PackFlier

**Full disclosure, I completely ripped this off the source is unknown. I thought it was cool none the less**

Merry Christmas everyone!

Twas the night before Christmas, and out on the ramp,
Not an airplane was stirring, not even a Champ.
The aircraft were fastened to tiedowns with care,
In hopes that come morning, they all would be there.
The fuel trucks were nestled, all snug in their spots,
With gusts from two-forty at 39 knots.
I slumped at the fuel desk, now finally caught up,
And settled down comfortably, resting my butt.
When the radio lit up with noise and with chatter,
I turned up the scanner to see what was the matter.
A voice clearly heard over static and snow,
Called for clearance to land at the airport below.
He barked his transmission so lively and quick,
I’d have sworn that the call sign he used was “St. Nick”.
I ran to the panel to turn up the lights,
The better to welcome this magical flight.
He called his position, no room for denial,
“St. Nicholas One, turnin’ left onto final.”
And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Rutan-built sleigh, with eight Rotax Reindeer!
With vectors to final, down the glideslope he came,
As he passed all fixes, he called them by name:
“Now Ringo! Now Tolga! Now Trini and Bacun!
On Comet! On Cupid!” What pills was he takin’?
While controllers were sittin’, and scratchin’ their head,
They phoned to my office, and I heard it with dread,
The message they left was both urgent and dour:
“When Santa pulls in, have him please call the tower.”
He landed like silk, with the sled runners sparking,
Then I heard “Left at Charlie,” and “Taxi to parking.”
He slowed to a taxi, turned off of three-oh
And stopped on the ramp with a “Ho, ho-ho-ho…”
He stepped out of the sleigh, but before he could talk,
I ran out to meet him with my best set of chocks.
His red helmet and goggles were covered with frost
And his beard was all blackened from Reindeer exhaust.
His breath smelled like peppermint, gone slightly stale,
And he puffed on a pipe, but he didn’t inhale.
His cheeks were all rosy and jiggled like jelly,
His boots were as black as a cropduster’s belly.
He was chubby and plump, in his suit of bright red,
And he asked me to “fill it, with hundred low-lead.”
He came dashing in from the snow-covered pump,
I knew he was anxious for drainin’ the sump.
I spoke not a word, but went straight to my work,
And I filled up the sleigh, but I spilled like a jerk.
He came out of the restroom, and sighed in relief,
Then he picked up a phone for a Flight Service brief.
And I thought as he silently scribed in his log,
These reindeer could land in an eighth-mile fog.
He completed his pre-flight, from the front to the rear,
Then he put on his headset, and I heard him yell, “Clear!”
And laying a finger on his push-to-talk,
He called up the tower for clearance and squawk.
“Take taxiway Charlie, the southbound direction,
Turn right three-two-zero at pilot’s discretion”
He sped down the runway, the best of the best,
“Your traffic’s a Grumman, inbound from the west.”
Then I heard him proclaim, as he climbed through the night,
“Merry Christmas to all! I have traffic in sight.”

-Unknown

“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air… .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Today was the day and it couldn’t have been better.  Calm winds and clear skies for the entire state.  I knew going in that if I performed well that I would be soloing today.  In the lead up I have watched many youtube videos and read countless accounts of others solo experience.  The accounts spanned the spectrum from terrified to casual.  I have to say that for me it was on the casual end of the spectrum.

Last night as I was falling asleep, my thoughts turned to what it would be like with no one in the right seat to save my from some unexpected brain fart.  It was then that I noticed that I don’t have the butterflies or nervousness that I was expecting.  Surely this was going to happen, the weather projections were calling for perfect weather.  I drifted into bliss and woke up refreshed and ready to go.

During the drive I revisited the idea of being alone but my thoughts wandered more to the procedures and radio calls.  I did have some butterflies but now more than usual.  These butterflies are normally reserved for the excitement of getting to fly a plane.

As I arrived, the airplane was attached to an engine block heater and wings tilted toward the sun.  It was just below freezing and we had some frost.  It seems my instructor wanted to take no chances and made sure that we had the best opportunity to fly today.

Everything was normal 0n run up.  We took off on runway 21 and started our journey around the pattern.  The first two trips, I came in too high and performed go arounds.  We discussed the different site picture in this particular airplane and I commented on the plane really wanting to fly today.  I adjusted my settings and site picture for the low density altitude, and made a nice landing.  The next time around the pattern, was the same and made a nice landing.  As we go up again we discuss certain things about what I am doing and then…. “You lost your engine”.  I go through my mnemonic for failed engine and get us safely to the runway.

