know. It’s going to suck not to fly. I’ll spend this time though preparing for my written.

I guess we all have days in training that we feel a bit discouraged. I just want to ace my landings. I think I have a lot more sim time in my future for the next two weeks.

Lesson Time: 0.9 hour

Total Time: 11.2 hours

Prepping for the (First) Test

April 28, 2013

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So my break wasn’t a total break yesterday. Mainly because there was a Flying Wild Alaska marathon on and I wanted to watch it. It was kind of nice too because some of them were when Ariel is learning to fly so I got to watch part of her lessons with her dad.

Today, I’ve just been thinking or more worrying about my pre-solo test. I know I shouldn’t worry too much, it’s not like it’s the written. Thank goodness for Google! I was able to find other flight school’s pre-solo written tests online and printed them out for my own practice. I’ve been taking them and looking up what else I need to study before my test on Tuesday.

I’ll just continue doing this for the rest of the night and tomorrow and hopefully Tuesday I’ll get a good grade! And get to fly on top of it. I also ordered Gleim Private Pilot Written Exam Guide because I’ll get to studying for the real written after Tuesday.

Time for a Break

April 27, 2013

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Yesterday, I took a break from thinking about flying. Well, mostly. I’ve been busy with studying and traveling out to lessons that I needed to catch up with real life. Something, I also need to do today! It’s funny how behind I got because of being distracted or just too exhausted. I still have my regular work to deal with during these days but that’s not too much of my time. I had to do many thing I needed to do like laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning etc.

So I’m not relaxing but even more busy with things that aren’t as fun as flying. Maybe I should actually rest as well.

I’ll need to hunker down the next two days and study for my pre-solo test! It’s not open book and I have to take it before my next lesson.

Improved Stalls and Landings

April 25, 2013

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Another good lesson today. I’ve been a bad student and not been calling for a weather briefing lately. I’ve just been going off aviationweather.gov and faa.gov for weather and TFRs. I hate talking on the phone, but with a pep talk from EB about how nice they are, I called. He was nice, they are nice! The man I spoke to was very nice. Glad I did it.

It was a bit windy so we didn’t do an entire lesson with touch and goes but went to the north practice area again and worked on my stalls again. I got a lot better. I was really focused today and I don’t believe I realize how much focus I needed in the first place. I almost got my power off stall into the correct limits. It’s just a lot more back pressure than I realized. Maybe I should do a few push ups to work on my scrawny arms. I got how to do an accelerated stall correctly, it’s a lot quicker than I originally thought. I’m not so scared anymore of them.

We head back in and do 2 landings. My radio skills are a lot better now. I don’t look at my instructor for approval anymore. And I even noticed that for the taxi when she took over I was disappointed because I wanted to do it and knew what I was doing. My first landing was a bit fast and I felt it. We had a crosswind coming from the left and I was just pretty high coming down. It wasn’t a bad landing though but after yesterday it felt like a step back.

The second landing was better. Well, worse in some ways. I wasn’t on the center line but I was still straight down the runway. I figured out the crosswind correction better. The speed was correct and my flare was better. The touch down wasn’t as hard as the last one. We got off the runway pretty quickly and taxied back fine. My taxing is getting better too, I’m getting better at keeping that center line and not over controlling the plane.

We went into the classroom afterwards and she said I’m 1-2 lessons away from soloing. I’ll take my pre-solo test next lesson (she wanted me to do it today but I have to get to a meeting!) and then a progress check with another instructor. I’m excited but not excited about being grounded May 3rd-13th due to the planes being gone.

Striking a pose

I’m exhausted and still have work tonight! But coming home, I got an awesome hat that I’ll never wear from “Flying” magazine in the mail. I decided to try my best to model it, I’m definitely not a model.

Lesson Time: 1.3 hours

Total Time: 10.3 hours

Silence on the Radio

April 24, 2013

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I was happy to fly today after being grounded yesterday.

Watching a landing on my walk in

The weather looked good, clear skies, but a little windy. I trekked out there and

I always like to see what runway the planes are landing on my walk, it was runway 19 and I was happy to then check the weather on my phone and see it was reporting winds at 190. That’d be amazing for touch and goes! So I was a happy girl so far.

