Today for my first solo cross country, I decided to fly to Beckley again. Looking back on it all, I realize that it was a terrible idea. That flight sucked. For several reasons.
First of all, except for the first thirty minutes on the flight down, the rest of that flight and the flight back consisted of nothing but terribly annoying turbulence. It was just tossing me in all different directions. I almost got sick a couple times. It sucked. Here is some video I took of Summersville Lake. Notice that the camera is bouncing around a lot. That's NOT my terrible filming skills.
Also, all the scenery was the reason I chose this flight. Unfortuenatly, it was all difficult to make out due to snow. This flight is actually much longer than what is required, so it costs a little extra overall. I figured it would be worth it for the views. It wasn't. The only good part was the New River Gorge, which I took some video of:
If I could go back, I would do this flight somewhere quicker to get it over with faster. Maybe Parkersburg, or Wheeling. My landing at Beckley sucked, I had a quartering headwind of 9 knots gusting to 17.
I feel like I wasted more money than I needed to on this flight. It was a bad choice. At least now I'm ready for my Stage 2 Check, which hopefully I will do next week sometime before Christmas Break.
Today I flew my night cross country from Clarksburg to Parkersburg and back. Its was fun. I'm doing really well. My instructor has so much confidence in me, at one point he just reclined his chair and relaxed for a bit while I flew.
I'm doing really well with my cross country flights, but, I do have one problem. Cockpit management. Cockpit management is basically how I keep all my logs, maps, and checklists organized while I fly. I have papers scattered across my lap and the back of the plane and sometimes they fall between my legs and I have to fish for them. I even lost my instructors flashlight in Parkersburg- we found it though. It was under a seat.
The plane I flew in was not the best plane either. It didn't even have a stopwatch built in like the rest of the planes. I wound up using my instructors watch to keep track of my time between checkpoints. Needless to say, the cockpit was a mess. There has to be a better way.
Landing at Parkersburg wasn't very fun. Not because of the airport itself, but more because it was night and all that was around me was dark. I couldn't tell if I was over a mountain or a forest or even a body of water. Needless to say, I stayed high until I reached the threshold of the runway.
I did four more stop-and-go landings at Clarksburg to meet my 10 night landings requirement for my license. I did much better on these landings than the last time I landed at night.
Next flight is my first solo cross country. I have it scheduled for Saturday. Then I should be able to take my Stage 2 check.
Today the visibility was low, winds were gusty, temperatures below freezing, and very low ceilings. So, guess what? I got to fly.
Just not outside.
I stayed warm inside and flew in the simulator again. I flew a cross country from Clarksburg to Charleston. This was technically a solo flight, although you can't use the simulator without your instructor, so I still payed for dual time.
This lesson is actually stage three. I still have two lessons and a stage check left in stage two, but since the weather has been so bad lately, we skipped ahead and did my other simulator flight from stage three.
I planned my flight appropriately, received flight following, and opened a flight plan. The only error I made in communicating with ATC was not turning on the Nav frequency when opening my flight plan. Let me explain.
In Clarksburg, in order to open a flight plan,
you have to tune your radio to the FSS frequency, and listen to the VOR frequency. So I called up FSS (Flight Service Station) and announced that I wanted to open my flight plan. My instructor (playing the role of ATC) never responded. When I realized I hadn't tuned to the VOR frequency, I felt stupid.
Everything else I did succesfully without commentary from my instructor. He tried to trick me a couple times- putting another plane on a collision course with me to see if I would catch it, or making the oil pressure zero. I caught it everytime.
The landing was a little rough, but apparently its fairly difficult to land in the sim.
Hopefully sometime this week I will get to fly for real.
Today had a lot of firsts for me. First time flying at night, first time landing at night, first time flying in below freezing temperatures, and first time flying in snow.
First things first, preflighting the plane took a little longer than usual because you can barely see anything at night- and its unwise to use flashlights because you sacrifice a little night vision which is desirable for flying at night. Plus since it was so cold, we had to take a propane pre-heater to the engine to avoid any damage caused by a cold start.
Once we got the plane started, I got to learn how to use the variuos new types of lighting I've never used before. These include: The taxi light, which is a light that shines on the ground, the navigation lights, which shine green and red lights on the wing so that other aircraft can see which direction I'm moving in the air, and the strobe lights which are flashes of light every second.
We took off and flew out towards Tygart Lake. It was pretty awesome seeing everyone's Christmas lights. I was able to pick out the various towns such as Grafton and Phillipi by the clusters of lights. I practiced slow flight, stalls, and steep turns.