“You think you’re ready?”  I replied, “Yeah, I do”

“Then drop me off at the next taxiway.”

She signs my logbook and instructs me to to full stop landings with a run up before each take off.  Each time I land she will ask me if I am good for another.  I am finally doing it!

As I taxi to runway 21, I still didn’t have butterflies.  I was excited but it really seemed routine.  I perform a run up and wait for landing traffic and traffic on Base.

Here we go!.  I make my radio call and lineup on Rwy 21, do my heading checks, heels to the floor, throttle in.  Green, green, green, airspeed alive… woah, I am off the ground.  I was at crosswind altitude before the end of the runway.  This thing climbs crazy fast when alone.  I go around the pattern making my radio calls and hitting my numbers.  First landing was decent… floated a little but I was expecting that.

I stop next to my instructor as I leave the runway.  “You want to go again?”  I replied, “Oh yeah, that was fun!”.  Off I go.

I take off again, noticing how fast I am climbing… like a rocket ship.  This time  as I approach crosswind turn, I hear a call, “Cessna 69012 is going to cross midfield for downwind runway 21, I have the departing traffic in site.”  hmm.

As I call my crosswind I let the traffic know that I do not have them in site.  At this point, I hear my instructor on the radio.  He is right over my head. I see the traffic and respond.  I really thought as I was taking off he would have followed me in on downwind.  I extended my down wind a bit for separation and made a good landing.  Though I was right on my airspeeds, I floated more this time. hmm.

As I pulled off, my instructor asked me if I wanted another, of course my response was yes!  The then voice her opinion on the radio about me being cut off in the pattern.  As I started my taxi, I got the AWOS and notice the wind had picked up in the other direction.  That is why I floated so much.  I called my instructor on the radio and told her the winds had shifted.  She had me do a 180 and come pick her up.  At this point we had a lot of traffic lining up and I decided that I was good and we headed back to the south ramp to start the ritual.

It feels good. Not nearly as scary as I imagined when I first started.  It was very serene. I think this is because of the excellent training that I have received and the confidence that I have gained over time.  I now have .5 hours of PIC in my log book and it feels great.  Not only did I get to fly a plane, but they let me fly it by myself!

So after many days of reschedule due to personal issues or weather, today I finally got airborne with the chief flight instructor for the pre-solo checkout.  Basically this is a ride to make sure that I have fundamentals down and am safe.  There were quite a few things about this ride. I would be quizzed on aircraft systems, club rules, aerodynamics… a wide range of things.  I was a bit nervous but once we got started everything went fine.

Adding to my trepidation was the fact that the aircraft that I would be flying was the only 152 in the fleet that I have not flown before.  Not a huge deal but definitely weighed on my mind.  I pre-flighted as normal and everything checked out.  Once finished, I headed in to grab our Chief.

As we walked out he said we would walk around the aircraft and go over a few things.  I knew that this meant the quiz.  I am pretty mechanically inclined and I geek out on these sort of things so I figured I would be fine but I studied none the less.  Sure enough, he asked me about parts of my pre-flight, more specifically the engine compartment.  “So, what is it that you are looking for?”  I go through each step, alternator belt, general inspection of the engine for rodent nests, check the flywheel, prop, spinner.  “What are you looking at the engine for?”  I explain that I generally look at the push rod covers, around the head gaskets looking for anything shiny that could be a leak.  He seemed pleased with the answers.  He then put me through the paces on the alternator.  “What would be the symptoms of an alternator failure and what would you do to try and remedy?”  I’m boring you aren’t I?  I’ll skip it and just say, my answers were satisfactory and we got in the plane to go fly.

I go through the startup process… this particular plane was hard to start but after 4 tries, I got it rolling.  Went through the motions… taxi’d to run-up, then to Runway 3.  “Go ahead and let’s do a couple of landings then we’ll head out to the practice area”.  Righto!  I make the pertinent radio call, position on the runway then showtime.

I had about a 6kt wind 30 degrees off to my right which translated into a slight crosswind.  Not a big deal but I fought the airplane on center line.  As I lifted off I had to do a bit of a crab, more so than I expected.  I think I had a strong wind than I anticipated.  Some bumps around the pattern made me nervous about my landing.  I focused on hitting my numbers around the pattern, talking all the way through it and the landing turned out fine.  I bit of a bump but not too bad.  “You can either full stop or touch and go… your choice.”  My choice was full stop since my normal instructor normally helps me clean up the plane for the touch and go and I have never done it myself. So I erred on the side of what I know.

