October :: 2013 :: Cessna Chick

Archive for October 2013

Conversation about Aviation (i.e. Oral Exam)

Sorry to keep you all hanging, but I passed my private pilot check ride yesterday!!! Yay! I am STILL smiling! It was an 8 1/2 hour ordeal with the train and such and then went out to dinner to celebrate afterwards so no post yesterday.

I was talking to Jake yesterday and told him it feels so much better than soloing. I feel like some people say soloing is better than passing their check ride. I personally think passing my check ride is a bigger milestone and feels so great. Maybe I just like the approval of someone else other than my instructor. A designee of the FAA no less!

After my last flight on Tuesday I went home and felt like I had a lot to do. I still had my weight & balance, cross country planning, get the cash to pay the DPE (important!), and study! Jake said when I got home “let’s go on a date!” I looked at him like he was crazy! I told him heck no, my check ride was tomorrow. Then he got down to business and after I had finished all those other things, we studied for my oral exam starting at about 8:30pm.

Certifications and limitations I had down. He stressed me studying them and I had them almost word for word in the book. We learned my weak point was aerodynamics. I have to admit I got them at the beginning of training and started to forget because I didn’t look at them too much afterwards. Other topics like aeromedical factors, cross country planning, night operations, etc. were good. Weather was just okay. We came back to aerodynamics at the end and I had explained everything I had wrong correctly and he was satisfied. Half way through I wasn’t having fun anymore (struggling through aerodynamics). My CFI texted at 9:30pm saying no more studying and time to rest. I totally tattled on Jake to him. He told me rest was important so my brain wasn’t mush, but Jake insisted we keep going. We finished around 11:00pm.

I was feeling stressed and maybe on the verge of tears thinking I wasn’t prepared until Jake said he wasn’t worried about me and I did a great oral just weak on one or two areas and I was able to get it even when tired.

I wasn’t able to get to sleep until probably after midnight and woke up at 6:00am. My train was at 7:50am, I get to Farmingdale at 8:35am, and exam starts at 9:00am. My CFI and I sat in the office waiting for the DPE just chilling and talking, not about aviation on purpose. Just making sure I’m relaxed. DPE shows up around 9:10am.

He’s a talker! He’s also like 70 years old. The three of us are talking, he’s sharing stories and we’re slowly doing the paperwork until about 10:30am when my CFI can finally leave. He said we’d be heading over to the plane at around 11:15am. 45 minute oral, whoo!

He tells me its a conversation about aviation, not a quiz. He says he’s going to pick my brain without me even knowing it. It’s a lot of scenario based questions. I think I was a bit nervous because I was just waiting for out right questions.

We talked about what I need when I fly, how to remain current. We went over night operations. Airspeed indicator colors, V speeds, what they mean and what numbers they are. He went out for a smoke break about 30 minutes into it. He came back and we did runway markings, more night operations, and a few other topics I’m blanking on. He said we were going to go out to the plane, but he would still have a few more questions for me.

That oral was much easier than what Jake gave me the night before. He said he did that on purpose. I thought about texting him but I didn’t want to jinks it (remember I’m a bit superstitious).

I felt a lot less stress now that I had finished the oral. I know I can fly. And that’ll be more fun than answering questions! I’ll post about my flight part tomorrow. I don’t want to over load you now! But spoiler – I pass!

Last Flight

October 29, 2013

· 2 Comments

Last flight with my CFI before my checkride! As he was filling out all my logbook endorsements after the flight it was hitting me that tomorrow is the big day. I also started getting nervous and feeling a bit nauseous. I’m hoping I can sleep tonight.

This lesson was just a review of my weak points from yesterday and finish my instrument time.

We went up and to the south practice area. After leaving the pattern foggles went on. Went out there, did climbing and turning practice. Then VOR practice intersecting a radial. I did it twice with ease and took off the foggles. Then it was working on accelerated stalls since I wasn’t comfortable with them yesterday. I didn’t like taking it to the buffering and break, but he did one. I did a few more to the right and left and brought a few to the breaking point which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. If they’re coordinated it’s not scary. The two CFIs weren’t sure about accelerated stalls because all other DPEs have stopped doing them, but they know this one has in the past. They didn’t want to ask him and bring attention to it because then it’d definitely be tested. I checked the PTS at home. It was removed last year. I asked Jake if the DPE asks me to do them I should say they’re not on the PTS, he said no way. If he tries to fail me over it, then do that. Whew! But I was feeling better with them anyway.

My CFI wasn’t going to review power on stall, but I wanted to because I know I’m weaker on that one. We did two. The wing dropped on both, but I recovered by myself easily. After the second one, I turned to my CFI and said “You didn’t touch anything did you!?” He said no, and I felt more confident recovering from them with a wing drop.