Then we decided to head in the general direction of Phillipi airport to the south. After a couple minutes, I spotted the flashing green and white light of the airports beacon. Once we got a little closer to the beacon, I tuned the radios to the CTAF of Phillipi airport and I clicked my mic seven times. All of the sudden, boom! Runway. By clicking my mic seven times I triggered the pilot-controlled lighting and activated the runway and other lighting systems. It was nice.
At one point, we could look out at the wing, and see the strobe lights reflecting off snow. It was actually snowing around us. It was kind of like Star Wars- with the snow flying past you really fast.
We then headed back to do some stop-and-go's at Clarksburg airport. Clarksburg's runway lighting does not consist of centerline lighting, so it looked like I was diving into a long rectangular hole. Once I got close, the plane's landing light shined on the runway and I could tell when to flare. Unfortuneatly, I often didn't pull back far enough on touchdown which resulting in touching down on all three wheels instead of just the back two. My instructor informed me that this was because your depth perception is faulty at night.
It was a pretty awesome lesson. My next flight is another dual cross country, but at night. I might do this tomorrow night, because it looks like its going to snow all week.
I'm taking my Private Pilot Knowledge Exam tomorrow. I have studied hard for it and I definitely feel ready to take it.
Today was my first real cross country from Clarksburg to Beckley and back. It took approximately one hour each way. Basically, we flew to Beckley and back in less time than it would take to drive to Beckley. It was fun and the scenery was awesome.
Cross country flight is all about multitasking. Not only do I have to fly the plane, I have to time the flight between checkpoints and compare that to my estimated time, use my e6b computer to calculate ground speed, and then use that to find an estimated time to my next heading. All while maintaining altitude and heading to stay on course.
For the flight down to Beckley, I flew at 6500 feet altitude. The total distance is 100 nautical miles, and time enroute was 61 minutes. Some of my visual checkpoints included: Sutton Lake, Birch River, Summersville Lake and airport, and the New River Gorge.
Visibility was practically unlimited. At some point near Summersville, we could see in the distance the John Amos Power Plant in Nitro. I took a look at the map and we found that it was roughly 50 nautical miles away. We could also see windmills on top of the Appalachian mountains roughly 25 miles away. So from 6500 feet, I could see a very large portion of West Virginia.
Summersville Lake was interesting, it was almost completely dried up. You could see the mud where the lake once was, but obviously for some seasonal reason or another they have drained most of it. You could walk across some sections of the lake.
The New River Gorge looked AWESOME from above. It really is- a gorge! I always thought it was a river between two giant mountain ranges- But its more like a deep crevice cut into a large flat plateau. The keyword is flat. The area surrounding the gorge is practically flat.
Beckley airport has no control tower- but it should. It's a big airport! Two full sized runways, a terminal, and several taxiways. It was a little strange roaming free here.
This cross country was a great experience. My next flight should be my night flight which we are planning for Thursday.
Today was my first ever cross country flight. Except, I never left the airport. I flew from Clarksburg to Parkersburg in the AlSim 200 flight simulator. My instructor played some tricks on me during the flight to try and see if I was paying attention.
I plotted and planned the trip using only crossing VOR radials as checkpoints (the program in the Sim didn't have any references on the ground, just terrain). I planned it out nice and easy to where every checkpoint was about 10 miles apart. Everytime I would reach the checkpoint, I would restart the timer, write down the actual time, compare the actual time to the estimated time, and recalculate the time enroute to the next checkpoint. there is a lot of multitasking involved.
Upon first taking off from Clarksburg, my instructor failed my engine and forced me to land back on the runway. he then informed me that I forgot to check my gauges before takeoff and that my oil pressure was nonexistent, so he failed my engine. Several times throughout the flight, he would put an Airbus on a collision course with me to see if I would catch it. I did, every time. He also dropped my oil pressure back down to zero again, but this time I caught it. We then discussed procedures for a diversion to an alternate airport in a case like this. On final to land, there was another plane on the runway. So I had to go around.(Lol...)
After landed safely at Parkersburg and closing the flight plan, my instructor let me screw around for a couple minutes. I did a barrel roll, a backflip, and a 90 degree steep banked turn. I then landed the plane going about 200mph and crashed off the end of the runway.
It was a good lesson, but definitly not a substitute for the real thing. I will probably do my first real cross country to Beckley this weekend.
Today's lesson plan originally involved one whole hour of instrument flying. Typically, I would have done this hour wearing the IFR hood so I couldn't see outside. Fortunatly, there were plenty of clouds today and my instructor actually went and filed an IFR flight plan. I got 1.0 hours of ACTUAL instrument time on top of my 1.7 hours of simulated instrument time.
Flying through the clouds was just awesome. Not only is it cool to see the clouds in all of their beauty, it was also pretty awesome to see how fast you are actually flying past them. It was a truly amazing experience.