I did the pre-flight, waited for my instructor to get back from her lesson before me (due to the train schedule I’m always 20-30 minutes early). We went over things on the ground we hadn’t. The tests the plane needs to have (AV1ATE) and she quizzed me about airspace, documents I need, procedures of the airport, and went over landings.

Ready to rock and roll after getting in the plane, taxiing to runway, running up the engine. Nope, of course not. We’re not receiving Tower’s transmissions. We do a radio check with Ground, do some troubleshooting and we finally get them again and it’s fine. Take off with a crosswind now and head to the new practice area I’ve never been!

We get to the area and call up New York Approach…..nope. Radio is acting weird again. My instructor is doing some turning on and off of it while I prep for the first maneuver.

I do power on and off stalls and accelerated stalls. My altitude is still not too good. I’m also still nervous about stalls but at least my back pressure is better than before, and I actually make a stall occur by myself. It’s something we’ll still need to work on before I solo though. I also can’t wait on my instructors approval, I’m in that bad habit again. I slip back into it when uncomfortable doing things is what I’ve noticed.

We revisited steeps turns which turned out to be kind of difficult in this weather. There was a bit of haze now and we did not have a clear horizon so I had to rely a bit more on my instruments (at least for a turn out point). Overall, I think they had improved. Keeping my altitude was a lot better and the same rate of turn throughout was good too.

So time to head back! Switch to Tower (oh yeah, New York Approach was working now) and nothing. We have traffic in our area going into FRG, so we’re hoping to hear them contact Tower, but absolutely nothing. I circle while she tries to troubleshoot again. I ask if this is technically a radio failure and she said yes. I do 2 circles and she resolves to call Tower on her cell phone. Thankfully she had their number! They know we’re coming in and are approved for straight in and also set the squawk for 7600. Half way in the radio starts to work again and we let them know and change our squawk back to 1200. It’s straight in so I have plenty of time to worry about flaps and lining up with the runway.

It’s pretty windy now we are over the ground and we’re being pushed around a lot and I try my hardest to keep the plane in one place. I’m keeping the center line pretty good, a lot better than the simulator. I’m understand how to crab correctly now. The VASI doesn’t look right or isn’t working, so I just choose to ignore it, which is probably a good thing since it seemed to be the thing messing me up the most when Embraer Boyfriend and I did sim work. I get everything in place, and just look down the runway and continue to correct for some crosswind. I flared at the right time, and held it even after the main wheels touched down. It was my best landing thus far. And the first one I’m proud of doing. It made me leave the lesson happy, even though we didn’t get to do touch and goes due to the radio problems.

I’m hoping that tomorrow is good weather as well so we can do more landings. Inside, we went over that she wants me to get my stalls, steep turns and landings better before soloing but those are it. She’s comfortable with my ability to do everything else. I really need to trek out to EWR to get my medical done for a reasonable price.

Lesson Time: 1.4

Total Time: 9 hours

Grounded

April 23, 2013

· 2 Comments

Surprisingly, it’s like being a teenager again and I’m not allowed to leave the house and do fun things. That’s how it feels because of the weather being so terrible today. I’ve been looking forward today, but since I was the weather gods deemed it a day to make it impossible to do anything:

KFRG 231340Z 04011G16KT 2 1/2SM BR OVC011 04/03 A3035 RMK AO2

And KISP and KJFK have worst forecasts. What a bummer. I’m hoping tomorrow’s lesson is a go.

Now, what to do with this extra time? Go back to sleep, do home improvement, or maybe do some studying?

Flight Simulator X

April 22, 2013

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At the prospect of possibly soloing soon, I really want to get to working on my landings. Sadly, my next lesson isn’t until tomorrow so what’s a girl to do? Play on Flight Simulator X, of course! Embraer Boyfriend is home as well, so he was able to help me.

He sets it up for me and we’ll just be doing the final approach over and over again. There’s no wind in the setting we are doing, which I’m pretty sure will never happen in real life. And since it has never happened I realize how bad of a tendency I have to drift to the right.