As we taxi’d back, I asked for feedback and it was really good, no real constructive criticism.  “You did really well, let’s just head out to the practice area”.

I make the calls, lineup, throttle up and away we go.

“Once you get all settled, let’s do some steep turns”.  I get us to 3000 ft, enter cruise flight.  I perform a clearing turn to the right and line up on the best visual marker in the area, the Sharon Harris Nuclear power plant.  I get set stable, garbage in garbage out and then set out to tackle my nemesis maneuver.  I flight the right hand steep turn with very minimal loss of altitude.  I then setup for the left hand steep turn and perform it with about 20 ft of lost altitude.  Not bad, maybe I am getting them figured out.

“Go ahead and give me some slow flight”.  I inquire to clean or dirty and airspeed and he responds… your choice.  So I inform him that I am going to do 60kts clean.  He nods and I begin my setup.  Carb heat on, reduce power to slow down, pitch for 60 kts.  As I reach 60 kts I start to apply throttle to maintain speed and altitude.  I pretty much nailed it. YAY.

“Give me a turn in slow flight”.  I have the aircraft trimmed out nicely and begin a slow right hand turn 360 degrees.  “Nicely done”

“Ok, go ahead and give me slow flight dirty”.  I go ahead and add full flaps and prepare to push in the throttle to maintain altitude with all of the drag that I just added.  The Chief inquires as to why I gave it throttle and we talk through angle of attack and the relation of speed to pitch and throttle for altitude.  He seems pleased with my answers.

“Let’s do a power off stall”.  I inquire to configuration and again he responds that it is my choice.  Since I am already dirty, I tell him that I will do it dirty.  I pull the throttle back and slowly add back pressure and as my special stall instructor taught me, once close to the stall, I pull back to make it break.  As it breaks, I push in the throttle and recover.  “Nicely Done”  Yay!.

“Now give me a departure stall”.  I clean up the airplane and get us configured for takeoff speed of 65 kts and climbing.  I pull back to bleed off speed and again near the stall, pull back to the stop to get the break.  As before, I add throttle and recover.

“Let’s do a departure turning stall”  Same thing as before except I am in a shallow left turn.  I go through the same steps and recover.

At this point he is pleased with what he is seeing and we talk about spirals and secondary stalls.  He shows me some pretty gnarly secondary stalls and recovery techniques.  A lot of these my regular instructor tries to avoid.  It was good to go through the motions so I know what they feel like and how to recover.

“OK, let’s go ahead and head back to the airfield at around 4000 ft and we will do an engine out and we will be done” Spiral down engine out!!!! I like these.

I setup and when I got to downwind, he made the radio call and I pulled my own throttle…. that was weird but whatever.  I talked through the ABCDE for engine out and set out on my spiral down over runway 3.  Once I hit about 2000 ft.  I decided not to circle one last time fearing that I may get too low.  I sort of felt him out on the subject and he said “Do whatever you think”  I erred on the side of altitude and  started my down wind.  As I turned base I was high so I dropped full flaps and made my turn to final.  It was kind of beautiful, I was on a perfect glide ride down to the numbers, flared, floated and dropped down on the runway flat as a pancake.  “Crap, I didn’t have the nose nearly as high as I needed.”  He responded, “Yeah it was a little flat but you recognized your fault”

As we taxi’d back we talked over some of the maneuvers and I got a lot of positive feedback.  Not a whole lot of negative, he seemed quite pleased with my ability to handle the aircraft.  He even commented that if I was on my check ride today, My performance would have easily passed.  Double Yay!  I am not going to get a big head because I know I have a lot to learn but it was a real confidence boost today.  I also got to know someone with a ton of experience and hopefully started a friendship.

I saw my normal flight instructor in passing and she didn’t even ask how it went.  Just said “Make sure he signs your training card and your log book”  I responded, “What if I failed?”  “Oh please, get him to sign it.”  I am starting to think that she knew I would do well.  As she heads out to take a student for their first flight she says “I wouldn’t have sent you if I didn’t already know the outcome.  Stick with me kid, and I will take you places.”  I smiled and she bounded away with her new student.  I really do have a good flight instructor and so far, this has been a great experience.

I just got a text from her, it reads “Time to start wearing white shirts. :)”  I feel completely ready because of the great instructors that I have.  Can’t wait!

My flight was supposed to be with the Chief Flight Instructor for my pre-solo check but as life tends to happen, we had to postpone until early next week.