We practiced most of the things in our lesson plan- stalls, slow flight, etc. Believe it or not, doing maneuvers in actual instrument conditions was a lot more difficult than when I'm just under the hood. I think I might know why- with simulated instrument maneuvers, I'm not tempted to look outside. However, with actual instrument maneuvers, I'm wanting to look outside for visual reference and it delays my reaction time a little when I realize I need to look back down at my instruments.
I started feeling a little bit sick, so we climbed up to 5000 feet above the clouds- and it was awesome. It was so awesome that I actually handed the controls over while I took a short video:
After a short recovery time, we dove back down into the sea of white. I learned procedures for inadvertant flight into the clouds- in which you simply make a 180 degree standard-rate turn and fly right back out of the clouds.
My instructor then started failing my instruments. First, he failed my attitude indicator and my heading indicator. I then had to divert my attention to the altimeter to see if I'm gaining or losing altitude, and the actual magnetic compass to see what direction I'm turning. Then, he failed my magnetic compass and told me to do a 180. I had to time a standard-rate turn using the turn coordinator (a standard rate turn is a turn that takes exactly two minutes to make a complete 360). By starting the timer and turning at standard rate until the timer read one minute, I was able to do a complete 180.
Then, he failed my altimeter and told me to climb from 4500 to 5000. I figured that by starting the timer and focusing on the vertical speed indicator (keeping my climb at 500 feet per minute), I climbed for exactly one minute and leveled off at 5000.
My instructor told me that I will be an excellent instrument pilot as long as I can get over the whole motion-sickness ordeal. Here is another video flying through the clouds (instructor at the controls):
I finished off the lesson by flying my first ILS approach (my instructor did most of the work on the approach, so I didn't get credit for it). I actually got vectored by ATC to merge with the glide path to the runway.
Not many private pilot students get to experience a flight like this. It was a very awesome lesson.
Today's flight was awesome. It was my first solo flight away from the airport's traffic pattern. I had some maneuvers I had to focus on doing, which I did, but I also had a little fun exploring and enjoing the view.
I started out practicing slow flight and stalls for about 15 minutes, and then my ground reference maneuvers for about 15 minutes. All the while knowing that Fairmont is just a few miles to the east...
So my curiosity got the best of me. I have never flown over Fairmont before and I figured since I had already finished most of my maneuvers, it wouldn't hurt to explore a little. I had no trouble whatsoever finding the city of Fairmont. Cruising flight is so easy- I only needed one hand. So guess what I did with the other? I took some video. Here it is:
I then cruised back over to the practice area. It was so relaxing and enjoiable that I felt the need to take even more video:
Having to focus on learning so much- you rarely get to actually sit back and enjoy the flight like I did today. With no instructor calling out maneuvers for me to execute, I was able to do whatever I wanted. And it was soooooooo sweet... :)
I finished everything thing off with three landings at Clarksburg. I cannot wait until I get my license and can do this more often. It's totally worth $125 per hour.
Today's lesson was partially done with instrument reference. I learned how to track to and from a VOR station. I also worked on short field takeoffs and landings.
My instructor started the lesson by telling me to fly to Tygart Lake- without looking outside. I was able to track to an intersection over the lake by following the Clarksburg VOR until the needle for the Elkins VOR centered (see pic ->)
I then worked on slow flight and stalls- some with instrument reference, and some with visual reference. After about 30 minutes of practicing slow flight and stalls, my instructor had me put the IFR hood back on so I couldn't see outside, and told me to fly a certain direction for a while.
I then had to use the VOR indicators to triangulate my location. I tuned both the Clarksburg and Elkins VORs and lined up the needles and used my sectional to pinpoint my location. I pinpointed our plane right next to Phillipi airport.
I then did three stop-and-go landings at Phillipi- which is an actual short field. It was fun actually landing at a different airport. It was in a very remote location on top of a mountain. I had fun landing and taking off there.
The next thing my instructor did was put me under the hood and tell me to close my eyes and put my chin to my chest so I couldn't see anything. He then proceeded to turn and pitch in all sorts of different directions- attempting to skew my senses. Then he would tell me to look up and recover. If the plane was nose low, you pull out on the power and pitch back to correct. The plane is nose high, you apply full power and push forward (to prevent a stall). This is called "Recovery from Unusual Flight Attitudes", and it is meant to simulate an instance where I am distracted by my maps and navigation and forget to look at my instruments or outside, and all of sudden realize that somethings not right. It was a piece of cake. Fun, too.
I then tracked to the Clarksburg VOR to get back to the airport, and executed a perfect short field landing. Today's lesson was a lot of fun.
