Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
Hours – 27.6
I was sick last weekend, so I had to cancel my lesson. Yigal was sick today, so he only stayed in the airplane for a short while. Interesting lesson, I should say.
The plan was to get me up there to get my head going again. I felt so guilty about missing last week. It was the first time I actually called in to cancel (as opposed to weather, etc…). To make a long story short, we were going to do a few laps around the pattern for a few takeoffs/landings and then I would practice solo.
We flew the pattern once at MGJ, landed and then headed towards SWF. I botched the call when entering their airspace. No big deal…just fix it and move on. We wanted to practice a few touch-and-goes over there. The first landing was ok…the second was ok…the third was behind JetBlue. There were no delays today. I know all about wingtip vorteces and turbulence. I was told by ATC to expect turbulence and I knew to land beyond the touchdown point of the jet. Well, I didn’t get a chance to see the touchdown point of the jet because I had to extend my downwind leg almost over the Hudson River. I was over Newburgh when I stared turning base and then final. It was good experience for learning how to creatively use your flaps and airspeed. I came in pretty nice (I am finally getting used to how long their runway is) and started to flare for my touchdown. I figured I was in good shape because it had been a few minutes since the jet had landed. They were already off the runway. Just as I started to flare, I guess the turbulence from the jet drifted across the runway from the right and totally gusted me up. I couldn’t get the plane down. I was sideways and slanted. Yigal grabbed the controls and gave it some throttle. He handed it back to me to re-land. Man, what a chore…it was a mess. A good word of advice is to really wait a few minutes more than you think you should when landing behind a jet.
Now, that was enough for me. No practice in two weeks and then that, I was ready to head back to MGJ. We flew towards the field and Yigal pulled the throttle for some engine out landing practice. I did quite well. Came in nice and smooth for a nice landing. We did one more lap for a nice touchdown and he hopped out. Since I now have my endorsement to practice solo, I went up for a few touch-and-goes.
I really wasn’t nervous because I was pretty warmed up. The sweat was almost dry from all the fun at SWF. Well, I came in for my first solo landing and touched the nose wheel down first. Boing, boing, boing…I was like a little porpoise. I guess I have more experience than I thought because I immediately punched it for a go-around. Honestly, a student pilot really never thinks he has to use these techniques. Anyway, I successfully climbed and removed my flaps one by one for another try around the pattern. I was a little freaked out because I think I needed a breather, but you can’t do that while you are in the sky. I took a breath and came in for another landing. I corrected my mistake and made a good, smooth landing. I told myself that it was important to do it once more, just to shake any hesitation on my part. I did so and everything went great.
Well, since daylight savings is almost here, I am planning to practice twice a week, especially since an airplane is available much more than both an airplane and an instructor. Practice makes perfect.
PS – I found a great resource on all sorts of flying stuff here. It’s from Australia, but still relavent.
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Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Hours – 22
This Sunday, I decided that it would be nice to take a cruise to Waterbury/Oxford Airport (OXC) in Connecticut. We would depart from MGJ, fly to the Kingston VOR station in Poughkeepsie and from there, head straight to OXC. The round trip would take about 1 1/2 hours.
We took off and everything was great. I set up everything for VOR navigation and pilotage and headed towards the VOR station. I finished my navigation log earlier that morning. I made a few radio calls to the tower at Stewart (SWF) (my first checkpoint) and transitioned through their class D airspace. I found the VOR station just fine, changed my heading and continued to my next checkpoint, which was Rt.22/Pawling. This flight was really fun. I love VOR navigation and am actually getting pretty good at it. We crossed over Candlelight Airport in Sherman, CT at 5500FT. I looked to the right and saw the Long Island Sound as well as the island itself. You can really see a lot from that altitude. I also saw my destination airport 17 nautical miles ahead.
