Nailed it!

Today's flight was fairly uneventful, mostly reviewing the same maneuvers again. Constant rate climbs and descents, constant speed climbs and descents, steep turns, slow flight, and stalls.

I then did all the same maneuvers again with my attitude and heading indicators failed (except for steep turns of course, which are impossible with a partial panel).

I practiced compass turns. When using the magnetic compass, there are some errors that need to be compensated for. Say you are flying on a east/west heading. If you turn to north, you must undershoot your turns to the north, and overshoot when turning south. For instance, when turning north from east, you will roll out on a heading of 030 degrees, thirty degrees before north. Once you stop turning, the compass will right itself to the correct heading of north.

Every maneuver I did today I nailed. For example, my instructor failed my altimeter and had me climb 1000 feet to 5500. I climbed at 500 feet per minute for two minutes. Then my instructor pulled the cover off and the needle was dead on 5500. He was pretty impressed with that.

Next lesson is just the same thing again: more review with full and partial panel.

Flying with a Stopwatch

Today's lesson started out by filing another IFR flight plan. I called 1-800-WX-BRIEF and talked to the briefer and gave him all the information necessary. It went smoothly, except when I forgot the phonetic identifier for the letter R. I was spelling out the word STORE, and I said, "STORE, Sierra, Tango, Oscar, uhh... I forgot R..." It's Romeo- the briefer quickly reminded me. When filing an IFR flight plan, you have to spell out everything with the phonetic alphabet in order to avoid any errors.

I picked up my IFR flight plan from Clarksburg Ground, took off, and began flying to STORE intersection. Once we got close, we cancelled IFR. It may seem stupid that I would file an IFR flight plan just to turn around and cancel it a few minutes later; but it's good practice for me to learn how to file a plan and copy a clearance.

I did some slow flight, stalls, and steep turns. Then my instructor failed my vacuum pump again, which caused me to lose my attitude and heading indicators. I then did slow flight again and for the first time, stalls. Stalls without my artificial horizon were fairly difficult; but I did them successfully.

I then started flying by using the stopwatch. My instructor kept my attitude and heading indicators failed, and then he also failed my compass.

So now I have no way of knowing what direction I am flying. Then I would have to do a 180. So, how can I do a perfect 180 degree turn without any kind of heading indication? The answer lies in a standard rate turn.

A standard rate turn is a turn that takes exactly 2 minutes to do a complete 360. It is indicated on the turn coordinator by a white line in either direction. So by starting the time, and turning at standard rate for exactly one minute, I will have turned a complete 180.

My instructor then gave me my compass back, but then he failed my altitude. I was then told to descend 1000 feet. So, using the stopwatch and the vertical speed indicator, I descended at 500 feet per minute for two minutes.

We then headed back inbound, I tracked the localizer and glide slope down to the runway and landed.

We taxied to our crossing point on the runway which is at the end, and we got stuck behind two planes waiting to take off. There was a Baron up front, and a King Air behind him. There was a small twin engine Bonanza coming in to land. We noticed that he was about 30 feet above the runway and that he did not have his landing gear down. The Baron holding short started shouting on tower's frequency, "No landing gear! No landing gear!!!" The Bonanza applied power and went around.

It was funny because the entire time the Bonanza was in the pattern, my instructor was talking about how he knew the guy and how he was a terrible pilot. Needless to say, when the guy started blaming his aircraft for the near-miss, my instructor was laughing and rolling his eyes.

Partial Panel

Today I practiced instrument maneuvers with a partial panel.

But first, I learned how to file an IFR flight plan. I filled out the form, which looks like this:

I then called 1-800-WX-BRIEF which is the universal phone number for Flight Service.

I got on the line with a briefer and read off all the items on the form in order, and he filed my plan into the Air Traffic Control system.

Before takeoff, I called up Clarksburg Ground control and asked for my IFR Clearance. Clearances are often tricky, because they are full of information and read to you very fast. You have to copy it down and then repeat it back word for word. Fortunately, there's an acronym for that:

C leared to (an airport, or intersection)
R oute (Usually as filed, unless they need to reroute me around congestion)
A ltitude I am cleared to
F requency to contact Departure
T ransponder squawk code

Basically this is what I will hear, read as fast as you can read it:
"577SP, you are cleared to TYGAR intersection as filed. Fly runway heading, climb and maintain 3000, expect 5000 after 10 minutes. Departure frequency is 121.15, squawk 5252."

I am then expected to read that back word for word, to assure that I didn't mishear anything.

I filed my plan out to an intersection over Tygart lake. I took off and followed my assigned route to the intersection, where we then canceled IFR and continued on VFR. I did a quick recap of climbs, descents, and steep turns.

I then went partial panel. This means that my instructor covered up some of my instruments, as if they had failed. These failures aren't random- typically they fail in a pattern. For instance, two of the six primary instruments operate on a vacuum. These are the attitude indicator and the heading indicator. So those two instruments will quit working if the vacuum pump fails. This is the most common failure.




So now that I no longer have my attitude and heading indicators, I have to look at the altimeter to see if I am climbing or descending, the turn coordinator to keep the wings level, and the magnetic compass for heading (which is practically unreliable and its amazing we've gotten away with using it so much for navigation).

I had to do climbs, descents, level flight, and airspeed changes all without my two main control instruments. I then got my instruments back and headed out towards Fairmont and tracked the localizer down to the runway.

Improving my Scan

Today's lesson was quick and easy, only moderate turbulence below 4000 feet. Needless to say, we did most of the lesson at 4,500 feet where it was smooth.

I practiced constant speed climbs and descents, where you climb without changing your speed. Imagine driving your car on a hilly road and you are attempting to maintain the speed limit. You have to give it more gas going uphill and let off going downhill. The same applies in a plane.

I worked changes in airspeed in level flight, which is slightly more difficult than it sounds. You have the plane trimmed and flying nice and easy at 4,500 feet going 120 knots, and all of the sudden ATC tells you to slow to 90 knots for spacing. So you have to pull back on the power. Then the plane wants to nose over to maintain 120 and you start losing altitude, so you have to pitch back and retrim. Once the plane stabilizes, your airspeed is now 100. So then you have to repeat the process to get down to 90. Its basically trial and error.

I did slow flight perfectly, and we moved on to steep turns. I was still having some trouble with them, but I'm getting better. I tend to lose too much altitude.

We returned to the airport and I executed a perfect landing. Which is fitting- it was my official 100th landing.