Since I had the plane anyway, my instructor and I moved up a planned short cross country from TTA to SOP.  It doesn’t qualify as a true cross country so I don’t get credit for it but it had all of the planning that goes into a real cross country.  Baby steps so to speak.  A lot of new things on this flight so as usual when new things are introduced… I am behind the airplane.

We started out by filling out a navigation logs starting with my abysmal attempt that I rushed together before the flight.  I had a few waypoints picked out and my instructor supplemented those with a few more obvious  checkpoints.  I tended to pick things that were not that easy to see from the air.  I am told it gets better with experience.

After calculating the wind drift, groundspeed, Magnetic variation, magnetic deviation and fuel burn we were ready.  As you may or may not be aware, magnetic north isn’t exactly located where true north is located.  So following a compass wont get you to the North Pole, that is why Santa must use other means just like we do to calculate it.  In our area it is around 8ºW.  Which means there is 8º between the true north direction and the magnetic north direction, this is called Magnetic Variation.  We account for this when we point our compass in a direction that we determine on a chart.  Okay, I am sure that you are bored… back to the flight.

We take off and climb to 2500 feet and I start following the checkpoints along with the SDZ VOR.  Then I make my first radio call ever to ATC.

“Fayetteville Approach, Cessna 4640 Bravo”

-Cessna Fayetteville, Go ahead

“Fayetteville Approach, 4640 Bravo is Cessna 152 Slant Uniform, off TTA en route to SOP Via SDZ VOR at 2500, request Flight Following”

-Cessna 4640 Bravo squawk 1270 and ident

“Squawking 1270 ident”

-Cessna 4640 Bravo is 8 miles southwest of TTA, report any altitude change

“Roger will report, 4640 Bravo”

I totally had a script that my instructor was holding up but I think I sounded pretty plausible.  I am learning to work my pilot voice.

While I was reading my script, I lost the power lines that I was tracking visually to the VOR.  And after wobbling back and forth trying to get the VOR lined up I realized that my directional gyro had precessed so I kept tracking the wrong heading… it made sense.  I made the comment to my instructor that ATC must know that I am a newb with me wobbling back and forth.  She replied, “You are holding your altitude well and that is what they care about”

The rest of the trip was pretty mundane, she quizzed me on landmarks and where we were on the chart.  I landed at SOP with a thud.  It has a much wider runway so I flared higher than I should have.  Not my most graceful by any stretch.  We perform a touch and go due to time and head back toward the SDZ VOR.  I contact Fayetteville approach again for a flight following back to TTA.  This time I followed the power lines all the way home and it tracked the VOR right down the middle.  Like magic.

We came in on the base leg for runway 3 at TTA and taxi’d back to a beautiful sunset over the clubhouse.  I felt like I was behind the airplane but I think I did ok considering my first time.  Like everything, practice makes perfect, I am sure it will soon become natural.

Next Flight with the Chief Flight Instructor.  I swear.

…. Probably

Today I got a text a couple of hours before my flight from my instructor that said “Plz 0lants round robin screen today”.  After a minute or two of puzzling at this, I got another “Oops.. please plan a round robin to Siler City today (stupid phone)”  This one made more sense.  I broke out my chart and drew a line from KTTA to KSCR and got a heading and calculated the magnetic heading.  I also picked out some nice visual waypoints to use in case we were going by strict pilotage.  There is a sweet power line that runs parallel to 64 west and I can basically sit right between the two all the way to KSCR.

I preflighted one of our aircraft that has more than average squawks and I added another one to the list but we will get to that one later. Squawk for the un-initiated is a term used to describe issues seen with an aircraft so that other pilots and the Mechanics to see.

After I finished the pre flight we sat down to discuss the flight.  My instructor said, “I see you have a nice line connecting Raleigh Exec to Siler City but we are going to use Pilotage today.”  Yes! I planned for that.  After showing her my pilotage plan, she nodded and we headed out to start off on our adventure.  She told me that today, I would navigate and make all of the radio calls.  Which is a good thing because the bird we are flying has a Squawk that the co pilot side push to talk is inoperable.  I figured this flight was more about seeing if I could make it to Siler City and back safely if I were solo.

I took off and made the radio calls to leave the pattern.  I also advised the other training flights in the area that I would be paralleling 64 west to Siler City at 2500.  It was pretty quiet along the way so I looked for landmarks on my chart and pulled up Siler City so I could get the AWOS and CTAF frequencies.  While messing around I noticed I lost about 250 ft of altitude… ugh… sloppy.  I re-trimmed  and kept an eye on it the rest of the flight.  Nothing too exciting other than conflicting radio calls to which runway was in use, I setup and other than being a little high… the landing was ok.  Just ok.  We taxied to the end and decided to take off in the other direction since it seemed the traffic has all left and that was the runway the wind favored.  I perform a before takeoff and position on the runway.