Things started getting a little tricky as I approached the airport. There was a bit of turbulence and I started my descent late. We had to descend faster than my ears would’ve liked. Also, I kind of screwed up my radio calls to the tower. My landing was even worse. For such a nice day, it was quite gusty at this airport. It must be in some valley or something. I came in sideways and had to correct by giving the airplane some throttle to re-land. We got down on the runway and taxied to stay ahead of a pretty good sized commercial jet. We took off before them and I screwed up my last call to the tower on my way out. Oh well…practice will make perfect.
The trip home was pretty uneventful. Made some pretty good calls to New York ATC and flew over Stewart’s airspace. I screwed up a radio call to MGJ, but came in and entered the pattern nicely for a good landing.
There really was a lot to handle on this trip and I was exposed to a lot. I am confident that my radio calls will get better in the future as I practice more. Yigal says that it is common to kind of shut down when things get hairy for students on their first cross countries. I guess so, but I am going to do better next time. This Friday, if we fly, we are going to PA. Till then!
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Sunday, January 7th, 2007
Hours – 20.4
This was a fairly challenging but rewarding lesson. That seems to be the default description of flight school…challenging but rewarding. I remember the first time I did VOR navigation with Yigal. It made so much sense on the ground, of course things are different in the air. It helps that I am studying my ass off for the written test. The reading makes things a lot easier.
Today I learned how to track a course with the VOR (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range) Indicator. I also learned how to intersect a VOR radial. What we actually did today was to fly to the destination VOR station and then change heading to a nearby airport, using the VOR signal. Ok, here’s how it went down:
We wanted to fly to the Huguenot VOR station (HUO) northeast of Port Jervis and then to the Resnick airport (N89) in Ellenville. We would be flying parallel to the Shawangunk Ridge with the Catskills to the northwest. On the ground with my chart and plotter, I made a line from our departure airport (MGJ) to the VOR station, so I knew the general direction to head after takeoff. The heading is 260 (magnetic). Then, I made a line from the VOR station to the destination airport. The heading is 037. You can see the compass rose surrounding the VOR station below. You can also see the little headings written on the outside circle of the compass rose.
After I wrote those two items down, I recorded the radio frequency for the VOR station. In this case, the frequency was 116.1. Each local VOR station has a different radio frequency. Just for your personal information (so you can talk about this at parties), VOR stations transmit within a VHF frequency band of 108.0 – 117.95 MHz. Keep that in mind because I am going to quiz you on this one day. I also recorded the UNICOM frequency of 122.8 for Resnick airport. Yigal and I did a practice flight with the simulator and then hopped in the airplane.
We took off from runway 26, so we were already headed in the right direction. After I climbed to about 3,000FT, I tuned the NAV portion of the radio to the VOR frequency of 116.1. I listened for the Morse code. After tuning into any VOR station frequency, you need to listen for the Morse code because sometimes the station might be down for maintenance. If you hear no beeps, don’t use that VOR. I continued climbing to 3,500FT. Orange County Airport was pretty busy today, so I wanted to get away from all the traffic. Also, this was a good cruising altitude.
Once the frequency was dialed into, I turned the OBS knob on the VOR Indicator so the little arrow pointed “TO” and the needle was centered. Below is a sample of a VOR Indicator. The “TO” and “FROM” are not showing. What you see is what it would like like if you were directly over the VOR station. See my previous post for what a VOR station looks like from the air.
When the needle is centered, that is the track you fly. If the needle moves to the left, that means you need to fly left because you drifted to the right and vice versa. The needle acts as the actual track and you don’t touch the indicator again until you reach the station.
Once we reached the station, and actually saw it on the ground, we flew over it. Right at the point of flying over the station, the “TO” flipped to “FROM” and I changed the indicator to read the new heading to Resnick airport of 037. Then, I turned the airplane to that heading.
Basically the idea is the same. You fly based on headings and what the VOR Indicator is telling you. At the same time, you use your chart and ground reference charts to confirm your heading. We decided not to go all the way to Resnick and to head back to Orange County. How did we know where we were, you ask? We just took the closest ground reference point and made a note of the heading from that reference point to the airport and then flew it. Easy. The hard part is that Yigal kept cutting the engine when we got close to the airport for simulated engine out practice.