I got a bit more foggle time heading back. I took them off as we approached the Class D. It was EXTREMELY busy. I’ve never seen it this busy. It was difficult to get a word in. It took me a few extra miles to call the first time. I had to go to Belmont Lake instead of a right base for runway 1 like normal. I got to the lake and had to circle it about 3 times before I could get my call in. Another pilot complained over the radio he couldn’t get a word in edgewise as well. After the first landing, the pattern was quiet. It was just an intense few minutes there.

Soft field landing first, it wasn’t so soft. I didn’t pull the power to idle before putting it back in. I did two more soft field landings. The second I didn’t hold it off enough, the third was pretty soft. Fourth was a short field landing, did it correctly. I floated longer than I wanted though. Last landing was a regular landing. My CFI said to do the landing I would do after passing my checkride. I didn’t do that, it was too hard. Bah, but I’ll get it tomorrow!

Time to go study, do the weight & balance, plan the cross country, and rest! Fingers crossed for tomorrow for good weather!

Lesson Time: 1.6 hours

Total Time: 66.9 hours

Mock Checkride

October 28, 2013

· 2 Comments

Today was looking better wind-wise. It was forecasted gusting to 19 last night, but this morning was just a 12 knots. That was fine. I headed out to the airport. My regular CFI picked me up, we chatted on the way over there about the our weekends. I did my preflight, he went over some questions with me about the antennas and wing shape, etc. We were waiting for the other instructor to come over and went into the plane reviewing the instruments.

The CFI I was flying with today is the other owner of the school. I met him once before, he seemed nice. He’s an ATC controller at the TRACON as well. He didn’t make me nervous so that was good. It’s a completely different experience than the progress check I did at my old school. More relaxed and less stressful. In hindsight, I feel the guy who did my first progress check, being younger, was trying to be hard and seem like a tough guy. Maybe trying to prove something? I don’t know, these older guys just seem more relaxed and just wanted to teach me. I like it.

We did a quick oral. Going over IMSAFE, information about the plane, fuel requirements, going over the sectional. He purposely stumped me on one part of the sectional (now I added it to the How To Read A Sectional Chart page) It was the line over water making it controlled airspace when it should be because they need it to vector planes into JFK. He told me before he was going to stump me.

Now onto the flying part. Bone headed move and I didn’t check my checklist and forgot to test the carb heat on run up. He pointed it out, of course. First take off was going to be a soft-field. I was told to line up and wait, which when that happens my CFI doesn’t have me do a soft field because it’s not realistic, but he still wanted me to do it. It was alright but got blown off course pretty quickly. The winds had picked up, no doubt.

We headed to the south and started out with clearing turns into a steep turn. He wanted either way, I did to the left. Get my weaker side over first. It was great! I was having one of my on days with steep turns. Whoo! I was disappointed he didn’t want one to the right. Next, slow flight. That was fine too. I was starting to lose altitude on turns, but added power and saved it. Recovered from that great.

Next up, accelerated stall. Uh-oh. I hate these. So. Much. I forgot to pull the power back and it wasn’t stalling because of that. I tried twice and he took over. He did one. I did one, I kept banking at first then was able to fix it. We did it a few times until I had it.

We moved onto power off stalls. He didn’t like my abrupt pull up at the end so he showed me just to wait it out. I did it myself once and he thought it was better. Power on stall was fine. I had to wait it out longer than I like to because we were with the wind, but it happened!

He wanted me to do an emergency descent. I got it confused with doing an engine out emergency. I have never done an emergency descent. Jake says it’s a commercial maneuver and I shouldn’t worry about it, but it’s easy enough anyway. Power to idle, 30 degrees of bank and don’t exceed 110 knots. Done.

He had me do a real emergency out and that was fine. My ideal spot was on the inner shore like but we were in the Class C airspace and he said the controller wouldn’t like that so I had to pick the beach as a landing spot. I had it made easily and we went in for landings.

The crosswind was 90 degrees and strong with gusts. I was suppose to do a soft field, but the wind was too strong and just did a regular crosswind landing. It was fine. We were already cleared touch and go so went back up and did one more landing. Again, fine, but definitely the strongest crosswind I’ve ever landed in.

Debrief was good, he thinks I’m in good shape, just some review on my accelerated stalls and go over emergency descent once more. He believes my flying is above what he normals sees at my level (Yay! Ego boost!) and that my radio work is perfect. I felt that was very good coming from a controller. As you know from my earlier posts, my neurosis about radio work paid off!