“Runway heading looks good, heels to the floor, throttle up.  Engine is green, green, green.  Airspeed is……… airspeed is…..  airspeed is not alive, aborting takeoff.”  I pulled back the throttle made sure I had control and slowed down to the end of the runway where we pulled off and pondered the issue.  In our club, we have pitot covers that cover the pitot tube but sit on a hinge.  There is a tab on the top that catches the airflow and flips the cover up exposing the pitot tube to the air.  We figured that for some reason, this thing didn’t come up.  We decided on one more takeoff attempt before shutting down to figure it out.

We line up and I go through the calls this time, airspeed is alive so we continue the take off.  I proceed to pilot us back to KTTA using the same landmarks as coming back.  This time the power lines to the right and 64 E on my left.  On the way back I was very cognizant of the altitude and kept us right at 2500 ft.  6 miles out I made a position call, 3 miles out my final position call before entering the pattern.  Entered the pattern, base, final and touchdown.  A little to the right of center, ugh.  Not my best landing day but serviceable.

As we taxi back my only feedback was blowing the altitude by 250 ft while fiddling with my stuff.  And also that in my 10 mile radio call I didn’t ask for traffic advisories.  Not a huge deal but good habit to get situational awareness.

Once we got back, I tied the airplane down and added a few things to the aircraft squawk book.  One about the airspeed inop instance and the other was that the flaps were very slow to move and made a loud humming sound.  It was the first time that I have entered a squawk.

Overall, I felt pretty good about the flight and felt comfortable with the whole process.  My next flight will be with the Chief Flight Instructor to perform my pre-solo check.  Fingers crossed!

A requirement before I solo at the flying club in which I am learning to fly, is that you must be signed off by the chief flight instructor before you are allowed to solo.  My instructor has been hinting that I was ready and she wanted me to fly with another instructor to put me through the paces before I take my ride with the chief flight instructor. A second opinion of sorts. lol

After preflight I met with my alternate instructor for the day and we got all strapped in.  I went through my checklist for startup and run up.  As we taxi’d to runway 3, he said “Go ahead and take us out to the practice area and when you’re ready, we will go through some maneuvers.  Your Primary instructor said I should work on getting you to hard break a stall.”  Ok, he actually said my instructors actual name but trying to keep it a bit anonymous here to protect the innocent.  Also, a little background.  Every stall that I have ever performed has been some weird mush stall where I just lose altitude but the nose never actually drops.  So today, we are going to take care of that.  Another thing that was weird about this flight is he acted like a passenger.  None of the usual instructor talk or anything as I took off and headed to the practice area.  I am sure he was evaluating how I would handle it alone, but was still a little strange, like I was just taking him for a ride.

Ok back to the deal.  So we get out to the practice area and he asked me to do a clean straight ahead stall.  Clean == No Flaps,  for the uninitiated.  So I do my usual deal and I hear the stall horn and we start to slowly bleed off altitude.  At this point he asked me to recover then try again.  This time as the stall horn started he said to pull it back hard to the stop to get it to break.  And boy did it!  It was a weird feeling and I seem to recover nicely.  We did a couple or more like this as well as some with full flaps.  After getting over the weirdness, I have to admit it was kind of fun.  Then he asked me to do a departure or power on stall.  I haven’t actually practiced this one yet so he demonstrated.  I took what I learned from the others and was able to do that one with no issues.

Next, the curve ball.  “Go ahead and do a turning stall, like you are on a turn to crosswind.”  Uh…… Uh… ok.  I have never even attempted a turning stall… this should be interesting.  I knew this was on the check ride so I have to learn it but I figured there was a reason I haven’t…. I guess the reason was, I wasn’t doing stalls that well.

So turning stalls are interesting as you are actually banked and pitched up while bleeding off speed.  Other than being in a turn, it wasn’t a whole lot different from the other stalls… and after 3 or 4, I was doing them well.

Overall, I felt pretty good as in a lot of cases I was only losing 30-40 feet of altitude which is well within practical test standards needed for my check ride, 100 ft.  My substitute teacher seemed pleased as well.

