Site update
I've had several folks ask me to email them when I update my blog, so I have added (with a little help) an item to the sidebar to the right. Just add your name and email address to it and I PROMISE not to sell, trade, barter or hold in blackmail, your email address. I simply wanted an easier way to get the addresses all in one place. So, sign up! and I'll spam you each time I try to fly!
Thanks for the interest!
jf
Lesson #3
3rd lesson down. All's well. Started out this morning with a fairly basic lesson. Once again, I forgot my keys. Not a good sign that my head is in this thing. Backup keys obtained, we preflight (one day I'll remember everything I'm supposed to do on that thing....getting closer), talk a bit about what it is that we're going to accomplish in our day, discuss whether a $350 million Powerball jackpot is enough to make me want to buy a ticket, run the checklist, startup and away we go.
I stayed a LITTLE closer to the yellow line this time. I had asked Kary to be sure that he tell me if he ever had to "help" me on the pedals to make the plane go where we wanted it to. I don't know why this is such a hangup for me, but taxing the 172 is kicking my butt compared to the Champ. I had gotten completely comfortable taxing the taildragger, now I'm figuring out that this plane has a completely different way of doing it AND it's even different than my Dad's plane (another 172). Oh, well, we must adjust in life, so as much as I want heel brakes in the Skyhawk, I don't think we'll be installing them anytime soon. I'll get past it. Just hope my DPE enjoys S-turning during taxi....I'll tell him that I'm prepping for when I get my P-51....he'll understand, I'm sure.
We run the pre-takeoff Checklist and take the runway. I
THINK I did this one pretty much on my own. If Kary had been doing it for me, I don't think the
extra takeoffs would have been necessary. Seriously, it wasn't too bad. I'm still trying to figure out how much rudder to use when and, of course, as the speed picks up, how much less is needed. Again, this is just a "feel" thing I think I'm gonna have to get used to. We depart to the west and head straight into the world of S-Turns and Turns about a point.
This part of the flight wasn't too bad. I actually picked up A TON of useful experience in just a few minutes. For those of you rookies out there who don't know (I have 3.4 hours you wannabes), S-Turns are done by flying perpendicular to some straight line on the ground (hwy, railroad, river, whatever). You cross the "line" and start a 180 degree turn. If all goes well, your supposed to end your turn exactly at the point that you are crossing the line again in the opposite direction. The point of all of this is to teach you how maneuver the plane the way you want it and how the winds effect that. In a perfect world, you just make the turn and bam, your there. Well, apparently West Marshall County ain't a perfect world.
With a wind that was roughly perpendicular to our "line"(I-65), one side of the turn would have to be pretty shallow, while the other side required a bit more bank. Now this sounds easy enough when perky Martha King is drawing it out on her whiteboard. But what threw me off was that the first half of the turn was actually setting you up for the last. For instance, on the upwind side of the road, when your flying INTO the wind, you'd better not turn parallel to your "line" (or so close to parallel that your not countering the wind) until your ready to have your butt moving quite fast toward it. It's all in losing the idea that, unlike a car, the plane isn't going to necessarily be going the direction your pointing. Cool stuff.
My 180 degree turns would ALWAYS end up 180 degrees right on cue....but I don't think the 180 he's looking for can be a sum (e.g. 160+50-40+ 10=180!). But, I got the point....
Well, after few of those, we moved on. Which was probably good, because Kary's incessant chuckling from the right seat was breaking my concentration.
We found a couple of reference points and started some turns about a point. Now, I've done several of these in the past. This, I thought I could handle, but...alas...no......again, I blame my partial paralysis. For some unknown reason, my feet have to be told to move. I think they're fond of Kary's voice....I dunno. I can think "putting in power, gotta push right...." or "nose coming up, gotta remember rudder", but nooo. Can't seem to get my feet to agree that it's a good idea. I knew we should have bought an early model Ercoupe...then I could concentrate on how to keep the nearly hysterical guy in the right seat from hyperventilating. But, I digress....
We worked next on power-off stalls. Kary demonstrated one and then I did a couple of them. Pretty neat how the plane gives you all kinds of different warnings (beyond the horn) to let you know whats about to happen. Recovery is as easy as easing back pressure and adding power. Kinda fun, in that strange "how to fall with style" sort of way.
We wrapped up the maneuvers and made our way back to the airport for a touch and go and a full stop landing. Landings are starting to make more sense to me now. I think my biggest concern is that even though I've worked on landings before, I'm still not confident in how the plane reacts immediately. Meaning, when your 3000 ft in the air, you can't really tell if you lose 100 ft or if you move 50 ft to the right or if you pull back, how much do you go up, etc.