Today I flew a complete flight from start to finish all by myself. The lesson was to solo in the traffic pattern for a whole hour. I was able to land seven times in that hour.
My first landing was all screwy- I was nervous from being in the plane alone again and put my flaps in at the wrong places- Came in kinda high and fast. The result was a relatively bouncy touchdown. Definitely not my best.
After that I did pretty well on my landings- I remembered to put the flaps in at the right times and I've developed better control of the plane in ground effect (which has always been tough for me in the past).
The only obstacles for my second solo was traffic and a tailwind. In spite of it being Veterans Day and therefore no military training traffic, there was still plenty of General Aviation Operations going on. At one point, I had to fly right traffic instead of left, which I am not used to. Also, even though there was a 3-5 knot direct tailwind, tower still had everyone landing and departing runway 21. As a result, my ground speed was much faster than what I was used to over the runway.
All in all, it was a good flight. I was able to comply with all ATC instructions and, other than my first landing, touch down smoothly every time.
The most important factor: I didn't crash the plane. :)
Today was my first time flying for a grade. I performed all the maneuvers I usually do and was given a grade out of five for each maneuver. I got mostly fours, one five, and four threes, for a total overall grade of 3.67.
My lowest scores were given for my ground reference maneuvers,emergency procedures, and my power-off stall. For my S-Turns, I had trouble losing altitude. For my turns around a point, I kept drifting in towards my point. Because I was so worried about how I would do, I accidentally started my turns around a point to the right (I'm used to doing it to the left). I got a three on my emergency procedures because I didn't use the checklist. I bombed my power-off stall because I pulled in the flaps too quickly on the recovery, before I had gained enough speed.
All in all, the primary reason I didn't do well on those maneuvers was because I was nervous. Had I just relaxed as usual, I would've done much better.
Ironically, I was most worried about maneuvering slow flight, and that's what I did best on.
This particular lesson was very brief- only 0.8 hours long. It consisted of four takeoffs and landings to a full stop- two of which were done by my instructor for the purpose of demonstration. I learned short and soft field takeoffs and landings.
Short field takeoff and landing
For a short field takeoff, you start by adding in 10 degrees of flaps. Then you taxi to the very end of the runway (pretending the runway is very short, when in fact, its 7000 feet long). Once you get lined up, you apply the brakes and full power. Now, suprisingly, even with full power, the brakes are good enough to keep the airplane from moving. You check the engine gauges (because in a real life situation, if you didn't notice a problem until halfway through takeoff, a short runway won't allow you to abort), and then you release the brakes, lift off at the normal 55 knots, and then climb a Vx which is a steep angle climb out. Once you clear the imaginary 50 foot obstacle, you can then execute a normal climb at Vy, which is best rate of climb.
Short field landings are slightly more difficult than regular landings- you must go five knots less than usual on approach. You have to clear an imaginary 50-foot obstacle at the threshold of the runway, and then touch down within two hundred feet of a certain point on the runway (usually about 1000 feet down, picked out by my instructor). Then you must stop in the least amount of distance possible using aerodynamic braking (full back elevator).
Soft field takeoff and landing
Soft field takeoff had me kind of nervous at first- so many things can go wrong here. First, keep in mind, we are pretending the runway is made of grass and dirt and not concrete. The primary objective is to keep as much weight off the nosewheel as possible, so it doesn't dig into the ground and cause the propeller to hit. You start out with full back elevator during taxi (in essence, riding a wheelie) and slowly taxi onto the runway WITHOUT touching the brakes. Using brakes on grass might cause the plane to dig into the ground. Then once you are lined up, apply full power, and basically ride a wheelie all the way down the runway (being careful not to scrape the tail). Now, the plane will become airborne before it has enough speed to climb, so as soon as the plane lifts up, you apply forward pressure and level off with the runway, wait for your speed to accumulate best normal lift-off speed, and then climb out. Sound scary? Yes it does. Its not that bad though. Here is a video of someone doing a soft field takeoff (notice how he hovers right over the runway until his speed builds up):
A soft field landing is basically the same as a regular landing with two minor differences: 1, you have to bump it a little bit of power in the flare, and 2, once you land, you must keep the nosewheel above the ground, basically riding a wheelie until you stop, and keep holding full back elevator to keep the weight off the nosewheel.
One interesting thing did happen to me today- during my climb out after my soft field takeoff, I notice a very large flock of birds flying right across my flight path. I immediatly nosed over to pass under them. I even noticed the birds before my instructor did. Had I not seen them, I would have ran right into the flock. It was a very interesting experience, to say the least. Reminds me to keep my eyes outside the plane as much as possible.