He then asked, “Anything else you are having trouble with that I can help?”  I responded that my white whale seems to be steep turns.  So I show him and of course, I complete a nearly perfect steep turn to the right.  Then I perform a nearly perfect one to the left.  hmmm?  He gave me some tips and then shows me how to perform a hands off steep turn by adjusting trim and throttle.  My current instructor teaches me to do it by hand with both hands on the yoke at 95 kts to limit variables.  For now I will keep his tip in the tool bag for future use.

We had been at it pretty hard for over an hour so he tells me to take him back to the airfield.  We chat about our past history with aviation, me being an a son of an Air Force mechanic and he being a retired Navy tech.  He told me about how he came into aviation as well as stories about his days in the Navy.  Great conversation for an Av Geek like me.  Once in range, I go through the checklist and make my inbound radio call.  I enter the pattern and run through my normal landing procedures.  I hit base leg a little high and adjusted.  By the time I turned final and stabilized, I was right on the money.  I as pulled back to level off a second or two and the wheels lightly touched and I set the nose on the center line.  Totally greased it!  I hear, “Fantastic job” and I was grinning ear to ear.

As we taxi’d back, my new instructor/friend regaled me of his tales in the Navy and his past life as a crop duster.  I buttoned up the plane and we took the conversation inside for another hour of conversation.  All in all, it was a great day to fly and get to know each other.  Next step, schedule that ride with the chief flight instructor.

Today, after preflight, we went over several tests that I had to take to qualify pre-solo.  One test was on the Cessna 152 POH.  Things like facts and weight & balance as well as takeoff distances and landing distances. We also had a quiz on the club SOP’s and finally a quiz on the FAR.  These were open book quizzes so that was a plus.  I did quite well only missing a couple of questions due to me reading them incorrectly. Tricky questions with the wording not unlike what I will see on the written test.  With that out of the way, I am one step closer to my solo.

We talk about todays flight and we are going to work on simulated instrument conditions which means I get to where a site limiting device most commonly referred to as foggles.  The purpose of these stylish glasses are to limit your visibility to within the cockpit, so you can’t see outside and the horizon.

We departed runway 3 and from the downwind leg we departed the pattern to the West.  We climbed up to 3000 feet and I donned the new headwear.  I have many many hours of instrument in the simulator so I was familiar with the principles.  I have also read many stories of how people did not trust the instruments and tried to fly with their feeling as you do with VFR.  This leads to very bad things, most likely a spiral until you meet the ground.

We did simple maneuvers where my instructor would call out headings and I would turn keeping an eye on the instruments.  We would descend and ascend all while looking at the instruments.  Nothing too taxing since this was my first time.  The idea here is to get use to a continual instrument scan. You have a pattern and a temp in your head to which you scan the instruments.  My instructor explained it to me like a waltz, you keep tempo “1 and 2 and 1 and 2 and 1 and ….”  You start with your attitude indictor then move to your airspeed, then back to attitude, then to heading, then back to attitude, then to vertical speed, then back to attitude then altitude.  Once you compete the scan… you start again.  This keeps you from focusing on one instrument too much.

I seemed to do well with the basics so she threw in some extra work load and I started to fall apart a bit.  “Show me which radial we are off of on the liberty VOR”.  Now I had to add my chart to my scan and tuning the VOR, so things started to get shaky. I did it again with the RDU VOR and I think I did a bit better the second time.  Overall, I think I did ok for my first time  under the hood, but it will need to be tightened up.  I have to get in 3 hours of hood time (simulated instrument) as part of my Private Pilot requirement.  As of today, I have 0.4.

After I was released from the foggles, I had about 5 minutes to just relax and let my instructor fly me.  I figured this was a quick reward as it is pretty draining.  once back at the controls, I hear ” You just lost your engine, what do you do?”  I pitched for 60, found a field off of the nose and setup for downwind.  Ran through startup checklist, turned base, then final with full flaps.  “Go ahead and go around, we would have survived that one”.  YAY!  I like it when we survive. 🙂

We have been wandering around, from my point of view with now site, and while I was able to relax I found a few suitable fields for emergency landings, which came in handy the paragraph before but also when she asked “Ok, where are we?”  I had already identified a brick kiln and a major highway and quickly pointed it out on the chart.

We headed back to the airfield for a little pattern work.  Nothing too crazy here, first landing felt really good, the second landing was on a simulated engine out, then we performed a go around and a final landing.  During the pattern work my instructor said she thought I was ready and asked how I felt.  I told her I felt pretty good, much better than I did just a few weeks ago.  I am pretty comfortable in all phases of flight and confident that I can get up and down safely.  I am hoping to Solo before Christmas, would be a cool gift.  We will see how it works out, I have some obligations coming up that will keep me on the ground more than normal.  I also have the written test coming up.  I may sacrifice some air time in order to make sure that I am prepared.  As I have always felt, I will solo when my instructor and I think i’m ready, doesn’t matter how long it takes.