I have one more flight with my CFI and then the big day. I’m hoping the winds are good on Wednesday. After today, I’m feeling a bit better about my oral but Jake is still going to give me a mock oral tonight or tomorrow. He’s tough on me so I’m sure I’ll feel unprepared after that, but it should make the real thing easier? Right?

Lesson Time: 1.6 hours

Total Time: 65.3 hours

Just What I Needed

October 25, 2013

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I made it through flying every day for five days straight! A new first! This morning I almost cancelled my lesson, but glad I didn’t. I looked at the weather and forecast, it was another windy day. I felt so discouraged after yesterday and didn’t need or want another day of discouraging landings. I texted my CFI asking if he thought it was worth it, and also that I had another 0.9 solo time left and I was starting to worry it the weather would never cooperate. I knew he was flying until 10am, which is when I have to leave for the train station. I started out anyway, easier to turn around than trying to rush there.

A bit before my train he texted back that it wasn’t too bad out there and I should still come out if I can make it. And that’s why I always leave for the train, just in case. So I hopped on the train, and he picked me up at the train station.

We went over what time I had left, what we’ll do Monday and Tuesday (the VOR still isn’t in the plane yet) and then he told me about his flying that morning. He said he was doing a BFR for another CFI and on the last landing had to grab the controls from him. That made me feel better about yesterday!

Beautiful fall colors by the airport!

The plan was go up together, do a few landings and see if I’m comfortable with the winds and I’d go solo. I woke up with a headache and my head was still kind of hurting. I had taken some Motrin and it wasn’t fixing it, so I began to think it was a migraine. Last time I flew and had a migraine in the morning was my first solo, if I soloed today it was going to be good. 😛

We did a regular landing. The winds were stronger than usual, but they were right down the runway, maybe a little to the left. Oh it felt so good to not do a crosswind landing! I could have held it off more, but whatever, it was finally a good landing. I told him how much easier it is without a crosswind! He said I’ll enjoy the challenge of crosswinds one day, I responded “doubt it.”

He wanted a soft field landing for the next landing. It was a struggle for sure. I pulled the power too much at the end and it wasn’t so soft. There was more of a crosswind too so had to work it down more. Next time, he’d help me some more. It still wasn’t perfect, he definitely had to help with the crosswind. On the climb out, I was saying how difficult it is for me doing both the crosswind correction and a soft field landing. He asked if I just wanted to do regular crosswind landings, I said yes.

Ready to get my solo on!

We did five more landings just focusing on the crosswind part. I felt much better doing that. They were getting better. He told me to make the last one a full stop and taxi back to the FBO and he’d get out and send me up solo. At least he trusted me to land in these winds by myself! I was a bit surprised, but good! We talked about what I should do up there and where I should go. He said my landing back at the airport would be the best since he wouldn’t be there to see it. I took him back, took note of the time and headed back out.

I went to the north since it takes longer to get out there and that’s where I’ll be maneuvering for the checkride. I was definitely getting pushed by the wind. I climbed up to 2,500ft and out over the water I set up for slow flight. You can feel the wind a lot more in slow flight. I only held it for a bit and recovered. I set up for a power off stall. I only ended up doing an imminent stall because I didn’t like the wind pushing me and was worried about going uncoordinated into a stall by myself. I wasn’t for pushing my limits today, I needed to build confidence.

Even though it’s windy, you have to enjoy the visibility you get with winds.

I did that one more time and dropped down to 1,000ft to do turns around a point. I knew where the wind was from and entered with the wind. It took me one or two times around to get used to the wind pushing. I kept going until I got it down. The headwind side of the circle always feels so long before I go into a steeper turn!

Then I moved onto steep turns. My right side is always so strong. I had to work on my left side a bit more. I kept doing them until I got two within standards. I was 0.1 away on the Hobbs to complete my solo time, I headed back in.

At northport stacks, right before I called, there was a Piper calling from the same point. I didn’t see him! Where is he?! I call right after so ATC can help me spot him. I have to ident. The Piper sees me, it takes me a bit to find, but with the help from ATC I spot him.

There was a jet landing and my downwind was extended to the inner shoreline (about 5 miles away from the airport). I just wanted to land! I was also racing the clock on a TFR beginning at 2:00pm. It was about 1:48pm. I knew I was fine, but still! My turn to final was good. I stayed really focus on the way in. There was another jet taking off before me and ATC cautioned me about wake turbulence. It was still pretty windy, so I’m sure it was blown off course by the time I got there.

My focused face (no I didn’t take the picture while landing)

Speed was good, I’m not yet over the threshold, the stall horn sounds a little and stops because I add just a bit of power. The crosswind is switching from left to right. I’m being blown a bit to the right, I put in some right aileron and left rudder. Power out, stall horn sounding again, right wheel down, left wheel down, nose wheel down nice and soft. I totally celebrate with a “whooo!” then am angry because my CFI was right! It was good to get that landing in though! I felt so much better.