Today's lesson was a short one. The lesson was originally meant for me to learn short and soft field takeoffs and landings, but there was a direct crosswind of 10 knots today which would have made it very difficult. We decided that it would be better to wait for some calmer winds or at least a headwind to learn some complicated new maneuvers.
I worked on slow flight, stalls, steep turns, and ground reference maneuvers. The ground reference maneuvers were slightly more difficult than usual- thanks to some aggresive winds aloft. Normally I do not have difficulty maintaining altitude during the ground maneuvers, but today I did. I can only hope that my stage check will not take place on a windy day like this.
I landed only one time, because of the crosswinds. It was a good landing though, aside from coming in a little fast. I landed on the upwind wheel first just like I was supposed to.
My stage check has been scheduled for Monday at noon.
Today was my very first solo flight. It started out just like any other flight, except this time when I filled out the sheet for weight and balance I only had to put down 240lbs for the front seat instead of the usual 390lbs.
First things first, my instructor wanted to make absolutely sure I was ready, so he had me do three laps in the pattern without any commentary from him. I did okay on those three landings, and he seemed confident that I could do them on my own. So I taxied over to the ramp and he hopped out and stood with my parents and fiance.
For the first time, I was alone in the plane. I contacted ground and asked to taxi to the runway. Once I reached the runway, I contacted tower and I let them know that I was a student pilot on my first solo and asked for takeoff clearance. Without all that extra weight, takeoff was much smoother, and the plane climbed faster. I did my first lap and came up on my first landing. Considering that the plane weighed significantly less, I was prone to floating and balooning on the flare (which is when the plane starts flying again instead of touching down). I bounced a little. But, it wasn't a hard bounce like usual (probably due to less weight), and I still touched down nice and smooth.
My second landing was better, and my thrid landing was once again a little bouncy, mainly due to the floating. But its like they say, "A landing you can walk away from is a good one. A landing that doesn't break the plane is a great one." I taxied back to the ramp to pick up my instructor and we taxied back to the NAEC where he cut up my t-shirt.
Today was fun! My next solo will come right after my stage check (which should be fairly soon)...
Today's flight lesson was just plain awesome. The air was the smoothest it has ever been (thanks to some low temperatures and calm winds). To top it all off, the leaves are changing and it was awesome to look at from above. I practiced slow flight, steep turns, ground reference maneuvers and landings.
I did an excellent job performing all of the maneuvers, thanks to the smooth air. I was practicing turns around a point and I didn't even have to touch the yoke, once I was in the turn. We established that I can fly very well, as long as the air is smooth like this. I hope the same conditions are present when it comes time for my checkride.
I landed eight times today. All eight I did without assistance from my instructor. He also failed my engine while I was in the traffic pattern, and I had to glide the plane down to the runway and land. I also made an interesting discovery; thanks to the overcast sky, I didn't need my sunglasses for this lesson. As a result, I found out that I can see the runway better and I feel much more comfortable during the landing. I think it's because the sunglasses block my periphery a little bit, which I need to judge my height above the ground. So from now on, sunglasses off for the landing.
I will be taking my pre-solo exam Friday, and I will be soloing Sunday. I feel really good about it.
Today I got to really practice crosswind landings- thanks to 10 knot winds gusting to 15 knots, 90 degrees to the runway. It was definently a challenge, and I imagine it will take a lot more practice to develop the kind of skills needed for these crazy winds.
The winds aloft were also fairly challenging. As I attempted to practice manuevers, suddenly I would be blown 20 degrees off heading in less than a second. I also practiced some ground reference manuevers, which were slightly more difficult due to the higher wind speeds. But I suppose it's important that I learn these things in case I get involved in high-wind situations down the road.
As I go in for my first crosswind landing, I'm a little high so I have to start a forward slip (see previous blog). I'm not very good at directional control in a slip yet (especially not in a crosswind) so I drift to the right of runway 3. At the runway threshold, I'm about 200 feet above the ground, and 100 feet to the right of the runway. Thinking that landing would involve a couple quick steep turns to get lined up, I turned to my instructor and said, "I don't like this, don't like this at all. Can I go around?" That would be my first ever personal decision as a pilot to abort a landing.