Today, the airport was pretty quiet.  People out on cross countries and probably lots visiting with family.  No better time to go up for a lesson.

Once preflighted, we sat down to go over what we were going to learn.  First, since it was quiet, we were going to try to get in some engine out spiral descents over the runway so I could get a feel for a good descent with a fixed site picture.  It helped a lot and I think will be useful when we have these engine out practices over fields.  Next she had me take a short quiz, basically stating whether I thought I was satisfactory or not on a bunch of different maneuvers.  In this case, Satisfactory meant safe not perfect.  In that case, I felt like I was satisfactory across the board.  But definitely not perfect by any means.  After finishing the quiz, my instructor informed me that we were going to go up and she was going to stay as quiet as possible and take notes on my performance.

Up we go….

First we performed two spiral descents from 3000 msl over the runway.  She asked me to land on the first 1/3 of the runway… first time.. I turned base too early and was a little high landing about halfway.  The second time, I was pretty spot on, this time knowing that I had zero wind and good altitude, I measured my turns a little better and landed on the first 1/3 of the runway.

Next, off to the practice area.  First maneuver, was a steep turn to the left.  I stabilized and started my turn, “You just failed your check ride”…. then it occurred to me… clearing turn. doh.  After performing a clearing turn I setup for a 45 degree left turn.  I performed the turn but losing about 100 feet.  Next I setup for the right turn.  “You just failed your check ride”.  AHHHH.  This becomes a common phrase because for some reason, I can’t seem to remember to perform a clearing turn before each maneuver. I did really well on the 45 degree right turn, nailing the altitude.

Next we setup for slow flight.  “Show me 60 kts clean”.  Ok, so I stabilized and started to pull the throttle. You can guess what I heard next… yep “You just failed your check ride”.  I am at a loss as to why I can’t get it through my head… as I was stabilizing I thought to myself that I need to do the clearing turn.  The clean 60kt maneuver wasn’t too bad.  Next she wanted  50 kt dirty slow flight.  After failing my check ride yet again, I perform the maneuver but during the turn gain 200 ft of altitude because I seem to be flummoxed on why we are gaining altitude.  we descend back down to our maneuver altitude and try again… this time I say, “Going to do my clearing turn”, she says “That is a wonderful idea”.  After the clearing turn, I enter 50 kt dirty slow flight, and perform a 180 degree turn while staying slow and dirty.  One thing I thought I did well today was holding my heading with right rudder in slow flight.  That part felt a lot better.  We re-enter cruise speed at 2500 ft msl.

Next I hear, “Tell me what radio we are tracking outbound from the Liberty VOR”.  No big deal, dialed it up and showed her that we were on the 115 outbound radial.

Finally, she asked me to take her back to the airport, make all of the radio calls and land without her help.  COOL!

I call our 3 mile entry over the river as I am descending to pattern altitude.  Enter the pattern, oops forgot my in range checklist… I run through that real quickly… she didn’t say a word.  Then I performed my before landing… which is committed to memory.  Pattern felt great, on target.  Turned final at 500 ft agl, right on target… shot the numbers to the ground, flared and hear a light chirp and barely even felt it touch down… right on centerline.  I hear from the right seat, “Fantastic!  My old instructor would call that a snotty landing”.  Good way to end the lesson.

I was pretty frustrated with myself, even though it has been a few weeks since I have done these maneuvers, I had higher standards for myself.  Other than failing the check ride about half a dozen times, I only busted PTS on one maneuver.  She told me that was pretty good since I was still pre-solo.  Small victories I suppose.  As I have a habit of saying, as frustrating as it was…. I still got to fly an airplane and that is cool.

Today we had a nice 6 to 9 kt crosswind.  I say nice because before I can solo, I need to get crosswind landings down.

After preflight, I had some time to burn before my instructor landed with her current student.  I took in a gorgeous afternoon on the club deck and noticed something new coming up the runway.  I really cool Pilatus painted up like a blue and red cartoon bird.  The turbo charged engine sounded really cool and the take off was silky smooth.  I would end up chasing this bird around the pattern but we have to get off the ground first.

So… we go.

Today we stayed in the pattern for the entire lesson.  The plan was, crosswind landings / slips, some engine outs and a spiral descent over the runway.  (If it was light on traffic).