Also, that solo time was looming over my head and having it down got a lot of stress off of me. I feel so much better than yesterday, or even this morning. I was pretty sure last night/this morning I’d have a breakdown before the checkride. I don’t feel that way anymore. Thank God! On the ride to the train we debriefed my solo. I told him he was right about the landing. I got an “I told you so!” Obviously we’ve been spending too much time together this past week with our banter.

I also told him my worries about the oral and he put my mind at ease a bit about that. Told me to relax this weekend, and not shut myself up in a room to study. We also went over about the IACRA form and I should fill it out this weekend and text him. Also, he said he’d call someone who recently had a checkride with my DPE and he’d get the lowdown for me. We also set up Tuesday we’d go over the maintenance logs so I’m familiar with them, in case that pops up on the checkride.

I’m glad I went today. A day thought would be discouraging, was a confidence boost. I know I can manage a solo in stronger winds and land the plane well in a crosswind. Though, I’m still hoping for better winds on the checkride!

Lesson Time: 1.1 dual, 1.2 solo

Total Time: 63.7 hours

Self Doubt Beginning

October 24, 2013

· 10 Comments

Fourth day in a row of flying. I feel like I’m flying like it’s my job. But sadly, it’s not. It’s still not ideal weather, windy and gusty. We went to Bridgeport today because that’s where I’ll actually be doing my landings for the checkride. I’ve been there twice, but my CFI wanted me to have a refresher.

I put KBDR into both GPS systems. I’m way more familiar with the Garmin GPS, but the other is a bit different and the past two days we’ve been getting me more familiar with it since the DPE is more comfortable with that one and using one of the GPS will be on my checkride.

It was pretty windy at 2500ft, it’s always kind of bumpy on the way to the Northport Stacks, but it was even bumpier than usual. I wouldn’t have gone up alone in this weather. There were a few clouds at 3000ft, if we were going on a XC I would have climbed above them and hopefully it would have been calmer.

We did 6 landings at KBDR, it was work every single time to land the plane. It was also work taking off and in the pattern. The gusts would change my altitude, it’s a lot more close attention to everything so in that something can change rapidly. There was a few times I climbed above pattern altitude by mistake, or on my descent turns I pointed the nose down too much and gained too much airspeed. It was a difficult day.

I did two short field and two soft field landings. My second short field was much better than my first, but both were within the correct distance. It was just the crosswind correction was better on the second. Soft field were fine, could have been softer and better crosswind correction. I took the correction out too early on my first soft field take off, I fixed it the next time. We headed back to KFRG after my second soft field take off.

As mentioned on Facebook, the best thing heard on the radio today was when departing KBDR. ATC: Runway 29, Cleared the option. Pilot: We’re requesting a touch and go, sir. ATC: Cleared the option. That’s one of the options… It was just a funny thing that made the day a bit better.

My landing at KFRG wasn’t so nice. It was quite gusty, and a 90 degree crosswind. We were using runway 32, maybe could have used 19, neither option was that great. My CFI did take over right before touch down. I was being pushed too far off the center line and I think he was worried about being blown off the runway. It wasn’t something that made me feel confident looking back.

I still need some more solo time, but with weather like this I’m getting worried about it. The VOR should be put in tomorrow too. I feel like I’m cutting it close. I’m also feeling a lot of self-doubt. My CFI quizzed me on the way back to KFRG on stuff, I’m fine with all the specifics of the plane, though I did blank on what Vr stood for, oops! It took me a bit to recall that the plane was 110 horsepower as well, but it finally came.

I think doubt is a normal part of my process. I feel I felt this way before my solo, before my written, and they went fine. It just feels like a bit of a struggle right now. I have to focus on studying more, I’ve been procrastinating because for some reason I feel overwhelmed. I have 3 more days of flying scheduled before my checkride. I may not use them all, we’ll see.

Lesson Time: 1.6 hours

Total Time: 61.4 hours

More Checkride Prep

October 23, 2013

· 5 Comments

Third lesson this week! I’m not too tired, but luckily since I’m between gigs right now this is all I’m doing.

The plane still doesn’t have the VOR so no instrument time. It should arrive today and be ready for my lesson Thursday or Friday. We went to the south practice area to do some stalls. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a power on stall and even longer since I’ve done an accelerated stall.