I came in lower for my second landing so that I don't have to slip. But now, I have to crab. That means that the nose of my plane is pointed into the wind and to the left of the runway in order to stay lined up. I did okay as far as staying in line with the runway. Now in a crosswind landing, you are supposed to land on the upwind wheel first. This time, I managed to land on all three wheels at the same time. It was a bit of a harsh touchdown, to say the least. For those of you who don't quite know what a crab is, you can search "crosswind landings" on Youtube and you will see planes crabbing, which is basically flying sideways to the runway. Here's a video of a crabbed landing by a 747:
The third time around, I asked my instructor to show me how he does it so I can study his technique. And of course, I filmed it again. Even he had trouble with this crosswind because of the gusts. He announced afterward that it was definently not one of his best crosswind landings, and that these kinds of winds will be more difficult for a beginner student like me. Here is his landing:
The fourth time around, I managed to land the plane fairly smoothly, and on the centerline, with the upwind wheel touching first. I'm starting to get the hang of it...
Today I got to do the dreaded instrument stalls. They weren't actually that bad. I just kept my eyes on my artificial horizon and everything was okay. The air was really smooth today, and I had no problems whatsoever keeping my altitude for any of the maneuvers I performed. I worked on slow flight, steep turns, turns around a point, S-turns, instrument stalls and instrument slow fight. I was able to keep my altitude +/- 100 feet fairly well. Maybe it was the smooth air, or maybe I'm just getting better.
I also landed twice today and did one go-around.
Go-arounds are just about the easiest thing in the world to do, you just have to know not to pull back as soon as you apply power- you need to gain some speed first. Go-arounds are executed when something occurs that might mean an unsafe landing, such as deer on the runway, another plane on the runway, heavy wind shear that blows you away from the runway, or anything where the pilot makes the decision to basically "try again". Here is a go around:
I also did slips (full rudder and opposite aileron) on a no-flap approach. When my instructor in Charleston had me do slips for my very first lesson, I could not do them. Here, now, they're a piece of cake. We approached the runway from the side and probably scared the Citation Jet waiting to takeoff because we were about 50 feet to the right of the runway at the threshold, almost passing over top of him on the taxiway. Here is a video of a plane slipping on approach- As you can see, the plane is basically flying in sideways (this is done in order to increase the descent rate without increasing speed):
On my landing with flaps, I got the stall horn to go off right as I touched down (which is characteristic of an ideal landing).
I feel like I'm getting much more proficient in every maneuver I've been doing. I will be soloing fairly soon! And then it's on to cross-country flight (which I am looking forward to).
Today I practiced landings. I did five landings total, one of which with no flaps. My biggest problem so far is flaring too early. In doing so, I get excessive sink rates, which will cause me to touch down harder than usual. Sometimes I balloon, which is when instead of coming down to touchdown, the plane starts going up instead. Often times for the touchdown, I don't pull back hard enough, and I land on all three wheels at once instead of just the back two. Here is a video of my instructor demonstrating an ideal landing for me:
Today most of the focus of my lesson was working on some of my weaker points: Stalls and steep turns. I also have been getting more proficient in maintaining altitude. I'm now mostly keeping my altitude plus or minus 200 feet- which is better than my last couple lessons, where I was easily plus or minus 400-500ft. This is all thanks to using the trim tab appropriately.
My power-off stall was good, and according to my instructor, I have gotten 100% better at power-on stalls. Now, I'm actually pushing forward on the controls once the stall begins, and that helps a lot. Now my only problem- I'm actually nosing over a bit too much- I have to find that happy medium.
My steep turns were also better. I have developed some references on the plane of which to judge the line of the horizon, and now I can do them mostly without looking at my instruments (except to check altitude of course).
I landed three times today, all three of them were crosswind landings with no flaps. I feel like I did okay. The only problem is that at the last second before touchdown, you have to punch in a lot of rudder to line the plane up with the runway, but once the plane lands, the rudders now control steering. So the plane darts off to the left a little and I have to center it back on the centerline.
For the first time, I didn't have the slightest bit of nausea.
Today I practiced steep turns, turns around a point, and s-turns.
Steep turns are a little more difficult than I remember the last time I did them at Charleston. I had trouble maintaining bank angle, staying coordinated, and maintaining altitude. I think the problem was that at Yeager, I did my steep turns with mostly instrument reference. Today, I tried to do them with mostly outside reference, and that was a bit more difficult.
I actually did pretty well with my ground reference maneuvers, considering that it was my first time. You're supposed to understand the primary wind direction, and turn shallower with a headwind, and steeper with a tailwind. However, I could mostly judge the angle of bank I needed without mentally calculating wind direction. It just felt natural.
I also practiced emergency engine failure. The first thing I'm supposed to do is pitch for 65 knots. Then I must look for a suitable landing place (I found a nice little mountaintop removal project nearby). Then I have to check the fuel selector, mixture, throttle, pull out carb heat, check the magneto switch, and make sure the primer is fully in. If none of that works, I must squak 7700 and contact ATC and let them know I'm going down, and then land in my chosen field. Of course, we were just pretending, and as I started to get very close to the nearby mountains I aborted the simulation by applying full power and climbing away. After all, FAA regulations state that I cannot come within 500 feet of the ground, and I was damn near close. But if it were a real emergency, I could just toss the rule book out the window.