Also, I learned soft field takeoffs. You need this when you are taking off from a grass or snowy runway. That is pretty straightforward…basically you need to set your flaps to 10 degrees and punch it like a normal takeoff. When you reach about 40KTS, you pull back just to get off the ground. Then, you use ground effect to keep the airplane about 20FT off the ground. When you reach climb speed of 70KTS, you pull back and climb, while putting the flaps back up in normal position. This type of takeoff is used to get you off the ground as quickly as possible because the grass or snow creates drag on the wheels and slows you down.
For next lesson I need to create my first flight plan for our cross country flight to an airport at least 50 miles away. Word.
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Sunday, December 10th, 2006
Hours – 18.3
Can you believe it? I was taunted the other day. Yes, that’s right…taunted. By who? None other than Bob C. You can see his taunt here. Now, you can say what you want about greasing things all day, but I pay particular attention when it has to do with landing in valleys with small uphill runways. Well, that’s Sky Acres (44N) in Millbrook for ya.
I have really have come to terms with the fact that I will be the only student pilot taking his practical having never soloed. The examiner is going to look over at me and say, “So, how did you like your first solo?” I am going to respond, “Oh, actually, I never have.” That should make for some good conversation. Hmmm, let’s see…10KTS on the ground with gusts to 20KTS at Stewart. We calculated a 40KT headwind at 3,500FT. The airplane was barely moving, but I’ll get to that later.
Back to Bob. Ah yes, I think I read a bit of a challenge in his last comment. Well, today, after I did the pre-flight, I walked up to Yigal and told him I want to go to Sky Acres. He has never turned down one of my requests, so why would today be different? That’s what is so cool…you actually have an airplane for 2 hours to go do what you want. If you learn something too, all the better. He looked at me and seemed pretty eager to do something fun today.
Before we left, Yigal gave me a rundown on navigation. Yeah, I should probably know something about that. We discussed VOR, the VOR Indicator, the radio settings and the GPS. That all made some pretty good sense. Why does everything always seem so much easier on the ground? You know, I could really be the best pilot if I just stayed on the ground. I could be one of those guys who just hangs around the hangars talking to the mechanics about VOR. That would be fun.
With that all done, I grabbed my bucket of Crisco and headed toward the plane. I was sure I would need that for later. We taxied to runway 21 and flew that airborne vessel off the ground. I turned into the downwind leg and kept climbing. I climbed to 3,500FT and then that’s when it all started. It seemed like everything we went over on the ground was a distant memory and now I knew nothing. I am sure I will get more familiar with it all in time.
We set the radio to the proper VOR setting for Kingston…117.6. I set the VOR Indicator. We started our way to Sky Acres. Due to the strong cross wind, I had to keep adjusting my heading until it was pretty set. We talked with ATC because we were in Class E airspace. I was pretty familiar with the terminology because I have been up at this altitude before. We crossed the Hudson River and saw Dutchess County Airport (KPOU). We were heading right for the VOR beacon. Right when the Indicator switched from “To” to “From,” we turned the plane to get a good look. It looks like a small white lighthouse.
Ok, on to Sky Acres to see Bob. I saw the airport only a few miles away. I descended and switched radio frequency to 122.8 and made a few calls to see what the active runway was…17. Ok, I had the wicked beast in sight. Bob was right, a nice valley right before the end of the runway and an even nicer uphill slope after that. Hmmm…should be interesting. I entered the pattern and did my best to situate myself in new terrain. It is so weird…you can get very used to your home airport very quickly. I turned base, final…kept going down. The wind was pushing me to the left. I went down, cut the throttle, flared and touched down. We turned on to the taxiway. Great landing! I will admit that Bob does have a more difficult airport to practice from. It has “character.” I didn’t want to get smart, so I left the Crisco in the back seat (kidding of course).