We started off with some slow flight. It was all good. Did a power off stall, it was good too. I’m the most comfortable with power off stalls. I do forget to start a descent and then pull up to stall the plane to simulate an approach better. Next was a power on stall, it was with a tailwind. I got off my heading a lot, it wasn’t breaking. I set it up and tried again. I wasn’t really on my heading again, I had a lot of right rudder in and it broke. Wing dropped. I made a sound and my instructor helped me fix it. We went over it and then moved onto an accelerated stall.

I hadn’t done accelerated stalls with this instructor. He knows I’m not a fan. It wasn’t too bad though. I’m much better at making the movement more abrupt. He did the first one with me and then I did the second one by myself. He did have to ask if I heard the stall horn when I did it. I did, I don’t like hearing it so I recovered at the first sign.

We were moving into steep turns. The horizon was much worse than yesterday, but they were much better. We have discovered my right ones are better. I lost some altitude initially, but recovered and stayed at the exact altitude the rest of the time around. Left was passing, we did another one just for good measure that was better.

He asked if I was feeling good, and I said I wasn’t too confident about my power on stalls so we did three more. First was with a tailwind, another wing drop. I let “oh god” escape with that. I felt stupid for letting my response be that strong. He helped me recover. Again too much right rudder. Again, another wing drop, but I recovered all by myself without a vocal response. I felt better about that. I told him how much difficulty I was having after adding full power breaking the stall and keeping my heading. We turned around and did one with a headwind. It was so much better. It broke much easier and no wing drop. I talked to Jake after my lesson and he told me I should add the power in more slowly with a more abrupt pull up and that’d help me get the stall to break earlier.

We came back in for touch and gos. Eight landings total. Three short field, two soft field, others were just cross wind landings. The first one was pretty good. I’m still working on keeping the center line better with a crosswind. It was different from yesterday though. Yesterday was a gusty crosswind, today was a constant variable crosswind. It was switching from 90 degrees to the right, to 45 degrees to the right, to 20 degrees to the left. It was all over the place.

During all the landings, rain was starting to fall. It was weird that taking off the rain would stop, landing it start to fall heavily. On the GPS, we were always in the green (light train), but sometimes would creep into the yellow (moderate rain). There was an orange section popping up right before we called it for the day.

My first touch and go was actually a go around. There was an Eclipse get that already went around in front of us (it would have been impressive if he made that landing) I was struggling with the crosswind, I touched down kind of hard and right as my wheels touched the controller told us to go around. My instructor helped me with it because it threw me. A go around can definitely happen at any moment. I’ve never had it as my wheels touched down. The jet landed right behind us.

My CFI snapped this on final of one of my last landings.

The first soft field landing actually wasn’t a soft field landing. I forgot. I had a great approach, I was very focused. I touched it down and my CFI asked “What happened to the soft field landing?” Oops! The second time I said out loud two times “soft field” on final as a reminder. It was pretty good, still a bit right of the center line. The winds were normally coming from the right. We saw a Piper land left of the center line and my CFI pointed out “see he landed to the left, don’t do that” I responded with “I know, I land to the right!” being a bit cheeky with him. He actually said he would prefer that in case I got pushed at the last moment.

The last landing of the day was “dealer’s choice” he always likes to give me the choice the last time. We had just done two short field landings, the second one was good, but I knew I could do better so I picked that. The winds started picking up and getting gusty. It got kind of squirrely over the runway, I was being pushed all around. The wings were all over the place, it wasn’t too much of a short field. I almost said near the end I just wanted a regular landing, but I knew if I ever go to a short field I won’t have a choice. I stuck with it. I made it work, maybe a bit longer than it should have been, but it worked.

It wasn’t the best landing to end the day with, but my CFI acknowledged I was pretty getting tired after the lesson. I agree. I’m hoping the weather calms down tomorrow. I still have 0.9 solo hours to complete. Jake thinks I should save it for a bit closer. I’m just hoping some good weather will come soon, especially Wednesday! We need a little more work on my landings, I’m not feeling too confident on those lately. Just need a better day for them!

Lesson Time: 1.9 hours

Total Time: 59.8 hours

An Email Can Go A Long Way!

October 22, 2013

· 4 Comments

Today was a good day! I didn’t finish my instrument time because waiting for that VOR to be put back in the plane because it will be on the checkride. My CFI and I sat down before the flight and went over what my checkride would look like as told to him by the DPE. So I now know where the plan my flight to, what VOR we’ll use, where I’ll divert to and I can use the GPS for that, and then we’ll go into maneuvers from there.

We ran into the other owner of the flight school and his student coming back from a flight. I do enjoy talking to other students a lot. The instructors went away from us to talk about something, so we just chatted. He just did his first dual XC, which is exciting for him.

