PackFlier

So yesterday we actually got off the ground!  Perfect day for flying blue skies and almost no winds. Couldn’t ask for a better day for my first flight lesson!

Okay so let’s start at the beginning.

Once I arrived, I did the usual stuff, Weather briefing, preflight, taxi, run-up.  I have decent practice at those sort of things.  This time was a bit different, instead of taxiing to one end of the airport and back, we taxi’d up to runway 3.  We checked radios for traffic, looked both ways up and down the runway, made our call and pulled out onto the runway.

So here I was, staring down 6000 ft of runway just like I have done a million times in my head.  Slowly push the throttle in, a little right rudder to counteract the P-Factor, keep the white line between my legs.  So far so good.  Actually not too bad at all, She must be helping a bit…. hmm.

Airspeed alive… 50 kts, lightly pull back a few inches on the yoke, nose feels light and a little wobbly but we are going straight.  around 60 kts we start to lift off the ground, holy crap we’re flying.  I need to keep us aligned with the extended centerline… we are drifting a little to the right… add left rudder?  My instructor says we are doing OK, not to worry about it too much.

I am reminded every 500 ft until cruising altitude that I need to drop the nose and check for traffic.  700ft, dropping the nose… weird sensation… no traffic, up we go.  1200ft, no traffic, time to turn west towards the practice area.  I am told to focus on some water towers to the west and then find a cloud or something to keep us going in the right direction because, we are going up to 3000 ft.

We spend the first part of the flight touring the edges of the practice area while she quizzes me on where we are.  At first my grinning response was “I have no idea!  But we’re in the air”.  She astutely points at some power lines on the map and then outside.  After a rotation of the map, I think I know where I am.  Think being the operative word.  I start following a road that should lead me to KSCR.  And like by magic, it did.  So I guess I did sort of know our location.  I turn to follow another road toward the next point in our practice area triangle.

Once we probed the edges of the practice area we proceeded into climbing and descending turns.  I got the impression that is normally for lesson two but seemed to be a piece of cake. I think the key to everything is the understanding that pitch controls speed and throttle controls altitude which I seemed to be OK with.  I have been studying those concepts for years and employing them in flight simulator for just as long. It sort of seemed natural.  Climbing… reduce throttle, descending increase throttle.  I kept us with 75 ft of our intended altitude for the flight.  The winds were calm so I am chalking it up to that.  I would imagine that I would have struggled a lot more with some more wind and turbulence.  It was good to see the concept in action.

We then headed back to the airport for a 45 degree entry into the downwind leg of the pattern. We need to drop altitude from 3000 ft to 1200 ft before entry.  We cut power and lifted the nose to achieve 70 kts for our pattern entry.  We entered the downwind leg and I was instructed to drop 10 degrees flaps once we are abeam (beside) the numbers.  So I did and had to give a little nose forward pressure to keep us from rising.  Next milestone, look to see when the numbers were 45 degrees back and to my left.  Once this happened, we made a 90 degree left turn and then dropped flaps to 20 degrees.  A lot started happening fast at this point.  we turned to line up on with the runway.  My instructor said “Shoot the numbers with the nose”. This put us on a steady decent to the runway.  As we got closer and numbers were hidden, I cut the throttle and we slowly started to roll the nose up for touchdown.  I honestly didn’t even feel much of the touchdown, just focused on pull the yoke back to keep the nose up as long as possible on the roll out.  I don’t think I helped with the landing too much but hey… my first time right?

We slowed down as I applied gradual brakes towards our turn off.  once clear of the runway, went through the post landing checklists and cleaned the configuration.

Taxiing back to the ramp felt great, the flight was great, everything was perfect.  As we are debriefing, my instructor said she was really impressed with my take off saying “Normally, students are back and forth across the runway and I have to keep us straight”.  Sounds like I did a pretty good job on the pedals. 😀  She also complimented me on my ability to hold altitude.

As I was getting ready to leave she said that I was such a “Precocious” Student (Honestly I had to look it up… I have heard the term before but wasn’t fully sure of the meaning, feel dumb about that, stupid public education), that she was going to jump to ground reference maneuvers on my second flight and handed me a fat packet up paper to study up on.  Sounds good to me… I guess some students spend a couple of more flights on turns, climbing, descending?