Yigal and I talked for a little while and then turned back on the runway for a nice uphill takeoff. On the way back, there was a huge headwind that made it seem like we weren’t even moving. I was boggled at all the ATC chatter and the navigation. I will get that, but it was a challenge. I talked a lot and ATC and I seemed to like each other. One time, I said “yes” instead of “affirmative” and they questioned that. I responded again with “affirmative” and it was all cool. We headed back to MGJ by going through Stewart’s Class D airspace. I made some more radio calls to ask for clearance to do this. All good. I entered the pattern for MGJ correctly this time and landed with a bit of help from the throttle after my airspeed got too slow due to the wind. It’s important to remember that your airspeed needs to be a bit higher when landing in the wind.
Bob, now that I visited your home base, I would like to invite you to my neck of the woods, just be sure to give a call first, so I can be there.
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Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
First thing – 17.1 hours. Yee Haw. It’s just starting to get good.
I was soooo mentally prepared all this week for my first solo. Of course a huge thunderstorm had to roll through on Friday. Well, that lesson was cancelled. I rescheduled for Tuesday morning at 10:30. I kept looking out the window that morning to see if there was any wind. I am not allowed to fly solo if the crosswind is more that 6KTS. The wind seemed to be calm at my house. I hit the road and called the weather service for a standard briefing. The dude informed me the winds were from 210 at niner…that is…the winds were coming from the southwest at 9KTS. Also, there were gusts to 18KTS. Not a good day to solo. Oh well, maybe next time.
We did go up though. It was windy, but I am actually happy to fly in the wind now. Maybe because I learned how to land. I have to say, out of the four landings I did in this lesson, I aced them all. I mean aced. I can’t even express how good they were…you couldn’t even feel the tires touching the runway. I think this is awesome because it was quite windy and we were tossed around a bit. I finally got a handle on how to combine the “crab” with the “sideslip” for a good touchdown. I think Yigal was getting bored.
Back to the beginning of this story. We decided to go up to 5,500FT for some maneuvers. On the agenda was slow flight, power off stalls and power on stalls. I have done slow flight before, but not the way the examiner is going to ask me to do it. Let me think (first clear the area)…reduce throttle to 1,700RPM, lower flaps 10 degrees at a time, reduce speed even more until I am down to 50KTS while pitching the plane to keep its altitude. Sounds easy, but not that easy when you have to keep turning to stay in the clear area of the clouds and are being pushed around by the turbulence. To accelerate after slow flight, you give the plane full throttle, pitch down to avoid the balloon and one by one, raise the flap levels.
Now, stalls are a little different. The main reason for practicing stalls on Tuesday was to simulate taking off and landing. The power off stall is used to simulate what can happen during your approach to land. Let me think again…reduce throttle to 1,500RPM, pull carb heat on, lower flaps 10 degrees at a time, cut throttle. Now, pitch the airplane up by pulling the yoke to your chest. The plane will pitch up and stall quite easily. The minute it stalls, give it full throttle and try to recover by keeping the nose at the horizon while losing as little altitude as possible. Easier said than done.
The trickiest one is the power on stall. Just wait until I tell you why. Here it is…this is to simulate stalling after takeoff and during your climb. For whatever reason, you might pitch too high or your angle of attack might become too great. Give the airplane full throttle, pitch up, up, up. You have to really pitch up because the plane doesn’t want to stall, but when it does, you better have right rudder hard and heavy. I didn’t and learned my lesson. I forgot to use right rudder and performed a power on stall. The minute the lift broke…WHAM, the left wing fell and we went into a spin. This happens due to the airplane’s natural tendency to pull to the left at full throttle because of slipstream and torque. During the spin, I had a difficult time recovering because of my natural tendency to turn the yoke to the right. I actually aggravated the stall. I should’ve just kept the ailerons neutral and applied right rudder pressure and well as pulled back on the yoke.