First take off was fine, I could tell it was going to be tiring as I fought the crosswind and some turbulence.  I crabbed into the wind making sure that I held runway heading, all the while looking for that Pilatus that was in the pattern.  I spotted the blue bird (the Pilatus.. ), getting ready to turn base as I rolled out on downwind.  I made sure to keep him in site as we came abeam so I could start my descent.  First landing was ok, I crabbed as we came down and touched down but not feeling real confident.  I was high and flared too high so we floated… been a while since I actually got some practice landing… that last flight was more of a hold on and ride.

As soon as we were down and under control, throttle up and back up chasing the blue bird.  Next time around, as we were abeam the bird, “You lost your engine, what do you do?” I pitched for 60 kts, started turning toward the runway since it was best available…. that Pilatus was just now touching down.  Everything went fine and as I was about 50 feet, we performed a go around as to not create a runway incursion.  The Pilatus was still on his landing roll.  Seemed to go ok.

Things went like this for the next couple of landings, and two more engine outs.  I think I have a grasp of the A,B,C,D,E procedure and able to perform it without causing distractions from flying the plane.  I am still having trouble slipping to land.

As I turn Final, I try to do this half slip half crab thing, (non committal) and lose airspeed and needed some help… I set the plane down hard on the runway.  As we take off, I tell her “I feel like the plane is flying me and I am afraid of the rudder.  I need to quit being as you say ‘Namby Pamby’ with the rudder.”  She responds, “Let’s do one more so you can redeem yourself”.

Last landing, I turn Final and leave some right crab in for the wind.  Then I kicked the left rudder hard to line up with the runway and dropped the right wing into the wind as I hold forward to keep airspeed from dropping.  At the same time, I applied some throttle to counteract the increased descent rate.  It felt really good and I was doing it.  As I got to flare height it went a little sideways…. literally.  As I came out of the slip, the nose went left because I still had my foot on the rudder… but we were right of centerline so I thought it was fine… except we were a little sideways but not bad.  I go… “Ugh” but she says “Nice job on the slip couldn’t have done it better myself”.  I, of course point out my sideways landing and she comments on that is how rubber comes off the tires.  I took it in stride and felt pretty good over all about the slip and landing.  It felt like it clicked and she thought so as well.

As I entered the club house to debrief, she said “Let me introduce you to ****, I want you to go up with him so he can do a check that precedes your pre solo checkout.  I want him to put you through the paces before you do your pre-solo ride with the Chief Flight Instructor” Pretty awesome, that means I am getting close to that magical milestone.  I’m a little excited, a little nervous, pretty hungry right now…. I do feel like I am ready to take the next step. Can’t wait until my next lesson

———

Here is a pic of the Pilatus, not the best and I wish they wouldn’t have departed to the South.  I wanted to get a close up picture but, you get what you get.  Still cool.

Today was marginal.  A cold front (High Pressure) was coming through that would push all the yucky clouds away but bring us some pretty gusty winds.  The reports were calling form 350-010 at 10 kts gusting to 15.  We decided since we have had many cancellations recently due to wind that we would give it a shot.  The wind was coming mostly head on to runway 3.

As I preflighted, I noticed a couple of times, large gusting winds that rocked the plane quite a bit as well as chilled me to the bone.  I decided to leave the plane tied down until we were ready to get underway.

As my instructor arrived, she rushed out and said, “Let’s go ahead as soon as you are ready”.  So I released the tie down and we got started.

Everything went fine and we taxi’d to runway 3 for take off.  My instructor said that we should increase airspeeds 5 kts all the way around the pattern to account for the gusty winds.  This meant, rotate at 55 instead of 50 and climb out at 70 instead of 65.

As we lifted off it was pretty bumpy, you could definitely feel that the little 152 was struggling.  Personally, I thought it was cool.  As we proceeded around the pattern it became clear that the weather around us was not quite as good as forecast so we decided that we would be full stop on this landing and call it a day.  Once on final, I found myself ill equipped for the task as I struggled to hold centerline and approach speed.  With a little (or a lot) of help from my instructor, we touched down nicely and taxi’d back.  There was another student/instructor pair struggling with the decision to fly and we gave them our Pirep (Pilot Report).  They waited around a bit to make a decision and about 20 minutes after we landed, the wind shifted to nearly 90 degrees crosswind at 14 kts.  This was above the cross wind component of the mighty 152.  So it turns out, we made a good decision today.

I learned a valuable lesson in Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM)  and it was good to get up in the conditions to have a feel for what they are like.  Even though it was a short flight, many lessons were learned.