The wind was -let’s say- healthy today. We were reviewing ground reference maneuvers since it’s been a long time since I’ve done them. Having a strong wind was a challenge, I wouldn’t go with that strong of a wind on a checkride so it could only get easier! First was turns around a point, we used a lighthouse. I entered it with the wind coming from behind, and just kept circling to get it down. I wasn’t always going far enough when heading into the wind and the lighthouse would get closer. I was always able to fix it and it got better the more I did. There was a 30kt difference in our ground speed from headwind to tailwind, it was a bit crazy.

Next up was S turns along a rode, we used a bridge actually. Set up to enter on the downwind. I ended up doing three complete “S”s. I think my CFI was being nitpicky about when I leveled the wings since sometimes I’d level them two seconds before hitting the road, but I’m glad to have nitpickiness. They seemed pretty good to me. With the strong wind, I could really feel when the wind started pushing me on the second “c” of the “S”

No rectangular course, that’s the traffic pattern, I got that. Next was slow flight. I just need to remember to add a touch more (well, it’s actually a touch but the throttle gets pushed in a lot it feels like) during turns, but it was all within PTS.

Steeps turns again! I struggled a bit to the left and wasn’t within PTS, the right was passing. We did two more to the left. I got the sight picture and my last one to the left was great, lost less than 50ft. We did one to the right for good measure and it was pretty good. Now, I just need to learn to do that the first time!

We worked on crosswind landings. I was struggling a bit, it was getting pretty gusty. The first one was okay. The second one – ick. Third one was without flaps, I touched down pretty nice and straight though. The last two we put in only 20 degrees of flaps versus the regular full 30 degrees. It helped a lot, I didn’t feel like I was being pushed around as much. I wasn’t on the center line both times, but my ground track was much better. Crosswind landings are definitely working until the very end.

Taxied back to the hangar so he could change the tires on the 152. Another student was actually scheduled and he came over to me while my CFI was grabbing his car from the FBO (they were sealing our normal ramp spot so things were a bit wonky today). We chatted, he had such a confidence about him. I thought he was a private pilot already, but I’m actually ahead of him. He was heading out for his long solo XC. Maybe I need to have more confidence like that? I don’t know, I know my flying is good but I’m more of a humble (timid?) person – you know, when actually talking to people, on here I’m awesome! 😛 But I know a lot of the flying culture is about confidence.

I was excited for after my lesson! I was having coffee with the flight lead of the Geico Skytypers! They are based out of Republic and when they’re back I always get to taxi by them. I was curious about them and googled them. I sent the flight lead an email saying how I like taxiing by the planes. I said I’d love to watch them practice, if they ever practice in the area. I got an email in return saying we should have coffee! Awesome!

He works for an airline too and weather was bad last week so it took a bit to coordinate and today was the day it worked out. He gave me a signed pamphlet of the Skytypers and we talked about that sort of flying and each of our background. He did say I wasn’t the type of person they look for to fly for them (whoa, not what I was thinking about anyway – but wait, now I think I want to after that comment) but it’s because they normally use military guys. Only two guys (they’re all guys) aren’t former military pilots, him and one other guy.

He showed me a video of them flying their awesome T6s – they’re actually SNJ-2s, which is the Navy version. I talked about what I wanted to do with aviation and also about taking aerobatic lessons. There isn’t anyone at FRG who teaches that, he said he’d help me look for someone at another nearby airport. He also took me to their hangar to meet the mechanics and said I should stop by when the planes are back and I see the hangar open and say I’m his friend to check them out for a closer look.

Lastly, he said next spring he’ll take me up with them when they have a skytyping job! I really hope that happens! I’d love that. He said if he has a maintenance flight before then he’ll call me up and let me go with him. It’s such an amazing plane and I can’t wait to fly in it. I just have to remember to keep up a relationship in some form with him, which I want to do, I just feel I’m quite bad at it. We’ll see what happens! You never know what a long way an email can go if you don’t send it!

Lesson Time: 1.6 hours

Total Time: 57.9 hours

Flying Along The Ocean

October 21, 2013

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I had finished my cross-country requirements for mileage, but not for time. I needed 0.7 of an hour more to get the 5 hours of solo cross-country time and today I finished it up.

It was a perfect day for solo flight. Clear skies, it was a nice temperature and the wind was light. My CFI picked me up from the train station and we went straight into talking about the cross-country because it was to an uncontrolled airport. I went once with him to an uncontrolled airport at the start of the month, and that’s my only time being at one. He just wanted to go over my route (I was flying along the southern coast of Long Island, which is a nice change from the northern coast) and cover uncontrolled airport procedures.