We did a few of these and started to head back to Orange County. We were right above Stewart (SWF) with the Hudson River in good view. At 5,500FT, we were in Class E airspace, well outside of Stewart’s Class D airspace. Yigal asked me to make a call to ATC. I said, “Tower, November 734 Delta Sierra has Orange County in sight and is heading back now.” He looked at me and said, “Tower?” I thought we were talking to the Stewart ATC. Not the case. Since we were in Class E airspace, I should’ve been talking to “New York.” Oh well, they answered anyway. Man, you feel like a loser when you screw up like that. The tower guys are cool though. I think they hear a lot of it.
As I approached MGJ, I decided I had to pass the airport on the east to head in at 45 degrees to the downwind leg. As I began my descent to the pattern, we spotted another plane in the pattern already. I thought I could come in behind him and then do some slow flight to let him complete his landing. Yigal thought that was bad judgment because my airspeed was so much more than his. I would’ve come too close to him. We did a right circle to give him some time to get ahead and then we entered the downwind leg of the pattern. Two landings and one emergency “engine-out” landing were as smooth as silk.
Solo next time?
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Monday, November 27th, 2006
I told you I would let you know how I did on the pre-solo written test. I did well. My instructor and I discussed the test and I got everything right…maybe too right. I think they were looking for general ideas and I gave them every last detail. One good thing is that it pushed me to learn a heck of a lot, especially where to look for stuff (in the books).
This lesson I was half way hoping I would solo. Yigal was really eager to get up in the sky. We used up a lot of time going over the test, so time would be cut a little short.
We took off and did a few landings. Yigal had me practice a few go-arounds and showed me how to do a “Slip to land” or as Bob C. correctly put it, “Forward Slip.” That was pretty extreme. A forward slip is when you need to get down to the runway at a steep angle, for whatever reason…obstruction at the end of the runway or icing on the windshield. Basically, you apply complete rudder pressure to one side and use opposite aileron pressure for the other. This turns and banks the plane in a very strange position, but decreases altitude quite well. In other words, you are losing altitude belly first, kind of sideways.
We did this once and had to call it a day. Yigal said that I am officially ready to solo for next lesson. I am a little nervous.
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Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
I know this post is a little late. Things have been busy lately, so my apologies. This lesson was on Friday, Nov.17.
We decided to check my mad skillz on landings again. We are prepping for my solo. You know the drill by now, take off, do the pattern and land for some touch and goes. I have to say, sleeping on it really improves you for the next lesson. I think you learn a lot during your sleep. I aced every landing during this lesson. Yigal looked over and said, “Good, now that you learned how to land, let’s get you ready for your solo and do some emergency procedures.” Now, we did some of these during my first few lessons, but we went more in depth this time.
Basically, there are different procedures for different times you may lose your engine. Each circumstance calls for something else. We practiced what to do if you had pretty good elevation. Ok, here goes: If you encounter engine loss in flight, you,
1. Immediately trim for best glide. In the case of a 1977 Cessna 172, that is 65kts
2. Pick a suitable landing site and fly towards it
3. Make sure carburetor heat is on
4. Make sure your fuel mixture is rich
5. Make sure your fuel selector is on “both”
6. Make sure your magnetos are on “both”
7. Make sure your primer is in and locked
8. At this point, if you can’t get the plane restarted or if an off airport landing becomes necessary, you radio “mayday, mayday”
9. Turn your transponder to 7700
10. Turn your mixture, mags, master switch and fuel off (no spark for hard landing)
11. Seats and seatbelts secure
12. All sharp objects away
13. Doors ajar and open slightly before touchdown
I think this might be pretty hard to remember right now, but will become second nature if it happens. The main problem I was having was gauging my distance from the runway. Once I overshot and had to go around and once I undershot. I could’ve landed, but it was on the beginning of the runway where you aren’t supposed to land. During an actual emergency, that would’ve been a good spot to land though.
I made a few more good landings and finished up the lesson. I asked for the pre-solo written exam and they gave it to me. I am completing it right now, so I will let you know how I do. To complete it, you need your training airplane POH, the checklist for your airplane and the FAR/AIM.