So, when your working on these things in the safety of the sky, you can't "see" how much your inputs are really working. Now, move down to short final and you have about 20 seconds to get that "feel". So, in my flying career, I've now managed 80 seconds of "feel" time. I'd assume its just going to take more of it (at $4.05/gal).
We taxi back and shutdown...then I realize, "hey! I just taxied 3/4 of a mile without nearly hitting a ditch....AND I was discussing other things with Kary at the same time".....maybe I'm starting to catch on. Granted...getting the airplane to behave like a kindergartner's go-kart shouldn't excite me, but I gotta win em when I can :)
Oh well, I'm enjoying the heck out of it. Hoping to get another time in this week, but that all depends on work. More to come.....
jf
Medically safe!
As of 10/17/05 I have been deemed physically healthy and mentally stable enough to hold (er..once again) my 3rd Class Medical Certificate and my Student Pilot's Certificate. I used a different AME than I had used in the past, but was glad I did. A quick eye check, color blindness test, blood pressure, pee in a cup, listen to the heart and bam...i'm outta there. Still a virgin!
Now, there's just that silly part of learning to fly to get out of the way!
jf
Nothing new....
2.2 hours and holding...... Weather this week has stunk during the times that I could have hooked up with Kary (mornings). Pretty days, but lots of fog in the A.M. sooo, now I'm scheduled for Tuesday morning (10/18)....more then.
jf
Lesson #2
Well, my plan was to fly at least once a week, and I REALLY wanted to fly twice a week. But as time and money has it, I was 2 weeks plus between lessons this time. I figured I'd have to start back at step #1....but I forgot my keys to the plane, so I was back to step .5.
I started the morning planning on being at the airport around 8:00, but a call to AWOS and to my CFI showed that we had a lovely 100ft ceiling and 1/4 mile visibility. Fog. yuk. Well, we waited another hour and whaddayaknow? clear past 12k and 10miles visibility. So, off we go.
I made it to the airport and after finding my keys in my flight bag, I tried to remember why we start the preflight IN the cockpit....what was that thing we do before the walk around?......hrm....think Franks.....oh yea! get gum. Gum got....check.....
now what.....then it hits me....drop the flaps and take out the gust lock so that I can check the control surfaces! Yea me! I remembered something!
By this time Kary has appeared and we do the walk around together again. Identifying the parts and pieces as we go and try to put some logical process to this simple step of flying. got it...I hope.
We spend some time discussing what a stall is and why its important to know that. And we go over Bournoulli's principle concerning lift....I still don't buy it, but the Feds want me to know it again (for my second written in 4 years), so I listen closely to how THEY explain it...you know, the same folks with the black helicopters and a thing for mutilating cattle?....I watch the X-Files...I know how they operate. They'll never get me!
Conspiracy talk complete, we saddle up and start the checklist. This time, Kary seems to actually expect me to do some of these things. We jot down through them and we're off. My drunken drive to the runway is a bit less like a sine curve and more like a series of algebra limits on a graph....always edging closer to the line, but never quite getting there. Oh well, I like to leave room for improvement. No sense acting like a know it all.
Runup complete, scan the area and off we go....straight toward the right side of the runway....then back to the centerish and we sorta take off in a direction resembling the runway heading. Side loading the gear aside, it didn't look too bad. I like to hear tire squeal on take-off, it helps let me know when the gear is clear of the ground.
We climb out, do a few turns then slow the plane down and start doing slow climbing and decending turns. We work on using power to control not only altitude, but the rate at which we're climbing/descending and then using the yoke for speed control. I've done this in the light pattern work I've done before, but never to this extent. It was cool. "Hold 80mph, but descend 400 ft"...."decrease your speed to 70, but hold 3500ft", etc. Pretty cool how quick it all starts coming together (yea...like I know ANYTHING). And I just thank God that I'm paying Kary by the hour and not by the number of times he says the word "rudder". I think his lesson plan calls for that to be less necessary in the future......
We head back toward the airport and I (that's me, Jeff) make my first official CTAF call. Wasn't much different than doing it on MS Flight Sim, but with this call I know that anyone listening is past puberty and might actually care about what I'm saying. We cross the airport, turn back in to the downwind and land on 20. Well, land is a subjective word. Again, my hysteria against dying in a flaming ball of aluminum keeps me from "over doing" the whole landing thing. By "over doing", I mean...."helping". The feel just ain't there yet. Granted we've only done 2, but I used to feel much more comfortable doing it than I do now....it'll come. And, er....well until "that feeling" gets there, we might want to buy some tires with tread that goes 45 degrees off straight......
Taxi to the pumps and shutdown...We're done. Had a good post-flight discussion with Kary about several aspects of the flight. Went inside, got my homework, paid the fiddler and lesson #2 is in the books. 1.1 hrs flight time (2.2 Total) and a mind full of new questions and things I didn't know I didn't know.
jf