All in all, except for being windy and turbulent, it was a pretty good lesson.
For lesson #4 I got another 18 minutes of instrument flight. It was a very nice day outside today, but it was also relatively warm outside, thus creating a lot of turbulence due to heat rising off these West Virginia hills. Its pretty easy to start feeling nauseous during instrument flight I guess. I mean, they always tell you to focus outside the car when you're getting carsick, right? The same principle applies. Only, I don't get to look outside for instrument flight.
So imagine riding in a car on a curvy windy road hitting all sorts of potholes and dips, and not being able to look outside. Intense. Considering all that, I still did not throw up, which means all that ginger and peppermint appears to be doing the trick.
Once again, I got to practice power-on and power-off stalls again. I'm still having trouble with power-on stalls. My mind does not want to pitch the plane forward. I guess the whole purpose of stall training is to train your mind to do the opposite of what it thinks is right. Everyone has something that they have trouble with at first. But I'm confident that continuos training and practice and I will be able execute a perfect stall recovery.
Here is a good video of a power-off stall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIzG1zSST0Q&feature=related
Today, during my lesson, I did something that is hard to do in a 172. I made it spin. No, that's not a good thing. I was practicing power-on stalls. The biggest difference between power-off and power-on stalls is that for a power-on, you have to pull the plane back almost straight up before it stalls. All you can see is sky. When the plane stalled, it nosed over and I saw the horizon coming back up slanted. The plane had stalled slightly to the right. Most students' first response is to bank left to correct, but stupid me kicked in the left rudder to correct. I wasn't a very big spin, we didn't spin like 8 times or anything. We spun maybe 90-180 degrees before we pulled up to correct. I tried the power-on stall again and used ailerons instead of rudder, and it worked much better. I still need to work on them though. I practiced instrument flight today and I did extremely well (most likely thanks to all those flight simulators I've been playing). I flew the plane better with instruments than I do with visual. I also landed twice. I'm getting better- I think.
In this video, the Cessna spins about 2 times, and I only spun about 0.5 times. But you get the gist of it.
Today I flew the Cessna Skyhawk SP again. We had another maintenance student as a passenger this time, and she wanted to see her house, which was in Buckhannon. Normally, from Clarksburg, Buckhannon is a 30 minute drive. It took us 7 minutes to get there. I did some climbs, descents, climbing turns, etc. I think I'm finally getting the hang of controlling the rudder- I'm actually using rudder pressure to maintain my heading instead of banking all the time. I also landed the plane this time. I did much better than the last time I tried to land- because I was using the rudders. On my previous landing at Yeager, if I started to drift left, I would bank right to compensate. Obviously the correct thing to do is to give right rudder. I was able to stay on the centerline, in spite of the mild crosswind. I landed the plane without bouncing this time. It was a nice smooth landing. I get to fly again tomorrow at noon. P.S. The ginger and peppermint candies worked great for my motion sickness.
I finally got to fly for the first time at Fairmont today. 80 degree heat in combination with 18 knot winds made for a very turbulent ride. Just like my first flight, I lost my lunch. Unfortuneatly this time, I did not have a barf bag. I instead had to barf in my Jeppesen Flight Bag. It is currently in the washer in hopes of being returned to its original glory. I only received .8 hours of flight time today. I am going to visit a doctor and possibly get a motion sickness patch to wear while I fly. On the contrary, I did have a nice view of Tygart Lake and the dam there. I got to watch my instructor land in a 20 knot crosswind which, according to him, was one of the worst crosswinds he had ever seen at CKB. Today would not have been a good day for me to try and land.
Believe it or not, I have most of the rest of my career already figured out. After doing much research about various different airlines and possible employment opportunities, I have set some career goals for myself. Here we go:
Fairmont State University is where I will receive my Bachelors of Science in Aviation Technology degree, with the Aviation Management and Professional Flight option. I will receive all of my ground training and my Private and Commercial Pilot's license, as well as my Instrument and Multi-Engine ratings.
I will then receive my CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) license, and possibly my CFII (Certified Flight Instructor Instrument) and MEI (Multi-Engine Instructor). Fairmont State prefers to hire their students over outside CFIs, so I'm pretty much guaranteed my first job. I will then work as a CFI for Fairmont State until I have attained enough hours to move on.
Once I am qualified, I plan to apply for a job at Comair. Comair is basically Delta's regional airline. Their fleet consists of no turboprops, just CRJ Jets. Comair is only based in two airports: JFK and Cincinatti. So I'm probably going to be living in Cincinatti for a few years.