Can’t wait until my next flight!

So since last time, my lesson yesterday was cancelled due to rain.  Boooo!   With the impending hurricane, it looks like my Friday and Sunday Lessons will be a bust as well.

Still waiting to get actual air time.  Fingers crossed for good a few hours of decent weather on Friday.  In the meantime watching some Flight Chops!

If this is your first post, start from the beginning -> Clicky Clicky!

“Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again!”

Went to the airfield for flight lesson #2.  I had been watching the weather and conversing with my instructor and we seemed to be on the edge of being able to take to the skies.  We were looking at 2000 ft ceilings and around 7 kt winds.  This was good enough to do some pattern work but not much else.

As I arrived at the airfield, we both took a look outside and it seemed some of the clouds were lower than 2000ft.  So we did an area weather brief.  We called airports in a 360 degree pattern around our location, taking winds/ceilings/temperatures etc.  We started to notice a pattern.  7-15 kts winds with Gusts to 15-18 kts.  We also noticed that the wind seem to be variable between 330 and 060 degrees.  Our runway is position at 30 degrees so we would be seeing a dramatic shift from one side to the other on landing.  So with 2 strikes on the weather, we decided to work on some ground school, preflight, engine start/run up, and taxi practice in the wind.  There would be no getting off the ground today. 🙁

So this time, I handled the weather brief (for practice) and did the preflight waiting until the end to get feedback.  My instructor said that I completed an excellent preflight and needed no prompting.  YAY!

Next, I followed the engine start procedure.  I performed a brake check, ran the engine up to check magnetos and I completed my first radio call for a radio check.  Today I learned that taxiing is more difficult in wind and at this point it was up to 10 kts steady. I had to learn how to hold control inputs in order to keep a gust of wind from toppling us over.  During this time, I spent way more brain power on trying to figure out the control inputs than I should have but…. what can you do.  I did feel a lot more comfortable controlling the airplane on the ground.  I think I am getting a feel for the steering and brakes.

So, I have .7 hours in my log book and have yet to get off the ground.  I don’t think it is a loss as I am still getting comfortable with basic procedures.  I did cancel my next lesson because the weather is looking bleh.  My instructor wants me to get off the ground for my next lesson.  I agree with this and so… my wait continues.

Today I went for my first lesson.  3 hours in total and .4 hrs of it in the airplane.  Not quite enough to get off the ground but got some sweet taxi time. 😉

We started off filling out some paperwork and getting to know each other.  We then progressed into learning fundamentals of the aircraft.  I have studied most of this stuff for years but it was good to hear a different perspective.

Next we called for a weather briefing.  It was early in the morning and there was fog between our field and the practice area so we had to wait a bit.  It looked like we would be good to go in the next 30 minutes so we moved on to pre-flight.

In the pre-flight walk around, we spend a lot of time going over what to do and how to do it correctly. Starting inside of the cockpit, we removed the control lock and turned on the master switch, dropped the flaps and turned on the lights.  Quickly, we walked around the aircraft checking to make sure the navigation lights and landing lights were functional.  After this, we turned the master switch off to conserve battery.

Next we checked the left side main gear, fuel, fuselage, elevator, rudder, flaps, ailerons, right main gear, leading edges of the wings, cowling, front gear, prop, spinner, oil, filter, exhaust manifold, pitot tube, fuel tank vent… and i’m sure a few other things from the checklist that I forgot about.

I asked a lot of questions and got a lot of background on things to look for.  By the time we were in the cockpit to run-up the engine and make sure it was working to spec, we only had 20 minutes left on the reservation of the aircraft.  So my instructor had me taxi to the other end of the airfield and back in order to get a feel for steering with my feet.  It was a weird sensation but it was something that I was use to from flight simulator.

Even though I didn’t get off the ground, it was pretty awesome.  I have my next several lessons scheduled and am looking forward to getting off the ground next time.

I was assigned an instructor this evening and scheduled my first flight lesson for tomorrow morning.  Nervous, Excited, tired….. a little hungry.  It is finally happening! First Flight Tomorrow!

This is totally how I picture myself!