They were doing maintenance on the 152 that morning so the plane was by the hangar. There’s apparently an oil leak somewhere. They cleaned it out and tightened some thing, he thought he fixed the problem but told me to keep a look out if anything seemed off.

You can see I have three frequencies for NY Approach.

I took off from runway 19 so was able to do a straight out departure. I went over to the outer coast (there is a bay) to avoid the Class C airspace, I just planned to avoid it to make it easier. I tried a new frequency for NY Approach, I also heard a controller at Tower suggest it to someone else. There was a lot of talking going on so I checked the normal frequency and they were on it and call on that one. Got flight following easily. It’s not stressful anymore to me, which is great.

I headed along the coast, doing my check point and writing down my time. It was matching up pretty nicely. I had one of those moments where I realized “Oh wow, I’m flying a plane by myself! This is awesome!” It’s nice to have those moments. And I enjoyed just flying for a little bit, not worrying too much and not feeling overwhelmed (which I haven’t felt since the first solo cross-country.) I also got to watch an awesome aerobatic plane diving down like crazy and going back up over the middle of Long Island. I let that distract me too much and gained 300ft in altitude.

I tried to get the AWOS, but I wasn’t getting anything on the radio. I had checked the METAR before I left so I wasn’t terribly worried. I got the airport in sight. It’s getting easier to recognize airports higher up and further away now. I looked at the GPS and saw I was 8 miles away and forgot to announce at 10 miles, so I announced then. I heard someone taking off runway 28, which is what I thought the active would be from my earlier weather information. The traffic was going to the north, so no issue there. I self announced entering the downwind, when I was in the downwind, my base, final and clear of the active. It was such a confidence boost to do this all with ease. I know people have said it’s hard going from a controller or uncontrolled airport to the opposite, but that didn’t seem to be an issue.

I’m not sure what this was but probably some oil station?

This time I didn’t get out of the plane and just taxied back to take off. There was someone landing before me, I self announced and took off. I may have announced too much – once when I was about to take the active, another as I was taking off, and another as I left the pattern – but better safe than sorry!

The flight back was the same, it was easy and enjoyable. I’m sad that as I was passing Calverton Approach said they were getting ready to jump (that airport only does skydiving) I had past it when he said they jumped. Probably, in the end, the best thing, I don’t have to worry about people in the sky. Flight following was helpful with the advisories, there was a plane heading fast, at my altitude, and straight at me. I had to divert into the Class C airspace to avoid, which was fine.

Gabreski Airport

A bit of Long Island Aviation history for you – I passed Gabreski airport, which has a very long runway. It was actually the airport assigned that if a space shuttle had an emergency they would land there. Pretty exciting stuff. It was also where the helicopter that crashed for the search and rescue for The Perfect Storm took off.

I got back to Republic just fine. ATC told me to follow a Piper to a downwind for runway 19. I didn’t see the Piper and told them I was looking for them. In hindsight, I should have told them negative traffic at some point, but didn’t. I heard them cleared the Piper to land, they cleared me to land before I even joined the downwind. I was getting ready to turn shortly and saw the Piper! I was really close to him. I tried to turn a wide downwind, still a bit close. I did a shallow S turn for spacing, he turned his base and I just extended my downwind a bit further to give him space. It all worked out.

It was a bit gusty, but my landing was pretty good. Downside: I touched down nice and soft, then a gust of wind brought me back up. I managed to touch down softly again and was happy I was able to save the landing.

Overall, it was a good day. I felt confident about my flying and I had fun. I just got a text from my CFI, we’re scheduling my checkride for Wednesday of next week! I’m flying every day this next week so that’ll prepare me. I need to work on my oral stuff a lot, which I plan on doing after flying and on the train every day. I can’t wait!

Lesson Time: 1.7 hours

Total Time: 56.3 hours

It’s Foggle Time!

October 18, 2013

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After a vacation, the flu, and bad weather, I finally got back up in the air today. It was two weeks since I last flew. I didn’t feel too rusty and my CFI said I did a good job, he’s seen others forget a lot after taking that long of a break.

It was a bit gusty out of Republic today, so we did a dual flight instead of him sending me on another cross-country to finish my solo requirements. We worked on finishing up my instrument time, but didn’t finish it all. Soon after taking off I put on the foggles and headed out towards the practice area.

Under the hood, we did a lot of climbing and descending turns. My CFI had me close my eyes and try to keep straight and level flight. I knew the plane was trimmed so I just kept a light handle on the yoke and throttle and let the plane fly. He said open my eyes and recover, I wasn’t too far off from where I was. He was bummed yet happy I didn’t go into an unusual attitude. I told him I knew he was trying to trick me and knew better to fall for it. He reminded me that’s his job. 😛 Next time, he used the trim and the screwed me up big time. I had to recover that time.