The biggest thing I’ve learn from doing this is how much harder the computer is to land than a real plane. It’s much more sensitive than the old 1979 152 I fly. EB said if I can land the computer I can definitely land the plane. I’m not sure how much I believe him.

We did a bunch of landings, I had problems lining up with the centerline and I flare too fast sometimes, not enough others. By the end, my flare was getting a bit better the lining up was…eh. The last two we changed airports on it to a closed airport a few miles away so there weren’t those lights to tell me if I’m on the glideslope. I did a lot better. I’m focusing too much on the lights which then make me drift over to them because I’m focused on them and not straight down the runway. Maybe I have that problem when really landing but the wind can offset it. I really hope this helps though. We’ll see tomorrow!

Books

April 21, 2013

· 2 Comments

I’ve been studying for a long time now. Ever since January and I love reading because it makes me feel productive when I’m not flying, especially since I was grounded because of weather so much at the start.

But, I’m also trying to save money while flying. My flight school on their syllabus has the Jeppesen Private Pilot Manual and Maneuvers Manual. One is $70 the other is about $20, ouch. I was ready to go look for them on eBay but then Embraer Boyfriend said it was the worst book ever. I never bought it, I cannot attest to that, but I trust him.

So I kept using my free FAA books which I’m happy with what I’m learning. The Airplane Flying Handbook and The Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. Both can be downloaded for free on the FAA website. Or if you want you can spend some money to buy printed versions.

I can devour the Airplane Flying Handbook, and have. The Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge though, that’s a toughie. It’s written very dry and heavy. I struggle with it but still read it. I think it’s because the AFH is talking about the practical application, while the PHAK is theoretical. Both are important, both I need to learn.

Any suggestions on other books I can read while on the ground?

Headings

April 20, 2013

· 3 Comments

Here is something I’m struggling with a lot. Headings.

I’ve never had to think about a compass more than North, East, South, West or some sort of combination of those. Put numbers on those and I’m suddenly lost. Well, not completely. In the airplane, when I am looking at it I can obviously go to that heading. The thing I’m struggling with the most is let’s say in the ATIS they say the wind is coming from 040 and we’re landing at runway 1 I just have difficulty knowing right away which way the wind is blowing and which direction to do my crosswind correction.

On the train to my last lesson, I tried to finally sit down and figure out better the runways and which way is North, South, East, West. I think it helped a bit seeing it written down and having the time to sit there and think.

I am still not confident with the headings and wind factor but maybe it’s one of those things I just have to have experience with and will get better and better each lesson. At least I hope. I do try to sit and give myself different scenarios.

Did anyone else have problems with headings and wind when they first started?

Flow Experience

April 19, 2013

· 1 Comment

I love watching planes on their final while waiting for the train out to my lesson. Instagram makes me look like I take better pictures, as well.

To stray from my normal writing just a bit. I read an article months back about “flow experience” and it has stuck with me. I was reminded about it in my last lesson.

Here’s an article on flow experiences just for some background: here

For me, it’s hard to achieve this lately, no matter what I’m doing. I’m normally always thinking about my email or what’s next. I’m notorious for making To Do Lists, and I’m always trying to get them done.

But finally, with flying, I lose all that thinking about what’s to achieve next. In the air, I’m completely focused on flying. Maybe that’s why I love it so much now because it’s that escape I’m looking for or that challenge to keep me focused just on that. I use to get that from work, but lately my attention span is waning drastically. I can call a show fine, but I can’t sit there being completely engaged in it, even if it’s only 80 minutes. I have to check my email or think about my To Do List for the night. In my last lesson though, and in all my lessons, I could care less about my phone. The thing I’m a slave to the rest of my life.

This feeling just gets me more addicted to fly and hoping I can do it more. It also makes me wonder what I’m going to do with my flying after I earn my PPL. I’m not sure yet though lots of thoughts are wondering through my mind.

Pilots who read this blog, if you just have your PPL what are you doing with it now, especially if you don’t own a plane? And are you others getting higher ratings?

Archive for April 2013

Crosswind Landings

Prepping for the (First) Test

Time for a Break

Improved Stalls and Landings

Silence on the Radio

Grounded

Flight Simulator X

Books

Headings

Flow Experience

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