Ground school started a couple of weeks ago.  After having a couple of classes under my belt and so far most of it is review of stuff that I already know.  For the past 20 years or so, I have been studying aerodynamics and general piloting skills in my spare time waiting for the day to come.  Don’t get me wrong, I am getting more meat on the bones so to speak, so it isn’t boring by any means.  I feel like I am getting more reinforcement on my understanding of angle of attack, etc.

I haven’t gone up in a plane thus far. 🙁

Seems they are having trouble matching an instructor to my available schedule. Everyday I wait for the email that will free me to lift off into the sky on my new adventure.

Well, the day came.  The day that I would figure out whether or not my dreams could be squashed before they start.  Rewinding a bit, the issue comes in the form of an unexpected kidney stone in 2013.  Until recently, even though i’m an aviation buff, I didn’t fully realize that a kidney stone is a big fat red flag for the FAA and for your medical.  Without the medical, you won’t be flying.  So after some careful advice from several different sources, including my prospective flying club, I went to my urologist to get a recent scan. YAY, no stones.  Got a nice little note saying that I am fit to fly.

Speeding up to now.  I went to the AME and after what seems like a dozen different eye tests (Yay still 20/20), blood pressure, urine sample, first born …. ok maybe not the first born but you get the picture.  I am happy to say that I have a nice little medical and student certificate.  I am beyond excited, it is finally happening!  Next step, join the flying club and find an instructor.  I can’t wait!

Hello earth

My story and how I got here is long and mostly… uninteresting. Let’s hit the highlights… and maybe some lowlights depending on how this goes.  I doubt anyone is reading this but let’s give it a go anyway.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with airplanes. Big, small, fast, slow… didn’t matter.  My father was in the AirForce so I got to see some pretty cool machines growing up.  I got to know the F-15 very well. <3

Fast forward to college.  I never thought I had much shot at becoming a pilot, it seemed like either you were rich or you were lucky enough to fly for the military.  Also, I was in college around the time of 9/11 and the thought of spending my post collegiate days in the middle east didn’t seem appealing so I opted for more of the private sector route.  At this point my dream of being a pilot was largely sidelined as a flight of fantasy (pun intended?)

Fast forward a bit more…. wife, house, dog, cat, Kid #1, Kid #2,……. mini van!!  Man my college buddies and I use to joke about who would breakdown and buy one of those loser cruisers first.  Now… we all have one and even though it is sort of unspoken, I do revel in the fact that I was the last hold out.  In all honesty though, it kind of kicks ass.  Lots of room, nice power, a ton of technology…. errr back to the point.

So my beautiful wife and soulmate (BWAS … is this a thing?), she came into the picture right after college, you know the story… wife, house… blah blah.  Anyway, she knows how much I love airplanes and for my 29th birthday, purchased an introductory flight lesson.  Well… let’s just say it was, um, AWESOME!  Of course, the issue was that kid#2 was on the way so that life thing is still in the way. sigh.

I couldn’t just push it aside anymore so I started reading everything possible. Especially blogs about people who are learning to get their pilots wings… uh kind of like I hope this blog turns out to be.  I found a fantastic blog called Yankee Alpha Foxtrot Bravo and I read every single post from private pilot through ifr rating to present day.  I couldn’t get enough.  I once wrote the author to tell him how much I loved his blog.  Me=Nerd!

So why am I sitting here in the dark writing this?  Because today I just filled out the application and medical for flight training.  I am finally doing it!  But of course it can’t be smooth right?

Life is never that simple, about 2 years ago I was minding my own business eating a chocolate covered doughnut when out of the blue.. bam… back hurts.  It was one of those weird deals where it feels like you have been slouching or sitting funny too long.  Well, it got worse and worse and then I find myself at the emergency room faced with a kidney stone.  Did I tell you how much I don’t like doctors? We’ll get to that later.

As it turns out, the FAA frowns upon kidney stones.  I mean really, after all of this time this little rock could sideline me?

I have been doing well for the last 2 years, not a single issue and after doing my research I found that if you get enough proof of treatment and proof that you are currently stone free ( not the song, but free of kidney stones), you can get your FAA 3rd class medical.  This is crucial because without it… me = no fly.

I am happy to report that my doctor declared me free of those wretched stones and wrote a note with evidence for me to bring to the medical examiner.

So next step, get the medical.  Stay Tuned!