After I work for Comair for several years, I plan on applying to work for Delta. Since Comair is Deltas regional airline, I will hopefully be a prime candidate for the job. I would like to work for Delta for the rest of my career and hopefully someday fly 747s. The Boeing 747 is my favorite aircraft of all time and I would really like to fly one someday. The reasons I picked Delta are 1) They are the largest airline in the world, and none of their 12,500 employed pilots are furlough, and 2) they have 16 747s in their fleet, and I ultimately want to fly those more than anything. This is one of the reasons I will list FedEx as a backup for Delta.
Alpha Eta Rho is an international aviation fraternity. I have recently joined the Fairmont State chapter. It appears that this chapter is currently having some issues, they only have 5 or 6 members. As soon as I mentioned that I was not a freshman, my pledging period ended there. Our chapter needs at least 10 members, of which 66.6% are upper-classmen, to be considered active again. Some things I noted about the current status of this chapter: 1. When giving the presentation to the class about their fraternity, they didn't have very good public speaking skills, and the only thing they did for the class was hand out a piece of paper for us to write our names and email on. 2. The current leadership seems to be screwed up, the guy running the thing was only supposed to be vice-president. 3. They don't appear to have very many things planned as far as activities go. I figure that if I'm going to use Alpha Eta Rho as a strong point of my resume in the future, I'm going to have to help it get back on track. First things first, I designed a base brochure idea for the frat that hopefully can market us better and attract more members. I also designed a T-shirt online that would be nice for the fraternity as well. We are having a meeting tonight, and hopefully they will be open to some new ideas to draw in some new members.
Before going to FSU I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and fly to make sure I liked it and of course, I loved it. Even though I threw up on my first flight. Before FSU I attained 3 hours flight time. I got them all from Northern Wings at Yeager Airport (KCRW) in Charleston, WV. My first lesson started of course with learning METARs, TAFs, and using the computer terminal to attain such information. For those of you who don't know, that means I learned how to check the weather. I then learned how to do the preflight checklist. The plane I was going to be flying wasnt the best looking plane in the world. It had a little rust in small places on the body, and the interior was in rough shape (cracks on the dash, tears in the seats). The important thing was that everything on the plane worked well, all the imperfections were just cosmetic. So on to taxiing. Taxxing was a little bit difficult for me at first, primarily because I have never had to steer a vehicle with my feet before. I couldnt really stay on the line very well. Taking off was a little bit scary for me, because you have to keep the plane on the centerline of the runway while you gain airspeed, and I was always afraid that one wrong turn might cause the plane to skid on the runway or something. Once I had taken off, the first thing I noticed was how rough the flight was. The plane wanted to jerk this way, pull that way, etc. Every now and then the plane would quickly drop about 10 feet and you could feel it in your gut. The reason the flight was so rough was because it was such a hot day, and the radiation coming off the earth was heating up the air at low altitudes. So once we got to cruising altitude, it smoothed out a bit. From then on, my next two lessons were at 9am when it was cool, instead of noon. For my first lesson, we practiced turns, climbs, and descents mostly. As it turns out, most people are afraid to bank the plane too much their first time, but I was fearless. I was turning 30 degree turns my first time. He tried to teach me how to crab (right rudder, left aileron), which is basically flying the plane sideways. Apparently this a much more advanced move and he thinks that is what made me sick. Yes, I threw up. My second lesson I was a little better at taxiing. We practiced climbing turns and descents, and slow flight. I videotaped some of this lesson, including the landing. My third lesson was the fun one. This is where I practiced power-off and power-on stalls, and steep turns. And, I got to land the plane. It was a sloppy landing, I bounced a little bit. I don't think I was quite ready to land yet. He swears he never touched the controls but I'm pretty sure he did. I got a little overwhelmed when it came time to flare. Needless to say I want to work on better coordination before I try landing again at FSU. The best part about my 3rd lesson was flying about 1000 feet above downtown Charleston when we were approaching runway 3. Its been two months since my last lesson and I am dying to fly again.
This is the start of my new blog pertaining to anything aviation. I have never really written any blogs before but i know that its just basically a journal, right? I just feel the need to share with everyone my experiences in aviation. A little bit about myself: I am currently a student at Fairmont State University majoring in Aviation Administration with a Professional Flight option. Prior to that I already had three hours experience in a Cessna 172. I have also had extensive experience playing with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 with which I've learned several different things including ILS approaches, VOR naviagation, etc. As far as flight theory is concerned, I think I'm pretty well set. Well, this is my attempt at a blog. I'm going to go ahead and create a few entries now and see how it works out for myself.