Then we moved onto slow flight and a power off stall. Even though they aren’t required for the check ride, my CFI likes to do them anyway. Doing slow flight under the hood definitely reminds me how “mushy” the plane gets and that a small input will turn it more than 10 degrees! We also did steep turns while just looking at the instruments, which was fun, but difficult. I learned a lot more “finesse” with the position of the ball (plane) on the attitude indicator by doing steep turns.

Next, he pulled the power and said I had an engine failure. I was actually thrown. I didn’t know what to do because I had the foggles on. He reminded me ABCD and I trimmed for best glide, then got confused again. He told me to use what I have and look at the GPS. I can see that I have a shoreline near me and keep on that until I’d break out of the clouds. It was a nice learning moment.

We did a few unusual attitudes (real ones) for the last thing. It’s always so weird having my eyes closed while he’s trying to mess with my senses. He’s very good at disorientating me. I was doing pretty well at recovering, except sometimes I’d forget to add enough power back in after pulling it when recovering. The last one he did, the airspeed was fast and we were descending about 800ft per minute, the plane was trimmed all the way nose down. It was very hard to pull up and it threw me for a loop. He said I had to go by the instruments, not by how the plane was responding so I pulled up harder to slow the airspeed. I fixed the trim while doing that. He said the DPE probably wouldn’t give me anything that hard, but he just wanted to give me it.

After instrument time was done for day (we did all that in 30 minutes!), we did some steep turns. It was difficult to look outside after looking at the instruments for them. I find I have good days and bad days for steeps turns. Today, wasn’t one of the good days. We just stayed in a steep turn, not worrying about the 360 degrees until the sight picture was burned into my memory. One time, I did finally go through my own wake which was so weird feeling that little bump.

We came in for five landings:

1. This one was fine, a bit off the center line. The gusts were still there, but dying down.
2. Next one wasn’t so good. I bounced on the landing. I was too high, too slow, and it would have been solved just by adding some power. I’m very bad at fixing my landings this way. I have to remember to add power!
3. No flap landing. I was a bit all over the place when close to the runway, I touched down fine. I just had some trouble controlling the plane when it was slower. I forgot to add more deflection in when airspeed slows.
4. Soft field landing. It was nice and soft, but I forgot to pull the power all the way back after landing.
5. Short field landing, it was pretty good. Nice and short and was able to take the first exit off the runway.

On the last two landings there was a sweet Lancair Evolution waiting to take off. I got a bit distracted by it because the paint job was bad-ass. I couldn’t find a picture of it but this is similar, it was a dark paint job which seems kind of rare, but I like!

I got nice complicated taxiing directions from tower: “Exit Alpha 5, wait for Cessna to clear you, Alpha to Gulf 3, cross Runway 1, Bravo to Atlantic, monitor Ground.” Alright, writing it out doesn’t look so bad, but it sounds more complicated right after landing. I repeated it like a boss though, even my CFI complimented me.

It was a good lesson. I have a lesson scheduled every day next week. I’m exciting to see how it goes. I still haven’t talked about scheduling the DPE, I decided he’ll tell me when I’m ready and I don’t want to fret too much over it. This weekend I’ll be going through my study guides and prepping for the oral portion. I can’t wait!

Lesson Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 54.6

Stuck on the Couch

October 17, 2013

· 1 Comment

Still no flying this week. I’m hoping for tomorrow. Monday I was out due to the flu. Wednesday and today (Thursday) was due to low clouds (and maybe still a bit sick.) I just have been sleeping and sitting on the couch a lot this week. Jake is still not allowed to go to work since he’s on Tamiflu and can’t fly while taking that. He’s also been sicker than me and I’ve been taking care of him while also sick.

I’m hoping for tomorrow to be better, and next week to be excellent. I’m also hoping that the DPE’s schedule will be open and I can take it soon as I’m ready. Again, that is a discussion I’ve been meaning to have with my CFI, whenever I get to see him.

Thanks to the wonderful, Arthur. I’ve been using some of my couch time to prep for my oral exam with a helpful sheet he emailed me from a DPE. I know I still have to buckle down hardcore next week. I’ll do some more work on it today. I find typing out answers a lot more helpful to me than just saying them out loud.

PS. This is my 100th post, yay!

Archive for October 2013

Conversation about Aviation (i.e. Oral Exam)

Last Flight

Mock Checkride

Just What I Needed

Self Doubt Beginning

More Checkride Prep

An Email Can Go A Long Way!

Flying Along The Ocean

It’s Foggle Time!

Stuck on the Couch

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Flight Follow Cessna Chick!

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