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Monday, November 13th, 2006
This lesson was a really cool one. We started off by making the decision whether or not we would even go up. The winds were 10KTS and gusting at 20KTS. Yigal asked if I wanted to do it, of course I said yes. If I ever want to land at Block Island, I would have to be consistent with cross wind landings. We got up and did a few touch and goes. Since the wind was pulling us to the right of the downwind leg, I had to use the rudder pretty liberally to maintain my heading. On the third takeoff and turn to crosswind, Yigal mentioned that I wasn’t using my rudder enough. The ball in the turn coordinator was not centered. I kind of hinted that it was good, but he wanted to really plant the idea in my head of how important the rudder use was. He said that it may save my life in certain situations. I wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about…things have been pretty good up to that point.
Well, he wanted to show me what he was talking about. He told me to climb to 5,000 feet. I headed out of the pattern and climbed to that altitude. He indicated that he wanted to show me what can happen when you takeoff and climb with an airplane without proper use of the rudder. A spin can occur. Of course, he asked me if I wanted to do the maneuver and I said yes…after a bit of hesitation. The maneuver is not required by the FAA, but it really is something that should be covered. Yigal performed the first maneuver. He pulled the yoke all the way to him for a power-on stall with no use of the rudder. The plane naturally pulled to the left and the nose pitched down for a spin. We made about one revolution and he pulled back to recover. He wanted me to do the next one. I was kind of apprehensive before we did the first one, but once it was done, I loved the feeling. I pulled back for a power-on stall and right at that critical point, the plane pitched down and to the left for a spin. We spun about twice and I pulled back and used the right rudder to recover. I could really feel the g-force as I pulled back to maintain altitude. What an awesome feeling. Now I know why these guys get hooked on acrobatic airplane maneuvers.
So, now I knew what could happen without use of the rudder during a power-on stall. Next, we performed a power-on stall with the use of the right rudder. The plane pitched up, maintained its direction and pitched down perfectly straight. Lesson learned. The reason this is critical, is because it only takes, on average, 300FT to recover from a stall, but 1,200FT to recover from a spin. If any of these things happen right after takeoff, every foot counts.
We headed back to the airport, entered the pattern and did a few more pretty decent touch and goes. I am getting much better at landing in these conditions.
I really liked this lesson and really like how smooth the air gets at higher altitudes. It is sooo peaceful.
PS – I found a great resource that you can get involved in yourself. They are the Sporty’s Safety Quizzes. Give ‘em a shot and see how you do.
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Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
I finally received the book, “Stick and Rudder.” This book was recommended to me from a nice guy I met a few weeks ago, named Al. He is a Private Pilot and we had a great conversation for about an hour on the topic.
This is supposed to be the “Bible” for any student pilot. Here is a description of the book from Amazon:
“In the early 1940’s, Wolfgang Langewiesche wrote a series of articles in Air Facts analyzing the various aspects of piloting techniques. Based on these articles, Langewiesche’s classic work on the art of flying was published in 1944. This book explains precisely what pilots do when they fly, just how they do it, and why. These basics are largely unchanging. The book applies to large airplanes and small, old airplanes and new, and is of interest not only to the learner but also to the accomplished pilot and instructor. Today, several excellent manuals offer the pilot accurate and valuable technical information. But Stick and Rudder remains the leading think-book on the art of flying. “
I will let you know what I think of it after I read it. Want to buy it? You can get it here.
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Friday, November 3rd, 2006
The other day, Bob sent me this great online resource for flight students. It is from the King Schools and is a video archive of tons of tips. The ones that interested me the most at this point in my trainer were…
Crosswind Landing Using Bank and Rudder
Explaining good crosswind takeoff
Landings-where to look during flare
Demo crosswind landing
Landing – adjusting the glide path
Tips for Good Landings
Ground Effect
…but there are many more for you to review. Good luck!
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